LPP SA

WSE:LPP

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, Magda Kopaczewska, Investor Relations from LPP; and Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, Vice President of the Management Board. We would like to welcome you to our results conference the third quarter, but we will tell you about interesting corporate events that happened since our last meeting. We will discuss our financial results and tell you also about our plans for the future. The conference will end by the Q&A session, as usual. Let's start, and Przemek you have the floor, please.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Hello. Once again, we would like to start with key corporate events. I would like to remind you that 2021 is a pandemic year yet again as last year. And the third quarter, which, in our case, lasts from August until October was free from lockdown. On this slide, you can see in the upper part, what it is -- what the restrictions looked like last year. And below, you can see the situation this year, August and September, free from lockdowns. However, there was a bit of lockdown in Latvia in October. Also some started in Russia. They were short term, but now there is a lockdown in Slovakia. So not all our stores are operational, but it's considerably better than at the beginning of the pandemic.

Here, you can see the comparison of the period where the lockdowns were introduced. On the left-hand side, we can see 2020 and on the right-hand side, we can see the 9 months up to 2021. A lot of lockdowns in the first half of last year and this year as well. Now the summer period in Europe is less lockdown-oriented in Europe. And as you can see on the right-hand side, Latvia and Russia were marked as the countries with lockdowns at the end of October this year.

Let's move on to the key corporate events. We would like to discuss how our company cooperates with influencers notice and also about new buildings, about what's working there looks like and what are the ecological standards introduced. So we would also like to tell you about logistics changes. Now Magda, you have the floor, and please tell us a bit more about the latest trends in fashion.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Thank you, Przemek. When it comes to results, we created a limited collection in cooperation with Monika Brodka, the singer. This artist is known for her original style and that was also the look of the collection, a simple forms inspired by Japan, a high quality of materials and the workmanship. We decided to use ecological raw materials to produce these materials, and a locality. So all the collection was manufactured and some in Europe, most in Poland.

And the collection was available in our biggest stores in the biggest cities and also online.

What needs to be particularly emphasized is that it was so popular among the customers that the first day, 20% of the collection was sold out. In our Cropp brand, we focus on cooperation with influencers but a bit different than in Reserved. We created a campaign for the Girls Collection for Cropp, starring 2 very popular influencers among Gen Z: Kinga Sawczuk who participated in Dancing with the Stars; and Antonina Flak, also famous influencer. The campaign was run on TikTok and this is a social medium, which is immensely popular among young generation -- Gen Z customers. Cropp is a brand addressed to exactly that generation.

What was the aim of the campaign? First and foremost, communicating the changes that are happening in Cropp. Cropp DNA consists in men's collection, skater boy style. However, today, we are emphasizing this and add the ladies collection more casual line. What else was happening in our brands? We introduced a Christmas collection into our offer in Reserved. The styling was prepared for all family. And in Sinsay we emphasized Christmas accessories, home wear. LPP is not only about fashion, huge importance for us is the place we work in, the place where our offices are located.

And there, we focus on design and environmentally friendly solutions.That was recognized and appreciated because our offices received a certificate of our ecological solutions, operational there and our office in Gdansk was awarded a prize in the Office Superstar competition.

There were also some interesting events in logistics, but Przemek will tell you more about that.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Thank you. Two years ago, we announced that we are going to build a new warehouse and distribution center in Brzesc Kujawski. Today, I can tell you that after those 2 years, with some withholding of the works during this COVID peak last year, today, I can tell you that we are commissioning the warehouse which is now undergoing some works inside. Installation works are underway. Machines, sorters are being placed there. And we are hoping that in the first quarter of next year, this new warehouse will be fully operational.

The goods will be sent from there to our stationary stores. The next warehouse was created in Pruszcz Gdanski. I know that you remember we have our main warehouse in Pruszcz Gdanski dedicated mostly to the stationary stores. At a different place on the other side of the road, we rented a warehouse. And from April next year on, we are planning to expand the operations there, rent a bigger hole there. And from that logistics center or fulfillment center, send goods directly to online customers in Poland and the Baltic countries in Ukraine.

