Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Analyst and press call Q3 2022/2023 results presentation. Throughout today's recorded conference, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. You can ask questions via call and in written form. If you are a journalist and want to ask a question in German, please wait until the end of the call where we will provide a German slot additionally. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Please press star followed by zero if you need operator assistance. If you'd like to submit a question in written form, please use the webcast. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dr. Steffen Greubel, CEO, METRO AG . Please go ahead, sir.
Yeah, thank you very much, good morning to everyone. Welcome to our METRO's Q3 2022, 2023 results call. I am happy to present you our most recent business developments today. Before we start, a couple of announcements, as you know, and following currently the recent announcement, Christian Baier will leave the company by the end of the fiscal year. In order to manage a proper handover in the meantime, he resigned from his position as a Management Board member as of 1st of August, 2023. We have transferred his responsibilities to other members of the Management Board, and I'm taking care of the financial topics until a new CFO is in charge. Accordingly, I will guide you through the developments in Q3 today. Michael Bouscheljong , Senior Vice President Finance, will be with me in this call today and will also assist during the Q&A parts later on.
As also in the previous calls, we will again provide a written and verbal Q&A option. Feel free to post your questions either in the chat during the presentation or ask him verbally afterwards. Moreover, as already announced, we will again provide an opportunity for journalists to ask questions in Deutsch for quotation purposes at the end of this call. Let's jump into the content. Today's call will focus on five topics overall. We will start with a look into the market and macroeconomic environment, and in this context, also on our country portfolio. We will continue with an update on our performance, which is in line with the provided guidance, and we further defended gained market shares. We will then do a quick recap on our sCore strategy and explain how it enables significant competitive advantages for METRO.
Following this, we will again share some insights into the progress of selected sCore initiatives and our related sCore KPIs. We will then finish this call with the confirmation of our strategy and ambitions. Let's start, and let's have a look into our market and macroeconomic environment first. Let's highlight 3 topics with relevance for our Q3 results. First, we do see a continuous food inflation in the market. While we see a slight decrease against Q2, food inflation is still significantly above the overall Consumer Price Index and significantly above previous year, which has a strong impact on both our sales and also cost components. Second, we also see further rising interest rates in the market, while we as METRO are profiting from the fact that a major part of our net debt is comprised of leases.
This makes us more resilient and our balance sheet stronger in the current market environment. Third, with the sale of METRO India, we have completed our portfolio review for now. We have no further exits planned in the current situation and therefore are fully focused on the execution of our sCore strategy. However, sales and adjusted EBITDA of METRO India are still included in the segment East until April 2023. Thus, it is worth to mention that due to portfolio adjustment effects, previous quarters appear to be stronger compared to current figures. Now let me move on to our quarterly and last 9-month results in a portfolio-adjusted view and how it is positioned in the guidance. Generally, Q3 was a challenging quarter, but overall still in line with our expectations.
The portfolio adjustment at that constant currency, we achieved a sales growth of 6%, versus a very strong quarter in the previous year. Our sCore execution is in line with the given outlook and also in Q3, unfavorable weather conditions directly affected the out-of-home consumption, especially in Germany and in the segment West. The portfolio-adjusted sales growth for the nine months was around 9%. We hereby can confirm our expectations to reach the provided sales guidance for the fiscal year. Against a strong previous year, Q3 adjusted EBITDA declined by EUR 85 million. This is mainly driven by the expiration of post-transactional effects from the sale of real, and the discontinuation of license income related to Wumei as of May 23. As expected, effects from cost inflation are noticeable and continue to look at challenging business conditions in Russia.
On top, our new management team in Germany has put in place new plans to improve our operating performance and capabilities. I will talk about this more in detail shortly. Nine months adjusted EBITDA decreased by EUR 206 million versus previous year. This includes expenses from the cyberattack in Q1, as well as an increase in IT costs following these attacks and subsequent investments into our IT security systems. Next, financially, we expect to have additional costs for IT security of up to EUR 50 million. We expect this amount to decrease in the subsequent years after implementation gradually. We expect a slightly increase of adjusted EBITDA in Q4, and to be fully in line with our full year guidance.
