My dear ladies and gentlemen, I'm delighted that you've joined today's call, and I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you. My name is Nicole Engelhardt, and I'm joined today by my colleagues [Ulrich Koppmaier] , Laura Deininger, Stefan Arnold, and of course, our CFO, Jörg Walter. Peter Stadelmann, our CEO, is currently on a well-deserved vacation, but sends his best regards. Before we begin, just a few housekeeping notes. All participants will remain muted throughout the call. Following the presentation, we'll move directly into the Q&A session. I will read out the questions that were submitted via email. These will be answered by Jörg and Stefan. Many thanks to those of you who submitted your questions in advance. This helps us provide more focused and hopefully more useful answers.
If a question has already been addressed during the presentation or is similar to another, we may not repeat it during the Q&A. Rest assured, we will make sure that all questions are answered before we conclude the call. Please note that this call is being recorded. A YouTube link will be shared with all participants afterwards. We kindly ask that you do not share this link outside your company or organization. With that, I'll hand over to Stefan.
Thank you very much, Nicole. Also, a welcome from my side. My dear ladies and gentlemen, as always, we want to start with some insight into highlights of the past quarter. Today, we are indeed very proud to present you now for the first time the results of our long-lasting resource efficiency study performed together with Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University and the AXA Insurance canteen in Cologne in Germany. As you all know, energy is becoming a more and more relevant cost factor for professional kitchens with the rocketing energy prices of the last years. Also, water is becoming more and more expensive, so that saving both of these two resources is really crucial in terms of efficiency for our customers. Sustainability topics are very important for part of our customers in order to reach their sustainability goals.
With our resource-efficient cooking solutions, we support our customers with one of the most challenging issues they are facing these days in a perfect way. In addition, maybe even more crucial is the lack of qualified personnel for the customers. By creating a better working environment, we help them to make the chef profession more attractive again due to better working times and ergonomic working. To sum up the advantages, the cooking intelligence also enables the customers to hire untrained staff. Here on this slide, you can see some data regarding the study and the main goals of the study. The major goal indeed was to get transparency about the usage of energy and water, and then to reveal the savings potentials. You can imagine that such a project is indeed a huge effort. It took us in total around three years.
We had different participating parties to coordinate, and of course, everything is under time pressure because the canteen should be ready again as soon as possible. In any case, to perform such a study, you need the opportunity of a renovation project to compare the situation before and after the re-engineering of the kitchen with scientific methods. Looking at all these preconditions needed, that's why it lasted around 10 years since the last study that we did with ABB and ETH Zurich at that time. We are very grateful to AXA and to Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University for the outstanding cooperation here. The study was run by Professor Dr. Michael Greiner, who specializes in system gastronomy and catering. His research includes topics like the impact of Kitchen 4.0 on staff and guests and the development of new food concepts.
He's involved in teaching and supervising thesis in areas related to food technology and system gastronomy. You see, the study was indeed in best hand. This means, as said before, measuring the consumption before and after the renovation was possible in a very structured and scientific way using 93 electricity meters and 28 water meters. Here you see the plan of the old kitchen setup, and you see there is a lot of traditional equipment, but already some combi ovens, including three units of our older generation SelfCooking Center from 2014. The traditional equipment was including 10 boiling kettles or bread pans, but no iVario or iVario cooking center. Here now you see the new setup, and this now includes six iCombi and four iVario and also a variety of traditional equipment. To give you even a better insight, let's have a look inside with a short movie.
Modernizing the kitchen to make it more efficient and sustainable. Does it really pay off? How much energy and water could be saved? What positive changes would this bring to work processes, staff, and guests? These questions were investigated by RATIONAL and Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences. Together, they supported the AXA Germany team in Cologne with their kitchen renovation.
The interesting thing about this project is that we are looking at different sequences. On the one hand, we have the catering service as it is now. On the other hand, we are fortunate that AXA is updating its catering operations by renovating the commercial kitchen and equipping it with the latest technology. Afterwards, we'll be able to take another measurement to find out whether there have been any improvements in terms of sustainability or energy efficiency.
For this purpose, the kitchen was equipped with more than 100 electricity and water meters. During two measurement phases, each lasting around 80 days, the project team recorded the consumption of resources before and after the renovation and compared them. Production processes were also reviewed to optimize food quality and the workload for the kitchen team.
