Belysse Group NV (BELYS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

So good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call of Belysse Group NV regarding the full year 2024 results. [Operator Instructions] Today, we have with us James Neuling, Chief Executive Officer; Andy Rogiest, Chief Financial Officer; and Ruben Pattheeuws, Group Director of Sustainability and Strategic Projects. Gentlemen, the floor is yours.

Good morning. Thank you, Lynn. It's James Neuling speaking. I'd like to give a warm welcome to all of you for the Belysse Group's Full Year 2024 Results Call. If you have not already done so, you can download the press release and this presentation from the Investor Relations section at belysse.com. I need to start, first, to bring your attention to the disclaimer on Slide 2. I will not read it out, but please make -- please do make sure that you have read it. So now I will talk about the financial summary of the full year 2024; and then Andy Rogiest, the CFO of Belysse, will take us through the financial review; and then finally, Ruben, who is our Group Sustainability Director, will give a quick update on our BEYOND program. And then I will make a conclusion. We will end this call with a Q&A session with the analysts who follow our stock. So let's turn to Slide 4 for the full year 2024 financial summary. So from a financial standpoint, we saw the full year 2024 consolidated revenue at a total of EUR 280.4 million, which is an organic decrease of 6.8% year-over-year. The revenue of our U.S. business declined by 3.9% year-on-year, while the Europe business faced a decline of 10.2% year-on-year. In terms of profitability, the full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA was EUR 42.4 million, which is a 26.0% year-on-year increase. Our U.S. business realized an EBITDA of EUR 32.0 million, while the business in Europe realized EBITDA of EUR 10.4 million. The net debt at the end of the period was EUR 135.0 million, including EUR 26.6 million of impact from the IFRS 16 lease liabilities, which results in a significantly lower leverage of 3.1 for the end of 2024. I will now pass over to Andy, who will go more in depth to the financials.

Good morning, everybody. Thank you, James. First, let's have a closer look at our 2024 financial performance. So we're turning to Slide 6 for the Group revenue bridge for full year 2024. So in 2024, we saw consolidated revenue decreasing by 6.8% to EUR 280.4 million. In the U.S., our revenues slightly decreased to EUR 154.5 million, which is about 4% lower than last year. This decrease in revenue can be explained by the lower volumes in the first half of 2024, while our average selling prices were stable. In the second half of the year, volumes and revenues stabilized with the Q4 2024 revenue being on par with the prior year, and this was EUR 37.6 million. In Europe, revenue decreased approximately by 10% versus last year to EUR 125.9 million. The market demand remained weak throughout the year, in particular in the residential business line. But despite the lower volumes, the average selling prices remained stable versus prior year. We can turn to Slide 7 for the Group adjusted EBITDA bridge of 2024. So Belysse Group consolidated adjusted EBITDA of 2024 increased to EUR 42.4 million. This represents a significant increase of 26% versus last year, with adjusted EBITDA margin strengthening to 15.1%. The EBITDA margin in 2023 was 11.2%. Our U.S. business realized an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 32 million in 2024. This is 4.6% higher than the results in 2023. And the adjusted EBITDA margin arrived above 20%. Further improved efficiencies have more than offset the impact from the slight decline in volumes. On Europe, the EBITDA improved materially from EUR 3 million in 2023 to more than EUR 10 million in 2024. And the adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 8.3% from 2.2% in 2023. This improvement was a result of a recovery of the unitary margins, a higher-margin product portfolio and fixed cost savings, which overcompensated the lower volumes and wage inflation during the year. So we can move to the cash flow slide. Thank you. We ended the year with a cash balance of EUR 38.6 million, compared to the balance of EUR 35.8 million at the end of 2023. The positive cash flow was mainly driven by the adjusted EBITDA of EUR 42.4 million, while working capital, meaning other and trade working capital, was contributing EUR 4.2 million in a positive way. But during the year, we paid EUR 4.8 million of taxes as well was EUR 10.2 million invested through capital expenditures, while we also had EUR 28.8 million related to debt repayments and interest payments, which were including also effects from the refinancing. Let's now turn to Slide 9 for the leverage chart. Thank you. So the net debt at the end of the period was EUR 135 million. This is including EUR 26.6 million related to IFRS 16 lease liabilities. This is EUR 4.2 million lower than what we reported at the end of the first half of 2024, so at 30 of June. Our net leverage reduced significantly to 3.1x, versus 4.5x at the end of 2023. This leverage is the lowest level since the inception of Belysse in early 2022. Our total available liquidity, this is including headroom under the RCF, remained strong and amounted to almost EUR 53 million at the end of 2024. I will now hand over the floor to Ruben, Ruben Pattheeuws, our Group Director of Sustainability and Strategic Projects, for an update on BEYOND.

