Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Fodelia's third quarter business review. It's a pleasure to have you here today. My name is Riikka Wulff. I'm the CEO of Fodelia, and I will walk you through our Q3 results together with our CFO, Kati Kokkonen.
Good morning.
Let's first have a look at our agenda for this morning. I'll start with the highlights in January and September at Fodelia level, and after that, we'll comment in a few words in more detail on our businesses. We'll go through our business development. Kati will tell us more details behind our financial figures, and then I'll get back to having a look at our strategy and our future. I have to say that I have a very positive outlook on our future, but we'll discuss more about that later on in the presentation.
Let's start with the highlights in the beginning of the year, during the first nine months. Our net sales grew by approximately 7% in the third quarter. The growth was slower than targeted. That is obvious. If you look at it in more detail, the situation is quite different for Feelia and for Oikia. With Feelia , we are there also behind our own targets, but compared to the overall market, which has been actually declining by some 1% in Finland, we are doing a lot better with our somewhat around 11% growth with Feelia . Oikia has been in more trouble. Let's put it this way. It is due to our private label agreements. I will go back to that later on in the presentation. Our operating profit at the group level was some 6.1% of net sales.
That was stronger than in the early part of the year, but fell behind the comparison year. That will be under comments later on in the presentation. Some comments on our results, or actually behind maybe the figures, what the market looks like, what we have been doing here. As we have told before, we have been reorganizing our operations, how we operate inside, especially inside Feelia . This also means that instead of operating with three CEOs at the group level, we have only one CEO at the moment. I have been personally in charge of Feelia until Q3. Q3 was the first quarter when I was in charge of Feelia as CEO of Feelia , and actually also in charge of our factory at Pyhäntä, since our Plant Director has been under some changes and the new one started now.
It has been actually a great chance for myself to be more in touch with our customers, to actually hear the feedback from the customers, which is great. Of course, we do have some troubles with how we operate at the factory at the moment. I will get back to that later on. It's been now working also as the CEO of Feelia , a great chance to have more detailed discussions with customers and also working with our plant at Pyhäntä. It has given me insight into how we operate there, where our challenges are, and maybe how we should be fixing those when it comes to our organization. We have had some key recruitments here. At Feelia , we nominated a new Commercial Director from inside the company, Ulla Anttila, who joined our group when we bought Marjavasu a few years back.
Ulla has now taken the role of Commercial Director and she's in charge of both Feelia and Delimax brands and sales of those, as well as marketing and customer service. She has a very essential role in how we operate our commercial team. During these first months, we have already almost doubled the size of our sales team. We have made some investments in our product category management. We have been recruiting from outside of Fodelia new talent for that and also have had new roles from inside the company to make sure that how we operate with our product selection is up to date. Big changes regarding how we operate our commercial team, and there Ulla has a big role in how to make sure that we get the growth figures in the future again. Another very important role for us, of course, is our Plant Director.
There we also have a new talent inside Feelia , Tuulia Kärkkäinen, started at the very end of September and has been now very active in maybe taking new views as how we operate the plant at Pyhäntä. If we look back a bit for how strong Feelia's growth has been during the past four or five years, the yearly growth rate has been nearly 25% with Feelia. It means that it's been in a very short time frame. We have grown from quite a small company to a big company. It usually means when the growth is this fast, it usually means that we need to fix our processes. This is the year when we make sure that how we internally operate, both our sales and our factory, is up to date to make sure that in the future we are ready for the great growth figures again.
This is sort of the year of fixing also internal things to the same level where we have been growing to. We have great professionals operating in different functions here, and now we have different types of leadership as well to make sure that we are efficient in the future. I have a very good feeling in how we operate at the moment and how we will fix maybe some issues that we have been having to make sure that we reach our growth figures in the future. One important recruitment for us is the new HR Director, Carola Rahkola, who has been nominated the first HR professional for Fodelia. She will start in the beginning of November. Back to the figures. Feelia 's net sales growth in the beginning of the year for the first nine months was 12.9%, which is greatly above the market.
The market has been declining a bit in Finland. Compared to that, even though we fall behind our own targets, we have been actually doing quite nicely. About Oikia, the growth of our own brand has been delightful here. We have been investing in the marketing of Oikia, of course, as well as taking more sales actions by campaigning with our own brand to make sure that we have visibility in the stores and supporting that with marketing activities and have seen great growth with the Oikia brand this year, over 20% growth cumulatively. These are some highlights from our first nine months. How we report our businesses: we have two different subsidiaries, Feelia , which operates with two different brands, Feelia and Delimax, and there we operate with the food service market. With Oikia, we target the retail sector.
