Good morning and welcome to Electrolux Professional Q2 conference call. We have a beautiful sunny day in Stockholm today. My name is Jacob Broberg, I'm heading up Investor Relations at Electrolux Professional. With me, as always, I have Fabio Zarpellon, our CFO, and Alberto Zanata, our CEO. I leave the word to you, Alberto. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Jacob. Morning to everybody. Highlights of the quarter: four points, I would say. The first one is that we closed the quarter with organic growth. Both segments, Food & Beverage, are back growing, delivering strong organic growth, in particular in North America and the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa regions. Also Laundry, developing positively organically in Q2. Second point about the margin: the EBITDA margin was slightly below last year. The main reason is the currency. The weak dollar versus a strong Swedish krona impacted that for roughly 1 percentage point. You would add 1 percentage point just because of the negative currency impact on the margin. The third highlight, obviously, is the leitmotiv in all the discussion is about the tariffs. In Q2, the tariffs had not a material impact on the business. Fourth point is the demand, the order intake.
We had a significantly higher order intake in Food & Beverage and positive also in Laundry. Demand for our product increased during the quarter. By the way, it is also growing into July. It seems the demand of the product is growing, even if we have to mention that the lead time between placing the order, receiving the order, and the request delivery date is shorter and shorter. Decisions are taken last minute more and more. In order to mitigate the currency impact, we are working on cost. We are working on cost. I believe the combination of all the things we are doing, including also the investment in R&D that will bring new product to market at the beginning of next year, at the end of this year, beginning of next year, will make us a stronger company with stronger performances.
Moving up at the development of the region, I mentioned already the fact that we had a strong performance in North America, both in the Food & Beverage and in the Laundry segments. The other thing to be mentioned is that finally turned to positive also the sales trend in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region. Even in the Middle East and Africa, we had a positive development. It is something that we mentioned in the past when we saw the order coming for that region. That is principal, mainly a project business region. The project, you receive the order and you deliver with some months of delay. We saw this coming already at the end of last year. Now the growth of the sales is there. Europe was basically flattish with a different mix, having the Nordic region, central Nordic region growing and softening in the southern part.
The softening in the southern part, in the Mediterranean region, we have to remember that it is at a very high level. The southern countries, Italy to mention one, Spain, they had record sales last year. They had a sequential growing development for many years. Into the details of Food & Beverage, we mentioned the organic growth, about 3%. It is quite significant in the context where we are, considering the geopolitical situation, considering all the things that are going on around us. I would say to deliver organic growth is a pretty good result. In particular, we are very pleased to see that all the efforts that we have been putting in place in the past are now delivering the result in North America, where we had a good growth, a good development, both in chains. We have been always growing chains.
We have been growing chains for five, six quarters in a row. While the so-called institutional or general market was declining, in Q2 this year, we grew both chains and the general market. The growth in chains is not coming from a larger rollout. On the opposite, last year we had not a large, a very large, but a quite significant rollout that this year we didn't come. The chain business is coming from several businesses with several chains. That is a very good signal. In Food & Beverage, the EBITDA was slightly lower than last year. This is coming from, in this case, it's not so much the currency impact, but it's in relation to the higher cost. We mentioned R&D that is staying on a high level. It is there. Also other operational costs that have been increasing.
There is also a different geographical mix in the meaning that I mentioned the sales growing in the Nordic countries versus the South European ones, where we have a lower margin. Order intake in Food & Beverage is pretty good, pretty high. At the end of Q2, I mentioned that it is very good also in July. By the way, we are also getting orders in the South European markets, considering that beginning of next year, there will be the Olympic Games. The projects are coming, even if surprisingly quite late compared to the supposed delivery of the products. Laundry, also in this case, we had a positive organic development. In North America, pretty strong. If you remember Q1, we had a decline in North America. In Q2, we had a growth in North America. We see, and you know that these sales are going to our distributor.
