REG - Intertek Group Plc - Trading Statement

IntertekAnnouncement

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RNS Number : 6820J  Intertek Group PLC  22 May 2025

TRADING STATEMENT

22 May 2025

 

Good start to the year and well positioned to deliver a robust performance in
2025

 

•    Jan-April revenue of £1,093.9m, growth of 4.6% at constant currency
and 1.2% at actual rates, reflecting FX movements

•    4.5% LFL revenue growth at constant currency with strong LFL
performance in our higher margin divisions: 7.8% in Consumer Products, 8.9% in
Corporate Assurance, 3.5% in Health and Safety, 2.7% in Industry and
Infrastructure; stable LFL in the World of Energy

•    Robust margin progression driven by divisional mix, good operating
leverage and productivity improvements

•    Continuous daily cash management discipline delivering strong free
cash flow

•    Organic and inorganic investments in attractive growth and margin
sectors performing well

•    £350m share buyback programme started in March progressing well
with £75.3m already repurchased (1.6m shares)

•    Strong returns driving good year on year progression on ROIC

•    Robust performance expected in 2025 in line with our expectations,
reconfirming mid-single digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency, margin
progression and strong cash generation

 

André Lacroix: Chief Executive Officer statement

 

"We have had a good start to the year, with strong LFL revenue growth in our
higher margin divisions. At the Group level we delivered LFL revenue growth of
4.5% at constant currency, driven by a strong performance across all business
lines within Consumer Products, robust demand for Risk-based Assurance
solutions in Corporate Assurance, continuing good demand for our ATIC
solutions within Health and Safety and Industry and Infrastructure while the
World of Energy division delivered a stable performance. Margin progression
was robust, reflecting divisional mix, pricing initiatives, operating leverage
and productivity improvements. Free cash flow was strong which, combined with
our strong balance sheet, enabled us to invest in growth and commence our
£350m share buyback programme in March.

 

Our role in society is mission-critical, providing a unique suite of
industry-leading ATIC solutions to over 400,000 clients across every industry
and region in each of our five divisions, and all our global business lines
enjoy scale leadership positions at both the local and global level. At this
time of global trade and supply chain changes, our clients around the world
are in need of consulting, training and systemic ATIC solutions on global
market access, enabling them to bring their products to market at speed but
without compromising on the right Quality Assurance, Safety and Sustainability
standards.

 

We are uniquely positioned to help companies navigate the current environment,
capitalising on our data-driven insights and technical expertise in each of
the industries we operate in. Intertek is a true pioneer in the Total Quality
Assurance market, always anticipating the needs of clients and bringing to
market industry-leading innovations with agility and pace to accelerate
growth. A great example of our pioneering approach is SupplyTek
(https://www.intertek.com/news/2025/intertek-launches-supplytek/) , which
empowers our clients to confidently navigate today's fast changing global
environment, turning uncertainty into opportunity. It is at times like this
where our purpose comes to life and our passion for Science-based excellence
makes a huge difference for our clients.

 

Our clients are increasing their focus on Risk-based Quality Assurance to
operate with higher standards on quality, safety and sustainability in each
part of their value chain, triggering higher demand for our ATIC solutions. We
believe the current environment creates additional growth opportunities for
Intertek with new global trade routes to assure, more products to test and
certify, and more factories to audit and inspect. Capitalising on a good start
to the year, we continue to expect to deliver a robust performance in 2025
with mid-single digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency, margin
progression and strong free cash flow.

 

The value growth opportunity for all Intertek stakeholders moving forward is
significant. Our industry has always benefitted from attractive growth
drivers, and now more than ever everyone wants to build an ever-better world
which means that corporations will invest more in quality, safety and
sustainability, accelerating the demand for our industry-leading ATIC
solutions. All of us at Intertek are focused on executing our AAA growth
strategy and delivering our corporate targets consistently every year of
mid-single digit LFL revenue growth, margin progression targeting 18.5%+ over
time, strong cash generation, and disciplined investments in organic and
inorganic growth to deliver a superior ROIC."

