EssilorLuxottica SA

PAR:EL

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q3

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to the EssilorLuxottica Q3 Revenue Call. My name is Katie, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the call over to CFO, Stefano Grassi, to begin. Stefano, please go ahead.

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Good morning, and welcome to our third quarter sales release. EssilorLuxottica posted another standing quarter despite all the challenges that related to COVID-19 still remain in several countries around the world. But thanks to our balanced and diversified distribution, thanks to our vertically-integrated supply chain, thanks to our continuous innovation with a strong pipeline of new products like Ray-Ban Stories, that you see right at the front of our presentation today.We're now pleased to share that revenues in the third quarter were up 33% versus 2019 on a reported basis at constant FX. And you're looking at net revenue up 9.3% versus 2019 on a comparable basis, still at constant FX. If we now exclude the consolidation of GrandVision that entered into our books since July 1, our Q3 revenue were still up 9% versus 2019 at constant. For the remainder part of the presentation, we thought it was better to commence our results, excluding the impact of GrandVision. And therefore, when we look at our professional solution, we look at a top line that grew over 7% in Q3, with all the 4 regions that contributed to the growth of the division.The Direct To Consumer division posted the second consecutive quarter of double-digit pace with e-commerce that grew slightly south of 50%, while our retail brick and mortar posted top line growth at mid-single-digit pace. In light of this performance, we're now pleased to upgrade our 2021 outlook with respect to sales and operating profit. With respect to sales, we are now guiding for the full year 2021, with revenue up mid- to high-single digits versus 2019 at constant exchange rate. And with respect to profit, we now have an expectation for the full year 2021 to improve our operating profit up to 100 basis points as a percentage of revenue compared to 2019, still at constant exchange rates.But now in order for you to better understand what is the rationale of our outlook upgrade, I want to walk you through our journey across the different geographies and beginning in Page 14 of the presentation with the largest one, North America. In North America, our top line during the course of the third quarter grew 14%, in acceleration with the first half of the year trend at plus 12%. Both Professional Solutions and Direct To Consumer posted double-digit growth. The U.S. market continues to be strongly and vibrant, in particular, on the B2B side, the growth was very much sustained by key accounts and independent ECP.In our Professional Solutions business, on the lens side, the growth was fueled by our branded lenses with Varilux, Transitions, and Eyezen, all solid positive in Q3, and the Crizal lens that posted double-digit growth. On the frames side of our business, we were pleased and happy with our double-digit growth in frames very much driven by volume, while our price mix was a nice support to the overall picture for frames. Ray-Ban and Oakley were both on fire in Q3. Ray-Ban was up double digits in both prescription and sun. Oakley was up double digit in both prescription and sun. The growth was very much supported by the new launches like the Ray-Ban Stories in September as well as in the Oakley, the Xeus and Kato product that gained a lot of visibility during the Olympics game that were held in Tokyo.On the direct-to-consumer side, LensCrafters posted comp sales close to double digits with price mix very much driving the growth, well supported by volume by normal location that outperformed small locations. And when we look at our sun part of the business, Sunglass Hut for the second consecutive quarter, posted top line up on the double-digit pace led by non-international Sunglass Hut locations as well as Bass Pro stores. While the international location, as we've already seen for quite a few quarters, are still lagging behind. But we're hopeful now that with the reopening of the U.S. border to the tourists, we're going to see an acceleration and a good traction during the course of the fourth quarter for the Sunglass Hut international exposed locations. Last but not least, our e-commerce business that has broadly continued the strong performance that we already commented during the course of the second quarter. Let's move over to EMEA, where we have a very nice story of strong acceleration. In EMEA, the first quarter of 2021, our revenue were down 7% versus 2019. In the second quarter, we were up 4%. And now on the third quarter, our revenues were up 7% versus 2019. So a sequential improvement of our performance. Very pleased with this trajectory, and very pleased to see that now European consumer are reactivating their spending with Italy, Germany, U.K. performing mid- to high single digit during Q3. With Turkey, Russia, Eastern Europe, all on the double-digit pace. The Professional Solutions grew nicely at mid-single digit in Q3, with both frames and lenses at a very high pace together.On the lens side of our business, our branded lenses well supported our strong price/mix in the quarter and profitability. While from a channel mix standpoint, our ECP, our large key