Look at me. Do you see a sophisticated system? 3.8 million years of nature's engineering to learn from. In the natural ecosystem, everything that lives circulates forever. How? It all started with a crazy question: Can we create textile fiber by using nature's own process, by learning from the master nature herself, by imitating nature like how a spider produces its web? That question led us to invent a brand-new way of making fiber out of wood and waste. A revolutionary natural fiber, the first of its kind.
10 years of scientific research, thousands of trials, and vigorous industrial scaling has led us to this moment, benefiting the entire global textile industry with a process so clean and pure, with zero harmful chemicals and dissolving, zero, no compromise, because all T-shirts should be produced with only 1 liter of water, no harmful chemicals, side streams, or waste, just like nature designed it. We produce a textile fiber that breathes, lives, endures, warms over, over, and over again, and again. That's the way nature has always done it. Spinnova.
Hello, and welcome to Spinnova's webcast today. We have had a, for sure, a very exciting morning with three announcements, huge announcements. First, we have a new CEO. Second, we will start a strategy review. And third, our H1 results. Maybe that was most expected from everybody, but we, we like surprises, so here we have a little bit more to you today. My name is Sophie Jolly, and I'm the interim IR at Spinnova, and I will be the moderator today. On the stage here in Flik Studio in Helsinki, I have three gentlemen. I have the founder and chair of the board, Janne Poranen. I have our new CEO, Tuomas Oijala, and of course, Ben Selby, interim CEO and CFO. Before we start, some practicalities.
We will do all the presentations first, and then you have the possibility to do your questions afterwards. There is a chat function below your, the presentation. Please use that and be active. We are happy to answer the questions after the presentations. I think that that is very much what I want to say, because we have a lot on the agenda, a lot to tell. So I will hand over to Janne, please.
Okay, thanks, Sophie, and hello. Good morning. Welcome to this morning presentations. We are actually very happy that we are here today. So I will start to tell you about a little bit about the process that how we went through the CEO selection process. So in total, it took about, I think, four months, which is pretty normal, I would say. But now today we are in the position that we successfully found a extremely good CEO for the company for the future. Maybe something about the, let's say, the criteria, what we were thinking at the board, that what kind of person should be what we are looking at.
So of course, the one very important when we are now growing and when we are already in the global business, is that we have a leader who has strong track record with the successful, let's say, the development and the leading the company through the, like, let's say, the extremely even the hard positions what we have had in the market so far. So this kind of like a, let's say, the, like a better leader in a global business was one of the, like, a key points what we were thinking at. Then also, what is extremely important for us as a Spinnova is that the person is sharing the vision, he has the motivation, what we are actually seeing greatly from Tuomas, that he's really highly motivated.
He would like to share our vision, mission for the future, and he's bold enough to take this kind of, I would say, quite a big step, so coming from the totally different industry into the growth company for the future. Now, next, I would like to invite Tuomas to step onto the stage, and I really warmly welcome Tuomas to Spinnova. But I think that you are much more better to say something about yourself and also about the motivation, what I was trying to put on words, but not in that good. And then also, like, what is your background? So that what you have done earlier, but also what kind of person you are.
Yeah. Thank you very much for the opportunity, and thanks for the trust, so far. So very excited to be here, with all of you today. Again, I want to thank the board for the trust of having this opportunity, and also, thank Ben for the great work that he's done during this interim period, and will continue to do, of course, until the end of this year. A little bit about me first. So, I have a family with a wife and three kids. It's important to start with that. I've been living abroad actually for the last 10 years, in different positions for KONE. So I started in KONE doing acquisitions, strategy development.
I ran an integration project in the Middle East, and then I was leading our product development and business line for new construction in China for a few years. Then after that, I was in Denmark for four years, running our business there as a managing director, and then quite recently shifted then to lead the global new building solutions business line, which is a very exciting position as well. But that's a good segue, of course, to why we are here, and as Janne said, I'm very excited about this opportunity for three key reasons. The first one is that, I mean, the vision of the company and the mission and the purpose is something very inspiring.
But I also think there's quite a lot of pull in the market for these things. The trends, the mega trends in the market, you know, there's demand, there's gonna be increasing demand, and our customers at all steps in the value chain are going to eventually have to make decisions that will increase the demand even further if we look at where the world is going. Other than that, I think the technology that these great people have achieved is something very, very special and powerful because how diverse the raw material base can be and how diverse the applications with different kinds of customers can be, and that's very exciting. So we have a great potential and great opportunities.