We need more space in order to service e-commerce because as you will see in the next slide, e-commerce growth is considerable.

Now fulfillment center warehouse in Slovakia that services online traffic in Slovakia and Czech Republic, in Hungary or Slovakia. We introduced additional devices and equipment pocket sorters, which enhance the efficiency of this facility, when is it possible for us be quicker in delivery, and you know very well that now the speed of delivery, the next business day delivery, is key when it comes to good, efficient service of online customers. So as you can see, we are investing in warehouses, in logistics, in Poland and also abroad because our business is growing fast, and this increased the traffic in both off-line and online channels needs to be serviced properly.

Now let's move on to the financial results for the third quarter, which were very good. Our offline stores were operational in 26 countries at the end of the third quarter. Online stores were available in 31 countries. Of course, we cannot add these 2 because some countries have the offer of both offline and online stores. But in total, LPP stores at the end of the quarter, service 39 market.

Our group revenues in the third quarter was increased by 72% year-on-year. Please have a look on this map. Let me just remind you the green color marks the countries with offline and online offer. The blue countries have only offline offer, and this orange color is only online offer.

So the latest changes on the map. We have a new country, North Macedonia with 6 stores already, and an online store in Bulgaria was added. If you have a look at the map and the number of stores, the key market for us now are Poland over 900 stores and Russia over 500 stores.

On the left-hand side, you can see the number of stores at the end of the quarter. Over 2,100 stores of which 97% were operational. Some in Slovakia were closed for several days.

Let's discuss now our revenues, record result for the third quarter, nearly PLN 4 billion reserved-- revenues, PLN 3 billion in offline and it constituted over 20% of all revenues of our group.

On the right-hand side, you can see the table with results by brand. Overall, increased by 60% year-on-year and 3 brands like Sinsay, Mohito and the Reserved are worthy of particular attention. Take a look at Sinsay, please, 140% increase year-on-year, but this is due to the fast expansion of the floor space and the number of stores of Sinsay. Mainly in retail parks in smaller towns, not only in Poland, but in the whole Middle East Europe.

Good rebound in the last season of Mohito brands. Take a look, please, nearly 70% increase year-on-year and Mohito sold more than House. And a good season of Reserved's brand offline and online. Good dynamics. We are very pleased with those results in the last quarter.

What is important to emphasize all our brands sold more abroad than in Poland.

Let's move on to online sales. You can see on the left-hand side, the sales result, record first quarter of this year is marked here on the left, but there were a lot of lockdowns. The third quarter was also very good despite the stores -- additional stores being opened. On the right-hand side, you can notice that it was a double-digit growth, over 100% increase year-on-year. And if you look at the components, we have Poland, then middle part, the yellow color is the European Union, without Poland sales and CIS region in marked in green, Russia and Ukraine, mostly.

You can see that in Poland, we have double-digit increases in online sales. But abroad, we have even more growth generated. It's even more than double-digit growth in online sales. We should also mention that over 90% of the whole traffic is generated by smartphones and mobile devices, and we, by adapting to these trends, all our websites are done with a view to make them available to purchases online. There was an app added for Reserved front recently, and we are working on an app for Sinsay brand.

Let's have a look of revenues by regions. Of course, the biggest market is our domestic markets in Poland, but you can see how fast on the left-hand side, how fast revenues increase outside Poland. Over 70% increase year-on-year in other regions, which, on the one hand side, is the result of more stores being built there than in Poland, but also increasing online offer contributes to that.

There is also in Middle East countries, 70% year-on-year. There was another store open in Europe, but looking at the volumes, the majority of the revenues is generated outside Poland.

Have a look, please, on the right-hand side in the chart, you can see the increase in floor space by nearly 30% year-on-year. In all regions, we have double-digit increases in Poland, a quite fast growth, but outside Poland, we can see even bigger growth. So CIS region over 50% of increases in floor space from that region. Let's move on to the gross profit margin. On the right-hand side, you can see that it was over 58% for the third quarter, and this is the level that we saw 2 years ago before the pandemic in the third quarter of 2019. Why is it so high? We are very pleased with that, but it results from several elements.

