Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cherry SE's webcast on the Q3 prelims. Thank you for making it. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. In the room with me are Oliver Kaltner, CEO, Dr. Udo Streller, COO, and Volker Christ, Executive Vice President Global Finance and IT. I am Nicole Schillinger, SVP, Investor Relations. Before we start, let me briefly run you through today's agenda. Oliver will kick off with a Q3 overview and then hand over to Volker, who's going to run you through nine months and Q3 group and divisional figures. Then Udo is going to take over and share with you the updates on our three segments. Oliver will conclude with a detailed and comprehensive outlook before we come to the Q&A session.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, experts from the capital market and also shareholders. Thank you for participating in this conference call. Today, we would like to give you a detailed insight into our current figures and our business. We will go into detail about the actions we have already taken and those that will follow in order to achieve a sustained change of course. Let me start right away. Cherry's third quarter results are indisputably disappointing. With a revenue shortfall of EUR 13 million compared to quarter prognosis, Cherry SE was unable to maintain the targeted 5%-6% adjusted EBITDA margin and slipped into a negative adjusted EBITDA margin. These results led to a cash burn in Q3 of EUR 6 million. What are the reasons for the significant sales shortfalls, mainly in the Gaming and Office Peripherals, but also in the component segment?
In general, our continued high dependence on the German market in this Gaming and Office Peripherals segment is an increasingly negative development for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers due to the negative market development and low consumer demand in Germany. In addition, there are significant deviations in GOP with regard to the implementation of sell-through and sales measures versus plan. Main reason for missing the targeted numbers is due to the internal lack of management quality. More detail will follow. Concerning components, last year, we reorganized and restructured this division upside down. The switch production services between Germany and China was the right measure to allow Cherry to once again act powerfully in the market. However, the results for the third quarter and year to date do not yet show the momentum that we can all expect from this business. We've seen unchanged soft global notebook market.
This market is the indicator for the global switch business, which also has a knock-on effect on business with input devices, such as keyboards. In addition to the weak market conditions, we had to contend with delivery delays in our component business, which had an impact on the ongoing production, the supply chain, and therefore, closing deals. Before we take a closer look at the background and measures behind these results, I would like to take over to Volker, our Executive Vice President, Global Finance and IT, who will now give you an overview about the figures of Q3. Volker?
Thank you, Oliver. Ladies and gentlemen, let me also thank you for your interest in Cherry SE quarterly report for the third quarter of 2024. I'll start with the development of our group revenue. Our sales total EUR 84 million for the first nine months of 2024, and EUR 22.6 million for the third quarter, which is clearly below the respective periods in 2023 and 2022. Q3 2024, showed a year-on-year decline of 17%, i.e., -EUR 4.6 million compared to Q3 2023. Most of the decline comes from the weak sales in GOP, especially in the months of July and August. September had been much better. Due to the magnitude of the revenue miss, instead of EUR 35 million, we only delivered 22.6 in the quarter.
There was a significant fixed cost undercoverage that turned our adjusted EBITDA into the red. Despite the gross profit miss of EUR 6 million in the third quarter, the miss on the adjusted EBITDA was only EUR 5 million due to cost control. Adjusted EBITDA came in at only -EUR 3.1 million, dragging the nine-month results down to -EUR 0.7 million. This resulted in adjusted EBITDA margin of -0.8% for the first nine months of the year. Let me now provide you with the revenue and profit development by business unit for the nine months and three-month period, respectively. The reasons for the revenue and profit decline are as follows: As the largest business unit, Gaming and Office Peripherals suffered the most under the weak economic environment in Germany, which currently translates into negative consumer sentiments and purchase reluctance.
On top of this, we overestimated the sell-in capabilities of our distributors and trade partners, respectively. Hence, Gaming and Office Peripherals delivered only EUR 14.7 million in the third quarter this year versus EUR 20.7 million in the same quarter of last year. For the nine-month period, Gaming and Office Peripherals achieved more than EUR 56.4 million revenues versus EUR 65.2 million in the first nine months of last year. Looking at the third quarter alone, the revenue share fell from 76% to 65%.
