Good afternoon together. This is ORIOR. We welcome you to the presentation of the half-year results 2022, and with these words, I hand over to Daniel, CEO of ORIOR.
Thank you very much, Milena. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to welcome you to today's analyst and investor call, where we'll report on Orior's 2022 half year results. With me here in Zurich, I welcome Mr. Andreas Lindner, CFO of Orior Group, and Mrs. Milena Mathiuet, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. I will start with the CEO statement on page 4. In the overall context of the global economic situation and the reporting period, which continues to be influenced by Corona, we can look back on what I consider a really good first half of 2022. We succeeded in achieving strong organic growth of 7.7%. Well over half of this growth is volume growth. This applies across the entire group, but also to each individual segment.
Correspondingly, growth from price increases is significantly smaller, which has to do in particular with the delayed gradual adjustment of prices. First and foremost, the international segment delivered a convincing performance with above average growth at Culinor and the further very encouraging return of Casualfood, as did the continuing positive performance of the convenience segment. The refinement segment fell just short of the previous year's results. Excluding business with foreign customers, especially in France, within Switzerland, the refinement segment also posted growth. In this context, it's also worth mentioning our decision to suspend exports to Russia in the annualized amount of around CHF 2 million. In food service, we recorded a good recovery compared to the previous year, which was heavily impacted by Corona. The retail business continues to normalize, especially in Switzerland.
The strong Swiss franc led to an exchange rate effect of -1.8% on the top line. EBITDA reached a solid CHF 30.2 million, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 9.8%. Particularly noteworthy here is the significant lower Corona-related support services compared to the previous year. The in part, massively higher import input costs were and are challenging. Thanks to growth with high-margin product categories, thanks to forward-looking purchasing management and responsible gradual price adjustments from spring 2022, we were able to compensate part of it. In the first half of 2022, we were able to successfully advance various important group projects and initiatives. I would like to mention some of them.
We continue to work consistently on the implementation of our ORIOR strategy 2025, and we have initiated an important long-term strategic project with the digitalization project called StarTrack. Within ORIOR New Normal and the plant development, we successfully started up the new plant-based production capacities of wet extrusion technology at the Oberentfelden site. In addition, as planned and already communicated, we closed two smaller production sites and transferred the corresponding product ranges to the main plants of Rapelli and Le Patron. These plant development projects will further strengthen our profitability and efficiency, and they will also make a significant contribution to our sustainability goals. For example, thanks to improved processes, fewer logistics transport costs, and lower energy consumption. That brings us straight to the topic in the area of sustainability or ESG. At the beginning of the year, ORIOR communicated its new three-step climate target.
Since January, the entire ORIOR Switzerland has been converted to climate neutral organization, which means that the first stage has been realized. The second stage envisages climate neutral operations for the entire group. The third stage is our ambition to be net zero, a climate neutral company by 2050. At the same time, we are working to further reduce our emissions in our plant development projects, in our processes, via investment in optimized buildings, etc. With the publication of Casualfood's sustainability concept at the beginning of this year, all ORIOR competence centers has now introduced sustainability management. This was an important step in laying the foundation for consolidated data collection and recording across the group. Also in view of the preparatory work around the new legal requirements for non-financial reporting.
The intense work and efforts around ESG are also reflected in various upgrades from external sustainability ratings such as MSCI, ISS ESG, Inrate, which is very encouraging to us. We turn to page number 5, please. We take note of the tense global economic situation with the accumulation of challenging framework conditions with great respect, and we address these challenges proactively and at an early stage, also in our specialist teams in the various ORIOR champion groups. In the following, I would like to discuss some important influences from this situation. A significant share of electricity required was locked in early on in several tranches and at fixed prices. Pig and wheat, which is a very important raw material for us in terms of volume, and which, as is well known, has undergone massive price increases, was also locked in early for the first half of the year.
Pork and beef are two important raw materials for ORIOR Switzerland in terms of value. Price fluctuations of these two raw materials are regulated by a price adjustment mechanism consisting of markups and markdowns between the industry and the trade. This means that no special negotiations are required. We practically address price increases for all other raw materials such as poultry, eggs, plastics for packaging, et cetera, both with our suppliers and with our customers. Negotiations are challenging, especially in Belgium, due to high inflation. The main objectives are to find solutions in a spirit of partnership and to pass on the effectively higher cost in a responsible manner. Corresponding price adjustments to pass on the costs have been and will continue to be conducted on an ongoing basis. The price adjustments agreed so far can be implemented step by step since spring.
