ARYZTA AG (ARYN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you. Good morning, everybody, and welcome. I'd just like to point out that today's discussions are governed by the forward-looking statement in terms of all the risks associated with reporting. And I'd now like to hand over to Urs Jordi to present.

Good morning all. Let me welcome you to this year's results presentation. We will start on Page 4 of the presentation with the strategy and the delivering of the goals. The performance arrives the way we have planned. Bake-off business remains attractive and is creating sustainable value. ARYZTA is on track to deliver its midterm targets 2025. On the Page #5, you can see the key highlights for the 17-month period to December 2023. Revenue of EUR 3.046 billion was achieved. An organic growth of 17.3% is there, an EBITDA of EUR 400.8 million, an EBITDA margin of 13.2% and free cash flow of EUR 139.6 million was achieved. Profit for the period amounted to EUR 160.5 million. On the next page then, Page #6, the key highlights for the 12-month period to December '23. The revenue amounted to EUR 2.192 billion. The organic growth stands with 14.7%, an EBITDA of EUR 304.5 million was achieved, which is a margin of 13.9% and free cash flow of EUR 132.4 million was achieved. Profit for the period, EUR 125.7 million. These are the key highlights for the 12-month period. On Page 7 then, the organic growth strategy, which is working in our core categories. Innovations are impacting revenue heavily. This impact almost doubled over the year. With this, we gained market share. Core channels remained the same, quick-serve restaurant, other foodservice and retail. There are significant improvements in customer feedback ratings, which we're doing on a yearly basis. Customers seem to appreciate our activities. Both core regions performed well, several growth initiatives are underway. You may have read the investment in Perth into burger bun line. We invest in capacities in Switzerland, in Germany and in Poland. On Page 8 then, the operational improvements on all levels. We're still in a challenging environment. There is a still significant labor inflation in place. There are supply chain disruptions appearing from time to time. Commodity largely remain stable, but still on an elevated level. There is an increasing regulatory complexity and with these costs in the system. Pricing effects are becoming flattish, but not deflating. On Page #9, concerning governance. Board composition proposal will be listed in the AGM invitation. New permanent group CEO will take over the business in January 2025 onwards. There will be a smooth and orderly transition granted from this dual role. There will be a strong oversight and support from Chairman and the Board to this new CEO. The guidance for 2024, there will be further improvements in all 3 metrics expected in the current year. The organic growth will normalize into low to mid-single-digit range, driven mainly by volume and mix. The EBITDA margin expansion will normalize, supported by growth, efficiency and cost discipline. Further improvement in free cash flow and total net debt leverage will see sequential improvement in ROIC, we will target. On Page #11, you know this page with the targets 2025. They will remain the same. ARYZTA is on track to achieve all these targets. There is an ESG strategy in place based on 3 pillars, supported by 13 goals. There is an environmental efficiency pillar, apologize, an innovation pillar and people and community pillar. All of these supported again by 13 goals, greenhouse gas and water footprint improvements, enhanced sustainable sourcing about people and communities, health and nutrition. The key targets on this ESG initiatives, you find on Page 13. In the environmental part, greenhouse gas reduction and food waste reduction and water reduction. In the innovation part, a share of regenerative wheat on a mass-balance basis, reduction of virgin plastic usage and an achievement of 40% share of new products aligned with ARYZTA Better For you means healthier products. People and communities, we work on work-related incidences to take care for our employees. And on supply chain diligence, each of our sites are reporting through SEDEX and will achieve a score of at least 3.5 out of 5. On Page #14, you can see the improvement in energy mix, greenhouse gas emissions and food waste. On the left, side, the renewable and nonrenewable energy usage, then in middle, the greenhouse gas emission and on the right side, the food waste reduction in our business. I would now hand over to Martin Huber for the financial review.

