Hi, welcome everybody.
Welcome to the QleanAir Q1 presentation for 2023. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing star five on their telephone keypad. I will hand the conference over to CEO Sebastian Lindström and CFO Henrik Resmark. Please go ahead.
Hi, welcome to the QleanAir investor presentation for Q1 2023. My name is Sebastian Lindström. I'm the CEO of QleanAir since end of November last year. Joining me in today's call, I have Henrik Resmark, our CFO at QleanAir. Henrik and I will run through the presentation and then open up for a Q&A session towards the end. Let's go ahead. Starting off with the numbers for Q1. Our turnover of SEK 121 million in the quarter means that we're back into growth of 5%, not just in line with the longer term targets, but for sure heading in the right direction. Both APAC and Americas are growing well above our longer term targets, and it's only EMEA that is a bit behind.
Moving to the recurring revenue, it's continued to grow quarter-over-quarter to SEK 74 million in Q1, which is the highest figures since a couple of years back. Our gross margin remains strong and stable above 70%, only a slight deviation versus last year, and our EBIT margin is significantly improved versus Q4 2022. When we adjusted for costs associated with dismissal at the central organization, we arrive at 16% on an adjusted basis. Our operating cash flow is well approved over last year, and our order intake is stable. A little behind last year, again, APAC and Americas are showing great growth, and it's really EMEA where we have to pick up the pace. Let's move. Looking at it from a regional perspective. Continued stellar performance from our APAC team.
Sales up 23% in the quarter and a very strong order intake. For Europe, we continue to see difficult market conditions. Revenues down from last year. Main difference is on the cleanroom side in the Nordics, where our focus has been on completing projects rather than starting new ones. Americas is delivering a steady quarter well above last year, both in revenue and in order intake. Here, we're really strengthening the team to take full advantage of the demand following the recent update of the directive of USP <797> and <800>. We know I've been over to the U.S. twice already this year, and we know that the State Board of Pharmacy are really ramping up their measures to increase their surveying capacity to this directive.
For sure, not everyone will be compliant by the November 1 deadline, but we clearly feel a demand in the market. As you can see, recently, we posted our win of $50,000 contract with Children's Hospital in the US, which is really an important event as this is our first children's hospital, and those hospitals really look to one another. Moving on. I thought, you know, I said it before. I've done my interviews within the company. I met a lot of clients and for sure we have great products. We have a super knowledgeable team, and I would like to share a little bit more about the customer side of things.
I've just completed a journey across our three geographies with product strategy workshops with key clients, and I want to share some of the amazing stories of partnerships within customers that we have formed over the last couple of years. Starting off in Europe with Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is responsible for bottling and distribution of Coca-Cola branded products throughout Germany. They sell more than 3.5 billion liters per year from their 14 production sites, which makes them Germany's largest beverage company. We started our deployment in one site in Dorsten five years ago and have since been able, based on the good results of that installation, to roll this concept further with another three sites across their network. We're now leveraging this experience by extending our German sales team with an experienced key account manager fully focused on the brew and beverage sector.
Through this approach, we will be able to add even more value to our clients in this sector going forward. Moving from Germany to Japan. I recently had my second visit with Mitsui Fudosan, the largest building developer and office building management company in Japan. Our relationship with Mitsui Fudosan goes back over 10 years, and over this period, we've implemented close to 400 cabins with Mitsui Fudosan and their clients. With our state-of-the-art solutions requiring no external ducting, easy to move around. Through this, we've been able to protect against secondary smoke in some 400 locations over the years. Finally, I want to lift our partnership with UNC Health, a leading health service provider in the US with 11 hospitals in the North Carolina area.
I recently spent two days with the team at UNC Health, together with our US team and together with our global product management to discuss how we can further improve our products and services within clean rooms. We have to date implemented over 2,500 sq ft of clean room space across five locations and are planning six the next two years together with UNC. Speaking with the people operating within our clean rooms, they greatly appreciate our design of our rooms and the way that we are able to see the product in its context of their work. Our partnership with UNC goes beyond the traditional supplier-customer relationship. We share and perform joint studies improving integrity of medical compounding services.