Cost increases for transportation and other logistical price increases cannot be passed on, or only to a small extent. Corresponding efficiency enhancing measures have been initiated. Casualfood, with its business-to-consumer business model, can adjust its selling prices itself immediately. In addition, Casualfood operates to a large extent in the airside area of airports. Their price sensitivity is generally lower. Accordingly, Casualfood is probably equally affected by the higher input costs, but can cushion them much more easily, at least in the current framework. We go down to page number six, please. This revenue curve shows the organic growth of the ORIOR Group compared to the first half of 2021. It is important to know that last year started with a lockdown on the catering industry, namely in Switzerland until April and in Germany and Belgium until May.
Our sales developed very positively from the beginning, with the exception of March, due to the shift of the Easter business to April. Since April, we have witnessed a strong upswing in the Travel Gastronomy and Casualfood segments, while the retail business continued to normalize. The food service business performed well over the most part throughout the half year, despite staffing challenges. In particular, the event and catering business, which has been massively hammered during Corona, picked up again encouragingly. In total, organic growth of +7.7% was achieved in the first half of this year. We go now to page 7, please. Our setup is characterized by the decentralized competence center philosophy, which is supported by autonomous and regionally anchored companies with their own product and brand worlds.
This creates proximity to the market and makes the individual competence centers, which specialize in their product categories, fast and agile. The key strategic initiatives, ORIOR New Normal, the ORIOR Champion Model, and ORIOR Bridge-building, allow us to tap into new revenue potential, work consistently on efficiency improvements, as well as targeted cost optimization. Our breadth and diversification in Categories, Sales Channels, Customer portfolio, and Geographic Carket coverage makes us resilient and gives us stability. We were able to underline this once again with our half year results. All our diversification features were further strengthened and contributed to the good result. In this context, sales to customers outside Switzerland were also increased to over 30% for the first time, in line with our strategy.
We are convinced of this positioning and the strength that comes from it because it forms the basis for the successful further development of the ORIOR Group in the coming years. We move to page 8. ESG, or better said, sustainability, continues to grow in importance. Systematic sustainability management also forms an important basis with regard to the new legal requirement for non-financial reporting. At the same time, the aspect of sustainability is now incorporated into basically all of our decisions and actions. The longer this goes on, the more self-evident it becomes. For me, personally, this is the greatest success of the last two years of hard work in this area. Because real progress is not achieved by reporting. Real progress is achieved by driving sustainability forward. Some examples from sustainability are presented on page 8.
Detailed information can be found in the sustainability report, which has been made available since May this year. I would particularly like to highlight our decision to put our climate targets on a scientific basis over the next two years by joining the Science Based Targets initiative. This is a major and important decision that will also enable us to include Scope 3, meaning the effects of the upstream and downstream value chain in our efforts. We go to page 9. We have made further progress along the strategic cornerstone, We are ORIOR. On the one hand, we conducted the second part of the comprehensive data training on project management with 6 workshops in Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium. In the process, we honed their skills in planning and implementing projects with over 100 key employees and introduced them to our specially developed project management dashboard.
On the other hand, systematic talent management was established across the group. The aim is to methodologically plan further development steps for key employees. On the one hand, to retain and to promote them. On the other hand, to think about possible succession planning at an early stage. We will do the annual update next spring. I will now hand over to Andreas Lindner, CFO for the financial report. Please, Andreas.
Thank you very much, Daniel. Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to welcome you to this call, and I'm happy to guide you through the financial results of the first half of 2022. I will start my review of the first six months with the convenience segment on page 10. Our four convenience competence centers showed continued good growth and increased sales despite a sales reclassification and the corresponding loss of CHF 2.2 million by 1.6% to CHF 109.8 million in the first half. They just accounted for over 35% of group's total sales. Despite a slight decline in the retail channel due to a further normalization of consumer habits, and thanks to the revival of the food service channel, the convenience companies were able to grow.
This was mainly due to the trend Categories Organic, Regional, and Vegetarian. This helped especially Biotta and Fredag. The classic gastronomy and hotel industry is currently suffering from an acute shortage of staff. At the same time, the events and catering sector is experiencing a real catch-up boom. System gastronomy also recorded a nice growth. With the successful commissioning of the new extrusion line, we have created additional production capacity, which will also enable us to achieve future growth in Switzerland and abroad with exports. Another extrusion line is currently being installed and will then go into operation in fall. As previously communicated, we closed a small convenience plant in H one as part of our strategic plant development and transferred the volumes and lines to Le Patron and to Rapelli in the main plants.
