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Huhtamaki Oyj
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Huhtamaki Oyj
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Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2020-Q2

from 0
C
Calle Loikkanen

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Huhtamäki's Q2 and Half Year 2020 Results Presentation. My name is Calle Loikkanen, and I'm Head of Investor Relations. Huhtamäki's President and CEO, Charles Héaulmé; and CFO, Thomas Geust, will today walk us through the highlights and results of the quarter and first half of the year. And after the presentation, we will, as always, end with a Q&A session. But without any further introductions, let me hand over to Charles so that we can start. Charles, please go ahead.

C
Charles Héaulmé
CEO & President

Thank you, Calle, and good morning to all of you. Welcome to our meeting. And I'm very happy to report back to you this morning on our second quarter of 2020 and first half of the year. Without any further, I would like, however, before getting into the financial performance and look at the figures, give you a bit of a couple of highlights on our operating environment, what has changed during the second quarter and give you an update on this. And I would like to do this maybe using different time frames. First of all, a very short-term and immediate time perspective about the COVID crisis to explain what we are seeing in -- towards the end of the second quarter getting into the quarter 3.We are seeing a consistent increase in the order intake since the beginning of April, which represented the lowest part of the business in -- across most geographies. And our food-on-the-go business, which is most impacted by the restrictions during this period of time, is at the end of June still lower than it used to be in 2019 with variations across geographies. However, it is at a significantly better level than it has been at the beginning of April. So that's why we are -- our key message is that we see a visible and tangible recovery happening already towards the end of the second quarter.Looking a little bit further in time beyond quarter 2, we are seeing construction shifts happening, and that are going to drive changes in innovation as well as probably modifications of the business model overall in the value chain. And a couple of aspects that we would like to highlight is, obviously, what everybody speaks about, which is the shift from working in the office permanently to home office, the changes that will happen that are not all defined yet, but that will happen in the food service environment and the culture of visiting stores as well as restaurants, what it will imply as well in terms of other channels emerging or eventually growing or accelerating.Another aspect that we see happening is the significant importance and increasing importance of retail particularly in the food categories, where we see an expansion of the categories at retail, particularly in what we would call the ready-to-eat and the ready-to-cook. That is an expansion, and that will mean as well implication for the packaging industry.And then there are aspects, requirements, behaviors from consumers that we are seeing happening, which will have an impact as well on packaging. We believe positive in terms of potentially volume of packaging but as well value of packaging. This has to do with the fact that we see the delivery channel increasing quite steadily. We see requirements for hygiene and safety becoming much higher. We see as well requirements coming up from consumers about traceability of products, what they buy. Consumers want to understand more and more what they buy and what they consume. This will have an impact -- together with the increase of the e-commerce, all of those aspects will have a pretty significant impact on the need for digital solutions.So all in all, and I'm moving to the Slide 4 of our presentation. Our conclusion at this point of -- with the experience of dealing through this crisis for the last month is that, basically, if you -- if we revert back 4 months, end of March when we presented our strategy 2030 to you, we are saying that the fundamental trends that were underlying the strategy that we decided to renew for Huhtamäki, those fundamental trends are still valid and make our strategy still the right strategy and a relevant strategy. Those fundamental trends, without going into further details, as you probably remember, are basically 4. One is the next billion consumers. And I'm talking here about trends that we see having a significant impact for the next 10 years.The first one, so next billion consumers. That means that where we see the growth of a consumer population is basically in emerging markets: in China; in India; and in Southeast Asia, particularly. There will be changes in the consumption patterns. I have already alluded some of the things we are foreseeing. So that is a clear fundamental trend happening. The third one is digitalization. I already commented upon it. And the fourth one and most transformative and very immediate is sustainability. Most likely, you have as well a remark like all that sustainability has probably been less in the agenda -- in the public agenda in the last couple of months during the crisis. However, it is absolutely central going forward, and we believe that it will come back to the center of the game. And therefore, we are absolutely convinced that this is the right thing we are doing with embedding sustainability in everything we do in our strategy.You probably remember as well that we have renewed our core values on top of our strategy. And our core values very much linked to the legacy and the history of success of Huhtamäki for 100 years are renewed and modernized, if I may say, with the 3 words, care, dare and deliver, which are much more than words, and I would like to illustrate on Slide 5 a little bit about, for instance, the care aspect, but as well the dare aspect of it that we have been emphasizing through a plan