Rentokil Initial PLC (RTO) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all for joining us today. In a few moments, Stuart is going to provide you with details of our overall performance in 2023 and our technical guidance for 2024. I'll then come back to provide a very brief update on each of our categories before we focus today on North America. Here, I'll start by taking you through our organic growth model and our analysis of what happened in the second half.

早安，女士們，先生們。感謝大家今天加入我們。稍後，Stuart 將向您詳細介紹我們 2023 年的整體表現以及 2024 年的技術指導。在這裡，我將首先向您介紹我們的自然成長模型以及我們對下半年發生的情況的分析。

Brad Paulsen, our recently appointed CEO for North America, I'm delighted, joins us here in person. We'll then go through our right way to growth plan. I'll then wrap up with a brief update on the excellent progress that we're making towards integration, and then we'll take questions.

我很高興我們最近任命的北美執行長布拉德·保爾森親自加入我們的行列。然後我們將製定正確的成長計劃。最後，我將簡要介紹我們在整合方面取得的出色進展，然後我們將回答問題。

So to set the scene, let me just say a few words by covering the highlights for the year. In 2023, we delivered a good overall group performance with revenue increasing by 45.8% to GBP 5.4 billion, of which organic growth was 4.9%. Adjusted operating profits grew by 57% to GBP 897 million. And we delivered a group margin of 16.6%, which was an increase of 120 basis points. Adjusted EBITDA for the year was GBP 1.2 billion. Our bolt-on M&A continued to create value with 41 deals, delivering annualized revenues in the year before acquisition of around GBP 106 million.

那麼，為了介紹這一年的亮點，我簡單說幾句。 2023年，我們集團整體表現良好，營收成長45.8%，達到54億英鎊，其中有機成長4.9%。調整後營業利潤成長 57%，達到 8.97 億英鎊。我們的集團利潤率為 16.6%，成長了 120 個基點。本年度調整後 EBITDA 為 12 億英鎊。我們的補強併購繼續透過 41 筆交易創造價值，收購前一年的年化收入約為 1.06 億英鎊。

Our cash conversion was at the higher end of our 80% to 90% target at 89%, and we reached a 2.8x net debt-to-EBITDA ratio 1 year ahead of our plan. So a good overall group performance. As you can see, we continue to make very good progress against the vast majority of our targets. And even in the case of organic growth, where we experienced a more challenging second in North America. We nonetheless delivered organic growth of 4.9% against our medium-term target of 5% plus.

我們的現金轉換率達到了 80% 至 90% 目標的上限（89%），並且我們比計劃提前 1 年達到了 2.8 倍的淨債務與 EBITDA 比率。 因此，團體整體表現良好。正如您所看到的，我們在實現絕大多數目標方面繼續取得了良好進展。即使在有機成長的情況下，我們在北美也經歷了更具挑戰性的第二階段。儘管如此，我們還是實現了 4.9% 的有機成長，而中期目標是 5% 以上。

The group is performing very well overall, and we've got a plan in place to reinvigorate growth in North America. Now as I just mentioned, our second half organic revenue performance in North America was below our expectations at 2% and at 3.5% for the full year. At the heart of this was a reduction in inbound sales leads contributed to by a range of factors, including the performance of our own digital marketing channels, the impact of our ongoing integration activities, increasing spend by a number of competitors and a softer consumer market.

該集團整體表現非常好，我們已經制定了重振北美成長的計劃。正如我剛才提到的，我們下半年在北美的有機收入表現低於我們的預期，分別為 2% 和全年 3.5%。其核心是入站銷售線索的減少，這是由一系列因素造成的，包括我們自己的數位行銷管道的表現、我們正在進行的整合活動的影響、許多競爭對手的支出增加以及消費者市場疲軟。

And I'll come on to explain this in greater detail shortly. Having analyzed our organic growth performance in the second half, we've created a detailed plan, and we've put in place a very talented and experienced sales and marketing leadership team ahead of this year's pest season. We're calling this RIGHT WAY 2 growth plan, and it aims to enhance our performance across all aspects of organic growth in North America from both new and existing customers and in particular, to increase our inbound lead flow.

我很快就會更詳細地解釋這一點。在分析了下半年的有機成長表現後，我們制定了詳細的計劃，並在今年的蟲害季節之前組建了一支非常有才華且經驗豐富的銷售和行銷領導團隊。我們將此稱為「RIGHT WAY 2」成長計劃，旨在提高我們在北美新客戶和現有客戶的有機成長各個方面的績效，特別是增加我們的入站潛在客戶流量。

We're investing for growth with around $25 million being put to work to support our growth ambitions with investments into the team, into sales leads from technicians and into our digital channels. And this also includes our first advertising campaign to exploit Terminix' position as the most recognized pest control brand in the United States.

我們正在投資約 2500 萬美元來促進成長，透過對團隊、技術人員的銷售線索和數位管道的投資來支持我們的成長雄心。這也包括我們首次利用 Terminix 作為美國最受認可的害蟲控製品牌的地位開展廣告活動。

Whilst we've got a very clear action plan, and we're beginning to execute that now, it will take some time to get the business to the levels of organic growth that we expect. And as such, we're expecting organic growth in North America to be between 2% and 4% in 2024 with around 2% expected in the first quarter.

雖然我們已經制定了非常明確的行動計劃，並且現在就開始執行，但要讓業務達到我們預期的有機成長水平還需要一些時間。因此，我們預計 2024 年北美的有機成長將在 2% 至 4% 之間，其中第一季預計為 2% 左右。

Touching very briefly on the excellent progress we're making on the integration, we've now completed Phase 1, and we've exceeded our 2023 synergy target by $9 million. Our branch co-locations are going very well with around 100 fewer branch properties and with a further 75 also to be exited this year.

簡單介紹一下我們在整合方面取得的出色進展，我們現已完成第一階段，並且已超出 2023 年協同目標 900 萬美元。我們的分行託管營運進展順利，今年減少了約 100 家分行，並且也將退出 75 家分行。

And we've announced today that we're increasing our gross synergy target by $50 million to around $325 million. We're investing $25 million of that into sales and marketing, which results in our total net synergy target increasing from $200 million to around $225 million. We are also extending the branch integration phase into 2026 to derisk the program and to deliver these greater synergies.

今天我們宣布將總協同目標提高 5,000 萬美元，達到 3.25 億美元左右。我們將其中 2,500 萬美元投資於銷售和行銷，這使得我們的總淨協同目標從 2 億美元增加到約 2.25 億美元。我們還將分公司整合階段延長至 2026 年，以消除該計劃的風險並實現更大的協同效應。

As a reminder, our original plan was to deliver net cost synergies of $150 million by the end of 2025 and our latest plan takes us to $187 million by that point and then on to the $225 million by the end of '26. So a good overall performance, a plan in place to reinvigorate organic growth in North America and an increase in our gross synergy target of $50 million.

提醒一下，我們最初的計劃是到 2025 年底實現 1.5 億美元的淨成本協同效應，而我們的最新計劃到那時將達到 1.87 億美元，然後到 26 年底達到 2.25 億美元。因此，整體業績良好，制定了重振北美有機成長的計劃，並將我們的總協同目標提高到 5,000 萬美元。

So with that, let me hand over to Stu.

那麼，就讓我把任務交給斯圖吧。

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, everyone. I'll run through the financial highlights of what has been another good year. I'll start with the group level numbers. And then as usual, I'll move through the regions and then look at cash and the balance sheet. Unless I state to the contrary, all numbers are at constant rates of exchange. .

謝謝你，安迪，大家早安。我將回顧一下又一個豐收年的財務亮點。我將從團體層級的數字開始。然後像往常一樣，我將瀏覽各個地區，然後查看現金和資產負債表。除非我另有說明，否則所有數字均以固定匯率計算。 。

The business delivered a good top line performance in the year. Revenue was up 45.8% to GBP 5.4 billion. Organic revenue was up 4.9%, supported by performances in Europe, Asia Pacific and the U.K. and LatAm. This translates to an adjusted operating profit of GBP 897 million, a year-on-year increase of 57%. Free cash flow in the year of GBP 500 million, up 34% on 2023, flows from the good profit performance.

該業務今年取得了良好的營收業績。營收成長 45.8%，達到 54 億英鎊。在歐洲、亞太地區以及英國和拉丁美洲績效的支撐下，有機收入成長了 4.9%。這意味著調整後營業利潤為8.97億英鎊，年增57%。當年自由現金流達 5 億英鎊，較 2023 年成長 34%，源自良好的獲利表現。

This represents about 89.4% adjusted free cash flow conversion. It's inclusive of legacy termite warranty claims, but excludes the impact of one-off cash flows mostly related to the Terminix transaction. These factors, combined with the continued success of our bolt-on M&A program and the dividend payment, resulted in a net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio at year-end of 2.8x., achieving our target below 3x, one year ahead of our initial guidance.

這代表調整後自由現金流轉換率約為 89.4%。它包括傳統的白蟻保固索賠，但不包括主要與 Terminix 交易相關的一次性現金流的影響。這些因素，加上我們的補充併購計劃和股息支付的持續成功，導致年底的淨債務與調整後 EBITDA 比率達到 2.8 倍，實現了低於 3 倍的目標，比我們最初的目標提前了一年指導。

Excluding one-offs, we achieved just under 2.6x, so only just in excess of our medium-term target of 2 to 2.5x. AER diluted EPS -- diluted adjusted EPS was up 8.8% to 23.08p. But at CER, diluted adjusted EPS was actually up 12.9%. Based on a good full year performance, the dividend -- the Board has recommended a final dividend for the year of 5.93p per share to bring the total dividend for 2023 to 8.68p per share, a 15% rise year-on-year and in line with our progressive dividend policy.

排除一次性因素，我們實現了略低於 2.6 倍的目標，因此僅略高於我們 2 至 2.5 倍的中期目標。 AER 稀釋後每股盈餘－稀釋後調整後每股盈餘成長 8.8%，至 23.08 便士。但以固定匯率計算，攤薄調整後每股盈餘實際上成長了 12.9%。基於良好的全年業績表現，董事會建議派發年度末期股息每股 5.93 便士，使 2023 年股息總額達到每股 8.68 便士，同比增長 15%，符合我們的漸進式股息政策。

So looking now at our performance by region, starting with North America. Our North American business grew revenues by 79.2% in the year, of which 3.1% was organic. This was achieved alongside significant progress in the Terminix integration. Organic revenue growth in pest control was 3.1% and 3.5% for pest control services for our commercial, residential and termite customers.

現在看看我們按地區劃分的表現，首先是北美。我們的北美業務今年營收成長了 79.2%，其中 3.1% 是有機收入。這是與 Terminix 整合取得重大進展的同時實現的。為我們的商業、住宅和白蟻客戶提供害蟲防治服務的害蟲防治有機收入成長了 3.1% 和 3.5%。

This result was below our expectations, largely owing to lower new business lead generation in H2. As anticipated, the weaker Q3 2023 growth, performance continued into the low season of Q4 at 1.2% for pest services; however, Q1 2024 is expected to be at about 2%.

這結果低於我們的預期，主要是由於下半年新業務潛在客戶的產生量較低。正如預期的那樣，2023 年第三季成長疲軟，害蟲服務的表現持續到第四季淡季，成長率為 1.2%；然而，2024 年第一季預計約為 2%。

We expect full year organic revenue growth in North America to be in the range of 2% to 4%. We've put in a planned RIGHT WAY 2 to reinvigorate organic growth in North America, and Andy and Brad will take you through this later in the presentation. Adjusted operating profit in North America was up 95.9% to GBP 618 million, reflecting the combined impact of higher revenues and the Terminix acquisition.

我們預計北美全年有機收入成長將在 2% 至 4% 之間。我們已經制定了計劃中的“正確之路 2”，以重振北美的有機增長，安迪和布拉德將在稍後的演示中向您介紹這一點。北美地區調整後營業利潤成長 95.9%，達到 6.18 億英鎊，反映了營收成長和收購 Terminix 的綜合影響。

Strong price realization continued to successfully offset expected inflationary pressures. Adjusted operating margins were up 160 basis points year-on-year to 18.7%. We've continued to make good progress in colleague retention in the region. Total retention, including Terminix was up by more than 5 percentage points.

強勁的價格實現繼續成功抵消了預期的通膨壓力。調整後營業利益率年增 160 個基點至 18.7%。我們在該地區的同事保留方面繼續取得良好進展。 包括 Terminix 在內的總保留率上升了 5 個百分點以上。

Total customer retention in North America increased slightly to 79.5%. Despite the attention given to the Terminix transaction, we've had another good year for bolt-on M&A in North America, acquiring 13 businesses with combined annualized revenues of around GBP 46 million in the year prior to purchase.

北美地區的總客戶保留率略有上升，達到 79.5%。儘管Terminix交易受到關注，但我們在北美的補強併購又迎來了一個好年頭，收購了13家企業，收購前一年的年化總收入約為4600萬英鎊。

The next slide takes a look at the strong progress in North American margins. To look at the underlying margin improvement here, we've used the pro forma baseline in 2022 of 16.3% including the annualized stand-alone Terminix margin of 14.7% we disclosed at 2022 prelims.

下一張幻燈片展示了北美利潤率的強勁進步。為了了解這裡的潛在利潤率改善情況，我們使用了 2022 年 16.3% 的預期基準，包括我們在 2022 年預審中揭露的 14.7% 的年化獨立 Terminix 利潤率。

On this basis, we see that North America margin has increased by 240 basis points in the year. This progress was driven by 2 key factors: Firstly, trading activities, including growth and density improvements contributed about 100 basis points of margin. Secondly, synergies delivered $56 million. That's about GBP 45 million, I think about 140 basis points to margin.

在此基礎上，我們看到今年北美利潤率增加了 240 個基點。這項進展由兩個關鍵因素推動：首先，包括成長和密度改善在內的貿易活動貢獻了約 100 個基點的利潤。其次，綜效帶來了 5,600 萬美元的收益。這大約是 4500 萬英鎊，我認為保證金大約是 140 個基點。

And you can also see that once we exclude the distribution business, adjusted operating margins are already in excess of 20%. We expect modest North American margin progression in 2024 with improvement weighted towards H2, owing to the region's expected organic growth trajectory and additional investment in sales and marketing.

而且你也可以看到，如果我們排除分銷業務，調整後的營業利潤率已經超過20%。我們預計，由於該地區預期的自然成長軌跡以及銷售和行銷方面的額外投資，2024 年北美利潤率將小幅成長，下半年將有所改善。

Turning now to the European region, a really strong performance across the board here, driven by both effective price increases and good demand. Revenue rose by 14.6%, passing GBP 1 billion, a significant milestone. Organic revenue growth was 9.2%. All 3 businesses in Europe posted strong numbers. Pest control revenue is up 21.8%. Hygiene and well-being grew by 5.8%. France Workwear, which continued to exceed pre-COVID performance levels and were supported by new business sales was up 13.2%.

現在轉向歐洲地區，在有效的價格上漲和良好的需求的推動下，這裡的整體表現非常強勁。營收成長 14.6%，突破 10 億英鎊，這是一個重要的里程碑。有機收入成長率為 9.2%。歐洲的所有 3 家企業均公佈了強勁的業績。害蟲防治收入成長 21.8%。衛生和福祉增加了 5.8%。法國工作服繼續超越新冠疫情前的業績水平，並受到新業務銷售額的支撐，增長了 13.2%。

Adjusted operating profit rose by 12.5%. In Europe, as expected, short-term H1 margin pressure reversed in H2. The H1 impact and the hyperinflation in Argentina saw a slight reduction in the adjusted operating margin for the year to 19.5%. While inflationary pressures have persisted throughout the period in Europe and most of LatAm, we've been successful at protecting margins with pass-through pricing.

調整後營業利潤成長 12.5%。 在歐洲，正如預期的那樣，上半年短期利潤率壓力在下半年出現逆轉。受上半年影響和阿根廷的惡性通貨膨脹，全年調整後營業利潤率略為下降至 19.5%。儘管歐洲和拉丁美洲大部分地區的通膨壓力在此期間持續存在，但我們成功地透過轉嫁定價保護了利潤。

Customer retention has remained strong, and the region has delivered some really impressive numbers in colleague retention now over 90%. There was a total of 11 business acquisitions made last year with annualized revenues of around GBP 12 million in the year prior to purchase.

客戶保留率依然強勁，該地區的同事保留率​​目前已超過 90%，令人印象深刻。去年總共進行了 11 起企業收購，收購前一年的年收入約為 1,200 萬英鎊。

Turning to the U.K. and Sub-Saharan Africa. The region delivered good results against a difficult macro backdrop. Revenue was up 7.9%, with organic growth of 3.5%. Within this, pest control was up 8%. Hygiene and well-being increased 7.7% despite lapping COVID boosted comparators in the medical waste business.