So good prices for purchasing orders. We made our purchases during the pandemic so the factories were fighting to have orders. So in our autumn collections, the orders were made in strong pandemic situation in -- so the prices for purchases were more favorable in dollars.

There is also increased sales abroad. We increased prices for autumn/winter collection. You know very well that outside Poland, the prices are higher. And thanks to that, the margins are higher than in Poland. What also helped is the currency of other countries were stronger than our Polish lot. 60% of revenues are generated outside of Poland.

The third element is surely less availability of goods because of the strains on the supply chain. It's not back to normal yet, and it seems that when we talked to our carriers and other companies, it seems that the turmoil on the supply market will still be happening next year. We don't know how long the situation will last. But there's less availability of goods now than we compare it to the previous year.

So there is no trend for decreasing prices. We'd rather sell in full price range.

There is one more element I would like to emphasize why the margins are greater. We didn't add it here in this slide. I wanted to discuss it to give you some example why the margins are higher. Technology is one thing. We talk about algorithms. We talk about big data and RFID. But maybe you're not fully aware of how this translates into better margins, higher revenues from sales.

First example. The electronic tag RFID technology. Imagine these that when you design and order purchase model address, let's say, that it's much desirable on the market. It's a great hit style. It's a must have. Did you know, out of 100% of this is sold in the first price to the customers who are willing to buy it? It's not 100%. Unfortunately, it's not even 90%. It's a sad information, but it's 85%, 86% maximum, 87% of goods that is wanted and ladies are queuing to get it.

What happens with the remaining 13%, 15%? In smaller cities, it's stocked in the warehouses. Generally, the success for the product, which is a must-have, is never 100%. So technology is helping us now to locate these forgotten items of clothing. The hit model, thanks to RFID, thanks to algorithms. We know where it's stuck, where is the remaining 13% of the hit pieces. This algorithm and technology allows us to deliver this desirable model to the customer and sell it at first initial price. This also allows us to generate better margin.

Second example, when we see that some piece of clothing is not a success, the customers online are not willing to buy it. In previous years it was also sent to the stores and was stuck there waiting for the sellers. Now if we know that some is not selling well, the algorithm tells us not to send it to the stores and it waits for the sale time. It's not taking up the places for the shelf space i stores because we send there the products which are really desirable by the customers. So we have better successful collections, which in turn, translates considerably to the margins that we generate. So we sell more in this first full price.

On the right-hand side, you can see inventory. In the third quarter, quite a considerable increase, but there's also an increase in business and opening of new stores. And increasing online sales. So we have more stock and it's not PLN 1,500 per square meter, but PLN 1,700. This is our response to the fact that the supply chains are interrupted all the time. The delays happen all the time, 2 weeks delay are still something normal. Knowing that there is a possibility of delays, we wanted to anticipate that. So we include the buffer of 2 weeks that allows us in turn to cover this delay period. .

What is more, technology helps us to track which pieces should, first and foremost, be ordered and which can wait a little bit. This is quite a significant thing nowadays. So technology in such situations proves very useful.

So more inventory. We had to stock up for the best, seasonally -- best season of the year. We are planning a lot of openings for the fourth quarter of this year so we have the goods available to service that. But there is some spring and summer collection items.

Let me just remind you what is included in inventory. What we -- what is already freight on board. So if the container is on the ship, it's all in the inventory.

Second element of the goods in the warehouse and then the goods that we have in stores in the warehouse for online stores. These 3 components are included. So the ones that are being shipped now, they are included in our inventory. So for some time for several quarters until the turmoil is getting back to normal, we have to increase the inventory level.

Some companies announced that they don't have such problems. We see the delays. We see that there are some delays with goods delivery. So given that, our results are very good, given the difficulties.