Thank you, Urs. Let's move now to Page 15. Good morning all. Firstly, I would like to briefly remind you of our flight path so far. The ARYZTA aircraft took off more than 3 years ago in very storming conditions with many skeptics critical of the disclosed flight path. Despite this, we quickly gained altitude. However, it was anything, but quite in the air. COVID disruptive supply chain, spiraling inflation as a result of the outbreak of war in Europe, all challenged the crew and cockpit. Successfully managed these turbulences. Continuing our flight path and we remain on track to progress towards our cruising altitude and reach our midterm destination as laid out in our original flight path. And now moving to today's strong performance. In the last 17 months, we have consolidated our turnaround plan. Our strong set of figures, both for the extended year as well as for our calendar year 2023, are a clear testimony to this. Double-digit revenue growth, supported by innovation and market share gains paired with disciplined cost management and some active portfolio management have expanded our margins, significantly accelerated our cash flow and increased the return on invested capital above our midterm target levels. With these milestones achieved, going back one more and last time to the aircraft analogy, this means going forward, we will be normalizing our speed and steering continuously and sustainably towards our communicated midterm targets. Page 17. We've exceeded expectations on all our key performance metrics for the extended financial year 2023. We've increased our revenue to EUR 3.046 billion. The resulting organic growth reached 17.3% compared to 21.6% for the 12 months communicated in October. This organic growth rate reduction is almost entirely driven by pricing, which decreased from 18.2% for the 12-month period to 14% for the 17-month period. This is a pure mathematical effect as we've been running against strong previous year price comparables in the period, August to December. In this 5-month period, we've achieved high single-digit organic growth with broad-based support from European businesses and QSR in Rest of World. We've expanded our EBITDA margin to 13.2% in the 17-month period supported by double-digit revenue growth, further acceleration of innovation to circa 14% of revenue, contribution from our cost discipline measures as well as active portfolio management, particularly in our Ireland, U.K. business. Free cash flow improved to EUR 139.6 million, confirming our cash generation capability. We increased the ROIC to 12.3% by improving the operating business performance, combined with disciplined CapEx spend and strong capital improvements. This KPI is now significantly ahead of our midterm targets. Page 18. For the rest of the results presentation, we'll focus on the calendar year, which will be our new financial reporting period. For this purpose, we compare our calendar year 2023 results with calendar year 2022 based on unaudited performance statements. Calendar year 2023, we've delivered strong results for all our key performance metrics, which consolidates our turnaround plans initiated 3 years ago. Double-digit organic revenue growth reaching 14.7%, supported by pricing of 12.2% to compensate commodity headwinds. EBITDA margin improved by 190 basis points to 13.9%, revenue growth as well as cost discipline measures and innovation contributed to this. Free cash flow more than doubled to EUR 132.4 million, driven by operating performance improvements more than compensating higher financing costs and tax charges. As mentioned on the previous slide, ROIC increased to 12.3%. This is a significant acceleration compared to the 7.5% in the previous year. With these results, we've achieved a new performance level from which we now move in more normalized steps towards our midterm targets. Page 18 -- 19, apologies. Over the last 2 calendar years, we delivered double-digit organic growth. This growth was supported by relevant, but necessary pricing to offset the massive commodity headwinds. Pricing peaked at the end of 2022, beginning of 2023. In 2022, volume growth was 9% with additional support from COVID recovery. Throughout 2023, volume growth has moderated. Key call-outs for our 14.7% organic growth in 2023 are: Pricing for the full year was 12.2%, supporting the recovery of higher input costs. Quarter-by-quarter, we saw this pricing normalized. The normalization of pricing throughout 2023 is primarily driven by the mathematical effect of strong previous year price comparables. Volume growth declined compared to previous year, but remained positive. The launch of new products contributed, but was partially compensated by active portfolio management, mainly in our Ireland, U.K. business. Although volumes were impacted by active portfolio management, our actions were EBITDA margin accretive. With post-COVID recovery no longer a factor and reducing price effects, full year 2024 growth is expected to normalize. Our growth will be supported by volume and mix and less so by pricing. We expect 2024 quarterly growth trends to vary as was the case in 2023. In light of Q1 '24, organic growth trending at lower run rate, reflecting temporary softness, especially in QSR, we expect organic growth to be in the low to mid-single-digit range for the full year. Page 20. Europe contributed substantially to the overall performance in calendar year 2023 with an organic growth of 15.2% and an EBITDA margin of 13%. All businesses with the exception of Ireland, U.K. delivered double-digit organic growth. Strongest contribution came from Poland, France, QSR and Germany. In the retail channel, ARYZTA continue to grow market share, outperforming the channel in our key European businesses. New product launches supported by our innovation process, almost doubled the share of innovation and revenue. EBITDA margin expanded by 200 basis points to 13%. This is a result of growth and the launch of margin-accretive products as well as efficiency initiatives. This led to broad-based margin progression across our businesses in Europe. Portfolio optimization actions primarily focused on our European businesses have also contributed. Page 21. Rest of World delivered an organic growth of 11.2% and an EBITDA margin of 20.6%. We drove organic growth for the region by correct pricing to support cost recovery and the contribution from innovation and new product launches, primarily the Best Burger rollout. Our QSR business delivered double-digit organic growth, supported by innovation, new restaurant openings and promotional offers. Foodservice contributed with resilient organic growth. Strong double-digit growth -- revenue growth in our core channel was partially compensated by active portfolio management, supporting margin expansion and some temporary lower revenue