Vidrala SA

MAD:VID

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Operator]

[Foreign Language]. Good morning, and welcome to the conference call organized by Vidrala to present its 2022 first quarter results. Vidrala will be represented in this meeting by Raul Gomez, CFO; and Inigo Mendieta, Head of IR. The presentation will be held in English. In the Q&A session, questions will be also answered in Spanish. Nevertheless, it's strongly recommended to post questions in English in order to facilitate understanding of everyone. In the company website, www.vidrala.com, you will find available a presentation that will be used as a supporting material to cover this call as well as a link to access the webcast. Mr. Mendieta, you now have the floor.

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

Good morning to everyone, and thank you, as always, for the time that you dedicate to attend this call. As announced, Vidrala has published this morning its 2022 first quarter results. And additionally, we have also published the results presentation that will be used as supporting material to this conference call. Following this document, we will dedicate the first part of our exposition to briefly explain the figures released today, to devote afterwards as much time as necessary to discuss on the business performance in the Q&A session.

So starting with the main magnitudes. In the first quarter of 2022, we achieved as most relevant business figures, revenues of EUR 278 million and EBITDA of EUR 23 million and a net income equivalent to an EPS of EUR 0.03. Net debt at the end of the period stood at EUR 126 million, which is equivalent to a leverage ratio of 0.6x the last 12 months EBITDA.

Turning to Slide 4. We look at top line performance, analyzing the annual variation of revenue broken down by concepts to arrive at the reported figure of EUR 278.9 million. As it is shown in the graph, this figure is the result of an organic growth of 17%. Incorporating the effect of the currency, the reported variation amounts to 18.8%.

Following the order of key business figures referred to at the beginning, we analyze with the same breakdown the variation of operating income. 2022 first quarter EBITDA amounted to EUR 23.3 million, reflecting an organic decline of 63%. In reported terms, EBITDA decreased by 62.6% in the period. These operating figures resulted in an operating margin, EBITDA over sales, of 8.3%, which represents a contraction of approximately 18 percentage points compared to 26.5% registered in the previous year.

Let's analyze now the free cash flow generation in detail. We will do so with the help of the chart on Slide 7, which reconstructs the cash conversion accumulated for the last 12 months in order to fully normalize our annual cash profile. So starting from an EBITDA margin of 20.3%, we have dedicated 10.2% of sales to investments. And unusually, the aggregate of working capital, financials and taxes represented, in this case, a cash inflow of 1.1% of sales. As a result, free cash flow generation stands above 11% of sales.

Finally, net debt at the end of the reported period closed at EUR 126.1 million. This figure is the consequence of the just mentioned cash generation, which has been mainly allocated to debt reduction, and the rest has been allocated to remunerate shareholders. As a result, the leverage ratio stands at 0.6x EBITDA.

And now before turning to the Q&A session, I pass the floor to Raul so that he can extract the main conclusions or highlights and make additional comments that he considers appropriate.

[Rául Merino, executive]

Thank you, Inigo. Good morning, all. Thank you, Inigo, for your introduction. And thank you all for your time and your interest, particularly on this later date. Well, it's evident that we are living in peculiar times. And we are here today to tell you and to defend that our results published today do not reflect the intrinsic value of our business. First, demand for glass containers is growing. It's beat expectations, performing well even under the most difficult times that we have seen along the pandemic. This is a big thing. Consumers, packagers, brand owners, we are all increasingly preferring glass as the ultimate definitive sustainable packaging material.

And we didn't miss the opportunity of this favorable context. We integrated our more, let's say, simplified and maybe a stronger industrial footprint, and we serve our customers well under the many difficulties that we have seen across supply chains. And so our sales volumes in the first quarter of this 2022 year grew by 7%, 8%. This is our greatest proof of underlying future for our business.

