Nike Inc
NYSE:NKE
Nike Inc
In the mid-1960s, two visionary individuals – Phil Knight, a dynamic track athlete, and Bill Bowerman, a dedicated track coach – set in motion a venture that would transform into a global icon known as Nike, Inc. Initially operating under the name Blue Ribbon Sports, the company began by distributing Japanese-made footwear within the United States. The turning point came in 1971, when Nike unveiled its own line of shoes adorned with the now-famous Swoosh logo, symbolizing speed and movement. By leveraging innovative designs and endorsing charismatic athletes, such as Michael Jordan, Nike rapidly gained a foothold in the competitive athletic footwear and apparel market. The core of Nike's strategy has always been a relentless focus on branding, innovation, and strategic marketing, firmly positioning itself as a leader in this dynamic industry.
Today, Nike stands as a titan of the global sportswear industry, boasting an expansive portfolio that stretches beyond footwear to include apparel, equipment, and accessories across a myriad of sports. The company's business model revolves around a vertically integrated supply chain that ensures efficiency from design to sales, with a significant portion of manufacturing outsourced to international factories. Nike drives revenue through a mix of direct-to-consumer sales via their online platforms and brick-and-mortar stores, alongside traditional retail partnerships. Sponsorships and endorsements with top athletes keep Nike's brand at the forefront of consumer consciousness, sustaining the aspirational ethos that fuels their success. This strategic combination of innovation, market penetration, and endorsements solidifies Nike's dominant position and ensures its continued financial growth and cultural relevance.
Earnings Calls
Vitec achieved a record revenue increase of 5% compared to 2019, with a robust order intake up 20%. The company anticipates high single-digit organic growth for 2022, primarily fueled by shifts towards digital content consumption. Margins are projected to improve towards mid-teen levels, supported by effective cost management and strategic pricing increases of 3-5% to offset inflation. The evolving market, especially in vlogging and live-streaming, is driving demand across their divisions, with a total addressable market now expanding to £2.6 billion. Vitec's commitment to innovation positions it well for sustained future growth.
Management
Heidi O'Neill is a prominent executive at Nike, Inc., known for her extensive and impactful career within the company. She has been with Nike for several decades and has held a variety of leadership roles that have greatly influenced the brand's growth and transformation. O'Neill joined Nike in 1998 and has since played a significant role in shaping the company's consumer-focused strategies. O'Neill has held several key positions including leading Nike's North America operations, where she drove significant regional growth and strengthened the brand's presence. She has also served as the President of Nike Direct, where she was instrumental in developing the company’s direct-to-consumer approach, enhancing digital commerce, and integrating physical retail with digital platforms. Known for her innovative approach to retail and her emphasis on customer experience, O'Neill has been a champion of leveraging data and analytics to meet consumer needs. She has been a driving force behind several successful campaigns and initiatives that have helped Nike maintain its position as a leader in the sports apparel industry. O'Neill’s career at Nike highlights her expertise in retail transformation, consumer engagement, and strategic brand management, making her a key figure in the company's ongoing evolution.
Craig Williams is the current President of Jordan Brand at Nike, Inc., a position he has held since January 2019. With a strong background in both the corporate and military sectors, Williams brings a diverse range of experiences to the role. Before joining Nike, Williams served as the Senior Vice President, Consumer Products Group at Coca-Cola, where he managed the company’s domestic business. His career at Coca-Cola spanned over a decade in various leadership roles that shaped his strategic and operational expertise. Before his time in the corporate world, Williams served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, showcasing his leadership skills and dedication to service. His educational background includes an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the United States Naval Academy. At Nike's Jordan Brand, he is responsible for driving the global growth strategy, working to expand the brand's reach while honoring its legacy in sports and culture. Williams focuses on connecting with consumers worldwide, leveraging the brand’s deep heritage and innovative future.
Elliott J. Hill served as a top executive at Nike Inc., where he contributed to several leadership roles throughout his career. Before announcing his retirement in 2020, Hill was the President of Consumer and Marketplace. In this capacity, he was responsible for overseeing Nike's global sales and operations. His leadership focused on enhancing the consumer experience and driving the brand's growth across various markets. Hill played an integral role in developing Nike's direct-to-consumer strategy, which includes its digital commerce and retail strategy. Throughout his tenure at Nike, he was instrumental in driving innovation and fostering connections with consumers. His efforts significantly influenced Nike's strategic direction and the strengthening of its brand presence worldwide. Having worked at Nike for over three decades, Elliott J. Hill's contributions were vital to the company's transformation and success in a constantly evolving retail landscape. His leadership exemplified a commitment to aligning the brand's mission with consumer expectations, helping the company maintain its position as a leading global sportswear brand.
Philip H. Knight is an American business magnate best known as the co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Nike, Inc., one of the world’s largest suppliers of athletic shoes and apparel. Born on February 24, 1938, in Portland, Oregon, Knight played a pivotal role in transforming Nike into a global powerhouse in the sports industry. Knight attended the University of Oregon, where he ran track under Coach Bill Bowerman. It was during this time that he developed an interest in running shoes. After earning his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1959, he served in the Army and later pursued an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business. His time at Stanford proved influential; a class project on starting a business became the blueprint for his later venture. In 1964, Knight and his former coach Bowerman each invested $500 to create Blue Ribbon Sports, a company that initially served as a U.S. distributor for the Japanese shoemaker Onitsuka Tiger, now ASICS. The relationship with Onitsuka dissolved by 1971, leading Knight to launch his own brand, which he named Nike, inspired by the Greek goddess of victory. That same year, the company's iconic Swoosh logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student, for just $35. Under Knight’s leadership, Nike grew rapidly. His emphasis on innovative design, marketing, and branding helped launch successful product lines and secure endorsements from top athletes, boosting the company's profile. Nike's marketing campaigns, notably the "Just Do It" slogan, became cultural phenomena, reinforcing the brand’s position in the market. Knight served as Nike’s CEO until 2004 and as chairman until 2016, when he retired from the position. Despite stepping down from daily operations, he remains a prominent figure in the company as Chairman Emeritus. Through his career, Knight became one of the richest individuals in the world, with an estimated net worth of over $40 billion. In addition to his business ventures, Knight is known for his philanthropy. He has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to educational institutions, including Stanford and the University of Oregon, supporting various academic and athletic programs. His contributions have significantly impacted the development of facilities and the enhancement of educational opportunities at these schools.
