Aliaxis, a world leader in fluid management solutions that enables access to water and energy, discloses excellent performance for 2021. The company has embarked on a positive and ambitious journey with its Growth with Purpose strategy, which involves ambitious targets for sustainability, innovation and performance by 2025.
More about Aliaxis
At Aliaxis, we design and deliver inventive solutions that enable access to water and sanitation, and we are accelerating this work to make sure we have a positive impact on people and the environment.
We kicked things into a higher gear in terms of sustainability and innovation with our Growth with Purpose strategy. Building on our core strengths, we set ambitious 2025 targets, with the aim to maximise our impact in the short term. We will reduce our CO2 emissions, multiply recycled content by 4, and invent smart water management solutions. Because ultimately, where water is concerned, we know that every drop counts. We built a plan based on immediate actions and investments generating short-term results. On innovation, we are reinforcing our customer intimacy and increasing our investment: +50% in 2022 and we will triple our R&D budget by 2025. At this date, up to 10% of our turnover will have to be generated by new products.
Our excellent results in 2021 show that we are well on the way with our Growth with Purpose strategy and going into 2022 with real momentum.
In 2021, we doubled our net income to get to €399 million, with revenue growth of 31% to reach €3.7 billion and CEBITDA increasing by 47% on a like-for-like basis1 compared to 2020, which was already our previous record year. Our CEBITDA margin increased from 15.9% in 2020 to 18.3% in 2021. Our debt is very low at under €100 million. The Americas had an extraordinarily strong year, and our other regions each performed very well, all recording growth. Locally-grounded, our teams are fully engaged in their respective local markets to meet our customers’ expectations.
We will pursue our growth agenda to make sure we meet our targets, including achieving an EBITDA of over €850 million by the end of 2025. To reach this goal and continue growing in the long term, we will significantly increase capital expenditure in the next four years, backed by our successful refinancing of the business last year, which secured €1.6 billion to fund our strategy. We have the resources to achieve both organic and external growth, whether in our core business or adjacent ones. In addition, our Aliaxis Next division was launched in 2022. This new division will select, incubate, nurture, and grow businesses from new domains, notably to improve water management and reduce water consumption with a focus on having real societal impact in both the short and long term. Aliaxis Next is all about bringing sustainable solutions in water management, water access, in resilient water infrastructures and in water for food.
With Growth with Purpose, and thanks to the know-how and commitment of our teams, not only are we embarking on a value-creating journey, taking our performance to a new level by 2025, but we are also making a strong, positive and near-term impact on sustainability.
We believe the most successful companies are also the most sustainable. Our Growth with Purpose strategy is built on that belief, and it will ensure that, by 2025, we accelerate our growth, enhance our ability to meet our customers’ needs, and greatly boost the positive impact we have on society.
Backed by challenging targets, the strategy is primarily driven by our ambitious goals around sustainability and innovation. But it is also rooted in our powerful local businesses and will allow us to draw on the intimate knowledge of their customers and the markets they operate in.
Over the next four years, we will focus on sustainability, innovation and local businesses.
Immediate action for urgent challenges
Our targets focus on what we can do to make our own operations more sustainable and how we can take a lead in tackling some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
They include transitioning to 100% renewable electricity by 2025, using four times more recycled material in our products, and continuing to develop solutions that enable access to clean water and sanitation, particularly in water-stressed countries.
More inventive solutions for greater impact
We plan to accelerate the pace of innovation across Aliaxis, to create solutions that continue to delight our customers and have greater societal impact.
By 2025, we’ll triple our investment in R&D, use technology in new ways to boost our research and product development, get new solutions to market faster, and make sure they make up a bigger proportion of our total sales.
The local power behind our global strategy
Growth with Purpose is a global strategy, deeply grounded in the established strength of our businesses and their brands within their own local markets, building on a legacy of over a century of history. Customers benefit from both the proximity with the local teams and the strength of a worldwide leader.
Our strong regional leadership teams are playing a key role in implementing their localised strategic plan. All achieved excellent results in 2021.
In May 2022, Olivier van der Rest, Aliaxis Chairman since 2010, hands over the reins to Thierry Vanlancker, a Board member since 2020. Here they share their perspective on where the company stands today and how Growth with Purpose prepares the Group for a bright future.
Olivier:
There has been a great evolution in the company over the last years to a more integrated Group, while preserving the local business specifics. We are now at a very important moment in Aliaxis’ development with Eric Olsen as the new CEO and our Growth with Purpose strategy.
Thierry:
The current management team has clearly switched to a higher gear and is acting on better-formulated, stronger ambitions. What I’ve always known is that Aliaxis is a company with incredible potential, with an important mission. We are a leader in our industry and our solutions handle water.
Olivier:
Yes, exactly. In dealing with water we are developing exciting new products and solutions which have real significance obviously to our customers, but also to society overall. In 2021, the building sector, as a whole, had a strong year. At every Board meeting we look at competitors and I can proudly tell you that Aliaxis outperformed them. I was really happy with the financial overall 2021 performance of our Group. For the first time we went to the market to raise €750 million to fund our Growth with Purpose strategy. This allows us to be more proactive in seeking acquisitions…
Thierry:
Yes, it puts us in a great position. But it’s not like “we have money, now what are we going to do with it?”. It is a case of, we want to do these things and we have the financial backing to do it. There’s a difference. We’re taking a long-term view, determined to tackle environmental challenges. Because the question is not “should we be sustainable?”. It’s clear: it’s an absolute must. Increasing recycling and better managing our energy is not just about doing good. It’s also just good business. The Board and the leadership team feel very strongly about this.
Olivier:
We also have a role to play in creating solutions that are innovative and allow people to access clean water and good sanitation. In the past, our customers were interested in specific products, but today and in the future, it is all about creating complete solutions. Aliaxis is going to accelerate on the innovation front, both on core business and beyond. I’m very excited about our newly created division, Aliaxis Next. I completely share Eric’s determination to find disruptive businesses and activities in adjacent areas. Aliaxis Next will support us in harnessing next generation technologies to power us into our future.
Thierry:
In fact, if Aliaxis doesn’t bring innovation to tackle important challenges facing society, I’m not sure who will. Overall, there’s an important correlation in industrial companies between financial performance, quality, customer satisfaction, safety, health and the environment. You can’t be a world-class company if you are mediocre on any of these issues. We are financially strong, we have real relevance in the market, and we can make a huge impact on the world, and, we want to, so now we can really drive the company forward. The image I like to use is this: Aliaxis is like an uncut diamond and there are many people rolling up their sleeves to cut and polish it to become a really high-gloss, highly prized precious stone.
Helping tackle some of
society’s greatest challenges
“Our main challenge is net zero carbon. But we also have to take into consideration the water management, the waste management…”
Sibylle Daunis,
CEO of PUM
(Saint-Gobain Building Distribution Company)
“We envision a day when everybody has access to clean water and sanitation and we envision that in our lifetime.”
“Global challenges such as population growth, climate change and water scarcity offer huge opportunities for innovation.”
Fredrik Östbye,
Head of Aliaxis Next
We provide communities around the world with sustainable innovative solutions for building, infrastructure, industrial, and agricultural applications, leading the industry in a way that anticipates the rapidly evolving needs of our customers and of society.
With a global workforce of 14,000+ employees, Aliaxis offers specific solutions that meet the customers’ most demanding needs across the globe.
Aliaxis is active through leading local brands in 40+ countries, combining local solutions with global innovation and operational excellence.
The company is privately owned, with its global headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Global
Industry leader
€3.7bn
Revenue
€674m
CEBITDA
18.3%
CEBITDA margin