The last thing, in a way, is the most important one, is that the people in this company are very committed, they know what they're talking about, and they believe in the vision. And of course, that's why I think we have a good team that can make big things happen. As said, I mean, not everything has been laid out for us in front of us. We have a lot of work to do, and I'm excited to be part of that journey with everybody here, and I'm 100% confident that we will do what it takes to take this company to new heights. Thank you again for the opportunity to be part of this great team, and I know you guys will have a great show today as well, and so.
Thank you to Tuomas, and, and thanks for joining. We are looking forward to start. I don't know if we said already, but you are officially starting at the 1st of January next year latest, as we have agreed.
Yes.
But of course, now we are trying to do all our best that you are getting the smooth start-
Exactly
At the very beginning.
Exactly.
Let's invite Ben Selby, who has been our Interim CEO, and still is. Welcome, Ben.
Hey. Hey, Janne.
Hey, Ben.
Tuomas, really looking forward to working with you. I think, together with, with, with you, with the rest of the management team, all of our employees, and, the board, that we're gonna keep on making really special things happen at Spinnova. So yeah, welcome.
Yeah.
Looking forward to it.
Then also, just to make sure that we have, at the same time, we have promoted Ben as a Deputy CEO, because we as a board, we see that now we have a winning, leading team for the company. So we are really looking forward at how you guys are working together. And of course, we are giving a support, the full support, and the whole management team, of course, but most importantly, our people are the key for the success. So we have all your support, and I'm looking forward that we are going forward and what we are able to do next.
Perfect, yeah.
Okay, very good. So, maybe a couple of words about the second topic what we released today, was the news that we are starting this kind of like a strategy evaluation process. Maybe someone is asking that, "Okay, why you are doing that right now?" Or, "What is the purpose of the review?" I think it is quite normal because now it has been, like, two years, plus two years when we went public. So far, our strategy has been, like, implemented as we have planned. For example, one of the biggest thing, of course, the step for Spinnova was that we handed over Spinnova technology to the Woodspin, and then now it is ramping up.
So we believe that now it is right time to look at what are finally the first and right decision that we are able to create the most value for the stakeholders. And then also, that now we have been focused, and we are still focusing highly, mainly to the wood-based raw material. But as you know, since at the beginning, we have been saying that we can use multiple different raw materials, and that is something what we have done already. And we have extremely good results on that one, so we believe that now it is time to look at how we are going into the, those markets as well. But I think it is better to leave next to Ben, and Ben will go through in more detail about the strategy review process, but then also the H1 results. So please, Ben.
Great. Thank you, Janne. Very good. I think, just to do a quick recap, because this is important background, it's important to remind that the demand drivers for sustainable textiles, sustainable textile fibers, and the technology to produce those continues to be extremely strong, and there's significant growth expected in the coming years in the global textile market. The other thing we really want to kind of comment on and make clear is that Spinnova's ambition level to change the global textile industry for the better is as strong as ever. Spinnova can have a positive impact on the global textile industry because the Spinnova fiber significantly reduces emissions compared to the traditional alternatives, whilst creating no waste and being completely recyclable. It's really the technology that enables that and differentiates us.
Spinnova is the only technology that can scalably produce textile fiber from natural raw materials with a mechanical process without using harmful chemicals. As well as the environmental benefits that this brings, it also results in a fiber that feels natural, like cotton and linen, and which many of the brands want to have those physical properties. So as Janne said, Spinnova's existing strategy has served us very well so far. In line with that strategy, we have achieved some very significant milestones, most recently, the handover of the technology to Woodspin One in Jyväskylä in Finland for the first plant that has been built by Woodspin. Now that that important milestone has been reached, it's the right time to review what the company is focusing on, and to make sure that it's continuing to create the most possible value for our stakeholders.
That's why we are now initiating a strategy review. If there are any changes to the medium and long-term business targets, these will be announced when the strategy review is completed. How we will conduct the review is to evaluate our existing strategic focus areas and to prioritize those with the potential to deliver the fastest time to generate positive cash flow. As I commented on, it's Spinnova's unique, sustainable technology that is our differentiator and that's at the core of our company. So it's very natural that as part of this review, we also explore other opportunities to license our technology to new customers. Our joint ventures, Woodspin and Respin, continue to be strategically important technology customers for Spinnova.