Oikia is our own brand, and with Oikia, private label production is actually a bigger share of our business, but that has been declining a bit, and Oikia, our own brand, has been increasing. I will get back to that later on in the presentation. We have a joint venture, Fodbar, together with Provado. We own 50% of that. That's the company when you need both the food and the staff as well. The solution for you is Fodbar . already that the food service market in Finland has been declining. You can see the charts. The first nine are actually the first eight months in Finland, which was 0.9% declining compared to last year, whereas Feelia's growth during the first nine months was 11%. Actually, almost 30%. Let's take a look on Feelia s Q3 figures.
Kati will go through these in more detail later on, but the overall figures here are followed by some comments as to what's been happening behind the figures. The growth on the Q3 was 11% for Feelia, and our operating profit unfortunately fell behind last year, both in absolute euros and percentage-wise. This is, of course, something that we are not satisfied with. Still, our operating profit was 9.4%, which is not bad at all for this food service industry. We know that we can do better. One quite big issue behind this is our FERP system, which we developed for our customers. Until the beginning of the year, we have been capitalizing the costs related to FERP. Now, from the beginning of the year, we have been in a sort of maintenance and small development phase. We have been taking all these costs directly instead of capitalizing those.
This effect is actually quite big on our figures. One big thing is the problems that we faced with our production in the Q3. I will go back to those later on. Those have been sort of one-time items in that sense that they hopefully don't exist anymore in the future. Of course, we haven't in financial figures, those are not one-time items, but business as usual. Something that is not normal for our business, so to say. I will get back to those later on. First, some comments on the first nine months. Net sales EUR 32 million and the change compared to last year, almost + 30%. Also here, the operating profit is a bit lower in a bit lower level compared to last year. Operating profit for the first nine months was 9.1%.
Let's go to the comments and the highlights on Q3 and the beginning of the year. First of all, September was a really good month for us. The first time ever our official net sales for September was over, or for one month was over EUR 4 million. What is especially delightful is that both Ready Meals and Delimax products were in all-time high sales figures. Great month for us. Overall, we have a very good positive momentum with sales. As I described earlier, we have been investing in our sales team. We have nearly doubled the size of our sales team. We have hired a new product manager. She will be starting in November.
We've been making sure that we have the resources needed for whatever we need in the future, in the system-wise, in the people, to make sure that we have the baseline up and running for the future growth. When it comes to our sales organization, it looks very good. Ulla Anttila, who is now the Commercial Director, has had a strong start with the team. We have new agreements signed with some care service chains. We have a pilot project launched with a new private daycare center. Great achievements for our sales team. Also, some great wins for our Delimax products with some chain-level accounts that we are operating there. There are also new projects going on with the HoReCa sector. We see potential also to grow with the private market, for example, with the lunch market.
With different customers, we operate with different timelines, especially when it comes to the public sector. The negotiations and the sales pipeline are usually quite long. It might be years. Whereas with the private customers, for example, with the private lunch market, the timeframe is a lot shorter. This is balancing how we operate with our sales, making sure that we win new customers, new deals, both in the short run and in the longer run. That's one key doing that we are having with our sales team at the moment. We also attended a nationwide trade fair tour, making sure that the Fedelia brand is more well-known in the future compared to the situation now. Very good actions with our sales, and it looks like the pipeline for our sales is up and running and growing again. These are the positive highlights.
A few comments on the highlight in the not-so-positive side. We have been having quite huge packaging film issues with our production at Pyhäntä. Those started in July, and basically the whole Q3 went fixing the problems, identifying the root cause, and making sure that we are able to fix the situation. This has also caused in many ways. We have needed more people in shifts, making sure that the hassle that comes out of these problems is sort of packed with more people. We need extra people to make sure that we get the same stuff out of our production compared to the situation when we don't have these problems. It has caused us more costs on our maintenance, how we take care of our equipment, for example.
There is no big one-time issue that we would say that this is the one huge cost item, but it has caused us costs in many different smaller ways. It has been an issue for us during Q3, but the positive thing is that we have been able to identify the root cause, and now we are almost back to normal. Of course, we are running a bit behind still with the production numbers. We need to get more production now during the last weeks and months of this year. The problems have been now solved, which is the good thing about this. Our new Production Director has made sure that we also take these issues that we had did not have to do with us, but with the film that we use in our production.
