Welcome to our Analyst and Investor Earnings Call for the Q3 and first nine months of FY2022 . As always, we will have our CEO, Rolf Unterbäumer, and our CFO, Bernd Wagner-Witteler, lead you through the call today. As in previous sessions, all board members, including our COO, Dr. Udo Streller, will be available for any questions you may have during the Q&A session following this presentation. Now, the presentation supporting this call was also uploaded to the Investor Relations section of our website, as well as the unaudited interim financial statement as of September 30, 2022. However, if you do not have access to the files at this time, you should still be able to follow the call. Ladies and gentlemen, today's presentation contains forward-looking statements regarding future developments, which are based on the information currently available to the Company.
As a result of risks and uncertainties, actual outcomes may differ from the forward-looking statements made in this presentation. Cherry does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. Also, financial figures in this presentation may not add up due to rounding. Finally, please take notice that this call will be recorded and the replay will be made available in the investor relations section of our website shortly. Now I hand over to our CEO, Rolf Unterbäumer, who will give you an update of the current business and market situation. Afterwards, our CFO, Bernd Wagner-Witteler, will give you some more details on the financial results for the first nine months of 2022, before Rolf concludes the presentation part of this call with a wrap-up. Rolf, please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you, Kai, and welcome everyone to our Q3 earnings call. The Q3 of 2022 continued to be significantly impacted by the current macroeconomic headwinds, which are challenging the whole sector of consumer electronics and especially keyboard manufacturers due to the high inventory levels and the downturn in consumer spending due to high inflation in the most important markets. Our gaming business was held down by continued low demand for our MX switches and reduced sell-out of gaming peripherals. Based on our successful channel expansion for B2B and the e-commerce rollouts, our Peripherals Business Unit showed around 19% growth in Q3, marking the best Q3 in our company history despite overall weak market dynamics.
Group revenues of EUR 32.1 million in Q3 2022 were basically at the same level as for the first two quarters of this year, marking EUR 98 million in group revenues for the first nine months. Considering our exceptionally strong FY 2021, the group revenue is down by 20.6% in the first nine months of the current year. However, we still managed to grow 4.3% compared to the same period in 2020.
Mainly due to the change in product mix, unused capacity at our Auerbach site, general price increases for materials and logistic costs, a strong U.S. dollar, and our ramp-up expenses for the e-commerce business and further product innovations, the adjusted EBITDA margin for the first nine months was at 13.9%, down by 15.7 percentage points compared to the same period in the previous year. The number of employees was reduced year to date by approximately 5% to 525. The operating cash flow of -EUR 0.8 million was down by EUR 2.6 million year on year. With EUR 91.3 million cash and cash equivalents and EUR 27.3 million in net cash, we are still in a very comfortable financial position to fuel our growth strategy, both organically but also via M&A.
Finally, our M&A activities are ongoing. We are continuously engaged in discussions with potential targets. Ladies and gentlemen, the macroeconomic headwinds continue to burden our business in the short term. In October, the International Monetary Fund has just updated its world economic forecast for this year and 2023. In a nutshell, increasing price pressures remain the most immediate threat to current and future prosperity by squeezing real incomes and undermining macroeconomic stability, according to IMF. Furthermore, global growth is forecasted by the IMF to slow from 6% in 2021 to 3.2% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023. This is the weakest growth profile since 2001, except for the global financial crisis and the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, and reflects significant slowdown of the largest economies.
Global inflation is forecasted to rise from 4.7% in 2021 to 8.8% in 2022, but to decline to 6.5% in 2023 and to 4.1% by 2024. The reluctance in consumer spending has been quite apparent also in our markets in the Q3. Despite the volatility of the market, we are focusing on the straightforward implementation of our strategy and focus on what we can control. We continue to invest into innovation, new products and product updates. Furthermore, we increased the number of sales channels with an expansion of our distribution footprint in the B2B business with, for example, an additional distributor in China or an additional 10 European distributors.
Of course the B2C business with the dedicated rollout of our e-commerce business. As indicated to you in our last earnings call, we have responded to the continued challenging macroeconomic conditions with a variety of specific internal measures for future operational improvements. An additional measure of our OpEx management in Q3 was to adjust our personal capacities by around 50 employees in the areas of production, maintenance, and warehousing for mechanical switches. However, we are prepared to rapidly increase our production capacity once the inventory levels are reduced within the supply chain and demand is picking up. While the economic prospects for the rest of this year are rather weak and uncertain, the long-term secular growth trends around gaming and e-sports, hybrid workplace, and digitalization of healthcare are very promising for Cherry.
Considering the overall economic environment and the current development of our main markets, we continue to pursue our growth strategy for the mid- and long term. This means specifically that we are further broadening our product portfolio in the Peripherals Business with high- quality and innovative products, which are designed and manufactured to the customer's needs of increasingly hybrid workstation environments. One good example for our most recent market launches is the KW 9100 SLIM design keyboard. This flat keyboard with encryption for enhanced data protection has a solid metal plate and is ideal for various work environments. Frequently used functions can be easily accessed via additional keys, while its sleek design remains tidy and user-friendly. Due to its wireless connectivity, users can easily switch back and forth between radio frequency or Bluetooth transmission.
When we introduced the wireless mouse and keyboard desktop set version last year, it was already highly praised by the trade press. Now, the keyboard is also available as a standalone device to continue its sales success. Our all-new GENTIX BT mouse is based on the GENTIX mouse family, which has already proven itself millions of times over. The new BT version now also enables effortless multi-device capable connectivity, which makes it ideal for mobile use. By pressing the Bluetooth button on the bottom of the wireless mouse, users can easily connect up to three devices such as a PC, a laptop, a tablet, a smartphone, or even a smart TV. The resolution of the wireless mouse is adjustable, and the highly precise optical sensor offers high precision speed to meet highest customer demands.
The blue illuminated scroll wheel provides a visual design highlight while providing information about the selected resolution level and the battery status. As you can see, our roadmap for new products is exactly and carefully tailored towards the current market trends and customer demands. This provides the foundation for our future business success. Another foundation, of course, is the increase of our sales channels, as I have previously mentioned. Our e-commerce efforts are progressing according to our plans with an increase of 27% within their 54% growth in Amazon in the first nine months of 2022. We will see continued growth to gain additional market share going forward. Our focus within the digital health business is still based on the ongoing rollout of our access devices for the telematics infrastructure in Germany. We aim to sustain our 50% plus market share in eHealth terminal sales.