By now looking at the Q3 performance more in detail, we can see that especially the segments West and East contributed to the growth of the group in the quarter. Q3 was impacted by negative portfolio effects of around 3 points, 3 percentage points. This is mainly related to the sale of METRO India in segment East in the current year, and the sale of METRO and Makro Belgium in the last year. The decrease in adjusted EBITDA is mainly driven by the segment others, from the mentioned post-transaction effects and high cost inflation in personal expenses and energy costs. It also includes investments in our wholesale transformations through previously announced price investments. Additionally, effects from assortment and stock rationalization, especially in Germany. To be more specific on the development, in Germany, reported sales increased by 2% versus previous year, reaching EUR 1.3 billion.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased by EUR 30 million, driven by continuous and also expected cost inflation and unfavorable weather conditions impacting gastronomy sentiment, mainly in April and partially also in May. Sales performance improved in the second half of May and June. We are happy to have put in place a new management team in Germany to focus even more on the wholesale transformation in one of our key markets. The current focus on assortment and stock rationalization will over the long term, improve the quality of our overall performance here in Germany. We will update you on the progress over time. Let's talk about the West. In the segment West, reported sales increased by 2% versus previous year, and reached EUR 3.4 billion. Especially France, Spain, and Portugal contributed to the sales growth.
In the segment West, HoReCa sales were impacted by the weather conditions quite heavily, especially in Italy, where floods and bad weather delayed the start of the summer season. I'm also excited to report that the performance of our FSD companies, such as Pro à Pro France, Pro à Pro Spain , and Aviludo in Portugal, all achieved a two-digit sales growth. Since May 2023, the recently acquired Swedish delivery specialist, JHB, Johan i Hallen & Bergfalk, also contributed to the overall sales growth in our FSD business. The adjusted EBITDA for the segment West slightly decreased to EUR 195 million, mostly due effects of cost inflation. In Russia, sales in local currency decreased by -3% due to a reduced customer spending. Reported sales reached EUR 600 million, also impacted by a negative currency development. Adjusted EBITDA at constant currency decreased by EUR 8 million against previous year.
The decline was mainly due to the difficult macroeconomic environment and associate margin decrease. In the segment East, sales in local currency increased by 4%. adjusted for METRO India, sales even increased by 11%. Almost all countries in the segment contributed to the sales growth. The Ukrainian business performed positively, with 64% growth versus previous year at constant currency. Negative currency effects related to our Turkish operations significantly impacted the reported view. adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 89 million, and slightly decreased by EUR 8 million at constant currency following expected cost inflation. In the segment others, reported sales grew by EUR 29 million to 60 million and included METRO Markets sales of EUR 36 million. This sales growth is mainly a result of the encouraging growth in our digital business.
Two-thirds are attributable to the growth of our existing METRO Markets business in Germany, Spain, so countries that we were also live in previous year. One third of the growth resulted from the rollout of METRO Markets to Italy, Portugal, and the Netherlands. The POS rollout in France and Germany as well as Günther Group contributed to the sales growth in this segment. adjusted EBITDA decreased to minus EUR 23 million due to the expiry of post-transaction effects from real, mainly from real, in previous year, of previous year, and further investments into digitalization. How does this performance translate into our market share development? In Q3, we again outperformed the market, and we're even able to increase the gap versus the market in France. This trend further confirms the effectiveness of our sCore strategy, and I would like to remind you how exactly it works.
Let me pick the how again, and explain you indeed more specifically how we are able to drive growth and still outperform the market. The answer is, because with sCore, we have a strong strategy in place, which has a huge potential and significant competitive advantages. The core is greater simplicity and efficiency for our customers. This is because our sCore strategy connects our three different channels: stores, delivery, and digital, in one multi-channel business model. It also drives efficient purchasing opportunities in each individual channel. Second, sCore means making most of our existing infrastructure. We achieve this by actively connecting our store base and our growing delivery business by pushing out of store delivery. At the same time, we are continuously optimizing our stores with regard to an efficient wholesale setup, and through our online marketplace, we further extend our assortment virtually in addition to that.
Our multi-channel business strategy differs us from competition and marks a clear competitive advantage, as the combination of all of our sales channels has significantly more potential than the sum of its parts. Experience shows with the use of multiple channels through our customers, the overall sales grow over proportionally for us. Following the multi-channel customers are important drivers for our sales, and our ambition is to constantly increase the share of those multi-channel customers. Let me now look a little bit closer in the progress of our sCore execution. I will start again with our pricing initiative, Buy More Pay Less, before then moving to the overall store transformation and sales force growth. As already explained in the Q2 call, Buy More Pay Less, or BMPL, is our volume-driven pricing model and a key initiative of the wholesale transformation of our stores.