We also make sure that we fix our own processes to make sure that we identify the potential problems earlier on to make sure that they don't escalate in the future. The positive thing is that we are now up and running again, almost close to normal. Then to Oikia. This is a quite different case compared to Feelia . With Feelia , we are growing strongly. With Oikia, unfortunately not. The net sales decline in Q3 was over 6%. Our operating profit is totally in a totally different level compared to last year, and unfortunately not in a positive sense. Last year, the operating profit was 10% of net sales. Now we fell to close to zero. Of course, we need to keep in mind that last year was an exceptionally strong year for Oikia. Still, we are, of course, naturally not happy at all with these results.
It's mainly because of the private label deals, but I will get back to that later on with the comments slide. For the first nine months, the net sales EUR 9 million, the change to last year was -3.7%. Again, the operating profit closed to zero. That's of course something that we operate now to make sure that the situation is not this next year. Key points behind the doing. Our own brand products, Oikia, is on the rise. The growth rate for the first nine months is over 20% there. You could say that the focus is shifting a bit from the private label production to our own brand. The decline in our net sales is due to a decrease in private label sales. To be able to keep these contracts, we have had some significant sales decrease in these.
The discussions that we have ongoing with the customers are around the fact that we are the only player who can guarantee that in Finland that we use Finnish potato. We have the production in Finland. There is no other brand who is as Finnish-based as we are. With the Finnish customers, that is something that we hope and believe that is an issue also in the future. It's our focus that we make sure that the deals that we hopefully make for next year look better in the private label sector also. We continue our work with our own Oikia brand. Online store is not meeting its targets. That is clear now. What's preventing us, what is between us and a profitable business is the fact that we need the cold chain from us to the end customer.
The logistics is here the hard part, which we are now looking in a bit different way, trying to find partnerships, how we can operate also with logistics in a more positive way when it comes to costs. The good news here is that at the group level, when we look at Oikia, we are not losing money. It's running on its own, but of course, we are not satisfied where we are now and working on that in the future. In the cash flow sense, it's not taking any money at the group level. The profitability is under pressure here due to multiple factors. The private label deals are a big thing here. We have been also investing in our own brand to make sure that the marketing supports the actions we take with our sales. We need to get the sales up and running.
One big part of that is, of course, marketing. There are two huge players in the Finnish market when it comes to snacks and potato chips, especially. Compared to them, we are quite a small player, but working on getting to be a lot bigger in the future. Before it's Kati's turn, a few key points of Foodpar. There have been some great wins this year and last year as well. Especially that Oma Hämeen from last year, it has been on a ramp-up phase this year. It started in February or March, with the more difficult phases of that ramping up the whole business, which has caused Fodbar's cost level to be rising.
In the future, we see that the deals that Fodbar is able to win are, of course, a good thing for Feelia as well, since we are working on to be an even bigger player together with Fodbar . We have started some new product development to make sure that we are able to meet Fodbar 's targets better also in the future. I will let Kati continue in more detail with the financial figures.
Thank you, Riikka. Let's first take a look at the summary in the third quarter. Our comparable net sales increased by 6.6% and amounted to EUR 13.5 million. Last year, it was EUR 12.7 million. We have taken our divested businesses away from comparative figures. Our EBIT was EUR 0.8 million, representing 6.1% of net sales. Last year, it was 8.1% of net sales and EUR 1 million.
Our year-to-date figures, our comparable net sales increased by 9.1% and amounted to EUR 14.5 million compared to EUR 37.1 million. Our adjusted operating profit was EUR 2 million, representing 4.9% of net sales. Last year, it was EUR 2.4 million and 5.9% of net sales. When we take a look at the key figures, all the profitability ones, our adjusted EBITDA was 9.9% of our net sales compared to 11.9% last year in the third quarter. In year-to-date, our EBITDA was 8.6% of our net sales compared to 9.8% last year. Our adjusted EBITDA was EUR 888,000, 6.6% of net sales compared to 8.8% last year, third quarter, and then the amount was EUR 1.1 million. Year-to-date, EUR 2.2 million this year. Last year, EUR 2.7 million. We have went down a bit in all the profitability figures and in adjusted EBIT, EUR 826,000 this year. Last year, EUR 1 million.
