Good morning and warm greetings from Sunny Warsaw. While some are still enjoying the last day of summer, we are here to discuss the financial and operational results of Grupa Pracuj for the first half of 2024 . Thank you for joining us today. Before we start, as usual, a few housekeeping notes. Your cameras are off, and microphones will remain muted throughout the whole meeting, so you can sit back, relax, and focus on listening. However, we encourage you to ask questions using the Q&A button in your Zoom menus. It's somewhere down there, and we'll address your questions after the presentation. Now I'd like to introduce the host of our meeting, Przemek Gacek, CEO of Grupa Pracuj. Hello, Przemek.
Hello, good morning, everyone.
Hello, good morning. Gracjan Fiedorowicz, CFO and Board Member. Hello.
Good morning.
Good morning, and Rafał Nachyna, Chief Operating Officer and board member of Grupa Pracuj. Hello, Rafał.
Good morning.
Morning. Przemek, now the floor is yours.
All right. So once again, good morning, everyone. Let us, three of us, the board members, guide you through the results of Grupa Pracuj for the first half of 2024 . Just a few, just, you know, reminding you about Grupa Pracuj on the next slide. We operate within two areas. The first of them is... Can I have the next slide? The first of them is job classifieds with Pracuj.pl and Robota.ua, the two leading brands, as well as theprotocol, covering the dedicated IT specialists. And the second leg, which we are building, is HR Technology SaaS, with Softgarden operating across DACH and eRecruiter, you know, operating out of Poland. We also have the two smaller brands, Absence and HRlink. So how about the H1?
So the revenues of the group grew by 5.4%, year-on-year, to PLN 390 million. With the Adjusted EBITDA growing at a similar pace, a little bit slower, of PLN 177 million. We maintained the Adjusted EBITDA margin at 45%, and the net profit slightly declined. What, how did it come to that? So when looking into Poland, we, the growth in Poland was generated due to higher prices of recruitment projects and rising number of customers, as well as the steadily increase of customers using the SaaS model. Ukraine was performing, let's say, extraordinary, keeping in mind current market situation and the war in the east, so the revenues grew as well as the operating profit.
We are also quite happy about the growth of revenues and operating profit in Germany, which grew quite a lot, resulting in this Adjusted EBITDA growth of over 2%. In terms of the net profit, it was impacted by the revaluation of shares in Beamery. If that was not the case, the net profit would rise by 5.5%, year on year. I will pass you to Gracjan. Gracjan, if you could just, you know, lead everyone through more details, financial and key operational KPIs as well.
Thank you, Przemek. Yeah, let's start from our operating results. Regarding Pracuj.pl, I have two good news. One is, and the most important one is, that in Q2, we observe, after a few months, a few quarters of decreases, an increase in number of recruitment projects. This is not very significant growth, just by 1.4%. However, there is an increase, which is very good information. Obviously, the other one good information, is increase in average price of recruitment projects.
The dynamics this quarter is lower than in previous quarters, and this is a result of higher dynamics of job offers which are directed to blue collar and pink collar candidates, and these job offers are cheaper, so it had higher dynamics than white collar job offers, and it resulted in lower dynamics of average price. From half yearly perspective, we still have a decrease in number of recruitment projects, but it's just 1.7%. In Ukraine, as Przemek mentioned, the situation is even better. Very good results in both terms, number of recruitment projects and average price of recruitment projects.
And number of recruitment projects grew by 62%, and paid recruitment projects grew by almost 25%. Really amazing results. Take into consideration the situation. And our HR tech SaaS systems, eRecruiter and Softgarden, together they grew in number of clients by almost 10%, with slightly higher dynamics for Softgarden. And MRR, so monthly recurring revenue, for both these businesses, grew by 25%, comparing to the first half of last year. On the next slide, just a summary of our revenues. As Przemek mentioned, half-yearly, they grew by 5.4%. We achieved almost 400 million PLN. We are just 10 million below. And in quarterly terms, we grew also by 5%.