And as a reminder, and as we have disclosed already back in the IPO prospectus, in the joint venture agreements of both these companies, Spinnova has the option to invest in all of the future Woodspin and Respin plants. We will decide whether to invest Spinnova's own capital into these scale-ups based on the value that it can create for Spinnova shareholders compared to other opportunities. The third point I wanted to cover here is that we see that Spinnova has a significant opportunity to take a leadership role in the circularity of the textile industry. This is the feedback that we are constantly getting from brands, and it's clear that this is the way the market is going and what end consumers also want to see in their clothes, that more and more are made with circular raw materials.
Spinnova's technology is well-placed to take advantage of this trend because it doesn't use harsh chemical processes, and it doesn't reduce the fiber quality when using recycled and waste raw materials. We see big potential, particularly in fiber produced from textile waste and/or agricultural waste. We believe by prioritizing the areas in our strategy that can deliver the fastest time to positive cash flow, that we will be able, in the future, to create the most value for our stakeholders. We will come back to announce the results of the review in due course, and naturally, after Tuomas has settled into the role. I will now move on to the H1 review. Firstly, I'd like to thank all of our employees, our customers, and our partners for all of their support and a good job in the first half.
It's thanks to them that we were able to hit several significant milestones. Firstly, this completion of the first technology sale that Spinnova has made with the successful technology handover to Woodspin for their first fiber production facility in Jyväskylä, Finland. Secondly, we were very pleased to have closed out an agreement with the visionary spinning mill, Tearfil, to operate an R&D yarn spinning line for Spinnova to support our product development and accelerate that development process for textile uses. The commercial side continues to be, of course, very important, and we were very pleased that Halti's unisex parka that was made using Spinnova fiber hit the stores in April.
Then in July, we actually received a grant from Business Finland for EUR 1.9 million, and it's very significant because this is directly for what we talked about around the leadership role in circularity and Spinnova's opportunity to develop new raw materials. I will elaborate a little bit more around what's been going on with Woodspin, our joint venture with Suzano. In May, Woodspin officially opened the first factory producing wood-based Spinnova fiber, and almost 100 guests visited the facility in Finland. Spinnova finalized the technology installations during the spring, and the technology handover was completed successfully. I think it's also quite remarkable to say that there were no lost time incidents during the construction. Since May, the factory has been fully operated by Woodspin.
The ramp up of this facility is ongoing, and the production run rate of the machines continues to increase. To meet customer commitments, in the first half, Woodspin did use alternative microfibrillated cellulose from Scandinavia. We successfully produced fiber from this alternative MFC, and the first commercial deliveries with that fiber have been now sent from the factory to customers. As a reminder, it's Suzano Finland, who is the supplier of wood-based raw material, microfibrillated cellulose, to Woodspin, and their plant has been built at the same time and on the same site as this Woodspin plant. Suzano continues to develop their production process to improve the quality of the wood-based MFC produced and the efficiency of its process.
While Suzano develops its MFC process, it is expected that this first Woodspin facility will mainly be used for R&D to test the new MFC batches, and that commercial production volumes will be limited in the short term. If I comment a little bit about the future plans for Woodspin, together with Suzano, we've been gathering the learnings from the first Woodspin plant to support the decision-making for the next Woodspin investment. We are actively working with Suzano to support them with improving the efficiency of the wood-based MFC process and the quality of the MFC produced. On the Spinnova side, we continue to further development to develop our technology concept to reduce CapEx per ton of fiber produced, compared to the first Woodspin plant.
But I think the thing to end on here, and the one of the most important points, is to say that the market opportunity for Woodspin and the ambition level that we share together with Suzano to scale Woodspin's production capacity remains unchanged. I'll comment on our joint venture with, with ECCO, Respin. During the first half, we continued to make progress towards the commercial phase of the Respin fiber, and together with ECCO, we decided to start a feasibility study into the first commercial factory for this Respin fiber. It's most likely that that factory will be located in the Netherlands, and the study is ongoing.
