Zotefoams H2 2025 Earnings Report

Zotefoams EPS Results

• Actual EPS: GBX 38
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Zotefoams Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Zotefoams Announcement Details

• Quarter: H2 2025
• Date: 3/17/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 9:30AM ET

Zotefoams (LON:ZTF), together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and sells polyolefin block foams in the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, North America, and internationally. The company operates through Polyolefin Foams, High-Performance Products, and MuCell Extrusion LLC segments. It offers AZOTE, a polyolefin foam under the Plastazote, Evazote, and Supazote, AZOTE Adapt brands; and various high-performance foams manufactured from fluoropolymers, engineering polymers, and specialty elastomers under the ZOTEK brand; and Ecozote foam for plastic products that offers circularity and reduce reliance on fossil fuel-derived raw materials. The company also provides T-FIT, a clean insulation system; and ReZorce circular packaging, a range of mono-material barrier packaging solution. In addition, it owns and licenses microcellular foam technology, as well as sells related machinery. The company primarily serves the automotive, aerospace, medical, product protection, industrial parts, marine, building and construction, sports and leisure, military, athletic footwear, food and personal care manufacturing, pharmaceutical, biotech, semiconductor cleanroom, and consumer packaging industries. Zotefoams plc was founded in 1921 and is headquartered in Croydon, the United Kingdom.

Zotefoams H2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Strong 2025 financials: Group revenue rose 7% to £158.5m, adjusted operating profit grew 26% to £22.8m with margins up 220bps to 14.4%, EPS +46%, and cash from operations +31%—supporting a lower leverage of 0.8x and a renewed £90m revolving credit facility.
• Positive Sentiment: Strategy execution and expansion are accelerating: a renewed leadership team, the earnings-accretive OKC acquisition (integration underway), and active rollout in Asia (Vietnam factory + Korea innovation center) to unlock long-term footwear and regional capacity growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Customer and product concentration risk remains material—around 40% of 2025 revenue came from a single footwear customer (Nike) and management expects footwear volumes to "normalize" in 2026, creating near-term demand variability despite management saying OKC and other growth will offset it.
• Positive Sentiment: Capital allocation and growth targets: strong working-capital discipline and 82% growth-directed CapEx (North America and Asia) funded an accretive acquisition, management targets >£300m long-term revenue with ~£80m from M&A while keeping disciplined buy-and-build criteria.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Zotefoams plc 2025 preliminary results investor presentation throughout this recorded meeting, investors will be in listen-only mode. Questions are encouraged they can be submitted at any time. Just use the Q&A tab on the right-hand corner of your screen. Just type in your question and press send.

[Operator]

Due to the significant attendance on today's call, the company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself however, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we'll publish those where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll, and I'm sure that the team will be most grateful for your participation. It gives me great pleasure to hand over to CEO Ronan Cox. Ronan, good afternoon.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Good afternoon, Mark, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Ronan Cox, Group CEO of Zotefoams. With me is Nick Wright, our Group CFO, who will take us through the financial details shortly. I'll start with an overview of our performance and strategic progress. Nick will then cover the financials in more depth, particularly the margins, cash, capital allocation, before i return to wrap up and lead on Q&A. Before we do that, quick disclaimer.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You've all read through this before as always, today's discussions may include forward-looking terminology actual outcomes may differ. Let's go to the first slide, please, Nick thank you. Before we dive into the detail, you know, really in summary, 2025 was a really strong year for Zotefoams, financially, operationally, and indeed strategically.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Importantly, the strategy that we launched at our Capital Markets Day back almost one year, a year ago, I think 20 March 2025, that strategy is gaining momentum. I wanna be very clear from the outset that the strategy is not moving one bit. What you're seeing from the results that we present today is the execution of a plan that we are already committed to. There is no change in direction.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

A really critical enabler of that execution has been a fundamental renewal of the leadership team. Over the last two years, we've built an entirely new group of leaders across the business, bringing in specialists from the industries that we are now focused on. People from footwear, people from the likes of automotive, aviation, advanced transport, and industrial applications.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

These are leaders that understand our customers. These are leaders that understand the applications and the operating realities of the markets that we see as are the most attractive for our product. You know, we are starting to move at pace. With that, we'll dive into some of the detail. In summary, 2025 saw strong revenue growth and record profitability.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The slide captures both the outcome and I guess the quality of the year. Group revenue was up 7% with really strong growth in EMEA. We had a more importantly, we translated that growth into record earnings. Our adjusted operating profit increased by 26% to GBP 22.8 million, and our margins expanded by 220 basis points.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Cash generation was super strong, and our leverage reduced to 0.8x as we refinanced the business with a GBP 90 million multi-currency revolving credit facility. That is giving us substantial headroom in the business.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Nick will take you through all the main margin drivers. He will take you through cash conversion, and he will touch on the balance sheet in more detail the headline is pretty simple. This was a year of profitable growth, and it was supported by good cash generation and really good discipline across the organization. If you go to the next slide, please, Nick.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

