Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Constantinos, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Sarantis Group conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the Sarantis Group full year 2022 financial results. All participants will be in listen only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Konstantinos Rozakeas, Deputy CEO and CFO, and Ms. Eleni Pappa, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications Director. Mr. Rozakeas, you may now proceed.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Sarantis full year 2022 financial results conference call. I pass now the speech to Mrs. Pappa in order to comment the performance of the company. Ms. Pappa?
Thank you, Mr. Rozakeas. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, and welcome to Sarantis full year 2022 financial results conference call. We are pleased to report that despite a challenging market environment characterized by record inflation, supply chain disruptions, energy crisis, and war in Ukraine, we successfully navigated the situation, leading to a strong sales growth of 9.6%. We are also proud to report a net cash position of EUR 15.3 million and a strong cash flow generation, which demonstrate the strength of our financial position. It is this strong financial position that allows us to continue investing behind the further growth of our business through investments targeted at automations, higher productivity and efficiency, product portfolio support, and also returning the value created to our shareholders.
As this year too, we will be proposing to the annual general shareholders meeting a dividend payment of EUR 10 million, corresponding to a 38% of the group's net income. We are also very proud to have successfully implemented a product rationalization process, the Hero project, a project that took place within 2021 and 2022 and focuses on the group's high-value core brands within our strategic categories and can drive profitability and sustainable growth for our business. The group's Hero portfolio supported volume growth this year and strategically positions us for further future growth. This year, we also succeeded in partially mitigating the inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions through initiatives that aim to support top-line growth as well as further optimizations and efficiencies across the business.
Lastly, we remain committed to pushing forward our ESG agenda, as we believe that sustainability is an essential element of our long-term success. With that as an introduction, allow me to analyze further on the group's financial figures. The financial figures I will comment on present the continuing activities of the group for both 2021 and 2022, excluding Elka Cosmetics contribution since the group's participation was sold on June 15 of 2022, and excluding HOZTORG LLC since the group decided to permanently withdraw from the Russian market. You can find detailed information in the group's annual financial report. During 2022, we managed to present significant sales growth across the group, driven mainly by value and to a lesser extent by volume.
We took advantage of our diversified product portfolio, our focus on our HERO portfolio, our ability to exploit opportunities in high-growth spaces, therefore supporting our volume growth while we took pricing actions behind selected categories. Group sales were up by 9.55%, reaching EUR 445.07 million in 2022 from EUR 406.26 million in 2021. The largest contributors to sales growth are the subcategories of skincare, sun care, body wash, and deodorant within the personal care category that presented growth of 9.92% versus the previous year. The home category, the home care category, excuse me, also presented a sales growth of 3.57%, driven by strong growth in garbage bags and food packaging subcategories.
In terms of geographies, Greek sales presented a growth of 3.82% in 2022 versus 2021, presenting significant growth behind the strategic personal care categories such as skincare, sun care, deodorants, fragrances, haircare, as well as behind the home care categories of food packaging and garbage bags. At the same time, Greek sales benefited considerably from growth opportunities within the healthcare and the export channel, while strong growth was observed in the luxury cosmetics channel that benefited from higher consumer demand for fragrances and makeup products. The affiliates exhibited significant sales growth of 12.66% across all strategic product categories, reaching EUR 296.83 million in 2022 from EUR 263.48 million last year.
Excluding the FX currency impact on a currency-neutral basis, affiliate sales presented a growth of 14.23%. In terms of Ergopack's production facility, which is based in Khmelnytskyi and was temporarily closed following Russia's invasion into Ukraine, has been in full operation since the end of April 2022. Since then, we have progressively restarted manufacturing in Ukraine, we are currently distributing and selling under a strict credit control policy. Therefore, Ergopack now manages to cover the majority of its distribution channels in Ukraine as well as its export network. Despite the temporary suspension of Ergopack's activity that lasted for two months, Ergopack sales during 2022 amounted to EUR 22.51 million compared to EUR 27.33 million last year, decreased by 17.6%.
