Well, good afternoon to everyone, and welcome to El.En.'s conference call for Q1 2022 financial results. Today's call will be recorded, and there will be an opportunity for questions at the end of the conference call. With me on the call are Andrea Cangioli, El.En.'s CEO, and Enrico Romagnoli, El.En.'s CFO and Investor Relations. Before we begin, please note that there are remarks that management makes on the conference call about future expectations, plans and prospects and forward-looking statements. Certain statements in this call, including those addressing the company's beliefs, plans, objectives, estimates or expectations of possible future results or events are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known or unknown risks, including general economic and business conditions and conditions in the industry we operate, and may be affected should our assumptions turn out to be inaccurate.
Consequently, no forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual future results, performance or achievements may vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation about the contents, nor to update the forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date hereof. If you need to ask a question, please book your questions on the chat of Bianca Fersini Mastelloni, and she will be pleased to introduce you following the booking order. At this time, I turn now the call to Andrea Cangioli. Please go ahead, Andrea.
Thank you, Nicola. Thank you everybody for joining this call El.En. is holding after the release of the financial report for the first quarter of 2022. On the call, together with me, there will be Enrico Romagnoli, and in a few minutes, he will drive you through the details of our financial results. In a few seconds, actually. As you may have learned from our press release, the first quarter was once again a very strong quarter, with continuing sustained demand, allowing us to mark excellent results in revenues, EBIT and EBIT margin, each of them at record levels for the specific quarter that is seasonally the weakest in our capital goods market. Just to summarize, before getting into the details, revenues were up 24% to EUR 144 million, and EBIT was at EUR 17 million, 11.8% on revenue.
Maybe this last EBIT margin, the most remarkable among the remarkable achievements of this quarter, beating Q1 2021 and also the average 2021 margin as well. Enrico, please go ahead with the financial reporting section.
Thank you, Andrea. As already said by Andrea, the Q1 of 2022 registered record result with a consolidated revenue of EUR 144 million, up 24% with double-digit growth in both the main sector of activities, medical and industrial. The EBIT margin was 11.8%, a brilliant result for the first quarter, seasonally the weakest of the year, thanks to the great growth in sales volume. In 2022, we saw an improvement in terms of gross margin, mainly due to an impact of medical sales higher than industrial on the total turnover, and the profitability in terms of gross margin of medical sector is higher than industrial. The strengthening of the U.S. dollar, together with the increase in turnover in dollars to North America, improvement of margin in industrial sector.
Thanks to the improvement of gross margin and the stability of the impact of fixed cost on sales, EBITDA was positive for EUR 20.1 million, an increase of approximately 29% compared to the EUR 15.6 million in Q1 2021. EBITDA margin in the first quarter 2022 was equal to 13.9%, exceeding the EBITDA margin of the first quarter 2021 that was equal to 13.4%. In the same time, EBIT for the quarter showed a positive balance of EUR 17.1 million, up by 32% compared to the 12.9 million in the Q1 2021.
The operating result impact on sales is 11.8%, increasing from the 11.1% for the first quarter of 2021. At the end, the EBIT, the EBT marked a positive balance of approximately EUR 17.5 million and recorded a significant increase of 24.4% from the EUR 14.1 million of Q1 2021. The net financial position was positive for EUR 85.8 million compared to the EUR 150.7 million as of December of last year, with a decrease of EUR 30 million.
In this chart, we can see that the group generated cash from operating activities while the expansion of the net working capital to support the stability of production processes absorbed approximately EUR 36 million, out of which over EUR 23 million due to the increase in inventories, and about EUR 13 million for the decrease in trade payables. Furthermore, it should be noted that investments in fixed asset exceed EUR 4 million in the quarter. In terms of breakdown by business, the medical sector recorded a growth of about 30% compared to the same period of 2021. Despite having the lowest growth rate in the sector, the aesthetic segment trend was very satisfactory by virtue of the mix of products sold.