It is not only a price investment initiative, but a measure to significantly enhance our productivity. That's because BMPL starts with reducing the assortment and thus complexity, while in parallel, increasing the massification of product presentation. Combined with the price optimization of those products, BMPL drives both sales as well as productivity gains. This is mainly the result of an easier and faster purchasing environment for our customers, as well as more efficient replenishment opportunities for our staff. Having shown the encouraging results of the BMPL pilot country, METRO Romania, as well as METRO Italy in the last call, I'd like to show you today the progress of further country examples in different rollout stages. In this case, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain and Croatia.
Serbia and Croatia worked on the BMPL implementation already since more than 1 year, both, both showing strong BMPL sales shares with 47% and 39%, respectively. As BMPL and assortment optimization are closely linked, Serbia has also reduced its assortment by impressive 12,000 SKUs, while Bulgaria also already removed 7K SKUs. As a result, we see a sustainable and continued sales uplift in both countries. Looking at the newly onboarded BMPL countries, Spain and Croatia, we see strong and constantly rising numbers giving their short implementation periods so far. Moreover, we can see that implementation in both countries goes faster and more efficient as they incorporate learnings from other countries. Let's now move from assortment and pricing to the store infrastructure transformation, resulting in the so-called Multi-Channel Fulfillment Center, MFC in abbreviation.
As already mentioned, to achieve our ambitious FSD targets, tripling delivery sales by 2030, we need to leverage our existing infrastructure. We do this by actively connecting our stores with the FSD business and further developing our stores into efficient warehouses and logistic platforms. The transformation of a store to a Multi-Channel Fulfillment Center includes 3 fundamental areas. Number 1, space management, which encompasses all key elements of wholesale optimization. This includes reducing the assortment, introducing volume-based pricing, as well as massification of product presentation. Number 2, stock management, which includes the full digitalization of the stock management systems. This is to ensure real-time stock control and transparency, both in-store as well as for the out-of-store delivery. Then number 3, in-store logistics, which means the implementation of an integrated supply chain planning, as well as the optimization of the picking and replenishment processes.
This results in more efficient in and outbound logistic flows and a smoother interaction between store-based and delivery business. Looking on the implementation progress, the transformation of our stores into MFCs has already started in 14 METRO countries and will be gradually rolled out to the other countries in the upcoming months. Zooming into Makro Poland as an early adopter and MFC pilot country. Already, all local stores have been transformed into MFCs, and we see encouraging results based on the data for 10 pilot stores before and after MFC implementation. Stock ability increased by nearly 4% through real-time transparency of inventories. The FSD service level increased by 2% through a stronger connection of in-store and FSD business, and the picking productivity raised by almost 16% through digitalization and process optimization.
A further key initiative of the sCore strategy execution is the expansion of our sales force, because the sales force also plays an instrumental role in achieving our 2030 ambition. That's because with a constantly increasing FSD sales share, we're also moving more and more into an active selling business. Potential FSD customers do not necessarily look for purchasing at METRO, but must be convinced from our service and won for us on an ongoing basis. This also includes pushing our multichannel business by pitching the advantages of our METRO Markets, of fish products, or specific store-based offers, and this increases the number of multichannel customers. Finally, the sales force ensures a smooth customer delivery. By this, we mean supporting our customers personally with the first orders, but also being available for them for all questions and issues going forward.
To make this happen and have enough resources in place, we have defined the goal to double our sales force by adding an additional 6,500 sales reps until 2030. We are seeing good progress as we have already increased our sales force by 1,500 new colleagues, or 20% of the overall ambition within the last 21 months. Also, we are actively driving professionalization by currently looking, rolling out a sales coaching certification program for all team leaders. The resulting METRO Master sales coach certification is also officially recognized by the International Coaching Federation. We will see a great momentum with all METRO, MAKRO, and FSD companies being part of this program, and the ambition to have a 100% of our sales team leaders certified by the end of this calendar year. Now, switching from sCore execution to the overall sCore progress.
