Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the SCHOTT Pharma third quarter earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. The floor will be open for questions following the presentation. Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Tobias Erfurth.
Thank you, Anna, thank you very much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for joining us for our third quarter earnings call for the fiscal year 2025. My name is Tobias Erfurth. I'm the Head of Investor Relations. It's my pleasure to guide you through today's call. Joining me on the panel are our CEO, Andreas Reisse, and our new CFO, Reinhard Mayer, who joined our management board only 12 days ago. In just a moment, you will have the opportunity to get to know him personally. Before that, on slide two, please take a moment to review our disclaimer. Please note that we talk about the fiscal year 2025. We are referring to the period from October 1st, 2024, to September 30, 2025. This third quarter relates to the period from April 1st to June 30, 2025. With that, over to you, Andreas.
Thanks, Tobias. Also, a warm welcome from my side. Reinhard, on behalf of everyone at SCHOTT Pharma, welcome to the team. I'm delighted that you joined SCHOTT Pharma and that you are joining us today in this format for the first time in your new role. I'm looking very much forward to a great collaboration. May I invite you to briefly introduce yourself?
Thank you, Andreas. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for making the time for our earnings call today. I'm very pleased to be meeting you already in my second week at SCHOTT Pharma. I'm excited to have joined SCHOTT Pharma, a remarkable company with an impressive track record and strong prospects for the future. Its innovative strengths, global footprint, and clear commitment to sustainability and social responsibility have impressed me from the outset. A few words on my background. Over the past 20 years, I have held various CFO roles in listed multinational corporations across several industries, including medtech. Most recently, I served at Nilfisk Holding A/S, a leading global provider of cleaning equipment and services in Denmark. I look forward to working with the SCHOTT Pharma team and with you to build the next stages of our company's development together. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Reinhard. With that, we will now turn to our strategy and business update. I'm pleased to share with you an update on our results from the past quarter, as well as the latest developments and strategic achievements. We look back on a solid third quarter, very much in line with our expectations. Our top line continues to grow, our profitability is improving, and we are making strong progress towards expanding our HVS business. Group-wise, revenues reached EUR 256 million in quarter three. The year-on-year growth of 3% at constant currencies reflects a particularly strong prior year quarter, which has benefited from high demand in the drug delivery solutions segment, while this year's Q3 was marked by a normalization of demand patterns. The main revenue driver of the past quarter was our drug containment solutions business, which continued its positive momentum for HVS.
The drug delivery systems segment showed sequential growth, yet overall it declined slightly against the strong prior year quarter. With a beneficial product mix and efficiency measures, we managed to improve our profitability to record levels. We increased our EBITDA by 11% year-on-year to EUR 83 million in the third quarter, with an EBITDA margin of 31.7% at constant currencies. The continued high demand of our high-value solutions, especially sterile solutions and specialty vials, is fueled by various industry trends. In turn, we expanded our HVS revenue share, increasing it by 5 percentage points to 60% year-on-year quarter three of the fiscal year. Shifting our revenue towards HVS is an essential goal of our strategy. Building upon trustful partnerships, innovation, and expansion continues to pay off. We are steadily advancing our portfolio towards more HVS and expanding manufacturing capacities to serve the increasing market demand.
With the broadest offering of HVS, we are ideally positioned to grow faster than the overall market while improving our profitability. Even in a volatile market environment, the demand for our HVS remains high, underlining the strengths of our strategic approach. With a revenue share of 60% from HVS in Q3 and 57% in the first nine months of this fiscal year, we are well on track to achieve our midterm goal of generating more than 60% of our revenues from HVS. As mentioned, one of the core elements of our business strategy is trustful partnerships. We are thrilled to report that we have once again achieved outstanding results in this year's customer survey, which encompasses feedback from 168 customers across 37 countries. Our customer loyalty index has reached an impressive 90%, standing significantly above other industry competitors.