Five months into the job, we continue to push on our shorter-term priorities that I shared with you on our last call: customer focus, sales efficiency, and cost control. This on our route back to profitable growth. Let's review how we're pushing ahead across these three priorities. First, customer focus. We have in the Q1 that redirected the reporting lines of the single most important market in Europe, Germany, directly to myself, and as well removed some subregional structures to, as I said on our last call, move the entire organization one step closer to the customer. Immediately following our Q4 presentation back in February, we negotiated and communicated a reduction within our central organization.
This was a step in our transfer of focus in our marketing efforts from corporate branding to more sales-focused marketing activities out there in the regions, driving growth in our business. We've been able to strengthen the sales team in the US, in France, and in Germany as a result. We've also started our journey to an iteration of our strategy that I plan to share with you in the fall of this year. It's a very systematic process involving both key customers and our regional sales and service teams. Over 100 people have been involved in these product strategy workshops since our start in February. In these meetings, which are not just an ordinary workshop, we go in depth on the strength of our products and service concepts. We discuss opportunities for the future.
I believe that it is through understanding the pain points of our customers and the users of our products that we can ensure relevant and high-value solutions for the future. Moving over to sales efficiency. Despite tougher sales environments still in effect in Europe, we can do a lot to improve our sales. We have since February launched a tighter, much more structured sales follow-up. As we have changed the reporting of Germany directly to myself, our leadership of EMEA now have more time to support and drive growth in the other 10 countries in the region. Our mantra remains: To deliver the year, we have to deliver on each quarter. To deliver each quarter, we have to deliver on each month.
As you have seen, we're currently tracking at 5% for Q1, which means we have to pick up the pace, especially in Europe, to reach our longer-term target of 10% organic growth. Finally, to the cost control. We started our in-depth cost review I spoke about in our last call at the central organization, and it was evident that we had moved too fast as a company in building structure and hierarchy over the last two, three years. We've now dialed most of that back and will refocus that investment to sales-driving activities. We've taken most of the cost associated with this already in Q1, hence the % adjusted EBITDA on the third slide. We will see further benefits of this reduction starting in Q2, but some of the savings have already been redirected to drive growth.
With cost control, we still have areas to look at, and cost control and reviewing cost structure is never finished. As I said on this point last time, it is through our performance in current trading and managing costs that we earn the right to invest. There's no way around it. This time around, we reduced our central organization, and we have strengthened our sales-oriented. Summ up, and a little bit the shorter term focus from a bit of a regional perspective, we deliver great value to our clients, right? We just need to put it in a higher gear. For Europe, we'll intensify our focus on growth. As you have heard, our actions have already been taken in Q1, and now we really have to show delivery on those. APAC is well on track.
Here, we're not, you know, holding back, but rather stepping up our marketing activities towards the Air Cleaners further, almost doubling our presence at exhibitions for the remainder of the year. In Americas, we are increasing our coverage by adding to our sales team to further leverage the regulations. We have solid products, we have circularity built into our business model, and a team that wants to win. With that, I hand over to Henrik to go through a little bit more in detail on the financial stuff.
Thank you, Sebastian. QleanAir by region first quarter. We are present in three geographies with three different product areas. In QleanAir Group, Japan is the number one in terms of sales and order intake. Cabin Solutions is a success in the Tokyo, and we are now gaining traction within Air Cleaners through focused and dedicated work. We see QleanAir Japan to continue to grow 2023. Europe is also a strong Cabin Solutions market for the QleanAir Group, contributing with both sales and profitability. We have yet to reach a growth and a steady growth for Air Cleaners in Europe. Focus is to solve that. We see a clear growth potential in QleanAir US, and the positive signs from the first quarter we shall continue to build upon. Net sales first quarter.
QleanAir is delivering stable sales in the first quarter, up by 5%. Japan is up by 23%. Japan continues to deliver strong growth. U.S. is up by 85%, and we start to see a clear recovery from the U.S. subsidiary. Europe was down by 15%, and focus is to improve and increase the European sales. The gross margin is still on a relatively high level. Our business model is strong and resilient, and the EBIT margin is recovering during the first quarter. Adjusted for a reorganization first quarter, the EBIT margin increased to 15.9%. Our focus for 2023 is to reach our financial targets, growth of approximately 10% and EBIT margin in the range of 15%-20%. Strong, stable rental revenues from own units in own balance sheet.
