Envipco Holding N.V. (E1P0.F) Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. My name is Simon Bolton, CEO of Envipco. And a warm welcome to Q3 2025 Results Presentation. I'm joined as ever by Mikael Clement, Chief Strategy and IR Officer. It gives us pleasure to update you about the business and obviously have the normal opportunity to answer questions in the Q&A in the chat afterwards. So I'll go through some introductory pages and then Mikael will be back with the finance and then I will do the outlook. As we've said before, 2025 is very much a transitional year for Envipco as we deliver and satisfy customers of the large orders that we won a few years ago, as they're starting to come to an end and we're waiting for and looking forward to new markets starting to ramp up. As we've communicated before, the start-ups have been delayed somewhat and that's now, particularly in Poland, going to happen more in 2026 versus the back end of 2025. So something of a slow quarter based on these new DRS delays. Overall then group revenues of EUR 22.5 million, which is 18% lower than the year before really based on this slower and lower European RVM revenues. Because of the slightly slow and lower volume, that's impacted somewhat gross margins plus we've also invested in some direct costs to be ready to install and support those new customers in those new markets already. This has also impacted slightly gross margins. So gross margin is down slightly at 35%. With good control of OpEx, it means that EBITDA is negative EUR 0.3 million for the quarter and we have a very positive cash balance as we've built the foundation for the business, which we'll talk about in a little bit more detail later. We continue to see and are really excited about the future ahead. This is an unprecedented growth opportunity for us as a business. For those who have followed the business some time, you'll see that we've talked about the tailwinds of legislation, particularly the EU legislation, which mandates basically deposit return schemes to drive 90% recovery of used beverage containers. That's only achievable by introducing a deposit return scheme and for that, you will need our goods and services that we've been making and delivering very successfully for customers for over 45 years. More specifically in the quarter, we're incredibly proud of what we've done in Romania and we've had a fantastic team there. Obviously, we've been operating in the country for some time as a supplier. But a few years ago when the Romanian deposit return scheme went live, we really stepped in and acted as a partner to that scheme such that step by step we've built now a very significant market share getting on to 40% throughout for all of our product range. And this shows I think some of the characteristics of some of these new markets, a slightly softer start and then the market builds as retailers decide to adopt reverse vending machines to automate that collection and more and more beverages come on to the market. For those again who followed the business, we have a great product in Quantum. It is the first to market of a bulk machine. Customers, end users love it, retailers love it and we're seeing real, real traction in brownfield markets. An example of that is the Netherlands. First units now have done multiple millions of containers, actually some of the highest volume per RVM in the country. Based on the success of that, we signed a frame agreement with a national operator Statiegeld Netherlands and we should exit the year with about 30 units and we expect that to really build in the future. This is really solving a problem for the operator. Netherlands introduced cans quite late in the scheme a few years ago, which suddenly over doubled the volume of containers. This overloaded the system and the use of Quantum outdoor bulk feed solutions has really helped them. So that's really exciting. We continue to commit to communicate in good times and more difficult times. We think that's important. And so we held our first Capital Markets Day a couple of months ago and thanks for everyone who joined in person here in Oslo or online. You can still see the transcripts and the presentations. And there we wanted to take the opportunity to really paint the long-term vision of the business and why we get so excited. But despite some quarterly ups and downs, this is a fantastic market and opportunity for us as a business. For that, we need capital. We need working capital to really make sure that we can satisfy and take all these opportunities that are in front of us. So we did 2 things on the finance side. We refinanced the debt. We moved from a small regional U.S. bank to an international bank and partner in ABN AMRO, which really understands what we need and is a partner for us we think for the long term. So we're excited about that change. And then as mentioned, we had a successful private placement in September and that really then has given us a rock solid financial foundation on which to go forward with these markets. We will continue and, as we've said, we continue to invest in the business. We need to bring talent into the business to make sure that we can deliver and that we can really accelerate in all of the markets, in all the different attributes that we want to do; be it product development, be it very high quality service, financial backbone of the business. And so we've made key headcount additions in a controlled way of course in those elements of the business. For those who may be joining for the first time, just a reminder. Envipco is a global recycling technology business. As mentioned, we have in EU and other countries a real drive to tackle the plastic crisis by introducing a deposit return scheme which we automate. Five or 6 years ago we have moved and we've pivoted such that we adopted a strong position in Europe. We've been successful, Malta, Hungary, Romania and so on; real proof points that we can do that and we will continue to do that in the future. We invest in competitive delivery platform, be it technology, our organization. We've now got a really good mix of new talent coming in from different markets, plus or so people who have been with the business sometimes 20 or 30 years. So a seasoned team to deliver on this. And then the combination of growth in existing markets and new DRS markets, we can see a real road to drive continued exciting growth and profitability for the business. So with that, I'll say, Mikael, over to you. Run through the financial highlights. Thank you.

