GN Store Nord A/S (GN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good. I think we are ready to start. So a warm welcome from me to you all to our GN Store Nord Meet-the-Management event 2022. It's great to finally be here. We have been looking forward to welcome you all today to this special day for us. We have a lot of people in the room. It's sunny in Copenhagen, we have great weather, and we hope we'll have a great day. We also -- I know have a lot of people online. So welcome to everybody online as well. We have 2 different streaming options today online. So we have 1 where you can be passively just listening in and 1 active participation via Teams. And there, you can actually ask questions, raise your hands in Teams, and we will ensure that you will be able to also ask questions during today. This is truly a hybrid event. It's a modern way of collaborating. And I'm sure that Rene and team down here will come back to this later in the day and all the benefits that's actually entails. But let me just briefly walk you through the agenda of today. We have uploaded this to gn.com together with the presentations for today. And in the room, you will also find the presentations on the tables. We will start out with an introduction and the status of the business presentation by our CFO of GN Store Nord, Peter Gormsen. He will hand over to CEO of GN Hearing; Gitte Aabo, and team, that will provide a strategy update under the theme, simplify to grow above the market and restore profitability. Then we will go over to GN Audio and Rene Svendsen-Tune, CEO, and his team that will provide an update under the theme, transforming from audio-mainly to audio, video and gaming business. We will have ample time for Q&A during today. We have a plan for 4 Q&A sessions, where you hope you will participate and collaborate and we'll have an interactive day. And with that very brief introduction, I think we are ready to get started. And a very great to see all of you today. And I will hand over the word to our CFO of GN Store Nord, Peter Gormsen.

Thank you, Henriette. And also a very warm welcome from my end. Great to see you all. See a lot of familiar faces. So really great to be together not only virtually. Also a warm welcome to those of you who are attending online. So as Henriette said, we've been looking very much forward to today and to share some of all the great stuff we have going at GN at the moment. And hopefully, it will give you a lot of confidence in the future also. So before we dive into the details, we felt it was prudent just to briefly touch on this terrible situation in Russia, Ukraine. You may have seen that we have announced that we have ceased all business with Russia and Belarus. And of course, that has an impact, but it is a minor impact. It is roughly 1% of our total revenue in GN Store Nord. We do not have warehouses. We do not have any inventories. We do not have any operations in Russia. We do not source any components in Russia. So that is the impact. Where we are impacted is unfortunately on a unit we have in Ukraine in Kyiv, we have 25 software IT developers. We are in very close dialogue with them. 5 of them have left Ukraine, 20 of them have moved to the western part of Ukraine, where it's a more quite. So -- but we try to help them to as much as we can. With that, let's move on. So we thought it was prudent to start with the overall purpose of GN. We don't talk so much about it today, but of course, this is what drives us. This is what inspires us in everything we do, make life sound better. And I'll read out what it actually means. So if you [ doubt ] thing out we feel it means we bring people closer through the power of sound and vision, leading you hear more, do more and be more in life and at work than you ever thought possible. And that means a lot to us. It means a lot to our customers, whether you are getting your hearing aid for the first time and can rejoin conversations over the dinner table or you're chatting with your friends or you're gaming, using your SteelSeries products, or you are basically just a boring office guy like the ones in this room today where you need proper devices to allow you to connect with your peers, your colleagues, your customers. Hopefully, you can see this also being reflected in what we will talk about throughout the day. So GN investment case is fully intact, and in my mind, stronger than ever. It starts with the innovation. That is the core of our DNA. So there is a relentless focus on innovation in GN. That is what has made us successful in the past and that is what will make us successful in the future. So that is very important for us. We are in leading focused markets. We invest in R&D, invest in technology, thereby, we do create entry barriers, making it more difficult for competition to come in. We have a clear strategy. We manufacture, we distribute. We develop our own products. We outsource manufacturing in audio. Peter Hakansson will come back and talk about the operations in hearing a little later today. We do not do forward integration. So we do not compete with our own channel partners. Profitability is, of course, hugely important. We'll talk a lot about that later today also. Profitable growth is what we aim for, and at least on par and preferably better than competition. And then last but not least, of course, being the CFO, cash is very, very important. That is also ingrained in everything we do across the company. That is what allowed us to acquire a company such as SteelSeries and Lively late last year. It is what will allow us to also do acquisitions in the future also. If we move on and just take a step back and look at our historical performance. It's very nice I, of course, like the slide. Much of this is before I joined company, so I can't take any credit for it, but it's a nice growth curve we show. So we have basically added DKK 10 billion worth of revenue to the top line. We have grown the bottom line even faster and added another DKK 2 billion. And last, but not least, we have grown the earnings per share even faster. So we are quite pleased with that. And of course, it's a great platform for the future also. And we have every belief that we will continue this curve and would love to come back and show that we are continuing the curve. That is clearly the strategy and the focus of GN. Moving on, we are in the 3 segments we've talked about many times. We are in medical grade, we are in professional grade and we are in consumer grade. As you can see here, we have added new brands to brand portfolio. We have added SteelSeries, very, very exciting. Ehtisham will come back and talk a lot about this in the afternoon. We have added Lively, Gitte will also talk into this in the medical grade. So we believe this is a powerful brand portfolio for us to be successful in the future. Moving on, often, I get the question. So GN, you have these 2 businesses, how much collaboration do you really have? And what is sitting in the other our Store Nord, and how many synergies are you leveraging that you are 1 big GN or are you operating in isolation in 2 silos? And the key answer, we are certainly leveraging a lot of synergies and have done that historically. But I will also be very clear and say I think there's a lot more we can do. And with this picture, we have tried to illustrate in the color coating, how far we are. It's clear if you take the traditional back office functions say, IT, finance, HR, I think we've done a lot. We are more mature, if you can put it that way. While there are other areas where we can do more. I think we can do more on the operational side. Again, Peter Hakansson will talk about this when we get to hearing. I think we can do more in other functions also. We will be moving to a new world in the hearing side where the go-to-market will look slightly different. You could argue it will look somewhat similar to what we're doing in audio. And I think that gives us an excellent opportunity to leverage all the experience we have in dealing with retail, be it offline or online. And of course, there is more to go from the IT side. Why is that not completely orange? We are in the process of implementing 1 ERP system across GN, that will put us in a much better position that will allow us to drive higher level of productivity, get savings that we can reinject back into the business, be it in R&D, be it in marketing to drive growth. Moving on. Normally, we talk about the markets we operate in either audio or in hearing. This time, we try to consolidate it on. And if you sum across all the markets, we actually positioning GN into more than USD 40 billion worth of market. So massive opportunity for us. Secondly, the penetration rates are fairly low across the different industries. You've often heard Gitte talk about only 20% of the hearing market being addressed properly. I think we have now -- we'll try to do our best to actually increase that number with the new offerings we have lined up. You've heard us talk about the office worker, where we have penetration of around 15% to 20% with COVID and the massive digitization happening and the high growth in Teams and Zoom. Those growth numbers were significantly higher than the growth in our headset sales. So of course, the potential to look into has increased considerable collaboration business. AK will talk about this in the afternoon also. We started with 1 product. Now we have 3 products that are being very well received. We need a few more components. We are getting those now. So we will be able to take a lot of share in that space also. And last but not least, gaming, a big, big growth opportunity for GN. So happy to have Ehtisham here today also to explain that to you. But of course, a massive opportunity. You've all seen the amount of investments going into that space. And of course, that's good news for SteelSeries. With that, so how do we spend the money? We have a very strict and intelligent way of allocating the funds. Of course, in order of priority, first and foremost, we invest in the business. That is the key to organic investments in R&D and technology that will not only help us this year, but also in 5 years out, is hugely important. It's going back to the relentless focus on innovation. That is what drives us, and that is what will make us successful in the future. We also look at the M&A. It can be getting access to technology that we do not master ourselves. It can be accelerated penetration into new markets and be tapping into a new growth rate as we've seen in either video or in gaming for that matter. If there's money left, of course, we hand it back to our shareholders, either via dividends or share buyback. And here, you can see on the pie chart, the split of how we have allocated funds over the past 3 years. Moving on. With the acquisitions we did, Lively in December, and closed the acquisition of SteelSeries in January, of course, that does impact our leverage. And as we've communicated before, it will go up in 2022 by design. This will not be a surprise. But with the strong cash flow generation that we have delivered historically and that we plan to deliver going forward, we do plan to be able to deleverage within a couple of years. We have put the share buyback program on pause until we are closer to the between 1 and 2x EBITA leverage. That is our financial policy. We will continue to pay our dividends, as stated here, between 15% and 25% of net profit. So guidance for 2022, nothing has changed, and we confirm the guidance as we stand here today. It is a volatile ever-changing world we live in. We talked about Russia, Ukraine. There is component shortage, there is COVID impacting. We'll come back to that later. But the very, very short message is we do confirm guidance across all parameters, hearing, audio, Store Nord EPS. Midterm guidance Again, we also confirm the midterm guidance. We do plan to grow faster than the market in both hearing and in audio. For hearing, that means between 4% to 6% in volume growth. And then take 1, 2 percentage points in [ HCP ] decline. In audio, that means more than 10%. And adding that together, that means GN Store Nord will grow faster than 10%. Growth in earnings per share. We also plan to be double-digit more than 10%. Being -- talking about our purpose, making life sound better. There is another very important component to that. That is also being a responsible company. So ESG work climate environment becomes increasingly important and has, over the past years has been a very important topic for the GN, not just for management, but across the company. And of course, we feel it, talking with you, we sensed it. You no longer just answer polite question. You have to ask because it's on your list, you actually ask qualified intelligent questions on our ESG journey. We discussed this with our customers, we discuss this with our suppliers and all the stakeholders that are relevant to GN. So the way we have done it, we have categorized in these 3 areas protecting and planning sustainable products and packaging and then health and well-being through our products. We take the first one. It's really about neutralizing our CO2 footprint in Scope 1 and 2 between now and 2025. So -- and then reducing our Scope 3, let's say, the outside world also significantly. So what are we doing? We are changing all our energy to sustainable energy at all our owned sites. We are changing the car fleet to electric. We are installing very new tougher travel policies, where -- by the way, we are making products that allow you to be efficient without traveling overseas. Of course, we are taking -- let's take our own medicine to a much larger extent. So a lot of initiatives from that. Products and packaging, every new product that we send out will be a 100% sustainable packaging. New products coming out will contain at least 50% sustainable materials by '25. It's not that easy. There are components that today simply cannot find in a sustainable fashion. So we need to work hard on that. And we are not the only one working on this. We have a very close dialogue with our partners, component suppliers on this topic because we're also not the only customer who has this focus. So in that sense, we're all in this together and believe it will be looking much better in the future. Last but not least, the health part. We plan to help more than 10 million hearing aid to users by 2025. We will increase the awareness, the donation, the charity work around hearing plus help those parts of the world where it's difficult to get hearing aids to get easier access to hearing aids. So very important. So what did we do in '21 on this important topic? I think some of the areas, a lot of work had been done. But of course, we were quite pleased to have confirmed the AA rating by MSCI. We signed on to the CDP and sorry for the acronyms. These are some of the agency that give you a score and rank you in terms of how well you do on this sustainability rating and we received the B- and we're also very pleased with we will do our very best to improve it going forward also. It makes it easier for you guys and for investors to see, okay, DN is just nice talk or are they truly actually making a difference. And last, but not least, we signed up for the science-based targets that are, of course, everything we do point towards lowering the temperature increase to maximum 1.5 degrees Celsius. So goals are in '25. But of course, we will track this every year between now and '25. And what you see in the bottom is the performance until now at a high level. So important areas, Gitte and I are all on this. So we need to take it serious. The Board has missed it. So it is important and it's ingrained throughout the organization. And of course, we can see when we hire people, if we want the talent, we need to take this very serious. They don't want to work for a company that only talk about sustainability. They want to work for a company that takes it serious. Last point, people, of course, the most important part. Looking at these numbers, we do twice a year, an employee survey and the score lands at 8. For total GN, I think -- that is a very strong score. It's better than the benchmark. And of course, it gives us a strong indication that we do have a dedicated and engaged and motivated workforce. Of course, don't need to tell you, hugely important for GN to have that and which will allow us to be successful in the future. We also look at diversity, we look at the society. We'll make sure that we have a profile of a company that matches what society is at. Here, we have included some of the gender statistics. Roughly half of our employee population are women. Unfortunately, only 1/3 ends up in manager positions. We could say, yes, but that's because we are an engineering company. So it's a little more tricky. That is probably part of it, but we don't just settle there and lean back and say that's the reason. So we actually do a lot to make sure that we can attract the right talent across the company. With that, thank you so much for your attention. This was a quick fly into it. And now I'll hand over the word to Gitte.

