Welcome, warm welcome to everybody this morning, both in the room here in Helsinki and online, where we have a webcast with viewers there as well. Let's keep them in mind. My name is Annika Kuusniemi. I am currently Chief Marketing Officer at Raisio, and it is my great pleasure to welcome you here today on behalf of myself, our leadership team, and all of the company. We have a jam-packed session for you with a lot of deep digging into our new strategy. Looking forward to getting to tell you all a little bit more about it. Let's jump into the agenda. Here is our speaker lineup for today. In just a few minutes, Pasi Flinkman, CEO, will start off with an overview of the new strategy and what it means for Raisio in accelerating growth.
After that, we will have Mikko Lindqvist, my Sales Officer colleague, on the stage, digging more in detail into the international growth and expansion of Raisio, that we know is a hot topic probably to hear more about. Once we're done with that, we're going to have a Q&A session. That is the first chance to be able to ask questions both in the room and online. We're going to have a bit of a facilitated discussion there at that point. After that, I will have the pleasure and honor of inviting my colleague Reetta Andolin, Chief Innovation Officer, to a session with me where we're going to look at how we work with innovation and being a consumer-driven company and what that means.
After that, we have some real experts for you, quite a few, four of our colleagues that work really closely with different sustainability-related topics, and they are going to come and have a chat as well about how we build a sustainable food system and how we look at sustainability. Last but not least, Mikko Saarinen, CFO, is going to take you through the financials of the strategy period. We are going to end with another Q&A. That is another chance then to ask questions both in the room and online. Two Q&A sessions throughout this full agenda. If I wrap that up, this is what it looks like more in a compact format. A few practicalities then before we begin. We will not have an actual break during these two hours. We are going to try and stay focused for two hours.
Of course, the Q&A sessions will loosen up a little bit, but if you need a technical break or get something to drink, just feel free to sneak out in the back and help yourself. However, at the end of the session, we will have a bit of a technical break, 10-15 minutes or so, while the venue are actually making sure we're getting some nice food and they're going to set up a lunch for us after the session. We will have a bit of a break at noon, and then we hope that as many as possible of you will be able to join us for lunch and then some more informal chatting over lunch. Also a reminder, this is all recorded and will be published online as well for future viewers. Bear that in mind just so that we're all aware of it.
When it comes to questions during the Q&As, everybody online can of course use the chat box or the question box in the webcast system. In the room, please raise your hand. We would want to hand you a microphone so that we get the sound also for the webcast. For questions in the room, please raise your hand. I will remind you at that point, but just a heads up. The whole session today will be in English for our international audiences, but feel free to ask questions also in Finnish. If that feels more comfortable, we can translate a bit on the go. I think that's it in terms of practicalities. Once again, really, really warmly welcome. My great pleasure to invite Pasi then for the first session.
Thank you, Annika. A very warm welcome on my behalf as well. It's really great to see you all here this morning. I'm really excited to share our new strategy with you. It is a strategy that builds on a very solid foundation. It enables long-term growth and it delivers shareholder value. The team that we will be leading this execution is, in addition to what you already heard, actually, yeah, Mikko continues as CFO. We will have a new colleague joining us in the first quarter of next year. Noora Pöyhönen will take the role of Chief Business Officer in Breakfast Snacking and Food Solutions, joining us from Fazer. Mikko, currently our Chief Sales Officer, will take the role of Chief Business Officer for the Heart Health Business Area.
I will talk about the new structure a bit later on so that you know more what they are all about. Virpi continues as Chief Operations Officer. Reetta and Annika were already introduced. Annika's role will be also slightly adjusted, being Chief Brand and Sustainability Officer. Sari, who you'll find at the back of the room at the moment, is Chief People and Legal Officer. Somewhat renewed team, somewhat new roles, and a new structure that I will go through in a moment. In today's Raisio, we are 350 people stationed in seven countries and selling our products in more than 40 markets. We are not a global conglomerate, but we are not a small local company either. We are actually combining the best of both worlds. Like a small company, we are fast and flexible.
We are intimately close with our consumers and customers, and we have empowered local organizations with clear responsibilities and the ability to make decisions locally. Like a big company, we operate in several markets, providing us with synergies. We have brain muscles for doing long-term research and financial resources to also have structural growth. We like to call ourselves a big small company, combining the best of both worlds and competing with our own strengths. The past strategy period started in 2021 with the new plant-based dairy in Raisio and the acquisition of Härkis, soon followed by Russia's attack in Ukraine that forced us to sell the Russian business and subsequently also the fish feed business.
The business for Elovena in 2022 and 2023 went very well, and we systematically invested in capacity in instant oatmeal production in the plant-based dairy production, as well as the oat capacity in Nokia. Coming to 2024, we have further increased the capacity and started the geographical expansion in Europe with Elovena, launched in Belgium, in the Netherlands, and Sweden. In the second half of 2024, we have focused quite a lot of time and energy into reformulating our strategy and setting the direction for the years to come. This year has started then with the implementation of it. The core of the strategy includes focus on areas and businesses where we can really add and create value. That is why we have chosen to divest the plant-based proteins. Instead, we have continued the geographical expansion with launches in Spain and in Denmark.
It is a cliché that the world is changing faster than ever, but at the same time, it is very true. It is very volatile. There's a lot of sudden changes, quite unpredictable, difficult to see and estimate what's going to happen next in the market and where we operate. It is complex. There's a lot of long-chain reactions, and there's a lot of ambiguity. People see the same thing and then interpret it in different ways. Now with Trump and Putin, this is more true than ever. We are actually very happy that we operate in a business, in food business, that is significantly more stable than more others. We are not that directly impacted by all these big changes. What kind of a company does then succeed in this kind of a world?
We believe that it's not a company that's a very rigid and fixed three- to five-year plans. We believe that the winning formula and winning combination is having a clear direction, determination, and then flexibility and speed in the implementation of the business, being able to adjust to the changing world. There are a lot of changes. They are causing challenges for all of us and all of the businesses, but at the same time, there are plenty of opportunities arising from them. Like when you think of consumers, there's an increasing role of food in people's health that opens up plenty of opportunities. With trade, there's a lot of talk about private label, for example, but strong number one and number two brands are doing very well. It is the number three, number four, number five players that are struggling.
Strong brands are important, and that's why we are systematically investing behind our brands. I will show you how they are actually performing. When it comes to technology and innovation, I'd like to bring up that there are a lot of problematic raw materials in, for example, cocoa and coffee have been on the news, gum arabic as an example. A lot of issues with those that actually can be solved through research, and that opens up significant business opportunities as well. Some of the things we will also address today. With the volatility in raw materials, it brings up the significance and importance of close connection with the raw material supplier and the contract farmers and controlling actually the whole value chain. Starting from contract farmers, milling, production of the good, sales, and marketing, we have very good control all the way.
This enables us to control our quality and supply security very well. When it comes to changes in the economy, you of all people know better than me, for example, the volatility in interest rates and so on highlights the importance of having a solid financial situation and the ability to implement our strategy in spite of sudden changes in the market. Basically, we'll be talking about three market areas today. First of all, breakfast and snacking, huge market in those European markets where we are today present, it's a EUR 76 billion market. According to Euromonitor, in the previous year, 64% of consumers stated that they have replaced at least one meal a day by a snack. The global growth of healthy snacking has been 5-7% per annum in the past five years.
It is increasingly moving our daily energy intake from those fixed traditional meal times also into snacking. Especially true for young consumers who are looking for convenient, easy solutions that are also good for you. Cholesterol-lowering foods is a very niche market where we have a very strong position, EUR 700 million in Europe. Here the growth opportunity builds on four things. Four things that really drive a lot of opportunity in this. First of all, only 5% of those consumers that have been diagnosed with high cholesterol and that would benefit from using cholesterol-lowering foodstuff are actually using it today. 95% of the people are still out there for us to grab. Secondly, menopause has proven to influence the hormone levels and driving a higher cholesterol, opening up a very interesting new segment for us.
Also, a target audience that actually often are health conscious and have a very big influence on the household food purchase as well. Absolutely interesting for us. Growing obesity in the world actually keeps on increasing the problem we are having with cholesterol worldwide, feeding people into this category. The fourth big growth opportunity here is that currently most of the foodstuff available are sold in chilled sections, dairy-based products. By expanding into other product types, it enables a completely new type of shopping occasions and usage occasions that are not there yet. The last one is more for our research and future business, new business is the European weight management market at a very infant stage today and already a EUR 3 billion market. I do not know if anybody read Helsingin Sanomat this morning.
There was an article on semaglutide, the medicine for weight control, has grown 11 times in the past five years in Finland and a very rapid increase. If any of you have been in the U.S. in the past year, watch TV, any American TV channel dominated by GLP-1 drugs, semaglutide for diabetes and obesity. We are following the trend in the rest of the world, what's happening in the U.S. There are two types of opportunities in here. First of all, when it affects on hormonal level, your appetite and your satiety, you are craving for less sweet things, craving less for fatty things, and also smaller portions, feeding very much in the opportunities of healthier snacking, less sweet and less fatty throughout the day. Secondly, healthy food, you need your nutrients, even though portion size goes down, but you need your macronutrients anyway.
