Hello, and welcome to Incap's Q2 webcast. Today on studio we do have the company CEO, Otto, CFO, Antti, and on Zoom we do have the UK's Managing Director, Jamie, on the line.
Nice to meet you, Aaro.
Nice to meet you too, guys.
Yes, it's a pleasure to be here. Good luck now. You have quite big shoes of the Jonas to fill in that sense.
Thank you. At the end, we do have a Q&A session, so feel free to send the questions on the website. Yeah, that said, Otto, stage is yours.
Thank you very much. We had some technical difficulties last time when I was sitting in Estonia. We hope we have a little bit better luck with the PowerPoint today and we all are heard when we are speaking. Starting off, we released our Q2 today, and it's all-time high. To look at some of the milestones, I think that is a big milestone. We have never been at that level when it comes to revenue or EBIT. Of course, this is a fantastic achievement from our team. I will emphasize that more here probably today during the presentation, but foremost on the Q&A as well. We have amazing people working for us.
As you perhaps noticed, the profitability is slightly better than it was previous quarter, and I have emphasized that quite a lot before, that it's due to what product mix we are running and a little bit what we're doing in different units. Of course, we have continued to invest in the different facilities and that we do also here in the future. Of course, the biggest investment in India and the third factory in India. But we have investments going on in all units. What I'm especially happy to see is that we are growing in all units. Numbers speak for themselves.
It's, I think an amazing result and a good beginning, the first half that we've had of the year, and hopefully we can continue with the same line. The team, I can't emphasize enough that we have our decentralized model and we have amazing people working in all units, and they are the ones bringing this business. The credit should go for the individuals down in the different units that are really working hard currently because the business environment is still very much the same. We have component problems with component availability. We have logistical challenges with lockdown still due to the pandemic in China and other places.
It's a big effort to achieve this and to be able to keep the customer commitments that we have made. I want to congratulate, of course, not ourselves, but our team to this amazing result and hope that everybody is as pleased as we are, of course, to see these numbers. Mr. Pynnönen.
Yes
Your turn to go for the numbers.
You can switch to the next slide, please.
Yes, yes, I can go for it.
Thank you, Otto. Yeah, let's dive a little bit closer to Q2 numbers. Like Otto already explained, it was an all-time high quarter for Incap's long history of Incap business. 82.2% growth in the top line, booking EUR 61.2 million in revenue side. Then operating EBIT profit, we recorded EUR 8.6 million corresponding to 14.1% to revenue, and on the profitability side we had even over 100% growth. If you please turn to this slide. Here we have a little bit the trend. I think it gives a little bit more perspective on Incap figures.
Q2, as we can see, the graph starts from the Q1 2019, and ever since there has been quite a solid growth in the revenue side. Now as you can see clearly, even beating the Q1 of this year, which was again last time all-time high. Profitability development, there has been a little bit ups and downs. This is operating profit, so including, for example, acquisition-related PPA elements and items. There are a few of those impacting the, for example, 2020 profitability. But then last month and last quarters have been on a solid double-digit level as we have used in Incap.
Also there was a couple comments to the Q2 last year, plus also in 2020 Q2 , we suffered a bit on India lockdown effect. Now of course obviously we measure this year quarter to a bit weaker quarter in 2021, so that a bit explains the very rapid and high growth numbers. Here we actually in Incap, we collected some of the KPIs that we obviously in Incap follow on a monthly basis, some of them obviously more often. These we actually thought that would be interesting for the viewers and listeners and this a little bit puts in the bigger picture the Incap's performance and where we are and it's a combination of profit and loss KPIs, we start from the top.
