welcome to all those colleagues out there online in the broadcasting system.
And with this warm welcome, I don't want to set too much of the stage, but leave it to for Yvonne to declare the whole thing open. Yvonne, please. Very much.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and warm welcome at CV. And we are looking forward to guide you through the next to the morning, we can say. And, you know, if we remember and if you look back two years ago, we were standing here together, and CV was it was my first press conference. It was my first analyst conference, and CV was in turbulent times.
Today, two years later, I think we can say proudly that since then, we have delivered very good results. And as well, I'm very happy to present to you today very good results, and on-site is my colleague, Olaf Paltzkampen. So let's get started, and let's see what we brought around. Very good results in challenging times. You as analysts, you as journalists, for you, it might be very, I would say, common, and you have to deal with it every day.
If you look a little bit wider, what does it mean as well for us? All of us know that we are living in a time of transformation. And this transformation gives us a couple of opportunities. We can be followers. We can, you know, see what is happening, and we can then adapt the best possible, or we can be leaders shaping the future ourselves and focusing on the things we can influence.
I and as well the CB crew prefers the second option. We want to shape, and we want to attack, and we want to make the difference. And we want to make the difference personally because, you know, we can do things personally. We can support. We can elect, and we can do a a lot of things.
And economically, as a group, we have as well responsibility providing more than 4,000 working places, paying our taxes to finance all the ambitions which are planned for the new, election after new election period. And we are a social citizen as well. So that means if we take this part, we have a responsibility, which we take happily, and we have a great business model, which as well contributes, in challenging times because at the end, you know this picture, we make consumer happy. So and this is even more important in challenging times because then the families tightening together, the loved ones tightening together. They are presenting themselves, cocooning, etcetera.
And we are in the middle of this movement. You know, and this has not changed, we follow our mission, which is inspiring people to create and share personalized photo print product at the highest quality. We achieved this by providing user experience alongside the entire customer journey. Innovations are key, and this enables us to stay ahead to build our position as an undisputed market leader. And for this, there are more than 4,000 people dedicated in 21 countries to make this mission happening, to make it alive, to bring it alive.
And at the end, it is important that we evolve this smile, with all of us. And together, we had for a financial target. We have given out that in the midterm, we want to grow up to 1,000,000,000 as the total turnover for the group. And the 1,000,000,000 is a number, but as well, it's a mindset. And this mindset is important for us behind.
So strive for growth and continue the success story of CV. Let's have a look how the year '24 contributed to this growth mindset and to this ambition. What we see is that we had another record year in top line and in bottom line. We reported a turnover landing at 832,800,000.0, and this is a growth of 6.7. And if you say this 6.7%, that means it's the reported number.
In operational, we are we were growing by 5.1%. It was the ones of you who accompany us for longer term understand that we had transferred a huge customer into a provision model, which is changing the turnover relation but is not impacting the EBIT. So that means growth on the top line, and we are more than happy as well because it was a difficult year in terms of, you know, economics for the consumer. They some of them had to think twice to spend their euro. And, if you look to bottom line, what we managed there, in terms of group EBIT, we increased up to 86,100,000.0, and, this is at the upper end of the target range we had given.
We were planning between 82 and €87,000,000 in EBIT. And again, this was not a walk in the park because all of us know we had to fight against some of the market conditions, the macroeconomics. If you think about cost increases, if you think about regulations, one of them we will talk about as well, you will find a new CSRD reporting, we published as well this morning, but this requires costs and efforts as well, just to give one example. And there's as well market challenges. So if we take one example, we have a market which is very competitive, which is the handy cases, the mobile cases market, which is flooded of, Asian products and cheap ones.
So we had as well revised our plans, and we have, occurred an impairment on DynaDesign for more than 3,000,000. And this is, included in these Yeah. Results. So this on the top line figures, let's have a look how the divisions and the the legs are contributed to this. The main leg photo finishing is 714,000,000, and this is important, and this is the most important and the most growing with plus 8.4%, and it weighs 86%.
Commercial online print was 90,000,000, slightly negative versus last year. I will explain this in a minute. And retail was 80 31,000,000 minus 1.5%. Let's start with the biggest lag, photo finishing. On photo finishing, it is important we see that the market has still potential.
We believe in our strengths, and we have a clear strategy which we follow. You know this one. It's our principles which carry us and which will carry us alongside as well for this 1,000,000,000 idea. The consumer will stay at the center, and it doesn't matter where the teams are working, whether it's internationally, whether it's in DACH. Everyone has to have the consumer in their mind.
We are a branded company. And a branded company, we became a house of brands. So CV is one of the brands, but there are many more if you talk about Pixom, if you talk about Cheers, if you talk about Whitehall, if you talk about Saxo Print. So there, in fact, with this house of prints, it is important that we develop these prints, and that means we invest. We invest into awareness.
We invest, and we challenge the differentiation between these prints. So having the lowest overlap and covering the widest target group. And, of course, it is important to make them emotional and attaching. We are committed to be more become more sustainable. We had 14 reports of sustainability and a long list of measurements and achievements, what we have achieved since these years.
In two in 2025, we have to say that our focus had to lie on the reporting, which was, I would say, a hacker less task to jump on this new reporting. And we look forward in 2025 to focus again on the measurements, on the on the improvement of sustainability itself. Innovation and efficiency are two things which I would like to deeper dive with you. Before we deeper dive, consumer happiness has a KPI in CV, and this is the Net Promoter Score. And here we can report that the Net Promoter Score has on a high level raised again.
One of the initiatives and the investments into the brand, but as well into the category, into the market, is the photo award. There is one photo award running right now, which is concluding in May, and we have 400,000 hand ins. So rightly on track with our target to get above half a million hand ins. And these are passionate people who are can who can be photocroferr, who can be amateurs across the world. And with this, we are the biggest we we host the biggest photo competition worldwide.
And we have, you know, good named a jury as well of very famous photographers in this jury. So far to the brand, at the end as well, we have to look at efficiency. And efficiency as well makes consumer happy because if we can be more cost efficient, if we can be quicker, especially during Christmas time, then, as well we can make the consumer happy. We had two extensions of our production sites last year. The first one in Kochland, Poland, which went fully live, and this enabled us, to insource end of twenty twenty three already more photo gifts.
We do produce 99% of the products we offer ourselves, and this is, rightly on the strategic, side. And if we look here as well, it is now the biggest production site outside of Germany. Another one, we as well are committed to Germany, so we extended the facilities in Freiburg. And in Freiburg, it's strategically important for us because it's on the so called Treilandeck. So this is an important place for the international growth where we invested.
And next to extensions in terms of facilities and place and production capacity, of course, we invest as well in print technology and as well in a technology of assembling, especially to manage the last peak, the last week of the year of Christmas, because then it's when we have the highest pressure on our machines. You are aware that innovation is one of the most important things which we are driving. So innovation is part of our strategy, is part is a strategic priority, and it's part of our cultural mindset. So it's everywhere. It's as well our DNA, and it's integration.
