Welcome to the Groupe SEB 2025 third quarter sales presentation. Today's conference will be hosted by Stanislas de Gramont, Chief Executive Officer, and Olivier Casanova, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be on listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the speakers. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being with us tonight. As discussed, we'll be with Olivier Casanova managing this results presentation. We're talking about the first nine months and third quarter key figures, sales and profit for Groupe SEB, and we will review also the 2025 outlook. Now, when we look at the numbers at the end of September 2025, we are posting flat like-for-like sales growth at EUR 5.66 billion, converting into EUR 267 million ORFA for the first nine months. In the third quarter, sales are EUR 1.9 billion, - 1.2% like-for-like, posting an ORFA performance at EUR 148 million, down EUR 52 million versus 2024. I think it's worth starting this conversation by commenting on the revised 2025 outlook that we posted on the 6th of October.
Starting with the sales outlook, we were talking in July about the full-year organic sales growth between 2.2% and 4% that we've moved to stable to slightly positive sales growth forecast on the 6th of October. When we look at what has changed between July and October, first, we had a softer than expected Q3 activity, especially in September, which is the start of the high season. We have, and that was planned or expected, a continued wait-and-see attitude among customers in North America. Olivier will come back to that. We've seen European markets less buying than anticipating, which hides two realities. We have several, if not many, of our European markets that are posting very healthy growth, but at the same time, some of our key bigger markets have had a stagnant third quarter. We continue to see positive growth in Asia, albeit lower than expected outside of China.
China posts a very consistent growth path between H1 and Q3, around 3.5%. We did see some recovery in South America, albeit lower than expected. We have, and that's good news, returned growth in professional coffee, but this wasn't as good as we expected, tempered in particular by the U.S. market. Overall, what drives also our guidance is we're still in a pretty uncertain and volatile environment, hence a more cautious approach for year-end. That's on the sales front. On the ORFA front, we've revised our full-year ORFA from between EUR 700 million and EUR 750 million to EUR 500 million- EUR 600 million. Where does it come from? Primarily from softer than expected sales growth expectation in the second half. I won't come back to that, but that's clear, and in particular, the less accretion of results from positional markets in Europe.
We see a lower than expected soft setting of our currency effects, which is due to the appreciation of the euro. We see a lower than expected compensation through price in emerging markets of the euro revaluation against these volatile currencies. Last, we see that's confirmed continued price prediscipline in managing operating expenses. This is what drives the revision of our guidance. Now, I leave it up to Olivier to take you through the organic sales performance in the sales performance in the third quarter, and I'll come back with the last comments.
Thank you, Stanislas, and good evening to you all. Starting with our nine-month organic sales, as you can see, our organic growth is flat, in fact, compared to last year. We have a negative currency effect, and I'll come back to that in a second, and a slight 1.1% perimeter effect, which is both the consolidation of La Brigade de Buyer since the beginning of this year, but also the fact that we consolidated Sofilac only from the second quarter onwards last year, and therefore, we have one quarter this year of perimeter effect. Moving on to the performance in the third quarter, you can see that we have a slight negative growth of -1.2% and a currency effect of -3% and a slight scope effect. Let's address straight away the currency effect on the following slide.
You can see that we've had a continuation of the negative impact in Q3 of -$60 million compared to -$57 million in Q2 and only -$7 million in Q1. Of course, we highlight here on this slide the effect on the U.S. dollar and the CNY, even though the year-on-year decrease is only a moderate 3%. They represent a significant portion of our sales, and therefore, they lead to a significant currency impact. The other significant deviations concern emerging market currencies, the Turkish lira, the Mexican peso, the Brazilian real, to name the top three. There, the fluctuation versus last year is very significant. In particular, for example, for the Turkish lira, it's depreciated year-on-year by 22%. Moving on to the breakdown by division, you can see that the -1.2% in Q3 breaks down into -4.1% in professional and -0.8% in consumer. I will dive into professional straight away.
