Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us today for Aramis Group's fiscal year 2023 results presentation. I am, Fabien Geerolf, the newly appointed Group CFO. Just a few words about myself: I joined Aramisauto three years ago as CFO for the French entity, Aramisauto, where we've had to go through a particularly deep pre-reg crisis, as you know, and managed to carry out a robust recovery since then. I am now pleased to be able to capitalize on this enriching operational experience to the benefit of the whole group, and I want to thank Nicolas and Guillaume for giving me this opportunity. Today with me to comment these results, the two co-founders and co-CEOs of the company, Guillaume Paoli and Nicolas Chartier. Before handing over to Guillaume, just a few reminders. This conference is recorded, accessible both over the phone and internet.
A replay will be made available on the company's website at www.aramis.group. Slideshow is available on the website for download. Let me also remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and that future results may differ materially from the statements or projection made on today's call. In particular, the risk factors that could affect those statements are described in our 2022 Universal Registration Document, filed with the French Financial Markets Authority, AMF. This presentation will be followed by the usual Q&A session. Finally, I remind you that Aramis Group has a non-calendar fiscal year, with annual results closing at the end of September. As a consequence, the fiscal year 2023 results we are going to report on today refer to the calendar period from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023.
Having said this, let's now move on to the main business and market highlights for the period. Guillaume, please go ahead.
Thank you, Fabien. Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Well, Aramis Group has continued to deliver on its profitable growth strategy in 2023 and to outperform the market despite another challenging macroeconomic year. As you know, our market is very big, and our business model has been built to leverage opportunities. But the two last years have been very peculiar, with the simultaneous occurrence of two major crises, the COVID aftermath and a major war in Europe. But we believe we are now seeing the market progressively normalize. So in this context, we have continued to strengthen our unique, vertically integrated and anti-fragile business model, and Nicolas will tell you more about that later. It has been built throughout the last 22 years for agility and resilience, as this is one of our main strength to be able to adapt to customer needs.
Our teams, once again, that I want to thank, have done an incredible job to satisfy even more customers, even better, and to generate a healthy and sustainable growth. We have worked hard to facilitate the integration of our two new subsidiaries, one in Austria, one in Italy, and at the end, we grew in 2023, generating margin, generating cash, and delivering on all the aspects of our guidance with increasing market shares. The long-term potential of our market is robust and unequivocal. The need for affordable refurbished car is more relevant than ever, and we operate at the heart of the circular economy. We are confident for the fiscal year 2024 in the wake of good trends of the recent months.
Our goal for the year are to continue growing, a growth that will lead us to reinforce our position of number one player in Europe, selling at least more than 100,000 B2C used cars annually. And of course, to grow in a profitable way, which is in the DNA of the company, with an EBITDA at least twice higher than the one we achieved in 2023. At this stage... Moving on to slide number three. At this stage, I think it's worth to take a step back on our market and our customers and to give you some context. You know, we operate on the European used car market. It's absolutely huge market, with EUR 400 billion in transaction, more than 30 million cars sold annually. It's resilient. We will see later that car is not an option.
And this market is here to stay, and if you look at on a longer period of time, it's anti-cyclical and very resilient. It's still highly fragmented. In each country, the main player have marginal market share with a few percent, and it is undergoing digitalization just like in the United States, and this is pushed by innovative digital players such as us. On this market, Aramis Group consistently achieves growth year after year, and we are first gaining market share. We are the leader in Europe in B2C digital sales of used cars and reaching around 0.74% of market share if you consider the whole European Union plus U.K. First, we believe we have an unlimited growth prospect, given we have this singular business model that we have built for that, resilient fragility and genuinely focused on customers.
At Aramis Group, we very often speak about the customers, and that client satisfaction is at the heart of our operations. I know you hear from a lot of companies, this rhetoric. It's very widespread, but for us, it's a guiding principle. Let me first remind you that Nicolas and I, we started in a flat that was as big as this flat, as this studio, by selling cars for over a year to private customers. One of our biggest strength is certainly to understand our customers, to understand their needs, and to adapt to what they need. Along the years, we have developed a very resilient, anti-fragile business model. It was born 10 years after 9/11, 10 years, 10 days after 9/11, and has weathered through numerous crises, such as 2008, Dieselgate, COVID, to name just but a few.
