Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Annual Integrated Report 2025 Media and Analyst Conference Call 2026. I am Sandra, the course call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants are in listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question from the webinar, you may click the Q&A button on the left side of your screen, and then click Raise Your Hand button. If you are connected via phone, please press star followed by one. For operator assistance, please press the Operator Assistance button on the left side of your screen, or star zero on your telephone keypad. At this time, it is my pleasure to hand over to Matthias Huenerwadel, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Also, a very warm welcome from my side. I know you're in the busy reporting season. It's wonderful weather outside. I very much appreciate that you took the time to be either here or to dial in into the call. Today, we'll do it like in the past. We'll give you an update on where we stand the next 30- 40 minutes. I'll do that together with René, our CFO. I will start first with a review of 2025. René will then dive deeper into the financials. Finally, I will talk about current market trends that we see and what that might mean for us. Let me first start with a review at a glance.
We had a very positive ventilation sales growth, 18%, and that means we first time reached the half a billion EUR sales mark. That was possible due to market share gains in most of our key markets. I think that is a very sound basis also going forward. This is not just how we anticipate or estimate the market, this is also how it is confirmed by statistics from local associations. I think also good for us to see is that the acquisitions which we made in the last few years are contributing over proportionally. The latest one was Siber last year, and also with Siber, we see that the original plans in bringing these products outside of their home market in Spain are progressing nicely.
It's not just Siber, it's also a company like Airia, which we acquired a few years back in Canada, which really is the sound foundation for sustainable growth in the North American market. Even the smaller acquisitions like a company Caladair for l ike Commercial, but Filtech, they're doing really well. A very important topic for us is to grow service business, and the people who attended the capital market, they know that we're really putting major efforts into that. Again, there, we made substantial progress in our initiatives, and we can say that service is really becoming more and more a relevant pillar of our activity. The same is true for indoor climate solution. Maybe I can refresh your memory.
Here, we're talking about air-based climate solutions, which can cool and heat at the same time with exchanging the air and bringing a good air quality into the house. That's a niche that we really want to become a dominant player in. There, we were able to really substantially increase growth. On the other hand, we have another activity, which is radiator, and it's fair to say that the pressure is on, it's market-induced, and obviously the focus there was a totally different one. It was about further adapting capacity and reducing costs, while at the same time, obviously maintain the operational strength. Let me look first a little bit more into the market itself. I think it's fair to say that the overall insecurity and uncertainty still weighed last year on our activities, and so we didn't see any broad recovery of the market.
That is true for both new build, but also for renovation. Just to give you a couple of figures, and they are from the latest Euroconstruct statistics from last December. If you look at the overall new build completions in Europe, they again went down 10% in 2025. Actually, the decline was stronger than the year before. Our two largest market, which is Germany and France, they are the taillights. Germany with -19% and France with -17%. Also U.K., Italy, Spain, other important markets, they did not show any growth. In the case of Spain, for example, the anticipation going into 2025 was very positive. When you see what actually happened, it was another decline of 3%. Even renovation did not show any recovery.
Renovation, actually, last year, was more negative than anticipated. Again, if you take Germany, for example, it was now in the fifth year, negative. This doesn't sound very positive, but at the same time, I can confirm that we see some pockets of recovery and some signs of a growth in certain regions. U.K., for example, and that is not new build related, but is really related to renovation and is regulatory related. Eastern Europe, Poland, for example, where the interest rates have come down and now it starts to slowly pick up. Also, Holland, and I will talk about it in the outlook, we see a positive development. The other important market for us is North America, and I guess there it was relatively stable. Not so much if you take the U.S. in terms of new build construction, that was also declining.
There it's for us about penetration. What we see is that the regulations are going in our directions, not across the total country, but in certain states, and that helps us. Canada is our core market for ventilation, actually was relatively stable, and again, there we were able to gain market share. We also have activities in China. China, it's fair to say that our traditional model, which we had until 2021 or until the COVID crisis, is dead. There we are really shifting to new pockets and have initial successes, but it will take time until we see there a substantial growth again. Again, radiator market, I mentioned that before, negative the market as such, and we also have that confirmed by first figures that are presented from our competition or published.
At the same time, and I think that's another element that we have to consider, we have a certain structural change in the market coming from more expensive products towards lower products, and Zehnder as a premium provider, obviously is very much affected by that. How did we do in that challenging market environment? I think we're reasonably satisfied, and I think we had a reasonably good year. Two markets, Netherlands and the U.K., they really showed a growth spurt. U.K. already explained, and in the Netherlands, I think it's fair to say that we were able to achieve substantial market share gain. Siber rollout, I also mentioned that before. We have initiated, or we have launched these products in markets like Italy. We have also launched them in the Nordic markets.