Main drivers for this business are the extension of the secure medical data network to new user groups and new applications to be deployed to the TI. Please let me give you a brief overview and an update on the current status of this market area. The TI is already deployed to private practitioners, pharmacies, medical care centers, and hospitals, and will include inpatient and outpatient care facilities, physiotherapists, and midwives in the course of 2023 and 2024. Besides the TI core applications, which are already in use, such as verification of insurance status, access to patient emergency data, and secure communication between caregivers, additional applications will be implemented step by step. For example, the electronic prescription. With this application, physicians will be able to provide their patients with medication prescriptions digitally.
Patients will receive a QR code for their e-prescription, either digitally or as a printout, and be able to pass it on to the representative or redeem it digitally at the pharmacy of their choice. This application is currently in preparation for broad rollout in mid-2023. The electronic medication plan. Patients who received prescriptions for three or more medications are entitled to a standardized national medication plan. TI enables this to be stored on electronic health card. With the broader use of the e-prescription functionality, also this application will become relevant for 2023. The electronic health record. Since January 1, 2021, persons with public insurance coverage are entitled to an electronic patient health record which stores all relevant medical information digitally within the TI.
Furthermore, it has been announced that more applications will be added for the new technology generation of TI, which is TI 2.0, which is scheduled to be rolled out, starting from 2025 onwards. Currently, gematik is in the process of defining the architecture and base requirements for this new framework. A market dynamic worth mentioning is the status and development of eHealth connectors in the TI. eHealth connectors securely connect the EMRs, the electronic medical records of the caregivers with the center's TI infrastructure and our eHealth terminals. The first connectors were deployed in the market at the end of 2017. Since gematik specified an expiration of the connector's licenses after five years and new encryption standards cannot be supported by the first generation of connectors, more than 50,000 connectors will have to be physically replaced by end of 2023.
Whenever connectors are replaced by technician on site, there's an opportunity for the institutions to add an eHealth terminal for their network in light of enabling new use cases. With our latest version of the eHealth Terminal 1506, we offer the by far advanced product in the market in terms of functionalities and robustness, which means also high security. On a final note on new offerings for the eHealth market, the Cherry eHealth PIN Pad 1516 and the necessary extensions of the eHealth Terminal 1506 are expected to be certified by gematik and BSI in Q1 2023. This will solidify our market leadership position for eHealth terminals and enable us to generate an additional revenue stream. Despite the challenging situation within the global market, we continue to strengthen our technological and quality leadership around the famous MX technology.
Especially gaming enthusiasts around the world appreciate our approach of always providing state-of-the-art switches designed to meet their requirements. Therefore, we are leading once again the trend in the community with our first official MX derivative switches for even more customization possibilities. The MX Ergo Clear is characterized by a particular tactile switching characteristics without an audible click and a comparatively light actuation force. The model is the first special edition for a so-called do it yourself community switch from Cherry MX. We will offer two basic versions as a model with snap-in mounting in the frame. This has three pins or with the fixing pins in the PCB with five pins. Of course, both versions will also be available as a RGB variant and will be available at all official Cherry distributors as well as in our upcoming keyboard models.
As already mentioned in our last call, the tactile version of our awarded Cherry MX Ultra Low Profile switch was brought to market in the second quarter in a variety of high-end gaming laptops. That was also introduced in the first ultra-thin Corsair K100 AIR wireless gaming keyboard for desktop use, which opens yet another market segment for our switch business. We'll come back to that in a minute. Work in our Components Business also continued to progress on the development of our innovative analog switch technology, which is already available for our clients. This represents a systematic evolution of our successful MX switch in terms of the materials used, their overall quality, and of course, further customization opportunities for an advanced gaming experience.
In the gaming devices business, development activities focus on further expanding the product portfolio with Cherry's advanced wireless technology. Competitive gamers can benefit from our connectivity technology, especially Bluetooth low latency technology in a growing variety of gaming keyboards. Especially noteworthy is the recent market launch of the MX LP 2.1 and the MX LP 6.1. These are MX Low Profile gaming keyboards with 68 keys, which both follow the current market trend for being truly mobile gaming keyboards and always ready to go when gaming or work. For use of these keyboards to their full potential, we provide the Cherry Gaming Software. With the Cherry Gaming Software, users can change the backlighting mode, color and speed, assign macros to the keys, and adjust parameters to control keyboard behaviors. Macros can be recorded and edited.
The Cherry Gaming Software is intuitive to operate and includes a help function. Of course, we also provide customer support if needed. We have already discussed the customer lineup of our ultra low profile switches for high-end notebooks in our last call. Now we are particularly proud that Corsair has begun marketing their new K100 AIR Wireless RGB in the Q3, which is the world's first ultra-thin gaming keyboard for desktop use to rely on our tactile ultra low profile switches. It shows that our MX Ultra Low Profile switches enable new technology standards thanks to our unique solution, not only in the laptop but also in the desktop segment. Gamers, content creators, and other power users who appreciate streamlined yet compelling specifications will be especially pleased with this new high-end keyboard.
Hence, we remain very convinced of the huge market potential for our Ultra Low Profile switches in the future. The arrival of our second assembly machine is scheduled for Q1 2023, and it will enable the further ramp up of Ultra Low Profile switches. With that overview, I'd like to hand over to Bernd to talk about the detailed financials. Bernd, please go ahead.
Thank you, Rolf. I would also like to welcome everyone on the call and to point out to you the main financial results of the Q3 and the first nine months of 2022. Business performance in the Q3 of the current fiscal year largely reflected the developments we have seen over the course of the first six months and continued to be restricted by adverse economic and geopolitical conditions. The professional business area's share of total revenue increased to 64.1% from 48.8% in the same period last year. While the gaming business area's share decreased correspondingly to 35.9% from 51.2% last year. The professional business area continued to grow despite the unfavorable economic conditions. Accordingly, revenue increased by 4.3% to EUR 62.8 million year-over-year.
