Good morning and a warm welcome to Fodelia's half-year webcast. I'm Riikka Wulff, Group CEO, and with me in studio is Janne Aalto, our Group CFO. I will first comment on some highlights at the group level and then move into the business unit level to comment on some highlights and the development behind the figures as well.
Janne will continue with the financial development, and at the end, we will have time for questions- and- answers. Let's start with the key figures. Net sales in Q2 were EUR 14.2 million compared to EUR 13.5 million last year, which means a 5% change in net sales. Operating profit was EUR 0.5 million compared to EUR 0.3 million a year ago, and operating profit of 3.8% compared to 2.1% last year. All the figures are unadjusted figures.
For the first half as a whole, net sales were EUR 28.9 million compared to EUR 27 million a year ago, which means a 7% change in net sales. Operating profit at the group level for the first half of the year was EUR 1.3 million compared to EUR 1 million a year ago, which means 4.7% operating profit compared to 3.6% a year ago. Let's go to the highlights and comments behind the figures. Growth continued and profitability improved.
Of course, the plan is to improve even further in the next quarters and in the upcoming years. The group growth continued, and as has been the case, the growth was driven by Feelia. I will comment on that later on about Feelia in more detail . However, the growth was slowed down by a significant decline in sales to a major customer that organizes a large annual event.
Without that, the growth rate of Feelia would have been a double-digit number. I will comment also on that later in more detail. On the positive side, our entry into the Swedish market has been Let's see. We've been talking about that for a couple of years now, and now we are finally entering the market. The deliveries will start in September.
Very happy about that development. Our growth rate has been really high for many years with Feelia, which has meant that maybe not all the processes have kept up with the growth of kilos. At this point, we have identified that to make sure that we have a solid base for growth in the upcoming quarters and in the upcoming years, we need to invest in the baseline to make sure that, as I mentioned, we have a solid base for growth in the future.
That means increased costs in long term, in the short term and also in the long term, but those will not be growing in this sense in the upcoming years. We are now making sure that we have a solid base for future growth. Moving into the snacks business. Profitability in the snacks business improved significantly while sales of the Oikia brand increased by 22%.
I will comment on that in more detail later on in the presentation. As we informed before, in May I think, we divested the Oikiaruoka.fi business. There we now have an entrepreneur continuing the business, which is really a good case since we will still have a customer for Feelia in the future. As a group, we are not in the e-commerce business anymore. With Feelia, we concentrate on the food service market.
As we have informed the market, we will exit the frozen food business in Kokkola and will concentrate everything we do at Pyhäntä. Our guidance remains unchanged. Janne will comment on that in more detail in his presentation.
Let's move to the business unit level to take a closer look at Feelia and Oikia. Before that, just a reminder of our business areas and how we report the businesses. Feelia operates in the food service market, provides ready meals under the Feelia brand, and juices and berry soups under our Delimax brand. The production is located in Pyhäntä and still for a short while in Kokkola as well. Oikia focuses on the retail market and their snack products O ikiaruoka.fi was divested in May.
In addition to that, we have a joint venture between Fodelia and Bravedo, where we have Fodbar, which provides a comprehensive outsourced food service solution for its customers. Let's start with Feelia. The growth continued. Net sales in Q2 were EUR 11.6 million compared to EUR 10.7 million a year ago, which means an 8% change in net sales as a total.
Operating profit was EUR 0.76 million, which was approximately the same as last year, with some EUR 20,000 improvement there, which means operating profit of 6.5% compared to 6.9% a year ago. The same figures for the whole first half of the year. EUR 23.9 million in net sales compared to EUR 21.4 million a year ago, which means close to a 12% change in net sales in the first half of the year.
Operating profit some EUR 100,000 more than last year, so EUR 1.8 million compared to EUR 1.7 million a year ago, which adds up to 7.6% in operating profit compared to 8.1% a year ago. Let's here as well take a look on the highlights behind the figures. We have a nicely expanding customer base. This is something where we work every single day, every single week, every single month to grow the customer base. Of course, we also work with our current existing customers.
We managed to sign new deals with food service customers, both in meal and juice product categories, where also Delimax continued its positive development. Nice growth there. However, as I mentioned, on group level, the growth was slowed down by a significant decline in sales to a major customer that organizes a large annual event here.