This positive feedback underscores SCHOTT Pharma's reputation as a reliable supplier and leader in innovation, providing high-quality products that truly add value and address industry challenges. Our customers' trust in us is reflected not only in our past growth trajectory but also as a foundation for future growth. Speaking about innovation, our second strategic pillar, we have enhanced our portfolio with two market introductions in the last month. With cartridges performing outstandingly in Q3, we are even more excited to offer additional options with new value and benefits to our customers. Firstly, we introduced the first large-volume 5 milliliter ready-to-use cartridges that seamlessly work with the large-volume autoinjectors of our partner, SHL Medical. It enables patients who self-administer substantial amounts of medication easily and comfortably at home, especially for the treatment of chronic autoimmune or neurological diseases. This represents a major step forward.
The harmonized and pre-tested system of large-volume cartridge and autoinjector accelerates the time to market for pharma companies and creates greater convenience for patients. Secondly, with the SCHOTT TOPPAC polymer cartridge, we have introduced the industry's first ready-to-use polymer cartridge that meets ISO standards. It was specifically developed for the requirements of sensitive biologics such as cell and gene therapies or emergency medications, along with patient-friendly administration. The cartridge offers enhanced break resistance and an inert surface with low silicon levels and greater design flexibility for integration into pen injection systems. At the same time, we are advancing sustainable transformation for us and the industry through strong strategic partnerships. Our strategic glass supplier, SCHOTT AG, is building the first electric melting tank for pharmaceutical glass powered by green electricity, setting a new industry standard.
As of 2027, the new FIOLAX pharmaceutical glass tubing coming from that tank will significantly reduce the product carbon footprint of our drug containment solutions and delivery systems. To give you one example, for a typical 2 milliliter vial, the product carbon footprint can be reduced by approximately 30% compared to the current technology. This glass is already qualified across all our product categories and sites, with many leading pharmaceutical companies having already chosen to utilize this more sustainable glass. These innovations again reinforce our position as a pioneer when it comes to new drug containment and delivery solutions that meet patients' and customers' needs. The last pillar of our strategy is expansion, which is essential to securing our future growth. Our global expansion program is progressing as planned, and personally, I'm very happy about this, given the volatile environment we are living in at the moment.
I would like to highlight two developments in Hungary from the third quarter. The first one is in our glass surge production facility, inaugurated last year. We have commenced commercial supply. All production lines have successfully completed customer qualifications, and deliveries are now underway. On top of that, we are investing another EUR 100 million to expand our manufacturing capacity for sterile ready-to-use cartridges in Hungary. With this, we are responding to the rapidly growing demand for HVS, particularly for diabetes and obesity therapies, and further enhance supply security for our customers. With that, I will now hand it over to Reinhard for a closer look at our financial performance.
Thank you, Andreas. Although I'm only on board since August, I'm pleased to walk you through our financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of Pharma's fiscal year 2025. I already mentioned that we are satisfied with the solid performance in the third quarter, where we increased revenues by 3% year-over-year on constant currencies to EUR 256 million over last year's exceptionally strong Q3, with organic revenue growth of 21%. At the same time, we grew our EBITDA even stronger by 11% to EUR 83 million, to a record margin of 31.7% at constant currencies. This development was driven by a product mix shift towards HVS and efficiency gains, a very strong performance in a volatile market environment. The strong earnings dynamics could not be fully offset and translated into earnings per share, which decreased marginally by 1% to EUR 0.30 in the third quarter.
This reflects higher depreciation and slightly lower financial results, as well as increased tax expenses from changed regional mix compared to the prior year period. We continue to invest in our growth. Capital expenditure amounted to EUR 38 million in the third quarter, a year-over-year increase of EUR 14 million. On the next slide, let's dive deeper into the top and bottom lines of both business segments. As usual, we differentiate between our drug containment solutions, short DCS, business in the light gray bar, and drug delivery systems, short DDS, in the dark blue bar. The overall top line development in the third quarter was mostly supported by a good performance of DCS, which grew 4% to EUR 142 million. Excluding FX headwinds, DCS grew even stronger at 8% year-over-year. High-value solutions were a key driver for this development, growing more than 50% year-over-year.
We saw particularly high demand for sterile cartridges for GLP-1 and other biologics and for specialty vials for novel cancer therapies based on antibody drug conjugates, or short ADCs. The core business showed a muted performance with improving order patterns for core vials. Despite a slight decline of 2% in revenues, DDS showed encouraging developments, most notably by the strong performance of prefillable glass syringes, recording double-digit growth. As a result, segment sales held steady at EUR 114 million, showing strong resilience amid expected polymer softness. It is also important to note that the prior year quarter represented an exceptionally strong comparison base, with revenue growth at constant currencies of 38% year-over-year. Looking at the year-to-date performance, we recorded 5% revenue growth at constant currencies and generated revenue of EUR 739 million.