So for we have a lot of things what we are doing there from collaborative work with experts, like universities and external partners. We as well do the grassroot initiatives, and, we foster innovation at all of all levels. This year, our innovation days just hosted 1,200 team members in Oldenburg for the innovation days or a fair where, everyone exchanged ideas. Some of them presented ideas. Other ones, I would say, commented and advised on these ideas, and the best ones get on the road map as well for realization for products.
So internally, we push innovation, and important for us that this is externally as well, valued. And here we had shared with you throughout last year the TIPA, the TIPA awards. We were given three of them for the different brands for CB, PIXUM, and Whitehall. So this was in April. And since then, we continued, of course, to have more innovation.
This year, Whitehall is going to apply with a special frame, which is called Baselframe, which is a very elegant, very thin frame for galleries following the minimalistic trend. Some of the photographers already use it, and there's a bigger potential for this one, and we are going to build on this. There is one big thing as well on our major product, the zeebe photobook. The zeebe photobook has a new edition. So the photobook, you know.
And now within the photobook, the panoramic size, in the XL format, you can open up and you have a special added double sided page. So it's four pages you can create individually, or you can do it as a panoramic When you do your panoramic photographer photographs with your mobile, for instance, or with your cameras, you can print it there. And if you remember, it looks easy. But if you look at it in terms of production, a consumer can choose where to place it and how to place it. And if you do think of the software, what you need in order to create all of these pages, so for us, it's an important one.
It's appreciated, and it shows as well the superiority we want to have for the photo book. There are more elements and more things we have brought onto the market on the photo book, on the traditional photo book, like, you know, pockets. You can as well, at the end, put your receipts in, your flying tickets, whatever. So there are a lot of more things to discover, but you will be able to discover it around here. There is one more thing which is important, the product you hold in your hands, but as well the way you get there.
And the combination of those is going to be decisive. So important for us, and we had to focus last year on our mobile editor. Mobile, strategically important. We talk about mobile acceleration, has added the biggest growth in terms of percentage, but there is much more potential. And if we look forward as well into the, you know, into the development into the future, mobile will play an important role.
So, please have a look, how we implemented what we what we changed in our mobile edit. There are a lot of new elements in it, ways of designing and easiness, and as well creativity. On top of this, we have sort of another idea. So on the first look, you don't think that it works for the smile because we say we bring the consumer the smile and the happiness. And usually, if you look at the past photo, you don't look so happy.
You're not allowed to look happy, in fact. But it makes you happy if this you you can do wherever you want at your ease and if it's very easy to apply and to get on it. So we implemented this in December. We launched it in DACH. And the idea here is it's an app where you can download, you can take your picture at home, especially if it's interesting for kids who are not always making the right face when they are at the photographer's feet.
And and you can do it whenever you want. Then you can, in fact, print it, or you can directly use the digital asset, or you can go to the photo station and print it. Have a look how this looks like to give you an impression. You can do it yourself, or it's better if your partner is doing it. Then you have the digital asset.
You go with a code to the photo station, and you can have the print asset, and you can go to the embassy or wherever you need to go. And this is out in in several it's a technology. It's out in several versions, but this market is transforming, and we saw a potential here with this. And this opens a lot of new ideas as well for the future. So past photo.
We ask as well you know, I could only bring a couple of things, but we ask as well our teams what they are proud of of 2024, and we are happy to give you a look behind the scenes what our teams have handed in. So far to the initiatives and the things where we stepped forward, let's see the numbers. Photo finishing. In photo finishing, we can say that, we successfully converted, the increase of number of photos into photo products, and we had a good, financial year. Plus 8.4% in top line, which is important for us.
And we had without this shift of the commission based model, it was 6.4, still a good number. In photo finishing, the EBIT improves by 3,400,000.0 up to 83,400,000.0, and here's included already this write off of the impairment of DynaDesign. It's in the category of photo finishing where you find it. So without this in operational terms, the EBIT would increase by €6,500,000. Then if we look further, it's important for us as well because the one thing is to create a turnover.
The other thing is to create the EBIT. And here, the consumer bought in to the higher quality of the products. And so we say premiumization of the products. And as well, we had some price increases where it was needed, but we ran more carefully than in the previous years. And with this, the photo finishing margin developed further, so we stay at 12.8%, which I I share as an information.
And here you look at the quarterly evolution. The green tick means that we are, each quarter, landed within the targeted frame. Of course, if we look at the last quarter, we had an increase, but there is the impact shown as well of DynaSelect. Demo. So in terms of turnover, you know, you saw the increase, and here you see the EBIT impact.
And here as well, you see the green ranks with higher ambition and the explanation into q four. Next to the top line and the bottom line for us KPIs and indicators are the number of prints, which somehow shows as well our quantitative evolution. Here, we can say in the total number of prints, we are increasing by 2.9%, slightly above the targeted range. And most important, the value per photo increased, which is, again, that the consumer buy in into the premiumization, which plus 5.4, which leads to together the 8.4%. CV photo book, another important number for us.
So, yes, we could increase the number of photo books now to 6,100,000, and this is important. It's a plus 0.9%. You may say, you know, we could do better. And, yes, it's going to be a priority as well for this year to increase in terms of volumes. What is good that in terms of value in the photo book, we increased by 8% in turnover.
So all this, you know, leads us to the number one. The number one is a position we have we hold today in Europe, and it's one thing to hold it. It's another thing to continue to build it and to extend it and to stay it. And there, it needs more than the smile of the consumer. It needs the clear strategy, and it needs clear priorities.
These priorities we have set beginning of last year, and that means developing strong and differentiated brands, drive international growth with a focus on Europe, each of the regions driving their special role, because we are not yet in each country or in each region, number one, so there is potential. Develop continuous product and technology innovations, some of them I shared, and there's more in the pipeline. Develop b two c is a focus, and for CB, it's the combination of b two b and b to c alongside with our partners. And out of this, at CV, combination b to b and b to c, there are new opportunities coming up, which we put as a strategic priority, which is omnichannel. And we drive across all channels.
That means whether it's mobile, whether it's the software, whether it's the photo station. Each of them, we develop we continue to develop the biggest acceleration potential we see in mobile. In retail, we turn more and more towards the direction that, the retail in the reporting, you see it as the hardware retail. We turn the retail more and more into photo finishing, you know, visit cards, flagship stores where a consumer can experience the full assortment and the brand. In operations, there are a lot of things behind the curtains.
You have seen, that we invest and continue to invest in technology, insights, but as well, there are things like customer service and things which we structure newly. And all this, you know, behind these strategic priorities, there are business plans and projects to trigger and to fulfill. Two of them, I thought, could be interesting for you to make a a deeper dive. So let's talk about omnichannel. Omnichannel is a word which is in the consumer industry everywhere.
So the question was for us, you know, we have a lot of sales. We have different sales channels. We have different, channels, ordering channels as well. So the question is, what can we do out of the combination? And we defined a clear approach how we want to use it and what does it mean for the consumer because the consumer stays at the center of our dedication.