Thank you, Peter. So good afternoon, and a warm welcome. I've been looking very much forward to today because it gives the opportunity to speak about our strategy and plans in GN Hearing. We want to outgrow the markets and restore profitability. I think in addition to talking about our plans, it is also an opportunity for you to meet a broader part of our management team. Obviously, you are familiar with myself and Morten whom you often meet. But today, you also have the opportunity to meet our Head of Operations, our CTO from R&D and also our Head of North America. So the agenda we put together is that I start out talking about giving a perspective on the markets and why we're confident that we can outgrow the market going forward. Then following that, Morten and Peter Hakansson, who is our Head of Operations, will talk to why -- what we're doing to restore profitability. Then our Head of -- our CTO, Brian Dam, will talk about technology trends and how that impacts our development going forward. And then last but not least, Scott Davis, our Head of North America have North America, will talk about the market opportunities we see in the U.S. So all in all, we believe we have an exciting agenda. And yes, we have really been looking forward to today. So let me start out by focusing in on our core business. We want to outgrow the market, and we've plans in place to do that already from '22 onwards. And we have that based on a solid road map for this year, and obviously, we'll continue to outgrow the market also in the coming years. In addition to that, we have a task to restore profitability. We're not happy with our current EBITA margin, and we want to get back to where we were before, above 20%. We wanted today to provide you a tangible time line on that. So we aim to be back at 20% in 2024. And we have solid plans in place to do that, and it's partly by growing the top line, and it's partly by optimizing the business. So we have a strong focus on optimizing our supply chain, but also other parts of the business we can drive further efficiencies. In the emerging business, which for all practical purposes, is Lively. We also aim to outgrow the market. And when we look at online sales in the U.S. that is forecast to grow above 30%. So also here, we want to grow more than that. And in the midterm, we also aim to get to breakeven in this part of our business. So this is the financial framework that we are working within. But let me give you some perspective on the market development in 2022. So we believe that the market is back to a normal situation. So we see market growth of 4% to 6% in volumes. And as we've seen in the past in many years, probably in the high end of that. So closer to the 6% as we still see markets recover from COVID. We also expect to see headwinds on the ASP of 1% to 2%, and again, probably in the higher end of that. And the reason we believe that is because we see markets like India, coming back, we see the NHS in the U.K. growing strongly, and they are at the lower price point. So that's why we are expecting this impact on the ASP. So overall, in '22, we expect the market to grow 4% in value. We also continue to believe that this is an industry or a market that has very high entry barriers, both in terms of regulations, technology, and also in terms of distribution, having that close relationship to the audiologist is absolutely pivotal. In terms of regulations, we've added 1 new bullet point to what we've presented previously. And that's the OTC regulation coming into force in the U.S. We don't expect that to materially change the core market. We do, however, think that what will happen is that over time, we'll see a greater transparency in terms of what you pay for the hearing aid and what you pay for the services provided by the audiologists. In addition to that, we actually see the OTC regulation as a way to expand the market and reach people earlier on in the hearing journey, and I'll come back to talk a little more about that in a short while. We also see important trends driving our market, and some of them I've also spoken to many occasions before. Obviously, we live in a world where the demographics are in our favor. People are getting older and older, and we continue to see low adoption rates for hearing aids. We've seen some trends accelerate actually during the pandemic in terms of digitalization and the use of data and certainly also in terms of consumerization. So those are important trends for us as we move ahead. We've also seen regulatory shifts in the market or about to with the OTC regulation coming into force in the U.S. And consequently, we also expect new competitors to enter into that part of the business. But again, here, I just want to underline that I believe that we are in a very strong position here with Jabra Enhance Plus and the collaboration between audio and hearing. So what I wanted to leave you with in terms of the market is that it's a resilient market we operate in, and it's also a market with continued nice growth rates. So I think that's the key takeaway in terms of the market we operate in. However, I do think we have 1 consistent challenge as an industry, not only an GN, but as an industry, and that is despite the innovations made over the last decade, both by us, but actually also by our competitors, we are only helping 1 in 5. That is not good enough. And we've actually done quite significant research among consumers to understand why are we in this situation, what is it that prevents people from getting a hearing aid. And the interesting thing is that when we do this kind of research, we see -- I'm sure you're all well aware that stigma is the key reason why people don't get go and buy a hearing aid. However, when we do the research, it's actually only 15% that answer that is due to stigma that they are not getting a hearing aid. However, when we deep dive into the categories, I can wait or it won't work for me. It actually turns out that this is also driven by stigma, both associated to the hearing aid, but -- or the form factor, but also associated with the channel. So if you like, 70% of these people that we are not helping today are actually held back because of perceptions around the device or around the channel they can buy in. So obviously, a huge opportunity for us to think differently, both in terms of device and channels, and that's why we are quite excited about the OTC regulation and also Jabra Enhance Plus bringing that into the markets. All in all, the way we see the market, we kind of see the total market in sort of 4 targets or 4 categories, if you like. So if we start here at the left side, we have what we call the medical touch experience. So that's for the very severe hearing loss where you typically get an implant. So that's as an example of the business of Cochlear. Then we have what we called the high touch experience. That is our traditional market. That is by far the majority of our market, where people are getting a traditional hearing aid held by an audiologist. So that's the main part of our business and will continue to be so many years ahead. Then we have new categories emerging which we call light touch experience. That is, for instance, what we provide with Lively, where both acquisition, the buying experience of getting the hearing aid, but also the fitting of the hearing aid is all done virtually. So that is what we call light touch. And then we have what we call no-touch experience, where with the OTC regulation coming into force, you can buy a hearing aid and self-fit it. And obviously, here, we see a huge benefit from having a strong consumer brand like Jabra in our hands. So this is obviously a rough cut on the market, but it's just to inform and drive our strategic thinking. And I want to share with you a little bit more flavor on the consumers and their profiles in these different categories. So if we start out looking at the bottom, and these are data from the U.S. market. You will see that the high-touch experience, traditional experience going to the audiologist is today 95% of the market. What we call light touch or the online is 3% and then we have 2% in this no touch experience today. But what is interesting is that when you look at the market growth, as I've just alluded to, in the traditional market, we see the market growing 3% to 4%. But in the new market, the emerging market, and don't mistake that with China, Brazil and so on, but the emerging business here for us is we see market growth at a much higher level. I think what is also really interesting here is when you look at first-time users, what we see in these channels, both no touch and light touch, we see a very high share of first-time users. So this is a market that is really attractive to be in. I'm sure that once you started out using the Jabra Enhance Plus the likelihood that once you need a real hearing aid that, that will be from ReSound is pretty high. So we want to catch these users early on in the hearing journey. And I think also what is interesting when you look at the aid, you see that no-touch, light-touch, people are on average 10 years younger than they are in the traditional market. So obviously, it's important in order to catch people early in the hearing journey and ensure that they start with GN and continue with GN. So this informs how we think about our strategy as a company. Here, we also talk about our core business, again, the majority of our business by far, which is obviously driven by innovation. Our organic hearing philosophy, which I'll talk to more to in just a second. It's driven by an ambition to be the trusted partner for the audiologist. That is absolutely critical for us that we are the preferred partner for the audiologists. In the emerging business, we see an opportunity to go into new channels. We've seen opportunity to provide new form factors like Jabra Enhance Plus in order to catch people early in the hearing journey and through that expand the market. We also have, as an important part of our strategy to digitize and simplify the way we work, drive further efficiencies. We want to modernize hearing care. We want to modernize our supply chain and drive efficiencies here, and we want to drive efficiencies across the company. So those are also important part of the strategy and the plan we have in place for GN Hearing in order to restore profitability. But let's deep dive into our core business. So as I've already alluded to, our whole philosophy when we develop hearing aids is what we call organic hearing. And I think that sets us apart from the rest of the industry. That's unique to us. We -- that organic philosophy is really deeply rooted into R&D and our whole thinking. It impacts how we think about the form factor. Bear in mind that on average, our users wear the hearing aid 14 hours a day. So obviously, it's critical that the hearing aids are comfortable to wear and put on your ear for that long. It's equally important for us that we provide the brain with clues on the hearing similar to what you get when you have a natural hearing. That's the core of the philosophy in ReSound ONE and M&RIE. We really want to give people the full information as if they had natural hearing. And I'll just shortly show you a film with one of our users using ReSound ONE with M&RIE and he is a very special person. He is a world champion in kayaking and is really in love with ReSound ONE and M&RIE. But I spoke to him 2 weeks ago, and his name is Eric Jackson and he shared with me that in addition to doing kayaking he is also competing in fishing competitions. And with ReSound ONE and M&RIE he was actually able to hear where the fish jumped, what kind of fish it was, apparently, you can hear that. I didn't know, but you can. And he could also hear the direction of the localization. And that he had not been able to before. And that's obviously really critical, and he actually won the competition. And now he's afraid that the hearing aids will be abandoned in the future because it gave him a competitive advantage. But that's what we talk about when we talk about organic hearing philosophy. We really want to restore people's hearing so they hear as we all do when we have normal hearing. But rather than me talking, maybe you should meet him. [Presentation]