Second, evidently very important, our margins during the first quarter of this year were abnormally affected by extreme external factors. Inflation was abnormally high, mostly in the energy sector. And not least, our prices were fully unadapted. And so in consequence, our margins dropped below 10% of sales. This is not sustainable. We are, for now, readapting our prices to the cost reality. And in result, we are today making public guidance and outlook for the remainder of the year, where we expect to see a sustained growth on sales volumes of double -- or sales, sorry, of double digit. And more important, we expect to progressively recover margins of 20% EBITDA or sales as long as our prices readapt or external inflation pressures relaxes.

And finally, as an indication of our confidence in the future, we will maintain our ambitious CapEx plan, and we'll do this preserving our solid financial position because we expect to generate a net positive free cash over the next 9 months, over the remainder of this year.

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

Okay. This completes our exposition, and we now give way to the Q&A session.

[Operator]

[Foreign Language]. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Francisco Ruiz from BNP Paribas.

[Francisco Ruiz, analyst]

I do have 3 questions. The first one is, Raul and Inigo can give us a more detailed breakdown of the inflation in this quarter? I mean inflation of total operating cost has been close to 50%. So if you could detail how much has been energy, how much has been transport and packaging, how much has been the raw materials? The second one is, I mean on the press release. And also you have mentioned in the in the presentation that you are implemented price increases. So if you could give us how you are doing this and which is the amount that we should take into account? I mean some of the competitors has already announced that as well.

And last but not least is on the free cash flow generation. You commented that free cash flow is -- this quarter is around EUR 1 million, but the debt increased from Q4 by EUR 30 million. What am I missing there?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Okay. Thank you, Paco. Well, first, in terms of inflation, let's say that our indicator of where underlying external inflation for the manufacturing of glass containers in Europe are or were during the first quarter of the year, around plus 60% year-over-year, 60% underlying external. This is an extraordinarily big number. Our internal inflation, including internal actions, including the effect of our energy hedging and other factors, were actually around 40%, from 60% to 40%. Our prices increased during the first quarter, thereby slightly more than double digit. And we see -- we saw some positive effect on margins due to the operating leverage coming from higher sales volumes. And the combination of all this explains the difference on our margin is 1,800 basis points lower. So that's the number. I hope that helps.

Your second question is with regards to our prices. Well, probably our price increases were below the industry average in the third quarter of the year because of different reasons. Most of the reasons is the time we need to renegotiate or we need to execute price increases under abnormal [ overlapping ] inflationary instances as the one we are seeing.

And the reality is that our prices were -- our internal sales prices were particularly unadapted during this first quarter of the year. From now, starting in April, we are readapting our prices. In some cases, we are following new methodologies as periodical cost-related reviews or cost surcharges. And that will work and that is actually working. And that will immediately, and actually has already, repositioned our margins where they should be. It's that simple. So from April 1, our prices are significantly readapted. And that means that from April 1, our margins are significantly different than what they were during the first quarter of the year.

And your third point is free cash. Well, the free cash flow generated during the first quarter of the year actually hasn't been a negative surprise for us. Even it's modestly exceeding our initial expectations. The free cash flow that we have seen in the first quarter is basically following the typical seasonality of our free cash generation. The reason for seeing a positive free cash before dividends and a negative debt variation after dividends is actually these dividends. And mentioning also that we are intensifying -- beyond our cash dividend payments, we are intensifying share buybacks. So that's all the reason. That's why we refer to free caps -- after CapEx before dividends and share buybacks. There is nothing more behind this.

[Francisco Ruiz, analyst]

Raul, could you give us the amount that you spend on buybacks this quarter?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Inigo, please?

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

The amount, Paco, should be around EUR 5 million to EUR 6 million. But we can have a quick chat after and have the exact figures.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Inigo Egusquiza from Kepler.