Commenting on the other raw materials, Spinnova continues to invest into R&D during the first half of 2023, and in the future, we see great potential in developing these circular raw materials, such as textile waste and agricultural waste, as well as, of course, recycled Spinnova fiber. Our initial tests show that refining these raw materials into MFC may be more efficient than refining other raw materials that Spinnova has worked with. It's important to also point out here that when we look at the wood-based raw material, it's Suzano Finland who is managing also the refining of that material from pulp before it goes into the fiber spinning stage. When it comes to the other raw materials, also including Respin, it's Spinnova that also has the process related to the refining.
The company has received significant interest from customers wanting to build plants that convert multiple circular raw materials into Spinnova fiber. As mentioned, we received this significant grant from Business Finland. We expect that this will help us to open new opportunities for Spinnova to expand its business by adding new raw material refining and fiber recycling components to our technology offering in the future. The commercial efforts continued in the first half with the apparel brands, and we were very pleased to see the Halti parka hit the stores in April. As well as being made with a blend of Spinnova fiber and cotton, it was also dyed using a sustainable dyeing technique in partnership with Imogo from Sweden.
As you will remember, Spinnova previously decided to invest in its own R&D spinning line in order to accelerate the development of textile product applications for the Spinnova fiber. This work continues to be very important, and we're very pleased to have come to an agreement with the visionary spinning mill Tearfil, who will operate the line for Spinnova. This yarn spinning line is intended for product development, and it will be located in Portugal, which is an important hub for the global textile market. I'll now move on to the financials. You will have seen that in August, Spinnova published its 2022 financial statements under IFRS and will be reporting under IFRS going forward. That release outlined in more detail the key areas that have been impacted by this reporting standard change.
But the important thing is that we believe that reporting under IFRS increases the transparency and comparability of our financial numbers. In the first half, our revenues increased from EUR 7.6 million to EUR 8.8 million. The increase was mainly due to higher technology sales related to the Woodspin One project. The remainder was partly technology sales to the Respin project, and also some R&D services that we provide to our partners. Our operating loss increased from EUR 5.8 million to EUR 11 million. The increased loss was expected and was driven by the overall ramp-up of both Spinnova's and the joint venture's businesses. In H1 2023, compared to H1 2022, we had a higher number of employees. That was the biggest impact when it came to costs. Secondly, we had a higher impact from the stock option program expenses into personnel expenses.
This is now something that is in these numbers under IFRS that was not there under Finnish accounting standards. And part of that was related to the fact that after the IPO, there was a period where we were not issuing new option programs, and then there was a backlog of option options to be issued to new hires, which came in in the second half of 2022. So the first half of 2022 is effectively lower than it otherwise would have been. The other very big contributor to the loss has been related to Woodspin and the costs associated with the ramp-up and the fixed cost base there, as the company is ramping up production.
When it comes to the employee numbers, we grew from 69 to 78, but again, most of that increase already came in the second half of 2022. And as we have commented before, we largely have the team that we need in place and are not expecting to make significant numbers of new hires. In the first half, we invested EUR 5.5 million into Woodspin, which was the majority of the non-financial investments made during the period. And also, it's important to comment during the period that the cost of the first Woodspin plant increased to EUR 36 million from the EUR 31 million that was indicated in 2022. As a reminder, each of the joint venture owners pays for half of these investments.
With that background, it's also important to comment on the cash position, and you can see that as of the end of the first half, our cash position remains strong, with EUR 59 million of net cash. I will now move on to comment briefly on the outlook and the financial guidance for 2023, which is unchanged. As a reminder, we expect the revenues to be lower than in 2022 for the full year, which is impacted by the expected phasing of technology sales fees. The loss is expected to increase as the company is ramping up its operations. Further details of the financials are, of course, available in the H1 report, and I will now wrap up with a short summary of the H1.
So starting with the financials, revenues increased, operating result decreased as expected, as the ramp-up of Spinnova and its JVs is ongoing, and the net cash position remains strong. On the operational side, we hit a number of significant milestones, most critically, the successful technology handover to the Woodspin joint venture, and also the agreement that we made with Tearfil on the R&D yarn spinning line. Looking to the future, we are very excited to be working on the development of new raw materials, and we're happy to receive the Business Finland grant of EUR 1.9 million in July. Thank you. I will now hand over to Sophie for questions, and I think we will also invite Janne to the stage, as I'm sure there will also be questions for the chair of the board on some of the things that we've been announcing today.
Thank you, Ben.
Yes.