轉向英國和撒哈拉以南非洲。該地區在困難的宏觀背景下取得了良好的業績。營收成長 7.9%，有機成長 3.5%。其中，害蟲防治提高了8%。儘管新冠疫情推動了醫療廢棄物產業的比較，但衛生和福祉仍成長了 7.7%。

There was a good contribution from the recently acquired Urban Planters business, which supplies plants to retail properties, offices and restaurants. This was accompanied by an improved performance year-on-year in the U.K. Property Care business despite the property market slowdown.

最近收購的 Urban Planters 業務做出了巨大貢獻，該業務為零售物業、辦公室和餐廳供應植物。儘管房地產市場放緩，但英國房地產護理業務的業績仍較去年同期有所改善。

Regional adjusted operating profit was down slightly by 0.5% to GBP 95 million with a margin reduction to 24.1%. As previously stated, margin performance in the first half of the year was affected by the anticipated reduction in COVID disinfection and related services, such as needle and PPE disposal and the nonrepeat of U.K. COVID credit note releases. However, as expected, these factors mostly fell away in H2.

地區調整後營業利潤小幅下降 0.5%，至 9,500 萬英鎊，利潤率下降至 24.1%。如前所述，上半年的利潤率表現受到了新冠病毒消毒和相關服務（例如針頭和個人防護裝備處理）的預期減少以及英國新冠病毒信用票據不再發放的影響。然而，正如預期的那樣，這些因素在下半年大多消失。

Inflationary pressures have been significant, but the region's long established pricing and margin management controls have delivered a price performance that mitigates these cost increases. These price increases have been delivered alongside an improved customer retention rate. Colleague retention was also up strongly. The region completed 2 business acquisitions in the year with annualized revenues of about GBP 18 million.

通膨壓力很大，但該地區長期建立的定價和利潤管理控制措施所帶來的價格表現減輕了成本的增加。這些價格上漲伴隨著客戶保留率的提高。同事的保留率也大幅上升。該地區全年完成2起業務收購，年收入約1,800萬英鎊。

Looking now at Asia and MENAT, the year saw a good performance led by the region's largest markets, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Markets overall remain structurally supportive and there was a more positive contribution from China. Regional revenues rose by 11.2%, of which 10.2% was organic. Adjusted operating profit in Asia increased by 4% to GBP 47 million, and adjusted operating margin was down 100 basis points to 13.1% affected by the anticipated reduction in COVID disinfection revenues.

現在看看亞洲和 MENAT，這一年在該地區最大的市場印度、印尼、馬來西亞和新加坡的帶動下表現良好。市場整體仍保持結構性支撐，其中中國做出了更積極的貢獻。地區收入成長 11.2%，其中 10.2% 為有機收入。受新冠肺炎消毒收入預期減少的影響，亞洲調整後營業利潤成長 4%，達到 4,700 萬英鎊，調整後營業利潤率下降 100 個基點，至 13.1%。

Customer retention was slightly down in the prior year, while colleague retention was considerably improved. The region acquired 7 businesses with total annualized revenues of around GBP 8 million. And finally, turning to the Pacific region, another strong trading performance here. Regional revenue increased by 15%, of which 6.8% was organic. Pest Control was up 25.2%, with notable strength in commercial services.

與前一年相比，客戶保留率略有下降，而同事保留率​​則大幅提高。該地區收購了 7 家企業，年總收入約 800 萬英鎊。最後，轉向太平洋地區，這裡的交易表現也很強勁。地區收入成長 15%，其中 6.8% 為有機收入。害蟲防治成長25.2%，其中商業服務優勢明顯。

Hygiene & Wellbeing was up 6.4%. We've had continued good demand in the region for Ambius services. Regional adjusted operating profit was up 19.8% with an increase in adjusted operating margin of 90 basis points to 21.7%. The customer retention rate remains strong and colleague retention in the region showed a marked improvement. The region acquired 8 businesses with total annualized revenues of around GBP 22 million.

衛生與健康成長了 6.4%。該地區對 Ambius 服務的需求持續良好。地區調整後營業利潤成長 19.8%，調整後營業利益率成長 90 個基點，達到 21.7%。該地區的客戶保留率依然強勁，同事保留率​​也顯著提高。該地區收購了 8 家企業，年總收入約 2,200 萬英鎊。

So that's a rundown of our regions, which, as you can see, have performed well overall in the year and evidenced the benefit of our group's worldwide presence. The next slide looks at our group margin development through 2023. Overall, group adjusted operating margin increased by 120 basis points. Execution on our strategy, densifying routes and products, M&A, optimizing overheads and leveraging technology as well as active cost management continues to effectively support margin expansion.

這就是我們各地區的概況，正如您所看到的，這些地區在這一年中總體表現良好，並證明了我們集團在全球範圍內的影響力所帶來的好處。下一張投影片著眼於我們到 2023 年的集團利潤率發展。執行我們的策略、強化路線和產品、併購、優化管理費用、利用技術以及積極的成本管理繼續有效支持利潤率擴張。

Our overall trading performance contributed a net 90 basis points. And in the first full year of the Terminix integration, synergy delivery added 100 basis points to group margin. As can be seen from the chart on the right-hand side, that's more than offset the 70 basis point pro forma underlying impact to the inherited lower-margin Terminix business.

我們的整體交易表現淨貢獻了 90 個基點。在 Terminix 整合的第一個完整年度，協同交付使集團利潤率增加了 100 個基點。從右側圖表中可以看出，這遠遠抵消了預計 70 個基點對繼承的低利潤 Terminix 業務的潛在影響。

Across our geographies with the persistence of inflationary cost pressures, most notably wage inflation, but we continue to be very successful and remain focused on our ability to mitigate increases through pricing. In line with the updated integration timetable about which Andy will speak in a moment, the medium-term group margin target of greater than 19% is now expected to be achieved in 2026.

在我們的各個地區，通膨成本壓力持續存在，尤其是薪資通膨，但我們仍然非常成功，並繼續專注於透過定價來緩解成長的能力。根據安迪稍後將談到的更新後的整合時間表，預計將在 2026 年實現超過 19% 的中期集團利潤率目標。

Now looking at our cash performance. Adjusted EBITDA was GBP 1.28 billion, up 43% year-on-year. Noncash one-off and adjusting items represent Terminix-related onetime share incentive schemes and asset impairments. The working capital outflow was largely attributable to growth and the movements in provisions related to termite warranty claims settlements, which were at the expected levels.

現在看看我們的現金表現。調整後 EBITDA 為 12.8 億英鎊，年增 43%。非現金一次性和調整項目代表與Terminix相關的一次性股權激勵計畫和資產減損。營運資本流出主要歸因於與白蟻保固索賠和解相關的準備金的增長和變動，這些準備金處於預期水平。

Net capital expenditure of GBP 197 million was incurred in the period, reflecting growth and the inclusion of Terminix capital expenditure, lease payments were up by 45.2%, reflecting a full year of Terminix. Cash interest payments of GBP 166 million were GBP 127 million higher than the prior year, reflecting the timing of interest charge payments related to the financing of the Terminix transaction with phasing, as described at the interims, and to be repeated each year. The increase in cash tax payments reflects higher profits.

該期間發生的淨資本支出為 1.97 億英鎊，反映了增長，並且包括 Terminix 資本支出，租賃付款增長了 45.2%，反映了 Terminix 全年的情況。現金利息支付為 1.66 億英鎊，比上年增加 1.27 億英鎊，反映了與 Terminix 交易分階段融資相關的利息費用支付時間，如中期所述，並將每年重複。現金稅的增加反映了利潤的增加。

Free cash flow of GBP 500 million was GBP 126 million higher than in full year 2022. This resulted in adjusted free cash flow conversion of 89.4% at the upper range of our guidance. There was a GBP 242 million cash spent on acquisitions in the year. Dividends account for GBP 200 million of cash spend and the GBP 107 million cash impact of one-off and adjusting items largely related to Terminix.

自由現金流為 5 億英鎊，比 2022 年全年高出 1.26 億英鎊。當年用於收購的現金為 2.42 億英鎊。股息佔 2 億英鎊的現金支出以及主要與 Terminix 有關的一次性和調整項目的 1.07 億英鎊現金影響。

Net debt reduced by GBP 133 million to GBP 3.146 billion. This resulted in a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.8x at year-end, achieving our target of below 3x one year ahead of schedule, and that included a marginal benefit from U.S. dollar FX rates at year-end. Note that excluding integration costs to achieve leverage would have been less than 2.6x.

淨債務減少 1.33 億英鎊，至 31.46 億英鎊。這導致年底淨債務與 EBITDA 比率達到 2.8 倍，提前一年實現了我們低於 3 倍的目標，其中包括年底美元匯率的邊際收益。請注意，如果排除實現槓桿的整合成本，該比率將低於 2.6 倍。

Our next debt maturity is a EUR 400 million bond due in November. About 81% of the group's interest costs are fixed, providing good visibility in a volatile rate environment. In July 2023, S&P Global reaffirmed the group's BBB investment grade rating. And in October 2023, the group received a second BBB rating from Fitch.

我們的下一個債務到期日是 11 月到期的 4 億歐元債券。該集團約 81% 的利息成本是固定的，在波動的利率環境中提供了良好的可見性。 2023年7月，標準普爾全球重申了該集團的BBB投資等級評級。 2023年10月，該集團獲得惠譽第二次BBB評等。

Moving to technical guidance. On this slide, we update some technical guidance to help you with your models in relation to the full year. I'll let you read these in your own time, but we'll draw your eyes to a few items. On the P&L, we expect Terminix integration cost to be between $90 million to $100 million. Interest is expected to be in the range of GBP 135 million to GBP 145 million. That's net of a noncash hyperinflation credit of $10 million to $15 million.

轉向技術指導。在這張投影片中，我們更新了一些技術指南，以幫助您處理與全年相關的模型。我會讓您在自己的時間閱讀這些內容，但我們會吸引您注意一些內容。在損益表上，我們預計 Terminix 整合成本將在 9,000 萬至 1 億美元之間。利息預計在 1.35 億英鎊至 1.45 億英鎊之間。這還不包括 1,000 萬至 1,500 萬美元的非現金惡性通貨膨脹信貸。

Our full year FX guidance reflects the strengthening of the pound against the dollar. We anticipate a headwind of between GBP 25 million and GBP 35 million, which appears to be already largely reflected in market consensus forecast. And as shown on the slide, please do not -- do note the impact on 2024 of the planned closure of our Paragon distribution business in North America.

我們的全年外匯指引反映了英鎊兌美元的走強。我們預計阻力將在 2500 萬英鎊至 3500 萬英鎊之間，這似乎已經在很大程度上反映在市場共識預測中。如幻燈片所示，請不要注意計劃關閉北美 Paragon 分銷業務對 2024 年的影響。

As already stated, due to the uplifted expected synergies, we expect to achieve a group margin of greater than 19% in 2026. At this point, I'll hand back to Andy, who will take us through the business category performance.

如前所述，由於預期綜效的提升，我們預計到 2026 年集團利潤率將達到 19% 以上。

Thank you, Stu. I want to give the North America section as much time as possible this morning. So in the interest of time, I'm going to turn the pages on our usual employer of choice and business categories at some pace. But I'm delighted at the excellent progress being made, and I'll be obviously happy to take questions later.

謝謝你，斯圖。今天早上我想給北美部分盡可能多的時間。因此，為了節省時間，我將以一定的速度翻閱我們通常選擇的雇主和業務類別。但我對所取得的巨大進展感到高興，並且我顯然很樂意稍後回答問題。

Our tried and tested operating model continues to perform very well. And if we start with the employer of choice, you can see that colleague retention has improved globally by 4.7% with all regions improving and that equates to around 1,900 more colleagues choosing to stay and therefore, fewer roles needing to be recruited for. North America increased colleague retention by 5% in the year, and that's really great progress, and I'll come back to that later.

我們久經考驗的營運模式持續表現良好。如果我們從選擇的雇主開始，您可以看到全球範圍內的同事保留率​​提高了4.7%，所有地區都在改善，這相當於選擇留下來的同事增加了約1,900 名，因此需要招聘的職位也減少了。今年，北美地區的同事保留率​​提高了 5%，這確實是一個巨大的進步，我稍後會再討論這個問題。

You know how important safety is in our company. And in 2023, we delivered further improvements on our world-class safety standards, and we were again recognized by ROSPA with their prestigious Gold Award for the sixth year running. Customer service levels were high customer satisfaction, which we measure at branch level using the Net Promoter Score is now approaching world-class levels in many parts of the group, including indeed, in Terminix. In ESG, we've made continued good progress on emissions in 2023, and we're again ranked amongst the leaders in our sector, something that's very important to us, as I know it is for all of our stakeholders.

您知道安全在我們公司有多重要。 2023 年，我們進一步提高了世界一流的安全標準，並連續第六年再次獲得 ROSPA 的認可，榮獲其久負盛名的金獎。客戶服務水準是高客戶滿意度，我們使用淨推薦值在分行層級進行衡量，現在集團許多部門（包括 Terminix）已接近世界一流水準。在 ESG 方面，我們在 2023 年的排放方面持續取得了良好進展，我們再次躋身行業領先者之列，這對我們非常重要，我知道這對我們所有的利益相關者也同樣重要。

If I turn now to pest control. The global market remains very healthy with independent market analysts forecasting growth of around 5% to 6% per annum through to 2028 which -- given our global footprint in around 90 countries, we're ideally positioned to exploit. Indeed, our focus here has delivered revenue and profit CAGRs of over 20% since 2015. And last year, our global Pest Control business continued its growth journey to around GBP 4.3 billion of revenue, organic growth of 4.5%, and we delivered margin expansion of 70 basis points.

如果我現在轉向害蟲防治。全球市場仍然非常健康，獨立市場分析師預測，到 2028 年，每年增長約 5% 至 6%，考慮到我們在全球約 90 個國家的業務，我們處於理想的開發位置。事實上，自2015 年以來，我們的重點業務已實現收入和利潤複合年增長率超過20%。 ，並且我們實現了利潤率擴張70個基點。

And for those of you who operate in U.S. dollars, you can see on the chart here, the scale of our global Pest Control business, where we are the #1 in all regions around the world with $5.4 billion of revenue and profits of just over $1 billion. Now as you know, innovation in pest control is very important to our customers. It's a key growth driver.

對於以美元經營的人，您可以在此處的圖表中看到我們全球害蟲防治業務的規模，我們在全球所有地區排名第一，收入為 54 億美元，利潤略高於10 億美元。如您所知，害蟲防治創新對我們的客戶非常重要。這是一個關鍵的成長動力。

So let me just give you a few examples of why Rentokil is the global leader in innovation. We now have over 350,000 Internet of Things, PestConnect units operating in our customers' premises, and that's an increase of around 23% year-on-year.

因此，讓我舉幾個例子來說明為什麼能多潔是全球創新領導者。目前，我們在客戶場所營運超過 35 萬個物聯網、PestConnect 設備，較去年同期成長約 23%。

We're launching EcoCatch, and that's our new proprietary outdoor fly control solution, which in our innovation center test was 60% more effective at catching flies than the current market-leading fly track. And we've got Lumnia. Lumnia is for indoor flying insect control, and we've sold around 445,000 units since its launch in 2017, and we're now developing the next-generation devices using cameras and AI-based technology. These are just 3 examples of our innovations that differentiate Rentokil from the competition. And each of these will start to be rolled out in North America this year.

我們正在推出 EcoCatch，這是我們新的專有戶外蒼蠅控制解決方案，在我們的創新中心測試中，其捕捉蒼蠅的效率比目前市場領先的蒼蠅軌道高 60%。我們還有 Lumnia。 Lumnia 用於室內飛蟲控制，自 2017 年推出以來，我們已售出約 445,000 台，我們現在正在開發使用攝影機和人工智慧技術的下一代設備。這些只是我們讓能多潔在競爭中脫穎而出的創新的 3 個例子。這些產品都將於今年開始在北美推出。

Moving on to Pest Control's sister category of Hygiene & Wellbeing. Here, we operate in a resilient market, which we're expecting to grow by around 4% to 5% through to 2028. Since 2015, this business has delivered revenue and profit CAGRs of 6.5% and 8.1%, respectively. And during the year, the business delivered revenue growth of 7.8% of which 4.8% was organic, profits grew by 4.1% and full year margins were 18.4%.

轉到害蟲控制的姐妹類別“衛生與健康”。在這裡，我們在一個富有彈性的市場中運營，預計到2028 年該市場將增長4% 至5% 左右。 。年內，該業務營收成長 7.8%，其中有機成長 4.8%，利潤成長 4.1%，全年利潤率為 18.4%。

Our core services inside the washroom delivered organic growth of 4.5% last year, and we continued to develop new products, which support the increase in the number of service lines per premise, which increased over the last 12 months from 1.83 to 1.92. Outside of the washroom, we delivered organic growth of 5.3%, with increased focus on well-being services such as air and surface hygiene, scenting and plants.

