Thank you so much, Piero, for your introduction. Good morning and good afternoon, depending on the time zone, to our analysts and investor, and potential investor attending this call. I'm here today with, beyond Piero, other three people who are very relevant, and I will be involving our conversation. The first person is clearly Pasquale Natuzzi, who is our Chairman, beyond being the founder and the life history of the company. I'm working very closely with him on any strategy and organization matter. We'll definitely involve him when the subject pops up. The other person is Jason Kemp. I believe most of you already know him. He's an executive with 25 years experience in the sector who leads our North America operation.
The third one is Vittorio Notarpietro, our CFO, long-standing CFO. Let me open the conversation along to the press release which has been just released, to say that in the end we are very pleased to see the growth for our product continue. That has not always been the case in the past. We're now on a positive trajectory, which last a few sequential quarter. Written orders are even stronger than invoiced sales. Invoiced sales were 20% above the third quarter of 2020, and 15% above the pre-pandemic level, so 2019. The demand for our product continue to be strong across most geography.
If you double-click, which is interesting, the branded product, so the product which are sold with our two brands, Natuzzi Italia, Natuzzi Edition, posts a very relevant growth rate. They are 40% above 2019, and currently they represent nearly 90% of what we do. The company, which has been going through different phases of history, now is clearly focusing on brand, increasingly focusing on having a direct access to the consumer, and this seems to be paying off in terms of growth. When it comes to fulfilling the demand, we've been experiencing difficulty to keep up with the increasing demand, and of course, we're not the only one, but today we should talk about Natuzzi, especially in the third quarter.
This is again a matter of availability of product, availability of workforce in our plant, and availability of third-party producer to keep the demand which has been again posting very positive momentum. This basically bore two consequences. The spike in material has been really pressuring our P&L structure. I believe here the company has done a good work in mitigating that. In fact, if you see our gross margin has been actually increasing, arriving at 36% versus 32% in 2020, and 28.7% in 2019. Despite the strong pressure across the material, which often has been in the space of double-digit increase on our main material, like leather, like wood, we've been able to contain, and actually the gross margin has been improving.
This has been systematically by optimizing our purchases, but also by reflecting some of those price increase in our retail and selling prices. The other element in terms of cost, which has not been so easy for us to fully reflect and pass over to clients, has been shipping cost. Shipping cost, given the global nature of our supply chain, are a relevant part of our cost structure. We've been to be a fair party to our partners. Vittorio, I think you should mute. I guess there is some noise coming.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, no worry. I was saying, we've been able to pass this in terms of additional freight cost, but not always in a timely manner. As a result of that, we absorbed between Canada one-off cost and some of this one-off freight cost, additional EUR 5 million this quarter. The net result could have been clearly including that net negative impact, and could have been higher. The second element, which is a consequence of the disruption of the supply chain, is that our backlog is increasing, which in a sense could be also positive because we're gonna start next year with already some, you know, meat in the freezer. It's been increasing by EUR 20 million, arriving to EUR 110 million. I'm talking euro here.
We have significant backlog, which gave us a good kick for the next year. At the same time, we need to work carefully to make sure the level of service across geography remain consistent. This is a bit what you can read in our numbers. I would say a good continuation of our trajectory to regain growth and regain quality growth. At the same time, this could have been even higher if we managed supply chain in a way to catch this growth momentum. We are working very much, not only to do this for the short term, to kind of enhance the output of our supply chain, but also to sustain our midterm goals, which clearly are very significant in terms of top-line growth. What are we doing? Basically, we're working on three main areas. One is secure material availability.
We are working to pre-book some of the material, especially the one which have a longer cycle. We are also trying to nearshoring so get the supplier closer to our factories for some material which have strategic relevance, but they don't bear a major implication in term of cost. The first area is secure material availability. The second area is increase factory output, and later I will invite Pasquale to comment on that. As you know, one of our potential advantage is to have a very articulated supply chain. We have production in Italy, we have production in China, we have production in Romania. In each of those plant, we are very carefully working to increase the output. Each plant has history. In Romania, we have added two lines. We hired 60 people.
