Ecolab Inc.

Greetings and welcome to Ecolab's first quarter 2021 earnings release conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode.

A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation.

If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero from your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mike Monahan, Senior Vice President, External Relations. Thank you, Mr. Monahan. You may now begin.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ecolab's first quarter conference call. With me today are Christoph Beck, Ecolab's CEO, and Dan Schmeckel, our CFO. A discussion of our results, along with our earnings release, and the slides referencing the quarter's results are available on Ecolab's website at ecolab.com slash investor. Please take a moment to read the cautionary statements in these materials, which state that this teleconference and the associated supplemental materials include estimates of future performance. These are forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially from those projected. Factors that could cause actual results to differ are described under the risk factors section in our most recent form 10-K and in our posted materials. We also refer you to the supplemental diluted earnings per share information in the release. Starting with a brief overview, the first quarter showed continued sequential business improvement that was offset by the Texas freeze. Adjusted EPS were 81 cents. That EPS included the impact of short-term supply chain and customer disruption from the freeze that were estimated to be 10 cents per share. The healthcare and life sciences segment showed further strong sales growth. The industrial segment experienced a modest sales decline as its growth was offset by the freeze impact. The other segment significantly narrowed its sales decline from the fourth quarter, and the institutional and specialty segment sales decline narrowed slightly from the fourth quarter as sales trends within our U.S. institutional business improved through the end of the first quarter. Our markets are broadly improving, and the increasing rate of vaccinations, along with the easing of social restrictions, provides further support for the global economic recovery. We expect that broad improvement, leveraged by our investments and the work we have done to further our critical innovation, service, and digital business drivers, as well as our cost efficiency measures, will help drive strong comparisons against 2020 results over the balance of the year and result in 2021 adjusted earnings per share that exceed 2019 adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations, excluding the estimated 15 cents per share impact from the Texas freeze. Over the past year, we've seen the value of Ecolab's premium product and service expertise once again underscored through continued strong new business growth, as well as our strengthened customer relationships. despite the difficult market conditions. Our position as leader in food safety, clean water, and healthy environments has become even more important. We believe this position, along with our strong long-term growth opportunities, remain robust, driven by our huge remaining market opportunity, our leading global market positions, our focus on providing our strong customer base with improved results while lowering their water, energy, and other operating costs, And through that, our ability to help them meet their growing ESG ambitions. We believe these sustainable long-term business drivers will continue to yield superior long-term performance for Ecolab and our investors. And now here's Chris Tuff back with his comments. Thank you so much, Mike. And good afternoon, everyone. I'm very pleased with our first quarter, which was right in line with our expectations. Excluding the Texas freeze, which we discussed earlier, our business continued to show solid fundamental improvement that gives us confidence in our full-year outlook. Our underlying business momentum as well as margin development kept improving across the board, leading to strong results in the first quarter. Excluding the short-term impact of the Texas freeze, our Q1 adjusted EPS showed a significantly narrowing decline versus the prior year, continuing our improving quality trends. It's also ahead of what we delivered in Q1 2019, which is a good indication for our expected full year delivery. We did all this while continuing to invest in our major growth initiatives and in our global team capabilities to leverage our position as the markets reopen. Excluding the freeze, all segments stayed strong or showed continued sequential improvement. Our fundamental business trends kept gaining momentum, especially in our institutional division, which saw a definite pick up as we exited March. Our industrial segment, which was most impacted by the Texas freeze, delivered improved underlying growth trends versus the fourth quarter of 2020 and continued to further strengthen its margin. Headscan Life Sciences maintained their strong double-digit growth and solid margin improvement. This good start strengthens our confidence for the full year and beyond. Our general market outlook remains largely unchanged versus what we said in previous calls. North America and China are moving ahead of our previous expectations, while Europe and several emerging markets remain behind as they recover from extended lockdowns and are still impacted by a rather slow pace of vaccinations. So while the exact timing of the global reopenings might shift a few months, which might also shift some of the recovery into Q3, we expect strong growth in the second quarter, driven by improving end markets and accelerated underlying growth momentum. We expect these trends to continue in the second half of the year. Our objective has been to start the year in a position of strength, and Q1 shows we clearly achieved this. Our net new business pipeline increased to record highs, and our global market shares are strengthening. Our differentiated innovations are continuing to help our customers protect their consumers, and our world-class programs help them preserve vital natural resources while generating very attractive financial returns. And with our new Ecolab Science Certified Assurance Program, we have become the brand that reassures customers and consumers in times they need it the most. All this underscores our confidence that we are on a path to deliver fully 21 adjusted EPS ahead of 2019 EPS, excluding the estimated 15 cents impact of the Texas freeze. Looking beyond the pandemic, our long-term position is better than ever. In a world where hygiene standards are rising, where food safety and infection risk awareness has reached new levels, where the expected gap between water supply and water demand is water than ever, our differentiated value proposition as the global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention services and technologies positions us uniquely to capture these accelerating growth trends. The combination of this unmatched value proposition and the breadth of our comprehensive offering makes us the obvious partner for global companies to help them deliver on their most ambitious sustainability commitments. Our ability to serve customers at 3 million locations in 172 countries with 25,000 dedicated underground experts in 40 industries allows us to deliver the same standards of quality and performance anywhere around the world. And our new business pipeline, breakthrough innovation, unmatched digital footprint, world-class scientific expertise, and passion for exceptional execution will continue to lead to sustained growth momentum and continued double-digit earnings growth for the years to come. look forward to your question so mike back to you thank you that concludes our formal remarks as a final note before we begin q a we plan to hold our 2021 investor day on thursday september 16 in st paul operator would you please begin the question and answer period yes thank you we'll now be conducting the question and answer session we ask you please lend yourself to one question and one brief follow-up for callers that others will have a chance to participate