in other foodservice channels. The group accretive EBITDA margin of Rest of World increased by 150 basis points to 20.6%. The key contributor to this result was our Foodservice business, which benefited from efficiency and cost discipline measures as well as margin recovery through pricing. In QSR, margin consolidated high -- at slightly higher levels compared to previous year, important innovation and contribution from fixed cost management were the basis for this evolution. Page 22. At group level, we increased EBITDA margin by 190 basis points to 13.9%, progressing toward our midterm target of at least 14.5% by 2025. Key contributors to these results are the gross margin, which improved 210 basis points. We achieved this result by strict cost management in our factory, allowing factory fixed costs to grow by less than 30% of organic growth, the launch of margin-enhancing innovation and active portfolio management. Distribution added 70 basis points to the margin expansion. We optimized these costs through several measures such as outsourcing of some distribution services or streamlining of some of our outside storage setups. Our cost control and prudent procurement risk management also helped to manage distribution costs. SG&A increased by 30 basis points compared to the previous period. Upfront costs for our end-to-end optimization projects such as the setting up of the shared service center and the acceleration of our IT standardization program are causing this impact. In addition, onetime costs related to the change of the financial year also added to this. Excluding these effects, SG&A cost would also have contributed positively to the EBITDA margin. Slide 23. Our gross margins have recovered and are back at pre-COVID levels at the end of calendar year 2023, while input costs are still at an index of 130 versus pre-COVID. Beginning of calendar year 2020, our gross margin was at 32.8%. With the support of correct pricing, disciplined cost management, launch of margin-accretive innovation and some portfolio optimization, we've been able to compensate the headwinds caused by the pandemic and the war in Europe. Slide 24. Our efficiency and cost discipline program contributed strongly to our operating performance improvement. In manufacturing, we're on track with our annual 2% to 3% efficiency improvement. The basis for this result is the rollout of the performance control system to all our factors. This was concluded in the first half of 2023. Supported by this performance control system initiative, we've improved conversion cost as a percentage of revenue to an index of 90% versus the start of the midterm plan. With strong focus and action on the reduction of waste, we brought down waste as a percentage of used raw and packaging materials to an index of 79% versus the start of the midterm plan. At the end of December, we managed circa 70% of our procurement spend with our global procurement organization and have concluded 10 SIMPLEX projects that result cost optimization of over EUR 18 million for the calendar year 2023. With this progress, we're on track to deliver the targeted EUR 26 million to EUR 36 million for the midterm plan. Fixed costs growth, excluding the one-offs of the financial year change, the front-loaded costs of our end-to-end programs and some other one-off elements are slightly above the upper range of our indicative target. However, fixed costs have contributed significantly to the overall result acceleration. Slide 25. We've more than doubled our free cash flow to EUR 132.4 million in calendar year '23. We achieved this by operating business performance that increased absolute EBITDA by circa EUR 74 million. The improvement of working capital efficiency, net of securitization, delivering almost EUR 25 million of incremental cash flow and prudent CapEx management. It's worth mentioning that we expect to be in line with our midterm CapEx guidance of 3.5% to 4% over the years, '23 to '24 due to important growth CapEx taking place in 2024. Strong operating performance has more than compensated the higher financing costs and tax charges compared to 2022. With this result, ARYZTA demonstrates that the business is able to generate a healthy cash flow, which supports the continued optimization of the balance sheet. Slide 26. Over the last 2 years, we've reduced total net debt from EUR 1.135 billion to just slightly over EUR 1 billion at reported currency or EUR 924 million at 2021 constant currency. This was possible through the hybrid buyback program, reducing the principle of these bonds by circa EUR 376 million through a mix of free cash flow and bank financing. In December 2023, we've also repaid circa EUR 18 million of the remaining 2 Schuldschein notes. At the same time, supported by the contribution from our turnaround plan, we've decreased the leverage ratio from 5.6x to 3.3x. With this progress, we're on track to deliver a below 3x leverage by 2025. Slide 27. Driven by the significant change of the interest rate environment, our financing costs have increased by EUR 9.7 million to EUR 73.4 million. Although financing costs were higher in '23 versus '22, we significantly limited the increase through the hybrid buyback program, which offset EUR 13.2 million of the gross increase. In addition, our interest rate hedging, covering over 40% of the bank debt interest exposure ensures visibility of our finance costs up to the maturity of these instruments in September '26. The full benefit of our hybrid buyback will materialize in calendar year '24. And our total financing costs, including lease interest are expected to be in the range of EUR 67 million to EUR 71 million for the year 2024. Slide 28. We further improved the value accretion of our business by increasing the ROIC to 12.3% With this, we've exceeded ahead of schedule our midterm target levels and are delivering solid levels of economic profit. The cornerstone of this improvement are strong growth and margin progression with increased working capital efficiency, improving CapEx management. Slide 29. The consolidation of our turnaround plan is equally visible in the over 140% EPS improvement achieved in 2023 to EUR 0.82 per share. Strong operating improvement was partially offset by higher financing costs as explained in the previous chart. In addition, our income tax charge significantly increased in the current year, mainly due to normalized recognition of tax credit versus previous year and higher taxes due to improved profit levels. Slide 30. In summary, our financial results for calendar year '23 confirm that we're operating in an attractive market and that ARYZTA can deliver solid and sustainable returns to our shareholders. Our strategy is delivering, and we're are on track to achieve the committed midterm targets by 2025. Thank you. I hand now back to Urs.

