[inaudible] results. Please have in mind that throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. As always, the presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, in which you will be allowed to place your questions directly to the management. I would now like to turn the conference over to the CEO of TAKKT, Maria Zesch. The stage is yours. Please go ahead.
Welcome. Welcome to our Q3 earnings call that I'm hosting together with our CFO, Lars Bolscho. Sorry for my voice today and the coughing, because hopefully it's not distracting from the key messages we'll give you today. As you are all aware, these are challenging times, and we face several headwinds. Still, we know how to steer our business through difficult times, and you can see that when you look at how we managed our gross profit margin, our cash generation, and also the cost positions in Q3.
Before we go into the financials, I want to give you a quick overview about the developments in the market w e saw since end of July, and I want to give you a short update on our strategy execution.
So, going into the second half, we were cautiously optimistic. We expected a slight improvement in organic growth compared to the first half of 2023. I want to emphasize this was not wishful thinking on our part, but supported by a very positive trend in the order intake in July, where we had the best month of the year- to- date. And as [we well know], coming from an already weak environment in the first half, we saw a further deterioration of economic and general conditions in Q3. GDP forecasts for Europe became more pessimistic, with key recession environment in Germany and the lowest PMIs since spring 2020. In the US, we were additionally affected by the discussions about the government shutdown.
Against this background, we saw a sharp decline in order intake from mid-August on. This affected all three divisions, since the industrial and packaging business in Europe and office furniture in the U.S., running significantly below expectations. Orders for office furniture in NBF were especially affected in September, when we normally record very high order intake from government customers. With the expectation of a government shutdown, this business was clearly below prior year. All- in- all, organic sales growth in Q3 was -7%, so significantly below last year.
As we saw softer order intake, we intensified our measures on improving our profit margin, executing strict cost management and focus on cost and cash generation. So this is paying off already in Q3, with an increase in gross profit margin and good cost management, and a substantial increase in free cash flow. So based on the Q3 development and the continuous weakness, we have adjusted our guidance for 2023. We saw that most probably last week.
On sales and EBITDA, we will come in below our initial expectations. At the same time, our focus on cash generation is paying off, and we confirm a substantial increase in free cash flow for 2023. More towards the end of the call when we talk about the outlook.
While we are currently operating in a very challenging environment, we stick to our strategy. We are progressing in all of our strategic pillars, growth, One TAKKT, and caring. Now [will be giving] some more details. So when I started as a CEO a bit more than two years ago, I set expection on the target to make TAKKT a more integrated, growth-oriented, profitable, sustainable company. A month ago, we have reviewed and discussed our progress, and our way ahead with our supervisors and confirmed our approach with the three pillars: growth, One TAKKT, and caring.
I'm very glad that I have the opportunity [to briefing you] driving TAKKT's transformation further. I want to take the opportunity and express my gratitude, both to the supervisory board for their support and trust, but also to my team and each and every colleague at TAKKT, who are doing a great, great job in pushing for growth and for change of the organization.
Let me share some examples of what we have achieved so far this year with our strategic value levers. Let me start with the growth pillar. So year- to- date, we generated more than EUR 10 million in additional sales from cross-selling, with a very positive trend from quarter- to- quarter a bout [inaudible] half in the service.
We expect this volume to continue growing in the upcoming quarters. Another topic is, and contrary to the overall weakness, we see very positive growth with our e-procurement business, where we see our offering directly into the ERP systems of larger corporate customers. This was [inaudible] and we see a lot of additional potential here.
So coming to the second pillar, we are growing closer together as an organization in a lot of aspects. So this is my going forward with the One TAKKT initiatives, and I want to share a few examples of what we are doing here. Our teams have done a really outstanding job this year to organize, coordinate, and help the various businesses to go for substantial inventory reduction. This allowed us to realize cash flow of more than additionally EUR 25 million in the first nine months.
It would not have been possible in the old set up, where every business was managing inventories on its own. There was a lot of knowledge sharing, lots of coordination, and very frequent reporting on key figures implemented to achieve this success. The second example is about our logistics network. We have taken a big step forward and provided on the target picture for our future logistics and warehousing footprint, both in the U.S. and in Europe. We will now start with the implementation, with a focus on the U.S. in 2024, merge spaces and open new ones, where we want to increase our presence and improve delivery times. This will allow us to realize cost savings and of course, also improve scalability in the coming years, and with that path, we improve profitability of the group.
