Today, and welcome to Azelis's Q1 trading update call. As usual, we are joined by Anna Bertona, Group CEO, who will give us an overview of business trends and our overall performance during the quarter. Thijs Bakker, Group CFO, will then walk us through the numbers. After their presentation, we will open the floor for Q&A, but until then, you will be on listen-only mode. As a reminder, this presentation may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risk. Let me now hand you over to Anna.
Thank you, Pam, and good morning, everyone. I am pleased to have you here on the call today, and like last time, I will start by providing you a high-level overview of the trends we saw in the first quarter and our performance during the period. Thijs will then take you through the numbers. Afterwards, I will conclude with our view on the outlook. As Pam mentioned, we are happy to answer any question you may have after the presentation. Here are the three main points that I would like to highlight about the first quarter. First, I'm very pleased to report that we have maintained and are actively maintaining a strong conversion margin. This demonstrates our commitment to balance growth and profitability, even in challenging conditions. Second, there are some important points to consider when looking at the first quarter performance.
On the one hand, the growth trends we are reporting for the first quarter are measured against strong prior year comparables, especially for EMEA and APAC. And as a reminder, Q1 last year, the EMEA growth, organically was 4.4%, and in APAC, it was double- digits at 11%. So in these regions, comps were still tough. Adding to that, there is a longer stabilization period in the industry. We are seeing recovery in volumes, but they are offset by pricing friction in some of our end markets. The supply and demand dynamic is rebalancing, and inflationary pressures from supply chain disruptions are easing. Some price discovery is natural in this situation. Final point I would like to make is that we are seeing a slow but steady improvement in our order book. This gives us comfort that organic growth should return during the year.
In the meantime, we continue to control our cost, while also making sure we are well prepared for the growth recovery. Now, let's move on to the key from the first quarter on the next slide. During the quarter, we achieved a revenue of EUR 1.1 billion, representing a 1% year-on-year decline in constant currency. We generated profit of EUR 261 million, up 0.7% from prior year. This means that we were able to expand our gross profit margin by 47 basis points compared to Q1 2023. Given the price pressure in some of our markets, this is another demonstration of the strength of our diversified portfolio.
We achieved EUR 124 million Adjusted EBITDA, equivalent to an EBITDA margin of 11.8%, and this reflects our ongoing focus on cost control to limit the impact of slower revenue development. As mentioned earlier, we have kept our group conversion margin well above 47%. We also continued our M&A strategy to expand our footprint, and during the quarter, we closed three acquisitions, and we have announced two additional acquisitions. That brings the M&A count this year already to five. They are all small bolt-ons, which further enhance our lateral value chain. Now, let's look at some of the drivers of the results on the next slide. In Life Sciences, volumes are recovering within certain end markets, some pricing frictions, but on the whole, trends are encouraging. Our Home Care and Industrial Cleaning segment is performing well across the board.
The recovery in EMEA is slow but steady. F&F in other regions is stabilizing, but in general, global trends in F&F are starting to go in the right direction. Food volume are also broadly stable, with some price pressure in certain markets, while on the other hand, Agri was weak throughout last year due to overstocking, and this quarter, we were not helped by the weather in Europe. In aggregate, volumes are recovering, although offset by price pressure. The trends in Industrial Chemicals are mixed. In CASE we continue to see over recovery in U.S. volumes, while in other regions and other industrial end markets, volume stabilization is still ongoing. A highlight is the good performance in Lubricants & Metalworking Fluids in EMEA. Overall, I would say the market is still volatile, but the stabilization is taking root.
Volumes are slowly coming back, while price pressure will dissipate, and we are well positioned for the recovery. Now, in terms of the inorganic growth, we completed three acquisitions so far this year, one in each region. In EMEA, we closed the acquisition of Oktrade, which is a great addition to our Personal Care business in Turkey. South America, we acquired Localpack, and in APAC, we completed the acquisition of Agspec, expanding our Agri footprint in Australia. We also signed two other acquisitions, MDK, which is a strong addition to our Personal Care business in Indonesia, and DBH, which adds to our industrial business in the DACH region. I'm actually very pleased with our M&A pipeline, which remains strong.