This is just taking us back to the Capital Markets Day, and the strategic highlights. As I said at the outside, nothing has changed from the strategy that we laid out just one year ago. At the CMD, the strategy was clear. It was about expanding beyond the core that strategy, I'm pleased to say, remains exactly the right one, in my view, for this business.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

What's changed from then is actually our ability to execute. We now have the right leadership. We have got clear accountability, and we have an operating model that is aligned to markets rather than to products. We are materially closer to our customers. We are sharper in things like prioritization, and we are more disciplined in where we invest, both organically and inorganically.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Underperforming everything that we do, I should point out, is our priority one in terms of health and safety, and we continue to make real strides in our health and safety culture across the organization. Nick, if we could go to the next slide, please, and we're gonna turn to EMEA.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know, this was another record year for our for what has been always the primary region for the business, but that is changing. This year, our growth was again driven primarily by Consumer & Lifestyle, and particularly footwear. Although we did see solid progress in Transport & Smart Technologies in EMEA it's important to call out one point, and that is that European demand outpaced our our ability to actually supply in 2025.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

In fact, demand was greater than our available capacity in the year. Now, this is not a weakness. It's really a consequence of the strong customer pull and really successful execution across the business. Margins were slightly lower year-on-year, and that reflects some deliberate choices. Deliberate choices like reinvesting in people and capability, embedding that industry-led model, and then on top, obviously, absorbing some inflationary impacts and some Forex movements, all while trying to protect and improve the service to our expanding customer base.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We also saw an initial contribution to revenues in the year from OKC for the short number of weeks that they were with the business. You know, that revenue came as we look to integrate them into a unified European operating model, which we continue to work on as part of that integration. This is a business that's being positioned for the next phase of growth rather than a business that's being managed for short-term margin optics. Those investments are really key for the long-term growth of the overall group.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

If we go to the next slide, please, Nick. Then turning to North America. The North America result is really, I think, a really good example of how our strategy translates into material results. Revenue grew by 7%, but profit nearly doubled and margins expanded materially. That reflects essentially a better mix, strong execution, particularly in the transport and smart technologies area, including aerospace, and indeed cost discipline.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The commissioning of the second low-pressure vessel, which was a major investment for the US facility, gives us capacity, and indeed it gives us optionality to support future growth there. This is not a cyclical recovery this really is a structural improvement in our North American business, and I continue to believe that we've got a lot of runway for growth in that particular market.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

If we move to the next slide. Asia. Asia, the numbers are small, but Asia is indeed strategically important for Zotefoams' long-term growth, and indeed execution is already underway significantly in Asia to, as we look to expand our footprint and really lean into the footwear market. In Korea, work has started on the Footwear Innovation Center. We've taken possession of the facility, and we're already fitting that out and getting it ready to receive initial innovation equipment we've already got some 70 members on the ground.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

All coming from the footwear industry, experts in their field who will be working on the next generation of innovations for us in that area. They are working directly with customers already on developments for future products and collaborating closely also with the newly formed Vietnamese team. In Vietnam, we entered in 2025 into a partnership with Seoheung, a Korean business specialist in footwear, part of the Jungshin Group.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We've already started to prepare our facility, which just lies outside Ho Chi Minh City. Our first hires have already joined, and as I've mentioned previously in previous announcement, Brandon Thomas is leading that business for us. He joined us from Nike, and he has already started to build his team in Vietnam. I'm really pleased that we're starting to move from planning into execution. If you can see the slides in front of you, in the bottom right is the rendering of the new facility. Much of that already exists. The large shed at the very back, you'll see there are two factories, effectively.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The one in the foreground, the large one in the foreground in the middle of the screen, I guess, is already there, and that's being fitted out and ready to receive significant manufacturing equipment. Vietnam is not just about unlocking growth in Asia. It also frees up constrained capacity in Europe, allowing us very much to support the demand that we weren't really able to serve fully in 2025.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

This is disciplined, capability-led expansion, it's delivered by teams with direct experience in building operations in the region. You know, this is not us sending people from the UK over to Vietnam we are hiring sector specialists, regional specialists in Vietnam, specialists in building factories who are driving this investment forward for us.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

If we go to the next slide, please, Nick. Just to zoom out and look at globally the verticals. In 2025, we fully embedded that industry-led model that we outlined at the Capital Markets Day. Consumer and Lifestyle remains our largest vertical, and footwear within that very, very important volumes in 2025 were exceptional. We've planned for a normalization of that demand in 2026.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

