Good morning from Asker, Norway. Welcome to our quarterly results presentation. My name is Georgiana Radulescu. I'm head of investor relations. With me today, I have Tove Andersen, CEO, and Eva Sagemo, CFO, who will take you through the results. You will have the opportunity to ask questions by using the Q&A tool, which is embedded in the webcast. We kindly ask you to pose your questions in good time, ideally during the presentation, because there is a lag between the sending and the webcast, so in that way, we make sure we receive them in time. With those being said, I will give the word to Tove.
Thank you, Georgiana, welcome all to our fourth quarter 2022 presentation. Today, we present the 10th consecutive quarter with organic top-line growth and the third consecutive quarter with all-time high revenues. Our revenues ended on NOK 3.477 million. That is up 7% currency-adjusted versus 2021. We actually had record-high revenues in all divisions this quarter. Collection ended up on 6%, recycling 4%, and food up 9%. Our gross margin for the quarter was 42.4%. That is 1.2% below same quarter 2021, it shows also a positive trend versus third quarter this year, it's up 1.2 percentage point versus third quarter this year.
As we have previously communicated, we have had the pressure on our gross margins during 2022 due to delays in price increases versus cost increases. On the operating expenses, we ended on NOK 979 million up from NOK 794 million same quarter 2021. At Capital Markets Day last year, we presented the updated strategy where we showed that we have ambitious targets both on increasing revenue and improving our profitability, and we are investing in our business and operations in order to meet these targets. This gave an EBITDA of NOK 496 million down from NOK 535 million last year. Cash flow from operation ended up on NOK 350 million.
The main reasons behind the reduced cash flow in the quarter for this year versus last year is linked to working capital. We had a very high activity level in the quarter, and also especially at the end of fourth quarter, and that is the main reason for increases then in accounts payable and accounts receivable. Our order intake in the quarter was NOK 1.5 billion combined for food and recycling. This is up 17% versus the same quarter in 2021. Especially good performance in recycling in the quarter, there's also some positive currency impacts in there.
This gave us then a healthy order backlog end of last year of a bit more than NOK 2 billion. This is then up 17% of where we started 2022 and position us very well for further growth in 2023. As previously commented upon, cost inflation has continued to be a pressure point, especially in collection, where we have communicated previously that due to framework agreements, there is a timeline and will take some time before we are back at normalized levels. However, this has continued focus from the organization, and in addition to price increases, we have costs reduction initiatives running in all three divisions. On dividend, the board proposes an ordinary dividend of NOK 1.8 per share.
That is an up in 9% versus the ordinary dividend that we gave out in 2021. It's in line with our dividend policy. Let's move over to business updates. We'll start with the collection. As I already mentioned, collection had an all-time high quarterly revenues in the quarter of almost NOK 1.7 billion. The key contributors to that was increased sales into Romania and the Netherlands. In Romania, the retailers are preparing for deposit scheme that will go live in November 2023. As previously communicated, second half of 2022, we had sales of approximately NOK 150 million.
In the Netherlands, the retailers are preparing for the can deposit extension which from the law was then approved from 1st of January this year, but that we expect to be operationally in April this year. We had approximately NOK 100 million in sales Q4 for the Netherlands. Another highlight in the quarter was that we signed a letter of intent with the MOL Group who has been appointed the waste concessioner in Hungary for their upcoming deposit scheme in Hungary. That will take effect from beginning 2024 and our letter intent covers then supply of approximately 2,000-2,500 machines into Hungary.
The pictures you see here are pictures of what we will launch at the EuroShop, which will start this weekend and take place this weekend and next week. EuroShop is a big international retail trade fair that takes place in Berlin. What we'll showcase there is really future versions of some of our machines. I think you can see from the pictures here that these looks quite different from the typical reverse vending machines we have had in the past, and I'm very excited to see the reaction of what we're launching there. Some of the things that we're launching lower left here, you will see the new version of our multi-feed machine.
Upper right, you will see a new backroom solution where we are utilizing the height of the space of the refillers to save floor space. We will also there showcase new digital applications and service concepts. Innovation is key for us. It is key for delivering on the growth, but also to maintain market share and to maintain the margin level. We have really stepped up in this area the last period. On the right-hand side, you will see the updated list on countries that have a firm decision on going ahead with a deposit return scheme. There are not any big updates on that versus previous quarters, I will not go through it in detail. If you look at all the ones except Austria on this list will go live then either 2023 or early 2024.