Segment-wise, DCS contributed EUR 414 million, continuing its growth trajectory both on a reported and constant currency basis, driven by sustained demand for high-value solutions. DDS generated EUR 325 million, showing a stable development compared to the prior year. Like in Q3, the strengths in the glass syringe business helped to maintain overall revenue levels and to compensate for the muted polymer syringe volumes. Please also note that in the last year, the first nine months showed a high comparable base, with revenue growth at constant currencies of 32% year-over-year, which was following the expansion of manufacturing capacities. The FX impact on revenues in Q3 was similar to Q2 2025. With that, let's look closer to our profitability. We significantly improved our bottom line performance. Our Q3 EBITDA totaled EUR 83 million, an increase of 11% both on a reported basis and at constant currencies.
As a result of this strong EBITDA growth, we increased our margin by 2.3 percentage points at constant currencies to the quarterly record of 31.7%. This strong performance was driven primarily by a favorable shift in our product mix towards our strong high-margin value solutions and the positive impact of our ongoing efficiency initiatives. We are particularly satisfied with the result, as these more than offset the impact of polymer underutilization, as well as ramp-up costs for our capacity expansion in Hungary and Serbia. The positive impact of the good high-value solutions performance was specifically strong in the DCS segment, where we grew our reported EBITDA by 28% to EUR 38 million, improving reported margins by 5 percentage points to 26.8%. DDS contributed EUR 42 million to the Q3 EBITDA, which was highly profitable at 36.9% reported EBITDA margin. The margin was slightly below prior year level.
While the strong operational performance in the glass syringe business provided support, it did not fully offset the negative effects from ramp-up costs related to the expansion in Hungary and the continued underutilization in the polymer syringe segment. In the first nine months, EBITDA grew faster than revenues at 11% year-over-year to EUR 213 million. Consequently, the EBITDA margin expanded by 2.2 percentage points to 28.8%, both on a reported basis and at constant currencies. Now, let me take you through our cash flow and investments. Our operating cash flow came in at EUR 55 million in Q3 2025, decreasing slightly from EUR 58 million in Q3 2024. Higher working capital and increased tax payments did offset the positive contribution from increased EBITDA in the quarter. Cash flow from investing amounted to EUR 38 million in Q3 and was entirely driven by capital expenditures.
These investments are primarily growth-oriented, representing a year-over-year increase of EUR 14 million. As a result, we generated a solid free cash flow of EUR 17 million in the third quarter, down from EUR 34 million in Q3 2024. For the first nine months, free cash flow reached EUR 39 million. Finally, let's take a look at our guidance. Our focus remains on growing our business sustainably and profitably. In a volatile market environment and against a high prior year base, we recorded a solid third quarter. With nine months of the fiscal year completed, we now have greater visibility into our full-year performance and have therefore specified our targets last week. We now expect organic revenue growth of around 6% at constant currencies. This specification reflects the most recent market dynamics, following increased uncertainty given ongoing global policy discussions, which impact industry sentiment. We are also specifying our EBITDA margin outlook.
The EBITDA margin for financial year 2025 is expected to be around 28%, above the previous guidance of approximately at the level of full-year financial year 2024, which was 26.9%. This is mainly driven by a favorable product mix shift towards high-value solutions and the positive impact of operational efficiency measures. We would also like to provide additional context for other financial metrics for the fiscal year 2025. We remain optimistic about maintaining a strong high-value solutions revenue share and therefore are increasing our ambition to above 55% of HVS. With regards to CapEx, we reaffirm our expectation to EUR 140 million-EUR 160 million for the full financial year. Let me also make some housekeeping comments. Depreciation should continue to increase compared to last year. We expect our current level after nine months to be a good indicator for the full year.
Finally, our outlook for the full-year tax rate is anticipated to be around 22%, which is slightly above the previously communicated 20%. This adjustment is primarily driven by the higher tax rate observed after the first nine months and reflects a change in the regional earnings mix. With that, I will now hand back to Tobias before we start with the Q&A session.
