Today is all about brands, new markets, sustainability and growth. A warm welcome to Anora's First Capital Markets Day. We also want to wish everyone following us online very welcome. My name is Tuula Stenius- Örnhielm. I am from Anora's Investor Relations. I will be moderating this event today. Before we look at our future, let's reflect where we come from. Anora was born a year ago through the merger of Altia and Arcus. There are lots of similarities in how these companies have evolved over time. To begin with, both companies have really long histories. For example, our aquavit brand, Linie, dates back to 1807. Also, both companies were part of the state retail monopolies, meaning that their roots are in sustainability and corporate responsibility.
However, as the companies became independent of the monopolies, a new era started for them: focusing on the core, strengthening brand portfolios with acquisitions, and expanding to new markets, especially within the Nordics. A history of strong brands, continuous evolution and sustainable operations, something that we are really proud of and something that gives us a good platform for future growth. As said, today we are looking forward. During the webcast, you will hear our management talk about how Anora will deliver growth through sustainability. After the webcast, we have some additional program for those who are here at Gjelleråsen today. During lunch, you will hear a presentation by CEO of Globus Wine, Jens Voldmester.
Since we are here today at Gjelleråsen, the largest aquavit producer in the world, we will end the day with a tour, around the productions and some aquavit tasting. Now let's take a look at the agenda for the next three hours. As said, today we will talk about growth and sustainability and also dive into our segments, Spirits, Wine, and Industrial. We take questions from the webcast. For those who are on the webcast, you can send in questions to us throughout the day using the question form in the webcast player. Now, after these opening remarks, we are ready to start with our two first presentations. Our first presenter is CEO Pekka Tennilä. Pekka, the stage is yours.
Thank you, Tuula. Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for coming here to Gjelleråsen and obviously those online. Thanks for joining in. This is an exciting day for us as we finally get to present our ambitious 2030 strategic plans. As Tuula said, sustainability has always been a part of us. It's in our DNA, we truly believe that we can grow through sustainability. You will see a lot of great presentations today, a lot of details. What I thought I'll do now is to give you a summary of the key messages. First, Kirsi will talk about the international part of our business and how she will take that from being 10% of our sales today to 20% in the future.
That basically means tripling that part of the business. Åsa and Janne will talk about how they will grow market share in the so-called monopoly channels, which are Norway, Sweden, Finland. We will talk about how we will put significantly more A&P resources on our hero brands that drives our growth. Growing needs investment, and we will show you, with, I guess, the lead of Hannu, how we will fund those investments through significant efficiencies in our supply chain. ESG sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, and that you will see. Petra will talk about our very ambitious ESG roadmap.
Once we have executed those plans that she'll present, I'm sure we will be considered as one of the top ESG players in our industry globally. Lastly, we want to be a preferred workplace. We want to grow as a company and we want to give our employees an opportunity to grow with us in a safe and inspiring environment. All this leads to a 3%-5% annual average growth and 16% EBITDA at the end of the strategy period. As a last presentation, Sigmund will give a great presentation on how all these plans that you will see turn into numbers. That's what's to come, and that's the future. But let's take a step back and look at our starting point.
We start obviously with the Nordic market. It's a fairly large market, EUR 12 billion. It's very stable. 2% growth, historically 2% growth to be expected for the future, both for wine and for spirits. Historically, what we've seen is that, you know, wine and spirits market is fairly non-cyclical, meaning that the financial downturn or recession doesn't really impact so much the average consumption of wine and spirits. Yes, we do see fluctuations between channels. Yes, we might see fluctuations between different price points, but the average consumption seems to be historically pretty flat. There are certain trends that are impacting our business in the Nordics and globally.
I guess one of the strongest one would be consumers going green, and we talk a lot about that, and that's obviously a great opportunity for us. Then we see that, you know, maybe with the lead of the younger consumers, they're looking for non-alcoholic alternatives in wine and in beer and certainly spirits. I guess you've seen that, what has happened to non-alcoholic beer, how it has grown, and it is to be expected that something similar could happen to us as well. Demand for convenience is going to continue. We've seen a 16% growth on RTDs globally. We've seen that in the Nordic markets as well, and we expect that to speed up. In-home consumption, before COVID, 58% of consumers said that they mainly consume at home.
After COVID, that was 74%, we expect that to continue. Lastly, digital disruption is going to impact our business in the Nordics in a significant way. You hear more about our digital plans in coming presentations. We are the market leader in the Nordics, which in our view feels like a great opportunity to grow and obviously take advantage of those trends that I just mentioned. Now as we're looking at the map, so you take the three top Nordic countries, which are Norway and Sweden and Finland, those are countries we call monopoly countries. We call them monopoly countries because 90% of our sales go through state-owned monopolies.
All the wine and spirits that you buy here are sold through that channel as a retail channel. The rest of the countries we call open markets, where you buy your wine and spirits from a normal grocery store. That's something you'll hear from our presentation, so just as an explanation. We are number one or number two in each market in the Nordics, a growing share in the Baltics as well. Nordics is probably one of the leaders, if not the leader in sustainability globally. I'm pretty sure that the monopolies are the toughest customers when it comes to requirements on sustainability. Therefore, it's really important for us to be a leading player in sustainability.
That's something that we've invested a lot in and continue to do so in the future. Janne is here today and for those of you who are here, you'll hear a fantastic presentation from him. Really the acquisition of Globus Wine kind of filled the blank spot in our Nordic wine market. Globus Wine is probably the biggest success case of the Danish wine during the last five to 10 years. They were founded in 2006. Now they are the market leaders with 18% market share for their own brands and 26% on their total production. That's pretty impressive. Danish market, wine market is pretty interesting as well. It's the second biggest in the Nordics with good average consumption per liter.
What's really important for us on top of that commercial success is the way Globus Wine does it. With their business model, they are able to reduce the CO2 emissions with near market production by over 70%. The merger created this, you know, leading wine and spirits brand house in the Nordics, offering a truly pan-Nordic route to market for our partners. We said at the time of the closing that we are looking for acquisitions as well, and, you know, with he acquisitions of Globus, the Glöd brand, and getting minority share at ISH, I think we have proven that we can actually do that.
I'm sure you will be excited to hear that, you know, as we promised EUR 8 million-10 million net synergy savings on EBITDA level, we are right on track delivering those. Integration is proceeding as planned. Arcus as a business is well-balanced across categories, across countries. Wine is our biggest segment with 50% of sales, 30% on spirits, and 20% on industrial. Hannu will talk more about what industrial entails. In terms of markets, we have four big Nordic markets, quite equal in size, Sweden being the biggest, which is obviously normal as it is the biggest market here.
Industrial is the fifth strong leg, and as you will hear, we have ambitious plans to build international as the sixth strong leg in our business. Partner brands, own brands in perfect balance. Talking about brands, this brand portfolio is probably the envy of the industry here. I mean, it is a combination of iconic owned local brands and then the leading global brands, both from wine and spirits in our partner business side. What's really the core value of this brand portfolio is that we are able to offer a full assortment to our customers. They don't need to go any further. They get everything with us, sort of a one-stop-shop, and that entails a lot of opportunities for us in the future.
That's the setting the scene, that's the starting point, and now we go back to the future and we talk about our strategic choices. We want to keep it quite simple, we have three strategic choices. The first one is about the monopoly markets, where we want to lead the category growth across occasions, across channels, and strengthen our position as the leading wine and spirits house. Åsa and Janne will talk exactly how we plan to do that. Second one is about Denmark and Baltics, where we want to strengthen our position in both countries. Actually, we've done a big step with Globus acquisition in Denmark to strengthen our regional leadership. Third one is about growing internationally with our strong, sustainable hero brands, and Kirsi will talk more about that.
As said, ESG at the center of every decision we make. These strategic choices are supported by a number of enablers. On the consumer side, you will see a lot more scale on our hero brands' investments, a lot more scale on our digital. You'll be hearing about how we are not only the experts on the monopoly channels, but want to become a stronger player in the grocery as well. We want to be the number one supplier to on-trade, which is super important for our partner business. You will hear how M&A will play a significant role in our growth strategy. Lastly, how we plan to build the most efficient and sustainable supply chain operations.
This is all supported by our strong values, which we built together with all of our employees. This is about courage to explore. This is about, you know, having the energy to inspire our customers. It's about, you know, empowering our organization to win. I will leave you with this slide, which is our vision statement. What it says is that we are the leading Nordic wine and spirits group, want to grow share, and we want to do that through sustainability. We have fantastic brands, and we want to bring those brands to the world, and we want to bring the best brands from the world to the Nordics. All this is encapsulated in our purpose, which is called Let's Drink Better.
Try to make every occasion for our consumers slightly better with our high-quality, sustainable brands and products. Thank you.
Hi, all. I will next tell you about our award-winning sustainability work and how that helps us to bring that growth home. First, I would like to show you two figures we are really proud of. 90% is the rate of renewable energy we are running Gjelleråsen and with this state-of-the-art production plant we are at today. That's geothermal energy and green energy. 60% is the reduction of CO2 emissions we have already done at Koskenkorva Distillery. Koskenkorva is a distillery based totally on circular economy, what Hannu will tell you more about in his section. It has its own bio-power plant, and it's really unique, one of a kind distillery. As Pekka said, sustainability is in our DNA, and it's really in the heart and soul of our company built in the production of all our grain-based spirits.
This is really what I want to talk to you about today. This is what brings us the competitive advantage. It is very much linked to our products. For example, Koskenkorva, in international business, what Kirsi will talk later. That's what helps us bring the growth in the Nordics and beyond. We have built our new roadmap on this platform, what we've been investing in for over a decade. It's really unique, very hard to copy. Let's see how the new roadmap looks like. Our sustainability roadmap to growth. We have taken into consideration here the tightening regulation and also the demands of our partners and customers. As Pekka said, we have the most demanding customers in the world.
The Nordic monopolies have been driving sustainability for a very long time, and they are committed together to decrease their emissions by 50% by 2030, and we are part of their value chain, so we will help them with this roadmap. We have split this in three parts: planet, people and product, and call the roadmap Regenerate the Future. That refers to regenerative farming, which is a big part of this roadmap, regenerating the conditions of our planet, but also to regenerating ourselves, our own business in the decades going forward when building sustainable future-proof business. Let's see more in detail the section Planet. Okay. Here, there are two things I would like to highlight. Our key goal is to have carbon neutral operations by 2030 and carbon neutral Koskenkorva distillery already by 2026. This is without any carbon compensations.
Carbon neutral production and carbon neutral distillery, 2026, without buying any carbon compensations. Pure and clean. We need to decrease the emissions to fight climate change, but we also need to build carbon sinks. Our way of doing that is to invest in regenerative farming. Regenerative farming is a method that binds carbon to the soil instead of freeing it to the atmosphere. Food production is a high impact sector. There is a lot of emissions global, from the global emissions coming from food production, and we buy over 200 million kilos of barley yearly in Finland, so it really makes a difference how that barley is grown. We want to increase the amount of regeneratively farmed barley from our own grain-based spirit products to 30%. That's a big goal.
These two things, carbon neutral production and regenerative farming, are very much linked to our products, for example, Koskenkorva Vodka, and to our international business, which Kirsi will talk you through soon. A big step for us, though, is to set science-based targets. We are committed to set those, and we will set them during H1 when the flag calculation methods for the land use are published. We are looking into a level of 38% reduction in Scope one to three, aligned with 1.5 degrees, and also to long-term reduction targets, 2050 net zero. Let's see how our emissions look like today. Our Scope one and two is a bit less than 30,000 tons of CO2, and that comes mainly from Koskenkorva Distillery. Like I said, we have already reduced 60% of our emissions, but distilling is energy intensive.
We have still a couple of steps to take, and I will soon show you how we will do that. Where the impact really lies is Scope three, so our value chain. Here, the biggest emissions comes from purchased goods and services, and under that, packaging, wines, and barley. We also have a detailed action plan for all the rest of the emission sources from logistics to our digital footprint. The four areas we are prioritizing the emission reductions are in Koskenkorva Distillery, then packaging, where we work with climate smart packaging, wines and barley, where we work with regenerative farming. I will next show you how we will go down to zero with the emissions at Koskenkorva Distillery.
As said, we have already done a good job at Koskenkorva, and we have two big milestones left to go to zero. In four weeks' time, from January, all our electricity in Finland will be renewable, half of that coming from the Kalax wind park in the neighborhood of the distillery. The next big step will be to change Koskenkorva old boiler to a steam boiler to a bio boiler in 2026. That really, as you see, pushes the emissions almost to zero, so we have some small things left to clean, and then we are at our target. Let's look at the part People. Here we work with our own people and the people in our value chain. At our own production, we have been building a strong safety culture for a long time.