There are a lot of small things affecting these figures, not big ones, as Riikka mentioned. Development expenses, increases in raw materials, challenges in Feelia's production, a lot of changes in our organization. Nothing one of big things this year. Cumulatively, we have reported one of items as some of the restructuring costs, but the indirect ones are not there. It's visible here, and it's now time for a fresh start, continue and increase both net sales and the profitability. Here are key figures by business segments as a summary. In net sales, Feelia's net sales was EUR 10.7 million, change of 10.9% compared to last year. In year-to-date, the change was 12.9%. The total figure falls 32 million compared to EUR 28.4 million last year. In Oikia's operation, net sales went down, unfortunately, 6.7% and year-to-date, 3.7%. There are price decreases affecting the snacks business.
That makes quite a big amount of the sales, this change in sales. Here you can see the graph of Fodelia Group's net sales development. As you can see, the quarterly net sales have been very steady during this year, and also the level is about the same as last quarter last year. We expect and want this trend to change so that we can increase our quarterly net sales, what has happened in the history. Now we have been in the level of EUR 13.5 million compared to EUR 12 million last year, first quarter and second quarter. If you go down to EUR 23.22, it's of course much slower. Because we have had a very good increase in net sales, but now it has been quite a steady phase. Here's the development of net sales in Feelia, Ready Meals, and Delimax cheeses and purees.
Ready Meals increased about 11% compared to last year's third quarter, and Delimax net sales grew a bit more, 14% in this quarter. As Riikka mentioned, September was very good in both. Hopefully that is a good trend for the future. Here's the development of Oikia's net sales. You can see in the gray color the discontinued operations. We divested those last year. In continuing operations, Oikia shows what we see in the group level as well, that all the third quarter, all the three quarters in this year are about the same level. There is a decline compared to last year's third quarter and generally the trend last year. Last year in Oikia's business was very good. Here you can see EBIT by business segments. Fedelia brings our profit, I could say, EUR 1 million in this third quarter.
It went 15% down from last year, but still the level is quite good. In year-to-date, EUR 2.9 million in this year and last year. Oikia's business changed, profitability in Oikia's business changed a lot, and that affects quite significantly also in our group level profitability figures. - 92.3%, that is a huge change. Last year very good in Oikia's business as a profitability-wise. We have presented one of the items here. In year-to-date figures last year, the business divestments are there, and then some share-based payments. This year, some restructuring costs in the second quarter. Here you can see a quarterly development of EBIT. You can see last year, third quarter was very good. Totally different from what the other quarters were. Now this third quarter is best in this year.
The trend is much better than in the beginning of the year, or at least very much better than when we compared the second quarter. Here are some other key figures I would like to point out. Our balance sheet key figures, our equity ratio is high, 55.1%. It's even better than last year at the same time, and last year in the end of the year. Our net carrying is also in good level. It went down. We have decreased there, our key figures. That is very good. The return on equity and return on investment, they are also in quite good level in this third quarter, better than in our EBIT, I would say. The adjusted return on equity, 17.9%, and adjusted return on investment, 20.1%. They are better than in the third quarter than in year-to-date figures.
Our balance sheet total is a bit less than last year. Also, our average number of personnel went down in this third quarter. In year-to-date, also same trend, but the level amount of personnel was higher in the first half of the year. Thank you. This was financials, and Riikka will continue about strategy and future.
Yes, I have to say that the more deeply I look into Feelia and also Oikia with our own brand, the more I believe in our business. It has been, as I said already, but I cannot help but to mention it again, it has been a great chance for myself to also work with our production closely during the past months. Although having said that, I'm very happy to have our new Plant Director with us taking charge of our production at Pyhäntä.
Working now as the CEO of also Feelia has given me the chance to operate also and work also with our customers, have discussions with our customers. It's clear and it is obvious that the concept that we have created during the past years here at Fedelia is a great one to answer, to respond to all those key trends that we have underlying in our society. Our population is aging. We are lacking money in the society. We need to find ways how to do things differently in the future. Feelia's concept is the answer to many of these underlying issues. I would like to say that to all of them. The concept of how we operate makes it possible to save money in the production of the meals. We don't need the heavy central kitchen model anymore.
We can produce the food in a more cost-efficient way, and it can be just warmed up in where it is eaten. Instead of using money in the heavy central kitchen model and in the people cooking the food in many different places in Finland or in other countries as well, we can do that centrally at Pyhäntä and make sure that the people who operate, for example, in the hospitals, in the daycare centers, is that they use the maximum amount of their time for the care job, not for cooking the food. We can do that part, and we can do it in a more cost-efficient way. The concept that we have created fixes many problems that we have when it comes to money.