There's a revenue and operating profit, and we collected the data starting 2019, so six months official figures from our releases. We have also from the balance sheet side, our very important numbers regarding inventories. We have trade receivables. We have a payable side, so the key net working capital items are listed here. Obviously for us, very important cash level, how much cash reserves we have in the group, and then, related to that, we have also listed interest-bearing debt. In the below, in the graphs, we have inventory level in the graph picture in the first one, and in the middle, there is interest-bearing debt, and then we also have publicly reported the number of our resources in each of the unit.
kind of the message from this slide, I think the key here is that every single item here grows and has grown very significantly since 2019. Only three years ago, for example, inventory was EUR 10 million, and at the end of June this year, it was EUR 72 million. That's kind of the level of cash we have tied into the business, so it's quite capital-intensive to grow as rapidly as Incap. Also that partially explains why we have little bit withdrawn some loans as well, not too much. We are in very healthy position financially, but yeah. Top line also looking EUR 37 million three years ago, now EUR 115, so there's like over EUR 70 million growth, EUR 77 million growth in top line.
Business is going the right direction, and then yeah, it needs capital in order to keep that growth, and that's kind of the message here. Of course, when I think investors have read and gone through Incap's report from the morning, also cash flow was impacted by the high level in changes in net working capital, and that's why we included those numbers in the slide. Inventory levels have gone up. We strategically need those materials in order to support our customers' growth, and that's very much the essence of EMS business. Here, we also included a little bit annual numbers and of course the last one in a darker blue. That's only the first six months, and yeah, this is just summarizing the previous slide.
Also the background a little bit on the release that we did just last week, and that was related to the Outlook update. Originally, we started this year with the higher number guidance, and last week we stated that the top line profitability will be clearly higher than last year.
So-
Yes
That's, I think, currently everything from us, but we have very interesting topic today with Jamie and UK, so.
Yes. We can put the UK video-
Yeah
Rolling, please.
Yeah.
Incap UK is part of the Incap Corporation. With locations across the world, we're a multinational electronics manufacturer with a truly global reach. Our production facility, based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, is situated in a region of rich pottery heritage in the heart of the Midlands and has excellent links to key national roads, rail networks, and airports. Located just a short distance from the world-renowned Keele University and Science Park, the factory has 4,400 square meters of total floor space and employs more than 200 people. Incap has over 20 years' experience in the defense, security, and aerospace markets. Its global customers have operations in Europe, Asia, and North America. The factory in the UK has grown rapidly by responding to customer needs and providing reliable specialist services.
Our award-winning facility brings together the high-level technical capabilities and leading-edge production technologies that are normally associated with multinationals. Our approach to customers is based on partnership and personal service. We provide full turnkey solutions, including PCBAs, electromechanical assembly, cable and wire harness assembly, alongside a dedicated standalone rapid prototyping facility and maintenance, repair, and overhaul services. The future growth of Incap builds on the entrepreneurial, agile, and customer-driven culture of our employees, our flexible operational model, as well as our deeply ingrained cost management mindset. We aim to drive consolidation in the industry to benefit from the growth potential and to maintain our cost efficiency and long-term profitability in a sustainable way. If you're a company that would like to benefit from our full turnkey services, then please get in touch.
Good afternoon. Hopefully you enjoyed the video. I think it gives a good introduction to U.K. facility. What I want to do really was share some of the things that aren't in the video and give you a view on what Incap UK is and what we do and how we service and support our customers. The site that I'm in today, as the video said, we're pretty central in the U.K. We're between Manchester and Birmingham, which are the second and third largest cities in the U.K., so easy access. The site that we're in was established in 1974 as a manufacturing facility, and in its current guise as an EMS has been just over 20 years.
We're involved in defense, security, aerospace, as well as industrial products and instrumentation. Low volume, high complexity products. We also have a prototype pre-production area where we introduce new customers' products into the marketplace and hopefully continue to manufacture that either in the site in the U.K. or one of our other sites in other geographic regions for lots of different reasons. U.K. in brief and a bit of a history, we were acquired, we were privately owned, and since January 2020, we're 100% acquired by Incap Corporation. I think over the last two years, we've seen continual growth and investment in the site, and I think it's been a very good acquisition for the U.K. site and the U.K. business.