Production times were pushed back slightly because we want to focus more on serving guests and not having to start work so early in the morning. This also has to do with product quality, of course. Things we prepare fresh should, of course, be made as late as possible. All the new processes and procedures were the biggest change in that we no longer did everything in cook and hold, but instead defined exactly what actually makes sense to do in cook and chill. Initially, we were, of course, most skeptical, but we asked ourselves whether what we wanted was feasible and whether we would notice a significant difference. There definitely is a change, though, because the whole daily routine is much more organized and structured, and the team is more motivated and works differently as a result.
The new kitchen also scores highly in terms of ergonomics. For example, with the height-adjustable iVario cooking systems, where the working height can be individually adjusted to the needs of the employees. What about the savings on resources?
Yes, the saving from the new kitchen compared to the old kitchen, we were all curious to see these. In fact, we were able to achieve energy savings of 24%, and even more for water. Cold water was around 40%, and hot water significantly higher. Here we had savings of just under 65%.
Surprisingly, the connected load has decreased despite the introduction of new, modern, and more powerful equipment. This is because fewer cooking systems are now needed in the kitchen overall.
Rather than 660 kW, we then went down to around 520 kW. The peak loads are costly. If you consider, regardless of the connected load, if you look at the power peaks actually generated per kilowatt generated per month maximum, you're already looking at EUR 20 or EUR 30, and even higher in large cities. You can save a lot by reducing the power peaks. The study shows how a well-planned kitchen modernization can save large amounts of energy and water. This means not only working more sustainably, but also reducing costs. Using intelligent cooking technology efficiently can also improve work processes, counteracting the shortage of skilled workers while increasing employee satisfaction. If the quality of the food improves, as it has here at AXA AG, guests will be happy and eager to return.
I think this was very impressive.
Here, just to sum up again a little bit the results, you see that they are saving around 1/4 of the initial energy consumption and around 1/2 of the water consumption with introducing new kitchen technology instead of traditional ones. This is more or less confirming our 2015 study. In addition, another finding was, as already said, the connected load and the power peaks have also been reduced, which means savings in terms of installation costs and contracts with the energy suppliers. Again, to sum up, we saw it in the presentation or in the movie, food quality improved, cooking processes became more efficient, more ergonomic, and safer for the users, and are giving now more flexibility to the employees how to organize their tasks. In addition, there is less personnel needed, another savings factor for some applications.
Instead of eight to 10 people, just five are able now to achieve the same performance. You see it here on the slide. If you want to learn more about the study, click here, and then you can subscribe for the information and find out more. I think it will pay off for you. With this, I hand over to Jörg.
Yes, thank you very much, Stefan. A real impressive study and concrete proof of what customer benefit position we offer our customers in the professional cooking industry. Also, from my side, a warm welcome to everybody in this call. Before we come to the financial figures, let's continue what Peter called last time in the last call, the big elephant in the room, that is the U.S. tariffs. As you know, our current production sites are located in Europe, from where we export our cooking system into the world. The iCombi is produced in Landsberg, Germany. The iVario is produced in Wittenheim, France. 95% of our suppliers for production materials and components are located within Europe. You also know that we are currently building a factory in China, which is expected to start production end of this year.
As we will focus only on the Chinese market with this combi oven, we do not have any impact from the tariff discussion on this project. Now, what is the current status? Since early April, we are facing 10% tariffs on our cooking systems imported into the U.S. and 50% on steel products, which affects our stands that we import from Europe also. We know that these 10% on units will become 15% with the effective date of August 7. However, since our stock turn rate, including shipping time, is around three to four months, the increased tariffs will not materially affect the P&L of 2025. What measures have we implemented so far in order to compensate or to better the situation? First of all, we decoupled the logistics streams between Canada and the U.S.
and built up a separate stock location in Canada, where we directly supply all products from Europe. Before that, we supplied Canada out of our Chicago warehouse. Secondly, we are looking for local sourcing, especially for stands and also some other accessory products. Third, and this is the most important part, we are in the process to decide on our pricing strategy and further cost measurements in order to compensate for the new tariff situation. We have an internal decision-making process running, and please understand that we cannot disclose more information on this topic at this stage. The good thing, though, is that we still see a very good demand from our U.S. customers, what you will see later when we talk about the sales figures by region. Now, let's come to figures, facts, and data.
Let me begin our numbers part by saying a few words about the general performance of RATIONAL during the first half. The world economy, we all know it, is volatile. The hospitality industry is in many markets under pressure. We still see that the industry is growing on a worldwide basis. With our products addressing important critical topics of the industry, like energy saving and the shortage of skilled labor, we saw that also in the study. We see currently and also in the future unchanged growth potential for RATIONAL . This is also true for the current year, 2025, where we see a consistent demand for our products that enabled us to grow again in unit sales in the first half of 2025. This is also important to mention as a result of our investment into more salespeople in our markets.
