Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our full- year 2025 results call. Before we begin discussing the results, I would like to start by saying that 2025 has been a year of transformation for us at Cabka. In a volatile market, we deliberately focused on stabilizing the business. Revenues ended the year flat in line with our guidance. More importantly, we executed our SHIFT program with discipline, improving margin, strengthening cash generation, and significantly reducing debt. We have reset the foundation. From our improved financial position, we expect to make further advances in 2026, which is what we already outlined in our capital market update in November last year. To reiterate, we have cleared two-phase roadmap to 2030. The coming 12 months will see us continue phase one of that plan, namely to target operational excellence and organic growth.
For 2026, we expect improved revenues and higher EBITDA margins as we continue building a stronger Cabka. I'll move now on to discuss the operational highlights of 2025 before handing over to Mark, who will go into more detail in our financial performance over the full year of 2025, followed by a Q&A session. I'll keep this slide brief, as I think most of you on the call are well aware of who we are and our strategy. Cabka is a vertically integrated circular packaging company. We control the value chain from waste sourcing and recycling through to design, manufacturing, and finished product. That integration is not cosmetic, it is actually structural. It gives us cost control, material security, technical flexibility, and ESG credibility across the full value chain.
In a market where sustainability, supply security, and performance matter more than ever, this model is a clear competitive advantage. As mentioned earlier, 2025 marked a decisive turnpoint for Cabka, restoring financial strength and improving our earnings. Despite continuing market challenges, we stabilized revenues at EUR 180 million, broadly flat year-over-year. Mark will go into details later on. Most importantly, profitability improved significantly. Gross margins increased to 51.3% and operating margin reached 11.7%. Achieving this level of margin expansion on a flat revenue demonstrates the structural nature of improvements we have made. I would like to emphasize that these gains are not temporary. They reflect pricing discipline, portfolio optimization, cost control, and stronger production planning. Over 2025, our SHIFT program delivered where it mattered most, in cash generation.
Combined with disciplined CapEx, this allowed us to reduce net debt to EUR 62.6 million and lower leverage to 2.7. The result is strengthened balance sheet, improved financial flexibility, and significantly reduced risk profile. We move now into 2026 from a position of strength. I would now like to give you some highlights from our business segments, which are evidence of our resilience and targeted repositioning. In Europe, both our portfolio and customer solutions segments saw continuing headwinds, particularly in the first half of the year, as customers delayed investment decision amid macroeconomic uncertainty and potential tariff impacts. There was also some impact from phasing effects applied, but we expect this to reverse in 2026. Contract manufacturing emerged as the clear success story. Europe and the U.S. both saw strong growth.
In Europe, the segment rebounded substantially, driven by renewed customer engagement and improved end market conditions. Our EquoBuild business also continued its steady expansion, benefiting from sustained demand for sustainable construction infrastructure products made from post-consumer plastic waste. Taken together, our segments performance reflects a more balanced and diversified revenue base from which we continue our growth trajectory in 2026 and beyond. In the United States, we implemented an aggressive pricing strategy. While this waited on pricing, it supported volume growth and strengthened our competitive position, particularly in the second half of the year. As I mentioned on the last slide, the increased focus on contract manufacturing in the USA was one of the clear success stories of 2025, and allowed us to significantly increase capacity utilization at our St. Louis facility, contributing to improved operational leverage and supporting the overall U.S. recovery.
Before I hand over to Mark, I would like to just touch on product development. This is still one of our core advantages. We will continue to invest in this in 2026, despite overall lower CapEx. The key here is discipline in CapEx allocation. Despite our low CapEx number in 2025, we actually increased the number of new products. You might ask how we did this. The simple answer is we didn't participate in any speculative development with uncertain payoffs. For 2026, we will continue to focus on products and projects where we see high return certainty. I'd like to hand over to Mark, who will run you into more detail through our financial performance.
Thank you, Alex. I'm pleased to be able to say to you that Cabka has exited 2025 in a stronger position than it ended the year. Over the course of 2025, we have managed to improve our margin quality, strengthen our operational discipline and materially reduced our leverage. Most importantly, we have shown that profitability can expand even in a stable revenue environment. This tells me that the underlying platform is robust and from a leadership perspective, this is the right starting point. In 2026, we no longer need to focus solely on resilience. We can now prepare for scalable, profitable growth. Let's take a look at the figures for 2025 and you will see the numbers show improvement. I believe they understate the transformation that the organization has gone through over the last year. The company has become more resilient, cost conscious and ambitious.
