Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for holding, and welcome to the Sligro Food Group event call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode, and later we will conduct a question and answer session. I would like to hand over the conference to Mr. Rob van der Sluijs. Go ahead, please, sir.
Thank you. Welcome everybody to this call on our 2020 annual figures. An extraordinary year behind us in many aspects. I will take you through the presentation, which is available on our corporate website. I will give an introduction of about 25, 30 minutes based on this presentation, and afterwards, there's an opportunity to ask questions, of course. Let me start by going into the details on sales. I'm looking at the presentation, slide number three. Of course, our sales figures were already published at the beginning of this month, where we reported a decline in sales of almost 19%, largely organic, and of course, mainly the result of the measures in place in fighting off the COVID pandemic in the Netherlands and Belgium. We've seen significant differences between customer segments in the development.
Company catering, event business, and the hospitality sector in general were hit significantly, whereas sectors like healthcare and the shops in the petrol stations were hit less hard. That provided quite a big mix impact in our numbers as well. Overall, of course, a significant decline. If we look at the acquired turnover of De Kweker, so there were still six periods at the beginning of the year, which were non-organic. If we look at the increase of tobacco sales in the petrol segment, which is of course a service product for us, but if we exclude those two, then we see that over a half billion EUR of revenue was lost in this year. There is a technical effect, change in the reporting calendar from 2019 to 2020.
We switched from a 52-week calendar to a normal calendar year, which means that in 2020 we have a bit of a prolonged book year, and in combination with the additional day in the February in 2020, we have five additional days of sales, of which the effect was approximately EUR 20 million this year. What is an important mix effect is the shift between delivery service and cash and carry. I see in the results presentation that it is reported backwards, 43% is cash and carry, 57% is delivery service. That's still a big shift if we compare it to last year. We see that the main negative effects of the lockdown periods are in the delivery environment and cash and carry has been doing quite reasonable.
If we go to the next sheet number four, we can see that graphically, the difference in the development of cash and carry and delivery, where we see that cash and carry throughout the whole of the year has been outperforming the year before. 2020 was better than 2019. I think also important to notice that also in the first months of the year, that was already the case. That has continued after the lockdown periods were introduced. Overall, a very good performance of cash and carry, partly, of course, also due to COVID, but for sure also because of the changes we are making in our cash and carry next gen program. In delivery, we see the immense and immediate drop in sales in the first lockdown period, from which we never completely recovered.
We had a good third quarter, as you can see here graphically. Once September came, we saw again a drop in sales and with the lockdown effect as of December, that this continued into the new year as well. On the next sheet, we see similar patterns for Belgium. There we have the combination of cash and carry and delivery, also their underlying cash and carry has been doing relatively well, the loss of sales is mainly in the delivery part of the business. If we go to sheet number six on the gross margin, these mix effects, of course, in sales have their immediate impact also on gross margin %. Increased sales of tobacco with very low margin and lower services to our partner HEINEKEN, for instance, which is usually 100% gross margin.
That is both developments lower the percentage, and it had an impact of 1.3 percentage point on the overall gross margin development. The second effect, also as a result of COVID, is of course the increased shrinkage. We had to ramp down, ramp up, ramp down, ramp up again in the inventory levels, which means that, of course, with perishables, that gives rise to additional shrinkage. That was an effect of EUR 3 million. For those who have the half-year figures in mind, at the half-year mark, this was also EUR 3 million. I think that reflects the fact that during the year, we got a better grip on the development and the ramp-down process. Indeed, in the second half of the year, we hardly had any increased shrinkage as a result of COVID.
Still, overall for the year, it had a 0.4 percentage point impact on the gross margin. As the overall decline is 0.4 and these two effects combined is 1.7, there are clearly compensating effects. For sure, that is the change in the customer mix, but also the ratio cash and carry versus delivery in favor of cash and carry that really helps to boost also the gross margin percentage. Underlying but less visible, of course, every year we have procurement improvements, procurement condition improvements. It was also the case this year, relatively, we improved. Of course, as volumes were down, the absolute amounts in EUR were also down on that aspect. If we go to other operating income on sheet number seven, we see that 2020 is basically a more normalized year and normalized level of other operating income.
The specials were mainly in 2019 when we still had the service fees from the sale of EMTÉ and we had the sale of our production company, Maison Niels de Veye , and EUR 3 million benefits from that. Now these are excluded, then this level of other operating income is more or less normalized. If we go to sheet number eight, there, of course, we have the effect of the compensating measures when the revenues drop, and that's of course, the savings on costs. In combination of government support, but also cost saving measures, we were able to lower cost levels by more than EUR 17 million. We have reduced our flexible workforce to almost zero.
