ARYZTA AG (ARYN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Audio Gap] Thank you, Tracey. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the call. I would just like to briefly draw your attention to the forward-looking statements on Page 2 of the presentation, which details all the risks and uncertainties around our business and covers all of today's discussions. I will now hand over the call to Urs.

Thank you, Paul. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are fine. Due to the activities in Eastern Europe and at the commodity markets, this both influencing the stock markets, we decided to inform you a week earlier than planned about our H1 fiscal year '22 results and our guidance for the rest of this business year. Apologize, short notice. But given the actual circumstances, we, the Board and the management, believe this was necessary and appropriate. Let me give you an update on our view about the first half of the business here, some key achievements, our strengthened footprint in Asia and our tight management of the cost and the inflation in our business. Martin Huber then, our CFO, would guide us afterwards through the detailed results. On Page 3, you can see that we achieved strong double-digit organic revenue growth of 13.3%, which was, obviously, ahead of expectations. The underlying EBITDA accelerated by 240 basis points to 12.5%, supported by disciplined cost management. Our capital structure improved further. Deferred hybrid dividends are paid. And our Brazilian business disposal is completed. Our turnaround plan is on track, and important steps are taken to participate in future Asian Pacific market growth. On the next Slide #5, you can see that there is a strengthened footprint in our Asian business. Just a moment, sorry. The key achievement first. Our multi-local business approach gains traction. Our businesses representing more than 30% of the revenue are ahead of 2019. Our portfolio transformation road map is established. A significant increase in value-added share of revenues is achieved. Our first business strategy assessment is concluded. Key drivers for the future growth are identified. We continue with our disciplined cost management in the businesses and on the group level. We delivered operational efficiencies in the amount of EUR 17 million in H1. There is, as you can see, a significant improvement of capacity utilization. It improved from 68% to 73% actual. The divestment of our targeted businesses is concluded. If you remember, the U.S. business and the Brazilian business, the processes generated out of these are clearly above EUR 800 million. Concerning our hybrid bonds, EUR 172 million of deferred and compounded hybrid dividends are paid. Now to Page 5, which I talked first before. I apologize for this. We strengthened our footprint in the fast-growing Southeast Asian market, which is growing year-on-year by 7% to 8%. We exercised an option to purchase a bakery from our co-manufacturer, DeLuxe, a state-of-the-art production facility, which doubled more -- or more than doubled our manufacturing capacity in this part of the world. We strengthened with this our relevant position in Foodservice and in QSR. We expand with these capabilities in breads, buns, pastries, including new filling capacity, which core know-how is -- of this business we acquired. And this significantly improves the resilience of ARYZTA's supply chain in this region. Now obviously, inflation across all cost inputs, including raw material, labor, logistics and services are affected in our world. This, you can see on Page 6. Price volatility is very evident in commodities, especially in wheat and energy. Supply chain disruptions also significantly elevated. Based on this, we very actively managed the entire business risk on a daily basis. Contracts we are having are largely covered. New tenders are being priced at market prices -- on spot prices. We strengthened our process governance for customer tenders, and this result in an increased frequency in contract renewal, contract pricing discussions with customers to manage together the risks. Product innovation and product renovation, product customization is a key to work against all these trends and impacts we have in the market. Focus is on disciplined cost management, efficiencies and automatization. Our guidance for fiscal year '22, you find on Page #7. The expectation for the full year '22 for organic growth is a revenue growth in a range of 12% to 14%, this supported by volume and price/mix. We reiterate underlying EBITDA margin as guided. I will now hand over to Martin Huber for the finance part of the presentation. Martin, please?