Its profit performance strengthened from a positive EUR 13.5 million to minus in the nine-month period, behind the swing from 0.2 million positive adjusted EBITDA to a loss of - EUR 1.5 million in the third quarter, as the fixed cost coverage evaporated in the light of the massive sales decline, and could not get offset by countermeasures within this business unit. Revenues in components business unit were also below our forecast, as orders from customers lagged behind expectations. One bigger order has been delayed into October and November but now has started to materialize. Hence, revenues of EUR 1.6 million in Q3 2024, were EUR 200,000 lower than the period in the prior year. On the nine-month cumulative basis, components achieved net sales of EUR 5.2 million versus EUR 8.6 million in the comparable period of last year.
With regard to the adjusted EBITDA, the loss of EUR 0.6 million reflects the missing fixed cost recovery, especially in our production side, and includes a provision for the production materials coverage, respectively. Last but not least, Digital Health and Solutions achieved sales of EUR 6.4 million in Q3 versus EUR 4.7 million in the same period of last year, translating into net sales of EUR 22.6 million versus EUR 14.8 million for the cumulative nine-month period. Digital Health contributed with an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 2.2 million in the third quarter, and of EUR 8.5 million in the nine-month period. The cost development in the corporate area, which includes investments into brand marketing, as well as covers cost on corporate functions, improved by EUR 1 million, primarily behind cost-saving activities, translating into EUR 3.3 million.
On a cumulative basis, the cost development is almost stable versus a year ago. Udo Streller, our COO, will provide you with further information on the business units. As you can see, we are on the right light paths regarding our inventory management. While inventory has increased, quote-unquote, "by EUR 3 million " going into the seasonally strongest Q4 but we need to be prepared for the special sales days like Black Friday and Christmas business. Trade working capital has decreased further. Since the peak of EUR 80 million in Q2 2023, we have managed to reduce our inventory by 23%. Trade working capital is down by 14% in the same period. Our year-end goal of inventory and inventory position is around EUR 50-55 million , and that is still in place.
We aim to achieve this via improved forecast accuracy on our product sales, continued supply chain management optimization, not hindering customer service levels, launch of a special program to sell existing and aged products, which we have on hand. Trade Working Capital will be further improved by optimizing payment terms on accounts receivable, as well as on accounts payable. With this, I would like to hand over to Udo Streller.
Welcome, also, from my side. As Oliver already emphasized, strong and effective measures are now needed to achieve a change of course in the coming quarters. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present our findings and measures to you in more detail over the next few minutes. Let's start with the Gaming and Office Peripheral business. The third quarter saw weak revenue performance, reflecting the broader economic difficulties as Germany remains in recession. Negative consumer sentiments have led to a reluctance to purchase peripherals, making it increasingly difficult to achieve sell-in at a reasonable margin. In response to these challenges, the division is undergoing a concrete restructuring and reorganization. The global head of GOP has left the company, with a successor set to take over in January 2025.
As part of the restructuring, the European sales team has been reorganized to place a stronger focus on B2C, introducing a new deal term and margin model. We also decided to let the head of GOP sales of EMEA sales. Additionally, also, new partnerships with electronic retailers have been established. In parallel, a GOP task force has been put in place to execute an action plan aimed at improving operational efficiency with immediate effect. This includes the implementation of a relationship scorecard, synchronization of sales channels, and the revision of Sale Cherry system . We will soon introduce a new pricing and margin model in the market that will specifically address our own needs, as well as the needs and expectations throughout the entire partner chain. This will lead into an uplift of our net sales compared to cross sell.
There's also a strategic shift in production, product distribution, moving away from traditional distributors and towards retailers and system integrators. Efforts are further supported by the drying up of the gray market on tier two level, with tier one distributors playing a key role. By buying back products from the gray market, the company has been able already to reduce price dumping and volatility, allowing for some stability in net prices and achieving higher average margins. In addition, there are close cooperation with distributors at both the CEO and operational levels. Joint workshops have been organized, and efforts are underway to clear sales channels by the end of November to stimulate new orders. Selective discussions on inclusive products are being held, and there's a particular emphasis on pushing business in core European markets.