In fact, during the quarter, sales of small, home use system distributed by Japan decreased significantly. While we achieved a massive increase in sales volume of high power laser for hair removal, with a high profitability for the group. Interesting in terms of percentage growth was the strong recovery of surgical system, which struggled to exit from the slowdown in sales of the pandemic. As for the service revenue, the jump in turnover was mostly driven by optical fibers for surgical use in urology, whose production has suffered a sharp slowdown at the beginning of 2021 due to some technical production problems which were then overcome in the following months. Industrial sector recorded a 16.4% turnover increase compared to the first quarter of 2021.
The growth in revenues, confirming the positive trend of the last few years, recording increases between 8%-21% in almost all the segments, with the exception of the marking. Growth in the cutting sector was higher, increasing by 21% with a turnover of EUR 47.4 million, with results in China that were barely satisfactory, influenced by the recent wave of lockdowns. At the same time, the growth achieved by Cutlite Penta on Italian and European markets was very strong. Marking underwent a 13.3% decline compared to the first quarter of 2021, recording sales for EUR 4.4 million, a decline that we hope to recover in the rest of the year. An increase was also in the two other sectors of the laser sources and services.
In terms of geographical area, the growth are brilliant in every area and every segment we are operating. Sales in the medical sector stand out in Europe, + 49%, thanks to the good trend in sales of aesthetic system and in the rest of the world, + 26%. Mainly determined by sales to the United States of America, and despite the negative phase of Japan, both due to the protracted pandemic limitation and the weakening of the sales cycle of small home use devices that characterized the last two years. The main growth rate in industrial sector was in Italy, where with a 28% increase, the main growth was achieved by Cutlite Penta in the metal cutting sector. Andrea, you can go ahead for the presentation.
Okay. Let me continue in giving you some more color about what is going on and what has been going on. We are obviously very pleased by these results. There are few relevant drivers for this excellent results. Demand was strong, and we continue to benefit of a wide backlog in our order books. We were expecting strong demand in our market segments based on our perception of the market development, that were confirmed by market studies when available, and our expectation were widely met. Based on such expectations, we dedicated financial and managerial resources to the strengthening of our infrastructure in order to be able to seize the opportunities that the markets were offering and are going to offer.
I am talking of the new capacity expansions that involved our Chinese activities, Quanta in Samarate, ASA in Vicenza, Lasit in Torre Annunziata, Cutlite Penta in Prato as well, and last but not least, here in Calenzano. By the way, we're happy to be able again to host an investor day here in Calenzano, in our premises, to show directly to those of you that will have a chance to join us on the 31st, how the organization of our floor changed, here in Florence, and how significant the new Prato plant is for the business of sheet metal cutting. Well, back to the strengthening of our structure. It wasn't only bricks, and devices and tools, but also and foremost, people.
More people in R&D, technical expert, wizard in several circumstances in order to innovate, and compliance expert in order to expand the areas in which our products can actually be sold. People and marketing efforts to support our distribution networks, both where we're going direct, like we do in Italy, Germany, France, and Japan, and when in all the other countries we partner with top-level local distributors. Therefore our markets are positive, they are growing, and so are in a very positive phase. There has been a great deal of preventive work put in place in order to be able to follow and beat the market in these last quarters. If the markets and our backlogs look and are extremely helpful, the same does not apply to several other general circumstances that we need to face in this 2022.
The list is short but dense. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences, first of all, the worsening of the already strong inflation. The continued struggling of several of our suppliers that are not able to timely react to our demand increase needs and very often are not even able to comply to our current commitments. The lockdowns in China, which in the last months hindered our and any business in the territory by enforcing reduced mobility, not only as we were used to from and to China, which continues to be a huge limitation to relations with China, but now also within the provinces, which has been putting at risk also the expected growth of the internal consumption market.
