Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm welcome to our full year 2022 results call. Here with me today are the two members of our executive board, Oliver Schwegmann and Ralf Brühöfner. Oliver and Ralf will guide you through the presentation and will answer your questions afterwards. You can start with your questions even during the presentation. Please use the chat window for this. At the end, I will read out your questions anonymously, as always. One last note from me, we record this call and will publish it on our website. That's it from my side for now. Oliver, Ralf, the stage is yours.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, this is Oliver Schwegmann, the CEO of the Berentzen- Gruppe speaking. Together with my colleague and CFO, Ralf Brühöfner, we as the executive board of the Berentzen- Gruppe would like to welcome all of you to our full year 2022 results video call. We hope that all of you received the presentation in advance. In case you logged in with your computer or tablet, you should already see the cover sheet of our presentation. I would like to welcome our colleague and Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Thorsten Schmitt, who has already given the introduction to the session. After our presentation, Thorsten will share your questions, and Ralf and myself will do our best to answer to all of them to your satisfaction.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear shareholders, you can most probably recognize this introduction slide as we always use it at the beginning of our presentations. This is very important to us and to all our employees as it puts the Berentzen- Gruppe's purpose in a nutshell. We as Berentzen, our teams, our people, all our colleagues work for the people and the society to experience more liveliness, fresh optimism and joy of life. This is the fundament of our work, and this is our daily motivation to give our best and to strive for the best. We delight our consumers with a broad beverage portfolio from fresh orange juice to sweet liqueurs, from tasty lemonade to indulgent premium rum. We are not getting tired to develop new products and innovations that create happy and joyful moments in future.
Through our broad and diverse portfolio of beverages, we are part of our consumers' world. We delight them from morning to evening. Berentzen products are a good company for many different people in many different occasions and around the clock. Our mission to let the people and society experience more liveliness, fresh optimism and joy of life was not an easy ride for the years 2020 and 2021. They were heavily affected by the worldwide pandemic situation, which caused major restrictions for our personal lives and social interactions. You are all well aware of the massively negative impact this had on the consumer demand for our brands and products as typical usage occasions like festivals, birthday parties, and nightlife activities were simply missing.
Nevertheless, even during those times, we were always very confident that the restrained consumer demand would only be a temporary phenomenon and that our consumers will immediately be back to love and enjoy our products once the pandemic situation is over. Today, we are delighted to be able to present strong 2022 figures that prove we were right. 2022 as the first post-Corona year was by far not the year of going back to normality, as we all wished for. With the terrible aggression and senseless Russian war against the Ukrainian people, besides all the unimaginable human suffering, massively negative effects on the economy, especially on the procurement prices of energy, raw and packaging material and logistics had to be faced.
In our opinion, this tragedy and crisis will be far more fundamental, impactful and sustainable for our economy than the temporary effect of the two Corona years. 2022 was the third consecutive crisis year, and it was the one which left the most significant and sustainable traces in our P&L structure due to massive cost increases. You will see 2022 results of the Berentzen- Gruppe reflecting both the strong rebound of consumer demand as much as never seen before cost increases within a short period of time. Dear shareholders, please let's now have a look at the financial highlights of the year 2022. Looking at our overall financial key figures, we are very happy to demonstrate a dynamic and robust performance of our group in very difficult times.
The net revenues show a double-digit growth of +19.2% to EUR 174.2 million versus 2021. Even compared to a strong pre-pandemic year 2019, this means a growth of +4.1%. Considering that the 2019 revenues still included roughly EUR 12 million turnover of our former contract filling agreement with Pepsi, this means an adjusted revenue growth versus 2019 of even +12.3%. We are not only back to a strong pre-pandemic revenue level, but even outperformed it significantly. It is also important to mention that the growth figure of +19.2% was not driven by price increases towards our customers, but predominantly by volume increase and therefore by consumer demand.
Out of the 19.2% growth rate, only about 4.2% were based on price increases. As you all know, it has always been key to our strategy over the last years to disproportionately drive our growth margin. Through strong profitable growth of our strategic core pillars, strict portfolio management and range cleaning, and yearly price increases, we managed to increase our gross profit margin by 400 basis points during the four years between 2017 and 2021. As said at the beginning of the presentation, the exceptional cost increases of procurement in 2022 as a result of the Russian war against Ukraine, had a negative impact on our margin structure.