that we have put in place in the occasion of our 100 years anniversary in 2020.So we have built a plan that will be around having -- making a difference where it matters for the world. And where it matters is it has been, obviously, during this last couple of months because of the pandemic of COVID-19. So we have made a very conscious decision during the second quarter to make a donation through the International Red Cross for helping countries in real need during this situation, during the crisis. But as well we have a plan with 3 other projects, which have the intent to make a difference on sustainability for the planet on the circular economy, particularly. And they have basically -- without going into too many details, they have basically the ambition to have an impact at different levels. One is about Acting today, and this is through a grant -- a donation that goes towards a project of putting in place a cleaning system on a river near Mumbai in India in order to clean the river on a recurrent basis, clean the plastic waste and get it to a recycling facility.The second one after Acting today is about Educating for tomorrow, and that's through the WasteAid organization, where we are building with them towards countries in 3 continents, in South Africa, in Vietnam and in India, building, training and educational system, both virtual as well as physical, in order to enhance sustainability, understanding and projects in those countries.And then it's about Innovating for the future as well, and that will be through a Food System 6, which is an organization that helps us dealing with start-ups, and this will be a process of selecting start-ups and offering grants to start-ups who are particularly active in the circular economy of the food systems.So those -- these were the couple of highlights I wanted to give you before getting into our business performance for the second quarter and the first half of the year.So without any further, going to the Slide 7 with our second quarter sales, which have been reported with a decline of 8% versus the second quarter of 2019. The comparable net sales growth is actually as well minus 8%, and the reason is because there is a bit of a wash between the impact of acquisition and the impact of currency. Acquisition accounts for roughly 2%. Growth-wise, we have a negative impact of minus 1% on the currency. This is for the second quarter of 2019.And when you consolidate this for the first semester on the Page 8, together with the growth of 5% that we reported in the first quarter, then we have a decline of only, if I may say only within brackets, only because of the context of the crisis of 2% for the first semester. That's a comparable net sales growth of -- or decline of 3%, and we have 2% coming from acquisitions and insignificant currency impact on this. This is for the first semester. Now looking at the sales on Page 9, the sales broken down in our different business segments. As you remember, as of 1st of June, we have integrated our 2 segments: Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania and Fiber Packaging. However -- and the integration is going very well. However, we continue during the whole of 2020 to report according to our 4 business segments in order to offer the right comparability.With no surprise, and this is exactly what we have said consistently already back on the 26th of March, when we had our strategy presentation as well as end of April in the Q1 presentation, our food-on-the-shelf packaging continues to grow through the crisis, whilst our food-on-the-go packaging is, obviously, significantly impacted because the crisis has meant lockdowns across all geographies at different period of times. So the COVID-19 has affected particularly our foodservice business and that's globally. So in Europe-Asia-Oceania as well as North America. And that is visible in our numbers. You see that in Q2, our Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania is reporting a minus 28% sales, and that's minus 17% in the first semester of the year. As I said, this foodservice decline affects as well North America, however, less, and we will see a bit further the reason, but as well because we have a strong continued retail tableware growth in North America, which compensate very much for the decline in foodservice. And that means that for the first semester 2020, we are actually reporting a growth of 1% in North America.Flexible Packaging and Fiber Packaging respond to basically what I was saying that there is a -- there has been a strong demand, and there is still a strong demand for the food-on-the-shelf product, and we see that with the growth of Flexible Packaging of 2% and the Fiber Packaging of 10%, it's reasonably a high comparable growth in the context.Moving now to the P&L and at a consolidated level, and I'm now on Slide 10. We are delivering for the second quarter 2020 as well as for the first semester what we would call a solid EBIT margin at a level of 8.8%. The earnings in euro are slightly lower than last year, in line with the decrease of the sales. We have positive impact in 2020, coming, first of all, from the margin management of 2019, particularly through the price management, but as well we have lower raw material prices overall in the first semester and in the second quarter of 2020. And we have a favorable sales mix impact in North America. All this explains why the margin is certainly a satisfaction at 8.8% adjusted EBIT margin percentage.The EPS is evolving slightly more negatively than the earnings, and that's mainly because they are -- the EPS is affected by overall average higher tax rate than last year. Important to note as well that we have, despite the crisis, continued to invest, and we said it very clearly from the beginning of the crisis back end of March and of April. We said we have a healthy financial situation that will enable us to continue investing for the future, particularly, for capacity and for the growth trajectory that we see beyond the crisis.Moving on now to our business segments, and