Now mind you, Eric Jackson is obviously, in many ways, a very special person. But nevertheless, the benefits he get from ReSound ONE and M&RIE is also what we see in -- if I can put it like that, more ordinary people using the product. And Brian will come back and show you data to confirm that. So we have a very strong road map in place for 2022. We've already launched 2 new products, Jabra Enhance Plus, which is this combination between the true wireless earbuds and the hearing aids in a really nice form factor. And for those of you that are here in the room, you have the opportunity to see it real life outside, and I really encourage you to do so. We've also just launched ReSound ONE BTE rechargeable, which is obviously an important add-on to our ReSound ONE family. And in Q2, we will launch another important family member, which is ReSound ONE in the custom form factor also in the rechargeable version. So that is obviously also a very important add to our product offering. And then in Q3, we come out with a new platform. So we have a very strong road map in place for '22, which is why I'm confident that this year, we will outgrow the market. This strength in our R&D is not only in '22, it continues into '23 and obviously puts us in a very strong position. So when we leave '22, we are strong in connectivity, as you already know. We will also, by the end of '22, actually offer rechargeability in all our form factors, and we'll continue to provide better and better sound experiences. But obviously, it doesn't stop here. We are constantly on the outlook of our next competitive edge. And Brian will talk more about that. But I do want to mention 1 area that we are exploring and that's in terms of the connection between hearing loss and cognitive impairments. I'm sure you -- most of you will be aware that there is a correlation between hearing loss and cognitive impairments. So if you have a severe hearing loss, you have a fivefold increased risk of developing dementia. Now we want to take that to the next level and actually use our hearing aids to provide early detection of cognitive impairments. And in order to do that, we are working with start-ups in this industry Sonde Health and Altoida, developing algorithms to early on detect in your voice, potentially early signs of cognitive impairments. There are already algorithm developed to do that. And I know they've been tested on some of the presidential speeches Ronald Reagan for instance, I'm not talking about current Presidents, but Ronald Reagan that when you run to speech as he did as a President, you can actually detect early signs that he is about to develop Alzheimer's. So we want to explore this further as a way to provide our next competitive edge. With the hearing aid, we have a device sitting on your ear listening into your voice all day. And obviously, it's an ideal device to detect early changes in your voice. Now in addition to providing innovation and leading the innovation game, obviously, we also want to be a preferred partner. And we've done research again with a number of audiologists to truly understand what does it require to be a preferred partner with them. Well, first off, you need to provide high-quality hearing aids. There's no doubt about that, and we do that. But it takes more than that. We also need to provide fitting software that make their workflow and every day easy. That is critical. We also need to ensure that we have a supply chain that is efficient, and things arrive on time, it's easy to work with us. So when Peter later on today, talk about our supply chain and what we are doing there to improve profitability, it's certainly also to improve the service we provide to the HCPs. And last but not least, we also need to be a partner that help them improve their business. And you'll hear from Scott talk about our Accelerate program, which is a loyalty program for the audiologists in the U.S., how -- where we help them expand their business. So in order to be the preferred partner, again, you need to provide first-class hearing aids, but it takes more than that. And we are well aware and we're working on that as well. So with that, I will move on and talk about the emerging business. And again, here, we're exploring new channels, and we are exploring new form factors in order people earlier on in the hearing journey. That's the background for why we acquired Lively in December last year. We see that as an opportunity to reach people online or virtually and further build on that. We actually also see this as a way to step into the world of omnichannel because 2/3 of the people approaching Lively, they are looking for a combination of an off-line and online experience, and we see the opportunity to guide those people into our Beltone network or into our ReSound customers. Scott will come back and talk more about that later on. And then last, we are also looking forward to the OTC regulation coming into force. We really believe that we have a strong competitive edge here. Actually, what I like to call an unfair advantage. I think we have the right technology, we have a very strong brand with Jabra. And the channels that will open up to us might be new to us on the hearing side, but they are very familiar to us on the audio side. Channels at Best Buy and Amazon are channels we already know in the company. So here, I think we are extremely well positioned to win. So overall, I think we operate in a market that is resilient and continue to grow. I think we continue to have a strong focus on innovation and bring industries first. And I think we have a very strong road map in place for '22. We continue to be a preferred partner for the HCPs, and we continue to work to improve our experience towards the HCP as well. We are well positioned to win in the emerging business, and we have solid plans in place to restore profitability. And with that, I want to hand over to Morten; and later on, Peter Hakansson. And Morten, I think, you know really well. He's been with GN for 9 years. And since late 2020, he's been the CFO of GN Hearing. Peter Hakansson which will join Morten soon, joined at GN Hearing a little more than around a year ago, I think, and Peter brings a strong experience from Philips and also from GE Healthcare, where he's worked in the supply chain and also in quality. So I think really, adding a lot and bringing new perspectives into GN Hearing. But, Morten, over to you.

Thank you, Gitte. And hello, everyone. Today, I would like to talk a little bit about our profitability model in GN Hearing and also talk about how we're going to restore profitability to where we want to be. And you all know that we have a midterm target, which is to grow above the market and that we have a midterm target to have an EBITA margin of 20%. Today, Gitte gave us a little bit more color already. As you see on the slide here also more tangible time line on when do we plan and expect to be back at above 20% EBITA margin. That's 2024. And it's clear our profitability model works so that it's a prerequisite for profitability at this level that we have the revenue growth that we need to sustain it. And I'll talk a little bit about it, we're talking about this slide here, taking a step back comparing '19 to '21. We all know that 2020 was in many ways a lost year in our industry due to COVID-19. And what we show here on the top chart here is the development on EBITA. You remember, we lost around DKK 1 billion on revenue. And the impact we see here gross profit being down almost DKK 1 billion, a reflection of -- in addition to the revenue loss then also fixed part of production cost and the fact that it takes longer in our industry to adjust the gross margin, then -- when the pandemic hit like we saw here. In addition, what you see on the top chart is that even as our revenue declined, we continue to invest in R&D really goes to what Peter Gormsen also talked to here that innovation is in everything we do is at the core of our business, and we continue to invest in that. Then on the SG&A side, we have been very stringent on the costs we have approved. And that has obviously led to significant savings over the years. And on the bottom chart, you then see the development on the margin side. So obviously big swings we saw, but important to understand that this business here is really important driver for the profitability, is really the growth side. So with that, as an offset as a starting point, you can say then as we look at our guidance for the year 2022 that we're in right now. So you remember, we guided around 14% EBITA margin. So the DKK 400 million savings on the SG&A side, you can say not all of that is fully sustainable going forward because we came out of a pandemic where we had lower launch costs, we had lower customer events and so on. and thereby factoring that in travel and all of this coming back. Well, then that saving is not going to be sustainable. In addition, we guide for this year in our core business revenue growth corridor of 5% to 10%, so DKK 270 million in revenue approximately. And of course, where we come in with that -- in that corridor is also impacting the margin level. And then the OpEx impact. So we are taking a number of different initiatives there as well to really drive up profitability, takeout costs. So initiatives on the revenue side is, of course, launching new technology. Gitte also showed you the launches we have in store, what we already have done. But in addition to that, we are taking price increases also now, and that's partly on our hearing aids, but also on the ancillary products. You -- I know you all follow the space very closely. I know that's something we see in the market overall right now. So with that, I think just wanted to help some of you with your models. I know some of you are struggling a little bit how to think about our Q1 numbers. And as a reminder, you know that we have given this commentary that you should expect Q1 to deliver low single-digit organic growth and low single-digit EBITA margin as well. This is really due to the launches that we have talked coming late in the year. And we have a launch cost but not a lot of revenue from these launches in the quarter. In addition, of course, you know the seasonality in our business, which means that Q1 is always a low quarter. And that's the key parameters in addition to these cost-saving initiatives. I'll get back to you in a moment. They start really taking effect from Q1 onwards. So that's how to think about it. And with that, I'd like to look a little bit further into the future in the next week and look onwards until 2024. So here, we show that partly some of the profitability lift we need to see to get from the 14% where we are guiding to be this year to the more than 20%, that there's going to be different progress to that because it's clear we are not, in any way, satisfied with having a profitability of 14%. We want to really drive that profitability up, and we have taken a number of measures. So on the growth side, new product launches and of course, commercial execution being at the center of everything we do, Scott will talk more to that later on. But here, this is really where we're also going to see impact from the pricing initiatives that we have already initiated and that is being implemented in different countries at different stages, but implemented as we speak. Then on the gross margin side, Peter will talk more to that in a moment. But it's different initiatives all the way from, you can say, reducing returns, it's freight, it's optimizing packaging. And of course, then the whole supply chain overall, transforming the supply chain. But I let Peter talk to it. And then we can get back to. And it's also reducing the number of SKUs we have in the market by being more, you can say, aggressive on the phaseout of old technology. Then on the OpEx side, that's really well tested initiatives from indirect procurement initiatives to simplifying the organization at large and then this whole digitization of the customer journey that we have talked to. And just to give a little bit of comments flavor around that, it's -- we are in the healthcare space overall. I know a lot of you know that's basically very well. It's a manual space, very conservative traditionally. And I suppose you can say the hearing aid side is the most conservative part even of that space as well. So we get a lot of our orders in manual handwritten notes on facts and e-mails and by phone and so on, and digitizing that journey is something that partly, we believe, is going to generate more healthy customers and partly also be able to reduce manual errors and take out cost as well. So just to give a little bit of flavor around these initiatives that we have undertaken, and it's clear we have a very detailed financial plan setting this out, and we are comfortable with where we are at the moment. It's clear when you do these changes, you get wiser along the way, different initiatives given a little bit different return than you thought. And we, of course, allow ourselves to get wise, but we're content with where we are right now in that development. So with that, Peter, I'm a going to hand over to you.