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, everyone. If we start with the first pillar of our BEYOND program on Slide 11, which is Sustainability through Innovation, we saw that the Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions in our production plants per square meter produced have been reduced by 23% compared to our 2018 baseline. During 2024, we launched several new initiatives such as technical modifications to reduce energy consumption, further electrification of equipment. And we also increased our share of renewable energy which we use. If you look at certified recycled content in our commercial carpet tiles, this has further improved to 59% in Europe and 41% in the U.S. And in both regions, this is the highest share of certified recycled content that we've achieved so far. We also continue to expand our Cradle-to-Cradle certified collections. And as we speak, we are in the process of certifying quite a number of collections under the latest Cradle to Cradle standard, version 4.0. Moving to Slide 12 for the results of our Lean program. The full year 2024 results amounted to EUR 1.6 million of P&L savings versus 2023, against a target of EUR 1.7 million. If you look from the start in January 2022 until now, the Lean program has delivered EUR 7.6 million in savings against a target of EUR 6.5 million, so we're 17% above the target. And in fact, after 3 years of the program, we have nearly delivered the full EUR 8 million cumulative savings, which were our objective for the 4-year period of the program as a whole. During 2024, we have no less than 45 different initiatives that contribute to these results, with a key focus on quality, material, energy and labor efficiency. Moving to Slide 13 for the Agility pillar of our BEYOND program. We are continuously working to further improve our delivery performance and the service level we provide to our customers, at the same time, balancing this with our end-to-end inventory. Our Fast Track quick-ship program at Bentley is designed for maximum flexibility and expedited delivery to the client, and it covers a wide range of 20 different styles. Orders of 1,500 square yards or less of products in this program will be ready to ship within 10 business days of ordering. At modulyss, in Europe, we have a similar quick-ship program. We know, of course, that in the fast-paced world of design-and-build, time is of the essence. And therefore, we have designed a quick-ship program covering products across 25 collections, with products ready for shipment within 2 to 4 weeks. And with this, I would like to give the floor back to James for closing comments.

Thank you very much, Ruben. Lynn, if we can go to Slide 14. You've already done that, thank you. So in summary, our 2024 consolidated revenue was EUR 280 million, and adjusted EBITDA significantly improved to EUR 42.4 million, bringing us an increase of adjusted EBITDA to 15.1%. The Bentley Mills, our U.S. division, realized the full year revenue slightly below that of 2023. However, improved efficiencies more than offset the first half negative volume effect. In Europe, the adjusted EBITDA recovered materially because of higher unitary margins, a higher-margin product portfolio and fixed cost savings. The market backdrop remained weak throughout the year, in particular, for our residential business line. In 2024, the Group progressed very well on our sustainability program, achieving further reductions in CO2 emissions per square meter produced, increased -- we increased the share of our certified recycled content, and successfully ongoing recertifying collections to the latest Cradle-to-Cradle standards. Additionally, we've established SBTi, the Science Based Target initiatives, taking us through to 2030. Our net leverage decreased to 3.1 and the Group's liquidity rose to EUR 52.7 million for the end of 2024. I'd like to add a personal note here. I'd really like to thank the team who have worked very hard on commercial excellence, efficiency and our costs while we are waiting for the markets to recover. So I'm going to hand back to Lynn, who will take questions.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from Wim Hoste.