When looking at, for example, the emergency food concept, at least here in Finland, we have a national law telling how we need to be prepared for different types of emergency situations. Feelia's food is also an answer to these situations. That is something that we are concepting better also at this time and hoping to see quite good sales figures, growing sales figures in that in the upcoming years. The more we work with this concept together with our commercial team, together with our production, the more I believe in the concept and in our possibilities to grow profitably in the future. I'm quite sure that now that we are taking the time to fix our processes to make sure that we operate efficiently now and in the future, we are actually able to be even more profitable in the future, being ourselves more efficient.
That is what we create for our customers. Now we are taking the time to make sure that our own processes are streamlined and we are able to grow profitably in the future. I'm quite looking in a very confident way at our future and our possibilities in the future, especially with Feelia, but of course with Oikia and with our own brand. We like to grow, and we are quite sure that we are able to operate also in a better way with the private label customers in the future. Our guidance for the year was taken a bit down at the end of July. Now looking at the guidance for this year, it remains the same. Of course, looking at our figures after the first nine months, it's quite obvious that we are closer to EUR 54 million, but still remaining on the same guidance for the whole year.
Our plan is to work in the long run. I'm not trying to maximize this year. I'm trying to maximize our possibilities, how we create profitable business in the upcoming years. That's what we are building now together with our new team and also, of course, with our existing teams, making sure that the processes are streamlined. We have a new organization up and running. We have the right places. We have the right people in the right places doing the right things, which will naturally lead to growth in the future. That is our goal at the moment. This is sort of the year of temporarily slowing down to make sure that next year we are again able to grow in greater figures compared to this year. About our long-term financial targets, our target for 2028 is to reach the annual turnover, net sales of around EUR 9 million.
That, of course, the closer that is coming, the more difficult it is, the more we work on this. Also, of course, we are looking for possibilities to maybe acquire something. If we look at Marjavasu, that has been a great acquirer for us. There, the one plus one certainly is more than two. That is one thing that we actually see at the moment. Together, putting Delimax products together with Feelia products, we are able to cross-sell. We are able to have better meetings with the customers with a greater offering for them. That is an example of a very good acquiring for us back. Looking back, I mean, and now that is if we would be looking for acquirers, that would be something similar to that.
Most of all, we are concentrating on how we are able to grow Feelia and make sure that we get Oikia back on the growth track profitably. Other than that, our long-term financial targets remain the same. So far, we have been rating quite nicely the figures, and the plan is, of course, to do that also in the future. Now I can see that we have quite a bit of questions online. Kati, you could maybe help me out here to go through those, and together we can answer those.
Yes. There are several questions about our growth, and especially in Feelia, that the third quarter growth was pretty good, but there has not been no growth from the first quarter to the third quarter. What are our thoughts on this?
The quarters are not similar. There are differences.
First, the third quarter, July is usually quite low since the schools are not up and running. Daycare centers are in a smaller level compared to the normal year. The quarters are not comparable to each other. Of course, we are working on our sales pipeline to make sure that every single quarter is a growth quarter in the future.
If we expect the growth, what will drive the change?
We are working on the Feelia, of course, is the growth driver here. We are working on our sales pipeline. As I mentioned earlier in the presentation, it's combining the short-term and long-term operating with our sales. With different customers, the timeframe is different. With the public sector, it might take years to close the deals, whereas with, for example, the private lunch market, the timeframe is a lot shorter.
We are balancing this whole time and making sure that the pipeline for the public sector as well will be growing again in the future. It did not look as strong as I hoped it should look, looking at it in a more deeper way myself during the summer. We have invested as well here also in our sales team to make sure that we have the professionals to work on this in the future.
Yes. We have wrote in our report that the commercial HoReCa market has opened up. Can you explain a bit more of that?
For example, the lunch market is something where people eat when they, for example, drive from one place to another. That type of place is, and many others as well, but the lunch market especially is quite interesting for us.
Let's move to Oikia. In Oikia, both sales and profitability are down.
Is this because of lower sale through volumes for customers, or is this mainly because of us being forced to accept lower prices to keep our business-to-business customers?
The latter. It has been the pricing issue.
Yeah. What are our actions taken against this?
We believe that with the Finnish customers, the Finnish potato, Finnish production is an issue also in the future. That is something where we need to be strong to communicate where we are strong and how we can operate and help our customers to grow. That's of course in every single business. We need to fix our customers' problems to be able to grow ourselves. Especially when we talk about potato chips and the private label production, the benefit that we have is that we are a Finnish player. With the Finnish customers, that is an issue.