The concentration of production allows us to realize additional efficiencies, minimize logistics costs, and significantly improve our footprint in terms of sustainability. Due to the product transfer, there will be a slight shift of sales from convenience to the refinement segments as of May. In the first half, this amounted to a little more than half a million Swiss francs. This will be relevant mainly for the second half of the year. We expect a little over CHF 4 million transfer from the convenience to the refinement segment for the full year. An additional effect relates to the reclassification of convenience logistics sales. Individual products are now sold on an agent basis, which means that instead of the gross recognition of revenue up until now the net recognition of sales is now applied based on IFRS 15 or Swiss GAAP FER 3.
This reduces half your sales by CHF 2.2 million compared to the previous year. For the full year, we expect an effect of around CHF 4 million. Taking these two effects into account, convenience sales growth in the first half of the year would have been 4.1%. For the full year 2022, we expect an effect of around 8 million for those two effects of sales reclassification and sales relocation to the refinement segment. I switch to the refinement segment on page 11. The refinement segment developed in line with our expectations and just barely missed the previous year's result by 0.4%. The segment realized sales of CHF 124.7 million and thus contributed 36.5% of group sales. All competence centers were able to grow in this mixed market.
The minus in the segment stems from the intercompany business with Spiess Europe, which is currently under pressure due to inflation in France, as well as from the suspended deliveries to Russia. As of the half year, this corresponds to around CHF 750,000, and for the full year, we expect an effect of around CHF 2 million. Excluding the Russian business, we would have had a slight sales growth of 0.2%. The normalization of the retail channel is also noticeable in the refinement segment. Added to this, a renewed increase in shopping tourism in the border region and exacerbated also by the strong Swiss franc. In refinement also, we closed a small plant in the Ticino in favor of efficiency and sustainability gains, and integrated the corresponding volumes into the main Rapelli plant.
The raw material situation is still challenging, and availabilities, especially for Switzerland and for bio meat, are very scarce. The prices for beef and poultry are high, even with a rise in tendency. This is especially relevant for the convenience segment. Since the fourth quarter of last year, the pork cycle has been easing, leading to a temporary oversupply and lower prices. Another positive side is the successful expansion of the Pure Nature line under the Albert Spiess brand. This should be mentioned. I will now turn to the international segment on page 12. Our four foreign competence centers achieved sales of CHF 88.9 million, that is a growth of 19% compared to 2021. Thus, the share of the international segment amount to 28.3% of group sales.
Organic growth amounted to a pleasing 26.2% after a -2.9% in the previous year due to the corona effects. The foreign exchange effect amounted to a considerable -7.2% in the first half due to the strong euro devaluation. Culinor achieved double-digit growth thanks to new listings and innovations. The expansion of the consumer base and new listings of fresh menus are developing very positively. Casualfood has returned to growth and is seeing very good sales at its 42 open locations. Even though not all of the 60 outlets are open yet, we have noticed that the cash receipts are currently higher on average, even compared to pre-corona levels. This is certainly also attributable to the long waiting times at the airports and correspondingly, more time spent in the outlets.
We are also pleased with the setup and the launch at the new Berlin BER Airport, where Casualfood is represented with its new concepts, some of which have been specially created for Berlin. With 19 outlets, Casualfood is the largest F&B provider on site, and the terminal two at the Berlin Airport was also recently opened. The Smartseller flagship store in Ljubljana is developing well. The integrative concept introduced in the joint venture with Heinemann combines food and beverage, convenience, and the duty-free world. This concept, specially developed for small airports in Europe, has interesting growth potential. Gesa is still doing well in the B2B business.
The products are in the organic trend category, which generally performs well. Our French sales platform, Spiess Europe, is, as mentioned earlier, feeling the impact of the currently very high inflation rates in France and is currently under corresponding pressure with its high-quality premium products. On page 13, we see the details of the sales development. The increase in sales of 5.9% is made up as follows. First of all, we had no acquisition effect in the reporting period. Organic sales growth amounted to a good 7.7% and was, as mentioned, driven by the continued good performance of the convenience segment and the very good growth of international. More than half of the sales growth came from the increase in volumes.
The exchange rate effect was strongly influenced by the significant euro devaluation and amounted to -1.8%, which corresponds to CHF 5.3 million. We turn to the consolidated income statement up to EBIT level on page 14. ORIOR Group generated net sales of CHF 309.2 million in the first half of 2022, an increase of 5.9% year-on-year. Absolute gross profit increased by 8.7%, mainly driven by the comeback of Casualfood and overall growth of the group. Gross margin increased by 118 basis points to 45.7%, again driven by growth in Casualfood, with a gross margin well above the group average, as well as additional growth with high-margin products.
