I'm eager to hear from Mayr-Melnhof, and this is the cartonboard company, as the name already suggests. Stephan Sweerts-Sporck, Head of Investor Relations, will run us through the presentation and will enlighten us that Mayr-Melnhof is so much more than just cartonboard. I'm happy to hear about your presentation. Just the bookkeeping, the usual comments. The presentation will last 15-20 minutes. We will have time for a 10 minutes Q&A. The presentation is being recorded, and questions can be asked using the chat box at the bottom right. Given the time constraint, I would like to hand over to you, Stephan. The floor is yours.
Thank you very much, and a warm welcome to the audience. Thank you for joining this presentation of the Mayr-Melnhof Group. I've been with this company now for 30 years. It has been an exciting journey, and it's continuing. It's a basic business, which we are covering here at Mayr-Melnhof. You're in touch with our products on an everyday basis. We have set up three divisions, which you see here. One is a food and premium packaging division, which produces basically what you find in the supermarkets. Well, I can't take that here in the video, but you find it on the shelves every day. It's cereal boxes. It's kind of whatever, frozen food, et cetera. All the wrapping around can be by Mayr-Melnhof. We have a specialized packaging part, which is concentrating on pharma and healthcare packaging.
This division was built up from a major acquisition in 2022, where we bought a big packaging group, which runs 20 plants in Europe and the U.S. Last but not least, I would say the origin of the company is board and paper. Board and paper is covering the production of the raw material of boxes. We are not in the corrugated material container boxes, which you know from brown boxes, from Amazon, from whatever heavy load boxes. We are actually producing cartonboard, which has a nice wide surface, which can be printed on, and which is the raw material for food and packaging for pharma, et cetera. Very important, we are market leaders in Europe in all of these activities. Our company is also partially family-owned.
It comes from a, I would say, a very old family, big forest owners, which made their first fortune in the steel industry in Austria. I would say, look forward to go into a more, I would say, industrial part around the product of cartonboard, 60% owned by family. If we move to the next slide, you see the split up and the weight of these activities in our group with the date of the end of last year.
You see basically that Board & Paper on the sales basis, it has a similar weight, around 40%, and the junior brother is still Pharma and Healthcare, Pharma and Healthcare Packaging. When we look on the profitability, currently, the Food & Premium Packaging, so the daily consumer goods packaging, has the highest weight in profitability, followed by Pharma Healthcare, followed by Board and Paper and Pharma Healthcare.
The total group size is about EUR 4 billion, and we have about 13,000 people, and we operate 60 locations. We come to the locations soon, just to give you a brief overview how these activities are interlinked. I told you we're producing, on the one hand, the raw material, on the other hand, we are processing the raw material to boxes. Since the board and paper division by volume is much, much bigger than the packaging divisions, we sell only 50% of our output to the brothers and sisters. For them, 40% is sourced internally. Why not more? Well, sometimes the customer says, "Well, don't buy everything from Mayr-Melnhof." In several cases, we have also raw material which we do not produce internally, which is a very high-grade Scandinavian cartonboard.
Last but not least, we are globally active and therefore can't buy everything or don't buy everything from Europe. When we look on the footprint, well, our business, packaging, has to be close to the customer. You can imagine that the box should not travel around the world. It can travel about 500 km-700 km economically. We have to be quite close to the customer.
Once the raw material, the flat cartonboard product like paper can travel longer distances, about 2,000 km, and even we can export out of the country. When we look on our geographic setup or the sales by region, you see when you think and consider Mayr-Melnhof, you think of a European market, a European-based company. 80% of our sales is Europe. However, we are also exposed to the rest of the world, particularly to the U.S.
When we look at the number of plants, well, I would say here in cartonboard, the number has not changed from the past year. In Food & Premium, we have been bigger. We sold the business, which was called Tann. Tann produced tipping paper for cigarette filters, and this was considered to be an adjacent business to our packaging business for some time, for five years. We exited this business in the middle of last year. Therefore, a lot of our figures which we reported for 2025 are influenced by the sale of a big EUR 200 million activity by mid-year. Last but not least, at 2024 Pharma and Healthcare plants, it's quite a fragmented structure. We closed one of these plants, we sold one plant.