And we can see that we want to enable the consumer to create and experience photo products and turning into photo products seamlessly whenever and where. So today, we have elements, and we are combining these elements. And there are a lot of things what you can touch. What's important is to focus, and two things we see as special potential is how to win the consumers which are using our photo stations today for our family. And they are you know, we have more than 20,000 far more than 20,000 photo stations around.
And on all these photo stations, when you go along and you go along our trade partners, you see there are young consumers printing. They have an interest footprint, and this is a good a good start. But most of them, we don't know. So our idea is identify, authenticate, welcome, and inspire. And this is a way of consumer centricity, but as well, being analysts, it's important because it will as well realize in lower costs for consumer recruit.
If you look the other way around, you know, there are a lot of things what consumers can do. They can start with, for instance, starting a project in mobile, and then they can continue it in the software. This as well is omnichannel. Here, we would focus on saying our first focus is how we can trigger from our mobile phone and serve the different channels. So can I prepare all my printings at home on the mobile phone, and then I go to the store and just print?
So I I am more efficient as a consumer. I have a better connection. And as well and the idea with omnichannel is as well that the consumer stays in the in the family and has more contacts throughout the year with our brands and our services. And, yes, you know, if you think this idea further, there are a lot of potential behind using it as in German, would say. You might may find a nice English word for that one, but if you trigger everything from your mobile.
And for this, there are a lot of things needed behind as well because and we are on it, you know, that you have the same way of navigating the same appearance across the different channels. You find as well that you can authenticate, you know, with a customer ID, for instance, that you can as well having deep links in between. So there is a whole technological side behind it, but with a huge potential. A second thing, where we would like to give an update is, on AI, which triggers the innovation part, the number two. On AI, we were talking already, and we were presenting the approach we are thinking of for CV.
Today, I think all of us know that it's something which is going to stay. It's not just the hype. It will change, it will change our lives, but as well, it will change our approach. And it will, in fact, impact the whole value chain of CV. So not only the whole value chain, but as well, it will create news for the three stakeholder groups.
So we identified for us important AI as a co creator for the consumer, AI as a coworker for our employees, and AI as a copilot for our company. And, you know, there are a lot of things going on. I brought a couple of examples which we are happy to share and to inspire. As a cocreator, what does it mean? So imagine yourself, you want to create something, you want to create a photo product.
You might think all of the time, you know, that you can save some time in order with AI, which if AI is doing it for you. Time is one dimension, but some people really want to invest a lot of time because it's part of their gift. You know? It's like, I invested this time for you, and this makes this gift special. What AI will help on all for these different target groups is, in fact, it can be time, but as well as creativity.
So everyone, whether talented or less talented, can make a real good photo book, a real good CV photo book. And this is the idea behind the co creation. And there are things like, you know, first of all, finding your way throughout your thousands of pictures you have on your mobile phone, detecting the events, clustering the images, putting them into smart layouts, what we have seen as well partially in the mobile editor, and then, of course, the aesthetics around it. If you think further of this one, you know, detecting the events, having it detected, then the software can as well offer, like here for PIXONE, on these occasions, special edit elements. It can be pictograms.
It can be text. Background removal. We have talked about passphoto, and one of the technology behind passphoto is, you know, if you do the picture in front of a wooden wall that passphoto has to remove the technology has to remove the background that you can hand in your passphoto at the end. And this you can use for a lot of other things, and it's an interesting technology for us. Upscaling the high resolution images.
So that means when you send your pictures around in WhatsApp, you want afterwards to make a nice photo book or a wall art. It's important that you have a good quality of the picture. So AI is helping us to increase and improve the resolution. And there are more things there are more things behind. You know, if you think of the interface, we talked about mobile, we talked about the different order channels.
If you think, further on the interfaces and, simplification and as your co creator, then you can imagine as well you don't even have to open something. You just tell or you just write what you want to have. You know, with all the large language models which we are used to work with now, the way is not far to this one. And, of course, these are interesting things that you can afterwards think of to improve further. These are studying projects we are on.
Looking at the coworker, AI as a coworker, what can we think of that one? We talked about innovation, and this is the picture of the innovation days of this year. And on these innovation days, there is AI, a core focus, where we exchange and where we create, but as well challenge new ideas. And this is only one thing because there is a lot of more things going on throughout the company. So you have the whole crowd.
You have Mike, the mobile artificial intelligence campus as a research. They are really on artificial intelligence researching. You have the corporations with externals, and, we lifted up, the topic, onto a group level. That means here, we have, identified and created an expert group of AI where you have representatives of HR, of finance, of all the business departments, production, of course. And, they are exchanging, on these platforms, triggering, elements that everyone can contribute and, that we get fast.
And this is one thing which is the mindset because we want to create this AI momentum to embark with everyone. And if you want to embark with everyone, that means as well we have to train them. And here, we work on and this is already live. We make, for instance, an example, AI training with AI. So we created this is the head of Mike who has artificial intelligence research created his avatar, and, you know, that makes us it makes it simple for us to go throughout the group with this type of trainings to translate in different languages and make it accessible for everyone.
I have my own avatar as well. It's great, but sometimes frightening as well. If he's getting a bit into the wrong direction, And as well, it was somehow frightening in a way how quick, you know, you invest fifteen minutes, and afterwards, you have an avatar, which is pretty close to yourself where you think, you know, the opportunity, but as well the risks we have to think of. But here, of course, this is something for internal use where we use these avatars for our employees, and it's very much appreciated. Another idea is as well on customer service.
You know, the idea of coworker is to liberate our people from routine tasks. So if you take the example of customer service, all the questions which are coming like, when is my delivery arriving? This, we can, in fact, solve already automatically with a pre I would say a pre empted text. Let's look at the third stakeholder copilot. And here we start as well with something which is important for us.
We have developed and we are live since last year with CVGPT. And this is the idea behind as well to embark with everyone and to allow people in a safe environment to test and learn with AI. And there is large language models behind. You can as well test the new ones like DeepSeek and things. So, you know, there's a choice, a selection where people can train.
And the first step is, of course, that using the large language models for research and things, we are now on first steps where we integrate internal software, internal systems that the search is as well making sense for internal works. An example here, a precise example, you know, example of PIXUM, where you have guidebooks, where you have things available, which you don't have to search anymore throughout the different systems, but you can target it directly. And on a corporate level as well, we look into production. We are a production company, and here one of the things we see is that quality control can be eased with AI. Here, an example of the calendar production, you know, if you think of the high season peak in December and you have to check that all the I don't know.
All the things are standing in the right way, it is quite challenging. So here we can have some ease detecting this with AI. Or in another world as well, there's as well an idea where we are testing on the mobile case production. Dust is a very important thing in terms of the quality. So we can check with AI, is it dust free that we can print on it in a good way and with a good quality.
There are a couple of examples which should show that, you know, we are on it. We are driving it and report it to next to the experts we have for development to a higher level. So far, to photo finishing, and let's come to the next category, to the commercial online print. For the commercial online print, we are having our three prints covered. It's the lion's share for Saxo print.