Thank you, Urs. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Please move now to Slide #9. We have delivered a strong top and bottom-line acceleration in H1 and are confirming with this the confidence in our turnaround plan. In the first 6 months of the financial year 2022, we have delivered a strong double-digit organic growth of 13.3%, with the contribution of 11.3% from volume. Our business in France, Fornetti, QSR in Europe as well as Foodservice in APAC delivered strongest volume growth. About 70% of the absolute revenue volume growth was generated by these businesses. The disposal of our Brazilian business as well as the Swiss sandwich business reduced revenues by 2.7%. Currency added 0.4% to the revenue, mainly due to the strengthening of the Swiss franc and the Australian dollar. With this, we have increased our revenues by 11% in the first half of the year to EUR 835.3 million. Moving now to Page 10. We had a strong momentum in Europe in the first half of the year. The organic growth of 14.3% in this region is broad-based. Markets representing almost 60% of European revenues are delivering strong double-digit growth. Key highlights of the European results are: Our QSR business, the Fornetti operation as well as our Polish market are already ahead of 2019 revenue levels. France is posting strong recovery and generating an organic growth of 46.3% despite the impact of the recent COVID wave. Germany, our biggest market, has delivered a resilient H1 performance with an organic growth of 3%. This is a good result considering the severe COVID restrictions, which caused overall Retail performance in Germany to drop in December and January. Total bread and baked goods category reduced in Retail in December by 4.6% and in January by 5.7% in value versus same month in the previous year. Looking at February now and we see the lifting of this rule, the trend is clearly changing, and performance is accelerating in Germany. Rest of the World with an organic growth of 7.7% showed a resilient performance. On one side, COVID restriction in Australia and New Zealand affected our QSR business in APAC due to the temporary restaurant closure or reduced footfall. This resulted in a low single-digit organic revenue growth of our business. On the other side, our Foodservice business delivered strong double-digit growth, supported by Japan and Malaysia where restriction have been reduced. Overall, it's worth highlighting that the total APAC business is already ahead of 2019 revenue levels. Turning now to slide -- or Page 11. All our 3 main channels generated positive revenue growth in the first half of the year. Particularly, Foodservice was a standout, with a growth above 30%. The key takeaway of our H1 channel performance are Foodservice revenue growth was particularly strong in the independent subchannels. Our service offering in these channels provided a strong solution to our customers in managing labor shortages. QSR grew double digits despite the challenge in APAC, which I have mentioned earlier. This growth was strongly supported by our business with McDonald's and Subway. Retail, our largest channel with Europe representing over 90% of it, grew by 6.5%. Turning now to Slide 12. The H1 contribution from pricing and mix accounts for 2% of our revenue growth, as shown earlier. Pricing represents 1.6% for this period. In the second quarter of the year, our pricing ramped up to 2.3% from 0.9% in Q1. Pricing strengthened significantly month after month to already 3.6% in January as pricing agreements were put in place. Pricing will further accelerate in the second half of the year as the majority of the pricing negotiation with our Retail customers have been concluded in the last 2 months and become effective in February and March. This will help us to cover input cost increase in H2. Important to highlight, due to the volatility in some input costs such as energy, wheat, vegetable oils and other materials, we will need to revisit and reopen discussions with customer. The implication of the elevated supply chain disruption in the current context is closely managed in line with the actions explained earlier on by Urs. In summary, the achieved pricing agreements, combined with the disciplined cost management, should allow us to compensate the unprecedented input cost increases, which, measured at spot prices, represent a 25% to 30% increase on an annualized basis. Turning now to Slide 13. Disciplined cost management, fixed cost leverage benefit and first contribution from pricing to compensate input costs are the key contributors to our H1 EBITDA results of 12.5%. This result represents an improvement of 230 basis points of our EBITDA margin versus previous year and is in line with consensus. Gross margin improved by 30 basis points despite increased input cost. Pricing -- continued contribution from efficiency projects and fixed cost leverage were key to protect our gross margin. Our capacity utilization improved to over 73% from 68% for the full year '21. And our conversion cost as a percentage of revenue has reduced from 34.8% to 34%. We are able to limit our distribution cost increase in absolute to a low single digit and deliver 90-basis-point leverage benefit. This was possible despite significant increases in transport costs, driven by energy inflation and capacity