You know that we are not only going for an improvement in our financial performance, but also do it in a more sustainable way. I'm quite proud that our efforts in the sphere of sustainability are recognized. TAKKT is a finalist for the prestigious Transparency Award. The winner will be announced soon, so please keep your fingers crossed for us, and we'll see where we are. In August, we started to market our enkelfähig products in our industrial and packaging divisions. These are products that are rated as being more sustainable than average. We see a higher gross profit margin with these products and also better OI development. So for us, this is a good sign and a positive feedback for further rollouts towards the U.S .divisions.
That was a short overview from my side on the strategic topics we have achieved, and I will hand over now to Lars for the financials.
Thank you, Maria. Welcome, everybody, also from my side to our today's call. Let's start with a look at key financial topics of the third quarter of this year. Maria has already mentioned the challenging conditions and the negative trend we saw in the economic environment over the last months. All our indicators remained on a very low level or even decreased. For example, the Purchasing Managers' Index for manufacturing, the PMI, our relevant indicator for our European business, remained at a low level [strategic] points for Europe, and even decreased further from 40.6 to 39.6 points for Germany in the last three [months]. September, this indicates shrinking demand, and we are now quite significantly below 50 at the moment, so very low levels.
In those conditions, our organic sales growth was at -7%, clearly below the -2.5% of the first half, after a quite significant slowdown from mid of August onwards. So we clearly see the impact of the challenging economic conditions in our weak top line development. What's now our reaction to this development? We continue to focus on gross margin, on cost management, and on cash generation. And we did a good job in all the areas with the improvement of gross profit margin to 39.9%, with a reduction in marketing and other costs, and also an adjustment in FTE numbers. And we had a very good quarter in terms of cash generation, again, with a free cash flow of EUR 29 million, an increase of EUR 4 million compared to last year.
Looking at a bit more detailed numbers for the third quarter now, let's start with the development for TAKKT Group. On sales, top line was below expectations, as we've already said, with sales of EUR 313.4 million and a decline of 10.6%. The weaker US dollar contributed - 3.5 percentage points to that, so organic growth was at - 7.1%. Looking at our three divisions, we have seen some differences in their performance. We are, in the third quarter, pretty much stable with our food service activities, and we are, at the same time, clearly below prior year in industrial packaging and especially office furniture and displays.
Let's continue with the profit development in the third quarter on the right-hand side of that chart. EBITDA was EUR 30.2 million, with a margin of 9.7%, after 10.8% prior year in the same quarter. So a lower profitability year-on-year, but a clear improvement compared to our second quarter, which was at a profitability margin of 8.4%, despite the slowdown in our top line. And this is both due to the improvement in our gross profit margin and due to our intensified cost management. In gross margin, we have managed down our cost of goods sold and freight costs, and we have also increased prices further, bringing us to the already mentioned 39.9%, 70 basis points above last year's margin in the same quarter.
In addition, we reduced marketing and other costs in line with our lower top line, and in personnel, we decreased our FTE numbers, but at the same time, we were also impacted by some wage increases. Our one-time expenses for Q3 2023 netted out at almost zero. In 2022, we had EUR 2 million one-time expenses for early termination of employment contracts. Overall, still, despite the weaker top line, we almost achieved a double-digit margin, which shows that we know how to manage our profit in a recession.
Let's have a look at the division I&P now for the third quarter as well. On sales, sales were at EUR 159.8 million, and down 7.8% compared to last year. Hardly any currency impact here, so organic growth was very similar at -7.5%.
This weakening of sales development was visible in all our regions, and the decrease versus prior year was also impacted by the closure of our Certeo activities, which we have done in May. On profit, EBITDAR at Industrial & Packaging was at EUR 19.4 million. EBITDAR margin came in at 12.1%, and the lower profit is mostly due to the weak top line development this quarter. On cost management, we also here reduced advertising and other costs in line with sales. Personal costs were also down year-on-year due to very restrictive management of our resources.
Now, let's have a look at the U.S. and our Office Furniture & Displays division. Let's start with the top line development. Again, the third quarter, as you might know, is the most important quarter for our NBF business, because end of September is the cut-off date for the U.S. budget year, and we then get a lot of orders from government customers in those weeks and days.
This year, we saw overall a weakening demand, and especially the volume from government accounts was significantly below prior year due to the uncertainties about a possible government shutdown in the U.S. So sales overall for the division were at EUR 75.5 million, down 18.5%. Organic development, so adjusted for currency impact, was -12.2%. And besides the already described challenges at our brand NBF, we also saw a clear decrease at D2G, with our mainly e-commerce business for displays also here performing at double-digit organic decline in the third quarter.