We have as well here defined our clear strategic priorities, best price strategy, expand our production portfolio, which we had done in last year with the large format printing, which is promising, you know, better margins, but as well is fitting to our assortment, and then potentialize the synergies between photo finishing and commercial online printing. In terms of results, the year for commercial online printing was more challenging. The market is more challenging as well, if we can say so. The macroeconomics hit here harder if the companies have to save as well. They save on printing products, and the printing market itself is declining as well.
So we are focusing on the commercial on the online print, and we worked against this trend with a minus 2.4% in turnover. And we could deliver clearly a positive result with 3,400,000 on this 90,000,000, which, you know, is much better. We have worked a lot on efficiency throughout the last years, if you remember as well, throughout Corona. So you see there are all the efficiencies in place today, and we could deliver the 3,400,000, but it is clearly behind the last year's profit. Some of you might have seen the analytical data as well.
So the q four looked challenging for commercial online print, and this is a correction. In fact, we have discovered something in q four in terms of turnover reporting, which we then corrected in q four, but it is an effect which is normally for the whole year. So that is why we look on the whole year.
The third segment, retail. This is the retail segment where we look at hardware, so cameras, photo albums, everything which has not nothing to do with photo finishing directly. And on retail, we have retail in three countries, stable at around 100 stores. There are some opening, but some closing. It's important for us to write to have the right network to attack.
And we go more and more towards photo finishing, and the photo finishing numbers are not reported in this part. They are included in the photo finishing, which we have seen before. In photo finishing in in retail, I'm sorry, we are minus 1.5. We are more or less here on on plan because the hardware business is estimated to go further down. Important for us that we use it as a platform for photo finishing, and we hold it profitable that it's contributing.
So that means this is 700,000.0. We are satisfied. In terms of other, this has changed versus last year because we have, you know, we have no turnover anymore in others. It's focusing on the costs. And here, the costs were higher in terms and this is mainly due to the income rental income decrease we had because some of the sites as well we used ourselves with the expansion of commercial online print.
So if you sum up this to the group results, then you can see in terms of total turnover, you know, the lion's share with photo finishing growing and, driving the whole group contribution from retail and commercial online print, as well to this 832,800,000.0. In terms of EBIT, we had you know, the picture becomes even clearer. So photo finishing as well is the EBIT driver and the EBIT generator, which is in fact needed for our investment and for our future setup. Important for us is that the year '24 continued on the growth range. So it's another another year which is adding to the line of increases.
And here you see as well the 832.8. We had targeted, 820,000,000 in turnover, so we are clearly overachieved here. And, as well, it's important that, this growth is profitable, so that means as well that, the profit line is increasing continuously, and this last year, up to 86.1. We put together one chart for you in terms of the targets we had set ourselves, and this is good that we can say that we have achieved all of them. Of course, you know, there are a number of photos, photo books, investments, listings what we have discussed before.
This is the overview of everything. And what's important as well is that the growth is driven by a white base. You know? It's not one business, which is especially or one cluster, I would say, one business unit, which is especially it's driven by a white base. And this means as well it is sustainable, and this is important for us.
More details, I'm happy to hand over to all the financials to Olaf.
Thank you very much, and what's going on.
We have seen many financial details actually already now. We have seen many strategic details. You have seen many marketing details, but there's even more financial details. And I'm I'm happy to present them now to you. As a start, as as always, we have a look into the to the p and l structure.
And to those people online, I'm I'm pretty sure that you can't read what's on the screen right now. So if you go to the website, I think there's a chance you can have a look at the details there. So sorry? In a few hours, it would be open. In a few hours.
So the the details we we have here are in the in the annual report to be followed there. So let's look at the the p and l first. And looking at the p and l, what we always do here is we explain the long term trend that we have there, which means a structural trend in the sense of, since many years, in the sense of looking at less cost of materials and looking at more personal cost, personal expenses, and more other operating expenses we have because we have a change into more value added product, which means we have more photo finishing. And even within photo finishing, we are moving away from the simple pictures into the more complex products where we are buying less material, but we do more Our colleagues in production are actually are actually creating the value.
And that's why there is a general trend in the P and I structure since more than ten years already, and that is exactly what we are finding here as well. The only change we have this time is that Yvonne was talking about that already. There is an increase in revenue by 12,800,000.0 due to the change to a commission based model for one retail partner. And this change in the revenue means we have the increase, up to, $8,322,800,000.0 revenue. And without that change, it would be obviously 820, just flat $8.20.
And if you look at the structural change, it's sometimes important to to look at, okay, what does it actually mean if you take out this one structure this this change in the commission based model in if you take out this out of the revenue, what does it mean for the percent of revenue structure for the p and l structure? And I'm going to refer to that as we move along once in a while. So bear in mind, the the eight thirty two point eight at the very top in revenue last year, if you if you remove the change, it's an eight twenty flat. And now from there, from the revenue, which is obviously increased nicely driven by photo finishing, 52,500,000.0 more photo finishing revenue, 12.8 out of that due to the change. But nevertheless, photo finishing has driven the revenue very nicely to a higher level again.
If we move further down, increased decreased unfinished goods, basically no change really. Also, work other own work capitalized and other operating income. If you look at percent of revenue, there's no no change really. And so it's just growing a little bit with the general structure of revenue, and it doesn't change if you if you reduce revenue due to 08/20. There's no big change.
The first thing in our long term revenue structure our long term p and l structural change is looking at the line cost of materials. So bear in mind, generally, we tend to see it coming down in terms of less cost of materials, and this is exactly what you see here as well. Because you see we are pretty much on the same level in terms of cost of materials. It's it used to be a 87.4 last year. It's a 88 this year.
So that is pretty much exactly the same number. And the reason for that, although the revenue has been growing, the reason for that is that we have a move again into photo finishing. Photo finishing is gaining more of a revenue, so we have we have more revenue in the business where we have the value creation, where we are creating the value ourselves, where the cost is further down in in personal expenses and operating expenses and not so much material. And this is exactly what you see here. So you see in percent of revenue, you see actually a decrease here from 24% of revenue last year, '23, to 22.6% of revenue in '24.
And if you if you take out the 12,800,000.0 out of the revenue and calculate percent of revenue based on the revised revenue of 08/20, it is again a 22.9%, so very, very close to the to the twenty two point six we are seeing there. No big difference there. So structural trend can is still visible on the side of cost of materials. Cost of materials in terms of percent of revenue is still on the decrease because we are creating the value. The value is created on the on the personal and on the operating expenses level, and that is exactly where we do see the increase here.
So the personal cost has been increased from $2.18.9 to 236. There is things behind. There is there is, things behind, in the in the sense of, we have we have, wage and salary adjustments. We have paid we have paid the, inflation premium that was, possible last year, and we've had many new hires in our photo finishing segment in order to manage the business increase we have seen there. That is the reason why the personal cost obviously needed to increase, and that is why also, in percent of revenue, although the revenue is increasing, yes, it increased, but not so drastically.