Healthy food is really increasing in demand. Not to mention that with food and fibers, there is research indicating that similar effects that the drugs are providing today could be delivered also by food. I will not spoil Reetta's part any further than that. Our business in the new structure basically consists of three areas here. On the left-hand side are the existing growth engines that we have. This is where the most organic growth will come during the next five years. It is the breakfast and snacking and heart health, where we already have a strong base today. The longer-term future growth comes from two areas. It is the oat innovations and weight management area where we have research going on at this point, and also through structural growth, through acquisitions, which we will talk about more in a moment as well.
Then the third area is providing fuel for our growth, very important for us. The grain-based industrial solutions and the local heritage brands have an important role in delivering steady cash flow that we need to drive growth in the other two areas. Out of my presentation, there are actually four things that I would like you to remember, and they are all linked to this picture. First of all, each part of these businesses that we have, they have their own clear role and purpose. Why are we in these businesses? Secondly, my colleagues will be sharing with you concrete action plans and activities. What are we actually doing to make them happen? Third, we are now organized accordingly as well in a new structure that supports these different businesses and enables us to allocate resources efficiently. The fourth one refers to the middle part.
We do have a strong balance sheet, and we will put it to good use. Very quickly on the first growth area on the breakfast and snacking. We are after growth in all of our European markets, and our intention to be the fastest growing player in Europe. We will capitalize on the growth trends of plant-based dairy and snackification. We will continue winning market shares and expand geographically. Mikko will tell more about that in a moment. This area will also be supported by M&A activities. We actually have a very strong track record of continuous growth over many years. We have proven that the Elovena brand can be expanded, extended by launching it into new categories without cannibalizing on the core and the base.
We also have a very strong home base to build, very strong market positions in a number of categories with more than 80% and 90% market share, which provides us a very good base to build on. Furthermore, we are actually winning more share in most of the categories where we are operating, growing faster than the market. The second growth area is heart health. By the end of the strategy period, we will be a market leader in our four biggest home markets. The biggest growth will come from organic growth, but also here we will support that with geographic expansion. Traditionally, Benecol has been a good, profitable business for us, but it has not been really growing. That will now change. New product development, new categories, and assortment expansion will play an important role in the existing markets.
Also, we have a very good position in hypermarkets and supermarkets, but limited presence in the discounters and convenience channels, and that opens up significant growth opportunities. Also, we have a program to renew the brand and build emotional efficacy, not only functional benefits, but more talk to the heart of the consumers. You know what is the single most important category entry point for these cholesterol-lowering products? When do you become interested in this? It's the moment when you are there with the doctor or a nurse who are explaining you the blood test results that show, "Hey, by the way, have you noticed that you have an elevated cholesterol level?
You should do something about this." At that moment, if this medical professional actually tells you that, "Hey, there are products out there that you could use and switch to that will help you," that is extremely powerful and brings us consumers that are very loyal long-term users because they have a very high credibility. That is why we are investing systematically in our healthcare professional program in a number of markets. It is bringing very good long-term results. I already mentioned about the new target groups and segments with the menopause and so on. That is a lot of growth from the existing markets. We will do also some geographic expansion, not as much as in Elovena, but we will open at least one European market and continue with our partners in Southeast Asia. Again, Mikko will talk more in detail about this.
New business stands on two legs: research on the oat-based materials and then the weight management, and then M&A. It is a privilege to work for this company because we work in the sort of intersection of heritage and innovation, bridging the two. I find it absolutely fascinating. This research that we are doing has actually a very strong link to our business and value creation. Historically, Raisio has delivered new business, for example, Benecol or the plant-based dairy, all based on the research work done in the house. Through the research program, we are able to access market potential that no other company can do. It allows us to have premium prices, healthy margins, and also access to funding and partnerships that we would now otherwise not have. Of course, competitive advantages and claims versus our competitors.
When it comes to M&A, we will be sort of supporting our existing businesses in breakfast and snacking and heart health. In addition, we are open to a business that is completely new to Raisio as well. We have significantly broadened the scope. We have previously been quite focused on very healthy food. Now we have opened that to healthier food also, as long as it is better in the category. Already today, 87% of our assortment is healthier than the category average. In line with that, it opens up still a lot of these permissible indulgence businesses. Like ice cream would not be typically healthy, but it is possible to have healthier oat-based Elovena ice cream as an example. Just illustrative, not being launched right now. We will continue building on the trends of convenience and well-being and clean label naturalness.
The categories of interest for us are especially granola and muesli and the breakfast occasion, heart health in general, and convenience snacking on the go especially. We can expand to new things, for example, like drinkables. Functional drinks are very interesting. It can also be other things. We have not restricted ourselves that tightly. Primarily focusing on Europe, especially those markets where we already have presence, but M&A can also be used as a tool to open new markets and expand our presence. We are not after turnarounds. We are not after startups, small companies with a lot of flexibility or with a lot of complexity, and not small companies also with high dependency on individuals, but solid, good businesses with proven track record. To support this, we have done a lot of internal education and invested in educating people.
We are currently in a process of recruiting an internal M&A director. We have just started an M&A committee in our board of directors to put focus and force behind this, put the resources behind it that are needed to make it happen. Mikko will talk more about the financial side of this in his part a bit later today. Fear for growth. We spoke about the industrial solutions and the local heritage brands. The industrial part is important in leveraging the scale and providing efficiencies in our production. There is plenty of latent value in our local brands like Sunnuntai, Nalle, and Torino. Those can be utilized in a creative and entrepreneurial way, new ways that you will come to see as well. I did mention about the reorganization, and that was out in the news yesterday as well.
Our new structure builds on three business units. First of all is breakfast, snacking, and food solutions. Second, heart health, and then new business development. Supported then by shared functions. With this, each of these areas will have a dedicated leader with clear accountability, clear mission. This is your job. This needs to be done. This is what you need to deliver. This will provide us clear management, clear accountability, and responsibilities. Also, it makes it easier to allocate resources accordingly, what is needed and where, and allocate the capital that we have efficiently. Also, it is a way to drive fast consumer and customer and market-driven decision-making and effective implementation of the strategy, also providing cost efficiencies. We are not just presenting a strategy today. We are actually committing ourselves to deliver organic growth above the market growth.
We are committing ourselves to deliver EBIT more than EUR 30 million in 2027. We are committing ourselves to disciplined execution and measurable outcomes. How this will be done in practice will be presented by my colleagues in a moment. I would like to sum up my part again by reminding of the four things. Each part of the business has a clear role. Each of these parts has a clear, concrete action plan, how we will do it. We have now organized ourselves to deliver on that, and we will put the balance sheet to good use. With that, I will hand over the word to Mikko.
Thank you. Good morning all. My name is Mikko Lindqvist. I'm the Chief Sales Officer for Raisio. In my presentation, I will take you through Europe and how we will grow in international markets with our brands.
We have a good starting point. Half of our sales in total is coming from outside Finland. As you can see, half of our consumer branded sales is already also coming from outside Finland, which means that we have the networks, customer relations, and a good base to build further growth. We are actually growing both in B2B and B2C sales. In B2B sales, we are seeing double-digit growth in our gluten-free oat sales. That's a very interesting area. However, in this presentation, I will be more focusing on the consumer branded international sales, which you can see is dominated by Benecol at the moment. In the future, we will grow the share of Elovena and also find new countries and market areas for Benecol. We have made good progress in the last 15 months. We have opened new markets for Elovena.
We started our journey last year in February with the Netherlands. We had a really good start in the Netherlands with our partners. Since then, the sales has been quite stable. We are not fully satisfied on the level. I will show you in the next slides what we intend to do in the Netherlands in the future. In Belgium, we have had our traditional oat flakes in sale. There we are also discussing about new opportunities, new distribution, new categories. We need to improve there as well, but the discussions are ongoing. August last year, we started in Sweden. We had a bit of a slow start. We explored, experimented. Actually now, early this year, we have seen constant sales growth with the activities that we have had. We are actually quite satisfied with how the things are going in Sweden with our biscuits.
We have had a flying start in March with Denmark, with really good distribution build, really good sales start in Denmark. Now the latest one is Spain, where we have a good distribution build. It is too early to say about the consumer sales takeoff, but we are definitely present there in some major retailers in the Spanish market. What we have learned so far in this journey is that Elovena brand and the message of oats is really resonating across all these markets. Our products have positive differentiation in terms of the quality, taste, and the nutritional qualities. We have also learned how to launch our products in these markets with more targeted media mix that is also driving cost efficiency when we go about in new markets. Netherlands, as said, our experience is that there is definitely interest in oats.
The non-dairy category, oats is the leading ingredient and growing there. What we are doing currently in the Netherlands is that we are changing our marketing message, more building on the oats, the expert in oats position, and also the fact that we have 100 years of heritage and expertise in oats. That is really something that not many brands can claim. It is actually a unique selling proposition for us in many markets and in the Netherlands as well, that we can claim 100 years of oat expertise in different categories. That is really resonating with consumers and retailers alike. As said, Sweden and Denmark, we are seeing constant sales growth. A good example of the wideness of our portfolio is that we entered in these markets with our biscuits.