去年，我們洗手間內的核心服務實現了 4.5% 的有機增長，我們繼續開發新產品，支持每個場所服務線數量的增加，在過去 12 個月中從 1.83 條增加到 1.92 條。在洗手間之外，我們實現了 5.3% 的有機成長，我們更加重視空氣和表面衛生、香味和植物等福祉服務。

Whilst M&A in Hygiene & Wellbeing performed well in 2023 with 7 deals, delivering annualized revenues of GBP 30 million and that's ahead of our medium-term target to deliver annualized revenues from acquisitions of at least GBP 25 million.

2023 年，衛生與健康領域的併購表現良好，共達成 7 筆交易，年化收入達到 3000 萬英鎊，超出了我們透過收購實現年化收入至少 2500 萬英鎊的中期目標。

In France, our workwear business benefited from excellent colleague and customer retention and delivered revenue of 13.2%. Adjusted operating profit grew by 23.6%, and the business delivered margins of 17.5%, which were the highest for at least a decade.

在法國，我們的工作服業務得益於出色的同事和客戶保留率，營收成長了 13.2%。調整後營業利潤成長 23.6%，業務利潤率達到 17.5%，為至少十年來的最高水準。

Turning to our bolt-on M&A program. We delivered 41 deals in '23 with annualized revenues of GBP 106 million, and our M&A program continues to perform well at or above our required hurdle rates. And we've got a good pipeline in place for 2024, and our current view of M&A spend this year is around GBP 250 million. So a good overall performance, and now let's move the focus to North America.

轉向我們的補充併購計劃。我們在 23 年完成了 41 筆交易，年收入為 1.06 億英鎊，而且我們的併購計劃繼續表現良好，達到或高於我們要求的門檻率。我們已經為 2024 年做好了準備，目前我們預計今年的併購支出約為 2.5 億英鎊。整體表現不錯，現在讓我們把焦點轉移到北美。

Clearly, we're disappointed with organic growth delivery in the second half. I'm now going to take a few minutes to explain to you how our organic growth model works, both the elements that underperformed in 2023, but also the elements that performed well. Brad will then take you through the plan to reinvigorate growth in a little bit more detail.

顯然，我們對下半年的自然成長感到失望。我現在將花幾分鐘時間向您解釋我們的有機成長模型是如何運作的，包括 2023 年表現不佳的要素，以及表現良好的要素。然後，布拉德將帶您更詳細地了解重振成長的計畫。

So let me start with the market -- the U.S. pest control market. That's the world's largest pest control market, and it represents around half of global pest control demand. Based on our internal estimates, we believe that the U.S. pest control market grew by around 4% in 2023. And whilst this is around a 1 percentage point reduction against the historical average of around 5%, the current consensus of third-party commentators calls for a return to average growth rates of around the 5% mark in the period to 2028.

讓我從市場開始—美國害蟲防治市場。這是世界上最大的害蟲防治市場，約佔全球害蟲防治需求的一半。根據我們的內部估計，我們認為 2023 年美國害蟲防治市場將成長 4% 左右。平均成長率恢復到5% 左右。

And as we think about future growth in the U.S. pest control market, it is perhaps worth noting that third-party estimates suggest that in residential and termite, the unserved market is nearly 7x that of the current served market.

當我們思考美國害蟲防治市場的未來成長時，也許值得注意的是，第三方估計表明，在住宅和白蟻方面，未提供服務的市場幾乎是目前提供服務的市場的 7 倍。

So this represents a significant potential future growth opportunity to expand the size of the market. So here's our model for organic growth in pest control, and it starts at the top with strong colleague retention and expertise in our frontline techs and in our sales colleagues. You then have sources of organic growth coming from existing customers, and they're running down the left-hand side of the chart there, and sources of organic growth coming from new customers, and they're running down the right of the chart.

因此，這代表了擴大市場規模的重要未來潛在成長機會。這就是我們在害蟲防治方面的有機成長模型，它從高層開始，我們的第一線技術人員和銷售同事擁有強大的同事保留率​​和專業知識。然後，您將擁有來自現有客戶的有機成長來源，它們在圖表的左側運行，以及來自新客戶的有機成長來源，它們在圖表的右側運行。

In short, happy, engaged, well-trained, experienced technicians will deliver a high-quality service to our customers, which then overtime drives up customer retention. Happy customers are accepting of our annual price increases, but they're also willing to purchase additional services from us with our frontline technicians making recommendations to our customers and submitting those as sales leads to then be sold by the sales team. Once the sales team has sold the lead, it's important that the technician gets the work order completed quickly, as an urgent response is often very important to our customers.

簡而言之，快樂、敬業、訓練有素、經驗豐富的技術人員將為我們的客戶提供高品質的服務，從而提高客戶保留率。滿意的客戶接受了我們每年的漲價，但他們也願意從我們這裡購買額外的服務，我們的第一線技術人員會向客戶提出建議，並將這些建議作為銷售線索提交，然後由銷售團隊進行銷售。一旦銷售團隊銷售了潛在客戶，技術人員快速完成工作訂單就很重要，因為緊急回應對我們的客戶來說通常非常重要。

As I'll explain in a moment, revenue from existing customers was not our issue in '23. That said, it's nonetheless clear that we've got an outstanding opportunity to generate improved growth from our very large existing customer base. So what about the right-hand side of the chart, new customers. Growth from new customers was undoubtedly weaker in the second half of last year, primarily because of lower inbound sales leads in residential and termite and in our high street business customers.

正如我稍後將解釋的那樣，來自現有客戶的收入不是我們 23 年的問題。儘管如此，很明顯我們有一個絕佳的機會從我們龐大的現有客戶群中實現更好的成長。那麼圖表右側的新客戶又如何呢？去年下半年，新客戶的成長無疑較弱，這主要是因為住宅和白蟻以及我們的高街商業客戶的入境銷售線索減少。

And why was that? Well, our analysis is that there was not a single major cause, but rather a range of contributing factors collectively impacting on our execution. As I mentioned, growth in the market was down, reflecting the tougher economic environment.

那是為什麼呢？嗯，我們的分析是，沒有單一的主要原因，而是一系列共同影響我們執行的因素。正如我所提到的，市場成長下降，反映出經濟環境更加嚴峻。

The performance of our own digital marketing channels was disappointing at a time when our marketing and sales leadership teams were undergoing considerable change. Whilst our service technician retention showed excellent improvement, our frontline sales colleague retention was flat year-on-year and Terminix, it remains well below where we need it to be.

當我們的行銷和銷售領導團隊經歷重大變革時，我們自己的數位行銷管道的表現令人失望。雖然我們的服務技術人員保留率顯示出極大的改善，但我們的一線銷售同事保留率​​與去年同期持平，Terminix 的保留率仍遠低於我們需要的水平。

At the same time, some of our competitors were increasing their spend in digital channels. And in addition, we were clearly very focused on the integration program, perhaps more than the external market. So we've analyzed each part of that model that I just showed you, and let me put a little bit more meat on the bones before I hand to Brad to take you through the right way to growth plan.

與此同時，我們的一些競爭對手正在增加在數位管道上的支出。此外，我們顯然非常關注整合計劃，也許比外部市場更重要。因此，我們已經分析了我剛剛向您展示的模型的每個部分，並且在我交給 Brad 指導您實現增長計劃的正確方法之前，讓我先介紹一下具體內容。

So let's go back to the model. Was our lower growth caused by colleague retention? Well, no, it wasn't. In fact, colleague retention was up by 5 percentage points in North America last year. And since the deal closed, we've delivered an impressive 8 percentage point improvement in Terminix technician retention.

那麼讓我們回到模型。我們的成長率較低是因為同事保留造成的嗎？嗯，不，不是。事實上，去年北美的同事留任率上升了 5 個百分點。自交易完成以來，我們在 Terminix 技術人員保留率方面取得了令人印象深刻的 8 個百分點的提高。

In 2024, as Brad will come on to highlight, there will be no letting up on our focus on this, but we will have a far greater emphasis now being put on sales colleague retention. On the right-hand side, our key customer service metric of state of service remains strong in '23 as was customer satisfaction, where Terminix' Net Promoter Score of 65 is truly excellent, and indeed, this improved by 1.5 points last year.

到 2024 年，正如 Brad 將強調的那樣，我們將不會放鬆對此的關注，但我們現在將更加重視銷售同事的保留。在右側，我們的關鍵客戶服務指標（服務狀態）在23 年依然強勁，客戶滿意度也是如此，Terminix 的淨推薦值高達65 分，確實非常出色，事實上，去年這一數字提高了1.5 個百分點。

Continuing around the model, our pricing remained tightly managed in North America, where we successfully covered cost inflation with increases to our prices. Overall, our technical lead performance in '23 was fine. In fact, it was slightly up on 2022, and we deployed the new trusted adviser program in Terminix, but here again, we believe that we've got a significant opportunity to improve in this space going forward.

繼續圍繞該模型，我們在北美的定價仍然受到嚴格管理，我們成功地透過提高價格來抵消成本通膨。總體而言，我們在 23 年的技術領先表現還不錯。事實上，它比 2022 年略有上升，我們在 Terminix 中部署了新的可信顧問計劃，但我們再次相信，我們在未來的領域有一個重大的改進機會。

Last year in the United Kingdom, 88% of technicians submitted successful leads whereas in North America, it was just around 50%. So turning now to new customers. Terminix is the best-known pest control brand in North America. It leads on both top of mind and unaided brand awareness.

去年，在英國，88% 的技術人員提交了成功的銷售線索，而在北美，這一比例僅為 50% 左右。所以現在轉向新客戶。 Terminix 是北美最知名的害蟲防治品牌。它在品牌意識和獨立品牌意識方面都處於領先地位。

So whilst the awareness of the Terminix brand is excellent, it is fair to say that we haven't yet invested in the Terminix brand, particularly in terms of the top of funnel marketing, as we've been very focused on the foundation phase of our integration. There's clearly a great opportunity here.

因此，雖然 Terminix 品牌的知名度非常高，但可以公平地說，我們還沒有對 Terminix 品牌進行投資，特別是在漏斗頂部行銷方面，因為我們一直非常專注於 Terminix 的基礎階段。這裡顯然有一個很好的機會。

Brad will outline the plan shortly to start to leverage this market-leading pest control brand from 2024. Looking at the right-hand side, as I mentioned earlier, the part of the model that is scored in red is new customer acquisition, where inbound sales leads were down by around 2% to 3% in the second half.

Brad 很快就會概述從 2024 年開始利用這個市場領先的害蟲控製品牌的計劃。線索下降約2% 至3%。

I went through the contributing factors earlier, including the performance of our own channels and increased spend by competitors, but with a good understanding of this, we've now created the right way to growth plan.

我之前研究了影響因素，包括我們自己通路的績效和競爭對手增加的支出，但有了對此的充分理解，我們現在已經制定了正確的成長計劃。

Once we get leads in from technicians or inbound leads from marketing, there's a funnel through to the sales team. So how effective were the sales teams at selling those leads? Well, the short answer is, they did a decent job of converting leads into sales with a sales conversion rate that was effectively in line with '22, but in my view, perhaps this could also have been better, given that our sales colleagues had fewer leads to work on. So clearly, improving our sales colleague retention will be an important part of the plan.

一旦我們從技術人員那裡獲得線索或從行銷部門獲得入站線索，就會有一個通往銷售團隊的管道。那麼銷售團隊在銷售這些潛在客戶的效率如何？嗯，簡短的回答是，他們在將銷售線索轉化為銷售方面做得不錯，銷售轉換率實際上與 22 年一致，但在我看來，也許這還可以更好，因為我們的銷售同事需要處理的線索更少。顯然，提高銷售同事的保留率將是該計劃的重要組成部分。

Once the sales lead has been sold, it's past to the text to complete the work order. As I mentioned earlier, the time between order and installation is critical. Completion rates remained high throughout the year. And whilst we do see good opportunities to achieve yet further productivity, this was also not an issue for us in 2023.

一旦銷售線索售出，就可以透過文字來完成工作訂單。正如我之前提到的，訂購和安裝之間的時間至關重要。 全年完成率維持在高水準。雖然我們確實看到了進一步提高生產力的好機會，但這對 2023 年的我們來說也不是問題。

So I've taken you through the model for organic growth. I've outlined the range of factors, which influence the lower organic growth performance in '23. And I hope that I've also started to demonstrate the range of opportunities that we're focusing on in '24 and beyond. But all of this comes down to execution, execution of the plan and to ensure that execution, as you can see on the screen, we're starting the 2024 pest season with a highly talented, experienced and fully staffed senior sales and marketing team in place.

我已經向您介紹了有機成長的模型。我概述了影響 23 年有機成長績效較低的一系列因素。我希望我也已經開始展示我們在 24 年及以後關注的機會範圍。但這一切都歸結為執行，計劃的執行，並確保執行，正如您在屏幕上看到的那樣，我們將在2024 年蟲害季節開始，並擁有一支才華橫溢、經驗豐富且人員齊全的高級銷售和行銷團隊，地方。

Leading that team is our new CEO for North America, and that's Brad. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Brad.

領導團隊的是我們北美地區的新任首席執行官，他就是布拉德。說到這裡，我要把它交給布萊德。

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, everyone. Since joining the Rentokil team in mid-December, I have been incredibly impressed with our team's commitment to our colleague and customer success and I'm excited to represent our North America team today.

謝謝你，安迪，大家早安。自 12 月中旬加入能多潔團隊以來，我們團隊對同事和客戶成功的承諾給我留下了深刻的印象，我很高興今天能夠代表我們的北美團隊。

You've just heard a summary of 2023 and everyone understands our organic sales growth was below expectations in the second half of last year. As a team, we are laser-focused on our plan to return our business to faster-than-market growth levels. To accomplish this, we will use our right way to grow framework, which we expect to deliver a world-class service experience to our existing customers, while executing several key actions to increase our growth performance from new customers.

您剛剛聽到了 2023 年的總結，每個人都知道我們去年下半年的自然銷售成長低於預期。作為一個團隊，我們專注於我們的計劃，使我們的業務恢復到快於市場的成長水平。為了實現這一目標，我們將使用正確的方式來發展框架，我們期望為現有客戶提供世界級的服務體驗，同時執行幾個關鍵行動來提高新客戶的成長績效。

Up first is Employer of Choice, an area we view as both a strength and differentiator for our team in the market. We believe strongly that our colleagues are the foundation to our success, and we'll continue to invest in their training and development through our RTX University and RTX Way programs, while also simplifying automating daily field task through the planned launch of over 60 enhancements to our field handheld devices.

首先是首選雇主，我們認為這一領域既是我們團隊在市場上的優勢，也是差異化優勢。我們堅信，我們的同事是我們成功的基礎，我們將繼續透過 RTX University 和 RTX Way 計劃投資於他們的培訓和發展，同時還透過計劃推出 60 多項增強功能來簡化日常現場任務的自動化我們的現場手持設備。

At the same time, we do recognize we have an opportunity to improve our sales colleague retention. As a point of reference, our legacy Rentokil business has historically delivered sales colleague retention at nearly an 80% rate. While our Terminix business has struggled with rates below 60%, particularly for colleagues with less than 6 months of service time.

同時，我們確實認識到我們有機會提高銷售同事的保留率。作為參考，我們的傳統能多潔業務歷來保持銷售同事的保留率接近 80%。而我們的 Terminix 業務一直在努力應對低於 60% 的比率，特別是對於服務時間少於 6 個月的同事而言。

In 2024, we will address this opportunity by standardizing our talent acquisition and onboarding processes, while also modifying our new sales colleague compensation plans to better fit the required training and ramp-up time line for a new sales colleague. Our expectation is that over time, our Terminix sales colleague retention will reach 80%, which we believe will have a positive impact on our sales conversion rates.

2024 年，我們將透過標準化人才招募和入職流程來抓住這個機會，同時修改新銷售同事的薪酬計劃，以更好地適應新銷售同事所需的培訓和提升時間線。我們的預期是，隨著時間的推移，我們的 Terminix 銷售同事保留率​​將達到 80%，我們相信這將對我們的銷售轉換率產生積極影響。

Next is our focus on delivering a world-class service experience. We feel we offer a differentiated experience and attribute much of that to our talented and trained service technicians. As I mentioned earlier, we will continue to invest in our technician skills and credentials through tiered and vertical-specific certification programs.

接下來是我們專注於提供世界級的服務體驗。我們認為我們提供了差異化的體驗，並將這很大程度歸功於我們才華橫溢且訓練有素的服務技術人員。正如我之前提到的，我們將繼續透過分層和垂直特定的認證計劃投資於我們的技術人員技能和證書。

We will also double down on our efforts to mine available data to identify which parts of our customer experience have room for improvement. Our aim is to provide a frictionless experience for our customers and have targeted 2024 improvement opportunities in our existing billing, scheduling and issue resolution processes.

我們還將加倍努力挖掘可用數據，以確定客戶體驗的哪些部分有改進的空間。我們的目標是為客戶提供順暢的體驗，並計劃在 2024 年改善現有的計費、調度和問題解決流程。

Addressing our recent digital marketing and customer acquisition challenges is one of our most critical 2024 execution priorities. To do this, we have developed a 2-part plan that begins with increased investment in our Terminix brand. Starting this month, we will launch a new targeted campaign for our Terminix brand that reinforces our expertise and dependability through our new tagline, Terminix It.