[Íñigo Egusquiza, analyst]

I have 2 additional questions, if I may. The first one is on if you can share with us the breakdown in terms of pricing and volumes by market in the first quarter, if there is any difference in terms of this breakdown, like Continental Europe, the U.K. and Italy? This is the first question. And the second question is just a clarification on your guidance for the EBITDA margin. So taking a look to the slide, you are -- I mean the guidance for the EBITDA margin is to improve quarter-by-quarter to reach this 20% level by the fourth quarter or to be at that level on 2022, the full year.

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

Inigo, on your first question regarding the breakdown in terms of pricing and volumes by region, okay? There are no big difference between Continental Europe and the U.K. in terms of pricing, okay? Pricing are, in both cases, in the range of plus 10%, okay, in the range of double digit. There are difference in terms of volumes. We see stronger demand in the U.K., also helped by the filling business. And in the specific case of Italy, that is, as you know, a small part of our business that we see in this case, a stronger dynamics in both prices and volumes, okay, both in the range of 10% to 20%, but in the high end of this range.

[Rául Merino, executive]

And Inigo, with regards to the guidance on margins, okay, we know that our message is not particularly specific quarter by quarter or month by month, because circumstances today are still very volatile, particularly on the energy sector, particularly in terms of inflation. What we are seeing is that our target is to recover a 20% margin for the remainder of the year. We still don't know if that will be possible because that will depend on these external factors.

We are today, April 2022, recovering this level, thanks to the reallocation of our prices in place since the beginning of this month. For the remainder of the year, we should maintain this level depending on external factors. Please also take into consideration the typical seasonality of our margins that tend to be lower during the last months of the year. That's all, okay? But today, we are reaching this level. That will be a good target, at least for the second quarter. And this is at least our target for the remainder of the year. That will obviously depend -- somewhat depend on external factors that are still especially volatile.

[Operator]

The next question comes from [ Beltran Poraforedo ] from [ DLTV ].

[Unknown Analyst]

I have 3 -- 2 questions, if I may. First of all is regarding margins. When I see one of your competitors, a French competitor, I see their margins are, let's say, abnormally higher than yours. My understanding is that their hedge position was higher going into the year. So my question is, does that give them a competitive advantage in the rest of the year to use the hedges, let's say, with market share? And then the other question for you is what hedges do you have coming in the year?

The second question is, I think you have mentioned on share buyback and maybe, so let's say, with what intensity are you willing to execute a buyback? And if you could give us a little color on [ the money ], the depreciation, it's practically you're not [ losing ] money. So I suppose other competitors that are not that competitive are losing a lot of money. So what is -- what news to that in that front? And then regarding 2023, you put in the presentation, how hard are you willing to flex your muscles? So what is target of 2022 margins? Let's say the costs stay where they are, are you really willing to, let's say, flex your muscles to go to 26% again or you don't know yet?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Okay, [ Beltran ], thank you very much. Well, your first question, I [ want to ] refuse to answer. I won't say that I'm not aware of our competitors' results, obviously. And those you probably referred to are examples of the big names in this industry. And so they -- so will be reflecting real or underlying business conditions across this industry. So their good results are probably a basically very good news for us because it proves that our deterioration is not structural. I fully believe that our industrial footprint is more competitive than before, stronger than average, and we are further investing to further improve the quality and the competitiveness of our assets.

So the reason of our different margins are mostly -- in our opinion are mostly temporary, okay? It's true, we were probably less protected in terms of reaching against energy inflation. It's obvious also that our prices were evidently particularly unadapted, but we all play in the same business field, and we are particularly competitive in this business field. And seeing the big names in this industry showing this level of positively surprising resilience during the first quarter of the year, I repeat is very good news for us in terms of what that means for the future underlying profitability of this business.

Thinking what our price readaptation message could mean for us in terms of market dynamics. But we have no chance, it's our obligation -- above all other things it's our obligations to adapt our prices because they are -- or they were completely unadapted. And we are aware that our different pricing dynamics could create some market share dynamics, some movements. And we're also aware that the macro context is probably -- you know much more than us about this, becoming more, let's say, challenging. But let me please remark that demand for glass container has been particularly resilient in different economic cycles.