I'm on Page 12, now specifically on Foodservice Europe-Asia-Oceania, where, as I said before, we have a decrease in sales and earnings linked to the crisis. The lockdowns and restrictions that have happened basically everywhere, primarily in China in February and March, and then in the rest of the geographies more end of March to April and May, those lockdowns and restrictions have resulted in a significant negative impact on the demand. For obvious reasons, restaurants were basically closed. So we have had a mitigation effect from the food delivery that have -- that is a channel that has increased during the same period, but of course, it's only a mitigation. So overall, a decline in the second quarter of roughly 30%. If you remember, we said back end of March that we were expecting the demand to be roughly 40% down. And so the 30% decline in the second quarter is very much in line because, of course, the second quarter has not been even, and we have seen a recovery of the demand towards the end of the quarter.Important to note that we have, from a profitability point of view, taken measures, obviously, to mitigate the crisis impact. Some of them have to do with, of course, cost management, prioritization of projects and initiatives. But as well, a very important initiative has been the fact that when we add capacity made idle by the crisis, for instance, in our factory in Belfast, then we had the idea to try to make use of the capacity to make a difference where it matters to help with the need of this crisis, and we have allocated this manufacturing capacity to purpose like producing face shields for the health care employees. So that is a very important point. And then as I said before, as well in the foodservice, like in the other segments, we have continued to invest for future growth and category expansion that we see post COVID crisis. Moving on to North America, which is certainly one, if not the highlight of the quarter in the first semester. We see a strong growth in the retail tableware. That was very clearly the case in the first quarter, particularly, in March, if you remember, but that has continued in the second quarter. And we have seen as well, in the second quarter, an increase of the at-home consumption of ice cream, for instance, where we have a large business in the U.S. for the packaging containers. Obviously, the foodservice business in North America has been impacted, however, less than in Europe, for instance. And there are different reasons to it, mainly 2: one is that the lockdowns have been certainly a bit shorter in the U.S. compared to Europe; second, there is a mitigation effect linked to the culture of the foodservice in North America and in the U.S., in particular, where consumers very easily replace consumption in the restaurants to the drive-thru channel, which has pretty much boosted during this period of time.Important to make a comment on the earnings because the earnings, despite the crisis, has been improving, 17% in Q2, 29% in the first semester, and they are improving as a result of the continuation of the margins improvement of 2019 as well as the favorable mix between foodservice and retail tableware as well as lower input costs. So lower energy, fuel as well as polymers cost during this period of the year 2020.Moving on to Flexible Packaging on Slide 14. We said back in March and April that the demand was strong for Flexible Packaging, particularly, in Europe. Then based on this, you may feel like the comparable growth of 2% is maybe slightly disappointing compared to the demand. However, we need to understand the granularity of what has happened in the world in order to understand. We have had a very solid growth in Europe across -- or throughout the entire first semester. However, we have had hiccups, if I may say, linked to the COVID crisis, and that's in India and in UAE for slightly different reasons. But first of all, India, where back on the 23rd of March a very strict lockdown was decided by the government for the nation in India. This has created a double crisis in India, a crisis of demand and a crisis of supply. So the supply chain has been completely disrupted. And that meant that not only the demand was lower, but it was -- we were not in a position to produce according to the possibilities -- or to the capacity that we have. That has meant as well additional cost because we had an obligation in India to pay all our employees during the entire crisis at full cost. There was no subsidies for unemployment and, therefore, compared to the volume, this has meant a higher cost as well as higher logistic cost in India as we wanted to rebound when we had the capacity in place towards the end of the second quarter.In UAE, we have suffered a pretty long factory lockdown, and that was linked to a contamination of more than 100 of our employees in a public dormitory where foreign employees are basically staying during the week. And there has been a contamination with more than 100 employees suffering COVID. And therefore, suddenly, for a couple of weeks, we didn't have the man capacity in our factory. That has meant additional cost, logistic as well as labor, in order to compensate and be able to produce.Last point on flexible is to say that the integration of our recent acquisition is continuing as planned and well.Last segment, Fiber Packaging. We have a significant growth in the second quarter and the first semester. The comparable growth is 10%. That is linked to the strong demand that we have throughout the crisis across all markets, especially because of the demand or the increased demand of egg packaging as well as an increase for the cup carriers for food delivery and a continued plastic substitution. So this has meant that we could -- together with lower raw material prices during the first semester, we could improve our EBIT margin as well to a level of 11% for the second quarter and for the full first semester.This is for the quick snapshot by business segment. I will hand over now to Thomas for the financial review.

