Yes, thank you very much, and good morning, everybody, and a very warm welcome from my side. Let's have a look into today's agenda. So we would like to first start with financial performance, then an update on business strategy, and then by the end, outlook and guidance. Let's start with the financial performance first. So Q1 2024 highlights: We continue really strong, very strong sales growth, including Mediservice, we are up 51%, but also organic growth, excluding Mediservice, shows a strong 19% growth. Also, if you look into the non-Rx growth, we are at 20%. And, you know, for an online company and also an online pharmacy, it's always important to make the jump at the beginning of the year, and that is always a result of the customer file, which we have been built over the past.
Plus, our capability is to bring in new customers at the beginning of the year, and we are really happy that we achieved that jump up to 20%. As you all know, the e-Rezept became mandatory beginning of 2024 in Germany, and we saw a great adoption rate of above 75%, all of the scripts being e-scripts. And because of that, we already increased our marketing activities in Q1, and we did this to make sure that in the transition from paper to e-scripts, we keep our existing customers, and at the same time, of course, we also want to learn how to acquire new customers and convert also existing OTC and VPT customers. As a result of that, we ended up with a 2.1% Adjusted EBITDA margin, being up 33% compared to last year.
If we go to the next slide, you can see that our strong growth continues in both of our reporting segments. I mean, for sure, we can see in DACH that's driven by Mediservice because the huge increase because we only consolidated Mediservice last year in May. But even if we look into the non-Rx, we can see strong growth in both areas, and again, international being a little bit stronger than the DACH region. And please keep in mind, we achieved this great growth despite the fact that this year we had an early Easter effect. So we saw a slowdown of the sales development in the last week. Nevertheless, we achieved those strong growth numbers. Can we go to the next slide, please? And this is also reflected in the number of active customers.
You can see here, we added 0.4 million active customers in Q1, and now adding up on 11.2 million active customers. And also, if we look into the Net Promoter Score, I mean, we, we are able to keep this at 70. And, you know, to us, this is not just a number. This, to us, this is the most relevant KPI we have in our company, and so therefore, we are proud of that we can continue to be high on that NPS. Also, very good news on the average basket size. It's up compared to the Q1 of last year, and of course, this will also help our P&L. If we go to the next slide, you see that the jump up I described earlier in sales, I mean, we also see it in orders here.
Right now, we are processing almost 100,000 orders a day from our warehouses on average, and still we keep that very high NPS of 70. And also, again, the repeat rate is at 87%, so confirming our healthy customer file. So I would like now to hand over to Jasper.
Yeah, Olaf, thanks very much, and good morning to everybody, also from my side, and I'm happy to present the numbers of the Q1 of 2024. As Olaf already shared with you on the prior slides, we achieved new records as to the number of orders in quarter 1. So quarter 1 was even up from the strong Q4 that we had, and that's what we also see in column 2, 3, and 4 of this table, because that's the quarter-over-quarter comparison. The good thing is, in both quarters, Mediservice was included, but of course, comparing a first to a Q4, each of our quarters is having its own seasonality, so it remains a bit of an apple and an orange.
For example, the Q1 of the year is having fewer days than the last quarter of the year. But still, having said all, our sales in Q1 were up 5.4% compared to the prior quarter, a continuation of the growth of our active customer base and our total number of orders, and even very helpful to slightly increase baskets. So it's a bit of an apple and orange because of seasonality, but still looking through it from a helicopter view, actually, our gross profit margin was slightly higher than it was in the Q4.
Our total S&DNA, as a percentage of sales, was slightly up, seasonality, but also impact of what Olaf referred to already, some additional communication after we saw the very rapid increase of eArzt in Germany, so we took that momentum. All in all, EUR 12 million adjusted EBITDA in the past quarter. If we then go to column 4, 5, and 6, so the year-over-year comparison, Q1 last year compared to this year, from seasonality perspective, virtually comparable. There's a slight shift in Easter, but okay, that's going towards only rounding. But of course, last year, Mediservice was not included yet. But the total growth of the company, including everything from EUR 370 million last year, it was up to EUR 560 million this year, an unrounded increase of 50.6%.
If we then look at the Adjusted EBITDA margin, that was going strong also this quarter, despite the fact that we did some additional marketing and communication campaigns, and ended at a 2.1%, which was 0.3 percentage point lower than the prior year. But with the fast sales growth and this margin, we generated a couple of million EUR more Adjusted EBITDA in absolute terms. So EUR 3 million up in Adjusted EBITDA, and for clarity's sake, as always, the fully loaded EBITDA also there, and that it increased even by EUR 6 million, reflective of the fact that our adjustments went down from EUR 4 million to just slightly above EUR 1 million this quarter. The gross margin year-over-year minus 4.3%, the cost performance plus 4.1%.