Each time we came out of the crisis stronger, and we believe we are now stronger than ever at the, at the exit of this, millennial crisis, maybe now on the market. This flexibility and agility to adapt to our customer needs is a huge strength. Some considerations regarding the customer needs. Customer experience matters, of course, we deeply understand that, but the criteria number one for customers is budget. I'm not saying price, I'm saying budget, because when you buy a used car, you don't get good surprises. Surprises cost money, and this is why our refurbished offer, refurbished car offer, is, with its second to none warranties, is so popular. First, car is on a, not an option for customers. Europeans lifestyle is based on long range, individual mobility.
As I say very often, 2/3 of Europeans use their car today daily to commute to work. Second, car is investment number two of household, mobilizing around 10% of the household income if you include fuel and insurance. The current situation is making changing cars more difficult, and we are seeing a trading down of our customers with a shift back to the essentials. Third, customers today in Europe are completely confused. The evolving regulatory landscape, typically the topic of low emission zones in France and in other countries. The uncertainty about how future cars, electric cars, can meet their needs are complicating customer decision-making. Consequently, more than ever, it's not one size fits all for customers. Locally, and when I say locally, at the country level, even at the region level, they are looking for clear information, unbiased advice.
They want different options to be able to choose between different cars, different brands, different mileage. They want security in their purchase. On top of all the usual considerations, new needs appear, for example, on the battery capacity when they buy electric cars. They also want more and more to shop on their own as they like, more and more online, but also by telephone, having the possibility to see people for real in a point of sale. So in a nutshell, with market, macroeconomic, regulatory, rapid evolutions, customer needs evolve quickly, and this reinforces the need for us to be agile all along the chain, from sourcing to financing the cars for customers. This is what we focus on. Nicolas will tell you more later on, and this is how we stay relevant for the European customers.
Now, if we say a few words about the market environment. On slide number six, a short focus on the used car market. Well, the market is down 5%, versus last year. We're talking here about cars under eight years across our six geographies. The market is down. The registration level remains slow given the inflationary situation on cars. In all the countries in Europe, we see the prices going down, particularly in the U.K., where prices are decreasing faster. And we believe that this is due to kind of limit on the prices and also on the fact that more and more cars are becoming available. Rental companies, lessors are rotating their fleets, and this increases the offer.
For our business, it's actually preferable to have more affordable cars, as lower prices make cars accessible to a broader range of customers, which in turn support our sales. And for us, our GPU margin, our gross profit per units, are not really impacted by car prices evolution, upward or downward. You have seen it in the two last years that the prices have been going up. Now, even if they go down, our GPU will not be impacted. Now, moving to slide number 7. A few words on the new car market. Well, new car registrations have gone up by 18%, but they remain lower than by 21% versus 2019. Car production of OEMs is gradually going back to normal.
This means there is more new cars on the market, so demand is still soft, so, the overproduction that we have seen is coming back. So actually, we are coming back to the structural overproduction situation that has existed for ages before the COVID crisis, and the arrival of new OEMs from China is going to favor this situation. Therefore, we have been able to buy more of these pre-registered cars to sell more of these cars, but we are still operating 50% below our usual business activity before the market downturn. So this gives us a considerable potential for future growth on this segment. With this focus on the market, I hand it over to Nicolas, that will drive you through some of our key business highlights, and more importantly, how we achieved them.
Thank you, Guillaume, and good morning to everyone. I'm now on slide nine. In 2023, we have continued to deliver our plan, and once again, this year, we have proven the strengths of our singular and anti-fragile business model. We've been working hard for more than 20 years to set up a hyper agile organization built around a unique, fully integrated business model, versatile and flexible by design. We have continued to fine-tune our method to develop agility of the teams, always with the same compass, delivering more value for our customers. We have executed our strategy, further developing the group, both through acquisition and organically. On the organic side, one notable achievement is the opening of our second factory in the U.K., located in Hull. This is aimed at increasing our refurbishing capacity in the country and optimizing our flows.
