Good afternoon and very warm welcome to the Cabka 2025 Capital Markets Update. We have invited you here today to share more detail with you and our commercial strategy and roadmap to our 2030 goals and beyond. In addition to the usual presentations by myself and our CFO Mark, joining us today are members of our Commercial Innovation and Sustainability teams who will be giving you a deeper insight into the group and its processes. First of all, I would like to take the opportunity to introduce our new CFO, Mark Letterie, who has been with us since the beginning of September and brings over 15 years of international finance experience across manufacturing, distribution, and corporate finance. Mark brings Cabka direct experience in the plastic and chemical sector through his role at Vinmar International, one of the world's largest plastic and chemical distributors.
His career also included leadership roles at Caterpillar and Royal Haskoning. Mark's strong track record in financial strategy, governance, transformation, and post-merger integration makes him ideally suited to support our next phase of growth. As I mentioned, in addition to the usual strategy and the finance presentations by Mark and myself today, you will also hear from members of our wider team, including our Chief Innovation Officer, Javier Fernández , our CCO, Naiara Louroño, and our Sustainability Director, Katrine Poirier. However, before we get started on our presentation, I would like to take a few minutes of your time to share a short film which we have recently produced in collaboration with CNBC as part of their Sustainability Growth Transformation Initiative. They call it SGTI. We are very proud of this video, which showcases Cabka's commitment to sustainability, innovation, and circular economy.
The film highlights the journey from waste to worth, where we at Cabka transform hard recycled plastics into resilient transport packaging that can power modern supply chains. Please join me now while we watch the film together.
Every year, companies around the world produce over 400 million tons of plastic. Only 9% is ever recycled. The rest? It ends up here, in landfills, in oceans, in places it was never meant to be. What if waste was not the end of the story? What if it was only the beginning? At first glance, it's just plastic, a surface, a detail. Zoom out and you see the bigger picture. What once was waste becomes structure, becomes strength, becomes a purpose.
Cabka started in 1994 with a simple idea in mind. It was the proof of concept that we can take waste and we can take recycled plastic and make a meaningful product out of it. This is how the lightweight pallet has started. It's just taking the material no one wants, actually put it in a meaningful product that everyone needs. Every product you buy or order online takes the journey from the manufacturer to the distribution center, to the retail, or to your home. Our idea is to make that journey circular and to make that journey sustainable. In 1998, we created our first pallet to serve the logistical world with reusable transport packaging. Since then, we have been a leader in this field. We have taken the waste and we started to create products out of it after a mechanical recycling process. We operate globally.
We have one factory in the US and four factories in Europe. We serve more than 80 countries around the globe. Before we innovate every product, we look at what good is it going to do for the environment and for the customer.
The shift towards circular economy is actually in our DNA. The founder of our company, Gott Ramon, really started by recycling. So our DNA is really about recycling. There is a lot of material into the market, but not a perfect outlet to be used in industrial scales. That is where Cabka steps in. With our broad portfolio of products, we can use rather big volumes. For example, last year, we transformed 120,000 tons of plastic waste into a valuable and reliable product for our customers.
We need to design the products in the right way, get away from single-use products to reusable, sustainable, recyclable products. That is exactly what we do in Cabka. The second part of it, we need to change the system. We look at the material flow. We need to make sure that we collect the materials in the right way. We reprocess them, recycle them, and eventually put them in the products this environment needs and wants.
In fact, in an ideal circular world, there is no waste. In old times, you had a linear economy. You are starting from raw materials, then you produce a product, then it comes to the end of life, and then you throw it away. Actually, circular economy is about closing that loop. That is exactly what we are trying to do within Cabka.
The way we help our customers to lower their CO2 emissions is very simple. Our products are lighter than wood. Thus, we save on transportation emissions. More so, they are reusable, recyclable, and sustainable. Only in 2024, we have saved 260,000 tons of CO2 emissions to our customers. Today, 88% of our products are from recycled materials. In 2024, I'm very proud of the fact that we have earned the Platinum Medal of EcoVadis.
As a starting point, we design every product to be reused at the end of its lifetime. We also offer the service to our customers to buy the product back.
The Buy Back Program is an opportunity to close the circle for us and for our customers. When we buy back our products, we can reproduce them every single time. Most of our products, we can recycle and make new ones.
Recycling, it's all about sorting. We get the materials in from our customers or through our distributing network, and then we start sorting it out. We have our in-house facility and our in-house lab here on site. Those experienced ladies, they decide what to do with that type of plastic. It might be noisy.
Once we sorted the material in that area, the material is placed in front of the shredder. The process on itself is not so complex, but the complexity is managing the different material streams up front. Once the material is ready to be shredded, we can shred up to 30 tons a day. We are now in our warehouse department. The production facility is on that side. We have 12 injection lines working 24/7, all day, all year long. That production facility is generating the 10 million pallets that we sell over a year.
At Duprey, we take better care of goods. We're a manufacturer of equipment for the food industry, bulk and recycling, and warehousing. We're doing that already for 40 years. Twenty years ago, we met Cabka because we were searching for a better solution than wooden boxes. These Cabka bins are made of plastic, but they have a lot of opportunities. They're better for cleaning, so we don't have germs in potatoes, and they are fixed in dimensions. Cabka was the first, was the pioneer to have these plastic boxes. They had the highest volume that we can imagine or what was on the market at that time. They delivered a very good service. Twenty years after, we're still a happy client.
Every piece that we bring in goes into our construction hall, and from there on to our customers worldwide. For larger pieces, it's easier to use a plastic pallet because it carries a lot, and you can't have many changes on the pallet. A pallet, when you put something very heavy on it, it bends a little bit. That's why we use the plastic pallets. We have a unique position of transforming a huge amount of wastes that nobody can really use into a valuable and reliable product. If we use 120,000 tons of material into pallets, that's a huge amount of recycled plastics, which in other industries are more difficult to be used for. Cabka is drive for innovation, not only on products, not only on materials. Also, our customers pushing us for innovation is really a good place to be in.
Sustainability was the cornerstone of our existence. It's actually why we are here. It's not just a strategy. It's because it's the right thing to do. It's the right thing to do for this world, to take the waste and to make meaningful products out of that. What I would like to see is how we create a perfect world where nothing goes to waste. When we can take everything that we have used, redesign it, then reproduce it to something that someone else needs. That is where I think Cabka as a group has a huge advantage today, but has even more opportunities as we go forward.