Looking at the right-hand side of this slide, you can see that our share of revenue from HR tech SaaS grew to 26.2%, and this is another quarter of growth of this share. Just to remind you, revenues from HR tech SaaS are much more resilient to any macroeconomic turmoils, like recession or slowdowns, so we are aiming at achieving at least 30% of share next year or another year after next year. Looking at our profitability, no significant changes. We still operate in areas of very high margins. As Przemek mentions, slight growth, over 2% growth of Adjusted EBITDA. Operating profits also grew slightly by 1%, and profitability is slightly lower than last year, however, slightly higher than in Q1.
In cash, from cash conversion perspective, which you can see in the middle of this slide, also no significant changes. Slightly lower cash conversion due to higher CapEx, but generally, as you can see, free cash flows are almost at the same level as last year. A little bit more details regarding our results, maybe a lot more details, but I obviously will not go through everything here. First thing is revenue. Just to remind you, it's worthwhile to analyze our revenues, not only from perspective as it is presented in our financial statements, but also from the next perspective. Adjusting revenue for cost of job offer sold, this cost line relates to multi-posting services offered by Softgarden.
The multi-posting is just a service where we resell job offers to our clients, job offers provided by different job boards in Germany. From net revenue perspective, as you can see, the growth is even higher than 8% from half yearly perspective, and almost 8% from quarterly perspective. Looking at in more details into German revenue, as you can see on the right hand of this slide, over 26% year-on-year growth in MRR in euro terms. Unfortunately, German revenues were affected by exchange rates. I mean, appreciation of Polish złoty affected German revenue by over 6%. Also, revenue from Ukraine and cost from Ukraine are also affected by negative exchange rate.
However, our results in Ukraine, sorry, are very good. So as you can see, 37% growth in operating profit, followed by 25% growth in revenue, adjusted already for currency exchange rates. In costs, what you can see, the most growing line is marketing expenses. This is something which we continue to grow this year, as we assumed, and we also informed you about it, that this year we are going to spend more on marketing, especially in Poland. In Poland and in Ukraine, we deployed wide range marketing campaigns. Additionally, in Poland, we have some additional campaigns, so it resulted in almost 47% growth year on year in this cost line.
One last thing here. Przemek mentioned about it already. Net profit was impacted by revaluation of shares in Beamery. Shares in Beamery, our financial assets, which we have to value every quarter to fair value. This quarter, it was negative revaluation. The impact was 16.7 million PLN on finance costs and 13.5 million PLN on net profits. Without it, as Przemek said, net profit would grow 5.5% versus last year. So I think that's enough regarding the financial numbers. I will pass the voice to Rafał, who will present our business activities in Q2.
... Okay, thank you, Gracjan. So, let me share you several positive information from the project perspective. So first thing, of course, I would like to share with you that as always, we constantly try to figure out, and we try to change our products, because we would like to offer better value proposition for our customers. Therefore, right now, customers, they have access to new different products, Zasięg Plus, so it's Reach Plus and Praca with Booster. Right now, it's really important because we have more and more customers with high level of willingness, because they suffer, they are not able to find good enough talent. So this is really important because those products can increase efficiency over 25%.
So we see really great results from this new product. And what is really important, I would like to add, that those two products are based on a new solution, artificial intelligence. And thanks to that, we are able to build and offer our candidates, job seekers, much better adjustment. So their level of judgment of this product is really good, because finally they feel that they have what they looking for. So this is really important. We constantly try to customize Pracuj.pl. Second quarter, it was the period when we focus on blue collar position and people looking for a job in sales. And right now, it's more and more really useful features in those two categories, so this is really important.
For sure, we know that you remember about our investment, and right now, this is a couple Pracuj.pl and theprotocol. Thanks to that, we are able to enhance our position, and we are right now even stronger leader than before in the IT category, IT segment. This is really important because, what we see from the market, the willingness to pay from customers when it comes to this kind of segment is the highest. So we really like this category, even though that we know everyone, that this year maybe is not the best one, maybe this is not a perfect, because IT suffer a lot after the COVID boom, but still, this is really crucial segment for us. We constantly try to develop our mobile solution.