account, and our e-commerce partners were very much the channel that drove our growth. Stellest is nicely ramping up in Italy as well as in France, and we can't wait to see the further rollout of this myopia management lens in other parts of Europe. On the frames side, we are very excited to report a strong sun business with top line that was up on the high single digits, while the optical business continued with a very strong and solid trajectory on a mid-single-digit pace. The overall growth in the frame side of the business was fairly balanced between price/mix and volume. Moving to the direct-to-consumer side of the business. Very pleased with the Salmoiraghi & Viganò performance during the course of the third quarter, with comps that were mid-single digits and price mix that is continuously improving quarter after quarter. On the Sunglass Hut side, the overall performance was negative for Q3, but we have some encouraging sign of improvement. In particular, in the month of September where comps were positive, and we were in a positive territory in several different countries. And then in France, in Netherlands, in Turkey and in United Kingdom, excluding airport location, we actually posted double-digit growth rate. And that very much tells you that the demand for Sun is still there.Now let's move into a more challenging area. Let's move east to Asia Pacific, where our sales remained still in a negative territory at 6.6%. In Asia Pac, we observed a very challenging quarter if you think about it. In Japan, we all watched the Olympic games with no spectators. In China, we experienced the impact of major floods and cities like Beijing that were subject to severe restriction. And then we had Australia. In Australia, 2 of the major states, New South Wales and Victoria were under a strict lockdown during the course of the third quarter. But on the positive side, we're very pleased to report that India is on the recovery pace with top line that was up on the mid-single digit.The China -- the Greater China posted double-digit growth rate and that Hong Kong is slowly redefining the new normal. And also that the government in Malaysia and Indonesia are progressively deconfining the population. On the Professional Solutions side, we are pleased to see solid growth during the course of Q2 despite the challenging Q3 -- sorry, despite the challenging environment. Our price/mix is solid while volume is still lagging behind, very much in light of the COVID outbreak.The Stellest lens continues to be a strong asset in China and also in the rest of the world. And in particular, in China, we more than doubled the volume of Stellest lens that were sold in Q3 compared to the second quarter, and we see a further acceleration during the month of October. So we are building up a new category from scratch at a very high pace. And today, about 80% of the growth that we're experiencing in China in the lens business is driven by myopia solution. So very proud for the achievement that [indiscernible] made to make in that part of the world.On the direct-to-consumer side, here, the performance was heavily affected by the deceleration that we experienced in Australia. And just to give you an idea, during the course of the third quarter, we experienced anywhere between 150 to 200 stores closed during Q3, an additional 150 stores were subject to severe restriction in terms of working operating hours. But on the positive side, we've seen that in the states where there were no restrictions, we had Sunglass Hut at double-digit pace, and we had our optical retail business, OPSM, comping at the mid-single-digit pace. So we are confident that we're going to face a good and solid fourth quarter in Australia, very much in light of the progression and the progress made on the vaccination campaign.The last region is Latin America. That's another nice progression story. Q1 plus 1%; Q2, plus 2%; third quarter, up 12%, double digit. With pretty much all the countries in the region that contributed to the growth, with Brazil, the largest country, that weighed most of the COVID-related restriction and grew high single digits during the course of the third quarter. The professional solutions was high single digit, well supported by our branded lenses with Varilux that was double digit in Hispanic Latin as well as in Brazil. And in Brazil, we're very proud to see an acceleration of the synergies between lenses and frames. And we're very proud to share that during the course of the third quarter, we launched the EL 360 program in Brazil, piloting that program with about 400 ECP and getting ready for the larger scale rollout on a national basis during the early part of 2022.From a direct-to-consumer side, happy to see double-digit growth rate. We had a very strong quarter in both brick-and-mortar as well as e-commerce that grew in excess of 70%. Our optical retail chain in Latin America, the biggest GMO, posted double-digit growth. Our Óticas Caro business was up double digits. And on the Sun side, we have Sunglass Hut in Mexico and in Brazil, all of them growing at a double-digit pace, making very much a nice and compelling story for a direct-to-consumer proposition in Latin America. With that, I concluded my journey across the different regions, and I will hand it over to the operator for the Q&A session.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We take our first question from Elena Mariani from Morgan Stanley.