 

 Revenue Performance
              4 months - January to April
              2025     2024     Change at      Change at

              £m       £m       actual rates   constant currency
 Group
 Revenue      1,093.9  1,080.8  1.2%           4.6%
 LFL revenue  1,092.1  1,079.7  1.1%           4.5%
 Consumer Products
 Revenue      310.0    298.7    3.8%           7.3%
 LFL revenue  310.0    297.6    4.2%           7.8%
 Corporate Assurance
 Revenue      161.8    153.7    5.3%           8.9%
 LFL Revenue  161.8    153.7    5.3%           8.9%
 Health and Safety
 Revenue      106.7    108.1    (1.3%)         3.5%
 LFL revenue  106.7    108.1    (1.3%)         3.5%
 Industry and Infrastructure
 Revenue      275.3    274.2    0.4%           3.4%
 LFL revenue  273.5    274.2    (0.3%)         2.7%
 World of Energy
 Revenue      240.1    246.1    (2.4%)         0.3%
 LFL revenue  240.1    246.1    (2.4%)         0.3%

 

Contacts

For further information, please contact:

 

Denis Moreau, Investor Relations

Telephone:        +44 (0) 20 7396 3415
investor@intertek.com (mailto:investor@intertek.com)

 

Jonathon Brill/James Styles, DGA Group

Telephone:        +44 (0) 7836 622 683       intertek@dgagroup.com
(mailto:intertek@dgagroup.com)

 

Analysts' Call

A call for analysts and investors will be held today at 9.30am UK time.
Details can be found at http://www.intertek.com/investors/
(http://www.intertek.com/investors/)

 

 Intertek is a leading Total Quality Assurance provider to industries
 worldwide.

 Our network of more than 1,000 laboratories and offices in more than 100
 countries delivers innovative and bespoke Assurance, Testing, Inspection and
 Certification solutions for our customers' operations and supply chains.

 Intertek is a purpose-led company to Bring Quality, Safety and Sustainability
 to Life. We provide 24/7 mission critical quality assurance solutions to our
 clients to ensure that they can operate with well-functioning supply chains in
 each of their operations.

 Our Customer Promise is: Intertek Total Quality Assurance expertise, delivered
 consistently, with precision, pace and passion, enabling our customers to
 power ahead safely.

 intertek.com

 

 

Consumer Products Division

 

In the four-month period to the end of April 2025, our Consumer
Products-related business delivered LFL revenue of £310.0m up year-on-year by
7.8% at constant currency.

 

•      Our Softlines business delivered double-digit LFL revenue growth
benefitting from additional ATIC investments by our clients in e-commerce and
sustainability, as well as an increased focus on new products.

•      Hardlines reported mid-single digit LFL revenue growth, driven
by ATIC investments from our clients in e-commerce and sustainability, as well
as new product development in both the toy and furniture segments.

•      With increased ATIC activities driven by higher regulatory
standards in energy efficiency, more demand for medical devices and 5G
investments, our Electrical & Connected World business delivered
mid-single digit LFL revenue growth.

•      Our Government & Trade Services business, which provides
certification services to governments in the Middle East and Africa to
facilitate the import of goods in their markets based on acceptable quality
and safety standards, reported high-single digit LFL revenue growth.

 

2025 outlook

We continue to expect our Consumer Products division to deliver mid-single
digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Medium- to long-term growth outlook

Our Consumer Products division will benefit from growth in new brands, SKUs
& e-commerce, increased regulation, a greater focus on sustainability and
technology, as well as a growing middle class. Our mid to long-term guidance
for Consumer Products is low to mid-single digit LFL revenue growth at
constant currency.

 

Corporate Assurance Division

 

In the four-month period to the end of April 2025, our Corporate
Assurance-related business delivered LFL revenue of £161.8m, 8.9% higher
year-on-year at constant currency.

 

•      Business Assurance reported double-digit LFL revenue growth
driven by increased client investments to improve the resilience of their
supply chains, the continuing corporate focus on ethical supply and the
greater need for sustainability assurance.

•      The Assuris business reported low-single digit LFL revenue
growth as we continue to benefit from improved demand for our regulatory
assurance solutions and from increased corporate investment in ESG.

 

2025 growth outlook

We continue to expect our Corporate Assurance division to deliver high-single
digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Medium- to long-term growth outlook

Our Corporate Assurance division will benefit from a greater corporate focus
on sustainability, the need for increased supply chain resilience, enterprise
cyber-security, People Assurance services and regulatory assurance. Our mid to
long-term guidance for Corporate Assurance is high-single digit to
double-digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Health and Safety Division

 

In the four-month period to the end of April 2025, our Health and
Safety-related business reported LFL revenue of £106.7m, an increase of 3.5%
at constant currency.