As we will continue the expansion of our sales force, this is also an important building block for our future growth. It was in the past, and it will be in the future. These facts are all the reasons why we once again are very proud to present figures with new record values for the second quarter and also for the first half of 2025. This once more demonstrates that our business model is resilient to economic fluctuations in the regions of the world and even at the current volatile situation of our world economy. Let's start with sales. Despite the challenging economic situation, we continued our growth path. End of June, we achieved a new sales record of EUR 606 million for the first half year and exceeded the previous year's sales by 4%. It's important to understand the impact from the exchange rate in the development of the years.
Before FX, our sales growth increased to 5.5% in this year compared to 3.8% in 2024. The growth rate is accelerating. Overall, with these numbers, we are within the range of our guidance for 2025, and we had an overall business development that was in line with our expectations. Looking at the business performance by quarter, sales revenue in Q1 increased by 3%. There was not a relevant FX effect included. In the second quarter, we achieved with EUR 311 million a sales increase by 5.5%. Without an FX effect, this would have been an 8.0% growth rate. Q1 was the best second quarter ever, and in total, the second best quarter ever. Only Q4 last year, with sales of around EUR 318 million, was on a higher level.
Overall, we also see that the return to our normal seasonality that we talked about before, that means a rising sales level quarter by quarter throughout the year. How was the business development by regions? Europe excluding Germany and North America, both are our largest sales regions. Together, they account for 68% of sales. These two regions have had a significant impact on the group's sales development. North America is the region with the highest market potential for us, has been our number one growth driver in recent years and continues to do so in 2025. We grow here by 11%, and before FX effects, that would have been a 14% growth. In Europe, the growth rate was 9%, mainly driven by the larger markets. We had good sales in United Kingdom and in Italy and Spain.
In addition to that, the Eastern European markets of Poland, Hungary, and Greece also achieved double-digit growth, as these markets have a lower market penetration and offer good growth opportunities in the future. Germany was more or less flat. We had sales here of EUR 60 million. That is a bit below 2024, down by 2%. In Asia, in the Asian region, we recorded a decline in sales. The prior year in Asia was positively influenced by strong business in the region's two largest markets, that is China and in Japan. In Japan, that is due to a fluctuating order behavior of our larger key account, OEM, or our larger OEM partner in Japan. In key account, this is due to a large one-off additional order from a chain customer that we often talked about.
This good sales growth in the smaller markets, India and Korea, they were unable to offset these bigger effects in Japan and in China. However, we continue to assess the potential of the Asian region as extremely promising for us. That's why we started the “Road to China” project, and we expect growth factors or growth trends from this project starting next year. The smaller regions, Latin America and the rest of the world, both had a stable sales development with 1% up in Latin America and 4% up in the rest of the world. How was the development of our product groups? First, on the right side, the product group iVario. iVario continues the growth path with a sales increase of 9%, with the business in North America growing by around 37% and the rest of the world showing a growth rate of 34%.
The development of these regions was driving the overproportional growth of the product group. In addition to that, Germany and in Europe, especially in France, that are the higher volume markets, they continued their stable development on a solid single-digit growth level. On the neutral sides, basically, the group sales development is mainly influenced by the iCombi business product group. This has grown like the group by 4%, and the regional development was the same, like we already talked about, for the regional development of the group. Now, let's move on to the development of earnings. EBIT grows nearly proportionately to sales by 3% to EUR 153 million in half year one. This is the best half-year result that we have ever achieved. Looking at Q2 alone, the EBIT in Q2 was EUR 81 million, which translates into an EBIT margin of 26.1% in Q2.
When you look at the long-term development, you see here on the graph the development of the absolute EBIT and the EBIT margin since 2019. We achieved in this year with an EBIT margin of 25.3%, a margin level that is even higher than the pre-pandemic level of 2019. When you look at the absolute EBIT, we have an increase of over 55%. Overall, a very good performance. On the next slide, we see more details about our margin development. First of all, proportionate to the sales growth of 4.3%, the gross profit increased by 4.5%, and the gross margin was at a stable 59%. We had so far some minor effects of the U.S. tariffs that were compensated by productivity increases in our production processes. On the other hand, and in line with our projections, our operating expenses were up by 8.2%, up to EUR 206 million.