The expansion of our e-commerce activities in the first step via Amazon made it possible to start to explore the huge market potential in the peripherals business unit. Revenue generated within the office peripherals grew by 4.4% to EUR 43.9 million. The digital health business unit also performed quite well, with revenue up by 4.1% to EUR 18.9 million. Demand for hygienic computer input devices is currently very high, driven in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand for eHealth terminals remained solid throughout the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, despite various delays in the telematics infrastructure concerning the implementation of new specialist applications such as e-prescriptions or the electronic patient record, as well as the replacement of connectors.
In the gaming business area, revenue generated by the components business unit fell by 60.8% to EUR 17.7 million from EUR 45.3 million in the comparable period last year, due to the above-mentioned factors. Demand for the new Ultra Low Profile technology switches exceeded the currently available production capacity. However, we expect the second assembly machine to start production in April 2023. The gaming devices business unit, on the other hand, generated revenue of EUR 17.4 million, only slightly below the last year's figures of EUR 17.8 million, despite the prevailing unfavorable market conditions.
In the light of the persistently challenging business environment in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, particularly for the components business unit, Cherry recorded a 20.6% decline in group revenue to EUR 98 million from EUR 123.4 million last year. The gross margin decreased by 9.3 percentage points to 31.9% compared to 41.2% one year earlier. The main factors driving the lower margin were product mix effects, lower production capacity utilization, and, as expected, higher materials and logistics costs, and a strong U.S. dollar. Consequently, the adjusted EBITDA was EUR 13.6 million compared to EUR 36.5 million last year. The resulting adjusted EBITDA margin declined by 15.7 percentage points to 13.9% year-on-year.
The operating profit before interest and tax for the first three quarters of the current fiscal year amounted to a small profit of EUR 0.2 million, which corresponds to an EBIT margin of only 0.2% compared to last year of 16.3%. Moreover, non-recurring items had a negative impact on the EBITDA margin, EBIT margin during the period under report. A table of full reconciliation is added in the appendix of this presentation as well as the interim statement. When we compare the reporting period with the first nine months of last year, we see a sales decline of around 20.6%. However, comparing with the FY 2020, we still see a revenue growth of 4.3% on group level.
While the professional business area even grew by around 54.7% compared to 2020, the gaming business shows a decline of 34.1%. The pace of growth in our professional business was originally driven by the steadily growing sales level of the digital health business. However, we now can see a strong sales increase from our new e-commerce business strategy and our expansion of sales channels in the B2B business, which was initiated over the course of last year, even in the light of the unfavorable market conditions. While the EBITDA is currently impacted by the cyclical short-term effects from lower market demand and our current investments in R&D and sales and marketing for our organic growth, we are confident to return to a more profitable growth in the mid- and long term.
Having mentioned this impact, the adjusted EBITDA margin for the group dropped to 13.9% in the first nine months of this year, from 29.6% last year. The EBITDA in the Professional Business Area came down by 22.8% to EUR 9.8 million in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, compared to EUR 12.7 million last year. The adjusted EBITDA margin therefore was 15.7% compared to 21.1% the year earlier. Main factors for this development are the further expansion costs of e-commerce, including higher marketing expenses and the expansion of our sales personnel. With the founding of Cherry E-Commerce GmbH and the accompanying recruitment of 13 employees specialized in e-commerce, the groundwork has now been laid for expanding our business also with the end customers B2C.
A further impact on the EBITDA in this business area came from increased prices for raw materials and foreign exchange effects. At EUR 3.8 million, the adjusted EBITDA for gaming business was down 84% on the previous year and has had the most impact on the group EBITDA. The adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 12.3% compared to 24.8% one year earlier. As we have previously stated, the demand for mechanical keyboard switches and gaming keyboards decreased noticeably year-on-year as a result of the repeated temporary closures at Chinese production and logistics sites, both at Cherry and at customers.
With Cherry's distributors and customers currently in the process of selling off their sizable inventories, and since the beginning of this year, consumers favoring smaller gaming keyboards with a lower number of mechanical keyboard switches, production capacity utilization for classic and mixed switches was reduced significantly during the period under report. In response to the drop in demand, production in Auerbach has partly been operating on a short time work basis since the beginning of the Q2 2022. Our OpEx management enables our continuation of our growth path. Focusing on leading innovation by research and development, our costs in this category increased by 29.6% year-on-year to EUR 6.2 million, corresponding to an R&D ratio of 6.3%. This reflects higher expenditure on the development of new products for the targeted portfolio expansion in all segments.
In conjunction with our continued strategy of achieving organic growth, we invested into sales and marketing staff and expenses. Consequently, the costs went up by 23.1% to EUR 13.9 million, compared to EUR 11.3 million in the same period last year. This resulted in a selling expense ratio of 14.2% compared to 9.2% last year. The increase was mainly driven by setup and implementation expenses incurred in conjunction with the implementation of a joint e-commerce strategy by the gaming devices and peripherals business unit, particularly in the areas of consulting, IT, and personnel expenses. In contrast, we are able to reduce administrative expenses by 28.9% to EUR 10.4 million in the same period, giving an administrative expense ratio of 10.6% compared to 11.9% last year.
The lower costs were mainly due to costs incurred during the IPO and the share-based remuneration the previous year. Additional savings were achieved through proactive cost management measures during a period under report. Total assets increased slightly by 0.8% to EUR 414 million, and were thus at a similar level to December 31 last year. Cherry has a strong cash position of EUR 91.3 million, which enable us to further implement our organic and inorganic growth strategy. Additionally, we have 650,000 own treasury shares repurchased within the share buyback program, which we could use for future M&A transactions. Consequently, the subscribed capital and capital reserves decreased by EUR 5.2 million as a result of the share buyback program.
The strategic buildup of the net working capital results primarily from the inventory increase to EUR 63.4 million to mitigate supply chain risks, which we have seen in the past, and to expand our e-commerce strategy in Europe. It also enables strong sales of eHealth terminals, and it allows to generate cash from the sale of our high MX switch inventory level. As a result of the inventory buildup, the current liabilities also increased by EUR 9.1 million to EUR 42.2 million, mainly due to higher trade liabilities. Cherry has a strong equity ratio of 70.4%. Looking at the cash flows of the first nine months 2022, the cash flow from operating activities is -0.8 million EUR. Therefore, 2.3 million EUR lower than last year.