Thanks, Morten. Yes. What I'll try to do is give a little bit of color to some of the initiatives Morten mentioned. Gitte mentioned I've been in a year. It's been a pretty interesting year to be in supply chain. It's probably one that goes into the history books, at least in my own CV. I started in March. And this -- the first effect was the immediate end of the transition period on Brexit, then COVID acceleration, component acceleration, new VAT in Europe, [indiscernible] in Europe, to a continuous challenge on volatility in every way you can think. So that actually was a good thing coming new into room because I had such opportunity to deep dive together with my team in our supply chain, understand what's working, what's not working. And overall, we found out to be fairly resilient, but quite complex. And this is one of the most simplified charts that we could put together. If I draw all the lines, it becomes complicated. So we are now looking into simplifying this. We will be sharing more throughout the year. but we have very clear concrete plans in place and started to execute upon. The other one is allow me to also rebuild the team. We have, in my team, 50% are new in the role. Many internal young talent we were able to promote, spent a lot of effort clarifying accountabilities, driving a new slightly different behavior customer first, understanding how do we compare to others, not only in our industry but other industries. And that has continued -- that's obviously a continuous journey we're in. We started to standardize -- first simplify, standardize, automate and digitize through other sites. You know we have a mixed model. We will continue to have mix model. Ratios may change over time, but we like the mix model. And finally, very close collaboration with key accounts. So we're looking at co-planning, cost to serve, ordering, returns and launches. So we're really getting more and more in tune with our customers and that drives a very different dynamics within my team. The other one is, obviously, for me, has been looking into the scale of GN you saw my CV I come from fairly larger companies. But I'd be very fortunate to see together with GN, we have the scale we need to do things that are used in the past. The other one was the cost efficacy of our designs and our products. We know our features are great. but how cost effective are they from an operation standpoint. And what I've done is, together with my team, we tear down our own products, obviously, we know them by heart, but we look at our competitors. And there were a couple of things we liked, some things we liked a lot in ours. And we're working through very detailed things. And I just to highlight, we looked how many soldering points. How many PCBs? How many layers in the PCB in the copper and layers of copper in PCB. And then you get into the dilemma, obviously, less layers cheaper, but bigger form factor. So those are the detriment, the paradoxes we've been looking at. And we've been very fortunate. I think I feel very good we had a review last week of our new platform for next year. We feel very good. I think we've taken the best of the breed from outside the company and inside the company and have a very robust design coming through. The question, of course, is how do we make this a repetitive and scalable. It's not a onetime effect. And for this, I needed a framework. And Peter showed earlier, there's a very good collaboration between the 2 R&D teams in GN. And we're very happy to see that there was a fantastic framework in GN Audio. We just had to take it. We stole it with pride almost then, and Rene is very happy about sharing. And what we're looking at is, we call it, it's a basic design for manufacturing process, but it's quite intuitive. We're looking at what the choice of material, is it easy to break, is it easy to deform, is it flat, robust, not difficult to damage. How many assembly directions, is it one? And we like vertical, easy to automate; two, we can automate to some extent. Many different directions will require manual assembly. Guiding. Is it self-guided, do we have lines and guides or is it lined assembly again lined assembly very, very hard to automate. And finally, on fixation. I don't like glue necessarily screws, heat stake a little bit better, but snap is great. And so this is the methodology that we now use as we go through the different gates, and we challenge, obviously, between R&D and operations and our sourcing side to just make sure we get what is a good compromise. Sometimes it's a compromise, although I usually hate compromise. But sometimes, it's a give and take. But how do we make sure we get the best features relative to the cost effectiveness of our design. And then we color coat it. I am obviously not going to do this on the left-hand side, but this is where we stand with this design. And again, the process is simple to explain, simple to train and this is something we use for out. And you see some -- still some red for our next platform. We have to glue. There's a component we have to glue. So be it, for now, the best choice. And with this, we will have a very cost-effective product once we start building this. The other one I shared that I got this from audio. But there's a few other things that we are now able to also get from our colleagues, but also share back. One has been on -- and I shared a little bit the complexity in our supply chain. Lots of Excel. Very difficult to do what-if scenarios. So if I get a request, kind of take this order or we're planning to bid on this, can I do that? Today, it takes me 2 days on Excel spreadsheets. So it's given the volatility and the complexity, we're looking to digitize. And there -- and for some of you who follow the classification that Gartner does on software and applications. I always like the magic quadrant. What do you happen to have one in the supply chain app for this. And it's hard to implement thing. But audio has done it for 2.5 years already. So we are now starting to implement this into hearing. It's a great tool. It changes not only planning process and so on, but I can organize my teams around this. I would not have been able to go to get an as for this setup been alone. So again, great effort and support from the team in Audio. We also, as part of the simplification consolidated our freight team to won for the company. We did it back in September. And we see that with a bigger voice into the freight forwarders, rates that are becoming more competitive. But we're also giving back. We have the indirect sourcing team. So I hope, by the way, we were in 2 years from now, that there will be a little bit more balanced in the sharing here. But we are having a one indirect sourcing team hosted under hearing, covering our indirect expenses to the company. So this is a bit of a flavor on how we are becoming a much stronger working together. The opportunities, I think, are obvious and this is a good start on the journey on operations side. With this, I'll give it back to you, Morten.

Alright I trust you found that insightful understanding of very sort of practical how we work with it. And that leads me to talk to these DKK 150 million in nonrecurring items that we have also included in our guidance for this year. It's clear. We do not like nonrecurring items. We also do not like to have a profitability of 14%. And therefore, we simply decided we want to move very fast from that profitability level we have today to the 20%, we're above 20% where we want to be. And thereby, we said we beat that up. And we also wanted to give you guys the transparency that we also have internally to measure the underlying profitability, how are we really faring. So of course, DKK 150 million. A little bit more color on that, it's a big chunk. You can say expect more than half in the first half of the year. And these costs are going to be related to redundancies. It's going to be related to also simplifying our supply setup. Peter talked to it or hinted it, at least, is around automating, digitizing our business model and the consequences of that. I know that a few of you are also experiencing right now is the hot job market, and some of you are also getting new jobs, and we just see it across the markets where we operate. It's a really hot job market. So please bear with us. We will give you more details as we incur the cost. When we report the quarters, we will also give some granularity on to where who had these costs hit, more detail in the P&L, but we want to be able to make the decisions. We want to be able to drive the change and operate the business on an ongoing basis. So therefore, there is a limit to how much we can share early on, even though, of course, we understand that you like that transparency. But trust us, we will share it once the cost is incurred and we feel that we can operate under the circumstance. So with that midterm targets, they are fully intact. We expect in the core business to grow above the market and Gormsen mentioned it already. But in the core business, we see a unit increase of 4% to 6% per year. And ASP decline of 1% to 2% per year in the midterm and EBITA margin above 20% in the core business. And then on the emerging business, which is lively. There, we also expect to outgrow the market. As Gitte mentioned already, that market, we expect to continue to grow above the 30% mark. And it's clear we bought with Lively a super cool business, fantastic business model with high NPS scores and that business really needs scale to be able to breakeven, you can say, and therefore, you can say we're not going to buy a business like that and then start it by being too cost-focused in the short term. We want to allow that business to really grow this fullest potential. And therefore, the commentary we gave here in the midterm is that it will be profitable in the midterm. So that's our midterm targets they're intact. And with this, I'll invite Peter, Peter and of course Gitte to the stage, and then let's take the Q&A.

Thank you, Morten. Yes, I can see we have a lot of questions. Let's start with you Maja.

Well, thank you very much for the presentation. Now looking at your target of 20% EBITA margin for 2024, a lot, hence, obviously on top line growth. And we haven't really seen a great performance in the last 2 years. If we -- maybe it's a bit difficult to dissect because all markets had a different kind of performance. But if we look at the markets where we can compare it, it wasn't really above market, and that's largely due to VA and to Costco. Now these channels are still present. Can you tell us how you think you're going to turn that around? Or is it by now so meaningless that it really doesn't matter what is happening from that perspective? That's number one. And the second question is we've seen over the last 2 years, Lively has caught the pricing. I think it was last year where there was quite a predominant cut in the pricing of Lively. Is that -- is the reference within the U.S. market, Costco? And like if you want to compete in the non-high touch market, you have to look at what Costco is doing as a reference point? Or can you explain us why the price cut comes through?