It's, I think, a permanent selling and restructuring, buying, closing, selling in order to become more competitive. That's a bit, I think, the story around Mayr-Melnhof for years. We buy companies in order to increase scale, concentrate the business on the best operations, and try to increase our market share in the long term. What did we do in the years? Because in the past years, we had a quite capital-intensive industry.
We sharpened our focus on growing markets, so we entered virgin-based cartonboard. We have been a player highly focused on recycling cartonboard in previous years, and we entered pharma packaging. This was already all happening about five years ago. We doubled the company in this stage 2021, 2022. We divested, on the other hand, small non-performing businesses, low-performing businesses and non-core, which was also the Tann Group in Q2 2025.
On the other hand, we have had quite an intensive reinvestment, upgrade, efficiency, quality, sustainability investment phase between 2021 and 2023. I have to say that in the current state, we have a very well-invested asset base and therefore I would say the CapEx requirements are on a steady and normal base in the current time. When we look on the effects on our balance sheet, certainly this acquisition, this doubling of the group in 2021, 2022 was costly. On the other hand, you will see that we doubled sales and have, on the other hand, I think quite a phase of structural pressure in the overall market because we are big. Well, we are very, I would say, competitive.
On the other hand, I would say, we saw that our market, due to the cut-off from the Russian sales, due to, I would say, heavy investment by Scandinavian competitors and, I would say, the overall weak economy in Europe has somehow put quite a strain on the Board & Paper activities. I would say we are out of the trough, as you see in 2025, and we are continuing, I would say, the long-term improvement. That's, I would say, very important to note that the company is highly competitive and takes a lot of internal measures currently in order to improve. I would say structurally, we have deleveraged the company. The equity ratio is higher. Net debt has come down. All on the way to stabilizing and strength. What is the goal and challenges 2025 and beyond?
I think our position is very much on market technology, innovation leadership, enhancing competitiveness in a market which sees overcapacities and heavy competition. We have, for this purpose, launched a program which we even, I would say, said it would be EUR 150 million savings by 2025, earnings improvement by 2027, and now we could even say due to the success, it will be more than EUR 25 million.
This is, I would say, a savings earnings improvement program, which you might see with several companies in these days who are, I would say, affected by the ongoing, I would say, cyclical industry situation in Europe. We are positive we can achieve. However, this rules out the market effects and therefore I think it's very interesting now to see the math, how much we can bring down to the bottom line, and at least, I would say, to be faster than competitors.
Let's move to the next slide. Well, 2024 development is behind us. However, we can take some messages into the current year. I think it's this Fit-For-Future program. It's the strength of the balance sheet. It's a new kind of dividend policy where we say 40%-60%, depending, I would say, on the financial situation, on CapEx requirements, the outlook, and also on continuity. With this in mind, we could increase the dividend per share from EUR 1.8- EUR 2 for the past year. We will get approval by the forthcoming shareholders meeting coming Wednesday. The day before, on Tuesday, we will release our Q1 results. Therefore, just can't tell you everything, but you will have shortly an update, but I can tell you we are working on a, I would say, steady line.
No, I would say, surprises to be expected from the Q1 side. When we go into the results, I think you can read them. We had last year what was, I would say, an extraordinary income from the Tann sale. On the other hand, we had an impairment on an asset in MM Board & Paper. Therefore, I would say in the current state where we have a very highly competitive environment, the projections of our cash flows have always to be, I would say, looked at very carefully and risk assessed.
Hopefully, we're not obliged to do anything in this direction anymore, but we never can rule out. When we look on the three divisions' development, I think the Food & Premium showed a high level of resilience all through the time. Was it COVID time? Was it economic, I would say, turbulences?
The consumption of food, of daily products is, I would say, quite a safe product. On the other hand, we see some shifts certainly that people save also on daily consumer goods. We have not seen that so much in previous years, but I would say a shift from branded products to so-called private label products. We are in both of these end markets. Nevertheless, I would say, this market is currently not very much growing, and we try to, I would say, get in good business and good new business. On the other hand, you see, even with the divestment of TAN, we could stabilize our margin and that's our goal to do so. Here it's kind of keep on a good margin return on capital employed 14%-15% in a very competitive environment.
You can see, well, our customers, the retailers, they are quite, I would say, demanding customers because they are big and the consumer does not want to pay more for the same product. Therefore, we have to constantly watch out on our cost base. As we are focused on this business, we find things to improve through automation, through, I would say, allocation in the right sites, in the right geographies of our business and therefore different margins.