In terms of structure, our presentation today will begin with an overview of our performance and discussion on a wider market and our positioning. We will then move on to look from our Sustainability Director, Katrine Poirier, and the current legislative landscape with regards to European transport packaging and the opportunities and challenges that this presents for Cabka and the wider packaging industry. Following on, our Chief Commercial Officer, Naiara Louroño, will take you into more detail on our commercial strategy, while our Chief Innovation Officer, Javier Fernández, will guide you through our innovation strategy and processes. Finally, Mark will take a deeper dive into the financial and our targets to 2030 and beyond. We would ask that you keep your questions until the end of the presentation when both Mark and myself would be delighted to answer any questions that you might have.
I do not want to spend too long on this slide as it contains a lot of detail on events that we have covered extensively in previous presentations, particularly with regards to historic events. I would like to highlight to you that we have taken a number of measures throughout this year to address the macro and geopolitical headwinds of recent years and to bring stability to the group. These have included implementing cost-cutting and efficiency programs as we have flagged before via our shift program, overhauling our sales teams, focusing on diversifying our end market exposure, and taking decisive action on pricing and securing long-term supply contracts. These contract actions have enabled us to stabilize our top line while improving our EBITDA margins from their lows.
As Mark will discuss in more detail later, our CapEx is controlled and focused, and we have managed to make significant progress in our working capital management. I can say to you with confidence today that our business recovery strategy is well underway, and our focus now is on improving utilization and efficiency to drive the next stage of our development. Looking at the global RTP market today, I'm sure that you have all seen this slide before, but it bears repeating that plastic remains a small part of our overall total. The transport packaging market today remains dominated by wooden pallets. However, looking to the future, the trends are still pointing a shift towards reusable alternatives, predominantly plastic. Some of those trends that you see on this slide will be discussed further by my colleagues later in the presentation.
I do find it worth emphasizing to you how our customers are addressing and making this shift, although even here, there are market differences in their approach. On one hand, you have large blue-chip premium customers that want to fully control our internal logistics. I'm talking here about customers such as Tesla, BMW, and even Lidl, who are using our solutions to better manage and optimize their internal logistics. This kind of clients are also extremely focused on their environmental footprint and are closely measuring their sustainability metrics. There are customers who are typically buying their Cabka pallets from distributors. These tend to be clients with less complex supply chains or smaller customers who are now ordering at the same volumes as they offer aforementioned examples. Finally, a major part of the market is dominated by the pooling companies. You will hear this term often.
To avoid confusion, I just want to explain exactly what we mean by this and how this sector of the market works. The poolers essentially lease pallets to the customers. The customers are very often large international end clients. You can think about companies like Heineken and Albert Heijn here, who deal with a lot of in- and outbound traffic in their supply chains and have chosen not to make the investment in their own logistics chains for reasons of capital efficiency. As such, they lease pallets and boxes, etc., from pooling companies such as CHEP and IFCO. They both are major customers of Cabka. Looking now at the growth dynamics for the plastic pallet market, which I already mentioned is the largest part of our RTP market. As you know, Cabka is mostly active in Europe and to a lesser extent in North America.
Growth across these two regions averages roughly 5%, give or take, depends on which research you pick. As you can see, growth in Asia-Pacific is much higher, but is much less driven by sustainability. We do see selective opportunities to expand production in that region as our customers are already using our products in the Asian markets. We are laying the groundwork as we speak, but this is a target for the longer term. Looking at our geographical footprint in more detail, you can see that Europe represents the bulk of our production assets. With our existing footprint, we can easily serve the whole of the region. In the U.S., obviously, we have experienced pressure after the St. Louis flood in 2022 and subsequent in rebuilding.
In 2025, we have managed to stabilize the business, but there is obviously still work to be done as utilization rates are still substantially below our target. Europe is running much closer to full production capacity. Even here, we see opportunities to optimize output. I will go into this in more detail in one of the following slides. How do we position ourselves with our competitors? The answer is that we have a number of key advantages relative to the competition. Firstly, we have a better cost profile due to the fact that we are backward integrated. 50% of our raw materials come from our own recycling lines. The advantage that this brings is, of course, dependent on market conditions and recycled prices. Over the cycle, we see this as a clear advantage.
Secondly, it's already an advantage for a select number of customers that we can offer them standardization across continents. Finally, and perhaps most crucially, what sets us apart from our peers is our ability to innovate combined with our raw material knowledge and expertise and design for customer manufacturing. I would also like to emphasize to you that our innovation strength is stronger by the fact that we own our own recycling lines. What this does is gives us material knowledge that is in short supply elsewhere in the industry. Looking to the future for Cabka, we see two distinct phases for the company. The first phase is all about utilizing our existing production footprint better and maximizing the returns on our existing assets. Of course, that means different things in different geographies.
Starting with Europe, I already explained to you how production lines are running at high utilization rates. However, we still see substantial improvements ahead. Firstly, we believe that we can optimize our portfolio mix further, both on price and margin. Secondly, I'm not entirely satisfied with our current forecasting and planning abilities, and we are in the process of hiring to strengthen our skill set in this area. Finally, there are still automation-driven and other cost-cutting measures to be exploited. Moving to the U.S., the situation is somewhat different as our production lines are currently underutilized. Obviously, that means we can be more opportunistic with regard to new business prospects. In the past year, we have made substantial adjustments to our commercial team, and Naiara will go into more detail later.
Aside from geographical initiatives, we have also made conscious decisions to refocus our efforts on new verticals to offset weakness in some other traditional verticals. I'm thinking here of well-documented European automotive industry weakness. We have instead been focusing our efforts on increasing our exposure to areas such as pharma and e-commerce, where growth rates are much higher and our more premium solutions are better suited to the end product. Looking beyond full utilization, where do we want to go? First of all, it's safe to say that the global RTP market will remain a largely cyclical market, which is driven by the ebb and flow of global trade growth. The past few years have been tough for Cabka, but have been even harder on some of our competitors. As a result, we are being continuously approached by smaller players who are interested in selling their business.
Also, let's not forget this is a very fragmented market with a lot of small regional and national players. As such, it's fairly obvious that in the medium to longer term, consolidation will become a theme and one that we would ultimately explore and exploit. What is also obvious, however, is that our balance sheet does not currently offer us the capacity to be able to participate in this thing. This is why we see phase I as essential to repair our balance sheet, and thereby restore our firepower for future acquisitions beyond our immediate goals. Of course, we also have major organic initiatives in the. Looking firstly at chemical recycling, this represents our first major organic growth initiative in a EUR 5.5 billion market growing at 49% annually. This growth will be driven by two critical EU regulatory mandates under PPWR.