Here on the professional, the first thing to note is that on the nine-month basis, we are down around $45 million versus last year, and it's all due to the delta of sales in China versus last year. The second thing to note is that in Q3, we are, let's say, showing a negative like-for-like sales of -4.1%, but it includes an unfavorable, let's say, accounting effect, which is that last year in the third quarter, we consolidated the first six months of Sofilac after the acquisition in April. We were not ready to consolidate in the second quarter, and therefore, we consolidated six months into one quarter, which, of course, distorts the basis of comparison. If you remove this Sofilac effect, the like-for-like sales growth is 2.4%.
This is due in particular to a return to growth as expected, as announced in professional coffee, which grew 3% on a like-for-like basis. It is very good news, and of course, we expect this trend to continue in the fourth quarter. This is due to a dynamic core business in Germany, also renewed growth in China, and significant, let's say, continued momentum in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and in North and Eastern Europe. We are also reinforcing, strengthening our offer of services with the recruitment of service technicians in Germany. As you know, we also announced a small acquisition, but quite sort of strategic, with Tasty in China, which provides us with a basis to provide services to our customers in the country.
Finally, let's say the slight negative in the quarter is the decline in sales in the United States, which reflects, in fact, the wait-and-see attitude, which we will see in a second in consumer goods, which is also impacting, of course, the professional sales in the country. We have seen a couple of deals delayed into next year because of the current situation in the U.S. One on the next page, one important milestone, which was passed in the third quarter this year, we have reached over 100,000 machines on each of our two star models, which is the Schaerer Sol C and the WMF 1100 S. In total, since the launch of these two machines, they represent over EUR 1 billion of cumulative sales. Clearly, a star product in the market of professional coffee machine in full-auto coffee machines. Moving on to the consumer segment.
The first thing is that in the quarter, we report -0.8% like-for-like growth. Last year, we had a significant loyalty program in the second half, which is therefore distorting the basis of comparison. If you exclude this, we are slightly up at 0.5%. As Stanislas indicated, the activity in the third quarter in our consumer business has been softer than expected. In particular, less buoyant markets in Europe, notably in France and Germany, and in the U.S., the continuation, but that was largely expected, the continuation of the wait-and-see attitude from our customers. However, there are some noteworthy achievements which are worth pointing out. The first thing is that if you exclude LP and North America, in the rest of the business, we grew 3% organically in the third quarter.
This is due in particular to the success of recent launches, and Stanislas will come back on this with washers, spot cleaners, and versatiles. It is also due to continued strong sales momentum in Southern Europe, in Eastern Europe, and in Northern Europe, including the U.K., and that's worthwhile to note. Finally, the continuation of a solid growth in China. Let's take a look at the global picture here, starting with the nine months. You can see the very, let's say, different dynamic in our three major, let's say, geographic areas. In the Americas, a decrease of 7.3% versus nine months last year, whereas in EMEA and Asia, we had a growth of 3.5% excluding LP in EMEA and 3.6% in Asia. More specifically, in the third quarter, as Stanislas indicated, we had a slightly more negative dynamic in the U.S.
and North America than expected, with - 14.4%. Instead of a slight improvement versus the dynamic in Q2, we had a slight worsening. We also had softer market conditions in South America, other EMEA, and other Asian countries. Two of those are positive, and in particular, South America turned back to a positive territory, but slightly more modest than initially expected. On a more positive note, we can see that EMEA, Western Europe is growing at 4.3% excluding LP, and China continues its solid trajectory at 3.5% growth. Let's now focus on the first geographic area, Americas. You can see that we are down, as I said, 14.4%, which is largely reflecting the wait-and-see attitude from customers, which are, let's say, lowering their inventory level, which are shortening their replenishment cycle. There has been also a significant change in, let's say, the import patterns.
There was a substantial part of our business, which was direct import, and this has now moved to delivered in the U.S. This obviously creates a lag effect on sales, a couple of weeks of delay, basically, in the recognition of turnover. The sell-out, however, is proving to be quite resilient in Cookware and Linen Care. We are, in fact, up on last year, and we're consolidating our leadership positions in these categories. In Mexico, we are continuing to grow despite reductions in retailers' inventories. A word on South America, we have a very strong performance in Colombia, with sharp increases in many categories. The region is impacted by the continuous, let's say, unfavorable climate or weather climate in Brazil, which has delayed, unfortunately, the start of the fan seasons, which we were expecting initially in the third quarter.
