Our Strategy
The strategic priorities that will enable us to achieve our goals and fulfil the substantial growth potential for our business:
Content on this page includes extracts from the Accsys Annual Report 2022, in which more information about our strategy and business model can be read
1. Grow product demand
Developing market opportunities to drive revenue growth.
Our focus:
- Drive sales growth in key markets and categories
- Superior customer relationships, service and support
- Build and protect brands
- Competitive advantage through product sustainability, quality and performance
- Capturing growth from energy & climate megatrends
Relevant ESG material issues:
- Sustainable & quality products
- Energy & climate change
- Governance, management and advocacy
- Responsible sourcing
- Society & Communities
2022 Progress
- 59,649m3 Accoya® wood sold
- Strong underlying market demand drove capacity level volume
- Brand recognition and loyalty growth through Approved Manufacturer Programme (AMP)
- New Accoya® product website increasing customer support and training
- North America market sales ramp-up progressing well, with over 40% sales volume growth
- Accoya® Color sales growth in decking in DACH region
Looking forward
- Increasing North America sales & marketing activity to grow demand and volumes
- Further expansion of B2B activities including AMP and collaboration with distributors and manufacturers
- Increased brand development into B2C space to drive consumer ‘pull’
- Grow Accoya® Color sales as capacity increases
2. Practice manufacturing excellence
Growing our global manufacturing production capacity.
Doing things faster, better, and more safely.
Our focus
- Grow manufacturing position and production capacity in Europe and internationally
- Optimising plants & processes for scalable growth
- Replicating technology with continuous improvement
- Safe operations, everywhere
- Partnering fairly
Relevant ESG material issues
- Sustainable & quality products
- Energy & climate change
- Governance, management and advocacy
- Responsible sourcing
- Health and safety
- People and wellbeing
- Ecological footprint
2022 Progress
- Accoya® Arnhem fourth reactor completed, increasing production capacity by a third to 80,000 m3
- JV with Eastman Chemical formed to construct US Accoya plant with initial capacity of around 43,000 m3
- Ground broken on US plant in Kingsport, Tennessee
- Tricoya® Hull plant construction nearing completion, despite delays
- New Safety strategy, resources and initiatives, with increased awareness and improved reporting
- Improved Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR) of 0.5 from 1.8 in prior year
Looking forward
- Two year construction timeline from March 2022 for Accoya® USA plant activities
- Targeting 200,000 m3 production capacity by 2025
- Completion of feasibility study with PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad for the construction of a Tricoya® plant in Malaysia
- Progression of Safety strategy and safety-first culture, new internal ‘Think Safe, Act Safe’ brand
3. Develop our technology
R&D of product and process-related technologies and IP to protect and grow our leading market position.
Our focus
- Pursuing process technology to enhance efficiency
- Optimising existing products
- Protecting our IP
- Sourcing responsibly
- Lowering resource use and incorporating circular processes
Relevant ESG material issues:
- Sustainable & quality products
- Innovation and technology
2022 Progress
- Continued and expanded IP protection and safeguarding
- Global Technology Centre housing central R&D team to support worldwide expansion
- Accoya® Color production at new Barry site commenced
- Ongoing research into alternative source wood species’ performance
- New automated wood handling equipment installed at Arnhem site to improve handling and efficiency
Looking forward
- Improving process efficiencies, including from new wood handling process and equipment
- Longer-term research into potential for additional product categories as overall capacity increases
- Continue to develop and expand our IP portfolio
- Research into and assessment of alternative raw materials supply options
4. Build organisational capability
To develop our people and organisational capability to enable us to meet our growth objectives.
Our focus
- Talent management: Adding new skills and talent
- Developing our people: Leadership & training
- Engaged workforce
- Living our values and culture
Relevant ESG material issues:
- Governance, management and advocacy
- People and wellbeing
- Fair & ethical conduct
2022 Progress
- Expanded senior leadership, talent and skills to support growth
- Operational effectiveness improvement programmes launched
- Implemented actions to address prior year employee survey feedback
- Recruitment of new operating roles for our teams to operate new capacity at Arnhem and Hull
- Developed compensation strategy to align with growth ambitions
Looking forward
- Evolve organisational structure to enable Group to grow effectively in size and geographically
- Progressive enhancement of processes and management systems (eg ISO 9001, 14001)
- Continued improvements resulting from annual employee survey feedback
- Internal activities to reinforce purpose and values
Our business model:
Giving the world a choice to build sustainably, and creating value for all our stakeholders
Through our sourcing, production, and bringing our products to market, our business model enables Accsys to fulfil our purpose and give the world a choice to build more sustainably.
Our business and products add value at each stage from sourcing through to sale and use, through quality, sustainability, competitive benefits and longevity.
Our Activities
We combine chemistry, technology and ingenuity to make high performance wood products that are extremely durable and stable, and opening new opportunities for the built environment. Our business and products add value at each stage from sourcing to sale and use, through their quality, sustainability, competitive benefits and longevity.
Sourcing
We obtain all our timber for production from certified sustainable, well-managed and fast-growing forests, primarily in New Zealand.
Proprietary manufacturing
We manufacture our wood products using our proprietary low emission, acetylation wood modification process at our existing plant in the Netherlands.
59,649m3
Accoya® wood sold in FY2022
Global sales and distribution
We work with a network of global distributors to get our sustainable wood products to our customers, who utilise Accoya® and Tricoya® materials to create branded products such as windows, doors, decking, cladding, façades and other external applications.
+21%
underlying revenue growth in FY22, which continues to be driven by repeat business
Investing for the future
A key part of our business model involves focusing on growth of our business and production in order to take advantage of the substantial global market opportunity we believe is achievable with our products.
Building new plants and optimising existing sites
We develop and optimise existing sites and processes to benefit from existing skills and leverage operational and financial scale.
We identify new international locations and appropriate partners to develop additional capacity in order to meet our longer-term growth potential in global markets.
Research and development (R&D)
We have developed innovative, proprietary and protected technologies.
We continue to invest in R&D, focused on optimising our existing product offering and technologies and investing in focused technology solutions.
In FY21 we launched a new, unique product to selected markets, offering customers Accoya® wood which is coloured through from surface to core:
Accoya® Color
Working with business partners
Working with the right business partners helps us maximise our potential, enabling our growth to realise the substantial global market opportunity for our products.
We continue to advance our strategic priorities, in particular by working with partners which have resources or technologies that complement our own.
Work progressing towards the planned construction of an Accoya® plant in the USA through our joint venture with Eastman Chemical Company
Our differentiators
We utilise the following resources and relationships, which offer us a competitive advantage in our marketplace:
Our technology and IP
We have developed families of patents, providing robust protection over our proprietary products and processes.
42 countries in which we hold 356 patents and patent applications
Environment
Accoya® & Tricoya® fit perfectly in the bio-cycle of the circular economy.
Accoya® is Cradle to Cradle Certified™ at the Gold level
Industry leading brands
Our brands Accoya® and Tricoya® are globally registered trademarks, portraying our products’ sustainable, high quality and long-term performance.
64 countries in which our brands are registered trademarks
Our people and engineering expertise
Our passionate employees are key to the successful execution of the Group’s strategy, together with their valuable know-how and a dedication to the future success of the Group.
59% headcount increase over past 3 years
Strong industry relationships
We work with equipment manufacturers, wood suppliers, the acetyls industry, testing and certification bodies, and other system supply specialists, to help us develop our technology, products and their place in the market.
Financial strength
With strong profitability progression, a robust balance sheet and cash-generative Accoya® business, we have a strong platform to progress our global growth plans.
+3%
underlying EBITDA growth in FY22