Suominen Oyj
OMXH:SUY1V
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Earnings Call Analysis
Summary
Q3-2023
The company's market demand is described as decent, neither particularly strong nor weak. There's acknowledgement of room for improvement, with market and demand fluctuations factored into planning. New product innovation is notable, with over 35% of the portfolio comprised of new offerings. Financial prudence is evident, with gearing reported at 40%, but specific covenants undisclosed. Sales decline is primarily due to decreased prices over reduced volume, affected by lower raw material costs. The full year 2023 results announcement is set for February 6.
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Good day and welcome to Suominen's Q3 2023 result publication.
My name is Emilia Peltola, and I am heading Suominen's communications and investor relations.
Today, our President and CEO, Tommi Björnman; and CFO, Janne Silonsaari, will present the result. And after the presentation, there is time for questions.
So please, Tommi. Floor is yours.
Thank you, Emilia. And good morning also on my behalf and welcome to this result publication.
We continue with the still similar agenda as before, so we will look at the first and third quarter and then year-to-date numbers. After that, Janne will review the financials. And then we'll progress with my few comments linked to the strategy and then to the outlook for 2023. And in the end, we will take the questions both from live and then from chat.
So in order to look at quarter 3 in a nutshell. So it was good to announce and say that actually we were able to improve slightly our profitability during the third quarter as well as we continued with the strong cash flow within the quarter. And the similar phenomenon we can see also in the year-to-date numbers: Our net sales dropped slightly, mainly due to the raw material prices. And our profitability improved slightly from the previous reporting period, up to EUR 10.5 million. And the cash flow continued to be strong.
Janne, maybe you take the next slides, please.
Very well. So good morning, good day from my behalf as well.
So the net sales declined from the previous year Q3. Prices decreased following the decline in raw material prices. And sales volume decreased followed -- mainly by the closure of the Mozzate plant in Italy. Currencies had EUR 5.2 million negative impact on the top line. Share of the new product continued on strong level and over 35% of net sales both in Q3 and on year-to-date level. And as a reminder: New products are considered which are launched less than 3 years ago.
Then comparable EBITDA. So Q3 comparable EBITDA improved to EUR 5.2 million. EBITDA was at the strongest level since Q4 2021, when COVID still boosted the business. And I'm pleased to say that the planned internal efficiency and margin improvements actions are starting gradually to be visible at the figures as well, okay?
So here we have the consolidated statement of profit or -- and loss. On year-to-date level, operating profit is pressured by the Mozzate plant closure costs of EUR 4.76 million, while in Q3 the related costs were EUR 26,000, so very minor impact anymore on Q3.
And on cash flow. So cash flow from operation is strong, and again I'm pleased to say that the good development continued on Q3 as planned. So cash flow from operations was EUR 8 million. The increase in cash flow has been driven by improvement in net working capital, especially in the inventory where both volume and unit prices have been contributing positively, so regardless of the EBITDA levels, we have been strong on this area for the whole year. And this is a very good backbone going forward.
And a few words about the strategy, where we are. Actually, if you look at the vision, mission, our strategy main components, they remain the same. And we continue to operate mainly focusing on the innovation and being the forerunner in the sustainability and especially in -- once introducing the new product to the marketplace.
And then of course, that -- looking at that, it was good to see, like Janne mentioned in the previous slides, that -- we can see that, our commercial and operational excellence activities and improvements, they have started to contribute good results once going forward; as well as, of course, what was earlier mentioned, something that the Mozzate plant closure was ended already in April in 2023 and then we have been able to put the case in the bed. And once we go forward here, it is something that we will continue implementing the improvement and efficiency actions what we have in the pipeline. And this is very, very crucial and important, especially if we look at the uncertainty at the moment on the market side, to focus the things we saw internally -- we are internally capable of improving and which are in our hands. So we focus on these actions in the coming quarters as well.
Then what was very good, linked to the sustainability. This was the second year once we were rated based on the EcoVadis. This is a very important cornerstone of our sustainability strategy. We were able to improve our results by points. It was improved by 5 points, but maybe more important message is something that in the first rating we were among the top 8 players. And now with this result, we are among the top 5 players in the company mainly in our industry where we operate today. And this rating is very important once we have the communication with our customers because this is the expectation also for them in order to be able to follow the sustainability and sustainability strategy.