We are already planning new categories with our partners in these markets, thanks to the good start that we've had in launching the biscuits. When we were creating the new strategy, we also thought of, okay, what is the big small company approach when it comes to the international growth and sales? We took the learnings from this journey and also reflected them on our strategy and came up with a set of, let's say, principles how we intend to do this in the future. The model to enter will be more dynamic and agile. We will be using more networks, distributors, and partners in order to speed up the opening of the new markets. We will also focus both on Elovena and Benecol in the future. We see potential for Benecol future markets as well. We will continue to drive Elovena in new markets.
The big retailers will remain important for us. On top of that, we will be open for more different and more focused channels like food service or online channels, for example. We value learning and flexibility. We want to identify the route to profitability from the very beginning when we enter into the market. An important part of our new way of working is the shared portfolio, which we intend to create following the European market trends and the consumer voice, and also work with the brand assets with local touch so that we have a, let's say, centralized bank of brand assets, but we can localize them according to the markets, as you saw, for example, in case of Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. We have some ambitious but reachable goals.
We will establish a new market with consistent net sales growth so that it is amongst the top five of our markets by the end of 2027. We will create a consumer-centric and cost-efficient product portfolio to drive our growth in Europe. We have a good start of 10 SKUs, but that's only a start. We have plans how to create it even more attractive and consumer-centric. We are talking about a repeatable model of success. It is a proven and clearly documented model how we accelerate our growth in Europe. One important part of that model is the agile management of that. How do we make sure that we have new markets entering into that model? How do we make sure that we exit also markets that are showing no traction in due time? This is how the model looks like in all its simplicity.
As you can see, the number of markets is high in the first phase. When we are going further, only the most promising and successful markets will remain in the last phase. Subsequently, also the sales and profitability will grow as we go along this model. We start by exploring a number of countries, creating a proof of concept and consumable so that we know that it is worth investing into these markets. When we enter into the build phase, we start to widen the distribution, add new categories in, and create credible and sustainable market positions at main retailers. The last phase of this is really getting more local, growing through market-specific products, wider distribution in different channels, and also adding local resources into the market. The markets where we have entered so far provide promising opportunities for us.
The total worth of the categories and the markets where we have entered is EUR 6.5 billion. The estimated growth of those markets and categories is EUR 800 million. Naturally, Spain is dominated here, but also the other countries have really interesting growth opportunities for us in the future. We also intend to add at least three new European markets in 2026 and 2027 into this picture. We are currently discussing with our partners and exploring different markets. We have a set of choice criteria to decide which markets are the right markets for us to enter in different phases. We want to find the right partner and the right go-to-market model. Size and growth, competition, pricing, and the retailer landscape play an important picture when we are choosing our markets.
The focus categories, especially for Elovena, will be biscuits, snack bars, oat flakes, and plant-based milks, where we see market growth across Europe. We also see potential for gluten-free oat products in some of these markets. Within Benecol, we see a lot of potential for our yogurt drinks. For Elovena, our main market area for growth will be Europe, as well as for Benecol. For Benecol, we have opportunities also in Southeast Asia, with our partner network. There are some very promising opportunities for new countries for Benecol in that area. We have two strong brands to grow in the European market. The positioning of these brands is very different from each other, which opens up possibilities for us. Elovena is really about oats.
We are focusing on oats, and we claim to be expert in oats with the 100 years of heritage. It's a very credible message. We have one of the widest portfolio in oats, with constant innovation, coming up with novelties and also with new types of products in Elovena. As said, we have a great taste and beneficial nutritional profile to provide. It is really capitalizing on the trend of oats and the 100 years of heritage that creates trust for Elovena. When it comes to Benecol, our positioning is the creator of cholesterol-only foods category. Our unique selling proposition and a way to enter the market, as said, is the healthcare professional marketing model, which enables us to talk to healthcare professionals and help them in when they help their patients to lower their cholesterol with smart food choices.
As said, there is a big potential. There are a large proportion of people who are not using cholesterol-only foods and it would be beneficial for them. We also have active novelty development coming up with new types of products to lower cholesterol. With Benecol as well, we already have 30 years of expertise and experience in different European markets to drive growth. If we look at our journey in the coming years, what we will do this year is about learning and creating models of success. We have opened many new markets. We will improve the distribution and rate of sale in these markets. We will make Denmark and Spain successful during this year.
Next year is really about picking our battles, building on the successes that we have created this year, launching a new Benecol market, opening new Elovena markets as well, and then increasing the investments in markets where we see this cycle of success created. We will also introduce new categories in these markets where we have entered. In 2027, we will have a market with consistent net sales growth, which is positioned among the top five in our countries. We will have a portfolio that is delivering healthy gross margin for us. Our target is to have markets in all these three stages of our repeatable model of success. Thank you for joining me on this journey across Europe. With these strong brands like Benecol and Elovena, I think we are really well positioned in further growth. Yes, now it would be time for a Q&A, I guess.
Yeah, absolutely. Now we take a bit of a reflection pause. We have a couple of questions online. We're going to get back to them in a second. Also, a reminder online to please put forward questions. Now we have one in the room, so please.
Thank you, Maria Vikström from SCB. The new strategy is about accelerating growth. You also target to be a fastest-growing European snacking company. On the financial targets, the growth rate is between 3%-4%. Is this really in line with accelerating the growth?
The fastest growth is yet to come later on. We are building a very solid foundation and making sure that it is sort of profitable enough and it's a well-oiled machine that we can then leverage after the first three years.
I would expect that, yeah, I will not open up the next strategy period yet, but then might be there more balanced. During this three-year period, the EBIT growth will be faster than the top-line growth. Super.
If I may, one more, and I think this is directed to Mikko, that I mean, you said that, I mean, you want to be more agile. I mean, when you go to a new market, if it does not work, I mean, then you adjust the model. I think we learned that the Dutch expansion has not been as fast as you hoped for. If you could enlighten us a bit, I mean, now when you are more agile, what you are going to do concrete to fix the Netherlands?
What we are doing at the moment is that we are looking at our marketing mix.
We have changed our packaging to a more visible one. We have also changed our marketing mix to be more focused on channels directed to the point of purchase. We have also adjusted our message. We have experimented with different types of messages. The one with oat expertise and 100 years of expertise is really the one that is working well. We are also going to use more of our networks and partners in the future to find new opportunities in those markets. It is about a lot of things that we want to do in a new way there.
What is an average timeline that you expect to reach profitability of the new markets?
We are not opening up the individual profitability of different markets.
When we are talking about this model, what we have here, it might take, depending on the market, one to three years, really depending on the category and the market conditions.
Thank you.
Super. You have a question there right behind. Yeah. All right.
Thank you, Sanna Perälä from Nordea. I have one question also perhaps for Mikko. You talked about your recent market entries in Sweden, Denmark, and Spain. Could you talk about how did you choose these markets? Why these markets specifically? And why now?
It's a combination of different things. We are talking constantly with different partners across Europe and looking at opportunities in different markets. When it comes to Spain and Sweden, for example, we found a good partner that had a credible plan on entering the markets. We also see that oats is trending in both of these markets.
What is important when we look at the market is to find the right category. In Spain, we are working with biscuits and snack bars. We saw opportunities in both of these markets in terms of price level competition and the uniqueness that we can provide. In Sweden, we are working with biscuits. We really saw an opportunity to add a more healthier, tastier biscuit into the Swedish biscuit category. We think that we have quite a unique proposition in Sweden. Kind of looking at the different parts of the marketing mix and finding opportunities. We have a lot of discussions ongoing at the moment. It is just finding the right mix of different things to go in the right order.
All right. Thank you. Maria Desmon here in the front. Thank you.
Hi, Kaisa Vanha-Pertola from Indeless.
Thank you for the great presentations. First question is related, how does the new organization structure help you practically streamline the production chain of your grain-based productions?
In everyday life, we have a management team for each business unit. They're also both on a daily basis, basically sales, marketing, product development, and the whole operation supply chain have a common agenda, same priorities. Aligning their activities and sort of managing the totality. I'm quite convinced of this.
Yes. Okay. Thank you. Moving to the heart health. You mentioned in your presentation that you're going to increase the investment in the growth of heart health products. How significantly do these investments differ from what you have done before? What is the root reason behind wanting to increase these investments?
The reason why we are actually increasing, well, investments both in our brands, but also in our research is that they actually work and deliver value. We are seeing that the top-line growth, the sales growth that we have seen is clearly supported by the marketing and brand investments and the sales investments. Like Mikko mentioned on the Swedish level, after the campaigns, the consumer, the base level ends up on a higher level than before the campaign. It is actually worthwhile investing. Then secondly, research is showing so much sort of a long-term potential as well that we very much believe that it will be a good long-term investment.
Okay. Thank you. If I can add one more question related to that. What kind of new product innovations you are considering within the heart health products, for example?
Is there demand for these from retail players, for example?
Yes. Actually, Reetta and Annika will be talking a bit more about that in a moment. I think I would rather leave it for them, if you do not mind.
Yes, of course. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next question, Maria is over there. Thank you.
Thank you. This is Matti Korola from OP Markets. To my understanding, your financial reporting is not going to follow your new organizational structure. Why is that?
Actually, we will be reorganizing also the financial reporting. Mikko will be sharing more about that also shortly today.
Okay. It is going to follow the new structure or because with the release, I understood that there will be only two segments you are reporting.
T he primary will be, yes, there will be two segments.