解決我們最近的數位行銷和客戶獲取挑戰是我們 2024 年最重要的執行重點之一。為此，我們制定了一個由兩部分組成的計劃，首先是增加 Terminix 品牌的投資。從本月開始，我們將為我們的 Terminix 品牌發起一項新的有針對性的活動，透過我們的新口號「Terminix It」加強我們的專業知識和可靠性。

We believe that campaigns fun, yet functional messaging, will strengthen our top of funnel marketing efforts and help position Terminix as the first brand residential customers think of when they require pest control services.

我們相信，有趣而實用的行銷活動將加強我們的漏斗頂部行銷工作，並幫助將 Terminix 定位為住宅客戶在需要害蟲防治服務時想到的第一品牌。

We also have plans in place to increase awareness and strengthen our Rentokil brand, specifically with our commercial and national account customers. The second half of our 2-part plan is reigniting our customer acquisition engine. Our execution plan to accomplish this as multifaceted, beginning with a fully staffed team of experienced and capable marketing and sales colleagues.

我們也制定了提高知名度並強化我們的能多潔品牌的計劃，特別是針對我們的商業和國民客戶。我們的兩部分計劃的後半部分正在重新點燃我們的客戶獲取引擎。我們的執行計劃是多方面實現這一目標的，首先是一支由經驗豐富、能力強的行銷和銷售同事組成的人員齊全的團隊。

While this proved to be a challenge, particularly for the second half of 2023, our 2024 team was fully staffed and includes a terrific blend of internal and external talent that has a proven track record of connecting with customers and delivering results.

雖然這被證明是一個挑戰，特別是對於 2023 年下半年來說，但我們的 2024 年團隊人員齊全，包括內部和外部人才的出色組合，在與客戶聯繫和交付成果方面擁有良好的記錄。

Our most recent leader additions include our new digital marketing, residential marketing and sales leaders, which all bring deep expertise and experience to their respective leadership roles. Next, we recently transitioned to new creative and media agency partners, we are confident, will help improve the effectiveness and return on our marketing and search spend. And the final piece of our plan is the opportunity for improved bottom-of-the-funnel initiative execution.

我們最近新增的領導者包括新的數位行銷、住宅行銷和銷售領導者，他們都為各自的領導角色帶來了深厚的專業知識和經驗。接下來，我們最近轉向了新的創意和媒體代理商合作夥伴，我們有信心，這將有助於提高我們行銷和搜尋支出的有效性和回報。我們計劃的最後一部分是改善漏斗底部計劃執行的機會。

This includes increasing the productivity of our own media and digital -- excuse me, platforms, plus implementing plans to drive more efficient customer and geographic targeting. So to get leads flowing from new customers, we're making our first investments in the powerful Terminix brand and funding the key marketing, sales and digital experience initiatives we believe are necessary to return our business to historical growth levels.

這包括提高我們自己的媒體和數位平台的生產力，以及實施計劃以推動更有效的客戶和地理定位。因此，為了從新客戶那裡獲得潛在客戶，我們對強大的 Terminix 品牌進行了首次投資，並為我們認為使我們的業務恢復到歷史成長水平所必需的關鍵行銷、銷售和數位體驗計劃提供資金。

Okay. Before we proceed, I'd like to take a moment so we may play a short video that highlights our new Terminix brand campaign. Please start the video.

好的。在我們繼續之前，我想花點時間播放一段簡短的視頻，重點介紹我們新的 Terminix 品牌活動。請開始影片。

(presentation)

（推介會）

Like I said, we are all excited about this campaign and are looking forward to its launch this month. The next component of our right way to grow plan is sales conversion. We consider this an area where we had performed okay, but believe we still have an opportunity to deliver a material year-over-year improvement.

就像我說的，我們都對這項活動感到興奮，並期待它在本月推出。我們正確的成長計劃的下一個組成部分是銷售轉換。我們認為這是一個我們表現良好的領域，但相信我們仍然有機會實現實質的同比改進。

Much of that improvement will be driven from the expected increased sales colleague retention we discussed earlier. In addition to that initiative, our new sales leadership is focused on reengineering our internal processes to decrease the amount of time between initial customer inquiry, site inspection and ultimately, sales completion. An equally important part of our right way to grow plan is pricing execution.

這種改進很大程度上將來自於我們之前討論過的預期銷售同事保留率​​的提高。除了這項舉措之外，我們新的銷售領導層還專注於重新設計我們的內部流程，以減少最初的客戶詢問、現場檢查和最終銷售完成之間的時間。我們正確的成長規劃方式的一個同樣重要的部分是定價執行。

As Andy mentioned earlier, we have proven that our pricing practices are effective, as we consistently mitigate the impacts of inflation on our business. That being said, with large nationally scaled residential and commercial business segments, it is imperative that we use all available tools and technology to constantly evolve our pricing practices to deliver value to our customers for the services we offer.

正如安迪之前提到的，我們已經證明我們的定價實踐是有效的，因為我們不斷減輕通貨膨脹對我們業務的影響。話雖如此，隨著全國範圍內的大型住宅和商業業務領域的發展，我們必須使用所有可用的工具和技術來不斷發展我們的定價實踐，以便為我們提供的服務為客戶帶來價值。

A key component of this will be the increased use of data and AI to deliver more market and segment specific pricing, while also seeking to eliminate any process inefficiencies from our existing processes. I'm also excited for the bundling and promotional plans we have planned for 2024 as both represent nice growth opportunities that we believe will appeal to our customers.

其中的關鍵組成部分將是更多地使用數據和人工智慧來提供更多的市場和細分市場特定定價，同時也尋求消除我們現有流程中的任何流程效率低下的情況。我也對我們計劃於 2024 年推出的捆綁和促銷計劃感到興奮，因為這兩項計劃都代表著良好的成長機會，我們相信這將吸引我們的客戶。

We are eager to see our pricing practices evolve in 2024 and are confident we have the appropriate plans to once again offset any inflationary impacts on our business. The final 2 areas of our right way to grow plan are customer penetration and technician productivity. Earlier, you've heard about our Trusted Advisor program, which we all view as a significant opportunity to drive additional sales leads from existing customers.

我們渴望看到我們的定價實踐在 2024 年發生變化，並相信我們有適當的計劃來再次抵消通膨對我們業務的影響。我們正確的成長計畫的最後兩個領域是客戶滲透率和技術人員生產力。早些時候，您已經聽說過我們的「值得信賴的顧問」計劃，我們都認為這是從現有客戶那裡獲得更多銷售線索的重要機會。

Today, around half of our technicians in North America generate leads from our existing customer base, which is far below the experience in other countries and Rentokil Initial. In 2024, we have already added an accomplished operations leader from our U.K. business, with a singular focus being to develop the right process and tools to deliver over time the same Trusted Advisor participation rates and revenue generation realized in our top-performing countries.

如今，我們在北美大約一半的技術人員從我們現有的客戶群中獲得線索，遠低於其他國家和能多潔的經驗。到2024 年，我們已經從英國業務中增加了一位卓有成效的營運領導者，其唯一重點是開發正確的流程和工具，以隨著時間的推移提供與我們表現最好的國家/地區相同的Trusted Advisor 參與率和創收能力。

Finally, technician productivity remains a top priority. Two key actions in motion for 2024 include improved route productivity and on-time arrival initiatives through our Best Fit routing program and the launch of our customer service quality program that we expect will drive continuous improvement in our service experience, while also being a great training and development tool for our field colleagues.

最後，技術人員的生產力仍然是重中之重。 2024 年的兩項關鍵行動包括透過我們的Best Fit 路線計劃提高路線生產力和準時到達計劃，以及啟動我們的客戶服務品質計劃，我們預計該計劃將推動我們服務體驗的持續改進，同時也是一次很好的培訓為我們的現場同事提供開發工具。

In closing, I'm proud of the progress our North America team continues to make, as we come together as 1 team. I'm also confident we have the right team and the right growth plan focused on colleague retention, reestablishing our sales and marketing excellence, strong pricing discipline and improved Trusted Advisor program execution. I believe our team is up to the challenge to execute this growth plan, and I am excited about our opportunity to deliver improved organic sales performance in 2024.

最後，我為我們的北美團隊不斷取得的進步感到自豪，因為我們作為一個團隊走到了一起。我還相信，我們擁有合適的團隊和正確的成長計劃，重點是留住同事、重建我們卓越的銷售和行銷、嚴格的定價紀律以及改進的 Trusted Advisor 計劃執行。我相信我們的團隊能夠應對執行這項成長計畫的挑戰，我很高興我們有機會在 2024 年實現有機銷售業績的改善。

Thank you for your time today, and I'll hand it back to Andy.

感謝您今天抽出時間，我會將其交還給安迪。

Thank you, Brad. I'm going to conclude with a few comments on the excellent progress we're making on the integration. You've all heard me talk about how we're bringing together businesses to create a pest control powerhouse in North America. We are the #1 pest control company in commercial, in residential and termite. It's a business with scale and density. It's got an outstanding branch and route network across the entire United States of America.

謝謝你，布拉德。最後，我將對我們在整合方面取得的出色進展發表一些評論。你們都聽過我談論我們如何將企業聚集在一起，在北美創造害蟲防治強國。我們是商業、住宅和白蟻領域排名第一的害蟲防治公司。這是一項具有規模和密度的業務。它在整個美國擁有出色的分支機構和航線網絡。

This is a business with multiple drivers of revenue growth from our millions of existing customers and from new customers alike. And in addition, the integration of the 2 businesses will deliver significant cost synergies and long-term growth opportunities. As you can see on the screen, for 2023, we set a net synergy target for the year of $60 million.

這是一項收入成長的多種驅動因素​​，來自我們數百萬現有客戶和新客戶。此外，兩項業務的整合將帶來顯著的成本綜效和長期成長機會。正如您在螢幕上看到的，對於 2023 年，我們設定了 6000 萬美元的年度淨協同目標。

I'm delighted to report we exceeded that delivering $69 million in the year. In total, to date, we've delivered gross synergies of $104 million, we've made $22 million of investments, and we've delivered net synergies of $82 million.

我很高興地向大家報告，我們今年的交付額超過了 6,900 萬美元。迄今為止，我們總共實現了 1.04 億美元的總協同效應，已經進行了 2,200 萬美元的投資，並且實現了 8,200 萬美元的淨協同效應。

We've now completed Phase 1 of the integration program. And this slide covers just a few of the many activities and achievements that our disciplined approach to this integration has delivered. And just to pick out a few. We've streamlined and unified the organization to create a single Rentokil Terminix team. We've delivered a single payroll and benefit system for all 22,000 colleagues. We've moved 10,500 colleagues on to Workday. So all of our colleagues are now on a single people management system.

我們現在已經完成了整合計劃的第一階段。這張投影片只涵蓋了我們嚴謹的整合方法所帶來的眾多活動和成就中的一小部分。只是挑選一些。我們精簡並統一了組織，創造了一個能多潔 Terminix 團隊。我們為所有 22,000 名同事提供了單一的薪資和福利系統。我們已將 10,500 名同事轉移到 Workday。因此，我們所有的同事現在都使用單一的人員管理系統。

And that change was crucial to aligning our people management processes, but will also enable the future harmonization of pay plans. And we've successfully reduced the branch property network by around 100 branches. Importantly, during this phase, our branch integration playbook has continued to be tested and refined having undertaken integration pilots as well as successfully migrating 10 stand-alone acquisitions onto our IT platform.

這項變更對於調整我們的人員管理流程至關重要，也將有助於未來薪酬計畫的協調。我們已成功將分公司網路減少了約 100 個分公司。重要的是，在此階段，我們的分公司整合手冊繼續經過測試和完善，進行了整合試點，並成功將 10 個獨立收購遷移到我們的 IT 平台上。

So the foundations for future success have been laid, and we've now entered Phase 2 of the integration plan, which is the local planning phase ahead of full branch integration. And we've got 7 large regional pest control markets in the United States, and each integration will be executed over approximately 10 months from planning to completion of the rerouting.

因此，未來成功的基礎已經奠定，我們現在已經進入整合計畫的第二階段，這是全面分支機構整合之前的本地規劃階段。我們在美國擁有 7 個大型區域害蟲防治市場，每次整合從規劃到完成路線變更將在大約 10 個月內完成。

The first 6 months will be used to develop specific local plans for the branches being integrated based on the playbook. This then delivers the integration of branch systems and the migration of data. For the following 3 months, we evaluate before then undertaking the final part of the process, which is the rerouting and the harmonization of tech pay.

前 6 個月將用於根據劇本製定整合分支機構的具體當地計劃。然後實現分支系統的整合和資料的遷移。在接下來的 3 個月中，我們會在進行流程的最後部分之前進行評估，即技術薪酬的重新路由和協調。

Only having completed the detailed planning phase, we then move on to Phase 3, which is the first full branch integration, which will begin this coming summer. Our first market will reduce the number of branches from 76 to around 50, and that will increase the average revenue per branch by around $2.5 million. As we move through this third phase, we expect the integration process to become more standardized as the Terminix branches are all using the same systems and processes.

完成詳細規劃階段後，我們將進入第三階段，這是第一個全面的分支機構整合，將於今年夏天開始。我們的第一個市場將把分公司的數量從 76 個減少到 50 個左右，這將使每個分公司的平均收入增加約 250 萬美元。當我們進入第三階段時，我們預計整合流程將變得更加標準化，因為 Terminix 分公司都使用相同的系統和流程。

In 2026, we reached Phase 4. This will mark the completion of the branch integration program and the delivery of our new synergy target. Importantly, post the integration, our ambition remains to deliver organic revenue growth in pest control services of 1.5x the North American market over the medium term.

2026年，我們進入了第四階段。重要的是，整合後，我們的目標仍然是在中期內實現害蟲防治服務的有機收入成長，達到北美市場的 1.5 倍。

At the very heart of our integration is a commitment to best-in-class technologies, systems and processes. And whilst this is an extremely important part of the overall story, it's perhaps not the easiest to communicate. So we produced this short video to bring the IT program to life for you.

我們整合的核心是對一流技術、系統和流程的承諾。雖然這是整個故事中極其重要的一部分，但它可能不是最容易溝通的。因此，我們製作了這段簡短的視頻，為您呈現 IT 計劃。

(presentation)

（推介會）

Right. So excellent progress in technology, as I was saying. Now I know a lot of you here today are now termite experts after my teach-in last year. I'm pleased to say, as you can see on the chart, we've made good continued year-on-year progress in 2023 to address the historical Terminix termite warranties.

正確的。正如我所說，技術進步如此之大。我知道，在我去年的宣講之後，今天在座的很多人現在都成了白蟻專家。我很高興地說，正如您在圖表中看到的那樣，我們在 2023 年在解決歷史性的 Terminix 白蟻保固問題上取得了良好的持續同比進展。

So before I wrap up for questions, here's a summary of our plan for synergy delivery through to 2026. We've increased the gross synergy target by $50 million. We've increased our investments in sales and marketing by $25 million and, therefore, expect to deliver net cost synergies of around $225 million by the end of 2026.

因此，在我結束提問之前，這裡是我們到 2026 年實現協同效應的計劃的摘要。我們在銷售和行銷方面的投資增加了 2,500 萬美元，因此預計到 2026 年底將實現約 2.25 億美元的淨成本綜效。

In summary, last year was a good year for us, a good overall performance, organic growth of around 5%, margins up 120 basis points, cash conversion of 89%. We've reduced our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio to 2.8. We beat our synergy target, and we go into the 2024 pest season with a fully resourced senior sales and marketing team ready to execute the right way to plan to reinvigorate growth in North America.

總而言之，去年對我們來說是美好的一年，整體業績良好，有機成長5%左右，利潤率上升120個基點，現金轉換率為89%。我們已將淨債務與 EBITDA 的比率降至 2.8。我們超越了協同目標，進入 2024 年蟲害季節，我們擁有資源充足的高級銷售和行銷團隊，準備好執行正確的方法來規劃重振北美的成長。

So with that, thank you very much. We'll now take any questions. We'll start with questions in the room, and then we'll take additional questions from the audience online.

非常感謝。我們現在將回答任何問題。我們將從房間裡的問題開始，然後我們將在網路上回答觀眾的其他問題。

Suhasini from Goldman Sachs. I have 3, please. The incremental investments in sales and marketing, $25 million, when should we expect the benefit from this plan to drive improvement in organic growth? Is it Q2? Or is it more second half weighted? And have you already started the new investments as of January? Or is it yet to start?

來自高盛的蘇哈西尼。我有3個，拜託。銷售和行銷方面的增量投資為 2500 萬美元，我們什麼時候應該期望從該計劃中受益以推動有機成長的改善？是Q2嗎？或者說後半段的權重比較大？截至一月份，您已經開始新的投資了嗎？還是還沒開始？

Second one, what's your plan for the distribution business in North America, please? It's been dilutive to both growth and margins in 2023. Do you really need to be in this business? And the third one, on Slide 27, you've mentioned that while overall pest control growth organic has been 4.5%. North America organic growth has only been 3%. Maybe Terminix has been a bit dilutive here. So can you maybe talk about what's happened historically? And what gives you the confidence to target 1.5x the pest control market growth in this region in the future?