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Charles, for the comprehensive presentation of the result, and I will, therefore, focus only on a few additional points around the profit and loss. So first of all, as you saw already from earlier, our positive trend in outperforming EBIT growth above net sales was broken in Q2, and that is evidently coming from the fact that the under-absorption cost in lockdown units and drop in demand caused a significant cost in those units without any top line generated. So that's the main reason for that deviation. However, then if we go and look on the other items, net financial items, net financial items slightly up compared to previous year, partly caused by some small one-offs as well as internal financial arrangements, change in debt structure, and then to admit that we are also sitting on a higher cash and debt position currently in order to be prepared for the maturities coming up and secure our liquidity during this COVID crisis.The tax rate, as indicated already earlier, is higher compared to previous year. So our current estimate is 23% versus 22% in 2019. The final outcome will, obviously, be dependent on how the profitability develops in various geographic locations.Moving to Slide #18, there we have the outcome of the currency movements. And as you can see, all currencies are actually trending worse versus full year 2019 rates. However, if I compare to Q1, we have a further decline also in many of the currencies. However, from a translation point of view, to point out that the USD-EUR, which is one of the biggest currency swingers normally in our results, has been pretty stable. So there, we have a slight positive. H1 remains positive, 2-plus on net sales and 1-plus on EBIT, while then due to the reasons explained here earlier, the Q2 currency translation turned negative.Slide #19. Net debt decreased. And partly, the decrease is, obviously, from the fact that we -- compared to previous year, H1 did not pay a dividend this year. If I would put back the dividend, our net debt would be approximately EUR 1 billion, and that would give a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of approximately 2.2. However, to state from this slide, we are on a very solid base when it comes to our structure, and we have been able to continue the positive cash flow generation, which has been contributing to the net debt situation.The loan maturities in the quarter, the point to point out is a new Schuldschein that we issued. It was issued on June 26. However, that's not visible yet in our balance sheet, as the payment occurred only on July 3. But all in all, our maturity is solid. We have a situation now where we have secured the financial liquidity that allows us to take care of our payment obligations when it comes to loan maturities, which are pretty significant for both the end of this year as well as next year. And with also having headroom in the RCF, we make sure that we also have capability to take, for instance, M&A activity actions should they become possible.On the cash flow side, we see that the gain we had from the Laminor acquisition is contributing positively also in the EBITDA. However, that one is then seen as a negative in the other activities, so thereby equaling out. So the main development beyond -- main development on cash flow improvement comes from working capital mainly from receivables, also taxes contributing positively and then as you can see, the CapEx, as Charles mentioned here earlier, remains on approximately previous year's level. But good cash flow generation given these tough times.On the financial position, we state that it remains stable, confirming what I said on the previous slides. If we look at the balance sheet items, on the equity side, we have significant currency movements, but beyond those currency movements, basically, the biggest movements we have in the balance sheet are normal operations related movements to operating working capital. Gearing is at 0.62 and that compared to 0.78 previous year. And then North America, clearly, improving on their return on net assets. And thanks to that, we are then also, on return on investments, slightly improving despite the other units suffering from the lower profitability.Progress towards our long-term ambition. Clearly, for the reasons explained so many times in this call already earlier, the lockdowns and softness in emerging markets are impacting our growth. So our first semester growth is minus 3%, so clearly below our long-term ambition. However, I would say, a resilient EBIT -- adjusted EBIT development in line with previous year, but still, unfortunately, not strengthening towards the long term ambition, mainly due to the top line reasons. And then we have a net debt-to-EBITDA level at a solid 2, so in the lower side of the corridor.And as you recall, the Board withdrew -- or did not make a decision on the dividend in relation to the AGM. However, they have the authorization up till June next year to issue the dividend, and that status remains as of today.Looking forward. So on the outlook, we did update our outlook, which we earlier withdrew. And I will, for that reason, even read it out this time. So the outlook for 2020 is disturbance from COVID-19 pandemic on Huhtamäki's operating environment is expected to continue. The demand, especially for food-on-the-go packaging, may be significantly negatively impacted, whilst demand for food-on-the-shelf packaging and convenience tableware may be positively impacted. Huhtamäki's diversified product portfolio provides resilience to the effects of the pandemic. And then also for the short term, we have a slight update, which I will not read through.So with that one, I conclude my part. Obviously, the financial calendar can be seen on the Slide 27. And Calle, anything you want to highlight from that one?