Actually, I think Mikko will be able to explain it more in detail. Yes, I think that. Right, no complication. Yes, please. Thank you.
Good. Are there more questions in the room or do we go to the online questions? It seems quiet in the room. I'll take one from here then. I think this one is a really good one that we do hear from time to time, maybe for Mikko mostly. You kept the name Elovena also for other countries. Would it have been better to change it? Elovena is strong in Finland, but is the name and concept too difficult for others?
That's a good question. Actually, our experience so far is that it is really resonating. There is something original and true about it. The word Elovena is universal, actually in Spain, the word oat is avena.
They instantly recognize that Elovena is about oats. It has a good sound to it. Also, the design language is something that is familiar and also something that is distinguishing in the shelf. We get good shelf visibility with our blue color. Of course, when we go into new markets, we need to think of the local touch. We work with the languages, we work with the message, and we think, how do we bring the oats into these contexts in a real way? The brand platform, so to say, is really solid and working across different markets.
Yeah. Good. I think there's time for one more shout shoot also from online. Again, about expansion and internationalization. Why has it been so difficult for Elovena in the Netherlands that you're not in your targets?
Was it a surprise that it was challenging?
We knew that the market we entered is a competitive one. Of course, Netherlands and the non-dairy market is a competitive one. It's a growing market. It's an attractive market for many other players as we are. As said, we are exploring finding new ways of doing things. The first experiences from the new packaging design and the new marketing model are encouraging. I firmly believe that we are on a new track also in the Netherlands. As said, we are building a repeatable model of success. Not all market entries will be successful from the start, but we are willing to learn and adjust our way as we go forward.
Actually, I would like to comment a bit on the basic logic of this branded consumer goods business as well.
It is all based on the fact that it is very difficult to launch new products and enter new markets. If it was easy, no branded player could defend their position in the markets. That is what provides the strong value behind Elovena and Benecol because they are also very strong to attack by others. That is why it is. It is not automatic when going into a new market that you will succeed in that. We believe that we know how we will do it. We know how we will learn to do it more systematically in a repeated way.
Good stuff. I think if nothing further in the room, do we have one question? We will have, as said, another Q&A session in the end.
Some of the questions have been posed for then, and you are free to, of course, shoot more as we go along and also online. I think we're good to move on in the program then. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, guys. I think next up, if I'm not mistaken exactly, I have the pleasure of inviting Reetta Andolin, our fantastic Chief Innovation Officer, to enlighten you all a little bit on, basically looking under the machine of how we work with innovation and product development.
Thank you.
Good to have you here. Super. Let's go. We thought we would start with this, which is a big statement, but it is really something that is very sort of present in our daily lives and in what we do.
That is the fundamental truth that we build everything on and our why, essentially, of what we're doing here. That is, there is a lot of transformative power in food. It's more than filling the belly. It has impact on people's lives. We can support through food, we can support both the health of people, we can impact the planet, we can enable preventative health, and also sustainability. It is also very much true to who we are as a company, to Raisio. We have a long legacy and history in science and in research. It is something that we know how to do. Relative to our size, we're really strong at it. It is also something that very much sits in our DNA. That's why we wanted to start there. We are, I think, bigger than our size in this area.
If we look at that a little bit further, we exist because of this. What we do is food for heart, health, and earth. That has not changed with this strategy period. It still is what we are here to do. Our task today is to elaborate a little bit on how we then make that come to life. The how for us is really through innovation and through understanding our consumers and then starting very much with the consumer. Yeah. I think next, let's just dig into how we leverage this both now and in the future, what it actually means. Exactly.
Yes. Good morning. It's good to be here, isn't it? Yes, we are talking lots about innovations, which is important to talk about them. What is behind, that is what we need to really understand. That is why we have this.
This is our journey, how we go towards the innovative outcomes also continuously and also in the future. Everything is founded on the innovation culture. There needs to be the mindsets. There needs to be the thinking behind. What is important, as said many times, we have the heritage, we have the roots, but there is still room to modernize ourselves. As the world is now changing and it is much more complex as it has been, we also need to be thinking a little bit differently. That means that there needs to be the mindsets of everyone so that we can find the opportunities of all the fields that each of the persons in the company are working. It is not only the scientists or it is not only the product developers, but it is everyone.
This is the culture we have started to build up and we are continuing. It is also about creativeness. On top of this, we need systematic ways of finding the opportunities, the processes. That is also what we have been building and refreshing and what we are also going to do. On top of that, to be at the top level in the world or in Europe, we need research to really bring the solutions so that they are unique, so that we can be pioneering, or that if not pioneering, we can be in the top level because we cannot lay on the solutions that already exist there. This is like the internal part, what we are building inside Raisio now. Of course, we also need to be working in networks, in ecosystems.
We can't be there alone anymore. We need to watch outside as well and to be a desired ecosystem partner. This is something that we want to know all the time better, how to do that as a big small company. Yes. Move on. Yes. These are just a little sneak peeks, but there are now ongoing things about this innovation culture and building up the foundation of innovation. Internally, we are part of this radical creative project, which is actually pretty much pioneering thinking behind innovating in corporations, so that we are linking the creativeness of our teams to the corporational KPIs, to the business in the first time. That has been really exciting. I think that we can really find new ways of going forward. The Voice of Innovations is an example about our co-innovation actions.
There have been over 100 students with us innovating, and it has been really inspiring, first of all, but also there have been really nice outcomes, like a new product and so on. This EIT Food Accelerator Network is an example of our startup network building. We are a corporate partner of this, and this is about the most promising startups in Europe. There have been 40 of them, which we have now chosen 10 to work with. Actually today, one of us is in Paris just sparring them and working with the startup. These are kind of like, this is now the field, what we have started to do and what we are continuing in the ecosystems. Yeah, moving on. Yes. The processes. Inside the company, it's important to understand what is the innovation process because it's an easy word.
Innovation is everywhere nowadays. In Raisio, the innovation process has two parts. It is about research, it is about product development. Research is the long-term, research is the unknown part. It should be delivering something unique and something that does not exist, something that is patentable and something that we can really own. Product development, of course, also unique and innovative things, but possibly a little bit more understandable so that the consumer is already there. In research, the target is to produce more like platforms, not products. It is something that we can take to many different categories, many different products in the end. What is common to both is that both start from the need so that we understand the world around us. We understand the opportunities and the weak signals, the trends, megatrends in both.
Of course, in a little bit different level, as said, research is more about platforms and product development is about the products themselves and understanding the consumer. This is basically the process that we are following. What is important here is that they are talking to each other. We can have sometimes in product development, there are ideas that we would like to have because the consumers want it, but it's not possible because we don't have all the tools. For example, when working with new materials like oats is still a new material, we can go back to the research and they can discuss not only like this way, but also this way. In research, we have four different focus areas at that time. This orange one, it's textural materials and it's more internal food tech. It's about understanding the material.
As said, quite many things are still new. What is the everything what we can do, for example, out of oats? What are the other materials what we want to utilize in the plant-based? What is those things or textures what we want to own? What could be those different platforms we can utilize in different categories? This is the internal enabler that enables us to be in top three or whatever, five, and being the pioneers. This heart health is also supporting existing business, but it's more to be done outside. That is actually now like in a recreation. How to do it most effectively? As known, we have now been doing it lots of internally, but now there is actually a situation that cholesterol-lowering research is mainly about medicines. It's not about food.
As said, it's only 5% of the diagnosed people who are now using our stanol ester. How do we do that? I think that it's based on the foundation that comes from researchers and those who really are talking about new things. That's something that we want to build outside of the company so that the researchers will then really work in the ecosystem, which is creating the knowledge outside Raisio. We have this purple one, which is creating new business, weight management fibers. We will talk about those more later. Also, Pasi was already really well talking about that. Thanks for that. This future ingredients, which is about the risk materials or critical materials. As we know, we are losing lots of really common ingredients due to climate change.
As our latitude is quite a lucky one, possibly we can be those ones who are providing some of those, not all. There is lots of research behind every single functional ingredient, but possibly we can take some of those. That is also what we are now just starting. This future ingredients is more in the pre-study phase or startup collaboration or startup partnership phase. Yes, that's it. Product development.
Yeah, exactly. When we move on the axis further to the right and into more scaling, and then we move into product development, that's where typically I work a little bit more with our marketing experts in the organization.
There we make a second round of making sure that it's really built on needs that are out there and founded in the lives of the consumers that we then will be selling to. We have a tool that we call our innovation platforms. Sometimes you will hear also these things talked about as maybe demand spaces. That is really a tool that we have created for ourselves for mid to long term to really get into the heads of those consumers and understand what drivers they have in their daily lives and what things will resonate to them. When we move on, this can be used for both products, but also, yeah, marketing services in many ways, not just for product development, but they do come in there.
When we move on, these are just a few examples of how we make sure that what we then release in the end really does connect back to the consumer. It starts already in the research phase, but then it becomes even more hands-on when we move into product development. These are just a few examples. We thought actually that to give a bit of a picture of some real concrete stuff and how this then works and what it can look like, we will take you into a few current examples and live cases of what is currently cooking in this area of research and innovation. I think the first one is kind of a spoiler alert without a spoiler, really. These are actually existing products, all of these, either on our own markets or through licensing partners.