We're in the midst of launching them now in other European markets, and actually, we're ahead of the original business plan. The air-based Climate Solutions, yes, it's still a relatively small portion, but its first year that we achieved a double-digit sales turnover, and that represents a growth of around 80% in volumes, and I think that's a very good achievement, and we are very happy about that. Also the sales in North America, they grew, and that is in both market, in Canada and in the United States, and it has to do that we were able to secure new distributors for certain new regions, but also expand our sales team.
Finally, again, something that people are very familiar since our capital market day, whoever attended, we have that business which we call Clean Air Solutions, which is a service business for filtration of air in industrial environment. That is a steady contributor, and we again extended in new markets. We opened or we started sales in the Czech Republic. We also started sales in Spain and Hungary, we can anticipate a similar development like we had in the last few years. Finally, school business. That's a typical application for light commercial. That's an application where in various countries you have seen subsidies, for example, Germany. Unfortunately, we missed out at that time when this program was happening in Germany, we were able to participate in Ireland, where you also have now mandatory in every school, a heat exchange-based ventilation solution.
They're partially subsidized. I think that's for us, in that relatively small activity, is rather a breakthrough. At the same time, I mentioned services. We harmonized the service packages. We rolled them out all across Europe. We introduced new services, for example, tube cleaning. We also multiplied online trainings for our partner companies. We installed new academies like we have here in Switzerland, for example, in the USA, at the East Coast. Also in the UK, which just opened in January, in the Netherlands, and even in Norway. They're not at the same size like the one we have in Gränichen. It's really the location where we can bring in all stakeholders, educate them, and really bring the concept of good indoor climate across to the decision-takers.
As a consequence, we had a good growth in service, these efforts start to pay out. Finally, I think, we also received multiple awards. For example, in Switzerland, the Architects' Darling Swiss Edition, where we are now in the top three position for many, many years on a continuous base. Also another award, and I have to read how it is exactly expressed, the Solution of the Year 2026 for Renovation Award in France for a ventilation, new ventilation product. Also, the top 3 recognition for German Sustainability Award, which also shows that we're still believing in these efforts that we're doing on the sustainability level. Let's look at the radiator segment. Yes, there the focus obviously is a totally different one.
It's about adapting capacities, about cost reduction. As you know, we closed the factory in Switzerland, last year, and that is concluded. We also adapted the capacities in our other big plants. For example, in Germany, we're in Lahr, that's in the south of Germany, where we reduced as of 1st of January to one shift from two shifts. Also, it was a measure that we took in the tower radiator factories to really adapt our capacities to the market demand. What we're also doing all the time is to look at opportunities to outsource certain production steps. That is not necessarily a cost reduction, but it obviously helps us to flexibilize costs. We initiated a portfolio adjustment, again, to make it less complex, to ultimately also have a benefit on the cost side.
We need to do that without weakening the operations. I think with the closure of Gränichen, we have now no product that is produced in multiple locations anymore. We have one product, or every production is focused on certain products and gives us synergies, not just because of the cost base, but obviously also how we deal in the processes. We also launched a couple of new radiators, and we also launched a new immersion heater platform. That's the electronic element that heats the radiator for electric radiators, which is up-to-date design, but it's also in a new software platform. It's connectable. It is something where we obviously can really be on top also in that part of the business. Maybe just one word to the North American market. In the U.S., actually, the radiator business was rather stable, which is good.
There we have a relatively old plant. We have to obviously make sure that we maintain the plant, because we also see that that market is holding on. It's clear our transformation is progressing, and you see that we are now two-third ventilation business, and so we are really shifting from a component manufacturer, radiator as a component for a water-based heating system, towards a HVAC solution player in the ventilation and all the topics around it industry. Again, you see that the growth over the last few years, you know, average around 15%, we feel that is something that should be our ambition also going forward.
Now, maybe I can just show you a few reference projects to, you know, give you a feeling of the breadth of our offering and the relevance in different geographies, but also in different subsegments. What you see here is a development in social housing in the UK. It's just a first phase, and there are supposed to be many more coming. Our traditional product, the ComfoAir Q, was put in all the apartments. We also are in different segments, for example, in the luxury vacation home segment, and this is a complex in Colorado. Again, you know, to show that also good indoor climate is a big topic in the US market. I was just recently in California, in Big Sur, that's in between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
We were just installing ventilation in the spa of one of the most reputable hotel. That's the Post Ranch Inn. I didn't stay there. The night costs $2,700. I was told that when I was visiting, Brad Pitt, was staying there, because it's right in between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. It just shows that, you know, we're really the thought leader also in this particular market and segment. I mentioned schools. This is an example from Ireland, and you see, bottom right, the unit is different. It's a light commercial unit, it's obviously a topic that is not just an Irish topic, and many other schools... In fact, we know that pretty much all the older schools have that issue of bad quality of air.