First, the 30% recycled content requirement in all plastic packaging by 2030 will on its own create massive demand for recycled materials. Secondly, and more specifically relevant to chemical recycling, household waste plastic destined for food content application must be purified via chemical recycling. Mechanical recycling alone does not meet food safety standards for converting post-consumer household waste into food-grade packaging. This requirement fundamentally elevates the role of chemical recycling from optional to essential. Their strategic insight here is simple. Chemical recyclers are currently building large pyrolysis plants, but they are facing a critical feedstock shortage. They need pre-treated regrind, which is basically flakes at scale, and current supply cannot meet demand. Cabka's position would be simple, namely to be the essential feedstock partner. In this scenario, we would process the post-consumer plastic into shredded material ready for pyrolysis. This requires EUR 7 million in equipment upgrades.
We are ideally positioned here to leverage 30 years of waste processing expertise, which translates directly into meeting chemical recycle quality requirements. Our competitive advantage is obvious as our Vaira plant sits in Germany's chemical recycling hub, and we have established collection networks a long time ago. Our second major organic initiative is about extending our Eco Platform into premium applications. By premium applications, we mean specialized construction systems and green infrastructure components, and these are products that command significantly higher pricing than our current Eco products. Although I cannot give you too much detail on individual products due to competitive reasons, what I can say is that the pricing differentiation here translates directly into meaningful margin expansion. What enables this transition? There are three main factors. Firstly, our existing capabilities transfer directly. We are already producing large-format mixed plastic components at scale.
Premium applications require the same core competencies, just applied to higher specification products. Secondly, these markets are growing. EU green infrastructure and sustainable building initiatives are both creating demand for recycled content solutions. We are responding to already proven customer requirements without having to speculate on market development. The third point is on capital efficiency. What we are doing is utilizing existing recycled capacity and manufacturing assets. The transition from standard to premium product requires minimal incremental investment and is related primarily to tooling and product development, not new facilities. I would now like to move to the next part of our presentation and introduce you to our Director of Sustainability, Katrine Poirier, who will give you more insights into the legislative landscape in the European transport packaging and the opportunities this presents for Cabka.
Following Katrine, our Chief Commercial Officer, Naiara Louroño will take you into more detail on our commercial strategy, and Javier Fernández, our Chief Innovation Officer, will then guide you through our innovation strategy and processes. Katrine.
I'm delighted to take a few moments today to talk to you about how Cabka is positioned at the intersection of compliance and sustainability. Our business has been built on circular principles, and as regulation and market expectations evolve, we see that this foundation is proving to be a real differentiator. My name is Katrine Poirier. I'm Sustainability Director at Cabka. I'm with Cabka since 2018. I've got 20 years of experience in B2B markets, and I focus currently on the ESG strategy development and communication, as well as advocacy and regulatory topics. Let's look first of all on our ESG framework. Cabka's ESG strategy is fully integrated into our business model.
It is not treated as a side subject, but it is very much embedded in how we design products, how we manage our operations, and how we make investment decisions. It is based on three core pillars. On the environmental side, we focus on material circularity, ensuring that the plastic reprocess is reused again and again, together with carbon reduction through the use of recycled material, but also through an energy transition. This is supported by our people strategy that first and foremost aims to provide safe and inclusive workplaces and help us to retain and attract talent. Our company values and ethical principles are very present and continue to nourish our strong company culture. Over the past years, we have built data-driven reporting systems, which are supported by robust governance and traceability. This has allowed for full auditability in the past year, and that is something which investors do increasingly value.
The performance of our sustainability management framework is recognized by EcoVadis and CDP. These are two reputed assessments for our customers and investors. At EcoVadis, we have managed to achieve Platinum in 2025, and that's something we are very proud of because that means our performance is among the top 1% of all rated companies. How does Cabka's approach maximize sustainability? Our mission is simple but powerful. We turn waste into value, and every product Cabka designs and produces embodies reduce, recycle, and reuse or deliver superior durability, full recyclability, and measurable carbon benefits. We position really at the top of the waste hierarchy. Let's look at the numbers. In 2024, we have taken in 127,000 tons of plastic waste, and that corresponds to 88% of recycled material intake and translates directly into a great volume of carbon avoidance. That's 262,000 tons of carbon avoided in 2024.
That in fact exceeds the carbon emissions of our own operations, and that is coming from the fact that we use secondary material instead of primary material. We replace the use of virgin plastics, and we also help to divert plastics going into landfill and incineration. Carbon reduction, and then on top comes our energy transition, which will help us to become carbon neutral in our own operations by 2030. That is something I also want to highlight. We are very well on the way to achieve our first milestone with 50% of renewable energy in the year of 2025 and continue to work on 2030 to provide also an additional carbon benefit to the customers or the users of our products. Now let's turn to regulation, specifically the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, or PPWR. This regulation is transforming how Europe thinks about packaging.
We will shift from single-use systems to circular models and products that prioritize reuse, recyclability, and recycled content. Cabka did not wait for the PPWR. In fact, we have kind of integrated it already since our very inception. We feel that when it comes to the PPWR, we are ahead of the curve. Our reusable transport packaging solutions directly support the PPWR core objectives. The products are designed for full recyclability, and most of our products considerably exceed the PPWR recycled content requirements. Looking forward, we see that Cabka plays an enabling role across the value chain. Our priorities are clear. We want to promote reuse models and infrastructure. We continue to engage with industry associations to promote a practical PPWR implementation. We also promote traceability and material and product identification in circular packaging. Now, what is new in the regulation? That is something I want to specifically highlight.
First of all, it notably extends from the previous focus on sales packaging and group packaging also to tertiary or transport packaging. The PPWR also extends responsibilities of packaging towards all economic operators, from raw material suppliers to producers. These producers, as you see in the graph, can be manufacturers, distributors, or importers. That depends on where the packaging will become waste. This transition towards also tertiary packaging and responsibilities across the value chain require collaboration across the entire packaging ecosystem. We see that Cabka is well prepared. Our existing circular infrastructure with in-house material expertise and partnerships position us to support customers on every step of the way. Let's have a look at the timeline. By 2030, packaging will need to demonstrate recyclability, reuse performance, and minimum recycled content. For the packaging user, in particular, the users relying on a highly automated system, 2030 is basically tomorrow.