We have recently, during the last year or so, been discussing and getting busy ourselves with the question of what if Benecol was invented today? We have a lot of new thinking now in the company. We have 30 years of history with Benecol. It was invented in 1995, so we're actually celebrating 30 this year. A lot has happened since, as we would all know. We sat down with that question of what if it was a startup today, what would it look like? We think it could look a little bit different. Having said that, we have some strengths to build on. How do we merge these two worlds? These are just examples of products, as said, that are more recent and that could tap into more recent consumer needs states.
This is something that we're actively working on and we'll get back to during this strategy period, but more maybe a teaser at this point. If we move into something much more concrete, which is more than a teaser, we actually have these in the bags for you to take home today. This is a completely new product. It's a bit of a world premiere today, actually. These will be launched in Finland in July. This is, I think, a good example of how we combine research and product development and consumer insights. This project started with the insight that in the categories that we play in, consumers now move towards both bigger snacks, more filling snacks, and also more indulgent snacks. More sort of sugar-heavy and really sort of tasty, tasty snacks.
There is, however, a need for the more healthy option, and that's, of course, where Elovena as a brand comes in and we as a company come in. We wanted to find a way to make a big, indulgent, really nice tasting snack bar that would still not be extremely unhealthy, but rather actually healthy and good for you. One cue that we found that we needed to address was that a big part of the taste is actually crunchiness. That's where research stepped in.
I think as well that this is a great example if you think about the process. There was a need, so there was the product development project, but they did not have the solution or the ingredient market did not have the solution how to make this kind of product crunchy.
Because we have the internal research, we know how to make miracles. There was only like not too many months' time to make this, but we were lucky, really lucky and able to do actually a component which will be soon patented and it will bring the crunchiness into the bars as you will taste possibly later. Yes, I think that we can be quite proud of this. Yes, as Annika said, the problem was that usually the crunchiness is made by sugar and fat. As we did not want to use, we used oats, which is really like a lousy one if thinking about the technological properties. That was possible.
Coming to the market in July, as said, and when we tested this one, we got a purchase intent of over 90%. That is really good.
Looking forward to this. You will have some of our very first production run samples later today. Moving on to the next one. This was a pretty similar case, something that we launched also in Finland in January this year. It is a fresh chilled oat drink. This started with the understanding that oat drinks have taken a lot of space out of the coffee consumption occasion. That is where we have a lot of good growth and the category is growing. There is a very big part of the market for chilled milk type drinks that, of course, sit then more just as a drink or with cereals, for example. This is something that we wanted to have a look at.
We dug really deeply into what the taste cues are, what the qualities of cow's milk are that we're used to in our plates and how to address that and how to make something quite similar. How did that go, Rit?
Yes, this is also an interesting one, totally different from the crunchiness where it was like about the texture and the material science. This is more about understanding the whole chain from milk to the plant dairy. Because always when we are working with plants, we are having side taste and we are having very much challenges with the taste. Whenever you have a chance to taste this, this is really fresh and nothing there like disturbing the experience. Also, there has been lots of research, microbiological research to get this product stable since we wanted to have this fresh one.
Lots of things behind, even though it's good that the consumers can't see it. It's as natural as possible, but lots of innovation or research behind.
Yeah. In this project, we have definitely been moving on this research, product development, and consumer access. We have something new coming up.
Yes. This is now like this long-term research, which is only in the exploring phase and in the research process. As already heard, we really do believe in fibers and that the future is in fibers. We have been talking in this world a lot of proteins. Most of the startups are based on proteins, new proteins, alternative proteins. The fibers are actually something really solid if thinking about the nutrition. We think that there is still a big lack in functional fibers.
That is what we have been doing now a few years. Searching for a novel technology, how to utilize our side streams for these functional fibers. We think that there is this opportunity, as Pasi already talked about, this changed market. There is now a crack in the market due to the novel weight management drugs. We believe that now when they educate people to talk about satiety and to talk about weight management, it is a really good foundation for us. Why is that? It is because already now people know that fibers are associated with satiety and with weight management. We have the tools and also there is a scientific foundation for that, not only what the consumers know. This is a really good place because now the other companies are educating about satiety.
The consumers are associating fibers already in that. We know that it's solid so that it's also scientifically proven. We know that in our guts, fibers are doing the same jobs as the weight management drugs so that they are extracting the same hormones, the GLP-1 hormones. What is also good for us, because we have this long history with fibers and oat fibers, which are like one of the best ones, is that the competitor field is a little bit, there are lacks. If thinking about those easy-to-use fibers like inulin, they cause severe gut symptoms and they are not very friendly at all. It's not easy to find easy-to-use fibers in a novel application such as drinks and gourds and so on. Also, the sustainability is not always there. There are quite often synthetic fibers.
They are not natural, what is preferred. Also, the taste is important that we are now being able to produce natural tasting fibers. Also, we have some examples about what we are now doing. We have started the journey. Yes, there has been laboratory work for a few years already. The technology is there in laboratory scale. Now we are building up a pilot, which we are really proud of. We will be, this looks really small, but it is a quite big one. It is a big pilot, actually. We are going to get the next autumn, this up and running and start getting the first fiber, which is actually a quite good replacer to gum arabic, which is a starting point.
Even though we are heading to functional, like a healthy functional fiber, we are wanting to speak about satiety and we are wanting to have the health claims in the end. As we know, it takes time. It will take like five years at least. That is our target. Meanwhile, we can use its technological functionalities. As said, there are not too many natural, easy-to-use fibers in the market. That is the plan now so that we can get this up and running and then we get like some tens of kilos of fibers out per day. Then we can start the clinical studies, proper clinical studies. We can start our journey towards the health claim. We can start application tests with different partners. Also, of course, concept validation and test marketing and so on.
This is really something we are waiting forward.
Yeah, super exciting. All right. That was it. I think that was it. Yeah, I think just to sum up what we wanted to maybe sum up still and make sure that we come across in the right way, what we want to stress is that research really has been always and is still a big part of Raisio's DNA and is now having a bit of a renaissance thanks to Reetta and the team, getting more open and more into ecosystems. It really makes us unique for the size that we are. Even as we do research, it still all starts with the consumer and with understanding the world that we live in, even though the first part is more explorative.
We make a big effort to make sure that we are in sync with the consumers and their needs. Research feeds always product development.
Yes, it is one of the most important things that the research feeds the solutions to product development. They are talking every day together. We are widely innovating in the existing business or for the purposes of existing business, but also finding initiatives for the new business. There are the pre-studies and the funnels, like a front end. There is now this venture about fibers, what we are really putting resources on. That was the messages, was it not?
Those were the messages. Thank you. Thank you, Reetta. I think next we will go and deep dive into sustainability and how we are playing our part in building a sustainable food system.
We've got, I think I will only introduce Saara Kurkilahti, who is our ESG manager, and you get to. I get to introduce. You get to introduce the rest as you get going. Yes. Thank you. Welcome.
Brilliant. Okay. We're going to have a bit more people in front now. Thank you. Great to be here. Really excited and especially really excited to listen to all the presentations today. As you can see from what you heard today, sustainability is not a trendy topic for us. It's really embedded in all our work. That's why we're so many here. We wanted to give you kind of a short deep dive into what sustainability means for us in practice in Raisio. Actually, based on the previous presentation, I would really love to hear more about this also from clients and competitors.
Like what do we do to solve these big problems we have ahead of us when it comes to nutrition and human health? I think we need everyone's contribution in this topic going forward. How we work with sustainability within Raisio, it's actually embedded, everything's been embedded into one plan, which is called the Good Food Plan. That has five different areas in it, starting from healthy food, obviously, but also sustainable food chain. We work with packaging, not a small topic nowadays, environmental and climate action, and finally us professionals, sustainability professionals and good food professionals who make it all happen. If we go through just the top line, obviously emissions, it's a big topic for a lot of companies, also for food producers.
Our big climate actions include our last year's commitment to the Science-based Target initiative, where we will be setting targets for this end of this year and working obviously in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement. That is where when it comes to our own production, we're 0.2% away from 100% carbon neutrality. We're well on our way. Obviously scope three emissions, as you all know, is not a small topic for food producers. There's a lot more work to be done there. We are working closely with our, especially with our farmer partners to get those targets checked in. I wanted to talk to my dear colleagues today a bit more about our target group, consumers. It's not sustainability for consumers. What does that mean? There's a lot of noise out there, a lot of noise about pricing, about cost.
Where do the products come from? Do consumers understand what sustainability is or do they even care?
Yes. Thanks, Saara. Yeah. Consumers really value sustainability or it's a really important thing for them. Actually for them, it's not about any abstract concepts, but it's more about the everyday choices. When they are picking food from store, for example, they are thinking, where is it from? What's in it? Can I trust it? Us in Raisio and for our brands, sustainability is really an integral part. Themes like transparent sourcing near the production sites, understanding local needs and tastes, and also trust in health nutritionals are really high priorities across markets. These we actually excel in our brands, for example, Elovena. Hence, Elovena has been chosen in the Finnish Sustainable Brand Index as the top brand already second year in a row.
What I would say when it comes to sustainability with the consumers, what they actually want, it's mostly about picking a brand or product that they can choose with a clear conscience. That is what matters in the end for the consumers.