Unfortunately, there is still a high level of inventory, and therefore delaying, let's say, the replenishment of fans at retail. Let's now, let's say, focus on the U.S. tariff situation. First, to note that it's still, as you know, a very moving target, and there is almost a continuous flow of news in this regard. There has been a change in the Section 232, which is applicable for aluminum and steel and their derivatives, and therefore concerns cookware. The percentage applicable has moved from 25% to 50%, but it's not the same basis of calculation. The first one was on the entire, let's say, cost of the product, whereas the 50% is only applicable on the raw material portion. Therefore, in total, it is marginally higher than before, but not very significantly. We are obviously continuing with speed on the implementation of the measures to offset this tariff increase.
As we mentioned in July, it's both, of course, the increase in our local production capacity in All-Clad in Canonsburg. It's also the relocation of our cookware production in support from China to support in Vietnam. It's also supplier diversification and renegotiation with our Chinese suppliers, and also relocation or move of transfer of production to supplier facilities outside of China. Our action plan also includes the increase of selling prices. As we said, we started in May and June and continued over the summer. We have only, let's say, a partial offset at this stage, but still it is starting to show. Finally, we are also implementing some measures to mitigate the impact on the professional segment. All in all, the conclusion is that our measures are being increasingly effective, but this does not compensate, of course, the wait-and-see attitude of retailers.
Moving to Asia, in China, we see a moderate but solid growth, still at 3.5%, 3.6% for the whole region, and 3.5% for China, which is, of course, reflecting the strength of support in digital activation in particular. As you know, social commerce is becoming a big thing in China, and support is very agile and very efficient in those new channels. In this context, we are consolidating our global leadership, in particular on cookware and on kitchen electrics. In cookware, the woks are still very important, particularly titanium non-stick wok. In electrical cooking, we can note the successes in rice cookers and oil-less fryers. In the rest of Asia, we have a contrasted performance, a very strong performance in Southeast Asia, with the expansion of retail distribution network and development of new categories.
We have, unfortunately, as you know, a weak situation in Japan and South Korea, in particular impacted by weak consumer spending, but also the depreciation of the currency, which has increased in the third quarter. In Australia, we have a continued product expansion, including with the recent launch of our ice cream maker, Dolce, but in a competitive environment. Moving to EMEA, in Western Europe, as I mentioned, we have a positive performance, 1% like-for-like, excluding LP. We're at + 4.3%. However, it is a little bit softer than anticipated. It is driven by double-digit growth in cookware, but also floor care and linen care, continuing the trend that we saw in H1. We noted that our performance was weaker than expected in France and Germany, in particular because we are suffering on some of our historic electrical cooking core categories.
We still see a very positive momentum in Southern and Northern Europe, fueled by our innovation success, including on washers and versatile and oil-less fryers, for example. On other EMEA countries, the trend remains very positive in Eastern Europe, driven by Poland, but we are also experiencing more difficulties, more issues in Africa and the Middle East related in particular to the geopolitical environment. With that, I hand over now to Stanislas for the remainder of the presentation.
Thank you, Olivier. It's interesting to hand over now because we see that in Southern Europe, in Northern Europe, in Eastern Europe, our growth is driven and is fueled by innovation. It's interesting to review some of the big innovations we have or we are introducing this quarter or this semester, starting with versatile vacuum cleaners. We've sold over a million units of this X-Force Flex range since 2024.
This is a key driver of the growth, made in France products for three out of four. We are now number two in Europe on versatile vacuum cleaners, and we see the continuous introduction in the second half of 2025 of the flagship, the most expensive products, X-Force Flex 16.60. This year also marks the development and the explosion of the washer vacuum cleaner markets. It is a market that is going to deliver over $100 million of sales this year only for Rowenta, the first full year. We've rolled it out in 70 countries since the end of 2024, and our X-Clean 10 is a bestseller in Europe in the first six months of the year on the GFK panel.
We are introducing in the second half of the year three new variants: X-Clean 2, X-Clean 5, X-Clean 7, again feeding a strong portfolio of innovation that is delivering material sales growth. The last, I was going to say, the last arrival is the Cooker Infinity that we've just launched in France around about a month ago. It is the first all-in-one device that combines pressure cooker and air fryer in the same appliance. It has been introduced in France on the 23rd of September and already shows on the French market a significant material impact on the development. We've chosen quite a few innovations.