Despite a strong double-digit growth in gross profit at +15.8%, we were still not able to fully keep the high gross margin level of 2021. The gross margin dropped by 240 basis points to 44.3%. This negative effect accelerated during the course of the year 2022 as packaging and raw material cost increases by our suppliers flowed in step by step. On the other side, with big retail giants as our customers, it was not possible to immediately or short-termly pass on our cost increases. To fully cover and pass on the procurement cost increase, it will take more time and further price increases.
Moreover, in 2023, we will not, we will on the one hand side see a full year effect of 2022 cost increases, and on the other hand side, we expect further material cost increases in 2023. Regaining gross margin quality through further price increases, disproportionate growth of our valorized strategic core pillars, as much as strict product and customer portfolio management will continue to be key also in 2023. Looking at the EBITDA, we were also able to deliver significant growth by +EUR 1.3 million to EUR 16.7 million, a plus of 8.4%. We didn't fully keep up with the growth rate of our gross margin, mainly due to our commitment to further invest in our people and organizational structure, especially with regards to our commercial teams.
As you know, we are still enhancing our commercial abilities, for example, by continuing to further build up our own sales force in Germany, which again grew in people also in 2022 despite toughest market environment. For the EBIT, we could even deliver a stronger growth at +24.2% to EUR 8.3 million. You can see that the EBIT grew about EUR 0.3 million more than the EBITDA. The reason behind is mainly caused by lower depreciation due to the fact that a large share of investment in technical equipment that started in 2022 will be completed in the 2023 financial year, so that it was not yet subject to depreciation and amortization. There's still a bit to go to be back at the strong 2019 pre-pandemic EBIT level at nearly EUR 10 million.
However, as you are all aware of, with this performance, we reached exactly the middle of our two times increased prognosis, which we last corrected in October 2022 from EUR 6 million-EUR 8 million to EUR 7.8 million-EUR 8.8 million. Moreover, considering an overall double-digit million procurement and cost increase during the course of 2022, we are proud to still be able to demonstrate a very robust bottom line performance in extremely challenging times. Please be assured that an EBIT margin of 4.7% clearly does not meet our ambition and expectation. In the pre-pandemic year of 2018 and 2019, we reached roughly 6% EBIT margin with a strong commitment to strive for the 8% target in the midterm perspective.
First Corona and last year the war pushed us back and forced us to prove our commercial agility and our ability to switch gears into crisis management. It is now key to successfully digest the heavy cost increases and to prepare a gross margin rebound before we then reach out to the 8% EBIT margin target in the midterm again. In this sense, 2023 must be seen as a transition year. Dear shareholders, our growth agenda is delivering convincing results. Our long-term strategic pillars are clearly defined for every segment, and our strategy is firm and sustainable. Our branded spirits with the Berentzen and Puschkin liqueur offensive is built on the consumer's desire for socializing and celebrating. Especially after the restrictions during the pandemic years, people feel the thirst for life.
Quality of life is directly linked to enjoying time with friends and family and from time to time to let yourself go and enjoy the moment. Our product offensive in the premium segment of our private label business is built on the consumer's desire for highest quality and indulgence at an affordable price. Especially during times of high inflation and uncertainty, consumers are more careful with their spending. Particularly with regards to food and beverages, they don't want to compromise on quality. Our non-alcoholic beverage segment with the growth champion Mio Mio is built on the consumer's desire for exploring new tastes and products. Brand loyalty is generally declining as consumers are bored to consume the same products over and over again. A colorful, exciting life also means variety in food. With Mio Mio, we perfectly deliver against this consumer desire with our broad flavor portfolio of unique taste varieties.
Last but not least, our Fresh Juice Systems segment is built on the global consumer mega-trend of healthy lifestyle and ultimate freshness. Transforming tasty oranges into an ultra-fresh juice conveniently self-made is probably one of the most intense experiences of freshness. Those strategic pillars were driving our 2022 performance, as you can see on the following slide briefly, and they will remain the Berentzen- Gruppe's key growth drivers also in 2023. The revenues of our core brands Berentzen and Puschkin grew at a combined level of +16.5% and clearly outperformed the overall spirits market in Germany, which declined by 1.9%. The premium and medium concepts within our private label spirits demonstrated a strong turnover growth of +8.7%. Especially the trend categories rum, gin, and whiskey contributed to this strong performance.