Dr. Muge Erdirik Dogan is a notable executive in the corporate world, known for her remarkable contributions to Nike Inc. She has held significant leadership roles in the company, where her work has prominently influenced Nike's business strategies and market performance. Dr. Dogan earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and completed her Ph.D. at Stanford as well, which laid a strong foundation for her career in business management and strategy. Her educational background in engineering has played a crucial role in allowing her to bring a data-driven, analytical approach to her work. At Nike, she has been pivotal in guiding the company’s digital transformation efforts, focusing on integrating innovative technologies to enhance customer experiences and streamline operations. Her leadership emphasizes sustainability, innovation, and customer satisfaction, aligning with Nike's overall mission to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete. Dr. Dogan’s strategic insights and forward-thinking vision have contributed to Nike maintaining its competitive edge in the sportswear industry. Her work continues to make a significant impact on Nike's growth initiatives and its adaptation to an ever-evolving market landscape.
Paul Trussell is a prominent figure in the financial and retail industry, currently serving as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Nike, Inc. Known for his expertise in financial analysis and strategic planning, he plays a crucial role in overseeing Nike's financial operations and strategy. Before joining Nike, Trussell had a distinguished career in various finance and investment roles. He is recognized for his strong analytical skills and leadership in financial management, contributing significantly to Nike's financial health and strategic growth. His work involves managing corporate finance, investor relations, and ensuring the company’s fiscal strategies align with its broader business goals. Trussell's contributions are instrumental in driving Nike's continued success in the global market. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, marking his commitment to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and competence in the finance field.
Rob Leinwand serves as the Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at Nike, Inc. In his role, he is responsible for overseeing the company's legal affairs, providing strategic legal advice, and ensuring corporate governance compliance. Leinwand's extensive experience in legal and corporate matters has been instrumental in navigating the complex global landscape in which Nike operates. His leadership and expertise contribute significantly to the company's legal strategy and operations.
KeJuan Wilkins is an experienced executive at Nike, Inc., known for his expertise in communications and public relations. As of the latest information, he serves as the Vice President of Enterprise Communications and Public Affairs at Nike. In this role, Wilkins is responsible for overseeing Nike's global corporate communications strategies, which include media relations, corporate storytelling, crisis management, and executive communications. Wilkins has been with Nike for over two decades, during which time he has held various positions in the communications and public affairs divisions, contributing significantly to the company's brand image and public perception. His leadership has been instrumental in navigating complex communications landscapes, and he has played a key role in managing Nike's messaging during major company events and initiatives. Wilkins is also known for his efforts in championing diversity and inclusion within the company and the broader business community. His work supports Nike's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion both internally and in the communities the company serves.
Ms. Nicole Hubbard Graham is an executive known for her significant contributions to Nike, Inc., where she has served as the Chief of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In this role, she has been crucial in advancing Nike's DEI strategies and initiatives, focusing on creating a more inclusive and equitable environment within the company. Nicole's leadership is marked by her dedication to fostering a culture that values diversity, recognizing the importance of different perspectives and backgrounds in driving innovation and success. She has been instrumental in implementing policies and programs that aim to enhance diversity across all levels of the organization, ensuring that Nike remains a leader in promoting equity in the workplace. Her work involves collaborating with various departments to integrate DEI principles into Nike’s business practices, contributing to both internal organizational health and the brand's global impact. Under her guidance, Nike has launched initiatives designed to support underrepresented communities and promote social justice. Nicole Hubbard Graham's expertise and commitment to DEI have earned her recognition both within and outside the company, making her a pivotal figure in Nike's ongoing efforts to be a champion for diversity and inclusion in the corporate world.
Good morning and welcome to our Full Year Results Presentation for 2021. I'll begin with a brief summary and then give an update on our market and strategy before Martin reviews our financial results in more detail.
Vitec is in really great shape. Our markets recovered significantly during the year and are now larger and growing faster than pre-pandemic. We deliver growth on 2019 and 2022 has started extremely well. Growth has been driven by the significant changes in the way people are now consuming content, whether it's spending more time watching TV, posting and viewing more content on social media, live streaming, or shopping for more products online. These changes in consumer behavior are powering demand for our products. But it's not just that, it's also that we've got a clear strategy which we're executing on really well.
Now let's look at what we've achieved financially. Vitec delivered a really strong 2021 performance with growth across all three divisions. Given the disruption to our 2020 results caused by the pandemic, our comparison to 2019 performance is more meaningful than to 2020. Order intake was up 20% versus 2019. And in 2021, we achieved record group revenues despite some capacity constraints and component shortages. We're fortunate to own many of the industry's leading brands and our premium prices reflect their brand strength, product quality, and technology advantage, and price rises during the year more than offset inflationary headwinds.
Once again, cash performance was excellent. We remain focused on managing our cost base while continuing to invest in our key priorities in line with our strategy. We ended the financial year with a record order book. Given our strong performance and confidence in the future, we're proposing to pay a total dividend of £0.35 per share.
Vitec is uniquely positioned at the heart of the content creation market to capitalize on the strong global demand for capturing, consuming, and sharing content. We're continuing to execute well on our strategy. First, we're delivering organic growth due to both strong market demand and innovative new product development. Vitec is a product-driven business. And we're increasingly seeing that technology advancement is driving shorter product replacement cycles. We expect our underlying growth over the next few years to be in the high single-digits versus low single-digits pre-pandemic.
Second, we expect continued margin improvement towards our mid-teen goal as volumes grow and we deliver operating leverage. Our operations are strong and we're targeting year-on-year productivity improvements and price increases, which will more than offset inflation pressures.
And third, we're making acquisitions in the right areas to transform the group. We bought three new businesses last year and a fourth in January this year. These have expanded our customer base, our portfolio, and our technology capabilities. I'm particularly excited about the audio market where we see a big opportunity to grow even faster. Our investments to support future growth have been in two main areas, in video transmission and streaming and creative solutions, and in content creation and audio capture and imaging solutions.
