Thank you everyone for joining today's call on the Q1 2022 results of Newlat Food S.p.A. My name is Benedetta Mastrolia. I'm the investor relations at Newlat Food. Joining me today to discuss the results are Angelo Mastrolia, our Chairman; Giuseppe Mastrolia, CEO and Chief Commercial Officer; Fabio Fazzari, Group Financial Director; and Rocco Sergi, CFO. Before starting, I would like to remind you that this presentation may contain certain forward-looking statements that reflect the company's management's current views with respect to future events and financial and operational performance of the company and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements are based on Newlat Food S.p.A.'s current expectations and projections about future events. Any reference to past performance of Newlat Food shall not be taken as a representation or indication that such performance will continue in the future.
This is not an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy Newlats securities. Now we move on to the actual presentation on Slide three, where we have the Q1 2022 key financial highlights. As usual, we have just some highlights of the key figures. Starting from revenues, we see that revenues were equal to EUR 165.4 million, which is a growth of 7.7% versus the first three months of 2021 on the same basis, so on a pro forma basis, including Symington's from the 1st of January of 2021. In particular, we had very good growth in pasta, which grew by 22%; milk, which grew by 5.2%; and dairy, which grew 27.3%.
We also had very good growth in Italy by 7.7% and especially in Germany, where we grew almost 18%. If you look at EBITDA, it was equal to EUR 13.1 million, which is a slight decrease versus the EUR 14 million of EBITDA in the first quarter of 2021, as well as EBITDA margin decreased and went from 9.1% to 7.9%. This of course was expected due to the very extraordinary period in terms of inflation and inflationary wave that has been hitting not only raw materials, but also all the production costs such as packaging, energy, logistics prices, and so on. Despite that, we were actually able to still record very good double-digit margins in bakery, dairy, and special products.
In general, we were able to not dilute our EBITDA and our margins in general too much. EBT, so pre-tax profit, was EUR 3.1 million versus EUR 5.2 million in 2021. If we look at the financial actually, you will see that the there's a clear difference in the financial expenses that we had to bear this year compared to last year, because as you well know, we issued a bond in February 2021. Of course, the first three months of 2022 saw a higher impact of the financial expenses linked to the bond interest as opposed to 2021, when we only had a few less than a month left in the first quarter.
Of course, if we sort of exclude that, the EBT would have been very similar to 2021, despite the fact that we had all these increases in prices and in costs. If we look at free cash flow, we were actually able to generate quite a lot of free cash flow, which was equal to EUR 9.3 million. We recorded an EBITDA free cash flow conversion of 82.6%, which again confirms our ability to generate cash from the operating activity. Looking at net financial position, for this period, we had a pro forma net debt of EUR 42.8 million versus EUR 52.9 million at the year-end 2021. It was a great improvement. We actually almost went neutral on a IFRS 16 net basis.
If you exclude IFRS 16, the net debt would have been around EUR 4 million versus EUR 13.8 million by the end of the year 2021. Moving on to the next slide, page four, we see just some key messages of this period that we wanted to highlight. First ones being the strategic and commercial initiatives and highlights of the period. In this period, we were able to list Naked in some of the most important retailers, both in Italy and Germany. Some retailers already have Naked in store. Some others will see the actual launch of the product in the next month.
In the U.K. instead, we actually launched a new product, which is called Naked Ultimate, which is a higher sort of more premium range versus the original Naked range, and which has been listed in Sainsbury's, Tesco's, Asda, and Morrisons. You will see actually a slide on that after this slide. In the U.K., again, we also launched the Ragù pasta range. Ragù used to be just a sauce, tomato sauce, brand.
With our acquisition, we were able to integrate our production from Italy and to enlarge the portfolio, the product portfolio of the Rag`u brand by launching this pasta range, which has been launched at Iceland, but which will be introduced to more retailers starting from the second half of the year. We also had a good increase in orders. We've been receiving more orders for the special formulas for babies or the infant formulas with the addition of new markets around the world. Very last point on the strategic and commercial initiatives is the good growth of Delverde in Germany, of the Delverde pasta in Germany. That for us is a very good signal, and it's proof, actual proof that there is no significant Brexit risk.