We recorded the highest increase in R&D costs, where we increased overproportionately by 22% and thus continued to invest into the future of RATIONAL. We expanded the R&D activities in all areas, so it means all product groups, including iCombi, iVario, the "Road to China" project, and also into our digital platform, Connected Cooking. It's important to mention that we have an accounting effect here. That means that we have capitalized EUR 1 million R&D expenses in Q1 2024, and taking this factor out, then we still have an increase of our R&D expenses of 18.5%. The second important point in the OpEx section is the increase of our sales and service costs by 6%. I talked about it earlier. We expanded our sales team by 7%, which led to higher contacts. Our visits are up 10%, and cooking live participants are up 12%.
That makes us also confident for the coming months regarding our incoming orders. Last, our administration expenses were basically flat, as we want to continue to have lean processes and a lean admin team in place at RATIONAL. The last topic on the P&L, we were able to compensate the overproportional increase of OpEx by a balanced currency result. Overall, that leads us to this EBIT increase of 3% that we have seen on the slide before. Looking at the balance sheet, you are familiar with our solid balance sheet structure. There is no change. We have now an equity ratio of 79% and a liquidity ratio of 39%. It is all very robust. The working capital is growing in line with our business and is on a normal level. There is nothing special here to report.
When you look at total assets, we have a decline compared to the year-end 2024. This is due to the dividend payout of EUR 171 million that we did in May. Finally, let's come to our outlook for the rest of the year. Our figures of the first half year show that our business is running according to our guidance that we were giving end of March. All KPIs, that is, sales growth, gross profit margin, OpEx, and EBIT margin as of June are fully in line with our plan. We see our operating business for the second half also on our planned level. That includes growth of activities in the field of our sales force. This includes unit growth, purchase prices, for example, for steels and chemicals, and also the progress of our most important projects like our "Road to China" project.
Due to the tariff situation there, we will not be able to compensate the full financial impact. Due to the stronger euro, we see the EBIT margin at year-end rather in the lower part of our guided range at around 26%. With this outlook, we are at the end of our presentation. Now we're starting our Q&A session. I hand over back to Nicole.
Thank you, Jörg. Yes, we received quite a few questions. I will start with you, Stefan. Is there any pulled forward demand in the U.S. in the first half year pre-tariffs? How does that compare to the last time you raised your prices?
When we looked at the figures for Q1 and Q3, there is always a growth, organic growth of around 13%. I think we have an additional question to that later on. You see there is no significant pull forward effect. This is not comparable at all to the rocketing order intake we had in the last years after announcing the price increases.
Who pays the tariffs? Clients or you, or is it a mix?
Basically, from a technical point of view, we are paying the tariffs, but where it's ending up depends, of course, on our reaction on the pricing side. There is no decision yet. From that point of view, no further information on that so far.
Beyond 2025, how do you assess the impact of U.S. tariffs for 2026? Any comment on the impact expected on volume and pricing?
As said earlier in the year, the theoretical view was if there would be tariffs of 10% that we need to increase prices by 6% or 7%. This is still valid. With the 15%, it's a little bit higher. Of course, it depends on the extent to which we are able and willing to pass through this to our dealers or customers. I think to quantify our effect, what this means for volume is not possible.
What is the gross cost of tariffs that you factor into your guidance? How much of this cost has been seen in the Q2 result?
We factor in around EUR 10 million for fiscal year 2025. Thereof, already around EUR 1 million was in H1.
With the U.S. import tariffs now set at 15%, there seems to be more clarity for RATIONAL now. Should we expect price increases in the U.S. in the coming month?
There are, of course, discussions, but there is not a final decision yet. Until this is made, we will not communicate further.
What is the actual outlook for the gastronomy industry in your markets?
All over, I think we had the same question in the last call. There is basically no change. One thing we had in Peter's letter is there was really good feedback from this U.S. consumer study that the out-of-home food will stay really an important part of the people's life. This is giving a good, let's say, sentiment for the gastronomy industry.
Are there any more restrictions from the geopolitical situation?
Yes, indeed, a minor one. Now we are not allowed to sell any cleaning products into the Russian market anymore.
Could the new site of UNOX in the U.S. create any distortion in your market?
That's very difficult to say. You know that we, every few years, also assess the situation. According to our calculations and also from other companies, we learned that production costs before the tariff situation were around 20%- 25% higher than doing this in Germany. That's why we decided not to do it so far. Whether this is an advantage largely then depends on currency rates, logistics costs, and import tariffs. We also will do this assessment in the foreseeable future and see if the outcome would change then.