They have a potential, and I think to have succeeded in that project is really a first step, hopefully of many more to come. A couple of flagship projects for the radiator activity. Last year, we were part of the renovation of the Waldorf Astoria in New York. You see the product on the bottom right. These are these flat steel tube panels. A very nice project, and obviously also a good reference for us. In Germany, the castle in Oberschleißheim, in Bavaria, where we have a typical application for our radiator activity. You see, the radiator is relatively large, it has to fit into that niche, and that's what we do, on spec, produce of what is needed for a renovation. Also a nice project because it combines 2 of our product offerings.
One side, the ceiling panel, on the other side, the ventilation. A sports hall with ceiling panels. You see them on top, these strips, which is again, also a very typical project that we handle in this activity. So much for the business review. René, I would ask you to do your explanations about the financials.
Thank you, Matt. Welcome also from my side. Let me now take you through the financials in 2025. We were able to increase our sales by 8%. Organically, it was 7%. In the first 6 months, it was 8%, and then in the second half of the year, it was 6% organically. Thanks to the clear sales increase, we were able to improve our profitability, so the EBIT adjusted is now 8.6% margin, and in EUR, it's EUR 65. That is an increase of 30% compared to the year before. We had EUR 1.8 million one-off cost that was related to adjustments in the radiate area production. Matt mentioned the one shift model, but also on the sales side, to reflect the declining market and volume development from our side. We had a strong focus on cash generation.
We were able to increase our cash flow, operating cash flow by 32% to EUR 80 million. That, I think, was a big focus to make sure that we can also pay back the syndicated loan facility. Net profitability, remember, in the year before, it was a loss. In 2025, we were able to achieve 47.8 million EUR, thanks to the better profitability of the business. Very important key figure is the Return on Capital Employed. There we have a clear improvement of nearly 7%, thanks to lower capital employed and the higher profitability. Let's have a closer look to the sales development between 2024 and 2025. 2024, the total sales was EUR 706 million. In the first 6 months, we had two M&A effects.
There were the disinvestment of the climate ceiling business, with a negative impact of EUR 8 million sales. The acquisition of Siber, EUR 20 million additional sales in the first six months. The second half was like to like, no acquisition impact anymore. On the radiator side, we lost EUR 13 million. In the first six months, it was only EUR 4 million, we lost more compared to the last year in the second half of the year. The opposite on the ventilation side, we increased the sales by EUR 62 million. In the first six months, it was EUR 30 million. We even had more sales in the second half of the increase compared to the first six months. There was a negative foreign exchange effect.
The first six months, it was more or less zero. Now in the second half, it was about EUR 6 million, mainly due to the weaker U.S., but also Canadian dollar. All our key financial figures improved. Just want to highlight the EBITDA development. The EBITDA adjusted increased 16%, and we were able to achieve a double-digit EBITDA margin again of 11.7%. Let's have a closer look to the two half years. In the first six months, the EBIT margin was 8.5%, and the second half it was 8.6%. We also need to consider, on one side, yes, we were able to grow, but we also continued to invest.
It's not the idea to squeeze out the lemon, it's to find the right balance between profitability improvement and to strengthen our foundation on the product innovation, but also to develop new markets, like in North America, like in South Europe, like in Eastern Europe, to make sure that we can further develop our business. From the ventilation side, the sales was EUR 248 million in the second half. That is less compared to the first six months, but that is the normal seasonality for the ventilation business. In the first six months, you have more working days on the construction side. The second half of the year, you have the summer break, and you also have the Christmas break, and that's why it's normal to have less sales in the second half of the year.
In both half year, we were able to increase our sales on the ventilation side. Organically, the first six months, it was 15%, and the second half of the year, it was 14%. The organic growth rate was very similar, the two half years. It was the opposite on the radiator side. There was a decline of 8% in EUR, and organically, it was 3% less in the first six months, and it was 6% less in the second half of the year. We still do the main part of our business in Europe, with more than 80% of the sales. There, we were able to grow 10%, and North America contributed about 15% of the total sales. There, we were able to grow by 4%.