The services we offer are really from the beginning of a product life cycle right to the end of the product life cycle, including PCB manufacturing, box build assemblies, so full system builds, cable and harness assemblies, customized solutions, and electromechanical assemblies. We also follow that through to the end of life with our repair center, so we take products back in that we maybe didn't manufacture. We will repair, overhaul, retest, and ship back out to customers as a refurbished product. We're proud of our quality standards on the site. We have the usual ISO 9001, ISO 14001, but we also have ISO 13485, which is medical, and AS9100, which is aerospace, space and defense.
Just two weeks ago, we were certified for ISO 45001, which is health and occupational. That again is a new accreditation for the site in the UK and helps us with supporting our staff as well as, you know, occupational health, risk assessments, and looking after our employees. Some of the things in the local community that we do, we support a local girls' football team. Around about 10 minutes away from the factory, there is Milton United Ladies Football Club, and we support the under nines as they are now just starting their new season. We sponsor their kit, and we support them as a business. The site, in the eight years I've been here, we've actually started an apprenticeship scheme.
We bring in young, enthusiastic, hopefully, trainees. We send them to college, help fund that. They go through a technical apprenticeship, on site, with a day release at college, and we continue to support that. This year, we're looking to bring between four and six new apprentices onto the site and then hopefully train them to become engineers, technicians, and fulfill some of the technical needs for the site in the future. We also then support a local community for, charities and other events, some of that internal. And we've just had our summer party, which everyone enjoyed, and supported the local area with that as well. Finally, a little bit of recognition that we've received over the last few years.
The most recent one is Best Full-S ervice Electronic Manufacturing Company for 2022. We're proud to have received the award. We think that it shows recognition for what the site's done and gives us a stable footing for the future. Hopefully that fills in a few of the gaps from me. I'm happy to take any questions on the UK business, but thank you for your time.
Let's jump into the Q&A session, and everyone at home feel free also to send the questions still here to me. Otto and Antti, let's start with an easy little question here. Let's take that one. How has the currency fluctuation impacted the revenue and EBIT during the quarter?
Yeah, we calculated actually the first six months, like the data for the currency impact, and that's 3.5% top line. So it means like we have increased the top line due to the currency fluctuation by 3.5%, so not more than that. Impact in EBIT in the first six months was 0.5%, so quite limited in the end of the day.
Great. Next question. Many companies are reporting a more conservative stance on buying and reducing inventory levels due to more uncertain economic outlook. Do you see any signs of this in your order books?
No. Our order book is all-time high currently, and it seems to be keeping growing. We're growing, as I mentioned before, in all our units, and it's very nice to see. We don't see that then. But we still see that there is problems with the material availability, so we keep the inventory level somewhat higher than we would do in a normal case. What the normal is is quite interesting, as well, looking at the past years with all the pandemics and all the things going on. We keep them high. I think when you look at the numbers, you should also bear in mind that we don't speculate in inventory. Either we have firm orders already for that inventory or we have them forecast that our customers are liable for. In that sense, so everything is order driven in Incap.
Actually, I'll follow up from that another question. Your inventory continues to grow faster than your revenue due to higher customer demand. Is this inventory growth a better proxy for your real underlying demand, if not supply chain disruptions? Comments or stories there.
I think if you look at the EMS business, inventory levels are quite good indicators of if the inventory is well managed, as it is in Incap. It is a good indicator for what will be coming in that sense in the future. If that answers your question.
Absolutely. There's a direct correlation you must understandably in EMS business raw materials in order to convert them, develop them into the final products. Of course there's a correlation between the stock levels and the future business growth.
Great. In the past year, customers have been placing orders and forecasts more for more extended periods of time with their contract manufacturers than before. How has that factor developed now in the last month? Are customers still placing orders for a significant larger time ahead?
Yeah, no, I think that trend have continued and I think it will continue as long as there is problems with materials in the market. Once that is resolved, then the question is what will happen. But we see very much more ahead than we normally did. If you look at classic EMS business you had perhaps three months visibility and now we have visibility into 2024 in many cases. It's a totally different ballgame in that sense than it was just a few years ago in the business.