We now have a theoretical nominal capacity of 130,000 cars per year across our 8 refurbishing centers in Europe. On the business development side, we have expanded into 2 new countries, in Austria and Italy, acquiring two local companies we've been diligently integrating all through the year. We are positioned to serve over 50% of the population, offering high-quality products and services through our singular and antifragile business model, along with our proven method to develop agility of the teams. I'm now on slide 10. This singular, antifragile business model and proven method revolve around three pillars that we continuously improve and strengthen. 2023 was characterized by a sizable numbers of improvement to raise the bar of company standards and further ensuring the agility and flexibility of our operation.
We are the only player in our sector on the European market with such a level of end-to-end vertical integration. Our operations versatility is unparalleled, and this is what makes us antifragile, agnostic to market changes, and able to transform every market mutation into a profitable business opportunity. We've been working on each of the dimension to further consolidate our leadership, improving our factory flows, rationalizing here and there our distribution network, developing new tools to enable our people, or improving our website for our customers, and more importantly, seizing every opportunity that changes in market conditions offer us. Once again, we achieved a very high Net Promoter Score, as well as Employee Net Promoter Score, making Aramis Group a company that you are happy to buy from and you are proud to work for.
We generated nearly EUR 2 billion of revenue and grew as guided organically, outperforming our market on average 8 percentage points on total B2C volumes. On Slide 11, we give you an example of our offering continuous improvement and hyperagility. Our flexibility and reactiveness in sourcing adjustment is a key pillar of our singular antifragile business model. Thanks to the wide sourcing network we developed in Europe since the inception of the company in 2001, we have a unique capability to leverage every market opportunity. Given the increase of cars availability on professional channels over 2023, we have been able to regain bargaining power there, securing cars with attractive margin, while proposing to our customer competitively priced, younger used cars fitting their needs.
No other player in Europe has such a level of versatility and capacity to generate GPUs as high as ours. In our original vision in 2001 with Guillaume, we believe that thanks to the technology, we will be able to offer customers a wider range of cars than the traditional player offer locally. From day one, in the early years, in the early days, our inventory was exposed and deliverable nationwide, while our competitors were only hyper local. Today, more than 20 years later, we are continuing to develop this vision at the European level through our internal and external marketplaces, capitalizing on our technological and logistical capabilities. The internal marketplace allows us to present the same car on several countries, exposing it to a higher number of potential buyers and enabling international arbitrage and increasing inventory rotations.
The external marketplace allows third party to propose cars on Aramis Group's website and leverage our important flow of visitors. This completes our offer, while being very cash efficient. And all this create a lot of value for our customers by enriching the offer they can access. I'm now on slide 12. We want to guarantee the most seamless experience for our customers, either as they choose an in-person or an online or omni-channel shopping journey. For instance, in Spain, where our operations are currently centralized in Madrid, we are making evolving our geographical footprint, as footprint through the opening of light customer centers in order to propose a similar level of service to all Spanish people, wherever they live in the country.
We are going to try a couple of customer centers there in the coming quarter, and you have one of them pictured here, which is already open in Zaragoza. We are also going to try, at the beginning of 2024, another concept in Valencia with some local refurbishing capacities. In both case, development CapEx is limited, and we maintain a strong emphasis on protecting our model hyperagility. Another example of versatility in our model is the number of and easiness of our financing solution, either in terms of accessibility for customer, through the lengthening of the credit offers to keep monthly payment low, or through the process of credit application itself, where we work for avoiding as much as possible paperwork for our customers.
We figure, for instance, here, the adoption of e-sign in France for credit application, of which adoption has been very strong, and this creates a lot of value for our customers. On slide 13 now, sorry. As pictured on slide 13, we have deployed our proven methodology to develop agility and generate cash to the companies we acquired, deploying our singular antifragile business model in those new countries. We worked hard in 2023 to foster those changes in Austria and Italy, as well as leading them to deliver the same exceptional experience for our customers everywhere in Europe. Those company were operating with suboptimal business models, and we took actions to significantly accelerate their flow and transforming them into hyper-agile organization. We have a proven methodology for that. First, we implement the right frame to control inventory, rotation, and cash management.