Our inventory levels today, our inventory levels are particularly tight, 15%, 20% below historical levels for this time of the year. And probably we need to build up some inventories. So we are doing what we need to do in terms of price adaptation. And we think we have under control the potential consequences or the potential results that, that would have, particularly the margin recovery we are expecting.

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

In terms of buyback policy, [ Beltran ], as I said before, we have already acquired 78,000 shares. This means around EUR 5 million. There is still a remaining 90,000 shares. This is a share buyback that was announced for 1% of our share capital and was extended over the last part of last year. And the idea is to acquire these remaining shares only quickly after our earnings release. You know that we have been now in blackout -- in our blackout period. And probably after the share buyback, we may announce additional share buybacks for 1% of our share capital.

[Rául Merino, executive]

This is a relevant message. We are intensifying, under current conditions, share buybacks. And your final question, following this point, [ Beltran ], is some -- what I can say is that our approach in terms of M&A remains basically the same. Probably the only difference is that our, if I may say this, is that our financial position is stronger than before. It's even more solid.

And our approach tells us that we're a company interested in growth. We strongly believe that we can create value adding new units into the business. And we probably -- let me say that, that have some credentials or track record on that sense. We have more than EUR 400 million of available liquidity for expansionary CapEx, if we find an opportunity. We want to grow the business. We want to diversify the business. We want to create a more -- even more differential package of services to our customers. Please do not forget our different services in our flagship U.K. site.

And the industry is becoming particularly dynamic and the variable [indiscernible] costs that we are seeing today. So our eyes are -- will remain open. Having said that, we are obviously not immune to the inflationary geopolitical or economic circumstances that we are seeing. And obviously, it is sometimes in life, there is always a moment in businesses where simply the right thing to do temporarily is to do nothing. And this is where we are today. Our priority, our real priority today is to recover margins where they should be, in the confidence, in the understanding that what is important in this business, underlying demand conditions are performing particularly stronger than expected.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Inigo Egusquiza from Kepler.

[Íñigo Egusquiza, analyst]

Just 2 more questions from my side. A follow-up on M&A following [ Beltran's ] questions. It seems, I mean from your comment, that M&A is slightly more, I would say, more hot or is reactivated compared to the past. I imagine that if a company like Vidrala is suffering and EBITDA margins are below this 10% with your efficiency, with your model, with your partial hedging, I imagine that some of the small and midsized players are suffering a lot. So probably, this could be an acceleration on M&A. I don't know, what's your view on this point?

And the second question is on the energy cost inflation and the agreement which -- yesterday between the Spanish and Portuguese government and the European Union. I don't know if you can share with us what could be the implication for the -- for your industry with this price cap on natural gas pricing. What could be the effect and what's your view and thoughts?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Okay. Thank you very much again, Inigo. Well, in terms of M&A, let's say that -- let me remind that our priority today, our [ very ] priority today is to recover margins where they should be. Okay. We are publishing a guidance, particularly ambitious guidance, and this guidance says that we do not expect to be different to some of our competitors. So that means that the underlying profitability in this industry is still there, and it's our job and our priority today to recover this level of underlying profitability. This is the first priority today, and we want to do nothing more than this in the short term, okay?

Having said that, it's true. It's very real that we are seeing particularly interesting dynamics across this industry where probably smaller, less sophisticated players that were particularly profitable in the past are today suffering proportionately more. And that will -- that could open a door of potential opportunities for potential interested companies like we are. We will maintain our eyes very open. I don't see M&A activity -- relevant M&A activity in the very short term.

We are thinking in M&A on a probably broader perspective, not only the large manufacturing assets, but other verticalized activities, something that could create profits, margins, sales activity, market share and basically future. But you won't be surprised in the short term, probably. I repeat, the first priority for us is to recover margins, and we're on the path of this, okay?