Thank you, Simon. Good morning, everyone. I'll start out with taking you through some of the financials starting out with the profit and loss. Revenues in Q3 were EUR 22.5 million, as Simon mentioned, down 18% year-over-year. Prime driver being lower European RVM sales as we continue to deliver into existing markets on the tail of those opportunities. Gross margins 35%, down from 36.6% in the same quarter last year. Key driver being us building a service organization for new markets, preparing for what's to come and also low utilization in our assembly facilities. Operating costs relatively flat sequentially at EUR 10.6 million, up 6% year-over-year from EUR 10 million in Q3 '24 resulting in an EBITDA of negative EUR 0.3 million. EBIT came in at negative EUR 2.7 million with net profit at minus EUR 4 million in the quarter. Year-to-date revenues are also down 18% year-over-year to EUR 66.6 million, once again with lower European RVM sales being the prime driver. Gross margins up from 35.7% in the first 9 months last year to 36.3% in the first 9 months this year. Operating expenses at EUR 30.8 million year-to-date versus EUR 27.6 million in the first 9 months last year. Increased headcount is the prime driver of that increase with EBITDA of EUR 0.5 million year-to-date. So a little bit into regional sales. European revenues were EUR 14.3 million, down 16% year-over-year with timing of markets and us continuing to deliver in existing markets the prime driver. RVM sales were EUR 12.5 million, down from EUR 16.9 million. Looking at the different countries. We had a solid performance in specifically Romania once again, the Netherlands showing promising growth and also solid performance in Sweden. On the other hand, Hungary and Greece showed declines. Program revenues are starting to build from installed base a few years back at EUR 1.8 million, up from EUR 1.4 million in the same quarter last year. Our North American revenues were EUR 8.2 million, down 10% year-over-year. Adjusted for the weaker dollar, revenues were down 4% year-over-year. Program services down 8% to EUR 7.6 million on lower collected volumes. RVM sales, EUR 0.7 million in the quarter. Operating costs, we continue to try to manage and have a disciplined approach to our operating expenses. Operating costs in the quarter at EUR 10.6 million compares to EUR 10 million in the corresponding quarter last year and up EUR 0.2 million from EUR 10.4 million in Q2. Key driver is an increased headcount as we prepare for new growth in new markets ahead. And as mentioned, we will continue to maintain a very disciplined approach to manage our operating costs also going forward. Over to the balance sheet. Our balance sheet total in Q3 increased primarily on the private placement with total assets increasing from EUR 121.1 million at Q2 to EUR 164.8 million at the end of Q3 and cash increasing from EUR 18.9 million to EUR 62.7 million. We refinanced our debt, as Simon mentioned, with debt flat at EUR 22.4 million sequentially with changes in the long and short-term portions with long-term borrowings up from EUR 6.8 million to EUR 17.2 million and short-term borrowings coming down EUR 10 million to EUR 5.6 million. Under the new facilities, we still have headroom of around EUR 10 million in additional working capital capacity. Working capital this quarter is relatively flat with the previous quarter at EUR 62.8 million. Current liabilities are down by roughly EUR 13 million to EUR 33.8 million with trade creditors down to EUR 13.8 million from EUR 17.8 million last quarter and, as mentioned, short-term borrowings coming down by EUR 10 million to EUR 5.6 million. Finally, a look at the cash flow this quarter. Cash from operating activities in Q3 was a negative EUR 6 million primarily driven by working capital build as payables came down close to EUR 5 million. Our cash from investing activities negative EUR 2.2 million, in line with what we've seen in recent quarters and also expected to see for the final quarter for the year. This is built up by CapEx of EUR 1.4 million and capitalized research and development costs of EUR 0.9 million. Cash flow from financing activities this quarter plus EUR 52 million, of which the net proceeds from the private placement is the main explanatory factor. This resulted in a net change in cash in the third quarter of EUR 43.8 million and the resulting cash balance of EUR 62.7 million at the end of Q3. So with that, I think I'll leave the word back to Simon for a few comments on the outlook.

