Straumann Holding AG

SIX:STMN

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q3

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Straumann Group Q3 2020 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I am Sandra, the Chorus Call operator. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Guillaume Daniellot, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Thank you and good morning, everyone. I thank you for -- all of you for joining us for this conference call on Straumann 2020 third quarter results. We are glad to have you with us again, and we very much hope that you, your families and your colleagues are all safe and well. I am pleased to say that we have had very few reported cases in -- of COVID in our global organization over the past 8 weeks, none of which have been serious and for which we are very grateful. To protect our colleagues and to support the fight against coronavirus in the community, more than 80% of our headquarter colleagues are working remotely, and the building is closed to visitors. So I'm very sorry that we can't welcome you physically, but we do hope to see you in person as soon as the situation allows. As usual, this morning's presentation and discussion will include some forward-looking statements, so please take note of the disclaimer in our press release and on Slide 2. As customary, I will give you a brief overview and Peter Hackel, our CFO, will share the business performance and financial details with you. After that, I'll bring you up to date on recent events and strategic initiatives. And of course, we look forward to answering your questions afterwards. Following our previous media conference 3 months ago, we enjoyed a period of respite in the pandemic with the recovery trend continuing through the end of September. As you know, earlier in October, the situation tipped, and many countries are now battling against a second wave. On Slide 5, you can see that in September, the OECD considered the economic outlook to be especially uncertain. It noted that all major economies will have certain recession this year with the exception of China. Recovery will be fragile and GDP next year is expected to be lower than it was in 2019 in many countries. Therefore, restoring confidence will be crushed. In view of the latest events and the current surge in infection rates, the projected recovery curve for GDP is leaning towards the OECD's downside scenario. Confidence is essential not just for economic recovery in general but also for industry. The availability of disposable income will also be pivotal because implants and clear aligners are elective procedures that are not generally reimbursed. The charts on the right reflect assessments provided by your country organizations at the beginning of this year. While the majority of total practices remain open in most regions, restrictive measures to control new outbreaks have increased significantly, especially in EMEA. In North America, the situation is still somewhat challenging. Latin America is beginning to emerge, while Asia Pacific is still running very well. Now practices are rigorously implementing safety measures, and patient flow is still fairly good at the moment. But we don't know if it will stay like this now that treatment backlogs have been reduced and the pandemic is resurging. Moving on to Slide 6 and how we are adapting to the new realities. The surge of COVID infections means that we are coming back to more stringent measures in many areas to ensure people's safety and business continuity. Safety considerations prevent us from reaching and serving some customers physically in some geographies, and we have shifted to working remotely in many areas. The pandemic has further accelerated the trend in digitalization, and we are leveraging this to expand our base of installed oral scanners, in addition to attracting other scanner users by offering seamless connection to the Straumann Group digital ecosystem. We are intensifying our use of alternative channels, such as remote selling and direct-to-consumer, which implement traditional -- or which complement, sorry, traditional sales and marketing approaches. COVID-19 will also accelerate consolidation, both on the provider and supplier side, making our focus on DSOs even more relevant. In general, customers are seeking solutions that increase efficiency, shorten treatment times, reduce practice visits and offer greater affordability. We are addressing these needs, for example, by offering a range of immediacy solutions and brands that cover all price levels. But the most important thing is to approach these new realities with the right mindset and behaviors, which is where our culture of agility, embracing change, creating opportunities, focusing on customers, building trust and communicating is key. We'll be sharing more of this later, but first, let's look at the 9 months and third quarter highlights, which you can see in Slide 7. The pandemic and stiff currency headwinds cut group revenue in the first 9 months of this year by 15% in comparison with the corresponding period of 2019. The impact was heaviest early in Q2, but we have climbed out of the trough to post third quarter revenues in line with the prior year in Swiss francs. In organic terms, this is excluding the effects of acquisitions and currency exchange rates, we grew 8%, making Q3 the first positive quarter this year. The improvement was driven significantly by pent-up demand for prosthetics, implants but also clear aligners. Further contributions came from strong sales of digital equipment and the Straumann BLX implants. All regions reported a continuation of the improvement that started around mid-Q2, led by Asia Pacific, which posted double-digit growth in Q3. Customer focus has been central to our recovery. Through intense online activities and by tapping into new sales channels, we gained share of voice and won customers in many segments. From a brand and product perspective, it is interesting to note that growth was powered both by our premium business with Straumann BLX implants and our value franchise with Neodent and Medentika, lifted by strong digital and clear aligner sales. At the same time, we were able to launch new products, which I will tell you about later. In short, Q3 was very encouraging, but pent-up demand has now been fully absorbed. In view of the uncertainty surrounding COVID and the economy, it is still very difficult to make any forecasts even for just the remainder of the year. Looking at the sequential figures in Slide 8. As I just mentioned, all regions reported continued improvements from mid-Q2 onwards, and the sequential improvement from first half to Q3 was between 24 and 27 percentage points in each case. And with that, I will hand over to Peter for more details on the financial performance.