Mio Mio demonstrated another year of strong double-digit revenue growth. With a development of +24%, Mio Mio was not only the growth champion within the Berentzen- Gruppe, but also within the modern lemonade market in Germany. It clearly left our key competitive brands like fritz-kola, BIONADE or Club-Mate behind and significantly gained market share. We are all too happy that our Fresh Juice Systems business is back strongly with a revenue growth of +22.5%. As you might be aware of, Citrocasa suffered the most from Corona as major clients like hotels, restaurants, as much as retailers, massively held back investments into new machines. Please let's have a more detailed look at the performance drivers within the different business segments on the next slide.
The overall revenue performance of our biggest segment, spirits, demonstrated a dynamic post-Corona revenue rebound at +12.2% with our strategic core topics contributing strongly to the achievement of EUR 104 million. With this double-digit growth rate, the spirits segment of the total Berentzen- Gruppe even outperformed the overall German spirits market by far as it showed a -1.9%. This means that we as a company significantly gained market share. Our branded spirits business in Germany grew by +16.7% in an overall slightly negative spirits market versus 2021. Main growth pillar behind this strong performance were our focus brands, Berentzen and Puschkin, which grew at a level of +16.5%, with each of both brands reaching double-digit growth rates.
Our private label business with a strategic focus on customized premium and medium concepts also outperformed the overall spirits market with a development of +10.2%. Premium and medium products grew at a rate of +8.7%. This achievement is even more convincing as premium products were not suffering during Corona, but they were benefiting from it. As consumers couldn't go out to restaurants, bars and clubs during Corona restrictions, they stayed at home and chose premium food and beverage products to have a good and pampering time at home. This means that the development of our premium and medium private label products at +8.7% came on top of the revenue growth even in 2020 and 2021.
If we sum that up, the performance of the premium and medium products grew by +27.6% between 2019 and 2022. By this, you can clearly recognize that our premiumization strategy within our private label business is continuing to develop, to deliver exceptional results. Finally, also our export spirits business contributed to the overall strong top-line performance with a growth rate of +12.7% or EUR 0.8 million. Main drivers behind this achievement were strong double-digit sales performances, especially in the Benelux countries, in the Czech Republic, and in the travel retail channel. Now, please let's have a look at our non-alcoholic beverage segment. With an overall top-line performance of +26.3%, we were able to add EUR 9.2 million turnover to this business segment.
Moreover, you have to consider that in 2021, there was still a turnover of EUR 2.6 million coming from the Pepsi contract bottling business, which ended after the first quarter of 2021. Adjusting the segment performance by this EUR 2.6 million, we were even able to grow by EUR 11.9 million or +36.5% compared to 2021. Above all, Mio Mio was again one of the key drivers behind the overall growth. With a development of +24%, Mio Mio is also back on a highly dynamic growth rate of above 20% after the growth momentum temporarily slowed down slightly in 2021, as especially the on-the-go consumption got negatively affected by Corona restrictions. Mio Mio was also the fastest growing brand in the market segment of modern lemonade, which overall declined by 2.7%.
Moreover, our successful launches of Mio Mio Orange and Mio Mio Lemon gave the overall brand performance an additional sales push. Mio Mio surely will continue to be one of our core strategic growth pillars in 2023 and beyond. In a highly competitive market environment, even our regional brands, mainly our mineral water brands, Emsland Quelle and Märkisch Kristall, also achieved a robust top line development of +8.9%, which is also ahead of the overall market development of mineral water. Finally, you can see an exceptional revenue growth of +82.5% or +EUR 4.6 million clustered as others. Main driver behind this positive figure is a strong growth rebound of our licensed business with the brand Sinalco, which suffered heavily during Corona as it is mainly sold into the gastronomy channel by us.
Our Sinalco sales were able to grow by almost +48% in the revenues. Moreover, in 2022, we set up different cooperations with German rappers who launched different lemonade products, which we co-manufacture at our production facility and also sell into the retail channel via our sales infrastructure. Despite those products featured by famous artists generate strong initial pull and consumer demand, we don't see sustainable or long-term growth opportunities as different examples on the market prove that the product life cycle of such concepts is quite short. However, even though such products will not become a key pillar within our long-term portfolio strategy, we are still happy to grab such opportunities as they come along for on-top revenues and gross profits. Now let's turn the slide and have a look at the performance development of our business segment, Fresh Juice Systems.
I am exceptionally happy to present a strong double-digit growth rate for our youngest business segment, Fresh Juice Systems, at +22.5%. Our Citrocasa business had to suffer the most from the corona restrictions in 2020 and 2021, and from the overall tough economic environment during Corona. Retailers, as much as hotels, restaurants, and bars, showed a strong reluctance to invest, which heavily affected our juicer sales. Retailers put the juicers on the store floor out of operation as they didn't want them to be an infection risk for shoppers touching them. Sales of fresh juice on the store floor dropped significantly, leading also to a strong decline of our fruits and bottling systems. 2022, therefore, was a true post-Corona rebound.
