Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the SIG Q1 2025 Results Conference Call and Live Webcast. I would like to remind you that all participants will be listen- only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time and press star one your telephone. Webcast viewers may submit their questions in writing via the relevant field. For operator assistance, please press star z ero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Samuel Sigrist, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us. Ingrid McMahon, our Head of Investor Relations, cannot be with us today, and Annie and myself will be hosting the call. The slides for the call are available for download on our investor website. The presentation may contain forward-looking statements involving risk and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those statements. A full cautionary statement and disclaimer can be found on slide two of the presentation, which participants are encouraged to read carefully.
With that, let me get started. We are pleased to report a solid start to the year. Q1 revenue growth at constant currency and constant resin was 3.2%. This is in line with our guidance of 3%-5% with growth weighted towards the second half of the year. This growth demonstrates the strength of our business model in the current market environment. This includes the resilience of our customers and markets, our multiple channels to market, including retail and food service, and our well-invested global footprint. Carton continues to perform well, except for China, which continues to be subdued, while we have seen further growth in bag-in-box revenues in North America.
The outlook for filler placements in 2025 remains strong, and we reiterate our expectation to place 60-80 aseptic carton fillers this year. Regarding trade tariffs, we currently foresee limited impact due to our in-the-region, for-the-region supply chain network. Import of carton sleeves from our Mexican sleeves plants into the U.S. are exempt from tariffs under the USMCA Free Trade Agreement. We expect to incur trade tariff charges on limited volumes between the U.S., the E.U., and China. However, we believe the overall cost is manageable and continue to expect, even if the European Union and the U.S. resume the currently paused tariffs, a mid to high single million euro impact for 2025.
During the quarter, we were delighted to be upgraded by Moody's to investment grade status, consistent with our investment grade rating from S&P, which has been in place for some time. We also successfully completed our 2025 debt refinancing, extending our debt maturity profile. Revenue growth at constant currency increased by 3.8% compared to the prior year. Given higher resin costs in bag-in-box and spouted pouch, which in most cases are passed on directly to customers, growth at constant currency and constant resin was 3.2%. Adjusted EBITDA rose to EUR 166 million, with the margin increasing to 22.3% from 21.5% a year ago, primarily driven by top-line contributions.
Net CapEx, including lease payments, decreased by EUR 19 million, reflecting the completion of investment projects in China and the U.S. in 2024. Free cash flow, which is usually lowest in the first quarter of the year, was EUR -90 million, an improvement compared to the EUR -101 million in Q1 2024. Net leverage was slightly above the year-end 2024 level, reflecting business seasonality at 2.7x . However, it has improved compared to a year ago when it stood at 2.9x . Turning now to the performance by region, Europe grew by 0.5% at constant currency for the quarter, compared to a strong prior year growth of nearly 6%. Aseptic carton experienced good growth, primarily due to the ramp-up of fillers that were still under installation in Q1 2024.
Revenue from bag-in-box and spouted pouch was adversely affected by lower sales of filling equipment during the quarter compared to the previous year. As previously mentioned, the sales of filling equipment in bag-in-box and spouted pouch can fluctuate from quarter to quarter. The region continues to observe a good pipeline for aseptic carton, bag-in-box, and spouted pouch filling machines. India, the Middle East, and Africa grew by 9.6% on a constant currency basis for the first quarter. This reflects a favorable prior year comparison, which was impacted by shipping disruption in the Red Sea. In addition, in line with our strategy to expand our presence throughout the region, North Africa experienced strong growth in the quarter, together with continued growth in India, where our new plant is ramping up according to plan.
We remain confident that IMEA can be the group's fastest-growing region, notwithstanding occasional quarterly performance fluctuations. We are also seeing good progress in the ramp-up of bag-in-box and spouted pouch filling lines placed in 2024. Overall, the region continues to win new filler contracts in liquid dairy and food in all packaging substrates. Revenue for Asia-Pacific on a constant currency basis was broadly flat, following a high comparable base of 8% growth in the prior year. We continue to gain market share in the region, including in the subdued Chinese market environment. Our growth in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia was driven by partnerships with customers who are winning in the market, as well as from new product launches.