Great. Let's jump into India question. Could you talk a little bit about the dynamics of the product mix and how we should think about those going forward? Your new factory in India, what type of product mix do you have there?
Yeah, it will be similar to what we are driving or running currently, and so it will be. I think if you look in general, it's small variations in the product mix. Of course, from month- to- month, depending on what we are running and what we are producing, that can then affect the profitability somewhat. That said, I think in general, yeah, it will look very similar to what we are driving today, but in larger volumes.
Great. Let's ask, say, one M&A question. Is Incap interested in geographical expansion to America or Western Europe or alternative to East Asia?
Yeah, no, we are very much interested in geographical expansion. I think U.S. market is very, as I've said before, very interesting for us and as well as the German market here in Europe. Of course there's other markets as well that we could think of. We have an M&A team working in that sense. We work actively evaluating different cases and so far we don't have anything on the hook. We have a good organic growth currently and so it's not so that we are rushed into to do something to be able to facilitate growth. I'm quite sure that eventually we will hook something.
U.S. market, of course, being a huge economy, there's a lot of opportunities, also a lot of EMS companies available. Kind of the main reason for Incap obviously is our existing customer base. They have their own businesses located in U.S,. and they kind of are quite constantly asking for Incap to also develop operations in U.S. and serve from U.S. continent their local operations there. There would be quite immediate, like a business rationale to cooperate with our existing clients in there. That's a little bit the background for why U.S. actually is interesting for Incap, like Otto mentioned Germany as well.
Great. I'll ask you one question about Estonia. One investor is thinking, what is the main reason behind the good development in Estonia site in Q2? The data says that Q2 turnover was EUR 33 million, and in last year it was just EUR 6 million in Q1.
Yeah. Maybe I can comment on this one. I've been little bit deep in this topic. Unfortunately, there is an error on that data. We would like that to be true as well, but unfortunately the system in the tax department in Estonia. They have gone through a modernization upgrade in the IT system, and unfortunately they have released this kind of data, and investigations are ongoing how to correct the data and what's really the main reason there. Don't always trust the public data available.
Yes, yes. You should trust our numbers.
Yeah
Rather. That said, we are growing in Estonia as well, but not to that extent.
Yes
Great. Industrial PMIs are deteriorating. Do you think that the outsourcing trend will be strong enough to compensate on the bad economic backdrop?
If you look at our business and electronics in general, I think there is many trends in this. I think first of all, we put electronics in more and more things, in general, and that of course supports companies like us and our growth. Then there is an outsourcing trend. There is also a localization trend on the market where manufacturing is moving closer to R&D, closer to the end customers, and so. There's many trends that are supporting in that sense, the growth in electronics.
I think that will continue, that even if you look at the world economy perhaps stagnating or going into somewhat of a recession, then I think there is still growth in electronics in the mega trends we see with green energy and aging and so on. That this will continue and that has its own play in that sense that we will see.
Great. A few of the investors are wondering, could you give any comments on how the customer concentration is evolving?
Yeah, the way we are acquiring new customers and we're working on it. Our biggest accounts are in that sense dominating currently a little bit, if you look at the business as a whole. This is something we are working on. I think it's a little bit like back and forward. If you look here, Jamie talked about the AWS acquisition, and we were in an even worse situation when we did that acquisition. Now we continue to look at acquisitions. We continue to acquire new customers and grow them, but we are very fortunate that our big accounts as well are growing at the same time, and foremost our biggest customers.
I think that is a struggle back and forth always that you want to have a balanced customer portfolio, but you don't turn down business if the percentage of some customer or is getting a little bit higher than you would have expected.
Mm.
In the Q2 report, we also disclosed the proportion of the biggest four clients, and now it's 71% contributing to the overall top line, and then the number of one million accounts have increased from 10 to 12. That's also a little bit showing that we are expanding to new clients as well. Like Otto mentioned, we are very happy that we have these long-term customers contributing a lot to Incap, and it's actually win-win situation, and we want to also serve, and give the best services to not only of course biggest four, but all our clients. They are very important all to Incap.