We are expanding further the Fusion Core launch in the second half, 2025 in cookware in Europe, with a ceramic cover that is four times more resistant than the previous, confirming our leadership in multi-material coatings, including ceramic, with that product being expanding and launched across Europe. You see a quite dynamic product activity, which supports and funds and feeds the growth of our fourth quarter, and that helps compensate some of the more negative news we have on some geographies or some segments of the market. Now, when we step back and go back to the first nine months, we see, if we look at it by product line, we see that floor care is growing a strong double-digit growth in the first nine months of the year, followed by cookware that has gained a pretty strong dynamic. Linen Care confirms its dynamism, food preparation is positive.
We see more mixed performance in electrical cooking due to some difficulties in our core and historical product families, but we're fixing it. I think the launch of Cooker Infinity is a great answer to that. Home comfort, I think Olivier has mentioned that, the weather issues we have in Brazil. The last part of this presentation, or the one before last, is around the Q3 ORFA. As you've seen, the ORFA in Q3 is down $52 million versus 2024. It is primarily driven by sales level, which is slightly below 2024, and the impact on the operational leverage. We continue to see a decline in North America, around $20 million in the quarter, which is close to the one of half one and Q2. As I said, the strengthening of the euro and the ability to offset currency effects is still penalizing in emerging countries.
That weighs for EUR 15 million in the third quarter against EUR 25 million in the first half. The contribution on professional coffee, on the contrary, is in line with last year in Q3, and that's after a decrease of EUR 40 million in the first half. Our investment in growth drivers has been stable in Q3 when it was up EUR 60 million in the first half. That leads to an ORFA margin that is declining 250 basis points versus the ORFA margin last year. Now, the last part is the outlook and some comments about the plan we just announced. The outlook for 2025, I'm just confirming what we said a couple of weeks ago, is for a full-year organic growth, sales stable to slightly positive with a full-year ORFA landing between EUR 550 million and EUR 600 million.
Of course, as you know, the fourth quarter is the most important quarter in the year. We're in the middle of the peak season. What do we see as key actions now? We continue to see a growth acceleration in the most promising segments. We've seen, and I just described them, intensive product launches with an optimized multi-channel activation. We will have sustained and targeted marketing and advertising investments in the period, which is pretty dense with commercial events, of course, Black Friday in Europe and the United States, Christmas holidays, 11/11 Singles Day in China, and so on. We are focusing on strengthening the service offering in professional, and that grows with continued good momentum in coffee machine sales in Europe and Asia. We see a positive outlook for professional coffee in the fourth quarter.
We continue and intensify our cost reduction programs of non-essential spendings throughout all lines of the P&L. On top of that, we've announced today that we are launching a plan with the aim to restore our profitable growth momentum by 2027. What's the situation? What's the objective? We want to restore our growth momentum. We want to restore our profitability standards. We want to adapt the group to the rapid shift in our markets. The actions we implement are around generating approximately EUR 200 million of recurring cost savings by 2027, focusing our initiatives on purchases, on structural optimization, on improving industrial efficiency, and on simplifying our work processes.
That will allow us to accelerate our growth by substantially increasing our investment and capacity in innovation, in artificial intelligence, and in digital marketing in particular, to streamline our organizations, to enhance our agility and our speed, and to strengthen our consumer engagement around experience and sustainability. We don't give more details on this plan today. I think it's already some details. We will communicate more on this topic in early 2026. I think we're done with our presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. I will hand over to our administrator to organize the question and answer session. Thank you.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six. The next question comes from Geoffrey d'Halluin from BNPP Exane. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good evening, gentlemen. I have three questions, please. The first one is related to competition. I guess you mentioned in your press release two weeks ago, you know, sustained market competition. Just curious to get your thoughts on what you are seeing. Do you think you are losing market shares in a few product categories or in a few geographies? Maybe overall, are you seeing any competitors being more aggressive in terms of pricing? My second question is related to your revenue and EBITDA bridge into 2026. Just wondering if you think any elements which have impacted your 2025 numbers are one-off by nature and so should not come back in 2026 and may support next year's growth. The last question is on the balance sheet.