Profit development was more positive, at least given the circumstances we just saw and talked about on the top line. We generated EUR 10.0 million in EBITDAR, and with that, even saw an improvement in our EBITDAR margin compared to last year. 13.3% this quarter, versus 12.2% in the third quarter of last year. While cost ratios were clearly above prior year, we more than made up for that with a very strong improvement in gross profit margin. Biggest impact here at office furniture and displays was freight profit. While our freight costs were lower, we were still able to charge our customers on a comparatively high level.
Let's continue with our third division, food service, and also here with the sales development. Even though sales decreased, reported by 7.5% to EUR 78.1 million, we continued to achieve the best sales performance of our group at food service. Because adjusting for the negative currency impact, our sales development was almost stable, with -0.6% compared to prior year, which is a good performance in our current economic circumstances, even if we have seen higher growth also here in the first half. We generated EUR 6.5 million in EBITDAR this year, after EUR 7.3 million in the third quarter last year. In terms of profitability, we see with 8.4% an improvement compared to the second quarter this year. There, we had EBITDAR profitability of 5.0%, and we almost achieved the prior year margin of 8.6%.
The gross margin is still comparatively low, with 29.4%, and impacted by the sell-down of our inventories and the higher share of project business. Anyhow, we have seen an improvement in gross margin, supporting the increased profitability compared to the second quarter I talked about.
So after having looked in some detail at the third quarter, let me give you an overview concerning the first nine months, so year-to-date numbers. Since there are often similar developments as already talked about for the third quarter, I will keep it a bit shorter here. Looking at [sales book], again first, our sales are 5.3% below prior year, with a negative currency impact of around 1%. So organic growth was -4.1% in this challenging environment.
Looking at our three divisions also here, so for the first nine months, we see food service performing well in this environment and achieving good growth. Both industrial & packaging and office furniture and displays are clearly negative for that. On EBITDAR, we generated EUR 87.3 million year- to- date, with a margin of 9.1%, after a 10.4% last year. On gross profit margin, we are managing that well and have achieved a stable development at 39.7%, despite significant negative structural impacts due to our sales mix with food service, lowest margin and highest growth. And we are also managing costs intensively and have significantly reduced our marketing spend, and also have adjusted the number of FTEs, which is down approximately 3% versus prior year.
Personnel and other costs in the first nine months were impacted by the continued implementation of our strategy and also by inflationary pressures. One-time expenses for the first nine months were slightly below prior year, a bit less than EUR 3 million so far. Looking at our largest division, I&P, for the first nine months, our top line came in with sales of EUR 510.2 million, and an organic decline of around 5%. The closing down of Certeo also here had a slight negative impact on organic growth. In this challenging environment overall, we also see good developments with positive growth, for example, in our East region, and also Germany, as a market, is holding up well, given the especially weak GDP development and indicators of our home market.
On EBITDA, we generated EUR 67.5 million year- to- date at a margin of 13.2%. Our cost ratios were obviously impacted by the lack of growth, as well as the transformation inflation pressures. Also, here, we were quite active to manage costs towards low levels. One-time expenses for the first nine months were on a very similar level as in prior year. Over to the U.S., with our office furniture and displays activities, a s already mentioned, both businesses here are operating in a challenging environment. Sales came in at EUR 220.2 million, down 9.7% when adjusted for currency impact. In the first nine months, Displays2go performed slightly better with a single-digit decline, while NBF was down slightly more than 10%.
On profit, we see a similar picture as in the third quarter. Due to the weak top line, EBITDA was below prior year with EUR 21.4 million. The EBITDA margin, however, is relatively stable, with 9.7% after 10.3% last year, and this is also for the first nine months, due to strong development in gross profit margin, which mostly offsets higher cost ratios.
With that, over to food service and the year-to-date development. Our goods topline performance here in the first nine months, with sales of EUR 224.1 million, and an organic growth of 5.2%. Hubert was performing even slightly better here than Central. On EBITDA, we are below prior year at EUR 13.0 million. Our EBITDA margin is at 5.8%, compared to 7.0% last year. Our biggest impact here is still the gross profit margin, which was below prior year due to the impact from sales mix and also selling off discounted inventories. Cost ratios are stable overall when we adjust, adjust for higher one-time costs associated with the integration. About the positive trends in profitability, I've talked when we looked at the third quarter.