That's what we called it. Despite the fact that Buitoni no longer exists on the packaging, we didn't see a decrease in sales. We actually saw an increase in the overall sales in Germany. That's very good news for us. Moving on to Symington's. We have been investing in Symington's in the last few months. We've been evaluating the current state of the Symington's plants, and we have made some investments in order to improve and to work on the efficiencies, especially on the automation side at the plants in order to drive efficiencies and further reduce costs. Especially important is to highlight that we've been working on the reorganization of the Consett plant. Consett is one of the plants of the Symington's group that wasn't as utilized as it should have been.
We have been able to invest in the last months in this plant, and we will put it back into sort of production, at least if not full production, but definitely driving the production intensity in this plant. We expect to actually double the profit by the end of the year 2022 versus last year. Very last point in this slide is about raw materials and the inflation. As already mentioned, in 2022, we had a general inflationary wave which not only impacted us, but also all the producers in our categories. It impacted raw materials, but also packaging materials, logistics, and other additional costs.
For this reason, we have been working on increasing our price lists, so adapting this price list to the increase in costs that we've been bearing. We have been able to successfully increase those prices. Of course, some of them will be delayed, so you will see that there's been a slight dilution in margins because of course there is a slight delay in the moment you communicate a price increase and the moment those go into effect. In general, we've been really successful at introducing new prices, and we already informed and pre-warned our clients that there may be possible new increases in the second half of 2022.
Next slide is slide five, where we see the newest product launch, which is the Naked Ultimate Noodles that I already talked about briefly. As mentioned, this range has been introduced to Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, and more retailers in the U.K.. The difference between this product and the original Naked range is that this product, first of all, is 100% recyclable, which goes hand in hand with our ESG commitments and the fact that we want to increase our sustainability of our products at source. We want to reduce as much as possible the usage of any plastics or non-recyclable materials. For this reason, these cups are made out of 100% paper and cardboard instead of using plastic.
This product of course has a more premium positioning versus the original product. As you can see also from the sort of visuals, it's a lot more interesting, and it's a lot more premium than the other one, than the original one. Also, we worked on flavors. Our R&D worked really hard on developing a flavor that's really rich. Also the noodles used are a little bit thicker than the original one. We've made improvements in the recipe there, which can be noticed when you eat the two noodles. You will see a huge difference. However, this doesn't mean that for having you know richer flavors, we will have to sort of sacrifice health and the ingredient list. We've been really cautious.
We're using all natural flavors and no artificial ingredients, so this is also a very healthy option to all the other noodle brands on the market. This product is also vegetarian, so we say chicken flavor, beef flavor, but it's actually just vegetarian. We use all these spices to sort of recreate the taste of different products, but it's all vegetarian. It's also in this sense very eco-friendly 'cause we don't use any meats. Moving on to the breakdown of the sales. Moving on to slide 7. We have the pro forma revenues. As I mentioned earlier, the sales grew by 7.7% versus last year on a pro forma basis.
This period was characterized by two main factors, which first one being an increase in demand in all the business units, but mainly in pasta, milk, and dairy, and an increase in the average selling price due to the higher raw material prices. We can give more light on the month of April, which just ended. We've seen a positive sales growth in this month as well, which is quite similar to what we saw in the first quarter of 2022. As regards costs, it is very difficult to talk about a stabilization of costs at this stage. We have been seeing very encouraging signals of a slowdown in the inflationary trends, both in raw materials and other production costs.
With this in mind, we think that this is a very good signal that by the end of the second quarter, we might be able to bring back marginality to normal levels. What we expected last year, and we expect to end the year with good levels of marginality as well. Moving on to the next slide where we have the breakdown by business unit. We can see that pasta sales increased by 22% versus 2021. This is due to an increase in sales volumes and in prices in Germany and an increase in volumes in Italy, especially in the B2B channel, as well as an increase in the private label channel in other countries, which followed a higher demand for pasta. Milk products recorded an increase of 5.2%.