Many thanks, Andreas, and many thanks, Reinhard, for your presentations. Anna, our operator, will now give you the technical introduction. Afterwards, we welcome your questions and open the Q&A session. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Tobias. Dear ladies and gentlemen, if you are dialed into the conference call and have a question for our speakers, please press nine and the star key now to enter the queue. I repeat, the combination is nine star. If you wish to cancel your question again, please press three and then the star key. For now, please dial in and press nine star. We are looking forward to your questions.
Thanks for the technical introduction. The first question comes from Zhang Guiyin from Citigroup. Zhang, please go ahead.
Hopefully, you can hear me. I have two questions, please. The first question is around the DCS and specifically on HVS products within DCS. You guys delivered another quarter of strong demand. Can you comment on the order dynamic going forward in this aspect? I remember a quarter ago, there was some hesitancy around whether we should see the strains continued, and we definitely did. How sustainable do you think this demand is as you look into fiscal year 2026? I'll ask my second question after this.
Zhang, I will take over that question. From our point of view, these dynamics will continue because they are based on the trends. As you know, ADC is definitely a strong trend, and we are almost in all products with our products, which is very positive and will positively contribute. On the other hand, of course, the sterile business is developing very nicely. I also believe that we have here a competitive advantage over others, and we will definitely benefit from it from my point of view. That is also shown by the strong investments we are now doing in Hungary for the expansion of the sterile business. All in all, it's one of the strong growth drivers for the next years, and it will continue.
Thank you, that is clear. My second question is around the efficiency gains in the quarter. Can you quantify the contribution to margin that you saw, and can you comment on any expectations from the magnitude of savings going forward? Just as a very quick follow-up, can you provide some examples of what is being done in your business? Thank you.
Of course, given the volatile market environment, honestly, we have really started with efficiency measures. I will not disclose precise numbers, but it's definitely a nice double-digit million amount, which we will achieve this year, and that will, of course, continue in the next years. We are starting new measures also to further increase productivity, not only in production, but also in admin processes by digitalization and other measures. We are continuously working on it.
Thank you.
Next question comes from Falko Friedrichs from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. My first question is on your polymer syringe business. When can we expect this business to return to growth, and does the fourth quarter still face a tougher comp? My second question is on your DCS margin, which was extremely strong now in the third quarter. How should we think about the margin entering the fourth quarter and also entering next year? My third question is a bigger picture, one on the overall end markets. How are all of these geopolitical points affecting your end markets at the moment? What are the headwinds, and is this destocking now completely over? Thank you.
It's a good question, I have to say. Polymer syringes, I would say growth is perhaps a little bit too early, but I would say it will not further shrink. We are not giving a guidance today, definitely not for DDS, but I would say the worst is over. We saw these headwinds, as you know, from M&A mainly, but we are already compensating more than we thought at the beginning of the year with new value streams and new applications. I would say it's getting back, but not, of course, not immediately to the same levels which we have seen before when we had these COVID vaccinations. That's one. The second one, it's something you can take.
Thank you, Andreas. Maybe I'll take the impact of geopolitical topics. Of course, that is the tariff situation on one side, which we have the forecast to be a low single-digit million euros for the full year. Not really significant, but there is, let's say, in our guidance, an embedded impact already included. The other thing is geopolitical topics impacting the sentiment, and that is a reflection which we obviously see in the demand side to the various businesses, which we have, so to say, encompassed now in the current guidance.
Okay, thank you. Maybe on the DCS margin?
Yeah. DCS margins, they will further improve from my point of view because we have also in DCS, our strategy is to increase the HVS share, and that will have a positive impact also in the future. It's mainly two things in DCS. On the one hand side, a higher percentage of HVS, which will contribute to margin expansion, and secondly, of course, cost measures, which will also benefit our business. All in all, it will get better. You had one question specifically about vials, no? Sorry?
Correct.
For the first quarter, no, first of all, vials, yeah, destocking of vials, I would say that that is over, but there is this volatility in the market, which is really not in favor at the moment. We have to say, in some regions, we are running very well or normal, yeah, like South America and also Asia is okay, but still, Europe is not on the level which we would like to have it. All in all, I would say it's not destocking. It's more the volatility of the markets at the moment and cost measurement measures also by pharma companies. As you know, there are probably 1,000 customers behind that. We have to go into all single customers for this, yeah. All in all, I would say it's coming back, but it could be a bit better, honestly. Margin development, was it, if I could ask you, that was margin in polymer or margin of quarter four?