If you would like to ask a question at this time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad and a confirmation tone will indicate your lines in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions.

Thank you.

Our first question will be coming from the line of Tim Mulroney. with William Blair.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Tim.

Hi, Christoph. I know everyone's expecting a strong recovery in the institutional segment in the second quarter, and particularly given the easy comparison that you have with last year. But I'm curious if you could maybe talk about how the recovery in that segment is unfolding on a global basis. U.S. institutional performing recently relative to some of your other major global markets? And how do you see that playing out through the second quarter?

Thank you, Tim. So on institutional, net-net, it's happening as expected. We had the U.S. and China that are ahead of our expectations, as we can read as well in the news. And on the other hand, so we have Europe and a few emerging markets that are behind, as we can see, with restrictions, with lockdowns, with the slow pace of vaccinations, especially in Europe as well. So that's the balance that we are trying to manage. When I think about how institutional did during the first quarter. We saw a nice pickup in March. It's being confirmed in April right now in the second quarter. So net-net Q2 should be more or less as expected. eBay's one caveat might be so. The timing of reopening in Europe and some of the emerging markets, that might shift some of that growth in Q3. But for the full year, I confirmed the outlook the way we described it in the previous call.

Okay, that's great. Thanks. And as my follow-up, can you just talk about within the institutional segment how your customers that are open, how they're spending? I know this has been a common theme that folks have asked on a conference call, but curious on your updated thoughts. Are customers spending more than they were relative to pre-COVID levels on things like hard and soft surface cleaners, where I know that there's maybe some elevated demand? And do you think, you know, eventually that demand returns to pre-COVID levels, or do you think that it settles somewhere above pre-COVID levels, given the emphasis on virus protection and the like? Thank you.

Good question, Tim. So our focus, as you know, is on our corporate accounts. So those are chain customers, regional or global customers. Those are the ones who have weathered the pandemic better than others as well. Most of them are investing in new units. or in the refreshing of current units as well, which bodes very well for our business for today and for tomorrow. To your question on the hygiene products, basically the way we think about it is that it's going to be a bit less than during the pandemic, where the measures obviously are going to be a little bit different. less strong than what we've experienced over the past 15 months, but it's going to be higher than what we've experienced pre-pandemic as well. So net-net, we think that our position in institutional has strengthened, and the customers that we serve are going to be in a better position as well. Our next question is from the line of Manav Potniak with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Yeah, thank you. Good afternoon. I just wanted to touch on your comments around Europe, if you could just elaborate a bit more in terms of, you know, I know pre-pandemic, you know, it was structurally, I guess, just a little gold area and, you know, there was some competitive dynamics. So I was just curious if you see any of that changing once we do get this, you know, rebound or reopening.

Hi, Manav. So to your question on Europe, so Europe had a good year last year. So in 2020, we had flat sales overall. We had our profit margins that went up as well. So overall, I was very pleased with the business development that we saw in that critical region so far. And if I look at 2021, it's kind of an on-off approach that they are having so first i'd like to put on the side to the uk um which has partly reopened uh as we know so way ahead in terms of vaccinations versus continental europe so uk we see saw a good development over there continental europe so most of the countries are in complete lockdown so most of the large countries have curfews um even as well that's true for germany and for france uh for instance as well so most if not all of the restaurants and hotels are for the most part closed um which is something that's going to change hopefully before the summer they're all talking about reopening in order to protect the summer season um i hope that that's going to be true It's going to be a bit later than what I had expected ultimately here, but then it's going to drive a rebound, which is going to be positive in Q3. So as mentioned before, we might have some of the growth we were expecting in Q2 shifting to Q3, but all in all, so for the full year, it's going to be similar than what we had thought.

Okay, got it. And then the other question I just had, Christophe, was on water. I know it was, you know, 3% growth backing out the Texas greens. But, you know, just given, you know, just the water scarcity issues out there, you know, I was just curious, you know, can water grow just like life sciences and healthcare is growing just given, you know, the need out there? Or are there any limitations to get to that kind of growth rate?