Let's move on to costs. On the left-hand side, you can see, as usual, the costs are broken down by 3 elements, cost of stores. The green element, rental costs. This should be going down in the long term because the new stores that we are opening are not located in big city centers in expensive malls, but in retail parks and smaller town. So the rentals in retail parks for brands such as Sinsay, Cropp House with lower price range. The rentals there are like half as much as Reserved or Mohito in beautiful shopping malls.

So the more shops we open in the smaller towns, in retail parks, the more considerable drop in rentals per square meter. So beautiful shopping malls will be for Reserved brand. Yes, you're right, and Mohito as well.

The middle element of the cost, we have HR costs, and these will increase. We announced recently that we are planning to give salary increases to all our employees. There is an employee market now, so we need to take care of our employees. And we would also like to thank to them for their hard work and for the effort and commitment that they contributed to this pandemic 2020 year where difficult decisions had to be taken.

For 3 months, the salaries were lower and we were fighting for survival. Now we can say that the company is in a much better situation. It's a completely different level of organizations in e-commerce, design, distribution, logistics, e-commerce, back office. In many elements, our organization is more efficient, and as a thank you to our employees for helping us to achieve that, for helping us to change this organization, we decided on the mass salary increases and bonuses to be paid right now and also because of inflation.

As an employee of this company, I'm very pleased to hear that. On the right-hand side, you can see the SG&A costs also including the logistics of e-commerce. This increased by 11%. Let me just briefly discuss it in more detail. I would like to emphasize that we're changing our business model. So far, most costs were fixed costs. And now because we have more online sales and more in turnover-based rentals, and because of the fact that we manage the personnel better, these costs are variable costs in greater and greater expense.

We are looking at costs, the effect -- the efficiency ratio, so the effectiveness and sales. In the fourth point, we talk about cost versus turnover, 37% in the third quarter, and we are planning for them not to exceed 40%. Let me just add that this trend is very popular among our competitors in the fashion industry, so costs versus turnover. So variable cost, and we are also looking at this, this way.

Let's move on to the results almost PLN 4 billion in revenues. This is much better margin than last year, and the cost increase was less intensity than last year. So we are using this operational leverage in business and the operating profit last year was PLN 300 million, now over PLN 800 million. And minus taxes, PLN 250 million last year and profit now PLN 600 million in 1 quarter only.

Operating -- so our business model, financing -- fully financing inventory by liabilities is maintained, thanks to which this cash cycle is negative, which means that we have a better organization of goods. Cash flow was better year-on-year by 27%. There is also a slide for persons who are interested in that aspect. This shows our results comparing this with the previous accounting standards, IAS 17 because all that I'm discussing now is under IFRS 16. Under IAS 17 was better than under IFRS 16.

Now over PLN 10 billion in growth, 70% increase much better by 5 percentage points gross profit margin on sales. The costs increased slower, so EBIT is also better than last year, we had reported a loss, and this year, we have a profit PLN 1.108 billion. The company is secure when it comes to cash. In this net cash that you can see on the left-hand side, you don't really see this PLN 1 billion in money market funds as factoring security and investment outlays in this 3 quarters, PLN 950 million, of which PLN 300 million for infrastructure, including the construction of logistics center in Pruszcz Gdanski and PLN 650 million for stores.

Ladies and gentlemen, summarizing these 9 months. We are very pleased with the results, despite the fact that there were some strains that we discussed last quarter, repeated this quarter as well. We see the problems with freight, with shipments, with container prices. They are still high, and there are some disruptions in factories when it comes to power cuts. We are dealing in these difficult times as we used to deal before, but we will communicate any risks that we might face.

So summarizing, a very good offline sales. Online, great results, especially abroad. Offline results are still very good with the opening of the stores and the new stores added in smaller towns in smaller locations. So we are increasing our floor space continually.

Gross margin is improving. And given that, operational margin, too. And we are maintaining a safe net cash. So we have completed very good 9 months. And looking at the 3 months, we can say that the floor space will increase by 29%, 30%, the biggest increases in the Eastern European countries. The growth here in smaller cities, we record better rental rates where the customers want to come to the smaller cities.