Great. Let's talk a little bit about the strong demand. How do you best capitalize the current strong demand momentum? Are you rather trying to increase prices or try to sign new longer-term contracts with your customers or try to prioritize more profitable businesses?
No, we of course keep on investing in our business to enable that we have the capabilities and capacities needed to take care. I don't think that there is a big pricing game in that sense. Well, price, on time delivery and quality remain the hygiene factors in the EMS industry. Everybody has that on the more or less the same level. Where you can differentiate this is the service offering and how you offer that service and what is the conception of that service. We keep on working. We keep on working with our model and with dedicated teams to each customer, our decentralized model with the quick decision-making that's done down in the units for decision-making and that is what is growing our business currently.
Mm.
Incap actually works very systematically, not only through the very good times, but also on a downside. So we don't kind of change depending on the weather our strategy in that sense. So we are in the EMS business. Our customers, they are very trustful towards Incap, and there's only one reputation in a way also in the industry. So we are following our internal procedures regarding pricing and being systematic and having the same message. In the long term, like we have seen in the past and so on, it has been quite efficient anyways.
I'll jump back into the customer questions. Your four biggest customers are over 70% of your turnover in H1 2022. What is the two biggest customer risks that you see in the future, let's say in two years' time?
Of course, there's always risks with all business. One must understand that we have very long-term relation with these customers and we're very much integrated into their own operations. We are their main manufacturing partners and we work together from the product development and prototyping and so on. I don't see how to say the big risk with losing the customers. Of course we are talking about customers and in general that have a very aggressive growth.
I think if you're to mention some risk is that if we wouldn't be able to facilitate that growth, then of course there's a risk that we would lose perhaps some of that business share. I'm quite convinced that we are on top of that and we have good expansion in and growth in all units. We keep on investing and yeah, the big investment in India is all moving according to plan. I look very positively on the future.
Yes, I'll continue from the topics from the customers. How much do you have project-based businesses or customers, or is it mostly a continuous business or orders from the customers?
It is a mix. It is very hard to differentiate that because we have I think both going on in all units in that sense. Of course, there is. We have talked before there might be some volatility in the numbers sometimes because we have project-based, but we have also quite broad customer portfolio if you look at the broader picture and normally they tend to cancel each other out, the project-based business. One goes up, the other one goes down, and it remains in balance in the bigger picture.
Great. Let's jump into supply chain. Are you seeing any supply chain bottlenecks at the moment or any easing up on them at the moment on the Q2?
No, no. If you look at Q2, then I think the situation have remained the same. Perhaps I think we have got used to the market situation, and the customers have got used to the market situation. In that sense, it has been easier that in the beginning of the component crisis in that sense was very much so that we needed also to educate our partners and customers on what is the market situation, but now everybody have understood that. I think in one way the day-to-day work on at least that part have been easier. We still see shortages also that we have the pandemic still going on.
There's still lockdowns in China, influencing logistics and so in the bigger picture. That is still ongoing. Of course, the geopolitical situation in Europe, because I still don't think, and we wrote that also in the report, that we have seen, I would say, the full effect of that because both Ukraine and Russia is big raw material producers for the world and at some point that will hit them, and also when it comes to operating costs, including energy and other things. We are monitoring that very closely.
As we a little bit discussed around this topic in Q1 , now it's the third year we have this same discussion about the material availability challenges and lockdowns and the corona and et cetera. We must understand how actually Incap works, and that we kind of tried to open in first webcast in Q1 and that's that, we don't only invest in Incap, the latest technology machinery, invest in our people. We have invested in our local sourcing team and resources there, and those are in the key positions to actually find those materials.
They are working super hard, that we also highlighted in the Q2 release and yeah, we have our decentralized organizational structure that is actually bringing its benefits at the moment when the challenges are there in terms of the supply chain and logistics. Local dedicated teams prioritizing customers. All customers are taken care of locally and local supply chain teams are on top of things, and without those resources, our numbers that we presented today would not have been possible to make.