If you look at the chart at Rajamäki, the lost time injury frequency, we have been decreasing it with 44% from 2016. Rajamäki is our internal benchmark, so they are really good with this. Great achievement. We are also proud of our gender distribution, which is quite balanced. When we look at diversity, equity and inclusion, in diversity part, we really want to look beyond gender, to age, to different career paths, to different life experiences, to really have a good team with diversity of thinking that helps us with innovation and growth. In our value chain, we buy 2% of our wines from risk countries, mostly wines, but also spirits such as rums or packaging materials. With those risk country suppliers, we work with certificates, Fairtrade, Fair for Life, Vita, ProSucre, for example.
We are members of amfori BSCI, which makes it possible for us to audit the risk country suppliers. This is how we work with the human rights, which is very important, thinking, for example, of the Norwegian legislation, the Transparency Law, and the upcoming EU regulation on human rights due diligence. Next, let's go to the section Product. Here also, I would like you to remember two things. We work with climate-smart packaging, and we work with responsible drinking culture. In climate-smart packaging, we are by far the leaders in the Nordic monopolies. Already, over 60% of our own packaging are climate smart, so glass only 40%. We have a variety of different types of packaging for different consumer occasions.
Bag-in-boxes, pouches, tetras, cans, PET bottles and rPET bottles are all climate smart, and they have a CO2 footprint of 60%-90% lower than that of glass. This is the new n-luxury instead of a heavy glass bottle, 60%-90% lower CO2 footprint. We work also with responsible drinking culture, also with educational programs. The most concrete way we feel we can do that is by providing non- and low-alcoholic choices, no/low choices. We want to increase that constantly and also will soon tell you what we are doing in the no/low section. We are not doing this alone, but we have strong partnerships in every area of our sustainability roadmap.
In environmental, we work with Baltic Sea Action Group, with regenerative farming, and we work with science-based targets to set the right ambition level for the emission reductions. In the social or human rights part, we work with amfori BSCI and support UN Global Compact. In governance, I would like to lift up our reporting. We are really proud of our transparent and reporting and have published 13 times a report based on GRI standards. This year, we will add TCFD and four new areas in taxonomy. These are the five key ratings that rate us in ESG. Just to mention EcoVadis, where we got our gold medal second time in a row. Just to sum up, our sustainability roadmap to growth, it's built on a unique, one-of-a-kind production setup, very sustainable.
We've been investing it for over 10 years, so it's very difficult to recreate. It's linked directly to our products, brings us competitive advantage, is very tangible, very easy to understand for consumers, very strong setup. This is really what we believe can bring us growth in the Nordics and beyond. Thank you.
Thank you, Pekka and Petra, for your presentations. We now open up for questions, and we take first questions from the audience in the room, and then we take questions from the webcast. For everyone in the room, I would like to remind you to use the microphone, so that your question can also be heard on the webcast. Then we can take the first question from Maria.
Thank you. Maria Wikström from SEB. Firstly on your new targets, have you set a timeline that when you should be able to reach the 16% EBIT margin, EBITDA margin?
By 2030.
By 2030. Thank you. Linked to that question is that we talk about the partner brands and Anora's own brands, and this is now 51 and 49. How would that split look like when you have reached the 16% EBITDA margin?
That's a great question. I'm not sure if we've done a projection on that exactly. I think probably in wine you might be seeing a higher growth on own wines. That could happen. I think it will be quite balanced in own spirits. I would say probably all in all, a similar split. That would be my best estimate.
Then, one more which might come during the launch as well, but, the Globus Wine. I mean, you looked at, you gave the number of the market share close to 26%, with 16%, which was a Globus own wines and then, 10% of the filling. How does the profitability differ in these two categories?
I think that's something that Jens probably will come back to. Profitability in general in own wines is higher than for the filling business. Maybe I was just thinking, I mean, if I was talking about the monopoly markets in your question about the split, obviously, if you add the international business growth, which is basically all own brands. I think that will kind of tip towards the own brands. Maybe the share actually would be higher in the future for own brands. A small correction to that.
Thank you very much.
Okay. We have another question here in front, from Johnny.
Yeah. Thanks. Johnny Sanna from Nordea. Maybe still coming back to your financial targets. You are targeting 3%-5% top line growth. How is the split between different categories? I'm just thinking if international is growing more, is it more on the spirit side? How should we look your category split?
You will see that in Sigmund's presentation. Johnny, if okay, I'll leave that answer to Sigmund because it's coming up.
Thanks. Maybe one ESG related question. When thinking outside the monopolies, as Pekka said, it's tied in monopolies when thinking the criteria. How important choice factor is this for customers outside the monopolies?
The monopolies are driving it, and I think, as Pekka said, that the Nordic countries are seen very sustainable in the world in general. We think that of course it's growing in every country, maybe some markets coming a bit behind, but we feel that it's a growing also commercial factor to the choice of more sustainable products. We feel that the Nordicness and the high sustainability level are really like competitive advantage and differentiating us in a very good way. I think that Kirsi will open up that in her sector a bit more.
Exactly. Building on that, I think we started to see like three, four years ago, like on- trade customers demanding for or appreciating a sustainable lineup of products. We've seen evidence of that. I see, we see that more and more in Germany, you know, with, you know, request for brands like Koskenkorva. It's definitely not only the Nordics, it's growing outside as well. I think we are in a perfect position now as we are, where we feel a bit ahead of the game to take advantage of it.
Okay. Next question from Rauli Juva.
Yes. Hello, Rauli Juva from Inderes. a question on your growth areas. Basically, if I look at your strategic choices, you are kind of aiming to grow pretty much everywhere you are operating now. The question is that was there any growth paths or opportunities that you kind of looked at but decided not to pursue?
Yes. We made choices, and I think there's certain choices that we prioritize.
Can you give an example of what's something that you kind of considered but decided not to go for?
I could talk about cognac. Cognac. We are a significant player in the Nordics. We are very excited about what's happening in China right now as the markets are opening up. Let's see what happens with COVID. Obviously, you know, right now is a good moment and cognac is kind of not as a key role in our growth strategy.
Okay. Good. related to that, specifically on Baltics, you are quite a small player in market share terms, in quite small markets. Why do you want to kind of focus on that or those markets basically also?
Baltics is a great market, we believe it will grow. We are a smaller player because we have a smaller lineup of brands. I think if you look at our position, it's actually a good starting point as we have few brands that do well, right? It's easier to build on a few successful brands. That's what we want to do. I think there's a couple of things. I think we can expand our portfolio to new categories with the help of the merger and the new brands that we got in there. The second one is Lithuania. We're basically out of Lithuania as it is for now.
Okay.
We've seen both in Estonia and Latvia and hopefully I'm not preempting Kirsi Puntila's presentation, but great interest for Koskenkorva in Lithuania as well. Great opportunities there. I mean, it's 5 million people, right? It's not nothing. It's the size of Finland as a market. We believe with the, you know, the purchasing power continuously increasing, I think that's a great opportunity to us. It's a home market. To continue to building on that, we know, I mean, the Finns travel to Estonia to buy a lot and it's kind of there's a constant movement in between the Nordics and the Baltics.
For us to cover the whole region is a, is a strength, and it's also something that we can offer to our partners.
Yeah. Good. Thanks. Then one on the ESG side. How much of the Scope three reductions you need for the 2050 target? How much of the kind of actions and changes you already know that you can do with kind of the products or the technologies there? How much needs to still be invented, so to speak?
Yeah. For the 2050 net zero target, I think we got the biggest impact, which is our own production, and there we saw how we will push that to zero, and then the packaging where we are in a very good way, plus then the regenerative farming, which is really a big opportunity also, on nationwide almost, because we buy one-third of the, you know, barley field, barley crop that comes to the market. Those are impactful. I think for everybody, how you get to net zero, you don't know how, those steps. We have a very strong plan for the first part of the journey, but I think the idea is that it pushes companies to innovate.
We need to find new solutions with our partners, with our customers, we know, with our suppliers and NGOs together to get all the way to that. Net zero also science-based targets allows neutralization of the emissions in the last part of the path, but we want to go as far as we can without compensations with these actions.
Good. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. We have a few questions from the online audience, and we actually have over 200 people watching the webcast, so keep those questions coming. Let's first continue on the sustainability topic. There's a question that which is, would be a nice recap on our sustainability roadmap. In concrete terms, how is sustainability a competitive advantage?
Yes. I think that Kirsi will talk more in detail of that. I think as it is built in our production, we have invested in it for over a decade, it is very hard to copy. It's really a barrier of entry to the same level of sustainability we are. You can't do that in one year. You can copy a sustainable packaging or a sustainable product or concept, but really production that is built around circular economy with own biopower plant, you know, that's very hard to copy. That's what we got and that's, you know, the what's in our DNA. That's so much linked to our grain-based spirit products, so that it's very tangible and easy to use also commercially all the way to the consumers to tell this story.
That's how we feel that it's really competitive advantage and differentiates us from the other players.
Okay. We have a question about risk, risks relating to growth. I think I will ask both questions and maybe Pekka can touch upon both and Kirsi later on. Risks related to going international, the first question. Following on that, risks in general in reaching the ambitious targets you listed, how to mitigate those risks?
Internationalization demands obviously resources and investments, so that's always risky. We want to downgrade that risk if you like, by finding significant efficiencies in all of our operations to basically funding that growth ourselves. We also want to take it in steps. Kirsi will talk about repeatable model. That's super important. We go to a market, we do it in right steps, the steps that fit to our size of business and our needs. As we know what works, then we can expand it and reduce the risk. That would be an example.
Okay, thank you. We have time for one more question in this Q&A. If there's no questions from the audience, I have one from the webcast, and that's also about the CO2 emissions. Do CO2 emissions from fermentation at Koskenkorva count to CO2 output too?
Yes, they do. At Koskenkorva, we collect the CO2 that is an output in the fermentation process, and that's used in the nearby farms to farm tomatoes. That's collected.
Okay, thank you. This is, now we are done with the first Q&A session. It's now time for us to move on to the next topic on our agenda. Deep dives into our businesses.
After the next two presentations, we also have a Q&A session. We start off with our Spirits segment, where we are the market leader in the Nordics and an international challenger. After a short video, you will hear Kirsi Puntila talk about our international growth plans, and after that, Pekka and Åsa Strömberg will talk about the plans for the monopoly markets. Let's start with the video.
I'm John Horn. I am the CEO of Marussia Beverages USA. In my six or so months of getting to know Anora, I see a good balance between a vision, a drive, patience to attack a marketplace as behemoth as the U.S. The U.S. vodka market, as most people know, is very crowded. It's hypercompetitive. Koskenkorva has the potential to disrupt the category in my opinion. Anora, and specifically Koskenkorva, has the ingredients to become a brand within the lifestyle of this next generation of consumer, in addition to the current beverage alcohol consumers. I'm personally proud of the work that we've done so far, and I know the best is yet to come.
My name is Thomas Mempel. I'm a member of the board for the Underberg Group.
Hi, my name is Tim Nentwig, Marketing Director with Diversa Spezialitäten in Germany, a company which is operating for the Underberg Group, and together with Anora.
Our partnership with Anora is, cross-border. We actively work together in several important markets, both as distributor for Germany through our sales specialist at Diversa Spezialitäten and in the Nordics.
When we talk about Koskenkorva, you have to know that vodka is the number two of all spirit categories in our market, and especially popular in also younger consumer groups, ADA under 35, and especially in this age group. This topic of eco-friendly products is followed with high attention. This is a perfect soil for Koskenkorva, and our teams are really energized to grow our brand business. Happy for the next step.
Hi, my name is Christian Alsing. I am the Country Director for Anora Spirits in Denmark. To become number one , the first important decision has been taken by establishing Anora Denmark with full portfolio as per January 1st, 2023. We will have a clear number two position in Denmark. We need to protect and further build our aquavit and bitter brands where we are market leaders. Second is building Koskenkorva Vodka and gain market shares in the vodka category. Third is gaining market shares in mainstream gin with own or partner brand. Fourth is growing existing partner business and seeking new relevant partners to optimize for full portfolio, especially for the onshore.
Hi, my name is Imre. I'm from Estonia, and I'm responsible for Anora business in the Baltics. The Baltic markets are important for Anora because when combining Estonian, Latvia, Lithuania population, it is 5.9 million people. It is slightly bigger than Finland. We have a really good momentum in Estonia and Latvia. I have to say that we have three strong elements already in place: our people, our brand, and our partners. Definitely it is a strong starting point. Of course, we need a lot of willpower in order to implement all these growth initiatives and ideas. Believe me, guys, we have plenty.