Last quarter, it was first introduction, and we are so happy right now that we have the testing period right now for two different platforms, of course, for the Android users and from the iOS users. This new mobile solution is based on features from the social network solutions. So we know that job seekers, our candidates, they really like this solution because it's really useful and friendly. And I think that we try to break this kind of magic barrier, and we know that it's always a stress-successful process when candidates try to achieve the new position. So we do as much as possible to decrease this level of stress.
And we know that mobile app, new mobile app, the form of this mobile, mobile app is one of the best solution. We constantly check feedback from job seekers, and we try to figure out what is really crucial for our job seekers, and they constantly ask about two different elements, two different set of the information. One of them, of course, this is salary range. And job seekers, they really like job offer with this kind of specific data. But the second concern, they really don't like this element of the recruitment process, when they don't know what's going on with their application. Therefore, right now on Pracuj.pl, we have the new features for the job seekers.
This is a set of different stages, and they exactly know what's going on with specific with really specific each projects, where they sent their... When they apply. So this is really important. I saw the first questions from the chat, so this is one of the purpose why the cost of marketing is higher than last year. Right now, we are aware of this, that is more and more and more new candidates, and we try to attract new candidates. Right now, we try to take much younger people, and we try to convince that Pracuj.pl is the must-have, this is the best solution when it comes to the recruitment processes. Can I ask about the next slide? Okay.
Right now, let me jump and share more interesting and specific data from Ukraine. As Gracjan mentioned, this is really good time for us. So market circumstances support our business really, really strong. So willingness from customer perspective, I think, is right now one of the highest ever. So finally, you see that thanks to that, we are able to increase the price. So the first quarter was really strong, second quarter it was the same. And finally, it doesn't matter what kind of currency we take to our consideration, because we know the Polish złoty is stronger compared to even the euro or dollars or hryvnia especially.
But even though you see that the dynamic of growth is really significant, we see constantly that, and we have a lot of conversation with our Ukrainian customers, that they have right now, really big problem with good enough talents. This is both quantity and quality. So as I mentioned, willingness is really high. They are really happy, and they are constantly ask about the new job offers. They ask about the new products, about the new features. So we try to build the new value proposition. At the same time, this is a great moment when we can think about really strong monetization projects. So especially, we can recognize this positive change when we compare our results in hryvnia, year to year.
We constantly try to support our customers because we, of course, we know and we remember that it's still a really difficult time. This is a war time. That's why we organize a lot of online virtual, we use right now augmented reality, and we try to connect and build this association and support in a daily, really daily job or daily topics, our customers. So as you can see, it was one of the biggest online event, more than one thousand participants. And of course, because we listen what's going on, and we try to support our customers, we feel that it's our duty, and we are obliged to organize online really big campaign, because this is right now the biggest issue: how to convince job seekers they should be much more active.
One thing is that, this is a shortage of the labor right now, but on the other hand, level of willingness and the openness from the, job seeker side is, not so high. Yeah, so people, they are rather reserved because it's, uncertain conditions. We organize, really, a lot of, marketing campaign, and we try to convince that even this is a war time, this is a good moment for the change and looking for the new position. We can jump, right now to, SaaS, business. Okay? Let me summarize what's going on. Right now, you'll see that it's a more and more important part of our business. As Przemek mentioned, this is a second leg of our business, and there's really significant, level of growth as according to our plan.
We talked about this last quarter, that we constantly try to be much more comprehensive. That is why we spend time, and we develop this HR workflows, because this is the best way how we can increase the level of engagement, our customers, within the system. And of course, high level of engagement finally means that the cooperation with customers is much more stable, and thanks to that, we have much lower churn. Yeah. Another part of this kind of similar story, this is a marketplace, because this is, we can say, this internal shop, where our customers can use additional features, additional product from our partners.