What matters most is that strategically, you know, the relationship that we have with our key customer here is getting stronger and stronger. We, with our investment within innovation, with our investment in Asia, we see that we're getting earlier involvement in design cycle engagement. Indeed, this allows us to grow our pipeline of opportunities with our customer even greater with that proximity and with that investment in innovation.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I'd just add that OKC actually brings more customers also into this vertical, but not in the area of footwear, principally in the area of swimming, flotation, and buoyancy aids and quite a significant business that they have in Europe for those products and those markets.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

In transport and smart technologies, performance continues to be strong, and that's supported very much by aviation and aerospace and other very technically demanding applications. It's a vertical that's got very, very long development cycles, and we've got pretty good visibility. This is really where Zotefoams' technical capability is a clear differentiator we have real technical advantages in this particular vertical. OKC's company profile business will also add a lot into this area so this is out of their facility near Barcelona it's manufacturing known cross-linked foams, profiles.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

With a really good presence in the auto sector in Europe. Construction and other industrial was mixed, and we had expected that. We were deliberately selective in the way that we addressed that market, prioritizing margin and returns over just top-line sales growth. I would also add that OKC here also strengthens our position further up the value chain as they're supplying into some very interesting construction end markets.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

It's clear that the structure is delivering clarity, it's delivering accountability, and it's allowing us to better allocate resources across the business. If we go to the next slide, please, then, Nick. Just touching then, I've mentioned OKC a few times. You know, the acquisition of OKC really fits squarely within our strategy. It strengthens the European footprint.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

It moves us further up the value chain and adds capability, customer access, and I think gives us optionality. We've increased our numbers. You'll see. If you circle back to [unintelligible] numbers, you'll see that we've increased our numbers to reflect the addition of OKC. That's not a change in our strategy. That is just the strategy being executed, which is wonderful to see.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

OKC is earnings accretive. The integration is progressing well. We've integrated their commercial teams, and it's starting to provide a blueprint for future acquisitions. There will be more M&A. However, we will remain incredibly disciplined we'll be very selective, and we'll make sure that it is consistent with our strategy. Now, with that, I'm going to hand over to Nick, who will take you through the financials in more detail, including margins, cash generation, leverage and capital allocation. Nick, over to you.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Thank you, Ronan, and good afternoon. I'm very pleased to be here for the first time presenting Zotefoams' full-year results. I joined the group last September and have been pleasantly surprised by what I've seen. If anything, I'm now even more convinced by the potential of the business.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

2025 was a year of outstanding performance across all key metrics. Group revenue increased 7% to GBP 158.5 million, with a strong sales performance and an initial contribution from our first acquisition, OKC, which completed in November. Adjusted operating profit, excluding exceptional items, increased 26% to GBP 22.8 million, reflecting revenue growth supported by disciplined cost control. Adjusted operating margin was 14.4%, up 220 basis points.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Adjusted profit before tax increased 39% to GBP 21.2 million, driven by higher operating profit and lower net finance charges. Adjusting items totaled GBP 1.1 million, down from GBP 15.2 million in 2024 when we took an impairment charge on closing the MuCell Extrusion business. Statutory profit before tax was GBP 20 million, a significant improvement from the prior year.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Adjusted earnings per share increased 46% to GBP 0.38, and statutory earnings per share were GBP 0.464 compared to a loss of GBP 0.057 in the prior year. These headlines demonstrate the quality and momentum in our business. Let me now take you through the financial performance in more detail. As I mentioned, group revenue increased 7% to GBP 158.5 million or 8% in constant currency.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

More significantly, gross profit grew 15% to GBP 52.9 million, demonstrating strong operational gearing. Gross margin improved 220 basis points to 33.4%. There were three key drivers. First, we benefited from more favorable product mix. Second, we implemented selective price increases to offset cost inflation. Third, we delivered operational efficiencies, including managing inventory, improving utilization, and exercising strong cost control.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

SG&A expenses increased 8% to GBP 30.3 million. Within this, distribution costs decreased 3.5% to GBP 8.2 million as we focused on reducing inventory and relied less on external storage. Admin costs increased GBP 2.6 million to GBP 22.1 million, or GBP 1.4 million excluding the impact of foreign exchange. This reflects investment in our teams as well as higher wages in an inflationary environment.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