We see, again, good results in almost all KPIs in the last quarter. On the input side, we grew our sales force by 175 new FTE in Q3, end up sitting at 650 FTE over the last nine months, being good on track to double our sales force until 2030. Moreover, our delivery infrastructure was expanded by eight new depots, five depots from the acquisition of JHB, two depots at Classic Fine Foods, and another depot in Spain. Regarding the output factors, we see the following results: strategic customer sales share increased again to 73%, versus 71 in the first half of the year. FSD sales share remained at strong 22% versus the first half of the year.
The digital sales share grew to 11% versus 9% in the first half of the year, which reflects the consolidated sales from METRO Markets, HD, and FSD online ordering, shows that we've further increased our digital footprint. Own brand share remained at the record share of 21% in line with the first half of the year, underlining our strong own brand focus. Let me summarize then, how Q3 performance was translated into financial KPIs. While the guidance view sales growth is +6%, the reported view in group currency is slightly negative of -3% to the portfolio and the FX effects. In a channel view, as well as reported sales, store and FSD sales were impacted by portfolio and FX effects. Portfolio-adjusted store sales are roughly on previous year level, while in reported view, reached around EUR 5.8 billion.
FSD sales growth slightly increased, versus very strong comparison basis in previous year, and reached sales share of around 24%. METRO Markets sales increased above 97% versus previous year, almost doubled. As already mentioned, around two-thirds come from organic growth and about one-third from the rollout in new countries, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, as mentioned. Further, as mentioned, the adjusted EBITDA decreased to the expiry of post-transaction effects from real, discontinued license income from Wumei in previous year, as well as cost inflation and margin decline due to a previously mentioned price investments and assortment stock rationalization program, especially in Germany. Currency effect is EUR 19 million negative, and the current transformation gains in Q3 include METRO India sales effect and previous year transformation costs of the sale of Makro Belgium.
This brings us then to a positive reported EBITDA development in Q3 versus previous year of + EUR 175 million. Let's move further down the P&L. Depreciation is almost stable. The net financial results improvement, mostly due to the non-cash FX effect of ruble in other financial results. While this was negative in the previous year, it's positively impacted in the current year. Consistent to last year's approach, taxes were calculated based on the expected absolute amount for the full year. Q3 earnings per share, including sale of METRO India at EUR 0.30 and non-cash FX effect, is about EUR 0.50. In the previous quarter, in Q3, previous year, it was - EUR 0.80.
Adjusted for the non-cash FX effect in financial result, EPS would have been at roughly EUR 0.40 for Q3 and at roughly EUR 1 for nine months. Overall, for nine months, EPS is at EUR 1.62 and includes campus project Real Estate gains from the first quarter. Moving on to the cash flow perspective. The positive Q3 free cash flow of EUR 384 million is mainly driven by a good operating cash flow development and roughly on previous year level. Due to the expected effect from assortment, stock optimization, and collection of supplier receivables, net working capital development overcompensated lower operational EBITDA.
While other opera- OCF included mainly the deconsolidation effect of transformation costs from the sale of Makro Belgium in the previous year, and transformation gains from the sale of METRO India in the current year. Investments in sCore execution for network and sustainability grew, as well as for repayment and maintenance, while divestments, leasing, and net interest rate are almost stable. The position other includes cash in from close out of remaining ruble swaps in previous year. Positive free cash flow also reduced net debt by EUR 582 million, versus Q2, and by EUR 303 million versus previous year. The debt improvement also included effect from M&A activities, sale of METRO India, and the acquisition of JHB. For the financial year, we reconfirm our expectations on sales growth.
Let me take you through the full year Segment guidance according to the last developments. In Segment West, our market share gains with sCore execution confirm our expectations to grow within the guidance range. However, in Germany, given the initiatives we have recently put in place, we expect to grow more slowly and slightly below guidance. In Segment East, we expect to grow noticeably above our guidance range, partly supported by high inflation. As we mentioned earlier, Russia sales will decrease versus previous year. Sales in Segment Others will continue to grow significantly above guidance, as well roll out METRO Markets and Hospitality Digital products more broadly. Overall, on a group level, we expect sales development reaches upper half of our sales growth guidance. Moving to adjusted EBITDA guidance for the financial year, in the Segment West, adjusted EBITDA will grow moderately.