Let's move into Recycling. Recycling had a very good quarter in Q4 2022 with all-time high revenue and all-time high order intake. As shown on the graph here, the order intake were up 23% versus last year. We have seen good demand from all regions and all segments that we are operating in. If you look at the whole year of 2022, it has been a really good year for our Recycling division. The division has delivered a growth of 26% in 2022, they have delivered a solid order backlog of NOK 965 million, which is up 37% compared to where we ended last year. I'm very happy with the performance of the Recycling divisions. These things doesn't happen by itself. It takes a lot of effort to actually grow at these paces.
We do believe going forward that we'll go back to a bit more normalized demand levels. We see that the commodity prices have been reduced somewhat, and also as illustrated here with the PET prices going down. However, it's good to see still a significant margin on recycled PET versus virgin PET. However, this doesn't change the underlying drivers. The underlying drivers in the Recycling division, it is increased demand for recycled content due to increased focus on sustainability, and it is legislative pressure, and that will continue to drive the demand going forward in this segment. Over to the Food business. Food delivered a strong quarter, Q4 2022, with a growth of 9% currency adjusted and also increased margins, mainly due to volume, product, and customer mix.
As shown here, our order take in the quarter was up 14% compared to Q4 2021. We had a good order performance in processed foods. Processed food was especially good in the quarter. While on fresh food, the order intake was below last quarter same year, mainly due to bad harvest of certain categories, certain fresh food categories. Overall, the market sentiment in food is good for processed food, we do see some sign of weaknesses for the fresh food segment. As we are presenting Q4, it's a good time to reflect a bit on 2022, I wanted to give you some highlights on the progress that we have made in the transformation of our food business, focusing on portfolio, market, and expertise.
On the portfolio side, as many of you know, our Food business is the result of four major acquisitions, and with four major acquisitions you also then acquire a legacy portfolio. What we have focused on in 2022 is really to consolidate that portfolio, streamline it, and also align our innovation roadmaps and improve our life cycle management. This is progressing well, but these products have typically a life expectancy of more than 10 years, so this is a work that, to be fully implemented will take some time.
Another thing we have done on the portfolio is to do co-development of integrated solutions, and one example of that is our cooperation with Marel, where we have launched Spectra, which is for the poultry segment, in-line inspections of poultry that can then be sold as a part of the Marel solution for that segment. On the market side, part of our strategy is to grow in certain regions by leveraging then competence from other regions, which has been progressing in 2022.
Last quarter we talked about ICOEL, which is the partner and one of the partners that we have chosen to meet demand for integrated solutions by selected and certain customer segments. Another thing we are doing, where we are in the middle of doing it now, is that we're changing our go-to-market approach in fresh food for Europe and Latin America. What we are doing there is that we're changing from going through a distributor to ourself go direct to customers, both for sales and service. We believe that is an significant or an important enabler for drive further growth. On the expertise side, we have done many different things in 2022, but to mention a couple of things. Category management is key in food.
We have gone from being a more traditional sales force focusing on equipment to really be a customer-centric sales force. In Food, that means that you focus on the categories that you are applying into. We have strengthened our category management and competence, but also we have worked on streamlining our customer-centric back office business processes. Again, we come from four different companies, and we have been working now on streamlining those to increase revenue, increase the sales, increase customer satisfaction, but also increase service. One concrete thing we have done there is just before Christmas, we launched then our new CRM system, customer relation management system, in the Food division. Overall, we are seeing good progress in the transformation of Food in 2022, and we are then progressing in line with our strategy plan.
As we presented at the Capital Markets Day, our strategy is not only about accelerating growth in core, but it's also about developing adjacent opportunities. Also I want to say a few words around adjacent opportunities. First I wanted to recap what is this really about. Developing adjacent opportunities is about taking our 50 years of experience, the technology knowhow we have, the relationships we have in the value chain, to develop new significant business opportunities that can become a fourth or fifth leg of Tomra. They all need to be right for scaling, it's not about R&D, it's really about building businesses, they all need to be under the heading of leading the resource revolution. Today, we have three of these initiatives running.
We have one on closing the loop on textiles, we have one on developing reuse concepts for takeaway, we have one which is the plastic feedstock initiative. On the plastic feedstock initiative, we then launched, or approved, and communicated a new significant investment into that initiative. What we communicated is that we will build an advanced sorting plant to then enable closing the loop on plastic. What does this practically mean? It means that we will buy mixed plastic fractions from materials recovery facilities. This is household waste, mixed plastic, dirty plastic. We will apply high technology, best-in-class sorting and washing to really turn it into 10 high quality polymers that we will sell to the recyclers. The investment will be approximately NOK 50 million-60 million.