We are continuing to play our part in the industry consolidation, building a stronger platform, a broader lateral value chain, and enhancing our capabilities to the benefit of our customers and principals. With that, let me turn it over to Thijs to talk about the numbers.
... Thank you, Anna. Good morning, everyone. I will start with an overview of the group financial performance for the first quarter of 2024. Let me start on slide nine, where you'll find a summary of our P&L and revenue split between Life Sciences and Industrial Chemicals. For the first three months, we recorded a revenue of EUR 1.1 billion, representing a 3.8% year-on-year decline. Excluding negative effects, revenue was broadly stable compared to the prior year. As mentioned before, Q1 last year was our highest quarter in 2023, and Anna already provided some color on the organic profile of last year, Q1.
Diving deeper into the composition of this EUR 1.1 billion revenue, EUR 669 million of revenue came from Life Sciences, flat from last year, or +2.5% in constant currency, supported by volume recovery in most end markets, as well as M&A contribution, due to the first-time inclusion of M&A. Our Industrial Chemicals business delivered EUR 382 million of revenue, representing a 10% decline versus prior year or 7% measured in constant currency. This performance reflects stabilizing volumes offset by pricing pressure and mix effects. We see an improvement in trends and volumes compared to previous quarters, supporting stabilization and recovery later in the year.
Our gross profit for the first quarter was EUR 261 million, a 2% decrease year-on-year on a reported basis, and 0.7% increase in constant currency, so broadly stable compared to the same period last year. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue expanded by 47 basis points to 24.8%. The expansion was largely the outcome of mix effects from existing business tilting more towards Life Sciences, progress on M&A integration from previous years' M&A, offsetting dilution effect from recent acquisitions. During the first quarter, we achieved an Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 124.3 million, a year-on-year decrease of 7.2% on a reported basis, and 3.6% on constant currency basis, resulting in an Adjusted EBITDA of percentage of revenue of 11.8%.
This represents a 43 basis point contraction versus the strongest quarter in 2023. The contraction in margin was driven by margin pressure in the Americas, which had lower cost savings impact compared to the prior year, given that they started the contingency actions already earlier in Q4 2022, and from dilution from our Latin America business, which comes at a lower EBITDA margin profile. EBITDA as a percentage of revenue in EMEA remained more or less flat, even though diluted by recent acquisitions. These effects were partly offset by the strong expansion in Asia Pacific, which were supported by cost savings measures, as well as positive mix effects across our businesses in the region, as we are making progress in integrating the product portfolio from acquisitions made in previous years.
Conversion margin during the first quarter was 47.7%, which is a 270 basis points contraction from the strong performance in the prior year. We see this as phasing and note that we continue to maintain a strong conversion margin above 47%, which was achieved at the peak of the growth cycle back in 2022. Now, let's move from here to the next slide, where I'll provide a quick overview of the growth breakdown of our financial metrics between organic and inorganic. Organic revenue for the group was 8% lower compared to Q1 2023, as the comparable versus prior year in EMEA and APAC are still challenging, and macroeconomic pressures in Latin America continue to weigh down performance in the Americas.
Revenue growth contribution from M&A during the quarter was 7%, while FX remained a headwind, with a negative effect of 3% on revenue growth. In general, as more common, we need to be careful on the interpretation of the top line as we see volume and activities improving, but it will take time to translate to absolute growth because price levels need to stabilize first. In EMEA, organic revenue declined 8.6% compared to the 4.4% organic revenue growth achieved in the first quarter of 2023, and 34% in Q1 2022. M&A contributed 4.8% of revenue growth, while FX effect had a negative effect of 4.3% on our revenue.
Life Sciences in EMEA is experiencing volume stabilization with an increase, except for Agricultural & Environmental Solutions, offset by price friction in some end markets, while in Industrial Chemicals, volumes and prices are still stabilizing and still include the last negative impact from a portfolio optimization program, which is roughly EUR 6 million in revenue, representing 1% of revenue in the prior year. I will drill down into the regional drivers a bit later, but these elements have weighed down on gross profit in the region, leading to an organic decline of 8.8%. In the first quarter, organic EBITDA declined by 9%, driven by the full year impact of salary cost inflation across Europe, offset by cost-mitigating actions, leading to a conversion margin of 54.3%, slightly below Q1 2023. So it's quite good.