Starting from this last point, China, which is quite relevant for us, especially in the metal cutting business, where we have a fairly large organization with our factories in Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Linyi. As opposed to the early 2020 lockdowns, our production sites were not affected by any restrictive injunction and were allowed to work normally. This does not mean the situation was normal, because the lockdowns were hitting other significant areas here and there, like Ningbo and then Shenzhen, and then up to Shanghai and Beijing. Sales activity could not be performed as ordinary, and also delivery, installation, and orders clearing, which comes with successful final testing at the customer, could not be performed as usual. The result was a decent quarter for Chinese sheet metal cutting business, with revenues in renminbi just below the very good Q1 2021 quarter.
Due to the increased dimension and cost of the structure, the income was lower. The bad news there is that we were expecting a better performance, and that the lockdowns are still impacting on our performance in a quarter, the second one, where we were expecting very strong results. The good news there is that we're doing very well in our own market segment. We have, let's say, an environmental issue with the COVID still impinging on international relations and travel from and to China, and now again impinging on the day-to-day life in mainland China, that is slowing down the whole economy.
On the other side, the sales mix was very favorable, with increasing weight in high power laser systems, a segment in which our superior ability to effectively manage 20 and 30-kW laser beams is allowing a better margin on sales and a very interesting market perspective on application segments that only such laser power can effectively address laser cutting system. The second issue of these times, and maybe the most concerning, is the war. The certain effects of the war on our business to date are the loss of the Russian and Ukrainian markets and the increase of energy cost, which is in turn causing a strong inflation impact. Furthermore, the war so close to us leaves Europe and the world in a status of great uncertainty.
Like with other wars taking place farther away, to date, we have seen no direct impact on our markets, and demand has been widely unaffected, with our customers maintaining their confidence and investing in our products. As the developments of the war are uncertain, also the actual and psychological effect of any evolution of the war are unpredictable. Inflation is the tangible effect on our business, forcing us to face a new situation, or at least something we had not seen for years. Energy costs are directly impacting our operational expense, but it's in the cost of goods sold that we are seeing the strongest impact, with current purchasing of components undergoing average increases in line with the official inflation rates, thus well above 5%. In the past, price increases for a given product have not been a marketing tool for the group.
Within the life cycle of a given product, prices have been likely to decrease while price adjustments were applied to customers only upon the release of new products. Laser systems with new and improved features can very well stand price increases also in a world without inflation. Now, we'll be forced to apply price increases on all our products in order not to see margin erosions. The supply chain struggles have been our most significant struggle in the last months. The number and variety of components that are showing up in our projection of shortages isn't ceasing to increase. We were hoping and counting that 2022 would have brought to an end these shortages, but in fact, the situation is not improving. The evident effect on our financials is the huge increase in raw material inventories.
What is not showing in our financials and what's not evident, it's the continuous effort we have to put in arranging production schedules attainable according to the materials we're actually receiving, which is often wildly inconsistent to the orders that we placed and to the delivery plans we receive from our own vendors. The most significant shortage-driven production slowdown we experienced has been in our Asclepion plant in the months of March and April. The production for MeDioStar devices had a material reduction which also affected Esthelogue, which is the Italian distributor for the MelaStar. Notwithstanding this very big issue we had on the production facility of Asclepion managed to increase its revenue by 19% in the quarter.
Under this profile, we are trying to prevent shortages, placing volume orders for the expected and sometimes desired production volumes, which based on the solid backlog are quite large. Typically, we receive most of the materials required by manufacturing on time, but we miss a short percentage in terms of value for a very small number of components that are nevertheless necessary for manufacturing, which slows down production pace and increases our raw material reserve, covering most of the needs of our production volumes that we are not able to achieve. In this phase, it is also impossible, or at least not recommended, to slow down purchasing pace with our vendors that could decide or could be forced to reduce their volumes or divert their production volumes. We have to stick to what we have ordered.
This is the mechanism that is driving the inventory increase, which is quite interesting because in a 24% growth order, I am actually blaming most of the inventory increase to product, to production volumes that were below expectations. In spending so much time on the problems that are bothering us at the moment, I also would like to emphasize how effectively our functions are committed in overcoming operational problems that are showing up every day in an unprecedented fashion, and how effective they have been as our quarterly results demonstrate. We continue to be very optimistic on the business outlook for the rest of the year, and I would like now to point out some of the several positive lines of our quarterly financials. I'm just reinforcing what Enrico said in certain of his statements before.