In view of the sharp increase in import costs, price adjustments are also essential. Negotiations with our customers are conducted on an ongoing basis and, due to the extraordinary situation, at a higher rate. Step-by-step price adjustments have been agreed since May. In total, a good part of the negative cost drivers could be compensated. EBITDA and EBITDA margin were slightly below the previous year at CHF 30.2 million or 9.8%. One reason was the significantly lower COVID-related support and aid payments from the German government, including the short-term work compensation. In H1 last year, we received a total of CHF 7.9 million compared to CHF 2.5 million this year. We have a gap of CHF 5.4 million.
Another reason was the situation around the massive increase in input costs, especially was very hard hit, and also the foreign exchange, the weak euro has also a small negative impact. Due to lower depreciation and amortization, EBIT amounted to CHF 17.5 million compared to CHF 17.1 million in the previous year. That means an increase of 2%. Accordingly, the EBIT margin was at 5.6% versus 5.9% in the previous year. I now go to page 15. Here we see the schematic representation of the main influences on EBITDA. In the first half of 2020, we had to accept a margin decline to 8.2% due to COVID. In H1 2021, we were able to increase the EBITDA margin to 10.6% above the pre-COVID level.
In addition to growth with high margin product ranges, the main driver of this improvement were the retail overperformance and the COVID-related support and aid payments from the German government, including short-time working compensations. Negative drivers last year were, on the one hand, the situation in the traditional gastronomy, which recovered only very hesitantly, the very subdued situation in the airline industry and also in the travel catering. However, EBITDA in the previous year was also adversely affected by the significantly higher absence rates due to the COVID. In H1 this year, we recorded significantly higher input costs, that means raw materials, energy, transport, and so on the one hand, and significantly lower economic support payments in Germany on the other hand as the main negative drivers.
Positive drivers include, on the one hand, the return of Casualfood to the growth path, and secondly, growth with high-margin product ranges and also the increase in the selling prices. The ongoing fitness program with cost and process flexibilization also helped significantly. I now turn to page 16 and thus to the consolidated statement of income below EBIT. Financial expenses increased mainly due to the weakening of the euro against the Swiss franc, that is higher exchange rate losses. At CHF 15.5 million, group profit before taxes was slightly below the previous year's figures of CHF 15.9 million. Income taxes changed only insignificantly. The Tax Rate was 16.1%, slightly above the previous year's level of 15.3%, but within the midterm target range of between 15%-19%.
The minority interest relates to Casualfood, that is the share that is not allocated to ORIOR. Net income attributable to the ORIOR shareholders amounts to CHF 13 million compared to CHF 13.5 million in the previous year. Page 17 shows the consolidated balance sheet according to Swiss GAAP FER. There were actually no particular changes in the balance sheet compared with the previous year. We recorded a temporary increase in working capital due to the strategic buildup of inventories in connection with the effects of the Ukraine crisis. The equity ratio at the end of June was 20.2%, which is above the 20% threshold that is important for us. The equity ratio, according to the shadow calculation that is taking goodwill into account, was at 36.6%. I now turn to Page 18.
Here we see the development of the debt ratio since 2013. Until 2019, the leverage ratio always remained below 2.5, despite various acquisitions. Due to Corona-related effects, the leverage ratio was higher in the short term at 2.87 in 2020, but was then reduced again to 2.44 as of the first half of 2021. Now, as of mid-2022, we were able to achieve a leverage ratio of 2.14 due to the good operating performance. In September, we will acquire the fourth and last stake of Casualfood of 11%. This will slightly increase the ratio in the short term, but it will still remain below 2.5, and we will continue to pursue a consistent deleveraging policy. The declared target of our leverage ratio is clearly below 2.5.
I turn to cash flow and dividends on page 19. Cash flow from operating activities reached CHF 26.7 million in the first half of the year, virtually the same level as in the previous year. Cash conversion was at a good 88.5%. As far as dividend is concerned, a slightly higher distribution of CHF 2.40 per share was again approved this year. This is also in line with the attractive dividend policy, which provides for a steady increase in absolute dividends. Since the IPO in 2010, ORIOR has always slightly increased the dividend in absolute terms. We have also committed ourselves to this attractive dividend policy for the future as part of our strategy 2025. We are proud of our shareholder base, which is characterized by long-term oriented and solid investors. With these words, I give back to Daniel.