In Italy, we are piloting a factory 4.0, which is innovative way of producing, much integrated with the supplier through information systems. In China, we continue adjusting the capacity to the output. This is the long-term perspective. In the short term, as I mentioned before, we are facing a series of complexity factor linked to the level of absenteeism, which was higher than we predicted due to COVID. We must also be remembered that in Italy, our factory shut down for two weeks during August, and this also affect the third quarter production capability. The third area where we're working on is increasing the strategic outsourcing. The company, as you must know if you've been following our story, has been always producing in-house everything.
This will continue being the case for Natuzzi Italia, which we proudly produce in Italy, and for which the Made in Italy is a dominant part of the value proposition. For Natuzzi Edition, to recognize that we want to have a more supply chain model, we are basing the production where it makes sense from a delivery standpoint. We will have Romania, Europe for Europe. We will have our Shanghai and Vietnam for the Asia and for some part of our North America demand, and we will build up Mexico for North America. This is something you will not see happening in one quarter, but it's something that progressively we believe will be delivering significant advantage to our ability to fulfill demand.
This is a bit of the very transparent view on our quarter, where we continue enjoying strong demand, which, by the way, continues as we speak. You see in the press release the data for the 44th week of the year, where the written orders are up 24% versus 2015 versus 2018. As we speak, we are entering week 47. The trend of written orders keeps very, very robust. We don't see any weakening in terms of written orders, demand. I've been, hopefully, and I wish to be more specific in the Q&A, very transparent of the hard work we are doing to evolve, modernize, and enhance our supply chain and production. During these months, we also did other interventions to solidify the fundamentals of our business. One is the organization.
We believe that it will be a people-led transformation. In close synergy with the chairman and our HR responsible, we have been evolving our commercial organization. In coherence with what I said at the opening, the Natuzzi is almost entirely a brand company. We made the strategic decision to create two brand division. Now we have a Chief Brand Officer for Natuzzi Italia and a Chief Brand Officer for Natuzzi Edition. Each of them is in charge for setting up the strategy and for controlling the P&L of his own brand, clearly, indirectly with the regional head, like Jason and the other. We're introducing a matrix where the region have the full autonomy and P&L accountability to grow the brand in the regions, and the Chief Brand Officer set up the destiny and the strategy of those brand.
Beyond the organization, we continue working on increasing what I can call the access to the C, where the C is our final customer, the clients. In that direction, there have been a few, let's say, announcement in this quarter. The first one of which I'm quite proud of is the launch of our new global digital platform. We had before 46 individual platforms representing Natuzzi in the different markets. Starting from last Thursday, we sunset all those platforms, and we introduce just one global new digital presence. This will represent a window for both Natuzzi Italia and Natuzzi Edition. They will be fully transactional toward 2022. We started from having e-commerce fully transactional in U.S. for Natuzzi Italia. Now the window in terms of displaying the product is operational in all the geographies.
The e-commerce is fully operational in U.S., and we start recording the first sales during the Black Friday. Digital will be, of course, one of the major priority for the development of the company. In the new organization, digital will be reporting to me, and I will be closely following this development. When I said I'm particularly proud, that means I'm not proud of the end result. This will continue evolving. It will be, you know, the result of an agile implementation approach. I'm proud because, when we four months ago, we set up, you know, the planned date for the new launch, which was last Thursday, it sounded a bit of a challenging task, and I'm proud to report that our team exactly matched the date.
It gave me a sense, a good sense of delivery and on that aspect. The other area where we are continuing expanding our access to the sea is North American retailer. Jason will be providing more color about that, but we are significantly higher. I would say very double-digit, depending how you count, sometimes almost triple-digit versus 2019 and 2020 on our U.S. and North America. This again will be a very important area of priority for investment for me going forward. Starting from this press, we provide a bit more color on our JV in China, where we currently have more than 300 stores with 60 new opening also this year.
The brand is positioned in a very strong way, with Natuzzi Italia being really positioned as a luxury brand, and Natuzzi Edition being more an aspirational furniture brand. The combination of digital North America and China, in my view, are clear confirmation that we are a brand recognized by the consumer. The consumer is appreciating not only our brand, but the experience he can and she can receive of the brand in our retail. This is, again, in full transparency to provide you with a visibility on what could be my agenda as CEO, but also the agenda the company's working on. The other point we flesh out in this press release is a bit a reflection on our trajectory. As you know, the company has been going through different phase.