Hello, everyone. Good to see you all here in Gjelleråsen and you guys online. Norway, Sweden, and Finland, they are the monopoly markets that have traditionally been the stronghold of our business. That's where we have laid our foundation and gained our reputation. That's no longer enough for us. We have already flirted with some of the markets outside the region, but it's now when we are ready to invest behind our strongest brand assets and then grow internationally. What is Anora International Business Unit? What does this EUR 85 million baseline consists of? In simple terms, it is everything but those three monopoly markets. It is Denmark, it is all the Baltic markets, it is our next closest new market, Germany, it is all the duty-free travel retail, and it is much more.
It is around the 30 export markets that we operate in and digital sales. This is where it gets exciting. It's quite inspiring to stand here and present the business area that is geared up for some significant growth. Based on careful analysis of our brand portfolio, the competitive landscape, and the opportunities in chosen markets, we believe that we can triple the business by 2030. It's not gonna be easy, and yes, it will require consistent investments, but we want the international business to be 20% of the total Anora sales in future. That will be a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, and Sigmund will later on today elaborate a little bit more about our mergers and acquisition strategy. What you can see here are the key pillars of where the growth is coming from.
It consists of our current own markets, Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia. Creating and expanding in Lithuania and Germany, and then the so-called repeatable brand growth model, which we want to take from one market to another, and I will soon talk a little bit more about that. Let's start, in the next three slides, I will shed light a little bit more into how do we make it happen? Let's start with Denmark and politics, because that's where we are cementing our regional leadership. Although, of course, very different to certain extent, there are quite a few similarities between these markets. All of them, Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia, are so-called open markets.
As Pekka said, before, those of you who don't know the terminology between the monopolies and the open markets basically means that you can go and buy your booze in your grocery store, whether it's the Waitroses of the U.K. or EDEKAs of the Germany. The tactics are fairly similar. In both of these areas, we want to have one route to market and be present in all channels. We want to have a full portfolio of our own brands and grow share. We also need to have strong partner brands and take them on the journey to the growth. We want to strengthen our own trade and digital channels. The opportunity in both Denmark and the Baltics are around EUR 30 million-EUR 35 million.
If we then double-click on Germany, sorry, Denmark, it will be, it means, focusing on our own brands, Koskenkorva Vodka, Aalborg Akvavit, and Gammel Dansk Bitter. We want to reach 20% of the market share of our vodka category with Koskenkorva, but also attract the best partner brands with us. As far as politics are concerned, Latvia and Estonia are actually witnessing a record year this year. I think we have found a very solid and strong way of working in all channels, and then establishing Lithuania and have a direct presence in there. Then comes the new business part. How can a small Nordic player become significant in the big, wide world? What is the recipe for growth?
What is the recipe for attracting the hearts and minds of the international consumer? The success is twofold. First, we need to have the best sustainable brand assets and then the best possible route to market. Firstly, the idea is that we are developing a growth model with our sustainable hero brand, Koskenkorva. That means that the modeling is basically telling you where to play and how to win. It's a very structured and systematic approach, where we are first testing and piloting certain attributes, then we are refining it, and then eventually taking to other markets. The outcome of the model is that we have a proven successful playbook for more rapid expansion to multiple markets. In that, it's not enough that we have the best brands.
We obviously need to have a place where to sell them. The winning route to market. That can be either dedicated strong distributors, it can be our own operations, or then acquisitions which will provide us a speedier route to market and speedier route to new consumers. At the moment, we are already in some 30 markets with clear geographical focus. We are in Central Europe with the Germany and Switzerland. They also have more of a natural linkage to the Nordic values and Nordic brands. We are operating in a so-called Vodka Belt with great markets, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Poland. The Western Europe, I mean, U.K. being one of the world's biggest vodka categories. U.K., but also Spain, Italy, and France. The rest of the world.
We talked about Pekka mentioned about the cognacs. I mean, China is very important for our cognac category and Larsen in particular. In the U.S. at the moment, we are with Koskenkorva Vodka and our full Akvavit portfolio. Let me talk to you a bit more about our Koskenkorva vodka, the hero brand. Why do we believe that we can win with this vodka? We have a very well taken care of brand asset at our hands. It is the quality, the raw materials, the heritage, our local farmers. The whole story is downright inspiring. The three key things for the three key reasons to believe for Koskenkorva is firstly, that we have a growing international vodka market.
It's much nicer to ride on the winning horse than bet on the declining category. The CAGR growth towards 2026 is 1.2% in volume and 6% in value. We have already demonstrated that we can do it with Nordic markets. We are particularly proud of Sweden, who's been establishing the brand in the past few years, and the year-on-year growth is 37%. The second reason to believe is demand for sustainable brands. This has been historically driven by the wines, but it more and more, the spirits consumers are also looking for sustainable solutions from their brands. We have a proven track record of being able to drive high revenue growth in our new markets, Ukraine and Switzerland as an example.
In fact, we started in Switzerland basically from scratch this January, and we're finishing off the year selling 90,000 liters of Koskenkorva. Well done, Switzerland. The third reason to believe is the regenerative farming that Petra told us about. We believe that it's a revolution in the industry. Koskenkorva Climate Action is the first vodka that is made entirely from regeneratively farmed barley. We are quite excited to actually have a real impact in nature with this product. Not only does the product taste good, but it's also completely green. Really, regeneration farming is fighting climate change.
Now that we've talked about the brands and we've talked about the international markets, there is one channel role, though, that is very much of an enabler for growth, not only for the international markets, but also the monopolies, and that market is global travel retail. We've all been through the airports and ferries, picking up the brands that we can't see in the Nordic retail. That's usually the environment where you have a little bit more time to browse around the selection when you're waiting for the flights at the airport or enjoying your time on the many ferries. This environment is crucially important for the brands to connect with their consumers.
We are already in all major operators in the Nordic markets, but also outside the region, either with our direct presence or with our strategic partners such as Heinemann and Dufry, to mention a few. The real growth for travel retail comes from growth opportunity comes from outside the region, so we want to follow the Nordic consumer and grow by EUR 10 million in the strategy period. Of course, we also want to do our fair share with this very ambitious sustainability strategy that Petra has given us and become a real sustainable opinion leader in the travel retail channel and show that it is a actual commercial winning factor. Another channel that is very important in our growth journey. Where do we buy our wines and spirits these days?
More and more online, of course. We wanna grow the share of e-commerce to 20% of the total international sales. We believe in the omni-channel approach, so that we are investing behind our own nordicspirits.com, which will work more as an testing incubator to create digital experiences and gather first-party data for our usage. Simultaneously, we also want to be with our third-party platforms in general, and Amazon in particular, because that's where the masses are and that's where we get the economies of scale. So far, we've done a great job starting with our key online brands and having a great customer ratings with Koskenkorva in Amazon. The essence of the international story is that there are different tactics for the monopolies than there are winning internationally.
Here we need to have more of a startup mentality. The old saying of doing things the same way and expecting different results is very true here as well. We need to be disruptive and we need to do things differently. I want to leave you with three clear priorities, the first one being winning in the open markets, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Denmark. That's where we want to take ownership of the full portfolio and grow share together with our own brands as well as the partner brands. Secondly, scaling up Koskenkorva with the repeatable growth model in different markets and focus on strong route to market. Thirdly, maximize the global travel retail and digital channels, become a sustainability opinion leader, and create superior consumer experiences.
The international team is ready for the challenge, and we're willing to run for the growth. Thank you very much.
All right, now we come back from open markets to what we call monopoly markets, Norway, Sweden, Finland. We talk about spirits in these markets, which actually this is the most profitable part of our business. We believe that we can grow further in a profitable way. Looking at kind of setting the scene, it's fairly sizable segment, 145 million EUR of sales. It's mostly own brands, own spirit brands. All the three countries are equal in size. Looking at the market shares, small numbers there, but what you see is that we have traditional core categories such as vodka and aquavit where we are very, very strong. We are actually, you know, probably top two player in each and every category.
Maybe with, you know, more room to grow in certain categories and also we'll soon explain how we plan to do that and in which categories. As Kirsi, we have very ambitious plans in this segment as well. We are aiming for a 4% annual average growth on net sales. Remembering the average, you know, 2% for the total segment, that means that we'll be gaining share. How do we do that? We want to gain share in spirits. Also, we'll talk more about that. You see quite a bit coming from Sweden, where we are at the lower lower base still. Not only from that, also Finland and Norway will chip in.
You see a significant growth, what we call RTDs, ready-to-drinks. That comes a lot from Finland, where we have a base that we built for four years, and we believe that we can take a big leap forward during this strategy period. Also Norway is super interesting for the RTDs. Also, why don't you tell us a bit more?
I will. Thank you, Pekka. Thank you. I'm gonna explain to you how we will grow our spirits business within four different focus areas or priority areas. The first one is all focused on our partners. Partner business is key to us today, and it's key in our 2030 strategy. We have an impressive portfolio of partners, and I'm sure you have heard of many of them. Just to name a few, Jack Daniel's, Jose Cuervo, or Fireball, and you might even have tasted them at some point. Our focus is to offer the best route to market and grow our shared business together.
We have a strong position in the Nordic region. As you see on the chart, we are very strong in some of the more traditional categories in spirits like vodka, aquavit or cognac, where we have more than 50% market share. We do have some other categories where we do see a really strong possibility to grow, and some examples there are rum, whiskey and gin. Our partners, they are constantly developing new products, developing new brands, new packaging, acquiring new companies, and we see a great potential to explore these areas together with our partners. Winning with partners requires excellence in all areas where we work. We are doing a lot of activities, and one thing that I would like to mention is on-trade.
Just to be very clear, on-trade is whenever you go out to a restaurant or a cafe or a hotel and entertain yourself or others, then you are in on-trade. Since the merger between our two companies, we have been setting up a new on-trade organization, and we have been initiating an on-trade excellence program where we train our people. Our target is to implement a joint way of working in the Nordic region and to become the preferred partner to our on-trade customers by 2024, and measured by customer satisfaction. In addition to our famous partners, we do have own brands as well, brands that we own as Anora. Our second focus area is about focusing and scaling up our hero brands.
We own more than 100 spirits brands in our company, we have chosen a few to focus and to increasingly invest behind. The four brands that we call our hero brands are Koskenkorva Vodka, Linie Aquavit, Xanté Liqueur, and one of our newest brands, Skagerrak Gin. These brands have been evaluated on sales volume, on recent growth trajectory, on profitability, and on the category trend. They will, on average, receive a doubling of A&P investments in the coming years. The brands will be focused on four pillars. Consumer-centric, occasion-based innovations. This could be going into a new category with a brand, new packaging formats like RTDs, for example. The second one is on-trade excellence, I already talked about this just before. It's very important as well for these hero brands to perform in on-trade.
The third one is digital, and due to different legislation, digital for spirits is only possible in the Swedish market. Here, we will increase our investments and focus them into the digital channel more for the future. Fourth is sustainability. You have heard Petra talk about our efforts when it comes to sustainability. Here, Koskenkorva is our front-runner, as you have heard, but we will scale up our efforts also on the other brands to improve on packaging and other aspects that affects our environmental footprint. I just mentioned that we have more than 100 brands, and I've mentioned four of them. What about the others, you might wonder? We call them our local warriors, and our third priority area is all about optimization of our portfolio. I need to click here as well.
The local warriors, they are the base and the engine of our current business, as they represent around 70% of our current net sales. They are well-known brands in the local markets. You see some examples here. You see, Jaloviina, which is, it's a part of the modern Finnish history. O.P. Anderson is a bottle that you need to have on your table on all the national festivities in the Swedish market. Opland is an example of a brand in Norway that drives the premiumization of the very important aquavit category in this country. We will not turn our back on these brands. Of course not. We will balance for profitable growth and manage investments and drive towards profitability through price and cost optimization.
As you have heard and understood by now, we are strong in the monopolies, and we are strong in on-trade. Where we really want to develop is in retail. Our fourth focus area is about growing outside of our core categories and in a new channel. Ready-to-drinks, or RTDs, low alcohol and no alcohol are categories that are very much in line with current consumer trends in the Nordic region, in terms of convenience and health. In Finland, these products are purchased in the retail or the grocery. Here, we have already entered. We have products there today, and our aim is to double our market share by 2030. In Norway, it's the same. It's also purchased in retail or grocery, how you want to call it.