Now, coming to cash flow. As we've already mentioned, especially in times of difficult economic conditions and weaker top line, we are putting a lot of focus on our cash generation, and you can see here that we continue to perform successfully on our cash flow. Our tax cash flow is down compared to last year, due to EBITDA being weaker, but we overcompensated in net working capital development.
While we have invested last year in net working capital, we were able this year to reduce working capital. We are working on the whole cash conversion cycle, and the biggest impact was achieved by reducing our inventories by almost EUR 26 million in the first nine months. Capital expenditure was a bit higher compared to last year, due to some investments at, for example, food service for the integrated webshop platform, and also due to some investments into startups made by our TAKKT Beteiligungsgesellschaft. Overall, our free cash flow is, despite the overall slow business, well above prior year with EUR 60.4 million.
You might remember that we had a very cash-strong end of the year last year, so in 2022. So in the fourth quarter this year, we might not overachieve last year again, but with still good cash flow generation, we expect to end up the year with clear growth in cash flow compared to last year. So we will continue our success on cash flow.
And finally, for the financial performance, let's look at our balance sheet. And you will probably not be surprised that our balance sheet continues to be very strong and healthy. Our net financial liabilities have increased compared to end of 2022 due to our dividend payment in May, to now the new level of EUR 138.2 million, whereas EUR 66 million are lease liabilities.
Due to the strong cash flow generation, I've just talked about that, our net financial liabilities are expected to decrease further until end of this year, unless we will be able to pursue an attractive M&A opportunity. The equity ratio is at [61.7%], and with that, still above our target corridor. So we have a strong position, allowing us to continue our share buyback program, allowing us to look for attractive M&A, and also allowing us to continue our dividend strategy.
In a minute, I'll hand back to Maria for our outlook. Before this, let me please summarize our third quarter. We have to report an unexpected weak third quarter due to the softness in our markets and therewith our sales decrease. Good news, on the other hand side, is that we saw positive impact in our focus areas, gross margin almost being at 40% on cost management, with the profitability despite lower sales higher than last quarter, and especially cash generation clearly above last year.
And with that, over to you, Maria, for our updated outlook for 2023.
Thanks, Lars, for the view on Q3 and the first nine months. So, as said, it's a challenging situation, and based on the Q3 development and the continued weakness we expect for Q4, we have adjusted our guidance for 2023. So what do we now expect from the last quarter? Looking at the environment, we think that Q4 will most likely look somewhat similar to Q3. So overall, very challenging conditions for the remainder of the year, with slow or negative GDP growth in our markets and negative signals from relevant indicators. That means we don't expect to see an uptick in demand from our customers in Q4. What is different to Q4 is that the overall risk situation has become even more volatile, with increased geopolitical tension and the war in Middle East.
So I would say that we currently see more downside risks than upside potential for Q4. So how do we position ourselves now in this environment? We have a clear strategy. We want to grow, become a more integrated company, and get impact by our caring pillar. And also in this challenging environment, for me, it remains a top priority to serve our customers, to fulfill the existing demand. And we continue with our strategic growth initiatives on cross-selling, on smart pricing, and on e-commerce. But it's clear that at the same time, we need to increase, and we have increased already, our efforts on managing costs, profitability, and cash. A main topic for us remains our gross profit margin. We are continuing to push measures to get our gross margin towards 40% and to compensate for the negative structural impact of the sales mix.
In regards to the costs, we were already quite cautious heading into Q3, and managed costs quite strictly. With the softer top line from August onwards, we have intensified the cost management measures, postponed or even canceled projects that were not a top priority to us. This approach also includes adjusting FTE numbers to the current environment. We also continue with our focus on managing net working capital and want to build on the success we have achieved there so far. Our focus will be on further inventory management, but also improving days sales and payables outstanding .
Let me come to our guidance for the full year. With the adjusted outlook, we now expect mid-single-digit organic sales decline for 2023. For EBITDA, our new corridor is between EUR 107 million and EUR 117 million, and this implies an EBITDAR between [17 million and 20 million] for Q4. So I can hear already some of you ask if this corridor should not be more narrow, given that we only have three months to go. My response to these questions is, there is a lot of uncertainty out there, as we have seen in the recent weeks. So this is the range where we feel comfortable in the current environment. And finally, even more important than profit in this environment is cash generation. Here, despite the difficult environment, we see the positive outcome of our cash focus and confirm our initial guidance to earn significantly more cash flow than last year. To achieve this, we're working intensively to improve our net working capital management on receivables, payables, and inventory levels.