The phase we are in potentially started some 10 years ago when Pasquale had this very visionary view of moving a producer, a manufacturer into a brand retailer. We are now accelerating the trajectory and looking at the last four years. I think it's encouraging to see some of those indicator confirming the viability of that strategy. Let me flesh out a few numbers. The revenue of the first nine months has been growing, as I mentioned, 36% versus 20% interrupting a cycle of declining lasting four years and more. The branded sales on total sales are 86%. In 2018 they were 76%, so they are 10 percentage point more. Gross profit percentage moved from 28% in 2018 to 36%, so eight percentage more.
In absolute number, we were posting a loss of, let's say EUR 70 million in 2018. Sorry, EUR 70 million in 2018, EUR 9.5 million loss in 2019, and EUR 13 million loss in 2020. We are now posting a profit of EUR 4 million operating profit. The retail, it was a new venture for the company, even in U.S., which has been always one of the strongest market. It was posting negative results till this year, where we are posting a positive operating result of EUR 2.3 million. The job in my view just started. There is a lot for us to do, but I want to share some indicator that, in my view, confirm that the direction is the right one.
Of course, myself and my team are highly committed to confirm and accelerate the trajectory. Let me stop here. I might ask maybe Pasquale, since you've been named a few times in my summary, to comment with any comment, let's say, color on our strategy on the work we're doing together before opening to the Q&A.
Antonio. Okay. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Antonio, you have been the best analyst that I ever met in my life. You have been able with me to analyze the company, understand the strength of our company, the strategy, and you are the best communicator. I mean, I believe I can just confirm what you said. That's it.
Thank you.
I'm available for any question, obviously.
Thank you, Pasquale. We don't want to sound too nice to each other before Christmas, but I can confirm that all the management and especially with the chairman, we are really working in a close symphony on the strategic agenda, which I know was a question coming from most of you guys. Okay. Maybe let's stop here and let's open for questions, unless again, Jason or Vittorio, you feel you want to comment anything on what I just said.
Ready for questions, team.
Me too.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please use the request to talk feature on your screen. Once again, please use the request to talk feature on your screen. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question today is coming from George. Actually, they just dropped off.
I'm not sure I understood the name of the gentleman posing the question.
They did drop off before I caught their name. I do apologize. Once again
Oh, okay.
Please use the request to talk feature to ask a question. Once again, please use the request to talk feature. Our first question is coming from David Canaan. Please go ahead.
David, we don't hear you. Take off the mute.
Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please use the request to talk feature in order to ask a question. Please stand by one moment, please.
Dave, you are muted on your computer.
One moment, please.
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Charles McDoon, your line is now live.
Good morning. It's David Canaan. I'm working on Charles's laptop. Can you guys hear me?
Yes, please go ahead.
Okay. First question is, I see that backlog was up $21 million sequentially from Q2 to Q3. Can you approximate or quantify how much of that backlog is high-margin branded product?
Sorry, Dave.
Yes.
Ready and end. Yep.
Yes. You know, the branded business is growing, as said by Antonio before. According to that, the backlog is also, the quality of the backlog is improving.
My estimate, David, is that you know, I mean, if I look at the vintage of that backlog, is between second part of last year and this year. During this period, the percentage of branded product has been from 80%-85%. My assumption, which need to be verified but I will be surprised if not the case, is that that percentage apply also to the vintage of the backlog. I expect the backlog to be significantly represented by branded product.
Okay.
For you to know, if I look at the area of our business where we experienced most difficulties in fulfilling quantity in the third quarter was Italy, Fornace Italia. As I mentioned, I don't know if you followed that, but most European countries, and Italy was one of those, made it compulsory to have the green pass to re-enter the factory during August. A good portion of our workers were not ready to do so, and we experienced some 20%-25% of absent days. The Italia factory chiefly produces Natuzzi Italia brand product. On the new additional backlog, the EUR 21 million, I'm pretty sure the percentage of Natuzzi Italia product is significant.