Yes, there are questions coming in. Thank you, everybody. Just keep on putting questions to us. We have approximately half an hour. And if there is a situation that we do not answer your question, please call me at Spinnova or put me a mail at ir@spinnova, so you will get your answer. But now, let's start. Quite a lot of the questions are regarding Woodspin and regarding the ramp-up. So maybe if I start by saying, taking this one: "During the process of developing and ramping up the new plant in Jyväskylä, have you run into any issues with technology, machinery, production process, or so on? So that is, how mature is the technology for a large scale production?
Yeah. Well, I think the first and most important thing to say is that we have already produced commercial fibers using an alternative MFC, which have now been shipped to customers and will even be used in the future. So, the spinning process, which is Spinnova's part of the technology, is working. Obviously, this plant and this Woodspin facility that has been built in Jyväskylä, it has a nameplate capacity of 1,000 tons, and we have always indicated from the IPO onwards that there will be further development to bring down the CapEx per ton and the OpEx per ton of fiber produced. So, the technology is working. We've been able to produce commercial fibers, just not with the Suzano MFC. But of course, we are, as I commented, we are working on the technology concept also for the next level.
This might be more a question for Suzano, but question still is, could you be more, a little bit more precise what the problem is with the MFC used? Why have you been using alternative, and why is that working, and why is not Suzano's working?
Yeah, I think as you say, it's of course also a question for Suzano. I think, let's say, one hypothesis is that, and why we commented that actually for these other raw materials, it may be easier to refine these. Our initial tests show that is because they come from dissolving pulp, and the kraft pulp is not coming from that. But I think the important thing to say, and what you have seen also in the release, is that Suzano has publicly stated that they are committed to this MFC development. And from their perspective, this development cycle is normal. It's normal from their perspective, the kind of timescale that it is taking.
Very good. A question, you did mention that some volume already has left the factory. Has it been sold, and how much? Can you talk anything about the volumes o r is that important?
It has been sold, of course, and it's going to some brand partners. But as we commented, at the moment, you know, the critical thing with Woodspin is that we do get it working as well with the Suzano MFC t hat's, of course, the long, long-run goal. So it's also very important that we now support Suzano in this R&D effort to make sure that we can get the commercial fiber produced from the Suzano MFC. So, as I said, the commercial volumes will be limited in the near term, and it's therefore not very meaningful to talk about the volumes that have been sold at this stage.
One cannot think about looking at the results. It came down from last year. Was this the reason to the decline in the results, operating result?
Yeah.
Did the MFC change affect profitability?
So in a relatively small part, it did. So as we commented in the half-year report, I mean, one of the reasons for the Woodspin expenses, or rather, the Woodspin expenses were increased because Woodspin had to purchase this alternative MFC rather than-
Mm
It coming from Suzano, as per the JV agreement. But that was not a very significant impact to our numbers. So I would say that, of course, we were always expecting that in this period, and in the ramp-up, you know, before Woodspin is producing, that there will be a drag on our P&L as well, as we're carrying effectively half of their fixed cost base at the moment.
Yeah. Still, to clarify, what was the key driver to start a strategic review just now?
Would you like to take that one, Janne?
Yeah, I think as I said, I think this is the right timing. What Ben highlighted, that now we have successfully handed over the technology to Woodspin.
Mm.
And as Ben already said, that the Spinnova concept is working as planned.
Mm.
Now, what we have said already in the IPO phase, that we are lucky that we can use the same technology for multiple different raw materials.
Mm.
Then also that, I don't know if it is clear, but we have our own, let's say, the MFC technology for the other raw materials.
Mm.
So basically, we have all the pieces in place, and now we were thinking that, okay, now it is good time to look, because we have seen, at least internally already-
Yep
That our concept is working, that what are the opportunities with other raw materials? So I think that was the reasoning.
Yeah.
Of course, we are, as a board, always thinking that what is the best way to increase the revenues to make the value for the stakeholders?
Yeah.
That is, of course, extremely important.
Yeah. Our audience is a little bit challenging you here now. Our question being: Is textile waste gonna be the preferred raw material going forward?
That's a very good one, I would say. If you look outside, for example, the textile industry, they are looking heavily onto the textile waste.
Mm.
As what we have said at the very beginning, the challenge is that the availability is not, like, huge at the moment. But I think it is, let's say, big enough for us that now we are starting to look when we think that we are ready with our concept to look that opportunity as well.