Even if we faced a very difficult situation in China, the laser cutting division was up 19% in revenues and was profitable in the quarter. Profitability was lower than expected in Q1 2022, especially due to contingent aggressive sales policies in Italy that are expected to have a lower weight in the next months. Revenue increase in surgery was material again, setting this business back on the growth path we had outlined for it prior to the pandemic. Together with the material, almost 40% growth in the system revenue, we enjoy the collateral sales for the consumables involved in the usage of urological device, which are the optical fibers that Enrico mentioned before. The same strong comeback was registered in the therapy business, where ASA is back to its excellent growth and profitability rates.
Our market position in the hair removal business is becoming progressively stronger. Our product range, including a wide selection of systems for different pockets and workloads, is impressive. High power Alexandrite lasers include DEKA's Again, that just won a prize at Monaco's International Anti-Aging Conference, Quanta System's Thunder, and also the Elite+, which is the system El.En. manufactures for Cynosure's brand, which is accretive to Cynosure's brand worldwide sales, but also to our sales and production volume. Medium power devices include the Motus and the Duetto, both Alexandrite laser systems. The best seller system is still the MeDioStar, the German technology semiconductor device manufactured in Asclepion, Jena. The success of this outstanding product range is well evident in the solid revenue growth of the aesthetic segment.
On the one and only segment in which the minus sign showed up in the revenue comparison chart, I mean laser marking, the business outlook is more than positive and is overcoming the production obstacles left due to COVID in our manufacturing in the first months of the year. We also plan to benefit from the good work of our new sales subsidiary for Laser Marking systems set up in Poland at the end of last year, and now starting to consolidate. Now wrapping up, before leaving this meeting to your questions, I'd like to summarize the overall outlook. I mean, the first quarter results were in line with the annual guidance. I mean, they were well above the 10% minimum revenue growth we were hinting. EBIT was increasing with respect to 2021.
We, as I said, continue to be very optimistic for the rest of the year, based at first place on the very solid order backlog and order booking that took place in the quarter. Our aspirations target another record year for revenues and profitability. In trying to quantify the targets, given the current level of uncertainty and the threats to the normal conduct of business brought by the war and the Chinese lockdown, we confirm the current guidance. Revenue growth over 10% and EBIT growth over 2022. We have a history of improving the guidance during the year, and there are solid elements in our own business and markets that are calling for an adjustment this year, too.
The imminent uncertainties are hinting us to postpone any upgrade if there will be one, closer to the end of the year. I'm done with my presentation. Thank you for listening to my presentation, and now please go ahead with questions.
Andrea, we have the first question from Andrea Bonfà from Banca Akros. Go ahead, Andrea.
Hello. Good afternoon to everybody. Hope you can hear me loud and clear. Is that the case?
Yes.
Okay, good. Andrea, first of all, congratulations for the results. Really outstanding. The first question is again on the guidance. I know it's a pretty, let's say, tight distinction, but or difference. Looking at your press release and your wording, at the end of the year, you mentioned at least 10%, but in the first quarter, you mentioned well and above 10%. At least volume wise, there is an upgrade. At least if you can comment on that. The second one is on the prospects of your net cash position. I mean, you mentioned in your PR that the decline in net cash was due to an increase in net working capital of some EUR 30 and odd million.
I'm wondering if you can elaborate on the component related to stocks that you mentioned was EUR 24, EUR 25 or EUR 26 million. If that is related to finished products or to, let's say, higher purchases of components in order to face the scarcity which is going on. Again, if you can elaborate on that. On the same point, if the level of advances from your client is more or less the same level of year-end. Or is now lower. Just to understand the structure of the net cash. If it's possible on urology, let's see.