It's from 28%, twenty eight point one last year, to 28.4 in the reporting year. So it's a slight increase there. And even if we if we take out the the revenue or or the the commission based revenue driver and look at the eight twenty in revenue, it is not a 28.4, but the 28.8. Okay. Not not a big deal.
So, again, there, you see that we have a very stable trend. Person expenses are increasing, but are increasing modestly in due to the the structural change we are seeing there. That is personal expenses. Moving on to the other operating expenses. Also there, same trend.
You see the increase to 299,200,000.0. And also there, we have an increase in terms of percent of revenue here from 34.1 to 35.9. Now here you might say, woah. That is a big increase there from 34.1 to 35.9. But this is due to the fact that this change is driven not only by the decreased revenue that we should look at, but with the the the other adjustment we have to make is that the increased revenue we are seeing due to the commission based model is also driving an increase in other operating expenses. That's the reason why they changed the commission based model doesn't change the bottom line. Yes. With this retail partner, we are doing the revenue with the end consumers. That's why we have a higher revenue.
We are also paying the commission in this line of the p and l. We're also paying the commission to the retail partner. And that is why this cost is I think your other operating expenses is increased there. And for that reason, if you take out this change out of the revenue, higher revenue, you decreases to $8.20, and you also decrease the other operating expenses by this factor, the other operating expenses would not be at 35.9, but 34.9. And then it's compared to 34.1, it's a very normal trend, the very operational development.
We have seen there that the cost line of other operating expenses is increasing over time due to the structural change. So CV is adding value by creating more value, by doing more value creation themselves. The the value is generated not by trading and buying material and and and sending it out, but the value is generated by buying material, simple material, not very developed material, and developing the value ourselves through the personnel and through the other operating expenses. That is the structural change, which is, intact, which we are seeing here as well in terms of amortization. You can see a slight increase there from 53.8 to 55,600,000.0.
I think percent of revenue, you can see there's not a big change. And quite frankly, this line also covers for the more than 3,000,000 impairment we have had in due to time design. So if you take out the 3,000,000 impairment we've seen there, then we would even see a slight decrease in terms of depreciation. So depreciation is more or less stable as we have seen it over time. Right.
I think those were the details I wanted to highlight to you. So, again, the trend is still is still valid that CV is generating more value, and you can actually follow this trend in the p and l structure. We have seen the increase of revenue increase by 6,700,000. So let's have a look at what does it do to the balance sheet. On the balance sheet, we do see pretty much the same increase.
So the 50,900,000.0 in terms of more balance sheet length is actually an an increase So it's pretty much in line what we are seeing on the revenue side. And, obviously, the very nice number we we tend to have a look at is the equity ratio here on the right hand top, and you can see that it was increased to 5959.1%. Again, an increase from 58.4%. So the balance sheet of CB is rock solid and remains that way.
If you look at what has driven the increase of the balance sheet, quite frankly, the biggest share of the the 50,000,000 we see is an increase there, is in the cash position. And the way to look at that, you know that we left this this this way to look at things in terms of management balance sheet, and this is where you see on the left hand side the increase of more than 30,000,000 in the cash position there. So that's the the main driver of the balance sheet we have seen before. And, also, the the only driver, if you wish that way, of the management balance sheet because capital employed is just increasing by the 30,000,000 that you can actually envision in the in the cash position there. So the two other positions, not car non current assets and working capital x actually counterbalance each other pretty much.
The noncurrent assets are increasing by 50,000,000 15,000,000. And if you look at the box on top, we don't have to go through all that. The the most important driver there is obviously the operating noncurrent assets, and that is mostly real estate project in our production. We need to enlarge production. Yvonne has shown the production in Kosta to you.
She has shown the production in Freiburg to you, which obviously is noncurrent assets that can be seen there. The increase in noncurrent assets can be seen there. And on the net working capital side, you don't have to again, don't have to read through the box at the bottom here, but the most important number that explains the 18,000,000 is the trade payable that you can see down there. There's a 15,000,000 increase, and the main driver of this is again the investments. They were last year end of last year, a large part of that was still visible in the payables, and that is why we can see the increase there.
So that's, in short, the capital employed side. On the right hand side, capital invested. Yes. The driver, luckily, is obviously the equity position that drives the balance sheet, the equity the capital invested by 34,600,000.0. And this is the development we want to see, and this is the reason why we are looking at the nice equity ratio that we have been looking at.
Moving to the cash flow. We on a first view, we could see, woah. The the cash flow from operating activities is stable only. You can see that it is a 31.9 after pretty much the same number last year. So I want to ask ourselves, so what happened there?
And if you look, into the explanation box on the left hand side, the number to look at is the second one from the bottom, the 12.8 mile 12,800,000.0 higher tax payments we had to deliver last year. And the reason was not the tax payments of last year so much, but the tax payments of the year before. Now I hope this is the last time now we are mentioning corona effects in our numbers because the this this last payment we had last year where we got, a very large number, back from the back from the tax authorities was due to the fact that we had a very nice profit in the year 02/2020. So our tax prepayments were increased for '21 and '22. But in '23, they realized at the tax authorities, well, we paid a little bit too much because the huge profit you had in '22 you had in 2020 due to the corona The effect actually didn't go on like that, we understand.
So we pay it back to you, anything you have paid that you didn't have to pay, which means we had a big back payment paid from the authorities in '23. And now in '24, we are actually comparing our tax payments against this big payment we had back from the tax authorities in '23, and that is the reason why we paid a lot more in terms of taxes last year. So that is the the big effect that all the other items and you can see that all the other things are positive. But although we had more profit and although we had more non more cash due to noncash effects, Although we had more with a positive effect in cash flow from operating net working capital. Although we had the same from the other network net net working capital and and so on and so on, all this was just in inverted commas able to counterbalance the big tax repayment we had last year.
So that is the explanation why the operating cash flow question of operating activities is just a little bit better than last year, but we still think it's a great cash flow driven that this is now a purely operational topic here. Investment was a little bit more, and good one has has shown the the investment into real estate already. That was a big driver. And, a driver is a similar effect like here on the left hand side. Last year, we had a big text we had a big payment from our investment into a PC where we are investing, as you know, to learn things.
But sometimes you earn money, although you really want to learn, because the the VC was one of the ones had invested into this LeanIX startup where I'm sure it's finance people who know that that was a major exit last year, I think, even the exit of the year the year before in '23, and we had a a 5,400,000.0 payment due to this investment, and that was in the reduction of the investment. That's why the the investment of '23 was so low, and '24 is now back to normal again. So, again, they also a an effect of the year before. All in all, that leads to, just on the first side, having a lower free cash flow this year than last year. And if you look one level deeper and take out the one off effects that we have already talked about now, you come to the conclusion that actually the cash flow of this year is is a bit higher free cash flow a bit higher than last year.
I don't in the interest of time, I don't do all through all the details right now, but the point I wanted to make is the numbers I just have shown to you are the one that are in Terex. Free cash flow of sorry. It was there. The '82 of of last year and the '70 '3 of this year. But, actually, if you if you do these changes of normalization, you we will have to have to reuse the free cash flow of that last year to 69.7, and we have shown that number to you last year already.
