Warm welcome to Orthex Q3 presentation. Happy to have with me Saara Mäkelä, our CFO, and Hanna Kukkonen, our CMSO. So we will take you through the third quarter result and give you a little update of what's new and what's going on at the moment. So first, a short introduction to the company. As you know, we have local production in Finland and Sweden. We produce about 90% of what we sell locally in our home markets. We have customers in about 40 countries, and on the map, there's one new thing actually to note, and that's the fact that there's a new white dot, and that's placed in the Benelux, where we now have local presence. We are happy to announce that we have strengthened the international sales team on the ground.
Otherwise, the sales team is also in Germany, U.K., France, and then the Benelux, and of course, in all the Nordic countries. But this doesn't mean that we're not selling to other European countries or for that sake, worldwide countries, which are 40 today. Moving on, storage, the biggest category, and in all the categories, the mission is, of course, to make everyday life easier with really long-lasting, nice products that are sustainably produced in mostly in our own factories. Storage being the biggest one, and the spearhead, actually, the one growing internationally outside the Nordic countries as well. And storage is today about 66% of our sales. Then we have the kitchen category, practical kitchen utensils and food storage products, baking products, and so on.
Not so much for storing, but more for actually making your life in the kitchen easier and making the home chef succeed. So that's, k itchen is the second largest category at about 21% of turnover. Then we have home and yard and plant care, about the same sizes, 6% and 7%. Probably, home and yard category mostly known in Finland, but also in the rest of Nordic. We strive to bring new news to the market, and I'm quite happy to see that we are speeding up the amount of new product in the pipeline we have for the coming years. So the aim is to have about 10% of the turnover coming from new products.
Maybe one small reminder here, sustainability is at the heart of what we do, and I think the most important thing with sustainability is to make products that last long, so tens of years, and then they can all be recycled at the end of life. Moving on into the news, what's going on at the moment? If you look at year-to-date figures from January to September, sales have been fairly flat. Net sales decreased by 1.8, but then in constant currency, we can see that actually we grew with the same number. So during quite tough conditions, we have managed to keep sales at the same level as last year. The growth outside of the Nordic continues.
The strategy is to be the number one in Europe when it comes to branded storage suppliers, and we are making Europe a home market. In the Nordics, we've seen careful consumer behavior lately and also careful customer behavior. That probably has been throughout the year until today. If we look at during these conditions, we have been able to quite significantly improve our profitability, and it's quite clear that we last year had a very strong and I would say unexpected peak in the price of raw materials. And now raw material prices have been more stable this year, which actually helps us to act consistently and to improve the way we do the business and also the way we get the results done.
Another point which is worthwhile mentioning, in the year-to-date figures, we have also during Q2, support from the Swedish state because we had been paying very high electricity prices previously, and now we got back part of that, and that's in the year-to-date numbers. And then we have the Swedish and Norwegian krona that have been weak during, I would say, the whole year, and that actually, when we consolidate the sales into euros, that actually eats away on the top line. So that's the situation in general. Raw material prices actually increased slightly during the third quarter, but not anything as alarming as a year ago.
If we look at Q3 in isolation, a bit the same story on the top line, fairly flat. Actually a decrease in net sales, but then in constant currency, actually an increase of 2.9%. And then invoice sales actually flat. Growth in the rest of Europe of about 6.5%, up to EUR 4.2 million. This is a bit slower than before. Year to date, we've been growing at about 18% in the rest of Europe. I would say this is more a campaign timing issue, and for this specific quarter.
Then on Adjusted EBITA, EUR 3.5 million, when we did 2.2% in the same period last year, and actually the EBITA margin up to 16.1%. So this is a good development when it comes to profitability and something we, of course, have worked hard for and are satisfied with to see in the numbers of the third quarter. And then in terms of cash flow, EUR 5.3 million in cash flows compared to EUR 4.4 million last year. Here on the right, you can see a picture of an ad campaign we have been doing successfully in quite a few stores.