Next question is rather long. Be prepared. The majority of your addressable market has not been penetrated by you or any of your competitors, despite RATIONAL being founded over 50 years ago. What percentage of the TAM has converted to an advanced cooking system in the last 10 years? Which drivers or strategic actions could drive that market share higher at an accelerated pace versus history?
You know that the market is indeed very intransparent. Right now, we calculate a figure of around 4.8 million potential customers. Calculating with the potentials and the penetration figures we are finding out, we would say that we won over in the last 10 years around 200,000 new customers. The huge potential is, yeah, still there. You also know that we are not really keen on growing as fast as possible. We want to do a proper growth, a healthy growth. That's why we deem this high single- digit as realistic. From that point of view, this is where we do not want to accelerate the pace in a way you could maybe imagine.
Could you give us an update on the new? [audio distortion]
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There's an exception.
Is differentials of boiler versus boiler-less combi ovens in the U.S. on average?
Yeah, there can be a big difference. There are entry-level models for boiler-less units for a few thousand dollars, but also higher quality and higher priced versions. Boiler combis can be up to 3x or so more expensive. It's really difficult to come up with a clear analysis on that one level. In general, they are cheaper.
Do the growth rates of iCombi + 4% as well as iVario + 9% in the first half of 2025 come up to your expectations in the first half of 2025?
Yes, they are, according to our growth guidance. There is maybe a little bit of lagging behind in the iVario. The 9% is a little bit below our expectation, but that was due to, let's say, timing reasons. We have a good order intake, and it's just a matter of a month when we will close this gap. Overall, everything in line with our expectation.
The growth in Europe excluding Germany is at a very good level. What are the key product drivers behind this, and what are the customer groups?
Yeah, there are not any special products and customer groups. For the iCombi and the iVario, the growth rates were equally by around 10%. Spare parts business was a little bit lower. It was up by 5%. When it comes to customer groups, there are no big key account orders or sales included in there. In general, compared to the U.S. market, our key account level is a little bit lower. I would say it's just a general situation across all customer groups, across all countries, across all segments.
Where stems the considerable increase in the Q2 2025 by + 12% from in Europe ex-Germany?
Germany is flat from Q1 to Q2, though last year Q2 was stronger. All over, we are satisfied with the development of Germany to keep up the high level in a quite demanding environment.
What are the reasons for the decline in sales in Q2 2025 in Germany by 6%?
That was a wrong question. Okay, I answer now the other one.
Yeah.
Where stems the considerable increase of the Q2 12% ex-Germany? I said this in the call already. In the bigger markets, U.K., Italy, and also Spain, they were, due to their size, a major contributor. They also increased double digit. Also, the smaller countries like Hungary, Poland, Greece, Benelux, they also had very good growth rates. To the question now to Germany, as I said also in the call, it's quite flat there. It's a demanding environment. Therefore, with the EUR 60 million we achieved in this one quarter, that was on the same level.
How should we expect the business to develop in the second half year 2025?
All over, we are confident that we will be able to keep our good performance that we had in Q1 from an operating point of view, also in the second half. When it comes to unit sales, H1 was on plan based on the feedback from our markets. We also expect to be on plan for the second half.
What was the currency impact on North American sales in Q2?
The currency effect on the North American sales was almost EUR 5 million in Q2 alone, including effects from U.S. dollar and Canadian dollar.
Which sales increase did you realize in Q2 2025 in the non-equipment business?
The growth rate was around 7%, and in the unit business a little bit less than 5%.
What was the organic growth in the U.S. in Q2 compared to Q1?
Q2 was around 13% as well as in Q1. It was a similar number there.
Can you explain how the high comparison base in Asia affected the Q2 decline of - 11% year- on- year in Asia sales? We get it for Q1 and half year one, but any color on Q2 specifically would be very helpful as it is not easy to see it from the numbers themselves.
In Q1, we were 20% below the previous year. In Q2, it still was around 11%. If the run rate in Asia continues to around EUR 34 million per quarter, this would be in line with our last year Q3. That means there is no decrease anymore in Q3.
When should we anticipate a return to growth in Asia? Can management provide any insight into the size of the market to be addressed in the “Road to China” project?