DCS margin, now that they've been so strong in Q3, I was wondering how we should think about it in the fourth quarter.
Do you want to take that, Reinhard?
Yeah, I mean, Q3 certainly has a peak in the full-year perspective as we have basically full demand, supply, etc. In the fourth quarter, we have a lot of shortages coming out of our supply chain with vacation periods and lower demand, and that is impacting our fourth quarter margin. If you look to previous patterns, you will get a good reflection of this development.
Okay, thank you.
Next question comes from Olivier Calvet from UBS. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, Andreas. Welcome, Reinhard. Maybe I take them one by one. First question on succession. Good to see Reinhard joining the company. Just wanted to ask you, Andreas, we've seen your mandate extended to, I believe, April next year. Could you give us some thoughts on how to think about that timeline, flexibility for you to extend beyond that, and/or the state of the search for a successor? That would be the first one.
Of course, I can imagine that question I get sometimes. Yeah, no, but April is fixed. I just wanted to make it a little bit because my contract ended in July, but then I thought with the CFO change, that's not really good when everybody's leaving at the same time. Therefore, I agreed on prolonging it a bit and to give a shot and the Supervisory Board, of course, look for a successor. That was the main reason. Also, on the other hand side, I also have to say April is now fixed. Yeah, so I will not stay longer because I'm turning 65. Honestly, I have enough energy, but I also want to spend my energy on other topics. Yeah, that will be over in April for sure. Successor, of course, I cannot comment at the moment. I would expect that that will be disclosed, let's say, six months before.
Yeah. Okay, makes sense. Thanks for that. The second question was just on the, maybe one for you, Reinhard. Within DCS, so bulk within [DCS], was it in constant currency positive or not in the third quarter? Because I see around basically close to 10% year-on-year decline reported. I just wanted to get a sense of whether it was positive or not in local currency.
Thank you, Olivier. Obviously, we need to take a perspective of what was the performance of the bulk in Q3 2024. At that time, we had a super strong organic growth. Bulk was more or less on a, let's say, medium low performance basis in that respect. Mainly driven DCS growth by the HVS solutions.
Okay. Your expectation is that bulk DCS is positive year-on-year in Q4?
Yes, we see both segments contributing to growth in the fourth quarter. When you make the math for the fourth quarter, you will see that obviously the expectation is on a positive note for the fourth quarter.
Yeah, exactly. That was going to be my next question, but I wanted to ask about core specifically within DCS. Maybe just also, you know, to ask that, I mean, you're clearly saying, you know, around 6% organic growth over the full year, and you've done 5% in the nine months. You saw an acceleration here and at the same time a sort of deceleration on the EBITDA margin because, say, around 28%, but you've done close to 29% in nine months. I just wanted to, you know, get a better sense of if you are expecting a, you know, strong recovery of the bulk containment in Q4. Are you just being cautious on the margin side? You know, just some color there would be helpful.
I think the point is clearly growth and top line is going to be visible, as you have indicated, coming towards our updated guidance. The other effect is, so to say, the pattern from the past continues as well in 2025, meaning that through the summer season, we have obviously factory shutdowns, which have an effect on our contribution margins and EBITDA margins. Here, that development is going to be similar, and that's why an overall perspective for the full year is around 28%.
Okay, thanks a lot. The final one, just in the slides, you mentioned, this is just a small one, but customer loyalty index. I'm not sure how you define that. That's something along the lines of, you know, the share of sales with existing customers, or is that not really the way to read it?
I'm not sure if I. How is it defined? I think very much in line with standard service, which other people are doing as the same methodologies. Yeah, and also comparable, we always do it in the same way since, I don't know, 15 years, 20 years, I'm not 100% sure, but since long. What I can say, 90 points, I said percentage points in the presentation itself, not correct, 90 points is a very high score. That is something like top 10 of the industry, also comparable to really comparable numbers. It's extremely high, extremely positive. Of course, the second part I have to ask, share of customer sales, I didn't get that what you meant, Olivier. Can you repeat that?