第二個問題，請問您在北美的經銷業務有什麼計畫？它已經稀釋了 2023 年的成長和利潤。第三張投影片 27 上，您提到害蟲防治整體有機成長為 4.5%。北美地區的有機成長僅為 3%。也許 Terminix 在這裡有點稀釋了。那麼您能談談歷史上發生的事情嗎？是什麼讓您有信心在未來將該地區的害蟲防治市場成長 1.5 倍？

Thanks very much. Look, on the sales and marketing, sales and marketing spend where you spend your dollars and where you put your focus is a pretty competitively sensitive subject. So I hope you won't be surprised or disappointed if I'm not going to give you a lot of detail as to where we're spending the money.

非常感謝。看，在銷售和行銷方面，銷售和行銷支出在哪裡，你把錢花在哪裡，你的重點放在哪裡，這是一個競爭相當敏感的話題。因此，如果我不向您提供有關我們將錢花在哪裡的詳細信息，我希望您不會感到驚訝或失望。

We've spent a lot of time working on the plan, creating the plan, planning the plan and pest control is a seasonal business. The season in North America typically starts in March -- second half of March depends on that. Big yellow thing in the sky comes out. And if it's a hot and early spring, that's great, season starts early.

我們花了很多時間制定計劃、制定計劃、規劃計劃，而害蟲防治是一項季節性業務。北美的產季通常從三月開始——三月下半月取決於此。天空中出現了一個黃色的大東西。如果是個炎熱的早春，那就太好了，季節開始得早。

So it's really been geared up to put us in a good place to hit the season in a much stronger place than we've been previously. A little bit difficult to predict the future in terms of how is it going to unfold. We've already said -- we wouldn't normally, but this is topic of great interest, I understand. We already said we're expecting around 2% for the first quarter.

因此，這確實是為了讓我們處於一個比以前更強大的狀態來迎接這個賽季的一個好地方。預測未來將如何展開有點困難。我們已經說過——通常不會，但我理解這是一個非常有趣的話題。我們已經說過，我們預計第一季的成長率約為 2%。

We've had 2 months of the first quarter. So we can see broadly where we're tracking. More than that, I can't really say. It does depend a little bit on the season. It does depend how impactful our campaigns are.

第一季已經過兩個月了。這樣我們就可以廣泛地看到我們正在追蹤的地方。更重要的是，我真的不能說。這確實有點取決於季節。這確實取決於我們的活動的影響力有多大。

But the spend, I'll give you a slight bit more detail. To drive your organic -- drive your performance through your digital channels, you've got 2 modes here. You've got your organic and then you've got your paid. And we're working on both. So organic is -- as you all know this, I know, but organic is when you do, let's say, a Google search or any other search engine search, the first few that come up are paid ads and then the next lot that come up are organic.

但是關於花費，我會給你更詳細的資訊。為了透過數位管道推動您的自然發展 - 提高您的績效，您這裡有 2 種模式。你得到了有機食品，然後你就得到了報酬。我們正在這兩方面努力。所以有機是——正如你們都知道的那樣，我知道，但是有機是指當你進行谷歌搜尋或任何其他搜尋引擎搜尋時，出現的前幾個是付費廣告，然後是下一個出現的廣告向上是有機的。

So you've got to work on both of them, and you should assume that we're putting quite a bit of focus into both as indeed the top of funnel marketing as the ad campaign. Distribution, do we really need to be in it? Also an interesting way of asking the question, I suppose, do we really need to be in any business?

因此，您必須同時處理這兩個方面，並且您應該假設我們將相當多的注意力集中在這兩個方面，這確實是漏斗行銷的頂部，就像廣告活動一樣。分銷，我們真的需要參與其中嗎？我想，這也是一種有趣的提問方式，我們真的需要從事任何業務嗎？

The distribution business gives us vertical integration. It means that we can get a large volume of chemicals, pest control supplies into our business with the benefit of a lower price than we would otherwise buy externally in the market. It is a much lower-margin business.

分銷業務為我們帶來了垂直整合。這意味著我們可以以比我們從市場上外部購買的價格更低的價格獲得大量化學品、害蟲防治用品進入我們的業務。這是一項利潤率低得多的業務。

All distribution businesses are much lower margin than service businesses typically. We review the portfolio with the Board every year. Every year, we look at all sorts of questions. Should we be in this? Is there an opportunity not to be? We don't have to be in that business. We choose to be at the moment. We'll keep it under review is what I'd say.

所有分銷業務的利潤率通常都比服務業務低得多。我們每年都會與董事會一起審查投資組合。每年，我們都會研究各種各樣的問題。我們應該參與其中嗎？有沒有機會不這麼做？我們不必從事那個行業。我們選擇活在當下。我想說的是，我們會對其進行審查。

Your third question, I think, was sort of really, I guess, at the heart of -- well, maybe rephrase it, what gives us the confidence that we can do 1.5x the market? It's really that dark board chart that I labored -- and I appreciate I did labor it, but growth comes from quite a number of different sources in our market and in our business. By being really, really good in all of those areas and also by being substantially bigger with better density than all of our competitors, it's the combination of execution excellence and our market position that gives us that confidence.

我想，你的第三個問題其實是——好吧，也許換句話說，是什麼讓我們有信心我們可以做市場的 1.5 倍？這確實是我所努力的黑板圖——我很感激我確實努力了，但成長來自於我們市場和業務中的許多不同來源。透過在所有這些領域真正非常出色，並且比我們所有的競爭對手都更大、密度更高，正是卓越的執行力和我們的市場地位的結合給了我們信心。

We do it in other markets. You've seen some of the performances coming out of Europe. You've seen some of the performances coming out of the other markets, but I know I'm bore for Britain on this one, but it is the model of great colleague retention feeds great customer retention if you've got both of those in place. And you've got the most innovative business in the industry, more innovation, more new things to excite customers about.

我們在其他市場也這樣做。您已經看過一些來自歐洲的表演。你已經看到了來自其他市場的一些表現，但我知道我對英國在這方面感到厭煩，但如果你同時擁有這兩個市場，那麼這是一個優秀的同事保留模型，可以提高客戶保留率。地方。而且您還擁有業界最具創新性的業務、更多的創新、更多讓客戶興奮的新事物。

That's a winning hand. So I'm very confident we'll get there, but we've got to get to the other side of this thing called integration before we can start delivering on that.

這是一手必勝之手。所以我非常有信心我們會實現這一目標，但在我們開始實現這一目標之前，我們必須先到達稱為整合的另一面。

It's James Rosenthal from Barclays. I've got 2, please. It seems like the pilots are largely complete now. Could you tell us what you've learned incrementally from them? And are there any tweaks to the integration program since the last time you updated us?

我是巴克萊銀行的詹姆斯‧羅森塔爾。我有2個，拜託。看來試點工作現在基本上已經完成。您能告訴我們您從他們身上逐漸學到了什麼嗎？自上次更新以來，整合計畫是否有任何調整？

And then secondly, on the higher gross synergy target announced today, where does the confidence come from to increase that target? I mean, so far, you've done a lot of preparation, but you haven't done an actual regional integration just yet.

其次，對於今天宣布的更高的總協同目標，提高該目標的信心來自哪裡？我的意思是，到目前為止，你們已經做了很多準備工作，但還沒有真正的區域整合。

All right. We've done a lot of pilots. We've done -- I mean that video of IT, I mean, I know it all looks simple and straightforward. That is a hell of a lot of work in there. And every one of those items, whether it's the handheld that goes to the tech, whether it's the customer service interface with the customers. So everything you've seen there has had to be piloted, tested and retested.

好的。我們已經做了很多試點。我們已經完成了——我的意思是 IT 視頻，我的意思是，我知道這一切看起來都很簡單明了。那裡的工作量非常大。其中每一項，無論是用於技術的手持設備，或是與客戶的客戶服務介面。所以你所看到的一切都必須經過試點、測試和重新測試。

I don't know that we ever really stopped piloting. One of the learnings -- you asked one of the learnings, one of the learnings is, I wish the following statement wasn't true, but all branches are not equal. They are -- they come with their nuances.

我不知道我們是否真的停止過試點。其中一項教訓—您問其中一項教訓，其中一項教訓是，我希望以下陳述不是真的，但所有分支並不相等。它們是——它們有自己的細微差別。

They come with their idiosyncrasy. So every branch you think you've got it all then you'll say, "Oh, I didn't realize that branch did something a little bit differently than the previous branch." So there's always going to be an element of tailoring the integration. That's why we do this long planning face to make sure that we've got it all. I wouldn't say we've fully piloted out, but I think we've tested and tested and tested lots and lots of things.

他們帶著自己的特質而來。因此，您認為自己已經掌握了所有內容的每個分支都會說：“哦，我沒有意識到該分支所做的事情與之前的分支略有不同。”因此，總會有一個客製化整合的元素。這就是為什麼我們要進行長期規劃以確保我們已經做好了一切。我不會說我們已經完全試點，但我認為我們已經測試了很多很多東西。

In terms of other learnings, I think in the earlier pilots, the importance -- and this is why I say after a while, they sort of become cookie cutting. And once you've done the first one, that will be the most challenging. The second one should be a bit easier. The third one should be -- when you're getting down to doing 50, 60, they don't say they're going to be easy, but they should become much more cookie cutter.

就其他學習而言，我認為在早期的試點中，重要性 - 這就是為什麼我說一段時間後，它們就變得有點像餅乾了。一旦你完成了第一個，這將是最具挑戰性的。第二個應該要容易一點。第三個應該是——當你開始做 50、60 次時，他們不會說這會很容易，但他們應該變得更加千篇一律。

I think having what we're calling a pit crew, it's sort of taken from a Formula 1 type kind of a car comes in and everyone knows exactly what they're doing. So as we do the full integration come -- middle of the year, those integrations will not be, "Here's the playbook and good luck boys and girls. It's -- here's the playbook and here is a team that will be with you through that process."

我認為我們所說的維修站工作人員有點像一級方程式賽車，每個人都知道他們在做什麼。因此，當我們在年中進行全面整合時，這些整合將不會是「這是劇本，祝孩子們好運。而是——這是劇本，這是一個團隊，將與您一起度過這個過程”。過程。”

So having the hands on pit crew to take the branches through the process to having a dedicated customer service line. So if we do screw up in a customer, the customer calls up and says, where is my technician, where's my service? It doesn't go into our call center. It will go into a dedicated customer service rep, who knows all about what's going on in that particular branch.

因此，讓維修人員親自指導分公司完成整個流程，直到擁有專門的客戶服務專線。因此，如果我們確實搞砸了客戶，客戶會打電話說，我的技術人員在哪裡，我的服務在哪裡？它不會進入我們的呼叫中心。它將交給專門的客戶服務代表，他了解該特定分支機構的所有情況。

So I think there's some real practical learnings. On the synergy piece -- sorry, James, repeat your question. I was off there. So I was...

所以我認為有一些真正實用的學習內容。關於協同作用——對不起，詹姆斯，重複你的問題。我當時就在那邊。所以我當時...

Where is the confidence come from...

哪裡來的自信…

Yes. thanks. Where is the confidence? We've always had a very, very, very detailed plan. We keep that plan up to date. We track it every single -- not every single day, but we're tracking every single week. We have fortnightly reviews of the program. And we make sure that all of our colleagues, who own a piece of that synergy pie, update their assumptions regularly.

是的。謝謝。信心在哪裡？我們一直有一個非常非常詳細的計劃。我們會及時更新該計劃。我們每天都會追蹤它——不是每一天，但我們每週都會追蹤。我們每兩週對該計劃進行一次審查。我們確保所有擁有協同效應蛋糕的同事定期更新他們的假設。

So what have we learned? Why is it, okay? It was a bit more in procurement than we assumed, okay, we can add to that. There's a bit less here. So it's really just been informed by our experience and the progress that we're making. You saw we delivered ahead of plan this year. I don't -- it would be wrong to suggest that we found a rich new seam of seam of gold that we hadn't identified.

所以我們學了什麼？為什麼會這樣，好嗎？採購方面的內容比我們想像的要多一些，好吧，我們可以補充一下。這裡有點少了。所以這實際上只是根據我們的經驗和我們正在取得的進展而得出的。你看到我們今年提前交付了計劃。 我不認為——如果說我們發現了我們尚未發現的豐富的新金礦層，那是錯誤的。

It's more that we can see now the evidence that we know what we can get out. And it's coming from both the SG&A and the branch network, is coming from both. Questions for the CFO, surely.

更重要的是，我們現在可以看到證據，表明我們知道我們能得到什麼。它來自 SG&A 和分支機構網絡，來自兩者。當然是向財務長提出的問題。

It's Andy Grobler from BNP Paribas Exane. So one for Stuart to start with and then 2 on North America. Just in terms of the central cost for 2023, that came in below, I think, expectations. Can you just talk through the drivers last year and then what you think will drive the increase in 2024?

我是法國巴黎銀行 Exane 的安迪‧格羅布勒 (Andy Grobler)。所以史都華從一開始，然後是北美的 2。就 2023 年的中心成本而言，我認為低於預期。您能否簡單談談去年的驅動因素，以及您認為哪些因素將推動 2024 年的成長？

And then on to North America. When you talked about colleague retention, clearly, it's much lower still at Terminix. Can you split out a bit between those new joiners? The people that have been there for 6 months don't likely to leave, what the difference is?

然後前往北美。當您談到同事保留率​​時，很明顯，Terminix 的保留率要低得多。你能在這些新加入者之間分配一下嗎？已經待了6個月的人不太可能離開，有什麼不同？

And then, I guess, explain why when you're treating people the same, paying them the same, there's such a difference between those legacy Rentokil people and the legacy Terminix people. And then on to branch integration, as we go through that during the year, from your experience as you go through that process, what is the impact on growth? Do you get 1, 2, 3 months or whatever it may be, where focus is just elsewhere and growth rates slow down? And then how long does it take to come back?

然後，我想，解釋為什麼當你以同樣的方式對待人們，支付同樣的工資時，能多潔的傳統員工和特米尼克的傳統員工之間會存在如此大的差異。然後是分支機構整合，當我們在這一年中經歷這個過程時，從您經歷這個過程的經驗來看，這對成長有什麼影響？你會在 1、2、3 個月或其他時間裡，將注意力集中在其他地方，成長率會減慢？然後需要多長時間才能回來？

Yes. So central overheads, there's 3 or 4 things going on in there. Firstly, I had a couple of short-term credits that we just got in 2023 that won't recur so -- I think my white mic's gone off. David, I think my mic -- okay. So we had a couple of nonrecurring credits. We also -- you can imagine, as we were looking at Q3 evolve, we weren't particularly enjoying the growth rate that we were seeing there.

是的。所以中央管理費用，裡面發生了 3 到 4 件事。首先，我在 2023 年剛剛獲得了一些短期積分，這些積分不會再出現了——我想我的白色麥克風壞了。大衛，我想我的麥克風——還好。所以我們有一些非經常性學分。你也可以想像，當我們考慮第三季的發展時，我們並沒有特別享受我們在那裡看到的成長率。

And we're a very operational responsive business and the cry goes up in Rentokil Initial and we've got a fabulous team across the globe. We've got a fabulous central team. So we really nailed down in the second half of H2 to make sure that we could deliver our undertakings to the market.

我們是一家營運反應迅速的企業，能多潔的呼聲越來越高，我們在全球擁有一支出色的團隊。我們有一支出色的中央團隊。因此，我們確實在下半年確定了目標，以確保我們能夠向市場交付我們的承諾。

And you see from the results we absolutely did. So we've got a couple of things going on there in 2023. And then 2024, what you've got is the annualization of investment, so some of the investments we're making to deliver the acquisition are actually being bought at the center, global Workday system, for instance, identity management, which in this IT security world we all live in is absolutely critical. So we're making investments there.

從結果中你可以看出我們確實做到了。所以我們在 2023 年會發生一些事情。 ，這在我們所處的這個IT安全世界中絕對是至關重要的。所以我們正在那裡進行投資。

And then we've got a bunch of compliance stuff, so SOX in particular. We get -- we bear a full year of that in 2024. So there's a chunk of investment that's actually happening in the center that's related to Terminix, but that sits in central overheads. And then you've got the -- well, let's assume we deliver our undertaking, so you've got a more normal level of cost in 2024 than we had in 2023. So there's a number of interacting elements to that, Andy.

然後我們有很多合規性的東西，特別是 SOX。我們在 2024 年承擔了一整年的投資。然後你會得到——好吧，假設我們兌現了我們的承諾，所以 2024 年的成本水平比 2023 年的成本水平更正常。

Could I just ask what was the one-off benefits?