Over the last decade, we've laid a strong foundation for Vitec's growth. We're now in multiple growing market segments. And this, coupled with our clear strategy, has meant that the group has emerged from the pandemic a stronger, higher quality business. 2022 is off to a great start with a record opening order book and a record January and February performance. Looking forward, there's clearly an awful lot going on externally and it's difficult to predict exactly what will happen. But trading is going very well, and we're increasingly confident about the outlook for the group despite component shortages and inflation. But obviously, the current geopolitical situation creates some uncertainty. I'm incredibly proud of what our team's achieved last year and I'm really excited about the opportunities ahead of us.
Now, I'll provide a market and strategy update. The pandemic has driven fundamental and lasting structural changes to our market. Market growth is being driven by advances in technology, as well as the significant changes in the way people capture, consume, and share content. We estimate that 75% of the group's business is exposed to four different structural market growth drivers, which are all experiencing double-digit growth. We believe this will continue long-term.
First, the Internet. Growth in retail e-commerce is driving increased demand for digital visual content as new products need to be photographed and filmed frequently to be published online. Vitec's professional studio equipment, including supports, backgrounds, and lighting are all benefiting.
Second, TikTok and YouTube. Vlogging and sharing content on social media has increased significantly. This means that more people are using our JOBY products to create and share content on their phones and cameras, as well as using our backgrounds and graphics for high-quality content.
Third, subscription TV. With more content on more TV channels and the need to produce more original content, our equipment, particularly our video transmission and monitoring systems, lights, batteries, and supports are all in high demand.
And fourth, live streaming of video, which is driving demand for our streaming products, not only in offices and at home, but also in operating theaters and even in other examples such as plane spotting as some of you will have seen during Storm Younis when were more than 200,000 people tuned in live to watch Big Jet TV using Teradek to live stream planes battling the storm to land at Heathrow Airport. 7.5 million people have now watched that clip on YouTube. What's not growing is mainly our travel segment, which includes photographic bags and hobbyist supports, but we expect this to bounce back over time.
Now, let's look at our total addressable market. Post-pandemic, our TAM has expanded to £2.6 billion from £2 billion pre-pandemic, and we believe that it will grow at high single-digits from 2022 to 2024, compared to low single-digit pre-pandemic. This is mainly due to our ability to serve the newest streaming, gaming, and vlogging markets, and we're also seeing growth in some of our more traditional markets.
Imaging Solutions markets saw a stronger than expected recovery, and the TAM has increased to £1.2 billion, particularly due to the increase in vlogging. And we estimate that the market CAGR for 2022 to 2024 will now be about 5%.
Production Solutions markets also recovered strongly. The TAM has not changed, but we estimate that the market will now grow about 3%, whereas previously it was flat.
Creative Solutions markets were the last to reopen last year, but saw a strong recovery. The TAM increased to £1 billion, particularly due to the increase in streaming, the growing spend on original content, and our ability to serve the gaming market. We believe that the market CAGR will be about 20%.
Now, moving on to discuss each of our three divisions. Imaging Solutions had an excellent year. Overall, the market is larger and growing faster than pre-pandemic, and we continue to invest in new product development, particularly in the fastest growing segments of vlogging, audio, and mechatronics. Our high-end professional segment is resilient with strong demand from professionals who need equipment to take still and video product images for online retail sales.
Our B2B business is seeing significant growth and is now the second largest category in the division. And B2B for Imaging Solutions mainly means selling into production companies and other corporates. Growth is mainly being driven by demand for our lighting stands for scripted TV productions, but we've also seen huge demand for supports from companies like Veo and Hudl, who use them for sports analytics.
JOBY had another great year, launching new products for all levels of content creators from beginners to professionals, for cameras and for smartphones. New products include the first Apple MagSafe phone mounts. And last month, we launched our new JOBY on-camera microphones and sliders. JOBY is an important strategic growth engine for the group with a huge untapped customer base of influencers who earn a living by sharing their content on social media. It's seen as a cool, unique brand with unique technology operating at the premium end of the market. And we have robust, defendable IP with numerous enforceable patents that we use to defend our market share.
During 2021, we insourced production of some of JOBY's key products, including the GorillaPod to Italy, expanding Feltre's highly efficient manufacturing capabilities. The Made in Italy stamp differentiates us from our competitors, giving us greater control of the design and manufacturing process and improves customer service, has a lower environmental impact, is cost competitive, and improves margins. The travel market however remains subdued, which has impacted our hobbyist segment of supports and bags. We're continuing to grow higher margin online sales, which are currently about 50% of Imaging Solutions revenue.
Now, let's look at the two recent imaging acquisitions. First, we bought the Savage backgrounds business in November to bolt-on to our global distribution network and upsell to our JOBY customers. Integration is going very well and we're already starting to see distribution synergies.
Second, we bought Audix in January this year. This is a key element of our audio strategy, which we see as a big opportunity. Audio enhances the quality of the video content, and we already know the customers as they buy our equipment. We also know the channel as we bought Rycote in 2018, and we've already developed some audio products under our JOBY brand.
Audix has given the group specialist R&D and manufacturing capabilities to design more microphones, more quickly, and this allows us to make them in the US. So strategically, this is a great fit and it accelerates our audio strategy. We're planning to grow the Audix brand by selling their products through our distribution channels and to grow our on-camera microphone business by taking share. The audio market has reacted very positively to the acquisition and integration is going very well.
Now, let's look at Production Solutions. Production Solutions also recovered strongly and had an outstanding year, particularly due to the increase in spend on original content creation and demand for our recently launched products in the faster-growing segments, including news and sport, LED lighting, and mobile power.
Remote production and automation in broadcast TV is also an important trend. This benefits our robotic camera systems and voice activated prompting and our pipeline in this area is up about 30% on 2019. We're also benefiting from rescheduled major sporting events and I'm really pleased that this market appears to be returning to normal and is now actively planning for events over the next few years.
In April, we acquired Quasar, an LED company whose products are used in film and scripted TV productions. Quasar products are highly complementary to our Litepanels brand.