I mean, looking at the very strong results on consumable, if it's possible to have an idea of the size of the business on a yearly basis, I mean, considering both the machines and the consumable, which is useful for our sum of the part. The final one, if I may, is China. You mentioned that, despite an absolute increase in your number, you were not satisfied with your performance. Is that entirely related to COVID issues or if there is anything else you want to mention to us or to share with us? Is that correct to assume an improvement going on from Q2 in China? Thank you.
Now the guidance. Yes, somewhere we wrote well above. Obviously, when you hit 24% revenue increase in the quarter and you have a guidance that says more than 10%, you're above, you're also well above. I mean, I can say that if somewhere is written well above is what we actually believe. Concerning the guidance, we are, as I said, extremely optimistic and we are performing well above 10%. We are targeting well above 10%. The reason why we decided not to change the guidance is, first of all, that the second half of the year 2021 has been very brilliant, and therefore the benchmark will be a tougher one.
This is not really the reason why we maintain prudent, or the main reason why we maintain prudent. The main reason why we maintain prudent is what I spent a lot of detail during my presentation. There are some situations in which we're able to continue to work normally. I'm talking about effect of the war, effect of the lockdowns and effect of the shortages. These three problems, which quite unpredictably and unexpectedly could turn into much harsher. Even though we are intrinsically optimistic, the imminence of events that we can't control pushes us to keep a guidance which is open. I mean, it's open to better results, but we don't want to change it today.
In case we see that we continue navigating these waters successfully for more months, we will then update it. This doesn't mean we are intimately optimistic on our business conduct, but we need also to consider the kind of environment we are working in. The second question was on the net financial position and the inventory. Enrico can give the exact details here. Roughly, I believe, there is a EUR 26 million increase in inventory and about EUR 10 million decrease in accounts payable, and about EUR 2 million increase in receivable. Enrico, am I wrong? Enrico?
Enrico,
Excuse me. The inventory, the increase was EUR 23 million, and the most part of the increase was in raw material for EUR 15 million. In the meantime, for what concerned the down payment received from the customer, it's more or less on the same level of the end of the year. There is a little increase of a couple of EUR 2 million.
The answer to what we're doing and what's happening is in what I was saying before. We are purchasing. I mean, we plan to manufacture a certain volume. We purchase for that volume. What happens is that we are not able to manufacture that kind of volume because we receive only partially the goods we order. Therefore, this is happening for several months in a row. We do not dare to stop purchases because in this situation, in which our suppliers are struggling, if we stop purchasing from them, they could decide to stop providing materials to us. Therefore, we even decide to continue to invest.
We don't see a material risk in investing in materials in order to have all the materials lined up to be able to be effectively producing in the coming months. Other question was urology. We never disclosed the actual numbers of urology, but I mean, since there's a quite large number of people. I mean, urology sales of boxes for urology in Q1 2022 exceeded EUR 10 million. Sales for consumables in urology, I mean, for fibers in this quarter, which was a record quarter, and probably will remain a record quarter for long time because there have been some exceptional volumes, wasn't far from EUR 10 million.
I mean, the overall business in this quarter, including consumables and boxes, was just shy of EUR 20 million. Of course, you see in this chart the EUR 14.5 million in surgical, which is systems, but which includes also systems for other applications like ear, nose and throat, like gynecology and a small piece of veterinary surgery that we book within surgery. The question on China, you mentioned I wasn't happy with China. How could you be happy with a sales performance that is so strongly affected by lockdowns again?
We knew that we were gonna have a challenging benchmark with 2021 in the first half of 2022, because the first half of 2021 had been a very, very strong recovery post-COVID period in China. Not only we had a demanding benchmark, but we had also an unfavorable environment. Under this point of view, the results in China were, of course, disappointing, but I'm saying were disappointing because of this situation. As I mentioned, in the disappointment, because the circumstances led us to this result, there are very positive news which once again confirm how in this market we have something to say due to our specific positioning.