Right now, what was really interesting for us, that we start cooperation not only with Polish provider, different providers, but right now we have the- we have first partners from abroad. This is really important, and this is really interesting part of the story, because we addressed specific needs, our current customers. They asked about additional connections, and it's really work. It really works for us, and we are happy that customers feel that thanks to the eRecruiter Marketplace, our the chain of our proposal is much more comprehensive. We would like to underline really important fact, really important data. I would like to share with you information from the external comparison. This is really nice for us, because according to this data.
Our systems, right now, the rank of our system is higher than before. What does it mean for us? Of course, this is not only for us, but for our customers. This is external source of data, and they can check what is the position of different solutions, and the level of credibility is much higher. So of course, the rank is important for us, and this is a really significant element of our conversation with customers, because thanks to this kind of external comparison, right now, the conversation with customers, from our perspective, will be easier. Yeah, they can, they can see, and what is really important, that this comparison check completely different dimensions. So this is how useful is the system, how stable is the system.
So, this comparison and this data, this is partly the proof that what we did and what we do constantly in our system, this is a good job. And because the German market is much more fragmented compared to the Polish market, we constantly try to find the partnerships. And right now, after the second quarter, we have the new partner. This is HeyJobs, and this is the way how we would like to increase our sales reach, and of course, thanks to this kind of partnership, thanks to the HeyJobs, we have additional leads for our sales team. We can jump to the next slide. And the last thing from the HR technology SaaS second quarter was really important for us because we have 15 years with eRecruiter.
And I would like, I would like to remind you how the HR market looked like 15 years ago. Yeah, so right now, SaaS business and applicant tracking system looks quite normal, and it's quite obvious right now, and it's nothing amazing. But try to imagine what was happened 15 years ago. So it was bold decisions at that time, and it was the way how we were able address future, really future needs our customers. So we can say that we predict the market, that time. Right now, we have really great results, more than 2,000 customers. I think this is the best proof that we are the trusted solution.
We have more than 17 million applications in our system, so we know that job seekers, they trust us. They know that this is a really good place, safe place, that we take care about their privacy, we take care about their data. This is really sensitive topic right now. What is really interesting, right now, eRecruiter is Polish leader, but what is really worth to underline, that we have right now presence in 32 different countries. Our system is so good that sometimes customers from abroad, they decide to change their other system, and because they have for example, the part of the business in Poland, and thanks to this kind of experience, they change and they jump to eRecruiter, and this is a common system for all parts of the businesses.
Of course, we constantly try to increase partnerships, because this is the best way how we can offer our customers more and more comprehensive portfolio. Okay, thank you for this time, and I would like to ask Przemek for outlook for upcoming months.
Thank you, Rafał. What we are looking forward for the next couple of quarters. We always, you know, strive to develop innovative products and services to serve our clients in a better way. There is quite a lot of innovation happening within the group, and we are going to drive it further, obviously. In terms of the recruitment projects in Poland, we would expect a stable year-on-year growth in terms of the number of recruitment projects, supported by the single-digit growth in the average price of that. We believe there are two scenarios possible. The conservative would be that the volume growth would be between 2% - 4%.
As we mentioned before, we are already on plus, you know, at the current moment, and with the average price growth of between 2%-3%. So this scenario assumes that there is no kind of further increase of the investments from the, from larger companies, which are a big part of our, clients and especially the revenues, especially within the white collar group. The optimistic one, we would aim product growth to be in the range of 5%-8%, with the average price of about 4%-7%. So that would be our estimation for the, probably, like the next in two, three quarters. We would expect to maintain the high growth of revenues on the Ukrainian market. Despite all the challenges, you know, we believe that it's, that is still possible.
Obviously, we are aiming at steady growth in terms of the number of active customers and MRR within HR Technology, SaaS, Softgarden, and eRecruiter. As you have seen before, you know, this is a very predictable, I would say, boringly predictable market, which provides us opportunity to grow in a very kind of, you know, well forecasted way, both in terms of the number of clients and the revenues from the customers. We also believe that, you know, all these activities, you know, will help us to gain some, you know, competitive position on our operating markets.