This slide illustrates the relation between the book values of units in QleanAir balance sheet and the revenues stemming from such units, including service. We call them the recurring revenues. The recurring revenues increased to SEK 74 million in the quarter. The recurring revenues are a solid base of revenues that to a larger extent are predictable in the future. There are SEK 282 million on a rolling twelve-month basis, up by 6%. The book value is relatively low, just SEK 55 million, and the recurring revenues is a significant contributor to the QleanAir Group gross margins. Moving into revenue split and installed base. Quarter by quarter, we continue to increase the installed base.
We see a growth in Air Cleaners in Europe and Cabin Solutions in Japan, and the Cabin Solutions in Europe is also a very solid market for us. Today, we are lacking primarily product sales, and once we get US up to further speed, we anticipate an even greater improvement in sales growth for the whole QleanAir Group. Finally, we continue to amortize according to plan every quarter. The operative cash flow improved significantly versus last year. The net debt/equity ratio is 1.0, and the equity ratio is above 28%. Handing over to Sebastian again for a summary.
Thank you, Henrik. To close off the session in front of the Q&A, what we do at QleanAir is really important. We dedicate our work to improve the health of people, the quality of products, and the performance of processes, and we do so through our three product categories: Cabin Solutions, Air Cleaners, and Cleanrooms. Looking at the amount of clean air that is delivered through our solutions, we estimate that we cleaned about 7 billion cubic meters of indoor air by March 2023. This matters because air pollution is a key challenge for human health. People die prematurely from exposure to polluted air. We spend an important part of our lives in indoor environments, and indoor air can often be more polluted than outdoor air. With that, I would like to open up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Anders Roslund from Pareto Securities. Please go ahead. Anders Roslund, Pareto Securities, your line is now unmuted. Please go ahead.
Hello?
Hi.
Hello. Yeah. Do you hear me?
We hear you.
Excellent. I would like to start off with some questions regarding Air Cleaners. It seems that you have a sequential uptick from the previous three quarters in Air Cleaners. Is it Japan that is starting to show some results here? Even if it's down from a very strong Q1 last year, it's a little bit up here, a couple of SEK million versus the previous three quarters last year. Yeah, that's my first question.
When you look at the Air Cleaners, right, Europe is the most important market. I think we have seen, especially in Germany, following, you know, the strengthening of the sales team, we've seen an uptick in the Air Cleaners business there. Of course, when you look at the Japan, we have, you know, put a dedicated team in place and they are really steaming ahead. I think it's a combo. What do you say, Henrik? It's definitely a combination from that improvement is primarily, of course, Europe gaining traction more and more in Japan, through very, very focused and dedicated work through a specialized team force just for Air Cleaners in Japan. Yes.
Yeah.
Just to add to that, I think when you look at in Europe, right? Germany is well on the way on the air cleaner side. We have other markets within Europe where we need to push the air cleaning portion of our business stronger. This is one of the reasons why we're doing this shift in reporting of the German organization directly to myself, to allow for us to drive the more air cleaners also into the other 10 countries of Europe.
Yeah, that's very. Well, another question here regarding Air Cleaners Europe, that you had historically a very strong market for COVID-related virus protection, while your sort of core business is more for industrial use, logistic, et cetera. My question is more what type of demand do you see now? Is it the sort of core business of cleaning the air in logistics, industrial areas, et cetera? Or is it still the virus protection demand which continue to play some role, or how should we see it, Pam?
I think again, it's a combo, right? 'Cause we're seeing that some of the big installations we made more COVID-related, especially throughout the school system in Germany and so forth, some of those contracts are starting to lapse. We see those clients, you know, extending and doing those contracts with us. In that sense, that focus on air quality in the school system is actually continuing. That's super positive. I think when you look at our focus, we're looking at more specialized areas within the industrial sector. Looking at developing more products that are, you know, like we have a Food Grade Air Cleaner, more focused on the beverage and the food service sector. I think we're also seeing strong demand from those areas.