In the first quarter of the year, we launched over 100 SKUs across the Asian markets. Approximately 80% of the launches were driven by our ability to provide flexible packaging sizes in order for customers to offer products at critical consumer price points. The remaining 20% of launches were based on our value-added packaging, such as being able to fill products with particulates. Revenue grew by 9.2% on a constant currency basis for the Americas region. Aseptic carton performed strongly in Mexico and in the surrounding countries of Brazil as we expand our presence in these markets. Bag-in-box revenue grew in the U.S. as the production challenges experienced in 2024 have been resolved, while the growth in the out-of-home dining market remained fragile.
This brings me to the end of my part of the presentation. To summarize, the first quarter showed resilient revenue growth and a solid financial performance. As stated in our full-year results presentation in February, we continue to expect the ramp-up of fillers in the second half of the year to support revenue growth. We also expect to benefit from our well-invested asset base, which will deliver greater operational efficiencies as production scales. Now I will hand you over to Ann to go through our financial performance.
Thank you, Samuel, and good morning, everyone. To begin, let us look at the Q1's adjusted EBITDA range. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter amounted to EUR 166 million, compared to EUR 155 million in the same period last year, leading to an 80 basis points increase in margins. The currency adjusted EBITDA growth was 6.9% for the period. The top-line contribution demonstrates a favorable drop-through driven by volume growth, mix improvements, and price increases. The modest benefit from raw materials is due to the timing of favorable hedging contracts in the first half of the year. For the second half of the year, we still anticipate a headwind. Production costs include ramp-up of expenses for the new aseptic carton sleeve plant in India and wage inflation. As volume expands in the second half of the year, given the typical pickup of revenue growth, we expect stronger fixed cost absorption.
SG&A reflects growth investment, including into digitalization and process improvements, as well as wage inflation. There was little foreign currency impact in quarter one. However, we expect this to have a negative impact going forward, given the recent strength of the euro. This is now the usual reconciliation between reported and adjusted EBITDA, just for information. Given the small difference, I would not comment further on this slide and directly move to the next one. Here we detail the reconciliation from profit for the period to adjusted net income. As usual, the largest adjustment to net income is the Onex PPA depreciation and amortization, which arose when the group was acquired by Onex in 2015. I would like to highlight that these intangible assets are now fully amortized, and there will be no amortization charge going forward in this bucket.
Turning to the free cash flow generation, the higher EBITDA contribution to cash flow from operating activities was offset by the phasing of tax payments. Cash outflows from net working capital remained relatively stable compared to the prior year, and as usual, reflected the payment of volume rebates. Overall, free cash flow reflected the typical seasonality of the business and was EUR -90 million, compared with EUR -101 million in Q1 2024. Net capital expenditures, including lease payments, were 7.9% of revenue and amounted to EUR 59 million, EUR 19 million below the level of the previous year. For the full year, we anticipate net capital expenditures, including lease payments, to be 7%-9% of revenue. The reduction in filling capital expenditure is driven by phasing, and we continue to expect the placement of 60-80 aseptic carton fillers in 2025.
Regarding net leverage and financing, net leverage at the end of the quarter was 2.7x , reflecting the group's seasonality, while showing an improvement compared with Q1 2024, which was 2.9x . We're very pleased with the successful placement of our EUR 625 million bond in March, with a coupon of 3.75%. This has extended our debt maturity profile and maintained access to diversified sources of funding for the group. The quarter-end gross debt position was impacted by this placement of the euro bond. Cash and gross debt are expected to reduce when the 2020 euro bond is redeemed in June. Following the repayment of the 2020 euro bond maturing in June of this year, the group's fixed versus floating debt ratio will be approximately 50/50. SIG has no further debt maturities until June 2027. Now let's turn to guidance.
We are maintaining our full-year guidance and guiding for total revenue growth at constant currency and constant resin of between 3% and 5%. In line with our usual seasonality, the adjusted EBITDA margin and free cash flow will be higher in the second half of the year. The adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be within a range of 24.5%-25.5%. This includes our expectation of a direct impact from current tariffs of approximately mid to high single million euro. As always, our guidance is subject to fluctuations in input costs and foreign currency volatility. This concludes our presentation, and we are very happy to take your questions.