Yes, for water. So you mentioned it. So 3% X the Texas freeze. It's important as well to keep in mind that within water, you have light industries, heavy industries. Both are growing. X Texas are in mid-single. plus which is very good in q1 and you have mining which is still in the negative territory since we exited some of our cold business but even mining is going to come back in a nice way i think in the next few quarters and years for sure and to your point on water scarcity we see always more customers coming to us and asking us how to help them reach their net zero objective that they have for 2030 or for 2050, which is right in line with our ESG promise of the company and offerings of our customers. And that's going to feed as well, I think, the momentum for water in the years to come.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Manav. Our next question is from the line of David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your questions. Thank you. Christophe, you discussed the pressure from raws you're seeing and the pricing you need right now to offset that and when that might equalize prices versus raws? Yeah. Hi, David. On the rolls, it was pretty benign in Q1, as we've shared. But if we look at the full year, if we look at the indices that you read too, it's obviously much more than what we had expected initially. But when I step back and look at the overall picture, it's roughly kind of a mid-single growth in terms of cost for our overall rolls spent, which is More than what we had expected, but something that we had experienced in the past as well. We know and we have the capability to price for that in a good way. You know that we price to our customers based on value that we create as well for them, which means that we do that as well over time. It's not a rapid shift over a month. Take it some time. And just as a reminder, we try to get the dollar value, so within 12 months back, and the margin in percent, so in 24 months of the second year. So the way we look at it today for 21 might be a slight net negative, but I'm not even sure about that. Our teams are good in doing it, and what we're seeing right now is nothing exceptional versus what we've experienced in the past. Very good. Can you discuss the competitive intensity in the marketplace? One of your competitors is now public. Talk about your share gains you saw in Q1 and what you expected as you go through the year versus perhaps a more public-profiled competitor. So I'm really happy with the share gains that we're having in most, if not all, businesses. Actually, we're tracking the number of units that we are serving, the number of solutions that we're serving to existing units as well. And we've talked about that over the past few quarters. That was an objective for the whole team during the pandemic to gain share that when it reopens, we can leverage, obviously, that opportunity. that pick up and that's happening as we expected, which is really good. And you're right. So one of our competitors has become public over the past few weeks. We're very familiar with them. We've been competing with them for many, many years. We respect them a lot as well. And I would say they make us better because we need to be better than them. And when you think about it, we overlap in less than a third of our end markets. We're five times larger. We invest 10 times more in R&D and digital than they do as well. So I feel really good about what we can do for our customers and how we're gaining shares versus them on the marketplace.

Thank you very much.

Our next question is from the line of Rosemary Marbelli with GE Research. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon, Rosemary.

So, Christophe, what would be the likelihood that you could be close to the 2019 level of 512, including the heat from the freeze and outside of Europe recovering? Or do you need Europe to open its doors to all Americans coming

vaccinated and we are all going there in order to uh to help you guys uh what do you need in order to do better than what you are looking at uh currently so right now i feel uh very good about uh delivering this 2019 adjusted eps excluding the the texas freeze as you as you mentioned uh the q1 delivery saw has increased our confidence uh to deliver that As mentioned before, there might be some shift between Q2 and Q3 because of the timing of reopening in Europe, as you mentioned. But overall, with everything I know right now, I think that the delivery as we described it is the right target. If things improve in Europe better than we all think, well, We will definitely try to gain more momentum. But for now, I think that the 2019 EPS delivery would be a good target excluding Texas.

Okay, thanks. And then looking at SMB, could you talk a little bit in more details of the different segments or areas in that particular segment?

So F&B had a good year last year. It's one of our best businesses, as you know. So good growth, good margin, good margin improvement of the whole industrial industry. and segment uh obviously did uh as well fnb had a strong start um in 2020 when um the pantry loading so was happening um in the first quarter and a little bit beyond as well so we have some uh comparisons uh challenges right now but underlying i feel good about where um fnb is going it's A little bit different by end market. So we had the milk products that were impacted for a while because of schools being closed. That's improving progressively, so which is good. We see beverage and brews, beers, improving in some places, especially in the U.S., but be very strong in Latin America where everything is closed. So that's going to be good for the future. That's a little bit less good right now. And in the food segment, that's where we have strong comparisons versus the previous year, where it pressures a little bit of the year-on-year comparison. But net-net's a Q1, so it feels a bit softer because of the comparison. But underlying, and especially when I look at the new business being generated in F&B, the next few quarters are going to show some good delivery as it used to be as well in the past.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you, Osmai. Our next question is from the line of Gary Bisbee of Bank of America.

Pleased to see you. Here's your question.