Juicers were put back in operation, the willingness to invest was back, and the consumer demand for freshly prepared juices too. This eventually led to double-digit growth rates of each of the system components. The fruit juicers grew in revenue by +27.7%, fruits sale went up by +14.2%. The bottling systems were even growing by +29.6%. Please consider that this rebound took place even with 2022 being another crisis year with high inflation rates, dwindling purchase power, and premium products generally suffering from a restrained consumer mood. The overall revenues level of EUR 18.8 million can be seen as a strong performance in a challenging market environment, which almost reached the pre-pandemic revenue level of EUR 20 million again.
Now I would like to pass on to my colleague, Ralf Brühöfner, who will give you more insights about the group's financial performance and outlook.
Thank you, Oliver, and good morning also from us, my side. Let us now take a look at the impact of the pleasing sales growth and the less pleasing inflationary drivers and material prices on the balance sheet, the cash flow and financing. I would also like to give you some explanations of the non-operating earnings effects that impacted the group earnings in 2022. At a first glance, the balance sheet remains more or less unchanged. The balance total raises by 4.2 million EUR or 3% up to 146.3 million EUR. The equity ratio as per year-end 2022 stays mostly constant at over 34%, which means that one-third of the assets are financed by equity items, which is quite solid.
In addition to that, the total of equity plus non-current liabilities, which together amount to EUR 59.6 million, exceed the non-current assets by approximately EUR 2.3 million. This illustrates, as you know, the matching maturities between the long-term financing items on the one hand and the non-current assets on the other hand, it gives a good picture about the solidity of the finance structure. If we take a deeper look into the assets and liabilities, we see that the cash position has become smaller, the current assets, nevertheless, larger. The gross value of the financial debts also has become smaller. In the following chart, I will explain that everything is interrelated. Let us first see how inflation and growth triggered the working capital level.
The so-called paid working capital of the Berentzen- Gruppe increased from minus EUR 1.1 million in 2021 by approximately EUR 8 million to EUR 7 million at year-end 2022. Higher material prices had a huge impact on the inventory value, which raised from EUR 39 million by EUR 12.1 million to EUR 51.1 million within one year only. This was caused by higher material prices only. The quantity of stocks remained more or less unchanged or was even lower than in the year before. Sales prices and sales volume growth in the non-focus businesses, like non-alcoholic beverages and spirits in Turkey, have led to a higher level of trade receivables as well. The increase from 2021 to 2022 amounts to approximately EUR 3.1 million. The simultaneously increased total of trade payables and alcohol tax liabilities were at least under proportional.
As the alcohol tax has no inflationary effects and depends on the unchanged alcohol tax rate only, this short-term liability was and will not be helpful for the counter-financing of the higher short-term assets. Therefore, the increase was EUR 1.3 million only. Besides several others, at last, minor effects, these working capital developments hugely caused the lower net cash position in 2022, which was EUR 9.6 million coming from EUR 17.5 million in 2021. Please let me underline that we are nevertheless talking of net cash instead of net debt. That is that at year's end, Berentzen Group had no net financial burdens at all.
By the way, the colored rectangles in the cash and financial debt column show on the left graph, I intended to display that in 2021, a final maturity tranche was from the syndicated loan was both a liquidity component of the cash item and a debt component of the financial debt item. In 2022, the seven and a half million bullet tranche was technically redeemed and transferred to the current tranche of the syndicated loan, which continues to amount EUR 33 million. At least this was a tranche swap within the syndicated credit facility only, with no effect on the net debt position. As I already said, the low amount of the net debt position is rather and mainly the result of a higher capital commitment in trade working capital.
As a result of the lower net cash on the one hand and the simultaneously improved EBITDA on the other hand, the net debt/EBITDA ratio, so-called dynamic gearing ratio, raised from minus 1.1.14 in 2021 up to minus 1.58 in 2022. Again, negative means net cash instead of net debt. This rock-solid ratio is quite far away from any kind of covenant breaches, which are basically contained in our credit agreements. The operating cash flow 2022 was quite positive and amounted to EUR 12.3 million. It stayed relatively constant in comparison to previous year. Although net income as a fundament of operating cash flow was lower than in the previous year, the factors that caused this reduction were mostly non-cash effective.