Mikael, thank you very much. Very good. Just a reminder, the chat facility is open. So please, any questions do pop them in there and then we can get to them after these few slides on outlook. We wanted to kind of take a step back and look at the market and the significant demand that's ahead of us. One way of looking at this is what population is covered by new DRS schemes? Because the demand for reverse vending machines is proportional to population. So roughly 500 machines per 1 million population. So if we go back and we look at some of the markets that have gone live over the last few years; Romania, Malta and so on; that's kind of about 42 million people. If we look going forward the next 3 years, that's 281 million people will be covered. So that gives you an indication of the demand for our products and services. And then if you go slightly further and you take all of the markets that are covered by the announced legislation or schemes that are looking to be put in place, then that's another 150 million. So you get well over 400 million, 500 million people covered by these schemes. So very, very significant demand ahead. We know people like this slide so we've updated it. In detail, this is what we see the rollout of kind of the overall second wave of deposit return schemes. So the earlier countries, we're well underway and we're seeing that deployment tail off as we've said before and now we're seeing this next wave starting to build up. So mainly around Poland, Portugal. Greece, as Mikael mentioned, an excellent installed base of Quantums in Greece pre-DRS. Now that's transitioning to a DRS scheme. So we're seeing some slowdown and modest sales this year for Greece, but we have high hopes in the future. And then other markets coming in, particularly the U.K., which is on track and certainly we see as a very, very exciting opportunity. How do we think about our growth? It's not just selling to greenfield. That is important and obviously we spend a lot of time talking about those new greenfield opportunities, but we really see kind of 4 pillars. Greenfield is certainly one of them and will be the biggest driver kind of short, medium term. But as we develop our business and as we enter these new markets, those new markets eventually become markets that exist and develop. They have recurring service revenue, program services, there's replacement, there's expansion, there's opportunities to upgrade and develop and introduce new products. So they become important. And obviously our biggest existing business is in North America and you can see the strength and stability of that business. There's existing markets that we're not in at the moment. We call those brownfield and they are growth opportunities for us. Great example of that is the Netherlands that we've talked about before. Maybe the scheme has issues, the scheme wants to expand, the scheme wants new technology and things like the Quantum we can use and we've demonstrated that's very effective. And then maybe a slightly smaller segment, but one that we keep our eyes on is M&A. So this is around likely technology. So for example the acquisition of Sensibin last year for us then to introduce the Compact product is such an example. If that is kind of the growth pillars, then how does that come through into our results and the quarterly results that you see every 3 months? Well, there's a number of things in new markets that affect the revenue profile. First of all is when the scheme is launched. So does that move and what date is that? That's important. The second thing is the character of DRS launch. So we've talked about hard and soft, what does that mean? Well, soft means there's a gradual increase in the number of containers that are in the market, which gives participants, beverage industry and retailers longer to prepare; but it means then demand for our goods and services are also slower and they increase more gradually over time versus a harder go-live where there's a specific date and everything needs to be ready on that date. So that then drives a firmer and kind of higher peak of deliveries. What share? We're not in this alone. We have a number of competitors. So what's our share? Contract type, a lot of customers buy the equipment and then have a service contract; but some lease, some have throughput model. All of that impacts our revenue. And then obviously market structure. Is there a few very large retailers or like in the case in Poland, this is highly fragmented. There's many, many different chains, many different buying groups, franchise groups and that also impacts our revenue. And obviously we have experience of navigating this space to make sure that we are positioned in each market to capture our fair share. So one such market is Poland. Major market. It went live soft launch -- very soft launch October 2025. We acknowledge there's been some noise around Poland for us. We are extremely committed and still very, very excited about Poland. This is a great opportunity. Okay. We've missed out on a couple of early opportunities, but this is just the start of the race and this will develop over years. We've already secured firm orders so about 500. We have an LOI that we've announced before of about 1,000 units. And on a daily basis we're getting a lot of activity and working with major retail groups through already signed and agreed frame agreements. There is a very significant tail opportunity here. So again, one of the characteristics of a soft launch means that things develop over time. More retailers get involved and certainly very recent announcements by retailers and some major players in the market indicate that that will be a significant long-tail opportunity. On the right hand side was a slide that we actually showed at Capital Markets Day. So we have talked about a 15,000 unit market and we talk about markets in terms of number of units. Actually, there's nearly 20,000 stores that are over 200 square meters that have to collect containers. That's in the law. However, there's double that that are over 100 square meters that are very likely to adopt the collecting containers to remain competitive and keep footfall in their store. And we've seen recent announcements by some of these large convenience stores that they are indeed going to voluntarily join the scheme. This is a great opportunity. It expands the number of retailers within the scheme and also because they're small retail stores, really allows us to come through with our small offering Compact and Flex product, which are ideal for that small convenience store market where footprint and ease of use is very important. So Poland just started and we're extremely excited about the opportunity ahead there. So final slide. Once again, we've done a lot of work. We continue to do a lot of work to position the company to take full opportunity of this multibillion-dollar market. We're incredibly excited about the work we've done in Romania and we think that's a really good prototype and role model for other markets like Poland that have their soft launch and then build into a significant market share for us. Quantum installations, they continue to get a lot of traction and interest in many different markets and we expect that to be also one of our major product lines going forward. Even though it's a slow start, we expect Poland and Portugal to come through in revenue in Q4. We mentioned Greece. We have a great footprint pre-DRS with Quantum in Greece and at the moment, we're seeing a transitional period as that prepares for DRS, which of course we're working with our partner to be positioned for that. And then we are in a transitional period. As Mikael has said, we're maintaining a disciplined approach. We want to keep the business ready of course for the growth and the opportunities ahead, but we'll be taking a close eye on investments, working capital to ensure that we are ready to go and continue to drive the growth going forward. So with that, thank you very much. That's an update on Q3. We have Q4, 11th of March so it's a few months away. So enjoy Christmas in between. And then we will move over to Q&A. Mikael?