Simply said, it's only mixed because of Mediservice, and for that reason, on the next slide, we give this clarity. Here you see the gross profit margin, and on the left side, you first see the 27.7% going down. But if we take the apple to apple comparison, that actually, and we are very happy with that, our core business actually improved by 0.3% compared to last year. The gross profit margin increased in combination with the very fast increase of our sales. Very good, much more gross profit in absolute euros. We can go to the next slide. Here it's the same representation. The first two columns are made apple to apple, so that is excluding Mediservice of this year.
And you see there a slight increase only of around 0.3%-0.4%. Totally explained by a slight increase, deliberate, because of the opportunity we saw in Germany, and actually underlying something that we are very happy with, because we, as you see with many companies in the entire world, are also faced with inflation, for example, in minimum wage rates in Germany and in the Netherlands. But we as a company have been able to fully offset those cost inflations with structural efficiency, both in operations and in marketing. So the year-over-year cost performance was slightly stable, was more or less stable, despite that situation. Of course, there was also... And then I go to the cash flow slide, but you can keep the slide out.
Help in the overall P&L was not only efficiency, but also the slightly increased basket is very good to our unit economics. Cash flow here, very nice, an increase of EUR 50 million. Already tell you the conclusion, it's mainly because of seasonality that we were benefiting from an increased payable balance, as we generally see each quarter, and last year, even more than we were seeing this quarter, just because of timing differences. So I'll walk through the bridge. It's a total of cash, as you can find on the balance, and other short-term financial assets, so our fixed deposits, which we also consider cash. So it's slightly above EUR 200 million. When we started the year, we had a positive adjusted EBITDA of, here from a cash perspective, EUR 11 million.
We had working capital improvements of EUR 17 million. We had investments of around EUR 9 million, and we had financing, which also is including, according to IFRS, the lease payments that we're doing. Adding all up is leading to a positive EUR 50 million, ending at EUR 290 million. With that, Olaf, it's going back to you.
Thank you very much. So let's have a look into the into an update on business and strategy. And for this quarter, we decided to focus only on our eRx, because we think right now that is the dominant topic. As already communicated, Tuesday this week, we got approval for our solution from gematik, so we are really happy about that one. And as we all know, CardLink is the best way to redeem e-scripts fully digital. And I think you are probably aware that in Germany right now, the eGK card has become the dominant way to redeem scripts, and therefore, we are really happy to present this CardLink solution to our patients and customers because they now can also use the eGK card without a pin to redeem their scripts at an online pharmacy.
This way, we are back to a level playing field, compared to brick and mortar when we look into the redemption way of e-Rx. But of course, also the two other ways still will be available. That's the gematik app and the printout of the QR code. If we go to the next slide, we will see that there's actually not a lot of new information because we all gave that information two days ago. I think, important to point out is that this solution will be live to our customers, early May 2024. And maybe that just a couple of words to that, why it's early May 2024. Our intention is, of course, to bring a robust and scalable solution up and running, and to do this, of course, as quickly as possible.
But since we have never done it before, and since partners are involved, like gematik, we cannot give you a concrete date. But again, it's about bringing a robust and scalable solution up as quickly as possible. If we go to the next page, we can see what it looks like once our solution is up, and we are not presenting here the entire flow in our app. Just to give you an idea, I mean, how this is supposed to work. So once you have an e-Rezept, which has been issued by your doctor, you can not only use the QR code, but now, from now on, you can also use your eGK card. You simply then open our app, and the app then will ask you to present your eGK card. Just attach it to the phone.
The reader of the phone will read the key, which is on the card, and then will retrieve all of the script data from the eScript server. And all of the scripts which are still open will then be presented in our app, and then as a customer, you can simply continue to do the journey as you are doing this with OTC and Rx. And of course, you can also add then OTC products to your basket. So that is pretty much the journey. Very convenient, fully digital, and will be live early May. Having said that, I would again like to turn this over to Jasper.