[Elena Mariani, Executive Director of Luxury Goods and Brands]

Stefano, congratulations on the results. I will stick to 2 questions, of course. My first question is on the U.S. market. Clearly, your previous guidance was assuming that trends would normalize in this market into year-end, but it didn't happen. So what is your outlook right now for this region for the next few quarters? So how do you read these markets? Is it fair to assume that you are continuing to see this abnormal growth into the fourth quarter or even a stronger growth into year-end. And also, I just wanted to confirm that footfall is still down versus 2019. And so this double-digit sales growth is being achieved mainly through higher conversion rates?And then my second question is on your new profitability guidance. Could you comment a bit more on the underlying drivers of the potential up to 100 basis point improvement? Is it just pure operating leverage? Or are you also seeing a positive mix that is going to lift your gross margin meaningfully as well? So in essence, I want to understand a bit more what we should expect in terms of cost of goods sold versus OpEx development in the second half of the year.

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Elena, let me start taking your first question on the U.S. market. Clearly, we see a market that is extremely strong. We see the demand being there, in general for different channels for B2B as well as direct-to-consumer, for Sun as well as the prescription side of the business. We do see that market continue stronger also during the course of the fourth quarter. Again, assuming there are no changes in the pandemic conditions, we're getting ready for the holiday season. But as you know, it's extremely important period of time, the insurance week for the year-end. But again, I do expect that trend to continue.With respect to traffic, yes, the answer is yes to your question. We are still seeing traffic decline. But I would say the conversion is sequential improving. That means that we probably have fewer consumers into the stores. But the one that comes in are very much coming in for the purchasing intention. Then we can't forget that, again, as we develop more and more the omnichannel proposition, it's -- we need to look at the traffic overall in a more broader way, not just the physical football, but also the online one.With respect to profitability, we do guide for our margin expansion, I would say, quite material for the full year 2021. There's a couple of things. On one side, we do continue to see price/mix as a nice support to our growth. We do see volume coming back. We've seen it in, for example, in U.S., pretty strongly, especially on the frame side of the business. And we believe that, that price mix will continue throughout the remainder part of the year. So that will obviously support our gross margin. From an OpEx point of view, if you remember probably a couple of quarters ago, I said that we were entering into 2021, we have a very good control of our cost base.Let me say that, that control of a cost base is still there. We're now releasing certain investments in a strategic area to really get ready for some of the important events that we are facing in the second half of the year, like Tokyo Olympics, the launch of Ray-Ban Stories, the further roll out of the Stellest lenses. But again, we've been very virtuous in the way we manage other discretionary expenses. And that's why you do see that margin progression that we assume to see throughout all the way through the end of 2021.

[Operator]

We take our next question from Susy Tibaldi from UBS.

[Susy Tibaldi, Associate Analyst]

So first one, so just to wrap up what you were mentioning on the North American market. So it sounds like the trend -- and correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like the trends that you saw in Q3 so far are being sustained also in the first few weeks of Q4. It sounds like Europe is also continuing on this trajectory of improvement. APAC, some of the restrictions in Australia are being lifted. Lat Am, unless there's any major event, it sounds like it's also progressing well. So does it mean that October so far, the first 2 weeks of Q4, are seeing trends in line with Q3 or maybe potentially even a little bit better given all these moving parts? So it would be great to have your confirmation of that.And secondly, just to go back on the margin. So you provided this 100 bps margin expansion. And you provided it as a ceiling rather than usually say or up at least a certain amount. So given that high single-digit top line can be quite a wide range. I was wondering as to why are you putting a ceiling on expansion? Is it because you are managing the growth, and so anything that is incremental, you plan to reinvest it in those initiatives that you mentioned before? Or how are you thinking about the margins.

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Susy. Let me take the first question. Back to the trend that we're seeing so far in North America as well as for the remainder part of the world. Yes, we do see in October that so far it's coming with a nice trajectory; broadly speaking, the one you've seen at third quarter. So we're very pleased with that. No reason to believe that, that could avert for the time being. With respect to the margin, I mean it's a range that we're seeing up to 100 basis points, right? And also the top line, it's guided between mid- to high single digits. So we're sticking to that guidance. But again, the underlying assumption that we have for that margin, it's margin expansion in H1, and you've seen it. and its margin expansion also for the second half of the year.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Graham Renwick from Berenberg.