Last year we had a quite good Q4 in China. That is a little bit of a higher comparison, as I just answered the question before that we will be, let's say, on the same level in Q3 compared to the previous year. Now, we expect really to come back to growth in the next year when we launch the “Road to China” product. Next to the U.S., the Chinese market is one of the biggest markets in the world. It's difficult now to assess the, let's say, the market size and the addressable market, but it's huge based on the population and based on the low penetration of the iCombi technology. There is a huge potential there.
The iVario growth stalls a bit versus what has been seen last year. It still remains solid at 8% year- on- year, though. What could we expect for 2025 as a whole, and what explains the slowdown year- on- year?
First of all, I think we always consistently communicate that the iVario growth rate, we expect it to be double the growth rate that is possible for the iCombi. It will be, we shoot for a double-digit growth rate for the iVario. It is very important that we can, let's say, expand our sales in the U.S. market, as it is already a very big market for us. This will be one very important growth driver. Certainly, also our markets in Europe, where we have the sales spot, where we already have a longer duration, we are a longer time in the market. We also expect to be on a solid growth rate. Overall, it should be double digit.
I'm not sure if the next question was answered already, but I'm just going to ask it again, just to make sure. What was your share of non-equipment business?
The share of the non-equipment business is around 30%.
You mentioned Asia was weak due to difficult comparison year- on- year, as last year you experienced strong orders from China and Japan. However, last year you reported Asia growth in Q2 2024 of 8% and now a decline of 14%. Can you please elaborate on why, on a two-year comparison basis, you are now selling less in a growth region like Asia?
As I said earlier, we have a high dependency on this one large key account customer in China. The order behavior of this customer is not evenly spread out throughout the years, so you always have fluctuations between the quarters, and that makes it very difficult to do this comparison. I think what is important to mention is that we have a better look on our street business in China now. The street business in China is developing well this year, so we are growing there. This is also due to the fact that we increased our sales force again. We are hiring people, we do the activities, our normal sales project, and this pays off already. We expect, once we launch the “Road to China” product, that we will be even better suited to then have good numbers in the market on the street business.
On the other hand, the challenge is to keep the big key account, to keep it under control or to keep that business on a solid level, because it gives us volume.
Thank you, Jörg. Stefan, back to you now. What are the reasons for the decrease in the gross margin from 59.3% in the first half of 2024 to 58.9% in the first half of 2025? What is the reason for the increase in the COGS in Q2 by 7%?
I think compared to H1, the gross margin increased a little bit by 10 basis points from 85.9% to 95.0%. I think what you mean is the margin in Q2 rather. Here, I think the fluctuation was within a normal range. Rather, last year was a positive outlier. I would say the same applies for the development of the COGS. In a single quarter, you sometimes have these outliers here.
By which measures did you increase the productivity in the production, and by how much?
We noted this in the report, I think, or also in the press release. This is referring to around 10 basis points positive effect coming from in the COGS, coming from the production costs or from the productivity, whereas we rather would have expected at the beginning of the year a slightly negative impact here.
Could we have more details about sales and service expenses? Should we expect higher OpEx to pursue in half year two?
As we already said in the last calls, there is an ambition to invest more in our sales organization. This would mean, of course, a higher share of sales and service costs here in this position. From that point of view, this should happen, yeah.
Thank you, Stefan. A couple more questions for you, Jörg. What are the reasons for the acceleration in the admin costs in Q2 2025 by 6%?
Yes, we have seen that overall the admin costs were up 3% on the half year. The acceleration is not a bigger topic. It's due to some higher IT costs, personnel expenses, but also importantly that we have depreciation for the new facility in Wittenheim, which started in fall 2024. This is also having an effect here.
Is there any further development of your wage cost?
In July, we increased our wages on a worldwide scale of around 3%. Future increases will, of course, depend on inflation and the development in the respective countries. I think about 3% for this year, depending on the inflation, is a good number.
Can you please give us a full breakdown of the FX effects in Q2, including net impact on the EBIT margin?
The biggest effects come from the U.S. dollar, with further significant effects coming from the Canadian dollar, the Brazilian real, and the Mexican peso. Year- to- date, June, we have a negative FX effect in the P&L of around EUR 5 million on the EBIT.
Why are you so confident in being able to limit the FX impact in the second half of 2025 to such a degree as implied by the full year guidance?
I said before that our operating business is running very well. We looked at the growth rate in Q2. That was before FX 8%, after FX 5%. Basically, the good positive business development gives us the confidence that we will be able to offset negative effects to a certain effect in the second half.
Okay, the next question will be for you, Stefan. If we look at page 15 of the semiannual report and calculate for each region the EBIT margin of first half 2025, we get different margins from 18%- 28%. What is the reason for that?