There is not so much epidemiological risks in smaller retail parks, it's easier to maintain health security for customers. Maybe let's mention also that retail parks are usually constructed in smaller cities. So far, the inhabitants of those cities had to go a long way to shopping malls. Now they enjoy the closeness of retail parks.

As we saw previously in the previous years, the trends were retail turn -- when it comes to food industry, it was also visible in several years ago. We see that in our industry, in fashion industry, we try to get closer to the customer by constructing retail parks and reaching the customer closer to their place of residence. So this year, still good revenues.

Fourth quarter, we anticipate also a good results. Operating margins will improve. What it means that operating margin will be better. We would like to go away from discussing or giving guidance as to the high margin. We are focusing on the operating profit margin. We have 3 strong business areas. The first one is high-margin brands in beautiful shopping malls, Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito. They have higher margins but also higher costs. So we want the operating profit margin to be solid. But please have a look at the other elements of our business online sales.

The first margin is lower as compared to the stationary stores brands. So online, it's a bit lower, but there are also lower costs. So we want the online margin equalized to be with the margin in the nicer stores in bigger malls. When it comes to Sinsay, Cropp or House that are now entering retail parks at lower margins, but considerably lower cost of operations, which allow us to generate a similar operational margins.

We prefer now to focus and we discuss more on the operating profit level than the previous type of margins because these will erode in time. The more cheaper brands we have, the more we sell online. This first margin will be regularly lowered, but the margin on the operational level will be maintained as several dozen percent. I will get back to that.

CapEx this year overall is PLN 1.350 billion, PLN 350 million is infrastructure and other stores. The challenges that we may face still, we can see disruptions in supply chain. We still observe problems with factories in some countries, the fourth wave of restrictions and infections. We are still uncertain what the situation will be in December, whether some lockdowns will be introduced or some more restrictions. We are prepared, of course, when it comes to online sales, if the stores will be closed again. But we are hoping that this will not happen.

We also don't know how long the deferred demand will last, and we still observe that. Yes, we are uncertain about that. The customer behavior are very much variable. So inflation, increased cost of HR. So the foreign exchange cost of dollars as well. It's good that we sell more abroad and the weakening of Polish zloty against all currencies. So we -- this was compensated, thanks to our incomes from other currencies from abroad.

As exporters we see more impact of local currencies. Good collections for all our brands give us the chance to succeed. Customers look at prices a lot. So the price per quality ratio is very important. We want to create good collection. We had to have efficient logistics for e-commerce. All of these aspects are smoothly run. What is important, knowledge about the customer that we gained, thanks to the algorithms. Knowledge about the customers and taking care of the product. Product is #1. Without good product, the distribution channel will not do much. But of course, the effective distribution channel may improve the situation if we have a good product.

There is one more announcement about a new market that we're entering. Albania will be our 27th offline market in stationary stores. We are planning to open the stores with the offer of our 5 brands in the second half of the next year. The last slide shows our target for the next year. We want to continue the double-digit floor space growth, the 25% increase year-on-year. We want to have 2.3 million per square meter lag this year.

The increase of the younger brand stores will occur since they Cropp, House in smaller cities, upto 50,000 inhabitants. Sometimes we are even getting into the -- such towns that have 20,000 inhabitants only. So it depends on the country, the wealth of the country. Of course, the biggest difficulty is to get a proper location. With the proper traffic, that will guarantee the customer. We are pleased with the effect so far with the openings of Sinsay, Cropp and House we observed that we managed to get returns on such investments with good locations. So the CapEx that is given per square meter is much lower, it's even half lower than in the case of nice shopping malls.

So lower investment outlets and a low depreciation costs and low rental costs. So the return on investment in such stores is seen very fast, between 12 to 16 months. This is the average payback. So we will continue that. We continue this expansion and 2023, 2024, this expansion of younger brands will be continued, and we are hoping that in the double-digit pace.