In segment East, we expect a similar performance to previous year. In Germany, as previously noticed, performance will be impacted by new initiatives to improve long-term profitability. Adjusted EBITDA will noticeably decline this year. Russian business will decrease strongly. Moving to segment Other, it will also decline to post-transaction effects, mainly China and, or China and Riyadh. On a group level, there are also further cost inflation effects and the impact of cyberattack costs, which leads to a temporarily declining Adjusted EBITDA. We continue to expect the development within the communicated Adjusted EBITDA corridor. Taking into account mentioned remarks, now rather in the lower half. For 2024, you should expect the impact of additional cybersecurity costs up to EUR 50 million. We expect this amount to decrease in the subsequent years after implementation gradually.
The expected roughly EUR 200 million real estate gains have already been fully booked in the first quarter. D&NA net financial results without non-cash FX effect and taxes are under normal development. Announced in Q2, EPS in the range of EUR 1.20- 1.60, further confirmed. Unchanged cash investment of around EUR 600 million for the full year is in line with our expectations and the sCore strategy, an improvement of our net debt by around EUR 300 million. Taking also into account the sale of METRO India, the FSD acquisition of JHB, and a slightly negative free cash flow. While there remains work to be done, I remain confident in our midterm, our mid to long-term perspective and reconfirm our sales growth ambition. This is because of our successful sCore strategy execution and our strong operational business.
While EBITDA is impacted by rising costs and investments in IT costs for cybersecurity and ongoing investments to drive growth initiatives, we remain fully on track with reaching 2030 ambitions. This now concludes our presentation today, and Michael and I are now happy to take your questions, first in English. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our Q&A session. Please note that you can submit your questions in English, either via call or in written via the webcast link. In the Q&A session, we first handle questions via call, followed by questions by webcast. At the end, we will provide a German slot additionally. If you'd like to ask a question by phone, you may press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If you want to remove your question, please press star, then two. Anyone who has a question may press star, followed by one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. First question is from the line of Andrew Gwynn with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. two questions, if I can. Firstly, could you give a little bit more color on the trading? Maybe like for like by region. Obviously, there's quite a lot of space effects and so forth going on. I know you don't normally disclose like for like, but I believe the feel there would be good. The second, obviously, as we come into your Q4, the calendar Q3, how much of a sense of an improvement, given the sort of normalization in weather trend, albeit in the UK, it's still pretty gray? Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for the question. Let me take this one and focus on West and Eastern Europe, where we have some of the relevant portfolio adjustments. When you look at Q3, we reported in Western Europe, +1.6%. When you look at it portfolio adjusted, we were looking at roughly 5%, 4.8% to be precise. That's mainly related to the sale or to the closure or to the sale of METRO Belgium in the last year. Closing date was the 15th of June, and you can expect roughly EUR 130 million still being in the figures from the last year. And on Eastern Europe, that's mainly due to India and this year activity. Non-adjusted, we are looking at 4.2%.
Adjusted, we would look at 11.2%. When you look now, because we talked a lot about the weather and, the expectations and the sentiment. We see, apparently when you look at June only, where the conditions have been better, we see also that there is a better development and, it's basically in line than with our expectations. Weather is playing indeed a role, yeah.
Is there an early look at July? I don't know if there's any extra color you'd want to give for that.
That's very different by, by region. Yeah, we will then report, in the next session about July.
Okay, very good. Have a good day.
Thank you very much, Andrew.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question on the phone, please press star followed by one, Next question is from the line of Ulrike Dauer with Dow Jones Newswires. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning, everybody. Thank you. Hopefully, you can hear me. Can you hear me?
Yes, sort of. Yeah.
Wonderful. Good morning. I just want to get a little bit of color on the fourth quarter, how it started, and if you see yourself on track for a full year net profit and thus a return to a dividend. Thank you.
Okay. I mean, the, the question on current trading in Q3, I basically answered. Yeah, we see sort of very different, or not very different, but different circumstances. Overall, it is in line with our expectation. When we look at the EPS, we expect the EUR 1.22- 1.60, and there's no change in dividend policy. We need to see how then things are turning out in the Q3 quarter, and then when it comes to the publication of results, we can give more light on then the last quarter in terms of EPS.
How did the fourth quarter start?
It started in line with expectation.
Okay. Thank you.
Are there any further questions, please press star followed by one. There are no further telephone questions at this time. We will now switch over to the written questions from the webcast. In the meantime, if you'd like to ask a question in German on the phone, you may press star followed by one on your telephone.