Yeah. Again, thank you, thank you. It was only March fifth that we shared the, the full year guidance, so it will be no surprise that, that we reiterate the guidance, today. I can't really, of course, and I'm happy to, to talk to you today. I really cannot overestimate the magnitude of the impact of, having received approval only two days ago. That is really a milestone for us as a total company, having achieved the, approval for our NFC solution for, eRx in Germany. And at the same time, actually, our core business across the seven countries has continued, as we shared with you today, has continued to perform really very strongly. So, being in that situation, we still cannot give eRx guidance for the months to come. Nobody knows. And we're looking forward to it.
We can't wait. But where we can give guidance to you, that's on this slide. So for the total company, we think, it's very likely that we are gonna end up at a, sales between EUR 2.3 billion and EUR 2.5 billion as a total company, and that is, in this case, mainly driven by the non-Rx continued strong growth, with a midpoint of 20% and a range of 15%-25%. So growing another time, more than 20%, around 20%, on top of the 20% of the last year, on top of the 20% of the year before. Maybe service, we expect to continue to grow at mid-single digits.
So maybe Mediservice is more, let's say, a normal company with a normal growth rate and not the exceptional fast growth rate we have in, some of the other elements as a company. And the adjusted EBITDA margin, we reiterate, our expectation that it's gonna be between 2%-4%. As always, at least each time we have the possibility, we reiterate, the magnitude that we see in total Europe and also specifically in Germany, for having a lot of growth in online. And we see there a mid- to long-term margin in excess of 8%, and that is unchanged compared to all the statements that we have made, over the past quarters and past years. So that's our guidance for the full year.
We're looking forward to start really to the new phase of eRx, and of course, we keep you posted on all the developments there. That was our presentation of today.
Yes.
We're looking forward if there are any questions from the audience.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and One on the touchtone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press Star and Two. Participants are requested to use only hands if they're asking a question. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to two questions. Anyone with a question may press Star and One at this time. Our first question comes from Chris Johnen from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes, morning, all. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. First one, given the slightly weaker margin in the Q1, at least versus what the street expected, is it maybe possible to get a bit of color on the running quarter? I understand last quarter, marketing was a significant component. Is there any sort of, you know, color indication, whatever, you can give on the size of the marketing spend in the current quarter? Especially given the importance of the CardLink launch within your app in the coming weeks. Anything that, you know, helps us understand where within the range we could expect the EBITDA margin in Q2 to fall? And then I know commentary around Rx is very premature and a lot of things can happen.
I'd still be curious to hear if there is any sort of color you can give following the Q1 performance of Rx, which, you know, actually growing was actually quite strong, whether there is anything you can give on that front. Thank you.
Do you like to do that or?
I'll do the first, you second then.
Yes. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, you do.
Okay. I first off, good talking to you again. Yeah, the margin of Q1, it is, when we were seeing that, there was such a successful, fast penetration of Rx in the of eRx in Germany, we were able to anticipate on that to act upon that immediately. So thanks for the compliment you were giving. Of course, a 7% growth is not in the end term what we are looking for within the whole context. We were happy, very happy, that we were able to achieve actually, with the challenges, a positive growth in the Q1. And we did so, and, of course, a part of the marketing of Rx is particularly because many chronically ill patients only order once every quarter, for example, hey, so it's not like immediately conversion driven.
That's reflective in the Q1. So that is actually, I just reiterated well, our expectations for the full year are, and they are not changed by this Q1. So it's the reiteration of the 2%-4%.
... Maybe I will try to answer the second question. If I understood it right, it's about to give some color based on what we learned on Q1. And to me, Q1 has been exceptional because, I mean, it has been a switch from, let's say, paper to eRx. So we are really happy that we were able to keep our existing customers. That has been the main target, because as you know, it's new to those customers, and in some cases, the doctor is handing out a QR code, in some cases, not. So we had to make sure that our existing customers stay within our system, and I think that worked out pretty well.
Of course, we also saw some additional, let's put this way, informational learnings, because we had some marketing activities, and there we already saw that also new customers are responding, as well as we will be able to convert customers out of our existing customer files, so OTC or BPC customers into RX. But I think it's by far too early to take any readings, learnings out of that. So therefore, please, we need more time to really be able to substantiate any kind of, let's say, comments or learnings. And as you know, also the CardLink solution will only be live at the beginning of May, so therefore, it will take some time until we can give some more color into the entire eRx topic.
Understood. Thank you.
The next question comes from Jan Koch from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I also have two. The first one, given that the NFC launch comes slightly later than the market had expected, do you see any pressure on your 2024 guidance? I understand that you don't guide specifically on eRx, but any color here would be helpful. And then secondly, could you elaborate a bit on the margin improvement drivers in your international business? Is that purely volume leverage or are there any other factors? And when do you expect this segment to achieve Adjusted EBITDA break even?