The main factors are a EUR 4.2 million lower net group result for the period, a EUR 5.5 million decrease in non-cash expenses, including lower provisions, and a EUR 4.3 million higher rise in inventories, trade liabilities, receivables, and other assets, and a EUR 2.8 million improvement in taxes on income. Cash flow from investing activities was -EUR 9.3 million, similar to one year earlier. Of this amount, EUR 4.9 million was invested in property, plant, and equipment, particularly new machinery and tools. EUR 2.8 million in intangible assets, primarily for capitalized R&D costs, and EUR 1.6 million for the last payment of the acquisition of Active Key in 2021.
Cash flow from financing activities were -EUR 8.6 million, primarily for the purchase of own shares in the value of EUR 5.3 million and EUR 2.8 million for leasing payments, and also the repayment of smaller loans at Theobroma. The cash flow compared to last year decreased in principle by 50.7 million. The main reason for the decrease were the cash flow from the IPO in the previous year and the early repayment of the former bank loans. Cash and cash equivalents decreased by 18.4 million to EUR 91.3 million during the period under report, mainly reflecting the 19.2 million increase in inventories. On the one hand, the EUR 5.2 million utilizing connection with the share buyback program through September 30, 2022.
Ladies and gentlemen, the world economy continues to face major challenges, dominated in particular by the ongoing impact of the Ukraine war, growing inflationary pressures, and the economic downturn in China. At this point, we don't see any signs for short-term relief of the macroeconomic headwinds we are currently facing. Therefore, we updated our original forecast for the current fiscal year on November 7, 2022, with the publication of inside information pursuant to Article 17 of the Market Abuse Regulation, thereby narrowing the corridor of our previous outlook. Accordingly, we now expect group revenue of between approximately EUR 130 million to EUR 140 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 13%-15%.
The update was necessary considering the increasing global slowdown in economic growth and rising inflation triggered by the war in Ukraine, ongoing supply chain disruptions caused by the lockdowns in China, high inventory levels at customers and distributors, and the corresponding decline in demand for certain types of mechanical keyboard switches. This updated outlook for the current fiscal year now reflects our expectation of a sharp decrease in revenue in the gaming business area. While we have previously forecasted a low revenue growth and an expected revenue growth of between 8%-10% in professional business area, where we have previously expected a revenue growth in the low double-digit percentage range.
The profitability will be impacted mainly by the shift in product mix within the group, lower capacity utilization at our Auerbach production site, general price increases for materials, as well as set up and implementation costs in connection with our e-commerce strategy. However, based on the expected underlying conditions and market trends, our medium-term prediction remains a double-digit revenue growth. Now I hand over back to Rolf. Rolf, please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, Bernd. Ladies and gentlemen, as already mentioned in our last earnings call for the first half of this year, we implemented a broad set of measures to return to our profitable growth path in the medium and long term. We have introduced many new products throughout the group, and early sales figures suggest that these have the potential to be our future high runners. The expansion of our distribution footprint is well on the way, and we will see a further increase of our online sales footprint, especially in the business for office peripherals. We are consequently working on the development of further leading-edge products dedicated to consumers' needs for use in gaming and office. Moreover, we also started marketing new switches to our customers, which will generate new contracts in 2023.
Finally, we will further expand our market share in the German market for healthcare telematics and infrastructure. At the same time, we will continue to strengthen our operational performance to drive future profitability. We remain very well positioned to benefit from the long-term secular growth trends around e-sports and gaming, mobile working, and digitalization of the healthcare sector. Thanks for your time today and continued support. I will now turn over to the operator who will moderate the questions.
The first question comes from Jean-Marc Muller. Please go ahead.
Yes, a couple of questions from my side. First, on the outlook, you're guiding for 8%-10% revenue growth in professional. If I use 8%, so the lower end of that range, that would bring me to EUR 93 million of sales in professionals in 2022. After nine months, you had EUR 63 million sales in professional. So that would equate into EUR 30 million of sales in Q4 for the professional business line. Could you help me on the math with that? I mean, if I look at Q1, Q2 and Q3, you were around EUR 20 million, EUR 21 million, maybe EUR 22 million, so far away from EUR 30 million. I'm also wondering how that number can be realistic, because if I look at Q4 last year, you had very high sales on the healthcare side with EUR 8.8 million.
If you could maybe give me a mix how this EUR 30 million will split into office and healthcare, that will be very helpful.
Yeah. Maybe I'll start, Bernd. If you look at the seasonality and the market conditions, for example, in healthcare, due to the connector discussion, we expect higher run rate in the eHealth terminal sales in the last quarter, which will be around, we will see that between EUR 8 million and EUR 10 million. The other source will come from the peripherals business, from our office peripherals business, where we see a very strong uptake of the e-commerce business because also of the Christmas business which is coming. Secondly, as I mentioned, we also increased our distribution footprint where we see as strong as we saw in Q4 this year.
Maybe an add-on question there. Let's assume you achieve the EUR 93 million. On the group sales, you guide EUR 130 million-EUR 140 million. If I again take the lower end of the range, the EUR 130 million, that would imply EUR 37 million of sales in gaming to achieve the EUR 130 million. If you get to the EUR 93 million, you had EUR 35 million after nine months. That would imply only EUR 2 million of sales for the gaming division, which then again seems very low.
Yeah. I mean.
Can you follow my math?
Yeah, I try to follow.
Yeah, if you achieve EUR 93 million of sales in professional and I take EUR 130 million of group sales, the gaming division only has to generate sales of EUR 37 million for the year, and we already have EUR 35 million after nine months. That would imply two million of sales in Q4.
Yeah. First of all, I mean, you will never turn every opportunity into sales. Yeah. Looking at the professional side, there's an opportunity there, but, you know, it's still very uncertain, and suddenly a container is got stuck somewhere else and then you lose immediately a huge number there. From the gaming perspective, as we said already, the demand on switches is very low at the moment, so therefore we don't expect too much there. Of course there's a certain decrease in market in regard to gaming peripherals, mechanical keyboards. You saw a strong decline in the market in all the three regions. Therefore we see there a rather slowdown.
end of the day, it will be a mix out of gaming and professional, which let's say will guide us or let's say bring us to the guidance between EUR 130 and EUR 140. therefore there's a guidance also between EUR 130 and EUR 140 because there are certain uncertainties of course in these days and therefore we have this let's say.