constraints. Our total indirect costs further decreased in absolute amounts versus H1 '21. The important structural cost optimization initiatives initiated during the last fiscal year continued to benefit our result. Depreciation remained stable and absolute. Therefore, its weight on total sales reduced versus previous year. Turning to Slide 14. The EBITDA margin expansion was broad-based across our businesses and geographies with similar -- was broad-based and geographies with similar improvements in Europe and rest of the world. In Europe, the majority of our businesses improved their margins significantly versus the muted margin in H1 '21. The turnaround plan in Germany supported a profit improvement of the business despite the tough COVID-related trading environment in the second quarter of the year. In rest of the world, profitability improved 230 basis points. This was strongly driven by the rebound in Foodservice business in APAC. We should now turn to Page 15. We delivered an operating free cash flow of EUR 11 million in our continuing operation. The improved profitability added EUR 27.9 million versus the previous period. And the reduction of around EUR 6.7 million versus the previous year of restructuring and other cash flow elements further improved the operating cash flow. Total working capital movement comparing H1 '22 with H1 '21 of continuing operations was negative by EUR 45.4 million. The underlying effect of it corresponds to EUR 18.8 million, which was an investment to support growth. The balance of this amount is an exceptional effect of EUR 26.6 million and is relating to 3 points: a calendar effect on supplier payment in France; a temporary slowdown in Germany due to the strict 2G COVID measures, which caused our stock levels to increase. This effect will be reduced and eliminated during the remainder of the year. And the third effect of that extraordinary effect is the working capital increase in our Brazilian business. This increase was recovered through the purchasing price. CapEx increased by EUR 5.7 million. This effect relates mainly to growth investment like the artisan line in Ireland, [ Best Burger ] projects in Nordics and the U.K. and the first payment for the DeLuxe asset purchase in Malaysia. Turning now to Slide 16. With the decision to pay accumulated and compounded dividends -- hybrid dividends and resume the payment of current hybrid dividends, we have reduced the hybrid balance from EUR 973.3 million to EUR 835.7 million. The accumulated and the current hybrid dividends reduced the balance by EUR 182.9 million, the hybrid -- the H1 hybrid dividend charge of EUR 22.7 million and the effect of the appreciation of the Swiss franc on the 2 Swiss-denominated instruments of EUR 22.6 million added to the balance. We would like to reiterate that the hybrid instruments continue to be part of our capital structure, and we will revisit possible actions after having delivered consecutive periods of positive results. Turning to Slide 17. In the first half of full year '21, we have taken important steps to further improve our capital structure. In September, we have refinanced the existing EUR 800 million RCF with a new EUR 500 million facility. In October, we have concluded the disposal of the Brazilian business and obtained the corresponding proceeds of EUR 110 million. In the same month, we have also repaid the deferred and compounded hybrid dividends, as mentioned before. And in December, we have repaid EUR 162 million in Schuldschein notes. As a consequence, the weighted average maturity of our debt structure increased by 3 years to 4.53 years versus previous year. And the weighted average cost of interest is at 1.8%, just 10 basis points above the cost in H1 '21. Overall, net debt have increased from EUR 220 million to almost EUR 300 million. However, excluding the effect of the accumulated and compounded hybrid dividends and the proceeds of the Brazilian disposal, we have maintained net debt levels stable versus previous year. Interest costs have been reduced by over EUR 7 million versus H1 '21 to EUR 9.1 million, and we are on track to achieve the expected levels for the full year. Supported by the improving business performance, both the EBITDA leverage and the interest cover ratio remained well within the agreed covenant ratio and provide sufficient headroom and flexibility for the group. Before handing back to Urs, let me come back to the Brazilian disposal and add some additional information. We have successfully concluded this disposal of the Brazilian business to Grupo Bimbo. We have received EUR 110 million proceeds, net of associated transaction cost. The carrying value of the asset of this business amounts to EUR 64.9 million. This resulted then in a cash gain on disposal before tax of EUR 45.1 million. You have noted there is a EUR 40.3 million loss on -- of disposal in our income statement. This is the effect -- this is a technical effect of the IFRS standard that requires that the accumulative foreign currency translation variation on the assets are recognized through the income statement. This is a noncash effect and is not affecting our equity. In the case of the Brazilian disposal, this foreign currency effect was negative EUR 85.4 million and resulted into the loss that I've mentioned before. I hand now back to Urs.