When we look into, that's the, I would say, the steady profit development to the right, the decline was due to the sale of the Tann business. Without that, it would be a flat line. When we move into Pharma and Healthcare, Pharma and Healthcare just take away from what I said at the beginning, this was a business which we, I would say, bought together of different entities.
There was a legacy at Mayr-Melnhof in France. We bought a group in Scandinavia, and we bought this big Essentra Packaging group. Now we have a business of around EUR 600 million, two-thirds in Europe, one-third in the U.S. From the shift in these markets, we see a little bit pressure on the European business, particularly those which exported to the U.S.
On the other hand, we have a stronghold in the U.S. and in the development of the U.S. business, and many of our global pharmaceutical customers are investing in this area. We are quite well-positioned in the GLP-1 and with also the market leader in this particular medication. Therefore, I would say we have seen an improvement of profitability. This business was, I would say, a break-even in 2022. In 2024, 5% of adjusted operating profit. Last year, 6%.
I think, I would say the indication due to, I would say, customer relationship savings, core business, because the former owner was a conglomerate, so we could really take out, I would say, cost and improve efficiencies there. Therefore, it's good way to get this business similar to the other consumer packaging business. Last but not least, to the Board and Paper, I think here the Board and Paper last year, we achieved the turnaround in a way that 2024 was loss-making, 2025 was a gain. That was an improvement. We could keep sales and volume stable, which was not an easy issue in a very competitive market environment. I think here the aim is to continue with that, get market share, grow the business a little bit, but not at the expense of profitability.
On the contrary, we want to get back here into a decent line. I think we have made some already some good concentration measures, sold a closed inefficient plant, sold small entities, but perhaps there's even a way further to go. Last but not least, to the outlook, since we are coming close to the finishing line. I think when we look into the current situation, I would say paper packaging is very much connected with the overall economy.
What we see on the macroeconomic side is also reflected in our industry environment. Important for us is competitiveness. That's, I think, the real very goal, because we are long-term. I think that's very important when you look at Mayr-Melnhof. This is not a company, I would say, looking in the quarters, we're looking in the years. We have this strong family background.
We have an improved balance sheet, so we want to get everything better and to emerge from the current, I would say, more difficult and challenging environment with strength. We have this program which will help us out, which has good potential for further improvements. However, we will see where the market will take us. Last but not least, I would say to the direct situation in Middle East, we are present there with two companies.
The companies are operating and I would say, the indirect impact on energy, on chemicals, on transportation, certainly we see now costs are moving up, quite erratic. We want to get these costs passed on, I would say selectively, not I would say, on a general basis, but very much in the intention to neutralize the effect on profit. Having said that, I would like to stop now and, punctually, yeah, 20:51 P.M. we've got here, and pass on to our kind moderator to take in or ask a first question himself or
Yeah
take in some question which might pop in from your side. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Thank you very much, Stephan. It's nice to hear about your business and, indeed, there are a couple of questions already in the chat box. You talked about your Middle East exposure, therefore I'd like to start with the question, could you provide some color on your Iran operations?
Okay. Well, Iran, that's an operation within our packaging division. We're producing packaging there for. I've been there twice, where I have a modern plant, I would say quite outside of Tehran, so in a safer spot from the current strategic positioning. We have a long, I would say, industry relation with international customers producing locally. I would say we are productive there. We had some, I would say, standstills, which were, I would say around the difficult times at the beginning of March. I would say from the overall weight in our, I would say, profit and sales point of. Yeah. It's some percentage, some single-digit percentage point.
Out of interest, do you have any insurance coverage on your plant in Iran in case of any damages?
I would say we always have insurance for production, if something happens in the production, if there is a fire. I would say for war incidents, we don't have any insurance.
Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about the structural overcapacity and your Fit-For-Future program. James is asking, could you please provide more details on the drivers behind the Fit-For-Future program and what specific measures are you taking?
Okay. That's a fair question because it's such a huge program. I would say that the areas which we are touching on are particularly, I would say, everything which is under our control. It's operations. Here, it's kind of, I would say it's from automation, it's from optimization, it's from robotization. It's kind of a lot of, I would say, leverage, which we can use internally to harmonize businesses.