All the vacancies that arose in our company, to very limited degree, we hired new staff on that. The total compensation in the Netherlands and Belgium combined for EUR 26 million in government subsidies to cope with the loss in revenue. In fact, the other way is a restructuring provision that we took in Belgium, where we decided to shut down our operations of Océan Marée, a fish production company, and we decided to move those volumes to our Dutch fish production company, SmitVis, as per the beginning of 2021. That means a structural cost saving also in Belgium and for the group, and a boost in volumes with SmitVis in the Netherlands. That will have a longer lasting effect in cost efficiency.
If we look to the logistics, of course, less efficient transportation as a result of the drop in volumes in the delivery area means a relative increase in transportation cost. In absolute terms, we were able to take out a significant portion of that. Of course, we know that once business restarts, we will fully rely once again on the transportation partners to service us. In order to compensate them for their fixed cost base, we agreed on a limited but still nice support effort from our side, and we had a contribution of approximately EUR 2 million on the fixed cost basis of our transportation partners. That will help to ensure availability and access to sufficient transportation and truck drivers once the business restarts again. A nice example of our partnership with these important partners.
What is not mentioned in this presentation, but worth mentioning is that, of course, we decided a few years ago that we wanted to set up our own small transportation business, not be fully reliant on everything outsourced. With the acquisition of De Kweker, we acquired a small transportation company called VRC Transport, with 45 truck drivers, 45 trucks. Given the drops in volumes, given the significant CapEx required to revitalize the fleet, we decided to bring this activity to two of our transportation partners and not pursue, for the time being, our own transportation volume. 45 employees and the business of 45 trucks was moved to our transportation companies who are better suited to cope with the negative effects of COVID. Also that means, at least for the short term, a reduction in cost and more flexibility once business restarts.
On the sales cost, I think the saving mostly on the marketing spending and effect the other way is, of course, increased costs for provisions for bad debts and loans. The effect today and our view is that our customers have really done a good job in meeting the agreements that we made. We gave them the opportunity to postpone payments and to spread payments of their invoices because they were hit hard also by COVID, and they did not let us down. They fully paid those invoices in the months after the first lockdown period. And I think overall, we see a very healthy picture in the outstanding debtors position today.
Given the increased risk, of course, also going into 2021, we decided to hold on to the increased provision for bad debt, because we still believe there might be some damage in 2021 as a result of this. So far, actually really content with the way that this has been going in 2020, and a lot of goodwill created between us and our customers in that respect. If we then go to the next sheet, depreciation, amortization. I think one or two things to highlight. Of course, we see that the right of use assets for leases has increased by EUR 3 million. That is the result of the sale and lease back transactions that we did of the big delivery centers that we built for the HEINEKEN integration. Of course, that was a cash-in this year in terms of net CapEx.
On the other end, of course, we have an obligation to lease those locations for the next 10 - 15 years. That is reflected also in the debt position as a result of leases on the balance sheet and also here in the right of use depreciation. The other item, but that was already explained at the half year figures, is of course the impairment in Belgium. By the end of this year, things were looking better, of course, for Belgium. Also Belgium will recover from COVID and return to positive results. As a result, no additional impairment efforts in Belgium in the second half of the year. If we then move to the next sheet, the financial income and expense, nothing particular to mention. Of course, also there an impact of the leases.
A bit of increased costs for the funding as a result of higher leverage ratios during the year. Of course, the procedures that we entered into with our banks and financing partners on increasing the leverage ratios for waiver periods, and those increased costs were compensated by higher results of associates. Of course, in the taxes area, in a loss-giving situation, we have a tax claim which we can compensate in the next couple of years when we return to profitability. As our Dutch government decided to reverse the decision to lower the corporate income tax rate in the coming years, we had to recalculate the deferred tax asset and deferred tax liabilities, which led to a one-off correction of EUR 3 million. That was presented as an increased profit a few years ago. Within two, three years' time, the decision reversed.
Also the effect reversed here in the taxes. If we then go to the cash flow statement, which is of course the more important statement in a year like 2020. Our focus very soon in the year was moved from managing the results to managing the cash flows. I think the cash flow statement as presented here shows that we have been successful in doing that. Despite decreasing operating results, we were able to manage our working capital in line with the developments in the market, freeing up capital in that respect. Partly, that was the result of the postponement of some tax payments, but that amounted to only, I would say, EUR 13 million, relatively small amount. Of course, in terms of CapEx, we really brought down the levels of CapEx.