Here, we have an untapped opportunity of 5.5 million liters that we want to explore. We are setting up and strengthening the organization to build a new additional solid leg for Anora to supplement the current strong position that we have in monopoly and on-trade. We will enter retail and these segments through own brands, through partner brands, and through mergers and acquisitions. You saw recently or you heard recently that we acquired a minority stake in the Danish non-alcohol company ISH. ISH is a producer of non-alcohol spirits of high quality, so that you can make a margarita without alcohol at home with the non-alcoholic tequila. This is a new venture for us at Anora, and we're moving into this new channel with new categories.
We are confident that we are well set up for such a venture, given our strong backbone of Nordic consumer insights and our proven capabilities in product development.
Should I try to summarize what you said?
Do that, yes. Why not?
All right. Let me try to do that. As Åsa said, first of all, it's about channel excellence. We want to excel with, obviously, with monopolies, but especially the on-trade is super important to earn the right to distribute those amazing partner brands that we enjoy having. Second, one was about investing significantly more resources on fewer brands. Then how do we balance that together with those local warrior investments? I guess the fourth one then is about the new channel. It's about, you know, entering the grocery channel in a stronger way. Yes, we are there in Finland. We have gained a certain market share. We aim to double that with doing more, investing more, having stronger partnerships.
All this will lead to 4% average growth annually for the strategy period. With that, we are ready, with Spirits's presentation and ready for Q&A.
Thank you, Kirsi, Åsa, Pekka, for your presentations. As in the previous Q&A, we start with the questions in the audience, and then we take the questions from the webcast. We have a first question, which comes from Maria.
Thank you. Very interesting presentations indeed. I wanted to come back to the A&P investments, and if you could quantify a bit what would that mean in euros? Obviously there is quite a lot of growth arenas that are fighting for the same money. How you are going to, Pekka, to divide the money for the A&P investments?
Focus is on international growth. In international, our focus is on Koskenkorva and a few selected markets. Like Kirsi mentioned, it's about, you know, building repeatable model, starting with smaller pilots and then expanding those. In the monopoly markets, it's about those four big brands, what we call Hero brands. The focus will be on those. Investing more on those and basically investing less in others.
Can I elaborate that, Pekka, a little bit, Maria? Overall, if you look at the Anora A&P levels, we are in a same sort of a area than international FMCG companies. Obviously then we need to, we need to balance it out. When we're investing in growth, then we're investing a bit more there and maybe a little bit less somewhere else. If you look at the average euro per net sales, we are at the average level of an FMCG company in Europe.
Of course, if we talk about the global growth, the like the sales level is still a little bit smaller than some of the like the large FMC companies. Maybe there, Kirsi, for you as well, that I think lately we have seen a growth of the tequila segment and how that has been done. There is a lot of these superstars, global superstars that have been, like, advocates for the brands. I'm thinking if Anora would have resources to actually hire one of these like brand advocates and to bring the Koskenkorva like more knowledge in the U.S. or do you see that this is basically out of your reach?
Yes. I mean, building brands, all of us who have been doing that, it takes time and money. As Pekka said as well earlier, over investments, and there are obviously risks related to that. We have a very strong brand asset with Koskenkorva, and the vodka category is growing. Of course, we are constantly looking at the other growth categories, and we have a lot in our portfolio in the monopolies where we can sort of balance out and mitigate. Vodka category is, it's huge. It's the biggest. It's one of the biggest categories in the spirits segment altogether.
If we take a certain market share percentage, and it doesn't even have to be massive, in the biggest, vodka categories, I mean, we're in a good place.
Finally to Pekka that, I mean, you presented this EBITDA margin target of 16%, now we talk a lot about the investments in multiple sides of the brands and the business that how should we look at the progress towards the 2030 in terms of the margins? I mean, should we? I mean, how should we model that?
I think that's something that Sigmund can talk more in detail about, but We talk about funding the investments ourselves. What you will see is significant efficiency opportunities in supply chain. Within spirits, and I guess within, you know, the brands marketing overall, we do in-over-invest in certain areas of the business which we believe will grow the most. In others, we will invest less. It's about internal allocation as well. Definitely the efficiencies play a big role in terms of, you know, building the profitability up to 2030, especially in the early days.
Okay. Thank you. Any other questions in the room? Maybe Johnny.
Yeah. Thanks. Maybe one question related to groceries and ready-to-drink. I know that you have a flexible packaging in Rajamäki, for example. If you are increasing your sales as you are targeting, does this require new investments on the packaging side?
Potentially, yes. I would say almost hopefully yes. We are now about 5% of the RTD in Finland. We want to double that to 10. I don't think that needs to be the ceiling. I think one obstacle we have currently is the high COGS. If you, if you look at the pricing, it's below EUR 3 in Finland, and we are still above EUR 3. Considering that and being 5% and being with the limited distribution, I think we're doing really well. I think that shows the strength of, for example, Koskenkorva brand. But I think we want to go below EUR 3 in pricing as well. That will open up new volume opportunities.
It's a volume business, and what it means is in practice is the more volume, bigger production volumes to lower the COGS. That's what we're aiming for. I think, currently, we are outsourcing our canning, but, you know, it wouldn't be impossible to in-source this, in-source that. That would, hopefully mean that we could lower the COGS, which would give us more, you know, better profitability and more room to activate our brands.
Second question related to international pilot waves. Could you open up a bit because it's eight years or seven years here and you have three waves, when should we expect this first wave?
You can expect the first wave happening soon. I mean, obviously the piloting phase, it takes around six to nine months, where we're actually testing certain attributes of a target segment and messaging of the brand and on and off trade elasticity and also the e-commerce and all the rest of it. That takes up to six to nine months, and we have started already with that project. As far as scaling it up, it takes usually one to three years to really show the strength of the model. Yeah, there are strategic pillars in the presentation there where we are going to go, and I can guess.
I guess you could read in between the lines there in my presentation which our geographical focus areas are. We're not going crazy. We're not gonna go somewhere completely out of our comfort zone. We are systematically building this first in the close by markets and then taking it further from there.
Okay, thanks. Final from me. When you are thinking now, is there a difference between margins of these target countries if you are thinking cross margins of the products? I mean, of course there is difference with categories that you are selling there. Is there a big difference between countries?
Not massively big difference. There are differences between the markets, of course. That's what, that is part of the decision process which markets we are going to, of course. We want to be a profitable player eventually. We wanted to be a self-funding machine eventually. Up front now we need some bigger investments in the beginning, absolutely.
Okay, thanks.
Okay, from Rauli Juva.
Yes, thank you. Just one from me on the international side. You state that the profitability will be weak in the early years of the strategy period. Obviously, you have not given out that number, but will it actually go down from the current levels or rather kind of stay around where it has been and then should be improving?
Well, I don't think we have been opening up the exact profitability levels per market before either.
Just the direction you are saying it will be weak. Would it be weaker than currently or just remaining as weak as it is?
Well, for the first couple of years we probably see a little bit of a downturn when we start investing. We haven't been investing this much in actual export operations before, so there's a tendency of first going down a little bit before it starts going up again.
Good. Very clear. Thank you.
All right. We can take a few questions that we have received from the webcast. This, the first question, is a continuation to the one that we had, in the first Q&A on the risks relating to international growth. If you could, Kirsi, please elaborate a little bit on that. Yeah, maybe in a more concrete, I mean, Pekka already said that of course, growing internationally is always a bit risky, I still believe that we have a very balanced plan. We obviously can mitigate, the risk between our monopoly markets and then looking at the export markets. We already, in the International Business Unit, we have our strong current, markets, Denmark, and all the Baltic markets and travel retail duty free, which are fairly stable markets already.
As far as the export is concerned, yes, risks are involved, but at the same time we, that's why we're doing the piloting. That's why we are doing the repeatable brand growth model so that we are testing, so that we don't do things that we don't know that are going to be successful. Also as far as the competitive advantage of us is that nobody else can say that they have a vodka called Koskenkorva coming from the village of Koskenkorva. I think that's the whole sort of heritage and the sustainability aspect. It's not just a brand story. It really is in our DNA. The whole story about our sustainability is very solid.
That is our competitive advantage and lowering obviously the risk moving forward. Great. continuing on the international path. will you or do you have plans to establish your own Anora subsidiary in Germany? We have already. We have our operations in Germany. We have an office in Hamburg. it is a combination. Germany at the moment it's a combination of our own operations and distributors. We have two very strong distributors, one for our Aquavit portfolio, the other one for Koskenkorva Vodka at the moment. Germany is a very lucrative and interesting market for us.
Great. Thank you. We have one more question from the webcast. How will you look after the employees in the upcoming efficiency improvements? Goes to you, Pekka.
As we've always been, I mean, the well-being is at the center of our plans. What we feel we can do on the supply chain side is significant efficiencies through just higher productivity, which is not related to personnel or cuts or anything like that.
All right. Good. If there are no more questions from the audience in the room, then I think we can conclude this Q&A session for now, and it's time for us to take a break. We will be back at 11:50 CET. For those who are on the webcast, during the break we will be showing videos. There will be a video telling about how we have developed a new premium PET bottle, and then there will also be videos showcasing our brands. Thank you.
Packaging, that's one of the key sustainability challenges in our industry. Anora is the leading wine and spirits brand house in the Nordics. We bottle over 100 million liters of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages every year. With a 60% lower carbon footprint compared to glass, PET plastic is a great option for reducing our environmental impact and really making a difference. To drive this change towards more sustainable packaging, we needed to develop a completely new premium PET bottle that would support our brands and their positioning.
At the beginning, we talk about two distinctive bottles and shapes that would indicate specific categories. However, looking at the spirit industry on a wider scope, we see a big movement towards category hybrids. Specific bottle shape or size is no longer a clear indicator of a category. We wanted our new bottles to reflect this, to offer freedom for Anora's current portfolio, but also equip us for the future innovations. Universal premium bottle for multi-brand and category use has to be generic and unique at the same time. Character, proportions, and details play a very important role in the appearance of the bottle. It was important to understand the DNA of our brands to create a design language that works for all of them, each unique in their own way.
During the process, we spent a lot of time exploring different shapes and details to find the unique shape for the bottle. The droplet is a good example of a distinctive design element, which showcases how the vibration of water can be formed into a scalable design feature.
Rethinking the whole bottle design allowed us to take an important step forward with our PET packaging. We now have four new bottle options that can be adapted to support the unique identities of our brands. This project really shows that utilizing more sustainable materials doesn't require any compromises when it comes to design or quality
Here in the village of Koskenkorva, it's all about sustainability. Unfortunately, in the age of YouTubers and TikTokers, ads about bioenergy, 100% barley use, regenerative farming, and 99.9% recycling rates don't stand a chance. We set up these stunts instead. Maybe next time we'll just show our sustainability actions in action. At least those are impressive. Koskenkorva, vodka from a village.
Packaging, that's one of the key sustainability challenges in our industry. Anora is the leading wine and spirits brand house in the Nordics. We bottle over 100 million liters of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages every year. With a 60% lower carbon footprint compared to glass, PET plastic is a great option for reducing our environmental impact and really making a difference. To drive this change towards more sustainable packaging, we needed to develop a completely new premium PET bottle that would support our brands and their positioning.
At the beginning, we talked about two distinctive bottles and shapes that would indicate specific categories. However, looking at the spirit industry on a wider scope, we see a big movement towards category hybrids. Specific bottle shape or size is no longer a clear indicator of a category. We wanted our new bottles to reflect this, to offer freedom for Anora's current portfolio, but also equip us for the future innovations. Universal premium bottle for multi-brand and category use has to be generic and unique at the same time. Character, proportions, and details play a very important role in the appearance of the bottle. It was important to understand the DNA of our brands to create a design language that works for all of them, each unique in their own way.
During the process, we spent a lot of time exploring different shapes and details to find the unique shape for the bottle. The droplet is a good example of a distinctive design element, which showcases how the vibration of water can be formed into a scalable design feature.
Rethinking the whole bottle design allowed us to take an important step forward with our PET packaging. We now have four new bottle options that can be adapted to support the unique identities of our brands. This project really shows that utilizing more sustainable materials doesn't require any compromises when it comes to design or quality.
Here in the village of Koskenkorva, it's all about sustainability. Unfortunately, in the age of YouTubers and TikTokers, ads about bioenergy, 100% barley use, regenerative farming, and 99.9% recycling rates don't stand a chance. We set up these stunts instead. Well, maybe next time we'll just show our sustainability actions in action. At least those are impressive. Koskenkorva, vodka from a village.
Packaging, that's one of the key sustainability challenges in our industry. Anora is the leading wine and spirits brand house in the Nordics. We bottle over 100 million liters of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages every year. With a 60% lower carbon footprint compared to glass, PET plastic is a great option for reducing our environmental impact and really making a difference. To drive this change towards more sustainable packaging, we needed to develop a completely new premium PET bottle that would support our brands and their positioning.