We are kind of moving eastwards than westwards. Yes, the availability of floor space and lower competition is an important factor. We see where our competitors are developing. Sometimes we compete for the same commercial spaces. But we find it easier on the Eastern side of Europe.

We need to have investment in logistics. What is great is that our omnichannel model makes it possible for us to send parcels also abroad, not only from logistics centers, but also from our stationary stores. This increase, this online sale will be by PLN 4 billion next year. We want this to be increasing in double-digit pace, 40% or even more. This is the target of e-commerce increase for next year.

Overall, this will be a double-digit increase in sales. Please don't ask me what will be the top margins because they will be dropping, but with good cost control and low operational cost control. If we control the e-commerce costs together with the mass of the parcels, a shift -- the unitary cost is decreasing. So we are able to generate double-digit operating margin in all our brands.

Depending on the year, this will be between 12% to 14%. We will still be developing in a safe manner. We want to keep cash on balance sheet, over PLN 1 billion, this will be for the stores. Our possibilities of growth. We can see considerable possibilities online and offline because of the good products. Logistics is working so efficiently, that we're able to service everything. We can translate inflation into prices of our product. And the technology that I mentioned, so RFID, implementation in other brands like House and Mohito, this will, in turn, render it possible for us to generate better margins.

And also introducing apps for other brands for Gen Z. This is very important. But for us as well, this is important. I use the Reserved app recently, it was very good. About the risk pandemic brings a lot of uncertainty. Currency volatility, all of that are the aspects that we cannot influence. We want to organize what we can organize. And it seems that after the 2 years of the pandemic, our organization is more efficient. We are able to operate on larger volumes, and what I'm particularly pleased about we have become international.

The standards abroad are as good as in Poland. So as a group, we are more consistent, more efficient, which, in turn, translates into good sales revenues and more profit. That's all from me.

Thank you very much, and now let's start the Q&A session.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Let me move to the questions. I like the fact that there are a lot of questions now. The first one, when can we expect online store in Serbia?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

I remember that this question was also asked last time we met. We are working on the opening of some markets next year with online stores outside the European Union.

It's more difficult because logistics needs to be adjusted. Serbia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, these are the countries where we would like to open the stores -- online stores next year. Thank you.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

The next question, could you please comment on how much Sinsay omnichannel sales per square meter in the third quarter, which increased quarter-by-quarter, is at the level that you assume in the first year -- in the next year budget for the Sinsay brand?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We are not perfect when it comes to Sinsay. We see some room for improvement also when it comes to off-line and online stores.

There are still out-of-stock situation. So the sale is faster than we expected. It's great because people are interested in the product, but we need to adapt volumes better. It seems that next year, there are -- there's room for improvement in this area.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Another question. The costs of stores in Sinsay, what is the difference against other brands?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We don't want to reveal that information because this is information for competitors. Let me say that the margin is similar to Reserved and Mohito. So we make sure that the cost of business were as low as possible. Thank you.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Can we expect a reduction of the margins in the fourth quarter or next year if we start to sell stocks purchased with higher costs?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

I would like to refer to that. The fourth quarter seasonally has lower margins. In January, we have a lot of sell-offs. So the fourth quarter will have lower margins, but this is normal in comparison to the third quarter. But we are focusing on the operational level of the margins.

So we are trying to manage this well. And the change of pricing policy. So during the sell-offs online has different prices than offline. We are not offering so much so big promotions in online. We need to minimize the cost. So for the times of sales, there is a differentiated pricing policy. And this strategy has been efficient for 3 seasons now, so we focus on the operational profit margin.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Next question. In the third quarter, the drop quarter-by-quarter of the cost of stores per square meter. Could you please give us information as to how -- to what extent is it the result of the dilution in relation to the increase of the space outside Poland and outside shopping mall? And to what extent is it a one-off event? And please give us guidance in this area for 2022.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

This is a continuation of the fact that we are developing in smaller cities where rentals are half as -- are lower by half than in comparison to shopping malls. Along with the growth of smaller brands, we will continue to see the decrease in cost per square meter.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What is the difference in profitability between Poland and abroad? Online and offline?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

It's similar.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Another question. What part of the budgeted collection is currently shipped and in stores?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

15% is coming to us. This will reach the warehouses this month. And starting January, the sales offers are starting in January and new collections will be introduced, too. At least 15% is now here.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Can you tell us, please, what changed your narration, the pessimistic outlook after this first half versus the very optimistic narrative now? What drops in margins are you expecting for the AW at '21 and FS '22?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

I'm very glad that you asked this question. I don't want to say that we are changing narration -- narrative. We said that given the turmoil in the supply chain and the delays, the margins may be lower.