Your second question on energy inflation. Well, let me say that our [ energy inflation ] today for the remainder of the year is approximately 40%. An additional 35% of our sales are comprised by customer agreements with customers with, what we say, price adjustment formulas. And for the remainder, for the 25% remainder, we are readapting our prices and different methodologies as we said before, for example, cost or energy sale taxes. That means that we are today much more protected to any external volatility on our energy cost. How do you say that? We are seeing some positive news from government actions to defend or to contain inflation.

But luckily or unluckily, most of these actions are today referring to the price of power, to the price of electricity and not to the price of natural gas. 70% of our cost is natural gas, not electricity. So in the case of the extraordinary volatility that we are seeing on natural gas prices in Europe, particularly due to the field circumstances, the circumstances that we are seeing around Ukraine, we are protected by our new hedging policies and by our new pricing initiatives. The government actions that we are seeing are going -- are intended to contain the prices for electricity. And we are less -- this is less beneficial for us.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Manuel Lorente from Mirabaud.

[Manuel Lorente, analyst]

My first question is on revenue guidance for the next 9 months. When you compare your sustainable double-digit growth guidance for the remainder of the year with a plus 17% of organic growth delivered in Q1, it might seem, let's say, supportive, right? But it's also true that comps are getting tougher and tougher. Revenues in the first quarter last year were EUR 230 million, and the run rate for the remaining of the year was roughly EUR 285 million. So double-digit growth for the remaining of the year, according to my number, implies at least double-digit growth price over the ones delivered in the first quarter. And on top of that, at least another positive contribution from volume, between 5%, 6%, 7%. Meaning that the underlying assumption beneath that guidance is that with prices starting roughly 20%, 25% compared with last year, you are not assuming any deterioration in volumes. That's correct?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Okay. I would be very clear in that sense. Today, after the new initiatives started in this month in terms of pricing reallocation, our prices today are double the price increase that we showed in the first quarter of the year, okay? This is the reality today. And as a result of this, we are in the path of recovering margins towards this guidance of 20%. Having said that, for -- we are already tightening inventories. And we can't -- this is not a question that we are assuming a deterioration, is that we can't sell more on volumes for the remainder of the year.

But a significant growth in the top line will be secured only due to the pricing initiatives, okay? Having said that, I won't say that we are foreseeing any volume deterioration for the remainder of the year. Particularly, we are not foreseeing that because of external demand conditions. Demand is performing well, exceeding expectations. I don't know, we are probably from now being a little bit more aggressive in terms of prices than some of our competitors. But believe us, unfortunately, most of our customers, most of the demand we serve are today more focused on securing availability of glass for the next coming seasonally relevant months than on prices. So we are not foreseeing any significant volatilization, at least for the remainder of the year. Obviously, the following years will depend on the macro context and the competitive dynamics.

The reason for us to show you this guidance, double-digit top line growth that I am now clarifying that is mostly related to price increases, is to help you that in combination with our new guidance on margins, obtain an expected -- or a forecast of EBITDA operating profit in value for the full year 2022. Just to help you understand that whatever happens for the remainder of the year, our EBITDA in value and in margin will be very different that -- how it was in the first quarter of this, let's say, unforgettable first quarter of 2022.

[Manuel Lorente, analyst]

No, no. I mean I really appreciate the guidance. Giving a little bit of visibility for us is extremely helpful. But my only concern is the underlying demand [ belief ] that guidance with such a price increase, right? I believe that is something that we might see or we might not see on this first quarter, but sooner or later, prices should damp demand, no?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Yes. This is a very obvious question, and this is a point that we are considering. We have no chance but to adapt prices that are completely unadapted by extraordinarily inflationary circumstances. That is the first question. And the second question, our demand is so solid today, as you can see in our numbers and the numbers of our competitors. Demand for glass container is so evidently strong, exceeding expectations. We are even entering a seasonally more intense period of sales, the summer season, that we do not see any negative reaction on volumes to our new pricing dynamics, at least for the remainder of this year, okay?