We would pick the first question from the webcast. It comes from Marcus Schmidt, from ODDO BHF. Thanks for taking our questions. Could you please comment on the HoReCa environment in the different countries, and if you see that consumer sentiment is now more affecting demand of your clients than in the previous quarter, so the trend is becoming more negative or still unchanged? Second question, could you please confirm how Q4 is trending, particularly in Germany? Third question, could you please break down the position, Other, in the cash flow statement? The fourth one, since you said you will invest additional EUR 50 million in IT security next year, where do you see CapEx? PPA intangibles in financial year 2024.
Maybe Steffen, you will start?
Yeah.
Yeah, thank you very much, Marcus, for the questions. Let me take, or let me start with the first one. I mean, as already said, the strategy implementation is very well on track, and we are developing according to plan. Again, you know, our market shares are rather, sort of, limited. We, in most countries, being usually the number 1, we are looking at 1-digit market share, so there is plenty of space to grow. The potential growth for us seems to be unaffected, and our growth momentum also continues. We also continued, as you see, to gain market shares, and we also expect to continue that trend also in the next quarter. Talking about, about Germany, of course, and I mean, it's quite hard to speak.
I mean, four weeks of rain are doing something to us here, when you're especially looking at terraces in the gastronomy. The team is very much doing a lot of activities to sort of fight back and then bring the country also in line with our expectations again. For the question three and four, I would like to hand over to Michael now to give us a little bit more detail on that one. Thank you.
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Steffen, for that. For the position, Other, that you see in the cash flow statement, what we do here is, mostly make a reclassification of the impact of the disposal of India, to take it out from the operating cash flow, and put it into divestment cash flow. On question number four, on, the additional IT security. The big part of the EUR 50 million is mostly OpEx related. There's only a minor CapEx part, that's building up on top, of the last year. Already this year, there's something coming, and then the EUR 50 million is accumulated on top investment versus times before cyber attack.
The next one comes from Thomas Aldenrath , from ICF BANK AG. Mr. Kretinsky recently put EUR 1 billion into a French retailer, Casino Group. Did he already knock on METRO's door in order to figure out future synergies between METRO and Casino?
He didn't. Let me also talk shortly about the difference between a hypermarket and a wholesaler, because it's a common misconception that we are more or less seen in common with supermarket retailers, discounters. We are a wholesale company. We are a multi-channel company. We sell bulk. We sell to professional customers. It's a very different business model when you would compare to Casino, and also the synergies, even theoretically, would be very, very limited. He didn't knock. I guess they were all that was all questions, right now?
Yes, there are no more written questions in the webcast, but I think there are German questions still on hold.
Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, we would now give the journalists the additional opportunity to ask questions in German, and would therefore like to switch to the German language. If there is anyone who would like to ask a question in German? [Foreign language]
[Foreign language]. Vorab weggenommen worden. Deshalb vielleicht noch eine kurze Nachfrage: Wären denn Einkaufsallianzen mit Casino möglich? Herr Kretinsky braucht ja jetzt vermutlich viel Geld. Hat er sich hat er bei Ihnen angedeutet, dass er seinen Anteil abschmelzen könnte?
Er hat gar nichts angedeutet, hat auch nicht angeklopft. Also sage ich in Deutsch auch noch mal so: das ist nicht so. Lassen Sie mich noch eine Sache zu, zu den Einkaufsallianzen sagen: Wir sozusagen gehen oder haben schon viele Einkaufsallianzen mit Retailern, gekündigt, auch jetzt in der Vergangenheit, weil wir einfach als Großhändler andere Bedürfnisse haben. Das ist ein anderes Einkaufen. Die Hersteller betrachten Großhändler anders als Einzelhändler. Da gibt es unterschiedliche, sozusagen Margenbestandteile und wir möchten als Großhändler durch unsere Lieferanten wahrgenommen werden. Sozusagen Einkaufsallianzen sind eher was, von dem wir uns verabschieden. Deswegen sehe ich das auch jetzt zum Beispiel bei Casino jetzt nicht. Wie gesagt, es gibt keine aktive Konversation zwischen Herrn Kretinsky und uns bezüglich allen möglichen Themen Richtung Casino.
Super, herzlichen Dank!