Of course, helped by the sale and lease back transactions and the sale of decommissioned assets. A net CapEx of only EUR 8 million is an all-time low, I think, for Sligro in the last couple of years, especially after the investment peaks that we had seen in the last years before. This is the start of a period where we will go back to more normalized CapEx levels also going forward. For 2021, we expect our CapEx level to be below EUR 50 million. For the midterm, think that CapEx levels will be around 2%-2.5% of sales again, because the major investment areas, the renewal of the delivery infrastructure and the big CapEx program for our ERP package and the new websites, while they are ended or at least going down.
That means that we will get into a more normalized CapEx situation going forward. That means that our free cash flow was EUR 67 million, a big increase compared to last year. As there was the decision not to pay out dividends for 2019 and not grant any dividends for 2020, we could fully utilize the EUR 67 million to reduce debt, which is, of course, in situations like these, important to get ourselves in a more healthy situation when our markets are shrinking in such ways as they're doing now. On slide number 12, we have split the first half from the second half of the year, and there we see a good development.
Of course, the absolute levels of profitability are not to our satisfaction, but we are very happy to see that we managed in the second half of the year to get to a profitable situation. Although the impact of COVID was at least just as severe in the second half of the year than it was in the first. That means that we have things quite well under control in terms of the cost base, in terms of the CapEx base, and result in depreciation. That's at least a good starting point, going into 2021. No specific one-offs in the H2 results that triggered this. From an operational point of view, I think a good development in the second half of the year. We have the segment cash flows.
I think nothing specific to elaborate on that on page 13. Also on the segment results on page 14. Nothing really spectacular. I would like to note the developments in Belgium. Of course, at the mid-year, we took a one-off impairment in Belgium. If we look carefully at the numbers presented here on the sheet, we see that Belgium, despite a EUR 60 million reduction in turnover as a result of COVID, managed to keep the losses at the levels of last year, including a EUR 2 million restructuring charge for Océan Marée. Underlying, even a little bit of improvement with EUR 60 million turnover less. Of course, still a long way to go to get Belgium into the right levels. Of course, we need to bridge to a profitable situation.
I think this shows that the actions we are taking already have helped to cope with the losses of sales in COVID and will help to get Belgium to a profitable situation in the next couple of years, once the volumes return to the market. A bit strange showing these losses and then saying there's a promising development. Underlying, we are happy about the things that we are doing in Belgium and will help us in future. On sheet number 15, a few words on the financing, of course, also an important topic in 2020. The debt position was reduced, taking out of scope the leases. The real interest-bearing debt, I would say, that decreased from EUR 235 million by the end of 2019 to EUR 165 million by the end of 2020. A big reduction in debt.
We were able, on our own, to do all the repayments that were scheduled for this year. In total, approximately EUR 70 million net effect that we had to repay, and we were able to do that on our own strength. Of course, we always have to anticipate, and this year, already with the half-year figures, but also with the year-end figures, together with our financing partners, which really helped us. We anticipated for worse, and that's what you can see here in the bullets on the right-hand side of this sheet. We anticipated that things might get materially worse than they have been in the month of December 2020. Fortunately, that didn't materialize, but it also meant that we did not meet the extended covenant reach to 5.5x EBITDA. We ended up at 2.8, which is even below the basic covenant levels.
Besides that, we are happy, of course, that we are in a healthy situation. It also means that there's no material incremental interest charge for that, not in 2020 and also not in the first half of 2021. As you can see from the lower part of the bullets, also already an agreement is in place with our funding partners for the measurement at the 30-6 2021 mark, that we can have an extended leverage ratio up to 4.5x EBITDA at that time. Our bank, Rabobank, has really helped us by extending their revolving credit facility committed to the end of 2021, ensuring that there will be sufficient liquidity in case things get materially worse.
I think a total package, both our partners from the USPP market and the banks have really been supportive in that sense and have set scenes that we can also survive a tough start of 2021 and do the things that we need to do. That summarized, I think on sheet 16 in the results per share, I think these speak for themselves. More qualitative review on the year in the sheets thereafter. It's quite a big set of sheets with a lot of text, I will run through them relatively quickly. Of course, should there be any specific questions later on, feel free to ask about it. I think the overall economic developments in the Netherlands and later on in Belgium, of course, consumer confidence and the unemployment rates, they are moving, they are, of course, at not very promising levels.
We think that because of all the support measures that our government has granted, there's still quite some hidden unemployment. It's compensated now by these measurements. Once those disappear, I think a number of companies will be in trouble going forward. If we look to the market in the Netherlands on page 19, we see that the market has shrunk by 39% in consumer spending. In wholesale value, that's EUR 933 million. We have done better than that number, and as a result, our market share has increased significantly. Part of that is a technical effect, I would say, but also there's a real market share gain underlying. We expect that by the end of this year, over the two years measured, we will have a significant gain compared to 2019.
