Okay, good morning everyone, and warm welcome to the presentation of Anora's Q4 results. My name is Milena Häggström, I'm the Head of Investor Relations here at Anora, and our presenters today are CEO Kirsi Puntila and CFO Stein Eriksen. After their presentations, we will start with the Q&A session. And please be reminded that you can post questions throughout the call through the chat, and please also note that this presentation will be recorded and published later today on our website, anora.com. And now Kirsi, please go ahead.
Thank you, Milena. Okay, Q4, and therefore also the year 2025 is now packed and locked. It was an intense year for Anora, both internally and externally. Externally, we have to acknowledge the fact that the world has gone a little bit crazy lately, and consumer behaviors are also changing, not only in our industry but also in the larger consumer goods landscape. The wine and spirits industry is not immune to those changes either, and we do see many of the big global companies divesting and acquiring. We see many smaller companies disappearing from the market, and we see some new operators coming to market. Also, categories are blurring, and increasingly more of the players in the industry are expanding their portfolios across different segments. Then internally, 2025, Anora had to adjust to a new CEO, and there were also some changes in the leadership team.
But more importantly, we organized all our ducks in a row to get ready for a turnaround of Anora. We created and we launched a new midterm strategy, and we started executing the many initiatives communicated in the Fit, Fix, and Focus strategy. On that front, if I simplistically summarize our accomplishments and things that we now need to focus even more on, they are on this slide. If we start with a little bit of a celebration of the accomplishments that we were able to do last year. First and foremost, our ability to turn around the wine's market share in Sweden, and that is a testimonial to our strength in understanding the dynamics of the monopolies and how to respond to consumer needs. Not only did we restate our number two position in the market, but we also continued to grow every month.
Remember, Sweden and the Swedish wine market is 5x bigger than, for example, Finland. Another strength is our ability to innovate. We launched several successful line extensions to our core brands, and this is very much in our midterm strategy as well, expanding our core to growing segments. Some of the good examples of that are, for example, Koskenkorva liqueurs, such as Gingerbread and other cream liqueurs. We launched a very successful Jaloviina Kerma and Jaloviina Glögg, which actually was the most sold glögg in the Finnish monopoly in the past season. All the Christmas Aquavits, they sold 8% more in net sales than the previous year. Of course, the impressive improvement in our gross margins, our overall meticulous ability in value management.
And then eventually we are here to make money, of course, and provide a profitable business to our shareholders, and we have made many improvements internally, whether we talk about OpEx improvements or inventory reductions, to name a few. Then there's still obviously a lot in the pipeline and a lot in progress. As far as our Fit, Fix, and Focus strategy is concerned, we launched our new organization, and this new structure has now been fully operational as of 1st of January this year. We also just last weekend went live with the unified ERP system, and we can proudly say that this is now fully operational. And then we can also report that there's good progress in all of the other work streams that we launched and communicated as part of the Fit, Fix, and Focus strategy.
But the work continues, and we have only started with a turnaround, so the high priority moving forward is, of course, the growth. We need to also start growing our top line. And on top of that, there are markets and categories where we haven't been able to keep the shares, and this is what the 2026 plans are geared up towards. We also need to consistently and continuously renew and analyze not only our portfolios but also the channels that we work in. We want to be a number one multi-channel operator, which means that we need to strive for better performance in many areas. Finally, something that we're committed to is to keep improving our position as the number one wine and spirits powerhouse in the Nordics and the Baltics.
This means embracing our dual model, or I could call it a dual model, which is very unique in this area and gives us competitive advantage. This means that we can serve our customers with the best of the partner brands and partner wines and spirits and simultaneously keep on growing our core own brands. Let's continue with a brief market overview in Q4 before going to the Anora figures. In the Nordic markets, total sales volume in Q4 declined by 4.3% overall. Spirits saw a decline of 4.7%, and wine declined by 4.3% compared to the same period last year. The decline was most significant in Finland and Denmark, with total volume decreases by 7.1% and 6.6% respectively. Sweden and Norway showed a more moderate decline of 3.6% in Sweden and 2.1% in Norway.