Well, Jamie, you are much closer in that sense to the day-to-day problems. How do you feel that? Is there a difference in material availability?
We're not seeing any easing, I don't think, at the moment. I think the team, as you've mentioned, are working harder to stand still really, so material availability is still a problem.
Mm.
Great. Thank you. One investor is wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on the order books and order intake composition. How much of the strength or growth is coming from, let's say, a industrial field such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, et cetera, versus more legacy industrial fields such as, you know, KONE, ABB, that kind of stuff?
Yeah, I think, Tero, we have done some statistics of course on it and I think if you look at green energy and this kind of e-mobility and so those kind of trends are very strong currently. I think that they are foremost driving the growth in Incap currently. If that answers your question.
Great. Soft industrial data from many developed countries, Germany, for example, suggest that lower industrial momentum is going forward. How will this impact your business H1 2023 and onwards?
Yeah, of course, it's hard to predict what will happen in the future or so. If you look at the forecast and the information we have available, then we will continue our growth, and that is also why we have done investments in our factories and facilities and building a new factory. If that answers your question, then in the businesses we are in, we seek continued growth.
Obviously EMS companies are very, very different. If you compare them, there are only in Germany thousands of EMS companies. Of course on average when we talk about this kind of business intelligence and how electronics industry developed, that's always a very, very high level average and then, like I said, Incap is quite different animal compared to any other EMS company and we do have positive outlook on this year but years to come as well.
Great. I have question about write-offs. Please explain the quote, "Write inventory write-off amount of EUR 0.6 million," quote ends.
Well, this quarter we have one customer that has gone through like a debt refinancing process and there's a risk on this customer, and in our material levels we have dedicated components to this customer and we have gone through internal analysis line by line, and if the worst case scenario would materialize, then now this was the timing, right timing to do a provisioning against an identified risk. It's concerning one customer we have in Incap.
Better safe than sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exactly.
I have question about Finland. Would a factory in Finland make sense from a organizational point of view?
I would never say never in that sense that we have had, of course, historically, factories before, and now we cover the Scandinavian market where, from our Estonian factory, foremost. It all depends in that sense. I think geographically, of course, we are very close with our Estonian unit to Finland. Finland, Estonia is like a smaller brother of Finland, and it's 80 km from its border. Of course, Finland is big, so if you look from up north, then it's even a long way to drive from Helsinki. It all depends. I wouldn't say that it's necessary for our business. I think we have good geographic coverage currently, but I wouldn't rule it out either. If a good opportunity comes along, then let me know.
About the Q1 webcast, you mentioned that you have a free capacity on your factories and you mentioned that you are building that capacity up. How would you describe the capacity at the moment on the factories?
I think Antti made a really good point on the Q1 webcast that the name of the game is to be able to offer our customers services. That means that we always work with trying to maintain a small overcapacity in that sense so we can take in new projects, and that we have continued with as well and that we of course don't calculate into when we do expansion plans and others so we have something extra to offer as well. That said, I think that the industry looks somewhat different than it did some years ago.
When I started in electronics then there was big capital investments needed to start up an EMS company and now you have the possibility to rent machinery, rent facilities, even rent people and you can do this kind of moves quite quickly and especially if you're established already as us to increase our capacities is normally not a problem and to change our capabilities not a problem anymore with how the industry looks like. It's an interesting in that sense industry we are in. When we before perhaps sold what kind of capacity and capability do we have, then now and I think will be even more in the future than it will be the customer to drives what kind of capacity and capability you need, and then you set it up after that in that sense.
Yeah. Historically, obviously, we have been in this situation that our floor space is already fully in utilization. It has been time for internal analysis and investment plan preparation work and once all this kind of administrative work and analysis have been thoroughly investigated, then obviously if there is gonna be an investment, we will disclose and make a release on that one. For example, last year we informed the market about this third factory which is very material investment for Incap, so that was disclosed in order to respond to the growing production demand and thus Incap to respond to that and increase the capacity. That's a little bit explaining as well.
