Today, everyone, and welcome to Ülker's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call on the 8th of November, 2024. Please note that today's conference call is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions and answers. I will now like to turn over to Ms. Beste Taşar, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you, Mike. Hello, everybody. This is Beste from Ülker Bisküvi, Investor Relations. Welcome to Ülker Bisküvi's third quarter 2024 operational and financial earnings webcast. Here with me in the room are CEO Mete Buyurgan and CFO Fulya Hanım. Now I leave the floor to our CEO Mete Bey for the opening remarks and evaluation. Mete Bey, please go ahead.
Thank you, Beste. Hi, everybody. Welcome to our investor meeting. Let me start with the quarterly update first. It was a, as you can see, that it was a very tough quarter, as expected. You may remember from the prior investor meeting, I was telling the same that it's going to be a tough quarter. But we factored it in our AOP, in our budget as well.
So we are in line with our budget targets and AOP accordingly. If we are going to come up specifically quarterly updates, market share position of Ülker is strengthening almost in every market, but especially in Turkey, in chocolate category, and some other cake category as well. We keep growing. In other markets, we are keeping our strong position in terms of market share almost in every operating market. In terms of NPD and innovation, we keep growing.
Actually, this is one of the most important pillars of our growth in the last, as you may remember, in the last four or five years. Actually, it is almost our biggest, strongest muscle. And we keep growing through our innovation capabilities. We are catching the trends. You may know that there is a crazy trend of Dubai chocolate in the market, in many markets, not only in Turkey, but also in Middle East and North Africa, and even in some European markets.
We catch the trend, and we are getting the full benefit of this trend as the market leaders of the markets, respective markets of Ülker. Rising living costs and increased raw material expenses impacted our industry and also other industries as well. Despite the challenging environment, we effectively navigate ourselves around this challenge by focusing on basically our strengths and our agile decision process and capabilities.
So it's giving us a huge opportunity to fix the problems or to handle the problems ahead of us. In terms of sustainability updates, we are in a very good shape in sustainability efforts. As you may remember, in late June of this year, we had a bond raise based on which is linked with sustainability efforts for the first time.
And as of now, we are working with agroforestry pilot projects, last seed projects, but also we are working on carbonization as well, which is going to be a critical action for us for the next coming years for foreign trade of Ülker. In terms of operational excellence, we are implementing operational excellence program in the last 10 years. And right now, we are getting the full benefit of that.
I think we are one of the best. We are one of the lowest G&A company, actually, in our industry. So that we are having a very lean organization through our operational excellence efforts. But also in supply chain part, we keep increasing our capacities on top of the CAPEX investments through operational excellence program.
For example, only for chocolate business, through operational program, we gain another 4,000 tons of capacity without any CAPEX through automation and the operational excellence program. IoT is another top priority for us. Right now, in every line of Turkish factories, we are implementing. We are getting the real-time data through IoT systems. Right now, we are working on the second stage, how we are going to get the benefit of IoT so the machines will be talking to each other and making some decisions.
It's going to be a great program again in the next coming three years. In terms of lost time excellence rate, which is very important for us in terms of our employees' health and so on, we are having our great progress. Right now, we are in the lowest rate for years as we can. If you look at the markets, Ülker markets, as you can see that Turkey is doing well, keep doing well in terms of growth, top line and bottom line growth.
Turkey export has been deteriorated basically because of the FX rates of Turkish lira, high value of Turkish lira versus other FX rates. This is a little bit diluting the progress. North Africa, you may remember again last year, there was a very sharp inflation increase as in Turkey in Egypt.
But today, and last year, we were struggling in Egypt market in terms of growing fast. But this year, we recovered all the problems. But also, we are having a very high rate of growth in Egypt and North Africa markets. In Central Asia, there is a program by the government like Turkey in order to reduce the inflation rate. And right now, the consumption in the market, especially in our stronghold market in Kazakhstan, the demand is declining.
So we are a little bit struggling with the slowing demand in the market. But in the last one month and in the last two months, we started to recover again our profitability due to demand increase. But I would like to mention that we never ever lose any market share in the market.
So after almost more than seven years, very high rate of growth, right now, we are a bit slowing down in Central Asia basically because of Kazakhstan. But I think we are going to recover in this quarter and the first quarter of next year because the consumption has started to increase again. In Middle East, we are having almost 2% revenue growth while 3.3% with the degrowth.