Sales for the year were stable, coming in at EUR 180 million. Our growing product portfolio helped diversify sales over different segments, which helped keep revenue stable while we were able to slightly improve our gross margins. Our net debt reduced by EUR 9.2 million. This is a significant improvement and strengthens our capital ratios. I would like to highlight that the percentage of recycled material used for production was 86%. This was a 2% drop compared to last year, but remains industry leading. This small reduction was due to two large contracts that require the use of food- grade virgin plastics. Cabka vertically integrated supply chain for recycled plastics feedstocks remain a strategic competitive advantage, especially when virgin plastic prices increase. In addition to being a key metric for our sustainability goals.
The full year EBITDA margin came in at 11.7% and reflects strong cost control, aided by slightly lower material costs. On the working capital slide, and I will come back to this in a later slide, but I'm happy to be able to show an overall improvement. Net income from operations declined to a EUR 6 million loss, which was slightly worse. I would like to point out that this is due to taxation and a higher financial expenses line, and not because of operational performance, which was in fact better. Let me briefly walk you through our regional performance and revenue mix for 2025. As Alex has already mentioned, strength in contract manufacturing has been the standout story of 2025 and compensated for some weakness in other areas. The final quarter of last year showed high utilization supporting our margin performance.
I would also like to flag the improved product mix at Cabka GmbH & Co. KG in Weira, which meant higher utilization of our low pressure lines, structurally more profitable, thereby boosting overall factory utilization and profitability levels. At the same time, I'm pleased to report that the strength in contract manufacturing resulted in a meaningful increase in our U.S. capacity utilization. Turning to our geographic footprint, our revenue base remains well-diversified, with Europe representing the largest share of group revenue, complemented by a solid contribution from North America. Within Europe, DACH and West and Nordics continue to be our strongest regions, providing a stable and recurring revenue base. Southern Europe and CEE add further diversification, while North America generated EUR 23.4 million in revenue, demonstrating the strategic importance of our U.S. platform.
This balanced regional exposure supports resilience across cycles, reduces concentration risk, and allows us to flex capacity across our production network where demand is strongest. Over 2025, our operational gross margin improved to 51.3%, driven by a favorable product mix and some material cost reductions. At the same time, our operating margin improved to 11.7%, driven by continued cost control of personnel and operating expenses. We want to prevent cost creep for higher volumes and have continuous focus on reducing waste and expenses where possible. Cash from operations improved by EUR 3.8 million to EUR 20.3 million, driven by a EUR 2 million better net result for the year and a EUR 2 million reduction in inventory. Gross operating profit was broadly flat year-over-year.
We were able to maintain profitability and even marginally improve the gross margin pull through from revenues. Operational EBITDA improved by 3% to EUR 21.1 million at 11.7% of revenues. Depreciation costs went down to EUR 0.8 million by EUR 5.8 million. Lower needed capital expenditures will have a beneficial impact in the coming years, since what we spend in CapEx is less than the replacement rate. The total net loss is lower in 2025, EUR 7.4 million versus 2024, EUR 9.4 million, showing a EUR 2 million improvement. The total net loss for operations was somewhat higher due to a higher tax payment and higher financial results expenses. If you exclude those effects, the net income would actually be EUR 0.6 million higher. Turning to our net debt development, which saw a significant improvement.
In fact, we were able to reduce our net debt by slightly more than EUR 9 million year-on-year, in line with our stated aim of strengthening our balance sheet and improving our debt ratios. We will continue to focus on this metric as our aim is to show a gradual, sustained improvement in our debt position and debt over EBITDA ratios. This will allow us to maintain balance sheet flexibility and in the longer term, will make it possible to participate in expansion opportunities as and where they arise. As I already mentioned, our net working capital at year-end was relatively stable at 15.7% of revenues. Within this, we reduced inventories as part of the SHIFT program.
While trade receivables remained broadly stable, there was some small decrease in trade payables related to machinery installations totaling EUR 4 million, and we exclude these, which are a one-off net working capital. If we would exclude these one-offs, net working capital would have shown a year-on-year improvement. We see further potential to improve working capital in 2026, especially related to trade payables as payment terms are easing as a consequence of our improved balance sheet. Reducing working capital and reducing the cash conversion cycle remains a key priority, and will help reduce debt and improve EBITDA. We have kept our capital investments limited in 2025. Looking back, we are satisfied that we were able to invest where it will have the biggest impact for future growth.
The replacement and maintenance investments are relatively small compared to previous years. However, do note that the other operating expenses also include EUR 5 million in repair and maintenance expenses, which are expensed directly. Overall, we were able to save on CapEx while keeping our operational capacity intact. Now I will hand back to Alex, who will tell you more about our guidance for 2026.