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. I guess the first question is, Can you just give us an update on where we are with the cost savings program? Sort of what have you achieved to date? What's likely to be achieved in 2021? And then how much savings are left from those big programs for beyond 2021? Thank you.

Thank you, Gary. I'll pass it to Dan, so who has the details. But generally, the likes of the progress that we've made in our cost savings program, which are all meant to strengthen our performance post-pandemic as well. So if anything, things have progressed better than we had expected. But with that, Dan, maybe some more details. Sure, Gary. Thank you. Just for common reference maybe, it's probably helpful again to build up the pieces of our cost savings program, which you'll recall was originally announced clear back in 2018 as Accelerate 2020.

This was the initiative to capture the investments in our digital offering with a $200 million cost savings target.

We expanded it at the time we announced the Champion X spin, covered things like stranded costs and anticipated costs related to Champion X. We expanded it again to cover some aspects of supply chain industrial business, and most recently to cover some restructuring, really some reshaping maybe of our institutional business to improve principally field delivery. You add all that up, and we have a targeted cost savings of about $365 million. Some of that is in gross margin. The big bulk of it is in SG&A. Year on year, you know, the incremental piece that we expect to capture in 2021 is in the neighborhood. If you look just at the SG&A piece, $120 million-ish range. That's a big help in 2021. Mind you, you know, there's a lot of – 91, I'm sorry. There's a big piece that is captured, but the net of it is that we think that this entire program will essentially be delivered by the end of 2021, and there'll be pieces of the institutional program that's still to 2022, but the bulk of it will be fully accrued and fully delivered by the end of 2021.

Okay, great, thanks. And then the follow-up question, How are you thinking about multi-year growth beyond 2021 as we get more normal performance for the business post-pandemic? Historically, you've laid out a number of long-term aspirational targets. Should we think back to those as appropriate, or can you give us a sense how you're thinking about the multi-year outlook?

Gary, just to make sure I understand your question, so you mean in terms of sales growth and earnings growth, right?

That's right, yeah. I know this year has got easy comps and there's a lot of moving parts, but over the next two, three, four years, are those durable targets still reasonable? Thank you.

Yeah, our ambition, Gary, has not changed. It's really the 6% to 8% organic. It's the 13% to 15% EPS. That has been true for many, many years, and it's not going to change in the future. If anything, our position has strengthened. out there when you think about the rise of hygiene standards, the search for most companies to improve their profile in terms of ESG delivery, net zero in water consumption being one of them, the need for digital solutions as well. So those are all things that are improving our position going forward. So no change in terms of growth expectations for the future. If anything, our position has improved. Greg, thank you. Thank you, Gary.

The next question is coming from the line of John McNulty with BMO Capital Markets. Pleased to see you with your questions.

Thanks for taking my question. In the institutional business specifically, can you speak to the number of accounts that you served this quarter versus the prior quarter and how that may have changed? And then, to that, are you starting to see any early signs of new account or potential customer launches at this point? Or is it a little bit early, given where we are in the pandemic stages at this point?

Good question, John, except that we don't share, obviously, the exact number of accounts or solutions per account that we're tracking on a monthly basis for a long time, actually, for competitive reasons, for the most part. But what I can say is that the number of accounts keep going up, which is good, month after month. which is giving us confidence, obviously, for the growth of our business going forward because it's hard to grow without having more customers buying programs from us. So more accounts, buying more solutions, and one thing I'd like to add as well is the Ecolab Science certified program that we've launched a year plus ago in institutional requires customers to buy most of our solutions in order to qualify for the certification. And this is driving as well penetration of solutions in a good way. And it's helping as well with the retention as well. So going forward. So not only are we gaining a number of accounts and solutions, but we're keeping them as well longer because customers are interested in keeping the certification at the same time.

Is there a way to think about, on the Ecolab Science Certified Program, the difference in total value that you're getting from a specific customer versus one that's not tied into the program? Looking at a like-for-like customer, obviously.

So it depends, obviously, where they're starting from. If they just bought one solution, the gap is way bigger or the opportunity is much bigger. In some cases, with some of our long-term customers, well, they're buying everything from us everywhere around the world. In that case, the opportunity is much smaller. But when I think about it, so Ecolab Science 35 was a program we did not plan to launch pre-pandemic. That came as an outcome of the pandemic where we really recognized that our customers needed some help in order to make sure they could protect their guests. And at the same time, guests coming in a hotel or in a restaurant are looking for more reassurance. And that's going to be true for the quarters to come. So we're measuring as well. So the number of locations that are certified by Ecolab Science certified, it's pretty large. Actually, we're not disclosing that number, but it's by far the number one program in the U.S. Right now, it's generating incremental sales, which is pretty significant as well at the same time. And as you know, we're supporting that as well as the brand in the media, which gets always more recognized by consumers or guests, as we call them in that industry. So all in all, this is really good to grow our market sharing institution.

Got it. Thanks very much for the call.