The basic problem is over there, as you are all aware, the war between Israel and Iran and Palestine, actually. It is impacting the entire region. So the trade is a little bit struggling in terms of foreign trade, especially foreign trade part. Export-import issues are struggling. So this is basically related with the war in the region. But also Central Asia as well.
Russia and Ukraine war is also impacting the high pace of growth rate as we were facing with the previous years. But right now, I think we are focusing on more in Middle East and following up the developments, following up the news very closely. So we are trying to find out some alternative ways. But in Saudi Arabia, in United Arab Emirates, there are the stronghold markets.
We keep growing all those markets as well in a healthy way. As a geographic revenue, domestic sales have been reached to 71% and international sales to 29%. This is basically the enormous massive effort and the growth of Turkey domestic business, which was growing very fast in the last two and a half years. So this is the impact of strong Turkey business. If we look at the revenue by division, 71% is coming from Turkey. Middle East is 11%.
North Africa is 3%. Central Asia is 3%. And exports constitute 12% of our overall sales, so TRY 58 billion as of year-to-date sales of 2024. Looking for the global market shares in Turkey, as I mentioned, we keep growing. We are protecting our market leadership position as a very strong leader in snacking market.
But I would like to mention that we have reached to highest-ever market share in chocolate category, which is a good sign and which is showing us to have still we are having a great room to grow in chocolate category despite the worldwide cocoa prices. In Middle East, we keep our, again, leadership position in biscuit. North Africa, again, we keep our strong market leadership. And in Central Asia, we keep our number second position in chocolate market, especially in Kazakhstan.
As I mentioned, we are not sacrificing from our market share positions in the competition. Another strong muscle of Ülker is, as I mentioned, the new product launches, innovation. As you see that domestic sales, almost 13% of our growth or our sales is coming from NPDs, innovation, which is already a great benchmark for even the global benchmarks versus global benchmarks. International, the ratio of innovation in the top line is 7%, while it is overall 11% in the total overall incomes. Fulya, I think you will go ahead with the financials.
Mete Bey, thank you. So in an environment of very challenging quarters with macroeconomic difficulties and increased weakness in consumer purchasing power, we remain strong and focused on what we can do best and how we can create value for our consumers, customers, employees, and all the stakeholders we serve.
When we take a look at Q3 numbers, there is a slight decrease in volume by 3% versus prior year, mainly due to decrease in consumer purchasing power, especially in domestic segment of the business. Total revenue, despite all these challenges, we were able to increase our revenue by 2%, reaching to TRY 18.2 billion, and gross profit, which is to TRY 4.9 billion. And we ended up with 27.1% and 9% decrease versus prior year.
Low FX that impacted our export sales value and high raw material prices, mainly driven by cocoa, impacted our gross profit margin, and we ended up at 27.1% in Q3. EBITDA reached to 15.9%, approximately 4%-5% lower than what we delivered last year in Q3 2023. With all these drivers taken into consideration, we ended up with at this EBITDA margin number. Net income ended up with TRY 470 million.
We were able to come up with a positive net income lower than versus prior year quarter. Couple of reasons for that is definitely the impact of the lower operating profit that impacted net income. Another reason is higher FX losses due to FX increase versus quarter two, mainly driven by euro versus a higher euro increase than US dollar. That is driven by our open position in our P&L.
There has been a significantly lower gain related to inflation numbers versus prior year. Versus prior year, the inflation number was around 25%, whereas this quarter is around 8%. It impacted our monetary gain and loss on our Q3 numbers, and we ended up with a much lower monetary gain due to the inflation rate decreases versus two quarters.
When we take a look on the snacking sales volume and sales value, you see that sales volume was down by 2.7% versus prior year, and revenue was up 1.7%. And you can see the split among segments. However, I'd like to mention that we were able to increase our volume and our value versus quarter two when we take the sector segment, snacking sector growth into consideration. We were able to increase our sales volume and sales value higher than our snacking sector growth versus quarter two.
When we take a look at the domestic and international breakdown in terms of revenue, gross profit, and EBITDA, you can see that in domestic market, our revenue increased by 4%, gross profit decreased by 7%, and EBITDA margin reaching to 16.1% and decreasing 14% versus prior year. And international markets where we are hit, in fact, our volume increased versus prior quarter. However, due to the lower FX impact, we were hit by revenue and ended up by 3% decline versus prior quarter.