Oikia Ruoka's profitability, what we can tell about that as of now, and what is the cash flow situation? I think you mentioned something about that.
Yeah, in a cash flow sense, it is net positive, slightly net positive, but of course we are not satisfied with this. Whether it can be profitable in the future or not next year will tell us. The logistics is there the problem, as I actually mentioned already.
There is a question about if we want to report Oikia snacks and Oikia Ruoka separately in our reports. What do you think about that?
Yeah, why not? We are actually planning to maybe move the Oikia, the web store, closer to Feelia since the production is at Feelia there. The issue for us is that the brand is the same for both. When we operate with the private customers, we operate under Oikia brand.
Yeah, that is something that we can talk about or think about.
A question about Feelia's EUR 4 million net sales in September. Do we think that is sustainable going forward, or is it those timing-related topics impacting on record sales?
There might be some timing-related issues as well. Of course, we are working to make sure that in, let's say, 2026, that would be the new normal and going towards the EUR 5 million target. There are always some differences between months and timing-related issues. We are constantly working on getting the growth track again on a better level compared to this year.
About new customers, we acquired many new private sector customers during the third quarter. How do we see the public sector going forward? Is the market opening anytime soon?
I think I actually already partly commented that in my previous answers.
Yes, we are operating also on the public sector. It's the timing issue here. Both are very important for us. The private sector gives us especially the shorter-term wins, smaller wins, and we are constantly operating in the public sector as well. It might take some time. Let's put it this way.
About our growth again, is it possible to get 20% growth again?
That's the goal.
What about the export market?
Especially Sweden is very interesting for us. We work with, here in Finland, we work with customers who operate also in Sweden. It would be quite natural for us to expand together with our customers. That is something that we are working on at this time. Our investments in our sales team have also meant that we have invested in getting new knowledge on how to reach new markets.
There is a comment about synergies between snacks business and Feelia and Foodbar. What is the role of the snacks business in the future in our group?
The synergies are not that obvious in business and production-wise. Of course, there are some support functions where we can operate together. There are also some sales possibilities where we can work together. That is, of course, the role of the group on the Fodelia level to be able to cooperate in those issues where we can see the synergies between our business areas. If we think that with the other one, we operate with the food service customers and with the other, the retail customers, that is quite a different market.
There is a question about Feelia's product line challenges and this packaging topic.
Can we provide an estimate of the total financial impact, including personnel, time, material losses, potential sales impact, and other related costs?
That is not a very simple thing. We have been trying to calculate that, and we are still working on that, and we will get the figure. It's about increasing waste. It's about increasing personnel costs, having to have more personnel on shifts to fix those problems caused by the production. It's also accumulating new problems because of the focus being on these packaging film issues. It's not very easy to calculate. That has been something that our Business Controller has been working on for quite some weeks now, but not an easy task. It has caused us problems in many different small and bigger issues.
What about the customers' point of view? Have we been able to deliver products?
Mostly, but we have had some delivery problems as well. That's, of course, my biggest problem because we don't want these problems to be visible for our customers. That hasn't been totally avoidable in this situation.
The non-compliant products, have those been delivered to the customers, or was everything visible in the factory before delivery?
Most of it has been visible at the factory. There have been some minor cases where the end product delivered to the customer has not met our standards, but that's not the big case. Most of the problems have been stopped at the factory.
Thank you, Kalle, for thanking me in my work in this company. It has been six years I've been part of Fodelia's growth story, and I would like to thank you for that. It's now time for me to move on.
Riikka, how is the recruitment process going on, and when will our analysts hear about the new CFO?
At the latest, at the end of November, we have, first of all, I would have been happy to keep Kati at our team. Now, having been forced to hire a new CFO, I have to say that we have great candidates for that position. It's obvious that Fodelia is an interesting company also for CFOs. It's an ongoing process at the moment. We have a very experienced recruitment consultant, or actually two of them, helping us with the recruitment process. We'll be starting the interviews next week and then hopefully having the news by the end of November. It's a very, very important recruitment for us. Kati has been a great CFO for the company. Now we are looking for a new great CFO for us.
We'd rather take a few weeks longer with the recruitment process. At the latest, at the end of November.
I think we have been through our questions. It's time for us to thank you for the audience.
Thank you and have a great day and have a great week. Bye.