diff --git a/spring-cloud-kubernetes-integration-tests/spring-cloud-kubernetes-k8s-client-reload/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/k8s/client/reload/configmap/K8sClientConfigMapReloadIT.java b/spring-cloud-kubernetes-integration-tests/spring-cloud-kubernetes-k8s-client-reload/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/k8s/client/reload/configmap/K8sClientConfigMapReloadIT.java
index 31bb64f1dd..9814a9066b 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-kubernetes-integration-tests/spring-cloud-kubernetes-k8s-client-reload/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/k8s/client/reload/configmap/K8sClientConfigMapReloadIT.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-kubernetes-integration-tests/spring-cloud-kubernetes-k8s-client-reload/src/test/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/k8s/client/reload/configmap/K8sClientConfigMapReloadIT.java
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ static void beforeAll() throws Exception {
 	}
 
 	@AfterAll
-	static void afterAll() throws Exception {
+	static void afterAll() {
 		util.deleteClusterWide(NAMESPACE, Set.of("left", "right"));
 		manifests(Phase.DELETE);
 		util.deleteNamespace("left");
diff --git a/spring-cloud-kubernetes-test-support/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/integration/tests/commons/Commons.java b/spring-cloud-kubernetes-test-support/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/integration/tests/commons/Commons.java
index 4c12593ca5..50a3819b63 100644
--- a/spring-cloud-kubernetes-test-support/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/integration/tests/commons/Commons.java
+++ b/spring-cloud-kubernetes-test-support/src/main/java/org/springframework/cloud/kubernetes/integration/tests/commons/Commons.java
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 package org.springframework.cloud.kubernetes.integration.tests.commons;
 
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.nio.file.Files;
@@ -41,7 +40,6 @@
 import org.testcontainers.k3s.K3sContainer;
 
 import org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource;
-import org.springframework.util.ReflectionUtils;
 import org.springframework.util.StreamUtils;
 import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 
@@ -59,6 +57,8 @@
  */
 public final class Commons {
 
+	private static String POM_VERSION;
+
 	private static final Log LOG = LogFactory.getLog(Commons.class);
 
 	private Commons() {
@@ -204,22 +204,22 @@ public static void pullImage(String image, String tag, K3sContainer container) t
 		try (PullImageCmd pullImageCmd = container.getDockerClient().pullImageCmd(image)) {
 			pullImageCmd.withTag(tag).start().awaitCompletion();
 		}
-
 	}
 
 	public static String pomVersion() {
-		try (InputStream in = new ClassPathResource(KUBERNETES_VERSION_FILE).getInputStream()) {
-			String version = StreamUtils.copyToString(in, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
-			if (StringUtils.hasText(version)) {
-				version = version.trim();
+		if (POM_VERSION == null) {
+			try (InputStream in = new ClassPathResource(KUBERNETES_VERSION_FILE).getInputStream()) {
+				String version = StreamUtils.copyToString(in, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+				if (StringUtils.hasText(version)) {
+					POM_VERSION = version.trim();
+				}
+			}
+			catch (Exception e) {
+				throw new RuntimeException(e);
 			}
-			return version;
-		}
-		catch (IOException e) {
-			ReflectionUtils.rethrowRuntimeException(e);
 		}
-		// not reachable since exception rethrown at runtime
-		return null;
+
+		return POM_VERSION;
 	}
 
 	/**