So now, after having looked at our near-term expectations, what does this mean mid-term? With the increased economic and geopolitical uncertainty out there, we're also reviewing and reworking our mid-term planning and financial targets. I remain convinced that there is a lot of unrealized growth potential for us in our markets, but still, in the current environment, we will increase our focus on profitability and on cash. We are currently working on what that means in detail for our mid-term financial ambition, and we'll give you an update on that with the annual report 2023. So please note also the potential changes in our mid-term planning, together with the increase in interest rates, could lead to an increased impairment risk in one or the other cash generating units.
Before I now go to the [Q&As] , let me give you a reminder about the investment thesis. We have huge growth potential in a very large and fragmented market, and with a very diversified position with our activities both in Europe and the U.S. This has helped us in the past, and I'm sure this will help us in the future. We have a clear vision and strategy to bring new worlds of work to life together with our customers. We have a good financial track record and execution. We know how to adapt and to adjust to a challenging environment and w e have shown that we will take the necessary measures to safeguard our financial performance, which has seen this with our cost management and the strong cash generation we did so far already in 2023.
And last, given the current uncertainty, we have the advantage to operate from a position of financial strength and stability. With a strong balance sheet, we generate substantial free cash flow, and we are committed to pay dividends to shareholders in addition to our ongoing share benefit program.
So, with that, I'm very happy to take your questions. Over to the operator for the Q&A.
Yeah, Ms. Zesch and Mr. Bolscho, thank you very much for your detailed presentation and especially the explanation of the guidance adjustments due to the current market environment. As already mentioned, we will now move on to the Q&A session, and for a dynamic conversation, we kindly ask you to hand in your questions in person via the audio line. To do so, click on the Raise- Your- Hand button on the screen, and in case you have dialed in by phone, please use the key combination star nine followed by star number six. We have already received the first raised hand by my colleague, Christian Bruns. The line should be open in a second.
Yes, hello. Can you hear me?
Perfect.
Okay, thanks for the presentation, and congratulations, Maria, to your prolonged management contract. I have a question on your management, because you continued after your progress here in the current year, that's still one of your priorities, to improve net working capital management. And I'm just wondering, is there not room for further improvement, given your improvements in the course of the year already?
Yeah, thank you for your question. So, first of all, what we have seen in the second half, or let's say the end of 2022, and now also 2023 in parts, if it is a correction of being overstocked after the situation where supply chains were disturbed. But we also see and are already working on further, I would say, more structural improvements in the cash conversion cycle, where we just did have in the past. And let me give you a few examples, like on DPO, like the time we pay to our suppliers, we see room to improve there to get that balance out better than we had in the past.
And also, for example, on the DSO on receivables, by getting better in negotiating payment terms with large customers, for example, also by getting better in balancing out the payment methods we use in our transactional business, we see room for improvement. Will it be as an improvement, as strong as pronounced as in end of 2022 and in 2023? No, but we are convinced that we can improve cash conversion cycle structurally also in the upcoming years.
Okay, thank you. That was clear. Christian, do you have any further questions or...?
Yeah, I have a further question, because in the press release, you hinted that adjusting the medium-term outlook could have an impact also on your annual impairment test. And if I look at your balance sheet, I see that [inaudible] is a dominant position, more than EUR 600 million, I think nearly 90% of your equity base. And so any large impairment could change your balance sheet substantially.
As I look in your categories or in your divisions, it strikes me that I think food service, although it seems to stabilize in the current year, there is still EUR 144 million goodwill in food service, so Hubert and Central. And I'm also a little bit worried about the EUR 88 million in Displays2go or D2G. Could you give any hint on what might be the impact or where we could worry or where there could be an impairment? And, you know, actually, will this have an impact on the dividend or do you say it's non-cash and will not have any impact?
Yeah. Thanks, thanks for that question and also for yeah, mentioning some of the important numbers to know. And let me start a bit more general, and then I will try to make it a bit clearer. As you know, you already mentioned that we do impairment tests for all our, what we call, cash-generating units. And now to keep it simple, there are two main input factors on the results of these tests. The first one is the discount rate, which is linked to current interest rates, and the second one is then our mid- and long-term planning for these cash-generating units. And going into the impairment testing this year, we are now facing headwinds from both impacts, right?