Thank you, Martin. We would then start the Q&A session. Paul?

Good morning. Operator, if you can now go to the Q&A, and we'll take the first question, please.

[Operator Instructions]. We will take the first question from the line of Jörn Iffert from UBS.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

I would take them one by one, if I may. The first one would be, please, on pricing. Do you have relatively good visibility on pricing for 2024 already, i.e., have the contractors, retailers are now again set for 12 months rather than for 3 to 6 months? This will be the first question, please.

Thank you, Jörn, for this question. We've a good control and good view on pricing. There are negotiations due over the whole year. But as we told, pricing is becoming rather flattish, but not deflating. We've input costs, which are still growing, salary is one component. So as we've laid out, we believe that pricing will become rather flattish, but not deflating with a good view from our side towards this negotiations coming up.

And the second question, please, on the quarterly sales volatility you're mentioning. I mean, I think in Q4 '23, top of my head, you had close to 8% organic sales. How shall we think about the ranges? I mean, is Q1 then low single digit and Q2 can be again high single digit? Or what is roughly the range for the sales volatility you're expecting? And why is the QSR weakening for U.S., I think you also invested in growth CapEx recently?

Jörn, thank you for that question. That's -- for Q1, we've put the growth rate into context, and we've indicated that Q1 is soft. One reason for that is the softness we're seeing in the QSR segment. I'd like to remind you on the result publication of some of our food peers and as well as the listed QSR companies. You have certainly seen their similar messages. So it's not a message that's uncommon to ARYZTA. And that's why we expect our full year organic growth to be in the range of low to mid-single digits. Quarterly growth will vary as we've indicated and as it did also in the year '23.