Okay, that makes sense. When I look at the quarter on the surface, it looks like revenues were down versus the second quarter. When I look at written orders, they actually accelerated from Q2 to Q3, and then the backlog had a huge jump by EUR 21 million. My question is, how much revenue do you think was lost due to the two-week shutdown for the factory during August? I guess the two issues would be supply chain and then the two-week holiday in Europe. How much of that was supply chain? How much of it was two-week holiday?
Before maybe passing to Vittorio, if he has specific data on that specific question. I think you're pointing out something very relevant for the framing of this discussion. In the sense that depending on the result of this quarter can be a picture or can be a part of a movie. If you look at the picture, of course, we could have higher revenues even those that have been higher than both 2020 and 2019, because we could have been, you know, fulfilling additional quantity order we already booked for this quarter. If you look at it in a sequence as a movie, it's clear the trajectory is moving north, in my view. I mean, the data speak clearly.
I mean, backlog, in a sense, are postponed revenue, so are not lost revenue. All the order we received will be delivered. That is a bit more a high-level answer. Vittorio, I know we did some of the, you know, analysis David is asking for. I don't know if you have the precise figure of what could have been the revenue. Yeah.
Not much more precise, but for sure. David mentioned the EUR 21 million backlog increase. We didn't have any plan to increase that backlog. We did have, you know, the intention to lower the backlog we had at the beginning of the year. The sales, the deliberate sales that we, in the nine months, if we compare the nine months that we have lost compared our previous plan, is higher than 21. At least it's EUR 30 million, if not more. Because we had about EUR 105 million backlog by the beginning of this year. We had in mind to recover a portion of that by delivering more sales, by producing more sales during 2021, which was not supposed to be another pandemic year. Instead of lowering that 105, we are 110.
It's more than between EUR 20 million and EUR 30 million, at least, you know, the loss in terms of deliberate sales.
Okay. I mean, I'm gonna look at it in a simplistic way. I'm not sure whether you're completely understanding what I'm saying. We lost, in the quarter, at least 14 production days from the shutdown in Europe for the holiday. If I look at your total revenue and I just divide it by the number of days in the quarter, it's about $20 million. However, to be fair, not all of your production is in Europe. It's somewhere, my guess is $10 million-$20 million for the 14 lost days of production. Is there a way that you could quantify that for me or give me a little more detail?
Sure. Thank you.
If I may, I mean, while we are a global company, and while the pandemic is still there, is still in Brazil, is still in certainly in Vietnam, is still in Europe, as our CEO said, our absent days. Now, despite the 2 weeks of vacation, but the absent days in the last 3, 4 months has been, as Richard in one of our biggest factory, 25%. It's just unbelievable. So we had, I mean, a problem based on the pandemic in Romania, in our factory. In Brazil, we had the production reduction in Brazil. In Vietnam, there was a lockdown for a long time. One of the main problem is the transportation. I mean, it's very difficult to find the space on the vessel to ship the product.
Because the price, it's just unbelievable. While we used to pay $3,000 from China to America or from Vietnam to America, now the shipping company, they are asking $15,000. Five times more expensive. We cannot ship just easily because we should manage cost and the shipment. Also, because we import a lot of component from Asia, even the cost of transportation and the availability of the component and transportation from Asia to Brazil, from Asia to Romania, from Asia to Italy, very complicated. Seems to be in a war. You know, if we don't get the component, we are not capable to smooth the production. I mean, there are so many really problem that we are managing, okay? I must say, we are managing very well.
I mean, that's my personal feeling.
If I can comment a little bit. If we have to qualify the shortage in delivered sales, we had problems everywhere for the reasons explained. The first one has been in Vietnam, where the lockdown has been concluded by the end of October. The most of that shortage comes from our Vietnam, you know, subcontractor.
We have a finished product, I mean, in the warehouse that we cannot ship because there are no space on the vessel available. Production is there. As soon as, you know, we find the space on the vessel and reasonable price, we will ship and invoice, and consequently will help the total revenue.
Okay, let me move on to my next question. Do you see starting in Q4, you guys working down backlog and revenues increasing, assuming written orders remain at the same robust pace? Are you gonna start working down that backlog, and delivering product output at a faster pace in Q4 and in 2022?