Now, on to Creative Solutions. In the cine and scripted TV market, there was a strong recovery in original content production in the second half, and sales of our 4K/HDR products have really taken off, but we estimate that we're only about 20% through this replacement cycle. Demand is very strong and this is a great example of a technology change driving a shorter product replacement cycle. Revenue growth is being impacted by component shortages, particularly the chips and our Teradek Bolt transmitters, but we're managing inventory, SKUs, and pricing, using alternative suppliers where we can, and in some cases redesigning products. We don't expect this to have a significant impact in the full year.
In the enterprise market, we expect continued growth in our high-end Teradek IP-based live streaming solutions for corporates and the cine market. There are also significant growth opportunities in the medical segment, where our Amimon wireless video solutions are being used in operating theaters and we're also supplying the industrial market in remote machinery such as cranes.
In April, we entered the gaming market with the acquisition of Lightstream, who provide a cloud-based video production and editing Software-as-a-Service platform to enable content creators to enrich their live video streams. The acquisition of Lightstream has enabled us to address the growing demand for cloud-based content creation. And since our last update, Lightstream has progressed licensing deals for their API products with major names in the gaming space and are ready to integrate with Teradek's existing cloud products.
Now, let's look at future technology developments. Remote working and live streaming across all industries grew exponentially during the pandemic and has become a significant growth opportunity for our Teradek brand, for both our IP-based and our patented Amimon technology.
In the cine industry, our customers are demanding more remote access, and we're investing to evolve our monitoring technology so it can be used both on set and remotely. We're introducing new high-end streaming products with Amimon Reliable Transport or ART with units currently out being tested with customers. We expect to launch towards the end of the half, initially with products designed for our cine customers. ART dramatically improves the viewer experience with higher video quality and a lower transmission delay over the internet or mobile network. We believe there are opportunities for ART beyond the cine market, for example, initially in the medical and industrial markets.
Now, I'd like to update you on ESG. Over the last 12 months, we've made great progress developing our ESG strategy. We've been working with a specialized external agency and have set clear targets. We have a focused and coordinated group-wide approach, and we significantly improved our data collection, measurement, and disclosure. Our initiatives are centered around the seven key priorities listed on this slide, and we will be publishing a stand-alone ESG report in April with all the detail.
Now, I'll hand over to Martin for more details on our financial performance.
Thanks very much, Stephen. I'm delighted to be presenting a great set of results for Vitec for 2021. We delivered record group revenue. Revenue was 5% ahead of two years ago in 2019 on a reported basis and 8% on an organic constant currency basis, excluding the Olympics. This was achieved despite our end markets only being fully open in the second half of 2021, and we also continue to be impacted by component shortages and capacity constraints towards the end of 2021.
We achieved a strong group revenue performance in 2021 due to record order intake, up 20% versus 2019 on an organic constant currency basis. And we closed the year with a record order book. We've invested to accelerate future growth, but have still managed to return to similar group operating profit margin as in 2019. Note that 2019 included a 2-percentage point benefit from the SmallHD insurance claim recognized in profit but not revenue.
Group operating expenses were around £9 million higher than in 2019, which mainly reflects investment as well as inflation, cost of new acquisitions, and retention schemes for key personnel across the group. We made a group operating profit of £46.2 million and profit before tax of £42.4 million, which far exceeded expectations as we entered 2021. Adjusted EPS of £0.699 is higher than consensus of £0.681 largely due to the improved ETR of 24% compared to 25% in 2020. I am pleased to report that the board is recommending a final dividend of £0.24 per share, which would take the total dividend to £0.35 per share covered 2 times by adjusted EPS. This is at the lower limit of our previously communicated range of 2 to 2.5 times cover. ROCE is returning towards historic levels, reflecting higher profits and despite the acquisition of Savage in November. Excluding acquisitions, ROCE was 18.6%.
Turning now to the divisions. Imaging Solutions had a great year. Revenue was significantly up on 2020 and slightly ahead of 2019 on an organic constant currency basis. This was a tremendous performance given that the travel market was still significantly impacted by the pandemic, affecting demand for our bags and compact tripods. As mentioned by Stephen, JOBY continued to grow strongly, launching the Beamo Ring Light in March. Component shortages delayed the launch of some new products in the second half of 2021 including the WAVO microphones and the Spin and Swing devices. But these were all launched in January 2022 and have been really well-received.
In B2B, there was a significant increase in demand for our lighting supports driven by their use with sports analytics devices to provide footage from an elevated height. Manfrotto is the leading supplier for lighting support stands to all the main providers in this market. Operating profit margin of 13.7% was similar to 2019.
Now, let's turn to Production Solutions. This division had an excellent year with record revenue up more than 50% on 2020 and up 10% compared to 2019 on an organic constant currency basis even after excluding the Tokyo Olympics. The new products launched towards the end of 2020 and in the first half of 2021 continue to prove extremely popular. In particular, the Sachtler aktiv fluid head which allows camera operators to mount, level, and lock the head in seconds; Autoscript's voice activated prompting; and Litepanels Gemini 1x1 Hard LED Light. 2021 was a really exciting year for Camera Corps which once again provided bespoke equipment at the Tokyo Olympics, as well as at the Euros in June and July. For 2022, they've also just covered the Beijing Winter Olympics and in November will be at the World Cup in Qatar.
Operating profit margin was a record 23% which was enhanced by royalties from licensees using our LED patents. Excluding these, the margin was 20.3% which still represents more than double 2020 margins and a 3-percentage point improvement on 2019.
Creative Solutions grew strongly with revenue up 22% compared to 2019 on an organic constant currency basis. This was despite the cine market not fully reopening until the second half of 2021 and the component shortages impacting the second half. Order intake was up 45% on an organic constant currency basis versus 2019 driven by the rollout 4K, which now includes 4K monitors. The overwhelming majority of Teradek Bolt transmitter and receiver orders and revenue were 4K and we expect take up to increase significantly in 2022.
Revenue from the enterprise market was up double-digits compared to 2019. This was driven by sales to the medical market more than doubling with high demand for Amimon products within the operating room. Operating profit of 10.7% was lower than 2019 after adjusting for the £6.5 million insurance proceeds in 2019. This was due to the investment to drive growth, including sales and marketing, R&D, and investment in Lightstream, which is still relatively early in its business life cycle.