So the overall picture is still very much the same as in the previous quarter, Q4 being yet another consecutive quarter of negative development in the monopolies. So this was now the 18th consecutive negative quarter, to be exact. Okay, so against this backdrop, I think we have good news and we have bad news. I am super happy to announce that we had the best quarter four for Anora since the merger in 2021. It is fair to say that our strong execution and performance improvement actions really started showing tangible results. The challenge was our Q4 net sales, and this decreased by 5.4% to EUR 194.3 million. A part of this decline is related to lower volumes in the filler services in wines, and the partner losses, the earlier changes that we've had in the partner portfolio in the spirits.
But still, what pleases us is that our Q4 group gross margin rose to 45.1% of net sales. All our segments improved in gross margin, both in the fourth quarter and during the full year. In Q4, wine reached 31.5% of net sales and spirits 49.1% of net sales. Then our comparable EBITDA increased by 7.7%, amounting to EUR 31.1 million compared to the last year when it was EUR 28.9 million. We also showcased strong execution in our Fit, Fix, and Focus initiatives, which, as said, delivered tangible results, which was shown as improved profitability and with our Q4 comparable EBITDA margin reaching already 16%. So the full year group comparable EBITDA was in line with the guidance, amounting to EUR 71.1 million or 4.8% of net sales. And when looking at the guidance, sorry, next I have the net debt, sorry.
We also entered the quarter with strong cash flow, leading to a healthy financial position with net debt being as low as EUR 101.5 million and the leverage being 1.4. So when looking ahead at our guidance for this year, our comparable EBITDA is expected to be in the range of EUR 74 million-EUR 79 million this year. Our comparable EPS amounted to EUR 0.33 per share in 2025, and our board of directors proposes a dividend of EUR 0.24 per share to our annual general meeting later in April. Very good. If I then summarize some of the many highlights of the Q4, first we need to talk about the wine market share. We successfully grew our market share again in Q4 in Sweden, and that was thanks to our new launch initiatives.
The glögg category also continued its strong momentum, with Blossa exceeding the results of the previous year. Our partner wine business also developed positively thanks to some new agreements which we were able to get, while our leading partners delivered results above the market average. So overall, we are very pleased to see that our focused investments and successful new wine launches made us the fastest growing company in the Swedish wine market in 2025. Then, of course, we can't forget the glögg season when we talk about Q4. Our Blossa brand delivered strong performance in Sweden and in Finland. And for the Finns in the audience, we also expanded the good old Jaloviina in the glögg category in the Finnish markets, and that had a quirky little twist to the whole glögg portfolio.
Then if we continue with the spirits highlights, we delivered a record quarter in profitability and in EBITDA. And this is against very heavy headwinds, especially in Finland, where the monopoly has been in decline for quite some time now. And also, who else but Koskenkorva brand again continued the strong performance. Koskenkorva mother brand continued to excel internationally, and in the Nordic region, it was particularly the liqueurs and ready-to-drink so-called RTD category that kept growing. I've said it before, but extensions such as Koskenkorva Gingerbread and the earlier mentioned Jaloviina Kerma contributed particularly well to the spirits net sales. All right, then I will go and elaborate a little bit more on the segments performance. So total wine segment net sales declined by 9.2% to EUR 90.9 million.
As you remember, our wine business can be divided into two areas, one being our own so-called commercial own and partner wine business, and then the rest being a so-called filler business, which basically means that we are selling out factory capacity to others in the industry. The declining Q4 was driven by, sure, reduced volumes in the filler services in Denmark in particular, as well as lower volumes in Finland and Denmark. In Sweden, the recent new wine launches made us the fastest growing company in the Swedish wine market, which is a clear proof of our competitiveness. As already mentioned, we gained number two market position in the monopoly channel and also improved the overall market share in Sweden. We also maintained our total market leadership in Norway, in Denmark, and in Finland, including the grocery trade.
Wine gross margin was 31.5% of net sales, and gross profit amounted to EUR 28.6 million in Q4. Finally, comparable EBITDA decreased to EUR 13 million from EUR 13.6 million last year, or 14.3% of the net sales. Next in line, we have spirits segment. In Q4, spirits net sales declined by 4.5% to EUR 65.8 million, explained by the earlier changes in the partner portfolio and the overall weakness in the monopoly channel in particular, in Finland in particular. Market shares have declined in the monopoly countries, but the decline shown slowed down during the Q4 quarter. Koskenkorva net sales grew from the previous year and is now representing over 16% of the total spirits net sales already. Our gross margin remained at a high level with 49.1%, and that is very high, and the gross profit amounted to EUR 32.4 million.