Our specific positioning is what allowed us, in a quarter in which there were evident headwinds on the Chinese market, to increase the average prices of our sales and to increase the margin on sales due to the fact that we are expanding to these market segments that are more rewarding. We have, in this moment, a competitive advantage in these market segments which are more rewarding. If we weren't able to deliver physically or weren't able to actually install systems in several provinces of China, this obviously affected our performance, which in its numerical outcome was not very satisfactory, but it was a good performance, and it was a very good performance if we compare it to the circumstances.
That's great. Thank you very much, Andrea.
You're welcome.
Andrea, we have one more question from François Robillard from Intermonte. Please go ahead, François.
Hi, everyone. Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. First one is on the margin guidance. If I understood correctly during your prepared remarks, you stated that you were expecting a record year in terms of profitability. Is there something to read there in terms of percentage of margin, or do you stick to just the quantitative indication that you gave of a growth in EBIT in absolute value? Second question is on the FX impact in the first quarter. Basically with a U.S. dollar appreciation compared to euro, what kind of impact did it have on your performance in the first quarter, both in terms of top line and the EBITDA margin contribution?
Third question, which is kind of connected, is on your expectation going forward in the U.S. market. Some of your peers have given some pretty bullish expectations. What do you expect for this market and how do you intend to address this strong local demand? Finally, on fixed costs, if my calculations are correct, you had about EUR 35 million between staff costs and other operating costs in the first quarter. Can we expect something more in the coming quarters, especially, in the past, you mentioned going back to trade fairs and other events, and the effort you made on staff, what kind of floor quarterly spend can we expect looking at those cost lines? Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you, François. First, the question, I mean, saying that we expect not record profitability, record profits, is just compliant to the guidance. If we grow 10% from a record year, we will have record revenue. If we have a better EBIT from a record year, we will have a record EBIT. On guidance, I believe I discussed our position lengthy also in answering to Andrea Bonfà. I don't have anything else to add. About foreign exchange, we calculated that the overall effect of foreign exchange on revenues was net of increases and decreases 3.6% in this quarter. 3.6% in this quarter.
Was higher, of course, in the U.S. dollar segment because there was a negative effect on the Japanese yen, which is quite relevant for us. This means that I mean, on sales in dollars in this moment we are having quite a relevant advantage, which is probably close to 10%, in terms of value of the sale. Then of course, we have to consider that there are relevant purchases which take place in the U.S. in U.S. dollars. Therefore, this 10% advantage is not fully converted into margin because we have an increase also of cost of goods sold.
Overall, the gross margin that we had in the medical segment, which is the one in which we charge in U.S. dollars, did not increase with respect to the gross margin of the last quarter of 2021. This was due to the effect of an increase in margin due to foreign exchange in sales, but also an increase in cost due to two elements. One, that there was an increase on OEM sales, which bear a lower gross margin, but also bring with them larger volumes and therefore they lead to an advantage at EBIT level, even though we lose a little bit on gross margin and also an increase in cost. We are not disclosing any detail, any further detail in this case about the foreign exchange effects.
What I can tell you is that with the strengthening of the U.S. dollar, we expect margin in U.S. dollar sales to continue to increase, obviously, and we count in this effect to counterbalance both the cost increase in the U.S. dollar component and also the cost increase which comes from general inflation. We do not model a great impact, overall impact on margin as an overall effect of all the positive and negative components.
I would like to remind that the mix is very impactive on our overall margins because the more you sell in certain segment which have low level margins like industrial, or the more you sell certain products within certain segments which have lower margins like OEM hair removal laser systems, just to make an example, the more the margins are driven down. While the more you sell in other segments like surgery, where we have good margins, the more the margins will increase. It's very difficult to have any model about pricing and about actual margins, given, I mean, the whole environment extremely turbulent. Did I answer to all your question, François?
No. Just on fixed costs.
Yeah.
Can you just come back on the increase in the first quarter and what to expect next?
We are not disclosing any information, any detailed information about this. What I can tell you is, if you noticed, there was an increase in the impact of operational expenses on revenue. This increase is due to several different accounts, but mainly to one, which is the return of traveling and the return of trade fairs. The answer, if we expect a higher cost for these two accounts, the answer is yes. We expect a slow increase in the operational expense for international traveling and international sales and congresses, which obviously were not taking place at all. We also expect, as operational expense, an increase due to energy costs. Even though energy costs are not impacting our cost of goods sold directly, they are impacting our expense.