Thank you very much, Andreas. We now turn to page number 20 for the outlook. We expect the broad-based organic growth to continue. In the second half of the year, this will be somewhat more strongly supported by the price increases gradually implemented in spring. However, we also expect volume growth to continue. The situation with regards to input costs is likely to worsen further, especially for energy and certain raw materials, and this also applies to inflation-related changes in consumer spending. At the same time, the event and catering industry is experiencing a new high since COVID. Current gastronomy has made a successful start into the second half of this year and is expected to be able to continue this trend. The retail segment is increasingly leveling off at the pre-corona levels.
Building on the good sales growth in H1 and the positive outlook for H2, sales guidance is increased to CHF 645-660 million. Page 21. Operating profitability in H2 will continue to be impacted by the total effects of the challenging environment. Thanks to good performance with higher margin categories and the sustained flexibilization of cost structures as part of the ORIOR New Normal initiative, the EBITDA guidance at 10%-10.3% for 2022 is confirmed. We expect the tax rate to remain within the expected medium range of 15%-19%. We also confirm the guidance of CHF 29-30 million for capital expenditure.
Our estimates are based on the assumption that the overall corona situation will not change significantly again, and that the global economic situation and energy supply will not deteriorate further compared to the current situation. We go now to quick outlooks of the segments. We go to page 22 in the convenience segment. I would like to mention a few points. First, as Andreas mentioned before, we should take into consideration that CHF 4 million of sales will move in second half of this year to Rapelli from the convenience into the refinement segment. Then we have an additional CHF 1.8 million sales that we will reduce because of the reclassification mentioned by Andreas. Then it will be completed. A very good news is about the catering event area. We got the order and we got the contract to cater SwissSkills.
SwissSkills is the central Swiss vocational championship in Bern, and we expect there within three days around 12,000 meals to be served from Le Patron. Another point, Happy Vegi Butcher, our vegan meat replacement brand, has found its way to Elvetino. Elvetino is the restaurant of our Swiss railway system. There you can now enjoy throughout all Switzerland a very nice vegan meal with Happy Vegi Butcher, and the logo is also printed on the menu. Let's move to page 23, into refinement segment. Two highlights here. One is definitely that Rapelli will go live with two on e-commerce platforms. One is a B2B, where we serve our B2B customers, and the second one is B2C to the consumers.
Again, here, the mentioning that the refinement segment will profit from additional CHF 4 million sales that they have taken from the convenience because of the closure of that one convenience factory and the movement of the product ranges to Rapelli. We go to page 24, and the international segment, and there I think Andreas mentioned before, we are very proud of the current development of Casualfood and especially the situation in the Berlin Airport. There definitely there was just opened two months ago, the second terminal, and there you just after passport control and security check, you will come into, we call it, Casualfood hall, because in this big hall, there are three main concepts from us where we cater to the public.
One is a Goodman & Filippo, the other one is a Hermanns that is focused on sausages, and the third one is the Beans & Barley for good, excellent coffee and beer. If you are in Berlin, try to get through on terminal 2 and enjoy a good time at one of our nice casual food outlets over there. Good. This brings me to the end of the presentation. One additional word. 30 years ago, ORIOR was founded in Vevey with the strategic mission to focus the business on the production of high quality niche food and beverage products. The road has not always been easy. In addition to many successes, ORIOR also had to overcome setbacks. A moving and really remarkable story.
We are celebrating our unique ORIOR in the context of a big food festival here in Zurich at the location of Puls 5 from August 30 to the first of September. All ORIOR competence centers will be represented there, and they will offer their specialties for tasting. We cordially invite you to participate and to dive into multifaceted world of ORIOR. In case you have not yet been invited or you have not yet applied for the invitation, please just contact Milena Mathiuet. Without any complications, we will invite you with pleasure. Therefore, we are looking forward to your visit to our 30-year ORIOR food festival here in Zurich. This is the end. Thank you very much for your attention, and we are happy to answer any question from you. Milena, please.
Okay. Thank you, Daniel. You now have the possibility to ask questions to the management. Please raise your hand if you have a question or just write it in the chat. There is no question at the moment. I can see no one raising their hand. I also have no questions in the chat at the moment. We wait for another moment. Yeah, well, I think there are no questions. I hand back to Daniel for the closing words.
Thank you very much, Milena. I would like to thank all of you for your time spent with us, going first through the half-year results. As said, if you want to enjoy one very decent and a huge variety of food, please join us in our food festival. Just send a mail to Milena. In that case, in that spirit, thank you very much. We would be happy to see you here in Zurich. Otherwise, take care, stay healthy, and all the best. Bye-bye.
Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.