If you can share any thoughts on where you expect to land in terms of leverage at the end of this year. Thank you very much.
Bonjour Geoffroy. Bonjour Geoffrey, pardon. I will take the first and second, and Olivier will take the third one. I start with the second to say it's pretty early to comment on 2026. We are, as you've seen, we have been unsettled in 2025 in our forecast. We are now working very hard on landing 2025 and taking the learnings of 2025. When it comes to competition, we see some aggressiveness on the market from, I would say, Western competitors and from Chinese competition. We are able to manage that on our margins because that would be a question that comes immediately after. Yes, there is a high intensity, highly intense competition on the market. We don't think we're losing share in the segments we operate in broadly. There may be some market swings between categories, that robot vacuum cleaners in particular, that may impact our global share.
When you look at our competitive position on the main markets we operate in, there is no sign of a share loss. I think we're more affected by category mix and the country mix. Olivier?
Okay. On the leverage, of course, we're not going to provide precise guidelines at this stage of the year, but I think I can give you a few pointers. The first one, of course, you remember that we paid the fine from the French competition authority of around EUR 190 million in the second quarter. That will remain, let's say, a difference between last year's position and this year. Our working capital remains on the high side. Even though we are progressively, let's say, reducing our inventory level versus last year, we are still penalized by the Red Sea crisis. Therefore, we have a working capital which is higher than our target range.
This year, we have a few CapEx. We have, of course, CapEx cycles. This year, we have a few important investments, in particular to expand or build our new Shaoxing hub in professional coffee machines in China. Therefore, they will be a little bit, let's say, higher than the average. We can expect a leverage position which will be higher than our standards this year. We are, however, looking to fix that. As you saw today, we're announcing a significant plan. We are determined to recover in our ORFA. We also will continue to work on working capital to go back to our standards of 15%- 17% of sales. We will see whether there are some good news on the Red Sea crisis, but we will certainly work to improve our working capital position and therefore contribute to go back to our standards.
We are, as you know, very comfortable around two times net debt to EBITDA. When occasionally we diverge from this target position, we take the necessary actions to go back as soon as possible to our comfort zone.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
The next question comes from Alessandro Cecchini from EQUITA. Please go ahead.
Hello, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on the saving plan. You know that we know that you don't provide additional information, but just to understand how much of the portion of savings are you cashing in this year? I mean, in 2025, you stated in the press release. If you expect, when you expect the most of the benefits come through the P&L, and if you expect, I mean, restructuring charges relevant or something, I will say, not so relevant. Just if you can elaborate a little bit more on these topics. My second question is still about competition. Probably I lost a little bit because to understand if the level of competition that we are seeing in this moment is like you had in the first half or you are seeing a different situation. You already stated high-level competition.
Just to understand if the competitive environment is competitive but stable. I missed if you talked about in particular Chinese companies. If you can elaborate a little bit more on this. My final question was on the Forex earnings. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the total Forex earnings on ORFA for the nine months? Because probably - 15% is just a portion. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Alessandro. Good afternoon to you. On the saving plan, the portion of the saving plan, the plan is okay. We are announcing a structural plan, and we say that we will complete this plan by 2027, which means we would like to get a very strong chunk of the savings by 2027, not all of it, because there will be phasings. As far as 2025 is concerned, I think the first measures were taken back in June, July this year. You'll see that in our ORFA result in the third quarter already that our spending growth has been almost totally curved versus or in line with last year. Now, the portion of the benefits that will go to the P&L, I think this plan is a plan to restore growth. There will be some reinvestments on this plan.
Of course, the aim is to go back to our profit growth trajectories that I remind you we discussed in the Capital Market Day back in 2023, where we said we want to go towards 11% MOP. We should finish this year 7%, 7.5% MOP. Of course, there is a clear priority to recover ORFA and operating margin through this plan. Now, it's very early to say when and how much will be hitting 2026 and 2027 and 2028. You should keep from this plan that it's material, it's important. It will be recurring structural savings, and it will be fast because we want to complete it by 2027. Your second question on competition in, sorry.