We're seeing previous R&D investment come to fruition. For example, SmallHD had a record year following the investment to develop its 4K monitors. So that's our P&L.
Let's have a look now at how this flow through to cash. We had strong cash conversion which was once again over 100%. This was despite a significant increase in inventory as expected from capacity constraints and component shortages. This increase in inventory was more than offset by an increase in payables due to increased activity and other items, which mean that working capital overall declined in the year.
Capital expenditure rose, following a lower level spend in 2020 when we conserve cash in response to the pandemic. In 2021, we spent £2.8 million mainly on plastic injection molding machines to bring some JOBY production in-house. Free cash flow was excellent and ahead of 2019 at around £33 million. This was despite the previously announced £3 million tax payment in relation to EU State Aid.
Restructuring cash paid was lower as the final payments were made for the previously announced e-commerce project in Imaging Solutions. Now let's look at what that meant for net debt. Net debt increased despite the high free cash flow as we acquired Savage, Lightstream, and Quasar. As previously guided, renewal of leases in Feltre, Costa Rica, and Irvine, as well as the acquisition of the lease with Savage meant that our IFRS 16 lease liabilities increased. Total liquidity at 31 December 2021 of £91.5 million was similar to 30 June 2021 as we financed the acquisition of Savage and Audix in early 2022 through dedicated additional facilities.
Net debt to EBITDA was 2.2 times on a reported basis and 2 times on the basis that is used for our loan covenants, both of which are on a post IFRS 16 basis. In the appendix to this presentation, you can find a slide detailing the differences in these calculations. So to conclude on our 2021 results, these are really strong set of results, have delivered top line in-year growth whilst also investing in future growth and continue to generate cash.
I'd like now to turn to some guidance for 2022, take a look at our financial goals for the midterm, and review how our M&A strategy has been implemented. As Stephen mentioned, 2022 has started very well for us and we're increasingly confident about the outlook for the group. I'll let you peruse this slide in your own time but I'd like to highlight a few points to consider when assessing the outlook for 2022 despite the previously highlighted short-term component shortages and inflation. Obviously, the current mature political situation also creates some uncertainty.
We expect high single-digit organic growth in group revenue. We expect lower royalty receipts in VPS but no decline in total VPS revenue for 2022. R&D amortization will rise as a result of the investment capitalized over the past few years. We also expect gross R&D spend to increase as we invest in future growth across all divisions. Central costs will increase slightly as we incur a full year impact from the share-based payments that were awarded in June 2021 to retain staff in Creative Solutions.
We continue to expect 2022 cash generation to be strong with at least 80% cash conversion. Net debt will increase due primarily to the January 2022 acquisition of Audix and we are targeting further growth in our group EBITDA. So we continue to expect our net debt to EBITDA to be around 2.3 times on a covenant basis at the half year and around 2 times at year end. That gave a flavor for 2022.
Let's now look longer-term at our financial goals. We thought this would be a good point in time to lay out our financial goals given the changes the pandemic has brought to our end markets. As Stephen highlighted, our end markets are growing faster and Vitec is positioned to capitalize on this. So we expect to achieve high single-digit organic revenue growth each year. Given our market position in various niches, we expect to be able to more than offset inflation.
As volumes grow, we expect to leverage our fixed cost base which would lead to operating leverage of at least 30%. We are on track to deliver at least mid-teen operating profit margins. We will keep a close eye on cash and our aim is to keep cash conversion of at least 80% despite the business growing. With increased profits, our goal is to achieve at least 20% ROCE. We will continue with our progressive dividend policy with our dividend covered 2 to 2.5 times by adjusted EPS. As revenue and profits grow and we maintain control of cash, we expect net debt to EBITDA to trend down to below 1.5 times.
Now, I'd like to look at our acquisition strategy. Some of you will recognize the layout of this slide from our Capital Markets Day in 2018. They show the product categories we want you to look at expanding into through M&A. The logos show where we have acquired since then, which was just after we purchased JOBY, which provided an entry point to smartphone accessories. As you can see, we've delivered what we said we would. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do in 2022 to integrate fully our recent acquisitions and to ensure we capture the substantial synergies they offer.
So let's recap. 2021 was a great year with Vitec returning to pre-pandemic levels, whilst investing in future growth. There are more exciting times to come as the markets we serve are larger and growing faster than pre-pandemic and as we continue to execute extremely well on our strategic priorities.
With that, I'd like to hand back to Stephen.
Thank you, Martin. So, to summarize, the group has emerged from the pandemic in great shape and 2022 has also started extremely well. The content creation market is a great place to be, being larger and growing faster than previously envisaged, and Vitec is right at the heart of this fast-growing market and executing well on its strategy. Obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty in the world at the moment. But as a business, we're increasingly confident about the outlook for the group.
Before I move on to our Q&A session, I wanted to tell you about our plans to change the group's name to Videndum following the AGM in May. This change is due to the need to avoid litigation from another company called Vitec, but more importantly, the new name better reflects our purpose as it means that which must be seen or a must see. This is a great opportunity for us to refresh our brand as the group has transformed over the past decade and is now in multiple market segments with a much broader portfolio. At the same time in May, we'll change the name of our Imaging Solutions division to Media Solutions as the division has grown its portfolio to include JOBY for vloggers and audio capture under the JOBY, Rycote, and Audix brands, the new name better represents its wider customer base and the exciting opportunities ahead.
To conclude, we're a stronger, higher quality business, well placed to deliver sustainable growth and value for all our stakeholders.
We're now going to move on to our question-and-answer session, so I'd like to hand over to our operator.
Thank you for your patience. Our first question comes from Scott Cagehin with Investec. Scott, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and congratulations on a great set of results. Just a quick question from me sort of throughout on slide 6, where you were talking about 75% of revenues being driven at double-digit growth levels through content creation, I found that very interesting. I was just wondering if you could sort of
[ph]
step out (00:32:03) a little bit on those four segments at the bottom and sort of maybe comment on the areas that you're most excited about for this year and next. That would be great. Thank you.