This is mostly due to an increase in the average selling price of the products. The instant noodle category saw a slight contraction of 2%. This is not something that we expect to see in the next quarter. Actually, we expect to see an increase in volumes and in general in sales in the second quarter of the year. Most of the price increases that have been applied will be visible starting from Q2. It is worth noting that this type of business is very back-loaded, so it's more focused on the second half of the year. Therefore, we will be able to see an improvement in the next months. Bakery products slightly decreased in volumes.
This is linked also to a shifting of the promotional activities from the first to the second quarter. There, we expect to see better results in the second quarter as a result of more promotional activities. Dairy products increased by 27.3%. This is a coobined effect of an increase in sales volumes and of the average selling price. Special products remained pretty much stable throughout the period, and other products as well remained quite in line with the previous year. Moving on to the distribution channel breakdown. We see that large retailers grew by 8.8%. This is mainly due to an increase in the pasta segment sales as well as an increase in the average selling price. B2B partners increased by 8.9%.
This is due to an increase in volumes, but also thanks to the entry of new clients in this channel. The normal trade channel was pretty much in line with last year's sales. Private label recorded an increase of 8%, especially in terms of volumes. We saw an increase in pasta and in dairy. But also in this channel, we were able to increase the average selling price. Lastly, we have food service, which remained pretty much stable throughout the period. Moving on to slide 10, where we have the revenue breakdown by geography. We can see that the revenues in Italy grew by 7.7%, thanks to an increase in sales and also in the average selling price.
Germany recorded a very good increase of almost 18%, so 17.9%. This is an increase in the pasta volumes. As I said, the brand has been performing really well in Germany in the last months, and we also were able to introduce higher sales price in Germany. In the United Kingdom, we saw pretty much stable situation, so very similar to last year. We expect, however, to see a sales and also a profitability improvement in the United Kingdom, starting from the next quarters. Lastly, other countries saw an increase of 7.7%, thanks to higher sales volumes and also an average selling price, which is higher than last year. Moving on to slide 11, we have the breakdown of the EBITDA, so by business unit.
EBITDA, as I said, was EUR 13.1 million in the first quarter versus EUR 14 million in 2021. This, as mentioned already, is sort of an effect of the higher raw material prices and production costs that we've been incurring. Despite that, we were able, at group level, to reach a very small dilution in profitability, and that was thanks to our portfolio diversification, the industrial efficiencies that we've been able to put in place, and also the very good brand positionings that all our brands have in all the different countries. In particular, we want to highlight here that we were able to.
Despite the decrease in sales, we were able to increase special products EBITDA margin, which is sort of a by-product of the fact that we've been selling more high added value products versus last year. We've been selling more special especially infant formula products which have added to our EBITDA margin. In general, we're really happy that we've been able to maintain pretty good and high EBITDA margins in bakery, which is almost 13%, in dairy, 14.6%, and special products, which is 11.5%. This is very good results despite of the increases in raw materials, especially if you think that bakery, for example, was slightly impacted by the raw material crisis we had there as well, and special products as well.
We were really good at managing these prices. Moving on to slide 12, we have the free cash flow. Here we can see the free cash flow for the period was EUR 9.3 million. The first three months we were able to convert into cash around 82.6% of EBITDA. This is really a good result if we consider that we had an increase in the interest costs and in financial expenses as a result of the bond issued in February last year. In general, we've been really diligent at managing and efficiently managing the net working capital, which gave a positive contribution once again.
In general, we can say that we expect CapEx to further be reduced on a yearly basis this year versus last year. That is also really important for us to keep a very healthy free cash flow generation. Lastly, we move on to the last slide, which is slide 13. We are giving you sort of an outlook on 2022. Again, we are reiterating what we said two months ago. The first months of 2022 have been characterized by this inflationary wave, which has impacted all businesses alike in our sector, and of course the war in Ukraine and Russia has been impacting not only businesses, but life in general. Despite this very challenging environment.