On the left side, we see the main ventilation and radiator countries, the top five. On the ventilation side, Netherlands is clearly number one, followed by UK, Germany, Canada, and Switzerland. Also positive to mention is that except Canada, all of these five countries had a double-digit growth. Canada, local currency, was close to double-digit, due to the weak Canadian dollar, it was just a small growth in EUR. On the radiator side, all European countries were faced with a declining market environment and also a declining development from our side. The U.S., there was a small growth in Europe, also in local currency. Our two segments, ventilation. As mentioned by Matt, we're able to achieve the first time in the history, more than EUR 500 million.
To be exact, it was EUR 501.7 million sales. In euro, it was an increase of 18%. Organically, for the whole year, it was 15%, and again, the development was quite similar for the first six months and the second six months from the organic growth rate. Driven by Netherlands and also UK, we really had an extraordinary growth in 2025. The strong sales development supported also the margin improvement, so the EBIT adjusted, but there was no special impact in 2025, increased by 42% to EUR 62.8 million. From the EBIT margin side, it was 12.5%, so 2% increase from the margin. Again, it's always a balance at the end between profit realization and further investments in R&D, in market development.
On the radiator side, it's exactly the opposite build. We have a declining sales development of 8%, organically it was 5%. Also the adjusted EBIT decreased again significantly. Despite of a lot of measures taken, I would say to compensate the lower volumes. I would say we were able to compensate the lower volumes with cost measures, close of Grenchen, one shift model, also adoption of the organization. There was also pressure on the prices, so we had a negative pricing pack, which we were not able to compensate. The positive is, first 6 months, it was a loss, a small loss. The second half of the year, it was at least a small profitability, thanks to the different measures taken over the last few years and the impact of it. Cash.
Cash was a very important focus for us, we had an operating cash flow of EUR 80 million, and that was then that gave us the possibility to fully pay back the syndicated loan facility, which we used for the acquisition of Siber in 2024. We paid back EUR 60 million to the banks. CapEx was on a low level, invest about EUR 17 million. That's clearly below the depreciation level, and also there we were very careful and to manage that in a proactive way. Balance sheet. We still have a solid balance sheet, supported by the good cash generation and also our financial discipline, we were able to decrease our total assets.
We were able to increase our equity ratio from 51% to 59%, and again, we now have a net liquidity position of EUR 32.8 million, compared to a net debt the year before of EUR 11.8 million. Long-term development. Between 2022 and 2024, we lost sales and also profitability. Thanks to the positive development in 2025, we were able to change this trend, so we were able to increase the sales again and also the profitability. The picture looks different for the different segments, so on the ventilation side, even in difficult environment, between 2022 and 2024, where the market were declining, we were able to achieve a double-digit EBIT margin, and with a further improvement than in 2025.
On the radiator side, it's declining now since 2022, and despite of a lot of measures and, the reduction of the break-even point, we were not able to change the negative trend from the profitability side. Again, now 66% is ventilation and 34% is radiator, so the portion of the ventilation is clearly increasing all over the years. Thanks to strong cash generation, we also increase the dividend. We have a dividend policy to pay out between 30% and 50% of our net income. The board of directors proposes a dividend of 1.40 CHF, compared to 1 CHF the year before, that is an increase of 40% or a payback ratio of 36%. The dividend amount, if that will be approved, will be about EUR 70 million.
There will also be some changes in the board of directors. Urs Buchmann will not be standing for re-election. The board of directors will propose the election of Milva Inderbitzin-Zehnder as representation of the family. I would like to hand back to Matt for the outlook and the market development.
Thank you very much, René. Again, let's look at the market trends first. This is the guesstimate Euroconstruct new build completion, you see. Good thing is, it starts to change from red to yellow and partially even greenish, that just would like to highlight a couple of figures. First one, 2026, Germany, -10%, it's anticipated that Germany again, will have a decline. On the other hand, I think these are first positive signs, if you look at the new build permits in Germany, they actually went up by more than 10% in 2025. If you look at the -10%, and you compare it to the year before, actually, the year before, 2026, was still seen more negatively with -15%. Now it's -10%.
It's really a question mark, when will that end with us? Because we are late cyclical, but I think also in Germany, there is a certain light at the end of the tunnel. Another one that I would like to point out is Holland. You see the plus 16% I mentioned before. There is a massive lack of apartments, roughly 500,000 units, and it is one of the top topics also for the new government, which was just installed the other day, to make sure that there is now a start of building happening. It is clearly the anticipation that restrictions that were hindering will be eased. Will it's gonna be the 16%? I think that's a question mark, but definitely, a direction towards positive....
