Return on capital employed

(%)

Performance

Return on capital employed increased by 0.8 percentage points during the year, from 19.9% to 20.7%.

Headline operating profit increased by 3.4% from £107.4m to £111.1m, while average capital employed reduced by 0.3% to £538.0m.

Definition

Headline operating profit as a percentage of the average of opening and closing capital employed as adjusted for certain items of goodwill written off.

Capital employed is defined as net assets adjusted for net cash/(debt).

Headline earnings per share

(pence)

Performance

Headline earnings per share increased by 2.6 pence during the year, from 41.2 pence to 43.8 pence.

Headline earnings increased by 6.9% from £78.0m to £83.4m, while the average number of shares in issue remained static.

Definition

Headline earnings per share is defined in note 9 to the Group financial statements.

Return on sales

(%)

Performance

Return on sales increased by 0.9 percentage points during the year, from 17.3% to 18.2%. Headline operating profit increased by 3.4% from £107.4m to £111.1m, while revenue decreased by 1.7% from £619.6m to £609.1m.

Definition

Headline operating profit as a percentage of revenue.

Headline operating cash flow

(£m)

Performance

Headline operating cash flow for the Group was £100.0m (2013: £108.9m). This was 90.0% of headline operating profit (2013: 101.4%).

Definition

Operating cash flow stated before cash flow relating to restructuring of £3.0m (2013: £4.3m) and acquisition costs of £0.2m (2013: £nil).

Accident frequency

(number)

Performance

Bodycote works tirelessly to reduce workplace accidents and is committed to providing a safe environment for everyone who works at or visits our locations. The accident frequency rate has decreased to 1.7 in the year (2013: 1.9). Further details are included in the Corporate responsibility and sustainability section.

Definition

Accident frequency is defined as the number of lost time accidents × 200,000 hours (approximately 100 man years), divided by the total number of employee hours worked.

Carbon footprint

(tonne CO₂e/£m sales)

Performance

On a normalised basis, the carbon footprint decreased by 3.5% from 632.1 tonnes per £m sales to 610.2 tonnes per £m sales. Further details are included in the Corporate responsibility and sustainability section.

Definition

Carbon footprint is defined as tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions divided by £m revenue.

CO₂ equivalent emissions are calculated by taking electricity and gas usage in kilowatt hours and multiplying by country specific conversion factors provided by DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs). Normalised emissions statistics restate prior year figures using current year country specific conversion factors and current year average exchange rates.