Do you hear me?

Yes, we hear you. Yes.

Okay. Sorry for the technical obstacles. I have a couple of questions. I would like to ask them one by one, please. So the first one is on the trading environment in the beginning of 2025 for the different businesses. If you can just elaborate a little bit more on what you're seeing in both U.S. and Europe. And in Europe, I'm certainly interested in the residential segment. I think also route to market has been changing in the past few years. Also the retail landscape is changing with what happens to Carpetright and other players. So if you can just elaborate a little bit on the trading environment and the route to market changes that you're seeing.

Okay. Wim, let me tackle the U.S. first. What we saw, particularly in the second half of last year, we saw the U.S. Fed announce a series of interest rate cuts. And we have not yet seen the effect of those interest rates cuts on the demand side of the business. But that said, generally speaking, when we talk of interest rates, generally play well into our market, it encourages investment. I think something else that should play well into us and we haven't seen the effect of yet is the general shift of moving away from work to home and getting people back into the offices. And we see that particularly pronounced in the U.S. with, as we're aware of the politics over there, of the actions that are going on with the federal government. And this is also driving businesses to bring people more back into their offices. So we expect that should have a knock-on on our business, but we don't see any impact of that right now. Overall, the U.S. landscape in the first quarter take runs -- it's a little bit of -- it is seasonal over there. So quarter 1 is never the strongest quarter. It goes in a way that we're comfortable with, and there are no surprises going on. In Europe, it's -- we have to talk 2 parts because we have a contract business and a residential business. And we also saw the European landscape shift with respect to interest rates, and they take time to come through. And if I talk first about the residential business, we are, of course, aware, during the COVID years, there was a buy-forward effect. A lot of people working from home in those years, '20 and '21, renovated homes. And if you've done a home renovation in the last 4 years, you're extremely unlikely to do a further home renovation in the next couple of years. So the buy-forward effect is something we still feel, and there are a couple of moments when people would buy residential carpets for their home. And that is either when they buy a house, and I think you're fully aware of the mortgage figures across Europe, which are down. And -- or when they say, "Look, I've been in this house long enough," and decide to do a renovation. So we don't see any particular change in the retail landscape in the first part of this year versus what we were seeing in the second half of last year. We are aware, of course, you mentioned Carpetright, so some important players like Carpetright disappeared from the landscape. But that doesn't necessarily mean the entire business disappeared. So we see a relatively stable market at the moment. And I think overall, if I look at the business, I don't -- we are a business, and always in business, we have areas of concern, but there's no particular shining light, let's say, be concerned about A, B or C. So as far as we see, retail is continuing pretty much as it was in the second half of last year. You also talked about route to market. I'm not entirely sure what you meant by route to market there. Maybe...

Well, the shift to e-commerce, for example, is that playing an increasing role?

So we -- there are online carpet players, let's say, they do exist, and they exist very much at the low end. It doesn't play into what we do at high end. Carpet, it's a very tactile business. It's also, I think, quite a difficult product to buy online because the color that you see online will never be the color that you receive as a sample. And if you want to, those online players, they really have to focus at the low end, because if you're going to sell to someone's home with a made-to-measure, cut-to-size carpet, the possibility for the consumer to return the carpet is zero. Yes. So it's a difficult market to play into. That said, there are some people who do that, but it's really at the bottom end of the segment. If I talk about the contract market, again, we see a little bit similar story what we saw on the U.S. Interest rate cuts not yet having the big effect on business. We noticed also in Europe, to a lesser extent, the kind of shift of moving people back into the office, which plays well to us. What has also played well for us in the office area over the last couple of years as we've moved to more and more premium is companies have typically had smaller offices, but they wanted to do them better. And that means that the taste for higher-end products has increased. So we -- I hope that answers your question. It's -- there are no -- it's a difficult question to answer because there are no strong indicators going one way or the other. There are little points of positiveness and little points of concern, I think, like any business.

Okay. I understand. That's clear. And then another question would be on the capacity utilization and CapEx requirements going forward. I would expect that your CapEx needs are relatively low. But can you provide CapEx guidance for '25?