Within the single accounts that were adding up to the increase of our operational expenses, the lines related to heating, we were in the winter, were the most affected. Of course, we expect, therefore, a growth in operational expense. Difficult to quantify. We expect to be able to grow even more rapidly our sales volume and to offset the extra cost, leading to an increase in EBIT.
Thank you.
Andrea, we have one more question from Hugo Mas of Sycomore Asset Management. Go on, Hugo.
Yes. Hello, Andrea.
Hi.
My question are mainly related to China. Could you help us to assess what kind of performance did you achieve in the months of April and beginning of May in terms of sales growth or decline, just to have an idea of what could be the impact of lockdowns in China currently? The second question is related to the IPO of the China due to laser cutting. Did you make progress on this area?
On the first question, we do never disclose the sales performances in detail, on the current period. What I can tell you is that the situation is still harming our business in the month of April. There are good news. It seems like Shanghai is being released, but still the situation is not the one we wanted for the period. This kind of situation with results which are lower than expectations have also an impact on the potential development of an IPO on mainland China market.
Of course, because those kind of financial solutions need in China, the company to be performing very well, or at least in order to be able to aspire to this kind of solution and to aspire to a good result in an IPO, we need to perform well. Since we were underperforming in the quarter, of course, it becomes more difficult to pursue that kind of potential solution. As much as we were not sure, and we were just highlighting the possibility of a potential IPO, today I confirm that there is a possibility of a potential IPO. Of course, the better we perform, the more consistent are the chance to be able to, let's say, undergo a path towards an IPO.
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
One question from Paolo Cipriani of CP Capital. Go on, Paolo. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Perhaps two if I may. Just the first one is regarding the order backlog and the bookings. Could you just, like, provide some more information regarding that? How is developing at the moment?
Yes. It's another number that we comment in a qualitative way. We never provided numbers because the order backlog is always subjected to a certain degree of uncertainty. We prefer not to provide numbers. What I can tell you is that we entered in 2022 with record levels of bookings in all of our segments. Medical, industrial, and this was also testified. There was an accounting evidence given by the huge volume of down payments that we had booked in our financial reports. Customers that had paid a certain percentage of their order to make sure that their orders would be delivered on time.
During these months, we, for instance, had to clean up the order book from all the Russian and Ukrainian orders, which is significant for certain market segments. We were able to continue to book a significant number of orders. Just to give you an indicator, even though not all the orders are bearing down payments, the indicator of the down payment is not necessarily an indicator which is 100% reflecting the actual order backlog. The total amount of down payments at the end of the first quarter was not materially different from the same amount booked at the end of the year. This means that, let's say you could imply a book to bill one ratio.
Okay. Got it. Just another follow-up on the marginality. I mean, you described the current environment, but if I look at the quarter now, basically, EBITDA margin is a bit increasing. Now it went up to 30.9% from 13.4% of the previous year. Given the situation of the inflation on energy and raw materials, I mean, if you could just maybe tell me again how you have been able to handle with this situation and actually improve the marginality in this situation whereas actually costs are increasing quite a lot.
I'm not sure I get. I mean, in terms of gross margin, there is a mix. Always. You always have to consider the mix. When you look at the total mix, if we sold more in medical and industrial, this changes the mix and changes the margin. What I can tell you about our cost is that the cost increase is a long way. We started sourcing in the second half of 2021. For the whole 2021, we continued to purchase at very good prices due to the increased volumes, and therefore our cost of goods sold declined actually during 2021, even though the price increases were starting to spread out.
Now in 2022 we are starting to have material cost increases, but I mean, they're averaging out with our costs of 2021, and they're still not impacting that much. We'll be seeing the cost of goods increase more and more during the year. We have also other circumstances that we're able to offset the cost of goods sold increase, like the good performance of the U.S. dollar against the euro, which allowed us to increase the actual gross margins with respect to the previous year. Finally, if we look at overall margins, we are manufacturing higher volumes of production. We are having an operating leverage, and this is the reason why our EBITDA unit margins are improving.