 

•      AgriWorld provides inspection activities to ensure that the
global food supply chain operates fully and safely. The business reported
mid-single digit LFL revenue growth as we continue to see more demand for
inspection activities driven by sustained growth in the global food industry.

•      Our Food business registered double-digit LFL revenue growth as
we continue to benefit from increased demand for food safety testing
activities as well as hygiene and safety audits in factories.

•      Chemicals & Pharma reported negative low-single digit LFL
revenue performance due to a demanding comparative base in the previous year.
The business continues to benefit from the increased demand for regulatory
assurance and chemical testing and higher R&D investment in the
pharmaceutical industry.

 

2025 growth outlook

We continue to expect our Health and Safety division to deliver mid-single
digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Medium- to long-term growth outlook

Our Health and Safety division will benefit from the demand for healthier and
more sustainable food, to support a growing global population, increased
regulation, and new R&D investments in the pharmaceutical industry. Our
mid to long-term guidance for our Health and Safety division is mid to
high-single digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Industry and Infrastructure Division

 

In the four-month period to the end of April 2025, our Industry and
Infrastructure-related business grew LFL revenue by 2.7% at constant currency
to £273.5m.

 

•      Industry Services, which includes our Capex Inspection services
and Opex Maintenance services, delivered mid-single digit revenue growth
benefitting from increased capex investment in traditional Oil and Gas
exploration and production as well as in renewables.

•      The continuing high demand for testing and inspection activities
drove mid-single digit LFL revenue growth in our Minerals business.

•      We continue to benefit from growing demand for more
environmentally friendly buildings and the increased number of infrastructure
projects in our Building & Construction business in North America, which
delivered stable LFL revenue performance.

 

2025 growth outlook

We continue to expect our Industry and Infrastructure division to deliver a
mid-single digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Medium- to long-term growth outlook

Our Industry and Infrastructure division will benefit from increased
investment from energy companies to meet growing demand and consumption of
energy from the growing global population, the scaling up of renewables,
increased R&D investments that OEMs are making in EV/hybrid vehicles and
from the development of greener fuels. We expect mid to high-single digit LFL
revenue growth in the medium-term at constant currency.

 

World of Energy Division

 

In the four-month period to the end of April 2025, our World of Energy-related
business reported stable LFL revenue of £240.1m.

 

•      Caleb Brett, the global leader in the Crude Oil and Refined
products global trading markets, saw negative low-single digit LFL revenue
performance due to a slow-down in trading activities from our clients in North
America and a demanding comparative base in the previous year.

•      Transportation Technologies reported low-single digit LFL
revenue growth driven by increased investment in new powertrains to lower
CO2/NOx emissions and in traditional combustion engines to improve fuel
efficiency.

•      Our CEA business continued to benefit from the increased
investments in solar panels, the fastest growing form of renewable energy, but
delivered negative low-single digit LFL revenue growth due to a demanding
comparative base in the previous year.

 

2025 growth outlook

Based on the first four months of the year, we now expect our World of Energy
division to deliver low-single digit LFL revenue growth at constant currency.

 

Medium- to long-term growth outlook

Our World of Energy division will benefit from increased investment by energy
companies to meet growing demand and consumption of energy from the growing
global population, the scaling up of renewables, increased R&D investments
that OEMs are making in EV/hybrid vehicles and from the development of greener
fuels. Our mid to long-term LFL guidance at constant currency for the World of
Energy division is low to mid-single digit.

 

Innovation & Investment

 

True to our pioneering spirit, we continue to lead the industry and innovate
to meet the emerging needs of our customers with winning ATIC solutions.

 

We are constantly learning from our customers, using extensive feedback they
provide us with every month through our comprehensive NPS research programme
to help deliver ever better solutions for their evolving requirements.

 

We believe that successful innovation starts with investing in the insight
advantage, which means having a deep understanding of what our customers need
and want. With the ability to access world-class customer intelligence
site-by-site from anywhere across our global network, we have a continuous
stream of data that enables us to build on our insights and develop new ATIC
solutions.

 

Our clients have also realised that they need to invest more in product and
service innovation to meet the changing needs of their customers.

 

The other major area of investment inside corporations is sustainability and
we are seeing positive momentum with new and emerging regulations. This means
companies will have to re-invent the way they manage their sustainability
agenda with greater emphasis on independently verified non-financial
disclosures. This is excellent news for our industry-leading Total
Sustainability Assurance solutions.