And then spirits comparable EBITDA increased to 15.3%, EBITDA margin to 23.2% of net sales thanks to the increased gross profit and lower operating expenses. So as said, a record EBITDA result for the spirits this quarter. And then finally, let's look at the industrial segment, which in Q4 totaled EUR 56.5 million in net sales, while the external net sales increased by 3.7% to EUR 37.6 million. This increase was mostly driven by higher volumes in starch and ethanol. The industrial gross margin increased to 54.3% of net sales in Q4, and the gross profit amounted to EUR 30.6 million. Industrial segment's comparable EBITDA increased to EUR 5.1 million, which was 9.1% of the net sales.
So one thing that I wanted to mention here as well is the fact that the sale of emission rights were worth EUR 800,000, and that's included in the reported EBITDA, and therefore, of course, improved our gross profit. The supply chain running costs were slightly higher than in the previous year due to some timing differences. Right, let me then finish off by the full year figures and how that ended up looking. So overall, we are very pleased to hit the EBITDA in the guided bracket because this is what we were set up to accomplish, and this is what we worked really hard for. Yes, the top line development is tough, and we, of course, can't be satisfied with the -4.9% decline, but as for the profitability improvement in general and EBITDA in particular, we ticked those boxes just fine.
On the lower part of the slide, I just wanted to remind you about our total split of segments and markets. In the first picture, you can see the division between our segments. So wine continues to be the largest of our three segments with the share of 46% of group sales. The spirits segment's share is about a third, and industrial just above 20% of group sales. The Nordic countries are our home markets where we want to remain as the market-leading brand house. Alongside that, we continue expanding our footprint internationally, especially with our own spirits. And then the last picture is the split between the partner and own brands in the beverage segments. Our own brands represented a slightly larger share in 2025, but we are very strong in both own and partner brands as well.
In fact, in the wine segment, the share of partners and partner products is higher than Anora's own wines, while in the spirits, the ratio is the other way around. Yes, and then this one here, we focus on the top part of the slide. You can see the breakdown of our business and its distribution within each segment. So this was more like a reminder for everyone how our business is distributed. But with this, I now give the word over to Stein, who will dig a little bit deeper on the details of our numbers and especially the balance sheet. So over to you, Stein.
Yes, thank you, Kirsi, and good morning, everybody. As you all know, Q4 is by far the most important quarter for Anora, both in terms of profitability as well as cash flow.
So let's then dig into our performance in the quarter, as well as I will give some comments on the full year of 2025. But let us first now move into the financial summary for Q4, and starting then with the P&L. In the fourth quarter, comparable EBITDA increased to EUR 31.1 million, and as like Kirsi said, the best quarter of Q4 since the merger of Arcus and Altia back in 2021. The EBITDA improvement was driven by improved performance, especially in the spirit segment. And despite lower net sales, we clearly improved profitability, supported by both stronger gross margin and continued OpEx control. Gross margin continued to strengthen, increasing by 290 basis points year-on-year, reflecting both improved mix and revenue management across the business. Operating expenses were higher than last year, but that was mainly due to personal-related restructuring costs of EUR 4 million.
Also, I want to highlight two things that you should be aware of. First of all, we had a high amount of items affecting comparability in the quarter, and this amounted to EUR 10 million, primarily then related to the restructuring actions and portfolio optimization measures. Also, be aware that we recognized an impairment of brands of EUR 10 million, and these impairments are non-cash and do not affect comparable EBITDA cash flow or our financial position. If we move over to the balance sheet summary, I'm very pleased to see that interest-bearing debt decreased to EUR 101.5 million and that the leverage improved to 1.4 x comparable EBITDA, and really reflecting then a strong cash generation, especially in Q4.