我可以問一下一次性福利是什麼嗎？

Just an insurance benefit we got, a slight listing benefit that we got. So nothing that would sort of raise its head, but when you do the bridge is 1 million or 2 million on those sorts of things. So it's nothing remarkable for us. .

我們得到的只是保險福利，還有一點上市福利。所以沒有什麼可以讓人抬起頭來，但是當你這樣做的時候，橋樑上的這些東西就需要 100 萬或 200 萬。所以這對我們來說沒什麼了不起的。 。

All right. Andy, the second question, in 2 parts. Do we see a difference between the tenure of levers 0 to 6, 6 to 12 newcomers versus people who have been in a while. And why do we see a difference between heritage -- Rentokil heritage, Terminix if people are paid the same amount to do the same job.

好的。安迪，第二個問題，分為兩部分。我們是否看到槓桿 0 到 6、6 到 12 的新人與已經有一段時間的人的任期之間存在差異？如果人們做同樣的工作，得到同樣的報酬，為什麼我們會看到傳統——能多潔傳統、Terminix 之間的差異。

And the first part is a really good question, and it's not a Rentokil factor. It's a global phenomenon that you can ask any big company and ask their HRD, they all see the same phenomena that we struggle -- the world is struggling. Once you've hired someone, hiring them as the first challenge, can you find the right people?

第一部分是一個非常好的問題，而且這不是能多潔的因素。這是一個全球現象，你可以詢問任何大公司並詢問他們的人力資源開發人員，他們都看到了我們所苦苦掙扎的同樣現象——世界正在苦苦掙扎。一旦你僱用了某人，將僱用他們作為第一個挑戰，你能找到合適的人嗎？

They don't stay as long as they used to. So the 0 to 6, we really laser focus. We have every single branch, thousands of bunches around the world. Every single branch is monitoring that 0 to 6 and 6 to 12 because to your implied point. If you can get someone through the first 12 months, then we tend to hold them for quite a long time.

他們不再像以前那樣待那麼久了。所以從0到6，我們真的是雷射聚焦。我們在世界各地擁有每一個分支、數千個分支。每個分支都在監視 0 到 6 和 6 到 12，因為符合您的暗示點。如果你能讓某人度過前 12 個月，那麼我們往往會留住他們相當長的時間。

So part of the answer to the question is, well, in tight labor markets, do you always hire the best candidates? Or are you hiring the available candidates. So we put a real emphasis on the quality of finding great candidates.

所以這個問題的部分答案是，在緊張的勞動市場中，你總是僱用最好的候選人嗎？或者您正在招募可用的候選人。因此，我們非常重視尋找優秀候選人的品質。

The next thing is trying to create a world-class first day experience. And people tend to leave pretty early if they don't -- if when you join a company, isn't a great experience in the first few weeks and days. So we've done -- worked on things like that. We do things like Friday afternoon calls. It's one of my theories that people leave an employer over the weekend. They've had a bad week. They go out and they kick the cat and they don't come back to work on Monday.

接下來的事情是努力創造世界級的第一天體驗。如果人們不這樣做的話，他們往往會很早就離開——如果當你加入一家公司時，在最初的幾周和幾天裡並不是一個很好的經歷。所以我們已經做了類似的事情。我們會做週五下午打電話之類的事情。我的理論之一是人們會在周末離開雇主。他們度過了糟糕的一周。他們出去踢了貓，然後週一就不回來工作了。

And so if you can reach out to people on a Friday and say, how is your week? And can we do anything to improve it? So we're really, really focusing on that 0 to 6 because it is where our biggest challenge is, absolutely. To the second part about Terminix and Rentokil, well, that's kind of the point to a degree we haven't harmonized pay yet.

因此，如果您可以在周五聯繫人們並詢問您這一周過得怎麼樣？我們能做些什麼來改善它嗎？所以我們真的非常非常關注 0 到 6，因為這絕對是我們最大的挑戰。 關於 Terminix 和 Rentokil 的第二部分，嗯，這就是我們尚未統一薪酬的程度。

That's still to come. We haven't harmonized pay for sales colleagues, and we haven't harmonized pay for technicians. That's part of the investment that we're making, and it's part of what happens when we start to integrate branches. So you've got that. But sort of linking it to the first point of the question, the sales pay plans for Terminix colleagues really makes it quite difficult to get through the first 6 months.

那還沒到來。我們還沒有統一銷售同事的薪酬，也沒有統一技術人員的薪酬。這是我們正在進行的投資的一部分，也是我們開始整合分公司時發生的事情的一部分。所以你已經得到了。但與問題的第一點聯繫起來，Terminix 同事的銷售薪酬計劃確實讓他們很難度過前 6 個月。

We make it -- in my view and Brad's view, and he's come in and looked at this and said, we need to help our sales colleagues through the first 6 months because the pay plan doesn't do us any favors in that regard. So I think -- it's 1 of the changes that Brad will be implementing fairly soon is to moderate how we structured early new joiners in sales, and that's a key thing. If we can fix that quickly, then we'll start to see the changes. So I don't think part of it is we've got different pay, different -- we've harmonized the benefits, but we haven't harmonized the pay. Part of it is this historical legacy of when do we start paying your salary, when do you go on to a full commission basis and it's a really detailed subject. We can have a chat over a coffee, if you want.

我們做到了——在我和布拉德看來，他進來查看了這一點並說，我們需要幫助我們的銷售同事度過前六個月，因為薪酬計劃在這方面對我們沒有任何好處。所以我認為 - 布拉德很快就會實施的改變之一是調整我們在銷售中建立早期新加入者的方式，這是一件關鍵的事情。如果我們能夠快速解決這個問題，那麼我們就會開始看到改變。所以我不認為部分原因是我們的薪資不同，不同——我們已經協調了福利，但我們還沒有協調薪資。其中一部分是歷史遺產，我們什麼時候開始支付你的工資，你什麼時候繼續獲得全額佣金，這是一個非常詳細的主題。如果你願意的話，我們可以一邊喝咖啡一邊聊天。

Branch integration impact on organic growth, probably not going to like the answer. I'm going to give you both the answer so it depends. It just depends. We've done many, many integrations over the years where we've seen 0 impact organic growth. Absolutely none.

分支機構整合對有機成長的影響，可能不會喜歡這個答案。我會給你們兩個答案，所以這要看情況。這只是取決於。多年來，我們進行了許多許多整合，我們發現有機成長的影響為零。絕對沒有。

And that's clearly what we'll be targeting and trying to do. But we've also seen impacts of integrations where we've seen a few percentage points of organic growth. What -- why? What's the issue? Why do you see any impact at all?

這顯然就是我們的目標和努力的方向。但我們也看到了整合的影響，我們看到了幾個百分點的有機成長。什麼為什麼？有什麼問題嗎？為什麼你會看到任何影響？

Well, the only reason you see impact is if you do a poor job of making the change with your customers, I'm your technician, Andy, you know me, you like me, hopefully. I've been looking after you for some time. And then we're going to switch it around because the only way you get synergies out of the network is you've got to reroute. I went into American, then we've got a reroute. Then you tighten the routes and therefore, going to have to make some changes.

好吧，你看到影響的唯一原因是，如果你在與客戶進行改變方面做得不好，我是你的技術人員，安迪，你了解我，希望你喜歡我。我已經照顧你有一段時間了。然後我們將對其進行切換，因為從網路中獲得協同效應的唯一方法是必須重新路由。我飛往美國，然後我們改變了路線。然後你會收緊路線，因此必須做出一些改變。

So Stuart is now going to be your technician going forward. If we don't do a good job of that handover experience, as I come out and Stuart comes in, then we've given the customer a reason to think, "Okay, maybe I'll look around." So that's the pinch point in the integration.

所以史都華現在將成為您未來的技術人員。如果我們沒有做好交接體驗，當我出來、斯圖爾特進來時，我們就會給客戶一個思考的理由：“好吧，也許我會四處看看。”這就是整合的關鍵點。

We've got to get that, got to communicate to customers, got to give them a great experience. And the vast number of times, the customers are absolutely fine. They are absolutely fine. It's only if we do a poor job of that. And that's why it's so much in the detail and so much in the planning. That's the answer.

我們必須做到這一點，必須與客戶溝通，並且必須為他們提供良好的體驗。而且絕大多數時候，顧客是絕對沒問題的。他們絕對沒問題。除非我們在這方面做得不好。這就是為什麼它有如此多的細節和如此多的規劃。這就是答案。

It's Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Can you guys maybe just touch upon the competitive environment you're seeing in North America. When you kind of look at your share, maybe who are you donating share to? Is it mom and pops? Is it larger players? If you look at the larger players that are growing quite rapidly. And then when you think about kind of your self-help plan, how does that work challenging, let's you say, mom and pop versus a larger player? And maybe where is that all targeted to that?

我是奧本海默的伊恩·扎菲諾。可以談談你們在北美看到的競爭環境嗎？當您查看您的份額時，也許您將份額捐贈給了誰？是媽媽和流行音樂嗎？是比較大的玩家嗎？如果你看看成長相當迅速的大型企業。然後，當你考慮你的自助計畫時，它如何運作具有挑戰性，比方說，媽媽和流行音樂與更大的玩家相比？也許這一切的目標在哪裡？

Thanks. I don't know whether I like the phrase or I don't like the phrase donating share, certainly not something that I've ever considered doing. The competitive landscape in North America, look, a, it's a very competitive marketplace, always has been, always will be. I started this 15 years ago, consolidating the marketplace by going and doing acquisitions.

謝謝。我不知道我是否喜歡這個短語或我不喜歡捐贈分享這個短語，當然我從來沒有考慮過這樣做。北美的競爭格局，看，這是一個競爭非常激烈的市場，一直如此，也永遠如此。我從 15 年前開始做這件事，透過收購來鞏固市場。

15 years ago, the estimate was there were 19,000 pest control companies in the United States. 15 years of consolidation, the estimate is there's 19,000 pest control companies in North America.

15 年前，估計美國有 19,000 家害蟲防治公司。經過 15 年的整合，估計北美有 19,000 家害蟲防治公司。

There's just a lot, and they are mom-and-pop. They are local. And I always make the point. Don't think of us as a multinational, think of us as a multi-local. So you win and lose market share locally. You're not -- yes, there is a national account piece to our business, of course, there is, but that isn't really the story here. It's locally.

有很多，而且都是夫妻店。他們是本地人。我總是指出這一點。不要將我們視為跨國公司，而應將我們視為多本地企業。因此，您在當地贏得或失去市場份額。你不是——是的，我們的業務有一個國民帳戶部分，當然，有，但這並不是這裡真正的故事。這是本地的。

So you've sort of put your finger on it. For us to be successful or not successful, we've got a win in hundreds and hundreds of cities in the United States. But the great thing is we've got the best footprint of any competitor in the United States when we finish this, our local position will be fantastic.

所以你已經把手指放在上面了。對於我們的成功或不成功來說，我們已經在美國數百個城市取得了勝利。但最棒的是，當我們完成這項工作時，我們在美國的競爭對手中已經擁有了最好的足跡，我們在當地的地位將非常出色。

Terminix is the best-known brand in pest control in those cities. It already is before we start to invest it in turbocharge it and put emphasis behind it. But you're absolutely right. At one level, you've got to have a local plan as well as the central marketing plan. And so the main area you would see, I would say, is in reviews.

Terminix 是這些城市最知名的害蟲防治品牌。在我們開始投資它並對其進行重點支持之前就已經是這樣了。但你是絕對正確的。一方面，您必須制定本地計劃和中央行銷計劃。所以我想說，你會看到的主要領域是評論。

We all -- Google reviews or whatever Angie's List reviews. So it's really, really important that in every one of those local cities, when we get happy customers, you've had a good experience, if we can encourage them to leave us a nice 5-star review.

我們所有人——谷歌評論或任何安吉名單評論。因此，在每個當地城市，當我們獲得滿意的客戶時，如果我們能夠鼓勵他們給我們留下良好的 5 星評價，那麼您就獲得了良好的體驗，這真的非常非常重要。

Those 5-star reviews are what we knew a lot of local business against the mom and pops and they can do it as well. And so you're absolutely right. You've got to have the central marketing piece with the overarching brand, but this thing only works if you get it right in hundreds and hundreds of cities, which is why it requires a lot of focus, but we have to have local content as well.

這些五星級評論是我們所知道的，許多當地企業都反對夫妻店，他們也可以做到。所以你是完全正確的。你必須擁有具有整體品牌的核心行銷部分，但這件事只有在成百上千個城市都做得很好的情況下才有效，這就是為什麼它需要大量關注，但我們必須擁有本地內容出色地。

So -- I mean I don't honestly think the competitive rivalry has changed in any sense. It's not like you lose a big piece of market share. You're losing $1,000 customers in towns and cities and you're winning $1,000 customers in towns and cities.

所以——我的意思是，老實說，我並不認為競爭在任何意義上都改變了。這並不是說您失去了很大一部分市場份額。您將在城鎮中失去 1,000 美元的客戶，並在城鎮中贏得 1,000 美元的客戶。

And that's why the concept of seeding share or losing shares is a little bit of a difficult one to sort of work with. It's not like 1 big competitors coming in and hovering up a big chunk of your business, that doesn't -- you don't win or lose share like that. It's lots and lots and lots of small accounts. That's why we've got to get the marketing, and that's why we have the local marketing plan to support the national one.

這就是為什麼播種份額或失去份額的概念有點難以處理。這並不像一個大的競爭對手進入並佔據了你業務的很大一部分，那不是——你不會像那樣贏得或失去市場份額。這是很多很多的小帳戶。這就是為什麼我們必須進行行銷，這就是為什麼我們有本地行銷計劃來支持全國行銷計劃。

It's Nicole Manion from UBS. Just 1 question, please. Could you run us through the definition of organic growth that you've used in full year 2023? And if that's been the same as what was used in H1 and then how it compares to previous years? I noticed that helpful detail in the release today, but if you could just run us through that, that would be great.

我是瑞銀 (UBS) 的妮可‧馬尼恩 (Nicole Manion)。請提 1 個問題。您能否向我們介紹一下您在 2023 年全年使用的有機成長的定義？如果這與上半年使用的相同，那麼與前幾年相比如何？我在今天的發布中註意到了有用的細節，但如果您能讓我們了解一下，那就太好了。

Yes. I'll take that one, Nicole. So for everything excluding the Terminix transaction, the definition of organic growth has not changed for many years in Rentokil Initial. So that's the first thing to say.

是的。我要那個，妮可。因此，對於 Terminix 交易之外的所有事項，能多潔多年來對有機成長的定義都沒有改變。這是首先要說的。

We made the decision to take a slightly different approach with Terminix because the -- generally speaking, we don't use the pro forma revenue base for a business that we've acquired as part of the organic growth calculation. But for Terminix, we really wanted a very pure like-for-like calculation because that's what we believe would be most representative to the market.

我們決定對 Terminix 採取稍微不同的方法，因為一般來說，我們不會使用我們收購的業務的預期收入基礎作為有機成長計算的一部分。但對於 Terminix，我們確實想要一個非常純粹的同類計算，因為我們認為這對市場最具代表性。

So you put these 2 businesses together, if we've held them throughout that period, for the full year, what would that like-for-like growth be? And so we adjusted our policy ever so slightly for Terminix. That meant in 2023, we took a slight hit against what our standard approach would have been for 2023 for the group aggregate calculation of organic growth.

所以你把這兩項業務放在一起，如果我們在那段時期、全年都持有它們，那麼類似的成長會是多少？因此，我們對 Terminix 的政策進行了細微的調整。這意味著到 2023 年，我們對 2023 年集團有機成長總量計算的標準方法會受到輕微影響。

It only applies in the first year of the calculation and in 2024, all falls away all standard back to usual. So we made an exception for Terminix within that calculation, but that was really -- so you got a very pure like-for-like view of the world, Nicole.

它僅適用於計算的第一年，到 2024 年，所有標準都會恢復正常。所以我們在計算中為 Terminix 做了一個例外，但這確實是——所以你得到了一個非常純粹的世界觀，妮可。

It's Dominic Edridge from Deutsche Bank. Three for myself. Firstly, just on the net debt sort of strategy or the leverage strategy. Obviously, I think net debt was down by around 100 million net this year. Are you happy with that tenor in terms of the year-on-year declines? I know you put up the dividend. Obviously, you've still got the M&A in there. Is that sort of the level of deleveraging that you're happy with?

我是德意志銀行的多明尼克·艾德里奇。三個給我自己。首先，只是淨債務策略或槓桿策略。顯然，我認為今年淨債務淨減少了約 1 億。您對同比下降的情況感到滿意嗎？我知道你支付了股息。顯然，你仍然有併購。這是您滿意的去槓桿化程度嗎？

And I suppose that -- along with that, I suspect the net debt to EBITDA, a lot of the driver of the decline and that is going to be the EBITDA rather than the level of net debt as it were, just if that's correct. And then two other things. I know that you mentioned around about better colleague retention in North America.