Unfortunately, we only see the secondary legislation, which will define the detailed requirements to implement these targets in the coming years. For example, from 2026 to 2028, for some selected items, there will be methodologies available on how to calculate the recycled content, the recyclability evaluation, and on reuse targets. We know already what the targets are on how they are implemented. That will require a lot more guidance. The regulation entered into force in the beginning of 2025, and we do see still a lot of voices which are raised against the positions by the PPWR, against some of them or even the full PPWR. We know, however, the alternative to the PPWR would be the continued national implementation of packaging waste regulation and initiatives.
That, however, is for everyone involved, the least favorable scenario, and this, however, is expected to happen if the PPWR is not going forward as planned. Thank you very much for taking the time listening to me. Let me now hand over to my colleague, Naiara. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Naiara Loroño and I am Chief Commercial Officer at Cabka. I have worked for the group since 2019, and today I would like to take 10 minutes of your time to tell you more about our commercial strategy and the way we are positioning Cabka in the market. When we do a poll to ask our customers what the most critical issues they face in packaging and their supply chain operations are, we typically get five answers. First, on cost. Rising input prices, fuel costs, and inflationary pressures are making logistics more expensive and unpredictable.
Regulatory compliance is also an issue. Increasingly complex regulations such as CSRD and PPWR require companies to track and report sustainability metrics across their supply chains. Meanwhile, regulation will also mean they have to introduce recycled content into their packaging, as well as introducing reusable products that are fully recyclable at the end of their life. On sustainability, there is still pressure to decarbonize, and our customers continue to focus on reduction of emissions. Availability, customers struggle to predict demand, and there is pressure to reduce inventories. Therefore, supply chain needs to remain flexible and without interruptions. In terms of quality, we see increasing demand for higher quality, longer-lasting, and more sustainable logistic assets, which are optimized for new automated and autonomous systems. However, these are not isolated changes, but they are deeply interconnected, and their relative importance varies over time. Let me give you an example.
During 2022, most companies invested in equipment, RTPs, to guarantee supply chain security. Availability took priority over cost, and prices rose by 20%-30% as the demand was picking up and good materials were sourced at that time. However, in 2023, the focus shifted to regulation and sustainability, and many companies started studies on how to comply with optimize on these regards. While today we see that economic circumstances and other factors have made them drop several notches on the scale of importance. Currently, since mid-2024, the focus is primarily on cost and quality and durability, which is largely due to automation trends. Still, I would say that we at Cabka are well positioned because we can tackle all of these challenges at once with our solutions. The regulatory environment is clearly in our favor and increases our competitive advantage.
Reuse, all our products already have high reuse rates with durability up to 10 years. We have 30% recycled content already, with only a few exceptions for the food industry. Our products are already at 85%-100% recycled materials. In terms of recyclability, we close the loop at the end of life, and our products are 100% recyclable. On automation, the global warehouse automation market will reach $55 billion by 2030, a curve of 15%. Cabka has been focused on the so-called system integrator vertical, warehouse and equipment builders since early 2024, and all our new products' developments are especially designed to be compatible. On digitalization, the point is that digitalization in RTP is no longer optional. Particularly in automated environments, it is now a functional requirement for traceability, uptime, and carbon reporting.
We now see corporates embedding this tech at scale, and OEMs, retailers, and poolers now expect RTP suppliers to provide digitally enabled assets and data services. Finally, on the green and sustainability, we can combine all the needs and benefits of the previous points. The real benefit of plastic is that it offers greater accuracy in robotic automated environments, and they are cleaner and safer. This is not just true in the food industry. We see other industries are also adopting plastic RTPs, such as pharma, commerce, and retail. As you can see from this slide at Cabka, we serve a wide range of blue-chip customers across a diverse range of sectors. This also gives us the benefit of the portfolio diversification.
As for example, while there is softness in the European automotive market, we are exploding opportunities in other industries, such as the pharmaceutical, where there is more growth on both European and US markets today. Looking at our geographical exposure, our seven production sites in Europe and in the US, plus one innovation center, allow us to target customers globally. Combining our consistent quality and service across continents with our deep understanding of sector-specific needs, we are currently serving customers in over 80 countries, and our sales force is split accordingly to support the different market segments and customers. I would like now to move and to focus more closely on the evolution of our commercial strategy. When markets have contracted, we at Cabka have been able to adapt rapidly via several different approaches.
First, on the industries, we have been able to shift to different target segments with bigger growth. For example, we adjusted our focus from mainly or purely automotive towards general mobility and defense, or from food and beverage towards pharma and e-commerce. To accompany this, we have created new specific segment verticals with dedicated sales teams and reinforced those already existing in pooling and automotive. The second pillar, talking about markets, we have also been able to put more focus on key target markets. While Germany and France have been most impacted by economic contraction in Europe, we have reinforced our sales efforts in Central and Eastern Europe and Italy, where we still see growing demand. At the same time, we continue to invest strongly in the US, new sales team members, increase of marketing activities, and more product offering. Finally, on the customer side, we also see changes.
We continue to target large and diversified customers. During the recovery from COVID and its supply chain issues, there was excess of demand, which pulled forward a lot of CapEx in 2022. As a result, the market is now currently experiencing a period of indigestion, with larger corporations hesitant to dedicate fresh CapEx to new investment. Our focus is participating and gaining RFQs, enabling our customers' costs to be as much competitive as possible and to serve them globally. Looking now at some of our commercial initiatives, one of the things I would like to highlight is how RTPs are becoming smart carriers with embedded RFID, GPS, and IoT sensors.
This will become increasingly relevant as robotization and automation increases, and according to IDTech X forecast, over 300 million logistic assets, such as pallets, bins, crates, will be RFID or IoT-enabled by 2030, with the smart RTP market exceeding $4 billion. Cabka technology allows its clients access to real-time location tracking for intralogistics and between facilities, automated identification and handshake with robots, WMS, ERPs, cycle time, and asset utilization analytics. Also on preventive maintenance, detecting wear, contamination, or damage. Finally, CO2 and life cycle reporting. We are already seeing this technology being adopted by large corporations across a number of industries. Some examples: in automotive, an industrial who have been early adopters, BMW, Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Toyota all require serialized RTPs that integrate with MES and VMS systems. Most OEMs are now digitizing inbound RTP fleets for EV.