So we are seeing increasing interest rates with impact on our cost of capital, and as we have stated, we are reviewing our midterm planning due to the lower base of 2023 through the economic challenges we are in. So generally, this means there is risk from impairment, and that has increased. Now, coming a bit closer to your [concrete] question, most of our cash generating units, we don't see any risks. So there might be exceptions, could be small activities that we acquired more recently, and it could also be businesses that have struggled to recover from the COVID impact. For example, the business you mentioned, which is the Displays2go, the D2G business.
Now, the magnitude of a potential impairment charge is also difficult now to estimate in advance, but from what I'm expecting today, this could be a double-digit EUR million amount, but most likely will be below a level of EUR 40 million-50 million. So below 40-50, but probably double-digit. And just to remind you, you also refer to that it wouldn't have any cash impact, would only report, or would only affect our reported numbers, and there would be no impact from our perspective to dividend payments. I hope with that, I made it a bit more concrete what the risk is about.
Okay, thanks. So from the EUR 88 million D2G, there could be some... I read this from what you're saying, that this might be the most likely impairment.
Yes, that's what you can hear out of my words. Of course, we have not done those impairment tests now for the year-end.
Mm.
process that we need to do, but D2G has been last year, the cash generating unit with the lowest positive delta, so I see highest risk there.
Thanks.
Perfect. I would like to move on to the next raised hand, and I see it at Thilo Kleibauer. Please go ahead. You should be unmuted now. I think you have to click on the button on the screen, that you want to unmute yourself.
Okay. Can you hear?
Loud and clear. Thanks.
Thank you. Good afternoon. I have one question regarding the gross margin. I mean, you highlighted an increase by 70 basis points in Q3, but I assume there are also a technical effect due to lower business volume from NBF, which I think has low gross margin on, especially on the orders from the public sector. So maybe you can give us a kind of gross margin trends for the three different segments. That would be helpful. And my just, yeah, maybe to give that some insight into current trading, current order behavior, and you highlighted that you have some areas, for example, the e-procurement business at I&P, which is performing well, or that you can achieve additional sales with cross-selling activities.
So maybe some insight into current order behavior and do the same number of customers ,order less if the average basket smaller, or do you see less one-time customers, or what is behind these current trading numbers and also the positive development in your e-procurement business? That would be helpful. Thank you.
Thilo, thanks for your question. So let me start with your second one, and then I'll hand over to Lars also for a bit more on the cross-margin. So, what you ask is like what we see currently in on the top line, right? And, so what we see and also how we see, you know, what the current trading is, but also the channels and the customer behavior. Correct?
Yes, yes. Mm-hmm.
What I can say, let me start also with first I&P and then &P ahead with it, because it's a bit a mixed picture. I would say in I&P, we saw, as I mentioned, also good order intake in July, and compared to that, the rest of the Q3 was a bit a weaker quarter. Still remember, you know, also what we did that, both out of the [inaudible] business and also what we see when you compare the current TMIs and the TTP forecasts, I think it's still better what we delivered at, compared to these, also indices.
And also, what we now do with the reframing, which we did in August, and the integrated approach to selling more goods to customers, I think also that will help us to show even a better outperformance. So overall, for I&P, we see that we weaken the eProc in the e-commerce business. So that's where we overall, and I think I can share that, that globally a trend we see is that it's that eCom is more in line with overseas development, but still below average. So, I think overall, we see with eCom, eProc, so eProcurement is bigger customers, that's a bit better, significantly better.
Let me then go to office furniture. I would say here, what we have seen so far is, Lars mentioned that, with government business, and in D2G, also very important to know, so we are developing [fine on] digital products, still are fighting with getting back in or towards the goal or pre-pandemic level in the [strategic fair ] and businesses. So we still have some challenges in there. So, in food service, I would say we are more stable than the other activities. So here, what we are seeing is that we see a bit of a slowdown in October, but so far it was quite good. Maybe another dimension is, so I've discussed the three divisions, so maybe going from a or seeing it from a regional perspective. Also, for what we currently see is not really much a difference.
U.S. seemed a bit stronger over summer. Now we see more negative news there, and most other things, uncertainty about potential government shutdowns again in November. And in Europe, what we see regionally here, Germany and South, a bit more stable than in Europe average. So that was regionally, that was on, also on divisions. So you also asked about average order value. Here, I would say we are still quite happy with the development of the average order value. So also due to inflation, these developments are quite fine. So I would say, there's no concern from the AOV.
Okay.
Yeah? Yeah. [Inaudible]
M aybe one follow-up on government business.
Yeah.
If I remember correctly, that's especially a topic for Q3. Or do you expect also a kind of impact in the Q4 due to missing orders from this business basically?