And now if we do the changes, we are up to 86,000,000 free cash flow if we adjust the two numbers. That means, also, in terms of free cash flow, if you take off the one offs, we we see the increase that one would expect to see just looking at the operational numbers. Over time, that means that this adjusted free cash flow has moved up quite nicely. You know that there's always a lot of one offs in there, and that's why the numbers recorded are the gray points you can see on this chart here. And with the dotted line, you can see how many adjustments one has to make to somehow bring it to a normal number.
But if we look at the way these adjustments actually go, you can see that in the end of the day, there is a pretty high stability in the normalized free cash flow, and the general trend is nicely into this upward direction. Moving to the ROCE point, you can imagine that, obviously, the 86,100,000 EBIT applied to the average capital employed of the last four quarters leads to a nice development here. We we showed a 18.3% of ROCE, which is a little bit lower than last year. But if we look back and say, okay. The increase of the capital employed is only due to cash.
And if we take out only this cash increase, not taking out all the cash out of the balance sheet, but just taking out the 30,000,000 cash increase, this 18.3% becomes a 19.7%. So, also, there, we can see ROCE is well on track, and CV is clearly generating value. But the best is yet to come. And this is the chart I I like most out of that. And as it was it was communicated yesterday, again, the supervisory board also followed the idea of having a dividend level of 2.85 per dividend, and that means we would have if the AGM decides on that this way in June, we would have a sixteen year of increasing dividend, which is really a great track record for us to have.
And with this increase, that was would lead us to remain number two if you rank all the 611 listed companies in Germany by how many years, one after the other, did they increase their dividend? With the 60 increases, we are number two in this ranking. And given that we increase again, we will stay there. So that is more of financial details, but again, as I just said, the best is still yet to come because it's Yvonne.
Thank you, Olaf. So my pleasure is to finish today with the outlook. First of all, we can say that in terms of strategy, we will follow the strategy we have defined, even there are some personal changes. We are committed to this strategy. Clear as well is that total market macroeconomics are not going to be easier than last year.
So, yes, there is still inflation. Yes, there are still cost increases. We might have a bit of backwind in terms of the travel industry. So that people the consumer treasures travel. And you read a lot of articles as well where it's becoming the, you know, the the cocooning, the escape from the everyday life that if people can afford something that they would like to escape.
And when they escape, they make pictures, and so we are a part of this escape again. So this could be a bit of back end for us. Still, we feel well equipped, and we are confident as well to continue the story, the growth story, in 2025. If you look at, the plan, which is 2025 first on the revenue side, here, we would like we have achieved 832,800,000.0, and, we would give out a new range in 2025 to 08/1965. So between 835 and €865,000,000, that's the target range we are targeting for.
The revenue will be projected from photo finishing. Photo finishing is supposed to continue its upwards trend. In retail business, we actively continue actively to manage the hardware slightly down as for the last couple of years. Commercial online print should achieve slight revenue growth in most markets. If we look at the EBIT as well here, we would like to continue the trajectory of growth.
So we had achieved 86.1, and the new range is going to be between eighty four and ninety two. The ones of us who know us know as well that we target the upper end of the range and the lower end of the ranges we have given. If there is, like, things we cannot influence, component was was mentioned again, which was a positive for us, but, you know, which are macroeconomic things we cannot influence. So that is the the bottom the bottom line for it. If we look in the EBIT, that means as well 84 to 92,000,000, means an EPT between eighty three point five and ninety one point five, and after tax, 58 to 63.
It's clear that we follow, the strategy and, that, the strategy has, you know, is as well going to be completed and further developed in 2025. So what we have not yet talked about is the outer ring, you know, because all these things, first of all, the results of 2024, but as well the commitment for 2025. For this, we have a team, and we can be very proud of the team who delivered on the 2024. And, you know, with the full commitment, the passion, the drive, and, you know, when you go through the Christmas Christmas production site where you feel like in the middle of the Christmas dreams because there are the calendars filled, and the things are there. In order to be in time under the Christmas tree, you see the dedication which is there.
And this, we can really proud of, and they are as well, a huge thank you to my team for this achievement in 2024. As well, they are the tribal for 2025. And the tribal for 2025 means they are committed. We have one team. We have as well created the CB group, which means as well that, you know, all the the teams, the business units grow more together, exchanging and supporting each other, and as well to be prepared for the next level, for the growth mindset we have, you know, talked about the midterm target of the 1,000,000,000, you will need as well a team which is committed, but as well a team which is going into the same direction across the group and following the same values.
And that is why I wanted to talk as well, to conclude with my presentation today about, our values and about our cultural mindset. And, this cultural mindset is very important, especially as well in changing times, because for the people, it gives something to rely on. It's like, you know, when they ask when you get asked the questions, how is it to work, for CV? So that we can create, together. There's as well some aspiration in it, because not all of these, elements are true for us today.
So it's an aspiration where we want to be and where we think. With this aspiration, it can carry us alongside to the business. So let's have a look. You know, in terms of cultural mindset, what we report for you, you might think it's for the people. Some of you might even say, you know, it's marketing, but it's more than this because it has as well a business relevancy.
Business relevancy for us because, you know, if we think about the employer brand, the place to be to recruit new people, which is more and more challenging, but as well to retain the best talents within our group. At the end, if we have a common mindset, if we have a certain approach how we deal with other, our consumer will notice this as well. And, you know, happy consumers, we can only achieve as well by happy teams. So let's have a look. We put together for you, the cultural mindset. Have have a look, what is behind it.
Corporate culture is based on shared values, norms, and attitudes that shape the company's collective identity. That's why we created something that reflects the essence of the CV view. This is booby in CV. And inspires us to achieve excellence because together, we are more than the sum of our parts. This is our cultural mindset. This is in.
And with this, together, we are more than the part for each of us. This is the approach of the group, and it's very important because it was developed bottom up. It took two years, bottom up, and as well embedded this into our strategy. So that is why we feel confident going forward. We have it rolled out.
We have implemented in 2024. And 2025, the focus is going to be to make everyone, you know, live it and discover, live it, fill it with values. And what is, about cultural mindset? It's not something what we give to our employees, but everyone has, to fill it themselves as well and will contribute. And that is why, we think, there is two approaches.
There's the approach from the company, but there's as well an individual approach. And so we call it internally as well the VNCV and the VME. So what can everyone contribute to achieve this aspiration? And there you see the seven cultural the element seven elements which are containing or cons out out of which the cultural mindset consists. And so let me give know, we have talked about innovation.
We have talked about a lot of things, customer focus. So let me give you two examples to fill it a bit with life. And one example could be that we talk about team and collaboration. So that means the cross brand collaboration, the together, the development of new ideas and new things across brands, which is behind the curtains, which we trigger. And there is, the entrepreneurship and ownership, which, is very important for us, that everyone feels that he's able to contribute, but as well able to thrive and being in a thriving seat.