我想，除此之外，我懷疑 EBITDA 的淨債務是導致下降的主要原因，而這將是 EBITDA 而不是淨債務水平，如果這是正確的話。然後還有另外兩件事。我知道您曾經提到過北美地區更好的留住同事的問題。

I think during the numbers, if you look at the branch managers at Terminix, I think there's been about 18% churn there since you closed the deal. That seems quite high. Is that a level which you're surprised about or something which just happens to a voluntary level? And then the last question is just on the delayed integration.

我認為在這些數字中，如果你看看 Terminix 的分公司經理，我認為自從你完成交易以來，那裡的流失率約為 18%。這看起來相當高。這是一個讓你感到驚訝的水平還是只是發生在自願層面的事情？最後一個問題就是關於延遲整合。

What's the best way of thinking about that? Do you feel there's too much stress on the business to perform the level that you wanted to if you capture the original plan and the growth would have been even lower this year if you had kept to that? Or if you could just maybe just talk through a little bit about your thoughts there.

思考這個問題的最佳方式是什麼？您是否覺得，如果您按照最初的計劃執行的話，業務壓力太大，無法達到您想要的水平，而如果您堅持原始計劃，今年的增長會更低？或者您可以談談您的想法嗎？

So I'll start with deleverage. You're absolutely right, most of the deleverage is coming from the DAR element rather than the debt. So I'm very content with the way that's worked. It's coming inside our guidance.

所以我將從去槓桿化開始。你說得完全正確，大部分去槓桿化來自於 DAR 要素，而不是債務。所以我對目前的運作方式非常滿意。它正在我們的指導範圍內。

We've got a little bit of benefit at the year-end because average earnings at a slightly higher dollar rate -- a low dollar rate than the year-end net debt. So we got sort of 20 basis points of improvement or 0.2 of a turn, something like that, but modest. Very happy with the trajectory. You're right. When we put our business plan together, we've reflected that progressive dividend policy.

我們在年底得到了一些好處，因為平均收益的美元匯率略高——美元匯率比年末淨債務低。所以我們得到了大約 20 個基點的改進或 0.2 個轉彎，類似的東西，但幅度不大。對軌跡非常滿意。你說得對。當我們制定業務計劃時，我們已經反映了漸進式股利政策。

We've reflected headroom for M&A. In the short term, the additional element is that circa $100 million of cost to achieve that we're bearing in 2024. So if you sort of add together the cost to achieve and the modest margin increment in the U.S., then I expect our deleveraging is probably not going to be the same trajectory in '24 as it was '23.

我們已經反映了併購的空間。從短期來看，額外的因素是我們要在2024 年實現這一目標，需要大約1 億美元的成本。槓桿化將會實現。

But once we get through, we get through the sit -- we get through the cost to achieve. We get -- start to achieve the synergy delivery, then I expect that curve to start going down pretty quickly, '25 into '26. But entirely in line with our plans, very comfortable with it and actually delighted with the outcome.

但一旦我們完成了任務，我們就完成了任務——我們完成了實現目標的成本。我們開始實現協同效應，然後我預計曲線很快就會開始下降，從 25 年到 26 年。但完全符合我們的計劃，對此非常滿意，並且對結果非常滿意。

I'm going to confess. I genuinely don't know what data you're looking at to make that quote. And again, maybe it's one for coffee, but the retention branch managers terminates is extremely high. So I'm not quite sure what you're looking at, and I'm slightly puzzled. So there's some nonsense being written recently that maybe it was in there, but I don't recognize that at all very high. So not an issue at all, quite the opposite. It's fantastic.

我要坦白了。我真的不知道你在尋找什麼數據來做出這樣的報價。再說一次，也許這是為了喝咖啡，但分支經理終止的保留率非常高。所以我不太確定你在看什麼，我有點困惑。所以最近寫了一些廢話，也許它就在那裡，但我根本不認為這是非常高的。所以根本不是問題，恰恰相反。這是夢幻般的。

On the integration, look, I think I've been doing large deals, my entire career, that's what I spent 35 years doing. It doesn't make me an expert, but it makes me someone with a lot of experience. And I've always said we will take as much time as we need to do the executions and to do them to execute the plan well. So we're really thoughtful. We're really careful. We don't rush things. And I've always said to the team, if in doubt, delay, if in doubt, delay, we never hit the go-live button if we're not ready.

在整合方面，你看，我認為我整個職業生涯都在做大交易，這就是我花了 35 年做的事情。它並沒有讓我成為專家，但它讓我成為一個擁有豐富經驗的人。我一直說我們會花盡可能多的時間來執行並執行好計劃。所以我們真的很周到。我們真的很小心。我們不著急。我總是對團隊說，如果有疑問，就推遲，如果有疑問，就推遲，如果我們還沒有準備好，我們永遠不會按下上線按鈕。

So -- as an element of this is just -- it's big. I mean we showed you on the video, the complexity in the IT space. This is large. This is complex. This will take time. So I don't actually -- in my head, I don't consider it a delay. I will just consider it a rephasing based out of, okay, well, the synergies are going to be bigger. We're going after it more.

所以——作為其中的一個元素——它很大。我的意思是，我們透過影片向您展示了 IT 領域的複雜性。這個很大。這很複雜。這需要時間。所以我實際上並不認為這是一個延遲。我只是將其視為重新定相，因為協同效應將會更大。我們會更加追求它。

What have we learned through the process so far? Where are you in the journey? Yes, this should take us a bit longer. An element of that, of course, we're not running the business to please the share price. I mean that isn't the way we think, maybe we should. That is the way I think I run the business in the best way that I know how.

到目前為止，我們從這個過程中學到了什麼？旅途中你在哪裡？是的，這應該需要我們更長的時間。當然，其中一個因素是我們經營業務並不是為了取悅股價。我的意思是，這不是我們的想法，也許我們應該這樣做。我認為這就是我以我所知道的最佳方式經營業務的方式。

But clearly, we are conscious of the fact that we saw an impact on organic growth. Clearly, some of that was because we had become internally focused, in my view. Clearly, some of it has a little bit of impact on some of the integration pilots, et cetera. So pacing it in a slightly longer way, I think, does give us a better opportunity to get more business as usual organic growth at the same time as delivering the execution on the integration.

但顯然，我們意識到我們看到了對有機成長的影響。顯然，在我看來，其中部分原因是我們變得專注於內在。顯然，其中一些對一些整合試點等有一點影響。因此，我認為，以稍微長一​​點的方式進行調整，確實給了我們更好的機會，在執行整合的同時，獲得更多業務照常有機增長。

So I don't -- it's not like, okay, let's better change the plan because we need to change the way we run the business. It's just more realistic from where we are given what we've still got to do. So -- but my philosophy has always been we start when you're ready. We'll take as long as it needs to take not because we've given a previous date to the market. So hopefully, that gives you some confidence that it's a business-driven decision.

所以我不——這不是說，好吧，讓我們更好地改變計劃，因為我們需要改變我們經營業務的方式。從我們被賦予我們仍然要做的事情的角度來看，這更加現實。所以——但我的理念始終是，當你準備好時我們就開始。我們會花盡可能長的時間，而不是因為我們已經向市場給出了先前的日期。希望這能讓您相信這是一個以業務為導向的決策。

But it does give us -- it does take a little bit more time to do it. Therefore, we're going to have more businesses in the business-as-usual phase at the same time rather than having more business in the transformation phase. So yes.

但它確實給了我們——確實需要更多的時間來做到這一點。因此，我們將同時有更多的業務處於照常階段，而不是有更多的業務處於轉型階段。所以是的。

We've got 2 guys in the front here. We're very sore arms that...

我們這裡有兩個人在前面。我們的手臂非常酸痛...

(inaudible) Andy just 1 question. The -- following your description about the importance of local share and the local battle. When we think about that, in your wheel, the red bit here on sales and marketing that a lot of these presentations were about. Was the challenge you faced there and therefore, the response you're going to give? Was that more a certain localities? Or was it broadly across the whole country?

（聽不清楚）安迪只有 1 個問題。 - 以下是您對本地份額和本地戰鬥重要性的描述。當我們想到這一點時，在你的方向盤上，這裡的紅色部分是關於銷售和行銷的，很多這些演示都是關於這些的。您在那裡面臨的挑戰是您要給予的回應嗎？那更多的是某些地區嗎？還是遍及全國？

Yes. Let me put it this way. If it was in certain localities, I wouldn't tell you, but it wasn't really. It was more broadly based. So there will be inevitably with hundreds of city-based branches. We stack rank them. So I know exactly who the best performing, and I know where the worst performing. But generally speaking, did we see a drop off in lead flow across the board, we did. Was it worse in some cities and towns than others? Yes.

是的。讓我這樣說吧。如果是在某些地方，我不會告訴你，但事實並非如此。它的基礎更為廣泛。因此，不可避免地會在城市設立數百個分支機構。我們對它們進行堆疊排名。所以我確切知道誰表現最好，也知道哪裡表現最差。但總的來說，我們是否看到鉛流全面下降，我們確實看到了。某些城鎮的情況是否比其他城鎮更糟？是的。

Was that market related? Was it competitive related? Was it us related? Yes, all of the above. So I don't think it's not all in one region, is more broadly based. And we did see it in resi, in termite and in SME commercial in that order. So more worse in resi than termite and then SME, as we said last time we talked on the subject.

那個市場有關係嗎？與競爭有關嗎？跟我們有關係嗎？是的，以上都是。所以我認為這並不全是在一個地區，而是有更廣泛的基礎。我們確實在樹脂、白蟻和中小企業商業廣告中按順序看到了它。因此，Resi 比白蟻和 SME 更糟糕，正如我們上次談論這個主題時所說的那樣。

And that's entirely logical as well because if you run a pub and you're looking for a pest controller, you find the pest controller in exactly the same way as you would as a commercial, -- sorry as a residential customer. So it's the same channel, which is impacted.

這也是完全合乎邏輯的，因為如果您經營一家酒吧並且您正在尋找害蟲控制器，您會以與商業廣告完全相同的方式找到害蟲控制器，--對不起，作為住宅客戶。因此，受到影響的是同一個管道。

Allen from Jefferies. Just a few small ones for me now, please. Is there any way you can split out resi versus commercial in that growth number? I think we all kind of understand the narrative around resi side, but I'd expect this is the bigger commercial to have held up, maybe a bit better. Anything that you can say be interesting.

來自傑富瑞集團的艾倫。現在請給我一些小東西。有沒有什麼方法可以將成長數字中的Resi 和Commercial 分開？我想我們都理解關於 Resi 方面的敘述，但我希望這是一個更大的商業廣告，也許會更好一點。任何你能說的都很有趣。

Secondly, actually just a weather question. I'm mindful you've kind of talked about Q1 being weak again 2-ish percent, but it feels like North America generally been pretty mild winter. We expect that pest season to probably creep a bit more into early March than late March. And no tailwind from that, just whatever comments you can make, that would be great.

其次，實際上只是一個天氣問題。我注意到你談到了第一季再次疲軟百分之二左右，但感覺北美的冬天總體上相當溫和。我們預計害蟲季節可能會比三月下旬提早到三月初。沒有任何順風車，無論你能發表什麼評論，那就太好了。

Staff side, obviously, lots of comments around -- the questions around kind of the new joiners and competing and kind of well incentivized but within that new incentive plan, are the best performers from Terminix is their pay plan equally as attractive as it was before, they disadvantage? How do you balance the books that would be a question.

員工方面，顯然，有很多評論——圍繞新加入者、競爭和激勵的問題，但在新的激勵計劃中，Terminix 表現最好的是他們的薪酬計劃與以前一樣有吸引力，他們的劣勢是什麼？如何平衡帳簿，這將是一個問題。

And then maybe finally, just provisions in termite and stuff. I didn't see it and I didn't get through it, but was there any benefit in the EBITDA number for '23 from termite provision releases and any comments around '24?

也許最後，只是提供白蟻之類的東西。我沒有看到它，也沒有通過它，但是白蟻條款發布和關於 24 年的任何評論對 23 年的 EBITDA 數字有什麼好處嗎？

I'll take the last one first. No, there isn't -- those numbers aren't flat at all, and the provision is running pretty much exactly as we expected now. Volumes are slightly lower. Cost to close slightly higher, but that's because where we've got a plan to accelerate the most difficult cases.

我先拿最後一個。不，不存在——這些數字根本不平坦，而且撥款的運作情況與我們現在的預期幾乎完全一樣。成交量略低。收盤成本略高，但這是因為我們有計劃加速最困難的情況。

So actually, we're delighted with the operational progress we've made in closing -- dealing with that legacy termite provision. And financially, it next to about line ball to where we expected it to be. So...

因此，實際上，我們對在處理遺留白蟻規定方面所取得的營運進展感到高興。從財務角度來看，它幾乎達到了我們預期的水平。所以...

Yes, I'm not sure I can give a lot more detail. On the commercial, I think I'm right in saying, and I'm just giving you a batting order, kind of residential most impacted termite next, SME commercial next and then big ticket commercial least impacted. So I think your assumption is correct. But even within there, don't forget Terminix had a chunk of commercial business and the Terminix commercial business hasn't performed as well as the Rentokil.

是的，我不確定是否可以提供更多細節。關於廣告，我認為我的說法是對的，我只是給你一個擊球順序，其次是受影響最嚴重的住宅白蟻，其次是中小企業商業廣告，然後是受影響最小的大宗商業廣告。所以我認為你的假設是正確的。但即使在那裡，也不要忘記 Terminix 擁有大量商業業務，而 Terminix 商業業務的表現不如能多潔。

We're transitioning that all into Rentokil. Rentokil, as you know, is the global leader in commercial pest control. So -- there's some movement of that piece of portfolio, which I'd say probably what would have taken the average down a little bit on the performance of our commercial business.

我們正在將這一切轉化為能多潔。如您所知，能多潔是商業害蟲防治領域的全球領導者。因此，該投資組合出現了一些變動，我想說這可能會使我們商業業務的平均業績略有下降。

But commercial is still holding up well, but we can still do better. Weather, frankly, I don't know, but I've read similar reports and the guys have said, "Yes, look, if the weather forecast is what it seems, then it looks like it should be a decent season." So we've had -- we've been sat here on previous years, and we've been talking about polar vortex season in January and February.

但商業仍然表現良好，但我們仍然可以做得更好。天氣，坦白說，我不知道，但我讀過類似的報道，人們說，“是的，看，如果天氣預報是這樣，那麼看起來這應該是一個不錯的季節。”所以我們——前幾年我們一直坐在這裡，我們一直在討論一月和二月的極地渦旋季節。

And we have had dreadful rain, warm, yes, but rain and that's not been great. But I think generally speaking, I don't know that it's a major factor here, but nobody is calling a negative factor on the weather. On the pay plan, well, don't forget, again, as I said, we haven't implemented the pipeline. There seem to be some people that think they know more about the pipeline than I do. And we haven't even decided the final detail of the pipeline.

我們經歷了一場可怕的雨，是的，很溫暖，但雨的情況並不好。但我認為總的來說，我不知道這是一個主要因素，但沒有人稱這是天氣的負面因素。關於薪酬計劃，請不要忘記，正如我所說，我們還沒有實施管道。似乎有些人認為他們比我更了解管道。我們甚至還沒有決定管道的最終細節。

What I've described this in the past, there's a bell curve of distribution here and depending on which way your bell curve is around. On the one side of the bell curve, we have got a number, quite a number, a significant number of colleagues whose pay needs to be improved and absolutely has to be. And it's a historical issue. It's been there forever. And it's the cause of the higher churn rate, if you like, in technicians in particular.

我過去已經描述過，這裡有一條鐘形分佈曲線，取決於您的鐘形曲線的方向。在鐘形曲線的一側，我們有很多、相當多、相當多的同事，他們的薪酬需要提高，而且絕對必須提高。這是一個歷史問題。它一直都在那裡。如果你願意的話，這也是造成較高流失率的原因，尤其是技術人員。

So the investment that we're talking about and we'll be making over the next few years, a big chunk of that is to address that left-hand side, if I've drawn the bell curve that way. On the other side, there's a much smaller number, much fewer technicians who have very high pay. And we have to move to a world where people who are doing similar jobs get similar pay.

因此，我們正在談論的投資以及我們將在未來幾年進行的投資，其中很大一部分是解決左側的問題，如果我是這樣繪製鐘形曲線的話。另一方面，薪水很高的技術人員數量要少得多，也少得多。我們必須進入一個從事相似工作的人獲得相似報酬的世界。

We just have to. It's the only fair way to do it. It's not right to do it any other way. But we need to do that carefully. We need to do that thoughtfully. We need not to change these things radically. We need to think about, well, what sort of transition period and what sort of impact. But it's not the same saying your most highly paid technicians are your best or most productive.

我們只需要這樣做。這是唯一公平的方法。採取其他方式都是不對的。但我們需要謹慎行事。我們需要深思熟慮地這樣做。我們不需要從根本上改變這些事情。我們需要思考什麼樣的過渡期以及什麼樣的影響。但這並不代表薪水最高的技術人員就是你最好或最有生產力的技術人員。

They may be the best and most productive or they -- maybe they've been there a long period of time, and they've got a very lucrative route. There's a whole bunch of reasons. So you're right. Will there be a number of technicians when we get to the final design of the pay plan and implement it, who will be less happy? Yes, there will be some. Will there be a bigger number who are much happier? Yes, which is why we're doing it, but we will end up with a single pay plan that works for the vast majority of our people.