This is also the reason why we're moving ahead and actually setting up key account resources that span nationwide, that's focused on a specific segment. I think you will see more strength in more specialized areas like food service or beverage going forward.
When you talk overall about more focus on Europe, I guess that concerns a lot of the Air Cleaners business.
Yeah. I think when you look at the cabin business, we've actually grown. If we look at 2022, we were able to grow our Cabin Solutions business. Sure, yes, it's with the Americas.
Excellent. I'm interesting also in Americas and the Cleanroom business, you've got some large orders now, almost if we sum up all the three major orders, almost SEK 25 million. How does demand look like beyond those large orders?
Yeah. So, I believe I communicated as we did the Q4 report, right? That we're going into this year in the Americas with a very strong pipeline, right?
Mm.
I don't know what I can say from forward-looking statements and so forth. I'm a little new in the publicly traded space, right, guys?
Mm.
For sure we've taken a stance where we haven't communicated as much maybe in the first quarter on every little order that we take and so forth. Of course, since the main reduction made at the central organization was within that central marketing function and so forth. I think that our plan is not built on those orders that you are referring to.
Mm.
But a much larger base. I myself, I think I've been now twice or three times in the US since I started, and had very you know, tight communication with clients that are facing this directive and so forth. I clearly see that there is a demand. As I mentioned in the presentation, right.
Mm
We see the State Board of Pharmacy now starting to ramp up to survey this much better, right? Because this is really the first time we have a true deadline of the directive, which is 1st of November, end of this year.
Could you.
Sorry, I.
... explain this 1st of November a little bit? What is sort of, what type of either those two pending legislations that now are going into force, or how should we see that one?
Yeah. That's how you should look at it really. It's been, you know, on the, if, it's been on for many years, right, overall. This is the first time when they really put the foot down.
Mm
Say that there is a deadline. I don't think it's not viable that everyone can be compliant by that date. What we've seen now from one recent discussion with one State Board of Pharmacy is that they will for sure demand that there is a plan and a solution plan in place for those that are not compliant yet. We are actually, and this quite interesting, we are actually starting to get involved much earlier also in the sales process, and actually helping clients doing the gap analysis and helping them on how to reach that objective in time and get that viable that they can share with the authorities.
One question about the 1st of November here. It's not a risk that you get a lot of orders and before that date, and then 2024 you get a sort of drop because everybody's compliant, or is it a gradual process here?
No, I think the demand is of that extent that it will probably take us, you know, two, maybe three years to work off this demand related to this.
Mm.
I really don't see us dropping off a cliff towards the end of the year. This is a very strong and solid demand that we see.
Also in the Cleanroom, you got large orders in Sweden here, 2021, that were not that successful. How do you see upon Cleanroom business outside your core US business?
I, so I think when you look at our Cleanrooms business that you're referring to, I think it is from a product perspective and solution perspective, we provided, you know, really nice solutions to the clients. It's been more our the actual projects themselves. I think when you look at Cleanrooms projects, it's as important that you're very knowledgeable as the supplier, but as well as the customer, right? In the U.S., if you look at the U.S. market and our Cleanrooms expansion there, it's a very knowledgeable client base. These pharmacists has at hospitals or private compounders, they've been working in Cleanrooms for many, many years. It's been a much smoother process there. I think the solutions that we've provided over here in Europe has been really good.
I didn't mention it on the call, but we are, when it comes to the cleanroom side, we see a lot, we're starting to get in more also into the demand that is out there in the industrial sector, right? I know we've shared in press releases and so forth, our work with OHB in Germany and so forth. Really looking at, if you think of the cleanroom business, not just a final cleanroom with overpressure, but actually looking at clean spaces and how that can be used across the plastic industry, electronics, and sort of high-tech industrial plants.
Yeah, yeah.
I think quite an opportunity there.
It's exactly that what I see that you have a very well-defined product for the US market with a very well-defined client base. Here in Europe, it's more like ad hoc opportunities. You find new niches and new opportunities, but also that your product has to be adapted to various client needs.