We know that the sellout from our distributor to the customer is also good. We are receiving orders. It seems that the business is still holding in North America. Laundry had a positive development of the EBITDA, slightly up in absolute term, 0.4 percentage point in margin. This is despite the strong headwind due to the currency. This is really important. Also in Laundry, as well as for Food & Beverage, the tariff had no material impact. Order intake in Laundry, not as strong as in Food & Beverage, but in any case, growing compared to a year ago. With this said, Fabio?
Thank you, Alberto. Good morning to everybody. As Alberto anticipated, in Q2, we delivered an organic growth and a solid profitability above 12%. From a geographical standpoint, also worth to notice when it comes to sales that we are more and more balanced from a geographical perspective.
We're now in America representing roughly one-fourth of the total sales, APAC around 15%, and Europe that is now south of 60%. Let me say, a group that is more balanced from a global dynamic perspective. When it comes to the profitability, also this quarter, margins were positive, sustained by pricing, lower material cost. Whilst as Alberto anticipated, operational costs increase in value because mainly of inflationary items and investment in digital. Some of the mix was unfavorable this quarter. In addition to the example that Alberto brought about the geographical mix, if you take the big picture, you see that Food & Beverage grew faster than Laundry. That is our high margin business segment. Currency heavily affected the quarter.
Currency translation, in particular, that was due to the strengthening of the SEK versus the reported currencies, reduced top line by approximately 5% and our EBITDA value year- over- year by a similar amount. Meaning that the translation impact had really no impact on the margin. Whilst instead, currency transaction bothered significantly the margin, approximately one percentage point in terms of group EBITDA margin. It is, I would say, mostly related to Laundry due to the strengthening of SEK versus US dollar and some other currency. Going through the P&L, final net was more or less half of what we had last year, thanks to reduction of borrowing, borrowing that we activated because of the acquisition of Tosei and Adventis. To be noticed that the tax rate on the quarter was higher than the historical average.
This is related, I would say, partly to dividend payout, where we cannot recover the tax. EPS, as a consequence, was somehow lower than last year, mainly related, I would say, to the higher tax cost for the quarter. Cash flow for the group continued to be solid, over SEK 300 million. Somehow lower than last year because of lower EBITDA, but also, let me say, temporary increase in working capital requirement. When it comes to CapEx, it was somehow in line with last year, but as we anticipated, it is expected to increase in the quarter to come, without materially affecting the cash generation of this group. This increase in CapEx is mainly related to an important initiative in terms of product development that we are bringing forward, both in the Laundry and in the cooking part of the portfolio.
Happy to report that we continue to improve asset efficiency. Rolling 12 months operating working capital on sales is now below 16%, thanks to, I would say, mainly an improvement in the account receivable area. Inventory that was a big topic a couple of years ago, I would say, now is pretty well under control and well managed. Our financial position is strong. You see the ratio net debt/EBITDA remaining at 1.3x . That is, I would say, a remarkable result, considering that it contains also a dividend payout of over SEK 240 million that we did in May this year. With that, back to you, Alberto.
Thank you. Thank you, Fabio. I connect to this one to say that I'm very proud to bring to you also this achievement for what sustainability is concerned. I hope it is not boring to say that we improve and we are rated very high for what sustainability is concerned. We were silver in the EcoVadis ranking, starting from May this year. We have been rated the gold. This means that we are among the top 5% company that has been assessed by EcoVadis. It is a very rewarding achievement. It is confirming our strategic, let me say, mission or our strategic desire to lead not only our industry, where we are by far the leading company for what sustainability is concerned, but to also be a leading company in general for what sustainability is concerned.
With this said, in summary, we deliver organic growth in both segments, Food & Beverage and Laundry. Very strong in Food & Beverage, or strong at least in Food & Beverage, and positive also in Laundry. The EBITDA margin was slightly below last year, but heavily affected by currency as well as by cost. We are still running with relatively high, I would not call it defined R&D cost, but investment to bring to market innovative products. We are working on the high margin categories that will deliver, will help us to support, to further support the organic growth. The currency, and in particular, we are talking about the weakening of the SEK versus the weakening of the dollar versus the strength of the SEK is impacting one percentage point of the margin. In Q2, the tariff had no material impact, no material impact on our results.