I think you... Yes, but you, will you go ahead on that one?
Yes, it's good. Yeah. So the first one, yeah, actually, the answer is no. Yeah. No. No, some expected it earlier, some later, and not any impact. It's not having any impact on our guidance, where we stand. Major thing is this week, yeah, we have today the Q1 results, but the major event was, of course, that we got the approval for our solution. That's the major thing. Where some people expected it a couple of days earlier. Not any impact on the future, not any impact on the current year guidance.
Maybe if I can add one thing to that, because I think that the question refers to also why a little bit too late. I mean, if we look into the entire process, the entire process of establishing a new product within the gematik environment, that happened within a couple of months, as opposed to usually that takes years. So therefore, overall, overall, this has been a very fast process, very successful, and therefore, I think this is... You cannot really say it's, it's too late or later than expected. I actually see it the other way around. It's quite successful, and it's a major step, not only for online pharmacies but also for brick-and-mortar pharmacies and for millions of patients in Germany. And, and I think because of that, also, gematik has really accelerated this, this process.
We are really very happy with what we have achieved so far in terms of the NFC solution. Sorry.
Yeah. No,
No, I mean-
Very helpful. Yeah. Yeah. No, and the second one, thanks, Jan, for catching actually that development. We would also almost forget about it, but we don't. It's a solid piece of our business, the huge opportunity across total Europe, not only in Germany. We were growing this year almost by one-third compared to quarter one last year, and indeed, at a significantly higher margin. To us, very clear exactly what our strategy is there because we don't see a lot of differences compared to what we already achieved in countries like Germany or, for example, in Austria. We are in those countries where we think we can achieve the same, and then you got efficiencies, you got scale, and then you improve your margins.
In our case, it is always that we can balance how fast do you wanna grow, what is your margin, and in this well-balanced approach, indeed, you see a structural increase, not only compared to last year, that we were growing relatively fast, I would say, towards, let's say, in Benelux, Switzerland, Austria. International will continue to grow very fast. It will never be a straight line. There will always happen things compared to the opportunity because of the opportunities we see or competition or other things, but actually, it is year-over-year. It is an apples-to-apples comparison that is solid, and in this solid comparison, we increased by one-third, and we improved our margins. That's correct.
Great. Thank you.
The next question comes from Volker Bosse from Baader Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello, gentlemen. Volker Bosse, Baader Bank. Congratulations on the CardLink approval and the great results. I would have two question. It's also on marketing spend the short term, given that you have the CardLink solution now on hand, and given that the main competitor received approval a bit faster, do you see any pressure to do incremental marketing expenses here in Q2 to catch up? So some indication in regards to volatility of margins throughout the year would be helpful. Okay. The second question: Any idea why the main competitor received the approval some days earlier than you did? It does not move the needle at all.
... that's completely clear, but just your thinking and your looking on the situation. Did you apply later than the others or any speculations? Thanks.
Well, I will try to answer the question. To be honest, I did not really completely understand the questions because of poor quality. I think the first question was, marketing investments going forward, now having the CardLink solution live, and if there's any kind of catch-up needs or, something like this. Well, to me, I mean, going forward, now, once we have the solution live, of course, we have plans, also marketing plans, but we would like not to really, give any insights into the marketing plans we have going forward. And I don't also think that we need to do some kind of catch-up, because, I mean, we are talking about a huge market, and it's just the beginning of it.
So, that means it's a huge opportunity, and it really comes down to developing a great product, convincing the customers, and of course, marketing is part of that. But I think that is something now we need to learn over the next couple of months, and then, and then we will have a better view on that. And the second question, if I understood this right, is about the, why a competitor had the, let's say, the CardLink solution approved a little bit earlier than us. So I mean, we cannot really talk about our competitor. What, what we know for sure is that we applied one day after the specs have been released, and then we got a feedback from gematik that it will take a certain time, and we have been in that timeframe.
Actually, we are really happy about our approval, because, I mean, if you look into comparable products from gematik and you compare those process and lead times, I think that's, that's a great achievement. From our perspective, we are really happy with that we have already now an approval for the CardLink solution.
Thank you very much, and I apologize for the bad line quality.
No, it's okay, but hopefully, we got the questions right. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah.
You got it.
And the answers, and the answers as well. Yeah.
The next question comes from Sven Sauer from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please, go ahead.