When the consumers are careful, you really need to make your products attractive and stand out, and this is just one example of what you can do in store if you have local sales presence who are prepared to help the consumer to find our products in the stores. Then if we look at quarter one to quarter three, net sales decreased by 1.8%, and then EBITA at this point already at EUR 8 million. So we did 62.5 million in net sales, and the invoiced sales decreased actually by 1.7% to EUR 64 million. On the EBITA, EUR 8 million instead of 3.9% after the same period last year.
The margin for the whole year to date figure is up to 12.8%. More than double the ratio compared to last year. Then looking at net debt and the balance a little bit, the leverage was at 1.4. So going in a quite nice direction, and healthy cash flows at EUR 9.8 million. Looking at the geographical dimension of numbers, I think Nordic has been probably the toughest place to do business in lately, and with careful consumer behavior and weak currencies and high interest rates.
But looking at sort of on the left-hand side, the quarter, we managed flat numbers in the Nordics, and we managed a little bit of growth in the rest of Europe, so at 6.5%. That was a bit slower because of the campaign pressure being a bit lower. Then the rest of the world where I would say very small numbers, so the percentages get big, and there we have one particular customer who we are dealing with, who has maybe not performed the way we had hoped for. So we're trying to get that in better shape as well, but really small numbers, so not much more to comment on that one.
Then on a year-to-date level, I think a bit more of the same. Maybe noteworthy here is actually the rest of Europe sales being growing at quite a fast pace. Outside of the Nordics, the growth pace is at 13% altogether, whereas Nordics are declining a bit. Moving on to categories, it's quite clear that storage is the biggest category, and it's quite clear that storage is, at the moment, the spearhead for us. When we grow in Europe, it's quite often actually storage that is performing well. And also in the Nordic market, storage has a key role in the assortment.
Then, on kitchen, in the kitchen category, you can see a slight decline, and that is mostly driven by actually the Nordics and the weak consumer demand in the Nordics, and the portion of sales of kitchen products in the Nordics are the highest. But we are doing some action there, and Hanna will tell you a little bit about what's being done on branding in the kitchen category as well, that we believe will help us grow that category going forward. Then plant care and home and yardware, where both, of course, small categories for us. Just lately, we saw a small growth in the third quarter in the home and yard category.
Of course, small numbers here, but driven by some new bin products, which has actually gained in distribution in a few customers, so that takes it a bit to the positive side. I think going to the strategy, and that is actually quite easy. Our mission is to make everyday life easier, and the strategy of growth for us is actually to become the number one brand in the storage product category in Europe. And then to strengthen our houseware category, strengthen our leading position as a houseware company in the Nordics. So that's the second leg. Actually, not much changed here, and I think very consistently deploying the strategy throughout the markets where we are present and also in the new markets.
So if we look at the building boxes that will help and fuel our growth, it's actually to keep winning in the Nordics by introducing new product by showing the way in sustainability, by a clear position where we locally help our customers to succeed. We give advice, we are able to ship fast, we're able to bring new news, we're able to do campaigns and help with the in-store work. The second box, which currently shows the fastest growth, is actually growing in key markets outside the Nordics, and those key markets are the ones we have our own organization or which are close to where we have our own organization. Then we work as a, let's say, a key account approach.
So we go for the big customers, we go for an assortment in storage, and then when we are in, we try to broaden that assortment. We try to broaden the number of stores where we are present. And that's actually showing good development in a lot of countries at the moment, and especially I would put in here selected European markets. Third building blocks is around online retail trade, and there, during Corona, online started to grow. It continues to grow, and I think we have put some really strong resources behind accelerating our online presence, and that is giving results, and we believe going forward, it will continue to give results.
So that was a very short recap on the strategy we have actually quite consistently following, and it's giving results. Moving on to sustainability, and this one you will have Hanna to take you through.
Thanks, Alexander. Regarding the sustainability, we want to be the forerunner in sustainability in our industry, and how we do it, in short, is that we produce only high quality, long-lasting products that last for years and years. We produce 90% of our products in our local factories in Finland and Sweden to guarantee the high quality standards. And then we constantly increase the amount of sustainable materials in our products. That means the renewable and recycled materials. And we work actively towards carbon neutrality in our production by 2030. So what happened during the Q3 in the sustainability area? So we extended the use of renewable raw materials in new product categories.