No, I understand.
Yeah.
I understand that you adjusted the guidance to EUR 130-EUR 140 million . I'm just surprised about the sales growth guidance for professionals, the 8%-10%.
Mm-hmm.
That seems very aggressive.
Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Okay
Very confident on that one.
Okay. That would imply that the EUR 130 million will be probably. I mean, there is a seasonality. I mean, even in gaming, even if gaming is weak, I would suppose that Q4 might be a little better than Q3.
Might be. We will see. Yeah. Depends also on the pricing, how aggressive you are with the pricing.
Okay.
At the moment you see very low prices, and that's of course not something we wanna play because we wanna keep of course also the profitability.
An add-on question on the inventory. I mean, inventory has gone up again in Q3 by a staggering EUR 11 million. I mean, it was already quite high after six months and now even higher, the EUR 11 million. My question is, given that switch sales are so low, and I mean, obviously you have adjusted production levels, but I must assume that inventory levels for switches are actually going further up so that production is still higher than what you actually can sell. Is this a fair assumption?
I would take the answer on that one. Let me explain first why inventory level is so high. First of all, we have higher standard prices because of the material price and logistics costs went up. That is one portion of that one. We have invested into e-commerce inventory.
Mm-hmm.
The standard price is roughly EUR 1 million. We have some deferred projects, which is roughly EUR 1-EUR 1.5 million. We have invested in e-commerce, which is roughly EUR 2 million. We have freight. We have additional, you might not know that one, but the freight times on the ship has been extended from four-six weeks now up to eight-10 weeks. We have more goods on containers on the ships, because we have more ships running to Europe, and that is roughly in the range of EUR 2-EUR 3 million. We have, by the end of the quarter, roughly 9,000 terminals extra on stock because we assume to sell them in Q4.
Mm-hmm.
That is a value of roughly EUR 2.5 million. Additionally, we have especially on the terminal side, on the eHealth side, we have long lead times of roughly 80% of the raw materials. They need longer than three months lead. They have more than three months lead times, and that is in the range of EUR 3.5 million. Roughly EUR 12 million-EUR 14 million can be explained by these kind of arguments. Coming to your question, second question on the switches. Yes, we have a very high level on the switches because we are using a lot of special switches for our own keyboards and which we have even to fly to China.
We are selling Ultra Low Profile as much as the machine-
Sure.
is producing. On the MX we are stagnating for the moment, so that's the reason why we have short time work. The volume even went down, the sales volume, because of the arguments which Rolf mentioned, so that the demand is going down because of the macroeconomic headwinds on the one side and on the other side, the smaller amounts of key mechanical switches.
Sure.
in the keyboards, yeah. That drives for the moment.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If I remember correctly, I mean, you once said that at the end of 2021 you had like something like EUR 120 million switches in inventory.
It's similar to that amount for the moment, yeah.
It's still similar.
Yeah.
Now, this number, I mean, I understand should go down to around EUR 80 million or so, which is your-
Yes.
Target level, if I'm not mistaken. That would imply that even if sales level are better in 2023, I mean, you know, we hear from Corsair, Logitech, et cetera, that they clean up the inventory, so eventually orders will come back, I guess. But it would imply that you still have a substantial underutilization of the production assets in 2023, because you basically have to reduce this 40 million switches in inventory, which is obviously a huge number.
Yeah, but I think you know the old sales levels, which we have had, yeah. In good times, we have sold per month EUR 40-EUR 50 million, yeah, switches. Not saying that will be the case in 2023 again. That can be easily reduced once we have, let's say, normal demand times again, yeah. Actually, I fully agree what you're saying. We have underutilized capacity, and we are using that time also to exchange the machines because our
Mm-hmm.
Fourth generation will arrive in Q1. For that purpose, we for the moment have still short-term work, and we are reducing direct labor work, yeah.
Yeah.
Perhaps Udo.
But, but-
You might add some additional comments on that one.
Yeah. Of course, of course. I come also from my side. Yes, Bernd, as you already said, the measures with what Rolf mentioned, the re-reduction of the 15 employees is effective, now, 'cause we had the social plan and all the agreements with the union.
Yeah.
Of course, they had the termination period. Means this will be affected from now onwards, also with the impact on the manufacturing, and we continue with short-term work. By this, the inventory will go down there. Yes, we have to admit it takes because the demand is really on a low level.
Mm-hmm.
Like explained from Rolf and from Bernd Wagner-Witteler.
Yeah. I mean, I'm just asking because of the snapback of the gross margin, which some people expect. I mean, typically, I mean, sales would obviously go up if demand comes back somewhat, but if you sell out of inventory, obviously we still have an underutilization of the production capacity. There will be an improvement in the gross margin, but not to like levels we've seen before. I mean, not at an initial stage. Is it correct?
Well, definitely not short term.
Okay. Maybe, I mean, I will probably other questions, too. You're quite optimistic about the eHealth business in Q4. It was quite weak in Q3, though. I mean, it was down 34%, year-over-year also with EUR 5.2 million, clearly lower than Q1, Q2. Can you elaborate on this?
Yeah, I mean, it was a combination out of last year, you know, we started in Q2 ramping up the rollout in the TI infrastructure with the new terminals.
Now, mid of the year, you might recall there was a heavy discussion who is going to pay the exchange of the connectors. This is somehow at least, from regulatory standpoint now, solved. We expect a pickup again, because to roll out 50,000 or replace 50,000 connectors now only until end of 2023 is a major task. Therefore, we see a certain pickup in Q4, but then of course, a certain rollout in starting Q1 next year.
The growth that we now expect in Q4 should continue into 2023.
The rollout, yes, definitely.
Yes. Okay. Strong year, a strong next year in eHealth.
We see at least a continued rollout next year. We will see how fast the rollout will be again with the replacement of the connectors and the additional healthcare terminals. As I mentioned before, there will be new applications like the prescription and other things which will most probably introduce, depending on the speed of gematik and the Federal Ministry of Health, mid of 2023. Of course, there will be additional rollout expected. We expect a continuous rollout during 2023.
Okay.