In the Americas, the improving organic revenue development in the U.S. was offset by continuous weakness in Canada and Latin America, Mexico in particular. This resulted in an organic revenue decline of 8.6%, although we can report sequential improvement. This was offset by revenue growth contribution from M&A of more than 11% at stable FX, allowing us to report a top-line growth of 3.6% in the first quarter. Gross profit in the Americas increased by 1.5%, driven by contribution of 11.7% from recent platform acquisitions in Life Sciences, offset by a 10% organic decline.
The organic decline in gross profit is driven by a couple of moving parts, namely the positive mix effect from the recovery in higher margin Flavors & Fragrances, where we see increased volume activities being offset by volume recovery in CASE, which typically comes at lower gross profit margin levels, as well as dilution from Latin America, which is having lower margins than North America. EBITDA reduced by 7.4%, driven by a 17.6 organic decline due to negative mix effect, dilution from Latin America, and lower impact of cost savings in Q1. That is because we started with a cost containment much earlier in North America. Now, we're early in the year and in the recovery. As such, we monitor the sequential volume improvement in the Americas and don't rule out further cost reductions if needed.
In Asia Pacific, we reported a revenue decline of 6%. In the first quarter, 5% revenue growth was achieved from inorganic M&A, offset by a negative FX effect of 5% and 6% organic revenue decline. Some context here, these were very tough comps to beat, following 11% organic growth in the comparable period last year. The region did well in the area of gross profit margin expansion, driven by positive mix effect, but mainly solid progress expanding our product portfolio from past acquisitions done in 2021, 2022, and 2023, but also margin accretive impact of recent acquisitions that Anna alluded to. This, in combination with continuing cost management efforts, resulted in a 3.3% year-on-year growth in Adjusted EBITDA, which follows a 58% growth in the same period last year. So this is an excellent performance.
Bringing it all together, total revenue of the group decreased by 4% to EUR 1.1 billion in the first quarter of the year. We can now leave the top comparables behind us, as well as the portfolio optimization, which ended in March. Our cost contingency plans are at various stages of its development. As such, our conversion margin remained at 48%, demonstrating our ability to manage the elements that are under our control. Now, let's take a look at the regional financial performance on the next slide. Let's start on the left here with EMEA. In the first quarter, revenue declined by 8.2% to EUR 500 million, driven by 8.6% organic contraction. Within Life Sciences, within Life Sciences, clear volume recovery was offset by some price friction, while the market continues to recalibrate towards stabilization.
Our Middle East and Africa business was negatively impacted by delays in shipments due to the ongoing Red Sea tensions, where containers are delayed in port. Azelis Agro witnessed continued weakness in Europe, where the end of the destocking was more than offset by the impact of weather-related demand issues in Europe, as well as price pressure in Central and Eastern Europe. Within Industrial Chemicals, volumes are still stabilizing, with pricing remaining under pressure. Also note that the results in the first quarter still contain the last impact from our portfolio optimization program, which ended at the beginning of March. Slower revenue development, as well as the full year impact of cost inflation from a salary point of view, led to Adjusted EBITDA of 14.3% and a 54.3% conversion margin.
This is a 157 basis points contraction versus the record conversion margin achieved in Q1 2023. Turning to the Americas, revenue increased by 3.6%, supported by two platform acquisitions to strengthen our Life Sciences presence in the region, namely Gillco in Food in the U.S. and Vogler in Brazil, both with strong synergy potential. In the organic scope, the recovery in Flavors & Fragrances, which started in Q4, continued into Q1, and we continue to closely monitor the pace of the recovery, as this provides margin recovery for us as well. For the rest of the segments, the promising volume trend is partly offset by price pressures in some end markets, but we are seeing positive trends here, and we will get there.
In Industrial Chemicals, the ongoing recovery in volumes is, in CASE, offset by continued weaknesses in the rest of the segment. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue contracted by 145 basis points to 12.2% due to the dilution from Latin America and lower impact cost savings in Q1 this year. This led to a 468 basis point contraction in conversion margin, which came in at 49% for the quarter. Now, to the right, lastly, in Asia Pacific, revenue decreased with 6%, following a very strong growth in the prior year, with 11% organic growth. Despite this performance, Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue expanded by 90 basis points to 10.1%, supported by positive mix effect, as we are focused on improving our portfolio from prior M&A and continuing cost controls.