Hi, Scott. Thanks very much. Yes. This is a new slide. I mean, we have talked about it just a little bit before, and so it's not hopefully a surprise to too many people. But putting it all together, it's very powerful. So, as we say, 75% of the markets that we are addressing at the moment are growing faster than 10%. The bit that's not just briefly is mainly around travel. So, anything to do with travel, which is sort of travel tripods, photographic pads that people tend to buy when they're going on a nice holiday, that is a bit depressed, but the rest of the business is in great shape.
And this is a big change for us because pre-pandemic, December would have been a lot less. The overall group would have been looking at growth rates more in the low-single digits. So, now having an overall growth rates in high-single digits is a drastic change for us, and it's driven by the basic changes that we're seeing particularly post-pandemic, which have been accelerated in the way that people are consuming and capturing content.
So, the big four are basically the Internet, first of all, which is basically driving a demand for professional photography. So, you can imagine so many websites worldwide need to continue, refresh the photographs, or the video of the content that they're selling. This is growing and growing and growing. So, the Internet piece for us is very big. It's probably about 30% of our total addressable market. And so, it's things like our photographic tripods, our lighting stands, now backgrounds, we're into that market. And that is – group being driven purely by the Internet and we see that growing sort of 10% to 15%. The other piece which is very – and we've had that business for quite a while obviously, but it's exciting that it's growing fast.
The other piece that is quite new is all around influencers and vloggers which is TikTok and YouTube. And a lot of us probably haven't heard of TikTok sort of three or four years ago. It is obviously a new phenomenon. It's driven by social media. It's here to stay. It's growing really fast. And we are basically helping a large number of vloggers and influencers put content onto the Internet either live or recorded. And that accounts for around about 10% of our sales now, and that's growing from pretty much nothing, and that's where JOBY is doing so well and we're seeing significant growth there, so again sort of in the 10% to 15%.
So, the other piece is, again, something everyone will be familiar with. We've all heard of Netflix and Amazon Prime and Disney and Apple TV. Probably hadn't heard of them five years ago and probably hadn't subscribed to them five years ago. But we all are doing that now and we're consuming content in a different way. And this is driving an absolutely huge increase in the investment in new scripted TV shows. So, for example, Netflix, although they might be losing a tiny bit of share to other people, they're still doing incredibly well, still investing significantly, and are planning to make a new series or a new film every day for the next few years. So we're seeing a 20% plus investment in that area and that accounts for roughly about 25% of all of our sales, so that's where do the onset monitoring, and that's where we sell large lighting stands and cinematic equipment into that market.
And then the last one is something that's really grown out through the pandemic which is live streaming which wasn't a very big market. It's still only about 5% of our sales but it's growing fast and that's where we help people. I gave the example of Big Jet TV. That's a great example of a company that's propped up live streaming content and getting loads of people watching what they're doing. We help people basically stream a better quality video and typically with less delay and that's about 5% of our business and that's again growing sort of in the 15% zone. So all of this is exciting structural change in the market. That means that we now expect revenue to be growing in the high single-digits.
That's very helpful. Thank you.
Our next question comes from Andrew Douglas with Jefferies. Andrew, please go ahead.
Morning, guys. I've got loads of questions but I'll ask a few and then jump back into the queue. Can we start with ART? We talked about this I think it was 6, 12 months ago. But can you just give us an update on how you think that opportunity has developed either in the quantum, what the potential upside is over the long-term end markets that you're targeting, et cetera, just so we can have a proper understanding of that.
Secondly, I was interested in your ESG slide, not something that maybe the market really kind of puts with Vitec. But looked like you made incredible progress there, a couple of years. So can you just talk about the story there and how you're feeling about that progress?
Third is on the supervisory board on creative. Are you able to just flesh that a little bit for us kind of why now, who these people are, what's
[ph]
their remits (00:37:34), et cetera, just so we understand? And then I'm just interested also in acquisitions. You made a lot this year or in last 12 months, where you're kind of most excited about the opportunity? It sounds like it's on the Audix side, but just want a feel for how you're thinking about those acquisitions now they're part of the group.
Great, Andy. Thanks very much. So, very briefly then, ART, so that's Amimon Reliable Transport, that is where we have developed a product that basically takes our Amimon technology, which at the moment is usually short-range wireless transmission with zero delay where we are very strong in the onset monitoring market. That basically takes that product and applies it over the Internet so that you can basically reduce delays or reduce latency, and you can improve video quality. So, it allows you to basically send a higher quality video with less latency, a number of applications. Our existing cine market will definitely be very interested in that, allow them to move content around to people that are monitoring film sets and so on from remote locations. So, clearly a lot of remote – as a result of the pandemic, a lot of monitoring has now moved off of the film set to a remote location, and this will help people do that and make sure that they are monitoring with a high-quality video with relatively no delay.
But there are other applications, medical applications and industrial applications, that we're looking at the moment, where either we think we may be able to take the products into our market or we may need help. We may need to find a partner or even license it. So, the size of the opportunity, we've been working actually with our consultant
[indiscernible]
(00:39:26) look at the size of that opportunity. Size is pretty significant. I mean we're talking about markets that are into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Right now, we're focused on our existing market, improving the product work so we have prototypes that are working and sending signals from Texas to Seattle and back with virtually zero delay.
We've got the product working. We're going to start selling the product in a few months' time. It's going to be relatively slow start but we do see it as a big opportunity. It's just a question of how much of that market we can take and how quickly we can do it. So the markets – ART is real and tangible and we've been talking about it for a bit but it's here. We've got the product. It works. It beats the competition. So that's very exciting.
ESG, Martin, maybe you can talk about – bit about progress very briefly in a second. But in terms of our process, we've put a huge amount of effort into this
[indiscernible]
(00:40:25) focus on this. It's really important. I'm passionate about it. I think basically ESG gives us a chance to strengthen our focus in certain areas which is good for us, good for the business, good for our environment, but it's also good for our customers who care about this. It's good for our employees. So the things that we're doing here just make an awful lot of sense so we're very pleased to be doing this.
Martin, do you want to add
[indiscernible]
(00:40:50)?