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Thank you, Guillaume, and good morning, everyone. As usual, I would like to begin with our revenue development at the group level and then look at our 4 regions. On Slide 10, you can see that, at 2020 exchange rate, our 9-month revenue in 2019 would have been CHF 80 million lower because all our major currencies weakened against the Swiss franc. The effects of mergers and acquisitions added CHF 22 million, bringing the adjusted revenue base to almost CHF 1.1 billion. The M&A effect in Q3 was mainly due to DrSmile, which we consolidated as of September. In the center of the chart, you can see that all our regions reported double-digit contractions for the full 9-month period, taking group revenue down 19%. This was mainly driven by EMEA and North America, which collectively contributed more than 70% of the reduction, as you can see to the right of the main chart. On the far right, you can see that the good recovery in Q3 did not make up for the heavy decline in the second quarter and slight drop in Q1. Furthermore, the growth in Q3 was driven mainly by pent-up demand and should not be viewed as the new norm. On Slide 11, you can see that in our largest region, EMEA, the continuing turnaround lifted quarterly organic revenue by 7%. All the major markets posted growth with strong rebounds in Italy and Spain as treatment backlogs were reduced. Germany and France reported moderate increases while Turkey achieved dynamic growth, fueled by the launches of Straumann BLX and NUVO implants, together with strong digital equipment sales. Russia and distributor markets in Eastern Europe performed well, while the U.K., Portugal and the Middle East continued to struggle. One regional highlight that I would like to mention is our expansion in the Romanian market, where 120,000 implants are sold annually. At the end of September, we acquired the business of Artis Bio Tech, a well-established national distributor of dental implant systems. This will boost our local presence and presents an excellent opportunity to convert customers from competitor systems to Straumann Group brands. In North America, both the U.S. and Canada recovered from heavy declines in Q2 with solid growth in the third quarter when organic revenue climbed 9%. The increase was driven by pent-up demand for implants and restorative solutions and fueled by strong demand for Straumann BLX, which was launched a year ago. Both the premium and the non-premium implant franchises grew, the latter outpacing the former driven mainly by Neodent and the growth in DSO channels. Restorative solutions also increased, while digital equipment sales grew substantially, thanks to strong sales of TRIOS intra-oral scanners. Moving on to Slide 14. Asia Pacific saw a further sequential improvement in organic revenue from a decline of 12% in Q2 to 11% growth in the third quarter as China, Australia and New Zealand all rebounded to double-digit growth in Q3 and Taiwan continued to post very strong growth throughout. With the exception of Singapore, all other countries in the region reported sales decreases due to the pandemic. However, nearly all of them experienced a sequential improvement in Q3. In Japan, the comparatively soft sales reflected the exceptionally strong third quarter last year, when customers purchased stocks ahead of a tax increase. Implant sales picked up across the region being driven by premium and nonpremium brands. While our premium business is significantly bigger than nonpremium, the latter grew faster, lifted by Neodent, which gained ground in Australia, India, Japan and Thailand. Sales of intraoral scanners also increased, especially Carestream models, which we distribute in China. Moving across the world to Latin America, where organic revenue in Q3 was just 5% below the prior year period. While still negative, this is a significant improvement from the 60% decline in the second quarter. Of all the countries in the region, only Argentina and Chile managed to grow in Q3. The majority of practices in the region remained close until July and even September in some countries. However, most are open now and patients are seeking treatment. In the largest regional market, Brazil, we remained open and continued to supply customers through the 17 Neodent stores across the country. Neodent was the region's main driver in Q3, supported by strong sales of clear aligners, digital equipment and 3D-printing resins. Slide 15 gives you an indication of how the individual businesses have performed. In our core implants and restorative business, the Straumann premium range continued to gain market share, reflecting its strong brand equity, innovation and customer loyalty. Sales of BLX continued to recover, and we are confident that they will exceed the 2019 levels over the full year. Our nonpremium franchise continued to outpace the premium business driven by Neodent and lifted by Medentika. Share of wallet gains, particularly in the DSO segment, were the main contributors. The digital business achieved dynamic growth in Q3 driven by intraoral scanner sales, especially TRIOS models, which are now fully integrated into our digital ecosystem and seamlessly connected to ClearCorrect and other workflows. The CADCAM restorative business reflected the backlog of restorations that were postponed during lockdown as well as developments in implant sales. Consumables, including ceramics and 3D-printing resins, developed well. Biomaterials also returned to growth in Q3, reflecting the pickup in implant procedures and sales. The orthodontics business picked up substantially, fueled by a large number of case starts, more than half of which were generated outside the U.S., which is ClearCorrect's domestic market. To support expansion in Europe and dynamic growth in the D2C business of DrSmile, our new manufacturing unit in Germany went into operation in the third quarter with a production capacity of almost 10,000 alignments per day. And with that, I will hand back to Guillaume.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Thank you very much, Peter. I have already referred to the immediate measures and initiatives we are taking to adapt to the new realities. Now I would like to give you an update on our recent progress with our 3 long-term strategic priorities, the first of which is to drive our high-performance Straumann Group culture and organization. For the past 6 years, we have constantly fostered the player-learner mindset, which, as you can see in Slide 19, embraces change and stimulates growth in contrast to the less flexible victim-knower mindset. All through the crisis, our staff have shown agility, flexibility, creativity but also teamwork, customer focus and endurance, which I'm convinced are reflected in the turnaround and market share gains we have achieved. I would like to commend and thank them sincerely for this. Slide 20 presents some recent examples of this player-learner agility. When lockdown came, our colleagues quickly focused on leveraging our digital capabilities and strengths, creating one of the broadest online education networks in our field, including Straumann CAMPUS, which is a complete web learning environment. It offers advanced interacting virtual events with live booths, webinars, expert talks and chats. The CAMPUS activities in the past 2 quarters have been some of the most intense digital approaches in the industry. Due to travel restrictions and health care precautions, dental conference and education events around the world have either gone virtual or have been canceled altogether. To gain share of voice at digital conferences, we have orchestrated multiple virtual forums and symposia to offer training and education to showcase new solutions and to present clinical evidence. To fill the vacuum resulting from cancellations, we are creating our own virtual events; for example, APEX events in North America, which are designed to give the impression of being at an event and visiting our exhibition stand. The experiences feature interactive tours, education sessions, panel discussions, augmented reality presentations of latest technology, specialist promotions, interactive sales appointments and more. This year's EAO meeting was completely virtual and drew more than twice the normal number of visitors. Our Satellite Symposium live attracted 800 participants, and we had more than 1,600 visits at our virtual booth. Another example of our strong online outreach in Q3 was the EMEA Summit of our Women Implantology Network. WIN is a key initiative to reach, support and encourage the growing number of female dentists. Rather than postponing this year's summit, we also went virtual and welcomed more than 3,800 vendor professionals offering education, advice, technology updates and networking over a period of 7 days. Our campaigns to introduce new products have also gone virtual. Last week, we held a prelaunch event online to present Straumann's new Zygoma implant system and our immediacy concept, which was attended by more than 500 participants in 30 countries. It featured 4 hours of lectures, demonstrations and panel discussions, in addition to providing direct access to key opinion leaders and local representatives. We also introduced the learn-in-a-box experience, which enables dentists to select and configure a package of information, training and hands-on materials. Another unique online event was our global DSO summit, which brought more than 50 CEOs from the world's leading dental service organizations together with top speakers to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on DSO leadership and also the future of oral health care. As you can see on Slide 21, the participants represented 28 countries and more than 31,000 clinicians over the world. Through lockdown, we continued collaborating closely with DSOs, helping them to bounce back and building relationships for the near future. As you can see in Slide 22, our second strategy priority focuses on accelerating growth in our core implant market and strategic segments. With regard to the premium implant segment on Slide 23, our Smile in a Box service provides opportunities for customers to grow their businesses, offering easy access to digital dentistry and enabling them to perform complete treatments in a single session, reducing patient visits accordingly, saving time and increasing productivity. Straumann BLX is a key element in our strategy to drive premium implant segment. As you know, one of the key advantages of BLX is high primary stability, making it ideal for immediacy protocols. Thanks to its unique selling points, BLX has continued to show great progress this year. And as Peter mentioned already, we are very confident that BLX sales will exceed the 2019 levels despite the pandemic impact. Sales will gain further momentum from launches in APAC and LATAM early next year. Building on its success, we have developed the next-generation Tissue Level implant called TLX. This combines the innovative fully tapered design of BLX with our iconic, proven Tissue Level implant, which is one of the longest and best-selling implants on the market. With high primary stability, combined with the advantages of Tissue Level design like peri-implant health preservation and reduced surgical procedures, TLX will help us to gain further share of the fully tapered segment, bringing us closer to the goal of the market leadership in immediacy. The clinical program is now underway and includes a large prospective randomized controlled trial at the University of Bern. At this point, we would like to show you a short interview with Professor Daniel Buser, one of the world's most respected and well-known implantologists, who helped to pioneer our Tissue Level implants more than 30 years ago. [Presentation]