Later on in this presentation, I will talk a little bit more about the inventory reduction, but inventory reduction was strong during the full year and the quarter and decreased down to EUR 112.5 million with positive contributions from all segments, supporting them both the cash flow and the balance sheet strength. Kirsi already mentioned it, but so far, after the SAP implementation 1st of February, it looks very promising, the implementation, and the system went live 1st of February. And like I said, progress has been positive. And also, the execution of the Fit, Fix, and Focus strategy is progressing according to plan, with continued focus on profitability, simplification, and cash flow. So let's move over then to look a little bit more on the top line and net sales development. Kirsi already mentioned it, but net sales decreased by 5.4% year-on-year to EUR 194 million.
A part of the decline is related to lower volumes in wine filler business and the earlier changes in the spirits partner portfolio. Also, the Nordic markets continued to be weak, and there has been now at least 18 consecutive quarters with negative volume development, and that's almost five years continuous negative market development in the monopoly channel. In the Wine segment, the decline reflects the reduced filler business volumes in Denmark as well as lower volumes in Finland. And in spirits, most of the decline is explained by the earlier mentioned partner portfolio changes and continued weakness in the monopoly channel. When it comes to industrial, the net sales increased in the quarter, driven mainly by higher volumes in starch and ethanol, and then partly offsetting the decline we saw in wine and spirits.
If we move over to the full year, then net sales decreased by 4.9% to EUR 658 million, and a significant part of the decline in 2025 was related to the lower filler service volumes in wine as well as the partner portfolio changes in spirits. Of course, as Kirsi already mentioned, we are not happy with the top line performance in 2025, and this will, of course, have full focus to improve in 2026. That being said, if we move to the next slide, one area where we are very happy, that's or pleased, I think it's fair to say, that's with our performance in the gross margin development. Our underlying gross margin continued to strengthen, supported by both revenue management and a more cost-stable environment as well as some positive mix effects.
On the left-hand side, you see that the input cost here represented with Finnish barley has started to flatten out and was significantly below the peaks that we saw in 2022 and 2023. Turning to the right-hand side of the slide, you see that the strong gross margin in the quarter contributed to that also of the full year. The underlying Q4 gross margin reached 46.3% and also above last year's level of 44.2%. For the full year, you see that the underlying gross margin has improved from 42.9% to 44.4%. I'm also really happy to see that Anora now starts to be at good historic levels. The key driver for the improvement is revenue management. We made continued progress in price and mix optimization across all segments, ensuring that our pricing fully reflects cost changes and value positioning.
So in summary, the combination of stabilized input cost, disciplined pricing, and efficiency measures, as well helped with some positive contribution from mix, has strengthened our profitability base. Then let's move over to the comparable EBITDA that increased by 7.7%, then up to 31.1% or 16% of net sales, mainly driven, like I said, by improvement in spirits. And looking at the breakdown per segment, wine declined due to lower net sales. Spirits EBITDA margin was clearly up to 23.2% compared to 19% last year, thanks to reduced operating expenses as well as improved gross margin. And in the industrial segment, the supply chain running costs were slightly higher than previous year due to timing effects. Yes, also then please notice that OpEx were higher due to restructuring costs of EUR 4 million.
Yes, then let's move over to the 2025 comparable EBITDA that was up 3.2% from last year. Then we ended at EUR 71.1 million or 10.8% of net sales. Improvements in spirits and industrial more than offset the decline in wine, while lower operating expenses supported the group margin development. When it comes to the improvement in industrial, where we are very happy, I especially want to highlight the strong performance improvement we had in our logistics operations in Norway, namely Vectura. So let's then move over to the balance sheet and cash position. I mean, fourth quarter, as I mentioned, is structurally the most important quarter for annual cash flow generation. Q4 benefits from seasonally strong EBITDA and the release of working capital, particularly inventory, which is then reflected in the strong cash flow contribution during the quarter.
The Q4 performance was therefore a key driver behind the reduction in net debt and improvement in leverage for the full year. I always receive a bank update from Treasury on day one after the end of the period, and when I got the numbers in the beginning of January, it made me smile because we ended Q4 and the year with a stronger financial position compared to last year. Net interest-bearing debt decreased from EUR 122 million at the end of Q4 to EUR 101 million at the end of Q4 2025. As you can see, net cash flow from operating activities amounted to approximately EUR 50 million for the year, reflecting improved profitability and strong working capital management, mainly explained by good reduction in inventory.