We closed the quarter with a strong order intake for both Food & Beverage, but also for Laundry. Also in July, up to yesterday in July, the order intake is positive in both Laundry and Food & Beverage versus last year. We are expecting to continue to invest. We have been investing last year. We started last year with a peak of investment. At the end, we had also the peak of CapEx because clearly after the R&D, we are also investing in tooling, product tooling, and new tooling in the factory. We expect to continue to invest in 2025. During the second part of this year, not further growing, but continuing in a pretty high level and also in 2026. We will start in any case to bring to market already in 2026 the new products that are in some way the result of all these investments.
In order to compensate the currency and in order also to, in some way, look and make this company more flexible, agile, and efficient, we are working on the cost. We are working on the cost. These activities, together with the initiative about innovation and R&D, is giving me confidence that we have in place all the actions to make this company stronger than before and more profitable. With this said, before leaving the space to questions, I like to inform you that it has been decided to organize the Investor Day during the fall, specifically on Thursday, November 6th. It will be organized here in Stockholm at our office at the third quarter. The invitation will come shortly from Jacob. With this said, Jacob, back to you.
Thank you, Alberto. Thank you, Fabio. Operator, we open up for questions. Please go ahead.
We will now begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Gustav Hagéus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a question on, I guess, the pricing environment, particularly in the states. You referenced that FX is hard to compensate for. I assume that's your decision to take whether or not you do press for higher prices or not. As you haven't, I'm curious to understand, or haven't to the degree to offset it, I'm curious to understand if you've had discussions with your clients, if that's the feedback they're giving, if it's in response to what competitors are doing, your own decisions, or how you arrived at the decision not to fully offset the FX. That would be interesting. Thanks.
Hi, Gustav. Thanks for the question. You are right in the meaning that typically the currency fluctuations are compensated by price. This year, the problem that we had to face is that the currency fluctuation happening mainly in Q2 came at the same time as the tariffs. When we added the tariffs, there had been a price increase, by the way, applied also by the American producer. I'm talking about mainly Laundry because you saw that it is Laundry, the segment where we had the negative impact of currency. The two things happened together. It is hard today to further increase the price, considering also the uncertainty that is in front of us for what the tariff is concerned.
I'm not excluding that we will be able to at least partially compensate the negative currency impact with price, in addition to the activity that we are taking on cost during the quarter to come. We have to see. We have to see what is happening. One thing that for sure I have to say is that we are living days where we have to navigate, looking at the situation around us every month, every week, every day. That's the current situation. That is the explanation why, in this specific moment, we have not been able to compensate currency with the price. By the way, the delta in terms of currency would have been at 10%. Pretty high swing between the two currencies and most probably harder to be compensated in one shot with price.
Is it fair to assume as well, given that you're sort of entering the end of the lifecycle of your current Laundry platform, that it might be harder from that perspective also to push for price? As you know, I assume that what you know.
First, we are talking about something that phase in, phase out, that will take time. It is not. There are many things that will be added on to the current portfolio.
As you roll your new products out, I assume they're mainly related to the Laundry platform in 2026 or maybe later this year.
Now, also Food & Beverage.
That's a big update in itself for margins. Okay. If we stick to the Laundry then, is that something that you expect will gradually compensate through a more efficient product platform on the gross margin side?
The new platform, but not only for Laundry. In general, when we get to market, we are coming with a product target. That's the only way to get to the market, to have a product that is more competitive, allowing a better position in the market and with better features. That's for sure. The new product will push sales because we come to market with additional features that will give us a competitive edge versus competitors. We are always working to make sure that the margin is improving.
You referenced the Olympics in your stronghold Italy next year. Where do you see the, do you have any references to how much this might support sales and the phasing of it? Is some of that expected to last throughout 2025 and 2026? Or have we seen most of the order intake related to the Olympics, you think?
Look, the Olympics will start in February, beginning of February. For sure, we have to deliver before that date. The mention was that considering that we saw the order intake and I mentioned the fact that we see a country mix. Having the central Nordic regions in Europe growing more than the southern region during the past quarter, the order intake is showing a growth of the order from the southern region, in particular Italy, that, by the way, is good for the margin. It has to be delivered before the opening of the Olympic Games. Part of it will be in Q4 and eventually in the first part of Q1 next year.