Yes. So let me start out talking about the growth in the market at all. And you're right. I mean, when we look at our past performance, especially last year, we didn't grew according to the market. And we were facing headwinds, especially in Costco and VA, as you alluded to. On the rest, we actually kept or increased our market share. And you'll hear more from Scott talking later on the U.S. market today. Clearly, VA and Costco remain important for us. They account for 30% of the U.S. market in volumes, as we'll share later on. So they continue to be important channels. I think they are channels where it's really important to have constantly new offerings of products. And as you know, we had a hiccup in our road map last year. So obviously, coming back with a strong roadmap in '22 and onwards that it will help us also grow in those channels. In addition to that, it's obviously important to grow in the rest of the market as well, and we have plans in place to do that. On your second question regarding pricing in Lively, we or they were as they were running the business last year, we did not. They, I guess, we're looking at the competitive offerings also from year ago and adjusted their pricing to that.

Good. Let's go to Christian.

Yes. A couple of questions from me as well. So first to you, Morten. Now you've given us sort of your margin target for 2024. And as I hear you, you're saying that the cost initiatives and the supply chain initiatives that you're doing this year is very much front-loaded. So the question is really, how should we think about the bridge from 2022 to 2024 is all the cost streamlining done as we go out of 2022, and it's only a matter of sort of getting the incremental top line from '23 and to '24, so basically, how will the phasing be of the step-up from the this year's guidance to the 20%? That's the first question. Second question is to the emerging business. One of your competitors also has a somewhat similar business in hear.com. They're, of course, revenues in excess of DKK 1 billion and are still loss-making. Is that the kind of revenue base that we should be thinking about when sort of considering when will this kind of business be profitable? And just as a tag on to that, I saw in your slide that you had Jabra Enhance also under the emerging business. With that product report as part of the emerging business.

So should I can kick off answering your questions, Christian. Good questions. I think -- so first on -- it's clear, we are not guiding on 2023 today. And -- but what I can say is some of these initiatives, Peter talked to it also, it takes some time before they kick in and before you really see that impact on the gross margin, that impact we need to see there. And therefore, it is not as simple as saying as that it would just bounce right up. You will see that development over time. And it's also going to be a function of how it works with sort of rolling out phasing out old products and so on. So I cannot give you the guidance for '23 here. But of course, our storyline would not make a lot of sense if '23 was going to be either below 14% or above 20%, but I cannot give you more commentary on it. But it's clear with front-load as much as we can because we want to see that impact in the business. But as you also mentioned in your -- in the question there, I mean it's also a revenue game. And that needs to -- revenue needs to come back as well to allow that profitability level. Do you want to answer for Lively?

Yes, I'm happy to do that. So in terms of Lively, I mean our starting point was a turnover of DKK 114 million last year. I think we've disclosed that. And we aim to outgrow the market, and we are assuming the market growth around 30%. And we want to do better than that. And we've also said that we aim to reach a breakeven midterm. So I guess you can do the math and assume that it will be with a turnover that is less than the number you mentioned for hear.com. I think what is really important here is to drive scale. And we already know that there are 2/3 of the approaches to Lively that is not catered for today. But that we will be able to cater for by driving these into the combination of an online and off-line experience and Scott will explain more about that later on. I also think what is important is that when we look at a Lively, it's still early days of the business. So we haven't seen that many repeat customers yet. But that's obviously really critical. And what is really critical about Lively is that they have NPS scores above 70. They are really known for the care they give. So the likelihood that if you start with Lively, you continue with Lively is very, very high. And over time, that will also drive customer acquisition costs down, which is a critical parameter to look at. So both additional scale and the return of customers will allow us to reach breakeven in the midterm. And enhanced cost in terms of how we -- when we talk about our emerging business in terms of our guidance, it is only Lively. So Jabra Enhance Plus revenue will be reported as part of our core business.

Let's go down to Veronika.

I have two questions, please. The first one is just trying to understand a little bit of the gross margin development in the hearing business. Obviously, it's a pretty significant compression, Morten, that you talked about. And I get the volume deleverage, but it seems to me like there are other things happening here, whether it's ASP, whether it's mix, whether it's return rates. And so maybe you can give us a little bit more color for how we've gotten from that 69% gross margin that the business had consistently for a long time before COVID to where we are today. And I guess, to get back to that 20% margin is your expectation that you get back to 69%? Or can you get there with a little bit less. And I think it's the piece that I'm still not sure I understand. And I get the color on some of the things you're doing around efficiency. But obviously, you were able to have a 69% margin before COVID started. So maybe just help us understand what's changed that there. And then bigger picture, you said for you, and this might be better after this next section, but I'm going to ask it anyhow, which is the product life cycle philosophy. Obviously, if I look at the big thing that changed when you launched M&RIE, is there were no follow-on form factors for 18 months, which is very, very unusual in the industry. Is this simply the byproduct of some of the own goals that you had in the organization? Is your product life cycle philosophy changing at all on the sort of more frequent cadence, and you alluded to, we have lots of exciting things for 2023. So maybe help us think through that product cadence for not as this year where you've given us great color but also for '23.

So I can maybe start out on the gross margin point. So it's clear our gross margin has declined from this high 60s to sort of 60, 63 that kind of level. And there's a couple of items there. So partly is the fixed part production cost that you also quote and then there is the mix effect. So the developments that we have seen in the U.S. business, of course, hurts the gross margin. We see the VA market share loss there. And then, of course, the cost to development with the ASP decline there really just impacting us. And then we have also -- we talked to divesting these 200 stores in Beltone, also something that hurts our gross margin. So I think these are some of the key moving parts. Overall, the mix effects just really impacts the gross margin. And as we look further ahead, we don't give a guidance on the gross margin, as you know, right? But so we focus on that guidance on the EBITA margin, but it's clear with the initiatives we take both from price increase to -- although, of course, that's, you can say, a tailwind and there's a headwind from the input cost that we also see. But of course, we see different puts and takes there. And then these -- all these initiatives on the supply chain side, that is something that we, of course, expect to have an impact also on the gross margin. That's clear.

In terms of product cadence, I'm sure Brian will talk to that as well. But I mean, it is not an intention that it took 18 months between the launch of ReSound ONE and that we come with a follow-up. If anything, we want to shorten the product cadence. So it's not our principle going forward on the contrary.

Should we got to Mattias?

Mattias Häggblom, Handelsbanken. So given the bridge Morten showed us for margins and the importance of growth, assuming you end up in the low end of your revenue guidance for the year at 5% or alternative you end up in the high end at 10%. Why is there not a range for the EBIT margin -- EBITA margin target as well for the year instead of the 14%. It sounds like there should be a big swing between the 2 scenarios. And then secondly, to the work that Peter and his team now is doing on design for manufacturing supply chain digitalization. But GN Audio already had in place since 2019. I guess the question to some extent, goes back to questions we get often from investors around what synergies and a lot of [ itinerary ] between the group and the two. So why have this not happened before and hearing, and I'm sure Peter is not one to answer, but in parallel, when Audio implemented it and how should we think about that going forward?

Yes. So first off, on the range and how we give the guidance, I can say it's probably a bit more art than science in how to set the guidance. It's clear, everything else being equal, at the higher end, should lead to a higher margin. But clearly, what we are implicitly stating is that at the 5%, but we can also get to the margin guidance. But it's -- of course, it's a question of the mix of the top line. and how we see that market development. You know the industry, you know that we can easily get some empty calories on the top line, and we need to drive that mix. And that's why new product launches are so important.

Well, I think in terms of the collaboration between audio and hearing since I joined a little more than 2 years ago, I mean, Rene and I and the 2 teams have been working really closely together and closer every day. So I think that is really important. I think in addition to that, I mean, we've always been on the forefront of innovation in GN Hearing. Now we also want to be on the forefront of manufacturing.

Let's go to Niels.

It's Niels from Carnegie. I have a question about your omnichannel. So it seems like you are well underway to create an omnichannel in the U.S. How about Europe? I'm aware that online sales isn't really a big topic in Europe yet. But what are you thinking in terms of creating an omnichannel in Europe and to avoid you becoming too depending on selling to Amplifon in Europe.

Well, I think that is a really good question. I mean we made the acquisition of Lively in December, as you know, and Lively is focusing in on the U.S. So I guess our philosophy is, first, we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin in a sense that we focus in on U.S. first and making that successful. So that's our thinking for now. Obviously, we are also well aware of the opportunities in Europe or other parts of the world as well. So it is on our radar. But for now, we really want to concentrate and making it successful in the U.S.

Go ahead, Oliver.

It's Oliver Metzger of ODDO BHF. So two questions on your price increases, your targeted price increases. So first, how to think about. Normally, you have the cycle with some positive price increases at launch and then basically stronger price pressure. So do you just want to manage the cycle better? Or really -- do you really want to increase prices? And that brings me also to my second question about your customers. So I can imagine if I talk to Amplifon and say, okay, and want to increase prices, we will start to smile. So if you think more about your broader customer base, is it more price increases at independents? Or how do you think the perception of the big-box retailers might be.

That's a very good and insightful question. I think, Oliver, that it's clear pricing, it's very detailed work. It's dissecting every market for market and see where can we get the price increase. And we see very different inflation levels in different markets also. And you all know very high inflation in the U.S. right now. And so it's clear the trend in our industry has always been when you launch new products, that's when you take the price increase and then it sort of trickles down over time. And -- but with the north of 7%, 7.5%, 8% inflation we see in the market now, we think that the market is also ready for it, and we also see that from competition. And that's why we go for it. We, of course, cannot comment on individual customers, but it's clear it's really detailed work. And you have also different negotiation power in different parts of your customer landscape than others, right? So I think that's as much as we can say about it. But it's also -- I think it's important both on the core hearing aid products, but then also on the ancillary products where we can also do something.