 

During the period, we launched SupplyTek, the first end-to-end global market
access suite of solutions capitalising on Intertek's leading-edge Consulting,
Training and Assurance solutions to provide companies with the latest
intelligence to formulate compelling strategies, based on the right quality
assurance solutions, to minimise the impact of re-engineering their sourcing
operations to adapt to a changing global trading landscape.

 

We also launched a comprehensive suite of solutions to help companies comply
with the new EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) that affects the import and
export of seven key commodities - wood, rubber, cocoa, coffee, cattle, soy,
and palm oil - within the European market.

 

We are seeing significant growth in the number of companies globally given the
lower barriers to entry for any brand with e-commerce capabilities. The lack
of Quality Assurance expertise of these young companies is excellent news for
our Global Market Access solutions. Our decentralised Customer 1st
organisation has a strong track record of winning new clients. During the
period we opened a regional headquarters in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. This new hub will play a key role in supporting Intertek's expanding
portfolio of services and solidifying its commitment to customers in the
region, as well as highlighting Intertek's role in achieving the goals of
Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.

 

In addition, we are investing organically in the business. We have expanded
our Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) pharmaceutical services laboratory near
Cambridge to enhance Intertek's capabilities for inhaled biologics, and opened
a state-of-the-art Caleb Brett laboratory in Bordeaux to deliver high-quality,
innovative fuel testing and analysis services to the French energy and
hydrocarbons industry. In April, we announced a UK Centre of Excellence to
create market-leading consumer goods testing and assurance hub for UK brands,
retailers and manufacturers.

 

Sustainability

 

Sustainability is the movement of our time and is central to everything we do
at Intertek, anchored in our Purpose, our Vision, our Values and our Strategy.

 

Sustainability is important to all stakeholders in society who are
consistently demanding faster progress and greater transparency in
sustainability reporting. Companies therefore continuously need to upgrade and
reinvent how they manage their sustainability agenda, particularly regarding
how they disclose their non-financial performance.

 

This is why, under our global Total Sustainability Assurance (TSA) programme,
we provide our clients with proven independent, systemic and end-to-end
assurance on all aspects of their sustainability strategies, activities and
operations.

 

The TSA programme comprises three elements:

• Intertek Operational Sustainability Solutions

• Intertek ESG Assurance

• Intertek Corporate Sustainability Certification

 

For Intertek's Sustainability Excellence programme, we focus on the 10 highly
demanding TSA sustainability standards which are truly end-to-end and
systemic.

 

Intertek is committed to:

• Reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from the 2019
base year;

• Reducing absolute scope 3 GHG emissions from business travel and employee
commuting by 50% within the same timeframe;

• Ensuring 70% of its suppliers by spend will have science-based targets by
2027.

 

In 2024, we made progress in several areas:

 

•      Levels of Hazard Observations increased for the fifth
consecutive year, reflecting greater levels of activity across our sites as
well as greater awareness and reporting of health and safety overall.

•      Since 2015, we have used the Net Promoter Score ('NPS') process
to listen to our customers, enabling us to improve our customer service over
the years consistently. In 2024, we conducted on average 6,036 NPS interviews
per month.

•      We are driving environmental performance across our operations
through science-based reduction targets to 2030. By optimising energy use in
our offices and laboratories and transitioning to cleaner energy sources, we
reduced our operational market-based emissions by 16.7% against 2023 and 47.2%
against our base year 2019.

•      In 2024 we conducted a preliminary Double Materiality
Assessment, to help us meet upcoming regulations.

•      We recognise the importance of employee engagement in driving
sustainable performance for all stakeholders, and we measure employee
engagement against our Intertek ATIC Engagement Index. In 2024, we achieved a
new high score of 91 (2023: 87).

•      Our voluntary permanent employee turnover improved to a
five-year low rate of 11.2% in 2024 (2023: 12.3%).

 

We will continue to lead by example by pursuing our Sustainability Excellence
agenda, energising deeply and genuinely all stakeholders: our people, our
customers, our regulators, our suppliers, our communities and our
shareholders.

 

Read more about Intertek's Sustainability Excellence programme and progress in
our 2024 Sustainability Report
(https://www.intertek.com/about/our-responsibility/) .

 

M&A

 

We are investing inorganically to seize the attractive growth opportunities in
the global Quality Assurance market and to strengthen our ATIC portfolio in
high-margin, high-growth areas.