Yeah, thank you, Meri. Meri is my dear colleague, so I forgot to present her. She is Meri Mattila, and she works with Elovena, as you can see, brand manager for Finland. One thing I think is also important to highlight is great taste. I remember Pasi mentioning at some point, great taste is also a sustainability factor. When you think about the amount of food waste in Europe last year, 54% of it was produced by households. We need to make sure that whatever consumers open up, unwrap, and try, they eat it. They finish it.
They ideally then tell everyone about it also. This is something that is really part of our duty as food producers when it comes to the sustainability targets. Okay, we have got the brand in check. We have got the consumers' love there for us. Health-wise, we have Sarah Franciosi here, who is our Science and Nutrition Communications Manager. I am sure, Sarah, you can tell us how do we get our message through on health, because that is not a simple topic anyway. Not everyone agrees on it. If you look at social media, there are a lot of opinions, a lot of experts and non-experts and misinformation and everything you want. How do we get through our science-based proven facts to the consumers?
Good question. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah, for the introduction. Yeah, nutrition and health are super buzzwords.
You've heard them lots of times today for really good reason. As a nutrition scientist, I'm very proud that it is in the DNA of this company to have nutrition at the forefront of everything we do. Yes, we operate in a world where there is so much confusion and misinformation around the topic of nutrition and health. That is why you've heard from research, you've heard that actually facts are and should be the basis for everything we produce and everything we do. To give you a little bit of a back step into the kind of world in which we're operating, some of the biggest health challenges in the world today are those of nutrition. For example, obesity-related conditions, heart health, heart disease is the biggest killer in Europe still.
These are all conditions that are intrinsically linked to nutrition, the foods that we eat. As a food producer, it is our responsibility to make sure that those foods are tasty so that they're being eaten up, so that they're meeting the needs of our consumers, but also so that they are actually responsible in the nutrition that they're delivering. That is why it falls under the sustainability umbrella for us that the nutrition and health of our products or the health that we are supporting is really at the forefront of our minds. What we do is we look to the facts. We look to the nutrition science. We look to everything that's coming from the evidence base. We develop our products accordingly.
Whether that is the plant stanols that are found in the cholesterol-lowering portfolio, over 80 clinical studies show those cholesterol-lowering benefits, or whether we're looking at the balance of the nutrients, the sugar, the fat, the salt, the fiber in the Elovena biscuits or the fiber in the Torino pasta, that really is a really important factor to be healthier than what's out there and to really be delivering health in the day-to-day consumption of these foods because they are daily foods and they should be lending themselves to be part of the solution to some of those big health challenges that we all face today. Also, you've heard from our interactions externally, and this is really important for us. We're not lone wolves in this. We have to be part of a big multi-factorial solution to these multifaceted problems. We participate in these big health ecosystems.
For example, the healthcare professional interactions that we do, we work with health organizations that focus on these big issues. As a food company, we stand by other organizations focused on this. We were just recently, for example, at a health conference as the only food company there, but amongst scientists and researchers working out how we can do better to kind of work in this preventative space with regards to health and heart health, for example. Yeah, try to cut through that misinformation and do better.
Yeah, I mean, one thing that I wanted to ask you actually, because I am personally a big fan of proper meals. I am not very good with the snacking. I like to sit down and have my meal, but I know snacking is a huge trend. It is also an opportunity for us. Snacking can be also healthy then.
Because I mean, for me, that's what I maybe I'm so old, I've been told that snacking is something that you should maybe moderate and then focus on the big meals. With the trend coming in, there's a big opportunity there. Yeah, yeah.
Talking about agility, we've heard about agility and flexibility. Really, when we look at the history of nutrition and the food that we eat, the food that we eat has changed so much over the last 50-60 years because of the world we live in, the fact that our jobs have changed, the infrastructure around us has changed. We've moved from having three meals a day at a table at home with our families to really eating on the go a lot more.
We have to adapt and make sure that we're still able to have an offering that's delivering what people need for their own health, for longevity, not just to live for a long time, but to live well and healthily for a really long time. Yes, we are making big leaps into the snacking sector, I think, in terms of health. Of course, it is still challenging to navigate and the history of it can be unhealthy, but I think the focus needs to be what can we tweak, what can we do better than what's already out there, and how can we benchmark ourselves against categories and offer something that is superior health? Yes.
Yeah, good. I'm going back to what you said about brand promise and trust. You don't have to worry. When you choose Elovena, when you choose Benecol, you know what you're getting.
You do not need to go through the detail writing on the back of the pack, like what is in it. So you are good to go.
Right, we have all the demands here now. So Mari Siviranta, Head of Procurement, this is a big job for you. How do you get around this? I mean, you need to source the ingredients, you need to find the packaging, and affordably, you cannot really grow everything around the corner in Finland, can you? Or source them. How do you get around these challenges?
Yeah, it is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity. Actually, we do buy a wide range of different materials, but actually the major part of our ingredients, we buy directly from our contract farmers because the major part of the ingredients we use in our products is grains.
They are actually grown around the corner close to our both mills, so in Raisio and in Nokia area. Keeping in mind the climate change, we engage our contract farmers in close collaboration in order to reduce the carbon footprint and also in the longer run improve the farming conditions. Yeah, of course, we buy a lot of other stuff too. They are not all grown in Finland, so they cannot be Finnish originated. For example, if we take cocoa, which can also be considered as or classified as a risk material. For those, we only use and buy certified cacao and materials in order to be guaranteed that it's sustainably sourced.
Further, we have developed a process for a sustainability audit, which means that we are able to check and validate that all the things along the supply chain are in order. In addition, as Sarah mentioned, it is not only the ingredients, but also packaging materials. There are a lot of different packaging materials that we are buying. Our target has been to have 100% sustainable packaging, the consumer packaging. Actually, we are already in a good position. All our consumer packaging are recyclable. The further step onwards is then to have also recycled material in our packaging. There is a lot of development and innovation ongoing in the packaging sector, and we are following that closely. We are also in the networks and in the forums attending those that we know what is happening there.
When there are solutions available, we are ready for those. Of course, we have to keep in mind that the quality and the food safety is the number one. All in all, I do not think that the sustainability and the procurement are like separate things. They go hand in hand. Actually, the sustainability is integrated into our processes, into our ways of working, into our documents. It is sustainable sourcing. There is no other way around nowadays.
Yeah, definitely. When I talk to your team or anyone actually in Raisio, sustainability is no longer a topic that you need to debate about or discuss. It is a given. It comes with the territory, and everyone's very curious and excited to be on this new journey. Right, I think we are done with our deep dive.
Obviously, as you all know, sustainability is a mountain of detail to be gathered so that everything works together. A lot of things to check and develop. If you're interested in diving a bit further and getting more into the topic from Raisio point of view, please visit our annual report. There's a wide section on sustainability and all the work that we do, which is ongoing and daily and will continue. Feel free to visit that and read some more. Thank you. I think that's it. We hand over back to Annika then.
Or actually to Mika.
Mika, yes.
Welcome also from my part. How are you faring? Still energy for the last part. It's always nice to be the last one to actually present, but hopefully there is something of your interest.
My presentation will consist of four different agendas or areas if you like. Firstly, a quick glance on, let's say, the world that we live in today. What is happening in the world? There is no company, not an industry that would live in isolation and independent of the situations happening abroad and happening in the economic front. A quick glance there. I won't bore you with, let's say, two slides, I promise. That's all. Also, I would take a quick glance into the valuation of our sector, valuation history during the last couple of years, actually, I think during the seven years, if I recall. Then we'll dig into the close history, 2022-2024, from the P&L and cash flow front.
Of course, try to combine the, let's say, macroeconomic and what have you situations that actually have occurred and how that has impacted us, if they have. We will take a look at the targets, 2025, 2027, for which, of course, my dear colleagues have already been discussing about. Lastly, I will run you through the M&A, also a widely discussed topic also today. I will take the glance on that from the balance sheet perspective. What is actually our firepower? What kind of leverage should we or could we actually be using? That might be of interest. These four topics, and I try to raise something, let's say, what are the most important, at least for me, that you should bring home with you from the presentation. I try to highlight those.
Let's just quickly run through the, let's say, situations and circumstances that we live in or have been living in since the last couple of years. Of course, the very hot topic nowadays is from the left side of a picture would be the Liberation Day. Someone might actually figure out some other words to liberation, but there we go, Liberation Day and the unprecedented threat of overwhelming tariffs that might, at the worst, really hit the world or around. Lastly, Europe is now under stress of even 50% of tariffs, as you well know. During the Trump, let's say, season, the first 100 days have been quite well eventful, you might say. Still, of course, the expectations for the global growth.
Also here on the left-hand side, you can see the prospects of the U.K., very key market for us, as well as the euro area. Of course, they have come down quite substantially. At the same time, on the right-hand side, there you can see the central bank's movements, firstly to try to mitigate the inflation spike that really occurred. It hit us as well due to raw material inflation. Then again, on the easing cycle that now, as the inflationary main threats have subsided, this should play quite nicely from the consumer purchasing power perspective. Again, for us, I would say to sum this page up, as we do not, you might say our exposure to the U.S. as a trading partner is quite limited. We hardly procure anything from there or deliver products to there.