Specifically, this is about higher depreciations because of an impairment-driven depreciation of EUR 1.3 million on the one hand, and the non-cash effective components of the IAS 29 high inflation accounting of EUR 0.8 million on the other hand. Both items have influenced our net income, and this is reason enough to give you some more details about this context. Beyond EBIT, the net income 2022 was comparatively lower due to higher tax and interest costs on one hand and to other factors on the other hand. First, because of higher average cost of capital rates and segment earnings effecting higher material and energy prices, we carried out impairment tests in the non-alcoholic beverages segment. This led to a special effect on earnings of EUR 1.3 million at the end of 2022.
Secondly, in 2022, we subjected the annual financial statements of our fully consolidated group company based in Turkey to hyperinflationary accounting for the first time. Outside the group EBIT, this resulted in a negative effect on our consolidated earnings 2022 in the amount of EUR 1.2 million. You've certainly already seen this position in our half year financial statements. There, the effect was EUR 0.6 million within 50% of the amount for the total year 2022. Let's please switch to slide 16. In 2022, we were not able to uncouple our share price development from the general market development. While the SDAX, which contains smaller German-listed companies, decreased around 27%, our share price declined only by just 9.5%.
Nevertheless, the valuation level of Berentzen seems to be comparatively low, showing a market cap at year-end 2022 of EUR 53.9 million and an enterprise value of EUR 50.1 million only, which is 3 times EBITDA and just 6 times EBIT. Considering this, one can assume that there is some share price potential, which is also confirmed by the target prices of our research analysts. As our share price increased by 15% up to EUR 6.60 since 1st of January 2023, one can assume that our tireless investor relation efforts awakened the equity market a little bit. Looking at the shareholder return, it is not only the development of the share price, but also the dividend, which plays an important role for the satisfaction of our shareholders.
Like in the years before, we would like our shareholders to participate extensively in our growth success and improved operating results. We as the executive board, together with the supervisory board, propose a dividend of EUR 0.22. This would be an extraordinary high payout ratio of 98%, it is in a positive meaning beyond our general dividend policy, according to which at least 50% of the consolidated profit should be distributed as a dividend. We think this is an attractive dividend proposal that reflects both your interests as shareholders and our company interests. We would also like to express our confidence that we see the Berentzen- Gruppe on a successful path and in robust shape. Let's have a look on our estimations for the 2023 financial year now. For this, please switch to slide 17.
As Oliver already said, the significant sales growth in fiscal year 2022 was based on our core strategic topics. These topics also promise the greatest potential for profitable growth in our group in the future. We anticipate higher charges on the cost side once again in fiscal year 2023. On the one end, the cost increases that occurred successively last year will now have a full year effect for the first time. On the other hand, we expect further cost increases. Against this background, one of our most important tasks this year will be to restore or expand the earnings quality of our brands and products. Based on further volume and value growth in our core topics, we again expect a significant increase in our consolidated revenues to between EUR 185 million and EUR 195 million in 2023.
Dampening cost effects outlined above, but also due to further marketing and sales efforts, we expect our group EBITDA to be in a range between EUR 50.6 million and EUR 17.6 million, and our group EBIT to be in a range between EUR 7 million-EUR 9 million. This is more or less the level of 2022. As you can see on the slide, our financial calendar is well fit for the year 2023. After three times having a virtual AGM only, we cordially advise you to participate to our physical annual general meeting at the Hannover Congress Centrum on 10th of May. We will publish our speeches a week before the AGM. One remark in advance, the agenda will include an authorization for the issue of convertible bonds. This has just one objective, and I'll give you a few keywords in this context.
Pandemic, Ukraine war, inflation, and last but not least, bank collapses, actually. Nothing is certain these days. We want to be prepared for unforeseeable developments with regard to costs and availability, for example, on the credit and banking markets, which are actually quite under stress. We want to be able to work for further growth and whatever external crisis if necessary, even if we are currently sufficiently supplied with long-term loans. We have reached the end of the presentation. Thank you for your attention from my side. We're happy to receive your questions.
Thanks, Ralf and Oliver. Let's move on to the questions. We have a few questions so far. Can you please explain the reasons for the EBIT margin decline Q4 2022 versus Q4 2021?