Then, we focus on GPU improvement with our lean methodologies, and we clarify the cost structure to optimize it. All this, of course, keeping our compass in mind and doing it in improving the value for customers and developing the agility of the teams. Among others, we significantly destocked Onlinecars in Austria, in particular, the oldest vehicle, and introduced new demand-based and data-driven car purchasing tools. Inventory decreased by approximately EUR 17 million and went from 106 days of revenue to EUR 62 million, and you can imagine that we still have room for improvement here if we put it at the same level of the other countries. We also opened a new customer centers in Vienna, increasing the customer reach of the company. In Italy, all the challenge was about restarting the business and setting up Aramis Group hyper-agile standards.
We had a huge work on cleaning the stock inherited from a previous owner and thus freeing cash for the business. We have been revamping the sales and marketing approach, enhancing the Reggio Emilia refurbishing factory, setting up a local customer center and a showroom, as well as right-sizing the operation to be able to put it on track on profitable growth. Ad count decreased by 44% in one year, for example. We are confident that both those companies' performance will accelerate in 2024. Last example, on Slide 14 on how we can leverage tech to further accelerate flexibility of the business model and improve customer experience. We implemented the group web platform in Belgium, significantly improving user experience. This change improved by 25% the conversion ratio into online reservation made directly by the customer on the website.
By doing so, we also capitalize on the existing asset of the group that have proven their efficiency. Our end focus is always the same, to offer the best buying experience to all our customers in Europe, reinforcing their trust for our product and services and their love for our brands in order to stay ahead of the race. And finally, you see, you will see that on slide 15. We can see that we are on the right direction of delivering value for our customer as our customers love our brands. Our efforts are clearly yielding results. We showcase here our brand awareness and customer reviews.
The strength of our brands results from our second-to-none capability to leverage market trends and our dedication to serving each customer exceptionally well, which in turn results into leading position in most of the country we operate... where we operate. Having discussed these topics, I will now turn it over to Fabien for an update on our financial performance.
Thank you, Nicolas, and let's move on to slide 17 for the fiscal year 2023 financial highlights. Overall, in a difficult market environment, Aramis Group was able to achieve its objectives of profitable growth with a positive refurb volume organic growth and a positive EBITDA. Total revenue reached EUR 1.9 billion, nearly two billion, up 10% versus last year. Our total volumes of B2C cars sold increased roughly 13% year-on-year, of which 2.5% organically in a market that is down 5%. Our GPU is once again European market leading at 2,161 EUR per B2C car sold. Our adjusted EBITDA comes out close to EUR 10 million, in line with our guidance, of which EUR 1 million in H1 and EUR 9 million in H2.
Finally, we have significantly reduced our operating working capital, now representing 31 days of sales, and therefore, we have been able to generate a positive cash flow for EUR 4 million. Moving on to Slide 18. If we go into a bit more details, this slide illustrates the revenue split by segment. B2C refurbished revenues are up 15% year-on-year, driven by a 13% growth, of which roughly 1% on the 2022 perimeter, as already stated. B2C pre-registered revenues are flat at EUR 244 million, with volumes going up by 10%, a volume effect being completely offset by mix effect. Altogether, our B2C revenues are up 12% year-on-year. B2B revenues decreased by 6%.
This is linked to the rebalancing of our B2C car sourcing, with the proportion sourced from private individuals decreasing versus the one from professionals, so the impact is mechanical. Revenues from services finally increased by 14%. Both the penetration rate and amount of fees on financing solutions remained stable in 2023 on the 2022 perimeter, despite the rising interest rate environment. Moving now to slide 19, showing the revenue split by country. Performance was quite uneven between countries over the period, reflecting both the underlying market dynamics of each geography and some country specifics. France delivered a solid 11% revenues growth. Total volumes of B2C cars sold in the country are up 14% versus 2022, despite the market being down 10%, resulting in a significant outperformance.
