Good day, and thank you for joining us as we present our trading update for Q1 2026. As usual, we have Anna Bertona, Group CEO, who will give an update on our operating progress year- to- date. Boris Cambon-Lalanne, Group CFO, will present the financial results, and then Anna will say a few words on the outlook. After their presentations, we will open the call 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. We will make a recording of this call available on our website later today. I will now hand you over to Anna.
Thanks, Pam, and good morning to everyone. Let me start with the most important messages regarding Q1 2026. First, we saw mixed trends across our regions during the quarter. Some end markets are stabilizing, and others continue to be very challenging. In this quarter, we have seen some, but still limited, pre-buying from customers, but we expect this to change as the Middle East conflict continues. The relatively limited pre-buying suggests that there are at least part of the stabilization that we have seen in some end markets, and that has been demand driven. I will go into more detail per region and end market in the next slide. Second, we generated broadly the same amount of cash despite lower EBITDA during the period, translating into 113% cash conversion. This performance is another demonstration of the asset- light, cash- generative nature of our business.
This is actually a good segue to my third point. The Middle East conflict has further increased volatility across our markets, highlighting the need to balance growth and take the right actions to protect our profits. This is exactly what we are doing. We are on track with the implementation of strategic programs, while at the same time prioritizing cash generation and remaining disciplined on costs. This means managing our own costs as well as passing on the cost to customers as a result of price increases from principals and logistics.
Now let's move on to the key highlights from the Q1 on the next slide. In this quarter, we generated a revenue of EUR 1 billion, which is broadly stable versus the prior year in constant currency. This was driven by the 3.9% organic revenue decline being offset by a 3.3% contribution from acquisitions.
We achieved an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 104 million and a very strong cash conversion ratio of 113% during the quarter, once again demonstrating the benefit of an asset- light, cash- generative business. Overall, market volatility persists, and this is evidenced by divergent trends across regions. Generally, where we have seen stabilization, it was mostly driven by volume growth. The pricing picture remains mixed across end markets and did not change materially in Q1 versus Q4 last year. Now let's look at the drivers of our organic revenue growth. Clearly, the largest supporting driver in our revenue performance was APAC, which is 20% of our group revenue. The region turned positive for the first time in 10 quarters and generated a 4% organic growth. The constant focus on commercial programs and the pruning of our portfolio is delivering results.
In the markets that generated growth, it was mostly driven by a volume increase. Another positive in Q1 was the sustained momentum in U.S. Food based on volume growth and stable pricing. We also saw green shoots in Personal Care and F&F in U.S., which both turned positive in Q1, supported by volume growth. These positive trends were offset by some challenges. Europe recorded a significant organic decline due to the tough comps, as the demand environment across all end markets was challenged compared to Q1 of last year. This is also valid for EMEA, but there we have seen an acceleration in negative momentum since the start of the conflict.
LATAM did not grow organically, especially in Mexico and Brazil have seen pressure on both volume and price. Lastly, in APAC, there are still pockets of weakness, and specifically in ANZ, and that makes up 20% of APAC.
Their volume decline persists. If you take this, the weakness of ANZ into account, it means that the growth in the rest of APAC was even larger than the 4% organic growth. While we manage the short-term challenges, we remain focused on executing on our strategy. The strategy that we presented in 2024 remains unchanged and is based on segment leadership being active consolidator and building one agile Azelis. We have three important strategic programs to achieve our objectives. Customers' First Choice is focused on strengthening the value proposition to our customers and equipping our salespeople with better tools. From our global customer satisfaction survey, we know where we are good, but also where we need to improve. The program is one of the elements contributing to improving top-line performance and gross margin management.
Winners of the Future is about expanding our cooperation with companies that provide a portfolio of innovative, high- quality, and sustainable products. I am personally spending considerable time on this, and I'm pleased to see we have been successful to add new mandates with existing and new partners. Future Fit is a program that is shaping our organization to become more customer- focused and more agile. As we are shifting certain activities to regional structures, our local teams can focus on what really matters, our customers. This also enables us to accelerate the rollout of our digital tools for business operations, and we are currently in the middle of the implementation of this program. Digital and AI play an important role, in especially Customers' First Choice and Future Fit, both supporting the commercial side as well as the back office processes.
We are making good progress on the three programs, and more information about the impact will be shared with you later in the year. With that, let me turn you over to Boris, who will take you through the numbers.