Our APAC business achieved a 47% conversion margin during the quarter, down slightly from Q1 2023. Now, let's look at the main driver of our cash flow generation, working capital, on slide 12. Net working capital to sales was 13.9% at the end of March 2024, compared to 13.4% at the end of December, and 14.7% at the end of March 2023. So we're well in control here. The year-on-year reduction in our working capital demonstrates our focus on optimizing our processes to preserve cash, and are mainly to applying credit control applications from our systems and M&A integration. The slight uptick in working capital to sales compared to Q4 is driven by seasonality, as well as preparations in view of our improving order book for April, May, and June.
We generate free cash flow of EUR 114.5 million, representing a cash flow conversion of 91% for the period. It's driven by the EBITDA that is a bit lower than prior year, and slightly higher investments in working capital during the quarter to prepare for our order book. Overall, we will continue to optimize our working capital and focus on cash generation regardless of a business cycle, mainly in the area of M&A, which is still in the area of 25% working capital of revenue. Now, with this, I'm handing back the floor to Anna for some closing remarks and the outlook.
Yeah, thanks, Thijs, and indeed, I would like to conclude the presentation with our view on the outlook. Yeah, the market continues to be choppy, but the volume recovery in some of our key markets and the evolution in our order book gives me reason to be cautiously optimistic for the remainder of the year. And as I said in March, supply chains have mostly normalized. Now, volumes are normalizing and even starting to recover. And with that, we anticipate that the pricing friction we are currently seeing will eventually dissipate. At the very least, the tough comps are behind us, but visibility remains low and the market remains volatile. We continue to expect to return to organic growth during the course of the year, unless, of course, a large unexpected event occurs. Exactly when we will see the organic growth is still too difficult to tell.
The distribution market intrinsically remains attractive, and I see many opportunities we can build on for the future. In the meantime, we will remain focused on managing our costs, but on the other hand, also continuing our growth investments, and I'm therefore confident that we are strongly positioned for the recovery. With that, I would like to end the presentation, and we are happy to take your questions now. So operators, if you could please open the line for Q&A.
If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. And your first question comes from the line of Chetan Udeshi from JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Yeah, hi. Thanks. I was just following up on Anna's point about the progressive recovery in volumes. Can we assume that at least the earnings for this reason in second quarter will be sequentially better than what you have done in Q1, or you think it's a bit too early to comment on that particular point? And second, you mentioned, you know, price pressure across a number of businesses. I'm just curious, how much of that is just a gross pricing coming down because, you know, you are getting maybe lower prices from your suppliers that you are sort of passing on, versus how much actually is your price compression in the business?
You know, within Life Sciences, which would be the pockets that you can identify where you might be seeing compression, compression on your pricing levels? Of course, we all know these prices are coming from a very high levels over the last few years, but just curious, within Life Sciences, where do you see, from, from an Azelis perspective, price compression? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. So maybe first, the question you had, on the outlook for the Q2 results. We are actually optimistic about our Q2. We can see in our order book that, things are improving, and so, we expect to have a better quarter than, the current quarter. On the price pressure, the price pressure is in the end markets, and, you probably have seen also we hear that, not only from our side, we hear that also from our principals and our direct customers. And you probably know how it works in our pricing mechanism. We get our pricing, from our principals, and we pass that on.
Of course, there's a dialogue going on between us, so, when we see in the market pressure, we discuss these kind of things with our principals. It takes some time to adjust, of course. We have purchased already some goods, and so it takes some time before we can adjust. But, yeah, we pass on the prices that we receive from our principals. So I would say that, yeah, the pressure is coming from the end market, and we adjust it together with our principals.
Understood. Thank you.
... Your next question comes from the line of Laurent Favre from BNP. Your line is open.
Yes, good morning, all. Anna, you mentioned normalization of supply chains. I mean, elsewhere, we've heard that in Europe, in particular, there's been impact in Q1 from the Red Sea situation, with customers switching to domestic suppliers rather than importing from China. I mean, I was wondering if net/net, you think that that had been a positive or a negative for your business? And is there any sense of, I guess, pre-buy in Q1? That's question number one. Question number two, cheeky one, the elephant in the room. Am I right to assume that you have no comment to make on the recent price speculation on EQT and the future of Azelis?