We feel that by the end of 2022, we will deliver a low- to mid-single-digit organic revenues growth. We also confirm that we expect a stable profitability, and a good cash flow generation and enough cash flow generation to drive the group back to net cash position. We see that in this period, we were actually able to almost go back to a neutral position, so we definitely expect to go back to a net cash position.
We reiterate the fact that we have negotiations in place which put us in the position to confirm once again that our aim by end of year is to get to EUR 1 billion of consolidated revenues, which are of course pro forma, including the 12 months revenues of the target, and this will be performed by the end of the year. Okay. Now we can move on to the Q&A. As usual, you can just unmute yourself and ask questions, or if you're not able to speak, you can just write in the chat if you wanna write it down and we can read it out for you. Thank you.
Hello. Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Can you hear me?
Yeah.
That's fine. Good afternoon. I have a few questions, just to start with. First of all, during the presentation you have mentioned the efficiencies you are implementing at Symington's, the reorganization at Consett plant. My feeling is that you are probably a bit more confident or, let's say at least starting the implementation now of this plan. In the previous call, it seemed that the inflationary environment had been driving you to postpone a bit the investments needed to achieve these efficiencies. Did I got it right last time or instead, there's actually more confidence from your side now? Are you maybe able to get these efficiencies a bit earlier?
How could this help for profitability for the current year? Still on this point of profitability for the year, in fact you are confirming your guidance of stable margins in spite of from what we understand a weaker margin in Q1 and an evolution of the inflationary environment which has gone further since your previous guidance. I'm wondering whether we should take this indication of stable profitability as applicable just for the second half. What was the meaning of the sentence? In any case, what I mean, how are you...
What kind of attitude are you seeing from your customers, from especially large retailers with the price increases you have been applying and the further that you are anticipating for the second part of the year? Very last question instead is about the pasta segment actually, which is the only performance among your segments, which is a bit puzzling for me, because we have seen a strong acceleration in volumes that you have commented, mainly driven by the German market, but also by Italy. I see, however, on the other side that profitability in this quarter has been a bit weaker than we saw in the fourth quarter.
This is even a bit more surprising to me because actually the inflation trend, particularly in durum wheat, had started even earlier. I thought this was a bit less meaningful now as a problem in terms of cost for you. What is behind this weaker performance of pasta both year-on-year and also in comparison to the pandemic level? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Paolo. Starting with the first question on Symington's. We said during the full year presentation that some investments will be postponed, especially the investments linked to the automations for plants that are already working well, but could gain additional profitability through automation. For Consett, the situation is different because Consett is a plant that was focused in the past on a particular set of recipes and products. For example, it was and is still the plant that we have that is producing products for the Ministry of Defence for the British Army, and with several bottlenecks in different parts of the production site.
What we made are several investments to try to transform part of the production of Consett to more interesting products in terms of profitability than the Ministry of Defence, especially on the B2B side. We already got interesting contracts. We substantially are going to double revenues this year. Consett last year generated around GBP 6 million of revenue, six million pounds. This year, with the orders that we already get, we are a bit above GBP 12 million. This is the reason why we accelerate these investments because our investments that we can cover substantially, we can get the return to cover the investments in a bit less than 12 months.
It's a different type of investments than the other plant that we have for the other plants in U.K., and this is the reason. We expect to have a good positive contribution also from Consett this year in terms not only of revenues, but also in terms of the EBITDA. About the general question on profitability, I think that what is different versus the scenario that we described in December before the start of the year and also in our latest call is that the scenario in Q1 was characterized by a continuous increase of prices not only for raw material, but for everything related to the production.
You know that it's not possible to negotiate with the retailer every week the price increase. This means that we needed to manage the buffer that we create at the beginning of the year with the first negotiation. What is key in our message is the new price increase that we plan for the second half of the year, because we got the opportunity to negotiate every six months. Obviously, if the situation remain like the scenario that we had in mind at the end of 2021, probably this second wave of price increase would haven't be necessary because we were already at the desired level of profitability.