Both pre-reg and refurb are well-oriented, reflecting a car selection matching customer needs, the quality of our operations, and an improved marketing efficiency. In Spain, revenues are down 8%. After five years of exponential growth, the Spanish subsidiary had to revise the production methods of its refurbishing center to, one, adapt it to the new car mix and two , increase overall factory productivity to continue fueling the growth. This temporarily impacted our production levels and consequently, the volume sold. In the U.K., revenues decreased by 10%, only by 3% on volumes, in a market that is down 7%. After a relatively slow start in the fiscal year, U.K. has followed a positive trend during the year. The price and mix effects account for approximately 6%, -6%, as we try to sell more accessible cars.
We have little to comment on the other countries, with a 4% revenue growth in Belgium, while in Austria and Italy, we work to improve the local operation and expect a rebound in activity in 2024. Move on-- moving on to slide 20, that speaks for itself. We clearly see that in terms of dynamics within the fiscal year, there has been a significant acceleration of total volumes of B2C cars sold within the fiscal year, as pictured by the chart reflected here. Volumes are up 2% versus previous fiscal year on Q1, versus 25% on Q4. Slide 21 now. As you see, we once again generated a European leading level of gross profit per unit at EUR 2,161 p er unit on the reported perimeter.
On scope 22, GPU has improved from EUR 2,142 per car to 2,267 EUR per car. GPU has improved in all scope 22 countries. As a reminder, the key components are our ability to buy the right cars at the right price, leveraging on our key assets, data, pricing know-how, agility, and our unique network of suppliers. And finally, our ability to refurbish and transport the cars in an efficient manner. I remind you that our GPU is calculated as per our peers in the U.S., including, in particular, all cost of refurbishing, rent, and labor, which is not the case of some of our European peers. Slide 22 provides more details on our SG&A.
Our SG&A reached EUR 189 million in fiscal year 2023, which is a minor increase versus 2022, where we integrated two new companies and were faced with inflation. Looking at the 2022 perimeter, SG&A are actually decreasing by 5%. Marketing costs are particularly well under control, thanks to a more relevant car offer that better match customer needs, and therefore, resulted our conversions, improved conversions, and the improvement in the efficiency of the spend. On the reported perimeter, we generate a stable number of visits for a lower marketing budget. Other SG&A are also well under control, despite a context of inflation, reflecting the disciplined approach we've had on this topic and the effort made on productivity. Slide 23 shows the adjusted EBITDA bridge.
As already stated and in line with 2023 guidance, adjusted EBITDA came back in positive territory as soon as in H1 2023. We generated EUR 1 million in H1, EUR 9 million in H2. If we focus on the 2022 perimeter, this is roughly a EUR 25 million year-on-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA, given that adjusted EBITDA, excluding acquisitions, reaches EUR 13.3 million. Per component, the volume effects on the 2022 perimeter contributed to EUR 6 million. GPU improvement brings on inside EUR 8 million, while savings on SG&A account for EUR 9 million. Finally, on slide 24, last but not least, we can see that we have achieved a strong performance on cash flow generation, thanks to our ability to reduce our operating working capital. In H2 only, we have generated EUR 28 million of positive cash flow.
Over the full fiscal year, the increase in net debt is only related to the M&A cash out and the consolidation of the new subsidiaries' net debt. Which means that restated from these elements, we have generated a EUR 4 million positive cash flow during the fiscal year. As you can see on the chart, we have improved our operating working capital from 41 days to 28 days on the 2022 scope, perimeter scope. On the acquired entities, mainly on Clicars, we have operated a strong reduction in operating working capital, showing our unique ability to manage our cash and our inventory, as Nicolas mentioned earlier. Among other things, this performance is reflecting disciplined cash management, a historical know-how of Aramis Group, an improved commercial rotation, and improvements on our operations to transport, refurbish the cars more quickly.
In addition, we have EUR 173 million of available credit lines, which will secure our growth plans in the coming years. With that, I'll hand the floor back to Guillaume for the 2024 guidance.
Thank you, Fabien. Now, moving on to slide number 26. In terms of outlook for 2024, well, the macroeconomic environment is still quite uncertain and will remain challenging, we know that. It's difficult to foresee precisely how used car prices will evolve, but we believe in a progressive, slightly decreasing trend, which should, at one point, support the sales. For Aramis Group, we're very confident in our ability to deliver profitable growth, profitable growth. The gradual normalization of car production will support our pre-registered car sales. Our offer of refurbished cars is completely, is competitively positioned, sorry, as our singular business model and methods enable us to be agile and to adapt quickly. The business is well-oriented.