Net financial payments amounted to EUR 15 million and taxes paid to EUR 3 million and CapEx to EUR 13 million, which was on par with last year. Asset disposal had no material impact on cash flow during the year, and dividend payments amounted to EUR 14.9 million, while other items had limited effect then on net debt. So if we then look at the financial position of the group, as stated, the operative cash flow ended at EUR 50 million, which was a clear improvement compared to last year of EUR 17 million compared to last year. Our liquidity reserves remained strong at EUR 353 million. And finally, our net debt ended at EUR 101 million, down from EUR 122 million last year, and leverage, as I already mentioned, down to 1.4 compared to 1.8 last year. Ending my presentation with a net working capital slide.
At the end of December, net working capital stood at EUR -80 million, which corresponds to -12% of net sales on the last 12 months basis. I especially once again want to highlight the strong improvement we have done in inventory during the last three years. From last year to this year, we have reduced inventory from EUR 139 million to EUR 113 million. But if you look over a three-year period, we have reduced inventory with EUR 74 million. And if you adjust for the sale of Larsen in 2022, we have reduced inventory with EUR 53 million, which is a good achievement and would now start to be a more fit company. The reduction this year is explained or the contributors are all three segments with strong reduction in inventory. Really happy with that performance.
With this, I would like to hand it back to you, Kirsi, for some Q4 summary, 2026 outlook, and some reflections.
Thank you, Stein. The CEO is always happy when the CFO is smiling, as you said that this has made you smile. Thank you. Let me now summarize a few key takeouts of our quarter four. Our strong execution and performance, improvement actions delivered tangible results. I think we are on a good path. Our gross margin rose to 45.1% of net sales, supported by all segments, and our disciplined cost control continued, resulting in improved profitability. Our Q4 comparable EBITDA increased by 7.7% and amounted to EUR 31.1 million, driven mainly by improvements in the spirits segment. The comparable EBITDA margin was 16% of net sales. Anora Q4 net sales amounted to EUR 194.3 million, which was -5.4% from last year.
A significant part of the decline related to lower volumes in the filler services in wine and the earlier mentioned changes in the partner portfolio in the spirits. Cash flow strong, increasing from last year, and the lower net interest bearing debt resulted in lower leverage. Finishing off in the next slide, looking at this ongoing year 2026, we need to be clear that despite a thoroughly planned profitability improvement program, the alcoholic beverage consumption in Anora's key markets is expected to remain partly structurally but partly cyclically challenged. All the industry data and the consumer trends that we get are indicating continued volume pressure through 2026. However, we are tackling that with our focus and focus area of the FFF, where we are focusing on the growth.
As to the new 2026 guidance, our comparable EBITDA is expected to be EUR 74 million-EUR 79 million, which is in line with our promises in Capital Markets Day, where we set that we would be growing by 6%-7% each year. With these words, I think it's good to remind everyone that with all these numbers that we are committed to our midterm actions, which are all in line with our Fit, Fix, and Focus strategy communicated before. Thank you very much, and over to Milena.
Thank you, Kirsi and Stein. Let's move over to the Q&A session. Please remember that you can post questions through the chat, but let's take the live questions first. The first question is coming from Maria Wikström at SEB. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. Good to see you. So I'd like to start with the guidance. And I mean, the shares is currently down 7%. So if I would need to pinpoint one point that probably was a bit more disappointing one, I mean, would have been the guidance. I mean, given that you announced these cgross savings of EUR 7 million, mainly driven from employee reductions. And yet you are guiding the EBIT guidance range of EUR 74 million-EUR 79 million, where if you take the midpoint and compare it to the last year's EBIT, there is less than this EUR 7 million improvement. So if you could a little bit walk us through that, I mean, what do you see in the underlying business and what do you see as a net savings impact for 2026?
If I start, Stein, and then you can continue. But yeah, I think we think that it's very much in line with what we have communicated that it's in the range of 6%-7% of EBITDA growth. And we want to be obviously rather overdelivered than underdelivering. The biggest chunk, of course, was the big organization change. There are other elements like the sourcing that we are working towards. But one has to remember the last point that I made that the market is still challenged. And despite our very, I think, structured and well-thought-through initiatives, we'd rather be on the conservative side this time. Anything else, Stein, that you want to add on that?