At the beginning, we talk about two distinctive bottles and shapes that would indicate the specific categories. However, looking at the spirit industry on a wider scope, we see a big movement towards category hybrids. Specific bottle shape or size is no longer a clear indicator of a category. We wanted our new bottles to reflect this, to offer freedom for Anora's current portfolio, but also equip us for the future innovations. Universal premium bottle for multi-brand and category use has to be generic and unique at the same time. Character, proportions, and details play a very important role in the appearance of the bottle. It was important to understand the DNA of our brands to create the design language that works for all of them, each unique in their own way.
During the process, we spend a lot of time exploring different shapes and details to find the unique shape for the bottle. The droplet is a good example of a distinctive design element, which showcases how the vibration of water can be formed into a scalable design feature.
Rethinking the whole bottle design allowed us to take an important step forward with our PET packaging. We now have four new bottle options that can be adapted to support the unique identities of our brands. This project really shows that utilizing more sustainable materials doesn't require any compromises when it comes to design or quality.
[Foreign language]
Here in the village of Koskenkorva, it's all about sustainability. Unfortunately, in the age of YouTubers and TikTokers, ads about bioenergy, 100% barley use, regenerative farming, and 99.9% recycling rates don't stand a chance. We set up these stunts instead. Well, maybe next time we'll just show our sustainability actions in action. At least those are impressive. Koskenkorva, vodka from a village.
Packaging, that's one of the key sustainability challenges in our industry. Anora is the leading wine and spirits brand house in the Nordics. We bottle over 100 million liters of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages every year. With a 60% lower carbon footprint compared to glass, PET plastic is a great option for reducing our environmental impact and really making a difference. To drive this change towards more sustainable packaging, we needed to develop a completely new premium PET bottle that would support our brands and their positioning.
At the beginning, we talk about two distinctive bottles and shapes that would indicate the specific categories. However, looking at the spirit industry on a wider scope, we see a big movement towards category hybrids. Specific bottle shape or size is no longer a clear indicator of a category. We wanted our new bottles to reflect this, to offer freedom for Anora's current portfolio, but also equip us for the future innovations. Universal premium bottle for multi-brand and category use has to be generic and unique at the same time. Character, proportions, and details play a very important role in the appearance of the bottle. It was important to understand the DNA of our brands to create the design language that works for all of them, each unique in their own way.
During the process, we spend a lot of time exploring different shapes and details to find the unique shape for the bottle. The droplet is a good example of a distinctive design element, which showcases how the vibration of water can be formed into a scalable design feature.
Rethinking the whole bottle design allowed us to take an important step forward with our PET packaging. We now have four new bottle options that can be adapted to support the unique identities of our brands. This project really shows that utilizing more sustainable materials doesn't require any compromises when it comes to design or quality.
[Foreign language]
Here in the village of Koskenkorva, it's all about sustainability. Unfortunately, in the age of YouTubers and TikTokers, ads about bioenergy, 100% barley use, regenerative farming, and 99.9% recycling rates don't stand a chance. We set up these stunts instead. Well, maybe next time we'll just show our sustainability actions in action. At least those are impressive. Koskenkorva, vodka from a village.
Packaging, that is one of the key sustainability challenges in our industry. Anora is the leading wine and spirits brand house in the Nordics, and we bottle over 100 million liters of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages every year. With a 60% lower carbon footprint compared to glass, PT plastic is a great option for reducing our environmental impact and really making a difference. To drive this change towards more sustainable packaging, we needed to develop a completely new premium PT bottle that would support our brands and their positioning.
At the beginning, we talked about two distinctive bottles and shapes that would indicate the specific categories. However, looking at the spirit industry on a wider scope, we see a big movement towards category hybrids. Specific bottle shape or size is no longer a clear indicator of a category. We wanted our new bottles to reflect this, to offer freedom for Anora's current portfolio, but also equip us for the future innovations. Universal premium bottle for multi-brand and category use has to be generic and unique at the same time. Character, proportions, and details play a very important role in the appearance of the bottle. It was important to understand the DNA of our brands to create a design language that works for all of them, each unique in their own way.
During the process, we spent a lot of time exploring different shapes and details to find the unique shape for the bottle. The droplet is a good example of a distinctive design element, which showcases how the vibration of water can be formed into a scalable design feature.
Welcome back, everyone, from the break. I hope you had a chance to have a coffee and talk to each other a little bit, and I hope everyone on the webcast enjoyed the videos as well. Next, on our agenda, we continue with the deep dives into our businesses, and you will hear presentations about wine and industrial segments. We will start with a short video.
Hi, everyone. Nice to meet you. My name is Oskar Lindell, and I'm the Head of Sales Nordics at Treasury Wine Estates. Treasury Wine Estates has a really clear growth agenda across the Nordics, and we believe that Anora plays a really important part in that ambition. Sustainability is really at the core and heart of everything that we do within Treasury Wine Estates, so it's really important that we have partners that share and work in that same direction. I see that our collaboration is really open and honest, and that we share the growth and aspirations, and we're being really courageous together.
Hi, my name is Fernando Hoyos. I'm head of North and Southeastern Europe from Raventós Codorníu company, one of the leading Spanish producer in the wine industry. We are really glad to be part of Anora's new path leading the Nordics market. For Raventós Codorníu, Anora is definitely the most strategic partner. I will remark their leading position through the Nordics in all channels, being able to build our brands properly. Secondly, the powerful tools when it comes to category analysis, but also when it comes to consumer data, which make them unique to identify the opportunities and react to the market to guarantee success. Of course, the level of professionality of all their teams and people we have been working with for many years, and the way they treat and take care of our departments.
Hello, everyone, from Italy. I'm Christian, sales director EMEA, of Ruffino. Anora is not only a customer for us, but a real partner, a partner that we share priorities and collaborate together proactively on a shared strategy. Anora has been very inspiring for us, especially when it comes to all topics related to sustainability. Last year, we hosted a conference about sustainable topics and sustainability, which was supported by Anora, and won also the Drinks Business Award of Sustainable Winery of the Year. Anora offers to Ruffino also a route to market which is clear and very comprehensive, with a deep knowledge about consumers, which is very important for us when it comes to a monopoly environment like the Scandinavian ones.
It's a people business, and being professional, being passionate about wine helps definitely to maximize the market opportunities and that's what your team is challenging me every day. Thanks for having me here. Wishing you a great day and I know that we will have many more occasions to celebrate and share common successes. Ciao from Italy.
To move to wine. First of all, a big thanks for our great partners, Oskar, Fernando, and Christian. Now, it's time for me to walk you through the key strategies and then the growth priorities when it comes to our largest business, as mentioned earlier today, which is Anora Wine. Anora Wine, as you know, Anora Wine is the largest wine business in the Nordics. We are the market leaders in Finland, in Norway, and in Denmark, and a clean number two in Sweden. We say that we are a unique wine business in the Nordics. What makes us unique? We are the only wine company with our own filling and packing capability together with own wine label development and premium wine imports. Why is that relevant? Having all this clearly makes us the most sustainable wine producer, wine sales company in the Nordics.
This year, we have grouped, I mean, after the merger, we have grouped all ex-Altia, ex-Arcus partner wine businesses under the umbrella of Vingruppen. Now Vingruppen clearly is the largest part of our wine business. I think it says there 60% of our total wine is now grouped under Vingruppen. Anora Wine brands and Globus Wine, they focus on producing own label wine that is specifically targeted to the Nordic wine consumer. You can see there that the biggest, the largest own wine for the both companies are Chill Out, Il Capolavoro, and Falling Feather. I think more importantly, in Globus Wine, we now have a filling and packing resource that fully meets the high expectations of the Nordic monopolies when they are thinking of sustainability and sustainable packaging.
When we talk sustainable packaging, we are talking bag-in- boxes, PETs, wine pouches, because we can clearly see that these are the formats that are taking over in all of the Nordic Monopolies. I think it cannot be stressed enough that this capability of being able to be strong in sustainable packaging and filling will be having a huge importance moving forward with the Nordic Monopolies. To our targets. For the target period, we aim to grow faster than what the markets are organically growing. We estimate the growth of the wine markets between the three plus one, three monopolies in Denmark. We expect the market growth to be somewhere between 1%-2% annually, and our aim is to grow at double that speed.
Based on the recent very rapid growth of own label wine, we also predict that our own label wine will be growing faster than the premium Vingruppen partner portfolio. Obviously then this growth, it contributes greatly to the profitability of the full wine portfolio that we have and have it moving forward. Logically, it will be the two biggest markets, Sweden and Denmark, that will be contributing more to the growth targets than then the slightly smaller markets, Finland and Norway. All in all, as you see, our targets for net sales is to exceed EUR 500 million at the end of the strategy planning period. From this on, I will move on to talk more in detail of the two core businesses, Vingruppen and our own label wine. Vingruppen. Vingruppen is already the largest importer of partner wine to the Nordics.
Through our 17 independent wine imports companies, we believe that we can offer the customers and consumers across the three markets the most exciting and the widest wine portfolio in every way. With this portfolio, definitely our primary focus is to work with the monopolies and especially focus on their new product searches. We call them wine tenders. Every year, more than 100 new products are being listed in each of the monopolies, and of course, out of these 100, we want to be the one gaining the lion's share of the new business. Another important element for Vingruppen, where we already are strong, we are already the market leaders in on-trade in the HoReCa sector. Today, already we are the number one providers of premium wine to on-trade in all of the three markets.
This market has a very special meaning for us, and more than so, a very special meaning for our partners. You can imagine partners that what we are showing there as examples, they really demand that their premium wines exist in all the wine lists, not just here in the Nordics, but around the world. This is why us really, really having the benchmark route to market whenever it comes to premium wine in on-trade, it is really, really crucial for us. I think a small bonus, which I think will not be a bonus, I think this will be a key competitive advantage for us moving forward, is then the area of sustainability. Again, with everything we have now at place in terms of near market filling and packing, this will be fully available for all of our partners as well.
If our partner today, let's say a small producer of Piemonte wine, a smaller producer of any wine, if they don't currently in their own markets, if they don't have access to produce bag-in-boxes, PETs, pouches, obviously then having a very close collaboration with us will make that happen. Again, remember, this is what the Nordic monopolies are expected to get. Actually, by reading at the monopoly sustainability targets, they are pretty much saying that by 2030, glass bottle era is about to come to an end. If you look at where they want to go, they want to close their. They want to reduce their carbon emissions by minus 50% by 2030. This is really saying that by 2030, there can be only a fraction of glass bottles left in any of the monopoly shelves.
All of this will be replaced by bag-in-boxes, tetras, PETs, wine pouches, all sustainable packaging. I think this collaboration between us and then the wine partners will have only a more important meaning for our collaborations moving forward. Moving on to our own label wine. I think all of you who have followed the evolution of the Nordic wine markets a little bit closer, you can see that in the past five years, it is the own label wine that has really taken the market by storm. Why is this? It's not rocket science. I think own label wine here in the Nordics, they really have managed to get right the price quality ratio of the wines that they are offering to the consumers and to the monopolies.
I think even more so, I think the modern Nordic-looking authentic wine labels have really made the difference. That's where we can see that, for example, already in the biggest of the markets, Germany, in the biggest of the markets, Sweden, we can see that more than 50% of all of the bag-in-box segments are own label wine. In total, the bag-in-box segment is almost 45% of the total Swedish wine market. This is really significant moving forward. We as well have been very successful in this business. In Norway, we were the innovator of own label wine, and we've been very successful in that with brands like Falling Feather, Rubenson, that at least the Norwegian audience are familiar with.
I think another market where we are very, very successful is then Denmark, Globus Wine, and again, with brands like Il Capolavoro, which is by far the number one own label or any wine in the Danish market. Market where we really haven't really played our full hand yet, if you like, is Sweden. Obviously now for the upcoming strategy period, the plan is to do so. This entry for the own label wine market, as you see there on the right-hand side, will play a very, very key role in us growing our business, getting our business to those top rankings, as measured in each market. That is where you will be seeing much more focus, much more investments coming from our side, Sweden own label wine.
Other things in own wine that will be super important for us. First of all, sustainable wine. We can see that sustainable wine in its all forms and shapes, can be organic wine, can be sustainable packaging, can be near market filling wine, is already a very rapidly growing market. We believe that we have all the bits and pieces in place, and that's why we believe that we can do even better when it comes to sustainable wine in all of our markets. Last but not least, another key market where we really want to do better is Italian wine. Italian wine as a country of origin for wine, it is by far the largest. It is about 1/3 of the market when it comes to in Nordic in general.