In the FMCG, retail, grocery sector, Unilever, Nestlé, Carrefour, and Lidl all use RFID-enabled foldable crates and pallets integrated into automated warehouses. In the post-industry, we also have recently completed projects on a European level for example, InPost, tracking our CapQ's with RFIDs. Finally, for the pooling and closed-loop operations, CHEP and IFCO are now also digitizing poolers' assets with embedded RFID chips, millions already tagged, and cloud-based visibility portals. By 2026, CHEP expects to have more than 50% of its European pallet pool IoT-enabled, helping customers track loss, damage, and carbon footprint. As you can see from this slide, the process of innovation lies at the core of Cabka and isn't limited to the example we just discussed in the previous slide. Our commercial and product innovation teams are constantly collaborating to serve our customers, both on portfolio or customized solutions.
Portfolio is the Cabka general offering you can see on the upper part. We find the latest product launches that are especially targeting what we mentioned before, example, US retail market, general automated warehouse optimized solutions, or new footprints on the sleep pack containers. Below, on the customized solutions, which are the tailor-made products, every of these developments were targeting specific benefits in different industries, such as retail, food, automotive, or pooling. As Cabka, we help our customers to reduce costs, be more sustainable, and efficient along their supply chain. Now, I would like to hand it over to Javier, who will tell you more about the Cabka innovation process.
Hello everyone. I'm Javier Fernández, Chief Innovation Officer at Cabka. Today, I would like to show you how we turn waste into value with a model that reduces investments, accelerates time to market, and drives profitable growth.
I lead Cabka Innovation from our Innovation Center in Valencia, adding more than 50 years of experience in plastic across automotive, aerospace, and packaging industries. My focus is simple: connect the strategy with execution, make data-driven decisions, and deliver profitable products to extend both customer value and circularity. How do we do this in Cabka and how do we create real impact? We do this with the three integrated pillars: product development, material engineering, and tooling and automation. In product development, we design products with recycled materials and engineer them for reuse. They are modular, repairable, and fully recyclable, truly circular innovation that reduces our customer total cost of ownership. In material engineering, we turn waste into high-performance raw materials at lower cost, but at the same time, ensuring stable quality and supply.
Finally, in tooling and automation is where we move from prototypes to production with tools specifically designed for recycled materials to get faster cycles, less scrap, higher OEE, and consistent quality. All these three pillars work together and are connected under one roof, and this integration removes silos, compresses cycle times, and reduces CapEx, and expands our margin to deliver faster launches, better outcomes, and profitable growth. This one roof is our Innovation Center in Valencia, a 2,500 sq m facility across two floors. On the ground floor, we have our material laboratory, prototyping area, and test center to properly validate our materials and our products. On the first floor, our design and engineering offices. In this single place, we bring every capability together to turn waste into value, recycled materials, intelligent design, and evidence-based validation.
The result: shorter cycle, lower risk, higher accuracy, and continuous learning cycles to faster our time to market, landing in a better ROI on every single EUR we invest. Now, let's take a look on how we turn an idea into a real product in the market. This is our innovation funnel. It's a structured, evidence-based process designed to drive both excellent execution and capital efficiency. Each project follows standardized deliverables and checklists involving all our key stakeholders from the start. We prototype first and invest later, validating every step with data before committing any CapEx. Through this process, we maintain a continuous feedback loop between all areas, including our production plans. Issues are detected in the early stages, lesser learnings are captured to be incorporated in future products, and launches are more predictable. In short, capital-efficient innovation that connects directly to the P&L.
Let me illustrate with a real case: the CapQ 1208 launched to the market this year. The project started in October 2024 with initial sketches, and design has been completed by December. Starting this year, we have a full-scale prototype tested and validated to get consistent data before any major investment. After that confirmation, we approved the CapEx based on solid evidence, not only in assumptions. By June, after completing the injection tool construction and initial injection setups, the product was fully validated. Finally, in July, the home line production setup was done in our facilities in Weider, Germany, where the product started in serial production in August. That means less than one year from the initial concept to the market. That is how our integrated innovation model delivers: faster launches, lower risk, and higher confidence in returns.
This discipline does not just deliver products faster; it also delivers products that win. I am really proud to share that this year, Cabka has been awarded with the Red Dot Design Award in two categories: sustainability and packaging. This is an independent and global jury confirming not just a good design, but also a disciplined roadmap that delivers sustainability and a robust product performance. For the investor, the impact is demonstrable. This milestone confirms our innovation process and also reinforces our ESG credibility. We are proving circularity with data while lowering our customers' total cost of ownership. This is external proof that our model creates value. With this inspiring award, I finish the presentation in our innovation way, and I hand over to Mark. Thank you.
Welcome to the Cabka financial update. I am Mark Letterie, CFO of Cabka since September 1st.
My aim today is to provide you, our shareholders, and other stakeholders with a clear view of where Cabka is today and what the direction is that we are going. It has been a transformational year. At the beginning of the year, Cabka had run into an issue with its financing facility, leading to material uncertainty in the assessment of our auditors to continue on a going concern basis. A month or so ago, we were able to secure an adjustment in the covenants of this facility, thereby making our external financing secure again. Now, we are on the road to further recovery, and I will discuss our plans to strengthen our balance sheet and generate profitable growth in the markets we operate in. Transformation is at the core of Cabka. We transform plastic waste into sustainable pallets and containers.
Now, we aim to transform the financial performance of the company as well and future-proof the organization. Where are we today? 2025 was a year of stabilization for Cabka. After several years of revenue declines, we managed to stabilize our revenues and EBITDA. For both of these headline numbers, we expect to end up at a roughly similar level as 2024. Execution of our shift plan helped the company maintain its profitability at an estimated full-year EBITDA of EUR 20 million, closely in line with last year. The high-level numbers show a roughly comparable performance year over year. However, when we take a closer look at the results, it becomes clear that some important improvements have been made. Most notably is the reduction in the personnel and operating expenses by EUR 4 million. This provides a lower cost base, which will drive higher profitability in the years to come.
Unfortunately, the impact of this cost reduction is not immediately visible when we look at the total EBITDA. This is because it is balancing out against a lower operating performance. Being a production company, we measure operating performance by what is produced, which can be quite a bit different from what is sold. In an effort to improve the balance sheet this year, we have both reduced capitalized services, which is internal CapEx spent, and inventory, adversely leading to lower operating margin. Still, for the future, the lower cost base will make it possible to achieve higher profitability. Where are we going next? The syndicated loan covenants have been adjusted, and financing is secured until 2027. Net debt over EBITDA range has been extended. This removes the material uncertainty to continue as a going concern.