Thank you for your question. I'll start with the first-second question, which is an easy one. It's not up to us, so I think, if you need more information, it's better that you contact, EQT directly. Coming back on your question on the-coming back on the question on the Red Sea, you have also to take into account that even if we work with Western European, principles, they have also production that is not in Europe. And, and so, yeah, the goods can come even from Asia. So there has been some impact. I think that the impact is not enormous for us. We don't think there's a lot of pre-buying.
We think that the normalization of the supply chain comes from, as we know, from 2022 and then 2023, where people overstocked and, they reduced in 2023 their stock. But, we think that these stocks have been normalized, in most of our segments.
Yeah, so the Red Sea is not structural for us. Obviously, we have quite a larger part of our business in EMEA, is quite large in Middle East and Africa, where, as I mentioned as well, there are quite a lot of containers delayed in the port. So, it's mainly Middle East and Africa, where we see basically some impact in Q1. And the delays, yeah, you can estimate them for the first quarter, they're roughly in the EUR 8 million range of revenue. And this is all delays. Obviously, the timing of Ramadan wasn't really helpful.
Okay, thank you.
Question comes from the line of Stijn Dem eester from ING. Your line is open.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for, thanks for taking my questions. Three, if I may. The first one is on the dilutive impact from the M&A. In the, in the past, you have sometimes provided a margin number without this dilutive impact. Could you provide a number for this quarter or for America specifically?
I have to come back to you on that one, Stijn, but in general, the M&A, I understand where you're coming from. The M&A done in 2024 was mainly in Life Science, and it's come with a higher profile, except the one in LATAM, in Colombia. If you then take a look at 2023, the M&A came in with a lower percentage. Look at the number here. The M&A in Q1, in 2024, came in with a GP of about 200 basis points higher. Yeah.
Okay. Understood. Understood. Then, as to M&A, we've seen limited deals in recent months from your end relative to the pace of the last three years. Is there a specific reason, for example, discussion on multiples that you're having, or is it just a timing-related issue?
We have a very healthy pipeline, and five this quarter, I think, is not really a low number compared to the past. We don't see any different dynamics than last year. I'm actually, as I said before, quite pleased with our pipeline. It's very well distributed over the globe, and especially in the areas where we want to strengthen ourselves.
Okay. And then the final one from my end, to address the question of the previous analyst in a different way. Do you still believe large-scale M&A in the specialty chemical distribution industry creates more dyssynergies than synergies? That's still a fair assumption?
Yeah, I can confirm. That's why we normally focus on smaller, bolt-on acquisitions, and that yeah that are filling a gap and that are much more complementary than creating conflicts. I think if you have large mergers, that you will have a lot of conflicts.
Okay, understood. Thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Eric Wilmer of Kempen. Your line is open.
And thanks for taking it. It appears that A-brands are currently doing a lot of volume promotions to support sales, as pricing is indeed also difficult for them. And this appears to be particularly helping volumes of the F&F ingredient manufacturers. I think you highlighted stable F&F and stable Foods. Do you see any signs of this spilling over to your customer base, which should support your volumes as well? So basically, from the A-brands to your customer base. Thank you.
Thanks.
Yeah, well, I think that it's something that's I would say broader than only the A-brands. By the way, we also sometimes supply the A-brands depending on what kind of products. So, yeah, we see this recovery that is already I would say more visible in U.S. than in the rest of the of the globe. But yeah, we are actually quite positive in the development of the F&F and we see also for next month's a good order book and a good development.
Yeah. So, please also note, we see volume recovery in F&F. There's price stabilization taking place, but the margin profile in Life Sciences of F&F is, of course, higher, so we will also have an uptick in our margin. I think the discount mechanism where you're referring to, that's not normal. We just get the prices from the principal, and obviously, we're not walking away from volume at customers, and there can be a time lag in between.