Just to add to that one, we have already the confirmed level of orders for the terminals as we have sold in the total Q3 already now. We expect roughly 60%-70% increase on sales on the terminals in Q4.
Compared to Q3? Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. At the same time we are producing less to have less fixed or finished terminals on inventory so that we have here, as we calculate, roughly 9,000 units less on stock at the end of the year.
Okay. Understood. Final question. Ultra-low- profiles, which you said the machine is coming in Q1, should be operational April 2023, from what I understand. I think one machine or the old machine at least produced some 20 million switches. What would be the expectations for next year? Ultra-low profile switch. How many would you expect to produce? I mean, is it the same machine? Is it like 20 times 2, or do I have to adjust for a missing quarter, or the machine I think is more efficient, so maybe it produces more switches? If you can just give me an indication there.
Udo, do you wanna do that?
Yeah, sure. I can say.
Thank you.
Sure. The second machine is the target to be significantly more efficient for me with the real improvement. What we're targeting is EUR 45 million in total. It means EUR 25 million from the new machine. Of course it's a new machine of 9 months and sort of that.
29 months, EUR 25 million, basically.
Exactly. EUR 45 million in total. For the EUR 20 million of the first machine.
I mean, the new machine is much more efficient than the old one, in nine months produced 25 million switches.
Yes.
Okay.
This is the target of the machine, so it's really significant. It's not at all a copy of the first machine. It's a completely newly designed and by far more efficient than the original prototype, the first machine.
Okay. That machine produces some EUR 35 million switches or so. No, EUR 32 million or so for the whole year.
It targeted this for the whole year, yes.
Okay. Cool. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Marie-Thérèse Grübner. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon. I have a couple of questions, so I will ask them one by one, if you don't mind. The first question is, can you quantify the adverse U.S. dollar effect in Q3 and nine months? I mean, if you could give us a, you know, currency adjusted, maybe, top line, for both time periods, how much would it be?
We typically calculate if the U.S. dollar is one percent, it's up or down, yeah, depending on the fluctuation, but up or down per U.S. dollar cent nearly 200,000. We are still in the range of $20 million short. We have meanwhile an approved by the Supervisory Board hedging strategy, which we will use for the new budget so that we hedge the budget rates. Roughly this kind. We have had a budget rate for this year of 1.12, and actually, you know, it's in the range of 1.02 to 1.03. You can calculate it's roughly EUR 2 million.
Okay.
On a full year basis.
EUR 2 million. This would be at the EBITDA level, right? The impact.
Of course. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. At EBITDA level. Okay, great. Thanks a lot, Bernd. My second question regards the Amazon and e-commerce expansion. I mean, you said some numbers, but can you quantify how much in sales came through e-commerce in Q3 nine months and just like the absolute figure?
It's part of the peripherals business and some e-commerce of course is going via distribution, so therefore it's difficult to judge exact number. It's roughly the first nine months is roughly EUR 7- EUR 8 million.
Okay
On e-commerce, and part of it, biggest part of that is Amazon, of course.
Q3 would be what? Would be EUR 2-EUR 3 million or something like that, no?
Yeah, almost around, yeah, so EUR 2 million, yes.
EUR 2 million. Okay, great. Thanks a lot. My next question regards the free cash flow development in Q4. I think it comes back to what Jean-Marc was asking. You know, you were down, I think EUR 10 million on free cash flow, for over nine months. Can we expect a significant destocking in the fourth quarter, a normalization, a positive development, also in light of your remaining CapEx spend? Can you give us some color there?
Yeah. That is quite difficult to say because we expect, honestly, the biggest sales coming in November and December. The bigger customers which we have onboarded now, they have sometimes up to 60 days payment terms. That might flow in next year. CapEx
Mm-hmm.
We expect something in the range of EUR 2-EUR 3 million in Q4. We still expect also our ongoing share buyback program is using roughly in the range of EUR 2.5-EUR 3 million.
Yeah.
For the share buyback. On the inventory, I think we have taken action to reduce the inventory on the terminals. You have heard it already. We have the same on the switch side, but on the switch side, it's very difficult if the demand is not growing and
Mm-hmm.
It's going slowly down. I do not expect something from the switch side. On the peripheral side, I think, coming to the year-end, yes, we want to free up certain inventories, perhaps some slow movers, which we have. We have also slow movers, which we can sell via the web shop and the Amazon business, and that should free up certain cash reserves which we have in the inventory.
All in all, we should expect free cash flow to improve sequentially in the fourth quarter.
Yeah. I expect that is improving, for sure. I think it's difficult to say for the moment, whether it's very much depending on the top line and when top line.
Mm-hmm.
comes in whether we can really have total cash positive result for the quarter, yeah.
Okay. All right. Thanks a lot. My next question regards the development in margins. We saw that gaming was up sequentially to 16.5% on EBITDA level, whereas professional was down to 8% from 11.5% in Q3. I'm talking about the EBITDA margins. Is this the beginning of a trend for gaming to start recovering? Should we expect a further improvement in the gaming margin in the fourth quarter? And ditto for professional, can we expect, you know, the margins to still go down in the Q4 ?
I would split this question to two answers. Gaming components, I think you have heard from Udo that we have laid off 50 direct workers.
Mm-hmm.
which of course brings an effect, not only on cash but also on the EBITDA margin.
Yeah.
It means the unutilized capacity, but that was anyway necessary. You remembered or you will remember that we always talked about the Gen4 assembly machines, which needs less-
Yes.
Direct operating people at the machines. That will bring improvements on the gaming component side. The real improvement comes definitely only when we have higher demand from the market side.
Mm-hmm.
On the gaming peripheral side, we see with the new product coming into the market that all the new products have typically higher margins. We have a new distributor even in China. Rolf can elaborate on that one. Here we have higher selling prices to the distributor also. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Should help to even improve the gaming peripheral side, in that way. Yeah, Rolf, perhaps you want to say something on the new distributor.
Yeah, good. It's just to expand our distribution network, of course, in China, not relying on one major distributor in future. We added another one, and he's covering basically the entire China region in all the 30+ provinces. Yeah, we just started with him and see very good sign that he has a very good network. Therefore, we continue with him, and hopefully we can further grow the business there as well in China.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
I owe you the answer on the EBITDA margin of the peripheral side, yeah, because that was gaming. On the professional side, we see for the moment that we have burdened the EBITDA and margin by hiring these 13 additional e-commerce people-
Mm-hmm.