We now begin the question and answer session. Anyone wishing to ask a question may press star 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 two . Webcast viewers may submit their questions in writing via the relative field. Anyone who has a question may press star one at this time. The first question is from Charlie Muir-Sands with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Just two from me, please. Firstly, on tariffs, setting aside the direct impact that you've helpfully quantified based upon what tariffs could currently be, clearly, I just wonder whether you have seen any impact on demand through potentially any consumers, particularly perhaps in China, reducing spending given uncertainties? Secondly, I just wonder, given you've now completed the refinancing, whether you had any change in view of your net financial expense costs for the year? Thank you.
Good morning, Charlie. Thanks for your questions. Maybe I get started with the first one, and Ann can take the second one. I mean, at this stage, and you can imagine we observed it very closely also with our local teams, I'm not in a position to say that we see these indirect impacts on demand. I mean, we see that the markets that were sluggish before, like China, continue to be sluggish.
The food service growth that we saw improving in the fourth quarter last year continues to improve, but I would call it a fragile growth. Let's see what's going to happen going forward. The other markets kind of are kind of we see demand levels on the level that we also saw in 2024. At this stage, I can't say that we see indirect impacts on demand. It's maybe a bit different if you consider also the current currency environment as an indirect impact, as Annie said before, but not on demand. On the next second.
Yeah, on the refinancing, we believe at this moment it's still a fair assumption to assume that net financial expenses will be approximately on prior year level, with the positives of underlying rates being offset to some degree by the higher coupon for the new euro bond.
Many thanks. Sorry, just back on demand, I forgot to add into my question. I just wanted to check because I think you originally indicated that you thought that H1 growth could be even potentially a little bit below 3%, and it has obviously come out slightly better. As we move into Q2, just on a kind of year-on-year basis, Q1 and Q2, are there any particular calendar effects that you think might have shifted demand at all, or do you think that the Q1 run rate is a reasonable proxy for the second quarter as well? Thanks.
Good. Thanks for the question, Charlie. No, I mean, our view has not really changed. We still expect the growth rate for H1 to be a bit slower and H2 to be faster, growing also as a function of just simply the installations that are underway and that will add more capacity that will then go through ramp-up in the second half year. Our view has not changed in that perspective. I mean, we are pleased with the solid start into the year, but also we would not read too much into one single quarter, but rather in thinking full-year growth terms and as we now started to split in half years. There, the view has not changed in terms of the growth profile. We expect sequential improvement throughout the year.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Next question is from Ben Thielmann with Berenberg. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hey, good morning. This is Ben from Berenberg. Thank you for taking my questions. A few from my side, if I may. The first one is on bag-in-boxes or the whole QSR/food service business. If we assume in terms of filler placement that you're going to place, let's say, 60-80 fillers this year, this only refers to aseptic carton fillers, right? Could you maybe help us a little bit in understanding how is actually the demand or the number of fillers being placed for the bag-in-box business look like over the course of 2025? Is it fair to say that it's going to be in line with what we have seen in 2024, or do you actually see that customers are somewhat hesitant or reluctant with the filler placements as of today given the environment? That's the first question. Thank you.
Thanks for your question, Ben. I mean, absolutely, the 60-80, that's related to the aseptic carton fillers, and that's where obviously, given the business model, we have good visibility and also feel comfortable to provide an indication as we believe that the numbers of fillers placed on a gross basis is an important KPI for future growth. We also talked about the cross-sell wins on the full-year announcement for bag-in-box, spouted pouch, and to a smaller degree, also there were carton fillers in there.
You might recall we showed a number of 39 cross-sell deals. This is only the cross-sell, not the entirety of it. That was a composition of nine that we did win in 2023 and 30 in 2024. I do not view the 30 as the kind of the run rate how you can expect us to bring home such cross-sell wins. If you look at on an average basis with the 20, even if you do not get to the 20, I think that would be a very, very solid number, just to give you some flavor around lines that we expect to place or to win.
Okay, that's very clear. Thank you, Samuel. The next question would be on revenues generated from Europe. I know it was a tough comparison base given that you were growing by nearly 6% in Q1 last year. I was wondering, do you see any impact on your European revenues given the lower milk supply actually coming into the market? I know it's early in the year, but if I look at the amount of milk coming basically from European farm gates into the market, it seems to be down low to mid-single digit in Q1. I was wondering if that is something that could impact European growth throughout the year, or was it really mostly that Q1 was a tough comparison base?