So you are right. In Q3, we see a special effect, so yeah, I would say, like, a third more than we normally see.
Mm-hmm.
But also we have normal government business throughout the year, but Q3 is a special. This is a big one. You're right.
Good. Then I will take your question on the gross profit margin for the third quarter. And, your question was the increase from 39.2% to 39.9%, how is that split up into divisions and also kind of structural impact out of sales mix? If I start with the strong effect, you are right that less government business is a positive structural impact for us. Some of that in third quarter, then some of the orders we made with government in the third quarter also come into sales in the fourth quarter. But the bigger structural impact is still that we are growing or being stable in the third quarter with our food service business, with the lowest gross margin in our group. So the overall structural impact is still a negative one, with minus 0.3 percentage points.
Going through our three divisions, the gross margin, gross profit margin at I&P was slightly below prior year. So there we need to get back a bit, but it was still clearly above the 40% where we wanted to be. Food service, we talked about that a lot. It was now a more stable development to prior years, so we improved significantly compared to the second quarter, more than 2 percentage points. And still the different sales mix within food service, with more contract business, and still the impact of selling down inventory, the discount is impacting the margin, but we are improving. And very good development on office furniture and displays.
We continue to see a very strong improvement there, where we benefit, what I've mentioned, that especially freight costs are going down. We are able to manage them down, but we can keep high charges for freight in the market. So there, our gross margin is probably at record level for office furniture and displays or for NBF, especially in history. So we are there also way above the 40% towards, let's say, 4-5 percentage points better than we have been last year. Thus, overall, still a slight negative structural impact and good developments, good developments in the divisions, especially at office furniture and displays.
Okay, fine.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, that's good.
Perfect. That sounds great. Then, we still have two raised hands. The first one, I think, was Craig Abbott. Please go ahead.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes.
Perfect. Thanks. Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. Yeah, I just wanted to come back. You showed us that your cross-selling business, despite the difficult market conditions, have been developing well. I think you said EUR 10 million year- to- date. I'd like to just know two things, please. One is, how exactly do you measure that KPI, i.e., is it literally new customers that are introduced from one business unit to another unit, and then they execute a transaction? That would be the first question.
The second question is, I just, I don't expect any kind of precise estimate here, of course, but if you could just kind of give us, like, kind of a ballpark figure, what kind of growth dimension you think you could potentially achieve from these cross-selling initiatives, over the next, I don't know, let's say two years or so? Thank you.
Great. Many thanks for your question. So cross-selling, so how we do it, and also what we expect in years to come. Right?
Yes.
Yes. So, let me give you the example of an operation from my in KAISER+KRAFT customers. So we indicated who is a former [inaudible] customer and who is a former KAISER+KRAFT customer. So and then when we see what is in their basket and see that they are selling now either package also buying now packaging or, you know, goods from the portfolio of KAISER+KRAFT, we see, you know, that the cross-selling is working. And so it's an additional category they have now in their basket. So we do strict monitoring on it and have a very good monitoring setup developed. And I'm very happy how the team internally, Austria and Switzerland, are working on this one.
And, we do the same in Hubert and Central, so, also selecting the product categories and see, like, how now the cross-selling works based on the categories sold previously from the other companies.
I would say it's driving up your AOV then, average order value?
Or the average order frequency, you know, because they could, they are also, you know, getting that more frequently, so not only AOV, but also, you know, from the customers.
Mm. Okay.
Yeah?
Mm-hmm.
So, as you know, on growth, we have so far defined three big topics. There's e-commerce, there's the cross-selling piece, and there's the pricing and margin management. So these are our three big value levers we still believe in. We, yeah, even thinking about another fourth one, about products for next year. And these will be the ones where we believe that the growth for the next years should come from. So cross-selling, based also on the integration we did, is definitely one of the key priorities for our company to be continued.
Okay, but, I mean, just EUR 10 million, you know, I mean, I don't know. Could this one day become a three-digit EUR million figure?
Yeah. So, what I would say is, we see that it's growing quarter- by- quarter.
Mm.
So the development is a good one. And we'll be fine if we get into double digit, but I would say now let's do step- after- step. If it grows with the speed we see, I'm satisfied.
Okay. Thank you.
So, no follow-ups for you, Mr. Abbott, right?
No, I'm fine. Thank you.
Okay, perfect. Then, I see still the raised hand of Christian Bruns. Do you have any follow-ups or?