We've got a few questions.

Yes. We can start off with a question on Poland. There are many questions here. Our 30% volume market share target, do we still expect to achieve that for Poland?

Yes. As I think we showed in the slide and I mentioned, definitely. We're going to get there in a slightly probably different way, but certainly we see Poland is still a very, very exciting growth opportunity. And I think what's interesting is whereas maybe a month or so ago, there was a lot of kind of discussion about the complexity of the scheme and the speed at which it's implementing. Now we've got these announcements, it's kind of accelerating the whole market. So we see a lot of new players coming in. As I mentioned, I think the overall market will be probably larger than the 15,000 units that we indicated. But certainly we're excited and we're certainly committed to deliver that 30% market share.

Yes. What share of the announced RVMs in Poland do you expect to have installed in the last quarter of the year and next year?

Yes. Look, I think certainly those customers that are maybe smaller groups from the franchise agreements that we've signed, we expect those to get in quite quickly. So as mentioned, we do expect revenue to come through in Q4. You got to say though the beverage whilst there's a lot of excitement and activity, the number of beverages on the shelves is still relatively few. And from our understanding, it's literally hundreds only that have been accepted through the scheme already. So beverage volume is relatively light. So I think most of the commercial opportunities and the installations will happen in the course of the early part of next year. But certainly I think we're seeing good activity and certainly whatever we have as backlog coming out of this year will be installed early part of next year.

Then there is a question on revenue drivers. What specific factors are expected to drive revenues in Q4 '25 and in 2026? Maybe I should take that. We will continue to develop existing markets. So existing markets will be the key drivers of our revenues in Q4. We commented on Greece and Hungary in the report so they will be slower. That will be compensated by initial revenues from new markets, specifically Poland, also a little bit Portugal. See here what are coming in. What do we have here? A question on -- there are many different here. How long can Romania continue to offer market opportunities for Envipco?

Yes. I mean that's actually a good question and obviously we've talked a bit about Romania in the update. I think probably people go back a few years and look at the recording. I think when we started to do these, probably when I had a little bit more hair and it was less gray, I think we were talking about 4,000, 5,000 units as the scheme was just starting. I think what we see now already that that is 6,000 to 7,000 units and they've done a great job. I think the scheme is really working well in Romania. Again, very proud of our team and what we've managed to achieve there. They've done a great job and they're only 80% and the target of course lest we forget is it's 90% by January 2029 and it's not easy to get to 80%, but it's really another step up to get to 90%. So our view is that there will need to continue to be investment, maybe slightly different. So there may be opportunities for municipal solutions for more rural recycling centers and so on. So we still see definitely opportunities in Romania probably not at the same rate as it has been in the last couple of years, but certainly still significant. And of course as we've said after the initial delivery, then you have recurring service revenue, which is very important and also support to customers who are expanding their retail footprint and introducing the Quantum machine and so on and so forth. So yes, still very positive about Romania next year albeit maybe at a slightly slower rate as most of the market has been developed.