Yeah, I think in the case of Europe, obviously, the entire last year is going to be a tough comparison, right? As we basically grew Europe last year in every single quarter with 6%. That, as you recall, was a function of, yes, there was an elevated level of raw milk supply, especially in the first half or the first three quarters. It was also simply on the back of the share gains that we had. We have a good visibility on equipment that is under installation that comes on stream, and there will be further installations in Europe also this year.
That's where we said already when we talked about the guidance for the full year that we expect Europe to continue to grow also in the year 2025, but more in line with what we saw in the past, you know, this low single-digit percentage growth. That's a composition of mainly share gains. We talked already at the beginning of the year that price plays a moderate role. This year, it's more about volume growth, and that view hasn't changed. I mean, if you look to the raw milk production, there are always different views from obviously cheese to powder to the drinkable milk. From this perspective, we haven't seen now a drop. We were pleased with the start of the aseptic carton in Europe.
Okay. Okay, that's very clear. One last question, then I go back into the queue. It's regarding the legal overhang. You mentioned it in the last earnings call. Is there maybe any update now, considering that you also had your AGM? Any update on that topic in general?
There is not really an update. I mean, you're familiar with arbitrational proceedings. They take their time. At the point of time when we have a result, obviously, we have clarity. Our determination hasn't changed. I don't think the AGM is related to these arbitrational proceedings. From that perspective, there's not much more that I can tell you now, Ben.
Yeah. Okay. No, that's fine. Perfect. Thank you, Samuel. That's it from my side.
Thank you.
The next question is from Pratik Manvi with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, Samuel. Thanks for the call and for taking my questions. I just wanted to talk a little bit about currency again. Can you just remind us of the sort of the sensitivity to the stronger euro that you have? The second question, maybe less to do with the consumables, but more around the filler machines. I mean, if I think about it very simplistically, and apologies if it's too simplistic, but basically, these are euro-costed or Swiss-costed, fairly expensive machines for most of the rest of the world.
Do you think this could have an impact on your ability to place or to price these machines and to put them in? I also know you price the machines based on a proportion of upfront, but also how much people will pay you for consumables. It should, I think, impact your costing for consumables as well if that's gone up. Maybe, is that the right way to think about it? Is there anything I'm missing here? How much of a headwind could the stronger euro be? Thanks.
Yeah, maybe let me start maybe with a breakdown of our revenues by currency. Our dollar-denominated revenue is approximately 30%. Euro-denominated revenue is a bit more, 35% probably. Other currency exposure that we have is Brazil, China, India, Thailand, I would say, the most important currencies. If you look at the bottom line, the EBITDA sensitivity, I would say roughly 1% appreciation of the euro against all currencies around the world would mean a 10 basis points margin headwind.
I mean, that can vary depending on the quarter and the revenue composition, of course, of the quarter. Of course, it would mean that all currencies need to move in the same direction at any point in time. I would say that is very much the sensitivity. If you believe that we would stay at the current spot rate levels, of course, that might have an impact then on our margin outlook for the full year. We would probably then rather find ourselves at the lower end of our guidance range if everything stays as it is today.
On your second question, it's correct that some of our equipment is assembled, built in Europe, and obviously also the input costs are euro-denominated. Also, don't forget about the fact that especially the single-serve machines are manufactured in Asia, whereas also some bag-in-box and spouted pouch fillers are produced in the U.S. There are other input cost factors. Of course, for those assembled in Europe, we feel that. I think if you step back, if you look at the total cost of ownership over the 6 years-7 years of the initial lease term, there basically the equipment costs don't move the needle. It's mainly about the consumables. The consumables, as discussed before, we have the in-the-region, for-the-region approach, where we also, by now, with local extrusion in place in most of the regions, can source locally and that we have a better input cost function then as a result of that.
Okay. Thank you. That's clear. Thanks very much.
Thanks, Pratik.
The next question is from Alessandro Foletti with Octavian. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Samuel and Ann. Thank you for taking my questions. Can I ask you a couple of geographical questions? Maybe first of all, on shale, can you say if it was down in Europe and how much?