Yeah, I think this is, this has been expressed in our speeches. As we said in both parts, in Ralf's and my parts, we explained that the cost increases for material, for raw material and so on, kicked in step by step. Partly we were or are still covered by certain contracts, which had a limited timing. Partly, the price increases kicked in later that year. If you look at the quarters, you will see the Q4 was probably the one where full price increases hit the quarter, where the quarters before were still partly with lower prices. That means as the increases stepped in in the course of the year, the Q4 was the full effect.
Indeed, as you know, is that we, that we grow by 70% in turnover, but had a -11% in EBIT. That shows what we expressed before, that the key target for us now at the beginning of 2023 is to really put price increases to the trade and to successfully, yeah, realize price increases.
All right, another question about the EBIT margin. When do you expect the pre-corona EBIT margin of 5.9%, like in the full year 2019?
Yeah, I think this is something. We expressed it both, and I clearly put it out that of course, on a short-term level, we want to reach the pre-pandemic EBIT level again. The challenge is that the current markets are so volatile, and the price development is so volatile, and we're also heavily depending on the acceptance of our customers to, yeah, for our price increases. It is therefore quite tough to foresee it very clearly. We are still in shaky times, where we cannot really forecast precisely where the price development will go through.
We can only express our absolutely willingness to return back to the pre-pandemic level during the next 18-24 months, but it's still with a midterm target of 8%, which is still in our mind. This is also depend on a lot of external factors at that time.
Can you please explain the change in inventories, EUR 4.7 million in full year 2022, and what do you expect for 2023?
Yeah, it, I already explained that. It mainly depends on the price changes with regard to the material prices. You may imagine that material price changes were between at the average 20% to 30%. If you have an inventory level of the end, in the end of 2021 of about EUR 40 million, and let us roughly calculate 20% to 30% in material prices, then the inventory change, not with regard to any volume changes, only with regard to price changes, is about EUR 50 million-EUR 55 million. It was EUR 50.2 million at year's end. It was not an upstocking of raw materials and so on because the procurement was under stress. It's only a price affected inventory change. That's all.
We Of course, it depends on how the price changes will be in 2020 or the price dynamic or the price change dynamic will be in 2023, that a further increase in inventory will take place.
Can you pass on higher purchase prices to retailers and consumers? How do your biggest customer react to higher prices?
Yeah. I mean, this is what we underlined as our key target for the current times. You have to imagine that we have very powerful suppliers. That means if there's a big glass bottle supplier, he calls us and says that the new prices will be effective the very next day. Our brands group is not able to go to the big retail giants and with the same timing to tell them as of tomorrow the prices will be different. That is not possible. You need a longer lead time to announce your price increases, and then the negotiation starts.
I think you can read a lot of media already that there are so many companies who stopped delivering to certain trade partners because they couldn't agree on certain prices. The situation is very tough. We are currently quite positive and optimistic that we will reach the level of price increases which we aim for. Most of them is already fixed and negotiations are concluded. The smaller part is still open, but this is a normal dynamic, let's say negotiation times, at the beginning of a year. Let's say the first quarter is always the quarter of negotiations.
Do you see price increases by competitors?
Yes, we do. I mean, at the end of the day, you know that the overall inflation rate is even disproportionately higher in food and beverages. That means that everybody who goes shopping can see that certain products of his own usage has increased in prices. The inflation rate is already there, and the inflation rate will continue to be high, especially in food and beverages, as there will be a lot, a lot, a lot of consumer companies who increase their price at the beginning of 2023, where at the end of the day, the retailers will definitely react and increase price on their shelves as well.
Okay, we have some more questions about the price increases. Is there a consumer reluctance to buy higher priced products due to inflation?
Generally, yes. That is very normal that, if, yeah, your personal situation, with high inflation rates, doesn't allow you to spend the money at the same way than before. People are getting more careful. Of course, there might be brands, who are already at a premium level, and then probably the consumer will reduce, let's say, usage of these brands. We see that in the market now, on many different categories. In our case, we are still very confident that we don't see this effect. Number one, we have a very good value for money, generally positioned with our brands. Secondly, we have a strong private label business where we sell premium quality for affordable prices.
Let's say the only product where we see that this is a very high purchase price is freshly orange juice, freshly squeezed orange juice. This has a clientele in the market who doesn't need to look after their budget as much as probably the average shopper. For the time being, no effect on our side. Generally in the market, there is effect, yeah.
Okay, how is the trend regarding price increases on the sales side through Q1 and Q2?