I think. Oh, sorry.
Yeah. No, that was the question. If the European expansion in other segments and in other client groups is also more tricky to get the same margin?
No.
That-
I don't think so. I think it all comes back to... You heard that, you know, we've been running key account workshops across all geographies and so forth, and I think it's that piece that we've been missing a little bit, to be out there, listen closely to the customer, tuning on our solutions and so forth. The more of that we do, the more relevant and the more high value solutions we will be able to sell. I think that's one of the key changes that you will see more on the medium to long term, the result of us going much closer to the clients, discussing our current solutions, the strength and weaknesses of those, and more in-depth understanding really the pain points and our products in the context of the client's work.
Mm.
I don't see that much as a risk that it would be a lower margin business.
Mm.
Absolutely not.
Finally then, the Cabin Solutions. You have been growing now constantly during last year and now into 2023. How far can you move in Tokyo? Because it mainly remains a Tokyo business.
Well, we've also expanded, right? We have since a couple of years in Osaka as well. It's also true that within Tokyo, we've been mainly focused on the premium part of that market. It's a huge city, right? As I said already in the previous call that we had, right, is that we're doing two things in Japan when it comes to the Cabin Solutions. Yes, we are focusing outside of the Tokyo area, but we're also taking a larger portion of the market in Tokyo by coming out. We're actually developed now recently, will be launched very soon, a smaller cabin to be able to go to the small and medium businesses, both within the Tokyo area and outside of Tokyo. I think.
How long will that last? That's a crystal ball type question, but we feel a strong momentum still in this product category, both in Europe and in Japan.
In this smaller to medium size market segment, is this the new product version now you're launching that is sort of responsible for the growth?
No, not yet, because it's yet to be launched, right? I think we've done the prototypes, we're in testing and so forth, right? We're not seeing that yet. Currently, we are with our current product set up, also reaching into that market. Of course, going into the small and medium segment means that we're getting even more channels sort of involved to multiply our sales effort to go after that part of the market.
Yeah. Finally, a question about the gross margins and EBIT margins that if you now go for heavier growth in Cleanrooms and to some extent, hopefully also in the Air Cleaners, will we see gross margins and EBIT margins sort of being at a little bit stressed, at least if it's coming more of Cleanroom sales?
Good question, Anders. We are not guiding on the gross margins, as you know.
No
We are very confident in the current level, roughly 70%. That is, of course, primarily driven of the fact that we are increasing our recurring revenues. The cost for a recurring revenue will be depreciation. That will be further down, so to speak. Also coming back to Japan, as stated in the CEO word in the first quarter report, I would like to emphasize that we still see a significant growth potential in Japan.
Mm.
In Japan, we have, as you know, slightly higher prices than in Europe, and we have a good profitability coming from Japan. Also if you add to that we have a very satisfied customer base that are loyal, they are renewing the contracts to a very high extent.
Mm.
That is, of course, also a driver for the gross margins. I would say that we are quite confident in the current level, and we will do our utmost to keep those gross margins, even though that we are expanding into certain areas that to some extent could have a lower gross margin of the initial contracts.
Mm.
overall and again.
The cabins is roughly 70% of the group's turnover. My guess is that we will stay at those gross margins for a while. Also looking back quarter by quarter, they have been quite stable around the seventies.
Nice to hear. My final question is then you don't provide any outlook, but you just repeated that you repeat your long-term growth target of reaching 10%, and I interpreted that as that was for this year.
Yes. I mean, we are very clear on that. I mean, we had a 2022 that wasn't that successful. I mean, that's the truth. Now we are really into reaching the goal for 2023. Again, our goals are the 10% growth and the EBIT margin 50%-20%. I'm not saying that we're consolidating 2023, we need to show some figures that are in line with our targets, that is our key objective for 2023 for sure.
Excellent. Nice to hear. That was all the questions from my side.
Thanks, Anders.
Okay.
The next question comes from Oskar Vilhelmsson from Redeye. Please go ahead.
Hello, Sebastian, Henrik.
Hi.