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

TLX demonstrates the power of innovation at Straumann and our commitment to continued investments in R&D. We expect to start a limited market release in the first half of 2021, as you can see in Slide 25 together with a summary of the key benefits. We also aspire to leadership in the nonpremium implant segment with our Anthogyr, Neodent and Medentika brands. In addition to international rollout, we are extending the portfolio and adding innovations. For instance, the Neodent 2.9-millimeter-narrow-diameter implants for use in limited bone and a 7-millimeter-wide implants for extraction sockets, both have Helix fully tapered designs for immediacy indications. Neodent's EasyPack concept is also an all-in-one set comprising an implant and a 3-in-one abutment solution. The EasyPack can be used for conventional or digital workflows with immediate or temporary restoration. This concept combines flexibility with simplicity and efficiency and due to launch in November. Both Neodent and Anthogyr are working on guided surgery solutions, and the latter is developing additive manufacturing technology to produce screw-retained titanium bars. For its part, Medentika is developing an innovative surface technology to promote soft tissue attachment to its multi-platform abutment solutions. All of these projects are further illustrations of our investments in development, which have continued despite the necessary cost reduction measures due to the pandemic. And finally, we have sharpened our third strategic priority: to create the leading ecosystem for esthetic dentistry. Slide 28 shows how we are using digital technology to connect systems and components into a powerful ecosystem. We recently announced that 3Shape TRIOS oral scanners, which we distribute, are now fully integrated into our software solutions and services. As a result, the scanners can connect seamlessly with our orthodontic, restorative, implant, chairside and digital dentistry solutions with just one click. Most recently, our collaboration with 3Shape has focused on integrating TRIOS scanners with ClearCorrect to facilitate case submission and ordering, as you can see in Slide 29. In the new workflow, dentists simply select the ClearCorrect option in TRIOS, and the scans together with the case information are routed to ClearCorrect's Doctor Portal automatically. ClearCorrect has also upgraded its ClearPilot software for enhanced convenience and time savings in treatment planning. And perhaps most importantly, we launched ClearQuartz, our new high-performance multilayer aligner materials ahead of schedule. ClearQuartz is a huge step forward in terms of comfort, durability, sustained force, optimized clarity, excellence tooth adaptation and stain resistance. It is proprietary to ClearCorrect and is now available in the U.S., South America and initial APAC markets. Rollout in Europe and Latin America will follow in the coming months pending regulatory approvals. All of these additions provide us with leading-edge technology and a highly competitive solution to address the global clear aligner market. And that brings me to Slide 31 and some thoughts about the outlook. We remain cautious about the months ahead in view of concerns about the economy and the rapid increase of COVID infection rates, especially in Europe, and the fact that the pent-up demand seen in countries after shutdown restrictions were lifted has now been almost fully absorbed. The increasing uncertainty makes it very difficult to make any forecasts even for just the remainder of this year. So we are still refraining from offering guidance for full year revenue and earnings. Our underlying business fundamentals are intact, and we are confident that when the general economy and consumer confidence returns to normal levels, we will emerge as an even stronger brand and partner of choice for our customers. And now I would like to open the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

[Operator]

The first question comes from Christoph Gretler from Credit Suisse.

[Christoph Gretler, Managing Director in Equity Research]

[Audio Gap]is on TLX. Actually, could you make an estimate or an indication how large do you think now that a tissue level segment is now in the fully tapered market? Or is there already a segment? Or basically, you have to build that up? That would be the first question. And the second question, I think I noticed in your press release that the BLX launch in Japan was pushed to '21. Is this just purely kind of due to the overall market situation in Japan?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. Thank you for the questions. When it comes to TLX, the TLX is another brick into our strategy to lead in the future the fully tapered segment. We started with BLX. We have launched Zygoma system, which is also a huge opportunity as a door opener for large, fully tapered specialist. And now we are coming with our TLX, which is offering a unique benefit about primary stability but also the capacity for clinicians to try to prevent periodontitis, thanks to the neck of the implant. Then there is not so far a fully tapered neck implant existing, and I would say there is no segment. As you said, we have to create it. This is what we have done with our Tissue Level implant franchise so far, and we have been able to generate some significant success here. And this is another opportunity for dentists to have more simplicity in restoring their case than a BLX implant. All in all, we believe that this is another very interesting strategy for achieving our goal, which is to gain 30% to 35% of the fully tapered implants in the next 3 to 4 years. When it comes to the BLX launch in Japan, actually we are doing a limited market release as we speak, and we are -- we have started our activity With BLX in Japan. What we are meaning doing -- happening in January is the full market release. Then there is no kind of a step back here. But we want to make sure we are training the clinicians properly, we are training our team properly in order to go afterwards very successful for market release. And we have started our commercial activity there.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Daniel Jelovcan from Mirabaud.