Ergopack's EBIT within 2022 settled at EUR 0.78 million, up from EUR 0.27 million last year, demonstrating its ability to rationalize costs. Ergopack's territory remains a significant region for the group and constitutes an integral part for our strategy. With respect to our activity in Russia, we have taken the decision to withdraw permanently from the Russian market. Our presence in Russia was represented through a 100% indirect subsidiary, HOZTORG, a commercial business with a material participation in the group's total sales. The loss from the termination of our activity in Russia amounts to EUR 960,000. Regarding the group's profitability, throughout 2022, persisting cost inflation and supply chain disruptions put pressure on the group's profitability.
Overall, we responded proactively to the challenges by implementing various initiatives to drive top-line growth and control costs. We made a strategic decision to balance our value growth and volume in order to safeguard our competitive positioning in line with consumer demand. We placed extra focus within the past two years behind our HERO portfolio. Our high-value products supported sales growth within this year, and we are confident that by having an optimized brand portfolio will bring us faster growth in the future behind our strategic categories and geographical regions. At the same time, focusing on our HERO portfolio allows us to optimize other operating costs, optimize inventory levels, and make targeted investments which will drive profitability higher.
In addition, we placed emphasis on cost-saving initiatives relating to supply chain optimization, such as diversifying our sourcing channels, reviewing and renegotiating suppliers' contracts, keeping safety stock where possible, increasing efficiency and productivity, such as investments on automations, systems, processes, business analytics, and balanced advertising and promotion expenses. Therefore, EBITDA was down by 4.85% to EUR 45.53 million in 2022, from EUR 47.86 million in 2021, with an EBITDA margin of 10.23% from 11.78% in 2021. EBIT reached EUR 32.24 million during 2022 versus EUR 34.99 million in 2021, reduced by 7.86%, and EBIT margins stood at 7.24% from 8.61% in 2021.
Earnings before tax settled at EUR 31.76 million in 2022 from EUR 37.72 million in 2021, reduced by 15.81% with the EBIT margin reaching 7.14% from 9.29% last year. Net profit reached EUR 26.27 million in 2022 from EUR 31.01 million in 2021, down by 15.29%, while net profit margin settled at 5.90% from 7.63% in 2022. As mentioned earlier, these figures represent the group's continuing activities, that is, the activities excluding HOZTORG and excluding Elfa Cosmetics' contribution since the group's participation was sold on June 15 of 2022.
Previously, I remind you that Elfa Cosmetics was consolidated as an affiliate company through the equity method. On June 15 of 2022, the group proceeded to the sale of its 49% participation in the JV with the Estée Lauder company, Elfa Cosmetics, in the context of a win-win decision for both sides. The aggregate purchase price amounted to EUR 55.2 million. The amount of EUR 14 million was paid on 16th of June of 2022, and the balance will be paid in two equal installments of EUR 20.6 million in January of 2025 and in January of 2028.
As per the group's plan, we are already in the process of replacing the profitability of the joint venture by executing a specific strategy that focuses, on the one hand, on intensifying the group's acquisition plan and, on the other hand, on concluding new distribution agreements. To this end, we have already announced the acquisition of Stella Pack, a Polish consumer household products company, a successful business of approximately EUR 73 million and 8.5% of sales and EUR 8.5 million of EBITDA pre penalties. At the moment, we are waiting for the approval of the anti-monopoly authority that is estimated to be finalized shortly. This acquisition, due to its homogeneity with our core business, will add significant synergies at all business levels, from sales to administrative services, warehouses and factories, covering fully the joint venture sustainability.
