Fielmann Group AG (FIE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's earnings call of the Fielmann Group AG following the publication of the Q3 financial figures of 2025. I'm happy to hand over to Fielmann's CFO, Steffen Baetjer.

Thank you very much, Ingmar, and also a warm welcome from me from very, very exceedingly sunny Hamburg, which is a rare occasion. So we really should be outside and not sitting in here and doing the call. But obviously, it's a pleasure for us to present to you our 9-month figures and our Q3 results in this call following, as Ingmar said, the presentation and the release of the publication this morning. Well, here's the -- Tobias, we're not so fast yet. We can't do questions now, but we do the questions at the end. So disclaimer, very important, obviously, for you to take note of that, should you listen to the recording. But with that, let's go to our 9 months and Q3 numbers in a nutshell. You're going to hear from me a lot about expectations and within expectation because really what we do, and I think what we stand for in terms of the dialogue that we're having with you guys and on the investor and analyst side is that we walk the talk. So we're not a stock that super overperforms. We try to be not a stock that super underperforms. And therefore, you're going to see a lot of -- it's within expectation. The focus, remember, for this year is that we're really focusing on profitability, and we really want to change the profile, the profitability profile of Fielmann Group for good so that we have a more flexible P&L structure, and we can actually reap the benefits of that going forward. Coming to our group sales, they increased by plus 9%. 4% of that is organic, 5% from the U.S. acquisition. You remember that in July 2024, we, for the first time, consolidated Shopko. So this is the effect of the first half year. In Q3 alone, there is only organic growth because we didn't do any acquisitions, and that's why the growth rate is slowly coming down, and we always guided that we expect for the group an organic growth of 4%, 5%, 6%. So 4% within the expectation, as I said, within the framework that we presented to you, obviously, not at the upper end, but more on the lower end of that, but still within that guidance that we provided to you. Q3 at constant currency grew by 4%, all of which organic, as I said, U.S. grew 4%, Europe grew 4%. Very proud about that, that the U.S. returned to growth path. We had a lot of discussions, a lot of questions from you, what's going on in the U.S. and why is the growth a little sluggish? And I explained that, that we're in the middle of a business model transformation, which is still ongoing, but very happy about us having returned to growth pattern there, and we come to that a little later. Relentless focus on profitability. And when every word -- as you can imagine, every word in this presentation is very carefully chosen. Relentless is exactly what we mean, a relentless focus on profitability. This organization has been working for the last 2 years to bring our profitability back up to where we think it should be. Adjusted EBITDA up 18%, adjusted EBT also up 20%. So that has been the primary focus of what we're doing. And what I'm especially proud of is we managed to flexibilize costs that were previously deemed to be fixed costs like personnel expenses. And therefore, we have become -- we have gotten a much better and sustainably better P&L structure. Adjusted EBITDA margins are exactly where they should be. We always said group 24%; Europe, 25%; the U.S. at 14%, not quite where we expected it for this year, but we changed our outlook for the U.S. and said, look, it's going to be more around the mid- to high teens than the 19%. And I think that still holds true. Adjusted EBT margin also improving compared to prior year. So very happy about that. As already said, U.S. platform regained growth momentum, 4% year-on-year in U.S. dollar terms. And all that while we're changing the business model, which is a lot of preparation, takes a lot of attention from a lot of people on running a business at the same time building up doctor capacity because that's really what's missing. And then at the same time, thinking about what should be our presentation of SVS and Shopko, our Fielmann USA business in the future that takes a lot of thinking and it's very difficult to do it all at the same time, but we obviously have to. As I said, we didn't manage so well in the first half year. But in Q3, we actually went back to growth. So we manage a little better. Our outlook for 2025, we're confirming. On revenue, it's very simple. We're going to -- we have the 25% rule. So really, Q4 is typically around 24%, 25% of our yearly revenue. So if we multiply that all out, we get to the nearly EUR 2.5 billion. We're looking at EUR 2.450 billion, [ EUR 2.4 low 60s billion ] maybe for year-end. So there, we are confident that we are within that framework of nearly EUR 2.5 billion. And sellout structure, we're improving. We've optimized our personnel expenses. We're pretty cost conscious on overheads and that will drive margin expansion also in Q4. So given that we have about -- among those personnel expenses and consulting and marketing, we have like a EUR 30 million saving more or less for Q4 compared to prior year. So we expect that the margin trend that we've seen so far during this year will be stable for the remainder of the year, and that's why we are confirming our outlook for 2025. Let's go to the next page. These numbers are basically very happy and still very happy looking at it. Organic growth, as I said, 4%, 9% reported numbers, including the first consolidation of Shopko for half a year. EBITDA growth is great. EBT growth is great. Margins are within what we said. And as I said, we have built a better, more flexible P&L structure, which is going to help us for the future. Let's look at sales in a bit more detail. Sales at around EUR 1.842 billion for the year so far, as I said, 25% -- that's around 75% for the year. So we're going to hit our guidance, albeit at the lower end of it. The 9% growth, I already dwelled on. So why don't we move on and look in more detail. Again, we have a growth across all product categories. These are reported numbers, so not organic numbers, 7% in eyewear, 9% in audiology, which you know is for the future, a big growth topic for