[Daniel Jelovcan, Analyst]

Yes. So 2 questions. Maybe you can share some experience in partial-lockdown countries right now like Israel or Belgium, Wales, Netherlands. Are the dentists' shops closed there? Or is it now different versus spring? And maybe you can also shed some light on how the development was in October so far. And the second question, also to TLX. You, especially with your U.S. experience, the U.S. is more a tapered market. Do you believe that with the next -- so the tissue-based fully tapered, do you have a good chance as well to develop the market with this implant in the U.S. like with your -- in BLX?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, when it comes to the partially locked down areas like Wales or Ireland or the Netherlands, there is actually no practices closed. Then there is still some activity ongoing, and we have not seen a drop in activity for the total practices as we speak. Now obviously, potentially one of the risks is having less patient flow if they are then requested not to travel around. However, as soon as you have a medical appointment, you are free to do so. Then it's too early to say for us what would be the consequences of those lockdown. But obviously, it would not go in the right direction for a continuing significant growth if countries would further go in lockdown around us in Europe. When it comes to October, without sharing too much data here because it's still not closed, we are still seeing October as pretty positive versus what we have seen in the last months. Then if things would stay the same and the virus being controlled, we would be rather positive on what's coming in the future. We are focusing once again on what we can control, which is especially our customer support. But there are some macroeconomic factors and also the various development factors that are pretty still worrying and that where we cannot control at all. When it comes to TLX in the U.S., yes, I think the U.S. market is still a very much BLX implant because U.S. is a very bone-level implant. Therefore, the largest growth potential is with BLX and also with Zygoma implant because it's a specialist market where you have a lot of specialists also using advanced techniques, including Zygoma implant. This is one of the strategic reasons why we have done Zygoma, is to push TLX and especially in the U.S. TLX will be more gaining share in Europe and in Asia Pacific, where there is a lot of GP activity.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Veronika Dubajova from Goldman Sachs.

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

I have 2, please. One, can you give us a little bit of sense of the cadence -- for the cadence of growth throughout the third quarter? Just kind of curious if you saw big variations from month to month and region by region. And maybe I -- we can also clarify your kind of comment on October. I wasn't sure if I understood that you felt growth accelerated sequentially versus September or not. So if you could comment on that. And then my second question is a financial one for Peter. Looking at performance in the third quarter and assuming even with some deceleration in the fourth quarter, just curious how you're thinking about profitability for the second half of the year. You have that underlying cost savings kicking in, you have lower activity levels. It would seem to me that you should be at least meeting last year's margins, but tell me if I'm thinking about that incorrectly -- in the second half, by the way, I meant, not for the full year.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Thank you, Veronika. Yes. I think, as you said, it's really different from -- region from region. Then if we start with the region that started the pandemic, which is Asia Pacific, then we see a building momentum. And since they went out of lockdown, we see an increasing recovery with China leading the way, obviously, but also having really good performances in a country like New Zealand, Australia, Japan as well, even though Japan has a specific situation in Q3 as last year, we had a stock buildup in their practices because of some tax decision from the government. And we would see things continuing to improve as they are also entering in the summer period over there, at least mainly in the south part of Asia Pacific, which should not push the virus up and China being controlling the pandemic very well. Now if you look at Europe and U.S., we have seen some significant pent-up demand at the beginning of the quarter, which is July mainly, end of June and July. And since then, we have seen a rather speedy but positive trend in their practices, especially in the patient flow. I would not say that we are seeing momentum going up, but we have been rather positively surprised by the level of activity that we have seen coming back in their practices. And this is still at a rather very positive level. When we look at LATAM, which is very -- for us, LATAM is the one who has been suffering a lot from the crisis also still in Q3 even though in the end of the quarter, it became much better. And we see also in Q4 the Latin America region getting out of the crisis and posting some interesting growth rates.

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

So coming to your second question on the margin development, Veronika. Before going into some business comments, please keep in mind that we are facing also in the second half a significant negative FX impact not only on the top line, but that also has an impact on the margin compared to 2019 due to the strong Swiss franc versus most of the other currencies. From the business perspective, all the cost saving measures that we have initiated in the second quarter, they have fully kicked in, in the third quarter, and they will also kick in, in the fourth quarter. So on top of that, we also have a lower business activity level compared to 2019 due to the travel restrictions, due to the congresses that are not taking place and due to this -- to that most of the training and education events are canceled as well or are only done remote and virtually, as Guillaume has explained. So that also reduces our cost base in the second half. However, I would not consider that as a sustainable cost level going into '20 and '21, where I would expect these activities to increase once again. And also, the very promising development in Asia Pacific and LATAM also allows us to ramp up activities and invest in further growth and gaining market share. So I would not expect for the full year as the margin level at the 2019 level but definitely a significantly higher margin then in the first half 2020 should the situation develop as expected right now and should we not face any severe lockdowns in one or the other regions, especially in Europe.

[Veronika Dubajova, Equity Analyst]

Okay. That's very helpful. And then can I just squeeze in a quick follow-up just on the ClearCorrect business? Curious if you can comment on what the cases look like in the third quarter and year-on-year.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, we have been -- well, ClearCorrect, we have been pleased with the development, especially on introducing our new material ahead of schedule. We have been pleased also to launch our new software that will improve GP capability to do treatment planning in a much easier way also ahead of schedule. We have seen also then a positive trend versus Q2 and are very pleased with these developments. Now we want to continue having a new customer acquisition in all the regions where we have launched ClearCorrect lately, which is especially in Europe, where we had to restart again our activity. As you know, we have done a lot of stop-and-go. Then we have done that in Q3 finally and kind of 3 months really in a row where we have been stopped. We haven't been stopped, and we have seen some really interesting outcome at the moment with double-digit growth. And that's what we are looking forward being able to continue in the future.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Tom Jones from Berenberg.

[Thomas M. Jones, Analyst]

Okay. Just 2 questions. The first was just on the comment that you made a couple of times during the presentation about nonpremium growing slightly faster than premium in many markets. The question I had is, is this just a reflection of the nonpremium customers getting back to high levels of activity quicker? Or are you starting to see some dentists who are suffering a little bit of financial pressure starting to shift from using premium implants down towards using nonpremium implants?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. Thanks, Tom, for the question. We don't see this happening. We say that we are growing faster, and the facts are there significantly on nonpremium because of premium significantly because of low underpenetration -- or underpenetration of the value segment. We are gaining significant share on the value segment because we are starting from low. And a lot of our new customer acquisition are also done there. Then -- but we don't see at the moment dentists shifting from premium to value in a significant manner. This is not explained by this trend.

[Thomas M. Jones, Analyst]

Okay. That's perfect. And then the second question I had is -- partly relates to margins as well. It was on the very strong capital equipment sales. Obviously, that's very helpful for your top line, but a lot of that business is sort of distributor-type business. So then a sort of 2-part question really. Does that have any meaningful impact on margins that we need to consider for H2? And then secondly, more from a revenue perspective, do you think the very strong sales you've seen in intraoral scanners is the start of a sustainable trend? Or do you just think this is a kind of a positive blip that we've seen during the quieter period between the first and second wave of the pandemic?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. I think it's an important strategic question as well. I will take the last one first and then Peter will comment on the margin. What is very important to consider on the digital side is keeping access to customers. And what is critical, especially when you see how the dentistry is going, there is -- and many companies are talking about this digital platform coming up, and we need to have access to this digital platform and it starts with intraoral scanners. Tomorrow and already today but even more tomorrow, surgical planning will be done as a service for dentists as it is the case for clear aligners, where you have treatment plan, which is mainly done for dentists in -- at least on the GP side. And we want to make sure that we are going to have access to those dentists. If you have other competitors bringing their own scanners, they might prevent you afterwards in the future that those customers will have access to our solutions: our Straumann implant, our Neodent or Medentika and our clear aligner. And this is a very important strategic approach to make sure that we are increasing our user base of intraoral scanner to keep developing services and having a reach of those guys. And that's the first point from a strategic standpoint.