We have, in our company, a history out of this. You know, we have as well acquisitions, with entrepreneurs, which are still in the company today. And, you know, we came out of an entrepreneurial spirit in the past, and this spirit is something which we would like to treasure as well in the future that everyone feels like in the driving seat. So at the end, all of this, you know, it has the impact where we say we see a business value in it, we see an emotional and personal value in it, and we see as well a value for our consumer. Happy teams will be able to make consumer happy as well.
So with this, I would like to close and thank for your attention today for your visit online, and we would then hand over and going into the q and a session. Thanks a lot.
Exactly. Thank you very much, Yvonne. And as Yvonne just mentioned, we are open for the q and a session, and big change this time actually, there's two changes. One change is we are keeping the the online broadcasting open. So for all of you online, we will keep it open this time, and you will you will attend the q and a as well.
You will be able to attend the q and a as well. And the second point, you are even able to ask questions through the chat, I was told. And I see a nodding yes. It appears it seems to work. So we're able to take questions there as well through the chat.
But, anyway, let's look into the room first. And are there any questions from your side?
Please. Yes. So crossing progress once again from the progress the especially in these times. And I have three questions. First, comparing to the for the finishing business, could you probably tell us how much of the growth results from price effects and how much results from volume effects.
I I can answer to that one. Okay. We have seen that in terms of the volume, the the volume impact is lower than 40 book plus 0.9% on the total year. So it's a valorization. Part of this valorization is the premiumization that people buy more pages, thicker photo books, for instance, more premium photo books with embossing, with extra services behind.
And there is a price increase in in it, which was slow, I would say, depending on product category between 23%.
Okay.
A quick quick housekeeping point. One point I should repeat the questions first, this first point. So sorry to those online. And second point, a quick question to the online people. If you can't hear Yvonne answering the question, please the answer seems to be there already.
So, Yvonne, please join me, and we can hear hear the microphone so we have a chance to to listen to you. Okay. Please, second one, please.
Second one, I'm referring to the commercial online print business. You told us that you're expecting slight growth for the current year. What are your expectations regarding profit profit of you profit candidate? Sorry. For the EBIT.
Mhmm. And third one? The third one? Well, I know you don't like it. And the figures for the first will be published in the May, but would you probably give us a design? A little impression about the development in.
Okay. The last one I can answer easily and quickly. Let me pick it first, which is, yes, exactly as you alluded already, we can't talk about that right now. Even though it's a bigger group here right now, and there's a there's a bigger group online as well, but nevertheless, it's not the public, and that's why all we can say is the sun is shining, people are taking pictures, people are ordering photos, and things are going to the right direction. So that would be a quick answer answer to your that question. On on SQP?
Repeat the question.
Sorry. The question was what we can what we can say about the the current trading, how that is looking like? And the the first the second question was thanks again, Christian. The second question was, what does commercial online print look like in terms of growth this year and results?
Mhmm. So it won't be an easy cake as well for this year to grow commercial online print in the environment, but we are confident that we are able to do it. And if we grow, then it should be in a profitable way. So that means continuing our, you know, efficiency efforts behind the scenes, and this is this is the target.
Thank you. Perfect. Other questions?
Yes, Eric. Good morning. Two questions from my side. The first one is on on on time design. I mean, maybe you can you can give there some some more detail.
If I understand it correctly, it's mainly a result of margin pressure coming from from competition that that you're that trigger the fees of government. Is is there so so is it still an interesting business for you? Do you have some restructuring work there as also what is the future of of of time design?
Mhmm.
And my second question is regarding the the Net Promoter Score. You you you started the presentation. Is it a number for the overall brand group in in photo finishing? Is it just for CV? Is it just for CV in Germany?
And probably, also is it as an important KPI? You also take Net Promoter Score for for CV and for Pixom, and then so so maybe there's a difference between the brands you can you can highlight here, and then what is your what is your reading from from this development. Mhmm.
So the the first question was regarding DineDesign, our mobile case manufacturing company. What's the details behind development we have seen there last year? What were the drivers of this development, and what does the future what could the future look like?
Mhmm. Okay. For Dine Design, what we are facing here is that the market is flooded with Asian product and design cases. And so in terms of, I would say, prices consumer prices, it is a challenging it became a challenging market. For us, it's still a huge segment, we have to say.
And as well, strategically, it's quite interesting because, you know, we talked about the role of the mobile phone. So which is your camera, which is your company, your companion, you have always in your pocket. So strategically as well, it's, for us, interesting to be part of this of this device and being there. But what we see so, in fact, it's an important category which faces some changes, And that is why we have adjusted our, I would say, our evaluation of the segment and with the impairment. But we are working on further concepts on valorization, how can the consumer perceive the added value we can give.
And there is, like, a added value in terms of, I would say, this design and printing, which is our specialty, but as well added value in terms of communication and the the protection of the the cases. So it's a marketing and production idea behind which we are working on.
Alright. And the second question was was about the net promoter score. What is the definition behind? Because, obviously, you could we are measuring it by in in very great detail. If you if you don't have the exact definition of of this number here, I think No.
I think what what we can can be looking at here is at least the biggest part of the business. I can't define it very exactly, but it should be the biggest part of the business in that sense. It's anything with under the brand of CV. In in photo finishing. Yes.
Brand of CV in there. What we do, although actually use it for very operationally, and that is what you are alluding to, is that we are measuring the Net Score really in great detail for each, retail partner and for each product. So we can see there's deviations that are become visible in a Net Score, and these developments are very important to us to look at the operational details, what could be the the drivers for the positive or sometimes negative development. It's here. Is there something we can learn from?
Is there something we need to fix? So Net Promoter Score is very important for us.
It's not just a number. It's in fact, like, triggers a whole process. Cowork with customer service to identify a logistic and all the the chain the value chain, we can read and influence just this way.
Yeah. Exactly. Thank you. Any further questions? And Christian is raising the hand because there's something in the chat.
I have two two more questions.
No. No. That's fine. It's fine. Go ahead.
First question is sort of answered already. It refers to the top line margin in q four decreasing from 25 last year to, like, 23 to 23% in 2024. I think the answer goes back to what we just talked about with Dine Design. Right? You know, special effects of Dine Design in q four. But, I mean
In top line?
Oh, no. It says margin. Sorry. Bottom line. Margin.
The margin in photo finishing in q four increased 25 from 25% last year to 23% this year.
Yeah. And that's why what you were just alluding to is the right driver there. Yeah.
Yeah. And the second question is about possible catalysts as CV is trading at historical discount. What are your options regarding strategic m and a, possibly sales, large online, or even a larger project?
I think the first question you answered yourself. So so we put a check mark there. Thank you very much. So if we didn't make it clear, the answer was time design that is that Christian gave. And the the second question about the share price discount, I would say I mean, first of all, it's up to you in the room to explain the share price to us than to you online.
Yeah? That's point one. But but point point two is the the discount. If you if you look at the, the share price in terms of even with the, high dividend, that we are paying this year, we have a dividend, return that is 2.9% at the current share price, which is completely in the normal range for, the the companies, we have in the s stocks or even in other indices. So, there is on the on the dividend return, there's no discount visible.