The positive growth momentum of the recent month is continuing, and we intend to maintain a high level of operational discipline across all our geographies, ensuring our growth is profitable and under control. For 2024, we have set the following targets for the company: selling at least 100,000 B2C used cars at constant perimeter, becoming the first European player to exceed this threshold, and generate an adjusted EBITDA at least twice higher than the one we achieved in 2023. On that, I thank you all for your attention, and we can now begin the question and answer sessions. Operator, we are going to start with the question by phone, please.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We will take the first question from line Mourad Lahmidi from BNP Paribas.
... Should be negative over time. Yes, thank you very much for taking my questions. So a couple of ones. The first question is about your unit guidance for 2024. It sounds like most of the growth will come from the pre-registered segment. It sounds like you expect modest growth in refurbished volumes. Is that correct? And could you help us understand how you think about the refurbished vertical in 2024, in the context of a market that is more or less bottoming out? Second question is on your GPU. Could you help us think about your GPU going forward?
Is it fair to say that Austria and Italy will more or less converge towards your normative GPU, and hence you have some upside in 2024? I have another question on marketing costs. It's fairly low now. Is it a new normal, or do you expect to spend more? And finally, a more general question on your guidance. What would it take for you to deliver a much higher EBITDA than EUR 20 million in 2024? Is it due to volumes, or is it due to your costs that you will spend more in 2024? I don't know if I'm clear, but those are my questions. Thank you.
So thank you. Maybe I'm going to take the question on the unit guidance. Fabien, you can take the GPU one. Nicolas, I don't know if you want to take the marketing one, or I take it, as you want. And the last one on delivering a higher EBITDA, maybe Fabien, you can take that one. So regarding the unit guidance, as you have seen, we have chosen to guide on a B2C volumes, all, including pre-registered and refurbished cars. The strategy we developed during the IPO has not changed. One, organic growth in refurbished car volume. Two, expansion in Europe via M&A, and three, increased value for customers and for the group via services.
We have chosen this year to guide on the full B2C scope because there is some, there is some, how we say, right pocket, left pocket in some geographies, and it depends on the speed at which the pre-registered segment recovers. So I confirm that we'll grow also on the refurbished car volumes, but we have decided to guide this way. So the strategic intent has not changed, and we will continue to grow organically on the refurbished volumes. That's for the first question, maybe, Fabien, for the GPU.
So on the GPU, what we, what we see is that we have delivered a strong improvement of the GPU on the scope 2022 perimeter. We intend to continue working, of course, on the GPU. It's a constant improvement that we are doing within the company. Working on the various components that we have already stated, the services, our capacity to buy at the best price, leveraging on our assets, and our capacity to improve our operations and refurbishing cost and transportation cost. So that's what we are going to be working on during the next month, of course.
Yeah. On the marketing, maybe I'll take it. We have done a lot of efforts to optimize our spendings. There is always a way to increase the efficiency of our spendings. Our brands are stronger than ever, as you have seen, Nicolas, I've shown you the awareness level. So, and it's also a mixed bag between the different countries where there are different brand positions. So we are not guiding on marketing cost per unit, but as for the rest, we are being very disciplined, making sure that every euro counts and gives ROI. The trend, I would say, is this level seems to us as sufficient to grow, but there can be exceptions in some countries.
So long story short, even though we're not guiding on this particular unit, this is something that we feel comfortable with to move on the growth. And maybe on the last question on the what would it take to make more EBITDA? You want to take it or?
Well, we've seen how we have been able to manage this year our EBITDA recovery. It's always a bit of everything. We have a volume impact, an Asian impact, and a GPU impact. We really intend to work on all sides to improve our EBITDA next year, obviously.