Thank you, Anna, and good morning, everyone. As Anna mentioned during the business update, Azelis once again generated robust cash flow in a difficult market. First, let's get started with the group P&L. In the Q1 Azelis delivered a revenue of EUR 1 billion, representing a 0.7% year-on-year decline at constant currency. This performance was supported by a little growth in Life Sciences, which was up by 0.2%, while Industrial Chemicals declined by 2.1%, both expressed at constant currency. Gross profit in the Q1 was EUR 246 million, a year-on-year decline of 2.3% in constant currency, corresponding to a margin of 23.7%.
The 43 basis points margin contraction reflects the negative mix effect across the group, notably an unfavorable country mix in Asia Pacific. Adjusted EBITDA in the Q1 was EUR 104 million, a decline of 7.9% in constant currency versus the prior year.
However, the EBITDA in Q1 last year included about EUR 5 million of favorable one-off items that are not present this year. Adjusting for those and still at constant currency, the EBITDA decline would be limited to 4.4%, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 10.0% compared to an equivalent of 10.4% last year. This evolution was driven by the lower gross profit, but was partly offset by the full benefit from our cost-saving actions implemented last year. As a reminder, we announced in April 2025 a EUR 20 million run- rate cost-saving program that was fully implemented by the end of 2025, and that is now fully impacting the 2026 P&L.
The conversion margin remained a healthy 42.4%, which, although lower than Q1 of the prior year, shows an incremental improvement from 36.2% in Q4 2025 and 41.5% in Q3 2025. Let's move on to the overview of the regional performance.
In EMEA, which makes up 46% of the group, revenue was EUR 483 million, representing a year-on-year decline of 2.3% in constant currency, driven by organic revenue decline of 9.5% with most end markets weak. Gross profit was EUR 123 million, implying gross profit margin of 25.4%, with strong margins in Europe offsetting continued weakness in the Middle East and Africa. Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 58 million resulted in a margin of 12.1%, with cost discipline and contribution from acquisition partly mitigating top-line pressure. Versus the prior year, M&A in Europe delivered +7.2% in sales, +8.6% in gross profit, and +9.3% in EBITDA. In the Americas, which makes up 34% of the group, Q1 revenue was EUR 351 million, or 1.2% behind last year in constant currency, reflecting organic performance during the period.
The organic performance was driven by stable Life Sciences, where we have started to see tentative signs of stabilization, as Anna mentioned. This was offset by Industrial Chemicals, which remains weak. Gross profit in the region decreased by 2.1% in constant currency to EUR 83 million, and the adjusted EBITDA decreased by 9.8% to EUR 36 million, resulting in EBITDA margin of 10.2%. The margin contraction was largely due to dilution from lower EBITDA margin in Latin America. In Asia Pacific, which makes up 20% of the group, revenue in the quarter increased by 4% in constant currency compared to the prior year to EUR 208 million, reflecting the organic growth in the region.
We saw some early signs of stabilization in some end markets, with revenue growth in the region driven by volume growth in Industrial Chemicals and stable Life Sciences, and stabilizing prices across most end markets. Gross profit in the region was EUR 40 million, a decrease of 3.3% in constant currency, driven by negative mix effects as well as competitive pressure in the region. The strong cost control in the region translating into an Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 20 million and a conversion margin of 49.8%.
Overall, foreign exchange remained a significant headwind, mostly in Americas and APAC, with top- line impacted respectively by -7.4% and -8.8% versus the prior year, driving gross profit down by -4.3% and EBITDA by -4.8% on this FX impact. Showing the now usual breakdown of the performance in this detailed table. Let's move directly to the overview of our cash and its biggest operational lever, the working capital.
Net working capital to sales is down to 13.9% at the end of Q1 2026, versus 14.7% prior year's March, and versus 14.1% at the 2025 year-end. This reduction reflects our continuous focus on working capital management and cash generation, as reflected in the incremental optimization of working capital intensity from the end of 2025. Though, let me be very clear, we're reducing the inventory we don't need, like the slow movers, while managing strategically the inventory we do need.
Free cash flow was EUR 119 million, broadly stable compared to the prior year, and represents a free cash flow conversion ratio of 113% compared to 100% in the prior year, and is further improvement from the 106% reported in December 2025, again reflecting your group's strong focus on efficient management of working capital. This relentless focus on working capital efficiency and cash generation allowed us to further drive down our net debt at the end of March to EUR 1.5 billion, a 4% reduction compared to the end of December 2025. Although the EBITDA decline is keeping the leverage ratio above our target of 3x, we will continue with our cash focus to drive down our leverage ratio. Now, let me hand you back to Anna for some words on the outlook.