From a situation of balance sheet repair in 2025, in 2026, we now need to further strengthen the balance sheet. The metric we use is net debt over EBITDA, since improving this is key to securing financing after 2027, thus ensuring solvency and financial health. We will adopt a flexible CapEx budget where we require visibility on cash generation before we commit to the CapEx budget for the next quarter. Supplier payment terms have deteriorated because our bank covenants were not all met. Now, adjusted covenants are in place, and financing has been secured until 2027. Therefore, we are working with our suppliers to restore payment terms to where they were before, thereby improving our working capital position. Where are we going next? The focus shifts from top-line growth to top-line conditional on bottom-line growth.
General market uncertainty and capital rationing do not allow Cabka to rely on top-line growth only. Revenue growth that does not clearly support the bottom line in the near term cannot be supported. Entrepreneurship, however, is about taking risks. Not taking risks is the greatest risk because it guarantees a lack of growth. We understand that Cabka needs to continue to improve its product portfolio, support customers with solutions, and take decisions that will commit Cabka financially and where the results are uncertain. Still, the focus will be very much on prudence and taking calculated, understood risks in areas we have expertise and can mitigate or hedge risks we do not want to take. We can grow to EUR 215 million in revenues with the current installed production capacity. That should increase our EBITDA margin pull-through from 11% to 13% to 15%.
We can even grow revenues to EUR 240 million by only making investments in our current factory footprint, so without new factories would be required. That should increase our EBITDA margin pull-through even more to more than 15%. This is our revenue forecast for 2025 to 2028. Cabka is expected to grow with a CAGR of 6% compared to the market CAGR of 4%-5%. Higher utilization of our production capacity will drive up EBITDA margins to 13%-15%. Combining both the sales growth and margin growth could lead to 40%-60% higher EBITDA in 2028 compared to 2025. This is our updated guidance for 2026 to 2028 with our key performance indicators. In terms of growth, we aim to grow towards full capacity in the next three years with sales above EUR 215 million.
This will support higher capacity utilization and will ensure higher margin pull-through with an EBITDA margin of 13%-15% as a result. We aim to invest EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million in capex annually, and that is split between EUR 4 million-EUR 7 million maintenance capex and EUR 6 million-EUR 8 million strategic or growth capex. Networking capital, we aim to keep between 15%-20% of revenue. This will provide adequate liquidity, but also will ensure high operational efficiency. We will maintain our dividend policy with the ambition to return to 30%-35% payout ratio as a percentage of net profit. This policy will be restored when the balance sheet allows. These are our long-term aspirations. By 2030, we aim to grow the company to more than EUR 300 million.
From EUR 215 million of sales, we can grow organically with a 6% CAGR to EUR 240 million by the end of 2030. We will engage in M&A to grow inorganically to a bigger company of more than EUR 300 million. Because we will be at full capacity utilization, EBITDA margins should be above 15%. In terms of CapEx, we expect to spend less than EUR 20 million per year, one-third of which will go to maintenance CapEx and two-thirds will go to growth CapEx. Networking capital, we aim to keep it below 20% of revenue, and we maintain our dividend policy at 30%-35% payout of net profit. This is our staged growth plan. In the coming years, we aim to grow the top line organically to EUR 215 million. That will also increase the capacity utilization in our factories and lead to a margin improvement to 13%-15%.
From there, we will continue to grow the company organically to EUR 240 million by the end of 2030. That will also further strengthen the balance sheet and make it possible for Cabka to engage in M&A activities to grow the company even more. We believe that this financial plan will put Cabka on a firm foundation to achieve its longer-term ambitions. With that, I would like to hand back to Alex for his closing remarks.
Thank you very much, Mark. As you have heard today, 2025 has been a year of stabilization, and we are now ready to look forward from a more stable base to take Cabka to the next level of its development.
We hope that we have been able to explain clearly to you the distinct competitive advantages of Cabka, be it in our better ESG profile, be it the competition, in our innovation leadership, and in our customer-centric commercial approach. To reiterate, we see two distinct phases ahead of us. The first is to better utilize our current capacity both in Europe and in the U.S. and maximize our efficiency. This should result in higher margins and a much stronger balance sheet, especially as we keep CapEx at low level. We are also laying the ground for phase II in several key initiatives in eco and chemical recycling that should further drive our organic growth. All of this should enable us to move into the second phase where Cabka can take advantage of the numerous consolidation opportunities that exist in the market today. Thank you very much.
Operator, would you be so kind as to open the lines for our Q&A?
Thank you. To ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To whisper your question, please press star 11 again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. We ask participants asking a question on the conference to please kindly mute the audio on the webcast before asking the question to avoid any interference on the conference call. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Problem is, how do we? One moment, please. We will now take our first question from the line of Usama Tariq from ABN AMRO - ODDO BHF. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, team. Thank you so very much. I hope I'm audible.
I have just a few set of questions as a start. Starting with phase I, you have indicated quite extensively with regards to the chemical recycling. My first set of questions would be, how big of an operation can we visualize going forward? Do you require some investment for it? Is there any agreement in place? If more concrete, when do we see some commercial revenues coming from it? That would be chemical recycling. Second question, if I may, I can quickly squeeze in, would be regards to the contract manufacturing part. Initially, maybe I understood it wrong, but the strategy was that contract manufacturing was not really something that you strongly focused on. Has that changed now? Your focus on pharma, e-commerce, and even defense is what you mentioned. Could you provide some examples there, or do you already have some clients?
Just some color there would be extremely helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Usama. Let me answer that. Regarding chemical recycling, in phase I, this is intentionally a small and capital-light operation. We are not building a chemical recycling plant. Our role is to act as a high-quality feedstock partner for the pyrolysis players who need consistent input of materials. The infrastructure we already have, sorting, preparation, blending, is sufficient to start. At most, we expect maybe minor upgrades, but nothing that changes our CapEx involved. We are already in active discussion with several chemical recycling players, and the alignment is strong because their biggest bottleneck is reliable feedstock. We will not disclose agreements at this point of time. Regarding commercial revenues, those will start probably in phase II. Phase I is about securing partnership, validating the material streams.
As PPWR requirements for food-grade recycled plastic come into force, demand will accelerate. We really believe in it. We expect several million EUR of revenues contribution early in phase II, growing as the market scales up. I hope that answers the questions on chemical recycling. Regarding your questions on contract manufacturing, let me clarify this point because it often creates confusion. There is no vertical shift and no strategic repositioning. Contract manufacturing has always been existing in Cabka. The difference now is that we are commercializing it more actively and more intelligently. This is purely an operational excellence level. We use contract manufacturing to balance seasonality. Some capacity footprint that we have, it generates incremental revenue without adding any complexity or requiring any additional CapEx. No, this is not about building a new strategic segment. It is about better asset utilization, not strategic repositioning.