In Europe. Now we see really strong improvements on the e-commerce sales. Of course, for the moment, we have had fixed costs, which then turns into revenue and profitability later. At the same time, that is what you can see from the P&L is also that we have spent higher marketing costs for the Amazon business, yeah.
Basically the way I'm understanding this is that gaming both margins should be much better sequentially in Q4 as well.
Let's see how much.
Better.
There is improving. We are working constantly to improve the margins.
Yeah.
The peripherals, the gaming peripherals is already very. I'm quite.
Promising
Positive on that one.
Yeah.
The components, we are stuck with the fixed cost.
Yeah
Working on that constantly to reduce the fixed cost.
Yeah.
On the professional side, on 2022 and 2023, we said we will invest into e-commerce and into marketing spend for the moment, which then I expect by the second half of 2023 perhaps to see that it is then slightly coming down to a normal level because sales then is up. We are for the moment trying to push top line on the e-commerce.
Mm.
It's normalizing, and then you see the sales and marketing percentages going backwards.
Okay. Got it. All right. I think this takes me to my next question. I mean, in light of the sort of developments of Q3, is it fair to assume that we should not be expecting any goodwill write down?
Actually, we are just in the budget process. What we see so far, I think, we expect no impact on the goodwill.
Mm-hmm.
That is, I think the final answer we can give you once the budget figures are finalized.
Mm-hmm.
because, as you know, that is triggering discounted cash flow then whether you have an impact or not.
Okay
Actually, we do not expect anything on that side.
Okay. All right. Thanks a lot for the answers. Thank you very much.
Sometimes the question is also can we expect something on the inventory? On the inventory, we have built up reserves regularly for slow movers.
Mm-hmm.
We don't expect anything on the inventory also, because we have EUR 0.5 million in slow moving reserves. That is the provision. Also here we are typically safe and sound.
Yeah
There we are expecting also nothing at the year-end. Yeah.
Okay. All right. Thanks a lot.
The next question comes from Julian Dobrovolschi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, gentlemen, and thanks for taking my questions. Have a couple of questions as well. Maybe first to come back on the healthcare business and the decline that according to my math kind of points to say 60% year-on-year decline based on the Q3 figures. I think you kind of explained already the reasons why, but I was just curious to kind of know if you started already to sell the PIN-Pad devices. If I recall correctly, I think in Q1 and Q2 you basically said that as of H2 2022, you'll start selling the PIN-Pad devices, and you're kind of hinting to a volume of something like 30,000. Did the sales already start or everything is now pushed towards 2023?
Yeah. There are several reasons for that. First of all, the market is not ready yet, as I mentioned before. Yeah. It doesn't make sense to bring a PIN-Pad now if there is no use case. Therefore, we also decided to work a little bit, let's say in a broader timeframe on the PIN-Pad. Secondly, of course, there were also discussions going on which applications will be the first one to be rolled out then in 2023 or mid of 2023. There were some changes also in regard to roadmap. Therefore, we pushed, let's say, the final certification now to Q1, as I mentioned before.
Secondly, of course, we're going to replace, due to the change of connectors, the missing numbers there because the PIN-Pad is an average, of course, let's say around 50% of the market price of a Terminal. We push instead the rollout of the Terminal in order to compensate.
If you just kinda think in terms of volumes, do you kinda stick to the same numbers, 30,000, or you expect a bit of a, I don't know, higher probably?
That's still open. Yeah. This is difficult to judge right now. There is a best case, there's a worst case. Adam, as long they don't start to roll it out, we cannot talk about numbers because any number might be wrong.
Yeah. All right. Thanks. Another one also to come back on the inventory levels. I'm sorry if I'm gonna repeat myself because a lot of questions have been already discussed, but I just wanted to kind of, you know, pick your brains on the inventory level again. Your main mechanical switch customers such as Corsair and Logitech flagged in their recent reporting kind of good progress in the destocking levels. I think Corsair was hinting towards something like 15% quarter-over-quarter decline in the inventory level. Of course, this comes from probably, let's say, a mixed bag, but let's assume more or less ballpark decline in the kind of mechanical switches keyboards inventories.
Now, I assume that there will be also a moment in time, some sort of an inflection point where they will destock significantly and ramp up production again. This eventually will kind of result in demand for switches, mechanical switches on the Cherry side. I was just curious, how do you kind of look at this from your perspective, and by when do you actually expect to receive significant orders from these two clients or any other clients for that matter?
Yeah. Maybe I start first and looking at the different clients, we see two kinds of inventories, yeah. First of all, we see a significant number of switches, on mechanical switches, and then we see additionally a lot of inventories on the finished goods side. This means Cherry mechanical keyboards. In order to push out to the market, or let's say, in order to reuse the inventories, in regard to mechanical switches, they have to push out, and that was mentioned in the press release, of course. Yeah. For example, that they could reduce 15% of their inventory accordingly. This goes basically to the keyboard sales, yeah, not to the switch sales. The switch relief, I would say, will be delayed compared to that one.
What we can say at the moment, the view we have, we don't see that, definitely not Q1, but also not Q2, that there will be a significant uptake on the standard MX or RGB switches. We see, of course, a high demand on ultra low profile, so therefore, we need also the second machine in order to really fulfill the orders. On a MX side, we don't see that there's a significant uptake at the moment. It might change, yeah. If all the environment is improving, it might change, but at the moment we don't see that.
Yeah. Obviously, I mean, I do agree with you that, you know, probably there is a bit of delay between, let's say, when they actually come down.
Yeah.
With their inventory levels, you know, when actually demand is gonna come to the Cherry side. Probably nobody knows exactly what's gonna be the delta in time. Eventually, let's say if, well, let's say post Q1, post Q2, well, let's say even H2 2023, so volumes are gonna come back. Do you expect this to be, let's say, primarily on the classical MX switches, the RGB types, or, you know, it's gonna be probably a mixed bag of the old ones, but also the new ones that you've just rolled out together with Corsair?