Moving further, the management focus has always been on maintaining a healthy, balanced and strong financial position in order to be able to implement its strategic growth agenda despite any challenges in the external environment, and make investments behind organic and acquisitive growth. 2022 is yet again another year that shows our commitment. Net debt reached EUR 15.35 million at the end of 2022, mainly supported by the proceeds from the sale, the sale of Elka Cosmetics' participation and lower CapEx needs in 2022 due to the completion of Polipak's project. We are returning value to our shareholders. The board of directors we propose to the annual general shareholders meeting a dividend payment of EUR 10 million, corresponding to 38% of the group's net income. We are investing behind our organic growth.
We focus on the product portfolio rationalization through our HERO portfolio and on targeted advertising promotion investments and innovation plans. We are continuously working behind improving operational efficiencies and effectiveness. We focus on streamlining processes in the supply chain, investing in automations, infrastructure and systems. The construction of Polipak's new production facility is a significant investment to this end. The new 24,000 square meter technologically advanced production plant is equipped with modernized machinery, upgraded R&D, and implements automated production processes towards the production of more environmentally friendly products and decreased energy efficiency. Finally, as mentioned, we also remain active behind our agenda for acquisitive growth. The acquisition of Stelapak is of strategic importance and will bring significant added value to the group through operational synergies, and will also contribute to the group's ambitions towards circular economy.
Our financial stability allows us to also consistently support our social and environmental ambitions while maintaining a balance between economic performance and responsible practices. Throughout 2022, we made significant progress towards our ESG ambitions, focusing on sustainable production and consumption, thriving communities and empowered employees, all while driving growth and delivering value. Among others, we focused on obtaining environmental management system and occupational health and safety management system at the group's production plant. Installing photovoltaic systems at our facility at Inofita, covering almost half of the plant's energy needs, while we aim to increase the use of renewable energy sources in the future. Developing brands with higher ecological profile using sustainable ingredients, recycled and recyclable materials, and circular economy practices. Empowering our people through systematic learning and upskilling. Establishing a hybrid working policy across the whole group.
Maintaining an inclusive environment with a high percentage of female employees equal to 54%. Finally, supporting our communities. In 2022, we offered through multidimensional donations more than EUR 2.5 million in order to provide relief against natural disaster and humanitarian crisis, support and raise awareness towards environmental protection, support vulnerable population groups, and support awareness on health and safety issues. We move within 2023, we do expect further challenges in a volatile operating environment. We remain focused on sustaining our growth, momentum and competitiveness while protecting our profitability margin. We will review continuously our action plan to activate further mitigating actions and deliver improved margins. The same time, we expect that our strategic focus on our high value HERO portfolio will have a significant positive impact on our future growth prospects.
We will continue to pursue our strategic agenda, emphasizing on the group's growth pillars, market development, economies of scale and synergies, aiming to continue creating long-term value for our shareholders. Finally, I would like to mention that on Tuesday, April 11th of 2023, we will present the group's financial guidance for fiscal year 2023 at the Hellenic Fund and Asset Management Association. At this point, we are at your disposal for any questions you may have.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we will begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by 1 on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and 1 at this time. 1 moment for the first question, please.
The first question is from the line of Natalia Smpirnia with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, thank you for taking my question. 2022 has proven quite a tough year, I think you've managed very well with sales, very good growth and sales. I was wondering if you have any, well, outlook on your 2023 sales growth, like on an organic basis. You know, on the current trends, how are they running now? Maybe how we could see these things running through to towards 2023 revenue focus. If you have any indications on pressure of the costs. Should we expect an improvement in the margins, especially in the household segment where we saw a pretty good drop there, a pretty good pressure.
That was one question on, you know, basically the outlook. Maybe if you have anything, any new opportunities you may have identified, if you could give us, you know, a view on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Natalia. When you, when you ask for opportunities, you mean, in the field of M&A?
Yes, in the field of M&A. Apart from Stella Pack, which is a quite big deal. Do you have anything else, you know, you're looking at also, you know, that could be of interest?