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

And the second part of your question, Tom, was relating also to the margin and the change in product mix. I would say we have not seen a fundamental change over the past couple of months in that respect. And we need to differentiate between the impact on the gross margin and the impact on the operating margin. Obviously, the -- growth above group average of some of the newest segments where we generate lower margins, such as digital equipment or also the ortho business, that is structurally changing our product mix, and the gross margin will slightly decrease due to that. But that has been the trend already in the past couple of years since we initiated that strategy, and I would expect that also a little bit going forward. However, on the operating margin, all these new businesses are incremental on the operating profit and operating margin under a normalized situation. And normalized, I mean, in that case, if we are rolling out a new offering in a new country, such as ortho in a new country, for example, obviously that's an investment case and we need to invest in the buildup of the respective organizations and gaining the customers. But after 2 years, 3 years, I would expect that at similar margin levels as with the other businesses.

[Thomas M. Jones, Analyst]

Okay. That's very helpful. And just a follow-up on the margins just to maybe help us try and quantify that you -- if you are willing, a follow-up on Veronika's question. You mentioned that FX is likely to be a significant headwind to margins. But would you be prepared to go as far as to quantify, at current FX rates, what would the margin of H2 in 2019 have been at current FX rates?

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, on the one hand, you have the backup chart in the presentation from where you see the impact of the different FX rates and the changes of the FX rates on the margin, on the absolute EBIT as well as on the revenue. So that gives a certain indication. And on the margin side, I think you can extrapolate the negative impact on the margin from the first half to the second half 2020. That's a rather good approximation in that respect. Given the current FX level rates, especially with the U.S. dollar that significantly devaluated in the mid-summer this year, I would also expect a negative impact on sales as well as on margins in '21 should the rates stay as they are currently.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Patrick Wood from Bank of America.

[Patrick Andrew Robert Wood]

Perfect. I have 2 questions, of course, please. The first one, I'm just curious when you say that you feel the backlog has been completed, what makes you say that, just objectively from the outside, looking at revenue numbers and things like that? If that's true, that implies there's very, very little net demand coming in, and you guys have been kind of living off backlogs. Just curious why you felt that the backlog -- and what gave you confidence the backlog has been done with? And then the second question is somewhat related, just to help understand the tonality of what you guys are trying to say because it sounds like you said for the U.S. and Europe, June and July works through a lot of the backlog, but it sounded to me at least that there was still reasonable growth in August, September, October after the backlog had been sort of used up. So I guess I'm just trying to understand that dynamic relative to growth.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. On the backlog side, we believe -- well, actually it depends what -- how you define backlog. But the backlog that we define is the cases that have not been done and they were planned in the period April and May which has been rescheduled by surgeons and GPs on the surgical side. And most of the patients that were planned have been rescheduled. And what the backlog when -- when we mean -- when we're meaning that the backlog is almost then absorbed, it's because all the patients that were lined up that have not been treated during those months are now being scheduled or, yes, treated or not at all. And we have seen most of them being treated, which is also the good news because we have not lost any patient in that process. Now it does not mean that there is not a, as you called that, the net new demand because we still see patient flow and the patients that are still eager to have their treatment done. And as you can see, we are still seeing a trend that consumers are spending more for their health. And we also believe that there are less alternative at the moment as we have seen and heard that you cannot travel anymore or then the holidays, this capability is reduced or other kind of spending are also limited. Then there is a focus on personal health, which is important, and we believe that it would still drive some net new demand towards dental practices, including implants and clear aligners. We have seen then a significant spike for the reschedule of those patients in June, July. And we have seen then a more regular activities afterwards in total practices that have been able to resume almost their activity level. And in that sense, that's what we mean by the pent-up demand almost absorbed. And when we look at Asia Pacific, that's one of the good example that we see. Also is that we have significant growth now, which is rather rare and which is not based on pent-up demand at all. It's just based on higher growth with a very underpenetrated market. Now it's not fully absorbed because we are still in 2 areas, especially in Latin America, where they are getting out of the crisis. And we still believe that the pent-up demand effect in this region will come in the months to come, in October, November, because they have been suffering from the crisis still during the third quarter. And in North America, there might be still some remaining of pent-up demand, which is difficult to evaluate because the virus has not really completely disappeared during the period as it has been the case in Europe. And all in all, that's the way we are seeing the pent-up demand absorption.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Michael Jungling from Morgan Stanley.

[Michael Klaus Jungling, MD, Head of MedTech & Services and Analyst]

Great. I also have 2 questions. The first question is in relation to capital equipment. Could you be more precise as to what the growth rate was in Q3 and how you see the capital equipment demand for your digital solutions over the coming quarters? And question #2 is, when it comes to the value players, there is a number of meaningful assets for sale. I think you know who they are. Does it make sense to add additional value implant brands to what you already have today?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. When it comes to capital equipment, we have a double-digit growth. And do we think that it's going to be the same? Yes, we believe that there is a strong trend in capital equipment but especially intraoral scanner because this is not only the way to access digital workflow and more efficiency but also by the fact that this is also protecting the clinician and the nurse from the virus. You don't have, once again, to deal with a analog impression and saliva when you are using intraoral scanner, that it's really a combined benefit of efficiency and safety, which is making the intraoral scanner a big, hot topic within dentistry at the moment. Now we have a very high Q4 comparison period because we have been very strong also last year on capital equipment, specifically intraoral scanner. But we believe it's going to be also a rather significant volume in Q4 this year. When it comes to value players, we are looking at every opportunity that we would see would be fitting our strategy and our increased market share into the value segment. We have to say we have been really pleased with the development of our value share or value gain in all geographies. We have been quite successful in North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and also now Europe. Then we believe that we are very well equipped with the 3 international brands we are having now with Neodent, Medentika and Anthogyr, where all of them are delivering really good results. And the need an additional brand is lower, but if there is any good strategic local opportunity, then obviously we would be looking at them.