Okay. Perfect. Those were my questions. Thanks.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Henrik Christiansson from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. A question on the cost initiatives that you referenced to sort of offset this FX headwinds. Could you talk about the magnitude there and when we should expect to see the benefits of that?
Here we are talking about activities that we are doing every day in terms of improving the efficiency of our organization, in addition to the actions that we are taking to moderate the growth of some areas. We have been talking about digital. We have been talking about R&D. There are many activities that we are carrying on to make sure that we continue to invest in this area because we have been betting on innovation and digitalization of a product and company. Remember that these are two of the four pillars of our strategy. We don't want to limit the investments there. We have to acknowledge that we are in a peak, but there are different ways to invest this money. We are looking at solutions that are reducing or at least limiting the growth of this investment.
On top of this one, there is the discretionary spending that we are managing every day and that can be and will be reduced to compensate the negative impact of currency. I know that we can do not so much for what the FX fluctuations are concerned, but it's our responsibility to make sure that we compensate the negative impact of these fluctuations.
Okay, good. My second question is on the growth in North America. If you could talk about what's driving that. Is that cross-selling of previous Electrolux Professional products? Are you gaining new clients? Do you get more products or higher penetration through in the existing customers that you have? A bit more color there would be useful.
I think we have been going back to the basic. I'm saying we have been opening demo places at our reps. We strengthened the relation with the reps and the dealer. In May, we opened also our own center of excellence that is the test kitchen with the demo places, starting to organize meetings with the customers. What I can see is that basically all the product families have been growing in North America, both the one with the imported product from Europe and the one with the beverage imported products from Thailand, and clearly the one with manufactured products with the two historical brands, Randell and Grow, and manufactured in the United States. It is quite a homogeneous development of the sales of the different categories.
The good thing, and I would like to re-underline this point in Q2, is that in addition to the chain business, we have been growing the sales to the general market. That is the one, these sales are the ones that are going through the reps and the dealers. That is where we have been having, let me say, weak performance during the past year.
Excellent. Thank you.
Welcome.
It's Jacob Broberg here again. We have a couple of questions on the web. Coming back to the question on FX headwinds, I think one question was if we are able to compensate by price. I think you answered that question, Alberto. The other question is if the U.S. competitors are raising prices in Laundry in the U.S.
There have been some, because I remember that also the American competitors are not only in Laundry and being impacted by the tariff because of the tariff of steel and aluminum. Yes, they've been rising the price. Now, to get about the detail about how much and so on, I don't know that.
Okay. We have another question related to the investments in new products. Is it possible to get a sense of the underlying operational performance, meaning how much the investments in R&D, how much higher they are in 2025 and 2026 compared to sort of a normalized year?
Okay, we are running slightly below 5%, right, Fabio?
Yes.
Slightly below 5%. Just to give a sense of where we were, we were around the 3% three years ago in 2022 and below that in the previous years. There is a peak of investments that is coherent with our history when we have a big redesign of the important categories. Here we are talking about really strategically important categories in our portfolio.
Final question from the web is, I mean, you also answered, it's again a question on the FX that it was higher than expected. You spoke about that too, that we will be able to compensate some of it via cost savings. Are we able to compensate everything via cost efficiency, or are there other activities including price? Yeah.
I think it's important to look at Laundry. Let's look at the Laundry performances in isolation. The Laundry performance improved the margin. The FX is mainly, if not only, impacting Laundry. In Laundry, we have been able, yeah, we could have delivered a much stronger EBITDA, clearly. We will do something with the cost. We will do something with the mix. Also, the geographical mix will help, will help for sure. In this case, it's not Laundry, but we had an increase of price for the Food & Beverage product effective middle of June that clearly didn't have basically any impact on the result in Q2, but will come to fruition in Q3 and going forward.
Thank you. Do we have any other questions, Operator?
There are no more questions at this time from the phone.
Okay. Thank you very much. I say thank you to everyone who listened in. Speak to you next time. Thank you and goodbye.