Spain, very positive, anticipated, was also for 2025, did not happen. I mentioned the issue there is really to find qualified labor. We'll see whether there is an improvement there. I would be still a little bit skeptical whether these figures are coming through. Nevertheless, you see that overall it goes in the right direction. That's also true for renovation. Germany, after now several years of a decline, is for the first time again anticipated at a very modest growth. Italy, which was lousy in 2025, that had also to do with certain subsidy programs that the government had installed before that, is supposed to stabilize. Similar is true for France. We believe that there is a certain recovery in the market. We also believe that this will gain momentum throughout the year as we go.
Longer term, the building codes, they are happening. We know that buildings close to zero energy standard will take more and more penetration in Europe. I think on the other hand, we also don't know whether we have additional insecurities, global topics that will affect that. Right now, there are debate in Geneva, Iran, and USA, and nobody knows whether that or what that will bring again in terms of insecurity. I think that's a fact. We have seen it in 2025, and we have to assume that will continue, price pressure, particularly also on the radiator side. If you look at the North American market, I think overall relatively stable. Different by segment, but I think there in the U.S., it's mostly the regulation that will support in the longer run.
If you look at Canada, it was stable in 2025, and we also anticipate to be stable in 2026. What I wanted to show you on that top, the bottom right graph, is the situation in China. What you see in the orange line, that's new starts. If you look at 21, take that as a 100%, we are now in January 2026, at a 25% level of what it used to be, just to illustrate that there's really nothing happening there. If you look at the green mark, these are completions, and logically, completions follow new starts, so completions, they will further go down. That's the reason why we are changing the business model there. We're venturing into new potential markets. One is light commercial.
I'm really happy that we were able to secure a framework agreement with the largest hotel group in China, it's the H World Group or H Group, and they're, for example, the master licensee of the Accor group. This is a relatively more stable business than what we used to have in the real estate development for big apartment buildings. Nevertheless, we cannot assume that we will have any support from the Asian or from the Chinese market. What does that mean for us? Yep, a slightly positive, more friendly market environment. I think, you know, these strong growth spurts, particularly in Holland and also in the UK, we cannot assume that they're repeating. I'm not saying that they're coming back down, but that, you know, that we have another jump to a next level, that's probably not realistic.
We have seen, we have several initiatives that we're working on. These are strategic initiatives. We're standing firm to those initiatives, they start to contribute more and more, and that should help. Nevertheless, in light of all the other, things around us, we stay cautious, and we'll also will not jump through hoops. We want to maintain the investments because we feel that we're on track, and we want to make sure that they pay out more and more as we go. Outlook, we don't want to give an outlook for the full year at this stage. We don't feel comfortable. We did it like last year. We plan to give you an outlook by, mid-year, when we have a better understanding of 2026 really brings to us.
I mentioned before, strategy is clear, and it's also clear that we stick to our course. We want to and seek expansion in North America. We also seek penetration in Europe, and we'll support that. This is in certain segments where we still see a bigger potential than in our traditional segments, for example, in multifamily homes, but also light commercial. The service business, we have 1 million units in the market in Europe. It's an addressable market that we really want to build up, and we have made first progress last year, but we'll continue on that. The acquisitions, we're constantly seeking new opportunities. All right, it's a little bit difficult to exactly predict when something like that can happen. Also on the renovation side, in terms of product offering, there are opportunities that we have not fully embarked on.
We believe that the growth that we have seen, also in a very challenging time in ventilation, proves that we are going in the right direction, and obviously, we want to stick to that and make sure that we can continue that. Now, if you look at our midterm targets, you see that we achieved the 4% if you compare it to 2020. Well, we say 5%. That is including all the issues that we had. Nobody's talking about Brexit, nobody's talking about COVID, nobody's talking about energy crisis anymore. In a very adverse environment, that's also including a radiator activity, which had a double-digit decline over the last three years.
In that light, if we do have maybe a little bit more stable situation going forward and more, a little bit better market environment, we believe the 5% are achievable. If you look at the EBIT, we are at least close to the bandwidth. That's positive. Again, you just saw it before. That is at a radiator activity around the breakeven point. If you look at Return on Capital Employed, I'm glad that we already hit north of our target with the 22% versus the 20% that we set out as our target. With that, I would like to move into the question and answer session, and I would like to ask the operator to give us the rules of the game.
Thank you, sir. Anyone who wishes to ask a question from the webinar may click the Q&A button on the left side of the screen, and then click Raise Your Hand button. If you are connected via phone, please press star followed by one. Back over to you.
Thank you very much. I suggest that we start with the questions here in the room. There's a microphone. Mr. Rosner, you already have it.