Yeah. A couple of examples. So in terms of reducing our CO2 emissions, we have the goal of reducing CO2 by 15% by 2030, and we've already started by installing some solar panels in Costa Rica and Bury St Edmunds and we'll extend that to other sites in 2022. And we've also started the replacement of all our lighting with LED. As regards reducing packaging and waste, we've converted the Feltre packaging to FSC, so forestry standard commission grade materials, so basically about 30% of that is complete. So, we're saving hundreds of tons of cardboard packaging each year now, and we will, we are, and have moved to almost 0% landfill at
[indiscernible]
(00:41:46) and Bury St Edmunds. And then in terms of sustainability into the product lifecycle, all our lighting bags are from recycled fabric, and we'll move all our bags in the next year or so to recycled material. So, we're making quite – we've already made quite a lot of progress and it's an ongoing thing that we'll continue in the next couple of years.
Lots of progress. I think it's fair to say a couple of years ago, we weren't putting enough focus on this. We've always been strong on things like health and safety and governance and so on, and so for example, we've had zero lost time accidents for a number of years now, which for business of our size is fantastic, and a testament to the people. But we're now starting to do some of the things that we weren't doing so well before, measuring the amount of waste. We're not a hugely wasteful or polluting company, but we can do better. And I'm really excited about the way our people have got around that.
Next question was I think on supervisory board. So, this is basically, yeah, fairly simple. Creative Solutions, very exciting business, fantastic technology that we want to try and leverage more outside of our existing markets. So, we set up a board with some – it allows us to bring some external people into the discussion, people who have got some, basically just two people actually what we brought them in to look at our options for Creative Solutions, how we might try and leverage the – and unlock the value of Creative Solutions particularly in the technology. So, we've got a couple of things we've got experienced in other models. So, for example, licensing. And so that's working hard or looking at where we go with Creative Solutions. And that will then make a recommendation to the main board about the best forward for Creative Solutions. So, we're working on that now and that's imminent.
And then finally on M&A, I mean, first of all, we've driven the debt up as high as I want it to be. We want to get the debt back down below 1.5 times as soon as we possibly can. We will do that next year. It'd be down below 2 times by the end of this year. We've made some quite big acquisitions, enormously attractive, particularly Audix. I mean, Savage is a great business, background business, and gives us good exposure to the photographic studio market. But audio is even more exciting as it's part of our audio strategy about getting into audio in the future. That is, if you're looking Vitec, the next big, exciting transformation is going to be audio where we believe we can take a big share of the on-camera microphone market. And this business should be $100 million business in the reasonably near-term, which will be a big deal for us.
And Audix is a big step and giving us the R&D capability to do that. We already know that we've got microphones under the JOBY brand. We want to launch a much bigger range of exciting microphones to go after the competition there where we think we can take a share because our customers are already buying these products through our retail outlets and through our channels. So, we know it really well. And I think our customers would be very happy to buy these products from us.
Okay. Andy, is that
[indiscernible]
(00:45:00)?
Super. That's perfectly detailed and exactly what I need. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Henry Carver with Peel Hunt. Henry, please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, guys. Just a couple for me.
Good morning.
Maybe first following on from Andy's one just on the Creative Solutions sort of value realization plans and stuff. I mean, it sounds like you're exploring all sorts of different sort of parts and avenues, but do we take this as being Creative Solutions as a whole and whatever sort of solution you find, it will be done with regards to the whole division or is it potentially going to be carved up or is there anything in between or just any sort of color on what the thinking is would be really useful, but appreciate if you don't have it at this point.
Okay. Yeah. It's a bit – I mean it's a little bit difficult to say much more than we've already said in the published material. We are looking at all options. And why are we doing this, why are we talking about this? It's because Creative Solutions has some fantastic technology. So, the core of it is the Amimon technology, I mean, apart from our people who are outstanding. We have a fantastic team of people who understand, particularly understand the cine market really well and also understand live streaming and so on. But it's the technology which allows you to transmit a video signal with zero delay because it's uncompressed which is the unique technology. So, where we're a small business in that specific niche, we are the world leaders in zero delay wireless video transmission over a short distance.
And we believe that that technology has applications outside of the market, outside of the city markets and we're already playing in the medical market, but also potentially industrial and so on. And if we can make this product work over the Internet, then that opens up a massive opportunity to sell that technology into other areas which range from medical to industrial to video conferencing and so on. So, it's a question of working out can we do that on our own which we probably can't. We don't have the capacity and the bandwidth to do that. Do we need to license the technology or do we need to find partners to help us? And so, all those options are up in the air. We're not going to go and look at this for much longer. It's time for us to work out what to do. So, we will definitely be reporting back in the reasonably near future and – so that you know a bit more about that.
That's really, really useful. Thanks. And just on Creative Solutions again, the margins there clearly a bit depressed this year for obvious reasons and for investing in the business. Do you still see a kind of normalized if you like margin for Creative Solutions being the highest in the group or it was sort of – where do you see them on a recovered basis?
Sure. I mean, two answers to that one. First of all, the rest of the group, if you like, so Production Solutions and Imaging have improved their margins significantly. So, if you look across the divisions, strangely enough, now our Creative Solutions actually has the lowest margin, because Production Solutions is doing so well and has recovered so well. We're driving such great operating leverage, so those margins are very strong. Imaging's margins, after a big investment, are also significantly improving. So, we're moving all of the divisions up.
Creative Solutions margins will improve, probably not back to the level that they were three or four years ago, which was sort of mid-20s. I don't think we will get back to that. I think that is unsustainable and the investment we need to make in Creative Solutions to continue to refresh it and invest in the product is reasonably significant, but the margins will improve and should improve to help us get to our mid-teens and then on to higher tier margin situation. So, I don't think it'll be back to mid-20s, but it should certainly be back to mid-teens.
That's really clear. Thank you. And then, one more for me, just on the group, the growth expectations you've laid out there. Also, in the next point, you've laid out pricing sort of expectations. Can you give an idea, I mean, obviously, this year with inflation, pricing beating inflation, it means that perhaps there's less volume growth expectation. I don't know if that's the message you're trying to put across, or whether – if you can give us any color on your sort of expectations in terms of volume and pricing split when you're talking about revenue growth?