Fully understood. Thank you very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Yates at Bank of America. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Question really around M&A as well as spending close to EUR 2 billion on acquisitions since 2020, yet you haven't necessarily provided much disclosure about how these assets have subsequently done since being acquired. I appreciate there's a whole bunch of external macro factors that you can't necessarily control, but is there anything holistically you can say to reassure investors that the company is deploying capital wisely, given this is such an integral part of your strategy? Whether that be the lateral value chain strategy, driving the top-line synergies. I'm just wondering whether, in hindsight, you found that any of the businesses you bought actually had a more commoditized or portfolio, and that's been contributing to the pricing pressure that you've been seeing, and I'm obviously thinking here specifically about Latin America. Thank you.
Matthew, that's a good question. I think on the disclosure, I refer also to the section in our year-end report, and I think we have been very open with splitting out compared to peers already from the beginning organic and M&A growth. I think your question regarding deploying capital wisely, we do strategic M&A, so we indeed apply that lateral value chain concept. We look where we are missing, basically, letters of the alphabet, and we try to win them, obviously, organic, based upon our portfolio strength, but also fill them with M&A. So we're not going to, for instance, buy companies where we are already very active and where we have already a full lateral value chain.
And the margin of the group reflects also our M&A since they become part of organic after 12 months, just to mention that. Now, obviously, M&A is an art on its own, and sometimes you make decisions to get a foothold in, for instance, certain geography. I don't think we never made a secret out of it, that, for instance, in Colombia, we have been in LATAM. We've been looking for many years for a starting point there, but for compliance reasons, we turned down quite a lot of assets. Then we found an asset, and that had, indeed, a bit more commodity to our liking, as our previous CEO also mentioned on the record. And what we are doing then, yeah, we are converting this company, and that takes a couple of years.
We're converting these companies toward more specialty side of the portfolio. So in general, our M&A, we basically bring in suppliers. Take, for instance, the Food is a good one. We are number one Food platform here in Europe. And what we are doing, we're bringing basically Food principals also to the other regions where we don't have a Food blueprint. Now, that gives commercial synergies, and that's basically measured. It's difficult to capture that immediately because, yeah, these are ongoing commercial discussions. So we track that basically on a 24- to 36-month, you begin to see really the benefit of that. Example, to give you a little bit of comfort there, you can see actually that our margins on our GP levels, et cetera, are improving in Asia. Yeah?
So this is not something that is just quarter-on-quarter, but this is all the work that the team is doing in the background, huh, to basically optimize and improve the product portfolio. Yeah. So hope that that gives you a bit of an answer, Matthew.
Yeah, and if I can also build on that-
Thank you.
We are onboarding our principals to that platform. I recently visited our acquisitions in Latin America, and I'm actually very pleased with what I have seen there. We have a team there that is very technically oriented, with strong connection to customers. And so with these two, if we onboard the right products, we will get the margin up as well.
Can I ask a second question, just to be clear? Anna, you said you are seeing an improving order book for April and May. Are you just referring to normal seasonality that you would expect, kind of month-on-month improvement, or is it more of a an underlying comment about demand that you're seeing pick up?
No, it's real year-on-year improvement, so not just seasonality. That gives us yeah, the positive signs that things are moving in the right direction, not only on a seasonality point of view, but really on a more healthy business portfolio.
So Matthew, as I said before, we have about, let's say, four-eight weeks, we have quite good visibility on our open orders. That's what we track. That's a KPI where we look at. The open orders are, of course, a very dynamic picture if you do that across a global company with all these segments and all these countries. But in general, we've seen improvement in the order book, especially in April and May.
Perfect. Thank you both.
... As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Nicole Manion from UBS. Your line is open.
Good morning. Just a question, please, on your SG&A and the cost controls that you're emphasizing. Could you maybe give us a bit more detail on what those cost measures are, where you think you're at with some of those levers, and how you feel about the cost base now into a potential volume recovery? And secondly, maybe within that, if you could comment specifically on headcount trends, if there is anything new there to update on, since the full year. Thank you.
Yeah. I think, maybe our approach on cost contingency. First of all, we have a very variable cost base. Yeah, that's, that's one. So basically, we can scale quite well with the uptick in demand from a GP point of view. Obviously, we monitor, and we're very good at that. We have a good track record there. We obviously initiate these contingency plans, we call them. We initiate them on various timing. Now, in the U.S., we started obviously much earlier because we already saw an organic decline in Q4 2022. So then you get, that takes about three-four months before you start to see the run rate. So we noticed that in Q1 2023.