Okay. David Romer, Helvetische Bank. Thank you. At the Capital Markets Day, if I'm not mistaken, you mentioned that the radiator business, that you're looking at all options. Now, another three months and a few weeks have passed, you know, you have looked at options these last three months. Could you give us some insight, what you, what you were, you know, what the development is in that direction?
I can restate my message that I gave you during the Capital Market Day. Obviously, we're not happy with the situation, we are looking at various options internally now to really improve. I mentioned before, outsourcing is an opportunity, further reduction capacity is an opportunity. At the same time, product portfolio simplification is an option. It is also an option to obviously, you know, see what are other developments in the market. I think, you know, I'm not at the point where I can give you any more concrete information on that.
An option would also be, for instance, that this division would, at some point in the future, not appear anymore in European Dell.
Nothing is granted forever, so I wouldn't want to comment at this stage.
Okay. Thank you.
Martin?
I have a question on the general ventilation market. Obviously, we understand that you are in different niches, but I just think the new build situation that you showed is not really the best indicator for us to understand what is going on in the market. Like, for example, penetration rate of ventilations becoming more popular in several countries. What do you think generally, what did the market do last year in 2025? When you now say that 2026 looks better, you are referring to new builds. Do you also see that for the ventilation trend in general to continue?
First of all, I think we were able to gain market share, independent of what all the market developments were. I think second, yes, penetration is a topic. It's always a very difficult topic to answer because it depends per market, and it depends also partially per states or even communities. It is a fact, and I think, it was also mentioned at the Capital Market Day, that we see these regulations still increasing, and that is beneficial. For example, in the U.K., and this so-called Awaab law, that really helped in the renovation market to drive ventilation. Actually, a market that we never really targeted as our prime market. On how that will fall into place is really difficult to predict.
If you ask me, you know, what are the different elements, you know, what kicked in to what extent? I think, yes, we gained market share. Yes, the penetration is supporting us to some extent in certain markets, but I think new build, nevertheless, because you don't renovate a central or with a central heat recovery ventilation system in an existing building very easily, the new build still is a very strong driver for us going forward.
Perhaps one additional aspect, the portion of low energy house is increasing year by year. If you have a tight environment of a house, then the need of ventilation is further increasing. There's also a connection to our solutions that we offer if the portion of low energy houses is increasing.
Maybe, a second question. The margin in H2 for ventilation is always a bit lower than H1. You were alluding to that, usually sales is higher in H1. Are there other structural drivers that lead to lower margins for ventilations, like maybe a mix shift in the second half compared to H1 or not?
It's more a balance between, let's say, profit realization and investment. We also released some investments during 2025 with an impact on the cost structure in second half of the year. That means new developments of products, but also strengthen the footprint, for example, in North America, also in Eastern Europe. That at the end can also have a mark, margin impact.
Yes, thank you. Leonie from UBS. I have a question following to the radiator business. You mentioned some cost reductions this year. Can you maybe quantify or explain qualitatively if we could expect some more for next year? When you talk about portfolio adjustments, can you maybe explain what you refer to this? Do you refer that to that in terms of that you're cutting certain product lines or that you're cutting on certain regions or prioritizing more towards the US and shifting, doing some shifts there?
Why don't you start on the figure side, I answer the second part.
Okay. Perhaps from the cost measures, the last radiator was produced or shipped in October in Gränichen. That should also give us, I would say, more potential now in 2026 from the cost reduction side. There's a middle single-digit cost reduction in total, but that is not what we see in the P&L and bottom line, because we also have a volume decrease. There we have the impact from Gränichen, but we also have the impact from the one shift model in Lorch that was mentioned by Matt. That was introduced, but now we have taken out about 30 FTEs now in the first quarter, 2026. That should also support now that we have a lower cost structure.
First, we thought we can do it with short time work, but this model limits you in the flexibility. Now we have used the FTEs, that we have more flexibility in the 1 shift model. These are tools, and then, Matt, you can comment the portfolio adjustments.
One of the biggest challenges that we actually were facing in the second half last year was price pressure, and that obviously is related to overcapacity in the industry. Also, you know, not really a full understanding where competition is going. There was quite some change also in the competition. You know that Arbonia was acquired by Midea. Not really clear in which direction they want to go with that activity. If you look at Purmo, that's another big competitor, was acquired by private equity. It's really also a little bit of question on how, besides the market itself, you know, competition will behave.