No, please. Please.
No, if you have any comment because I was going to switch to your second question.
No, yes, on the second question. If I understood correctly, the plan is having already, I mean, some benefits in 2025. The plan will be rolled out through 2027 with, I presume, the full impact on 2028. It's correct?
I mean, it's only to say, I mean, you are, I understand, and I recognize your impatience. What I'm saying is that we have already undertaken some cost-saving measures in the second half of 2025. We are accelerating that and put together a plan that will generate in the next two years $200 million additional recurrent savings. Okay?
Okay. Yes.
Right.
The final.
On the competition intensity and the Chinese companies, we see, I think, probably more intense competition than there was in the first half of the year. This is driven by all competitors. We see more and more Chinese companies in the areas of floor care and kitchen electrics coming in in Europe. We think we are able, within our guidance, to face this Chinese competition. We're confident that with what we know and what we see in the market, we will be able to confront that competition as we've done it in the first half of the year. Olivier, you want to take the Forex question?
Absolutely. On FX, in total, for the first nine months, it's just under $50 million of negative impacts. It's obviously very material, but it's made of several components. The first one is on U.S. dollar and CNY. We commented on this in the first half. We're expecting the impact to be break-even in the third quarter and to turn positive in the fourth quarter because we are typically short of those two currencies. What happened is that, in fact, in the third quarter, we still had a negative net impact. This is delaying the positive momentum to Q4. Clearly, this will be going forward. If the levels stay where they are, this will be a positive effect on our margins. We are also suffering from the Japanese yen and the Korean won weakness. Last year, on the Japanese yen, we were protected by our hedges.
Unfortunately, this year, they are not providing much of a cover. The last point, which is probably the more material, is that we are facing difficulties this year to compensate the depreciation of emerging market currencies by price increases. As you know, traditionally in the past, we've been able to compensate the majority, let's say 70%, 80% of the negative impact. The different situation that we're facing this year is the diverging trajectory between U.S. dollar in particular and the euro. Many of our competitors, of course, and many of those markets are dollar markets. When the euro is strengthening like this and the U.S. dollar is depreciating, it is making it more difficult, at least in the short term, to pass those price increases to compensate for the depreciation. This is one of the significant components of the negative FX impact in our results this year.
I'd like to maybe add something on the, merci Olivier, on the intensity of the competition. You know that we are Chinese in China, and you know that facing Chinese competition and the Chinese aggressiveness is our daily bread and butter in China. I think you shouldn't keep from my comment that the competition is increasing and that will impact the results. You should keep from our comment that competition is increasing and we feel we are able to navigate with this increased competition intensity with a good management of our margins. I think this is the key message you should keep for this part.
Thank you. Lastly, asking a restructuring charges, if you just assess.
Too early to say.
Sorry, sorry.
We'll come back to you. We'll come back to the markets early in 2026 to give you the full details. This will be part of the details. Okay?
Okay, thank you.
Welcome.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial the pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Sarah Thirion from TP ICAP Europe. Please go ahead.
Good evening, Stanislas and Olivier. I was wondering if you could remind me the date of the big renewal of major contracts in Professional Coffee, sorry. Because if I remember well, the medium-term ambition was supposed for assumed an increase in Professional division weight in percentage of consolidated revenues. If there is no acquisition, I think that the medium-term targets could be harder to achieve. If you could remind me the renewal date, it would be great. Thank you so much.
Merci. Bonsoir, Sarah. Right. We had a big wave of contracts in the U.S. in 2017, 2018, 2019 mainly, I think. We say that those contracts are, those machines have six, seven-eight years life expectancy. Our machines, unfortunately, are more reliable and last longer. We expect to start to see an impact, let's say, in 2027, 2028 with a bigger impact in the, call it 2027, 2028, just to be precise. That will be, and that's the first comment. The second comment on the Professional Coffee is that with all those blips and cycle effects, we still see that the underlying growth of the business is between 5% and 10% quarter after quarter. We are confident that this will, that we stay in course with the Professional Coffee.