It should be operational by 2024 to 2025, located in Germany, with a capacity of 80,000 tons. The question might be then, why is TOMRA doing this? The reason why we are doing this, it is because there is a significant business opportunity here where we have the right to win. If you look at today, the future demand for plastic, especially kind of hard-to-get plastic that is not being recycled today, if you look at the legislation, there is a significant gap in the market. The demand is there. If you look at what is currently happening with plastic, you have 24 million tons of plastic going into incineration, 14 million tons going on landfill in Europe.
You have the raw material, but to actually convert that raw material to a high value of plastic that can be recycled, the key thing to unlock that is the sorting capability, and that is what TOMRA is good at. We believe that this represents a good business opportunity for TOMRA, where we, with our competence and knowledge, can really unlock a new circular loop within plastics recycling. We are very excited about this investment. With that, I will then hand over to Eva, who will present the financials and outlook.
Thank you for that, Tove. Starting with the group P&L for the quarter, as Tove said, we have all-time high revenues, up 7% currency adjusted, compared to same quarter last year. All business divisions delivered a strong Q4 top line, collection up 6%, recycling up 4%, and food strong, up 9% currency adjusted for the quarter. Gross margins ended at 42%, which is 1.2 percentage point down compared to same quarter last year. As Tove mentioned, inflation is still impacting the margin negative, but also this quarter, we have had positive impact coming from volume and mix, especially then in food. Looking at the gross margin, we have no major impact coming from currency less than 0.5 percentage point for the group in the quarter.
OpEx, operating expenses, is up 18% currency adjusted for the quarter. We are investing, as Tove mentioned in the start, in business growth in recycling, but also ramping up in collection for new market, and then the business transformation project, in food. The OpEx run rate over revenue is at 28% for the quarter. EBITDA ended at NOK 496 million, which leaves EBITDA percentage at 14% for the quarter. Quickly on the full year, we are up 8% currency adjusted ending at NOK 12.188 billion for the year. Then with EBITDA at NOK 1,625 million, leaving EBITDA margin at 13.3%.
Collection, we had the record high revenues in the quarter up 6% with also high comparables from last year. The Nordic countries continued to perform good. We had stable existing markets in Europe, but we had revenues from Armenia at approximately NOK 150 million for the second half of the year. In the Netherlands with ramping up for the can implementation, we had approximately NOK 100 million coming from that country in the quarter. Looking at the margin, gross contribution margin, we were at 37%, which is 2.5 percentage points down compared to same quarter last year.
Most of that is a result of the lagging price increases due to these long-term framework agreements in collection. The rest is coming from unfavorable mix this quarter. In collection, we have a very limited currency impact on the gross margin. Operating expenses is up 8% currency adjusted. Looking at the full year, we are up 6% on OpEx compared to an increase in revenues of 4% for the full year. We are continuing to investing in ramp up in new markets, which explains the extra increase in the operating expenses for the year. EBITDA ended at NOK 246 million, which gives us an EBITDA at 15%.
Looking at the recycling, all-time high revenue also here, up 4% currency adjusted on also high comparables from same quarter last year. This quarter, Americas were especially strong, up 54% compared to same quarter last year. Gross contribution margin at 51%, which is down three percentage points compared to same quarter last year, mainly explained by inflation, but also some related to mix effect. Operating expenses is up 24% this quarter compared to same quarter last year. Looking at the full year, we ended at 20% increase in OpEx with a revenue growth of 26%. OpEx is growing in line or less as revenue growth. EBITDA at 141 million NOK, with an EBITDA margin of 21%.
Looking at the order side, the order intake, we had an order intake growth of 23% for the quarter compared to same quarter last year. Currency adjusted, we were up 18%. That leaves us a strong order backlog, up 37% year-over-year, currency adjusted up 32%. Our order backlog ended at NOK 965 million in recycling. Our estimate, which is not a guiding, but an estimate, going into the next quarter, so Q1 2023, we estimate a conversion ratio of that backlog at 65%. Food. We also here had all-time high revenues up 9%. Strong performance both in Europe but also in Americas. Europe were up 82% and Americas were up 33%.