Hence, that's why you also see from a conversion margin, our comps basically in Americas. Now, obviously, I also made a comment, yeah, you're not gonna cut in your front line, for instance, if you see that your volumes are coming back. So we're holding off a little bit our foot off the pedal there, and we're monitoring the situation clearly. EMEA had, of course, a very good Q1 last year, and also actually April and May were still good, so we started back then with our contingency plans. So you will still see a run rate effect and of those effects. Because if you look at our conversion margin, please note that the salary increments in 2023 were quite significant, but we kept actually our conversion margins relatively stable. Asia, same thing.
We started only in October, towards its last part of the year. So therefore, you see, for instance, right now an uptick, but also there, we started with those plans, so you will see then yet—and you will see basically a full run rate of those savings somewhere in, yeah, in the coming months. If we look at where do we cost cost savings, so you asked about headcount. Okay, this is very simple. We are always having the ambition to have one platform worldwide, and we take, of course, as much synergies as we can. We can take that out of the back office. Yeah.
We want to have as many feet on the street to serve our customers and principals, but on the back office, yeah, we are basically trying to be efficiently as possible there. So I hope that gives you some color on the, on the SG&A. So we're not done yet with our contingency plans.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Alex Stewart of Barclays. Your line is open.
Hi there. Good morning. I just want to go back to Chetan's question, actually, about pricing. I hear what you're saying, that your buyers' prices are coming down. But could you comment about your price, in other words, the margin you charge to get product from A to B? I know it's not as simple as that, especially chemicals, but or especially. But are you seeing the margin or distribution, so to speak, price for distribution coming down at the same time? Thank you so much.
I think it's very difficult to hear on the line.
Yeah.
But maybe I can repeat it a little bit, and maybe Anna.
Yeah.
You're saying basically, pricing are coming down, and you're asking for us what the impact is on our margin profile?
Yeah, I mean, you said that the, your, the product prices were coming down, and you were discussing that with the suppliers, which I understand. But I, I'm interested in, in sort of the price that you charge for the service, in other words, the distribution margin, whether you're seeing that come down as, as well as the product price?
Well, we have only one price, so it's one price we have to customers that includes products and services. So we don't make any difference in that in pricing to our customers. So I'm not really sure I understand the question.
Okay, that's fine. I'll take it up with your investor relations team. Thank you.
Yeah.
Your next question comes from the line of Suhasini Varanasi from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Hi, good morning. Just a couple of small follow-ups, please. Did you see any impact from trading days in 1Q? A couple of other companies in our coverage have mentioned that, and should we expect that to reverse in 2Q as a result? Second question, just on the pricing pressure again, has it eased or is it still ongoing in 2Q at this point in time? Thank you.
Yeah, let me take first maybe the pricing question, and then you can look at the rest, you can look at the impact on the trading days. So yes, we see still pricing pressure. It's still there, and it's not gone yet. We anticipate that at a certain moment, you get at the equilibrium, and also as volumes goes up, it's yeah, a normal market mechanism that prices stabilize. So we expect it will improve, but at the moment, we see in several of our markets still pricing pressure. Maybe you can take the trading day... Yeah.
Yeah, I think, Suhasini, you're absolutely right. March was a short month with two to three trading days less for us. So, that impacts, of course, the comparables to previous periods as well. Although, if we look then in April, we have obviously in April, we have two working days more again. Yeah. So, yeah, it does have an impact for us, especially when yeah, you do your math, we take orders on the last working day. It's about EUR 15 million-EUR 16 million, so it does have a bit of an impact from quarter- to- quarter. I think the best way to look at this business on a six months / LTM.
I understand. Thank you. Is it possible to quantify the impact? Was it maybe like 1%, 1.5% impact at the group level for 1Q, and then maybe that reverses in 2Q?
Yeah. No, not that much, but it's I gave you a number, what our daily run rate is. Yeah?
Okay.
Then you have a bit of a-
That's better.
You can make the calculation. Yeah.
Sure, sure. Thank you.
There are no further questions on the conference line. I want to hand back to management for closing remarks.