Thanks, Boris. When I presented our strategy in 2024, I stated that volatility is here to stay, and that insight has proven to be highly relevant. The persistent market fluctuations have reinforced our commitment to staying agile and proactive. Rather than relying on short-term trends or waiting that situations improve, we focused proactively on a robust long-term strategy to navigate uncertainty and deliver value. While indeed we are seeing tentative signs of stabilization in some end markets, volatility makes it difficult to assess whether it can be sustained. Anticipated price inflation and growing risk of supply chain disruptions may trigger prebuying, but so far, we are not seeing broad, substantial prebuying from all of our customers.
In any case, we believe that an uplift from price preempting and stock building is unlikely to be in the same magnitude as the post-COVID disruption, given the weaker demand environment prior to the year. Ultimately, inflation can bring also a demand recovery in jeopardy. We are well-positioned to capture growth, whether it is from significant prebuying or structural end demand improvements. We remain committed to cost management in general, cash generation while volatility persists. This concludes our presentation, and we are ready to take questions. Operator, you can open the line.
If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. We will pause for a moment to assemble the queue. We will take our first question from the line of Suhasini Varansi from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question, and thank you for all the color by the different regions. It was really helpful. Just want to dig in to some of the commentary that you had given regarding the Middle East conflict. Clearly, you've seen some element of pre-buy, but you've maintained that it's not across the board. Apart from Asia, were there any other regions that saw some element of pre-buy, and have those trends changed in early April? How does your order book look? That's the first one. Regarding price increases on chemicals, your commentary in the press releases suggested some stabilization in some areas, but I just wanted to understand if things have changed towards the end of the quarter on pricing and in early April as well. Thank you.
Yeah. Let me start first on the pre-buying comment. The pre-buying has been limited. We have seen some. I would say the most pronounced that we've seen was in APAC and the Americas, and very limited actually in the European one. On the outlook, as you know, we are not really giving a, I would say, a very detailed outlook. What I can say is that what we can expect with the price increases that you also mentioned, yes, there have been large price increases announced, and we are passing them on to our customers as we have done also in the past, and that is in our business model.
Any color on the order book or early April trading, please?
It's continuing, I would say, in the right direction.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Hannah Harms from BNP Paribas. Your line is open.
Morning. I just wanted to understand, in the wake of the Middle East conflict, whether it's changing your strategy around M&A. Also, on the cost- saving side, I understand that, that is now implemented from 2025, but can we expect any new announcements for 2026, given your emphasizing a need to manage costs? Thank you.
I'll give an answer on the M&A, and then, Boris, you can maybe take the question on cost savings. Our strategy has not changed. Consolidating and being an active consolidator remains a part of our strategy. As you know, due to our leverage, we are prudent in our M&A, I would say, execution. There's also another reason. I also think that still at this moment, the asks from selling companies is not in line with what we think it should be. We are pacing this due to that reason as well. Boris, maybe you can-
Yeah, on the cost savings, Anna. Yeah, this is the set of actions we announced last year. Again, we have fully implemented these actions at the end of 2025. That's why in Q1 2026, you see the full benefit, as we mentioned in our last earnings call. You see the full benefit, excuse me, now coming into the P&L. Do we have other cost savings actions to announce later in the year? We remain very agile, depending on the situation, and, if needed, we will take necessary actions. Of course, today I have nothing to share with you on that. We will remain agile all over the year, and again, as needed, we'll act accordingly as usual.
Great. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Chetan Udeshi from JPMorgan. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hi. Morning. Thanks for taking my question. First, Anna, are you able to source all of your raw materials, or you are seeing shortages in sourcing raw materials? That's my first question. The second question is, from your perspective, when we look at 2021, 2022, to now, why would you say you're not seeing a broad-based pre-buying yet? Because, to some extent, this potential disruption to supply could also be quite significant. If this rate of raw materials blockade sort of continues, you would have thought your customers should be preempting the supply shortages and buying now. From your perspective, why are you not seeing a broad-based pre-buying? Is this because maybe there are healthy levels of stocks in the system, or do you think there are some other reasons of why you may not be seeing it?