Considering the scenario that we experience in Q1, we already planned the second round of price increase to cover substantially the buffer that we need after this new increase that we experience in all the production cost. What we are seeing now is not a change of direction, but a reduction of the intensity of the inflation trend, and this is important. We believe that the new harvest season for the raw material could play in a positive way for us. This is obviously positive because what we have also to consider is that we believe that with a stabilization with the second round of price increase, we could get the stability, the similar margin of last year.
We have to consider that when this really strange and exceptional wave of inflation will finish, the same delay that we experience in terms of price increase, we could experience the same in terms of review of pricing linked to the decrease maybe of the raw material price. It's a game in which now you are giving something and you should recover in a second period of time. What I think is important to highlight is that if you analyze the performance in terms of profitability, we have been able to realize a good increase and a good performance in the sub-sector in which we have a strong brand and value-added product.
In area like milk in which we have a strong brand, but obviously milk is milk, nothing particularly different than other products, we have been able to realize a very small dilution versus what happened in the milk market, and this thanks to the positioning of our strong brand. For this reason, we are really happy considering the really strong storm that we experience in Q1. We are very happy about the performance, and for this reason, we are confirming the expectation for the full year. Speaking about pasta is experiencing a very strong trend, especially in Germany.
I think that this is positive, not only for the economic impact in this quarter, but because it substantially cancel any shadow about what could be the situation after the exit of Buitoni from the German market. The result is really strong and encouraging because we didn't experience any kind of weakness related to the change in brand. Delverde with the packaging very similar to the previous Buitoni one is performing very well. We substantially anticipate also the skip to a single brand because in reality, we could maintain the dual branding also for this quarter, but we decide accordingly with the retailer to anticipate that because the demand for Delverde was already very strong.
In terms of the profitability, the profitability was impacted by the fact that, first of all, in Q4, we continued to benefit from a contract in Germany for durum wheat that was at fixed price. While in Q1, we started to adapt also that part of the raw material to the new price in the market. This substantially is the main impact that we experience in Q1, and also the fact that in some cases we had to face additional change in terms of pricing, in terms of agreement that we need to take, a new agreement to cover the needs and to accelerate maybe in some cases the buying of the needs for the first half of the year.
We are absolutely confident that with the new harvest season, especially considering that this year there are more fields dedicated to durum wheat, also the basis of the return that they are experiencing with this level of prices. The scenario in the second half could be different than the one we are experiencing now.
Thanks.
Sure.
Arianna Teppati from Intesa Sanpaolo. Good afternoon, everyone. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay.
Absolutely, yeah.
Just a couple of questions. The first one, I would ask you if you could elaborate more on the increasing volumes in dairy products and if it is a kind of a seasonal effect. The second one, if you could provide an update on the M&A activity, besides the negotiation on that would allow you to reach EUR 1 billion revenues. Thank you.
Yes. About the dairy product, we experienced a good performance, not only in volumes, but also if you see also in terms of profitability. This is related to substantially new demand, new contract. There isn't a seasonality effect. To be honest, the Q1 is always the weakest quarter into the year because January is usually weak for food. Especially this year with the Easter in Q2, I think that the seasonality in Q1 2022 was playing substantially a negative effect. The dairy performance is real performance related to volumes and to new contract.
About the M&A, we can confirm what we explained during the full year result conference call. We are in negotiation with a multinational corporation for an important deal in a new category. We are reviewing the some document, and we substantially can confirm you what we mentioned in the previous call. The fact that we believe that in the second half of the year, we can substantially close this deal. Unfortunately, I cannot share additional details because now the situation also considering the phase in which we are is really important to avoid any kind of issue because also the other counterpart is listed, a very big company.
We want to avoid any kind of potential issue because we are going on very well, and we are very happy to try to get this transformational opportunity for our group.
Thank you.
Good morning. It's Doriana. Can I ask some questions?
Yes. Hi, Doriana.
Hi, everyone, and apologies that I wasn't able to dial in before. My first question is on the 7.7% growth that you announced for the quarter. Would you be able to split the contribution between price and volumes? First, that's my first question. Second question is, I think if I didn't get it wrong, you said during the presentation you managed to increase prices pretty much everywhere, but in the U.K.. Is that correct, and if that's the case, why the U.K. wasn't able to receive higher prices?