C
Calle Loikkanen

Yes. So the Q3 results, obviously, in October, but then in November, on November 10, we will organize segment update. You may remember that we were supposed to have our Capital Markets Day in March this year, but due to COVID-19, we changed it to a strategy update. So the plan is that on November 10, we continue with the segments and kind of as a continuation to the strategy update. At the same time, we were organizing a site visit in Hämeenlinna in Finland to offer the opportunity to see the manufacturing facility at the same time.But now thank you for the presentation, and let's now continue with Q&A. The operator will give more precise instructions on how to ask questions, but please speak to 1 question at a time with 1 follow-up question on the same topic, if needed. Then if you have more than 1 question, first, start with the first question and then move back to the queue for the second one. This way, everybody gets a chance to ask questions during this session. But let me now hand over to the operator. So operator, please, go ahead with the instructions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Maria Wikstrom of Danske Bank.

M
Maria Wikstrom
Analyst

Perfect. Can you hear me, gentlemen?

C
Charles Héaulmé
CEO & President

Yes.

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

M
Maria Wikstrom
Analyst

Okay. First of all, the quarter definitely showed a resilience in your business model. And my question is coming from -- especially in North America, where in the strategy update, you had the margin -- you've guided for the long-term margin profitability in North America in a ballpark of 9% to 10% and now in the Q2, we had a blowout quarter with a margin of 12.8%. So do you -- you don't expect this to be sustainable? Or do you think you are more -- too conservative in the strategy update where -- I mean where the margin was significantly lower? So what -- I mean if you can a little bit elaborate, like, what -- how much we should see this as sustainable? And how much is just like one-off given the current situation as well as the help from the raw material prices?

C
Charles Héaulmé
CEO & President

Thank you, Maria. Charles here. So as you understand, there are different aspects that are explaining the margin in North America in the second quarter, and one that we have not highlighted yet in the conversation or in the presentation is that Q2 tends to be the highest-margin quarter of the year in North America. That's a seasonality that may remain as well for 2020. Second, as we have emphasized, and I think it matters to emphasize it further, we had a very favorable product mix during this quarter. So let's look at the first semester overall because it's a particular semester with this crisis, which is disrupting the product mix, our business mix. The margin for the first semester was 11.7%.So to your longer-term question, we would say that under favorable conditions, which is the favorable conditions we have had in Q2, meaning, sales mix very positive or extremely positive, input cost at a fairly lower level than last year, the timing of the investments as well has to be really understood and put in perspective. Remember that we started -- or we launched a new factory Goodyear in Arizona at the end of 2018. So 2018 was burdened a lot by this factory. The factory in 2019 was not fully utilized. Now it is utilized. Going further -- going forward, sorry, we will have to increase capacity and potentially in that site or in other site. So we need to put in, in perspective as well the timing of the margin of this first semester or of Q2.But overall, to be specific, under those favorable conditions, we believe that North America can continue to deliver above a 10% margin. And we will -- by growing the business, we will as well continue to grow our EBIT margin as -- in absolute terms. But as well we will do everything we can to maintain it as an EBIT margin in percentage.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Jutta Rahikainen of SEB.

J
Jutta Rahikainen
Country Head of Finland Research and Analyst

My first question is then on India. Could you give us some numbers on the sales development in the quarter, the second quarter? And then also, do you think -- or sort of what's happening now in July in India? And of course, if you have any good guesses on how the Q2 development from your point of -- sorry, Q3 development from your point of view in India would be, I think, all comments on that topic are of interest.