Thank you, John. Our next question comes from the line of John Roberts with UBS. Pleased to see your questions.

Thank you. Does it matter that COVID isn't significantly transmitted on surfaces or it doesn't matter because cleaning is theater is more important?

Infections can be transmitted, John, in so many different ways. As we know, can be the air, can be what you eat, can be what you touch, can be what you drink, the hands that you're shaking, obviously. So it's true that COVID is mostly transferred through the air. but many other illnesses are transmitted through surfaces or human contact as such. And when I think about infection prevention, well, short term, we all think COVID-19, but mid to longer term, we think about any infection that could happen out there, and surfaces like human contact are a big vector, as we know. One example is that in hospitals, the number one vector of infection is three hands as well not for COVID but for many other infections as well so overall making sure that you reduce the number of infection in a public setting John well you need to have surfaces as disinfected as you can okay good answer and healthcare was five percent excluding one-time sales and twelve percent including could you talk about that difference the main difference uh first of all um i'd like to say so healthcare used to have underlying sales of uh three four percent so pre-pandemic uh getting towards these underlying so five percent plus um is a good step up and you've seen the margins went up as well uh in a good way which is all very encouraging uh for this business now the difference between the the 512 is solely driven by significant deals that we've made with some governments around the world during the pandemic to address obviously the infection risks in the UK, in Germany, in Australia, in New Zealand, in many countries around the world. This is COVID-19 related. So it's tapering off right now. So you start to compare as well against very high growth last year and that business is going to be reduced. We knew that. And then we will get back to the underlying growth of these 5% as you'd think. Great. Thank you. Thank you, John. Our next question is from the line of Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.

Thank you. Dan, can I just ask you about the working capital and how you're thinking about free cash flow this year? Inventory was up about $100 million, $120 million in the quarter versus last year, even though sales were down. I think you mentioned in the prepared remarks that you're building inventory ahead of the recovery. But just how should we expect working capital to trend overall and then ultimately what that's going to translate into for cash?

thank you vincent i'll pass it to dan so uh just in a second you've mentioned it right so on one hand so very happy with the cash flow delivery in the in the first quarter and on the working capital piece it's really so for us uh we want to make sure that we can produce enough product for the reopening uh that's happening in the various states and markets around the world and that has an impact obviously on working capital but with that Then I need to add some comments on that.

Thank you, Christophe. And that might be the answer to the core of your question.

And so inventory, look, internally, we've been very clear that the mistake that we are not going to make is not going to have product, the right product in the right place to serve our customers as their path to reopening accelerates.

Okay. So you're right.

We built significant inventory versus this same time last year, also versus year in 2020. And my guess is that we will continue to because we'll have the right stuff where we and our customers both need it. If you think about the recovery of the business generally, you know, rebuilding the balance sheet means that there will be some pull on inventory. accounts receivable, too, which are in very good shape from a payment perspective. But as people buy more stuff, we'll have more on the balance sheet and accounts receivable. We'll continue to manage our vendors and what we purchase with appropriate discipline. But there'll be an investment in working capital as the business rebuilds, which is to be expected and completely appropriate. The net, though, of our cash flow delivery for the full year, even including the higher level of capex that we will continue to invest in the business in 2021. Our cash flow will continue to be bigger. And also it will be, if you think about the metric that matters most to me in terms of conversion, it will continue to be in the mid 90% range, which I think is a very good number for the company and for the model. Okay.

Okay, thank you. And maybe Christoph, you know, any, any comments on where you are with sort of the bolt on M&A pipeline?

For the M&A pipeline, that's always a difficult question. Obviously, we have a very rich pipeline. We've been working quite a bit during COVID. We've done less transactions for the obvious reasons, but we've done a lot of strategic work. We've built a lot of relationships with targets we have out there. So I feel good about the pipeline we have. I want to absolutely invest in places that are driving higher growth and higher margins. and making sure that we can do that, that valuations that are good for us and for our shareholders. So I feel good with what's to come.

Thanks very much.

Thank you, Vincent.

The next question is from the line of Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer.

Please receive your questions.

Thanks very much. Good afternoon. Just with regard to the Texas freeze, it looks like that lost revenue came at a high decremental margin, if my numbers are correct. Could you please elaborate on just how that impacted? And now that we're near the end of April, have you seen the full 15-cent impact, or is this going to drag on through the fall on through the second quarter, possibly third? Just curious what type of lag there is occurring. Thanks.

Yes, Scott. So the Texas freeze, we expected this 15 cents, which seems to be the right number as we speak. Ten cents have impacted Q1 as we communicated, and we expect the remaining five to impact Q2. We see things really so moving behind us. It's not the perfect science, as you can imagine. So what froze, what was closed, when it reopened, This is something that we can't control as such. But what I like is that things are really sort of back in operations. That's true for our customers. It's true for us and our suppliers as well. The only issue we had was impacting mostly March and April, which was obviously across two quarters. But 15 is the total number, 10 in Q1, 5 in Q2, and it's happening as expected. Thanks, Christophe.