他們可能是最好的、最有生產力的，或者他們——也許他們已經在那裡工作了很長一段時間，他們有一條非常有利可圖的路線。有一大堆原因。所以你是對的。當我們最終設計出薪酬方案並實施時，會有一些技術人員會不高興嗎？是的，會有一些。會有更多的人變得更幸福嗎？是的，這就是我們這樣做的原因，但我們最終將制定一個適用於絕大多數員工的單一薪酬計劃。

So we made similar changes in Rentokil North America several years ago, and at some point, you've just got to make the change. So I think it's net good news but within net good news, there will be some unhappy so, I'm sure, but we're trying to keep that to that to the minimum. But don't forget the synergies that we'll be delivering, big chunk of that is because we need fewer people to run routes. So we do need to lose some colleagues at some point over the next 2 to 3 years. We'll take this as the last in the room for now, and then we'll move to online. So...

因此，幾年前我們在能多潔北美地區做出了類似的改變，到了某個時候，你就必須做出改變。所以我認為這是淨好消息，但在淨好消息中，肯定會有一些不高興的事情，但我們正在努力將其控制在最低限度。但不要忘記我們將提供的協同效應，其中很大一部分是因為我們需要更少的人來運作路線。因此，我們確實需要在未來 2 到 3 年的某個時候失去一些同事。我們暫時將其作為房間中的最後一個，然後我們將轉向線上。所以...

Chris Bamberry from Peel Hunt. Both you and Rollins have mentioned increased sales and marketing spend by competitors and I suspect everybody is just spending a bit more in a softer market, but any additional flavor you could give on that would be appreciated.

來自《皮爾狩獵》的克里斯·班伯里。您和羅林斯都提到競爭對手增加了銷售和行銷支出，我懷疑每個人只是在市場疲軟的情況下多花一點錢，但如果您能就此提供任何額外的風味，我們將不勝感激。

Yes. I'm not sure there's more I can say. We have our plan, and we know exactly where we're planning to spend it. We know what search terms, what markets, what regions, what campaigns. We know how we're trying to drive our organic as well. I have no clue what competitor A, competitive B or competitor C is doing, but they will have their own plans as well, precisely as we head into the season. Yes, I think you might be right that in a slightly weaker market, people have up their spend and it's not just companies that you've named. Others have done it as well.

是的。我不確定還有什麼好說的。我們有自己的計劃，我們確切地知道計劃把錢花在哪裡。我們知道什麼搜尋字詞、什麼市場、什麼地區、什麼活動。我們也知道我們如何努力推動我們的有機發展。我不知道競爭對手 A、競爭對手 B 或競爭對手 C 在做什麼，但他們也會有自己的計劃，就在我們進入賽季時。是的，我認為你可能是對的，在市場稍微疲軟的情況下，人們增加了支出，而且不僅僅是你提到的公司。其他人也這樣做了。

And it's back to the earlier question at the back of the room. It is a local thing. So people will be taking their local decisions, which search terms they want to go after. There's not much I can add to it because then we're trying to predict the future.

這又回到了房間後面剛才的問題。這是當地的事。因此，人們將做出本地決定，即他們想要搜尋哪些搜尋字詞。我沒有什麼可以補充的，因為我們正在嘗試預測未來。

And there is search terms, as I'm sure you're familiar, in paid search, you're really talking auctions. So if I decide to go after term, A, because I think that's going to be the most important term in market B, and someone else thinks exactly the same. Well, the cost to get up to the top of the leaderboard on that goes up, which is why you never talk about what terms you're going to go after. So probably, to a degree, I think you answered your own question there. I think it is people pushing for more inbound lead flow in a slightly softer market.

還有搜尋術語，我相信您很熟悉，在付費搜尋中，您實際上在談論拍賣。因此，如果我決定選擇術語 A，因為我認為這將是市場 B 中最重要的術語，而其他人也有相同的想法。好吧，登上排行榜榜首的成本會上升，這就是為什麼你從不談論你要追求什麼條件。所以，在某種程度上，我認為你可能在那裡回答了你自己的問題。我認為是人們在市場稍微疲軟的情況下推動更多的入境鉛流。

Online. So I'll take a couple of funding ones first and then a price one just to give -- yes, well, maybe that too. But could I ask what your funding plans are going forward, particularly with respect to your projected M&A? That's from [Matt Artemis].

在線的。所以我會先接受一些資金，然後再提供一個價格——是的，好吧，也許也是這樣。但我可以問一下你們未來的融資計畫是什麼，特別是你們預期的併購嗎？這是來自[馬特·阿耳忒彌斯]。

We're going to -- we've put in our guidance circa 250 million of bolt-on M&A. As you can see, that's affordable from free cash flow. That would be our plan for 2024, just has been our plan for '23-'22 going back into the distant path. So yes, we'll continue to fund bolt-on M&A from free cash flow. And as you've seen with our net debt-to-EBITDA well under control, we're pretty comfortable with that.

我們已經將大約 2.5 億美元的補充併購納入我們的指導中。正如您所看到的，自由現金流是可以承受的。這將是我們 2024 年的計劃，也是我們 23-22 年回到遙遠道路的計劃。所以，是的，我們將繼續從自由現金流中為補充併購提供資金。 正如您所看到的，我們的淨債務與 EBITDA 的比率得到了很好的控制，我們對此感到非常滿意。

Would you consider using -- issuing a USD-denominated bond given your business exposure that's from [Ian Wood] Invesco. Yes, absolutely. Are we are looking to refinance our euro bond in November? It is probable, we'll do that in the U.S. market and just raise very straightforward U.S. dollars. And that's the reason we got the second rating in 2023, so that enable you need ratings to raise money on the debt capital markets in the U.S. So those are the 2 funding ones.

鑑於您的業務來自[Ian Wood] Invesco，您是否會考慮發行以美元計價的債券？是的，一點沒錯。我們是否打算在 11 月為我們的歐元債券進行再融資？我們很可能會在美國市場這樣做，並直接籌集美元。這就是我們在 2023 年獲得第二次評級的原因，因此您需要評級才能在美國債務資本市場上籌集資金。

Michael Hoffman has got 3 questions, 2 for you, 1 for me, Andy, what's the status of your seasonal hiring and expectation of employee and customer retention in 2024 relative to '23? What's the expectation of incremental margins in North America and sales leads from technicians? How many of these are recurring and what percentage of existing customers buy more than 1 service?

Michael Hoffman 有 3 個問題，其中 2 個問你，1 個問我，Andy，相對於 23 年，您 2024 年的季節性招聘狀況以及員工和客戶保留率的預期如何？北美增量利潤和技術人員銷售線索的預期如何？其中有多少是重複出現的？

So I'll deal with the margin question. Look, as we've said, we expect margins to modestly accrete in 2024. If you look at our performance in 2023 and our midst to our guidance arising out of the organic growth rate, the organic growth rate here is quite hard versus those targets. We think it was probably circa 40 basis points of margin, was that downgraded organic growth performance. And so naturally, with a range of 2% to 4%, we're pretty cautious about margin guidance in 2024.

所以我將處理保證金問題。正如我們所說，我們預計 2024 年利潤率將小幅增長。 。我們認為，有機成長績效的下調可能導致利潤率上升約 40 個基點。因此，我們自然對 2024 年的利潤率指引相當謹慎，範圍為 2% 至 4%。

So modestly accrete and relatively -- if you look at that 2% to 4% range, and we're saying we're going to be at 2% in Q1. We're not going to get a lot of margin accretion, if any, in H1. So that's the way to think about incremental margins in North America. Seasonal hiring and leads, Andy?

因此，相對而言，成長是適度的——如果你看看 2% 到 4% 的範圍，我們會說第一季將達到 2%。上半年我們不會獲得大量利潤成長（如果有的話）。這就是考慮北美增量利潤的方式。季節性招募和銷售線索，安迪？

Yes. seasonal hiring. I mean, it is very early doors, isn't it? We're only into whatever it is the 1st week of March. The only data I have, Michael -- by the way, early morning for you. The only data I've got first off, the historical metric that Rentokil is always used is actually colleague retention. The historical metric that Terminix always used was churn, right? And are you fully staffed? So we still look at both of those.

是的。季節性招聘。我的意思是，現在還很早，不是嗎？我們只關註三月的第一周。邁克爾，我擁有的唯一數據——順便說一句，是凌晨給你的。我首先獲得的唯一數據是能多潔始終使用的歷史指標實際上是同事保留率​​。 Terminix 始終使用的歷史指標是流失率，對吧？你們人員配備齊全嗎？所以我們仍然關注這兩個方面。

The data I've seen suggests that the improvements that we saw and I've talked about this morning in terms of North America and Terminix colleague retention, technicians has continued in the start of this year. So we've not seen it get any worse. It's continued to improve. I don't have a number. And then the -- looking at it through the other lens in terms of are we fully staffed, Terminix has always run a model of how many branches are not staffed to the level that they want to be. And again, all I can say is that as we sit here in early March, that is at an improved level versus the same period last year.

我看到的數據表明，我們看到的以及我今天早上談到的北美和 Terminix 同事、技術人員保留率方面的改進在今年年初仍在繼續。所以我們沒有看到情況變得更糟。它正在持續改進。我沒有號碼。然後，從另一個角度來看，我們是否配備齊全，Terminix 一直運行一個模型來計算有多少分支機構的人員配備未達到他們想要的水平。再說一遍，我只能說，當我們三月初坐在這裡時，與去年同期相比，情況有所改善。

So it's fine, it's improved on where it was last year, but you never get to fully staffed in pest control. You just never get to 100% having every person in every role every time. But I would say, gently improving trajectory would be my answer, given I'm only seeing very high-level data.

所以這很好，比去年有所改善，但你永遠無法配備足夠的蟲害防治人員。你永遠無法讓每個人每次都 100% 扮演每個角色。但我想說，鑑於我只看到非常高水準的數據，溫和地改善軌跡將是我的答案。

The technician leads onetime or contract...

技術人員領導一次性或合約...

Yes, it's a good question. The tech leads -- if you do tech leads versus what comes by the web, go back to first principles. Our business is a portfolio business, which roughly speaking, in North America, 70% of our revenue is under contract, 30% of our revenue is onetime jobbing, so roughly 70% contract.

是的，這是一個好問題。技術領先－如果你做的是技術領先，而不是網路帶來的領先，那就回到首要原則。我們的業務是組合業務，粗略地說，在北美，我們70%的收入是合約制，30%的收入是一次性工作，所以大約70%是合約制。

Technicians are calling on existing customers. So technicians are calling on that 70% of the revenue, that's our installed customer base. So technician leads typically you're trying to sell an additional service that we can add to your contract. Occasionally, we'll sell you a onetime job. Customer, you've got mosquitoes, we'd like to add it to your service. Would you like that? Yes, great. That's gone into contract.

技術人員正在拜訪現有客戶。因此，技術人員需要 70% 的收入，也就是我們的固定客戶群。因此，技術人員通常會嘗試銷售一項附加服務，我們可以將其添加到您的合約中。有時，我們會向您出售一份一次性工作。顧客，您有蚊子，我們想將其添加到您的服務中。你願意嗎？對，很好。那已經簽訂合約了。

I don't want to add it to my contract, but I want a mosquito service this month that goes into jobs. So on the left-hand side of the model, as a tech leads typically feed into contract revenue. On the right-hand side, it's much more variable. Customer has pest problem, urgent pest problem, doesn't have pest control provider. Got a wasp nest, I want it sorted now. That will typically be a job or it will start life as a job.

我不想將其添加到我的合約中，但我想要本月的滅蚊服務能夠投入工作。因此，在模型的左側，技術主管通常會納入合約收入。在右側，它的變化更大。客戶有蟲害問題，緊急蟲害問題，沒有蟲害防治提供者。有一個黃蜂巢，我想現在就整理一下。這通常是一份工作，或者它將作為一份工作開始生活。

Our ambition then is when the customer buys the job, we will try to convince them actually a better solution for them is to move to a contract, a year-end protection plan. So even if it starts life as a job, we're hoping to convert it into a contract. But specific to tech leads, tech leads are for existing customers, and they typically feed into your contractual base rather than onetime jobbing.

我們的目標是，當客戶購買這份工作時，我們將盡力說服他們，實際上對他們來說更好的解決方案是轉向合約、年終保護計畫。因此，即使它一開始是一份工作，我們也希望將其轉化為一份合約。但具體到技術主管，技術主管是針對現有客戶的，他們通常會納入您的合約基礎，而不是一次性工作。

And then I think just a couple more questions, and I think we've probably wind it up. Firstly, from Sylvia Barker, JPMorgan. I'll take this one. How does the 2% to 4%, say, North American growth guidance split price and volume. And then I finish -- I think we finished with (inaudible) Clinton. Is there a structural reason longer term why roll-ins would be able to grow organically than you in North America pest control. So I'll leave you to finish up with that. But I'll take that, Sylvia, 2% to 4%, it's a range. We are consistent in our position that we will recover cost inflation through price.

然後我想了幾個問題，我想我們可能已經結束了。首先是摩根大通的西爾維亞·巴克 (Sylvia Barker)。我要這個。例如，2% 到 4% 的北美成長指導如何區分價格和銷售。然後我結束了——我想我們已經結束了（聽不清楚）柯林頓。從長遠來看，是否有結構性原因可以解釋為什麼滾入機能夠比北美害蟲防治的有機成長。所以我會讓你來完成這件事。但西爾維婭，我認為，2% 到 4%，這是一個範圍。我們的立場是一致的，即我們將透過價格來彌補成本通膨。

And clearly, cost inflation is lower in North America than it is in most other places. So that will be a declining element of the mix relative to 2023 and 2022. But we don't forecast inflation. We'll take it as we go. I've explained many times that we price on a monthly basis and will reflect on pricing, to reflect the cost inflation we're seeing in front of us at that moment. So clearly, within that mix, volume growth is going to be modest, but I think that's something you can easily infer. Andy?

顯然，北美的成本通膨低於大多數其他地方。因此，相對 2023 年和 2022 年，這將是組合中的一個下降因素。我們會一邊走一邊接受它。我已經多次解釋過，我們按月定價，並將反映定價，以反映我們當時所看到的成本通膨。很明顯，在這種組合中，銷售成長將是溫和的，但我認為這是你可以輕鬆推斷出來的。安迪？

The answer to the question is no. But I might give you a bit more than that. Is there any reason why Rollins or any other lovely competitors in North America have a structural growth advantage over us. No, absolutely not. Rollins is a fabulous company. I genuinely mean that. I think they're a great company. We admired them as a competitor for years. They basically have the same model operating in the same market. They believe in colleague retention, great service, customer retention, selling additional services to their happy engaged customers.

問題的答案是否定的。但我可能會給你更多一點。羅林斯或北美其他可愛的競爭對手是否比我們擁有結構性成長優勢？不，絕對不是。羅林斯是一家出色的公司。我是真心實意的。我認為他們是一家很棒的公司。多年來我們一直欽佩他們作為競爭對手。他們基本上在同一市場上經營相同的模式。他們相信保留同事、優質服務、保留客戶、向滿意的客戶銷售附加服務。

And they're in national account, SME, commercial, residential and termite in exactly the same market as we are. The difference is I've gone through today. We're considerably bigger than them. We believe that we're the innovators in pest control. And we think that gives us an edge. And I haven't mentioned today, we're opening our brand-new innovation center in Dallas, Texas in about 4 weeks' time. We're excited about that. But no, there's absolutely no reason for that, and I've already shared why I think structurally over the next few years, you will see Rentokil and Terminix in North America emerge as a powerhouse in that wonderful market in the United States.

他們的國民經濟、中小企業、商業、住宅和白蟻市場與我們完全相同。不同的是我今天已經經歷了。我們比他們大得多。我們相信我們是害蟲防治領域的創新者。我們認為這給了我們優勢。我今天還沒有提到，我們將在大約 4 週後在德州達拉斯開設一個全新的創新中心。我們對此感到興奮。但不，絕對沒有理由這樣做，我已經分享了為什麼我認為在未來幾年的結構上，您將看到北美的 Rentokil 和 Terminix 成為美國這個美妙市場的強大力量。

So with that, thank you all. I appreciate we've gone a bit long, but we had a lot to cover and a lot of questions that needed to be asked and some misinformation out there that needed to be dealt with as well. So happy, appreciate we've gone long, but that was for very good reasons. Thank you all for coming. See you next time.

就這樣，謝謝大家。我很高興我們花了一點時間，但我們有很多內容要討論，有很多問題需要提出，還有一些錯誤訊息需要處理。很高興，感謝我們已經走了很長時間，但這是有很好的理由的。謝謝大家的到來。下次見。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。