[Graham Ian Renwick, Analyst]

I just have the 2. Just firstly, on supply chain. Are you seeing any disruption that could be impacting your product availability and constraining growth in Q4 or beyond? And also as inflationary pressures are getting bigger into '22, do you think that inflation could be more or less passed onto the consumer through pricing or price/mix given all the innovation you have coming through?And then secondly, just on GrandVision, it's the first quarter of consolidation. They had a pretty solid update yesterday, particularly on margins. I was just wondering if you'd already started integrating that business and potentially realizing any synergies from that deal? I know there's some sort of clear synergies around putting [indiscernible] lens in stores, consolidating supply chains, et cetera. I just wondered whether that had started in any way? And if not, is there any sort of time frame on when we can expect those synergies to start coming through?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Graham. Let me start with the supply chain. One of the things that you would normally hear when we talk about EssilorLuxottica is that we have a vertically integrated business model, which implies a vertically integrated supply chain. I would add on top of that a vertically and diversified supply chain. That is a major asset for us. That implies, first of all, that the reliance on external supplier is probably more limited than the other industry, than other business model. The second thing is that the diversification of our supply chain footprint, allow us to respond quickly to any kind of challenge we may say at the macro level.We are making important investments, as we speak, to further diversify our manufacturing and distribution capacity from a logistics standpoint with major investments in Thailand as well as in Mexico, that gives a broader footprint than what we got in the past, and it definitely allows us to offset some of the headwinds that we are seeing. Clearly, there are those headwinds. There are those headwinds in the logistic costs, and we feel it in a way. But we have actions that have been able to compensate those effects in our results. And on one side, as I said, is the diversification is the further negotiation and diversification with the supplier. And so in that respect, the strength of our supply chain is such as that I believe that the headwinds that we are facing today and also the one that we're going to face in 2022 will be largely offset by our capacity of our supply chain. On top of that, as you mentioned, we have a strong pipeline of product innovation. A strong pipeline of product innovation implying strong brands behind that pipeline of innovation. And obviously, we have the price leverage actionable whenever it makes sense. So the combination of those 2 things really make us in a good situation not just for this year, but I would say also for 2022 and the years to come.With respect to GrandVision, the consolidation into our financial statements is happening as of July 1. With respect to synergy execution, I would say we're deferring that into 2022. So it's not an item for 2021. With that said, you know that the item in agenda for us are pretty clear. There's work that needs to be done on the supply chain for lenses. There is work that needs to be done on a frame assortment, and there is the integration into the EssilorLuxottica platform, which overall, I envisioned to be, let me say, smoother and faster than the integration that we've seen between Essilor and Luxottica in the past.

[Operator]

For our next question, we go to Luca Solca from Bernstein.

[Luca Giuseppe Solca, Research Analyst]

I was wondering about your thoughts on the operating model that you're implementing in emerging markets. It's quite clear that in developed markets like the U.S. and Europe, you're gearing to a greater implication in retail. You're working in many different markets globally from South America to China to India and so on. I wonder if there's a sort of path that is emerging on how you track these markets and turn them into growth engine for you, if there's a time when you want to push on wholesale, when you start to push on retail and so on? Then more of a short-term question. I wonder if you could help us understand growth components in your direct-to-consumer reported top line growth. If you were to break it down roughly by space, like-for-like and digital, like-for-like within physical source and digital?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Okay. So Luca, let me start with the operating model in the fast-growing market. Clearly, we have very diversified footprint in a fast-growing market. If you think about in several of those countries, we have a physical retail presence. We have a strong B2B lens and frames. And we're also building up a strong online proposition, which, by the way, it naturally converged in an omnichannel proposition with our physical presence. It's important for us to understand and monitor the area that we believe are critical for the future of this company in those markets. I give you a good example for that in China. The Stellest lens and the myopia management in China, it is a major item for us. When you have about half of the population that is impacted by a different degree of myopia. So myopia solutions are an important path, an important metric that we monitor constantly on the B2B side as well as our own retail side. Clearly, we action development on retail as well as B2B whenever it makes sense. Retail presence, probably in certain markets, it's still low. I think about it, for example, in India, where we know we can't have a direct presence, so we -- by law, we have certain limitations, but I believe there are opportunity there to become bigger. China could be a similar story in understanding the dynamics between the hospital and the dispensing of the product. What role can play physical retail within the hospital, it's a question open for us. So -- and again, that's one of the area where I think with the time progressing, we're going to be more explicit with you and with the rest of the audience. With respect to the growth that we see on the direct-to-consumer, there's 2 kind of areas, right? One side is the online business that continue to march at extremely strong pace. And on the other side, there is a physical retail footprint that continues to be more productive as we evolve our store footprint, continues to be more productive as we develop that omnichannel proposition. So more and more, we're moving from a store productivity into an omnichannel productivity space. For a physical footfall traffic to a physical -- and digital footfall traffic. And again, that's the way we like to see it. And I think with the investment that we're doing just under some parts of the business, but also on the optical side of the business, you will see that evolution coming through, especially in LensCrafters.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Anne-Laure Bismuth from HSBC.