Hello, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions. My first one would be regarding what you've mentioned about the slowdown at the end of March. I was wondering if this is just a one-time effect or if it improved in the first weeks of April. And the second question was if there is any expected impact, and if, yes, if you could quantify this from the German Federal Supreme Court prohibiting the cash discount on Rx. So I'm not talking about the Rx bonus, I'm talking about the Sconto, because some market views suggest that the larger pharmacies will have more problems than the smaller ones, and obviously, you are the largest one. So yeah, thanks.
I think first one.
Do you want to do the first one?
Then you think about the second one.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah. Sven, morning. We shouldn't make it too big. I think if you... The Easter impact, it's clear the total market, right? Not only us, not to any extent more. If you look at total market numbers, it was clear the last four days of March were very soft, and it was just because there was Easter. So that means that the benefit of that will be in the next April, so that's also answering your question. So yes, that's a full yes there. But I think that if you are a blue-chip company and you have a normal growth of 2%, and this shift could then make it 1% or 3%, that's relevant. In our case, it's having a slightly negative impact both on sales and on the margin.
That's the case, but not really something to take into account. But actually, without that shift, our sales growth would have been slightly better, and our margins would have been slightly better. But to me, it's not relevant to the total picture. What happened in March reverses to the positive in April.
So I will try to give an answer to the second question. Just for clarification purposes, we are not talking about, let's say, the typical Rx bonus, which we you know the bonus, which then is at to the advantage of customers and consumers. I understand your question is really about the federal court, the ruling on the Sconto, meaning the purchasing conditions. And here, of course, we saw the ruling, and as you know, if you look into the market, currently, the wholesale Industriesy is trying to find an answer to that one. And right now, there is not really an answer to that one.
So we are in discussions, of course, with our wholesale partners to see any potential impact out of that, but right now it's by far too early to give any impact or insights out of that.
Okay, thanks.
The next question comes from Yannik Siering from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. Good morning. Can you hear me?
Very clear.
Yes.
Okay, perfect. Thanks. Thank you for my case, for taking my question. Just two left. The first one would be on the customer base, that has developed quite well in Q1. Maybe some color, can you see a continuation or maybe even an acceleration of that in the last weeks now, with also an increasing awareness of the e-Rx in Germany? And the second one would be on Mediservice, the CHF 119 million of sales, that's slightly below what I would have expected. Could you share your thoughts on the business, now almost one year after the acquisition? Thank you.
... Maybe I will try to answer the first one, Jasper, and you will do the Mediservice customer base, if I understand the question right. So I mean, you know, we have more than 11 million active customers, and we are adding quarter by quarter, let's say, almost 0.3-0.4 million active customers. So, out of seven countries. And that's a result out of seven countries. So, so far, it is too early to see any kind of impact on Rx, on this customer file, because it's just the beginning of it. Again, as we said, as we presented earlier, in the Q1, our main activities were really about securing that our existing customers get the support in switching from paper to the e-Rx, and we got some first or initial new customers coming in on Rx.
But compared to the overall customer file, that is a very, very, very low number. But of course, this will develop over time, and once we have a better insight into the development on Rx, you will probably also see this on the customer file. But again, right now, too early to call.
Okay, and on Mediservice, the important general statement is that we are very happy with the strategic partnership that we have there. Great people to work with, a lot of expertise and dedication, and we're very happy with what we're doing now in Switzerland. Mediservice is having a direct impact and an indirect impact. And the direct impact is the consolidation of their business into our numbers, and the indirect impact, the best example there is actually that we... If you would now go to redcare.ch, at our website there, you see, for example, much more Swiss assortment than we used to have before. So a part of our net revenue growth is also because of assortment extension that we're seeing there as a benefit from our strategic partnership.
So overall, very happy with where we stand just after less than one year. The sales being somewhat soft, yeah, that depends on what exactly your expectations were. But there is in Switzerland, and that's also something that our partner there, Galenica, also released to the market. There is some impact there, that there is a shift towards generic, actually, and that's having a slightly lower average price, and with that, the same orders having slightly lower sales. But that's leading to, that I can confirm that perhaps the sales are somewhat soft, but that's not according to our expectations. The sales development of Mediservice are going according to our expectations.
Great. Thank you. Helpful.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star followed by one. The next question comes from Miro Tuzak from JMS Industries. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hello, gentlemen. Can you hear me?
Yes.