Also there's a table on this sheet with the most important segments for Sligro and the share in the total turnover and the development. There you can see that traditional hospitality and catering were hit very hard, the institutional and petrol segments much less. Luckily, small, medium-sized enterprises have compensated to some extent, specifically in the cash-and-carry area of our business. A few on the market shift from food service to food retail on slide number 20. I think that's logical. We've seen that the supermarkets have been really outperforming and been doing well as, of course, hospitality shut down, and that took a lot out of the professional market. On the next sheet, we show the developments in the Netherlands. I think a few highlights out of those.
On sheet number 22, we see that we have kept on investing in our new website, our SAP renewed website, which is also the platform for future growth. Not only did we launch the platform and onboarded all of our delivery customers in new settings, we also introduced a lot of our solutions for customers. That is a route that we will extend in the next couple of years. We have a full program already in place, which we will implement step by step to improve our services to our customers. Also, of course, the effects of the HEINEKEN integration there, that's showed on the next sheet.
As we told a few times before, we were working towards a situation where the customers in the combination of Sligro and HEINEKEN could order all of their business on one platform, get one truck delivery, and in the end, receive one invoice for the whole of the delivery. All the technology, all the integration that we have done in the last year is now fully finalized and everything is up and running. Once all the businesses restart, we can work in this new efficient environment, which is also much more convenient for our customers, which will help to fuel growth in the next years. If we look to the cash-and-carry side on page 24, there we have a program both improving on the offline and online areas of the cash and carry.
We are really integrating the approach for the delivery business and the cash and carry business through the online activity, and we took big steps in 2020 to get that. If we look to the network in cash and carry on page 25, of course, as a result of the measures we took in reducing CapEx, we postponed the plans to remodel cash and carries to 2021. There's two scheduled for the next year. Very limited investment in the cash and carry area in 2020. On the next slide, 26, we see the focus on the returns in the delivery segment. Also there, the physical integration of the distribution center of HEINEKEN is a really important step there.
Of course, for the more short term, we had to cope with up to 75% loss of volumes in the delivery area, and that we compensated by reducing the flexible staff, but also more fundamental changes in cost structure in terms of order picking, transportation, and the infrastructure, which will materialize in the next couple of years once the volumes start picking up again in the market. Also there in the network on the next sheet 27, we see that specifically in the first part of this year, so the first half of 2020, we have done considerable CapEx efforts, but of course, that was reversed with the sale and lease back of these locations just before the mid-year. The HEINEKEN integration physically is now fully done, so all the 13 locations are now absorbed in the network of Sligro.
If we look ahead for 2021, we have changed our annual logo from Give Me Five to High Five, because although we delivered on the promise and gave ourselves the five top priorities during the year, despite challenging circumstances, we did not get all the benefits out yet, because we need volume for that in many aspects. We continue on this line with these five top priorities, both in the Netherlands and Belgium, and I think everybody can see and read for themselves what the most important aspects are in the years to come. Moving on to Belgium and going to sheet number 31, we see similar developments in the unemployment rate and consumer confidence. On the next sheet 32, we see similar developments in the foodservice market. Belgian market was hit even a bit harder than the Dutch one, where we saw a 39% decrease.
It's 51% in Belgium. Overall, similar pattern, similar development between segments. A very tough situation in the market in Belgium as well. As in the Netherlands, in Belgium, we countered that by strict cost reductions and lowering CapEx, and in the meantime, kept our eye on, of course, the preparation for the SAP introduction that is upcoming, but also further improving and strengthening our positioning in the market in terms of improving sales efforts and introducing new concepts to the market. If we move on to slide number 35, also there you see that the CapEx program was really light in 2020, and we have put in some ambition for 2021. We will prepare for a new delivery service center in the area of Ghent, and we are looking for a new cash and carry location in the area of Leuven.
Well, there are some interesting locations, but as I think explained before, first we need to get all the right permits in place before we can start building. We expect to do a lot of the preparation in 2021, and then hopefully start building at the beginning of 2022. Things in the pipeline will not be effective already in 2021, we expect. On sheet number 36 and 37, you can see that we work on the similar priorities as we do in the Netherlands. These are now targets for the group as a whole, of course, with a bit of a different impact on both countries. I would like to fast-forward then to sheet number 42, which is the outlook for 2021.