We're a big group. We have doubled in size, you can imagine in two years. We have gone with this double size in one year, which was a bonanza, fantastic year. There is a lot, I think, and we saw that because we started Fit and Future exactly with the biggest plant, which we acquired in 2021, and we saw lots of savings possible. Exactly that we are taking now to the whole group.
That's, I think, the big thing. We are big. We can work on the scale. Operations is a key element, but it's not the only element. The second element is procurement. We're a large buyer. We have a lot of alternatives to buy from. Procurement gives us a big chance to sustainably lower our input and input cost. As a big organization, we do also have SG&A, sales general administrative costs, which are quite a lot and have been grown. Well, perhaps in the first world, you don't cut off or optimize all the overheads, et cetera, and now all the digitalization helps us a lot in order to improve that. Last but not least, we make also supply chain and sales initiatives. It's a big bunch of activities.
Recently, let's say we have a regular reporting on that internally, and I came across an astonishing figure of around 3,000 projects in different streams, which are on the way in different maturities. Last year, already EUR 70 million were coming from Fit-For-Future, and this year perhaps EUR 100 million. All in all, EUR 250 million. It's coming and hopefully to the full extent, but I would say the full is only possible if the markets go in the right direction. It's a broad bunch of activities. It's something under our control, which is very important. It's very entrepreneurial to say so, and it's with, I would say, the necessary speed.
Perfect. So, you mentioned the self-help measures. The second part of our next question is relating to the structural overcapacities, which are obviously not in your hand. Do you expect to gain market share through your low-cost asset base?
That's another good question. First of all, the overcapacity. I told you the overcapacity is not at Mayr-Melnhof or which we see is not home-made. It's kind of we had a good sales in Russia, we had a better European business, we had better business outside of Europe. A lot of some of the business was cut away, like Russia, non-European business, we saw much more international competitors, particularly Asians moving in it, in traditional export markets.
We saw, I would say, capacity additions in Scandinavia, which were built perhaps on more of a, I would say, a trend that plastic replacement will be, I would say, supporting to a higher extent the board and paper business. On the other hand, some, I would say, also more Scandinavian business was exported to the U.S. and saw somehow a fallback due to the tariff there.
I would say, in the end, the buyer, the customer decides from whom to buy. If we are, I would say, producing the right quality, giving a good service, we have good chances to stay in the business, grow the business, and especially in the times when customers have to check, "Do we get the supply? Is the reliability there?" It's very important to underline Mayr-Melnhof is here to serve you, and we have a stable and good financial basis.
This company will not disappear because the, I would say, the most awful thing which can happen is that we cannot supply because we have a financial problem. We have to, let's say, stop a machine, et cetera, don't get the energy. Then, well, the customer cannot sell its products on the shelf. That's, I would say, ability to supply is key apart from, I would say, competitiveness and, I would say, scale.
Perfect. I think we only have time for one quick question. What would need to improve first for investors to believe margins have structurally bottomed?
Sorry. Could you once repeat?
What would need to improve first for investors to believe margins have structurally bottomed?
I would say the first, just read, and I think we are a company who delivers what it's promised. We don't, I would say, promise you the blue of the sky or the sun. We are very realistic, and I think that's very. We are very accurate in our guidance. We don't give, I would say, a figured guidance because our visibility in the business is not so high. On the other hand, we are very consistent. We are consistently communicating, and we're doing, I would think, a lot of things which are just economically justified, yeah? When the business is not so good, we will not run into big CapEx projects, so we cut down CapEx to a, not the minimum, but to the necessary amount.
We are focusing on energy savings and then getting more and more green energy because we're getting more attraction from the customer. On the other hand, we are saving. I think with a very reasonable and a very, I would say, focused view on our business, I think this is to give you trust that we are doing a very concentrated job, and with the Fit-For-Future, you see that we have high ambitions to improve.
Perfect. Thank you very much. We are already running out of time. Stephan, thank you very much for your time. For all other participants, you'll find the link to the next meeting, which is Palfinger, in the chat box. I wish you a fruitful day today. Again, Stephan, thanks for your insights today on Mayr-Melnhof, and if you can just stick around for one minute while I close this meeting today.
Certainly. Thank you very much for listening. It was a pleasure. Thank you.
Thank you.