Great. I have question about your guidance. You raised your guidance just a few days ago. Investor would like to know a little bit about the background. You didn't tell enough, in his opinion. Why was the rise?
I think if you look at how we have been working the past years is that we are conservative in the beginning of the year. There's a lot of risks of course always when you start a new business year. Now when we come to half of the year have gone, we have greater visibility. We see that perhaps some of the risk have not materialized and we are more comfortable in increasing the steering. It's as simple as that we keep on looking at the environment that we are in and trying to judge how it will play out and now we have better visibility.
Great. I have one Finnish question. Let me translate this to English. You have been talking in the last quarters about your product mix, and that you are wanting to do more of a higher end of the product mix. Do you see that if the economy takes a downturn, the customers will start to prioritize dumber or not as profitable products for your point of view?
That's very interesting question in that sense and of course very hard to say. What I personally think is that if you look at the trend with outsourcing and if the economy goes down, then I think smart customers are not starting to employ themself or if they have. They would rather use and then outsource the business and services to somebody else that then takes the risk with the up and down. At least I think that would be smart.
Probably in a downturn it would be more difficult to justify larger size investments to your own in-house operations. In Incap, that's our profession. We do it on a daily basis, so probably there would be some rationale to move and make those kind of decisions, but time will tell.
Great. I have bad, good, and bad news. I only have two questions left. If you still have questions, feel free to send in the other end of the webcast.
Perhaps some question to U.K. We have Jamie here, and he's a great guy.
Mm
That knows everything about the U.K. operations.
Yes, please, ask Jamie also. If you go through this, your third factory in India will be open soon and up and running. Is that capacity already booked, or are you still looking for new customers to close?
No, when we have done, yeah, I mentioned that we always are calculating with a little bit excess capacity, of course. That investment is driven by current customer demand in that sense. We are not looking, in that we are always looking for new customers, but not to fill that factory.
Great. I have the last question at the moment. How often do you close a new customer? Is that something that happens constantly, or is it a more rare, given that the capacity is almost fully booked at the moment?
No, I think that's something that constantly is happening. You must keep in mind that normally it starts off with doing prototypes, doing like very small volume and in a development stage, and it can take several years. If you look, for example, in the medical segment, it can take several years before we see that production ramping up to some kind of mass production or substantial. Perhaps, Jamie, you are working with this every day, that you want to fill in on how that develops in that sense.
Yeah, I think we see products when we engage with customers consistently. There may be a customer with a new product that's coming in now that develops into a production customer in a couple of years' time. We were also developing customers a year ago that are coming in now, so it is a constant evolution and happens, like as Otto said, all the time.
Great. I have one question here. Have you noticed any pressure from a larger customer regarding pricing?
I think of course pricing is something we discuss all the time and now we see on the market what we see is that when it comes to material availability sometimes we find the material is available but to a higher price. Then of course we have discussions because we are not absorbing that price increase so then we need to have a discussion with the customer regarding pricing. We don't see that there is generally said that this is a huge pressure in that sense.
I think our customers very well understand that what our costs are and all. If the general manufacturing costs are increasing or the input in that sense increases, that they have an understanding for that we can't do charity. We still do business in that sense. It's a give and take. In the same way, if we find a possibility to manufacture something cheaper or in a more efficient way, we pass that also on to our customers. It's a give and take in that sense when we have price increases and when we have price deductions. I guess that any relationship is like that. It's give and take. The key thing is that both parties in a business relationship are happy.
Great. That's all my questions from the Q&A session. Do you have, gentlemen, anything you want to say, or do we call it a day?
No, I want to thank everybody again for the interest, and I think that we keep on developing this format, and I hope it was good information about our UK unit. Next time I guess it's Estonia on.
Okay
On the road. Feel free to contact us if you have questions otherwise, and looking forward to the next one.
Right. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, and that was Incap's second quarter reporting webcast. Thank you for joining us.