Yeah, thanks for your question. In the Q1 result, there are no impact on shortages. We expect they will come, and that's a bit of the chemical industry is very intertwined, and some input chemicals that might be short end up in chemicals that we buy from our principals that you would not maybe expect at the first moment. Even, for example, in the processing of food ingredients, you have certain chemicals. Before that is all clear, that takes a little bit of time, but I'm expecting absolutely shortages coming up, and there can be severe shortages. I think it first will impact more the industrial segments, but I expect that also, for example, some Personal Care ingredients will also be impacted. It's true that we see less broad-based, substantial pre-buying from customers. I think there's a number of things there.
It's not because stocks are high, because we actually think that stocks with customers are lower than, I would say, in the more normal years before the pre-COVID problems. I think there are two things. First of all, at that time, end demand was healthy, and the end demand was not at the same, I would say, healthy level before the war. Second thing is, I believe that customers have been burned at that time in the sense that they bought a lot, and then they sat on stock for sometimes a year, and they don't want to repeat that same mistake. They might be a bit more reluctant to do this large, substantial pre-buying. That's just my, I would say, observation.
Just to follow up, you said you expect shortages, but so far in month of April, are you seeing any shortages?
It's starting to come. Our principals, and we are in very close contact with them because we rely on them. As soon as the war started, of course, they are looking into what can be short and what not. We are in close contact with them about that. It's taken some time to understand the impact for them, probably as well, what's going to be short and what not. I expect that shortages will soon start.
Got it. Thank you.
Your next question comes from Stijn Demeester from ING. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question too, if I may. Firstly, on China, what growth have you seen in Q1? How is the region evolving? Has the pressure from Chinese exports into Southeast Asia and Latin dissipated, or is this still ongoing? Secondly, on the U.S. CASE segment, we've seen some announcements by the coatings producers of strong price increases to offset higher inputs. Since underlying demand still seems quite fragile, do you believe that the market can digest these increases in U.S. CASE? Maybe a final one on the principal behavior and then the debate that we had in recent quarters on principal insourcing. Is this trend still ongoing? Thank you.
I'm not sure if I understood your second question well, but because the line was a bit blurry. Your first question was about China and what you see there. China actually performed well for us in the first quarter, and we've seen both on the Life Sciences and Industrial recovery. I'm expecting, of course, that when shortages from, and that's not so much our own, I would say, our own performance in China, but from Chinese suppliers. I'm expecting that as there will be shortages, they will protect their domestic demand, and probably we will see less export into outside of China and flowing into our markets, which should also help us further into the recovery of Southeast Asia. On the Coatings, I understood that you asked about if the Coatings market was still fragile, and I can confirm that.
The U.S. CASE business is, I would say, toward stabilizing, but definitely not back on track again. On the principal behavior in sourcing, as I was telling probably also in the last call, when you have, I would say, more challenged market conditions, we see principals acting in opposite ways. Some of them might take customers direct, so that they can benefit from the margin internally. Others are actually doing exactly the opposite and outsourcing more as they reduce their sales force. Yeah, that is something that we've seen every time that market is getting difficult. That's not different from any other situation, I would say.
Okay. Thank you very much. That's clear.
Your next question comes from Matthew Yates of Bank of America. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. In the presentation, you mentioned that last year there was EUR 8 million exceptional benefit in the Q1 profit. Perhaps it's my oversight. I can't recall that being pointed out at the time. I just had a quick flick back through your press release from the time. Can you elaborate a little bit on what that was and where it was disclosed? Thank you.
Boris, maybe you can take it.
Yeah, Matthew. Thanks. Yeah, we wanted to highlight this one because we made some accounting adjustments in Q1 last year. The primary adjustment that was made last year was in response to a weaker-than-expected performance in Q1. We're talking mostly about the variable remuneration. Last year, early in the year, it was probably clear that the performance would be below the expectations, And therefore adjustments were made. A few other adjustments were made on the balance sheet. That is not repeating in Q1 2026 this year. That's the main reason why you see this difference. We wanted to single that out in order to actually be better at presenting the actual performance that we're delivering this year.
Thank you, Boris. That makes sense. Maybe as a second question, just curious about how you are looking to manage this situation and potentially capitalize on some of the opportunities that may arise because the leverage is still quite high. I think Anna said in the introductory remarks that the priority is still cash generation. Does that limit your ability to take any sort of strategic inventory positions that may help your customers and bring trading opportunities through the coming weeks and months? I was a bit surprised that your inventory wasn't higher at the end of March, particularly if you're saying that April is continuing in the right direction. Do you feel that your balance sheet is constrained right now?