Maybe I didn't explain enough detail this fact that the operating profit margin is what counts here. Let me answer this way. Guidance is not changed because in the fourth quarter and the quarters to come for the next year, this first margins will be lower. But the volatility of costs and they're being linked to -- this will result in a healthy double-digit level of the margins. So we are going away from talking about trade margins because this results in some misunderstandings, I would like to focus on operating profit margins.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What is the growth -- the revenues in November and December?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Good. In December, too, but we wish for the December to have better results. I think that restrictions that are now being introduced in several countries, even the fact that you -- in some countries, you have to show the COVID passports, this affects the situation.

In December, a bit worse than in November, but still good.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What is the competition situation this year?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

I think it's less intense. I think generally, competition has changed. We don't see price wars, aggressive promotional campaigns. And so we also behave this way. All the companies focused on improving the internal effectiveness and they focus on better inventory management, this first prices, how to improve the margins. So we focus internally, and nobody fights so much externally. This result also from the fact that we don't have so much goods availability due to logistics problems.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Now there is an interesting question. There is another Polish company that gets into apparel. Aren't you afraid of another House-price company?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We are afraid of the competition, but the customers -- and the customers are not very loyal, let me say this way. We observed this, that customers are willing to get to know new brands. And if we have a new competitor on the market, this is not really helpful. But looking at the strength of our brands and online situation, I think that we can deal with that.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

This is a very good result .What dividend can be expected next year?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

I wouldn't like to talk about dividend. This is too early. Let's finish this year and then I can answer this question.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Next question. Are you considering getting out of your comfort zones and expand Sinsay in Western countries?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We are considering various scenarios, also this one. But it seems about the potential for Sinsay brands where we are present now in Eastern Europe and also Southern Europe, the potential is so great, but we don't have enough power to get Sinsay into these Western markets. Maybe in the next few years, we will focus on the Eastern Southern markets.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Next question. increases of prices in stores. You mentioned last time that there will be maximum 9% increase. What is your observation as far as competition activity in this area is concerned?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We can see the increase of prices by several percent given the installation in Poland at 7%, 8%. This reflects this inflation level. So we are currently in this trend. The competitors are increasing prices. Everybody needs to compensate for the higher costs in some way.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

There's another interesting question. Diversification of -- geographical diversification. China versus Turkey. How do you seek new suppliers and margins when it comes to purchases in Turkey versus China?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

There is a lot being discussed about moving to closer markets. It's very difficult to move to transition with a lot of orders closer to Poland. We are trying to move from China to Turkey, but Turkey is more expensive when it comes to production in comparison to China and Bangladesh, too. It's even more visible with Bangladesh.

About 30% -- 35% versus China, given the fact that the costs of transport increased -- cost of transfers from Asia increase. Of course, transitioning is tempting, but in the long run, we have to consider whether the sea transport will get back to normal. If we shift a lot of volume to the -- of production to Turkey, well, this is not so easy and so fast. 6% is now being sewn in Turkey, 8% to 9%. Maybe that will be the increase, but this will not be a considerable transition of large volumes.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

That was the last question. Thank you very much for all the questions that you asked today. Thank you. Due to the fact that this is the last meeting this year, Christmas is ahead and the New Year is coming, we would like to wish you all the best.

Stay healthy. I think these wishes are considered to be the most important. Let COVID be a history, and we wish you good rest during Christmas time, and see you next year. Thank you very much. All the best to you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]