Thank you, Mark. Looking ahead to 2026, we do not assume a broad market recovery. Competitive intensity remains high and pricing discipline across the industry will continue to matter. However, our outlook is based on what we can control. We have strengthened our portfolio, increased product launches with higher return certainty, improved operational efficiency, and reinforced our balance sheet. With disciplined execution and continued focus on innovation, we expect to deliver revenue growth and further EBITDA margin expansion in 2026. Our objective is clear: to outperform the market through operational excellence and focused capital allocation. In closing, let me return to our long-term strategy. 2025 was a year of stabilization and structural improvement, which threatens margins, cash generation, and balance sheet. Cabka is now operating from a more solid foundation. Looking ahead, our path to 2030 is clear and disciplined.
Phase one is about maximizing the potential of what we already have. We will further improve utilization in Europe and the U.S., optimize product mix, and drive operational excellence. This supports continued margin expansion, stronger cash flow, and even more robust balance sheet, all while maintaining disciplined CapEx. At the same time, we are building the engines of phase two. Our initiatives in eco incremental recycling position us for accelerated organic growth. Stronger financial position and improved operating performance will be well placed to capitalize on consolidation opportunities as they arise. Our ambition is straightforward, to build Cabka into a stronger, more profitable, and more strategic player in our industry. Thank you for your attention. Operator, please open the line for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question on the phone, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Once again, please press star one one and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type them in the question box and click submit. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Thank you. Once again, please press star one one to ask a question. We are now going to proceed with our first question. The question comes from the line of Luuk van Beek from Degroof Petercam. Please ask your question.
First of all, a question about the costs, which you brought down quite nicely over the last year. You indicated you want to avoid cost creep going forward. Does that mean that we can use, say, the run rate of costs that we saw in H2 going forward? Is there any other effect that we should take into account?
Yeah, thank you, Luuk. What I can say is that we will always see some inflation during the year, but we want to prevent any general cost creep, and we want to keep our costs steady compared to the production volume. We are not anticipating any major cost-cutting measures will be required this year. We want to maintain the cost over volume relation.
I have a question about your gross margin, which also went up, well, in 2025. Obviously the world is changing at the moment. You mentioned the virgin plastic prices coming up. I assume that has a positive impact on your competitiveness. Also the energy prices are going up. To what extent are you covered against that in your contracts?
Thank you, Luuk. Indeed, we can expect some energy cost increases. I think we are well covered there. We have hedges in place, but I do not want to provide specifics due to competitive implications of that.
Then you mentioned that there was an impact of phasing in the pooling activities. Can you be a bit more specific, and should we see the reverse effect in 2026?
Alex, is this a question you can take?
Can you repeat the end of the question, please? Sure. Luuk-
Sorry.
Can you repeat the question, last part of the question, please?
Yes. The question was that in pooling in Europe, you saw a negative impact of phasing last year. Can you explain what you saw exactly and if we should expect a reversal, so a positive effect in 2026?
Yes. First of all, we did see a slowdown last year. Pooling are big companies that are very sensitive into investments because most of our pooling projects are co-investments and very, very much dependent on the poolers themselves and their CapEx allocations. In addition, most of the business we have with poolers, if it's a long-term deals, they take quite a long time. With that said, we do see a different trend already in 2026 with the poolers because part of the projects that were in 2025 will be commercialized in 2026. Yeah, we are expecting a better performance from the pooling industry in 2026. Absolutely.
Okay. I'll leave it at this for now. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question's come from the line of Ellis Acklin from First Berlin. Please ask your question.
Yes. Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for the detailed presentation and the chance to ask a couple of questions. I've got two to start off with here. First, regarding the contract manufacturing, which rebounded quite strongly in 2025. Just wondering how we should think about the sustainability of this growth, its margin profile relative to your other segments, RTP and eco products, and whether you still see this as a tactical stopgap for 2026? That would be my first question. Secondly, nice job on getting the leverage improved. Clearly your net working capital and CapEx discipline is helping. I just wanna understand clearly, does this mean that you're now comfortable in shifting from stabilization more towards offensive growth initiatives this year?