And it appears largely in the industrial segment, where if I back that out, the weather impact, very elevated margins. Just curious, what incremental upside do you see in the segment going forward? It looks very strong since the onset of the pandemic and strengthening things.

You're right that the margin work in industrials has been remarkable. Over the past few years, it was over 300 basis points in 2020, while sales were slightly declining. As you know, so in Q1 next Texas, that was also a double-digit operating increase, which was good as well. And going forward, I believe that that's a winning business. There will be times with raw materials and pricing where quarter over quarter things might lag a little bit. But generally, margins will continue to improve in industrial, especially because the value that we provide to our customers is unmatched. As mentioned before, most of the customers are coming to us, especially in our water business. is to help them reach the esg commitments that they've made for 2030 or 2050 while there's no one else that can truly help them as we can this is something that is driving growth and it's driving margins as well um for us because they need better technology um which is where we invest most in research as well that's where we have the highest margin so It's good growth driven by good natural impact, which is driving as well our margin. So the short answer to your question, margins in industrial are going to keep improving.

Great. Thanks very much. Our next question is coming from the line of Lawrence Alexander with Jefferies. Please receive your questions.

Good afternoon.

Just following up on the margin discussion and the price versus raws, as you look at 2022-2023, should margins be for the entire firm be hitting a new high? It's a great question. So it's hard for us to know exactly how it's going to be in 21, so knowing 22 and 23 will be even harder. You know, the way we drive pricing is really driven by the value that we create for our customers. In other words, how much savings we have them deliver on a year they invest. 10 in our services, and they get 20% or plus back as a return. This is the way we price. It's basically sharing how much value we create for our customers. Obviously, when there are raw material increases like we are and will be experiencing in the next quarters and probably years to come, Well, we add that to the equation. We've been quite successful over the past few years in doing that. That's been one of the reasons why margins have improved so well over the past few years, and especially as well last year. So I don't know how roles are going to be in 22 and 23. But I know that our pricing is going to keep being in the 1% to 2% plus range, depending on how the aromatase market are. But it's never going to go down. It's going to be up in price and it's going to be driving margins up as well over the long term. And then are there any end markets where you have been surprised at the elasticity of demand and where you're seeing a clear trade-off between pricing and organic growth? You mean in a negative manner?

Just, I mean, has anything changed in your framework over the course of the COVID-related disruptions? Have you learned anything? anything new about kind of the end market behavior where you're like, okay, that was not expected.

no if anything uh it's more interest uh on on one hand so driven by this um this this increased trend um of esg of sustainability commitment so what we do for customers becomes even more critical and customers are ready to invest more in order to get more return from a financial perspective but also from a image perspective because they make commitments as well out there but on the other hand It's also in times where cost performance becomes more important. Think about some of the end markets are economically challenged right now. Well, our solutions usually are very handy for those customers because it helps them improve their cost competitiveness because you can do the same thing. work the same outcome or better outcome with much less labor or creating less waste or using less natural resources as well. So it's a good financial deal. So on both sides for customers in most segments, well, they need more of what we do in order to reduce the impact on the environment. And while they do so, they reduce their cost as well, which is even more important in difficult economic times. So in some of the specific end markets, in both cases, this is a good story for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next question is from the line of Andrew Whitman with Robert W. Barrett. Please receive your questions.

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. You had a couple of questions on margins. I wanted to do another one. You had the one on the industrial segment. You had the consolidated margin question. But I had a kind of a two-part question here. On the healthcare segment to start out with, Obviously, you talked about some of the large governmental orders and other things that probably helped your fixed cost leverage in that segment over the past 12 months.

I was just wondering, as those comparisons are now stiffer and the business starts to normalize above historical levels, but starts to normalize from last year at least, if you think that some of the fixed cost leverage goes away, if that's the appropriate way of thinking about that segment margins in the 12 months ahead. And then secondarily, just maybe a little bit more detail on the institutional segment margins. Obviously, the volume declines were significant, and it all makes sense what happened to the margins so far. But on the way back up with the cost reductions and programs that you've put in place, Do you think that when the revenue level gets back to 2019 levels, is there any reason to think that the margins would be any different in that business than they were pre-COVID? Just recognizing that the customer base is probably going to be somewhat changed, maybe not yours so much because of the national accounts, but a lot of changes to hospitality and food service. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Sorry for the long question.