Good. Maybe we have time for 1 or 2 more questions before the break. I can see a lot of hands. So let's go down to Carsten.

Just Peter, a question to you. On Slide 48, you have this very nice color-coated heat map where 2023, it looks like the new hearing aid will fix more or less everything. Is that a sign of the new platform you're going to launch late 2022 that, that platform will be able to deliver this kind of color-coated heat map in terms of productivity gains. And also, even if you didn't really want to talk too much about your current portfolio and how it looks with the color coating there. Could you maybe tell us a little bit about where do you see the biggest improvement potential? So which of the categories will you improve most?

Yes. So starting with the launches in let's say, the first part of next year, we will see this and scale it up. So the answer is yes to that. And look, let's put a huge improvement to -- let's call it an improvement from where we are today, and we will continue on this path and continuously improve. The areas where we -- I think we'll improve the most is on the assembly processes. And in certain areas, being able to do design in dual components and play a little bit more competition in the supplier base and also drive improved reliability and the supply. But in short, it's going to be primarily on the assembly process.

Final question? Doesn't seems to be the case. Then, I'm sorry, Veronika, I couldn't see you.

I will make this really quick one actually for the first session for Peter, for you. You obviously confirmed the guidance for 2022, but I'm just curious if you can confirm the first quarter expectations as well and the phasing that you have had for the development of revenues for the year and profits, whether that still is on track.

Yes. Thanks for the question. So what I confirm was the full year guidance, and we'll come back and give you a bit more color on the -- I'm sure you referred to the COVID situation in Southern China, and then he will talk more into this in the afternoon. So what I confirm was full year, so I have not confirmed the Q1 per se. But we'll come back and give you more details on that rank.

Maja, did you have a final question. Okay.

I'm not so sure it's going to be that easy to answer. But just quickly, we're talking about the inflationary headwinds that you're seeing on the cost side, but it is for everyone out there becoming more expensive to Lively if you want to say so. Have you started to see an impact on market growth? Has there been any indication that customers are maybe a bit more choosy on the pricing levels, and do you believe that this kind of inflationary environment could actually be a nice feeding ground for your emerging business?

I think it's a really good question. I think sort of traditionally, if you like, in the hearing aid space, also going back to the financial crisis in 2008, we didn't really see a significant impact on the market back then. But whether we do this time around where there's also still some, I guess, tailoring off of COVID maybe that has a different impact. We haven't really seen it yet. But obviously, if should it happen, I guess, it's a good place to be that we have an alternative offering like we do with Jabra Enhance Plus and other products coming into the OTC space. But again, it's -- we haven't seen it yet.

Good. I think that was the final question for this first session here. So I think what we'll do now is just to have a short break. We will be back here 10 minutes past 2:00. There will be coffee outside and then just be back here, and we will start the session with GN Audio. [Break]

Good. Welcome back after the very short break here. We had -- we are ready to continue with the GN Hearing and with our CTO, Brian Dam. So I give it over to you.

Well, thank you, Henriette. I just wanted to take a minute to introduce Brian. Brian has been with GN Hearing since 1999. So I guess, close to 23 years. And Brian is our Chief Technology Officer, and he is among the other qualification, he is the mastermind behind 2.4 gigahertz. So I think in my mind, Brian is a strong testimonial to the fact that the innovation capabilities in the GN Hearing is intact. Over to you, Brian.