It's very difficult to say at the moment, yeah, because even when you have a very strong year like, let's take 2021, 50% of what we thought early in the year was total different kind of switches, yeah, when we sold them in during the year. This means the prediction is here very difficult, because the customers, end of the day, the market will decide about what is in and what is, let's say fancy to have. Therefore, it will be across the board. Yeah. We will see maybe lower volumes on different kind of switches. Is it on the analog switch? Is it on the MX? Is it on the low profile? Ultra Low Profile, definitely. Here we see the stronger growth.
Also for the customizable switches, like the Ergo Clear we just introduced to the market. I mean, these are enthusiast groups, and they like that, and they will buy a certain volume. I would not see that we have now a significant uptake on one specific switch except the Ultra Low Profile at the moment, yeah. It's very difficult to predict because it's really market trend and what's hot, what's new in the market. Then, of course, the enthusiasts decide what they wanna buy. Then with these hot-swappable switches, they buy a keyboard with a certain type of switch, and then, of course, they just buy a couple or a set of new switches in order to change them.
There's a lot of flexibility at the moment in the market and therefore it's very, very difficult to predict.
Of course. I mean, indeed you also talked about a lot of new trends coming up into the switch technology, and it looks like, let's say, the OEMs themselves, like Corsair, you know, they're rolling out, let's say, new products with the new kind of, let's say, latest technologies. Now, with that in mind, your gut feeling, do you believe, let's say, that there might be a risk on, you know, the inventory on the old inventories that they already have, especially on the MX switches, and probably you'd have to write this down, or at this point in time, you don't wanna, let's say, have any kind of judgment on it?
Yeah. From today's point of view, but Bernd, you can add on that. From technology point of view, I don't see anything there because it's a standard MX switch or RGB switch, what we have on stock mainly, and these are the switches which are used in current keyboards. Yeah. You would not change a design in a current keyboard, which still has a lifetime of two to three years in the market, because then you would need to do a total redesign of the keyboard, which is very seldomly a business case for any customer.
Yeah, I agree. I totally agree. Technology-wise, I think there is no need to do anything. The demand, I agree completely what you're saying, sooner or later there will be the demand picking up. The question is when, at what time, with what size, yeah?
Yeah.
How fast. The good thing is, we have enough stock to don't let Corsair or Dell or whoever down, once the global market demand picks up again. That's the good message because we can easily sustain two, three months without production, for the moment. That means with the new machine which arrives in April. Sorry, in Q1, the fourth gen machine, we are able to then quickly ramp up even higher production capacities with lower direct operating workers.
No, we don't see any need to write off switches because either customers can use them or our new products will use them because we have new innovations with those kind of switches which we have on stock, and not using only switches, especially for our own keyboards, which we are using today. We don't see any need to write them off because they can be sold definitely within the next 12-24 months, the total stock as it is. Yeah.
Perfect. Okay, thanks. Then, a follow-up, actually another one, which is not really a follow-up. Now on the e-commerce initiative, it looks like indeed, you know, you're having really good traction in the e-commerce, let's say, the B2C channel overall, which is definitely good in my opinion. This also comes with some expense. You also spoke about the increase in the sales and marketing expenses, obviously, by 30% in the first nine months of 2022. I was just wondering if you can speak about what sort of returns do you actually get on the marketing expenses for the e-commerce platform, and how does this actually, let's say, check out versus the B2B channel?
You know, in the Amazon or in the digital business, you have to get a ranking to be a top seller. Yeah. This costs you a little bit more effort in regard to marketing spend to be on that top seller list. It's important that you never run out of products. Therefore, inventory is so important, yeah. Because if you run out of products and you cannot deliver within 24 hours to the client, then of course you have an issue and you fall down again from the ranking as a top seller. This means the startup phase costs us a little bit more money than we spent over the last month. When you bring a new product to the market, it's similar.
If you're on a top seller list, if you have good rankings as well or good comments on the platform, then you can reduce the spending. According to our business of today, we are comparably at the same level as the B2B channels.
If you eventually would like to expand and penetrate and, you know, just become more preeminent in the B2C channel, should we kind of expect more sales marketing expenses on this level only in Q4 and eventually towards H1 2023 as well?
No. I mean, we do that only in line with sales. Yeah. This is very comfortable measurable. What are you going to spend and what is the return? Yeah. The online channel, sometimes people or the team in the e-commerce organization at Cherry, they try certain things out, spending small money, you know, to see what is the return. It's also a little bit trying new things out. But what we don't do is just in order to push the top line to spend a higher marketing money in order to push the top line. Yeah. End of the day, we look at both. We look at top line, but also gross margin and this is very important for us as well.
It's something what we can try or what we from time to time try with a new product, but it's something which is really not a significant money what you use there.
In other words, you're not gonna hire more sales marketing people, to kind of complement the team of 14 or something like that. I think you mentioned that before.
At the moment, no. Of course, if this business takes off, or takes even stronger off as we expect, we might have the one or other specialist feeding into the organization. At the moment, I think we are well staffed and now it's really the time to accelerate the business, not only with Amazon, but also with other omnichannel. That's something we need to further accelerate now because we are now a couple of months in the business and ramped up the team in parallel. We had to focus on Amazon and of course on this, where we work already together with our B2B customers, where they are our fulfillment partners in order to fulfill or support their channels. Yeah.
Now we will look at additional channels and then we will see how it develops. Of course, we are very careful in spending additional resources there as well.
Yeah. Got it. I think indeed, you know, probably this will be a real test in Q4 when you have the Christmas quarter and if you have, I guess, you know, a solid presence in the online world, so to say, then I do hope that sales are gonna accelerate just because of this. Let's see. Anyway, thank you so much and good luck.
Thank you.
Okay. At the moment there seem to be no further questions, so let me hand back over to Mr. Unterberger for some closing remarks.
Yeah. Thank you very much for your participation. Thank you very much for your active participation. Yeah. It's always interesting for us to see your views on our numbers and our strategy. Therefore, thanks a lot for your support and we will have further opportunities of course in the next conferences which are just coming up in the different regions in Germany and different events to further talk on that one. Then we'll be talking this round of course after finalizing 2021 or 2022, you know, to see what 2023 will bring. Thanks a lot again. Thanks for participation. If you have any further questions, you know how to reach us.
Kai, as our Investor Relations Manager, will receive all the questions and then of course, you will get a response from us as well. Thank you very much.