[Michael Klaus Jungling, MD, Head of MedTech & Services and Analyst]

Okay. Great. And maybe I can just follow up on the capital equipment growth rate in the fourth quarter. If you tie it all together, is Q4 for you organically a flat growth quarter? Or do you foresee it to be more likely to be above flat? I'm just sort of curious how you're thinking about the fourth quarter now that you've...

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, it's too -- at the moment, that's why we're not providing guidance, because it's very difficult to say. We are still bullish about our business. We see the trends are really positive. And if we can really see the current activity that we are doing now, there is no reason we cannot be positive. Now once again, we are focusing on what we can control. That means customer satisfaction. That means new customer acquisition. That means training and education online in order to pursue that trend. Now coming to the area we cannot control, which are, once again, the potential recessions that may come and especially the virus which is coming up, as you know, we are quite exposed in Europe, and, at the moment, it's quite worrying in Europe. Then this might obviously impact our fourth quarter. And that's the way we are seeing that, with, let's say, some positive perception internally about what we do and a significant question mark on how macro factors will impact our results.

[Michael Klaus Jungling, MD, Head of MedTech & Services and Analyst]

It's kind of interesting only because you've got October in the back. December is not a big -- is not a big month normally for the dental implants. So you've only got 1 month left in terms of making assessment as to how Q4 may be. So I'm somewhat surprised that you are not able to provide a bit more color whether it's going to be a growth quarter or whether it's going to be a declining quarter based on November.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, again, we will see what November will bring. Otherwise, if we would know exactly what we comment once again on the pandemic side, I think you are hearing like us that they are -- and it has been discussed in the questions like Wales, like Netherlands, like Ireland are coming into lockdown. There are obviously discussions and announcements that are going to come in France today and that will be done also later in Italy and Spain by the end of the week, then -- and Germany also. And being very exposed to this region, obviously we don't provide any guidance. I think we have been pretty clear on this. Once again, we believe that we -- there is strong options to be positive. But once again, we are going to see with what's coming.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Julien Dormois from Exane BNP Paribas.

[Julien Dormois, Research Analyst]

I also have 2. One relates to the savings that have been generated during the pandemic. We started to see some companies saying that of those savings could become structural. In U.K., that would probably refer mainly to virtual meetings, virtual congresses and some of those marketing activities. What do you think is the approach of your customers to these events? Are they happy with these? And do -- would you consider maybe doing a bit less going forward? And could that end up being a structural gain in the year to come? So that would be the first question. And second question relates to clear aligners. So you are shifting gears on that side with this new material, a new software, with full integration with intraoral scanners. What are the next strategic steps in that space? Is it now fully about execution and making it an even greater commercial success? Or is there anything else on the agenda? And would you just be please kind enough to help us understand how much it represents of your sales? I mean just a ballpark estimate? And maybe just confirm or not that you have crossed the CHF 100 million threshold for that business in 2020.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, when it comes to the structural side, then we are a growth story. And it's -- what we want to do is making sure that we can fuel growth and keep investing as much as we can as soon as we see that we can generate return. Then we are seeing positive developments on our virtual online activity. And we see also that this is a great period for us to continue to invest because we see some of our competitors being weaker at this moment in time. Then we want to continue doing this and gain share, and I think that's the way we are seeing our business. When it comes to the clear aligner side, yes, we still have a lot to do. Not only it's about execution in order to continue our growth, it's also about geographical expansion because that -- we have been just starting in Europe, and we had like to stop and go. We are developing just now in Latin America and have now launched in Brazil and having our manufacturing in Brazil, which has really started full speed during this third quarter. And we have our activity in Asia Pacific, where we are still registering ClearCorrect in most of the countries, which will help us also to generate significant growth. The second area where we need to develop significantly in ClearCorrect is our capability to address additional segments. We discussed many times that we are still not at the level of Align. We are still focusing on GPs with simple to moderate cases. Then we are doing significant investment on our side to be able to continue improving our value proposition and our software capabilities, especially because we believe on the material we are at par or even better than Align than most of the competitors. But on the software side, we need to continue developing it to address more advanced cases, complex cases and also, from a regulatory standpoint, the teens market.And you see a lot to be done on the ClearCorrect side and a lot of really great growth opportunities moving forward.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Markus Gola from MainFirst.

[Markus Gola, Vice President]

My first question is on the BLX market share. It seems that the -- one implant is still in delay and is now expected to be launched rather in late '21. So can you elaborate a bit on the competitive dynamics here? And are there other measures that Envista is taking to protect its position? Or have you maybe even noticed an acceleration in market share gains since it became clear to dentists that [ N1 ] will not be launched near term? And secondly, I got the impression that you became incrementally a bit more cautious on the development of your business with this release. But so far, this seems to be driven by rising external risks in the environment only. So my question is whether you have seen a decline in any of your internal KPIs so far which make you more cautious? And then finally, could you give us an update on your launch plans for BLX in Brazil? Will you lose it for the upcoming pent-up demand? Or will that be later?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. Can I kindly ask you to rephrase your first question because it's about [ N1 ]? It was about [ N1 ] with the delayed launch? Is that what you were...

[Markus Gola, Vice President]

Exactly. And how your market share has moved since then. And maybe what kind of measures competition is taking to prevent you from taking share given that they do not have up-to-date product?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. I think we have seen some, again, delay with [ N1 ]. As we said several times, we have not seen [ N1 ] in the market in a significant manner, and they have been delayed in those activities. We see that coming with really small touches in some European markets. We have a very targeted approach to customers, which means that I don't think it had any impact on the market share as we speak on the fully tapered implant. At least it did not modify nor slow down our BLX market penetration, and we are still very pleased and very bullish on what BLX can generate when it comes to our growth and our market share gain on the fully tapered segment. For your second question on the key performance indicator that we are looking at internally, there is no key performance indicator that are showing us that we cannot continue on this trend. Then we are just very cognizant of the micro situation because we have seen the impact of the first wave and how it has really significantly impacted our business by dental practices being closed or dental practices not being fully -- well, getting a complete patient flow as they were having prior to COVID-19 crisis. And we are just very cautious on the fact that it could come back as we see in Europe, and we don't want to provide any too positive expectations from that excellent factor. And the third one, which was...

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

The BLX in Brazil.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

The BLX in Brazil, yes, we are planning to launch BLX in Brazil very early 2021. That would be ready for a part of the pent-up demand. But once again, Brazil is -- has a very, very small premium market. It's a niche in Latin America and especially in Brazil. And Neodent is seen already as a premium brand. Then we are going and well positioned to generate significant -- to benefit with the pent-up demand but more with our Neodent product portfolio than with the BLX per se, which will help us to gain further share in the premium segment.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from David Adlington from JPMorgan.