Thank you, Martin. Let me give you some information and outlooks about our markets we are in, the business model. We are providing some innovation highlights and then, again, the outlook for our business. On Page 19, you can see the localization, the areas ARYZTA is in the European footprint and the Asian footprint, which then is resulting in an addressable market of roughly EUR 18 billion of value; in Europe, EUR 15.5 billion; in Asia and Pacific, roughly EUR 2.5 billion. Carbohydrate market, bakery market is basically growing more or less with the world population, so 1%, 2%, which is the European growth, Asia 3% to 4%. The business we are in is showing a growth between 3% and 5%. This is the growth rate of the convenience business. In the markets we are in, we are having a market share between 9% and 11%. This is ARYZTA's business world today. On Page 20, the business model, you will remember this is unchanged, but it's always worth to remember. We base our business on 4 pillars, which is innovation and category know-how, to renovate, to renew our business not only in products, in services, in cooperation, in raw material, in energy usage. Wherever it is, it's key. Innovation, category know-how is key to provide our business. Excellence in customer development with close cooperation. Martin Huber mentioned several investments. For example, [ Best Burger ] is a good example in this customer development is key to maintain our positioning, to strengthen our relevance in the market. Quality and efficiency is necessary and golden pillar in our business model. The best standard in quality is needed in order to gain versus our competitors. Efficiency is an ongoing and never-ending project. There are always opportunities to capture, to become faster, smarter, better. Channel solutions, offering solutions for our customers, with our customers to solve their problem and all of this then resulting in the proposition we are giving as ARYZTA. ARYZTA is the gold standard for oven-baked freshness in the markets we are in. There is a big, big focus on this in our business. It's the daily work we are doing to become better and to improve. On Page 21 then, you will find our leading bakery brands. Hiestand is quite well known in Switzerland, oven freshness, very good imagery and reputation in the market. Mette Munk, our wonderful Danish business for pastries with fruit fillings is very well positioned and recognized around the entire market. On the whole world, we are serving customers out of Denmark, in the Asian markets, in U.S. market [ where bread is ]. Coup de pates, our state-of-the-art Foodservice business in France with exciting products, highest-quality product range, with a wide product range for receptions, for caterers, for bakeries or [Foreign Language] as they call this part of the customers, not only in France but mainly in France. Cuisine de France, our concept brand for retail and convenience outlets in Ireland, quite well known and very good position supported by a strong innovation and a strong up-trading of our product range. Martin Huber mentioned this as well. We did investments there in artisanality, in sourdough-based products, in artisan-made product. This is our Irish bread. Then Fornetti, our business in Eastern Europe for our franchise partners and retail customers. And last but not least, Pré Pain, our business for retail partners, offering solutions for this part of the business. Basically, we are working in 6 food categories. As you can see on Page 22, artisan bread and rolls. You can see here the twist bread. There are many others more. This is a relevant category, a lot of innovation, know-how, change, investment is going in there to improve. This is a clear trend in our days. Then croissants, the world we are coming from, this is the basis of many of our businesses there as well. There's a lot of innovation, ongoing changes. Then pastries, I talked before about Mette Munk. These are Mette Munk products there on the picture, really well positioned in the world's market, highest quality. Then down on the left, American bakery for food to go, for the convenience spot, for the coffee to go. Most probably not the healthiest one but always good for indulgence. Savory, as you can see, a growing category, still small but fast growing. And a strong growing category are buns, not only in QSR, in Foodservice as well. This seems to be a product or a category of these days. Then on the next slide, I would like to outline some innovation and renovations in order to meet customer and consumers' trends and needs. Consumers clearly are looking for other products with more whole grains, so the full seed in it, seeded products, sourdough-based products with long fermentation time, artisan products, products with high fiber content, low protein content, low carb content. All of this drives differentiation, relevance and positioning of our business towards the customers and consumers. ARYZTA, in this context, is the leading partner in the bakery category, the trendsetting partner for our customers. All these activities then are targeting and resulting in successful NPD, new product innovations. As you can see on the pictures below, on the left side, the high-protein and high-fiber bread, vegan plant -- vegan plant-based savory chicken pastry in the middle and, on the right side, some new products out of the range of artisan sourdough products. This is the part where the initiatives are going in. Now on Page 24, let me summarize again the guidance for the fiscal year '22. So we see an organic revenue growth in a range between 12% and 14%. This, obviously, is supported by volume and by pricing. And we confirm the underlying EBITDA margin guidance we gave already at the beginning of business year. There is a strategic growth plan and midterm guidance expected to be finalized during Q3. We will lay this out in a Markets Day in early summer of this business year. There is an ESG road map also to be finalized during Q3, ESG covering the entire field and addressing all necessary and important topics. This was the official part of the presentation. Thank you very much for following our slides and presentation. And I would open up all the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions]