Here in the middle, you see that our market share there is still very, very low. This is definitely something we want to address with both our own label wine, and there you see some examples of that. Of course, we also want to address this with the Wine Group and small premium wine portfolio with partners like Masi, Allegrini, Zonin and so forth and so on. It definitely is a very, very important focus point moving forward as well. When we talk about wine and the Nordics, I think if we talk any industry, obviously digital is one of those key areas that we must be strong at. Actually, if you look at how the markets look today, with our digital platforms, it's called folk o folk in Sweden, it's called Viinimaa in Finland.
We are already by far the market leaders in terms of reach, in terms of visits, of consumers to our digital platforms and pages. But still, we are not happy with that. Our plan is to double the reach, double the engagement between us and the wine consumers in Sweden and in Finland, so that by the end of 2025, we would have more than 1 million consumers who would be linking and engaging with us through our digital platforms. How it works with digital platforms in Sweden and in Finland, you know that they are state-owned monopolies, the only parties that can actually go and do the final sales to the consumers. Our digital platforms, how they work is that they feed Systembolaget and Alko's, their e-com shops.
By feeding them, we can create listings, we can create distribution increasements for our own products. We work as feeder for the monopoly e-com sites, and by doing so, gain significant new business. I move already to summarize my wine slides. First of all, we plan to grow Wine Group in sales through focusing further on partner wine, premium partner wine, monopoly new product searches. Again, every year, more than 100 new products are listed in any of the monopolies. Last, but definitely not least, on on-trade. On-trade is a key driver for most of the premium wine producers around the world. Secondly, we will be putting significantly more focus on our own label wine development, and we will be entering new segments, like the high volume segments we just mentioned about in Sweden.
We will continue developing our market-leading digital platforms, Folk o folk and Viinimaa, moving forward. I think all in this, we really believe that we will be benefiting greatly from sustainability and sustainable packaging, where we believe that today we have the competitive edge versus the competition. Then with all of this, our strong belief is that by the end of the strategy planning period, we will be exceeding EUR 500 million in net sales by 2030. Thank you very much. Moving over to Hannu.
Well, welcome to the world of factories, logistics, and procurement as next. The role of supply chain has developed quite a lot during past few years. I mean, the amount of challenges and surprises have evolved. I mean, since I remember it was perhaps three, four years ago when the issues with the container supply on the global scale started. Thereafter, the COVID hit us and the operations followed by the war, thereafter the energy crisis, and then material shortages, inflation started. There has been surprise, surprises after surprises. Somehow we've been able to cope with it.
It's been a lot of firefighting, but also thanks to the organization and the teams also, I mean, by help of various proactive measures, we also have started to build up the resilience, which is very important to when thinking of how to avoid out of stocks and how to keep the level of disturbances as low as possible. I will touch some of that in my presentation. With the focus on efficiencies, as being mentioned already in some of the previous presentations, with a special focus on the additional efficiencies that we have identified along this year. Start from supply chain.
What is somewhat unique with Anora supply chain is the fact that we are serving, I mean, we are serving external customers, both with the industrial field as well as logistics. It comes with two benefits. We gain from the volume, the economies of scale is working to our advantage. The other one that is worth mentioning is the positive pressure that we get from the customers, that results then in better service, in higher quality requirements, in lower cost and so forth. That's a very important driver when thinking of a longer time perspective. The external business of logistics and industrial has started in Arcus, in Altia already some 20 years ago.
It comes from from either utilizing the capacity, like is the case with the logistics business or the industrial service business, or it derives from Koskenkorva Distillery, where we are utilizing the material streams. In the middle, you see some of the volumes that we produce in terms of bottling volumes or in terms of logistics. We are clearly the biggest with these volumes within our region, within our industry, providing us with the result of that is visible in the unit cost. I will as next, I will take a little bit closer look at the dots on the map.
Here's a set of pictures showing the main capabilities of our supply chain by which we support the growth ambition of Anora. On the logistics side, I would like to pick one example. That is when combining all of the monopoly volumes of the three countries together, Anora is supplying more than 23% of that total volume. The combined volume, more than 23% is passing through our logistics and distribution centers, which gives us an outstanding position in terms of route to market. In the middle, the main bottling plants are visible. I mean, top-notch setup. Also, I mean, we are supporting the filling business out from these locations.
More than 40% of the total volume is served to external filling customers. On your right, you see the specialized distilleries. I mean, we have dedicated distilleries for aquavit, both in Sweden, in Sundsvall, as well as here in Gjelleråsen. Later on, during the tour, those being present, you have an opportunity later on during the tour to see the maturation warehouse that is located here in Gjelleråsen. That is part of the value chain. Naturally, we have the Koskenkorva distillery that is focusing on grain ethanol. Let's double-click on that as next. Koskenkorva is a truly unique setup. Hence, the streams as raw material today, processes.
Koskenkorva is a source of continuous innovations, both regarding the process but also the end products. Kirsi earlier mentioned about the Climate Action product that is a recent novelty that is a result of the innovation capability. From the industrial part, I could pick the pharmaceutical industry that we have entered in during past few years. Medical companies, they are placing the most demanding quality requirements on ethanol, and we have been able to add value for that customer pack. Then we have the Naturet brand that especially in Finland is a success now that energy prices are rocketing.
I mean, this is, this is the thermal fluid that is installed in the, in the heat systems when you, drill holes into the ground, the fluid then extracts the heat from the ground and brings it up. It's a, it's a fluid that circulates, is environmental friendly and circulates in the pipes. It's a very efficient plant. 24/7 operation throughout the days, the months, the years, but taking only three operators to run it per shift. Three operators are running two factories in parallel, the starch plant and the distillery. Managing the incoming, grain loads and dispatching the goods out.
This of course wouldn't be possible without a very tight cooperation with the experienced subcontractors, the partners I already mentioned. Another example is the flexibility. I mean, based on the market demand, we are able to adjust between grain spirit and technical ethanol. Similarly, we are able to adjust between ethanol and starch depending on the conditions on the market. Then, last, the, this, the sustainability part that has been mentioned several times. I mean, the material efficiency, thanks to the design of the plant and how it's been run, we are approaching 100% in the material efficiency. So it's, it's really, really fabulous. As to energy, the heat, I mean, distillation takes a lot of energy.
Fortunately, more than 50% is produced by our own bioplant as we are burning the husk from the grain. That helps us a lot with the challenging energy market. CO2 was mentioned already. We have reduced the content significantly and are on the way to zero by 2026. Let's move on to the efficiency part. Here I'd like to emphasize, I mean, the culture of continuous improvement as the primary driver. That is something that is lasting from one year to another, and it's something that we have been fostering in Anora plants since a very long time.
You see a couple of graphs there that come from Rajamäki. I think it's development since 2014. During that time, the volume in that plant has been stable. There's no big increases nor any significant decreases. Quite flattish. Still, by help of the continuous improvement that is visible in the overall equipment efficiency, I mean, meaning that we are able to push more volumes through while the lines are operating. We've been able to reduce the total number of working hours. That then becomes visible in reduced cost. Similarly, the continuous improvement is a tool for also quality.
I mean, here's the picking error development is an example, but also the services. As such, it's a talent that it's a set of skills that is extremely valuable. This is something, as mentioned, we are bringing to all of the plants and logistic sites. The other driver I'd like to take out from here, from this page, is the execution capability. You have promises and plans, and then you need to execute. This example is from the synergy work that started 15 months ago. The share of supply chain was EUR 8 million, and I'm happy to announce that more than 60% of that was delivered during the first 12 months.
The spearhead here was the logistics. Here in Norway, in Sweden, and in Finland, we integrated the logistics into our, I mean, to be under our own roofs, so that naturally gave us a nice boost. Overall, the execution capability is the main thing. There's some efficiencies that have been caught, but what is more important is that we have identified additional potential in our roadmap. Throughout this year, we have identified the potential. We have used an external advisor to help us with that work.
Now that we also have Globus Wine on board, we have concluded that we have a potential of EUR 5-10 million to be implemented during next three years. It won't take any special, unexceptional investments or anything like that. It's very much on the core of our workings. The scope is within logistics efficiencies, daily management. It is within how we run, further improve our bottling lines, take care of the utilization, and of course procurement plays a big role as the volume are growing. Our efficiency within this plan is not dependent on closing any factories or addressing the footprint. It comes from the organic work. We feel it's realistic and doable. To conclude, the.
I mean, we maintain a culture of continuous improvement with the execution capability. We foresee additional potential that we believe is doable, realistic. In total EUR 5 million-10 million to be implemented in three years. On the sustainability, we have programs ongoing. We have a nice track record already behind us, and we have identified the means how to achieve our goals. In addition, there's a couple of growth engines by which we support the Anora, the growth of both spirits and wines, including distillation innovations for both aquavits and vodkas. We are managing a competitive filling business.
I mean, we have since many years worked with partners like Brown-Forman, or Distell or Globus Wine with beer and so on. That gives us growth opportunity, and it also then is challenging our competitiveness at the same time. We are offering our wine and spirit business, we are offering the capable, efficient route to market. With this, I would like to conclude my presentation. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you Hannu and Janne for your presentations. We now open up for questions on wine and industrial. As in the previous Q&As, we take questions from the audience. Then we take questions that we have received through the webcast. Is there anyone who would like to start with the questions? Johny, please go ahead.
Thanks. Couple of question from me. Regarding wines, interesting to hear about partner filling and opportunities on this side. You had a 8% share of partner filling. How much of this was Globus Wine?
A major of that. My guess would be 80% of that would be Globus Wine as it is today.
Okay. when I'm looking your bridge here, its partner filling is only in Denmark that you are seeking growth. Is it, there is no room in other countries or how should we view this?
I think it's more the other way around. I think now, Globus Wine is quite full with the capacity, so, I think then it's a discussion between Rajamäki and Globus on where do we take all the new business that definitely will be on our way.
Okay, thanks. Maybe, maybe on the industrial side, you had a EUR 5 million-EUR 10 million efficiency plan going on. How much of this is, you know, hard benefits, you know, from the cost side, and how much is required, you know, organic growth when thinking, for example, higher utilization ratio? How much is, you know, real cost benefits that you are seeking?
I don't have an exact figure in mind for that. I would say, I would say a 50/50. Half is built from the upcoming growth and the other half is based on existing volume.
Okay, thanks. Maybe, related to this year, about the revenue management, you have been using quite a lot of less barley this year, so how you manage these volumes now and given the quite high barley prices still, are you expecting to run the business still in Koskenkorva with the lower volumes or how should we view this going forward?
In fact, now that the barley price has come a little lower, we have been able to increase the speed already.
It will, it started during this Q4. Immediately when the price level gives the opportunity, we have taken the action. Believe that it gradually will normalize in that sense. We are looking for a bigger output in that plant.
Okay. Thanks. Last one from the wines, about the partner portfolio. There has been some changes during the past year in the portfolio. How you see your position in the market currently when thinking possible new partners going forward?
Well, definitely we see it very, very good. I think it's important to understand that a player like us, we work all together with more than 200 partners. Partner business is such that, you know, if you win, you lose. I think in terms of number of partners that we've been gaining or losing in the past 1 year, we definitely are on the winning side. Maybe some size of some partners that we've lost takes a little bit more time to mitigate. We really believe that now when we put together the both ex-Altia, ex-Arcus side partner business under Vingruppen, that is by far the largest and should be the most interesting partner entity in the Nordics to collaborate with.
At the same time, you will always see partners leaving and coming and, you know, we will be focusing more moving forward.
Yeah. Thanks. Maybe follow up on that. I mean, now you are in Vingruppen, everything. Has there been some partners that don't want to be with the same distributor?
Not really, because I think then the benefits that we can put together in Vingruppen, at the core of Vingruppen is the market-leading on-trade for wine alone. Again, if you have a look at premium wine partners, on-trade is really the place where they want to be, and this is what we can offer to them. I think, until now, I think then the remarks from the partners having now been grouped under Vingruppen has really been only positive, because then they don't sort of have to compete with the in any way, with the spirit side of the business, with their own wine side of the business, but they can really get their own route to market where they want on-trade to be in the core of all of that.
Okay. Thanks.
Okay. Next one from, Maria.
Yes. Thank you. This is a little bit of follow-up to Johnnys' as well, I mean, to get us understand more the, like, how does it work with the wine partners as there have been some volatility, as mentioned. What is the, Like, what is the key? Like, what is the reason for a partner to change? Is that like a negotiating about the price, or is that negotiating about the performance? How does these negotiations go when you have lost something and when you now gain new ones? Help us understand a little bit there.