Gross profit declined by 13% and EBITDA 25%, much lower than our domestic business. However, this quarter was extremely challenging, but on a year-to-date basis, our numbers look quite good. So volume increases by 5%, EBITDA margin reaching to 30%, 0.5% higher than what we delivered last year in the first nine months of the year.
EBITDA margin reaching to 18.7%, which is very close to what we think that we are going to end up the year on a full year basis. Net income at 4.4% and net debt to EBITDA below 1.5x. This is a calculation from the face of the balance sheet for covenant purposes. Hedging policies to have 60%-80% range hedges. That's our policy, as I have also shared.
Definitely reaching to 80% is preferred. However, in an environment where Turkish lira keeps appreciating against other foreign currencies, I think 68% is quite healthy in terms of having a very healthy balance sheet. Depending on the conditions, we keep assessing everything very closely. Depending on the changes, we'll continue to execute more and more hedges.
Thank you for that. Just to follow up, so the Turkish Lira is appreciating in real terms. I think this is the best time to increase the hedging. So I would suggest that if you're going to increase it, it should be now when the currency is doing well or is relatively stable.
Okay. No, thank you. Thank you for your recommendation. We are assessing from all perspectives, definitely. Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you very much. Next question comes from Mr. Gustavo Campos from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. Firstly, could you please provide a rough breakdown of your sales volumes, if possible? Just year-to-date, I'm trying to understand what percentage of it was international, what percentage of it was domestic. It would be very helpful to understand, if possible, please.
Yeah, sure. So as we have shared in terms of total volume, so our international business makes up around 20%-30% of our total sales. And yeah, 27% of our total sales is international business, and the remaining is domestic business. When we take a look at in Q3 numbers, our domestic business shrink by around 6%, whereas our international business grew by around 8%-9%. So that's the breakdown.
I mean, if you need any further breakdown, we can definitely get back to you. But overall, that's the breakdown: 27% international business share. And I have also shared the Q3 growth and decline numbers for domestic and international businesses.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you. So just to confirm, 37% of total volumes were international, and that's for year-to-date, and the rest is domestic.
27%.
Oh, 27. Okay.
Year-to-date. So year-to-date, 27%.
All right. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. So moving on, I was very curious to understand better your receivables from related parties. I believe we've seen a material outflow in this quarter. I'm trying to understand what's driving these outflows, if you expect any reversal, and how do you see the trajectory of your receivables days? Is this kind of peak, and then you may see some improvement and some decline in the coming quarters? How should we approach it? That's my second question. Thank you.
Sure. So, increase in trade receivables, yes, it impacted cash flow. Turnover days is rising from 68 to 74. However, this impact we expect it to be seasonal and temporary. The cash conversion cycle is expected to be normalized in Q4 2024. We take all the actions to be implemented to make sure that to accelerate receivables collection and optimize payables management.
And another comment is the relative increase is mainly driven by the increase in receivables from our distribution companies. The increase is, as I have shared, seasonal and temporary, and already some of the receivables have already been collected after the Q3 close. There is no change or extension in our sales or collection terms. So we expect it to be normalized in Q4.
Okay. Thank you. So just to confirm, you expect some normalization and reversal in these receivables in the fourth quarter, right, as this is something seasonal?
Correct.
Okay. Okay. Thank you. And then I guess my last question here, or second to last question, is your EBITDA margin. So dropped to 16% attributed to increases in raw material prices, which you gave some detail on cocoa, and I guess inflationary pressures in Turkey as well. Is 16% more of a realistic approach on how we should see EBITDA margins moving forward, or do you expect them to deteriorate or potentially recover into next year? Yeah.
I think you're asking for next year, right, versus next year? This year versus next year?
Yeah. So we've seen a drop to 16%. Do you expect a recovery, or should we see 16% as kind of the new normal given these cost pressures?
Yeah, yeah. Actually, we are confident on that because we keep getting our pricing actions, actually. But also, we are running a saving program as well on all commodities and some re-engineering from product and so on. So we are confident on that to cover the cost increase versus our actions. So I think we are going to be in line with we are confident on next coming year's numbers, actually.