[David James Adlington]

A couple of questions left. So just on IDS, I'm actually surprised it hasn't been canceled yet. Obviously, you're not attending next year. It's usually a big event for you guys and a nice source of growth. I just wondered, was that a difficult decision to make? Or have you become much more comfortable with the new way of selling and so it's become less of a concern? And then secondly, just on DSO. I'm just wondering what you're seeing at the moment in terms of further consolidation in that space and how helpful that is for you.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. I would say, yes, on one hand, it's not been a difficult decision because it's all also about protecting our people. Then we were having all our teams not being very comfortable to think that they would be in a closed environment with many people and very limited control of the situation. Then as we really stand for protecting our people as priority #1, the decision has been quite clearly taken. Now from how are we planning to continue presenting our innovations and our gaining shares through addressing a new customer target group that we could meet at IDS, that's correct, that's why we are planning, again, significant investment next year with a lot of online events. And we have seen -- as you said in your question, this has been pretty efficient, and we have been very pleased with what we have been able to generate. We are also improving very significantly in how we are doing this, how we are following up customers and leads from those virtual events. Then yes, we see that also as an opportunity to reinvest this amount of money to more online and targeting activities than the IDS per se. And we don't see this as a constraint when it comes to our growth rate for innovation. When it comes to DSO, yes, we feel like DSO will continue some aggressive acquisition strategy. This is also a good moment for consolidation. We see some practitioners that might be now tempted into the DSO side by -- or wanting to be supported by getting back in business. Then we know DSO are really interested to benefit from this current turbulent times to increase their market penetration. And we see that as an opportunity as well because we are developing a stronger and stronger relationship there and having some significant plan to grow with them moving forward.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Oliver Metzger from Commerzbank.

[Oliver Metzger, Equity Analyst of Life Sciences]

The first one is a follow-up on 2 previous questions. So you've made the comment that October was pretty positive. You also commented that this was linked basically purely to underlying demand. So as long as you don't see disruptive changes for dental practices, is it fair to say that this positive development should continue for at least November? That's the first question. The second one is on TLX. So is it fair to assume a similar price premium compared to BLX? And the third is pretty quick on Romania. How were you present in Romania before the acquisition of Artis Bio Tech?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. Well, as I said, if you remove all external factor, we are confident that all the things we put in place will allow us to have positive results moving forward by the end of the year. But again, as we are in this environment, which is still very volatile and uncertain, that's the things that we need to take into consideration. But I would say so far, so good, and we are obviously very excited about continuing gaining market share as the program we put in place have been successful during Q3, and we'll continue to roll them out in Q4. When it comes to TLX pricing, yes, it will have the same premium than BLX because the benefit of the product is very significant and it's a very unique value proposition in its fully tapered segment. Third, when it comes to...

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Romania.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

To Romania, we have just -- we were seeing Romania as an interesting market to come in. It's 120,000 implants, then pretty significant in Eastern Europe. We have just created our subsidiary in April of this year, and we were planning to try to accelerate our growth in this interesting market by trying to acquire this distributor who is very present in the Romanian market. And obviously, it will accelerate our footprint in this additional dominated value segment market.

[Oliver Metzger, Equity Analyst of Life Sciences]

Just for clarification, so you have not been active in Romania before, is that correct?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Just with a distributor with very, very low presence. That's why we decided to start up our subsidiary, because it was important for us to accelerate that. We were not pleased with the distributor we were with. Then it was a -- it's not significant versus now the acquisition we have just done.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Kit Lee from Jefferies.

[Nyeok Lee, Equity Analyst]

Just one last from me, please. I just want to follow up on BLX -- or rather BLT. Have you seen the new BLX accounts are also buying BLT now? And if so, where is your market share with BLT today versus last year?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. We have seen, as we have said in the beginning of the -- well, the beginning of the launch of BLX, that a significant number of the BLX user were also starting to use BLT for, I would say, the more regular cases with using BLX in the most advanced cases where this really high primary stability was needed. And we have seen an average of 40% to 50% depending on the region about BLX user finally going also to the BLT side, supporting us to grow our BLT franchise. Do we have seen that continuing? Yes, we have seen that continuing because we strongly believe that especially, we want to use mainly one brand as soon as he is very satisfied with it and that the service level is also at a very high level. Then not only we see BLX as a way to increase our capability to gain share in the fully tapered segment, it will help us to push the BLT market share, which is above 35% now in the apically tapered segment.

[Nyeok Lee, Equity Analyst]

And if -- I guess if you are continuing to penetrate the BLX segment and people are also buying BLT, is it fair to say that, that 35% level would probably be higher next year as well and maybe 50% is the level that we should think about for BLT?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, this is really our objective midterm. Yes, we are not looking at our strategy by just pushing our market share in the fully tapered segment but also continuing to push our market share in the apically tapered segment because we are truly believing that BLT is also by far the best product in its category.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Maja Pataki from Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Maja Pataki, Head of Med Tech Devices Sector]

I'll keep it to 2. Just I'm still trying to understand, through your answers on October versus September, whether you're trying to tell us that October growth is positive, but it is less than September because we're starting to see the incident rates creeping up in Europe. Or are you trying to tell us that October is flat on September or maybe even above? It would be really helpful if you would give us a bit more color on that to see how patients or behavior amid the increase in incidence rate in Europe. And then my second question. Without being too critical, I do understand that there is a lot of uncertainty related to the next couple of months mainly due to COVID-19 as we see infection rates going up. But arguably, we could say that this is probably not going to be significantly different come February 2021 when we expect you to give us a guidance for 2021. How shall we think about the guidance for 2021? Do you believe you will have established like a learning that will allow you to provide us some guidance for 2021? Or do you think the uncertainty will make it impossible for you to give us visibility for 2021?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, on your questions, again, when it comes to October, first the month is not finished, and we need to see what will be the last day that is always very important in our business. Secondly, I would say September -- or October, I would say it's almost the same level than September. Then we are pleased with this. We don't see momentum being built up, but we don't see a decrease right now. Then I hope this is answering this -- your question. The second thing is, we are not going to talk about '21 right now. We have really not big uncertainty and volatility about, again, how it could be the fourth quarter because of how the second wave might come in, and also how the the North America area, which is very important for us, will react to the election, which is going to happen in a couple of weeks. Then I believe we will know much more when we will arrive at the Q1 2021, and we'll see if we will be in a position to give 2021 guidance. We hope so, like everyone, because that means that volatility will be a little bit less, which is not only important for you, but it's obviously also very important for us. Then we all hope that it's going to be the case. At this moment in time, it's just too difficult to say.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Falko Friedrichs from Deutsche Bank.