I'd let Andy... [Technical Difficulty]

I can hear you now, but I've not heard anything of the answer. I'm not sure if it's a technical issue on my end or...

No. It's us. It's us.

Okay.

Can you hear us again, Wim?

Yes, now I can hear you, but I have not heard anything of the answer that you might have given.

No. As stated, our capacity utilization or our installed capacity is sufficient, let's say, to cover market growth. And in terms of CapEx investments planned, we keep on executing the plans we had. And the amounts are similar to the previous years. So we make sure that our equipment is ready. Stays ready.

Okay, understood. And then a final question would be on, yes, the margin outlook for Europe. I think raw material prices came down, polyamide prices came down a bit in the course of the second half. I don't see any indications of big changes. But yes, I was wondering, you've executed to a big extent your cost optimization programs, so raw material prices are now probably more stable. What's the kind of margin outlook and ambition that you might have for Europe? I think U.S. is doing very well, but Europe is probably not at the level that you want to be. So any commentary on that? And also the kind of trajectory towards that margin ambition, what is needed for that? If you can talk a little bit around that, that would be interesting as well.

Well, I'll start on the subject, Wim, because many questions at the same time. But yes, regarding margins, I'd like to refer also to the strategy that has been outlined from the start of Belysse. So we clearly focus and move ahead on bringing more and more premium offering, clear game-changer compared to the previous Balta approach on more volumes. So we really go for value. Having said that, indeed, I think on costs and product costs, what we're seeing at this moment is indeed rather stable. Also there's nothing particular to mention. Sales prices, I think that's the other point of margins. What we, at this moment, again, notice on the sales prices is there's always anecdotal topics on sales prices, but we are not facing any pressure to mention as such. But then the other angle, the third angle is indeed on the premium and offering more premium. Last year we stepped away in the residential segment, we stepped away from the lower-margin product offering, to make sure to have, let's say, more healthy margins generated. And already James touched upon it on the contract and the commercial side. There is clearly -- that's the access for growth, not only volume, but also margin absolute and per square meter. But James?

Yes. If I... [Technical Difficulty]

Hello?

Yes. It's me. Sorry. I touched a button here, Wim. I'm sorry. So since your question is specifically with Europe, and we split the residential and the contract part. Andy referred to our shift to a higher margin. And part of that shift is -- or, let's say, more premium products. Part of that shift is the creation of more premium products and part of that shift is the dropping of low-end products. And that dropping of low-end products has been ongoing for a couple of years now. I'd say we're at the end of that. So we don't expect to be dropping any further low-end products. It's the implementation of higher -- more higher-end products, and our product teams work on that. And it's also about making sure that we're dealing with the right mix of customers. And if I look at -- maybe a little touch on the market view. The customers that we view who are doing well in the market are those who have clearly established position, those customers who are playing higher end. And to our surprise, those customers who play lower end are having difficulty distinguishing themselves, not that we have a lot of business with the low-end customers. But if you observe the sort of customer reports of the ones who had financial problems in the last couple of years, it's been more of the players at the low end. On the contract business, what we see is we've had, it's a little bit of a different story, that we haven't really dropped any low-end products at the contract story. What we've been doing is, a very small extent, what we've been doing is introducing a series of continued high-end products, taking us more and more upmarket. And we see that basically resulting in improved selling price, which is a mix improvement. And that's the place where we want to be. And the ambition for the European business, particularly on the contract side, is to become, much like Bentley, an ultra-premium player. But that's a journey. That's not something we'll achieve in the space of weeks or months. It's a long-term journey, which started some years ago, and we're continuing on that.

Okay. That's clear. That's all for me.

Are there any further questions? Please raise your hand. I don't think there are any other questions.

Okay. Then I'd like to thank everyone very much for taking the time to listen to our presentation and the questions. As a reminder for you, we will publish a trading update concerning our quarter 1 2025 results in April. So thank you all for your attendance, and that's it. Bye. Thank you.

Okay. Bye.