Replying to the first question, I would say that, as we speak, after 3 months of operation in 2023, we have experienced a huge growth in sales amounting to a 24% increase in sales. Of course, we have to admit that Easter now is a little bit earlier and, for this reason, some seasonal sales are came earlier than the previous year. Extracting the seasonal sales, the like for like growth for the rest business is 18%. The nominal is 24, but the like for like is 18 due to Easter. The cost structure in relation to the raw materials, I can say that it is stabilized some months ago.
Now that we have better sales and a very good, decent growth in sales, keeping in mind that in the past we've had some price increases in our products, and having in mind that nowadays the cost is more or less stabilizing.
Mm-hmm
... the EBIT margin is much better. Not only because of the leverage, the growth of the sales, but because of the other reasons I mentioned before.
Mm-hmm.
This is the performance and you will have a trading update in April.
Yes, of course. Is this sales growth you said?
Excuse me.
Okay.
You will have a on March 11 a guidance for 2023. You will see the trend there, which is.
I see.
Yeah.
Perfect.
Which is in line what, with what I mentioned before.
I was wondering only if you could give us an indication, is this like plus 18% volume or price driven or both?
It is mostly volume growth. It is mostly volume growth.
Mostly volume growth?
Yes, because the price increases now are much less...
Mm-hmm
... in comparison with the past.
You've already taken price increases.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have already done it. It is mostly volume growth.
Very good.
As regard to the opportunities, yes, we have one more case that was frozen due to the Stella Pack project in Romania and now we have revived this and re-discuss. It is in the same field like Stella's product portfolio. We should stop the discussions and freeze the whole situation because our focus was in Stella, and we didn't want to confuse especially the antimonopoly committee in Romania. Now that we have finished with Romania and we have taken the antimonopoly committee's approval in Romania, now we start again the discussions for this project in Romania.
This is something new, I hope that by autumn, we'll finalize this in four to six months.
Okay. When are you expecting the Stella Pack starting to come in the numbers, like finalization coming?
The current stage is that the committee has sent questionnaire to the third parties, to the retailers and to the competitors in order to crosscheck the file. They expect to receive the last answers next week. After this, if they feel comfortable, we start discussing internally in order to issue the decision. We expect to have it in 1 or in one and a half month from now.
Okay. That's pretty clear. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Vebjon Kroufi with Cairo Capital. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. I was looking for a bit more color on trading this year. I'm very impressed by this figure of 18% growth in Greece, considering it's excluding the Easter impact and mostly volume. Can you give us a bit more color on what's happening there? 18% is extraordinarily strong growth. Afterwards, I wonder whether you can go through your other markets in Eastern Europe and help us understand. I mean, we've already seen that sort of Ukraine seems to be getting by quite well. In the other Eastern European markets, if you can give us sort of main market by main market, the big trends in demand at the moment. That'd be great. Thank you.
Thank you, Mark. What I mentioned before regarding the 18% and 24% nominal growth of the company in 2023 is the group's performance is not only in Greece. The whole group grew-
Ah.
by that. Yes.
Okay.
All the markets have been, you know, presented a very good growth around this because this is the average. The best markets in our group are Greek market, Romanian market, Polish market. Czech Republic is doing very well. Everyone is doing very well. Even Ukraine is doing very well. This average is connected with the group's performance.
Okay. Just to make sure I didn't miss something, is any of that growth due to consolidation of a previous acquisition that wasn't, where sales weren't consolidated in the first quarter? Is this all real organic growth?
It is all organic growth. It is like for like, nothing new happened.
Wow.
Everything is comparable.
Just to give us a little bit more color in terms of, you've told us the geographies where things are doing well. Is there any particular product range that is driving this growth?
Both cosmetics and household business. These two represent the 90% approximately of the total sales, are doing the same, in the same path. I mean, they are doing the same performance.
That's fantastic. Just also again to help us understand, I don't have my statistics for last year, but I'm just trying to understand, are we here bouncing off a low base for your sales in the first quarter of last year, which will wear off as we get in? Or is there real reignition of demand across your markets for your products and Sarantis is doing well?