Without that loss in sales, we would have had a double-digit growth number with Feelia as well. We haven't had a slide of our business concept for a while, so we decided to take it here, take a closer look of this here this morning. If you think about the traditional food service model in the market in general, the meals are cooked in a central kitchen, then the hot meals are delivered daily to the service kitchens.
There, which means that the amount of portions delivered to the service kitchens cannot really be adjusted on a daily level. You need to know at least a few days beforehand how many eaters there will be any certain day. The amount of portions cannot be adjusted according to the actual demand.
When you look at our whole concept with Feelia, the meals are cooked at our factory at Pyhäntä. We pack them in vacuum-sealed pouches and autoclave them, which gives them a really long shelf life. We have developed our own web system where the customers can place the orders. It's actually a really easy system. You only need to know how many eaters you have.
You can have the menus on the system. You can have all the special diets on the system, so you only need to know the number of eaters, and the system will take care of the rest. The meals are delivered directly to the service kitchens by our logistics partner, and the meals are heated in the service kitchen, which means that you can only heat as much food as you need for the eaters you have on that certain day.
Because of the long shelf life of our food, the unused packages can be used again when the same food is again in the menu cycle. So rotating the food, when customers rotate the food, they can use the unused packages in the next cycle, which helps us to reduce waste and also save on money. This is good for the environment, and it is good in money sense.
Very sustainable way to do this as well. If we go back to the previous slide, with one-time events, of course, the whole concept is not as visible. The competitive advantage is not as visible here. We still do have a competitive advantage to this as well, but the whole concept is not in work there. Okay but then back to the future.
How we see that the upcoming quarters of this year, we have won many new contracts with many types of customers. With just new care homes and daycare customers, we have + 30 customers starting this spring here in Finland. Also the entry into the Swedish market progressed. Our deliveries will start in September.
As I mentioned, on Fodelia level, this is something that has been in our talks for quite some time. We are actually seeing progress here. We have one sales manager who concentrates mainly on just the Swedish market, and we can see some really nice results here. Well then as I mentioned, not all the processes have been keeping up with the growth pace for the couple of years now.
We have made the decision to grow or build the solid base for the future growth now and do the investments that are needed for that to make sure that we have a good pace for the growth in the upcoming years. We also do have some capacity expansions underway, which include a new autoclave and new production line, which will arrive in the fall of 2026.
In a few months, actually. As I already mentioned, during the reporting period, we decided to exit the frozen food business and focus all the manufacturing in Pyhäntä. We follow our strategy to concentrate purely on our core concept with Feelia, which happens at Pyhäntä. A bit closer look on the change in net sales. A year ago, on the first half of the year, we had net sales of EUR 21.4 million and this year EUR 23.9 million.
The EUR 2.5 million change came mainly on new customers. EUR 2.1 million out of EUR 2.5 million growth came from new customers, which of course will remain our customers also during the end of the year. At the same time, we are all the time working with new customers and closing new deals with new customers.
Of course, we need to be the best possible partner also for our existing customers. Naturally, we work also with the customers that we already have, trying to find good solutions for their needs and problems. EUR 400,000 growth came from customers that we already had. New customer is a customer who didn't have purchases in the comparison period. The same figures on Oikia Snacks. For the first time, we decided to have here a look on Oikia Snacks.
On our official report, you can find the figures for Suomen Oikia Oy at the company level. Since Oikia Snacks is the part of the business that will continue, we thought that it might be of interest for the market to see actually how Oikia Snacks is doing. If we start here as well on the second quarter, net sales approximately the same as last year at EUR 2.6 million.
Actually, a 0.3% change in net sales, which means around EUR 10,000. About the same level as last year. What was a big change here is that the sales of our own brand actually grew by 22% euro, to that 22% which means had a good effect on our operating profit, which was EUR 0.2 million now on the second quarter of 2026 compared to EUR -20,000 a year ago.
This adds up to 6.9% operating profit compared to - 0.6% a year ago. Same figures for the first half as a total. EUR 4.7 million net sales compared to EUR 5.1 million last quarter, last year. The first quarter of this year was not as good as the second quarter was for us.