We are strong, you know, we have very engaged employees, we are a very healthy organization as well, which usually helps in this kind of moments to gain the market against the other players. You know, what are the competitive advantages we are going to capitalize on? First of all, we believe we are a very, very flexible organization. We are very effective in adapting to different market conditions, and this is what you have been seeing in our all the numbers. That, you know, the revenues can grow, you know, grow faster, can grow slower, but, you know, we can really adjust certain parts of our organization very, very quickly, and we really understand the business after running that for 24 years.
We have very good relationships with our clients, and the number of clients which we are happy, super happy about, is consistently growing. So whether it's a large customer, mid-size customer, or small customer, you know, we have all these ways of addressing them and building our brand among them. I think we discussed the portfolio of products and services, so, you know, there's lots of groups, lots of segmentation happening. We understand the needs of the candidates, we understand the needs of the customers, and we want them to be a part of the Grupa Pracuj ecosystem or ecosystem of our brands.
We are quite, you know, as we are very well regarded and perceived by the customers. We have the power to shape the labor market, promote best practices, and build awareness among the employees and candidates, which we are using quite a lot. And last but not least, we believe we have a very unique culture, organizational culture. This is a culture which is focused on the engagement of the employees, and this is how we have always been in the history, that we always, you know, said, "Employees are super important for us. Let's have them engaged, because the more engaged they are, the better results they can achieve and the better results we, as Grupa Pracuj, can achieve." While on the other hand, you know, we are very, let's say, very much focused on the results.
So only the combination of high, high engagement and delivering results is something which makes us unique. We did some, let's say, engagement surveys recently, and we are, like, super happy that, you know, that, in Grupa Pracuj, on average, the engagement is at a very high level, even higher than it was, in the previous years. So I believe we are in quite, quite an interesting moment. We can capitalize on that and, move the business forward. I think that's it from our side, so I guess we are ready for questions.
Okay, gentlemen, thank you. Thank you very much for sharing all the details about the first half of the 2024. And indeed, we have some questions from our guests. First question from Yannick Jaeger, Alpha Star Capital, and the question is: Average revenue per listing grew year on year, but decreased quarter on quarter. Can you put more color on this, please?
I will try to repeat what I have said, because it's actually connected with color. Yeah. As you know, we sell and publish blue collar and pink collar job offers, which are cheaper, and white collar offers, which are much more expensive. And what happened in Q2, the dynamics of this blue and pink collar job offers was higher than dynamics of white collar job offers, and it affected the average price. So we had more blue collar and pink collar job offers than in Q1.
Thank you very much, Gracjan. Yannick also asks about the cost mix and the marketing expenses. Rafał mentioned a little bit about that, and the question is: In terms of cost mix, marketing expenses grow quite strongly. What is the main driver? Would you like add anything to this?
I think Rafał covered it very well. Just to sum up, we continued wide-range campaigns in Q2, which we started in Q1. I hope in Poland, people in Poland could see it. Additionally, we had a campaign to younger candidates, let's say, and also we started to spend money on marketing in Ukraine. So we continued from Q1, and in Q2, we had some events, which Rafał mentioned, and also campaign in outdoor and online.
... Okay, another question from Yannick, regarding the strong earnings growth in German segment, which means Softgarden. Can you please shed some light on this? Is this related to a favorable product mix in this segment, or is it due to cost expense savings with this segment?
I would say the main reason here is something I call operating leverage. I mean, the SaaS businesses has very nice feature. I mean, the revenues are growing much faster than expenses, so we keep costs under control, growing obviously, but under control, and with constantly growing revenues, we are able to improve our profitability and improve earnings.
And I think this is pretty much what we have been saying before, what we saw with the recruiter in the past, that, I mean, of course, we can leverage and we can decide how strong we want to invest. Because usually in these fields, you know, we can you know, spend more money on the lead generation, the sales, sales force, you know, product. So we somehow maneuver this, these margins. But at some point, basically, with all this steady growth, revenues are going at a certain pace, and the costs remain much flatter as well. So I think that's pretty much the dynamic of the SaaS business, and that's why the SaaS business, I think, because of this predictability, you know, usually they would be probably valued not really by the EBITDA, but it will be valued by the revenues multiple.