Let me answer. First of all, we have a luxury problem in a sense that we are trying to empty the backlog, but demand is always accelerating. First, it's important to put in the frame, because of course is a problem, but it's better to be in the situation than having, you know, empty plant and no demand. Our demand fourth quarter for what we're seeing, there's no sign of weaknesses, rather the opposite. First, we are not like other companies who in the market saying, "We are working down the backlog because we are kind of cooling down demand." Our demand keep to be very hot.
Second point, in terms of capacity, but also marginality, we work so that given our business cycle, the action we put at the beginning of quarter three will be fully impacting in quarter four, both in terms of marginality and in terms of some of the production announcement. The broader transformation I mentioned before, opening up Mexico, increasing our productivity in Italy with the 4.0 production, bringing additional capacity to Romania. Those are typically action which have impact for the mid longer term. It's something we don't do tactically from one quarter. We do because our, let's say, midterm objective at 2026 forecast a major growth across our brands.
Some of the, let's say, more tactical action definitely has been designed to have impact in Q4. Hopefully we will see a better situation in terms of our output capacity, and definitely in terms of marginality announcement. The other action I mentioned are more to enhance our operational machine for to sustain the long-term objective growth.
Okay. In terms of the strategy for growth in North America that you've articulated previously to open approximately 10 stores per year for branded product, which will positively affect overall margin, do you believe that with the changes and plans you've put into effect in Q3, that you'll be able to meet that additional demand with output?
Do you want me to comment or I should comment?
Yes. Yeah, I will-
Sounds like a supply chain question more than a retail question.
To point to your question. Absolutely, North America is top priority. I feel one of my, let's say, mission of my job, when I don't have a complex job in a sense, but one of my key mission is to allocate investment and prioritize investment. North America and retail are both high priority and across each other. When you talk about retail in North America is top priority, especially for Autostrada. We plan to accelerate that. When it comes to timing for executing, it's less a supply chain issue constraint, it's more the fact of identifying the proper location. We are very, let's say, anxious to deliver on the new opening. At the same time, we are very careful because opening a new store is a multiyear commitment. Even though, of course, we don't buy, but we rent.
We want to find perfect location, which fit the, you know, the target consumer we want, which present good economic condition. I've been already twice to New York, to look at location for a potential additional store in New York. It's something just to tell you how relevant is the decision which I go myself with Jason to visit the store, look at economics, looking at the catchment area. We definitely want to keep the target, and we will do. At the same time, we want each opening to be successful, and we're very careful examining new locations. This, I mean, I mentioned now New York, but they've been in Texas, again, with Jason looking at potential location.
We define a process where any new location will be considered as a major decision for the company, not just because of its size, but because it's a very important decision, and we want to be, all of us, involved in taking this decision.
My question is, with the changes that you've put into effect, you know, let's say each store contributes approximately another EUR 4 million in revenue, can you meet that demand right now?
Yeah, I mean, for, again, when you talk about.
Yeah, I mean, certainly we have a production capacity. I mean, we have, especially in Italy, we have a production. We have a factory, we have people, we have a production capacity. The issue, again, has been transportation, material shortage, and high absenteeism in the last 3-4 months. Unlikely, the pandemic is still there, I mean. It didn't disappear. But again, yes, if we open the store, we have a production capacity. We have well-skilled people here in Italy, we have a factory, we have everything ready to go.
Okay. My last question.
That was your question, right? David?
Yes. Just in general.
Okay.
Can you meet that capacity?
Yeah. I confirm that. What I said is, we're not gonna be slow if anything, you know, slowing anything because of production. If anything, it's because we don't find the perfect location. Production is not an issue for our stores.
Okay. Then just last question, and then I'll turn it over to any of the other callers. I don't wanna monopolize. But your KUKA JV from your original monetization event where you sold a little over 50% for EUR 65 million, it's grown considerably. Could you give us an update on that? Is there you know, as a shareholder, I would love to see you monetize that and help unlock the value for Natuzzi shareholders. Can you give us an update on how it's doing, and if you're open to exploring alternatives or if you've already engaged?