It's Jörn speaking here from UBS. The first one would be, please, on the most actual topic. Wheat prices have increased significantly in the last couple of days. Do you think that, for example, another price round of around 10% for fiscal year '23 would be something the industry can digest? That would be the first question. The second question, please. Is your German production side now profitable with the utilization improvements? And do you expect a strong further margin improvement in Germany also in 2022 calendar year? And the last question, please. On the CEO and Chairman role, Urs, is there anything you can say? What are your thoughts here from summer 2022 onwards?

Jörn, good to hear you. Let me start with the wheat. There are -- there's a big volatility out there in the market. There is an uncertainty out there in the market, so it can be that there are more pricing rounds needed, not only for wheat. It's for energy as well. Today morning, we saw a Brent price of $140 per barrel. There is a labor inflation, so the input cost environment became that volatile but, really, a shorter contract duration is key and an ongoing discussion with the customers needed. It can be, and most probably, it will be like this that we have to go for next price rounds. By the way, as everybody else as well, it's not only a bakery thing. It's not only a wheat thing. It's not only an ARYZTA thing. It's an overall thing. Concerning Germany, Germany is big. We have several operations there. We can't give detailed information about single business units. What we can say is that the German plan is on track. There are significant steps down forward. There is an interactive customer discussion around pricing and around assortment, SKU changes. So we are confident to get there as well. Our results, we are targeting. This is on a good track. Concerning the double role, CEO and Chairman role, there is basically no news. We stick to the statement we gave already last time. There is a search process ongoing. And at the moment when there are news, we would communicate this. It's fine for you like this, Jörn?

Yes.

We will now take our next question from the line of Patrik Schwendimann.

Patrik Schwendimann for Zürcher Kantonalbank. Could you give us a very recent example of how much you were able to increase prices in new contracts? That's my first question. And did I get you right with the price increase you already have done, you're safe for the current full year, so up to July 2022? And third question, it seems that the availability is good for you because you just source wheat in Western Europe. Is that correct? And my last question, what is the current competitive situation? Are you winning here shares from small businesses, maybe also from a large competitor?

I think I will take the 2 last points of the questions. And the 2 first ones, I will then give back to Martin Huber, Patrik, if this is fine for you. We source the -- obviously, it's impacting the market when the first and the second biggest wheat producers in Europe are in war together. Most of the wheat they are producing is -- stays in Eastern Europe or is going to Middle East, to some Asian countries, to Africa, okay? So there's mainly a price issue appearing to this. But overall, for wheat supply, we are safe and covered until fiscal year end '22, so August, more or less. Now in the meantime, a lot of things can happen, but this is exactly what I told. We have to analyze and to value the situation almost on a daily basis. This is -- these are the signals of these days and then reacting accordingly. For competitors, there are exactly the same rules in place as for us competitors -- as competitors or competitors being partially as well our customers. You know that in Switzerland, this is always there. The millers and the crop industry, they have an industrial pillar. There are other retailers having this as well. So everybody is facing exactly the same situation. And this volatility or the price levels are so significant, different or higher than they were in the past that there is no other way than to absorb the majority out of this volatility via pricing, of course. And this, I showed on the -- in the presentation. There are massive efforts to go after costs in our business. There are big efforts for automatization, for efficiency increases. But these impacts from the markets are too big to absorb this just with efficiency and costs internally. There is a pricing needed. And there are signals already that some competitors of ours are already going into the next pricing round, which is a good signal for us. So the competitive landscape is facing everywhere exactly the same impact. So Martin, on the first 2 questions to Patrik, please.

Patrik, regarding the general question on the pricing, so let's just remind us that we have 3 different channels with 3 different pricing models, which is the QSR business with about 20% of revenue weight, Retail about 52% and Foodservice with 28%. In Foodservice, we have the traditional catalog business where we have 2 catalogs per year. However, that doesn't prevent us from revisiting these prices during the catalog period, given the fact that there is volatility in input costs, not only in own produced -- for own produced but also for these bought-in finished goods, which obviously cannot be hedged. So therefore, that, let's say, there is certainly the pricing already considered in our second half than what we have in the current catalog. But that doesn't mean that we are not going to really look at this if needed, as Urs mentioned. Retail, I mentioned we have negotiated the majority of our contracts. Now we have finalized them. There is, over the course of the second half, several contracts coming up from -- for new negotiations. And if needed, we will certainly look at some of the existing contracts and touch base with our customers. On QSR, we have an open-book policy with a pass-through model on input costs, certainly also combined with the need to work on efficiencies from our side. So these 3 models -- or these 3 channels with the 3 different pricing models impact our pricing. For the second half of the year in our -- as per our guidance, we have around 7% pricing contribution for the second half. So that brings your overall pricing for the full year to around 5%. That is, as we stand now, as I said. Given the situation, we'll follow up on this very closely. We have set up very strict rules in terms of how new negotiations need to be handled. There is a clear review process to make sure that we take the right decision, protect the margin and drive the business.