Thank you. Yeah. Good question. First of all, regarding contract manufacturing rebound in 2025, mainly is the demand from some key partners has normalized after a weak period. This is why grow up again. For us, the activity plays an important role in supporting capacity utilization in our plans. We do see it sustainable, very much sustainable. At the same time, we remain very disciplined. We focus on partnerships that make sense economically and that fit our operational capabilities. While contract manufacturing can fluctuate with customer demand, we see it's stable supporting activity rather than the core driver of our long-term growth. To your question, it is sustainable, and it will naturally move with customer demand cycle. The second question regarding the growth, the stabilization. Yes, indeed.
As I've mentioned before, 2025 was in order to stabilize the company and prepare it for growth. That's what we are aiming to do in 2026 and forward. We would like to grow the company on the top line and on the bottom line, now that the company has the right foundation and there is discipline and governance in place. It allows us to move faster into growth.
Okay, thank you for that. I'll jump back in the line for right now and see if I have anything later on.
Sure. Thanks.
As a reminder, to ask a question on the phone, please press star one one and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type them in the question box and click submit. Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question come from the line of Usama Tariq from ABN AMRO - ODDO BHF. Would you please ask your question?
Hi. Good morning, team. I hope I'm audible. Thank you for the opportunity. I have just one set of questions. Two particular. For 2026, can you provide sort of a color on how you see portfolio customized solutions, eco and contract manufacturing going forward? I mean, we saw strong performance from eco and contract manufacturing. Do you expect that to continue in 2026? That would be my first question. My second question would be on CapEx. We've seen a very significant decline in CapEx. For 2026, do you expect it to be in line with the gross value of EUR 11 million? Or would you do more cuts there for 2026? Those would be my two questions. Thank you.
Thanks, Osama. Regarding the 2026 outline according to business sales. We still see that the market is recovering, and we do not see a big jump into a lot of opportunities because it's very competitive market, especially on price. We see already that the portfolio is performing according to our expectations. Actually, contract manufacturing is in line with our H2 growth and very stable, as well as eco. At least at the first two months, we are very confident about what we want to achieve. We don't see any downscaling from the performance of H2, that gives us a positive positivity that we can continue growing in 2026. That has to do with aligned with all our commercial opportunities. Regarding the CapEx question.
We've been very strict and very disciplined regarding CapEx in 2025. Yet we didn't sacrifice any product development. I would say we've probably done our utmost into lowering the CapEx to its minimum. I wouldn't like to see more, more, more sacrifice in CapEx because product development is extremely important for us, and thus, we would like to keep the same, the same, the same level of CapEx in 2026, because that level of CapEx allows us to, allows us to perform, allows us to produce new products, allows us to develop new products. I hope that answers your question, Osama.
Yes. No, no. Very, very grateful for the answers. Maybe if I can just quickly squeeze in one last question from my part, something on regulatory side. In a lot of segments we are seeing, the European Union appears to be opening up to delaying some of the renewable related regulations. My question is with regards to the PPWR, what do you see in the market? Do you see it getting implemented? Do you see queries? Do you see any risk that the implementation may get delayed for one or two more years? Could you provide some color there, if possible? Thank you.
Yeah. Well, I don't see it delaying. I see customers maybe delaying their preparation for PPWR. Currently we see it in line with the timeline of the EU. We are prepared, and that's more important. As I said, I think many times, for us it's PPWR, it's not a strategy, it's a tailwind. We try and help our customers as a partner to prepare for this legislation. Part of those customers and partners are very much in line. Part of them are a bit late, I would say. We don't see currently any indication of that delaying or that legislation is to be delayed. Might be, by the way, currently, I haven't seen.
All right. Thank you. That would be all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The question come from the line of Luuk van Beek from Degroof Petercam. Please ask your question.
Yes. I have two further questions. One is on the spare capacity, especially in the U.S., obviously partly filled up with an increase in contract manufacturing. Do you have any spare capacity left?
I think we need to split that question into two. We do have capacity in, for example, low pressure. We have much less capacity in high pressure that if we talk about Europe and the U.S., we do have still capacity to perform, and to get more contract manufacturing in if the requests come in. I would say everything that has to do with contract manufacturing, it's always a balance between what we have to produce and what we need to produce. We always evaluate any opportunity. We never say no from the starting point. We know how to balance the demand and produce to stock if needed or not.
My second question is on the impact of factoring. Can you give a number for what it was at the end of the year?
You mean financial factoring?
Yes.
Mark?
Yeah. Thank you for the question, Luuk. We have set up a factoring facility for a couple of entities. Typically the balance is somewhere between EUR 6 million-EUR 8 million.
Thank you. Those were my questions for now.
We have no further questions at this time on the phone. I'll hand back to you for the return questions. Thank you.