And the ranges, I mean, can it be in some quarter, minus 2%, minus 3% organic sales and in other quarters, plus 7%, plus 8%? Or is it more between the 0% to 5% organic sales, so you can think about the volatility?

Jörn, I think it's rather somewhere between plus/minus 0% and a low to mid-single-digit upwards. This is a bit that ranges. It's difficult to see now. January was a bit soft. February already did bit better. March remains to be seen. So it's difficult now to give an outlook quarter-by-quarter. But I think it will land somewhere there what I told.

We will take the next question from the line of Pascal Boll from Stifel.

My first question would be on your Q4 results. What drove the big volume growth in Europe? I mean, it was quite of a sequential improvement in Europe versus the last 2 quarters before? That would be my first question. And then my second one, on Rest of the World, you point out in your presentation that the margin was actually stronger for the financial year ending or the 4 to 12 months ending in July than for the month or for the period ending in December. So I guess the margin was then lower for the last 5 months when we look back, so what drove that lower margin?

I'd answer the question about Europe in Q4 and Martin then the margin in Rest of the World. In Europe, we had a very strong rest or year-end. This was driven by good promotions, good mood in the market, good [ day ] constellation and good basically December business. This was very strong and then driving these numbers up. Margins in Rest of the World, Martin?

Pascal, I think Obviously, we're moving now to a calendar year. When you look at the calendar year comparison, also '23 showed a strong improvement versus previous year, 150 basis points improvement. Rest of World is margin accretive and has consolidated now at nice levels over 20%. So I'd not read too much into the evolution over the 5 months. I think the right way to look at this is to compare how we've, again, improved our profitability in '23 versus '22. Clearly here, the Foodservice business was the strong driver of this, which has allowed us to achieve that. QSR on the other side, as I said, they've consolidated at high level their margins and have slightly improved, supported by innovation and also strong and disciplined fixed cost management.

Okay. Maybe one question more, if I may. I mean, you also outlined in your outlook that you will have some or share some more thoughts on new financial targets, '26 to '28. Now with the new CEO coming in, can we expect that this will be aligned so that the new CEO will also be able to share his view on new financial targets? Or will you -- will the Board pretty much decide about new financial targets and then the new CEO needs to execute on that?

It's basically a cascade in the process. Before we go after financial targets, we will do a strategic review. This will take place this year and towards end of the year, then the financial target. This is obviously mainly driven by the actual Board and the actual management.

Your next question is from Andreas Von Arx from Baader.

I'd like to start on Page 45. That's your free cash flow generation of EUR 132.4 million for last year. If we were to make a bridge towards '25, I mean, there's 3 elements I'd like to have your view on. Last year, you had quite favorable net working capital effects. Is that achievable in the years to come? Or would that be more flattish? Then the second point would be how you think about the CapEx spending, which I think is in line with, let's say, your midterm indications, but maybe a bit on the low end in the sector, if you were to have higher growth. So is that a sustainable figure at 4% to 5%? Or would that have to go up if you would deliver more on the top line? And the third point would be on the taxes that you pay. Is this a normalized level in terms of cash tax as a percent of profitability or would have -- would this increase clearly in the midterm? Then I would have an additional question.

Andreas. I guess that's a question for me. As I've -- as we've indicated already in previous discussions and presentations, we've a strong working capital improvement initiatives in place, and we're confident that we can continue delivering incremental improvement in the working capital movement part. So I'm not referring to the net of securitization program. I'm referring to management of inventories, payables and receivables. We've concluded the analysis of a couple of businesses already, and this has confirmed our targeted improvement level that we see in the working capital movement. So we're clearly confident that this will help us to further support. When we look at CapEx, you're right, '23 was probably a bit at the lower end. You can expect CapEx to be within the guidance that we've indicated between 3.5% to 4% for the midterm target. Should the growth come higher with improved EBITDA margin, you will also get incremental contribution obviously from EBITDA. Taxes will normalize over the longer period, let's say -- but you can expect to see there a slight uptick. But on the other side, we've another element that we're working on and we continue to work on, that is optimizing our balance sheet structure. And with that, optimizing obviously also our interest and financing costs. So therefore, we're confident that we can deliver these levels of healthy cash flow.