No, I think you summarized it quite well, Kirsi. And like you say, it's especially the markets still look fairly depressive, to be honest. I mean, the markets, if you just look at the three monopoly markets, they were down with 4.5% in volume. So it's like Kirsi said, we want to be a little bit conservative.
Okay, perfect. And then I wanted to touch upon the Finnish market and namely the wine sales in the grocery retail. I mean, do you think, I mean, we basically have reached the level that we are going to see in the future? And then if you could a little bit give a color that what is the profitability impact of this channel shift? So I mean, are you getting better margin out of the wines sold in grocery, or does it really matter which channel you choose to sell your wines to the profitability?
I guess all, yeah, thanks, Maria. Another good question. I don't know how much details I have here at my hand apart from the fact that I think the grocery channel has actually been very profitable for us, so in the wines. So obviously, it depends on the segments and all that. But as we communicated already in the Capital Markets Day that this sort of we want to have an increased exposure in adjacent channels and categories, so especially the Finnish grocery. So we are strongly building on that, not only with the wines, but also the RTD. We're just about to launch this functional RTD brand called Fast Forward. So we are sort of expanding into other categories than just the traditional 8% wines. But we are becoming stronger and stronger also in the RTD category.
So as said, the Fast Forward is the big bet for us this spring as a new functional ready-to-drink beverage for younger consumers.
Can you enlighten a little bit more about the function besides, I mean, drinking too many of those, getting drunk?
We have that Fast Forward includes caffeine as well. That's the sort of functionality of it, so that it's giving you more energy. It's part of that sort of energy/functional drinks that is growing quite a lot in the grocery channel at the moment.
Then finally, I wanted to touch upon Sweden. If you could a bit describe the competitive situation in the Swedish market at the moment, how do you see it and how you expect it to develop into 2026?
I think we've communicated before that in the Capital Markets Day, I think I showed a slide where there was just the total wines and spirits landscape or the market in the Nordics is worth EUR 14 billion. The wine market in Sweden is 5x bigger than Finland. We have been now demonstrating that we are able to launch variants in white spots where we have not been present before. So by the speed that we've been now able to become and regain the number two position and become the fastest growing market in Sweden, we expect to see that positive development in Sweden.
The challenge for us, of course, is that we now need to maybe copy-paste this, I mean, the team will probably not like that wording, but we need to have the same model also in Finland and Norway because we do see a lot of opportunities in the areas where we are not yet present, either with our own brands or then with new variants in wines. So that's something that the team is working on. And if you were to see our plans for this year, I'm quite confident that this positive development will continue not only in Sweden, but now also hopefully in Finland and Norway respectively.
If I can just make a quick comment as well, Kirsi. The Swedish wine market is extremely important, but it's not only our own portfolio where we're growing. We're also growing with some of the big partners. So around half of the market share increase that we see in Sweden is related to own brands, and the rest is related to improved partner brands.
Yeah, and I think it's good to mention here in this instance that if you look at, we talk a lot about lost partners in spirits, which are a couple of big ones that we lost already quite some time ago. But if you look at the partner wins in the wine in particular, I mean, we've been net positive. We've gained a lot of new partners in the past 12 months. And having just come back from the wine fair in Paris very late last night, I can only see a positive future for the wines and partner wines also in future at Anora.
Perfect. Thank you. Let others ask questions meanwhile. Think about it.
Thank you, Maria.
Thank you, Maria. The next question is coming from Caj Toppari. Please go ahead.
Thank you. This is Caj Toppari from Nordea. Regarding the revised outlook for 2026, could you shed any light on how you plan to reach this target? Should we expect, this year you mentioned that the market is still not showing on the volume side any positive or very positive signals, but should we expect this improvement to come primarily from sales growth or from continued profitability enhancements? Or how do you view this?
Yeah, if I start again, and I think you can continue, Stein. I think if you have gone through our Fit, Fix, and Focus strategy and how that is constituted, that is very much I mean, there are several workstreams. There are like 200 different actions going on under 11 workstreams that we are working on. So it's a very structured program that we are executing as we speak. The fit was indeed the organization. And then also a significant part of that is the sourcing synergies, harmonizing our ways of working and the processes and the likes. Then very much of that under the fix is still about value and revenue management. We are looking into our pricing. I mean, we just have now not only the new ERP, but also the world-class Power BI where we get Power BI system where we get a lot of pricing data.