[Anne-Laure Bismuth]

Actually. I was wondering about Stellest. Order rollout is progressing so far globally. What is the progression also with the FDA in the U.S. regarding Stellest? And in terms of pricing, can you give us some detail about the pricing of Stellest? And if there is any difference by country?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Stellest rollout is progressing really well. As you know, we have it already, let me say, a successful story in China after more than a year that we launched the lens. In U.S., we are not present. And in Europe, actually, we -- you're going to see a progressive rollout in other countries beyond Italy and France, where we actually got a pretty good acceptance by our ECP. And that's something that obviously you will see us becoming more and more visible in our continent. With respect to pricing, no, there are no major differences from a pricing standpoint in the way those lenses are priced around the world.

[Operator]

Cedric Lecasble from Stifel, takes our next question.

[Cedric Lecasble, Research Analyst]

I have 2 questions, also. The first one on the scope of the disposal of GrandVision. Maybe to help us understand better your restatement and calculations of comparable trends to, in particular, to give the sense of what will be left in your scope? Maybe you can help us giving us some guidance or some indications on how much does it represent in sales, in EBIT, maybe in profitability? I guess it's [indiscernible] you have, but it would help us maybe understand the mechanics at least on top line? And the second one is an update on your supply chain integration and what you are starting to do on IT following the beta testing in Northern Italy, deploying your model, where do you stand? What's different today from where you stood a few months ago? What are you happy about and still on progress on some of the areas?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Cedric, let me go to answer your question, the first one, with respect to the scope of business that have been in the process of being disposed, or that had been disposed. The impact of those businesses is slightly less than 1% of the overall consolidated revenue. We don't expect any material impact on the margin in that respect. On the update with respect to the supply chain and infrastructure, the journey of harmonizing our platform to 1 single ERP system. It's progressing really well. We're making a lot of progress right now. Next year, we believe we're going to have a full [ stock ] rollout in North America, which obviously, from a materiality standpoint, it's a major accomplishment. But we're also going through sequential rollout other parts of the world. So it's progressing really well.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Domenico Ghilotti from Equita.

[Domenico Ghilotti, Co]

Two questions. The first is related to the FX situation should be so a fair assumption to assume that in the second half, both on top line and also on profitability, it should be almost say neutral. And the second is on the online business. I wanted to have some, if possible, some granularity on the geographical contribution. So if this online contribution now is starting to be a bit more or less skewed to the U.S. and also extending to the other areas, other regions?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Domenico. With respect to the first question, from an FX standpoint, I think there's still some headwinds where we're looking ourselves versus 2019. And I do expect those headwinds to continue in the fourth quarter from a currency standpoint. When we look at our results, though, in 2022, I do see the chance reverting as we're going to compare ourselves versus 2021. So then we're going to have -- I think if currencies stay at those levels, we're going to enter into the tailwinds territory, which is good for top line as well as for margin. With respect to e-commerce, I mean, e-commerce is still heavily skewed towards North America. And that's still the situation, which we don't mind because obviously, with the U.S. market, it's extremely strong. That trend, it's not only on the B2B and physical retail side of the business, but it's also on our online business.

[Operator]

We take our next question from Julien Dormois from Exane.

[Julien Dormois, Research Analyst]

The first one is just coming back on Stellest. Just to make sure I get the right number and we all get a better graph on the sales opportunity for this one. Just focusing on China, I think you have indicated that you have doubled the volume of lenses you delivered versus Q2. So I think the last time you gave a number, was about 1,000 kids that were equipped per day. So I was just trying to make a rough estimate here because I think you -- the wholesale contribution is about $100 to $150 per kid basically. So I was just wondering, at the current run rate, are we effectively talking about more than $100 million on a yearly basis for Stellest just for China. Is that a fair calculation? And maybe as a quick follow-up, what would be the limitation right now to a broader adoption of the lens? Is it -- of Stellest, I mean, is it the opticians that are -- that you still need to train? Or is it the parents who are still to be convinced? And my second question will relate to the margin into 2022. So I know it's a bit early to talk about this. But because you have indicated that 2021 will be a good year from a margin perspective, I was just wondering that given all the headwinds and tailwinds you have mentioned for entering into 2022, should we take the 2021 margin as a floor and think about you getting a better margin into 2022?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Julien, Stellest lens. The volume, yes, are double in the course of the third quarter compared to the second quarter. And let me tell you, we are further increasing that number as we enter into the month of October, we're finishing actually the month of October. So the trajectory is sequential improvement of daily dispensing Stellest lens. And as I said before, 80% -- more than 80% of our growth in China in the lens business, it's driven by myopia solutions, which obviously encompass Stellest but not only Stellest in itself. With respect to 2022, I think it's a bit premature right now to look at 2022. We have time to have discussion around that. But again, I think we're going through our budget process as we speak. And so we will be more discrete in the coming future.