Yeah, a huge opportunity, huge market. Still one question about the strategy review. You say that you will give some answer in the coming months. What does that mean? Is it during the autumn, in the spring? What, what, what is the coming months?
I think it is pretty clear if you think that where we are. So we just released that Tuomas will start officially at the beginning of next year.
Mm-hmm.
Of course, he will be involved through the process. We have discussed that already. But of course, we want that he's, like, fully aligned-
Yeah
With, and the whole management is fully aligned with the board, and then we are coming out with our decisions.
Yes.
So...
Good. Thank you. Turning into costs, they were also increasing. Ben, could you specify a little bit more on where are we going with the cost? What are the drivers to that, and is there a cost ceiling? Will the costs start to decrease only after the completion of several factories? How should everybody think about costs going forward?
Well, I think it's, I mean, we've given our financial guidance for the year that the loss will increase. So I think this is, it, you know, for this year, you start to see, you know, if we ignore the materials and services, which is obviously adjusting mainly to what goes directly into the tech sales, you know, our costs, you know, you start to see, let's say, the full run rate roughly in this first half. I think that gives you the idea of what we are having going forward. And obviously, we are spending smartly, and, you know. But I can't really give you a longer-term outlook. That will be, of course, something that we come back to if relevant during the strategy review.
Yeah.
But I think the point is that, you know, as I commented, we are not, we are not kind of now significantly adding to our headcount. We are obviously being prudent around where we focus, kind of putting cash. And, I mean, actually, I think the whole point around the strategy review is to focus on these areas that can deliver kind of cash returns as soon as possible. So I think that's what we can say at the moment.
Yeah. Jumping from costs to cash flow, equally important. What's the run rate going forward? Does it keep you awake, or do you see that the cash flow that... Yeah, how do you look at the cash flow going forward?
Yeah. So, as we said, we have a $59 million net cash position, down from, I think it was $74 million at the beginning of, of the year. And, of course, like, in the last, year and a half, a lot of that cash outflow has been our investments into the Woodspin CapEx. And now that CapEx investment is done. So, you know, I think that's very positive when it comes to the run rate going forward. I think how do we look at cash overall? I mean, $59 million, I think we are still having a strong cash position. And, as we said, I mean, it's something that we're conscious about, and we want to make sure that our strategy does prioritize positive cash generation in the future.
Yeah. You mentioned Woodspin. Let's go back to that. A couple of questions about Woodspin. So is it realistic to assume that Spinnova can sign any major deals with potential customers before you have a better grip about the production and with the production?
Are we talking about brand customers for Woodspin or ?
It says major deals with potential customers, so I guess any customer that we could have.
Yeah. Well, I think if we touch on the brand customer side, I mean—yes, we continue to have kind of... And let's be clear, it's Woodspin who is then the one who is transacting with fiber-
Yes
Directly then with the brands or with the supply chain partners. And there's been a lot of interest, and obviously, there's many things we can do with the other MFC in the meantime. I think the second thing is that when it comes to, if we talk about if this is could be referring to also technology customers of Spinnova, as we said, you know, our indications are from the kind of early tests, that it may be easier to actually refine the other raw material MFC than the wood-based that we have with Suzano. So, I mean, from our perspective, these discussions with those potential technology customers can very much continue.
Yeah. Very good. Is there any visibility on full capacity in Jyväskylä?
When we will hit the full capacity?
Yeah.
Well, I think it's, it's again, you know, it's not something we can give a timing on because it depends entirely on having the raw material-
Yeah
Available. And, you know, again, I come back to, I think it's important to say, you know, Suzano is an experienced operator who ramps up kind of new technologies and existing technologies all the time, and, and their perspective is that this is normal, but of course, it's not possible to give a specific- Yeah ... timeline for it.
I have a question which you might not be able to answer because I would require a release on that if you do give an answer.
Okay.
But I will ask it anyway. So, have there been any discussions about building new factories with any new partners? So are you, and I think this you can, on a high level, answer to that: Are you thinking about a model where you have more JVs than Suzano and ECCO?
Well, I think this is, of course, part of the evaluation, but, you know, that's one option. But of course, there are the other options, like I commented, is the technology licensing, that we don't have to be in a JV, in order to actually recognize the value of the Spinnova technology. So you know, this will be part of the review. But, you know, I think you've heard what we are also saying around the focus on what can deliver cash as well-
Yeah
Sooner, if that gives you some indication within what we've already said.