As I said, beginning that Q1 is that, let's say, period of negotiation. You can imagine that we announce our price increases for the 1st of January. The negotiation starts, and the retailers, they negotiate very hard to say, "Okay, let's not start at the 1st of January, but 1st of February or mid-February or 1st of March." That is all these things, timing, and the level of price increases is under tough negotiations. That is why the 1st quarter will be the transition quarter, meaning that of course, in the Q1 , the gross profit quality will potentially be more under pressure than in the ongoing quarters afterwards, as price increases are step by step kicking in.
For which core brands and to what extent will price increases be implemented in full year 2023?
Yeah, I mean, we're not displaying this kind of detailed information, but you can imagine that our core products, which where we put the highest focus on for over proportional growth are of course, also the products where we have the most eagerness to pass on the cost increases. That means in our negotiation, we are p redominantly focusing on our core, strategic core topics. The cost increases were so significant that, of course, we need a price increase throughout the whole portfolio.
I think the next question is for Ralf. Could you kindly elaborate more on your expectations of the IAS 29 effects in the current year and beyond?
That's hardly to forecast because it is basically depending on the inflation rate in Turkey. We cannot really forecast the development of this. Basically, you can say that our business in Turkey is dominated or the balance sheet is dominated by monetary assets. There are no other assets as receivables are. High inflation accounting means more or less that you have inflationary effects if you are in a position that on your balance sheet side, the monetary assets are higher than the monetary liabilities. Let me say it in this simple way because it's academic and quite complicated in this concern. It will go on to us to our estimation.
The extent to which it will go on is really hard to foresee. No chance to give an answer. Perhaps it may be the same situation in this year. Depends on the Turkish economy at all.
Can you please explain more detailed how you want to come to the midterm margin target of 8%?
Yeah. I mean, I think number one, the first priority is to set the price increases in reality. This is not only 2023. As I said in my speech, in 2023, it is more directed through the cost increase we have. The years after, we need, of course, further price increases. We need yearly price increases to regain our gross margin quality like for like. Second thing is, this is what we did in the last years and which we will do in the coming years, is much higher growth in our core strategic pillars, who already have a much higher gross margin quality than the average of the total portfolio we have.
On the third, it stays also, and this is what we did in the past, continuous analysis of portfolio customer mix. You know that in the past, we had a range cleaning to a certain level. We give up on contract filling agreements. All this will drive the gross margin quality. With the gross margin quality, the EBIT margin quality will come back. Could I just add some remark on this inflationary effect because I don't want to have a wrong impression about that.
Let me underline that the net earnings effect of the Turkish business is much bigger than the inflationary effects, which was negative on the result, that was to be seen. I want to underline and remark that the earnings effect is quite positive in the Turkish business. It was positive in 2022 to a high degree.
Good remark. We have a lot of questions today. I remember last, you know, full year's call, I think we had no one and no single question. This year, lot of interest. Next question. Do you expect further impairments in 2023 direct from your guidance and current trading?
I think the question is about, the impairment tests on our-
I think so.
alcoholic beverage segment-
I think so.
which occurred at the end of last year. It was because I already explained it in my speech before. What we have seen is that the WACC, the average cost of capital increased from during the year by more or less 2 percentage points, which has a quite negative effect on cash flows, on discounted cash flow. It's methodic of having a valuation for this segment. This is on the one end was a negative effect. Perhaps it will take place because we see that the Fed and the European Central Bank is just raising all the interest rates, and this will be much of more or less the same effect or basically the same situation in 2022.
The other thing was, this is not quite the same as in 2022, it's more easier. We have this effect on energy prices, which was quite a heavy burden for the segment, because it was more than EUR 2 million last year, which only affected the energy prices and the earnings of the segment last year. It will not go on in this year because we have better prices. We have these material prices just already talked about, is this material price effects on the earnings where we couldn't pass all the prices increase in our sales pricing, sales prices. Several effects and to say it in a short way, everything is possible. Yeah, it depends on the WACCs and so on. It depends on further price increases and so on.
Basically, we have to test it from time to time and do it when it comes.
I think the next question has already been answered. Maybe, Oliver, you can say it again. How much of the revenue increase in 2023 comes from volume growth and how much from higher prices?
no, I talked about 2020-
Oh, you're right
in effect, where we had 19.2% growth, and around about 4.2% out of this was driven by already, price increase, which took place during the year of 2022.
I would think that the proportion probably will exactly change more or less. I mean, it's very tough to forecast this in a very exactly. If you look at of our guidance and the turnover increase, probably at this time, three quarters will come from inflationary effects, and one quarter of the growth will come from volume growth, roundabout. The effect will definitely switch around versus 2022.