Gerne.
[Foreign Language] Die letzte Frage ist von Annette Claudia Müller, Lebensmittel Zeitung. Ihre Frage bitte.
[Foreign Language] Guten Morgen, ich grüße Sie. Ich würde Sie gerne auch noch mal etwas zu Deutschland fragen. Es geht ja nicht nur um die Mehrwertsteuer, die jetzt gerade da diskutiert wird, sondern wir haben ja noch in der Gastronomiebranche ganz andere Probleme. Man merkt das ja selbst, wenn man essen geht, da ist der Fachkräftemangel Thema. Wie sehr beschäftigt Sie das? Es gab in der Corona-Zeit mal in der Branche so konzertierte Aktionen, wo einfach auch getrommelt wurde für die Gastronomie. Planen Sie angesichts der ganzen Entwicklung dieser Situation, Sie machen sich ja sehr stark Sorgen eben auch um Ihre Gastronomiekunden, planen Sie da vielleicht wieder eine konzertierte Aktion? Die zweite Frage wäre: Wie sieht das denn eigentlich aus? Sie suchen ja einen neuen Finanzchef. Wie weit sind Sie? Danke schön.
[Foreign language] Ja, gerne. also zum Thema konzertierte Aktion: Es gibt eine Onlinepetition, das ist initiiert von DEHOGA. Können Sie auf der Seite nachgucken, wo die Leute eben aufgefordert sind, sich für die Gastronomie, stark zu machen. Auch hier: wir unterstützen diese Aktion und haben auch alle schon mit unterschrieben. Das ist sozusagen das, was wir jetzt machen. Es, wenn man sich so LinkedIn, soziale Medien, auch die Presse anschaut im Augenblick, ich glaube, das Thema wird gerade aufgegriffen. Ich habe Artikel im Manager Magazin gesehen, im Handelsblatt, in der WirtschaftsWoche, vielleicht auch bald in der Lebensmittel Zeitung zu genau diesem Thema. Wie gesagt, ich glaube, das ist jetzt schon, das bekommt einfach auch jetzt Traktion. Was dann jetzt noch an zusätzlichen Aktionen geplant ist, das muss man jetzt noch sehen.
[Foreign language] Weiß ich jetzt keine, aber ich kann mir gut vorstellen, Gastronomie ist ja sehr erfinderisch, dass da auf jeden Fall noch Akzente nach vorne gesetzt werden, weil in der Tat, wie Sie sagen, die hohe Inflation, die Energiepreise, viele, sozusagen, Themen rund um Fachkräfte oder eigentlich auch Kräftemangel, ja, weil die Gastronomie braucht auch einfache Arbeitskräfte. Spüler, Runner, das sind Dinge, die im Augenblick fehlen. Es gibt 50,000 freie Arbeitsplätze in der Gastronomie. Viele Gastronomen haben nur noch 3, 4 Tage auf, kein Mittagessen mehr und so weiter und so fort. Die haben schon sich zurück, sozusagen gespart. Wenn dann jetzt noch die Mehrwertsteuererhöhung kommt, ja, die Ungleichberechtigung. In keinem europäischen Land, ich glaube, nur in one or two, wo wir aktiv sind, gibt es eine Ungleichbehandlung. Das ist einfach eine komische Situation.
[Foreign language] Sie bestellen eine Pizza bei Lieferando mit einem anderen Mehrwertsteuersteuersatz, als wenn Sie die Pizza im Restaurant essen. Meiner Ansicht nach unsäglich. Deswegen, wir müssen da zurück. Es gibt viel Aktivität. Wir stehen da an der Seite von allen und wenn Sie was Gutes tun, ist das Beste, was man im Augenblick machen kann, die Petition der DEHOGA zu unterschreiben.
[Foreign language] Der Finanzchef?
[Foreign language] Gerne.
There are no further questions registered at this time. I will hand back to Dr. Steffen Greubel for closing comments.
[Foreign language] Dann sind jetzt ja nur noch Deutsche drin, schätze ich mal, oder? Okay, I'm going to switch to English. Thank you very much for joining and the questions. [Foreign language] Vielen Dank fürs Teilnehmen und die Fragen as always, go out eating. Thank you very much. [Foreign language] Vielen Dank. Essen gehen, bitte.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you very much for joining and have a pleasant day.