I think, you know, what we can do ourselves, because, you know, if you come from, you know, being in a position where you can be everything to everybody and have, you know, I don't know, just give an example, 1,000 colors. Well, does that really make sense? Probably, you can cover it with less cost. That all costs money. Do you need all the product, the breadth of the product portfolio? Probably not. That's something probably that we really can do much more systematically, and we started to do that. That will take costs out on various levels and give us obviously certain opportunities.
On the cost side, it's the production setup, product portfolio, but at the end, it's also the organization where we made some adjustments as well, because if you have 30% less volumes, then you need to adjust the whole structure, not just the production footprint. It's an ongoing process to reduce the cost level. At a certain point, we also hope to get some support again from the market, and then we are clearly better positioned with a lower break-even point.
Thank you. Next question, you mentioned CapEx, with around EUR 60 million being defensive. Could we expect this to continue in this range next year as well, given that you're also continuing to invest into your innovations?
In 2015, it was EUR 70 million. There is an increase expected. We also have some consideration regarding capacity increase for ventilation. For example, the building in Zwolle is getting tight in Netherlands, which is our main plant for ventilation. The building is more than 20 years old without any expansion. There we see that we need some improvement also to optimize logistics flow. For example, we can just have 1 truck docks, so for in and out. In the morning, the suppliers can bring the products, and in the afternoon, we can ship the products, and we should do that in parallel to be more efficient. Just an example. We'll have additional CapEx, and those were the light commercial products that was mentioned by Matt a few times.
There we invest in new machines in our plant in Makó to make sure that we can fulfill the demand from the market side. There will be an increase in 2026, for sure.
Okay, thank you. Last question. On your slide of the outlook, you mentioned North America constraints. On the capital market side, you really detailed your U.S. expansion plans. Are those constraints a risk to those plans, or how should we think about this? How is maybe the U.S. and Canada different? I would probably understand that Canada is holding up more solidly as you are the market leader there. Can maybe specify that. How is expansion in California going? Is it also already picking up in Texas or not?
Okay, that was a lot of questions at the same time. I start in the beginning. No, we are positive about North America. Our foundation is Canada. In Canada, actually, we were able to also secure additional market share. Has also to do with some behavior of competition. One of our largest competitors, American-owned company, moved from Canada, their facilities to the U.S. Now, you probably are aware that Canadians and Americans or U.S. Americans don't see totally eye to eye. Actually, that helped us being now a local manufacturer for the local market. Also in the U.S., yes, it is not a opportunity-limited, but resource-limited topic, and you have to find the right distributor. You have to make sure that they have the qualifications. They have to know how to do that. That's a process that kind of takes some time.
We are well into that process in California, at the eastern coast. Texas is an uphill battle because you start from scratch. We were promoting our products in luncheons, but also at shows and also TV shows as, you know, that thing to have. You know, it will take time to get going on this topic. It's different stages at different states or different regions that we're focusing on. For example, Colorado, that's something we didn't really look at in the first phase, but we see that in all these vacation apartments, which are highfalutin people that own these apartments, there's actually an opportunity which we didn't think of. We also have to make sure that we are not diluting ourselves.
It's a huge country, and obviously, if you start it, you need to have the right installation services, you need to have also the right maintenance service. Otherwise, if it's not working, you're out.
Yes.
We have to be careful not to overstretch ourselves. Yes, we're progressing along the plan.
The expansion is also not for free, and we need to find the right balance, what we do in which phase.
Thank you very much.
Lota?
Just some question for clarification. One, Remo asked about radiation and the situation there. What do you see in the market? We know Purmo was bought, Arbonia was bought. Is anybody actually leaving? Also private equity, are they becoming more interested, less? What do you see there?
Well, so far we haven't seen any major player leaving, but we have seen some results of major player facing a similar situation. I guess that is probably the question that also Rene was hinting towards. You know, what will happen in a consolidation game, which in reality, if there is not really a market recovery, is a question of time. I think the big question mark that I have, because I also do not have these sources anymore, Purmo used to be public, Arbonia used to be public. We do not have the insights, neither on the financials, nor really on their plans going forward, and I guess that's a certain insecurity on top of what we used to have.
Okay, thank you. On the more positive side, Holland or Netherlands was a really strong market for you, last year. I understand it was a combination of two things: one, a fairly good market, but more importantly, also gaining market share.
Mm-hmm.
What is really allowing you to gain market share?
Well, I mean, we probably also have to say that in Holland we used to be dominant, and we saw new players, local players coming back up and, you know, we lost a certain amount of the market share. You know, it's often like that, the grass is now greener on the other side. It's also about, you know, the service and the quality. We were able to regain quite a substantial portion of the market. I think that is probably rather the truth than, you know, having just added additional market share from already a very high level.