us. We were looking at -- we built our own business unit for audiology and really driving that as a real business unit with P&L profitability responsibility and all that. Sunglasses, probably a low-margin business for us or a lower-margin business for us. So still at 5%. Contact lenses. In Europe, not so interesting. In the U.S., a very interesting business, 13%, 3% of that is organic, just so that you know. And obviously, adjacent healthcare services, which are the Eye Health Checkup in Europe and the optometrist services that we provide to the communities in the United States. All that is obviously growing because of our Shopko Optical consolidation. So very happy. We're growing across our product categories. And we're also growing across our main markets. So Germany, a little lower. We come to that when we talk about Q3, but a little lower than we would have hoped for. The U.S., obviously doing great. That is a consolidation effect. We come to that as well. And then Spain, still growing strong. I mean bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger business, and they just maintain this 8%, 9%, 10% growth pattern, which is really great and keep the margin stable, which is fantastic. Spain -- sorry, Switzerland and Austria also doing great. We've been active there for many, many years and that's our plan for our German business as well once the economy recovers. Poland. Also Poland is something that we're looking at for the next growth horizon also doing great at 14%. And then we have all the others that are also growing, which is quite nice. We excluded here compared to the report our Belarus operations that we discontinued 1st of January this year. Looking at profitability for the group. We increased our margins by 1.7 percentage points on the 9 months compared to the prior year, which we like. The drivers are exactly what we told you, and that's why I'm saying it's -- yes, it's -- we walk the talk, and we do what we talk about. And you see it all within expectation. We have a favorable sellout structure. Those who have been with us for more than one call know that we always talk about that so that increases the gross margin. We have optimized our personnel costs or the deployment of our personnel in the shops, matching more the customer flow with our available opticians that really has a big impact on our margin. And then we have operating leverage in other operating expenses we're also saving. And then we have a few effects in other costs and booking of currency factors, et cetera, et cetera that have a detriment effect on our margin. But overall, 1.7 percentage points, so almost 2 percentage points growth. That's second year in a row where we're growing at that speed, which we really like. Looking at the individual countries. You know that picture. European margin at 9 months '25 at 24.8%. So very, very, very close. So there at the 25%, 24.8% is very close to 25%. U.S. margin doubled compared to 9 months prior year, almost to 14%, but definitely not where we would have expected it and wanted it. But as I said so many times to you, it's all homemade and it's being addressed, and that's great that we can change this. Adjusted EBT also at -- growing at 20% and the margin increasing by 1.1 percentage points. So overall, within expectation, happy with the numbers, happy that we're able to deliver what we promised to you. Now let's look at Q3 in a bit more detail because Nils and I figured that you're going to ask some questions about that. There was a lot going on in Q3. So we did a little buildup for you just to explain it to you. So if we look at it at constant currency, which is important because the U.S. is now our second largest market. And obviously, the U.S. dollar is all over the place and it's going more south than north. And so if we look at it at constant currency, we see a 12% growth for the group. We see -- of that, we see a 4% growth in organically, and we do see in -- that's half year 1. And in Q3, we also see a 4% growth. So, so far, for half year 1 and for Q3 are totally in line within our corridor of 4%, 5%, 6% organic growth that we announced for this year, albeit, as I said, at the lower end of it. Why is that so? Well, let's look at our 2 biggest markets, Germany and the United States. Germany growing in H1 still at 5% at Q3 at 2%. That's definitely not within our corridor of expectations. We mentioned some of the reasons. Weather in August was really an extreme. We had heat waves and heat warnings in major parts of Germany. If it's super hot, then people, especially older people who buy hearing aids and progressive lenses and all that do not leave the home and nobody goes into the city center to go for shopping. We've seen that the consumer sentiment was not great in Q1, picked up in Q2 and then really started diving again in Q3. So the disappointment with the German economy, the disappointment, I think, with the German -- new German government that was established within Q2 really taken hold of the population. Everybody was hoping for change for the better after 3.5 years of that coalition that we had before that, that didn't prove to be -- to show yet hopefully. And therefore, consumer sentiment went back to where it was in Q1. And so we're faced with this slowing and especially when consumer sentiment goes down, people become a little more careful than when it's actually down. And then we obviously also talk to all of our lenses providers. We are actually performing in line with the market. So it's not us, it's the market. So we see a general demand weakness in the German glasses and spectacles and lenses market in Q3. And as I said, especially in August. September was actually pretty good. For the U.S., well, you see H1 that not taken into effect, obviously, the consolidation number. The growth -- the organic growth in the U.S. was very, very little, somewhere between 0 and 1-point-something percent. So we're very happy being back at 4% in Q3. Obviously, it's great to be back at 4%. Obviously, that's not what we're aiming for. We're aiming more for the 7% to 10% growth ranges in the United States, but we do it step-by-step and quarter-by-quarter because remember, we are changing the business model at the same time and preparing. And for us, having spent all that money on those acquisitions is a lot more important to get the business model transformation right and be ready