[Operator]

We take our next question from Piral Dadhania from RBC.

[Piral Dadhania, Director of Premium Brands]

Stefano, my first question is just on pricing. As you think about your budgeting process for 2022 and in the face of raw materials input cost inflation for a lot of your inputs, could you just give us an idea of how much pricing you may take, absolute price increases for 2022? I appreciate you made comments around contributory price/mix so far in 2021. And then my second question is just on a more strategic update and when that might come for the business? Obviously, the profile of the business has changed with GrandVision in there now, when can we expect a more detailed run-through of your strategy for GrandVision and progress in terms of the EssilorLuxottica integration, perhaps in the form of a Capital Markets Day?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

So with respect to the first question, Piral, when we look at our price mix that we see today, I would say, generally speaking, it's more driven by the continuous efforts in product innovation. So the impact of the mix that we see in the lenses -- of the mix that we see on the frames, it's very much supporting our price mix. We take price adjustment whenever it makes sense from a currency standpoint. And a good example for that, it was Brazil, where we took price adjustments. So that is where that is how also we are building up 2022. We're not necessarily into the price adjustments. We are more looking at what is the pipeline of innovation that we have for 2022 that sustain our price mix. That's the way we look at it today, and that's is going to be the story also for 2022. With respect to the update on strategy, let me say that we can't wait to do our Capital Market Day. I think we have a lot of insight and update on a strategy now that GrandVision is going to be part of our family. But we haven't set a date on stone yet. We're working on it.

[Piral Dadhania, Director of Premium Brands]

Okay. Understood. Could I just come back to your point on price? So if I maybe just rephrase. Are you seeing any input cost inflation for raw materials going into next year? I imagine you have hedging in place for at least the next few months. So if you are seeing input cost inflation, what sort of impact could that have on your unit margin level if you don't take pricing, if there is that inflation? Or are you not seeing any inflation going into 2022?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

We do see it, especially on the logistics side. But again, it's -- broadly speaking, it's under control. It's under control because of the effort that we're doing on the negotiation with the suppliers, because of the sourcing diversification, because of the supply chain diversification. So we do see it. We felt it, but it's largely offset by the actions that we're putting in place with our supply chain.

[Operator]

Our final question comes from Veronika Dubajova from Goldman Sachs.

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

Stefano, two questions for me, please. When just looking at the third quarter, and I was curious if you could comment a little bit on the growth progression that you saw all month by month, and I appreciate there's often very much volatility. But just curious, in particular, I guess, in APAC to what extent you've seen normalization in growth and how you're thinking about the fourth quarter? And also I think in the U.S., it looks like September was substantially better than the other 2 months of the quarter. And I'm curious if you've seen that continue. So that's my first question.Then my second question is in terms of the confidence in the margin, clearly, you're seeing some benefits from operating leverage, but I'm also curious how you're getting on with some of the integration work that you're doing on the Essilor and Luxottica side. So maybe if you can give us a little bit of an update on how much that is a driver of your increased confidence in the margin for the full year?

[Stefano Grassi, Co]

Veronika, let me take the first question. We do see Asia Pacific getting better for sure. Australia is instrumental. The Australian situation is instrumental to that getting better in Asia, for sure. India continues in a pretty good pace. So again, broadly speaking, Q3 trajectories, that's where I would put my stamp for the fourth quarter, assuming there is no deterioration, obviously, on the pandemic situation, not at least in a material way.With confidence in margin expansion. Yes, we haven't talked about synergy. But the reason why we haven't talked about synergy, is because we are fully on track with our delivery and execution of synergies for 2021. Clearly, they very much support our margin expansion. Clearly, we have a good pipeline of new initiatives. As I mentioned before, Brazil is going to be the next in line to see the commercial proposition of EL 360. And from the first reaction that we've seen in the market, it's a very positive one. No reason to believe that, that work won't be extended in other parts of the world, also in Asia, for example. So overall, it's working really well. It's in progress. It's very much on time with respect to execution, and it's contributing to our margin expansion first half as well as second half of the year. Okay. So that was the last question for today's call. I want to thank everybody and look forward to talking to you in the near future. Thanks again. Have a good day.

[Operator]

This now concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.