So we started to use renewable materials, such as used cooking oil in the SmartStore Vision dry food keepers, in the SmartStore Snack lunch boxes, which are in the picture, and in the GastroMax measuring cups. And we use these renewable materials according to the mass balance approach, which means that the renewable materials are mixed to the raw material in the raw material production, and then the ISCC Plus audit or certification then proves the use of the renewable raw materials. In addition, during the fall, we started the preparations for the CSRD, CSR D irective, and that means that, a nd that will then apply to our company from the beginning of 2025. And what we've done, amongst others, we started by establishing an ESG working group, and we've also done quite a lot of gap analysis of the reporting.
Then more to marketing issues. So in September, we started to rebrand our food storage products from GastroMax brand to SmartStore brand, and this is because we want to be the number one brand in storage in Europe, and we clearly see that the food storage products also belong to the storage category. This rebranding will also allow us a more efficient investment in brand and building for the SmartStore brand. We started the branding with the SmartStore Vision range, which is in the picture, the dry food storage range, and at the same time, we launched two new sizes and round shapes in the category, and we added the renewable raw materials in this range.
And the brand change process will continue, and we will change all the food storage products under the SmartStore brand by February 2024. And this change will have no effect on the financial reporting by product categories, so they will remain in the kitchen category even after the brand name change. And that was it, and I will then now give it over to Saara and the financials.
Thank you, Hanna. I will walk you through the finances briefly. In general, consumer sector has been suffering from weak demand, but in our categories, where the unit price of the single product is not that high, the situation hasn't been as dramatic as in some other categories. In constant currencies, we were able to grow despite the challenging environment, and constant currency growth was 2.8% during the quarter. The effect of weak Swedish krona and Norwegian krone were significant, and including the currency effect, net sales declined slightly by 0.9%. On year-to-date level, sales growth was 1.8%, and in constant currencies and including currency effects, there was a decline of 1.8%.
The year-to-date negative currency effect was up to EUR 2.3 million. As we have factories in Sweden, and we have a lot of other employees and activities in Norway and Sweden as well, we have natural hedging from costs in currencies, and the full effect does not come through in the P&L and in EBITA. Despite currency effects, our adjusted EBITA improved strongly by almost 60%, to EUR 3.5 million, and the most significant item affecting the profitability was lower raw material prices, which have normalized from all-time high peak levels last year. We have also been adapting our operations to lower volumes during the year.
On the other hand, we have continued to invest to our sales and marketing activities to make sure that we are visible in stores in Nordics, as well as in rest of the Europe. In general, the business is not very seasonal. Historically, the third quarter has been the most profitable quarter for us, and it's really great to see and to be able to show that profitability has normalized after some very tough quarters. Then the graph regarding the raw material prices. Despite the slight increase in raw material index prices during the quarter, the price levels have normalized from the exceptionally high levels which were affecting the profitability last year. As always, the index prices are very hard to predict, and the tension in the Middle East does not make it any easier.
The latest geopolitical crisis might be affecting the oil-based product prices, and of course, there is a risk of further escalations, and that is keeping the market currently very nervous. On the other hand, currently the demand in Europe is low, and that is keeping polymer prices on a rather stable level. Next, investments. Investments during the quarter were EUR 600,000, and they were mainly related to new molds and product novelties. On long term, our investments have been approximately 4%-5% level compared to the net sales, and that's still the estimated level in our long-term strategy. Net debt has gone down, and it was at the end of the reporting period, EUR 19.5 million, and leverage declined to 1.4.
Our long-term targets, we have once again been reviewing the long-term targets in the board meeting yesterday, and they remain the same. In Nordics, we are currently below target levels, but in the rest of Europe, growth continued. There was a strong improvement in adjusted EBITA, and when we get the volumes back on growth path, we see further improvement possibilities still on long term. Leverage is already now in the target range, and also the payout ratio of dividends is targeted to be at least 50% of the net profit. The latest dividend payment was made now in October. Then I will hand over back to Alexander to summarize the quarter.