The loss of the market share is also connected with the COVID situation, where we had a scarcity of components. The allocation to the Dutch market was lower than to other markets, and there we lost market share.
In theory, that could continue in 2026?
Yeah, it's always the same, you know. I mean, if you're already here to gain additional, it's a little bit more difficult, but definitely a market recovery or a market development will support. We're not aiming on losing market shares, that's for sure.
Then just to run as a follow-up on Leonard's question, CapEx, something like a 10%-15% increase in the current year, is it a reasonable assumption?
I know our depreciation level is EUR 24 million, and if you have a specific project, then it can also be more. We don't give a guidance for CapEx. We evaluate the project, and then we decide how to proceed.
Thank you.
I've just a follow-up question on the radiator segment. In the past, before COVID, you used to be well above EUR 300 million in sales, and now you organized your whole organization to leaner, less capacity, I guess. What is the actual utilization now, and what is the kind of max capacity you have with your leaner organization now?
Well, you heard that we are operating our largest plant in Germany at 1 shift, you know, obviously capacity is abundant. I mean, it's definitely, you know, running at a utilization rate which is too low. I think in France, the situation is now improved because we were able to consolidate the volumes out of Switzerland into France. There, actually, we saw a certain necessity to hire temporary people to, you know, during the ramp-up phase. It's different by plant, but we clearly have additional capacity that is left.
Let's assume and hope that we'll once come back to, let's say, above 300, then are you able to have to do this volume, with your organization?
Well, in terms of machine capacity, absolutely. In terms of people, obviously, you have to then build up again.
Yeah.
I think that is something that we could probably do relatively easy. I think, you know, the challenge is not in the direction that we see a tremendous recovery at this stage. The challenge is to make sure that, you know, with the lower volumes, we're able to make money.
We have to accept there's a structural decrease for certain product scope. It is not to be expected that we come back to the level that were two, three, four years ago. It's more to optimize if, in, for example, one shift model, considering the seasonality that we have, that we use the people through the whole year to optimize the production. Because you cannot switch between a one shift model with a two shift model, you need to have a full crew. It's very unlikely that we go back to a two shift model, for example, plant in Lahr.
Let's switch to the more optimistic segment, ventilation. With one eye, we always look at Volution Group, which has, I mean, you first time above EUR 500 million. What is the huge margin difference easily explained? Why are they just active in U.K. and no other markets, and you are more abroad in Europe and U.S.? What is the difference there, and how can you maybe pick up a bit?
Well, I mean, the question is not the first time that I received a First of all, it's a good company, huh? They're doing a very good job. Second, you know, I think we're moving in that direction, and our ambition is to obviously improve.
I think, again, it's also the question of how much money you put back into the business, and we really want to develop the business because we see there the opportunity for us as the growth driver. I mean, we had the topic of the U.S. before. Yeah, we're investing in new sales organization, but we're also investing in new products because I think it's absolutely key, we mentioned climate solution, to build competencies. Competencies in technologies that where we do not have them yet, that costs money. It's really to find the balance. Yes, you know, obviously the ambition is to go further in that direction. I hear Volution quite often as a benchmark. You can believe me. There don't seem to. Oh, there is one up here.
Yeah, thanks for taking my question. Just one left, actually. Since you're not providing financial guidance for this year, could you talk a little bit what kind of trading conditions you saw in the first two months, and to give us a feel for how your year started?
I mean, I can be quite honest, probably you have heard that in the industry. I mean, if you look at late 2025, you know, it slowed down early this year, I think I saw that also in some other companies. It started relatively late also into January. I mean, just to refresh the memory, the sixth of January, for example, was Tuesday. Germany is off. Many other countries were off. Actually, we had a relatively slow start into the year. We do not believe that this should be now the conclusion for the full year. I think, I mean, to answer your question, it stopped or it started to slow down relatively early last year and kicked in relatively late, and I think that is also confirmed by many other competitors and players in the industry.
If I understood you correctly, you were saying that due to the low number of working days, there was a bit of a slowdown?
It was definitely less working days, but I think it, you know, there are various factors, you know, construction sites. I mean, I think, you know, we should not over-dramatize, but it's something that we have seen in the results over the last couple of months. There are no more questions here, then maybe, I can ask the operator to take questions from the external audience.
Sir, so far, we have no questions from the phone and from the web.
Do we give it a few more seconds? Okay, I look back here into the audience. I mean, everybody is welcome to join for a small bite afterwards. We are here as well if there are further questions. I would like to thank you again for joining. I look forward to see you or to hear you mid-year again when we talk about the first half 2026. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.
Thank you.