We are open. We engage. Tomorrow, we have a board with our colleagues of the JV, and some of the points for discussion are really about how collectively extract the maximum value for that. The company, the JV continues to be on a positive trajectory, both in terms of growth and in terms of cash accumulation in the JV. In terms of, you know, profit, which has been distributed to us, I pass it over to Vittorio to share the progression of that profit. The short answer to your question is we absolutely. It's absolutely in our agenda, and we are engaged, actively engaged. We're not just considering. We are actively engaged with our partner.
Of course, we sit on a board, so it's a matter of discussing, considering alternatives and taking common choices, but we are actively engaged with the partner on that topic.
Thank you.
Vittorio, maybe you want to share some numbers on the progression of the profit, which is being distributed by.
Let me have, you know, a longer perspective about that. When we started the JV, by year-end 2018, they had full-year revenues of about EUR 27 million. By the end of 2021, they will triple their sales. When they started in 2018, the JV had a single-digit EBIT. Now they are in the area of 12% EBIT, and EBITDA is around 13%. When, in the first of August 2018, they started with EUR 25 million cash, and as of September, they have already doubled their available cash. The company is well-managed, is growing, is improving margins and cash.
Antonio has already said about the cooperation with them, and maybe in the future, this part will be, you know, analyzed by the JV board in terms of, you know, new developments. Now, the discussion is about the better use of the available cash, and maybe Antonio will discuss about a DOS development over the next three years with, you know, the board of directors of KUKA. The company is running very well.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from George Melas-Kyriazi from MKH. Your line is now live.
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. Two quick question. One of them is, can you give us a progress on the Mexico plant and your plan to have production there? The other one is for Jason, just an update on revenues and store developments in the third quarter. Thank you.
Let me take the one on Mexico, and again, maybe Pasquale can provide more color. First, when we talk about Mexico is primarily Natuzzi Edition North America, okay? Just to qualify what we're talking about. There are two option we're gonna be implementing in parallel. One is a producer, which is a very established company, which is a listed company. We will be producing specific number of product, which are today making what we call Quick Ship program. Quick Ship program means that made to stock, which are product that the consumers see in our stores, and if they buy, are immediately delivered to them. We identified a subset of those models to be produced.
We've been costing them, we've been looking all the aspects, and I believe that can be ramped up by beginning of 2022. This is for made to order program. This will be having the benefit of fast delivery and reducing our working capital in U.S. I'm particularly sensitive on anything which is related to capital absorption of the company. The program or quick program is very successful commercially, and it requires some selective working capital inventory in North America. This production in Mexico will lower this requirement of working capital to fulfill the quick program. The second partnership we are exploring is a production JV, similar to what we've been successfully implementing in Vietnam, where with a let's say, an established North American manufacturer which has operations in Mexico, we're gonna be ramping up capacity for our special order production.
Special order means that the customer for Natuzzi Italia can order any combination.
Natuzzi Edition.
Natuzzi Edition, absolutely. Natuzzi Edition can. Thank you for correcting me, Pasquale. For Natuzzi Edition can order any product in any configuration, and this is special order. This, of course, being a JV, it being, I wouldn't call it greenfield, but almost a greenfield operation will require more time, but we are targeting again to start production in 2022. Thank you, Pasquale, for correcting me, because again, it give me the opportunity to reinforce the fact that for the brand positioning of Natuzzi Italia, all production will stay always in Italy, at least for what is upholstery concerned. For accessory, there may be some tactical adjustment, but for upholstery will always be in Italy.
We are taking this very seriously in the sense that our Director of Operations, Ottavio Milano, is now entirely focusing on Mexico, working very closely also with Jason, because of course, he's of interest to the North American market. He's entirely focused on that, to the point that letting Ottavio focusing on that opportunity, we are trying to understand how to reinforce his current position of Director of Operations. He will be in charge primarily and almost solely of this opportunity to elevate our execution capability. I don't know, Pasquale, if you want to comment. I know you have followed even before I joined the discussion on Mexico. I don't know if you want to comment anything here.