Okay. Then just on the guidance, I was a bit late on the call. Normalizing of margins for next year. So that excludes a lower margin or normalizing something around this margin? Or is it -- I'd have thought it's just a modest increase, is that what you're saying?

That's how we should read this. This is -- we've now -- as I said, we've now reached a new level of performance. We've -- we're committed to our midterm target of at least 14.5%. We're now at 13.9%. So you can expect a further increase in margin, but at a more moderate pace. That's how that should be interpreted.

And then sorry to push a bit on that first quarter theme or let's say, that you pointed to. It's just like the messages I got from food, beverage -- food peers was that there might be a trading day less, lease timing might be something. I mean, it was especially mentioned that the U.S. consumer was down trading and weakening, but that's not relevant for you. And -- I think growth rates in Asia are maybe a bit more modest, but not significantly. So I'm not really sure given your low cost per calorie category, why you should be here significantly impacted at things that I think as peers seems to be a bit more elsewhere. So maybe if you could elaborate a bit on that to better understand it.

Andreas, it's mainly the QSR sector, which is weak, there are some geopolitical impact on this, and this is the main driver for us. You're correct. Bakery calorie is a very efficient calorie from an economical and from an environmental point of view. This remains -- the softening in Q1 is mainly coming from the QSR sector. And you've read there the news about this, this is the source.

But you think that people basically trading up again in that environment? I mean that would typically -- could also happen given in -- some other companies in Europe numbers, volumes seem to have improved rather?

I think there is a temporary impact due to -- based on several factors. QSR, the organized world in this business will continue to win that enormous gains after COVID, post-COVID. These gains are becoming normalized. And again, the last some months, they were a bit flattish. Up trading and down trading for this type of businesses are not really important because these who are up trading can up trade into QSR or up trading out of QSR. So this is basically an equal game. QSR world is investing a lot of efforts in activities, promotions, innovations, buildup of restaurants. So this phase will go away and is already improving, just in Q1 around December, beginning of January, this was a bit softer.

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

Patrik Schwendimann from ZKB. Congrats for this very nice further improvement. So my first question is regarding net debt currently at the moment EUR 1 billion. What's your best guess here for the end of '24 in terms of net debt? And also a question related to that one, you're still sticking to the target for a net debt-to-EBITDA level of below 3x. Shouldn't be that significantly below 3x as you're already at 3.3x now? Or is there a risk why we should be here more prudent? Then second question, could you give us a little bit more flavor on what you expect for the different channels for the current year in terms of organic growth, but also in terms of the competitive environment? And last question, again, on the EBIT margin, so a slight improvement means then something like 20 to 30 basis points. Is that correct? And would you also expect that one as a best guess for H1? Thank you.

Patrik, thanks for your questions. On the first one, in terms of net debt, this is -- this continues to be our focus to drive our operating performance, deliver increased margins, profit for the period and strong cash flow to further optimize our balance sheet structure. This will continue, and we're confident to reach below 3x leverage by 2025. We will progress towards that, and this is through the focus of improving operating performance as we've done so over the last 3 years. In terms of channel organic growth, we've said -- we've indicated that there will be softness, particularly driven -- Urs has reiterated that, particularly driven by the QSR segment. And we've also indicated that organic growth quarterly will vary as it did in '23. And we can only reiterate our '24 guidance of low to mid-single-digit. In terms of EBITDA margin progression, I think that is a fair assumption, what you're indicating as we're now at the new performance levels as I indicated and said before in my answer that the improvement will continue in a sustainable way, but it will continue at a more moderate pace. And I think what you've indicated, you can use as a reference point.

Okay. Perfect. And regarding the channel in terms of the competitive environment, the QSR retail channel and foodservice channel?