This is indeed a little bit special this year. Normally, the difference would be lower, and we are rather in a corridor maybe between 22% and 27% between the different segments. This is due to the different structure we have in these markets. For example, in European markets, the subsidiaries are quite mature, and they normally have higher margins. In some overseas markets, there is a lot of pre-investment, for example, in sales capacities, and that's why margins here are slightly lower. This year, the special situation is that Asia North, which is anyhow in the lower part, is very weak compared to strong Europe, meaning the Asian market margin is a little bit lower, whereas the European margin is a little bit higher, and that's why the corridor is bigger this year.
Jörg, could we have the sensitivity of the EU versus U.S. dollar on the group's profitability?
Yes, of course. 5% devaluation of the U.S. dollar relates into an EBIT effect of EUR -8 million on a full year basis.
If I did my math correctly, the Q2 fiscal year adjusted EBIT margin was more like 27.4%. Is that correct?
Yes, this is correct. Before FX effect, the EBIT margin was 27.4%.
What's the key reason to move the fiscal year 2025 EBIT margin guidance to the lower section of the guidance, given that it has not yet included the effects of further U.S. tariffs? What's your assumption of tariff rate, and what's your estimated cost impact?
The major drivers of the more concrete guidance is that at this statement's end of July, there is an extra cost coming from the tariff situation, and that FX rates will also have a negative impact in the second half. On the other hand, we see a very promising business development with compensating these effects. These measures are expressing overall a negative impact in total of around 15 basis points- 100 basis points, which leads us to the lower part of the initial guidance. The tariff assumption is at 15% for the remainder of the year, and the total tariff costs for 2025 are estimated at around EUR 10 million for the full year effect.
How do you see demand develop into Q3? Are there any pre-buy activities in the market ahead of price hikes?
Yeah, we are not forecasting on a quarterly basis, so we don't give information on the Q3. We don't have any indication that there is a big pre-buying in the U.S. market. The dealers that we have in the U.S., they don't stock our units. If they get an order, it's directly shipped to the customer's location. That's why we don't see from the order pattern any pre-buying effect. As we don't have announced any price increases or price adjustments, there is no need for our customers to act on this.
What is the expected development of input cost?
We are expecting the input cost on a stable level right now, maybe rather a little bit lower due to the alloy surcharge that is lower. The tariffs cost will eventually end up in the COGS in the U.S. The 10% rate is already effective, and the additional 5% will end up in our COGS calculation next year.
How well did you start into Q3 2025?
Of course, we don't give too much details. Also, what Peter said in his letter is that the order intake development right now is very promising. As it was in Q2, you saw the results. We don't see any change right now.
What is your gross margin expectation for the second half of 2025?
Yeah, it will be a little bit lower than the first half due to the currencies and the tariffs. On the other hand, operating and sales level will be on the positive side. For the full year, we gave our guidance at the lower part of the 26%. First half year was at 25.3%. Second half should also be in that level, on that level, maybe a little bit lower, but still inside this corridor of 26 at around 26%.
Could you elaborate on current trading/ order intake since the quarter closed, especially in North America?
Yes, as I said before, we don't have any different situation in July that we have with our half-year figures.
All right, thank you. Back to you, Stefan. Just for everybody, we have about 10 more questions, so stay with us. Why did you increase inventories and accounts receivables more than in the period of last year?
One of the major reasons is here that the higher sales levels in June led to higher receivables at the end of the quarter than because of the payment terms. Inventories are always depending on the order behavior of our overseas subsidiaries that have warehouses. This can also be quite volatile and is then at the quarter end. There is a variation. Regarding the DSO and the stock levels that we are seeing right now, this is on a normal level, we would say.
The increase in receivables as seen in your cash flow statement was more negative than seen in Q1. This seems to be driven by a higher increase in DSO between Q2 2024 and Q2 2025. With DSO now standing at 49 days, what level should we think about as being quite normalized? Should we expect this ratio to come down slightly towards levels similar to Q3 and Q4 2024, 47 days?
We would say we think that DSO level of slightly below 50 is a range where we feel quite comfortable with. We see this as sensible and realizable, and whether it's 47 or 49 is in the end not crucial.
Investments were extremely low. Are you facing delays in your investment projects, or are you deliberately slowing down the pace of spending in view of the macro uncertainties?