Well, as we see it, we think that, and we are experiencing as we speak, that, of course, the first quarter in the Netherlands and Belgium, the lockdown situation that was introduced in the last periods of 2020 are still continuing into the first months of 2021. Q1 will be a tough quarter still in terms of revenue. Of course, we keep all the measures in place and look for new opportunities to compensate that by cost saving and postponing investments. We set our hopes, like everyone, I think, on the success of the vaccination strategy, which will help to rule out COVID in the course of the year. We expect a gradual recovery in the second quarter, and then we think these efforts should give us at least a better market situation from Q3 onwards.
We think, given the experience in 2020, that the consumers are really anxious to go outside and use all the different elements in the outdoor, out-of-home market. Whether it's theaters, restaurants, bars, cafes, or maybe even events or sports facilities that can reopen again, that market will return to reasonable levels in the course of the second half of the year. We think with all the things going on that that might lead to a recovery to volumes towards the end of the year that are in line with pre-COVID levels once again. Of course, all based on a successful vaccination strategy and no new dangerous variants of a virus that could, of course, put a new pressure on the market. For ourselves, we will focus on the longer-term strategic terms, those five that we mentioned.
We will keep our eye on cost-saving opportunities and, of course, also hope to profit from further consolidation in the market. Whether it's competitors that will cease to exist or whether there might be acquisition opportunities. We hope, of course, that we can gain a position in the market, increase market share, and improve our situation in the Netherlands and Belgium. Although, in terms of profitability, that still gives us a very uncertain 2021, we think that with everything we already put in place and everything that's still coming, our longer-term target of EBITDA of 7.5% is still very realistic. So far my introduction. I would like to give you the opportunity to ask questions now. If the operator would please take over again, question and answer could start now.
Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will start with the question and answer session. To be registered for the question and answer queue, please press star one on your telephone. That's star one for your questions. Go ahead, please. Star one for your questions. Go ahead, please. We have a question from Mr. Dirk Saelens, Fin.co. Go ahead please, sir. Perhaps you have muted your own line. Can I hear you?
Sorry. Okay. Sorry. Can you hear me? Yes. Good afternoon. I have a question regarding the gross margin outlook. You mentioned already the drivers in 2020 with 170 basis points. Negative impact and also positive impact from cash and carry. My question is, how do you see the dynamics for 2021 if we assume, again, some sort of normalization? Secondly, in terms of your long-term outlook of 7.5% for EBITDA for midterm, what sort of gross margin does that assume? Thank you.
Yes. Well, thank you for your question. I think we try to, that's also for our internal plans, we use 2019 more as a benchmark than 2020 because of all these difficult mix effects. We should be able, we think, over the years to gradually improve our gross margin by 0.2, 0.3 percentage points year-on-year. If we take the 24.4 as a starting point, from that level onwards, we expect to be able to improve by 0.2, 0.3 percentage points year-on-year, to get to a better level. Towards the 7.5% EBITDA target, that is mostly achieved by cost reduction activities. Relative cost reduction, which has to do with the physical integration of the infrastructure with HEINEKEN, but also making the chain more efficient. For instance, the upsell potential with the combined Sligro HEINEKEN customers.
We already service those customers today, so all the additional sales that we can make with those customers are relatively low in cost. That should give us a clear advantage and improvement of profitability.
Okay, thank you. Where do you see the contribution of the Belgium profitability, or I assume there you have to reach, it's more an issue of reaching certain revenues per year to get to the margin?
Yes. That's a step-by-step approach, but this is an overall target for the group. We think that we can achieve that, including Belgium, although Belgium will probably not be within four years at 7.5 standalone. What we indeed see is that in Belgium, we should be able, in a couple of years, to return to a profitable situation. To give you a little bit of an idea, of course, we are also challenged in Belgium and our individual customers are also under pressure there. Our outlet in Antwerp was able to grow by 17% in the last year. Almost a 20% growth in a COVID year, by attracting new customers. Partly that was private individuals, which is of course not a more structural group of customers for us.
To a large extent, that was new professional customers that were introduced to the cash and carry environment. For instance, in an outlet like Antwerp, that means an EUR 800 thousand saving on shrinkage alone, because we get more volume through the same outlet. Volume really works as a big leverage in terms of costs and gross margin. We believe that we can take big steps also in Belgium to contribute to that overall profitability target.
Okay. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, if there are any additional questions, please press star one. That's star one for any additional questions. Go ahead, please. There are no further questions at this moment.
If there are no further questions, I would like to thank everybody for listening in on this call. We will publish our full annual report next week on February 5th, where there's, of course, a lot more background and details available on the stories that we've told. We will get back to you, of course, after the first quarter with our trading update and at the mid-year with another call on the semi-annual figures for 2021. Thank you for now. Stay healthy, stay safe, and speak to you again. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your Sligro Food Group earnings call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect your line. Have a nice day.