Sure. So, one of the slides Martin showed on our financial goals sort of pulls all this together. So, in terms of the end markets, which will include pricing obviously, the end markets are growing high-single digit which is, as we said, is a big change for us. We will take share in those markets. So, with pricing, we should be looking to grow at 10% a year. Pricing is something we have significant power over. So, most of our businesses are brand leaders, are the most respected products in their areas. Most of the competition is relatively weak. So, our pricing power is significant. So, we've already started to significantly increase our prices. So, we started doing that last year. So, starting to increase prices across the boards, typically 3% to 5%, and we're doing that again this year. And the reason we're doing that is, clearly, we've got inflationary pressures on us, but we want to more than recover that. And we believe that with the investment we've made in our new products and managing the mix and so on, we can get more pricing in the market. So, we are pushing our prices up in an appropriate way. And our customers frankly are happy to pay for products that are fantastically well-engineered and manufactured, are available on time. We've looked after our customers through the pandemic.
And for example, none of our hubs closed down even in the worst moments of the pandemic. So, we've looked after our customers very well. And they recognize that we are a premium price brand. So, our pricing power will more than offset inflationary pressures this year. If we see more inflationary pressures, then we will put our prices up more. So that's a very strong position to be in. That then allows us to drive margins
[ph]
talk about (00:51:57) drive good operating leverage. So, as we see revenues go up, we believe at least 30% of that will fall through to the bottom line, which then drives the improvement in margins. So, all this is starting to come together. And the reason Martin put all that on one slide was just to show that if you look at all these financial goals and put them together and we achieve them all, which we're very confident of doing, then the future looks really compelling, and I think offers really exciting investment opportunity for our shareholders.
Well, I can't disagree. Brilliant. Thanks, Stephen.
Thanks, Henry.
[Operator Instructions]
Our next question comes from Tom Fraine with Shore Capital. Tom, the line is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, Stephen. Good morning, Martin.
Good morning, Tom.
So, a follow-on question on M&A. How reluctant would you be to do an equity raise? I know this is something you've been looking to do in the past. But if there is a really good opportunity that presents itself, would you be willing to come to the market?
The second question is on the 4K replacement cycle. How much of this is left to run? I think we withhold a couple of years ago that it would be one of the most material areas of growth in the business certainly on operating profit level and it was a multiyear cycle. Just wondering how much growth that's come from this?
And finally, in terms of compensation from alternative technology such as drones, how do you see that affecting your broadcasting and potentially hobbyist revenues, if at all?
Okay. So, Tom, thank you. So in terms of M&A, I'll ask Martin to jump in, in a second. We really hope – in the worst moments of the pandemic, obviously, we thought about whether we would need to raise equity. We thought we could run the business effectively and that we didn't need to. And I'm very pleased that we didn't need to raise equity in distress. It's true that we have made a couple of acquisitions that have pushed
[indiscernible]
(00:54:13) as higher level as I would want to accept. So we want to get our net debt to EBITDA down to 1.5 times pretty damn quickly. So very unlikely we're going to make any other significant acquisitions or even anything at the moment for a while.
Clearly, if something absolutely amazing came along particularly in the audio space, the area that we're really attracted to is imaging and content creation and the audio space. So that is where we will focus. But I think that's relatively unlikely. So I think very unlikely and frankly it's not something I'm keen to do. In terms of the – we're getting a little bit of noise on the line. I don't know if that's
[indiscernible]
(00:54:59).
[indiscernible]
(00:55:01).
Sorry. In terms of the 4K replacement cycle, absolutely, a major driver of growth for us, replacing all of the old HD transmitters with 4K transmitters is a major opportunity for us that we're executing on extremely well with our Bolt transmitters, so very well received. And as that market's taking off, that's growing very nicely. We're probably only about 20% or so through that cycle, so quite a lot to come. And it's just about how fast we can accelerate it.
The only thing that is holding us back a little bit is component shortages in this area. So, it's the one area where we do have some chips that are in short supply, but we're managing that. We're a bit worried about that a month or two ago. We're managing that. We're managing the mix. So actually, we're upselling our customers to products at a higher price. We don't have the chip that which is in short supply. So, we're managing the mix. We're redesigning the chip out of the – some of the older products, and also, we are working with Intel who are working really well with us. So, hopefully, that's not going to be – I mean that's going to be a relatively small problem. In total, component shortages for the whole group are going to be, we think, in terms of revenue, less than $10 million of headwind, so not that significant, and hopefully even less than that.
And then in terms of competition technology, in terms of if you're talking about the broadcast space, we are embracing most areas of new technology. So, if you talk about drones, drones for us are very interesting. We will not make drones ourselves. This is a crowded area. And also, drones have the potential to fall on people's heads. So, that's not a market I to get into. It's very competitive, very, very low margins, and potentially unsafe. But what we do do is support big drone operators, so for example, putting stabilization into drones and putting our video transmission into drones so that the drones can be filming and sending back a signal to a monitor. And so
[indiscernible]
(00:57:28) wisely we benefit from that. So, we benefit from that technology. Most of the technology trends in our business are very, very positive.
So, if you think about the 4K replacement cycle, it's shorter than the product replacement cycle. And you can go through new smartphones, the way that we've managed to embrace that, and sell JOBY products into smartphone users, the 4K transmission, the fact that the digital cameras are getting smaller and smaller format, the compact system cameras means that people do like to change their tripods, so we made smaller, more compact tripods, which drives our business. So, technology driving the shorter replacement cycles is a really exciting opportunity for us. And right now, 50% of all the products that we sell, we've launched in the last three years, which is a very – you look at any other business, I mean, certainly, in other business I've been involved in, that's incredibly healthy ratio, much more healthy than 10 years ago when I joined the company. And probably, it's going to improve because technology is our friend. Technology is driving change in the market. That is great for us.
Does that answer some of your questions?
Yeah. That's excellent. Thanks very much and apologies for the background noise.
No, thanks, Tom. No problem. Good. I think that's maybe it. Thanks for all your questions. Andy, are you okay? I think you said you had loads and loads of questions. Are you okay with just your four?
[indiscernible]
(00:59:03).
Yes. Good. Excellent. Thank you everybody for listening. And have a great day. Thank you.