Okay. For last two weeks, we had Ottavio Milano is our one of our top manager with another two managers. They spent two weeks time in Mexico. In Mexico, the cost of material is two times more expensive than in China. Because, you know, let's make clear, so far, we manufacture Natuzzi Edition for the North American market in China. But our strategy is to move the production in Mexico, because we downsized the factory in China in order to meet the demand from domestic market for the next five years and for the rest of Asia, while we believe that we need to manufacture for North America, the brand of Natuzzi Edition, in Mexico.
The cost of material in Mexico so far is much more higher than in China. The result we got so far in the last two weeks is that the cost of a final product in Mexico, it's the same as in China, included the duty that we pay, which impacts about 12 or 13%. In other words, we have also today, the transportation cost is just unbelievable. Very high. Certainly, let's say that on total cost, today, Mexico seems to be convenient. We should have a meeting in the next few days with our management to finalize and understand, you know, if really is convenient, and when and we should move forward with our production to meet the special order business.
While, as Antonio, our CEO, said, we believe that we should start the production of five top seller model that we warehouse in America for immediate redelivery. I mean, Mexico is still, you know, in the process. It seems that all the Americans are trying to move to Mexico from China because the transportation cost and the, it's just prohibitive. Probably the feeling between Americans and China is not the best one. It's just natural feeling, certainly.
Maybe just to summarize that, so the make to stock is definitely happening, and that should be roughly around the beginning of 2022. The special orders, you are working hard on that, trying to see whether to start the process.
Within two-three weeks, we should have really a much clearer idea how to do it and what to do it.
On the special order. On the make to stock, your summary is very correct. We are launching it in 2022.
Thank you.
The other question was for Jason about, you know, update.
Yeah, it's like the other question, I think, Jason, you should take it, the one on retail, you know, or U.S. retail.
You bet. Thank you. Listen, we're, you know, the results we're seeing in Q3 and now that we're almost two full months into Q4 continue to be encouraging. We're, you know, we've been already saying that our best stores are performing out at around $4 million, which we're continuing to see. And that our network average is, you know, closer to $3 million. I think it's also relevant to share that, you know, as we have been watching some U.S. retailers report written order results in the fall, you know, some of those retailers are having a hard time comping against their 2020 orders.
We're very pleased on the retail side to confirm that our results in Q3 and into Q4 are at, you know, at a double-digit increase over what we saw in 2020 in Q3 and Q4. We're quite pleased to feel that continued momentum. I hope that answers your question, George.
Yes, it does. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Kyle Travers, a private investor. Your line is now live. Please unmute your phone. Kyle Travers, your line is now live. Perhaps your phone is on mute. Please unmute your phone line. The next question, your line is now live. Please proceed.
Hello, gentlemen. Robert Morrison from Penn Capital. Congratulations on navigating a very difficult period through COVID and this explosive recovery. I'm looking at a lot of talent on this screen right now, and yet I'm looking at a great product with a phenomenal brand name. Yet the only thing consistent has been the lack of profitability of the business. It's been good times or bad, high rates or low rates, good economy or bad, the company's been consistently unprofitable. We hope things are gonna change. Could you potentially give us a set of revenue and margin targets for the intermediate term that management would be held accountable for and the shareholders can use as a benchmark to set a price target on the business should these be achieved? Thank you.
Thank you very much for the positive note on our business, which is very appreciated. I completely understand and sympathize with your question. I mean, the marginality is really our focus. In transparency, the company, as many producers, has more of an attitude to focus on growth and top line rather than margin and capital utilization. We have been now having a full set of KPIs supported by SAP, which allows us to track for any micro sale of our business, the EBIT produced, and going forward, also the cash flow produced for every micro sales. That is just part of the story. There's also a bit of cultural change because again, all the company. You say something right, which I appreciate because it was very straight.
At any time, the company didn't get great margins, I mean, last 10, 15 years, but it also needs to be recognized that growth was not there. I think the company secure growth, and hopefully in a substantial way, we think double-digit growth or whatever you want for the business. I think now definitely it's time for margins, and this is gonna be a top priority for us, it's what we really look at in running the business. It's really what's gonna drive our decision of investment. It's gonna be what drives our decision of MBO and promotions for people, the implications for my compensation. This is really central. I understand your question. I must disappoint you in the sense we don't provide guidance.