for growth in -- during next year than having a great Q3 in 2025. Now unfortunately, there's something that we can't really influence and that's the U.S. dollar. So if you look at that slide that I just presented to you in actually converted euro terms, which is our functional currency, you see that the left-hand side, so the 12% and the 4% is totally unchanged. The 4% that we showed you for Q3 as a group went down to 3%. Germany is obviously unchanged because we're doing euros. And the U.S. dropped year-on-year growth in Q3 from plus 4% to minus 3% because the U.S. dollar in Q1 was $1.05. In Q2, it was $1.13. And in Q3, it was $1.17. So almost a 10% depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the euro. And that's something that we just have to take and that we can't really compensate for because we're not going to grow -- we're not going to outgrow a devaluation of that sort, but we hope that everything will settle and that the dollar will return to its former strength. If we then look -- so that basically these 2 trends. So Germany, mainly the weather and the consumer sentiment, which dampened demand in Q3 across the optical industry, plus the U.S. dollar development for the U.S. that really explains why growth in Q3 was a little subdued to what we have seen in the first half quarter. If we look at the other countries, you see that overall, all markets together really accelerated the growth compared to H1. So Spain, you can't see it here, but it's like a point-something acceleration of growth. Switzerland, very, very visible; Austria, very visible; and all the other countries also. And if you measure it all up, then you see it's Germany and the U.S. and the rest is developing as it should be, and we're very happy with an accelerated growth trend in those countries. That's really what I can tell you about Q3 revenue development or sales development. If we look at EBITDA, you see that 24.2% is our profile for this -- for Q1; 23.2% in Q2; slightly higher in Q3, 23.4%. And we continue to be working on the sell-out structure. We continue to be working on our optimized personnel deployment. We're still working on cost-conscious overheads. All these are tried and tested measures that we're going to implement also in Q4 and that's why we confirm our outlook, as I said, on the sales and of around 24% EBITDA margin for the group by the end of the year. As I said in this call, probably at the lower end of the spectrum, but still within the guidance that we've given you. Looking at opportunities and risks, it's a bit strange in November doing this. The opportunities are mainly midterm, increased organic growth. We see the acceleration in countries like Spain and Switzerland and Austria. To be honest, we're going to see a certain push from Black Weeks and people actually going out and shopping in Germany. There's no risk of a heat wave anymore. So we're going to see some organic growth there that's going to be a little higher than in Q3. We're going to see great potential for expansion in the optical retail, but that's more for next year, the U.S. and continued in Spain and Eastern Europe. And in hearing aids, as I said, new business unit established first results showing we're now completing the organization. We're really implementing a European Head of Hearing Aids, which we never had. And then primary eye care is definitely a promising market in the U.S. and Europe, but that's more a long-term part, and we presented that to you as part of the Vision 2035 strategy -- strategic goals 2030 presentation that we held during the Capital Markets Day and Marc and I and the recording that you can still download on our website. The risks, as we always said, consumer sentiment is the biggest risk. And in Germany and unfortunately or fortunately however you want to look at it, Germany is our biggest market. But if it comes back, it's going to come back. Skilled labor shortage is still a risk, but it's really been easing, a, because of the productivity gains that we implemented, the flexibilization of our personnel cost structure really helps here. Trade conflict and tariffs. We still have it on there, although currently, it's decreasing in importance, but it's always easier to put a risk on than take a risk off. But we're monitoring it and things have settled more or less. But you never know. And then we talked about that a delay in execution of our business model transformation. We're totally on it. We're working on it. But as I presented at the Capital Markets Day, not -- we probably underestimated the time it takes to merge a couple of companies in the U.S., define the new structure, define a new management team, decide where to put it, decide how we're going to address the needs that are obviously there in that very, very promising market. All that takes a little longer than we thought. So please bear with us and give us a couple more quarters. And then obviously, the U.S. for reported numbers, not really business risk, but for reported numbers, the U.S. dollar development, the forward curve for next year sees another 10% depreciation. But that's really -- well, it's a risk that I can't manage and it's a risk -- it's a translational risk. We're not really shipping money back and forth between the U.S. and Germany. So there's no transactional risk. Most of the contracts that we have with outside providers are in euros -- in dollar terms. So it's more a translational than a transactional risk for our reported numbers. And with that, I'm still looking positively into the future. I think so far, if we take a few steps back and look at what this group has achieved over the last 2 years in terms of internationalization, in terms of margin profile, in terms of P&L structure, I'm still a very proud CFO and very happy to be here and talking to you and being able and having the privilege to present those numbers to you. Thank you all very much for being in the call and your continued interest in the development of our group. As I said, it's a pleasure of representing Fielmann Group to you guys. And we're not going to hear each other on a call like this until April, but we're publishing, obviously, which conferences we are attending, and we either see you in Paris, Lyon, Frankfurt or New York over the next half year or 4 months and then we speak again soon. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a great weekend.