That wouldn't be the case. We won't sell more because we are tight of inventories. We have no capacity to sell more to grow our volumes. This is another reason for us to be so, let's say, ambitious on our pricing initiatives. For the next years, we don't know. But for this year, we do not see any significant risk of volume or market share deterioration in our numbers.

[Manuel Lorente, analyst]

Okay. That's perfectly clear. Just one more final question on pricing. Raul, you have mentioned that one of the issues that explain these set of results this quarter have been the price [ adapt ] -- inflation, you have called something like that, anyway. Can you describe a little bit more in detail, what are you doing differently from now in order to being sure that you are really in line with market trends in terms of pricing? What are you doing differently in order not to be in the this position that you have been suffering in the first quarter of prices not really encompassing market reality?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Well, when I try to compare myself with other competitors, probably we were less protected in terms of energy hedging. So probably our inflation is slightly higher, but significantly, slightly higher. Second, our comparison basis is tougher than for some of our competitors because our first quarter 2021 was particularly solid, as a difference to other players in this industry. Third, our price increases executed during this first quarter of the year were slightly below average in the industry because of probably also a negative contribution of the mix effect, an effect that has been basically positive for other competitors.

And the combination of all this explains our different margins. From now, we don't know what other competitors are doing in terms of pricing initiatives, pricing dynamics to readapt prices to cost. What I think is that the energy hedging is temporary by nature. If I do consider that energy hedging is temporary by nature and if I make a calculation of excluding the effect of energy hedging, there is an extraordinary negative gap between prices and costs in the first quarter of the year. And this is the reference we need to monitor across this industry.

And as a consequence of this reference, we can see that some smaller competitors in this industry, probably less sophisticated, probably with an even lower level of protection in terms of energy hedging than we have are even more aggressively readapting prices today. There is no [ chance ] for them. We are simultaneously seeing that bigger names in this industry are also officially announcing new price increases. So looking at the future, you will probably agree with me that prices will be adapted -- with the near time will be adapted to the real cost context, and that means that prices need to at least double the price increases that we have seen during the first quarter of the year. We are probably going to be a little bit more aggressive than some of our competitors. But in the near time, prices will be adapted to that. And that means that we shouldn't see any significant movement on market shares across the industry, okay?

[Operator]

The next question comes from Luis de Toledo from ODDO BHF.

[Luis de Toledo Heras, analyst]

All my questions have been already answered. Maybe commenting on next year price evolution, you referred that smaller players are also being very aggressive. Sector leaders have put in these initiatives, whether permanent or temporary. I don't know if you would be confident on your capacity to sustain this second price rise throughout the next -- throughout next year.

[Rául Merino, executive]

This is a very relevant question. And I won't speak in terms of aggressivity, I want to speak in terms of necessity, okay? What we are doing is adapting our prices to the reality of the inflationary cost context we have in the time. I'm pretty sure that the price of a glass container in Europe will reflect the real [indiscernible] of cost with the time, okay? So in the short term, if we are more or less than some of our competitors, we are particularly protected because we are tight of inventories, and we are today losing or missing some sales opportunities. So we are particularly well adapted to any potential reaction in that sense.

Also, much more important than this, please do not forget that the demand conditions are particularly solid for glass containers across our regions of activity. I should say I can see that the inventories are particularly tight, short all across the industry. Vidrala is not an exception. We are -- our inventories are particularly low, but I can see that the industry is basically tight now that we enter into the intense summer season. Summer seasons refer to the typical seasonality of our sales.

So I won't say that we are today particularly concerned about any particular negative reaction in terms of market share movements after our price new initiatives. And let me say again, it's not a matter of aggressivity, it's a matter of necessity. What we are doing is just adapting our prices to the cost context. And I think that we can do this because demand is really solid and inventories are tight.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Ignacio Romero from Banco be Sabadell.