In terms of Symington performances and what you said in terms of you know, the success that you have achieved with Naked, is there any contribution from Naked or any other Symington products that have been you know, listed outside of the U.K. in the Q1 figure? At the same time, is there anything that you might have achieved in terms of Newlat products sold in the U.K. that you can share with us? Thank you.
Thank you, Doriana. In terms of the 7.7% growth reported on the top line, it's equally split between volume and value. Obviously it's different category by category, but generally speaking, this is what we could share is 50/50. In terms of the U.K. and the impact on the price increase, in reality, we already made some price increase in the last quarters, the third quarter in particular of 2021. For what I explained before, the inflation wave was really strong, amazing, this buffer that we created obviously is not enough.
In the U.K. budget, we have and will be visible in the second quarter, the impact of the price increase that are mostly concentrated in the second quarter of the year. This is a decision that has in particular two explanations. First of all, in U.K. is working different than Italy. You have to negotiate, explain, justify in several meetings, and you need more time to get the, not the agreement, but the application of the price increase. Secondly, you have to manage the price increase, the launch of the new product, et cetera. Obviously there is a strategy that is full of different aspects, marketing, cost, introduction of new product, et cetera.
The balance of these all these things together create this situation in which we already saw in April a double-digit growth in revenues for Symington's. This obviously is linked to the price increase that started. There are no other particular reasons, but it's a matter of market and a matter of other initiatives that you have to combine. We are very confident in U.K.
As Benedetta said in the presentation, the budget of U.K. this year is packed and loaded for several reasons, for the launch that we plan of the new products, for the impact of the price increase, and also because the comparison base in Q1 was very strong, because Q1 last year was strong for several reasons related also to the different COVID time, but also because last year in Q1 was a key quarter for the selling process of the company. You know better than me that when you have to substantially approach a potential buyer of the company, you have to show the best situation you can have.
This is the reason why last year we had substantially the reverse of the performance that we expect this year. Last year, the first half was stronger than the second half. This year, in a normalized situation, we expect substantially the reverse. As I said before, we are very, very confident on the U.K. performance. U.K. is a very trump card for our group because the company is full of expertise, products, recipes, industrial know hows. There are a lot of things that we can develop in the future. It's very exciting, the situation. U.K. market is also an interesting market to offer a commercial development also for other products.
Answering to your third question, in Q1 we don't have any kind of material contribution from the new launches in Italy of the U.K. products and in U.K. of the pasta. Going forward during the year, we will start to see the contribution from these initiatives. Obviously, this year is a year of development in the sense that we are also dealing for new contract also in the B2B with the retailer in U.K. This kind of deal is a deal of six months, seven months between the beginning and when you sign the contract, you start to produce for this retailer.
This is the reason why, we believe that, considering what we have on the table today, next year in terms of U.K. initiatives could be, a better year because, we can, receive the contribution for several initiatives on which we are investing now.
Now, if I can add something concerning the commercials, maybe. Doriana, do you want to say something? Maybe you were asking something else.
No, no, Giuseppe. Yes, I do have a follow-up question, but please go ahead, and I'll ask the follow-up question.
No. What I would like to tell is that the experience that we are making now, of course, we acquired the company from August, and then we have the startup process and but now we are really on board with the current team that is now in Symington's. In Symington's, we established a really great team starting from the CEO and all the management. Now the new team is really confident. They're really committed to the business. We are working daily on new opportunities. Concerning pasta, to give you just an example, now we are in a deal with two big retailers in the U.K. to do them private label, because U.K. is mainly private label markets, mainly a private label market.
Imagine that, for example, Barilla has a share of from 3%-4%, so brands are not so important like in Italy or in Germany. We are experiencing now in short term the possibility to be the partner of one of the Big Four. We're talking about Sainsbury's, where we talk about the potential production for them of 18,000 tons of pasta. Then of course, the biggest, the number one is Tesco Express. With Tesco, the big stores and Tesco Express as well, where we talk about the potential business of 44,000 tons. This will be seen if we can gain it in September. Why? Because they have, let's say, season of listings.