Thank you, Gitte. I just wanted to start here with this diagram again and explain a little bit what is the role of R&D and all this. So when we look at the market, Gitte mentioned that there is, you could say, the license to play at all in this is high-quality products. You cannot sell a hearing aid that doesn't work today because all hearing aids are fairly good devices. On top of that, you need to come with unique design, innovation and technology. That is what drives the churn in the market, and that is what we try to supply in R&D., high-quality products that also deliver unique features to the end users. I was at a similar event this back in 2016. I actually believe a number of you were in the room back then also where we discussed where do we want to take our future development. And the discussion was also similar back then is the hearing aid becoming a commodity and so on and so forth. And we lined out 4 areas that really was the focus for us in the coming time back then, which was a strong focus on hearing and noise, which today also remains the #1 problem for hearing impaired. There was a strong focus on the form factor. And then, of course, on our connectivity story. And then last but not least, data as an asset in how we think devices -- and we were not able to put a too much story on these points back then because we were just embarking on that journey. I would just like to take you a little bit through what has happened in the 6 years payoff or 5 years because I believe it was a newer since then. Looking at hearing and noise first, that has been a really, really strong push for us to improve in that first with LiNX Quattro. And then again, with ReSound ONE that was launched back in 2020. And there's 2 elements to that. Of course, the unique value solution that we have developed and that I'll get back to because we have some new interesting data, we would like to share there. But also on a feature we call Ultra Focus, which is a feature that really allows you to get a lot of speech enhancement in very noisy environments. And we use that across our entire lineup now with our new BTEs in the custom products that will come later in the year and also in ReSound -- or sorry, in Jabra Enhance Plus, which you could say all share this common platform of noise management that we have deliver well for ReSound ONE. On the form factor, of course, we have been looking at wearing comfort and onboarding with M&RIE, that is much easier for people to get used to the normal hearing aids. We will also get a little bit back to data on that. but also, of course, in the new form factor for Jabra Enhance plus where we are taking the hearing aid design and cramming into a very small discrete form factor. Then on the connectivity and data that ties very, very closely together. Usually, when we talk connectivity, we think about audio streaming from phones, but equally important these days is actually how do we effectively get data communicated to and from the hearing aid, both in a feeding situation, but also when we do monitoring and connection of data along the way. We launched our teleaudiology platform back in 2017 with ReSound LiNX 3D, and we expanded on that in the beginning of the pandemic with our ReSound Assist Live. And that is also the foundation for the work we are now doing with Lively. So without a strong focus on connectivity, there would be no online hearing sales because there needs to be a way to get these hearing aid fitted. To build on that, we have put focus on our apps also to get what is today, actually best-in-class user ratings on the apps, but also our radio platform to ensure that we actually when we measure ourselves against our friends in GN Audio, we actually get as good year-to pocket performance as we get on the headsets because it doesn't help us to -- on a Jabra Enhance Plus to measure against the hearing aid that is not the benchmark. The benchmark is our headsets, of course. Continued collaboration with Google and Apple, and I'll get a little bit back to that, of course, has also been important to build in the story. And then last but not least, Jabra Enhance Plus has required us to build new skills also, and we are really proud to see the FDA clearance of our self-fitting procedure for that device as well. So that is, you could say, the things that we have been spending our R&D time on for the better part of the last 5 years. So going back to talking about ReSound ONE, that is still the, you could say, the platform for us for delivering great features. And we have been talking a lot about M&RIE, and we will continue to talk a lot about M&RIE more because we believe it's a really, really nice and distinguishing feature. But there are other features in that device. And if we start from that point of view, we have gotten the question, okay, you talk so much about M&RIE, what happens with the BTEs and custom products because they don't have a microphone in the ear, well first of all the custom products actually do that is sort of the nature of custom products having the microphone in the ear. But other than that, we have the noise management features, All Access Directionality that allows you to be able to follow what is going on in the environment around you at the same time as you can focus on the speaker in front of you. And then as I mentioned, the Ultra Focus feature that really allows you to home in and follow a conversation even in very difficult environments. So I'm one of the persons who actually have some use of our Jabra Enhance Plus. I spent a little too much time and very, very loud small rooms playing a little too loud rock music when I was younger. I was recently the party where there was a big large speaker sitting literally here. And I was sitting at a table and trying to have a conversation that was really not possible without the devices. But with the Jabra Enhance Plus in I was actually able to have a conversation with the people across from me. They then had a problem, but at least I could follow what they said. And then we have M&RIE which continues to be important to us because of the spatial perception. And if we look at what we have done with that, it is really remarkable results. And I'd like to give you a little bit of input to how the ear and localization actually works. I think -- most people know that you have 2 cues, there is something about level of sound and there's something about arrival of time. And you could sort of say if a sound is louder to one ear than it is to the other, then it's sort of coming from over here. If the found hits one ear before, it is the other, then it's also coming from over here, that's simply due to a propagation of sound. What most people don't know is that those 2 cues don't work when you're on access, of course. So when you're trying to distinguish what is front and back the level that reaches the ears are the same. And the time is also the same because it's either directly in front of you hitting the ear at the same time or directly behind you hitting the ear at the same time. So how do you then know, as a normal hearing person, that the sound is in front of you or behind you. Well, that is why we have the outer ear. The outer ear will call it a sound differently depending on whether it comes from up here or back here. And those small cues or colors in the sound is what we can preserve with M&RIE. So that is when we take in and fit people with a traditional microphone placement up here, even with the algorithms that we have there, it is almost like flipping a coin whether they can save a sound comes from the front or back. So there is an error of around 30% there. When we then fit them with M&RIE, that immediately dropped to 20%, which is already a good result. But what we then did was to send people back for 4 months to wear M&RIE for those 4 months, and then we came back and missed it again. And we saw a further drop down to the 12.2% that we see here. And that is really incredible because we didn't change their pathology. They still have the same hearing loss. We didn't change the hearing aid settings, either they just got used to the hearing aid and then the brain relearned how to listen to these cues. And that is the first you could say, data that we have that actually shows that treating the hearing loss properly, you should not only look at the data that you get at the initial fit. It actually takes some time to get used to this but it's also possible to rebuild these lost functions in the brain that happens when you go with an untreated hearing loss for an extended period of time. So this is data that we find really remarkable and really important here, and we have not seen data with anything, but M&RIE on this before. Back to the connectivity story. That continues to be important to us. We see more and more people asking for having normal function, headset functionality in the hearing aids. That is actually what they coming and asked for, having something that connects to your phone is no longer, you could say, a feature that is unique to any hearing aid company. It's something that people have come to expect. And that's also why we are so proud of being able to continue to work with Apple and now also bring out the headset functionality on the hearing aid. So that you can pick up a call, do normal voice pickup. This is also an area where we have had really, really great collaboration with our friends at Audio because picking up sound on the ear is not easy. The microphones we have sit behind the ear and there's a shadow from there, getting the levels right knowing how to avoid echo when you go out on the phone line. All these things are things that hearing aid companies are not used to. They are not maybe even aware of, in many cases, but it has been a great collaboration for us to be able to spot with the Audio guys and go and say, okay, how do we actually work with this? How do you measure this? How can we build a setup that works for a hearing aid when a hearing aid needs to work like a headset. And going into the new Bluetooth Low Energy standard, that collaboration, of course, is going to be further deepened. This is just our view on where the standard is going. We cannot comment very specifically on these dates because the work in the Bluetooth speaker is under NDAs, but this is based on public knowledge. So we expect this to be implemented in products sometimes during 2023. The standard is not ratified yet, and we expect that to happen this year. And we are really excited about this because this is the first time that a hearing aid will become a first-class citizen in the Bluetooth ecosystem. What does that mean? That means that for every single use case we have, whether it's Bluetooth from your TV, it's Bluetooth from your phone, it's in your car, it's on an audio-video call to a loud speaker, all of these connectivity scenarios, they will also contain a hearing aid partner. That is simply built into the standard that there is a way for the hearing aid to participate in that. So there's not a difference anymore between being a small, very constrained -- very small batteries device or a big earphone in terms of how we connect to the phones. And that is really exciting to us because that, first of all, means that the adoption of this will not have to be pulled by hearing aids. It's not something where we have to say, okay, hearing aids will be the reason that you implement this. Now hearing aids is one of the reasons. The other reasons are all the great new features that is delivered by the standard. And secondly, it -- so this pickup of this will be very fast. And secondly, it also means that we can go out and provide a great experience across all our products and don't have to explain that with this phone, you can do this, and with that phone, you can do the other thing. We are very active in this work, and we are very looking forward to show you more on this. But due to the NDAs we have, we can't really talk too much more about that today. Then I would like to talk about the data. As we said, we started in 2017 with the teleaudiology solution we rolled out. In that was also a program where we go out with user consent and ask them, can we borrow your usage data? So every 24 hours for people who have signed up for this, we will get a log from the hearing instrument, how long had this been on, which sound environments have you been in, how have you used the programs, how have you adjusted the volume and a lot of other data that you can collect as telemetry from the hearing aids. And today, we have around 36 million data records from around 1.5 million users that we have collected in this program. And we're able to take a lot of learnings from that data, both on how the devices are faring in the field but also who are our users actually and how are they behaving. So we're able to say, for example, that we have around 2/3 in our database today with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. That's, of course, important for us to know when we design a device like Jabra Enhance Plus or when we talk M&RIE, where these are in the target group. But we also have a third -- with a severe hearing loss that needs more than what we can deliver with these solutions, and therefore, it's still important for us to do our BTEs and our ITE products. We can also look at satisfaction in an objective way, and we write M&RIE satisfaction after second business is 90%. And how do we get to that number? Well, we look at the people who were fitted with M&RIE at the first visit. And then we look at their return visits after typically 30 days. And then we say, okay, there's basically 3 options here. Either they will return their device or they will switch to a different type of receiver because M&RIE was not for them or they will stay with M&RIE. And more than 90% stay with M&RIE, and that's a really huge number. The people who get M&RIE are very, very satisfied. Eric up there is not alone in that. We're also using this to get, you could say, the data rights and rightsizing our devices. When we talk about miniaturization and custom devices and rechargeability, there is an inherent conflict because you want your custom devices to be as small as possible. And the biggest component we have in our customer device is the battery. On the other hand, you also want a battery that can last through a full day, of course. So what we have used is to go and look at this data and look at the prospect users of our custom devices and say, what is the day of that user, both in terms of environment and use, but also in terms of how long do they use it. So we know our average user is around 14 hours, at the 19 percentile this curve is fairly steep. The 19 percentile is 16 hours. So that allows us to then rightsize the battery and make sure that we don't over-engineer our products and make them too big to just to be able to brag about a very big lifetime here. There's a lot of other insights we can get from this. And we have actually, and I'll get back to 2 more examples on how we have used this a little more except a little later in the presentation. And then let me just touch a little bit more again on Jabra Enhance Plus because that is a device that is really different. We say it's a hearing first earpod, right? And what does that mean? Well, I saw some commentary on the net, well, that probably means they have a bit of amplification and then everything is good. And that's very important for us to say that is not what it's about. It's about people who, over the last 10 years, maybe have experienced that the restaurants are getting louder. It's getting harder to hear what is going on because all these young people, they are, of course, very, very loud when they sit in the restaurants, like me. The real thing is that it's not the restaurants getting louder. It's about you hearing worse. And it's about getting a hidden hearing loss that really can't be measured but where you lose the ability to discriminate speech and noise. And that's a very known effect. And the way we treat that is by these speech-enhancing algorithms and technologies that we have from the hearing aid world. So yes, there is gain in this. And yes, you fit this to your normal hearing profile. But it is, first and foremost, about being able to hear better noise. And that is the situational use that we talk about when we say situational use for this device. Then it has been very important for us that this is small and discrete when it is worn. And that's because if you look at airports, for example, when you run around with those in the ears, they do not screen, please come and talk to me, right? They sort of signal, yes, I'm listening to music, so please don't bother me right now. So it has been important for us that even though this is an earbud style that it -- when you wear it and have it in the ears, it sits flush so that you can't really see that you're wearing it when you sit in front of a person because then you don't get this blockage of saying, yes, you're wearing something in your ear, so you don't want to talk to me. And then Gitte also touched upon this market access here. This is sold in the U.S. under the self-fit regulation that Bose pioneered. And we're actually proud to be #2 in a category that was basically defined by one of our competitors. And this is the way we can put that device to market today. Of course, this was made also for the OTC. So we are really looking forward to see that market open up and be able to sell this in more channels like we are in Japan today. So that is just how you should think about what we are doing with Jabra Enhance Plus here. We are not trying to make a cheap hearing aid. We are trying to make a device that actually help people who do not want a hearing aid today, who are in this group that it's not time yet. It's not for me, which is really another way of saying, yes, the hassle with a real hearing aid is really not worth the benefit that I get yet. Then a little bit back to what we will be doing in the coming time here. And that will be driven very much by an effort in AI that we already have. First and foremost, in our sound processing, that is something that everybody is looking into in the industry, and so are we. We are not ready to share yet exactly what we'll be doing there. But trust me, there will be great benefits coming out here. We can talk a little bit more about what we are doing with the big data AI that we are running on our data flow because some of it is actually in products today. The audiometry that is put into Jabra Enhance Plus is actually built on models of the hearing losses that we have in our data from the customers that we see taking up this usage. And that allows us to build models that based on a few data points we get us input, actually, can get very close to what is the average hearing profile, and that allows us to do the setup procedure much faster and much more smooth than you would actually go through normally in this. And this is also a technology that we hope that we can bring into other parts of our fitting. The other thing is a model of -- as I mentioned with M&RIE, we actually have a journey, is anonymized, but we can see users in our data, what are they doing. And some of the things that we can also see is an indication of what happens before people return their device and start to make predictions on. Those users can be actually identify those before problems with the hearing aid get so grave that they decide at that 30-day follow-up visit to say this is not for me. There is a lot of returns that simply comes because people find this too bothersome. And many times, a small things like it was the wrong tubelink that was chosen or the sound is too sharp or other things that can actually be remedied by a visit to the dispenser. But by the time they get around to that, it has been so long that they are simply too tired of it and more or less throw the device at the dispenser and leave again. If we can identify those and let the dispenser make a call to them and say we can see that you may need a little bit of counseling on this, then we can actually keep the hearing aids where they belong and help mainly on the ears of customers. And that's another thing that we are looking at with this data. And then last but not least, the form factor, and you can then ask, okay, what does that have to do with AI. Today the engineering process in this and miniaturization of antennas, for example, we also touched about that in a previous session, actually means that it's a co-design between machine learning models we have built to actually optimize these items and then the engineer designing this. So there's a lot of internal know-how and tools built up to help us actually get to these very small designs that actually work. It is -- I think that it's a testament also on the audio side. It is really not easy to get a signal from inside the ear over here to a phone that is in the pocket over here, especially not on somebody like me, where there's a lot of things in between. So building a device that can do that, that's where we use these data models to do this. And that's why we will take the direction of the future. But it's important for me to say we do this because there is a need with our customers. We are not creating better speech and noise just because we want to show some numbers. We're doing that because it makes an actual difference to the end users. And that goes into everything we do. And that's what we mean when we say the organic hearing philosophy is built into R&D. It's built into the long-term strategies we have for how to approach these things over the next 5 to 10 years. So with that, I will hand it over to Gitte again.

Thank you, Brian. I think like you also said, the data on M&RIE, they are really and truly remarkable, that we are actually able to document that you can restore hearing capabilities in your brain, that is pretty impressive. So yes. Good. Thanks. Brian will be back and answer potential questions after we've had the next session, which is actually on the U.S. market opportunities. And in that session, we will be joined by Scott Davis. I don't know if we're going to see Scott up here. I hope, yes. Hi, Scott. So Scott is our Head of North America. He joined GN in 2019. And prior to that, Scott has been Head of North America and Head of Global Marketing for Sivantos, for Siemens Audiology. And he's also an experience as senior partner in BCG. So Scott, I think the U.S. market is in good hands with you, and I want to hand over to you.