We'll now take our next question from [ Tappe von Ulsche ].

Maybe we've already talked a lot about the pricing, but maybe you could also say something about like how hard it is to actually succeed with these discussions. Like are these very, very hard discussions with your customers to get the pricing that you want? And also, you said that Europe registered the strongest sales increase, whereas rest of the world was unchanged, mainly because countries like New Zealand and Australia still suffered from COVID-19-related impacts. Can you say something about this? When will these places recover? Do you already see a recovery in these regions?

Thank you for this. I would answer the first part of the question and would then hand over to Martin for the split between Europe and Asia. As I already mentioned, the changes the volatility, the uptrends on the input costs are very significant. The uncertainty clearly is there. Our customers across all channels are very professional. They follow this evolution as well. Of course, you are not invited on their initiative for pricing. But there is an understanding in the market, in the business that pricing is needed, and this through the entire value chain. I think besides pricing, there is a fear in the market that supply chain disruptions would come up. So it's not only about pricing. The view, for example, customers are taking is as well about secured supply chain targets. So this is the discussion. It's possible to go after pricing, and it's needed. And this is a common understanding between raw material producers, between the industry and between -- and with the customers. So it's possible. Martin?

Yes, [ Tappe ], regarding your question on growth in rest of the world. When we look at -- so particularly Australia and New Zealand have an impact in the first half on these COVID measures, as we explained. When we look at the most recent trend of February, we can clearly see a recovery and an improvement. It's turning better. We have already seen, in January, a slight improvement. So we're confident that sales performance in APAC is moving in the right direction. And we're recovering from the earlier on impacted of the COVID restrictions that were affecting footfall and restaurant traffic in Australia and New Zealand. As I mentioned before, and it's important to highlight, the Foodservice business in our Asian or APAC market is delivering strong double-digit growth. Part of it is recovering from the previous year. So that is moving in the right direction. And it continues a strong trend based on our most recent data received from February. I hope that clarifies the question.

Our final question comes from the line of Andreas von Arx.

Yes. Can you hear me? It's Andreas von Arx.

Andreas, we can hear you.

A couple of questions. First one, financials. I mean there's only limited adjustments below underlying EBITDA. Is that also what we can expect for the full year? And just a clarification, there will be no further gain-loss effect from disposal in the second half. That's the first question. Second question, if I look through your presentation, there's a lot of well-looking pictures of rather specialty premium products. I mean is that reflecting your business? Or coming to the question, what percentage are these specialty premium products? And how much is still basically generic-based products, like that 0.5-kilo bread? I mean how does your product -- how does your portfolio look in that perspective? Third question would be on France. I mean here, you had the significant COVID recovery given the Foodservice channels. Is that business still running similarly than in the past pre-COVID? Or have you made here adjustments to distribution or the way you produce products, let's say, in-house production versus third party? Or is this just a business that is getting -- hopefully, getting back what it was before? And then last question, just Page 19. If I look at your geographic footprint, and you say yourself that bakery business is local, why is there no business in either the Czech Republic or Slovakia, which seems kind of a bit an obvious next step when I look at the footprint?