Obviously, the reasons are many. I think the way I see it's a little bit like a divorce. There are many reasons for that. I think the most recent partner losses that we've had in Sweden, actually the most interesting fact is that actually we've been doing all too good of a job, meaning that we've been able to grow those partners to such big size that they had now the critical mass to start their own company in Sweden. It, it really is very, very diverse. I think again, this year is a bit particular. Again, we coming from two fantastic years with Corona-boosted volumes. You know, 2021, 2022, you know, no partner whatever was growing their sales exponentially. Now comes back the reality of 2022.
There are again partners that would be thinking that with somebody else we could go back to 2022 and 2021. How realistic that is, I'm not really sure. The range is very, very large. I think now, I guess you've been hearing, especially one or two big partner losses we had in Sweden. It was us doing too good of a job so that then they could go and have already the volumes to start their own company in those countries.
Both of them just started their own?
If you are talking François Lurton, and Masi, yes, that was the idea.
Okay. they didn't go to Viva Wine Group? No?
No. No.
About the cross-selling opportunities, as you presented earlier that Globus Wine has a significant share of own brands in Denmark. That, do you see there is potential to bring these brands also to other Nordic markets?
Absolutely. That's what we are doing already. We are already seeing in Sweden, the first launches of Il Capolavoro from Denmark. We are currently in our process through then the sales to order assortment, listing them to Sweden, because Sweden is the biggest market. That's where we want to act first. Absolutely, for next year, you will be seeing these brands also entering Alko and Vinmonopolet. Absolutely.
Finally, if you could, little bit give a more color that what is the worry? Like, what is the most important when? Like, how do you start with developing own brands in the wine segment? That is, does it start with, I mean, as you said, like, Italian wines is a big country for wines drank in the Nordics, and do you start from there? How does that go? That, I mean, which makes, say, like, a popular own brand in the Nordics.
Yeah. I think it does from a much more pragmatic analysis, 'cause you might be aware that each of the monopolies, they work in these ranking segments. In each of the countries there are more than 200 ranking segments, more than 100 segments for wine. In each of those, there are certain number of ranking positions which gives you national listing. It is really a big study of where the opportunities are biggest, and that's normally then where we would go after our new own wine launches. It is a study of the market based on really practical segments and segment rankings of where do we see the biggest options.
Of then that all relates back to how much sales we need to get in order to get our products to the rankings, and through rankings then to permanent distribution in the monopolies.
Thank you. All right. Thank you. We have a few questions through the webcast. There is one for Janne, and then there's a couple of questions to Hannu later on. Let's take this one for Janne first. For spirits, you gave an indicative number on the market investment as percentage of net sales. Can you share the same for wine?
I don't remember what we said for spirits. Definitely we can see that the investments we've been having in the past for own wine, we've been somewhere 5% of net sales. I think for our next year plans, I see us doubling that, meaning that we will start becoming much more competitive when it comes to own label wine investments, especially in the key market of Sweden.
Good. Thank you. A couple of questions to you, Hannu. How do you cope with the challenges on the grain barley market in regard to both price and availability? How is Ukraine situation impacting when the impact remains unknown for the months to come?
Certainly a very tough situation. I mean, both questions. Ukraine was a big country for the grain, and like Russia. Of course, it had its impact, and we've all been reading of the vessels waiting for the shipments and so on. The impact on Anora is indirect, not direct, so we haven't been sourcing any grain from Ukraine directly. It impacted the global balance of grain because the prices are following each other between the markets. We had a tough year of harvest in 2021, consuming all buffers that existed on the market.
Despite the fact that 2022 was much better in Finland, and the prices have started to come down, still the Ukraine is impacting the pricing. They haven't come to the, to the, should I say, the old normal level, but remain higher.
Okay.
It is, it is sensitive situation.
Yeah.
In terms of supply, we are confident that, in Finland, I mean, there's enough of reserves for the upcoming season.
Good. Then a quick answer to this last question. Is there a plan to start produce cans in Rajamäki or Globus?
I think this was, Pekka mentioned it already in his response. We are looking at it as part of the strategy, and I mean, there's obvious a good growth opportunity there with the grocery and also the cost of goods sold was mentioned. Definitely we will look into it. The technical capabilities exist, so it's a matter of the business case then at the end.
Okay. Good. Let's finish this Q&A session for now, and it's time for us to move on to the last topic on our agenda. You will next hear our CFO, Sigmund Toth, talk you through the financials, and followed by a Q&A together with Pekka. Sigmund, please go ahead.
Thank you very much for the opportunity now to present how all of the wonderful things that you've heard from my colleagues, how it adds up into numbers. Most of my presentation is going to be about the future. Let me start by recapping a little bit the current situation by looking back at our performance in Q3 of this year. Q3, I mean, or this year in, as a whole in 2022, is quite a difficult year if you compare to the very good years that we had in 2020 and 2021.
The reason for that is we were one of the companies that in some sense benefited from the pandemic, because consumer purchasing patterns shifted to channels where we have a higher than average market share. Specifically, a lot of volume shifted to the monopolies and in particular to Norway, where we have a high market share in both spirits and in wine. What that led to was very, very good results from us throughout the pandemic. Now, as the situation is normalizing after COVID, you can see that consumer purchasing patterns are returning to normal. People are shopping in duty-free, people are shopping in on- trade, and the volumes are coming down, as you can see on the graph here to the left.
What this means for us is that the exceptionally high results that we had in 2020 and 2021, they are coming back to a more normal level. If you look at net sales, we did grow those by 10%, but it has to be said that that's entirely due to the contribution of the recently acquired Globus. Globus is doing very well in its own right also when comparing to its last year, but we get now the full effect of the acquisition since Globus wasn't in our base numbers. When you compare them to a more normal year of 2019, you see that our current performance, it does compare favorably.
It isn't that the performance is bad, it's simply that we are facing some headwinds after very good results in 2020 and 2021. Same thing can be said for EBITDA. Again, if you compare to 2019, we are at the same level, even when excluding Globus. But then, you know, there is the decrease of the net sales compared to the high levels of the previous years, and a series of headwinds, including the barley cost and other cost inflation that we are mitigating through price increases, but it is a difficult external conditions. That's Q3. Another important topic before I move on to the future is the synergy delivery.
We promised before the Arcus Altia merger that we would deliver EUR 8 million-EUR 10 million on a run rate basis of net synergies, and that 80% of those synergies would be delivered in the first two years after the merger. The situation is that we are well on track with delivering those synergies, as on a run rate basis at the end of Q3, we've already delivered EUR 5 million of net synergies. When you compare that to the 80% after two years, after one year, we are already at EUR 5 million. You know, there's still some left to deliver.
you know, as Hannu explained, he has further synergy plans, and we will integrate the tracking of the remaining synergies together with the efficiency program that was just mentioned. That's for the past. Let me now turn to the exciting future and show you our financial targets. Here are the financial targets that you already know because they were published last week, but let me give you a bit more of color on them. you can say, I said that we are now moving to the future, but in reality, these financial targets, you can group them into two categories where there is change and then there is stability or permanence.
Let me talk first about where we are changing or actually increasing our ambition level. That is on the sales growth target. As you've heard, we aim for 3%-5% of net sales growth. That compares to 2% that Altia had as a target at its IPO. 16% comparable EBITDA margin, that compares to 15% which was the long-term target of Altia. You can say that, you know, we are trying to increase our ambition level on both the top but also on the bottom line compared to the previous targets. That's one side of things, right?
If you look at the other side, which is the leverage level, which we aim to have below 2.5 times comparable EBITDA, and the dividend payout ratio, what you can say is that these are very similar to what we've had in the past. In terms of the debt, very important KPI, the leverage. Occasionally, we may go above this level when we do an M&A, such as when, you know, we recently acquired Globus. The strong operating cash flows will in a short period of time, bring us down to below this long-term target. Dividend, I think that's very important.
A lot of people, and I'm turning to the camera for the people watching through the webcast, I think it's a very, very important part of the Anora story. It was for Altia, it was for Arcus, is that, as Pekka explained, we are a stable company with a non-cyclical business, and it's very important to our shareholders, and therefore very important for us that we maintain a stable and, if possible, increasing dividend. That's why we are reaffirming and setting as a target this very attractive level of dividend payments of 50%-70% of the result for the period. Okay, those are the overall targets. Let me now turn to. The breakdown of the net sales, which is essentially a summary of what you heard from my colleagues.
A starting point is the pro forma EUR 665 million, which was in 2021 for Anora. We have already acquired Globus, and that brings us to EUR 739 as our starting point for 2021. What you can then see, the 3%-5% is coming through broad-based growth, right? By broad-based, I mean that all the relevant commercial parts of the business will be contributing to that result. The biggest chunk will come from the international part of Spirits. You heard Kirsi talking about how we will invest behind the hero brands, and in particular, Koskenkorva, and how we will expand our already existing markets to the full scale in Denmark and in Baltics.
In the monopoly part of Spirits, you heard from Pekka and Åsa, again, how we will invest in growth with the partners, focusing on the hero brands, protecting our, and optimizing our local warriors and trying to capture the very promising NoLo and RTD segment, which is fast-growing and where we have a limited presence today. That is adding up to the growth contribution of the monopoly part of Spirits. You just recently heard from Janne, who was talking about wine growth and how a lot of that will come from own brands within wine.
Part of that, obviously, is also the continued growth of Globus, which has a very strong record, track record, that you'll hear more about for those of you who are present here physically during lunch, from Jens, and we plan for that to continue into the future. All in all, we have strong growth plans across the entire business, and that is what we hope adds up to 3%-5% annual growth, which would then make us roughly, in terms of revenue, a EUR 1 billion company. You are investors, right? Net sales, I mean, it doesn't pay the bills, as they say. It does pay the bills, but it doesn't pay for the returns. All of that isn't worth much unless it turns into EBITDA.
Let me talk a little bit about that. Our target of 16%, right, at the end of the period, that doesn't necessarily sound that exciting if you compare it to the 15% that we had already on a pro forma basis last year. You have to remember then, as we said, there is a post-COVID normalization, which you can see when you compare to the 2019 results. About 3 margin points come off as we shift the sales to less profitable channels with the COVID normalizing. That's the starting point, right? The 3% of...
You know, the acquisition of Globus is actually, compared to that new base, is pretty much neutral. It is contributing a significant amount of EBITDA as of acquisition, and we hope will contribute significantly more as we go forward. In terms of the average profitability, it doesn't very much impact things. Then we come to two very interesting building blocks which go in the opposite direction, and I think that this is what a lot of you were asking about during the presentation. Here, the basic idea is that the efficiency gains presented by Hannu will pay for the extra investments into the growth markets, right?
What we aim for, to start with, is to try to keep a balance between those two so that you kinda pay as you go, and you pay for the growth through stable margins. Obviously, in the individual markets, if you look at international in isolation, if you look at own brands on wine in isolation, those may see a dip in profitability in isolation where you're investing, like all kinds of investment. The idea is, one, that you shift them from other parts of the business. On top of that, the incremental A&P in the beginning of the period is paid for by the efficiency gains that Hannu talked about. That then, we hope, adds to, top-line growth.
Both the mix of shifting more into the beverage business and within the beverage business into the higher margin parts of the business, such as own brand wines, will contribute positively to the mix. As the sales grow, we aim to have further efficiency or scale effects on our overhead costs, which will then contribute more towards the end of the period, gradually as the turnover grows to 4 percentage points improvement in the profitability, adding up to the 16%. That's for EBITDA and EBITDA margin. Now again, you know, as I said, net sales not interesting if it doesn't translate into EBITDA. EBITDA is not very interesting if it doesn't translate into cash flows, right?
Let me talk a little bit about the cash flows. Here again, I mean, we talked about how we're stable, how some things are not changing, and again, it's a bit the same story here. Anora and, you know, in the old days, Altia and Arcus, they were businesses that are characterized by strong operating cash flows, you know, due to our business model. That's something that we aim to continue with during this period. As I just said, we finance organic growth investments through efficiency improvements and try to maintain stable margins. That's one thing. Second thing is that we are, in the big picture of things, we are well invested, right?
Obviously, as Hannu has mentioned, you know, we will have to continue to invest in sustainability. At Koskenkorva, we'll have to invest in new packaging formats to have sustainable packaging. We may even have to invest into a canning line, right? If that turns out to be the right business case. In the big scheme of things. Given the fact that we are well invested and that we aim to improve the efficiency to free up capacity for more volume, CapEx will remain at the current levels of around EUR 10 million annually. That's important. Third point, working capital, again, something which is stable, it will vary, and as those of you who followed us, they know that there are big variations in that from quarter to quarter, given the seasonality of our business.