The tariff implications would be quite muted, if not existent. I think that is good to know. Of course, that is a direct implication. The secondary ones would be if this whole war really will actually escalate the economic war, then it is quite likely that the purchasing power of the consumers globally will shrink quite a bit. That would be the secondary effect that we might be facing, as with every other company in the world, but highly unlikely at this point. The right-hand side, of course, the consumer should now be transforming to, let's say, from this right-hand side picture with a, it is quite a busy one, I apologize, but still quite a high level of uncertainty that the consumers have been having and have been feeling during the last years. Of course, the inflation spike really affected there as well.
At least for Europe, the monetary easing and let's say the regaining of purchasing power should really play in our interests as a company. That I think is, in net terms, quite good news. On the right-hand side, and this is the last, let's say, macroeconomic picture I promised, we move into something more, let's say, tangible. Taking a look at the Finnish trade and the trade volumes there, what comes to retail, you can see that ever since the inflation really broke 2022, the volumes have been in a quite actually quite rare decline, you might say. This is an event that hardly happens. The volumes tend to perform quite modestly, but positively over time. Still, the food beverages index during the last couple of years actually has shrunk again, and the total retail trade as well.
I would say what to take home from that picture would be, I think, the net effect of all the easing that is now going on in Europe, especially in Finland, but I would say would apply to the U.K. and continental Europe. I think the monetary easing would help the consumer. Of course, the tariffs would always remain a threat because the unpredictability is very much dependent on the mood that Mr. Trump wakes every morning. Let's just hope that we can get into some kind of consensus with the trade. I think net terms, the circumstances that are prevailing and will are quite likely to prevail in terms of the consumer and their intentions and purchasing power, they look a bit perkier than they did. A bit more sunny side, I would say, is what we can expect.
What has this, let's say, quite unusual three-year period, at least the last three years, what really has it meant for companies and valuations? This I think is quite interesting also to look at. The blue line here is the Nordic listed food and beverage companies. The orange one is the European, well, 600 larger food and beverage companies, and the green one is us as a listed share. From there you can see that ever since the, well, inflation really broke in the beginning of the Ukrainian war in the beginning of 2022, the valuations really have come down since then, quite substantially, dependent on the index that we are looking for or the share that we are looking at here. Of course, there are a couple of things that again should be worth understanding here.
As we are and will want to be quite active on the M&A, it might be a listed company, M&A, or private company. These kind of circumstances from the buyer's perspective are quite lucrative. Good potential for us, obviously, from the valuation perspective, it's highly unlikely that we would be overpaying in such an environment as we are living. That I think is worth mentioning and worth understanding. Not a bad landscape for a company like us with quite good firepower in balance sheet. In that sense, very good starting point, if you like, for an inorganic growth. To sum this up, we have been faring quite well these turbulent times. I would say especially well. The food industry, of course, as a whole is and still can be seen as quite stable.
As you now have been hearing, we do have ample room to grow. During this next 2025 to 2027 season, if you like, we are focusing more on the bottom line improvement. We are looking at that just after a while. Of course, still growing more rapidly than the industry in the top line. That again is one thing to remember. A quick glance into the late, well, not late, but a couple of last years. The events really highlighting that. As you can see, the top line growth in a group level has been quite, quite stable. I think especially worth mentioning is the word 2022. It actually was a quite transformative year for Raisio.
That was the year when we actually decided to divest all of our Russia-related assets, so two companies altogether, whereas losing EUR 50 million, give or take million of turnover, and about EUR 2 million plus or minus some of EBIT. Quite a transformation there. Of course, at the same time, we were hit with the raw material price increases for, let's say, threefold from the normal levels in a, let's say, six-month period. Quite a tricky one is to mitigate, but actually we managed that. I will show the EBIT, let's say, figures on the next page. Still, let's say, more towards normal in 2023, in 2024. At the same time, it's worth mentioning also that as we are here for the long term, we have also been consistently year after year allocating more operating expenses to sales and marketing and also to R&D.
That I think is kind of a way to show commitment as well for the brands and brand development. Again, first quarter, our last one, 4.2% organic growth there compared to last year. Good start, very good start for this year as well. What that means or meant in EBIT, as you can see, the 2022, it took for us some time to actually be able to mitigate the huge and rapid hit in raw materials, but we managed. There was some delay, which was kind of inevitable. That was just a force majeure for us as well to actually swallow some of the impact in the short term, but we managed eventually. The 2022 is a low point in this kind of short history time period. From there, we actually regained quite a bit.
Our, let's say, absolute and relative performance from the EBIT perspective is quite good already now. It has ample room to grow as we are going to see just after a couple of slides here. Cash flow, this is the major measure, if you like, that actually you can see the fluctuation in 2022. That was very much from the quick increase in networking capital and due to this huge rise in raw materials. The cash was tied up in raw materials and inventories. Thereafter, the last next two years, actually, we again adjusted the networking capital to more normal and even better than before levels. We are now sitting at, let's say, 12%-13% of networking capital when compared to net sales. That is a pretty good measure already.
That gives us more, let's say, of course, predictability, but of course also exposes us in the possible fluctuations in mostly grain-based raw material price development. That is the way that we are handling the, let's say, cash flow burdening or freeing assets at the moment. We do have very good cash generation capabilities, always have been, always I think will be as well. This was pretty much an outlier the year 2022. Of course, as we are also being quite successful in actually turning the EBIT around since 2022, we do have a long history of paying quite substantial cash dividends as well. In this four-year period, actually, we have allocated EUR 0.14 per share. Each and every year then exceeding the reported EPS. Our dividend policy actually stays the same in this strategy period.
That does not mean that we commit to exactly EUR 0.14, but it is a very good indication of the history of the cash distribution. Of course, from the yield perspective, as you can see, our share price is very much illustrative of page three that you saw when I showed the valuations of our company. As the whole industry has come down quite a bit, the effective yield, of course, is quite high, especially in this kind of rate environment as we are now in a 2% level. For value, as with the growth investors, I think we offer a quite interesting place to be. The financial basis is quite strong. What about the next strategy period then? I will revisit the page that was in Pasi's beginning of this event today.
From the cumulative annual growth rate, three to four would be the group level. I think it is good to know that we are going to report according to the new organization and new reporting structure, the H1 figures. That would be in mid-August, I think 12th or 13th, either all of August, we will report our H1. In there, we are reporting according to the new organizational and external reporting structure. I think those are also worth understanding that from the turnover perspective, these two business units, actually, as we speak, are quite, well, comparable if you like, from the sales perspective. Of course, they do carry a different, at the moment. They are different when it comes to profitability. They are different with their likely ability to grow.
The breakfast and snacking part would grow at least 4.5% and heart health at least 3%. Inside, especially in breakfast and snacking, there are brands like Elovena. You might recall and you might know that it has been quite successful in the last three years, growing 10%, actually above 10% yearly in terms of sales. There are different brands in that business unit. That is, I think, worth remembering as well. The total targets here are for sales to grow 3%-4% to reach EBIT level at or above EUR 30 million by the end of 2027. That brings us with a net sales of at or above EUR 250 million until the end of 2027.
We will be giving, of course, more light on the contents of the business units in terms of their sales distribution, their, let's say, sales allocation towards countries and such. This is something that, of course, we are planning now as we are now just ready with the organization and ready to report or, let's say, transform the reporting. Rest assured that we will provide some additional information from the sales, let's say, or category, whatever we see fit for you as investors to actually understand more. That I think is also worth mentioning. From the EBIT perspective, I told that we are looking for actually quite a bit more rapid growth what comes to EBIT KGAR than the net sales value KGAR. 9% yearly would be from the starting point year 2024 until the end of 2027.
Quite substantial improvement over a period of three years. There are the, let's say, building blocks, if you like, on this bridge to actually move forward. You can also see that from the very right-hand side, there are, let's say, illustrative blocks that are due to the successful M&A. Of course, it's not wise for us to build a figure on that, but I think it gives you an idea that we are looking at the M&A with a target that actually would contribute to our growth also from the EBIT perspective. That I think is worth mentioning again and taking home so that we are not looking at deeply loss-making possible turnarounds or startups. That's not our cup of tea really on this following strategy period.
You can see also that the main building blocks on the left-hand side are the, let's say, leveraging the growth of non-dairy categories. Mikko ran you through quite professionally and well on how we see the Benecol positioning and how is Benecol able to grow and where. These are the, let's say, main drivers to actually achieve that goal. You also see the plant protein business divestment. Of course, that is also a done deal for us. We closed the deal in mid-March this year. It was loss-making. Just to remind you, that contributed about EUR 4.5 million of sales in 2024 and about EUR 2.6 million EBIT losses in 2024. Of course, those losses now are gone, if you like, so they will not be recurring anymore after the closure of that deal. That alone brings, of course, us pretty much forward towards the goals.
We have also been hearing our milling, especially the oat side of things, and the volume development there has been quite promising during the different times of the last years. Demand has been strong both in consumer and industrial size. Also, we need to, let's say, optimize some of the usage of the asset and also increase capacity of the asset, especially oat mill. That is quite likely to bring us also EBIT benefits then. Mikko also ran us through about the geographic expansion. Of course, our way of, let's say, making sure that we are making right choices and with the right kind of cost base. That is quite a different approach than what we did in Holland. As we have entered already several markets, that is quite promising in a way that now we are committed to different cost base also.