We had a break last year because the war, if you remember, started at the end of 24 of February last year. The half of the first Q had a harm behind the Ukraine business. The Ukraine operation was frozen at the time, the rest markets are a little bit down. Yes, there is an effect connected to the first quarter of 2022.
Okay. Another two questions if I may.
Yes.
In Ukraine when hopefully things, settle down, hopefully, I mean, considering you've stayed there whilst things were tough, you're gonna obviously stay there when things are gonna open up again. Have you already identified, potential big acquisitions in Ukraine as, because it's a very populous country, when things sort of reopen?
No. We don't have any, any appetite to expand the business by acquisitions in Ukraine.
Okay. Just last question. I was interested to see in your communicate that you said now that the Estée Lauder joint venture, you've sold it back, your share. You said that there were now possibilities for you to sort of develop on that market. Can you give us a little bit more understanding what you mean by that? Does that mean that your through your sort of distribution network, you are now going to be capable of selling things to those who were previously buying Estée Lauders? What are the rules of the game with Estée Lauder, and what do you hope to be able to do?
The real opportunity behind this is that in the past regime, we didn't allow to have any new product portfolio now, Sarantis operation. All these products were the competitors of Estée Lauder in a way. Now that we are out of this joint venture, we are free to cooperate with competitive brand names in the field. This is the opportunity. We have started the talks with the principals in order to form cooperations. You may have our news in the future.
Great to hear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mark.
The next question is from the line of Carlis Costadinos with Euroxx Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon there. Three questions. One, if you can provide some information regarding the CapEx for 2023, excluding acquisitions. Two, if it is possible to disclose the acquisition cost of Stella Pack. Third, question, why the Elka deal, the remainder of the sale proceeds are so deep in the future allocated, 2025 and 2028? Thank you.
The CapEx for 2023 is a CapEx of maintenance. I mean, not more than EUR 3 million-EUR 4 million for maintenance. The Stella cost is not, I cannot reveal the Stella cost because, as I mentioned before, I'm in talks with our competitor in Romania, I don't like to mention that.
Okay. Sorry for this.
Regarding Elka, if you remember, the agreement that we had until the end of the joint venture was that they had a smooth right to call our shares in three installments. One in 2021, one in 2025, and one in 2028. When we reached an agreement in order to sell the whole of the entire stake that we had, closing the deal at EUR 55.2 million, we received an offer from Elka, from Estée Lauder, in order to take the money all at once. The discount rate applied was not in our benefit. On their benefit.
Having in mind that Sarantis has no problem regarding the cash flow because we generate every year a huge amount of cash flow, we didn't accept this, and we followed the initial plan. That's why we take our money in 2025 and 2028.
Okay. Got it. Perfectly explained. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to... Oh, apologies. The next question is from the line of Martin Tebeau with Galliance Gestion. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hi, Eleni. Hi, Mr. Rozakis. Thanks for taking my question. Just a bit of colors on the volume growth you've seen at the beginning of the year, just to get a sense of, is that purely on the Sarantis side or are the competitors seeing the same thing? Are you seeing that you're gaining market share on that front?
Yes. This is the situation. We get some market share. Of course, we have some small price increases, but not more than 4% this year in order to fine-tune the price increases. As we understand, the like-for-like growth of 18% is a market share growth.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay. On the, you said the EBIT margin was going to be substantially better, obviously with the scale effects, operating leverage. Could you give us a bit more color on the raw material price deceleration, cost deceleration you're seeing? If I understood right, you're planning further 4% price increase, or is that already in the January numbers?
The 4% is already implemented.
Okay.