These increases were largely offset by stopping development spend on ReZorce, which brought non-recurring operating costs down by GBP 4.9 million, and this is being redeployed into our core innovation and commercial activities.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Looking at the breakdown by region, operating profit in EMEIA increased 4% to GBP 25.4 million, with a margin of 20.5%. While revenue growth was strong at 9.4%, the lower margin reflects investment in talent as well as cost increases due to inflation. In North America, operating profit almost doubled to GBP 3.5 million, as did the segment margin to 11.6%. This was driven by revenue growth and the reduction in ReZorce costs along with better cost discipline.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Operating profit in Asia of GBP 0.2 million reflects a reduction in revenue due to lower demand in construction in China. This demand started to improve in the second half, which has continued into the year. We expect Asia to be a significant growth driver once our new manufacturing facility in Vietnam is fully operational.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Adjusting items of GBP 1.1 million comprise GBP 0.9 million of MuCell closure costs and GBP 0.2 million of amortization relating to the OKC acquisition. Net finance charges decreased 41% to GBP 1.7 million as a result of lower average net debt balances through the year, reflecting the group's strong cash generation. Adjusted EBITDA increased 39% to GBP 21.2 million, and on an adjusted basis, the tax charge was GBP 2.6 million, resulting in an effective tax rate of 12.3%.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

This was down from 19% in 2024, reflecting the benefits of tax relief on R&D and two years of Patent Box claims made during 2025. Adjusted profit before tax increased 50% to GBP 18.6 million. This translated into adjusted earnings per share of GBP 0.38, up 46%. We have proposed a final dividend of GBP 0.0535, bringing the total dividend to GBP 0.0785 per share, up 5% on 2024. These results demonstrate a strong operational delivery and financial discipline.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Let me now turn to cash generation and our balance sheet. Cash generated from operations increased 31% to GBP 39.7 million, demonstrating the high-quality cash generative nature of our business. A key driver of this was excellent management of working capital. We reduced net working capital by GBP 7.4 million, which is around three times more than the prior year. Inventory decreased by GBP 4.5 million as we reversed a buildup of stock in 2024.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Trade and other payables increased by GBP 4.5 million as a concerted effort to agree more favorable payment terms, and trade and other receivables increased by GBP 1.6 million, slightly lower than revenue growth thanks to strong collections. This disciplined approach to working capital has freed up cash to support our strategic growth initiatives. Capital expenditure increased 4% to GBP 14.2 million, and importantly, 82% of this was directed to growth opportunities rather than maintenance.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The increase was mainly driven by strategic investments to expand beyond our core businesses. 46% was allocated to the ramp-up of our second low-pressure autoclave in North America and 34% to the footwear business in Asia, specifically in Vietnam and Korea. Geographically, North America accounted for 60% of the total spend, with footwear Asia representing 34% and EMEA accounting for the remainder.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Maintenance CapEx was significantly below our depreciation charge, as our established plants are well-invested and require funding only to ensure operational reliability and maintain a safe working environment. Return on capital employed increased 13.9%, up 220 basis points. Net debt, excluding the impact of IFRS 16 leases, increased 31% to GBP 31.5 million due to the acquisition of OKC, which was funded from existing financial resources.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The initial cash consideration was EUR 27.6 million, with up to EUR 8.4 million of deferred and contingent payments linked to future performance. Despite the acquisition, our leverage ratio improved to 0.8x, down from 0.9x at the end of 2024. Strong cash generation has enabled us to complete an earnings accretive acquisition while maintaining a robust balance sheet.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

In January this year, we successfully renewed our revolving credit facility with Handelsbanken and NatWest on improved terms and added HSBC to the syndicate. Our new GBP 90 million multi-currency facility has a GBP 30 million accordion and a renewal date of January 2029. Turning now to the movement on net debt. We started the year with net debt of GBP 24.1 million. During the year, we generated GBP 39.7 million of cash from operations.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

This strong cash flow more than covered our capital expenditure, financing costs, taxes and dividend. As I just mentioned, we invested GBP 14.2 million in capital expenditure, and the acquisition of OKC represented a cash outflow of GBP 23.4 million. Importantly, the acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive in 2026, its first full year within the group.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We paid GBP 3.7 million in dividends during the year, and there was a net outflow of GBP 1.6 million from other items, mainly comprising lease payments under the Seoheung agreement. This brings our closing net debt position to GBP 31.5 million, GBP 7.4 million higher than the start of the year as we deployed cash to fund the OKC acquisition. I'd like to close by summarizing our approach to capital allocation.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We deploy capital to drive long-term sustainable growth and create value for our shareholders, and this slide sets out our priorities. First, we are investing in geographic expansion and innovation both in the UK and Asia. We're building a scalable platform using technology to drive efficiency and improve return on capital employed. Second, we intend to maintain our progressive dividend policy. Third, we have a disciplined approach with high hurdles for M&A in line with our strategy. Fourth, we will return any surplus capital if this represents greater value for our shareholders.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