All right. Okay. Thank you. And then.
In fact, excuse me, in fact, we are targeting more EBITDA, actually, versus this quarter. We are aiming 18% minimum for next year, actually. I mean, this quarter numbers are quite low. We know that. But as I mentioned several times, it was on purpose not to lose more and more volume. So right now, we got the actions, and we are not going to sacrifice from minimum 18% EBITDA level.
Okay. Perfect. No, that's a very helpful caller. I appreciate it. And lastly, I guess, could you please remind me what your net leverage target range is at the moment, looking at the next few quarters?
So we are at 1.33 right now. So we do not share explicitly a net EBITDA target. However, what I can tell you is that we want to sustain a very healthy Net EBITDA ratio. So we have to have a very strong balance sheet, and it is one of our capital strategy priorities, one of the top three pillars of our capital strategy. So having a very healthy, sustaining a healthy net EBITDA margin is a high priority. So next year, that's.
No, no. That makes sense. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you very much. Next question comes from Erica Iaia from MetLife Investment Management. Please go ahead, ma'am. Your line is open.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking my questions. I got three, actually. The first one is on exports. I can see, basically, that within international, they are really a big part of, if I'm correct, right, of revenue, basically. And actually, as part of the group, they are 12%. Now, they've declined. Revenues from Turkey exports 12%. The EBITDA declined 28%.
And I wonder whether this is due to the fact that costs are domestic and therefore subject to inflation. And then when you generate revenues abroad that are pegged to hard currencies, then when you translate them in Turkey, obviously, revenues didn't expand as much as costs. Or do you see a general slowdown in consumer purchasing power? And if so, in which countries?
Thank you for the question. Of course, there are slowdowns in many export markets in Europe, in the U.S. as well, in our category. So we keep having exports in those countries. But also, MENA, as I mentioned again several times, because of the war, there is a consumption decline, slowdown, at least, in those markets. So this is a fact for us.
Second, why the EBITDA margin is declining more than the other business units? Because in some of the Europe countries, and in the U.S. especially, we are having some yearly agreements with big retailers. And as you know, cocoa prices are increasing. So we are not able to change the prices on time because of the contract. Right now, at the year-end, we are having the right to fix, change our prices.
So it's going to help us to gain our margins again based on the new cocoa prices. So this is one of the factors. Second, in some of the export markets, again, our international competitors, which I don't want to mention their names, but they are very aggressive on cocoa, on chocolate prices. Even they are not increasing the prices, but also they're decreasing the prices, actually, in order to gain market share.
So we don't let them in order to keep our market share. So we are having a high competition with them in some of the few export markets. So it is also deteriorating or diluting the margins for this quarter. I think it's going to be the same process for the end of the year.
But at the end of the year, at the beginning of the new year, the prices will increase for sure, at least for our side, based on the contract. But we are expecting our competitors, international chocolate competitors, will increase their prices as well.
Thank you. But how can you be so confident that that strategy will work? You mentioned that there are competitive pressures and your competitors are decreasing prices. So aren't you worried that higher prices may affect volumes?
Of course, it will be impacted. It may impact the volumes. But as you know, one of our biggest strengths is our diversified portfolio. So we are not having only chocolate products. We are a very big, strong sweet biscuit company, savory cracker company, cake company. So we are very strong on managing category-wise our portfolio.
So even though we are going to have some declining cocoa chocolate products, we are going to recover it from the other categories as well because this is what we did in the past years, actually, in all the crises. So there is a shift among our categories, not only among our categories, but also from dessert category, from other pâtisserie products, from pâtisseries. There is a big shift from them to our snacking products, which is also making us more confident.
But last but not least, mixed channel management is also a tool for us. And lastly, most important part, NPD, as we are having a strongest muscle, as you may see in the presentation, almost 13% of our sales is coming from NPDs, innovations, new product developments. We are having very strong plans next year in terms of innovation as we had in this year as well. So that's why we are confident based on our experiences, actually.
Understood. Thank you. And then one other question. What do you see in Turkey? I think you mentioned during the presentation that you can see a deterioration in the consumer backdrop. Yeah. So far, it has actually held quite well. But can you see this deterioration starting to materialize next year even more?