No, we think that we are still largely on schedule with the investment projects. Maybe some delays we see here in Landsberg was one of the other topics, but already everything is in line. We still see what Peter also said in the, I remember in the call for the Q1, invoices are somewhat lagging behind, and there are still outstanding invoices also from Wittenheim to a greater extent. Of course, these will come. Looking at this, that there are some delays, maybe it is sensible to say maybe it is not EUR 40 million anymore that we maybe would expect for CapEx, but maybe rather EUR 30 million.
Cash flow from operations decreased a lot in the first half of 2025, given higher tax payment and working capital outflows. Why is that, and what's the trend going forward, especially the increase in account receivable and decrease in trade payables? Are they only a timing issue, or are there any other reasons for the movements?
I think part of the question was answered before. I think there are a lot of timing issues regarding the working capital. This will largely even out over the course of the year. This is, as I said, timing issues. Part of the higher tax outflow is also just a reporting date effect. This will also even out throughout the year. There's another part of tax payments for the year 2023, and this is in the end a one-off effect that will, of course, stay. If we look at all these timing effects and balance sheet date effects, maybe this is then not significant when we look on the cash flow that is expected.
For the full year, can we expect operating cash flow to grow generally in line with earnings growth?
Yes, there is in our eyes no structural topic that would lead to a significant deviation here.
What would it take for RATIONAL to return to the usual cadence of high single-digit revenue growth?
I think that's what we pointed out in the last quarters. We are working on this. We want to strengthen the sales organization, hire more salespeople, more feet on the street. With this, increase the contacts, and with this, [audio distortion] then in the end come to higher sales.
On investment on your recent operating expenses investments in your R&D and sales teams, when would you expect this to start translating into revenue growth?
Yeah, I think the investment into sales teams, we already answered a couple of times. We do see a very quick return on investment. Typically, we hire staff that takes, let's say, an onboarding time of around three to six months. After that, already the investment is paying off. As we said in this call many times before, we invested in feet on the street, and we see the positive result already in our unit numbers. When it comes to the ROI on the R&D activities, as I said also during the number section, the R&D is iCombi, is iVario, is "Road to China", is our ConnectedC ooking platform. The ROI for "Road to China", yeah, we have a quite good expectation that we will have a good ramp-up in 2026.
We talked about, let's say, the new era of the iHexagon, where we know that it takes a little bit longer until we see, let's say, a solid number growth. I would say it's a little bit a mix of the different projects. Especially, as you know, as we are focused with our product offerings, a lot of our R&D OpEx goes into securing our market leadership position. The ROI is that we maintain where we are. Yeah, I think that is an important factor for spending so much in R&D.
Should we expect a build-up of unfinished or finished inventory ahead of "Road to China" late this year?
Not really, because in the end, we will also in China have the same model, that production model that we have here in Europe. That means we will produce to order only. Certainly, in the beginning, it can be possible that we build up some stock at some dealer location or to do some stock later on to equip our training centers. This will not be a big number.
Okay, for you, another question, Stefan. Can you clarify the change in the margin guidance? Previously, it was at around 26%, and now are you saying it will be towards the lower end of that range? Is the range 25%- 27% or narrower than that?
Sorry, first of all, for maybe the unclear wording here. As we said, I think in one of the calls this year, the 26% range or around 26% means ±1 percentage point, and this is 25%- 27%. This was the initial guidance, and now we are guiding to the lower end or to the lower part, and this means rather in the area between 25% and 26%.
Thank you. Jörg, last question for this call. Do you already see China demand stalling ahead of "Road to China" as customers await a more affordable product?
It's difficult to say, but the general answer is no. I mean, I said earlier, we are also investing in feet on the street in China. We are performing our sales process there. The results are good, we are growing in the street. We are finding customers for our existing iCombi Pro product range, but certainly, as probably the news is out in the market, I cannot 100% say that there is nobody really waiting for a cheaper product on the market. At least what is important for me is that we are able to grow in this market with the current setting. With a new one, it will be even better for us.
Okay, thank you, Stefan. Thank you, Jörg. It looks like all questions have been answered. Yes, thank you very much for your participation in today's call. We hope you found the session informative and helpful. As always, we welcome your feedback. Feel free to share any thoughts or suggestions with us. Before we close, allow me to make a brief announcement. We would like to invite you to our follow-up session on today's results. This will take place on August 12th, 2025, at 2:00 P.M. CET. You can register via the IR calendar on our website, and we would be very delighted to welcome you there. With that, I wish you a great week ahead. We look forward to seeing you next week, or if not, at the nine-month release on November 6th, 2025. Take care and goodbye for now.