We had some setbacks in Asia, or that region, APAC region, due to bad weather condition previous quarters, but also this quarter, as Tove mentioned. The margin, gross margin ended at 45%, which is up 2.5 percentage points compared to same quarter last year. As I said, we have a good positive impact coming from volume and mix, but also some from currency, 0.5 percentage points on currency. The operating expenses in food is, has grown 26% this quarter. If you look at it for a full year, we are up 12% on a revenue growth at 5%.
The high run rate in operating expenses in food is related to, one, is the business expansion, and we have the transformation project, which Tove talked about. We also are coming more back to normalized activity levels after COVID. As you know, the APAC region has had a longer lockdown than the rest of the world, especially Europe and Americas. EBITDA ended at NOK 157 million, which leaves us an EBITDA margin at 14%. Looking at the order picture for food, order intake at 14% growth compared to same quarter last year. Currency adjusted, we are up 4%. On the backlog, we ended at NOK 1,083 million, which is up 4%, but down close to 6% currency adjusted.
As Tove mentioned, we are seeing some, so processed food is very strong, while fresh food is suffering a bit from bad weather condition in part of the world. In food, we have estimated a conversion ratio of 60% of the order backlog of NOK 1 billion and 83 million for the next quarter, so first quarter of 2023. Looking at the balance sheet and the cash flow. Our balance sheet has grown year-over-year 20%. Currency adjusted, we were up 15%. We have been allowing for higher inventory levels in 2022, and we have seen that quarter-over-quarter.
We have consciously been building up safety stock to be able to deliver to the market, and we have also planned for new machines going into new markets in, especially in collection. We also had a strong quarter on revenues, especially then in December, which then gives a good increase in the accounts receivable year over year. We have also done some investments this year. To mention some is one thing is the True Fit market in Latvia, where we took some of the investment last year, but then continued a bit into 2022 and also did this reclass between inventory and tangible assets. We have also invested in U.S., but also in Australia, where we have set up new collection points according to our agreement in New South Wales.
We have also increased our right-of-use assets related to buildings in existing markets. Looking at the cash flow from operations, we are at NOK 350 million in the quarter, down from same quarter last year. We are also down for the full year, and as I mentioned, it's due to the negative working capital effect, where that has been increasing this year, and also that we have lower profits compared to 2021. Our equity ended at 47% and our gearing at 1.2. As Tove mentioned in the beginning, we have then a proposal from the board to pay out an ordinary dividend of NOK 1.8 per share, which is then 52% of the EPS for the year and in line with our dividend policy.
As I said, we have been consciously allowing for higher working capital level this year, but we are targeting lower levels going into 2023. We have utilized our strong balance sheet to be able to deliver to the market, to prepare for new markets, but also to continue to invest in future business. At Tomra, we believe it is important to keep good capital discipline, as we will continue to invest in R&D, future business opportunities, and allowing for dividends also in years to come. On the financial position, our weighted average debt maturity at the 3.1 years end of the year. We have also unused credit lines of more than NOK 1 billion.
We also have senior unsecured bonds of 1.6 billion listed at Oslo Stock Exchange, where we have green bonds of a portion of 1 billion NOK. Just to summarize on the currency, as you can see from the graph, we have a US NOK which is up 16.8 for the quarter, and euro NOK, which is up 4.2% for the quarter. These effects give positive effects on Tomra's performance, as mentioned. The P&L is up 7% on the revenues. We have a slightly positive impact on the gross margin and the EBITDA margin for the quarter at 0.5%, or even less than 0.5%.
For the full year, our revenue is at 4% positive effect from currency, and gross margin at 0.5%, and EBITDA close to one percentage point for the full year. We will continue to be exposed to currency as most of our transactions, both in our P&L, but also in our balance sheet, is in euro and US dollar and Australian dollar. Looking at the outlook, starting with the collection. We expect high activity related to preparation for new markets. To mention some, we are in the middle of the expansion for the Netherlands for CAN implementation, and we expect that to continue into Q1 at more or less the same levels as we have seen in this fourth quarter.
Scotland is going live in August this year. We have Romania commencing in November, Hungary in January 2024. To mention some others that will also go live soon is Ireland in the February 2024, we have Quebec and the remaining states in Australia that will come during the fall. Of course, the quarterly performance will depend upon the timing of these new markets. As we have said before, it's the different markets that operate differently, that can vary in the pace for the different markets preparation. Maybe I can mention also on the gross margin on collection because that has been quite a pressure point this year. We expect also the gross margin to gradually improve throughout the year going into 2024.