Change in the first half was - 8.4%. Operating profit, EUR 0.3 million compared to EUR 0.1 million a year ago, and operating profit for the whole first half was 5.6% compared to 2.8% a year ago. The highlights behind the figures. This I have emphasized already, that the sales of our own brand increased by 22%. We have done some systematic social media marketing, maybe for a year and a half now, which is carrying on quite nicely on our figures.
We have active sales here as well because, of course, at the same time, we need to strengthen our brand awareness and have the snacks available for purchasing customers on the stores. These need to go hand in hand, what we do in marketing and what we do in sales. We don't have huge marketing budgets if we compare Oikia to the big snacks brands here in Finland.
We are doing, using the best, using our maybe smaller resources in the best possible way to improve the brand awareness of our brand. Especially the private label business is a business of quite low margins. We are constantly working on our production efficiency, the potato chip line improved by 8% there during the second quarter or actually during the first half of the year.
We have had good results also with our new heat recovery system, which reduces steam energy consumption also by 8%, despite the heated production space increasing by more than 2,000 sq m following the expansion of our tempering facility.
These are all very important improvements that we make to make sure that we get the best possible result out of the quite low margin business, especially with the private label business here. As I have commented of the Oikiaruoka.fi divestment, it allows us to focus fully on developing our snacks business. As we can see, with some good results here. I think I will hand the stage over to Janne to go through our financial development in more detail. Go ahead, Janne.
Thank you, Riikka, and also hello for everyone on my behalf. Let's start to go through our financial development more in detail. First of all, we have our performance indicators here. As Riikka commented already, the operating profit in Q2 was EUR 0.5 million. That means now that our profit for the period was EUR -0.5 million. However, the adjusted profit for the period was EUR +0.4 million.
The difference is the new capital loan issued to the Fodbar and the accounting principle chosen for the treatment of the capital loan. Earnings per share were EUR -0.06 per share, as adjusted, it was EUR +0.05 per share. Also the reason is the same, the Fodbar's new capital loan there. On below, we see the H1 figures.
The operating profit was EUR 1.3 million, the profit for the period was EUR 0.06 million. The adjusted profit for the period was EUR 0.9 million. The difference there as well is the new capital loan issued for the Fodbar. In the end, the earnings per share for EUR 0.01 per share, as adjusted the earnings per share were EUR 0.12 per share and the Fodbar is the reason there.
We wanted to show you the impact of the Fodbar as a transparent way as possible. Let's move on to see our cash flow in the H1, so the first six months of the year. As we can see here, we had a stable and strong operating cash flow, EUR 2.2 million in the period. That enabled us to invest.
We used EUR 1.6 million for the investments and there is the financial cash flow, EUR 0.3 million. The impact is the dividend payments, also we withdraw new loan and new financing over there. Pretty normal the first six months in cash flow sense. Other key figures. As we know, we have still a strong balance sheet, strong financial position, adjusted return on equity 16.3%, and the equity ratio in a good level, 52.4%.
We are having interest bearing net debt EUR 4 million and the net gearing 34.5%. Basically, strong balance sheet, strong financial position means that we have room to move if needed for the new investments or M&A transactions as well. Highlights of our joint venture company called Fodbar. As a positive news, Fodbar won new agreement with the Pohde.
That new agreement will start to impact for the Fodbar figures in starting of January 2027. There is a continuation of existing agreement approximately EUR 4 million, but additional new sales EUR 1 million as annual level. As commented more in details in the Q1 webcast, the Oma Häme agreement is temporary agreement with Oma Häme is still valid and in effect, but the future is still uncertain and open.
As commented already before one significant event for the Fodbar was the new capital loan there. The board owners in total Fodbar received EUR 1.6 million new capital and our part of that was 50%, so EUR 800,000. Outlook and the guidance. Our guidance for 2026 remains unchanged. We estimate our net sales for the 2026 be approximately between EUR 59 million and EUR 65 million.
Our operating profit is estimated to improve significantly in 2026 compared to the prior year 2025. As a background information, our guidance is based on the following assumptions. First of all, the demand for the cost-efficient meal solutions continues and to be supported by the cost pressures in the public sector in Finland. This is really a goal for the Feelia's strategy.