On QSR, I've already mentioned, Urs has elaborated on it. On the retail part, as I indicated in Europe where we measure that through market data. We've in the trailing 12 months or in the month -- in the trailing 12 months of '23, we've outperformed in the key markets, the retail channel in terms of value. So we continue to perform. We've increased our innovation strongly, and these products are obviously being spot on with the consumers and customers. That is helping us to deliver this performance in terms of channel performance.

And regarding the other foodservice, restaurants and hotels?

Foodservice, I said we've been growing in '23 at -- in Europe, strongly in organic growth. All businesses, except Ireland, U.K., which -- where we've done active portfolio management, have not delivered double-digit organic growth. And the standards of this growth, as I've also said, is -- one of them is France. And France, as you know, is one -- is our biggest foodservice channel, and they've continued to execute, gain new customer, improve their footprint, drive value in the channel. So this is a channel that is in need of solutions to optimize their back of the house, and we're able to help them support their challenges they've with labor, with space, with rent, with energy, as you well know.

We will take the next question from the line of Jon Cox from Kepler Cheuvreux.

A couple of questions from my side. Just on the free cash flow and your guidance, maybe your CapEx is going to be a bit higher this year. Should we assume that potentially free cash flow will be lower than 2023, i.e., your EBITDA conversion is a little bit lower? That was the first question. Second one, just to come back to this sort of QSR weakness, and you seem to be saying, it was soft around the turn of the year and it has improved. Just wondering if you've seen any signs or any indication or any thoughts you've on GLP-1s and impact on QSR? There's obviously been a lot of focus on that in the U.S. And just on QSR generally, I know this has been your sort of focus in terms of -- because it's growing faster and that's what you really want to concentrate on. I guess that would still be part of the new medium-term plan. And as far as I remember, QSR tends to be your better in terms of mix, profitability. And I guess that's still the case even with that weakness, we're seeing in QSR.

QSR, as I mentioned is a growing -- organized QSR is a growing part of our business. We don't see any impact from these new methods and technologies to lose weight. It's clearly an impact from most probably interest rates, down fast from geopolitical questions, try to be answered via this way. But again, QSR is normally very well organized, it's very reactive on impacts like this. So we see already a recovery and the recovery will continue. For free cash flow, Martin?

Yes. Jon, thank you for the question. In terms of free cash flow, clearly, you can use the 2023 results as a starting point. We've indicated that CapEx will be higher than what we had in '23, given that some important growth projects will be coming online or will be executed during the year 2024. We've some other elements. We've -- as I said before, to [ Jörn ], we've a strong working capital improvement project ongoing where we're identifying important additional cash opportunities. We're continuing to work on our financing costs in order to improve not only the balance sheet, but also the overall financing costs of the year. That's why I'd say, take calendar year '23 as a reference with these balancing elements.

We will take the next question from Flavio Schuster from Lombard Odier.

I just wanted to ask if you've any concrete actions planned for the hybrid bond. And what is the time line here? I mean, by when do you want to have it redeemed entirely?

I'll take that question. Apologies, I didn't get your name.

Flavio Schuster from Lombard Odier Asset Management.

Flavio. As we've indicated, we're clearly focused on improving our balance sheet structure. And that is -- let's say, that is supported by the improved operating performance of the business, driving growth, improving margin, delivering an improved profit for the period. This will help us to feed our equity on one side. And on the other side, will allow us to deliver -- continue to deliver solid cash, cash flows. With the free cash flow, we can then take action to further optimize our balance sheet. As I've indicated in the past, we clearly understand that hybrids are not part of the food and beverage balance sheet structure. We will be working on this. Certainly, we're not giving out here a timing on by when we will do that. It depends on the financial markets. It depends on obviously, the continued delivery of results and -- but we clearly understand that optimizing the balance sheet, improving the financing cost is a strong way to deliver shareholder value.

There are no more questions in the queue. Now I'll hand it back over to closing for the conference.

Thank you very much for joining this call. I wish you a good day, and see you soon. Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes the session for today. Thank your for your participation. You can now disconnect.