When it comes to ramp up for new markets, we have a run rate for 2022 at approximately NOK 200 million, and we expect that level to continue at the same, at the NOK 200 million, but we'll come back with more information if that will change. Moving on to recycling. The pipeline in recycling looks promising, and the positive momentum is assumed to continue, but normalized towards more from the high levels that we have seen now in 2022. The demand for recycled material is expected to create opportunities, and the circular economy is still an important driver in this business in addition to also commodity prices. We see that legislation, the industry and also customer expectation is driving the need for recycled materials.
Looking into food, shorter, we see the demand in food as more stable, but again, without doubt, the need for automation creates opportunities for mid and long term. To mention, some, it's high labor costs, but also food safety that we have to have more ability to produce, but also taking care of food waste in production. On the cost side, so cost inflation will continue to be a pressure point, but we are taking pricing actions and cost measured, and we expect that to mitigate the supply chain and inflation effect going forward. We don't expect the cost to increase, but we don't necessarily see any significantly drop currently. Except for the elevated freight cost that is expected to move towards more normalized levels, and we see that already.
When it comes to the bottlenecks that we have had in sourcing shortages and also on the logistical side, we expect that to also ease up, and we don't expect to buy in the spot at significantly values in 2023. The last thing which is important is on the currency. As I mentioned, we are exposed especially to EUR and USD, and that will have an impact going forward as well in future quarters. With that, we can start the Q&A session.
Thank you, Eva. First of all, apologies, everyone, if you have experienced interruptions in the webcast. The recording will be uploaded on our website shortly after the sending. We have a few questions that have come in. The first one is from Elliot at Nordea. Can you comment further on the gross EBITDA margins? Do you expect Q4 to be the low point, or do you think these levels could continue throughout the first half of 2023?
Yeah. So, we ended the year at the 13.3% and the last quarter, fourth quarter at 14.3%. With the good momentum in collection, the cost measures that we are taking to control costs, but also taking the price increases into consideration and good momentum in the recycling, we expect to be able to lift the margins going forward, but can't promise anything in Q1 this year already.
Thank you, Eva. The next question is from Markus Heiberg at SEB. Can you please provide flavor of how sensitive economics of the sorting plant will be to virgin and waste material? What price levels will you require?
Yeah. I assume this is linked to our feedstock initiative and investment in the feedstock plant. This is a bit of an uncharted territory because what we will do here is that we will buy something that is seen as a waste today, and we will sell into qualities that there is not an existing commodity market for currently. We have been in dialogue both on the supply side, and the, so both on the sourcing side and on the customer side. We feel that there is both a good availability of raw materials into the plant, but also we see significant interest and demand from customers to purchase the material that we are getting out.
We are comfortable with the discussions that we have had that that will create a good profitability for this business.
Thank you. The next question is from Elliot at Nordea. Could you provide some detail on how much of the OpEx is related to circular economy future-oriented cost?
In this year as also as previous years, we invest approximately 8%-10% of the revenue into future-oriented costs, and we don't necessarily break it into the different buckets. What we communicate is that we have the ramp-up costs in collection at NOK 200 million, and then we have an R&D investment or cost at the levels between 4%-5% of the revenues, and then the rest is within other future-oriented activities in TOMRA.
Thank you. Do you expect the U.K. opportunity to provide any revenues at all in 2023? Also from Elliot from Nordea.
Yeah. If you look at the U.K., so as we have shown in the presentation, Scotland will go live with the deposit scheme in August, so we do expect impact from sales into Scotland this year. If you look at the rest of the U.K., the U.K. just communicated the result of their consultation with an indication of go live late 2025 with the deposit scheme. For the rest of the U.K., I don't expect a significant impact on sales in 2023. However, the Republic of Ireland is going live in February 2024, and we expect impact from sales into the Republic of Ireland this year.
Thank you. The next question is from Daniel Haugland at ABG. Hi. You say the gross margin is expected to gradually improve throughout the year and into 2024. What kind of levels are you targeting to get back to in 2024? Historically, it has been at 40%-42%.
Yeah. It is uncertain because we need to also succeed on levering, so increasing our prices and also taking the cost and also have a success on the cost initiatives that we are running in TOMRA. I don't want to go into details what we expect for this year and then going into 2024, but we are optimistic in order to increase the gross margin towards the end of this year. We need to remember that we have this long-term ambition of having EBITDA level at nine 18%, so we still have some years to deliver on that profit target.
Thank you. With that, we have no further questions. Thank you everyone for listening in, and see you next time.