In summary, we delivered strong revenue growth and record profits as we managed costs well despite. We're pleased with our strong cash generation, improved working capital and higher return on capital employed. We made our first acquisition, which will be earnings accretive in 2026, and we have done that while maintaining a strong balance sheet. Our leverage ratio remains low at 0.8x. Finally, we have re-refinanced our revolving credit facility, giving us financial flexibility to invest in future growth. Thank you very much, and I'll now hand back to Ronan.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Perfect, Nick thank you for that. As we move into summary and outlook, just to summarize 2025, it was a year of delivery and of gaining momentum. We executed the strategy that we set out. We delivered record results. We strengthened the platform for long-term growth. It has been a really key year. If we go to the next slide, please.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We delivered record revenue profit. We managed through the capacity constraints while also investing for growth. We strengthened Europe through OKC. We've moved our footwear business to Asia from concept and into execution. We have built a stronger and a more specialist leadership team. This is a materially stronger business than it was 12 months ago.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

If we go to the next slide, and we just look at outlook. We've entered 2026 with good momentum. Our footwear volumes will normalize, and we've planned for that. We've discussed it before, and we have planned for it. What matters is that the business is now more diversified by market, it's more diversified by geography, and it's more diversified by application, and we have got improving balance across the portfolio.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The integration of OKC and the freeing of European capacity through the investment in Vietnam and the continued disciplined investment also give us confidence in our medium-term targets. In summary, the strategy is unchanged. The capability to execute it indeed is stronger, and the pace across the business is increasing. With that's the end of our slides. Thank you, and I'm happy Nick and I will be happy to take any questions.

[Operator]

All right. Thank you very much indeed, Ronan ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions using the Q&A tab situated on the right-hand corner of your screen. Just like to remind you, a recording will be available post today's meeting. Ronan, Nick, you've had a number of questions from investors throughout today's presentation. Thank you to everybody for your engagement. Ronan, if I may hand back to you and ask you to read out the questions, I'll pick up from you at the end. Thank you.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Yeah. Very good. Okay, first question. We'll try and go top to bottom as much as we can.

[Analyst]

What percentage of your revenue came from Nike in 2025?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Nick, do you have that?

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

In 2025, it was around 40% of revenue.

[Analyst]

Okay. You mentioned footwear volumes were moderate in 2026 as customer normalized inventory. It's not just necessarily about inventory, but what is expected magnitude of this transition, and will the OKC contribution be enough to offset it?

[Analyst]

Yeah, work backwards on that. Yes, OKC would absolutely more than offset it, but it's not about OKC offsetting it. Actually, we've got growth opportunities in other parts of the business. Net debt, without OKC, we would offset any moderation or normalization of the demand in footwear. Adjusted operating margins rose to 14.4%. Aside from the ReZorce exit, what are the primary drivers required to reach your medium-term ambition of more than 18%?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

There you go, Nick. How do we get to 18%?

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Okay. There's a few things. Utilizing the additional capacity that we have in North America, make sure that we've got that up to full capacity. There's quite a bit of self-help that we are doing, so I talked about use of systems and technology and building a scalable platform. There's a lot we can do to be more effective, efficient, improve our planning and how we operate. Seeing the benefits of the growth coming through both outside of footwear in EMEA and the US really drives that operational leverage and improves margins over time.

[Analyst]

Okay. Good. You've set a clear target of reaching more than GBP 300 million in revenue in longer term ambition given the current 7% growth targets plus, you had set GBP 230 million by 2029, what is your expected split between organic growth and M&A to bridge that GBP 70 million gap, and which geographic regions do you see as the primary engine for that extra growth?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Okay, just a slight qualification on that. We, so we had originally at a Capital Markets Day set our organic target for 2029 at GBP 200 to 220 million the GBP 300 million was with inorganic, so with M&A, on top of that. We are remaining consistent with the organic growth, and we can see that continuing.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Yes, essentially to take us from GBP 230 million to, let's say, an upside of organic to GBP 220 to 300 million, then that's around about GBP 80 million would come from inorganic, so therefore from M&A. I think that answers it.

[Analyst]

There are quite a few questions at the moment about the impact on raw material prices, on chemical export risk, on polyethylene prices, on energy costs. Nick, you're heading up a working party that's ensuring that we're completely fit for that do you wanna just talk about the exposure, immediate and then how we're setting ourselves up?

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Yeah, of course. In the short term, we're pretty well hedged in terms of energy usage for the next six months and maybe slightly longer in Spain. We have raw materials around us, and we have no goods that are currently in the Gulf. All of our shipping that goes to Asia does not go through the Straits. We don't have any immediate exposure.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

However, if the ongoing situation leads to ongoing increased input prices, we will have to reflect that in our pricing to our customers. Longer term, we could see increased transport costs. Our transport costs are relatively low, but we could see costs to that which we would have to pass on obviously we will if the oil price feeds into feedstocks.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

if it remains elevated, then we will have to pass that on to our customers. The business has demonstrated its ability to do that as always. It's never easy, but the market, we will pass that on we are focusing very much on making sure that we maintain our margins over the next few months.