But just a last word on this, our ambition not to stay at EUR 20 million of EBITDA. I remind you that before the COVID crisis, we achieved 2.7%, 4.4%, 3.7% of EBITDA for the year 2021, 2020 and 2019. This is levels we have already achieved. This is levels we will achieve in the future. The only thing is when, so we're working hard on that. It also depends on how the market evolves. There is a new market paradigm with the interest rates, et cetera. So we'll get to you back... We'll get back to you on this, but we'll feel very comfortable in achieving these levels and even more, going forward. Next question, please, operator.
Yeah, we will take the next question from Beren Khaeuv from Kepler Cheuvreux . Thank you.
Hi, thank you for taking my question. I would have two questions. The first one is, as the car price have been resilient so far in most European countries, what are your average selling price assumption for 2024, as new car prices are expected to fall? My last one is, when do you expect to review your mid and long-term targets? Is it during a quarterly release, or will you host a capital market event? Thank you.
Maybe I take the second one first. Fabien, you want to answer the first one or?
Um-
Or you, or...
Go ahead.
I'll go ahead. Okay. So regarding the mid- and long-term guidance, yes, we'll come back to you during calendar year 2024. The format is not yet established. We will get back to you on that to give you updated horizon that takes into account the new market paradigm and all that has happened since we IPO'd two years and a half ago now. And so on the first point, look, we're not gaining on turnover, and our GPU is more or less immune to the evolution of car prices. The car prices have increased a lot in the last three years. We have seen that our GPU has not exploded, and we don't anticipate that the GPU lowers because of car prices.
So the assumptions have been fairly conservative in our, in our plans, but they don't really have an immediate impact on the, on the profitability. Can we have the next question, please?
Thank you. We will take the next question from Catherine O'Neill from Citi. The line is open now. Please go ahead.
So hi, thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to come back on your point on your sort of ambitions you set out, IPO is still there, around organic growth and B2C refurbished volume. Can I just confirm that relates specifically to FY 2024 as well, or that's more of a sort of medium-term factor? And also M&A. Obviously, there was some M&A this year. Just wondering if you have ambitions for further M&A or whether there's markets where you see particular gaps, across the course of the next 12 months?
... Okay, thank you. Maybe I'll take them. So as I was saying earlier, the strategic intent is to grow on the refurbished car segment, because let me remind you that the market in Europe is 32 million used cars sold per year. In the 32, there is 1 million that is pre-registered cars. These are the figures for before the COVID crisis, okay? So what we expect is to grow back on the pre-registered. To what level? We know we can grow significantly. To what level exactly, we're not sure, and we know we have unlimited growth potential on the refurbished car segment. So, yes, we will grow on this segment.
On the midterm, we expect to grow also in 2024, but we are guiding on a full set of used cars, because we know there can be some phenomenon of here and there of arbitrage from customers between very recent cars and used cars. So that's for the first question. For the second question, we have done, as you know, two deals this year. So basically the company has grown from three countries to six countries in the course of 18 months. So we have some work to do to integrate. As Nicolas has explained, we have already made a very good achievement this year, but there is still a lot of work to do.
So this is not our priority, but we remain open if there was some, you know, extraordinary opportunities that would arise, and we are still having conversations with the different players in Europe. So this is clearly not our priority for 2024.
Thank you. And the other sort of brief question I had was on Spain. I just wondered if we could understand a little bit more about the sort of backdrop, Spain and U.K., I guess, which are both markets that have declined in terms of revenue, and how you think about that as we go into those markets into FY 2024.
Regarding Spain and the U.K., so indeed, they have been decreasing in terms of sales. As we mentioned, so in Spain, it's a temporary reorganization of the factory that we have been performing. That was absolutely necessary after many years with hyper growth. In the U.K., and as I mentioned earlier, what we see is that we had a slow start of the year in the U.K., and that's very clear. The trend is much better in the U.K. and has been confirmed in the most recent months.
Okay. And Spain, you'd also expect to get back to growth as in you're through that factory sort of reorganization, and...
So we're not guiding specifically on the country. We know that the market is quite difficult in Spain, both from a market standpoint and also even the political considerations. So, as Nicolas has said, we are opening and testing new concept stores, so the intent is to grow. We plan to grow, but again, we're not guiding on that. But our intention is to grow, yes, in Spain, to come back to profitable growth in Spain.