 

We have made recently four bolt-on acquisitions that are performing well:

 

-      April 2023: the acquisition of Controle Analitico
(https://www.intertek.com/news/2023/04-03-intertek-to-acquire-controle-analitico/)
, a leading provider of environmental analysis, with a focus on water testing,
based in Brazil to expand our footprint of leading Food and Agri TQA
solutions.

 

-      August 2023: the acquisition of US-based PlayerLync
(https://www.intertek.com/news/2023/08-24-intertek-acquires-playerlync/) , a
leading provider of high-quality mobile-first training and learning content to
front-line workforces to further enhance our differentiated TQA proposition
and customer excellence advantage in what is a fast-evolving landscape.

 

-      March 2024: the acquisition of Base Metallurgical Laboratories.com
(https://www.intertek.com/news/2024/intertek-to-acquire-base-met-labs/) , a
leading provider of metallurgical testing services for the Minerals sector
based in North America to establish a Minerals testing footprint for
Intertek on the American continent.

 

-      May 2025: the acquisition of Tecnologia e Qualidade de Sistemas em
Engenharia Ltda
(https://www.intertek.com/news/2025/intertek-expands-into-brazils-attractive-building--construction-industry-with-acquisition-of-leading-building-products-testing-company/)
(TESIS), a provider of high-quality testing and conformity assessment services
across a broad range of building products in São Paulo, Brazil. The
acquisition expands our leading Building & Construction Total Quality
Assurance business into Brazil's construction industry, while also
complementing Intertek's existing building products testing and assurance
business in North America, opening up an attractive high growth, high margin
sector for our cutting-edge ATIC solutions.

 

Outlook 2025

 

Our clients are increasing their focus on Risk-based Quality Assurance to
operate with higher standards on quality, safety and sustainability in each
part of their value chain, triggering a higher demand for our ATIC solutions.
We believe the outcome of the tariff discussions will create additional
growth opportunities for Intertek with new global trade routes to assure, more
products to test and certify, and more factories to audit and
inspect. Capitalising on a good start to the year, we continue to expect to
deliver a robust performance in 2025 with mid-single digit LFL revenue growth
at constant currency, margin progression and strong free cash flow.

 

Our mid-single digit LFL revenue growth at constant rates will be driven by:

•      Mid-single digit LFL revenue growth in Consumer Products

•      High-single digit LFL revenue growth in Corporate Assurance

•      Mid-single digit LFL revenue growth in Health and Safety

•      Mid-single digit LFL revenue growth in Industry and
Infrastructure

•      Low-single digit LFL revenue growth in the World of Energy

 

Our financial guidance for 2025 is that we expect:

•      Capital expenditure in the range of £135-145m

•      Net finance costs in the £42-44m range (pre-buyback and prior
to any material movements due to FX or M&A)

•      Effective tax rate in the 25-26% range

•      Minority interests of between £23-24m

•      Targeted dividend payout ratio of circa 65%

•      FY25 net financial debt to be in the range of £470-520m
(guidance pre-buyback and prior to any material movements due to FX or
M&A)

 

Currency has remained volatile, and we are updating our full year guidance.
The average sterling exchange rate in the last four months applied to the full
year results of 2024 would reduce our full year revenue by 250bps and our full
year earnings by 350bps.

 

The value growth opportunity ahead is significant

 

The value growth opportunity ahead for all Intertek stakeholders moving
forward is significant.

 

Our industry has always benefitted from attractive growth drivers, and now
more than ever everyone wants to build an ever better world which means that
corporations will invest more in quality, safety and sustainability,
accelerating the demand for our industry-leading ATIC solutions.

 

We believe that the outcome of the current discussions on tariffs will create
additional growth opportunities for Intertek, as these will create new global
trade routes to assure, more products to test and certify and more factories
to audit and inspect. This is why we have introduced SupplyTek, a suite of
Consulting, Training and Assurance solutions, to support our clients' making
changes to their sourcing strategies and help them to go to market fast with
total peace of mind.

 

All of us at Intertek are focused on executing our AAA growth strategy and
delivering our corporate targets consistently every year of mid-single digit
LFL revenue growth, margin progression targeting 18.5%+ over time, strong cash
generation, and disciplined investments in organic and inorganic growth to
deliver a superior ROIC.

 

 

Ends

 

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