[Analyst]

Very good. Thank you. With the new GBP 90 million credit facility, what specific capabilities or geographic gaps are now the highest priority for your next acquisition?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Our focus is on North America and in Europe. I think, you know, we're pretty open to opportunities that are in our focused industries, and we've got seven focused industries. We will be attracted by technologies and also perhaps forward integration where it increases our runway for growth. Our opportunity to increase our addressable market. Essentially North America and EMEA. You know, whatever we do, we'll stick very closely with our strategy. Complementary technologies, complementary products moving along the value chain.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We are looking across, as I say, the various different industries and different stages of value addition within those supply chains. We continue to fill the hopper with opportunities in there geographically, it's really clear. Seven industries is where it will be. The precise nature is more down to what's available and we're talking to people at various different parts of the value chain.

[Analyst]

How do you see the recent 25% increase in Polyethylene? Well, I think we've addressed the point in terms of material price increases. I think back to your point, Nick, we're on it.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

It's very important that we protect our margins and as we see things flowing through then we will address that.

[Analyst]

Please give the percentage of your cost of goods sold in terms of raw material costs by each major material.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We wouldn't go into that level of detail. It clearly differs across the different substrates, but that's a level of granularity that we wouldn't want to go into.

[Analyst]

Can you quantify the expected revenue and profit reduction in footwear in 2026 over 2025?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Again, we don't delve down into those specific seven different industries. What we've said is that the business will normalize. We see some moderation there. Following in behind that, what we also are clear on is that there's other business that can make up for any normalization in that demand.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We actually anticipate that demand to remain fairly stable as we go through the sort of strategy period as we move more and more volumes from Europe across to Asia. Obviously huge growth potential in Asia, North America profit margins are substantially below 20%.

[Analyst]

Can you drive the U.S. and Asian margins towards European levels?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I would say yes. There's a lot about operational gearing. You know, as we fill facilities, and particularly as we fill North America, we can see that there's a very significant flow from top line down to profit, and that's because of the operational gearing.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Asia, we would have similar ambitions in terms of as we scale up our facility there, around footwear. It's essentially about driving the utilization of our facilities that's hyper important indeed, as we take capacity out of Europe and transfer that demand across to Asia, that's why we're looking to backfill the demand as well from business that perhaps we haven't satisfied as well as we would have liked to have in the past.

[Analyst]

What are the three key messages you'd stress to new institutional investors taking a stake?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

What I would say, I suppose it depends on those that are their stage of knowing the business. I think the first thing I would say is that, you know, our technology is expanding and our addressable market is expanding. You know, once upon a time, we had a particular way of manufacturing our products and that has evolved significantly over the last 10 years.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

The likes of the sort of technical collaboration that we've had with Seoheung has allowed us to open up many more opportunities for the market so the addressable market has increased. I think that's the first thing. I think that two is, you know, we lean into many of the big mega trends of the moment, particularly around sustainability everything that we do goes into essentially protecting products, it goes to protect people, and in many ways it goes to protect the planet because its carbon intensity is much less than many of the competing substrates.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I think the third thing is that, you know, we are building a really great team here. You know, we have had a great team. This is a fantastic business. It's been operating for over 100 years. There's a lot of talent in the business. I inherited a lot of great talent there are great people across the organization. Very, very clever people.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know, they have been honing their skills and we're entering a new era actually, where the data that we have accumulated over 100 years, we're now able to actually harness it and use it with the likes of AI, which we're deploying across the business in very material ways i think that it's of our moment as we're able to tap into that wonderful heritage and technical ability and skills across the business. I think the final one, we'll add a fourth one, is that we're not a one trick pony. Actually, I'm gonna add two we're not a one-trick pony, so we're diversifying our portfolio, so our customer base.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I think the next one is, and it was tied in probably with an earlier point, is that our return on capital is improving. You know, this has been a very capital hungry business for a long time. The advances in technology around what we do are really attractive and we're leaning into those, particularly in the Vietnamese investment we can see that happening and how that allows us to improve the returns on invested cash in the business.

[Analyst]

Oh, what will your tax rate be going forward, Nick?

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

As I explained, our tax rate on an adjusted basis this year was significantly lower than before. We would expect it to return back to a much more normal rate of 24% to 25% going forward.