[Ignacio Romero, analyst]

Raul, please, could you please repeat again the figure that you gave before relating to the -- what the price increase is today in -- today versus the first quarter of last year? I didn't hear you well. I'm not sure if you said that it was double the figure that it was in the first quarter of this year. That would mean around 20%. I'm not sure, could you please clarify that?

[Rául Merino, executive]

Yes, sure. Our price increases on average during the first quarter of this year was 10%. And today, our price increases are double this level, okay, starting in April, thanks to the new pricing initiatives. But please let me remark that our new pricing initiatives are specifically basically based on methodologies that we'll periodically review, our price increases related to the real cost context in terms of things like energy surcharges or cost surcharges. So what we are protecting for now is a specific level of margins, not a specific level of price movement, okay? If hopefully, that happens, if inflation relaxes for now, our prices will automatically and periodically relax, but our prices will recover the levels we need to recover.

[Operator]

There are no further questions by phone. I return the floor to Mr. Gomez and Mr. Mendieta.

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

Thank you. So we have received several questions by -- directly by the webcast. I think that most of them have been already answered, the pay on M&A, on hedging, on breakdown between volumes and prices. There is only one that is remaining, and it says could you give more detail on the ambitious CapEx plan in place? Also, there is another question that's fixed on how should we think of the new capacity contributing in 2022 and if we will be able to replenish inventories in 2022.

[Rául Merino, executive]

Okay, with regards to CapEx. Well, we are under an ambitious investment plan under which we -- this is not a difference, under which we plan to invest more than 10% of our sales in CapEx over the next 5 years. And particularly in this, let's say, particular year 2022, we plan to execute this CapEx without consuming cash or without significantly increasing our debt, okay? And this is a lot to say under the circumstances, the inflationary circumstances that we are seeing, okay?

Looking at the future, what is more important for me is to understand that only a portion of this CapEx plan, ambitious CapEx plans, less than half, around 4%, 5% of our sales will be CapEx for pure replacement. Will be, let's say, unavoidable CapEx, okay? The additional -- the major portion, an additional 4%, 5% of our sales, will be a voluntary expansionary CapEx focused on expanding our capacity, amplifying the range of services we provide, so logistics or beverage filling services. And more important, an additional 1%, 2% of our sales will involve CapEx dedicated, specifically and exclusively dedicated, to invest in the sustainability of our business.

And this is new. We will invest in self-generation power facilities in many of our sites. We will invest to enable the electrification of -- the hybridization of our furnaces, of our glass melting furnaces. And we will invest in increasing the use of recycling content -- recycled content in our glass containers. For what, we need to invest and to create our own facilities and logistic solutions. And we will closely work and invest money with customers, suppliers, technology and competitors to find the best solution for the manufacturing -- for what we consider the manufacturing facilities -- facility of the future.

We are leading a process of transformation in the glass industry. We are leading this process of transformation under particularly solid circumstances. Our footprint, our industrial footprint is today stronger than before. We entered into the U.K. 7 years ago, and we have heavily invested in those very remarkable facilities. We bought our toughest competitor in Portugal 5 years ago. Not least, we exited from the very unprofitable Belgian site 3 years ago, just days before the pandemic started, and we are selectively and heavily investing in our existing facilities.

Thus, make a calculation of our average CapEx per site, of our average scale per site, of our average margins before the inflationary crisis that we are living today, just to obtain your own conclusions about where we are exactly in comparison with our competitors, and how and why we see the future with this level of confidence in terms of our ambitious CapEx plan.

[Iñigo de la Rica, executive]

Okay. So I think we should have answered now all the questions also received via webcast. If not, please, we invite you to contact us in the following days. So once again, thank you all for the time that you have dedicated to us this morning. And as always, we remind you that we remain at your complete disposal for any further questions that may arise. Thank you very much.

[Rául Merino, executive]

Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Foreign Language] Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.