I was just wondering if that... I understand from what you're saying that it's not what it means, but I was wondering if it meant basically the share of sales with existing customers, you know, from.
Okay, that is, of course, something we don't know because it's, of course, the answers are not public. We don't know from whom the answer came. We sent it out to 1,600 customers, something like that, and we got, as I said, something like 170 responses. Yeah, we don't know who was answering, who not. I would say statistically, with more than 100, we have a good, yeah, good, relatively stable statistics, I would say.
Okay, fair enough. Thanks.
Yeah.
Next question comes from Ed Hall from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple. Firstly, just on the U.S., could you just expand on the U.S. revenues and the sequential change there? Why is there a drop now? I think previous seasonality hasn't shown that. That would be my first question. Expanding on cartridges, obviously looking really, really strong. How could we look at the current order book specifically for cartridges? How should we think of pricing in this versus potentially bulk cartridges? Maybe just finally, just a clarification on the guide. Obviously, you mentioned it ties to global policy discussions and sentiment. My understanding was that lead times for quite a lot of your, at least HVS products, were quite long. Could you confirm if there's been any cancellation of orders through the year or through this quarter that has led to the revised guidance? Thank you.
Okay, I hope I can answer that. Cancellations we have not seen of any orders. First of all, that is an easy one. Cartridges are strong, details on demand. With the pricing topic, of course, it really differs a lot. Yeah, it really differs a lot. I have told you that we are now introducing a new product, [5 mL] cartridge, together with the SHL auto-injector system. Of course, that is a super high price. You can imagine it's low volumes. Yeah, and then you have the other one, which is more dedicated to GLP-1. Of course, these numbers are coming down. In average, you can say, as I said also in previous meetings, the price difference between bulk and sterile is in the range of 5x to 15x for normal products. 5x to 15x . Let's take 10x as an average.
I would say it's okay for the normal commercial supplies of higher volumes. Yeah, that is more or less. U.S. revenues development, honestly, I have to ask here. Okay, sorry. Yeah, yeah, I see it. U.S. revenues have increased significantly, double digit, very positive development during this financial year.
Maybe just to follow up on that U.S. question, just if we look at seasonality in 2024, I mean, it improves sequentially between 2Q and 3Q. Is that just from steady ramp up, or do you normally expect the 3Q to be $14 million lower than the prior year? Just to make sure.
I'm not really quite sure what I understand your question when you make the sequential comparison. I think what we can say to the U.S. revenues, obviously, we see for nine months a strong double-digit growth. We also see a growth within the third quarter, not at the same pace as for the full nine months, given also a very strong comparison base versus prior year. That's really the effect. It's more the seasonality within the year, which has changed in Q3 over Q4.
If you look at the full year perspective, United States revenue actually did support strongly our overall growth, although we do not specifically, let's say, guide here. Yeah, it's a very strong positive effect. We see growth, as Andreas said, mainly from GLP-1 customers driving it, and then supported by other specialty vials.
That's very clear. Thank you very much. Maybe just to follow up, final question, just on the sort of the compounding pharmacies in the U.S. I mean, how material is the revenue contribution from these customers in this quarter or maybe the first nine months? I don't know if there's a quantum you could give. That'd be really helpful.
I don't have the specific number, but as you know, there was a boost at the beginning when there was a shortage of GLP-1 drugs, and that was partly taken over by compounders. That is, of course, now over, but I don't know the specific number. It's not that big. It was a positive contributor, but not that big.
Perfect. Very clear. Thank you very much, guys.
You're welcome.
Next question comes from Curtis Moyer from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
Hi. Yes, thank you for taking my questions. I have a few here, please. First one, I just want to clarify a little bit the comments that you made earlier on polymer syringes. I just wanted to better understand how are you thinking about that in Q4 and into 2026? Is it going to be still declining a little bit, or is there kind of room to start growing from the level that we're currently at? Secondly, I wanted to see if we could maybe get a little bit more color on how much vials grew in the quarter. I know that I think the sterile was very strong, but in particular the core vials, have you seen some growth there in any kind of context would be appreciated?
Last but not least, for that large-volume sterile cartridge auto-injector that you developed with SHL Medical, I just wanted to understand, can you discuss maybe the opportunity there a little bit? Do you already have some customers or drugs lined up for that product, or how are you thinking about that? Thank you.