[Analyst]

Very good. Has there been any progress in the alliance with Shinseil that was announced in May 2024?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

In fact, I think the alliance with Shincell has allowed us to take a much more nimble capital, like flexible approach to building the facility in Vietnam. They've given us knowledge and access to new emerging technologies and variants of technology we don't copy what they do, but we've learned a lot from what they do, and we've been able to layer that on top of our 100 years' worth of knowledge, and that's catapulted us forward. I think it's been massively productive.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We would've spent many years trying to replicate some of the development work that's happened in that particular area so i think it's been incredibly valuable. I'm delighted with the progress that we continue to make around that. Okay.

[Analyst]

Has OKC opened up many cross-selling opportunities?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

It has. We've integrated the commercial teams. You know, the acquisition was at the end of last year. We integrated commercial teams in February we've already seen some very early cross-selling successes, so yeah, absolutely, 100%.

[Analyst]

How much of the cost base is committed to innovation versus SG&A, et cetera? Nick, do you have the details at hand for that?

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I don't have the specific details, but we are increasing our investment, as we said, in Korea, and we are also building our new innovation center in Croydon those two are gonna account for quite a bit of investment in the coming year. As Ronan said, we have a number of talented people already that are working in innovation, but we are adding to that team both in Korea and in the UK.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Very good. I love this next question.

[Analyst]

There's a lot of publicity around the recent introduction of Lidl carbon running shoes for EUR 50. How do you see that affecting sales of Nike products and consequently your supply for them?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know, I don't think that's gonna have a material impact. I don't think that we're gonna see necessarily world record-beating athletes wearing Lidl shoes anytime soon. However, what it does highlight, and one of the reasons that Lidl have done it, because they're also looking at using supercritical foam in those shoes, is absolutely for the environmental credentials.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Yeah. Lidl is incredibly driven by using recycled and sustainable materials. I would say that that's very much at the heart of what they're doing versus necessarily thinking that they're gonna win the London or Boston or New York marathons.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

They're recognizing that the old way of making shoes ain't good. If anything, I think it's really cool because it highlights the fact that supercritical foaming is a much more sustainable way to achieve a really top-class shoe. The foam that's in their shoe, I don't think it's gonna be setting records but fair play to them for recognizing the environmental credentials of what we do. All right.

[Analyst]

How confident are you that Vietnam commissioning will be relatively trouble-free?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I've been around the block a few times i've been involved in quite a few factory setups. I've learned many mistakes. I've been in the middle of them. There will be surprises for sure. But I am very confident in the team that we have assembled in fact, you know, as we commission this, we don't just commission it and then start putting product out our customer is with us every step of the way. They are-

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

-helping review the manufacturing processes they are willing us on to success we've got incredible teams both inside the business, also from our customer, but also from our partner, Seoheung, which is incredibly important. They have got 40 years experience in making shoes. They've got 30 years experience in Vietnam, and that's why we're involving all the people that we're involving will it be without trouble? Definitely not. Will it go well? I absolutely believe so.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know, it's these things are challenging, but we've got a wonderful team assembled of both Zotefoams' folk, but also our partners in the form of customers and obviously our partner in the form of Seoheung. I'm gonna leave that one to the end that's a good one to finish with.

[Analyst]

How is the company dealing with the ever-changing landscape? Could trade tariffs affecting Vietnamese exports to the U.S. disrupt the new hub?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Basically, no. If you look at the FOB value of a pair of shoes, and I'll not go into it, but labor probably accounts for roughly one third of that. Labor costs in Vietnam versus the US, you can imagine, are significantly lower, probably a 10th if not a little bit lower again.

[Analyst]

Any tariff on the FOB export value of goods going from Vietnam to the US will not have a, you know, it will never lead to the re-establishment of footwear manufacturing in the US?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Not at all. It's, you know, tariffs are higher on Chinese goods to the US than Vietnamese. If anything, what we're seeing is more migration from the likes of China to Vietnam or Indonesia we may see more migration to India. But for the moment, Vietnam is a net recipient of volumes from China, and I expect that to continue China continues to manufacture roughly 60% of all athletic footwear in the world.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

With Vietnam at 20% and Indonesia at 10%. What we'll see is more movement from China, probably to Vietnam. This supply chain will never be re-established in the West, not certainly in my lifetime. Okay.

[Analyst]

Has your house broker offered an opinion on why the stock is so lowly rated?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

There you go, Nick. That's one for you.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I think what our focus is really as Ronan has highlighted is on delivering the strategy and execution. We're delivering good results. We're really pleased with what the business has achieved in 2025. We're optimistic about the future. I think if we can continue to deliver, then the valuation will take care of itself.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Very good. Let's just see.