Thank you very much, Saara. Reminding you that there's a chat where you can put in your questions. It comes a bit late, but please do so. We're happy to answer a few questions after the presentation. But in general, to summarize the period, I think also the year until now, the profit performance has been strengthening and was during Q3, we believe quite strong already. And then the conditions under which we have operated are still careful, and continues to be so, we believe, so need to really keep focus on getting product moving out of the stores and being attractive in the stores, and making sure that our brands are visible.
But this, I think, concludes the view, and now we're happy to take the questions you might have at this point.
Yes, there is-
So-
There is a few questions. So Alexander, this is for you. Why haven't you been more active in M&As?
That's a very good question. I think, of course, we look all the time what's available. We follow the situation, but I think during times of high turbulence, which we have seen, and very, very high raw material prices, it was, in our view, more wise to focus on our own performance and making sure that we deploy the strategy of the company we have in a good way. And there's another point as well, and that is when the conditions are very tough for everyone in the market, it means that you have quite a few companies not performing that well. And that could mean that the companies that could be for sale, they don't actually want to have the sales discussion because they are selling with numbers which...
Or they would be selling with numbers which are not too nice to look at. So both the focus on our own during tough times, and then also the willingness from those out there to actually start the sales process has not been that strong.
Thanks, Alexander. Then about the gross margin improvements, though, can you comment the drivers behind the strong gross margin improvement? Is it only lower raw material costs, or are there other reasons?
Saara, do you want to take this one?
Yeah, I can take it. I mean, raw material price is the single one biggest thing affecting the profitability, but there are, of course, many, many other actions. I mean, we've been increasing the prices in the past, and now, I mean, when the raw material prices have normalized, we haven't been decreasing the prices. Of course, we've been doing more campaigns, campaigns, and then we have been fine-tuning our operations as well. The volume levels have been low lately, so, I mean, we have been fine-tuning the variable costs so that we are able to have the gross margin levels on a good level compared to the sales.
Yes. Thanks, Saara. Then about the competitive landscape, this is maybe for you, Alexander. So have you observed any changes in the competitive landscape lately, new entrants or, for example, Asian players losing market share?
Yeah, the market has been quite active, and I think there's been a lot of the existing players that have wanted to be attractive to the consumer in the stores, so competition is hard there. Then when it comes to Asia, I would say that in the storage category, we haven't seen too much of Asian products coming in, and that has to do with a few things. I mean, shipping big product from far away isn't necessarily from an environmental point of view or from a planning point of view the best way to handle your business.
This was, of course, a very subjective comment, but we hope that the closeness to our customers in Europe is an advantage both when it comes to cutting down on emission from transportations, and also we're able to react much faster and being a good partner to local trade.
Yes. Thanks. And then, next one to you, Alexander, as well, about campaign sales. So can we expect an increasing level of campaign sales to pressure gross margins going forward?
Well, campaigns is a tricky, it's a tricky thing because you need them at the moment when the consumers are careful and the customers are careful to actually drive your volume. And I believe that we have quite, quite good leverage possibilities when it comes to actually taking up our volume. So the more we sell with the same production units and keeping the structure the way we have it, I think we have an opportunity to sell more. So it's actually attractive to do campaigns, but you shouldn't overdo it either. So, tough question there, but we believe that with the rising sales, the profitability will also become stronger.
Thanks. And then the next question about sustainability, I think I can answer it myself. So do the more sustainable raw materials have a positive impact in profitability? So regarding the recycled and renewable raw materials, yes and no. Some are more expensive, some are less expensive, and some are more challenging in the production. So it's really hard to give an answer on that. Some do and some don't. Those were all the questions this time, so thanks for the good questions.
Okay. Thank you very much for listening in to the presentation, and wishing all of you a nice autumn going forward. Bye-bye.
Bye.
Thank you, Jimmy.