Finally, distribution efforts are being accelerated in non-DACH markets, with a stronger focus on European core markets such as France, UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the Nordics. At the same time, Germany is being de-emphasized as part of the strategic shift. Allow me, and let us continue with a closer look on Cherry's component business. With the next innovation step, we are introducing the MX Multipoint inductive switch, as well as the particularly quiet MX Silent Clear and the flat MX Low Profile 2.0. These technologies meet the current and future market requirements of the gaming scene and office users also, and will once again make Cherry the technology leader with a premium claim. The first samples have already been delivered to manufacturers. As a result, we have gained three new volume customers: Geon Machinery Industry in Scandinavia, Keychron, and also IKBC Beijing Hand Music in China.
In the third quarter, the research and development pipeline made notable progress with the completion of designs for innovative key switch technologies, which have been finalized and filed for patent protection. This advancement not only enhanced Cherry's product offerings, but also positions the company for future growth. Due to the issues concerning delayed order prepayment, currently, 50% of the payment has been received, and the goods were successfully shipped at the beginning of October. The remaining balance is scheduled to be collected, and with the rest of the orders set to be shipped in November. Furthermore, Cherry's component business actively engaged with the gaming community by participating in two major events: the ChinaJoy in Shanghai and the Gamescom in Germany, in Cologne. These events provided value opportunities for networking and showcasing Cherry's innovations, reinforcing the company's presence in the gaming and technology sectors.
To complete the picture, let's have a closer look in Cherry's Digital Health and Solutions business. As Volker already pointed out, this business segment retains its growth story and had two major milestones in this quarter. As part of the expansion of our telematics infrastructure business, the certification process for the card-linked product and also for the provider began in the third quarter. The product certification was successfully completed on October 15th, while the provider certification is expected in early November. We have announced this milestone via corporate news a few days ago. Similarly, the certification process for the TI-Messenger product and provider commenced in partnership with Awesome Technologies. The product certification was obtained on October tenth, and the provider certification also is anticipated in early November. In terms of terminal sales, the company continues to maintain a high market share of over 70%.
However, market demand has decreased compared to the first and second quarters, as the e-prescription-driven demand has largely been addressed early. Conversely, there's a rising new demand from emerging TI care provider groups, indicating a shift in the market dynamics. Moreover, for hygiene keyboards in mind, there was a solid sell-out demand in Europe during the third quarter as anticipated. The company also received its first larger order from North America, highlighting expanding market opportunities. In the realm of embedded solutions, the company successfully passed the ISO 9001 certification without any major or any minor compromises. Additionally, the development of the inductive key switch is underway, and the field tests are being conducted with KUKA robotics using the Cherry Singapore. Finally, regarding structure simplification, the upstream merger of Active Key GmbH into the Cherry Digital Health Solutions has been successfully completed, streamlining operation and enhanced overall efficiency.
Back to you, Oliver.
Ladies and gentlemen, what do we exactly expect from the fourth quarter of 2024 and beyond? Before we go there, let me place the results for the third quarter in a macroeconomic context, not as an excuse, but as an explanation. Germany is currently in an ongoing recession and is continuously falling behind compared to other economic nations. This negative spiral speaks for itself, leading to a massive slump in consumption and is confirmed by all trade and distribution partners. Let's consider some metrics. The GfK Consumer Climate Index in Germany worsened to -22 points in September. Leading economic research institutes predict a contraction of the German GDP for the current year. The backbone of the German economy is damaged, with insolvencies in the German mid-sized sector reaching record high. 4,000 companies went bankrupt in the third quarter alone.
Labor costs are steadily rising with increased contributions. The political demand from the ruling party for a minimum wage of EUR 15 and tax increases has been recently articulated. The slumping consumption is further underscored by a saving rate of 11.3%. According to the Bundesbank, the long-anticipated consumption-driven recovery in the Euro area has yet to materialize. Despite the significant accumulation of savings in recent quarters, the saving rate of private households continues to rise. The implication is clear: consumers lack confidence in the fiscal and economic outlook, compounded by the geopolitical situation. Unemployment, which had remained low for many, many years, experienced a year-on-year increase of 6.8% in September, bringing the total of 2.8 million people. Additionally, the recently introduced citizens income is depriving the mid-size sector of valuable labor.