[Analyst]

What skill sets are still missing in the management team? Where are you focused on recruitment?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I think the first thing is that we can't scale this business based on just an executive team. We're very focused on the senior leadership team we've assembled a new senior leadership team in the group, so that is group wide, and there are 40 or 45 folk in that. We will bring that team together very, very soon.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

It is important that if we are to scale this business that it is much more than just seven people sitting on the executive team that's driving this forward our focus is really developing the existing talent and bringing new talent into the senior leadership team if there were two areas that get an oversized proportion of investment at the moment, well, three I think get an oversized portion of investment.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

One is innovation, for obvious reasons. Two is business development, and three is around health and safety, because as we expand, it's important that we really continue to lean into that. We're all learning all the time we're bringing new skills in all the time we just recruited a wonderful AI expert.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

He's a 24-year-old college graduate who's coming in, and he's transforming our world with AI. So the world moves fast, and we're always looking to bring in great talent into the business and see where we can drive our growth faster.

[Analyst]

What further opportunities do you see with your footwear customer, different line opportunities?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know, running is the absolute sweet spot, but we continue to work across different sectors our foam is particularly adept at, you know, people running fast in a relatively straight line, but we have got onto basketball programs. There are likes of tennis. You know, we work across all the different categories at our client. We will continue to innovate. Where we see opportunities and the ability to add value and technical performance, then we will continue to do that.

[Analyst]

What range of CapEx will be required to add a bolt-on business to achieve the GBP 90 million of additional revenue to hit the GBP 300+ million of turnover?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

It's not really CapEx.

[Analyst]

What range of CapEx will be required to add a bolt-on business to achieve the GBP 90 million of additional revenue? How much does it cost to buy a business with GBP 90 million of revenue, Nick?

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

We paid [unintelligible] EBITDA at OKC, and we paid around about the same, sort of, 1x revenue. I think you can do the math.

[Analyst]

Yeah. Okay. Can you provide a bit more information on your product and plans?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know what? We've got a few minutes. I'm gonna do this because I like this slide. Sorry, everyone, bear with me. I hope I haven't hit it too many times. Okay. Sorry, this will go to answer the question, trust me. Okay all right sorry go back.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

There you go. Here, here's an idea. Okay. You know, we're all about reducing weight, we're about providing insulation, we're in a safety critical fire safety applications. You see the, you know, use in and around, Airbus. You see in, so in seating, in armrests, in some insulation installations. In Boeing, you will see used in business, particularly around business class seating those pictures on the left are gaskets for windows, but also used in plenums and also in ducting, so stuff that you don't see.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

On the right, which is really cool, there's a rocket on the right-hand side, and that thing is draped from top to bottom. It's got a nice layer of high performance foams around it. Quite a lot of different applications. You know, over the last 15 to 20 years, the team here at Zotefoams have been developing incredible specifications the great thing is that specification in aviation sees it move into space-type applications. Okay.

[Analyst]

Are you using Kaizen or similar techniques to drive operational efficiencies?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I would say that it's not, we're not in a material way at this point. It is something that some of the leadership team that have come into the business have great experience with and are absolutely chomping at the bit to get at. You know, we've got some basic fundamentals that we're really sorting out, which is also very neat. We continue to look at the less complex areas of driving productivity. For sure there's a real opportunity for things like Kaizen.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

If we look at actually what we're doing in Vietnam, and our partners are absolute masters in Kaizen, and they are helping us set up those processes in Vietnam in fact, we'll probably be taking some of that learning back into the legacy businesses.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Okay. Then the last question is from Bob M. and it is:

[Analyst]

What is your ambition for 2030?

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know what? We're just gonna keep our foot on the gas. We're gonna drive as hard as we can. We're gonna drive organic growth. I think that the strategy is a good one. I think there are lots of really interesting inorganic opportunities out there.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

You know, I would set our stall out at being more than GBP 300 million, I would. But you know, the key for us is just execute every day here. You know, I've got a real sense of hope and ambition and confidence in what we have here in the business and the team. We're just gonna keep driving hard i wouldn't wanna limit ourselves to any number at 2030 i know that we publish some, but whatever it is, we always wanna go a bit further. With that, I think I've managed to answer all the Q&A. I hope. Okay, thanks okay it's double my hope.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

I'm not allowed to comment on those things at all. You create your own thing. Yes.

[Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

That's great. That's great.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Okay. Wonderful. Listen, thank you very much. Mark, over to you to help us close out.

[Operator]

That's great. Ronan, Nick, thank you very much indeed for updating investors i was gonna ask you for feedback, but it looks like Bob has beat me to the chase.

[Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director at Zotefoams]

Yeah.

[Operator]

Thank you, Bob. Ladies and gentlemen, if I could please ask you not to close this session as we'll now automatically redirect you so that you can provide your feedback and also the company can better understand your views and expectations. This may take a couple of moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Zotefoams plc, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation.

Participants

Executives

• Nick Wright, CFO and Executive Director
• Ronan Cox, CEO and Executive Director

Analysts

• Analyst