No. Actually, what we're doing, Matthew, is we're working on de-leveraging. As I was saying repeatedly, the main reason why the leverage is not going down significantly yet is mostly because the EBITDA is not supporting. The net debt actually is going down. We have a healthy cash generation. Actually, this is being seen in the reduction of the net debt, as we highlight. What is the situation limiting us to do is on M&A, as we discussed? Today, we don't have a pipeline anyway that is inviting us to be sad about this. We don't see opportunities that are being missed. It is a limiting factor for M&A, but we are actually working on the balance sheet in cash generation without missing opportunities. That's our reality. When it goes to stock inventory, it is not a limiting factor.
Stock is a strategic asset for us distributor, and we are managing this very strategically. Our balance sheet situation is not a limiting factor for that management. Though, what we're focusing on, that's what I said, is we're focusing on the stock we do not need. We're actually cleaning our inventories of stock that we don't need, and that give us some power actually to work and buy the stock we do need.
Okay. Thanks very much.
Your next question comes from the line of Tristan Lamotte from Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Thanks. First question is, I was wondering if you could maybe give a little bit of color on what proportion of your business is linked to oil, either directly or indirectly, and would 50%-60% be a reasonable estimate?
I can't give you that answer. I'm sorry. I don't have that. Because, as I said, you have derivatives going into, for example, processing aids in the food industry. I really can't give you that precise answer.
Got it. Maybe second, I guess, in specialties, which is the majority of your business, you need to call up customers and ask for price increases in most cases. When you're having these conversations so far and through April, are customers kind of generally accepting those price increases, or are you seeing some pushback? What kind of retention are you seeing?
It's a mix. Price increases are never really cheered upon by customers, I think, by no one. So it's not that they are glad to accept it, but everyone reads the newspaper, and therefore, it's also something that it is expected. The thing is, of course, this is not caused by, I would say, one company that has a force majeure and therefore is out, and we happen to represent them. This is really global and broad- based, and that means that if they are trying to find alternatives, they will find exactly the same conditions. That helps us, of course, to pass these price increases through.
Very helpful. Thanks.
Your next question comes from the line of Nicole Manion from UBS. Your line is open.
Morning, Anna and Boris. Just a follow-up, please, on the working capital and specifically the inventory. Boris, you talked about being strategic in terms of inventory. You don't need an inventory, you do, but I wonder if you could say anything more specific here about what you mean and what you're tracking. Are there specific sorts of product categories or end markets that you've got in mind that are still oversupplied, and vice versa? Thank you.
Thanks for the question. We are focusing, when we talk about cleaning, on the inventory that are slow- moving. We have some categories, and it's very depending on markets what slow- moving is. We have different markets and different buying patterns. On average, our DIO, as you know, is in the 50s. That gives you an idea on how fast our stock rotates, though, in some markets we have longer, and some others we have shorter. Really, the cleaning happens on when we have some products that are not moving, that are not sold anymore, and we're trying to find some way to sell them, clearly, to recover the cash. Of course, that is rather limited in our portfolio, but it's still some value that we can actually monetize in the balance sheet.
The buying strategy, we are a very large distributor serving different markets, so I won't be able to give you how we manage that. This is at our core competence panel, actually, to manage this inventory and listening to the needs of customers and conversing with our principal, we determine what is the best buying pattern. Again, we have kind of a diverse rhythm of buying in different markets. There is no blanket answer I can give you now.
Got it. Thank you for the detail.
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. Your next question comes from the line of Anil Shenoy from Barclays. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hi. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking my question. Two from me, please. The first one is that you just confirmed that you will see some shortages in the coming months, supply shortages. Are we to understand that if there are these supply shortages, then Azelis will see confirmed benefits because of that? I'm asking this because in 2021, 2022, the benefits that you saw were more from pricing and less from volumes. I remember you saying about 40% volumes and 60% pricing. This time, if there are supply shortages, maybe the volume benefit may not come because of the demand. Should we be sure that we'll see some pricing benefits there, and will that come in the coming quarters? That's my first question. The second question is on the competition from China.
You said that the competitive pressures from China had persisted all year in 2025. You also said that the pressure from China was getting beyond APAC to Brazil and Mexico as well. Have you seen that getting better in Q1 2026? On that note, do you think European principals may see structural benefit because of the disruptions from the Chinese players? Any color on that will be very helpful. Thank you so much.