Cherry SE is internationally positioned, but Germany remains our important home market, and we're also a representative of the German mid-size sector. Therefore, we want to bring attention to the ruling authorities and demand immediate reduction in bureaucracy and comprehensive deregulation. We can no longer bear any further burdens, such as the Supply Chain Act of Reporting obligations. This is essential for ensuring security and location planning. Consumers in Germany needs direction, they need perspective, and finally, renewed confidence. On the product, on the product side, good news, the new gaming product launches were presented at one of the most relevant gaming events of the year, Gamescom Cherry. Cherry XTRFY presented the long-awaited Wireless M64 and M68 gaming mice and the new MX 3.1 keyboard. The press voices after the event were consistently positive.
We are convinced that these products fit the actual market needs of the gaming industry. Cherry XTRFY cooperates with top organizations worldwide, such as Team Vitality, SK Gaming, and NiP Esports. The new releases at Gamescom are the results of last year's collaboration. We not only managed the successful launch of the gaming product at Gamescom but achieved an important milestone in the UK market with these product lines. To give you a recent example, a listing of Cherry XTRFY product at 160 Currys stores has been achieved. 58 stores are equipped with the five selected Cherry XTRFY products, and additional 102 stores are using our products in gaming areas. The cooperation is planned until the end of 2024.
Currys is a major UK retailer specializing in electronics and home appliances, offering a wide range of products, including televisions, kitchen appliances, computers, and mobile devices. Thanks to the expertise of Currys in-store customer teams and nationwide online presence, we now have the opportunity to bring the Cherry world to even more UK gamers and users. Another important collaboration in our core European markets is the product placement at the Red Bull Gaming Garden. The SAP Garden is a new, innovative entertainment and sports hotspot in the heart of Munich. With the Red Bull Gaming Garden, Esports will also become part of the arena in 2025 , and it's viable for professional and amateur gamers. Cherry will equip the gaming garden with high-quality gaming peripherals as part of an exclusive cooperation and will be present on-site with its own branding.
Special events for gamers and industry representatives, including a gaming event series, are planned for the upcoming year in the newly built location. For Cherry, the collaboration with the Red Bull Gaming Garden is an important cooperation to strengthen its presence in the esports scene and position itself as a strong partner for the gaming community. Following the market trend of the peripherals business, we see an analogous market behavior in the components business. Having a closer look on the global notebook market, we see the dependency of both markets quite clearly. The global notebook market has yet to show signs of recovery, which continues to limit demand for optical notebook switches. However, analog key switch solutions are increasingly gaining market share. In fact, we announced the MX Multipoint at Computex in June 2024, and it entered the markets in Q3 2024.
Additionally, we will be offering more analog Cherry solutions in the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, the mechanical key switch market remains challenging, with Chinese competitors fiercely competing over even 0.1 cent cost differences. On a positive note, low-profile switches are gaining more traction in the desktop market, and we've just started production of the MXLP 2.0 switches. As mentioned earlier by Udo and Volker, the Digital Health and Solutions segment is still continuing its growth story. By having a closer look on the global digital healthcare market, the urgent need for product and service solutions in this sector shows evidence. With 60.4%, the digital treatment and care product range is most in demand. Driven by a diverse range of regulatory reforms, Germany's digital healthcare growth outlook is improving significantly.
The increased number of registrations on the German digital health market is a positive trend and has resulted in a rising market. With 98% of German medical practices connected to TI and an average of six to eight digital medical consultants, the consultations per annum in Germany, a strong foundation has been laid for further services. The European and by analogy, the German digital health market are expected to grow in it at approximately 10% per year until the end of the decade. This growth is driven by several key factors. First, demographic changes and staffing shortages are contributing, with a strong positive correlation between the aging population and the rise in chronic illnesses. Additionally, the regulatory framework has strengthened, with new German legislation introduced since two thousand and eighteen to support Digital Health.