[Falko Friedrichs, Research Analyst]

Two questions, please. Firstly, on TLX, it would be very helpful if you could provide us with a very brief summary, again, of your expected launch road map for the product. I think you said you plan to launch in the first half of next year. So is it a reasonable expectation that you're going into Europe first next year then maybe Asia in 2022? So it would be very helpful to get your thoughts here. And then secondly, could you give us a quick refresher on your current ClearCorrect capacity? Obviously a very important topic for you as you're scaling up. It would be interesting to hear whether you were able to make all the additions you wanted to make so far and what your plans are for the next year.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

On TLX, we are -- we said that we are planning first half in 2021 in Europe and that we are planning Q2. We were also leveraging the IDS time line, and we hope that we would be able to launch then TLX by the beginning of the second quarter in Europe. And pending registration, we will plan to launch in some of the Asia Pacific market, yes, during fall 2021 or early 2022, the largest country being Japan and China, China being the latest in 2022 and Japan being potentially early 2022. And again, when it comes to North America, we'll be launching when it will be approved, which should be hopefully by the end of 2021. But once again, it has a limited impact because we still believe that BLX is the #1 priority here as North America is a 90% bone level market. When it comes to ClearCorrect and manufacturing capacity, then we have done a lot of work and development here. Then we are pleased to report that our manufacturing in Europe is up and running, leveraging also new technology to allow us to quickly upgrade if necessary. And we'll have quite some positive plan here. We are also pleased to say that we have that activity up and running on the manufacturing side in Brazil as well to deliver not only in Brazil but all North America -- all South America, sorry, leveraging our capability also in the resin side, where we are going to have all our raw material which are going to belong to our organization, the raw plastic material coming from Bay Materials the resin coming from either acquisition and the 3D-printer coming from the Rapid Shape technology, which is a company in which we invested some years ago. And in North America, we have been able to develop our production capacity as needed. Then we are, yes, pleased to report that the production capacity we're having now is in line with the growth plan we are having.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Lisa Clive from Bernstein.

[Elisabeth Decou Bedell Clive, Senior Analyst]

Just 2 questions about the U.S. business primarily. Can you remind us what proportion of your U.S. total implant revenues are going through DSOs today maybe in the U.S.? And also, commentary on Europe would be helpful. And then as we think about the different growth rates between premium and discount, can you elaborate on what the margin differences are between the 2? I know a few years ago, the discount business was fairly low EBIT margin. But as you've scaled it up, has that gap narrowed significantly?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. I think when it comes to DSO, our implant business, I would say, is in the low double-digit number. That's -- the DSO in general would represent something like 15% to 20% of the total market. On the implant side, we believe that we are -- it's a good proxy for performance as well. When it comes to profitability, Peter, do you want to give your view on this one?

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. I mean if you look at the gross margin then, as in the past, the profitability difference from a gross margin perspective is rather small, only a few percentage points, especially as we are running a very efficient production side for the Neodent product in Brazil, and we can also benefit there currently from the low -- or the devaluation of the Brazilian real. If you look at the operating profitability level, then the gap has been closed over the past couple of years. But obviously, given the market share in the nonpremium business that we have, that's still an investment case for us, and we are rolling out our value offering in additional countries as we speak currently in some Asian countries. And that also is a certain burden for the margin from that perspective. But in that -- countries where we are present with the nonpremium offering for quite some time, the margin gap has significantly closed.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Daniel Buchta from[ FAD ] (sic) [ Vontobel ].

[Daniel Buchta]

At least 2 questions from my side. The first one quickly on NUVO. I mean with the full year results 2019, you announced this a bit bigger and it should be an important brand for the lower value segment. Can you say a little bit more about how the clinician feedback was in that regard in the various markets where you pretested it so far? And then on Dental Wings, with the IDS last year, you announced your Virtuo Vivo, which you had quite big hopes on gaining market share here. Then the fire came in Canada. And can you share a little bit more about how your positioning here has improved since the manufacturing came back? And is there still a big hope for you to gain in that lower value intraoral scanner space?

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Yes. NUVO is definitely an important part of our influence strategy for gaining market leadership on the value segment. The [ talk ] has been pretty positive. We have started to sell NUVO in Brazil. We have started to sell NUVO in Turkey. And the feedback from clinicians had been really positive. We then -- we are further developing the portfolio. As you may remember, we explained that NUVO has 3 different connections: the external hex, the internal hex and the cone-in-cone connection. And the cone-in-cone connection is still to be released. That should happen by the first half 2021. And this is going to be one of the large parts of our NUVO business that should come from here because this is the compatible connection with the Korean brands that are owning a large part of the value segment in many regions. Then we have also started with NUVO in the U.S. through a specific dedicated sales channel, and the first outcome are also positive. Then yes, so far, so good on the NUVO side, and we hope that we'll be able to launch the cone-in-cone connection in the key markets that are like India, that are like, well, further all the Latin American country but also Europe and North America. When it comes to the second question...

[Peter Hackel, CFO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Virtuo Vivo.

[Guillaume Daniellot, CEO & Member of Executive Management Board]

Well, yes, well, Vivo, yes, the Virtuo Vivo has been launched this year -- or relaunched this year, and a large part of its production capacity has been absorbed by the Brazilian market and the emerging markets and especially also Turkey. Then we have launched -- we have sold a significant number of them versus last year, which has been pleasing for us. As we have very strong results with the TRIOS in very developed markets like North America and like Europe, we are still focusing there and supporting also Carestream in China. Then we try to make sure we position the right product to the right regions to maximize the outcome. Thank you for your questions. And before we close, I would like to share another piece of information with you. I'm pleased to announce the appointment of Silvia Dobry as our new Head of Corporate Communication. Silvia has worked in the pharmaceutical and medtech sectors for many years, and no doubt many of you already know her. Her last position was Director of Corporate Affairs International at Biogen in Switzerland. And previously, she spent 7 years at Roche in Communication and Media Relations. Prior to that, she worked for Sonova in Investor and Corporate Relations. She'll join us on the 1st of December and will take over from Mark Hill, who will be retiring at the end of January after 7 years at Straumann -- 17 years at Straumann. Sorry, I was just -- yes, that's the emotion. This will actually be his last media conference. And on behalf of all Straumann, Mark, I would like to really thank you for all the support you are providing us and also the financial community with all the information that you have prepared along those 17 years. And I'm sure that you will join me in wishing him and Silvia all the best for the future. Thank you very much, and we wish you a very successful day.