And then in order to look at a little bit the outlook. So of course, we have still 1 quarter to go, so the -- we keep the outlook the same. And of course, we need to remember that actually outside world today is a little bit different what it was [ once, this out world has done ], but we want to systematically continue our activity and the way to operate in order to be able to achieve better EBITDA within this year compared to last year.
Thank you, Tommi and Janne.
And now it's time for questions. So first, from the lines. So please, operator, do we have any questions?
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Harri Taittonen from Nordea.
Yes. And maybe on -- I mean because you have presence in both Americas and Europe. I mean, how would you describe the difference in sort of the underlying market development, obviously with changes now in the sales? But what were you seeing in the underlying markets in Americas and Europe? And also if you can give a feel of the seasonal volume pattern for the fourth quarter typically compared to the third quarter in Americas and Europe, just to get a feel of what might be kind of the typical pattern for Q4.
Okay, thank you, Harri. Very good questions. So first of all, this -- in order to look at a little bit North America, mainly the North America and European markets. So North America market, I would say that, at the moment, still the market is acting almost as a normal, although, of course, we can see some signs of softening. We see some signs of destocking from our customer [ sides ], but generally speaking, the market is almost behavior as normal. It's not as competitive market as Europe. Then once we look at Europe, of course, the situation in Europe is slightly different. So the competition is very fierce. We can see the impacts coming both from Ukraine war. We see the crisis in Israel, which are visible on the market side. So the market conditions in Europe are much, much tougher than compared in the United States or North America, but generally speaking -- so that the underlying performance, if you look at the demand -- the underlying demand is good, but because of the change in -- the change mainly in the competition situation is a little bit different. And then of course, the surroundings in the business environment are different. That -- those are the main differences between 2 -- these 2 markets.
What is coming then? The latter question linked to the seasonality. Of course, we are operating in the old continents, both in North America, mainly in North America, and then in Europe. Of course, the Christmas will have an impact on that, but typically, if we look at the first quarter compared to second quarter, always the second quarter has been stronger on us, normal ways. Of course, the current situation because -- especially in Europe, because of these unexpected events linked to the war and the crisis in Israel, so -- we do not know how that is going to impact to the consumer behavior, but expectation, it is somewhat that we will believe that actually -- that the same trend will continue, meaning that actually the second quarter -- the second half of the year should be stronger. So maybe some seasonality, but at the moment, we are not expecting big gaps on that.
Right, right. And I don't know if you want to give a figure. You mentioned about kind of lower volumes overall or the -- but if you talk about Americas, I mean, was that -- year-on-year, was there sort of volume improvement or decline in Q3 for you and in the underlying market?
Yes. So that -- of course, the volume is -- once we talk about the volume, many times, we want to talk about the top line so that -- because actually the top line is impacted both for volume and price. And then once we talk about the price, the price is very heavily impacted by the raw material costs. Generally speaking is something that the market has been softer. So there is some loss of the volume on -- mainly in Europe and less in North America.
Okay, okay, okay. That gives a feel. Maybe finally, on the kind of your outlook statement. You write fairly encouragingly that you see some signs of improvement for next year or so or some positive signs despite the challenging global economy. I mean just out of curiosity, if we can substantiate it at bit. I mean, is it like some concrete indications of volumes from your clients or general industry trends? Or is it sort of more like the raw material environment? Or what -- where do you see the signs that you referred to?
Mainly it is something -- it's our own activity. So that what we do -- the way what we do currently, so how we look at operational and commercial excellence, so things which are in our hand. We are progressing on those activities and [ road maps ] quite well, so that is, of course, giving us some confidence once going forward. And then of course -- then it's in -- other question is something what is going to happen to the global economy. Of course, we want to be positive because the underlying demand, generally speaking, on the market is decent. It's not bad. It's not good, but it's very decent compared to the situation where we are.
Yes, that's still fairly -- I mean demand is quite resilient to the sort of business cycle in many of our products, so...
Yes, yes. That's very true because, of course, that if we look at that -- our products are part of the daily hygiene. So babies are still born. Moms are using wipes, et cetera, so that actually -- it is very true. It's fairly stable despite of the ups and downs on the market side.
The next question comes from Joonas Ilvonen from Evli.
It's Joonas from Evli. You already touched upon the topics I wanted to discuss, but my -- when I saw your -- you mentioned this comment regarding next year and your positive outlook. I mean it's -- my feeling was that you were talking about like, especially in terms of U.S. volumes, that you see good volume pickup in the U.S. next year, but can you elaborate anything more on that besides what you already talk about?