C
Charles Héaulmé
CEO & President

Okay. Thank you, Jutta, and good morning. So India is a very difficult one to analyze and that justifies your question, very difficult to analyze in Q2 because of -- I tried to explain already the huge disruption. And you may have read as well, of course, other multinationals, at least their report in Q1, and some of them our customers, how disrupted they were in their supply chain as well in -- already in March. And that has continued very much in -- during the month of April and May, there was a very strict lockdown of the country.If you remember what, I think, we said it at the end of Q1, when the lockdown started, all our factories have been shut down by obligation by the government. So not only there was an issue of demand, but there was a huge issue of supply. We have been able -- because we are not entirely but mostly in essential food production, so food is considered as an essential product for the population as well as we have health care products. So we have been able to reopen factories pretty quickly, but that disruption was in Q2. Hopefully, we won't have to suffer it anymore in India.Now there was a strong disruption in the supply chain, and that explains both -- your question was specifically on sales, but when you look at the earnings as well, disappointing because we have much higher cost in India during the second quarter. Now your question, I think, was much more about Q3. So what has happened in India, the situation, from a lockdown, from a restriction point of view, has improved in June, okay? And with this, we see as well our order intake improving, not yet to the level of last year, but improving significantly.Now it's very difficult to answer your question and very honestly answer it because there is a huge uncertainty on India. If there are 2 countries in the world right now where the pandemic is increasing, unfortunately, this is U.S.A. and India. And what it's going to give in India is almost not predictable from a business point of view. So we have -- at this point in time, we have good hope for a better Q3, definitely. But -- under today's condition. But what it will be in August and in September, unfortunately, we don't know. So it's difficult to be specific on your question. But the month of July has been better, okay?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Maybe to point out just some of the sensitivities in the Indian market as it's, really, as Charles said here earlier, dependent on the full value chain. So in case that, for instance, one factory at the end customer goes down, that means that full supply chain needs to redirect. So if one significant customer has impact from the COVID, then the full supply chain needs to adapt, which means that in worst case, you need to reprint things and similar. So that's the situation we have to live with currently in the geography there. But from a demand point of view for essential products, the demand is there, people need food.

J
Jutta Rahikainen
Country Head of Finland Research and Analyst

Okay. All right. And just a follow-up on the Q2 organic growth in India. Did -- or do you want to provide a figure on that one?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Q2 was basically flat, slightly up.

J
Jutta Rahikainen
Country Head of Finland Research and Analyst

Your sales in India?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

Operator

And our next question comes from...

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Okay. If I may further to that one. So as you understand, as we have a significant drop in emerging markets, it's not only coming from India, so it's all over the place. That's just a clarification to maybe the emerging markets.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Maria Wikstrom of Danske Bank.

M
Maria Wikstrom
Analyst

Yes. My next question is on the raw material price development. You saw now the help from lower resin prices in the Q2. Do you expect the same impact to continue in the Q3? And can we also talk about the recycled paper that -- what you are, guys, seeing there in terms of price? And what is the outlook of, overall, the raw materials for the second half of the year, please?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I can take that one. So first of all, I would say, we have a favorable raw material situation on a generic basis, of course, as usual, fluctuating market-by-market. But as you highlighted, basically, on the plastic side, the market has been favorable. How it will go forward, I think, will be pretty much dependent again on how the situation will develop. So we have the situation when, for instance, for the smooth fiber side, where there was a very high demand on tissue. And from a movement point of view, that seemed to be moving it upwards. And I'm not sure what happens if the situation would go into a similar situation as we had as the lowest point. However, my best prediction at this point of time is that we most likely have a pretty stable development from this time forward.

M
Maria Wikstrom
Analyst

Okay. And if I may follow up with one more, as there seems to be not that many people queuing up...

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

Before you conclude on that and then all in all, I would say, on average, if we compare to previous year, there has been maybe a slight uptick on the fiber side, all in all, so paperboards and similar.

M
Maria Wikstrom
Analyst

And that is across markets?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

That's mainly in the -- that's basically on a global scale, yes.