The digitalization of healthcare and increasing cost pressures are further accelerating the market, thanks to the increased availability of medical data and rising bureaucratic demands, especially in hospitals. Lastly, improved remuneration is a crucial driver, as the digital healthcare product can now be prescribed electronically and reimbursed by German insurers, enhancing monetization for digital health companies. From market leading position in ER terminals to completing new software and service offerings, this mission guided us through the last quarters of 2024 in the Digital Health and Solutions business. With our terminal management system, Cherry TMS, we launched an efficient solution to support critical processes and patient workflow and ensure the optimal utilization of components within the entire IT infrastructure in hospitals and care facilities. As mentioned earlier, the broad rollout starts in Q4, and we already started a successful pilot in Q3 with our client, Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe.
Besides TMS, the SaaS solution, Cherry SmartLink, enables the use of NFC-enabled smartphones as a healthcare e-health card terminals for reading the electronic card, eGK. The solution makes it possible to integrate the tested and approved interface into apps in order to securely redeem the e-prescription by a card link. We expect the final certification in November 2024. Ladies and gentlemen, we are aware that this quarter has not been a satisfactory one for many of our stakeholders, nor for us. We are doing everything we can to get Cherry back on track. To this end, we have launched a cost-cutting program. From September until the end of the financial year, we will save EUR 3.5 million. These savings result from the various internal areas and projects that we have temporarily stopped. This includes costs in the following areas: marketing, services, IT, HR, workshops.
On top of that, we have implemented a hiring freeze. Let me conclude the presentation with the financial outlook for the fourth quarter and the 2024 financial year. As indicated on October 2, we are not able to maintain our full-year revenue and profit forecast. The economic situation in Germany is still tense and uncertain. However, we'd like to emphasize once again, that we also need and see the internal reasons explained today as being responsible for our financial results. I am certain that Cherry will reap the full benefits of the restructuring in our Gaming and Office Peripherals business in the course of next year. Having said that, we now expect 2024 group revenue of EUR 120 million, and an adjusted EBITDA margin at around 3%.
They are all our calls for the fourth quarter and beyond are strong and effective measures to achieve a change of course. Udo and I, and Volker and the team, we are all convinced that we will succeed in this turnaround. I would like to give a special kudos to Nicole Schillinger. She has always answered the many questions in every forum following the announcement of the preliminary Q3 results. Nicole, this is also professional investor relations management, and this is how we interact with our stakeholders and capital market experts. Allow me a couple of closing words.
Reflecting the journey that we are going through since January last calendar year, we should not forget, obviously, that we went through some kind of major challenges that we managed quite nicely, talking about the component business that we have kind of put into a very successful restructuring case. Now we need to see if the salespeople are doing a better job and a more intense job in really getting deals in. We have managed, obviously, reshaping the entire finance, from a leadership perspective, from an organization perspective, from a process perspective. We went through other kind of changes that we've made. Now, having said that, there's one remaining basket that is now really hotspot for us, where we all kind of put our extra in, and this is now the Gaming and Office Peripherals business.
Having said that, what is really the kind of, element that's giving us confidence and conviction is the feedback from end users, but even more from the partners that we need to have across our kind of sales channels. They all say, like, "We would like to see Cherry being a reestablished, successful brand. We need to have Cherry in our portfolio. We need to see that you guys are making a better job in terms of the way you're launching products, the way you're managing product through all the channels, and the way, obviously, you do the pricing." And they're all absolutely right.
So, besides all what we have shared with you, macroeconomic effects that are specifically addressing the challenges we're facing in Germany. We need to become better in terms of delivering what we have planned and also promised, which is about going more international, being tightly, obviously, in relationship management with our distribution partners. And again, what I said before, because it's the backbone of what we would like to achieve starting 2025 onward, is the pricing and the margin model needs to be stabilizing the success opportunities for both parties, our channel's parties, and obviously us. This is the key, and that's why we spend so much extra in doing it. But again, extra thanks to the entire team, that we are still with high kind of energy level, that we're really running this.
We know that we, again, do not deliver what we have kind of laid out for the entire year. But again, I would look at the roadwork, and I see that a lot of the roadblocks are now out of the way, and the one that is still on our agenda, in our way, which is Gaming and Office Peripherals, the way we're making a business, we are working on that, and we do this with high efficiency and high speed and high dynamic and energy. Thank you very much. And with this, obviously, I hand over finally back to Nicole.
Yeah, this concludes today's webcast. Thank you all for your participation. Have a great day. Goodbye.