Very promising also from that building block side of things. As we said, the non-dairy, that of course is we entered the green field territory in the very beginning of 2022. We had no existing, well, shelf spaces or history or category knowledge, if you like, or category something to actually compare with. It was a new business for us. Now we are in about EUR 15 million phase at the moment in this year. From zero to that in three years, it's not a bad thing at all. Also we can still further leverage quite rapidly and quite substantially also on the category.
Moving from one liter, let's say, consumer packaging to smaller, let's say, Gertz, not yogurts, but Gertz and such products, there is a very ample room to grow and ample room to maneuver and utilize the brand power that we have. Very good and very, I think, trustworthy agenda. These all blocks carry quite comprehensive plans in each and every one. Hence we are maintaining the plus 30 EBIT target. We should look also lastly on the M&A. Just to sum up, and as we have been today hearing quite a bit on our, let's say, intention and abilities and willingness to be active in this, I will take just lastly a last glance on the balance sheet perspective. What's our firepower really? What does it look like? Before I do, there are just some, let's say, balance sheet items.
You might be quite familiar with those. In time, in these, let's say, three years of quite, well, you might say difficult market circumstances, we have been consistently actually, again, strengthening our balance sheet while paying quite substantial cash dividends. We are at EUR 82.6 million net, minus EUR 82.6 million net, and interest-bearing debt holders. Quite a liquid, you might say. What we are looking at, we do not like to categorize our appetite towards M&A in net sales perspective. That is not that important, at least not for me. It is more about the EV side. What kind of size with regards to EV are we looking at? You might be, or you should be expecting plus 20. Smaller would be same effort as with a bigger one, but still that really does not necessarily make that much sense. Plus EUR 20 million EV.
Again, established branded, also standalone companies, companies that could also stand alone or have been standing alone. They have something unique enough to actually keep them interesting, interesting also for us. That is also, I think, a good thing to remember besides what Pasi told, our, let's say, widened scope of different new items that are not grain-based or are not heart health directed. Good area to move there. Lastly, just an illustrative example on, let's say, the different size of, let's say, possible EV and how would that actually affect us as a company when implementing that. If we are looking at, for example, and I would like to stress this is illustrative, but it is good for you to understand how our leverage would actually fluctuate in implementing those.
Let's say scenario two when there is EUR 125 million EV kind of target or deal done. Let's say from the right-hand side that actually that would be EUR 10 million extra EBITDA. Quite well conservative, you might say, or realistic at least. Currently the consensus estimate for our own as is Raisio 2025 EBITDA would be EUR 38-ish million. On top of that, EUR 10 million would bring us to EUR 48 million all in all. I think it's more wise to look at this kind of road than what would it mean. After implementing such a deal with such a profitability and of course carving out quite likely possibilities of some synergies, at least bottom line synergies. Let's just play it kind of simple and safe. Then we would be leveraged to 1.1 times net debt to EBITDA, which is quite, quite, quite conservative still.
We could reach to, I think EUR 2.5 billion would be the pain point from the rating perspective. Rating perspective meaning that in that kind of situation, our cost of borrowed money would rise quite a bit. Until that, it is quite safe to assume that given these circumstances and of course now I am not looking at any particular banker here in the room, I would say it is quite safe to say that we are looking at some 100 basis points of margin on our debt at the moment, depending of course on the maturity of the debt. I think, I hope this gives you some kind of understanding, further understanding on the size or sizes of multiple transactions that we could take and where that would lead us from the balance sheet perspective. We would stay quite, quite safe, quite predictable.
Again, that would give us a big boost in short and in the longer term, of course, due to all towards all our goals again. I think we are in a very good situation, very good place. This is my last page before we enter into Q&A. Again, some things to remember. Quite steady performer even during these turbulent times and even I would say the times ahead. Be there tariffs, be there not, but I think of course we will be facing different kind of situations as you know that's just new normal these days, so no worries there. The growth targets, at least for me, they are quite realistic. They are quite clearly pronounced. We do have very trustworthy plans.
I do believe in them personally on how to actually with each of those levers and in each pieces we can achieve them. That is quite clear. Balance sheet, you just saw it carries a huge potential with a quite sizable EV or multiple EV kind of deals. Again, of course, still we are quite likely to remain as we are or have been in a profile-wise value company in that sense that we also value our shareholders quite high. Again, we do appreciate also that the majority of them quite likely will prefer cash dividends. Of course, we are looking at other options, but that has been the way to go for us and that is quite likely to remain. I would now like to thank you for your attention. Good job for staying awake for two hours.
I do hope that you did pick some from my presentation and also from the previous ones. Pasi, I think you might have some final words. I will just help you with the, there you go.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Today we are not just here presenting a strategy for you. We are committing ourselves into disciplined execution. We are committing ourselves to measurable outcomes. Some of the goals might seem ambitious, but they are very much rooted on realism and responsibility. We are convinced that we are able to deliver on them. We are also committed to keeping you updated along the way. That is how does it go. Thank you very much for your time, your trust, and I look forward to delivering on what we have outlined today.
I think it would be a good moment to take some questions as well.
Yes. Yeah, we have run a bit over. It is already five past twelve. I guess we are all hungry, but we are still really happy to take a few questions if we have some in the room. There is a couple again, a couple of good ones on the webcast. Do we have questions in the room? Yes, one here.
Hi, Kaisa Vanha-Perttula from Inderes again. Thanks for the presentations. It was very interesting. I have one question still left. What do you see the M&As as the right way to create value from excess balance sheet capital rather than distributing it to investors such as additional dividends? I believe we can actually accelerate the growth and leverage the strengths that we have and this way create value for our shareholders.
Should we not, then we'll have to revisit. At this point of time, I do see that we can really put it into good use for our shareholders as well.
Okay, thank you. That's all from me.
We had a question over here. Yeah, over here.
Hi, Sanna Perälä from Nordea. Thank you for the presentation. It was all very informative. I only have one question at this stage regarding research and M&A. You mentioned that you are working with startups and students at the moment, but then again, you mentioned also that you would not be interested in acquiring startups. I'm just curious, what happens if one of those startups or students comes up with such a good idea that you want to develop into a product? Are you then going to acquire or what happens?
Of course, we as a big small company are flexible with our approach, but primarily the intention would not be to not necessarily to be a sort of an owner, but more finding other ways of cooperating. We have actually a lot to give for the startups that we work with: commercial capabilities, production capabilities, branding capabilities, and also experience with international business. We have a lot of other things to offer as well apart from ownership. We even have facilities where we can actually work close together with those startups. Primarily we are not focusing on our M&A activities in that field.
All right, thank you.
One more question on the M&A, given that it has been quite absent since the Versofood acquisition. I think Mikko, you presented that the target size would be above EUR 20 million, above EUR 20 million.
You also presented that you guys are currently sitting on an EUR 80 million-plus cash pile. You presented about the debt capacity. What's really your ambition level? Should we actually look at that, I mean, this EUR 20 million sounds small, or are you looking at multiple acquisitions in a very short period, which might actually question the execution power and the after management of the acquisitions?
You're walking. I can start. I can start. Yeah, very good, Maria, for your question. The EUR 20 million, I would like to highlight that I think represents a minimum size. I think also from another perspective, EUR 100 million might act as a higher possibility at one time.
I think the most practical way of thinking our M&A during the last next three years would be several, two or more, with I think the totality bringing us to EUR 100 million-EUR 150 million of the total EV. That I think is the most best estimate on the future.
Is it EUR 100 million to.
EUR 150 million? Okay, perfect. Thanks.
Further questions still in the room? If not, I could take actually, I think there's a couple on the chat that deserve some attention and are really good questions. First one, I'll try and read it out loud. I'm a vegan since 2010 and I consume many Raisio products. Now I'm considering investing in companies whose products are 100% vegan. Raisio is not yet there, for example, dairy products in Benecol brand, but how's the future looking?
I would invest if Raisio could make the ethical choice of cutting off all the animal products. I also know I am not the only one.
Yes, we are not yet ready to go completely vegan. We are actually, a lot of our product development, a majority of our product development, a majority of our research is taking us to that direction. At this point, we are not yet able to go all the way.
Yeah, maybe I would add what I think Reetta said wisely as well, that in innovation and in research today, there is no point in doing anything that is not sustainable for the future, but that is more than looking to the future. Yeah. Actually also on R&D, but I am sure you can answer this one as well. It was mentioned that research is having a renaissance at Raisio.
Do you foresee that it will also lead to increased investments in R&D spending going forward?
Yeah, currently we are on single low-digit millions and low-digit single millions in EUR annually. It has been increasing already for a few years, and we are systematically increasing it. As Reetta has a lot of things cooking in the lab, there are potential things that might actually make a step change, but we are not ready to come out with those yet. Yes, very good. It also is worth mentioning that, of course, that increase will consist of both operating expenses and capital expenditures. A pilot plant that, for example, Reetta mentioned, of course, that is a CapEx investment. Yes. On an increasing trend.
Yes. I think that is that actually. I think we have deserved lunch now. Thank you to everybody watching online for being with us.
To everybody in the room, as said, we will have a short break, set up some food in the back, and then we would be really, really happy for you to join us for lunch. Anything else, Pasi, from your side?
Thank you very much and bon appétit.
Thank you.