Regarding the EBIT margin, I mentioned the growth of the EBIT margin is behind two reasons. The first is the real growth of gross profits, meaning sales minus cost of goods. Because of what I mentioned before, the prices on the sales are the old prices after the increase in the cost of goods are now better off. We have an increase of the gross profit margin, and then we have a leverage coming from the huge growth of sales, keeping the rest operational expenses stable. All in all, the EBIT margin is much better.
Okay. Should we expect 2023 to be a year in terms of margin as good as 2021? Is there like still some lag you still need that the prices of raw materials go down?
Have patience, and please wait until 11 of April in order to share our guidance. You will see clearly there what's going on. Okay?
Okay. Last question on my side is regarding Stella Pack. From my understanding, you're expecting that for the end of the first half now. You've always said that you expect almost, kind of like a third of the synergies to be in the first year. Should we expect any synergies in 2023 from the acquisition?
Yes, of course, some synergies will come in 2023. Of course, as you will probably know, as you probably remember, we have discussed that, the expected synergies on top of the existing EBITDA is EUR 3.5 million.
Mm-hmm.
Having in mind that there is a delay of the closing. Even if we had the whole year, the 30%-40% of this EUR 3.5 million would be realized now, it is less than that. I mean, it is 20% due to the time.
Okay.
uh, 20% will be, uh, realized out of this, uh, EUR 3.5 million, uh, euros will be realized in 2023, and we'll speed up in order to realize the rest in 2024
Okay.
Okay?
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Iakovos Kourtesis with Euroxx Securities. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. As far as I understand, during the fourth quarter, there was deceleration of decreased sales in Greece due to the loss of the distribution agreement with Wella for Wella product. You've mentioned that, as far as I understand, you have a strong double-digit growth in Greece during the first Q, 2023. First of all, do you have any plans for new distribution agreements in Greece to replace the loss of Wella? Second, this growth you've mentioned, do you exclude Wella from previous year? Thank you very much.
No, there are no plans other than the plans in a selective channel. As I mentioned before, we are now free to cooperate with competitive banks against Estée Lauder, only there. You remember that Wella had an operation in mass market. In mass market, I don't have any plans yet to replace Wella. Regarding the comparison, we compare the last year's numbers including Wella, the base is high.
You still have a strong double-digit growth.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
The markets are driven.
Correct. Correct. You're right. If I exclude Wella from the previous year, then the growth is much better.
Yes. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Iakovos.
The next question is from the line of de Figueiredo Emmanuel with LBV Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. If I can just get some clear color on the dynamics of slide 9 and slide 12?
Why did home care perform so poorly in terms of profitability versus personal and in slide 12, the geography? Greece is responsible for the decline in profitability. Thank you.
The specific, the specific category is was in a deep shit. I mean, the whole increases of raw materials are not only in packaging, which was the issue in personal care, but the whole raw material price increases affected the whole package of the product. The raw material, the packaging material, everything. In personal care, we don't have so much pressure from the raw material increases because only some parts of the packaging were affected in the past. In the household products, we had, we had bigger problems because everything from aluminum to plastics, wood, whichever, the, whatever it is included in the product was affected a lot.
The second problem regarding the margin is that we cannot absorb the 100% pressure of the raw materials price increases in your sales price. Especially in household products where you have to compete with private label, which is a lower price. You must be very careful in price increases, and you cannot absorb the total pressure of the price pressure in the cost in the cost structure. That's why in household products where you have to admit that there is a commodity sense behind, and the competitor is the private label. It is very difficult to offset the cost pressure. This is the main reason.
Now that the cost is stabilizing, you will see in our trading update that both categories, personal care and the household business are doing very well in terms of growth and in terms of the stability.
Okay. In terms of Greece, Does Greece have a higher weight of household products? Is that the reason why Greece has done less well than outside Greece?
Yeah, you can say that. You can say that, the competition in private label is harder.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Once again, to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone.
Yes,
Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Ms. Pappa for any closing comments. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation on today's conference call. We are at your disposal for any further queries you may have. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Good afternoon.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling. Have a good afternoon.