Okay. Thank you.
Andrea, by my side, I do not have more questions.
Excuse me, but I see two hands up.
Sorry?
Yes, I see two hands up. I see Gloria Ribeiro with her hands up.
It's Emmanuel.
It is not Gloria.
Sorry. Sorry, Emmanuel. Go, Emmanuel. Emmanuel, go.
Good afternoon. I just have three questions.
Hi, it's Emmanuel. Hi. Excuse me.
Hello. Sorry, I'm wearing glasses. The first question is, can you give us an idea, just an idea or a qualitative of what percentage of products you're selling this year, which are considered new models or new products? If you have to give a percentage or a range, how much of what you're selling this year is less than 12 months old? That would be like, if you can give some comment on that would be one question. The second one is, can you give us an update on the U.S. with MonaLisa, where the studies are? When should we expect news flow on scientific studies? My last question is over Asclepion and the supply shortages you had in Q1. Are they continuing in Q2?
Are they getting any worse? If you can just give some color. What is it? Is it chips? What are you having problems sourcing? Thank you.
New products of the last 12 months, actually fully new products. 12 months is a short period, even if we are strong innovators. In the medical business, for instance, hair removal, probably about 40% in hair removal are products that are less than one year in hair removal. Overall, in medical, probably around 15%-20% of products in the last year, in the last year. MonaLisa Touch. We are still discussing. We are getting closer and closer and reviewing contracts. The studies to be performed in the United States have not been given green light yet because we have to finalize the agreement with Cynosure.
It's a very expensive study, and it is tied to distribution networks, excuse me, to distribution contracts. It's now taking really a very, very long time, but we are not yet. We hope and we count on being closed, at least with Cynosure, we were able to sign very significant contracts which are now having a significant impact. But on the MLT, we are still not yet there. Asclepion, things went better in terms of production in the month of April. Excuse me. Things worsened in the month of April, but have now improved again. We are talking in this case of electrical components which are part of their power supply, which was the main problem, and hydraulic component, which are part of the chilling unit.
The amazing thing, Emmanuel, about these shortages is how shortages hit on the most different components. We have had shortages with microchips, but also with ordinary semiconductors, diodes. We have shortages with fans. We have shortages with cooling fluids. We have shortages with components for cooling devices. It's, I mean, we are hit from every side, and we need to put up with any kind of efforts.
Perfect. Thank you.
Andrea. Andrea, we have one more question from Manon Coulon of Erasmus Gestion. Go on, Manon.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. Just have one, please. It's on price increases that you mentioned a bit during your prepared comment. Can we have an idea of the split in Q1 between volume and price mix? Maybe the price increases you may think that you're gonna apply for the rest of the year?
Thanks.
I'm sorry. We do not even have this number by our own product range. We sell about 140 products, which have several versions themselves. We apply price increases. We do not have a punctual tracking of price changes. Unfortunately, I'm not able to give you this kind of details. What I can tell you, though, is that we are progressively adding to our prices in order to keep up with a cost increase which we deem to be, as I mentioned, around 7% at the end of the second quarter, and probably further increasing going on in the year.
Thanks, for that.
Any more questions? Okay, if there are no more questions, we finish this conference. Thank you to Andrea Cangioli, to Enrico Romagnoli, and thank you to all investors that attending this conference, and we hope to have you all at the next event. Good afternoon to everybody.
Bye bye, everybody.
Bye. Bye.
I hope to see most of you or the largest number possible of you on the thirty-first of May here in Florence. I hope that at least some of you will be able to make it. Thank you for being with us today, and hopefully hope to see you in Florence.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Thanks. Bye.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye. Ciao, Nicola. Thank you so much.
Bye.
Thank you to all of us. Yeah. Bye.
Thank you. Bye.
Bye.