The pilot in France, could this expand into larger commercial opportunities ahead of a DRS launch somewhere down the road?

Yes. That's interesting. So we show France on our list and I think we talked about France a little bit previously. We've shown that towards the end towards 2029. We think there's a number of things that are happening in the French market, which means that there will be a scheme, but it's likely to be slightly later in the cycle as we head towards 2029. So what's happening? We have the French system has launched a pilot. We've participated in that pilot. So we have about 80 machines. At the moment, that is focused on refillable glass. So refillable glass could be an important part of a French deposit return scheme. Those machines are working, feedback is great and so we'll stay close with the system and there is talk about possibly extending that pilot nationwide. So obviously if there's an opportunity to do so, then we'd like to participate in that and obviously more widely. If other material fractions, cans and PET bottles come into that scheme, then obviously we'll work with the scheme operator to see what we can do to help that deployment.

Portugal question. What's your position in Portugal? Are you confident in reaching sufficient volumes for a profitable business?

Look, Portugal, a much smaller market of course than Poland. We have announced previously a contract which is going to revenue. So we're delivering on those units. Also not dissimilar to Poland, there's a number of large kind of purchasing groups, which are also now looking to introduce machines. I think it's helpful that the operator has finally and publicly announced a date, that is 10th of April 2026, to go live. That's good. There was some uncertainty, which I think has been taken off the table by announcing the date. And I think there's going to be an element of, like we've spoken in some of these other markets, working into a market share. But certainly we've got a good team there. Obviously, Portugal is very interesting because it may inform and act as a bit of a case study for Spanish customers who are looking at scheme attributes and how the scheme is run. So certainly we'll continue to be active in Portugal and yes, in the end we believe we will develop a sustainable profitable business down there.

How does Envipco approach market entry in new regions and what key factors will determine success in these areas?

Well, that's a good question. I'll try and keep it short. Look, I think the first thing obviously is to assess market and timing of market. We've shown that. Generally, we like to go direct. We think that gives the best service to customers and I think it's best for us. So it's one of timing, one of focus. And then of course, as we've said before, we think one of the reasons why we have entered Europe and been successful is because we go early, we listen to the customer and as necessary, we make modifications on product to adapt to local needs. And you could argue maybe we've woken up some of our competitors and they've done something similar. So maybe that's a good thing for the market. So that's what we do and I think that's been proved to be successful. And then obviously when we start to win business, then we build up the team. And of course certainly in Europe as we develop that footprint, then we can take advantage of best practices, we can take advantage of common back office and things like that to improve our productivity and our service delivery.

I guess we'll have time for 1 more question. You touched upon it. But looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, what are key strategic priorities for Envipco? Absolutely. I mean I think Simon touched upon it in the outlook section of the presentation. We see 4 pillars of growth that we continuously develop. We have a sizable, relatively stable U.S. business with a 40-year-plus history. Then we've pivoted into Europe in the last 5 or 6 years establishing market positions in new DRS markets. So kind of the first pillar is of course continuing to develop those markets, establish strong profitable businesses over time that generate recurring service revenues. Number two is to position then towards new DRS markets. That's our greenfield growth strategy. That is driven forth by legislation. The EU packaging and packaging waste regulation, other national DRS legislation opening new market opportunities for us as a provider of reverse vending machines. Third pillar is the brownfield strategy using our technology to help develop existing DRS markets. Some markets struggling with reaching the 90% collection targets where we have proven to have technology that in certain markets has been very helpful in trying to achieve that. And finally, M&A. We are continuously on the lookout, very selective approach. It will not be core to our growth, but it could be a complementary growth factor for us. So I think that largely does it. So with that, maybe I don't know if have any closing remarks.

Yes. I'd just say once again thanks for joining or thanks for looking at this transcript afterwards. Certainly we are extremely excited about the future. We're working hard to drive into these new markets as we've talked about. And again thanks for your attention. Thanks for your questions and we'll see you again in March. Thanks very much. Bye bye.