Thank you, Andreas. Let me write the 4 questions down. So I would start with the last one. After the nice pictures, I would then hand over to Martin for the numbers. We have customers in Czech and Slovakia. These are distributors, so partners from us and distributing our products there mainly in Foodservice channels and some Retail channels. We don't have a local sales organization there or not yet. And we don't have manufacturing footprint. So it does not mean that we are not present there. We are present there with partner, to a certain extent. Then the French business is basically still the same. It's a trading business. So the French business Coup de pates is not producing, has a very powerful and very well-designed innovation machinery. There are 2 new catalogs every year with a wonderful product assortment. And the processes, the mechanisms around these businesses are the same. It was beaten by COVID, as we told, because reception was down. There were no trade fairs, no expositions. This all is coming back now. So it's basically the same model as precrisis, of course. We had adjusted some logistic footprints, and there is an improvement work ongoing. But for the customer, for the consumer at the end of the value chain, the business is exactly the same and will, post-COVID, post these worrying times, be still the same, a really sophisticated business with a wonderful product assortment. You can find it on the Internet, with products covering all occasions, really well done. We visited them 2, 2.5 weeks ago. The management is in a good mood, so the French business, I think, is in a good place. There's the nice pictures. These value-added products are fast growing in our part of the business, so the -- we take this value-added range up on 30%, year-to-date, almost on 50%. So there's a end. It depends on what do you count to value-add or commodity. There could be a discussion being held by around burger buns. Where are they located? Fact is that this value-add, this new generation of product, this range is fast and rapidly growing. It's not the constellation ARYZTA can change overnight, but we did very well progress over the last 12 to 18 months, and this progress will continue. Decommoditizing of the product range, this is the key. So these are, more or less, the numbers around the -- the way you call it, the nice pictures. This is really the future of our product range. That's the innovation efforts we are investing. These are the investment efforts. As Martin told, we have an investment in Ireland doing exactly this, products supporting with sourdough with new technologies in Holland. We did the same in Poland, work in progress in Poland. There are Asian initiatives. There is a German project being in discussion to this is supporting -- this is supportive to this change. Now, Martin, for the first question Andreas had.

Andreas, let me maybe add some additional color Urs referred to the Irish example. I also mentioned the additional artisan line that we are doing or investing in Ireland. Before -- let's say, when we look at the Irish business, before 2019, about 75% of the produced volume was commodity. When we look where we will be at the end of 2021, given the investment we have, the changeover of the lines in the factory, our commodity, our pure commodity segment in the Irish business will be around 30% -- or produced, let's say, volume in the Irish bakery will be around 30%. So this is what we're talking about what we're doing. That's just looking at the Irish business, looking at the setup of the lines where we have significantly changed the setup and have enabled our capacity to deliver these value-added products, artisanal bread of higher value also to the consumers. So that one is as an example of what Urs was referring to and of -- in relation to the pictures. When we talk about the nonrecurring costs, they have -- there has been, indeed, a significant reduction versus previous year. And you can expect only limited increase towards the end of the year. So that will remain a 1 single-digit-million amount when it comes to nonrecurring costs. And as we have also indicated at the beginning of the year when we presented the forecast for full year '22. You can also expect to see no additional effects on gain and loss on disposals. So this amount that we have there will roughly stay the same.

Thank you, Martin. Andreas, maybe an example more for the nice picture question. There's a big initiative now ongoing. It's public in the press. It's the [ Best Burger ] project we are doing with one of our big customers together, which makes the burger different in recipe, in taste, in look, in size and on the glaze. These are relevant efforts and investments to decommoditize products. So it's clearly the aim from us as a producer, as a partner of Retail, of QSR, of Foodservice. And it's in the same moment, the same aim by our customers. So this is a clear trend we are following or even setting in some parts of the business. Are the questions answered with this, Andreas?

Thank you very much.

Thank you. I'd now like to hand the call back over for closing. Please go ahead.

Okay. Thank you for your time. Again, apologize for the short notice. But as I told at the beginning, given the circumstances, we thought it would be helpful to give information about H1 and guidance for H2 a bit earlier. We are living in a different world than we found ourselves half a year or a year ago. This, we think, will be an ongoing issue. That's why we are very close on a daily basis in the markets with our customers on all evolutions addressing this on a daily basis, judging situation on a daily basis. Pricing is not the only way to absorb this but is a relevant way. And this is a clear and agreed topic in our world. You see it in the shelves. A shopping basket, on a same-same comparison, is clearly more expensive today than it was 5, 6 weeks ago than it was 5, 6 months ago than it was 1 year or 2 ago. In Switzerland, fuel trades today in the petrol station clearly above CHF 2. So inflation arrived, and inflation will stay. Inflation will be with us for the next month and years. We will address this. Pricing ability to bring pricing into the market is key in this space. I think we are very well positioned, doing our homework on the costs but as well bringing our needs for pricing into the market. Thank you for joining us today morning. I wish you a good day and stay healthy. Thank you. Goodbye.

Thank you very much. Goodbye.

That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.