So that's how we also look, you know, at sometimes internal at our business or acquisitions and so on. We just, and that just it just takes time, you know, to get to this leverage moment.
Okay, thank you. Dominik Niszcz, Trigon, also noticed the impressive growth of MRR. So his question is: Could you please provide further insight into the current HR tech market landscape in Germany, particularly within the SME segment?
Yeah, so, I mean, generally, of course, as we know, Germany, as we know, generally had its own issues. I think SMEs are also probably, you know, not probably in the most fantastic moment because they depend on, you know, the entire economy. However, you know, we cannot really comment on. We don't have so many details of the other companies. We know that the market is growing, and the market will be growing in the future. We pretty much focus on, you know, on the simple things, you know, getting as many leads as possible, selling to those customers, retaining them, and so on. It's probably more challenging to do it right now because, you know, when you have the tailwinds, then you know, you go faster.
When you have the headwinds, you really have to work much harder, you know, and, you know, change the course and so on. So for sure, you know, getting the clients right now is more challenging than it used to be two years ago when the market was growing. But we, you know, are still, you know, doing our best. I think the Softgarden is a very known brand. Usually, when there is some, you know, tough market conditions, what we see in the HR technology is that, or in the recruitment, you know, the companies, they would stay with the biggest, you know, players, those whose brand is more popular and so on. So we would, I mean, ideally, we would like to have the current rate of the client acquisition sustained.
In terms of the pricing, that will probably very much depend on the, you know, what kind of products we are providing, inflation rates, and so on. In terms of the sector, there is no one particular sector. We, you know, we are pretty much spread. It's not IT, it's not manufacturing, it's not government. I would say probably there's not much government, but this is more like the private sector. But, it's, there's, like, plenty of different segments. So this is a good thing as well, because if the one of them is suffering, you know, the others, they can contribute to the growth.
Thank you very much, Przemek. Another question from Dominik Niszcz, Trigon. What is the outlook for costs in Poland in the second half of the year, particularly regarding planned marketing expenses? Do you anticipate maintaining the salary cost growth at parent company, Grupa Pracuj, at around 13%-14%, similar to the first half of 2024?
Regarding marketing expenses, you should kind of observe them in relation to revenue, as a share of revenue this year. This is also the costs which are the most flexible ones. Depending on the development of the situation and revenue growth, we adjust it appropriately. Regarding the salary cost growth in Grupa Pracuj standalone, I do not expect it will be higher. The dynamic shouldn't be higher than in the first half of this year. There are no signs of that.
Thank you very much. Emil Popławski, PKO Brokerage House. Question about the structure of employee benefits, which grew by 9% in the second quarter. Based on the report, bonuses declined by 51%, whereas salaries grew by 34%. It's very detailed data. Can you please explain such base?
Yeah, this detailed data, I have no such details at hand, so I would have to check it in more details. Generally, bonuses are connected, are tied with our results.
... especially the some bonuses sometimes are delayed and the cost of them are recognized later on. So it can have some time effect, let's say, yes? So it can differ from quarter to quarter, depending when we pay and based on what, especially last year, it happened. Salary and salaries, some salaries also includes some bonuses. We call it internally, bonuses, but it's actually a kind of part of remuneration which are paid in as a bonuses together with salary, not dependent on results. And there was a growth of headcount and a growth of also salaries, especially in Poland, in Ukraine, because of inflation. So there is a double-digit growth in salaries, and it can be expected in the following quarters.
Thank you, Gracjan. Another question from Emil Popławski. I believe it's about the announcement about your decision to increase the stake in some entities in Ukraine. Can you tell us more about the justification of this transaction in the eye of macro geopolitical risk in this country?