Good. All right. I think we can go on to the questions that I asked on the chat. Is that right? I think the first question was from [Jost]. The question is, sales is hardly increasing despite the efforts to increase the sales force. How can you change this and make a significant increase sales specifically in the U.S.? Thank you. [Jost], to that question, that's a very fair observation. The increase in the sales organization in 2025 was preliminary about building the commercial engine after a period where the company was very internally focused on restructuring and stabilization. The impact usually of strengthening the sales team typically comes with lag, particularly in our industry, where customers' qualification cycles are quite long. What we are already seeing is significantly stronger pipeline.
The U.S. remains a key strategic growth region for Cabka, with local production site in St. Louis, improved commercial coverage, and new products that are coming this year and also years to come. We believe we are well-positioned to convert this pipeline into revenue growth over the coming periods, but it is a process. I hope that answers the question. The next question we have is from Peter: Can you explain the sale and leaseback? What assets does it concern? What were the transaction parameters and what was the effective transaction date?
Yeah. Thank you, Alex. I can take this one. The sale and leaseback arrangement, yeah, it is a structured financing tool that optimizes our capital structure while maintaining operational use of the assets. The ongoing lease obligations are reflected in our IFRS 16 liabilities. What are the transaction parameters? They are competitive and in terms of timing, I can say that whenever we do a capital investment, we assess what is the best way to finance this asset, and then we consider both financing from debt but also financing from a lease and/or sale and leaseback arrangement. What assets can be considered? It's usually machines, assets that have a liquid market value.
Those can be considered for a sale and leaseback setup.
All right. I think we have the next question coming up from Robert. How significant will tailwinds be for Cabka for the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which are the PPWR, and when do you expect large enterprises to redesign packaging direct transport to anticipate complying with PPWR? I think I've answered that a little bit previously to some of, but the PPWR is very supportive for companies like Cabka, as that are already operating with recycled materials and circular transport packaging solutions. Our products are designed around the reuse durability, recycled content, and which actually aligns well with the direction of the regulation. That said, the transition in large supply chains take time. As I said before, large enterprises typically redesign logistical systems gradually rather than overnight.
We actually expect the regulatory framework to increasingly influence decision over the coming years, particularly as companies prepare their packaging logistics networks to comply with those regulations. So far, for us it's less a short-term spike and more a structural tailwind supporting demand for circular transport packaging in the future. That's the best answer I can give now for such a question.
Yeah. Thank you, Alex. Maybe I can take the next one, from Martin Cook. Is there a possibility that Cabka will extend the duration and lower the strike prices of the two outstanding warrants? DSCW2 and DSCW3. This way, the original investors might still have a chance to recoup some of their losses. At the moment, we do not have plans to propose changes to the terms of these warrants. As management, it's also not within our mandate to do this. It would require a very complex legal process and a separate EGM. Our focus right now is on improving the business. Thank you for the question, Martin.
I don't see any more questions, do we? Yeah. Patrick, thank you. Will interest go down significantly now Cabka is in a better shape and with lower net debt? The answer is yes. I'll let Mark answer that question.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Patrick. Indeed, we have an arrangement where the leverage has an influence on the interest that we pay, and we see that coming down as a consequence of the reduction in leverage. The answer is yes.
I think we don't have any more questions in the chat.
We have one more question on the phone lines.
Yeah. Let's take it.
It's Dan Darley. Thank you.
Yeah, let's take that one. We wrap up.
The questions come from the line of Ellis Acklin from First Berlin. Please ask your question.
Hey, guys. Thanks for letting me squeeze one last question in here. I was wondering if maybe you could give us an update on what you're seeing with the pricing of plastics in the market the past few months, if there's been any change at all. I know that your ability to fully leverage your vertical integration kinda hinges on that. Any sort of commentary on that would be appreciated. Thank you.
Ellis, you're asking about the prices of raw material?
Yeah.
Let me repeat it right there. Great question, especially at the times we live in today. Well, first of all, they were quite flat at the beginning of the year. We're slightly increasing. It has to wait a bit into any prognoses on raw material pricing with what's happening now in the Middle East, as we don't know how that will affect energy prices or material prices, oil prices. Let's be very cautious about any answer I can give you on that one. The only thing I can tell you, we are very much prepared for any situation, and the fact that we are backward integrated helps us a lot, even if those materials prices skyrocket.
Okay. Fair, fair answer. Thank you very much for that.
Thank you, Ellis. I see we don't have any more questions. With that said, I would like to thank you all for participating and asking the questions. I would like also to thank my team and Mark for preparing this. Wish everyone a safer world. Thank you very much, and have a great day.