Yeah. Janne wanted to continue.
No, maybe just to make clear that what is clear for the audience as-
Yeah
As well, that if you are the tech provider, then you don't have to invest the CapEx for the production.
Yes.
But if we decide to be in the production, then you need a lot of money. And that is now something what we are looking, like, inside, and then we are coming with our decision for the next, like, steps how we go forward.
Yeah. Thank you. Dear audience, still have some minutes to ask questions. It's a unique opportunity. We have both the interim CEO and the chairman of the board on the stage, so I urge you to ask questions. In the meantime, you haven't announced any brand collaborations lately, and now the question is, are we losing customers?
No. I mean, we have kind of obviously a lot of ongoing discussions, and basically, as we comment in our market outlook, the demand is as strong as ever. What we need now is to get more volumes of fiber available in order for them to be able to basically start using it in their collections, testing it, et cetera. And that's all comes back to what we've been talking about.
Yeah
That we need the MFC to be working, so that we can-
Yeah
Produce that fiber at Woodspin.
Yeah. And sometimes it works that way, that it's a bit quiet and then-
Yes
There is a lot happening. We don't have that many questions here left, so this is a question that comes very often, and I do think we should now give an answer. When can we be more transparent and have a Finnish analyst on board? That is the question for small investors.
Well, I think the answer is that we, of course, understand and we want to be as transparent as possible, and I think this is also part of the reason to actually publicly announce this strategy review now, so that, you know, even if we are not yet coming with the outcome of it, you can get some sense of how things are moving. When it specifically comes to the analyst question, we can't commit to anything, but obviously it would be most logical to do that once the results of the strategy review are announced.
Okay, very good. Thank you. I have no questions here. You still have some time, but otherwise I will give myself the right to do the last question. So I invite Tuomas.
Thank you.
Yeah. This is always a nice situation when you have a question now coming or two. But, the same question goes to all of you, and I would like you to give one or two things that is on your mind and on your focus going forward, and I will first give that to Tuomas.
Thank you very much for the question and the opportunity. I mean, of course, for me, the most top-of-mind thing right now is just to get to know the business and to learn the ropes and to meet the people. But I very much look forward to working with the team on the strategy review and having the clarity and really being able to drive change through that and get those victories that will then really lead us to create that shareholder value that we're all here to do.
Very good, thank you. Ben?
Yeah, I'm really excited to continue these, this kind of looking more into this opportunity for technology sales and what we can do, you know-
Yeah
With that, and I think then number two is the opportunity in circularity. I mean, it's clear that even if the volumes are not yet there of the raw material, that that's the way the world is going, and it's very good that Spinnova is taking that leadership position as well.
Yes. Janne?
Yeah, I have to say that, for me, it is... I'm so excited that now when we have a, I think, the winning combination for the leadership team with Tuomas and Ben. Of course, we have been working with Ben, like, couple of years now, very smoothly. I think we have a very good, like, work ways. We have discussed quite a lot, even that the process went quite, let's say, quickly at the end with Tuomas. But I have seen already you guys, how you are playing together, how you are sharing the ideas. So I'm putting all in for you, as we all hope that we will see, like, a successful results in the very short term even.
Yeah.
Then the other topic is what Ben already raised, that actually this strategy review process is something what you have to do very carefully.
Yes.
Again, coming back that why we are looking that at the moment. Because we have a strong feeling that the Spinnova concept is actually something we have seen already, that it is scalable.
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
And now we are looking to other opportunities, even though, of course, the Woodspin one is the most important at the moment. But there, you have to be a little bit patient because you have to remember that that was unique. It was made first time globally. It was started in May, when we handed over the Woodspin, and at the same time, Suzano is developing the MFC process-
Mm
Which is also unique.
Mm.
This is my, my favorite. I have said that before, that I believe that with this kind of, like, network, with the group of people, with all the competence what we have, I'm sure that we are able to do it.
Yeah.
If we are not, then I don't know that who is able to do it?
I think this is a good way to end this webcast. We have no pending questions, and what can we say? If you have questions, as I said before, contact IR. You can call me, or you can put an email to me, and I think we just say thank you to everybody and wish you a good evening and a good day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.