Feelia's growth will continue, and that is supported the increased business with the existing clients, but also the new customers there. Oikia's own brand sales continue to grow, which supports the increasing sales and also increasing profitability, so the operating profit. No changes in the long-term financial targets. Finally, how we have progressed in towards our 2026 guidance and market expectations. Our strong sales performance supports the achievement of the full year guidance.
We see that the second half of the year is and will be better than the first half of the year. There are new sales both for the new and existing customers, and the actual deliveries to the new customers will start during the second half of the year. Also we are progressing in the Swedish market. Riikka already commented that a bit more.
Basically, we are able to start to deliver of our products to the Swedish market during the second half of the year. As supporting the Feelia's strategy, the public sector cost pressures will support the growth and our movement forward. Nevertheless and the important part as well, the Oikia's business and development.
The own brand sales and the development of own brand of Oikia's supports both the net sales growth and the improved profitability as well. Thank you from my part, and now is the time for the Q&A and for the questions.
Yes. Do we have any questions?
Yes, we do. Maybe we start for the Swedish market. There's a question that actually, how big is the Swedish market? How we see the possibilities like also in the next year, in 2027?
Well, in general, since Sweden is double the size of Finland, it is a bigger market, bigger potential market than Finland. Of course, we have realistic outlook for the growth in the Swedish market. We don't have a lot of euros on our estimate for this year. We have growing numbers for the upcoming years. We don't have an exact figure that I would say that, "Okay, it will be EUR 5 million next year."
We do see a great potential there. It is a big country, and the concept which I described earlier in my presentation is valid also in Sweden. It's quite similar market compared to Finland when you think how the foodservice is organized there. A bit unclear answer, but yeah, we do see it as a big market.
Yeah. Then there's a question regarding the new agreements. How big are they, and are we going to see maybe record high quarters in Q3 or Q4? I guess as we commented in our guidance, we believe that we are able to meet our targets and the guidance, that means that the second half of the year
Exactly
will be better than the first half of the year.
Exactly.
Also Oikia. Do you expect Oikia's revenue to grow from here?
I hope it to grow from here. We don't have a lot of growth in our estimate for the rest of this year, but we do see good development with our own brand, which it has maybe a more effect on our profitability than on our top line at this point. Yes, we are working on our own brand to make sure that in the longer run, Oikia is all the time a stronger brand to improve our sales in the future. If we think about this year, I see more effect on profitability than on top-line level.
Two questions regarding the Fodbar business. One question is that do you expect Fodbar's profitability to improve? I guess I can comment for that. Yes, we expect the Fodbar to improve going forward, but it will take a bit time that Fodbar is in a stable phase and long-term growth path is again reached. What will be the impact of the lost sales in Fodbar, I guess, for Fodelia.
As we have commented before, we do not expect any significant impact for Fodelia's group figures. One interesting question. How do you see the changes in the Finnish parliament made changes in the procurement law affecting for the Feelia's business?
Well, I see positive possibilities there. We have already seen good questions coming from the customers. We expect that to have a positive impact on our business.
Addition for that question that, do you see already some kind of impact of in-house companies that they have already started to show some activity or discussion with Feelia?
We have had more contacts, and of course, we are active ourselves in this regard, so yes, we do see.
Yeah. You commented already the Swedish market in long term, but then also one question that how big is the sales in Sweden in early stage? I guess that means that basically during this year.
Well, let's just say that it doesn't have a big impact on our figures this year. I see that the expectations are for the upcoming year.
Yeah. It's new opening for the new markets.
Yes.
The classic question. Any thoughts regarding new investments or M&A activity?
Yeah. Well, so far we have been on the divesting side. Of course, if we see interesting opportunities, we keep our eyes open for those all the time, especially in regard to Feelia's core concept. That's maybe the only thing where we are interested, how we can support the growth of Feelia in the future as well. Also thinking about possible M&A cases. Primarily, we are concentrating on how we operate with our own production and our own sales with the concept that we already have. It's not a top priority. If there is something of interest for us, then we are open for that.
Thank you, Riikka. I guess no further questions here.
All right. Thank you everyone for listening, and in three months we will have again some interesting news.
Thank you.