We have internal target, breakdown by, you know, geography, by line of business, but we don't provide the standard targets, not because we don't want to help investors, but I think, because, you know, there are so many parts moving that we're gonna be, we want to be cautious in, the way we create expectation around our company. We want to deliver first and then to create expectation. I can reassure it is very central. I'm sorry to disappoint you because we don't provide guidance on where the margin or the EBIT or the cash flow would be in one year or one year and half. That's something we don't do.
I have something else. I have something. Pasquale, I have something else to say also, Antonio, that it's true that in the last
Please go ahead.
For years the company has been, you know, negatively performing. Please understand that, you know, 15 years ago, Natuzzi was an Italian manufacturer company, an Italian leather upholstery manufacturer company. Today, Natuzzi is a lifestyle brand. To create a lifestyle brand require just investment and investment. To create a retailer model that should be profitable, again, require investment, investment. Today I mean, that's the way we should interpret the result, the balance sheet result over the last 10, 15 years. I mean, we have done huge investment. Today, we are a lifestyle brand. The wholesale business represents 15%. 85% is branded, where we make better margin. Now we have also good management to manage the retailer and the brand around the world. That's something to be considered.
Oh, thank you very much. I will interject, Antonio, that one quarter or one year outlook is guidance, and many companies do not provide short-term guidance because of the moving parts. They do on their website put a presentation with financial intermediate or longer term financial targets.
I think that's a very fair com-
They're two very different things, sir.
I think it's a very fair comment. I appreciate you making that. I think here you have a combination of us being on movement internally and the other side being on movement. Again, I appreciate your question. We would reflect if at one point we're gonna feel this is something we will do to give more sense of confidence to potential investors. I always been in the camp of
When the business is up and running well and humming, I think it would behoove the board and management to put something like that out.
Thank you. We heard you. Thank you so much. Is there any other question?
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Kyle Travers. Travers, your line is now live. Please proceed. Mr. Travers, your line is now live on my end. Please unmute on your end, and please direct your question at this time. Travers, once again, please unmute your phone line. You are unmuted on my end. Moving on to the next questioner. Your line is now live. Next questioner, your line is now live. Hello, next questioner. Mr. Morrison, are you there? Greg Cohen with Rambo5. Are you? Your line is now live.
Hey, guys. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Hi. My question's around e-commerce. It looks like it was recently launched. Can you guys give some color on
How large that opportunity can be, and what, if anything, we're doing to promote it? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. I might take this and of course, I will say Jason, but everybody else on our side is very welcome to provide color. Let's elaborate on few sources to say how big can be the opportunity. If you look at other players in, let's say, the furniture and accessories, they do a significant part of business online. If you take, you know, Williams-Sonoma or Restoration Hardware, percentages are significant. I mean, I think you have the data, but we're talking about 40, 50, 60%. Of course, that include also accessory. When you look at more just furniture, it still is very significant, maybe 20, 30.
Those are players which are focused on geographies, where digital and e-commerce are predominant, are very well accepted in North America and Anglo-Saxon markets. I think we'll be on the high end of what we can give as a target. This is just to say that for us is a significant opportunity. Up until last Thursday, we were doing zero. We record some sales already this weekend. It's all on upside. It's all on upside also because in my view, it will allow us to tap into new segment of customers also with partially different demographic. The way in which we're doing it is to be omnichannel neutral. That means that we are setting incentive system for the customer and for our team not to make one channel prevailing on the others.
It will be always an environment where the customer can buy either online or search online and then buy in our store without any barrier. We believe this can be one of our major upside opportunities together with retail. In terms of driving traffic, as you know, you need to beyond the organic growth, which I think we're gonna be benefiting a lot because our brand is very, very popular across geography. Beyond organic growth, we want to boost, you know, traffic by working with the usual suspects in terms of buying traffic. There, one source of financing for me will come also from the sector practice of doing sales and discounts across the year.
I think we should be progressively understanding how to move some part of what I call investment in that, in that area. Doing, you know, discount, which, you know, is double digit for the sector to move it to, acquiring traffic digitally. That it will be a significant buffer, which, you know, not gonna be nothing radical, but progressively we're gonna be exploring how to move part of that budget to, acquiring traffic digitally.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's question and answer session, and that does conclude today's webinar. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.