I hope I answered the question.
Yes, that will be sufficient. I will go back in the queue. Thank you.
Thank you, Usama.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Patrick Stéphane Roquas from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, and thank you very much for the presentation. I've got a couple of questions. The first one is related to your sales target for phase I. You need around 6%-7% organic sales growth. Are the improved momentum that you see for sales in the US, together with the initiatives that you just highlighted, the main drivers to get to that 7%? Does it also assume an overall improvement in market conditions? To what extent is the growth backloaded towards 2028? That's the first question. I'll wait for your answer for the second question.
To your question, of course, US is part of the organic growth as well, although we are, as you know, much more integrated in Europe. So a lot of the growth comes from Europe. We are just in the initial stage into growing in the US. We have seen a certain growth this year. We'll continue to see that growth. Do we take into account market conditions? Yes. If you look at the market growth rate, there are slightly about 4-5%, but this is cyclical. For some regions, it's more; for some regions, it's less. We are more focused on specific customers and specific channels rather than market conditions because, as I said in the presentation, when we see a downscale in automotive, we focus more on pharma and others. It's really different from a channel to a channel market conditions, I would say.
Okay, thank you. Still going back to the U.S., can you be a bit more specific here? Because I think in your aim to get your group EBITDA margin back to around 13% or 13%-15%, U.S. is important. What are your expectations for the U.S., to be more specific here?
Yeah. To be successful in the U.S., we need a broader portfolio. ESG is less of a selling point, not big enough commercially. What we need to do as Cabka is to strengthen our portfolio in the U.S. This is why we have started to invest in the U.S., more precisely in 2025, where we see some results in 2026. We also have a CapEx allocation for the North American market in the 2026 plans.
The main idea is to broaden the portfolio of products, that's from a product perspective, but that comes enhanced with strengthening the commercial team. Obviously, the commercial team is quite narrow at this moment in the US. Part of what you heard from Naiara is to rebuild that team and add more, let's say, sales commercial people to that team together with the products. That is the way we see increasing the sales in the US. There is CapEx allocation for the US in 2025 and 2026. From a product perspective, there is also allocation to commercial efforts in terms of people in 2026.
Okay, Alexander, thank you. I have a final question, or let's say to give others the room as well.
On the dividend, I mean, is it fair to say that in the coming years, shareholders should not expect a dividend also because you want to strengthen the balance sheet first, which I think is fair, is the right way? After 2028, you would be willing to participate in consolidation for which you would then need some room on the balance sheet. What's your view on the dividend?
Yeah, thank you, Patrick. We want to create value for our shareholders, and dividend distribution is an important factor in providing a return to the shareholders. At the moment, the balance sheet does not allow dividend distribution. When we will start again with dividends is when we make a bottom-line profit. Simple as that. Once we have that profit again, the balance sheet should also be in a better shape.
Those go hand in hand, but we have a clear focus on our shareholders, and we are committed to paying out a dividend when the company is able to.
Okay, thank you, Mark. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Patrick.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Luuk Van Beek from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. Two questions. One thing you mentioned that in Europe you wanted to see as one of the opportunities to optimize the mix and the pricing. Can you give an indication of which part of your revenues is coming from products with a lower added value that you would like to replace with higher added value?
Have you identified any areas where you feel that the pricing that you're offering is well below the actual value of the product to your customers, so where you can do smart pricing? My second question is on your leverage targets. You mentioned net debt to EBITDA as your target. Do you have a range in mind where you would feel comfortable to start paying dividends and also to do acquisitions?
Thank you, Luke. To answer your last question first, when do we feel comfortable to use debt to finance any acquisitions? It is when it is closer to two, net debt over EBITDA. Currently, we want to drive it closer to two. That is the ultimate aim. Of course, we have a possibility to use equity finance as well. Once we are significantly below three, debt financing becomes a possibility again.
In terms of price differentiation, we are currently working on a project to look at the pricing, mostly focused on our European markets. We see an opportunity to increase revenue by having a more diverse pricing policy. That is something we are focusing on at the moment. Going back to your first question, what kind of products do we see or product mix improvements do we need to have to come to higher margins? A lot has to do with utilization. Even in Europe, we see a lot of opportunities to increase margins by having a slightly higher utilization. We are currently at an inflection point. Some of our factories are profitable. Others have difficulty. We see that when we increase the utilization from here, the margins are very high, are 20%-30% of revenue. That will increase the margin as a total.
We are also looking at the product portfolio or product scope, and we are trying to analyze which products are making higher margins. We want to, yeah, have that reflected in our strategy going forward as well. To focus more on developing those products with higher margins instead of more commodity type of products. I hope that answers your questions, Luke.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Ellis Acklin from First Berlin. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you for the very detailed presentation and the opportunity to ask some questions this afternoon. I'll just start off with one for now. I've heard you mention in the past a number of times that you really feel like you are underutilizing your eco segment.
Early in the presentation, you talked about the launch of premium products to really unlock some upside there. I'm just curious, is that like a live initiative now, or is that something that is on the planning table for a couple of years down the road? Tying into that, I assume also that the CapEx budget that was discussed includes getting those premium products into the portfolio. Just some color on that whole initiative would be appreciated. Thank you.
Yeah. Let me just clarify. When I said premium positioning, I meant eco product premium positioning. This is another initiative that's part of our eco business that mainly has to do with us developing more and more products out of our recycling lines.
We do expect an increase in revenue by 2027 because we are constantly looking at more and more product that we can produce out of our recycling lines, which are not part of our, let's say, pallet or RTP business. We cannot even identify the opportunities ahead of us in that commercial spectrum. We are working as part of our ongoing development in the innovation center we sit today to develop those premium products out of recycled content that we have. There are major other aspects, not only RTP. When we talk about premium positioning, this is we talk about the eco products. Yes, we—
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Yes, we are expecting revenues already to come in 2027. We actually are expecting also to see growth already in 2026, but minor.
In terms of general development, of course, there's constantly development in our core business of offerings across the RTP business in pallets and in CapQ boxes for different customers, including automotive and pooling. That's just our core, which we have to invest in. Can you repeat your question about CapEx for the audience, please?
No, no, no. Thank you for that. I'm not sure if I mentioned Eco at the very start, but yes, thank you for clarifying. That's exactly what I was focused on here. Just to make sure you do have the launch of those products and the development of those products, that is part of the CapEx budget, which you've discussed this afternoon. Of course. CapEx allocation to new products is essential to what we do here in Cabka.