Yes. T hank you for having the chance. But if there's no one, I will take the opportunity, of course. So I'm just looking at in the future or trying to, no one of us has a glass ball, of course, and I think for your business, there's no good leading indicator. Maybe purchasing managers are not really vary with an indicator with a strong lead. So, when I've, I'm just questioning when environment will allow top line growth at your company again, and if I look now, you have four consecutive quarters of negative organic growth. And if I understand it correctly, you guide for another quarter of negative organic growth.
I think I don't remember in this time in history where TAKKT had more than six consecutive quarters of negative organic growth. Maybe this can be an indicator, and which region do you expect maybe to lead the improvement? That I would guess it's the U.S. business's food service and office furniture, and this space. But do you agree?
Maybe I can start, and Maria, if you want to add, please, if you please. So, first of all, yes, we have good indicators. So it's the question for how many months in advance do those indicators give us like a good impression or a good indication what will happen? And, we have, as you mentioned, the Purchasing Managers' Index for manufacturing, not the composite one, but the manufacturing one. For our European business, we have the U.S. Retailers Performance Index for our food service business, and we have, an order intake estimate from a kind of association for office furniture called BIFMA in the U.S. for our OF&D business.
And if we look at those indicators, what we see in our development, for all the quarters you now mentioned is confirming us that this is the market condition we are in, right? So, the PMI, I mentioned that, when I presented the numbers, t he PMI manufacturing is at a very low level at the moment, even below 40 in Germany, which is our home market, as you know, which normally indicates an even more negative growth development. So I think, I believe what we see is something we see in the market. Now, looking at the indicators today, the PMI, for example, also shows us what will happen in [3-4 months]. Looking at the PMI now, we see what we will have to expect like for the fourth quarter and possibly also for the start into next year.
So that's the market. I think I can't now really say when last time was TAKKT being 4 or 5 quarters in a row in such a situation, but I think you could talk about that, saying TAKKT is in that situation. But also, I think the economic uncertainties outside in the world and the geopolitical uncertainties in this intensity have not been like that in the past. So that's my view on that. Are we happy with this? No, of course not. We try to push on sales growth, right? To get then market share, even in a weak environment, and continue on margin, cost management, and cash focus.
Okay. And do you agree that the U.S. might be the first market to recover a bit?
Yeah. So looking at macroeconomics, there was, from my perspective, like over the last weeks, there was often that expectation that the recovery in the U.S. could be first. Now, to be honest, with the political uncertainties, government shutdowns, and the last weeks we heard it a bit more pessimistic, like from the U.S., and have seen it a bit more pessimistic for the U.S. But I think you're right. Generally, there's still the expectation in the market that U.S. might recover before Europe. Now, when will this happen? We don't know. We have to stay flexible, and then we react to it when we see it, and that's also the beautiful model, that it allows us to do so.
Okay, thanks.
Perfect. [Regarding the question], q uestion towards the management. There's one raised hand indeed still left. Do you have the time for maybe extend the time for two or three minutes? Would it be okay for you?
Of course. Yes.
Perfect. Thank you so much. So I hand over to [Roland Könen ]. The stage is yours.
Yes. Thanks a lot for taking my questions. Most of them are already answered, so we could keep it very short. Just kind of housekeeping question. I saw that your depreciation was in this third quarter, just EUR 7.8 million. At average in the first two quarters, it was EUR 9.2 million. What are the reasons for this lower number? And is this number from this third quarter also the number for the next quarters going forward? Thanks a lot.
Yeah, so there are no bigger adjustments in there. You're right, it's a bit lower because some of the normal depreciation has gone down, and we had some special impact, like non-recurring impact, in the depreciation in a kind of a positive way. I think important, if you compare that to last year, please keep in mind that we had some impairment on the [Certeo] for last fiscal ? Brands that we are now merging with KAISER+KRAFT. So last year, third quarter was extraordinarily high. Sorry, second quarter, last year's second quarter was extraordinarily high. Now we are more on a normal level. So it will be a bit higher again than probably in the fourth quarter compared to the third.
Okay, great. Thanks. That's all from my side.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you very much for all of your questions. Due to the fact that in the meantime we haven't received any further questions, we come to an end of today's earnings call, and therefore, I would like to hand over to you, Maria Zesch, for some closing words. As you wished during the presentation, of course, we keep our fingers crossed for the Sustainability Award and as well the Q4.
Many thanks from my side. Thank you for your questions, thank you for your interest, and see you and speak to you at the next call. Bye-bye.