No, that's good. Thank you, Andy. Maybe starting with health care, a very different dynamic, obviously, than in institutional. So in health care, first of all, very pleased with the underlying growth performance, so moving towards these 5%. which was an objective for a long time. It's taken us so many years to get there, and COVID has helped because the infection prevention awareness of customers and patients in that case has gone up very clearly during COVID-19, which is good. So underlying growth, solid in healthcare, and that's here to stay. Second, on margins, very good improvement last year. in some cases helped partly with the one-off, those government deals that we talked about earlier. But I feel really good that margins is going to keep improving in 21 and in the future as well. So this is here to stay. So good story in health care. And for me, that's not the end of the story. It's clearly so up to us to improve it further. That's on health care. Institutional, so very different story. especially so coming out of 2020, which is the business that's been impacted the most in our company. 90% plus of the COVID impact at Ecolab was on institutional division, as we all know, which is 20% of our overall company as such. So when I think about the margins, I'd say two things, Andy. The first one is every quarter it's going to improve and we're going to get a lot back from what we lost in 2020. And we'll get close to where we were in 2019, pre-pandemic. So probably not at the end of this year, but early in 2022. And the second part of your question, so post-pandemic, if I can call it that way, well, we've invested in our organizational development slash restructure. We've invested as well in field technology that's going to help as well the performance. So if anything, the margins of institutional over the midterm should improve versus what we had seen pre-pandemic.

Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Thank you. You too, Andrew. Thank you.

Our next question is coming from the line of Shlomo Rosenbaum with Stifel.

Please receive your questions.

Mr. Rosenbaum, your line is live. Please receive your questions. Sorry. Christoph, maybe you could talk a little bit about the discussion used to be before the pandemic a lot more about the investments that were being made in digital solutions. I know the company didn't want to pull back on investments through the pandemic. Can you talk about what has happened over the last year, where there have been areas of adoption that have been accelerated because of the pandemic and where there might be areas of lag?

Great question. Thank you, Shlomo. Digital has been an important priority for us for many, many years. It started 30 years ago. Actually, it was called differently. Obviously, back then, that was true when we did remote monitoring of pools and spa and institutional. And that was especially true with 3D Tracer, you know, industrial water business as well. And if I fast forward, ultimately, so for 2020, Things have accelerated because in many instances we could not go to customer locations for obvious reasons related to COVID. So customers and our teams have embraced digital solutions even more than before. Keep in mind as well that we've invested over the past five years over $150 million a year in digital. So we were ready for that moment during the pandemic that was more luck than genius. obviously as such, but it came very handy as well as such. So when I think about the three main drivers for us in digital at Ecolab, the first one is to drive customer value. So it's subscriptions, it's Legionella's prevention programs, for instance, as well. They're all driven by digital technology. We sell that technology. This is growing very nicely. The second one, is our field solutions in order to improve the productivity and the value created by our 25 000 people around the world institutional has rolled out everywhere around the world the new platform during covet and that's going to help us as well so um for post pandemic That's what I just answered as well before, which is one of the reasons why our performance in institutions will improve. And the last pillar is the customer experience e-commerce, for instance, that has gained traction in 2020, also because of the remote nature of the customer relationship that we had. um during the pandemic so on all three fronts um good progress in 2020 and when i look at the progress we're making in digital um in 2021 our digital enabled sales are roughly one and a half billion and growing double digit as we speak so a very good story all in all Okay, great.

If I could follow up, is there any progress to note in when the new verticals was going to be kind of the data center area? Is there anything to report on that, you know, over the last year or quarters?

Well, it's been a great story because we've all ended up working remotely on whatever is your system of preference, WebEx, Teams, Zoom, and so on, remote monitoring of applications as well or plants. It's an industry that has been booming, as you can see as well from the numbers from the tech industry that we serve. Early last year, which was also pre-pandemic, we created our global data centers as a dedicated business. which came, luckily enough, so very handy for the pandemic. And since then, this business has been growing strong, double-digit operating income improvement, very strong as well. And interestingly enough, so the customers that we serve, which are the tech companies, the ones that are owning those data centers operations, at the same time have made big commitments in terms of water and carbon savings. Well, this is the work we do for them because that's ultimately where they use the water or emits CO2 because of the energy that they need to use for the computers as such, which has brought them back to us. You've heard from Microsoft as well. They've shared it openly, publicly, so it's not a secret that they've committed for the net zero water by 2030, and that's a plan that we've developed with them. That's all driving the growth in that new vertical, which is very promising. Thank you so much. Thank you, Clement.

Our next question is from the line of Jeff Tsoukakis with JP Morgan.

Please proceed with your questions.

Thanks very much. When you think about the restaurant and hotel business going forward, is the restaurant of the future going to be different than the restaurant of the past or the hotel of the future? That is, you know, there may be distancing rules. There may be other factors. Does the Ecolab institutional business go back to where it was in 2019 in a normal environment? Or does it go to a different place? Is it better? Is it worse?