Okay. What is the effect of the rising interest rates on your business?
It is an effect, of course, because our loan agreements, considering factoring on the one hand and the syndicated loan on the other hand, is just basically in the way that we have an margin on our EURIBOR of 3 months. The EURIBOR 3 months, everybody knows that, changed from 0 or minus to 2.6%-2.7%. Of course, a higher interest rate will affect our financial result on the one hand and on the other hand, I already
Okay.
Working more on the asset side, that means that we have to grab a little bit more for our tax will be in the way that our interest costs were already higher in 2022 comparison to 2021, will be a little bit higher in 2023 in comparison to 2022 because of the higher interest rates.
Okay.
Thorsten, are you still there? You're freezing.
I'm still here. You're freezing here. I don't know if I am freezing or you are freezing. Can you still hear me? Bist du komplett raus? Bei mir seid ihr komplett raus. Nee. Wir sind komplett raus. Ihr schon, ja.[foreign language/German]
Ja, sind jetzt auch.[foreign laguage/German]
Jetzt sind wir raus, aber vorher hast du gestockt. Bist du noch in Kontakt mit den Leuten? Warte. Wir hören dich jetzt. Bei mir ist alles in Ordnung. Ich bin alle noch sehen.[foreign laguage/German]
Wieder da.[foreign language/German]
Ja.[foreign language/German]
Okay. Okay. Sorry for the technical problem. Thorsten, what from Ralf's answer was still to hear for you? I think we had a little interruption.
I heard everything. The picture was freezing one time, but.
Okay.
I heard your answer.
We can go on. Okay.
Okay. Right. Sorry for the technical problems. Now we switch on fast to the, to the next question. Why do you pay almost 100% of net profit as a dividend? Now you're freezing again, I think. Ja, der rüttelt, der rüttelt, der rüttelt ein bisschen.[foreign language/German]
Das wiegt ein bisschen viel. Nee, aber ist da.[foreign language/German]
Da.[foreign language/German]
Thorsten, can you hear us?
Now I can hear you and see you again.
My goodness. Let's try. I mean, apparently the network broke down a little bit, let's try to continue.
Yeah. We apologize for this. I think it's our fifth or sixth call we made as a video call, and it's the first time we have such problems. Why do you pay almost 100% of net profit as a dividend? Are there no internal investment projects that will push our company forward and allow us to participate in an increased share price in the long term instead of a quick win today?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. First of all, the investment into growth and the investment into our brands and the investments into building up commercial excellence and in our organization structure will continue, number one. I think Ralf made that point very clear in his speech. We want to let our shareholders participate on the success of our company. We want to prove that or want to demonstrate that we are very confident in the robust situation of our company and also in the outlook. That's why it is very important for us to let our shareholders participate on the success of our company. We do not compromise on other investments we're doing behind our growth strategy because of this dividend.
Yeah, it doesn't block any investments.
No.
With regard to financing, because, and this is something I already explained too, all the effects beyond the EBIT which influence on consolidated profit were not cash effective items, not cash effective issues. Therefore, the level of EBIT was higher, and what comes behind was not cash effective, therefore there is no need to, uh, think about that, our investments cannot be financed or something like that. It depends on the higher or even smaller dividend in that way.
Okay, one last question. Can you explain the revaluation of defined benefit obligations of EUR 1.5 million?
I didn't get that.
No, I didn't get that.
I didn't get that question. Again, please.
Can you explain the revaluation of defined benefit obligations of EUR 1.5 million?
Yeah. It depends on the interest rate on the one hand, and of course our pension scheme is closed already, and that means it's life that most of those who are the ones who get the money out of our pension schemes are passing away more and more. Therefore, it's a revaluation with regard to that. It will take from time to time, and we come from EUR 10 million, I think three years ago, EUR 10 million-EUR 11 million pension liabilities. It was now EUR 5.8 million, and it will be lower in the future because, as I just said, it is a closed pension scheme and there is only one way, as long as the interest rate will increase, the pension liability will go down.
All right. Nearly all participants are still here, I think the questions and answers were interesting for everyone. We have reached the end for today. Thank you Oliver and Ralf again. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for your participation and for your patience regarding the interruptions and your ongoing interest in the Berentzen Group. If you have any questions afterwards, please do not hesitate to contact us. You will find our contact details at the end of the presentation and on our corporate website. We wish you a nice day. Hope to meet you soon. All the best. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Thanks.