I think this is the core of Cabka has been for years, and we are just increasing it. This is why we also choose to do this CMD from our innovation center in Valencia, actually, that you can see behind us.
Okay, great. Thank you for that. I'll jump back in the line and give the floor to someone else.
Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Luuk Van Beek from Degroof Petercam. Please go ahead.
Yes. I have one follow-up question on the PPWR. You mentioned early last year that it was coming. Obviously, it needs to be detailed in the regulations. Do you see that customers are now really taking concrete steps to prepare for it by doing, for example, pilots with you to see how they can respond to this upcoming regulation and the impact on the companies?
Great question. I think it's natural that it takes time. We are very active in everything that has to do with this legislation. Also, as a company, we try to lobby as much as we can. There are certain customers, specifically in Europe, that are a little bit ahead of the curve, and they're more attentive to the legislation coming. I think not everyone is as much as we would like to. I think the opportunities are ahead of us when customers will understand it's not nice to have in three years, but it's a must to have in a year or two. The interest is getting, the attention that they're getting is higher and higher year by year, but it's far from being where it needs to be to complete with the PPWR legislation by 2030.
I mean, the gap is too high from where we are today to where we need to be. And some customers understand it earlier than others. I think I said the last time, PPWR is not a strategic—it's not a strategy for us. It's a very important tailwind, but we don't build our strategy on commercial legislation.
Thank you. I would like to turn the call over to the speakers for webcast questions now.
Thank you very much. We have a couple of questions on the webcast. I'll start with a question from Julia Strick at Teslin Capital Management, who asks, "How do you defend against pricing power of larger similar players and competitors such as Schoeller Allibert, which currently has a larger geographical footprint and may benefit from economies of scale? "
Pricing is always a fight.
It's a tough fight, and I think we are doing it very good. I think our gross margin says that, and we are defending our business, and it's a very tough market, as you also heard from Naiara. Specifically to Schoeller Allibert, I would say that they are in the middle of the merge. I would not say that they are our toughest competition at this moment of time. However, there are enough players out there which are fighting with price. I think we have enough innovation power and backward integration to protect our margins. As you can see in the results, it's a day-to-day business. This is what we do. I mean, competition will always be.
Okay, thank you.
We have a question from Martin Volderswinkle at Oakland, who's asking, "What is the current capacity utilization in the US, and what is the outlook for filling this factory with your own products?"
As I said before, US capacity is built from two main initiatives how we build it up. One is from our own business, which requires more product portfolio that we are investing in. A second is not a strategy, but a contract manufacturing initiative that we have. We have already in 2025 signed two contracts for contract manufacturing in the US, and our utilization went by 10 percentage points up. It's not where we would like to be, but it is 10% better than we had been a year before. We are looking at 2026 exactly with those initiatives in hand, bringing more products and signing more contract manufacturing contracts.
Okay.
I have a question from Felix Schulter at First Berlin, who is asking, "Are there any opportunities to take out further costs?"
Yeah. I can take that one, Alex. Yeah. In 2025, we have seen significant cost reductions. About EUR 4 million was reduced in personnel and operating expenses. That will provide a lower cost base for the future. For 2026 and 2027, the priority is not on reducing costs further, but on cost control. We want to manage the cost base going upwards in volume, and we want to prevent our costs from increasing at the same rate. We are very focused to keep the costs under control and let them go up by significantly less than our volumes. That will lead to higher margins. At the moment, we are not viewing significant cost reductions.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Maybe one last question from the webcast before we go back to online. There is a question here. You mentioned an ambition to make acquisitions in the future. Are there any prospects of Cabka being acquired or merged with a substantial partner?
We are not actively looking to merge with anyone. Partnership is something we do not exclude. If we look in our phase II M&A focus, we have to stay disciplined. The priority is to strengthen our core RTP business, acquisition that can add scale, expand our product offering, deepen our position in Europe and North America. Selectively, we may look at some opportunities. Partnership is something we, of course, do not exclude. Stays on the radar.
Okay. I have one question here from Stefan Nanninger. Can you please shed light on how the audit intake and sales are developing since the summer?
In terms of sales, I think we are continuing to head at the guideline we have provided at the middle of the year. Currently looking at the same outline of keeping the top line at the level of last year a bit higher and keeping the EBITDA margins, exactly as we said before. We stay much more disciplined in terms of our cash outlook and our capital. I think this is just according to plan, I would say. This is the most important, we need to stay according to plan.
Thank you very much. We'll hand back to the operator now for any remaining questions on the phone lines.
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one and one. The next question comes from the line of Patrick Stéphane Roquas from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, operator.
One question was just answered. Thanks for that. I would be interested, what has been the growth of the global RTP market in 2025? Albeit it's not over yet a year, but what are the expectations for market growth in 2026? You have provided us the slide, which you have seen before, size of the global RTP market, but that's a figure out of 2022. Are there any updated figures for the size of the global RTP market? Thank you.
Yeah. It's a very cyclical market. I think in 2025, it depends which channel you're looking at. We can say that the market, I think, was mainly flat. Most of our competitors have been under pressure. At some points, the market grew up to 4%-5%. At some points, the market went down 10%.
I think bringing deals is often a smart balance of how you use available cash resources and where you invest. When you see some channels going down, you invest in other channels. That's what we try to do. As we look at 2026, we do see certain recovery in some channels. If we need to give a guideline as to what the market is looking at, it's probably 4%-5% on average. Although we're seeing growth that has been much higher and much lower. Again, it's very difficult to predict, I would say, at this moment in time. If you can repeat the question from 2022 again, what was the question?
Yeah, Alexander, there's a slide where you kind of show the size of the global RTP market, $86 billion. But that's a 2022 figure.
It is.
We do not have a better figure to show at this moment of time because we just did not know. I have to say that, for example, in the US, we see certain customers walking away and coming back to wood, which is very surprising. Sometimes it is the other way around. I do not have a better number to share at this moment of time.
No speed ramp. That is correct. Thank you.
Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference back to management for closing remarks.
I would like to thank you all for joining. I hope you have received the information as detailed as we could have shared them on the online platform. Obviously, we welcome any questions. We will do this again and again as soon as we have more updates for you. Again, thank you very much for joining.
I would like to also thank the team for helping me in preparing this commercial market update to Mark, Naiara, Javier, and Katrine, who joined me together in this presentation. Thank you all. I wish you all a great week.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.