Yeah. So, I would say, you know, we have been in Ukraine for a long time. I mean, it's, I think, sixteen or seventeen years. When we discuss Ukraine, of course, there are high risks of being there in case the situation worsens. On the other hand, you know, that's the opportunity which appeared, where, you know, one of the shareholders of Work.ua is basically leaving the company, and offered to kind of, you know, to sell the shares for some really like a super, super, let's say, price, yeah, from our perspective. So we treat it kind of more as probably as an option. We believe that, you know, if we do it, and the market doesn't go right, there is not much really we could probably lose.
In case, you know, the war is somehow settled and Ukraine, on completely on the contradictory stage, Ukraine becomes like a place to be as well, we would be pretty much, you know, covering the entire market, and the Ukrainian market would be Robota.ua and Work.ua. So it's more like, kind of like an option, which we think makes actually a lot of sense. So that's how we look into the Ukrainian direction. And it's also like, you know, from our perspective, it's not really like a significant amount of money, so.
Thank you. Another question from Emil about merger and acquisitions. Should we expect new takeovers within the next 12 months?
I mean, we would like to do, I would say, you know, of course, you know, apart from Ukraine, which we are working on, we would, I mean, in the ideal scenario, we would like to do one, probably, acquisition, or maybe at least, but that would be more like a bolt-on. It's not like anything huge and, you know, significant, as it was the case of Softgarden, but something that will be much more complementary with lots of synergies as well, you know, supporting one of our businesses on the core, on our core markets. And I think if we do one project, that will be just the, let's say, the minimum, which we would be happy about.
Okay. Thank you very much, and Yannick, another questions about the EU subsidy from the Recovery and Resilience Facility funds. So can you give us an update on this, please? When will you start, and what impact do you expect?
Yeah, I can take this question. Of course, we constantly try to collect more data from our customers. What is their expectation? Do they feel this or not? So I think the topic is quite complicated, because one thing, this is, of course, the additional support, financial support. And the second thing is, of course, strong connections with the EU economy, and this is what we see in Poland right now. Because this is a chain of the suppliers, chain of the corporations with bigger company, for example, from Germany.
So we can say that in general, when we asked our customers at the beginning of this year, expectations was higher, but unfortunately, this is not like this, that the customers, our customers, they feel extraordinary positive wind from this financial support. So I think this is much more complicated, much more connected right now with the market circumstances, not only EU, but even United States elections. So as you can see from the data, so for sure, second quarter, it was the quarter with low single-digit growth, and we still wait for the stronger positive wind.
Thank you very much, Rafał. Another question from Emil Popławski, PKO. Can you please explain how your market share in blue collar changed versus a year ago?
... I think that we will ask Monica for more specific data, and we will share data...
Right.
according to this topic. Yeah, because, yeah, so I think-
Absolutely.
We would like to be as much as possible specific, so we prepare this additional answer.
Okay, Emil, so we'll let you know and contact you via email. Monika Banasiak, who is listening this presentation, make some notes, and definitely we will get back to you. So I can't see any new incoming questions, so this is the last chance for our participants to ask their questions, to type it these questions right now. If there's no questions... I can't see any. No? No new incoming questions. So, Przemek, maybe let's briefly summarize our presentation, then we'll conclude our meeting.
Thank you very much to everyone for your time today. I hope, you know, we were, let's say, explicit enough, you know, to present all the information, address your questions as well. I think the market is interesting. I think as Grupa Pracuj, we understand it well, we know how to operate it. I think we have interesting plans for the future as well, and you know, in case you have any questions, we are, whether it's myself, Gracjan, Rafał, Monika, we are available for your questions, comments, and meetings as well. If we don't see each other soon, I guess we'll see each other, or at least maybe not see, but hear each other at our next meeting, summarizing the current quarter as well, summarizing the Q3.
Thank you very much for your time today, and let's see you in the future.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Gracjan. Thank you, Rafał. Thank you to all our participants, and see you in the occasion of discussing the meetings for Q3. And now I wish you a pleasant day and the rest of the week. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Thank you, and see you.
Thank you so much.