Of course, the exit of these bad comps and Q4 should be the first clear quarter of growth and should help us see more clearly in that direction. The last thing I wanted to say on Professional Coffee is that, as you know, we've opened, we are opening now the Shaoxing Professional Coffee Hub that will expand further our ability to develop machines for the semi-pro and entry market. That's allowing us to enter more easily on coffee chains, on office work. We see a potential for expansion of the Professional Coffee category through those new ranges of machines that should help us deliver our expectations on that segment. Olivier?
Just to complement, mass production. We are, the facility, as you know, has been built in record time. It was delivered this summer. The machines and the ramp-up of the production is starting as we speak. In fact, we expect mass production to start in the beginning of 2026. As we mentioned, Sarah, in the past, we are developing, in fact, very rapidly several new products for the semi-professional and entry-level segments. Those will be, of course, additional to what we do today.
Okay. Many thanks. Just if I may, I guess that the U.S. tariff could be challenging for Schaerer in the U.S. Do you have any comment on this?
Yes. We are, as many of our Professional Coffee competitors, manufacturing in Switzerland. We are looking at it. We have options in Germany and options in China. It is something that we're looking at, and it may be an operational concern short term. It is not a strategic concern for us.
Okay.
We will fix it.
You fix it.
We will have solutions if those tariffs are confirmed and if that impacts materially our P&L. Okay?
Okay. Thank you.
Merci, Sarah.
The next question comes from Alessandro Cuglietta from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Just a quick one for me. On China, could you maybe elaborate on the current market trends, especially the sustainability of the current like-for-like sales growth you posted? We have a lot of headlines on China, quite negative at the moment. I wanted to have your opinion on that.
Merci. Right. We see a slightly slower fourth quarter in China, but it would be still positive. We see a market that is not markedly slowing down. I mean, the first holiday season, the golden week, wasn't impressive in terms of retail sales. I mean, we've seen the same statistics as you've seen. Our business is holding up quite well. Our channel mix is holding up quite well. Our margin mix is holding up quite well. Our core categories on cookware and kitchen electrics are holding up quite well. No sign of a change of a trend that has now been on for four or five quarters in China with consistent year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter revolutions, which are positive and which are driven and fed by sound business levels.
Okay, very clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from Christophe Chaput from Oddo. Please go ahead.
Yes, good evening to everyone. Just a quick one for me on North America. You say that you have a negative impact by EUR 20 million in Q3, obviously. I just wonder, is it possible to strip out the volume effect on your sales and the price effect or the price hike that you are going to, that you already passed, to offset the tariff? In another word, on the -EUR 20 million, do you fully offset the impact of the tariff with your price increase? Does the -EUR 20 million come from the volume or do you need further price increases?
Olivier?
Bonsoir, pardon. The extent of our price increases is designed to offset the majority of the negative impact from increased tariff. This is implemented progressively, not only at the same time on all categories. It is a growing offset, and it did not offset 100% of the tariff in the third quarter. That being said, the big impact is really on volumes, which is due to, as we said, the wait-and-see attitude from customers and the change of income terms, the change from direct import to local sales. That is why we are expecting an improved performance in the fourth quarter. Progressively, the measures that we are taking are delivering their results. Progressively, we expect the markets to normalize. In total, we still have positive sellout momentum, not quite to the extent of the price increases.
It means that there is a slight negative impact on volumes, but it is a very moderate impact.
Okay, thank you for that.
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, everyone. First, we are in action. We're in movement. We have the biggest quarter in front of us. We're in the middle of it. All our teams are mobilized and in action and very active to fight against those headwinds that we are facing. We know that our guidance has led to some disappointment, but we are determined, and that's my second point, to bring the group back to the financial trajectory that we've set for ourselves a couple of years ago. The third comment is this is why we put together a plan that will accelerate that path to recovery, both in terms of resetting our operating margin and in terms of giving ourselves the resources to deliver the growth that is absolutely needed to deliver value creation in this company.
Fourth, we have a year where we've had ups and downs, more ups, in fact, on inventories. We may not catch up everything on this year's landing on inventory, but we are very conscious of the market and our investors' expectations and ambitions in terms of cash flow delivery. This is one of our preoccupations. I thank you all for your continuous follow-up and support for your questions, and I wish you a good results week or season. Thank you very much.
Thank you.