Hi.
Hi. Just to follow up on that last question a little bit, and the road back to growth in the EU, could you tell us a bit more about this without sort of giving any specific guidance, but your initiatives, could you say anything about when will we see the fruits of this in the financials?
Oh, so telling you when you will see the proof, I don't think we make that kind of forward-looking sort of statements. I'm happy to talk about the actions that we're taking. I think it's all about being closer to the customer. I come back to that and the change that we made, Germany is our single largest market in Europe. They have the critical mass to stand on their own, so they are now reporting to me to free up resources to really support the growth and drive the growth in the other 10 markets, right? This reduction that we recently made at the central organization, it may not look big, but it gives us the opportunity to invest closer to the customer, right?
As a result of that, of that reduction at the central location, we've been able to actually move ahead and hire further people in Germany, in France and in the US. Staying within the MEA, we intend to continue to do this transfer of investment from central to the regions. I think that's what ultimately is gonna drive the growth. Then we're spending much more time in looking at what kind of clients, customer segments that we're aiming at, making sure that we remain premium in our offering, right? One example of that, as I mentioned, we now have our first key account manager in the German team, you know, working nationwide, focused on the brew and beverage sector.
I expect that has had our move within the sector has been very positive. I think we will just intensify that kind of work to have people a bit more specialized within an industry and that gives us a totally different starting point in our discussion with the clients when we already understand their pain points of that industry. Then
Yeah
... I think it's not to be underestimated. I think we are overall as a company becoming a bit more sales-oriented step by step here. We've really structured and tightened up the follow-up and the drive for growth. Essentially, I mean, if you wanna reach that longer term target of 10%, each of us have to think those 10% every day we go to work, regardless of where you work in our organization.
Thank you, Sebastian. In terms of Air Cleaners and the EU, you entered the company here with a set of new eyes. What's your view on the competition?
I for sure, I'm as I said on the last call, right, I'm moving into the product piece together with us doing all our product strategy workshops across all the geographies. I still have things to learn when it comes to the competitive side. The way I feel is, you know, Last time I've interviewed, I think 70 people. I'm now up over 90 people of our own organization. For sure the entire sales and marketing teams. It's really not been a key point coming across how hard the competition is. I know that for certain segments, you know, like logistics, warehouse and so forth, there's been quite a lot of competition. I think this is also the reason why we're looking at being more specialized, right?
Have more intricate knowledge on segments and thereby being able to lead more with competence in ourselves which really removes sort of that price competitive component in the discussion, right? For sure, Air Cleaners, I mean, on the Cabin Solutions side, we are, you know, absolutely the world leader in this. On Air Cleaners, we have a little way to go to become that, but we have a clear target to reach that.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah, thank you. In terms of ops churn, it does continue to improve here. Is that, do you have sort of any remarks regarding this, or is it just, sort of the fruits of, hard work and improved process?
I think it's improved process and hard work, and satisfied clients, right?
Yes. Also based on the service, the service concept that we have, that we guarantee that the units are working all the time, so to speak. Again, you can also see on the renewal and extension rate that we have in Japan and in Europe. As I said, we have a very, very loyal customer base, and the churn is improving gradually. Yes, correct.
All right. Just finally here in terms of costs, you managed to reduce them quite fast here, during the last quarter. Do you have sort of any remarks here going forward about anything that could be sort of in particular, during investments or so? Or is it, this is more of a normalized level, so to say?
I mean, we have the financial targets, right? As I said, 2023, we have to show the market that we can deliver on that. We had a poor last year. It's as simple as that. Of course, we will continue to do investments that we think growth. We will not do it as much as before. We just have to do it more clever, so to speak, do certain measures that actually gives a growth. We will not go that broad. We will do certain measures in certain markets, certain countries that we really think will give a growth. That's how we see on that.
All right. Thank you, Henrik, Sebastian. Good work this quarter.
Okay, thanks.
That's all for me.
Thanks, Oskar.
Thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
With no more questions, I'd like to thank all of you for your participation and interest in QleanAir, and I wish you great continuation of the day, look forward to see you at the next quarterly event. Thank you.