That's very detailed because it's not so easy to answer, honestly, because I don't have all information. What you can say about polymer syringes, I would say we have reached bottom already. Yeah, that is my impression that we are more or less now on the lowest level. I would not specifically comment about Q4 or something. We will not look into quarters. Of course, we have the forecasts, don't get me wrong, yeah, also of quarters, but the growth rates we don't compare by quarterly basis. We really look more into the longer term or at least the year development. Polymer syringes, as I said, my impression is that we have reached bottom and we are very optimistic that we can develop new business or value streams.
That is already, we have already shown that this year, as I said, nice double-digit amount of new sales with new value streams. Then vials, honestly, I don't know. That was the second question, how much core vials grew in Q3. I don't know that. Do we have that number? Do we disclose that? No, no. I cannot answer that one. The SHL Medical large-volume, that is of course mainly for rare diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases. That is basically home care or subcutaneous. Here we are working together with SHL as we are also doing with Ypsomed. That is because we want to deliver really complete solutions, completely tested systems to the market, which is of course at the end of the day for the pharma company, it's a huge benefit because it's tied to market. Yeah, they get a completely tested and validated system.
Of course, they have to test it with that rack, but they get a full system supplied. They don't have to lose integration work. Finally, we are talking about time saving and patent lifetimes, as you know, and time to market. It's very positive, this development. I have to say it takes, like always in pharma, a few years until that really contributes to significant turnovers and EBIT margins.
That is maybe a little bit of supplemental info to what Andreas said, especially around the growth of core vials. I mean, our bulk business as such was more or less stable when we looked to the third quarter. Though we have a specific development with specialty vials driving strong growth. That means to the opposite that core vials are, let's say, muted demand and slightly declining in numbers. To give a little bit more quality of that. Bulk development overall, let's say same-same when it comes to reported values, driven by strong growth, strong double-digit growth in specialty vials, hence core vials, which is the larger piece of it, seeing a slight decline. I hope this gives you a little bit more flavor to your question.
Yes, that's very helpful. Thank you.
Okay, next question comes from Pallav Mittal from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Pallav Mittal on behalf of Gaurav Jain. I have a couple. Firstly, if you could just talk about the ramp-up costs in the quarter that you were highlighting in Hungary and Serbia, and how much should we expect in Q4 and next year? That is my first question. Secondly, you have lowered your FY 2025 revenue guide to 6%, but you maintain your medium-term guide above 10%. How do you, or where do you see that growth acceleration coming from? If you could just talk about the drivers specifically in DCS and DDS businesses, that would be helpful.
Thank you, Pallav, for your question. I will speak to the ramp-up cost. Obviously, we are not specifically guiding for the ramp-up cost for our Hungarian and Serbian new plant, but for the full year, they are double-digit million euros. They have, so to say, more or less a linear ramp-up for the quarters. Hence, if you are within two to three and a half, you are most probably directionally there.
I would take the second one as drivers, of course, on DCS on the one-hand side, we said that already, specialty vials. That is one of the big drivers influenced by ADCs and also other drug categories. That is one of the drivers. The other one is, of course, sterile solutions. That is vials also to some extent, but to a larger extent, sterile cartridges. Sterile cartridges both, also biologics, large volume, as well as obesity, diabetes. That is driving in DCS. DDS is mainly, as we expected from the beginning of the year, that glass syringe growth, which is significant, will compensate polymer decline. That is exactly the situation we are now foreseeing also for the last quarter now, that basically that is balanced. Also, glass syringes is balancing the decline in polymer, as said at the beginning of the year already.
All in all, I would say quite successful that we have been able to compensate that more or less fully. Of course, we have not seen those numbers. The growth driver is, of course, Hungary with the ramp-up and the expansion of glass syringe.
Sure, thank you.
Thank you, Pallav. Thank you to all of you. We have no more questions in the queue. This concludes our today's call, our Q3 call for 2025. Thank you for your interest, your questions, and your time. We look forward to meeting you at the upcoming conferences in Frankfurt, Munich, and London. Our next results will be the full-year results, which we want to publish on December 11. Thank you very much for your interest. All the best. Thank you.