We've created our own pricing tool, which helps us to optimize the pricing of each and every SKU in the categories that we are present. There are also mixed opportunities and many more in the Fit part of the FF. Fit and fix. Then also the focus, again, as I alluded when Maria asked, so I could even show the slide perhaps in this if you go to slide 26, Henrik. Just as a reminder, because I think that might be good for you to know. Of course, we have then very thorough plans in each of the segments. If you can take the slide 26, Henrik, now we see the outlook. It's a hidden slide, actually, in the shared presentation. That's where we talked about the growth priorities for 2026 and onwards.
So we believe that there's still a huge opportunity in growing in our core, where I think it might be coming soon. I think it's just good to show that from the Capital Markets Day presentation. And I put it here as well. So as mentioned, so that our core brands and core owned brands and core partner brands, there's still opportunities there. Then there is an increased exposure in expanding the categories to liqueurs and RTDs and the wines where we're not strong at the moment. And then, of course, the international growth. I think Koskenkorva is growing every month in our expansion markets. So this is, in all simplicity, where all that is coming from. The plans for top-line growth are here. And then the continuous fit and fix work that we are doing. I don't know, Stein, anything else you want to add?
No, I think you were pretty spot on, Kirsi. So you already mentioned it. Fit is all about cost reductions. And that's what we're currently working on with the downsizing, for example, that Kirsi mentioned. And fix is all about improving our operational performance. So we don't really rely on any help from the market in 2026.
All right, I hear you. Thank you. The market share in decline in spirits continued, to my understanding. Is this still mainly a result of earlier partner losses? Do you have any plans, specific plans for this category?
It is.
For future remarks?
Yeah. No, you're right. It's mostly that. And what makes me hopeful for future is that when you actually look at our sort of ongoing business, our strongest brands and sort of the things that are in our control, there's a very healthy development. But we are still burdened by the lost partners for a while, for sure. So that sort of split is obviously tracking us. The past is in our backpack, and we can't help that. But when you actually look at the healthy part of the business, which is our own brands and that development, we see a much more positive picture. Having said that, I mean, there are elements, of course. There are segments where we are losing the market share. And that's something that we definitely need to still work on.
All right, thank you. Then the last one, a quick one. Regarding the write-down you made in the wine segment, did it also involve discontinuing certain partners? And was the decision driven by a certain undesired or unprofitable product or something completely else?
Yes, if I understand you correctly, we are talking about, when it comes to the write-down in wine, I think you then mean the obsolete provisions. And that was mainly due to that we have reviewed the partner portfolio, and also discontinued some unprofitable partners.
All right, thank you. That's all from my part.
Thank you.
Thank you, Caj. Let's move on. Questions from Rauli Juva at Inderes. Please go ahead.
Yes, hello. You touched basically on this already with the earlier questions. Just to be clear, the filler losses, filler business losses in wine and the partner losses in spirits weighed throughout 2025. So are you expecting those or one of those still to continue hitting 2026 figures? And how is the outlook otherwise with the spirits partner business in wine? You mentioned you have been net positive kind of last year, but how about the spirits side?
The spirits part of business, you mean?
Yeah, that was the kind of second part of the question. How are the earlier losses still hitting also this year?
They are hitting to now. I can't remember exactly when, which month are we starting to when it's no longer hitting us. I don't know if you remember, Stein, exactly. Obviously, this is the nature of the business that you can't 100% promise that, "Okay, we're going to get this or we're not going to lose something," because especially when the economy is what it is. I mean, it's a nature of the business that, okay, partners tend or the brand owners start to look around. We do the same. If the Koskenkorva sales is not performing in Slovakia, we also start to look at the distributors towards the distributor, whether they are doing a good job.
I can't say that there wouldn't be anything happening, but I would rather say that there is a nice shortlist of opportunities also in the spirits, which I really, really hope that will materialize by the end of the year, 2026.
If you allow me, I can comment very shortly on the partner losses. It will hit us with around 1% for the full year on top line. Most of it will then come in first half of 2026.
Yeah. Thanks, Stein.
Okay, that's clear. Thanks.
Thank you, Rauli.
Thank you. Let's move on to Maria's follow-on question. Please go ahead.