Actually, the biggest priority, not for the government only, but also for all the companies, the biggest priority, top priority, is to really decline the inflation rates. So the only thing is, based on regarding the inflation, interest rates are so high. So consumers are not eligible to get credits, actually, from the banks at the moment, so individual credits for consumption.
So this is creating an impact. But we are one of the most luckiest categories, actually, versus other durable goods, automotive, textiles, fashion categories. I don't think that it's going to be worse than this quarter. But of course, it's going to be a tough next half year is going to be tough for sure. But as I mentioned, we are having lots of precautions. We are having lots of strategies in order to deal with the slowdown in the market.
But as well, I would like to say, in October, we were having a very strong month. And also, we had a very good start for November as well. And for the Christmas, New Year approaching, for December, I think we will be doing good, actually, as well.
Thank you. Then I have a final question on the leverage. I mean, the 1.33 times. I'm a bit puzzled about this level because I was expecting it higher, given that this level was, if I remember correctly, there was the same level last quarter, whilst this quarter, EBITDA declined 20%. So I just wonder how it's possible that there is the same leverage that was highlighted last quarter.
In prior quarter, our leverage was 1.19, and this quarter, we ended up at 1.33, so as I have shared, we do not disclose any number in terms of net EBITDA, but we will continue to sustain our net EBITDA priority, so I think by year-end, we will again have a very strong net EBITDA number.
All right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, my mistake. Yes, it went up a little bit. All right. That's all from me. Thank you very much.
Slightly. Yes. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Mehmet Yusufoglu from BNP Paribas Asset Management. Please go ahead, sir.
Hello. Could you hear me well?
Yes, please go ahead.
Yeah. Okay. First of all, thanks for the presentation. My question would be about the leverage levels. Do we have a plan to deleverage in the next quarter? Will we see a nominal decrease in the net debt of Ülker? And my second question is about the FX losses on the income statement, which have increased substantially compared to last year, but we haven't seen any major moves in the currency. So what's the reason behind this negative result on the FX losses? That's all for me.
Yeah. Thank you for your two questions. I think in terms of leverage, I have already answered it, but let me summarize it again. So we ended up at 1.33. It was 1.19 in the prior quarter. And in the first quarter, it was around 1.5-ish. So I can assure you that we will end up with a very healthy Net Debt/EBITDA number this year as well.
So it's one of our high priorities in order to have a very strong balance sheet. And we need to sustain our strong balance sheet position this year and next year and over the coming years as well. Related to FX losses, we have a 68% closed position, but we already have an open position as well. Versus quarter two, there is an increase in Euro by 8%, around 8%, whereas this increase in terms of U.S. dollar is around 4%.
When we take a look at our open position in terms of euros and U.S. dollar, and having euros slightly higher than U.S. dollar, we were hit by an 8% increase in FX euro rate, which created these FX losses mainly versus quarter two.
So it's performing better in this quarter. That loss will be lower. Could we say that for the next quarter?
It depends on the FX rate, and it depends on our open position. So we will definitely try to continue to reduce our open position. But again, in terms of if there will be not a huge fluctuation in terms of FX rates in Q4, as of today, there is no big change. We are on 8th of November, no big change versus quarter three.
No big change.
Yeah. And if by the end of Q4, there will be no big change, this loss will be minimum or close to zero. And if there will be a decrease, it will be an increase. But anyway, I mean, you do the math and the calculation.
Okay. Thank you. Thanks for your help.
Thank you. No problem.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Next question comes from Ansar Karuch Khan from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Merhaba Mehmet Bey, thank you very much for the presentation. I just want to clarify the international margins. I know there have been many questions about this so far, but I think there is some sort of misunderstanding here. I mean, is this weak margins because of the mix change as per country? Because when I look at your presentation based on country EBITDA, I can't see significant changes. I mean, the biggest change seems to be in Central Asia, but that makes up only 3% of your EBITDA. So can we assume that Turkish exports are causing these weak margins in the international markets?
Ansar, thank you for the question. Of course, yes. Turkish valuation is deteriorating the competitive edge of Turkey as a country. But our strategy, we are not an export company, actually, export-based company. What we are doing is brand building. We are having our own facilities, our own factories. So we are acting like local players in every respective market.