Yeah, I mean, you recall we had often the discussion whether we have soft comps or weak comps for share for last year. We said, no, not really for Q1, as there was a bit of a normalization effect in there. We still also have to look at how end markets improve. Overall, I would say we were positive at the start into the year. We obviously give more quantitative updates in the half year. The carton was the fastest-growing substrate, speaking globally. More specifically, bag-in-box and spouted pouch in Europe was a drag because there were still one-off machine sales in last year's basis that did not repeat. Consumables, we were pleased to see the progress. We had a good start into the year in North America.
Do I understand correctly that maybe in Europe it was down, but in America it was up, shale specifically?
Yes.
It was up also very significantly because otherwise you would not have come out with this 9%. Or was corton very strong in Latin America?
Yeah, I think carton had a good start into the year. I said it before on the call already. In Mexico, we saw a good start into the year. We're very pleased with that. That also across South America in the markets that we have now built out our presence. I would say carton had an equally strong start into the year in the Americas.
Okay. Okay, good. Let's leave it at that. Maybe in Asia, particularly in China, I thought I would have expected sort of a weaker start. What happened there? I thought that you have indicated that China would have been more negative?
Yeah, I mean, for us, obviously, it's difficult to assess how the Chinese market recovery is going to pan out, right? I mean, we all saw that there were some announcement stimulus. We don't see them happening on the ground yet. We are carefully monitoring also consumer confidence and obviously consumer behavior. At this point, it might have been a bit better than what we expected given that we saw the strong Q4 last year. Overall speaking, haven't seen yet the sentiment shift that brought Chinese demand back.
Okay. And then maybe the last one, when I look at IMEA, do I get it right that maybe the Middle East was weakish?
No. I mean, obviously, India is an important factor in there, but so is also the Middle East. Already last year, we saw a stellar performance also of the Middle East, as you said, that especially also some GCC economies did hold up well or improve well. That continued into this year. I mean, we were very pleased with this start into the year. I wouldn't be surprised if Q2 may be a bit slower, but for the full year, we really think that IMEA is going to stay the fastest-growing region.
Okay. Maybe if I may, the last one, how much debt now is still variable, so to speak?
Yeah, I tried to explain in script, I would say 50/50 after June when we have done the repayment of the 2020 bond approximately.
Okay, 50/50 of the whole gross debt will still be variable. Is that correct?
Yes.
Okay. $1.5 billion?
50%.
I mean, it goes down when we do the repayment, and the gross debt will be lower after the second quarter. Then the ratio will be 50/50 again.
All right. Okay. Now I got it. Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from Ioannis Masvoulas with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. First question for me is on IMEA, where revenue growth was again very strong. Can you give us a sense on the proportion of India in the EUR 100 million revenue you reported for Q1? And I'll stop here for the first one.
Yeah, we do not really break out India from the IMEA segment. I would say we were pleased, as said before, with the start into the year with both markets. You still can imagine that India coming from a lower base given the recent market entry and that the Middle East and Africa is the big lion's share of the revenue in there. India remains an important driver to growth.
Okay, very clear. Second question on CapEx, which was fairly low in Q1. Shall we expect some catch-up from Q2, or could we end up towards the lower end of the guidance range for the year?
I think so this was 7.9% as a ratio for the first quarter. We believe also that for the rest of the year, we're going to be in the range that we guide for, the 7%-9%. At this moment, too early to say whether we want to, at this moment, we don't want to narrow the range much more.
Got it. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
The next question is from Manuel Lang with Vontobel. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I have a follow-up on the tariffs. I am wondering if you see any front-loading already taking place in March, but also maybe April this year so far, or maybe in other words, can we still expect a similar top-line improvement for the second quarter as with the first quarter? That's my question.
Thanks for your question, Manuel. Yeah, I mean, the short answer is no, we don't see this front-loading. Maybe the background is also, as we said on the script, the volumes, the trade volumes that might be exposed to such tariffs, they are basically between continents. That is also given that we have to ship the product with a certain lead time with vessel across the ocean. That is not really practical or even feasible to do some front-loading. I think that is one factor. Overall, as I said, there is limited exposure there. From that perspective, we haven't seen that.