M
Maria Wikstrom
Analyst

And then my other question was on the update on the current trading conditions in China, that where you currently see the demand trading in the Chinese market to get a little bit of an idea of the foodservice recovery path.

C
Charles Héaulmé
CEO & President

Yes. That's a good question, Maria, in order to understand. I don't think we can say that China is giving the clear picture of what it's going to be in the rest of the world, but at least it gives an indication. So on the foodservice, to be precise, remember that we said at the beginning of this crisis that foodservice demand was basically impacted roughly 40% negatively. And the crisis in China, I would not say finished, but the lockdown was ending, if I remember well, mid-March. Since then there has been a consistent recovery of the consumption, reopening restaurants. It has not been overnight. It has been very gradual. And what we are seeing is that our order intake is basically almost back to normal at the end of June. Almost, so it's not yet, okay? It's slightly down compared to the normal level, but a very small single-digit difference.So that may serve as an indication why we believe that -- not that we are through the crisis yet, but that the recovery is happening. There will be changes. There are changes in the business model of the QSRs, we see that. But the demand is recovering. That's the situation in China. However, important to understand that in China, I was talking here about mainland demand, okay? In China, our production now -- I was talking about the market, mainland market. Our production in China is as well a lot for -- a big portion is for export across geographies, particularly in our countries in Asia and Oceania. There, the demand is still very much down, double digit. So there will be a longer recovery time for those countries because the lockdowns are not completely finished there. And China was clearly, I would not say ahead, but in time was much earlier in this crisis.

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

And the lockdown was managed very efficiently. So it was actually a short lockdown if we consider it.

Operator

Our next question comes from -- as a follow-up of the line of Jutta Rahikainen of SEB.

J
Jutta Rahikainen
Country Head of Finland Research and Analyst

Excellent. All right. Second question on the CapEx. You stressed now that you will continue to invest. Is it a good assumption that the full year CapEx will be at around the same level as last year?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

I believe that's a pretty good assumption with a disclaimer that -- depending on how we are able to install equipment. So that might take it slightly up or slightly down, in my view. So really, installations and possibility to go on site is one of the question marks there.

J
Jutta Rahikainen
Country Head of Finland Research and Analyst

Okay. And then if I may, a second one on the M&A landscape. How does it look from your point of view? Is this the time to make some deals or is it not?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

If I take that one. So first of all, I think that many of the companies in our space have had a balance sheet that takes them through the crisis if it remains short. So from a distress point of view, I wouldn't say that it's the ideal time for that one. However, when we look on the potential of going for acquisitions that is really limited by the same things I highlighted with regards to the CapEx. So in order to do M&A, if you haven't started the process prior to the crisis, you really need to have all the site visits, similar stuff, and that is now limited by the virus lockdowns. But all in all, no reason to change the M&A strategy.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There seems to be -- there is one from Carl-Oscar Bredengen of Berenberg.

C
Carl-Oscar Bredengen

Coming out of Q1, we had sort of a guidance saying that you should imply a 2x negative operating leverage on earnings given the price decline in some of your segments. And following this very impressive earnings quarter that we had now, is this still valid going into the latter half of the year? Or has the sort of negative operating leverage momentum changed as you have been able to flex costs and better adapt to the under-absorption in your plants?

T
Thomas Geust
Chief Financial Officer

So you are referring -- sorry, I didn't get the beginning, but I assume you referred to what we were saying that if you have a significant drop in net sales, you can have even up to 2x effect on the EBIT. And if I'm looking at the units -- and of course, that's a very generic statement. If I look unit-by-unit, some units have an even bigger drop, some units are more resilient, depending on -- if they are -- what kind of local systems are in place? So do you pay for all the furloughed people or do you get subsidies and similar? So there are sensitivities in that statement. But I would still stick to the statement that if you have a significant drop, you can see it from the foodservice results, you will have a significant impact on the EBIT.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] There seem to be no further questions at this time, so I'll hand back to our speakers for the closing comments.

C
Calle Loikkanen

All right. Thank you. Thank you, operator. Thank you very much for the questions and the answers. This then concludes the event for today. I wish you a really good rest of the day, rest of the summer. And above all, I hope you all stay safe and healthy in this environment where we are. Thank you very much for joining, and until the next time, goodbye.

C
Charles Héaulmé
CEO & President

Thank you.