So as you may see, our export ratio is a very little proportion of our overall sales. So the impact to our sales, to our profitability, is limited. But of course, inflation and FX rates, weak correlation, cause margin dilution, which most of the companies in Turkey are suffering because inflation is high, FX rate is very there is no increase in FX rates. So of course, it is deteriorating the competitive edge of the companies. But it's going to be fixed within the next coming months, I am sure.
But when we are going to decrease the inflation. So I think we are not going to have any problem with that. But as I mentioned again, we are not an export-based company. We are a brand-building company. And also, as I mentioned previously, what we had is chocolate products. Because of the cocoa increase, we are with some of the global retailers.
We are having some agreements for the end of the year, till the end of this year. So we couldn't increase the prices on some of the retailers in the export markets, which is going to give us an opportunity to increase the prices in January. So we are going to fix our profitability accordingly.
So this is not a structurally low margin, right? I mean, what would be the normalized margin in the international markets because this 15%-16% margin is the lowest of the 10 years?
Yeah. Actually, it should be like 14%-16% EBITDA margins, as you mentioned. It's kind of a structural thing because, as I mentioned, this is a weak correlation between inflation versus FX. But as I mentioned, once the inflation ratio is going to decrease like 20%-25%, I think there won't be any problem in terms of margins for the export items.
Okay. Thank you very much. And can I please make a clarification about your previous insight on the prices? Are you now fully reflecting the cost contract price increases to your selling prices? I mean, or do you need further price increases to stabilize your margins in Turkey?
We have already successfully implemented our price increases till this quarter. And this quarter, as I mentioned, we were on purpose a bit late in order to support the demand. But we did it. So we are in line with our budget targets right now. We are not late. So we are able to increase our prices. Only few countries in our portfolio, in our operational markets. As I mentioned again, some of our international competitors are having very aggressive prices on chocolate. So in order to keep competing with them, we didn't increase the prices on purpose again.
But when you say we are in line with budget, do you mean that you are in line with your cost contract? Because you already signed the contract, so you have the cost increase already for the next one year.
I mean, the internal budget, our AOP, Annual Operating Plan.
Okay. Thank you very much.
We are in line with our internal budget, actually, what we affected in the beginning of the year.
And this reflects your cost contracts, right? I mean, because already you secured 90% of cocoa palm oil. So you know your cost in currency perspective.
In terms of cost structure, we have slight increase versus our internal budget, which we prepared in the beginning of the year, especially because of the cost.
So you need to do further price increase then?
Yeah. We need to have some further increase. We did it. Most of them, we did it. We need to have a slight price increase in some of the products only, not only full portfolio, only for few product categories or SKUs, actually.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. Final couple of questions. One text and then one follow-up from Udeh from Barings, so the text question is from Mr. Mehmet Hepkan, individual investor. There was a relatively high euro to USD parity in the third quarter. How does it affect margins? If so, to what extent?
It was high, but it is still lower than the inflation increase. So it does not impact our margins significantly.
Okay. Thank you very much. Our final question is from a follow-up question from Ms. Udeh Anobali from Barings. Please go ahead, ma'am. Your line is open.
Thank you. Could you sort of differentiate just talk about the price increases in the local markets versus the international markets? From what I understand, in the local markets, you've done some price increases, and you still need to do more. Could you quantify the percentage of price increase there? And then international, what is the strategy there? Thank you.
Thank you for the question. Our cost structure is always our pricing strategy, is always starting from the consumer price. So we are always looking for the competitive edge because market share is quite an important aspect for us. But also, we are having great, very agile cost structure tools, actually. So we are trying to have a bridge in terms of strategy of pricing.
We keep following up both items, actually, for competitive prices and also how we are going to have affordable product prices for the consumers and also our cost structure as well. But regarding your question, price increase is not the only tool for us because, as I mentioned, we are having lots of categories, diversified categories. So channel mix, product mix is another important strategic tool for us to manage our profitability.
You were talking about price increases, I think, at the beginning of next year, that there's a segment that you were not able to increase prices because you were in contract. Is this for the international business, or which parts of the business is it?
This is for international business, for export businesses, basically export, not an international level. This is because basically from Europe and U.S. markets, some retailers. But as I mentioned, we are going to make the price increases at the first day of the next year, actually. This is based on the contract.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much. This is all we have time for today. I'll be passing the line back to the ULKR management and IR team for the concluding remarks.
Dear all, thank you for joining our call.