Yes. I would still keep on that. It is something that -- like I said, it's something that, the underlying market demand in these type of products, what -- which the markets which we serve, it's decent, so actually it's still okay. So it's healthy. And then what is coming then? What will happen during the first quarter, second quarter or the beginning of next year? Of course, the expectation for us is something we continue with our internal activity on the operational and commercial excellence side in order to be able to improve the situation, but of course, there are certain uncertainty coming from the market side. At this stage, it would be a little bit too early to anticipate because, at the moment, the market is so volatile and the visibility is fairly short.
All right. And maybe just another question related to European volume. So now we saw the hit due to the closure of the Mozzate plant. And so can you -- anything to add on what kinds of levels might Europe stabilize around now that we saw the impact? Will it -- can you maybe elaborate on European volumes or revenue going forward? How -- will it maybe stabilize here, or will it still maybe -- should we expect a little more softer? So...
Yes, that's -- it's a very, very good question, so that -- it will be great, in order to have a clear answer to that, but of course, we want to be on the positive side in order to look at for the market and market development. And the reason why we want to be on -- a little bit on the positive side is that we have been able to deliver and bring to the market, frequently, new products so that -- in order to have 35% and actually a bit slightly over 35% of the new products in our portfolio. So that is, of course, the expectation once going forward. So it's very, very challenging, but we would like to be on the positive side.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers.
Okay, thank you. We have still one question from the chat, from Markku Moilanen, Nordea. "Can you remind us of your leverage and gearing covenants? And how much room do you have on those?" And then another question: "Can you disclose what amount of the revolving credit facility is drawn? And what is the interest rate you are paying for it at the moment?"
Okay, Janne Silonsaari here. So we have not been disclosing on detail level the information on the RCF, but leverage is, of course, something that -- or let's say the gearing is something that we do report. And you can see that we are at the level of [ the ] 40%, but we do not comment on the detail level of the covenants of the loan arrangement. What we have been publishing is that there are 2 sustainability key performance indicators related to the credit facility. And that's the increase in the sales of the sustainable products and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which both have an impact on the interest paid for the loan. And we do not comment or disclose the actual interest rate what we are paying for the facility at the moment.
Thank you, Janne. And then a question from Rauli Juva. "Can you give an indication of the impact of volume and pricing to the sales decline of roughly 5 -- 15%, excluding currency impact?"
So maybe, Janne, you can look at -- so...
Well, if we take a look of the Q3 here, which I'm sure that we are referring. So let's say FX impact corresponds some 20% of the decline altogether, so that leaves rest of the 80%. And that is coming both volume and decreased price level, which has been driven by the declining raw material costs. I would say that the price level is higher than the volume, but volume is part of the impact as well. We do not give the exact share of the split, but I would say that it's a bit more on the price than on the volume.
Thank you. It seems that we do not have any further questions. So before we close this session, I want to add...
We have one more on the phone lines.
Okay. Good, great. Thank you. So do we have...
The next question comes from Harri Taittonen from Nordea.
Just wanted to -- just on a couple of cash flow lines. I mean your thinking on the CapEx this year. There was a bit more CapEx, I guess, in the third quarter, but I mean just if there's any kind of remaining bigger items for the fourth quarter affecting full year. And also what you are thinking is, with the working capital, now it's been 2 quarters with very positive development there, so how much do you think there is -- usually Q4 is seasonally very good in -- or you can [ release ] typically working capital in Q4, but after these 2 fairly good quarters, is that still a case?
Well, naturally we have been doing a good job there. And if we look backwards, then it's a question that what are the optimal inventory levels. So as I mentioned, we have been improving both on volume side on the inventories. And naturally the unit costs have been going down. So I would say that, yes, when you reach certain level, then you're starting to check that. What is the right kind of buffer level on the inventories and so on? So I see that we have still room to improve, but we will need to evaluate that always and reflecting the market situation and the demand swings, let's say, that way, and the order intake. So it's hard to say. I would say that we do have an improvement there, but I don't -- I wouldn't set the expectation as high that as -- we would be continuing the development at the speed we have been seeing in the past quarters.
And maybe just to add to that. It is something that, if we look at the situation, was -- before the COVID, we start to be at the historical level where we used to be before, with the current net working capital.
So now it seems that there are no more questions. Then it's time for my advertisement. So the full year 2023 result will be then published on February 6.
Thank you, Tommi and Janne. Thank you all for participating, and have a good rest of the day.
Thank you all. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Bye.