On the whole, you know, we expect that to remain fairly stable as a percentage of sale throughout the strategy period and the international expansion strategy, for example, is not expected to have a material effect on the working capital levels. So far, so good. We talked about net sales, EBITDA, cash generation. Those are mainly then the organic parts of the story. Let's talk a little bit about M&A and what part that plays in realizing our strategy. Basically, that's the M&A strategy. The M&A strategy is about supporting the strategic pillars that we've talked about. Nothing more, nothing less. We talked about one strategy is to lead category growth across the consumer occasions and channels in Sweden, Norway and Finland, right? Really the monopoly markets, the.
Where we are the wine and spirits powerhouse. While in those markets, we are present in many or not all, if not all of the categories, so there it's about complementary assets, right? That gives us capabilities that we don't have. So one of them, for example, which was mentioned already by Åsa, you know, we are aiming to grow in NoLo and in RTDs. There's maybe that, you know, we will invest, we will acquire assets that give us capabilities, you know, in on-trade, in grocery trade, in digital, in the supply chain, in R&D that we don't have or that would be very costly to build internally. The good thing is here, you know, this is not just a theory. We can actually talk about some acquisitions that we did recently or some investments.
We invested EUR 5 million into ISH, which I think is a very, very promising Danish company that is operating in the no and low alcohol category with great growth potential. As part of that, you know, at the same time, we also took over the distribution of their products in the Nordic markets. That's, you know, one example that's helping us. Another smaller one, but it's also very interesting in how, you know, we can expand on our footprint and our already presence in a category is Glöet. For those of you that don't know, Glöet is actually a sparkling glögg. Glögg, of course, is a category through Blossa, where Anora is very much present already, but in the sparkling glögg, interesting innovation.
There again, the story was that we co-invested with some entrepreneurs, founders that built a company. Then, you know, once they built it to a certain level through our help, where we were already the distributor, we recently acquired 100% of the shares. Now, you know, we've expanded our presence and cover a niche that we didn't yet have. Then Denmark and the Baltics. Again, it's a bit the same story. It's good to be able to stand here and not just talk about the theory, because of course, M&A, given its confidential nature, is not necessarily something that you can always give a lot of color on.
You know, in terms of Denmark and the Baltics, what our strategy is illustrated very well by Globus Wine. You know, in one acquisition, we went from basically not being present in wine for all intents and purposes. In Denmark, we had some small direct sales, but not anything worthy of mention to becoming the market leader, right? We are the number two in spirits, and now we are the number one in wine in Denmark. I think it's a good illustration of the sort of acquisition that we are looking for in Denmark and Baltics. It's about supporting the strategy of becoming a full-scale player in those two markets.
Okay, one, the last one, where we don't have anything, you know, in the investments completed yet, but obviously we are continuously looking for opportunities, and that's to accelerate beyond the Nordics with the strong, sustainable hero brands. As Kirsi mentioned, you know, if there are opportunities then to have the right route to market, you can always go with distributors, but maybe there is an opportunity to acquire assets with route to markets. Maybe there are other insurgent brands that could fit into our portfolio, or maybe there are, you know, assets that could give us access, for example, to digital. That's essentially M&A. M&A is about supporting the overall strategy of the company. It's not about building an empire or, you know, going off on tangents. Now we're close to the end of my presentation.
Let me just have one final slide before we take your questions that sums up why Anora is a good investment for you. Essentially, it's about the value creation happening with higher growth that improved margins with a strong cash flow and stable dividends. It really is as simple as that. We've talked about how we plan to increase revenue growth through market chain gains in the home markets and international expansion, and how we will use M&A to strengthen our capabilities and expand our footprint. That's the higher revenue growth. The improved margins, the efficiency gains in production are to finance the investments and also then to improve the margins. Strong cash flow generation, we're well invested. We have relatively limited CapEx needs. We have low and stable working capital.
Last but definitely not least, it's very important to us because it's important to you, dear investors, to have a dividend policy that reaffirms the importance of an attractive dividend as we go along. That was my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention. We are now ready for your questions together with Pekka.
Okay, thank you, Sigmund, for your presentation. As said, we open up for the questions, and we start with questions from the audience. Maria, please go ahead.
Thank you. wanted to come back to the EBITDA bridge...
Mm.
That you provided, and, you mentioned here that the investments will be about 2% out of the 101, so EUR 2 million annually.
Mm.
If I heard correctly during the presentation, I think you were investing in international growth, hero brands in home markets.
Mm.
Local heroes
Mm.
Own wines.
Mm.
Is this EUR 2 million really enough?
Well, I think it's 2% of the, of the revenues, right? Yes.
Okay, I read this wrong.
Yeah. Yeah. 2 percentage points of the revenues, it's a bit more. Yes, I think that your question is fair, and I think it has. You know, we also plan to reallocate funds. It's not only about incremental investments, it's also about reallocating, as we said, you know, from the local warriors to the hero brands, and also within the existing portfolio of spend that we have to move it into where it's providing more impact, right? Also, as you heard from Kirsi, you know, the thing is that you are using a pilot model, right? It's called a repeatable growth model for a reason, right?
Is that you are not immediately immediately spending all the money up front, but you are investing kinda gradually as you go along. You take one market, if it's a success, then you scale it up, and then you go to another market.
One more, more on the M&A as.
Mm.
I think you are currently a little bit above the target level. When do you think, you can start acquiring again?
I mean, very, very good, very good question. As I said, you know, we have a very strong operating cash flow, so we can come, you know, relatively rapidly down to below the target level. That's kind of our approach, is that we are fine with being for a period of time above the target level. What's important to us is that we relatively rapidly come down there.
It's not, in my mind, it's not that because we are above the target level at the current point in time that, you know, acquisitions are kind of off the table, but it's more about being able to show investors and the banks as well for that matter, if we need financing, that we have a plan to rapidly come down to below the target level.
Thank you.
Okay, we have questions from Johnny.
Thanks. Coming back on the EBITDA bridge, maybe if you can give us some color on the, on the timeframe regarding.
Mm.
Regarding the investments', you know, impact on the.
Yeah.
On the margins.
Well, I mean, I think that the. This was a question that was raised a bit earlier as well, about, you know, how, what does the timeframe kind of look like? I mean, in my mind, it's really, and I talked about those two elements in the bridge, the efficiency and the investments very deliberately as kind of like a whole, right? That are supposed to be balancing each other out, right? That's really sort of the thinking that, you know, in the short run, you try to get the efficiency gains sufficiently fast that you can finance the investments, right? That means, you know, in very simple terms, that the margins are stable rather than increasing in the beginning, right?
I mean, that's, you know, already better than investing upfront, margins going down, and then at some point, we hope that they come up. For individual areas, as Kirsi mentioned, obviously, if you are investing in a given market, you know, big amounts of marketing to get the growth start in that one market, margins will go down. On a corporate level, what we're aiming for is essentially to kind of balance and to have a stable margin in the beginning of the period, right? How long exactly that is, you know, difficult to say, but let's say for the first two or three years. You know, as you gradually sort of ramp up, you roll out this remix. That will, you know, come a little bit later in the period. I don't think...
Unfortunately, I can't promise you faster growth, you know, with increasing margins from the very start. That I think would not be credible.
Yeah. Thanks. Maybe a bit about, still about the cash flows. We know that you have a good operating cash flow, but I'm just thinking, you know, cash conversion.
Mm.
If we are assuming good cash flows now.
Mm.
Then the 50-70% can
Mm.
Look, how would I say?
Mm.
Distribution if you are not look, finding pretty much every year something to acquire. Can you walk us through a bit here?
Well, I mean, I think, I think in the end, it's our board who will decide on that on a year-by-year basis. I think that already, you know, the range of 50% to 70% is somehow partly addressing your question, right? You know, the point is not for us to build up, you know, huge reserves or cash or to be, to not be investing that or distributing that. Of course, the idea is that, you know, we are looking for good potential acquisitions. If we find them, fantastic. If we don't find them, you know, then obviously, you know, we will, we will make the dividend distribution our priority.
Again, I think, you know, the investors in this share, that are looking for stability, I think they would rather see, you know, a dividend that's stable and that's gradually increasing than that we go up and down like a yo-yo every year. That's more, you know, our thinking around that.
Okay, thanks. Last one from M&A. If you are now looking your opportunities in the field, so which in which part? Of course, we know that the international you need maybe route to market, but is this the first one that you are looking currently if you have to rank different opportunities in the market?
Yeah. About on M&A. I mean, I think that, you know, with M&A what's interesting is that you can do all the sort of rankings, right, in the world that you like about the potential things that you would like to buy, but unfortunately it's not like a store where you can go and you can buy that one. You know, it has to be for sale, and it has to be the right one which is for sale and has to kind of fit in. I mean, I think I wouldn't wanna rank them, you know, because it's based on what's available for sale.
I would say that, obviously, you know, when you're talking about international, expansion, you know, having the opportunity to have then a good go-to market I think would be of great interest to us. I mean, if you look at what we did just recently, one of them was that nature, where you could say that Globus is sort of, you know, similar thing, to that. The other one was ISH, which is about complementarity and having, you know, a part of the lottery ticket of, you know, exponential growth in no and low alcohol. Again, you know, opportunity was there, and we seized it on both occasions.
Yeah. Thanks. Last one, actually, about the CapEx. You are saying that they're around EUR 10 million, let's assume-
Mm.
That, now you need a new bottling line.
Mm.
Or canning line.
Mm.
How large investments we are then speaking?
Oof. I think I don't have that off the top of my head. I would have to have a chat with Hannu about that one. I think that, you know, over this period of years we can, we can manage that within that envelope. Maybe I will have to tighten the screws a little bit on some of the other investment ideas.
Okay, thanks.
Okay. We are quite tight on the schedule, but Raul, if you have one critical question, we would have time for that still.
Okay. My I Yes, I have also my question on the EBIT, EBITDA bridge. Just to be clear that this is starting from 2021, the efficiency gains is basically also including all the merger synergies you have created this year.
Yes. You could say that it includes the full year impact, right? Because what we presented, the EUR 5 million is run rate, and obviously, you know, we're doing that, you know, during this year. It includes then the balance, right? Because we had EUR 5 million and we said EUR 8 million-EUR 10 million.
Yeah.
We haven't forgotten about that part.
Yeah.
We will realize that as well. There is no. Unfortunately, there is no bonus things that have not been included yet.
No, I was just wondering that's kind of.
Yeah
Part of the kind of efficiency savings you are then investing further.
Rolling forward. Correct.
We shouldn't expect the merger synergies created this year to kind of accumulate on the earnings and margins immediately.
No.
Yeah.
No, that's correct.
Yep.
That's correct.
Right. Thank you.
Okay. We have, we can take one question from the online audience. It's also about the EBITDA bridge. Which of the mentioned elements, plus or minus-
Mm
Are you most concerned about? i.e. which of them is the riskiest one?
Well, I don't know if you wanna rank them by risk. I think that as Hannu mentioned, we are relatively confident, you know, about our efficiency gains, and we have a track record of delivering those, as he shown. I mean, the spending I think we'll find a way to do the spending. Again, you know, in terms of the spending, I mean, what you need to remember as well, again, the rollout of the international is a gradual pilot-based approach, right? You know, Hannu's savings, you know, the efficiency gains, they are, you know, quote-unquote, forever, right? If you do them, they are there.
If the NP, the marketing spend that you have spent, you know, turns out to not give the return on investment that you hoped in a given market or at all, you can always roll it back, then essentially you lost a year or two in trying something that gave you know, some sort of, some sort of upside. I mean, if I have to give an answer to that, you know, what's the biggest... You know, we have high ambitions and obviously, you know, accelerating the growth further, I mean, is gonna be a tough challenge, but that's, you know, that's why we are here to work hard to achieve that with the good plans that we've outlined for you.
Great. Thank you. This was the last question, and we are now concluding the webcast with Pekka's closing remarks.
All right. Thank you. Thank you, Tuula. Feels amazing to be at the end. It's been a big day for us. I would like to wrap up by first of all, thanking my amazing EMT team for inspirational strong presentations. I would like to thank you here in Gjelleråsen and for being as our guests. Those of you online, thank you for all the great questions. I hope you agree with me that we have strong plans, and I think Sigmund just gave a perfect presentation on how those plans turn into money in the short and medium term. Something that we haven't talked enough about are the 1,200 skilled and dedicated employees that we have.
They are there out in the market, you know, exciting our consumers and energizing our customers, and they actually make this plan live. That will be our biggest focus and our biggest strength as well. For you guys online, I thank you for your participation, and for you here in Gjelleråsen, we are getting ready for Aquavit tasting. With I say thank you very much.