Yes, I had two follow-ups still. So one is, given that the Swedish crown has gotten quite a bit stronger in recent months, so the question is that I think the new pricing window in Sweden is opening in March. So is the monopoly channel now asking for you to basically reverse the FX gains that you have had so far?
Yeah, I can comment briefly on that one, Maria. So the answer is no. And as you probably also remember, we have a hedging policy where we are hedging the local currencies between the price windows. So we don't see that positive effect yet on our gross margin because we have hedged on historic currency rates. And we never negotiate price increases with the monopoly channel. So I hope that answered that question.
Then I had one more as I think I had written in my model in Q1 2025 that you in the wine business specifically that you had higher marketing cost. So was that first time, Kirsi, that you participated in Paris Wine Fair, or you had a show in Paris?
It was.
We should probably think that now in Q1 2026, I mean, the marketing budget is more or less the same level that it was in Q1 2025.
Yes. And I think the total which we set all year in 2025 was that it was more sort of a front-loading, front investments to support the new launches that we successfully did in Sweden. So the full year marketing cost that ended up being as planned last year. But this, by the way, so even though this was the first time for me, it wasn't the first time for the team. So we tend to go to these big wine fairs a couple of times a year.
Perfect. Thanks. I had no more questions.
Thanks, Maria.
Thank you. Let's move on to Matti Kaurala. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Matti Kaurala from the OP. I have actually one follow-up question regarding this consumer demand that has been slightly picking up over the recent months in Finland, especially. How do you see that impacting into your business? So have you seen any kind of signs of that demand picking up? If that is taking place during this year, how are you expecting that to benefit you?
Yeah, I'm not a prime minister, so I'm very, very careful of saying anything about that. I thought we've been expecting the picking up of the consumer behavior already for quite many months. But you're absolutely right. I think it was just this morning when there was a news that, okay, it does look slightly more positive. As said, we at Anora would like to be a bit conservative with our promises. And I obviously can't speak on behalf of my colleagues at Alko, the monopoly, but there are some signs of positivity definitely now, whether it is the now I'm talking Finland, because Sweden and Norway, I think it's picking up already more than Finland. I mean, Finland is tracking behind in many industries, in many categories. But I choose to be positive.
Therefore, I hope that there will be more signals for a turnaround also from the external factor because we sure are fighting here internally against all the headwinds. A little bit of a push from the market wouldn't hurt us, for sure.
Could we assume a little bit kind of that the demand is supporting maybe the most expensive side of the products, and then the volumes are probably unchanged, or that's not where we could see the impact, but rather that the more premium products are kind of getting more demand, right?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, premiumization has been one of the trends that we have followed already for quite some time. And I think that is surely the case. This was also the talk of the town in Paris in the past couple of days where many of the wine companies felt exactly that, that I think there's an opportunity in the premium sector as well as non-ALCs. So I think both of them are the trends that at least in the wine industry we see happening. And we are, of course, reflecting them in our innovation work.
All right, good. Then maybe one follow-up regarding this wine business especially. So you mentioned during the CMD that you are going to trim down the portfolio there because you have many multiple SKUs that are unprofitable. Will that be visible in your sales development this year, like if you are trimming down the portfolio of the wines and maybe kind of so are you kind of losing some volumes from the wines just because they are not profitable? Of course, that doesn't impact the EBITDA, but then that will be visible on the sales.
Do you want to?
Yeah, I can comment briefly. Yes, we will see some effects on top line, but I wouldn't claim it's significant top line effects. Like you say, no EBITDA effect.
If you look at the working capital already, I mean, we're very, very proud of the hard work that the teams have done in reducing the inventory. I think that work continues, and there's still opportunities to improve there.
All right. I don't have any further questions. Thank you.
Thank you. It seems that we don't have any more questions here visible, at least. Please raise your hand to Mark, if you have any further questions. We don't seem to have any questions in the chat either. You can post some questions there as well. Currently, it looks like that we don't have any more questions. Thank you to the speakers and to everyone online for joining us today and all the good questions. Here's our next scheduled events. We will publish the annual report and the financial statements on week 12 in mid-March. The annual general meeting will be held on the 14th of April, and the Q1 report will be published on the 6th of May. Hope you tune in then next time. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.