If you look at the the net the the price earnings ratio, though, we are a little bit behind now. But the reason for that and reason for this con this group can see in these two is that our payout ratio is not huge. And, that's the very simple calculation for for the development we have there just mathematics wise in terms of how we, can use, and that's more alluding to the strength we have certainly in the balance sheet, how we can use that for for for further growth. I mean, there is there's a whole effort in the company working on how we can put the money to work that we have on the balance sheet. And we have been talking about that in many discussions already, and this process goes on and is going to be resolved.
So, yes, we want to put the money to work that we have. And even with the money in the balance sheet and with the with the strength in the balance sheet that we have today, we we yet have great ROCE numbers than others. So, I think the the company is in a very solid position to to grow from there. And you have one.
I have two questions.
Yep.
First one, with the adoption of various AI technologies, how much increase do you expect in terms of CapEx? I mean, percentage.
So we can understand. Christian has hit in the eighth of he blocks back. Here we here we go. But we got the first one, AI and the investment going forward.
And second, is the capital investment in the hardware retail segment is justifying with the revenue projections? This one, I did not get.
The capital is the capital is spent in the in the hardware segment of the retail. Yeah.
Should I ask? Mhmm.
Yeah. The the the first one, the, AI spend, there is I mean, there has been a lot developed, by the colleagues in the last years. We could see many, of the of the steps that have been taken by the the episodes that Gong was presenting, and that is just just episodes of many, many things that are mushrooming there right now. So AI is getting into being part of the normal work of what we do internally and what we want to offer to our consumers. That is really a great development.
We can see there's traction right now. Right? There's starting traction in terms of AI really happening. Has there ever been a special investment for that? No.
We have always said that this is a normal development. It's like, oh, the world has detected there's not only hammers, but screwdrivers as well. So let's test with what to do with the screwdrivers. This is now next to the hammer and the screwdriver, we have AI. So those people, those engineers working with the tools have embraced AI and are now working with AI thing.
Maybe you would find a little more cost here and there. But so far, it has been very much in the operation doing, which means buy less hammers and buy more AI. But it was more or less flat. And in the in the, the point of capital spend, so, how much capital is spent in the in the hardware retail business and how is that evolving? The important point about that is, as you also has that, it's hardware is what is done in the on those websites and in those hunt shops we have in North And East Europe, but not only hardware.
There's also photo finishing. So reporting of photo finish is in the photo finishing segment, not in the hardware segment. That's why the finishing we are saying, they're actually in terms of revenue is more than the hardware revenue. So that is the part we are really interested in. That's why the heart piece we are seeing separately is not really and the investment was and it's certainly valued by put into value by the photoshopping we are we're generating there. Yeah? Okay. Thank you. Any question, please?
More questions.
Online. Here we go.
I'm told you're going through those well. Otherwise, they can't be
Do you have a mic? Sorry.
The proposed increase in dividend does not bring down the level of cash company that put that excess cash on balance sheet in '25 given that the investment is needed for real machinery are mostly covered by your depreciation. That's question number one.
Yeah.
So I'll ask that. Or do you want to take the question or two first?
I'll take the first one. Okay. First question is is on the on the dividend that we're paying this year, the €2.85, summing up to close to 20,000,000. Obviously, 20,000,000 is not reducing the cash on the balance sheet of a hundred and 50 dramatically, but it's just just an inverted prolonging the dividend spent we have had in the last years increased a little bit. Is that going to what is going to happen with the with the balance sheet that's why we right now?
And as as I just to to explain, there is the willingness and not a willingness, but the will and the will of the of the board to help all people at CV put the money we have on balance sheet to work. And, yes, they the idea of of things we and there always been discussions here and there going on into beat in the m and a, beat other investments. And these kind of discussions are continuing. Those we had so far, mostly were closed without a decision or decision not to join if you want. But nevertheless, yes, we will put money to work, but there is the clear thinking of what do we did for split terms.
We are thinking in the with the perspective of shareholders, and the money somehow has to bring new business, has to develop the company in a way that it should develop. And I love that Warren Buff is piling up 325,000,000,000 US dollar. What is the number right now? We are not even close to that. And so far, please just think about to put the money to work wisely.
There's a second question. It's more of a choice to summarize it. Basically, someone points out that the post EBIT for 2025 is a relatively moderate increase, especially considering special write offs. We're working 2.8, and what are the reasons for this small increase in development as far as the goals for 2021? Okay. The question? Yeah.
The the question is that the that the the increase of '25 could be kind of moderate, and especially given that the EBIT we have this year, the 86,100,000.0, obviously, took the hit of the special depreciation we have been seeing for the Dine Design case. Now the the answer to that is these things like Dine Design, a company of our size, they happen one or the other year or pretty much every year. Because if you how many corporate centers do we have? 28 or something. We're thinking also into not only segments, but the next area underneath.
You always have some profit center where things are getting tough and why you have to work on. So these things are something where we are not saying, oh, that's a one off that will never happen again. We have to bear in mind that might as will happen again. So that's one thing to think of. And if we take the growth that we can see right now into consideration, I mean, we are looking just taking the upper end of the of the ranges that we wanna present, the upper range of revenue remains a growth of 4% or three nine if you're looking at that exactly.
And the upper range of the EBIT increase gives you a 6.9% bit increase. So 4% in revenue, 6.9 in in the EBIT is a very big increase. It's a it's a sort of increase we have there. So I feel there's enough effort. There's enough will to increase the EBIT in the number plan.
And included in this as well is, you know, the ability to premiumize further versus the quantity growth and to increase prices. We consider as more challenging as well in 2025. So it has to be very smartly that we don't outprice ourselves out of the market.
Right. Any other questions?
What are the shares of Pixelm and Whitewater turnover at the average
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. So the question is sort of what the contributions made by Pixelm and Whiteboard are to our numbers. And, the the simple answer is they are they are interesting in positive sense. They are becoming significant.
They are delivering good number. They are delivering they are delivering strong profitability. We are not disclosing the numbers by by brands. So I have to say sorry for that because it's we are the only listed company in this segment, the only bigger one, and we know that all the competitor competitors would love to read those numbers, and that's the reason why we we can't disclose them. Sorry for that.
I know that would be interesting, but we can't do it. Nevertheless, thumbs up for those brands absolutely into the right direction. Any other questions?
Yes. The kitchen is entering the room.
I I just I just want to we can't see from here, but all of you have seen the reason why Axel just gave a thumb up into the that direction there. And the reason is that the kitchen was looking through the door saying that there is a lunch that has been prepared right now and is that is entering the room. So thank you Mhmm. Very much to all of you. Do you wanna close it?
You go first. I go first. Then thank you very much to all of you for the the interest in CV. Thank you very much, especially to you online. I hope that you could follow at least kind of I hope the the the the perspective was okay and the and the tone, the voices were also okay for you to follow this one.
Thanks for your interest, and thanks for following CV, and stay tuned for the news we are delivering in May about q one.