Thanks for your question. Let me start with the shortages. Obviously, when you have a shortage, it impacts volume, so you can never have a volume increase. When you have shortages, it's price-driven indeed, as you were saying. Depending on where the shortage is, how long it takes, and if it is, I would say, in a product category or just an input material that can really not be replaced, yeah, prices go up because volume is scarce. It's very difficult to predict what's exactly going to happen, and that's why I keep on my statement. The volatility is here to stay, but it makes it also difficult to make the predictions, how and where exactly we will benefit from it. That we can benefit from this, that's absolutely true, and that's also what happened, of course, in the post-COVID period.
Now, regarding competition from China, in the Q1 , as the conflict, of course, ended. It happened at the end of the Q1 . We have not seen yet what I was describing, that shortages from producers in China make them focus on their domestic market and therefore export less. I'm expecting this, and we see a little bit already of some signals here that Chinese principals are keeping more of their list prices instead of reducing prices heavily to gain market share. We see it already a little bit now. It's early in the quarter, but I'm expecting this to continue indeed. Is this a structural benefit for the Western principals? No, I just think that it is a temporary benefit. Please don't forget that these shortages are also impacting the Western principals. It's not that it's only hampering the Chinese ones. We're all in the same boat.
Great. Thank you so much. That's very helpful.
Your next question comes from the line of Eric Wilmer from Kempen. Your line is open.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Could you talk a bit about the pricing attitude of your suppliers? I mean, you talked a bit about it before, but are you seeing differences, and I'm actually referring to specialties specifically, between your Western and Chinese suppliers in the magnitude of their pricing actions, maybe even the difference between U.S., Europe, and China? Could you also give us a sense of your current visibility on pricing from your suppliers? Did this reduce them? Is this now very ad hoc- based? The next one, how is your specialty, your semi-specialty, or commodity part of the portfolio navigating the current conflict? Is this potentially an explanation behind some of the pre-buying you referred to, and a strong APAC in Q1, as the semi-specialty part might see some recent benefits?
Last question, you highlighted these potential shortage issues, and I think in this context, surfactants and coatings have been mentioned, which also have a skew towards the Middle East. Could this turn out to be a net positive for Azelis as this may drive demand towards your EU-based manufacturers? I think this has been kind of answered, but I still want to press a bit on this one. Thank you.
The prices from principals depend. I can't give you, I would say, all the details. They range from price increases from, I would say, 5% to even 30%, 40% price increases. It depends, of course, for them, whether it's what is exactly impacted in their production process. It's, I would say, in various parts of our portfolio. It's not only in industrial side, it's also products that go, for example, in Home Care, Personal Care. As I said, they might also, at this moment not yet, but they might also end in food ingredients, as some products are used as process aids. Some chemicals are used as process aids in the food processing industry. Now, you were asking also about the effect of pre-buying and semi-specialties, and if that was having the uplift in APAC. Actually, APAC, we've seen improving month after month. That's what I said.
There is some pre-buying, but it is limited. We don't think that the APAC return to organic growth is solely based on the conflict and the pre-buying. It's a trend that's positive, and we see that continuing. On the last question, surfactants and shortages, let's not forget that some input materials, again, are coming from that region or are coming sometimes from China and are exported. These are precursors from China to our principals in Europe. The European surfactant manufacturers are absolutely impacted as well.
Maybe just on that other question in between on your visibility from your supplier. I would believe that there's probably some visibility generally with regards to pricing, not all immediately quote-based. Is this now more ad hoc?
Probably what I've seen, and because we are very close to several of them. As soon as the conflict started, they of course scrambled to understand what the impact would be and where they would see price increases, whether it was due to higher input prices for them or whether it was due to expected price, I would say, shortages, which would make them, I would say, benefit. They have compiled lists of their price increases. I don't know what you mean by ad hoc. I think it's a well-based, structured approach that we have seen from our principals. Of course, we don't have insight into their complete production process, which is also not necessary, of course.
That's very helpful, Anna. Thank you.
There are no further questions on the conference line. We have come to the end of this call. I will now hand over to Chief Executive Officer, Anna Bertona, for her closing remarks.
Now, thank you for spending time with us today, and we have given you insights in our progress as we navigate the very volatile business environment, but also how we are positioning ourselves for the longer term. Yes, there are challenges, but we know where we want to be and also how to get there. With that, I wish you a good day, and I'm looking forward to seeing you or speaking with you again soon.