Okay, thank you.
If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We will take the next question from line, Christophe Cherblanc from Société Générale. The line is open now, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. First one was on the refurbishment capacity. I think you mentioned 130,000 cars at the end of 2023. What's going to be the level at the end of 2024, and what is the optimal level of utilization in your view? And also on volumes, I was looking at the exit rate for pre-reg, which is about 4,500. Is it really a minimum quarterly level for 2024? That's the first question. The second one was on Brumbrum. On Italy, a loss of an investment in 2023, which makes a lot of sense. Do you believe it's realistic to reach breakeven in 2024 or 2025?
Related to the previous question, I mean, where the contribution of Spain and the U.K. down in 2023. The last one is on free cash flow. You're guiding for at least, let's say, EUR 20 million minimum of EBITDA. You've done a great job on working capital, and it seems to remain a bit of potential on Onlinecars. So, if EUR 20 million of EBITDA minimum translate into a positive free cash flow, breakeven. Thank you.
Okay, maybe we can start with refurbishing. I think we do not guide on the volume of refurbishing capacity that we will have at the end of 2024. But as you can imagine, we are always working on the finding and thinking about how we will be able to fulfill the growth with the refurbishing. So we are working on it without any guidance on the volume for end of 2024. The optimal level of utilization, that's an interesting question. When we say we have 130,000 of capacity, it is on the global asset. This is not on the people, because the most important cost in the refurbishing are the people....
And if we want to go to 130, we need to hire more people. So what we try to do is to have the asset, to have the ability to grow, because we know that it takes time to open the new factories. It can take two to three years to open a new factory. And we fulfill it with the right number of people to follow the growth, because this is the most important cost that we have. And we have a model to follow the growth or anticipate the growth, of course, with the right number of people that we have to train, of course, and to integrate. So to answer the question, the right level of utilization is to have 100% of the people fully staffed to refurbish car.
For the utilization of the assets, it's not a very big issue for us. What we try to do for the asset is to always have capacity behind in front of us in order to make sure that we will be able to follow the growth.
Maybe I take the exit rate on pre-reg, and Fabien, you want to take the two last one?
Yes.
So look, this is the reason why we're not guiding specifically on the segment. If I take a metaphor and consider that the new car market is a sick patient, we believe he's on the way to recovery, but we cannot exclude that there is another fever episode. So I would say that what you say makes sense. This is, we're probably aiming for more, but we cannot be 100% certain on that because on this specific market, the supply is. We do not control the supply as well as we do on the refurbished car segment. But what you're saying is making sense and maybe keeping on Brumbrum and the free cash flow.
Italy and free cash flow. Regarding Italy, when we bought the company, we knew that we would make losses on this company. The company was already loss-making. We have been doing a lot of work this year to decrease the breakeven point, to improve our volumes, to relaunch the company. The plan is being deployed as we speak, and of course, the company has still been loss-making in FY 2023 with important losses. Regarding the free cash flow, and your question is, are we going to be able to be free cash flow positive with a EUR 20 million EBITDA? We are not guiding on the free cash flow, as you know.
We know that our main lever to generate a positive free cash flow this year will be the work on the operational working capital that we will continue to perform, like what we've done this year. We know the levers to decrease our operating working capital and continue, and we'll continue working on it in the next few months and years.
Next question.
Maybe we didn't answer precisely your question, Christophe, on, is Brumbrum going to be profitable in 2024? So probably not, because-
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Because we have kept a structure to be able to withstand growth in the future, because Italy is an important country for us. So the answer is probably not.
The company is still ramping up, so-
Yeah, but with no huge losses.
No, no, no.
It's not,
You know, that we... You know, this was an opportunity because as you have seen the bad will on the company, it was an interesting deal for us in a strategic country.
Okay. Merci. Thank you.
Thank you. There's no further question at this time. I'm handing back over to your host.
So thank you very much, everybody. I believe we do not have any written questions. We had all the, the question, so thank you for your attention, and we'll be pleased to talk to you again in a few months for the Quarter One. Thank you for your attention. Have a nice day.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Thank you.