This is a great question and a fundamental question, and it's not going to go back to where it was in 2019. I think it's going to be better. If I think about our end markets, it's not going to be true for everyone. obviously for individual restaurants during the pandemic financially, so to survive, those ones have had more hardship than the chain customers, which is the vast majority of our business. So corporate account customers, as we call them, or the chains, are the ones who have well-survived the ones who have invested in the operations and the one who are expanding as well in terms of units. This is who we serve first and foremost. So that's a good situation to be in so far. Then to your question on the restaurant or the hotel of the future. To know exactly how it's going to be is hard to tell. But a few things we know. On one hand, so the hygiene standards expected by the guests will be up versus 2019 it's going to be a little bit lower than during the pandemic thank god but it's going to be higher than uh 2019 that's uh pretty sure and we are asking guests or consumers all the time in order to understand so what's happening in their mind and they're clearly telling us that they're expecting higher hygiene standards more theater of clean they want to see clean in action uh in order to feel safe which is which is good Second, the labor shortage is going to become a bigger issue. It was an issue pre-pandemic. It's going to be even more so going forward, as we read in the newspaper. Well, our solutions are helping them deliver more with less labor, which is good as well as such. And the last thing which is harder to um grass completely is how much to take out the delivery um is going to grow it's going to keep growing uh for sure and those are new opportunities for us because those are new businesses uh as well we haven't figured it out completely but i see that as upside so net net for our customers the chain customers it's going to be different than 19 but it's going to be it's going to be better for us as a company going forward okay thank you for that and

What percentage of cost of goods sold are raw materials for you?

It's roughly 45%, but obviously it depends a lot by business. Pest elimination is much lower, as you can imagine, and in some industrial businesses it might be higher, but in average it's 45% for the company.

Thank you so much.

Our next question is coming from the line of Mike Harris with Goldman Sachs. Please receive your questions.

Oh, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. Just a quick follow-up for Christoph. Earlier you mentioned that the first quarter results gave you confidence that you could surpass the 2019 earnings level. I was just curious, I mean, what happened in the quarter that was, I guess, a positive surprise to your internal expectations that boosted your confidence?

Well, thank you, Mike. You know, The bigger question for us for Q1 was to know when, especially in the U.S., the states would reopen. And as you remember, in Q4, the lockdown went backwards in Q4 versus Q3. Well, that was not exactly great news. And still, we improved our performance in Q4 versus Q3. so the question was how is it going to continue um in in q1 and that we didn't know um obviously so as we started uh our year uh at 21 so we were hoping that things would be improving and ultimately they did uh but they did not in january or february they did in march so we were thinking so q1 would be a difficult quarter to compare uh versus q4 so modest improvement ultimately and Next Texas, it was better than what we felt in Q1. So if I look at that, the reopening in the U.S. state is good news. Obviously, so for us going forward, China has been good since the beginning of the year. So those two markets. are really on the positive side of the ledger. On the other hand, so you have Europe and some emerging markets like Brazil or India that are in a more difficult situation. So net-net, it's basically as expected. And the last thing that I would say is that because of the timing of the reopening in Europe, that's going to happen. So towards the end of Q2, some of the growth that we had expected in Q2 might shift in Q3. But all in all, so I feel that net-net, the trends are as expected. Our cost structure is as expected. The timing might be a little bit different than what we had in mind initially. but at the end of the year so it ends up so to this full year delivery that's ahead of the eps 19 excluding this texas impact okay thanks for that color thank you our next question from the line of eric petrie with city let's just do their questions hey good morning christoph hi eric How much of your overall sales are to infection prevention, and if you could, to give a breakdown between institutional and healthcare? So it's roughly 10% for the company, what we call sanitizing products. As such, it had very good growth. last year that was especially true in healthcare, which has a higher percentage, as you would expect. Obviously, disinfection is a bigger part of what we do in hospitals than what we do in hotels or restaurants, as you can imagine. But in both segments, it grew double-digit, and we expect the growth that we delivered in 2021 Overall, to maintain the overall number that we got in 2021, which is a combination of more customers buying more of the sanitation products, but at the same time with a little bit lower consumption. So much higher than what we had pre-pandemic, close to what we had in 2020, and close to the 10% for the overall sales.

And then as a follow-on, how much of your infection prevention chemistries or sanitizing products are based on chlorine, alcohol, or peroxide?

And have you seen any attrition to accelerated hydrogen peroxide?

Yeah, it's one of the applications that we have. So we don't disclose too much of using the formula that we are using as such. The 15 seconds of COVID kill that we launched on the market as well last year, this is an absolutely unique, differentiated application. No one kills COVID-19 in 15 seconds or less than us. So that's been very unique and patented on the market. but what you mentioned so with the accelerated hydrogen peroxide that's one of the solutions we like it as well we use it as well but for us we're going beyond that as well thank you thank you at this time we've reached the end of our question and answer session now hand the floor back to management for further remarks Thank you. That wraps up our first quarter conference call. This conference call and the associated discussion slides will be available for replay on our website. Thank you for your time and participation, and best wishes for the rest of the day.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.