I have a couple of questions. I would like to take them one by one, if possible. The first one is regarding your Rx sales growth. I think, like for like in Germany, 7%, we have seen the figure of your main competitor at minus 17, or 6% and minus 17. So there is a difference of 23 percentage points in this Q1 in terms of Rx growth. Now, I don't know that you don't want to talk about your competitor, but maybe you can talk about yourself and explain what makes your offering so much better, what is your main capability of turning paper-based clients into eScript clients? And what is your unique selling proposition there?
Well, let me try to answer that one. So as, as you said and pointed out, I mean, we really do not want to, comment on, on the DocMorris numbers, so it's really only about us. And, I think the answer is there's not really a lot of magic. It's just that we have, or let's put it this way, a, a stable customer base on Rx. And, you know, until the end of last year, most of them were paper, paper, paper customers, and they use communication and education tools to really help them also to, for example, talk to their doctor, how to get a, a printout of a QR code and then send it in, into the pharmacy. So it was more a help and education of our existing customers, of course.
So therefore, I think here we could, we did a good job, at least looking into the numbers, because we were not shrinking. We were continuing to grow. And, you know, there was this challenge out there in the Q1 that a lot of doctors did not really want to issue the QR code because they said, "Hey, the e-Rezept has to be digital and not a printout." And therefore, we had to educate and work with our customers to ensure that they get the QR code, and that worked out pretty well, at least you can see it in the numbers. So therefore, I think that's the main story about it. And then, of course, on top, there's also a growth.
So we convinced some, let's say some customers, some new customers, and also existing OTC and BPC customers to first time try out eRx with a QR code. And again, not all of them had a QR code available. For most of those customers, the script was on the eGK card, therefore, so it was difficult, but nevertheless, we achieved also a success here. So I would say, without looking into the competitor, but from our perspective, we did a pretty good job on Rx in the Q1, and we're happy about that. Have already some initial learnings, how it works with new customers, and then that is something we can apply now going forward.
... Thank you. Very clear. Then, the next question would be about, your adjustments, which have just been EUR 1.1 million in the Q1, which I liked, basically, low number.
Yeah.
Will 2024 be a year with much lower adjustments compared to the last two years?
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. No, I also like that. I do totally agree. I mean, the clean sheet is the best possible, and generally, I don't like adjustments and companies that talk about adjustments. The reason that we adjust is actually because we want our adjusted EBITDA to be very close to what the cash generation is. So we correct for non-cash items because then the EBITDA, the adjusted EBITDA, is very close. In the past quarter, it was EUR 12 million adjusted EBITDA and EUR 11 million of cash that we saw in the cash flow bridge. Those are some elements, other elements also in it.
We basically have only three categories of adjustments, and number one is the fact that we have an employee stock option program, and that is, to us, non-cash, but in IFRS, you account for that in the cost. So it's in the cost, but we correct for that, and that's the stock option program. Number two, it's a very limited category generally with us, but who knows what can happen in the future? But it's a very strict definition of external spend on specific projects, yeah, and those. And number three was a category that we have had since quarter four 2021, and then in 2022 and 2023, and that's related to a booking related to our 2021 acquisitions.
That's because an earn-out related to those acquisitions, we had to account for as, as labor cost, while it was actually an earn-out, and also the auditors agreed there. So we adjusted for that. But that's finalized now, so there's a clean sheet now. So in the interim report, you see that number 3, that category was 0 in this quarter. So everything else remaining the same, indeed, we think the number of adjustments is gonna be significantly lower, this year compared to the past 2 years.
Thank you. Then the next line is the depreciation figure, which was EUR 16 million, much higher than previous year, EUR 12 million. Is this the new flight level or the new cruise, cruising speed now with eRx live?
I'm very happy that the depreciation number is higher because actually, it's mainly reflecting the fact that we did a lot of IT investments over the past years, and also capacity investments that we did over the past years. So we have been able to prepare for executing our strategy and specifically eRx. So depreciation in absolute terms is up. Of course, as a percentage of sales, we would always like to achieve scale. While we don't have fully scaled this year, it's with some pre-investments we did in the past two years, but also there are some depreciation included related to the acquisition of Mediservice that we did, and that's perhaps the missing piece if you add those two together.
But having said all this, this absolute term at this moment is also what you could basically expect for the quarters to come in this year.
Cool. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Olaf Heinrich for any closing remarks.
Yes, thank you very much, and thank you very much for all of your questions. It's always always great to hear you, and we love we love to have the conversation with you. And that's actually pretty much it from a Q1 perspective. You know, and interesting and exciting times ahead of us. Mm-hmm. So, we are looking forward, we are ready, and we will be happy to update you next quarter. Thank you very much for joining.