We now already talk with all the retailers, and it depends on every retailer when they have the session of listing available for their own private label. What I can tell you is that the news that there is a new pasta supplier on the market is really well-recognized and well-welcomed from the U.K. retailers. Because now U.K., as you may know, there is no pasta producer locally. The other companies, the competitors, no one of them have a structure in the U.K. like we have now with Symington's. On my too much positive opinion, I think that we can gain a good market share in private label and in brand as well in short term. Of course, we need the time to make all the assessment. We can.
It can take around 12 months. I think that we will be really. We can take a big share in the U.K., thanks to our commercial team that is there, and our production capacity that I always remind that it's full of all the products, gluten-free, low protein, different shapes, lasagna sheets. We produce everything compared with our competitors. We do not have to ask to no one else to produce for us any product. This is an advantage compared with all the peers.
Okay. Thank you. I think my follow-up question is coming back to the contribution between volume and value. I think Fabio Fazzari said that there was a different situation across different categories. I wonder if you can give us a little bit of more color in terms of how prices and volumes might have changed across the different categories, please.
Sorry. Fabio, sorry.
We can say generally. The reason why we don't disclose particular details is also. There are also commercial reasons. Generally speaking, I can tell you that on pasta and dairy there is substantially better impact of volumes. In the other categories we have main impact in terms of value.
Okay. Thanks.
Yeah. One thing that I want to tell you, in the long term, a high volume on pasta can improve our fixed costs, the volume on pasta can improve our contribution margin on a long-term basis. I don't know if you understand what I want to say.
Yes, I do.
Yes. Giuseppe is referring to the fact that in pasta is one of the areas in which we have spare capacity, and this strong step forward could allow us to receive from volume a similar benefit to.
Contributions
a value contributions. Yes.
Thank you.
Concerning the launch of Naked, if I can tell you something else, it's just in Italy, as we said, we had this launch in the main supermarkets, Coop, Conad, and Esselunga. Of course, it's taking a bit of time because now with this storm of price increases, it's really hard to list new products. Meanwhile, we are already in Esselunga, and you can find the product inside the stores. We are making the first two promotions, so the product start moving on and to show himself out of the shelf. We listed in both Conad and Coop.
Of course, the distribution, as I told you before, is going a bit slowly because in this period, as they have all this price increase to manage, talking about the new products with the buyers is really hard. We made a strong presentation, and the product is really well-recognized. In terms of marketing, we saw that the target needed is really low age. We are talking about 13-22 years old persons. We will execute some dedicated market initiatives of tasting and sampling in front of school, universities to let the people taste our products. This is really, really good. All the team in Italy is going forward to support the launch of Naked. As a trade part, they are all really in.
There is a lot of enthusiasm, if it's correct in English.
Yes
Concerning the launch of Naked everywhere. I'm really confident it could work really good.
Yeah. Just a quick follow-up. Sorry. About Symington's, just to bring to a bit more of detail. When you confirm your guidance for stable profitability for the year, do you think this might apply to both Newlat organically, let's say, and Symington's, or should we imagine a different path for the two segments, let's say?
I want to say that the indication is for the consolidated figure. Obviously there are different stories inside for Symington's. For what we said, we expect to anyway reach an improvement year-on-year versus last year.
Thanks.
Can I just, sort of confirm that the guidance is for EBITDA margins to stay stable and not for EBITDA to be stable in the full year?
Yeah. The margin, the indication is for the margin, not for the absolute number.
Okay. Thank you.
If there are no other question, we can close the call. I think, Benedetta, do you have other question written?
No, I don't see anything, unless. Let me just check now. I haven't received anything, so I think that's all, unless someone else wants to ask something now. We can end the call. We're at your disposal for any further follow-up questions. If you wanna send us an email or call us, we're available for further information. Thank you everyone for joining today's call, and have a nice evening. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye everybody.
Bye.
Bye. Bye to all.