Okay, thank you. Maybe a second one, also on CapEx, but singling out the gross filler placements, the CapEx were down - 40% in the first quarter. Can we expect a more similar level to 2024 for the rest of the year, or will there change the ratio between PP&E and filling line CapEx? Just these two items separated. That's my second question.
Yeah, I would not really now guide on the sub-levels for CapEx, but really leave it to the 7%-9%. Of course, considering that we say we are going to confirm the 60-80 filler placements also for the year, I think you can deduct from this that the share will probably be a bit higher now going forward.
Okay, thank you. Very clear.
Thank you.
The next question is from Pallav Mittal with Barclays. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a couple of them. Firstly, on the cost side of things, your liquid paperboard cost inflation, you were highlighting around low single-digit inflation in 2025. Is that in line? You also mentioned raw material headwind for the second half of this year. Can you just talk about the various cost items with respect to polymers, aluminum, etc.? That's the first one. Secondly, just very quickly on your 60-80 new fillers in 2025, can you give us the geographical split, specifically how much is Europe and then India in the IMEA segment?
Yeah. Let me start with the material cost overall. Let me comment on the full year. There is no change really to our outlook. As we said, exactly, liquid packaging board would have, driven by the multi-year contracts that we have, and the defined price adjustment formulas, will have low single-digit adjustment year- over- year, basically as always. That splits also equally across the quarter. For the other two important raw materials, polymers and aluminum, as always, we have a hedging in place, which covers a bit more than 50% of the spend.
That is exactly where my comment also falls in line that I made during the call or during the script, which is that we had favorable hedging contracts, which improved the result on that front. That will not cover us probably in the second half of the year. Then again, also let's see how those input costs will develop overall for the second half of the year. I wouldn't be too negative on this front at this moment. Overall, the full year outlook, and with this H2, of course, more affected, will be slightly negative still. No change, basically, compared to what we said before.
Yeah, and on the 60-80 filler placements, I mean, without giving you specific numbers on the various geographies, because obviously not all of that is locked in yet. As we already said in earlier calls, we see solid pipelines across all geographies where we operate. In Asia, India, Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. I think also as IMEA is going to be our fastest-growing region from a consumer perspective, I think we're going to see another nice number of filler placements also in the year in that region, which further supports the growth in the coming years. I think when it comes to the other three segments, I would almost say from a two-day perspective, all the magnitude equal weighted. Again, that can change. That also comes down to do customers kind of adhere to their own timeline in terms of execution of this project. That is why we do not want to give specific guidance for the segments.
Sure. If I can just follow up quickly on the litigation with Laurens Last, I know there's no specific update, but can you just give us some sort of timeline or understanding of the next steps here?
Yeah, I understand the question and the desire to get more clarity there, a desire that we actually also share. Also with our lawyers, when we discuss timelines, I mean, it's difficult to predict such an arbitration proceeding and pin it down on the timeline. I mean, the good thing is, and that's, I guess, why people choose arbitration as one of the dispute-resolving processes. It has an end, right? Not that you can go through multiple levels of appeal. I can't give you really a specific timing.
Sure. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from Ravi Ephrem with Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. Two questions. First, sorry to bang on about tariffs, but you've given the financial impact if the current tariff rates are maintained. Is there any clauses within your contracts with customers, especially on your annual fixed-price ones, to pass on cost increases due to tariffs to the sleeves that you sell to customers? Is this like a worst-case scenario, or is there some kind of clawback mechanism within your contracts that you could invoke? Secondly, on the filler placements, can you give us a sense of the carton and bag-in-box fillers by geography in terms of is there any particular geography where it is particularly weak versus some regions where it is particularly strong? Thank you.
Thanks for your questions, Ravi. I mean, on tariffs, yes. I mean, in general, we look at tariffs as an input cost. And as you're familiar with our pricing, where we discuss normally around the first quarter of a given year prices with our customers, we look at all input costs, and that also includes tariffs. I mean, you have seen back in 2022, 2023, and even obviously during the year, there were some significant cost escalations, especially in Europe, that we had taken action. But generally, we discuss prices with our customers once a year.
Now, in terms of your second question, where are we going to place the fillers or how we see the demand panning up in our filler pipeline on the aseptic carton, as I said before, really across the geographies, we still remain very pleased on the fast-growing IMEA, but all the others also very solid, especially Southeast Asia as part of Asia. When it comes to bag-in-box and spouted pouch, also there, we do see that our enablement of the teams in the emerging markets, where SIG did not have a presence before, has worked. We do see strong pipelines also there. Also there, I would say, really almost equally spread across the different segments, we see opportunities.
Thank you.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, you may press star and one on your telephone. We have a follow-up question from Alessandro Foletti with Octavian. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Regarding the litigation, I take it from your answers that there is no intention or possibility to maybe also make an out-of-court deal, speaking with the other party and agree on something.
I mean, I can't really comment on that. We are in these arbitration proceedings, Alessandro, as you're familiar with. You know our determination is very clear. We follow the process now. As soon as there's a result to be communicated, we will be out there.
All right. Okay. Maybe a final question for me regarding Brazil. You did not really mention, you said Mexico was strong. I wonder if there is any effect from inflation there. What I understand is that inflation in Brazil for goods, any type of goods, including food, is enormous. Do you have any impact on your demand? Do you see anything?
No. I mean, I would say Brazil falls into the same basket as kind of many markets in this world where we still see the consumers struggle with the inflation that we saw over the past couple of years. I mean, yes, Brazil saw all this inflation. I do not recall a year where we did not see inflation there. And consequently, almost every single year, we had pricing measures. I would say it is kind of the similar muted end market demand that we see also in many other markets in this world.
Okay. Good. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question is from Jörn Iffert with UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my questions and good morning. I would have three, please. The first one is to come back on some statements you made already. If I remember correctly, H1 2025 organic sales were supposed to be below the full year guidance. Has this changed now? Just to double-check how you think about the momentum currently. I will take the questions one by one if it's okay.
Absolutely. Thanks. Good morning, Jörn. No, that view hasn't changed. We still expect H1 to see an H1 slower growth than what we're going to expect for H2. As I mentioned before, that is also a result of the fillers that are going to come on stream in the second half of this year, and they're going to go through ramp-up. I mean, we don't guide, obviously, on half years and especially not on quarters, but we wanted to manage expectations when we started into the year. That view hasn't changed. You're also familiar with our guidance for the full year, which is 3%-5%, which is our way to say 4%, which we consider the low end of the midterm guidance. We said most likely in the first half below, and there is an opportunity to be above in the second half. That view hasn't changed.
Sure. Thank you. The second question is, please, on the filler placements. Can you give us a little better feeling for what kind of end product this is really? Is it for small-sized packages where you can fill in particles, or is it fillers your competitors are also offering? Just to have a little more feeling on the exit end product.
I would say the majority goes into dairy and dairy-near applications, including also dairy alternatives from an application perspective. Then we have probably that's more than half, and the remainder is probably equally split between food and non-carbonated soft drinks. From a volume perspective in Asia, we continue to see, just given the price points in the markets, there is a higher demand for single-serve, although we saw over the last couple of years that we placed every single year a bit more liter machines. There is obviously also buying power is growing in Asia, and price points or the opportunity to position certain products at different price points. In Europe and the Americas, where the liter format is a very established format, I would say just ballpark, it can be within these two geographies. That includes Middle East, the more established part of Middle East, can be half-half between single-serve and liter.
Thanks a lot. The last question, please. On your equity-to-cash flow run rate for the full year, has anything changed? Has your view changed? Can it be similar to last year, plus-minus? To double-check this, please.
Yeah, I think same seasonality, big picture as always. First half will be negative, and then second half will be stronger. Q4, as always, has the strongest quarter. I would not see at this moment any need to come up with any new guidance here.
Understand. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
We have a written question from Riff Yannick with Zürcher Kantonalbank. Has the new Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ola Rollén , provided any new strategic inputs, or will the current corporate strategy remain largely unchanged? Sorry.
Yeah, obviously, we are super pleased to have Ola now on board. Obviously, he was elected now in the AGM in April. We are going to have the first formal board meeting now coming up. I think we should give him some time to get familiar with the business. He has spent already a vast amount of time ahead of the AGM for onboarding and had visited sites. That process continues. We go through the strategy process as we do once a year with our board. In this stage, we are still in the onboarding phase. Let's give the gentleman and also the other new board members some time to get familiar with the business.
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