Thanks, Gitte. It's a pleasure to be able to join you guys today. And sorry, I couldn't be there live and in person, but I have quite a bit of travel next week and just couldn't risk on the side of COVID. And I also think it's in the spirit of what Peter was saying earlier about our sustainability efforts. I get a unique opportunity today because I really get to bring the strategy to life that Gitte and everyone has been able to share today. And I thought as we started out that maybe I would begin with -- we're looking at the baseline and kind of setting a baseline for everybody about the U.S. market. So I think similar to what Gitte talked about with the global marketplace, hearing is very stable, growing, resilient market within the U.S. And I think there are probably 3 big questions that I often get asked. One is, Scott, is there a pent-up demand associated with COVID still within the U.S. I think last March, as seniors got vaccinated, we saw that increase within the marketplace, and we saw that trend continue throughout 2021. And at the beginning of the year, in January, we had a slight dip as the Omicron variant was at its peak in the U.S. We saw it start to come back in February, and I think the market is continuing to do well in March. Second question I can ask is, look, in the VA, Scott, is there still pent-up demand there. And I actually think the VA has done a very good job about managing demand over the course of COVID. And the VA has been able to leverage its CBOC locations. Those are Community-Based Outpatient Clinics, being able to use remote technology more and also the choice program where they've been able to use independent audiologists to help meet demand. So I think the VA has actually done fairly well over the last year. And then I think the third thing is around OTC, are patients waiting for the OTC legislation to come. And I do think that customers are asking their hearing care professional about OTC. But I think that the professionals are asking, well, why are you here today and able to help move people along their journey. And so I don't think there's a lot of pent-up demand within the traditional space for OTC. I also think patients for a long time have been buying PSAPs in the U.S. And that's probably 0.5 million to 1 million devices within that space. So I still think that consumers have that option. I think when OTC comes, most of those devices will move into the OTC category. And I also think what we're seeing now is it's younger people and people earlier in their journey are looking for a different solution that are going to be able to enter the market because of OTC. So when we think about the market and about the -- where are units sold, this is how we think about the U.S. And it's really across 6 main channels. And we've organized these from left to right by size, and then from top to bottom as well. And those 6 segments are independent hearing care professionals, franchise, dealerships and manufactured-owned retail, managed care, government which includes the VA, big-box retailers and then the online digital space. And I think across the bottom, we put the indicative market share within each of these. And I think it's something that you all know, but it's worth to see in the data is that the independent space is the biggest by far. It's 2.5x any of the other channels. And I think as you start to think about within that next category of franchise dealership and manufactured-owned, those top 3 have contracts that range from 5 to 15 years within each of those. And so some of those are in play every year. And when I think you think about the bottom 3, where it's more manufactured-owned retail, a lot of those acquisitions have owners that have a noncompete for a year to 2 years. And then after that, many of them are willing to go back to work. And so there's a portion of those that are also within play every year. And all of those managed care units are actually being distributed through these other 2 channels. And so when you look at that, it's 60% to 70% of the marketplace, and that's really the must-win areas that we have to do within the U.S. And so I want to talk a bit more about some of our strategies around that and some of the things that we've been developing and deploying over the last couple of years. When we look at VA and government, I think that's probably one thing that really stands out, and that's that VA is flat. And when we compare 2019 to 2021, the VA only grew by 300 units, 300 units out of 800,000. And I think there's a few things associated with that. One is the VA demographics are changing. The number of vets that are actually being served. And then it's also that as active baby boomers are entering the other channels, those channels are growing faster than what we see within the VA. As we think about the big box retailers, Costco has a very big focus now on growing units. And part of that strategy is about how can they do more repeat business. Costco's business in the past has been very focused on first-time users. And I think as they now have hearing care centers in all of the warehouses in the U.S. it's much more about how can they get more units and the way they're driving the more units is basically about getting repeat customers within. And then in the online and digital space, it's super small. But as Gitte and Morten talked about earlier, it's also growing really, really fast. And I see the online and digital space really playing a role and really helping us to sort of enable what's part of the core business, really helping us within the independent and within this franchise and dealership area. And I think it's because patients are able to start their journey and continue their journey wherever that they want that to occur. And I think it's the same that we see within omnichannels overall and consumer trends about being able to buy online or pick up in store or where you click and collect. And I think COVID helped accelerate that as we all know. And I think now we have a really great opportunity with Lively and Jabra to help accelerate that. And so as I start to think about within our core business, what are our real main focus areas. And Gitte and Brian both heard about the research that we did as we defined how HCPs think about their preferred brands. And I think one of the interesting things about this as well is it's also about the shape of the triangle for the different channels. And as -- I'm going to start on the right-hand side with Costco and VA. And as we think about those 2, it's a much wider base, I would say, for those 2 channels. They are very, very product driven. And I think there's 2 things that really drive that. One is they want the best for that, so the best for the members at Costco. And then number 2 is about productivity. There are huge requirements and pressures on the HCPs in both of these channels to be able to very quickly be able to serve the people. And I think when you think about it in the VA, the VAs have a lot of pressure over the last few years, both from Congress and from advocacy groups about decreasing wait times and making sure that they can really serve the veteran population. And I think from an HCP perspective, they would like to spend less time programming and more time actually doing counseling and working with the veterans to get the most out of their hearing health care. And that's led to some challenges for us over the last year. I mean you know the results, and we're not happy with those results within the VA. And we released really new technology. And that technology really requires for you to be able to have this listening demonstration. And if you think about what Eric Jackson was talking about, all of these sounds that he could hear and what Brian was saying about the localization and special awareness, those are really super important. And we have had, for many years, a clinical listening experience, where we're able to set up a demonstration whenever we do our trainings to really showcase how our technology works. And we tried to do that in a virtual environment, but it was really difficult for us to do. So one is just being able to demonstrate that technology; and two is being able to work -- or being able to showcase the workflow and how to actually program. Reason number one, it took more time doing it virtually than being able to do it in-person. And then I think as we talked about in the Q&A session, the other thing that is really important with these 2 channels and about having the best technology is having this launch cadence. And that launch cadence helps so much because it keeps your platform new and fresh as you're bringing these new form factors to market. And so what's really exciting as we enter into 2022 is starting March 1, our field trainers are able to go into VA clinics. So we have been able to move our virtual sessions into in-person visits now. And so really being able to showcase this technology. We started with hands-free that Brian talked about. Next month, we have submitted for VA our rechargeable BTEs. So in April, we'll begin training on those. That will then go on contract in May. And then we have the big fall refresh and also with custom rechargeable, which we've seen is a very big and growing category within the VA. Costco is going to follow that same sequence of product rollout. And I think the other things that we're doing is really focusing on simplifying within our fitting software and making that workflow really, really smooth for our hearing care professionals. We've also done some other simpler things that are really, really important as well. We've consolidated our packaging. So no longer do you have 3 different boxes that you need to find. Just some really easy things that make it quicker and faster and easier to do business with us. And the launch of Jabra Enhance [ Pro ] within Costco, it's now a brand that consumers know and they can spend less time talking about who ReSound is and it's something that the members know automatically. The other thing is we still have all of our same team in place. This is the same team that has driven quite a bit of share within both of these channels. And they are really excited to go to work now that they have the tools in their toolbox. And so as we move to the left-hand side and thinking about the independent franchise dealership and managed care segment, I'd say the shape of that triangle is much taller and product is still really important. And part of that importance is like what was brought up during the Q&A, it helps us with our mix, it helps drive our price increase. And so product is very important within those. But the services and the relationships also become really, really important within that segment, too. And so I want to spend some time now talking about some of the things that we're doing to actually to build that. And Gitte talked about the core business and our emerging business. And for me, these 2 aren't mutually exclusive. I mean they're really interconnected. And I think the emerging is helping to fuel with new patients, earlier patients within their journey, but also over time, building this ecosystem. So if someone may start with a no-touch model, over time, they're able to move into this high-touch area. So 4 things that I want to share. Number 1 is going to be ReSound Accelerate, which is our engagement platform, but it's really about building a network. Number 2 is Beltone right beside you. It's a new value proposition that we launched within Beltone for our network owners, HCPs and patients. Three, I want to spend some time on Lively and talking about bringing the power of Lively to our HCPs with this in-clinic experience. And then finally, I want to touch on the Jabra Enhance Plus and what this means being able to launch under self-fit and having this helping hand for patients. So ReSound Accelerate, what makes this different? And for me, it's so much more than a loyalty program. It's really more about engagement with our customers. And one of the first things we did is spend a lot of time talking with our HCPs about what would they be looking for in a program. And I think the big finding for us is that it's about scale for them. And what I mean by that is, as an independent HCP, they are spending a lot of time managing their office and doing different things. And I think the second thing for them with scale is that they are -- just their purchasing power and what they're able to negotiate around that. So we have built within the Accelerate program a marketplace. And it's a one-stop shop where you can go and explore, find out more information, you can order, you can also pay either with your points or with cash, everything from your clinical supplies, office supplies, equipment you may need, any type of marketing, web design, but it even goes into insurance, retirement funds, we looked at every single thing that an owner can possibly need and put it within this marketplace. And the second thing that we did is by making that really simple, we also wanted to make it simple to understand how the program actually works. And so everything is just based on revenue. So every dollar counts for whatever you may do with GN. And the program also comes with all those things that you would expect, all those perks with priority calls, priority shipping, early access to product. But really, for me, why is this so important is that, over time, and by using the marketplace, we're able to create some consistency that's going to give us standards and give us something that's scalable. And as you think about as an independent hearing care professional, this now gives you a platform to compete within a consolidating marketplace. And I think that's really important and what will be the most important thing as we move forward with Accelerate. And so how is the program done during its first year? So I'm going to start on the bottom left. 50% of our revenue in 2021 came from members of the program. And of that group, when we compare their sales with ReSound in 2019 versus 2021, we've seen a 30% increase. We also saw within the same groups in 2021 that we had a 15% higher ASP within those. And of these customers, 80% of them are now ordering consistently month-to-month. So I think the program has really done what we've asked it to do, and it's going to give us now a platform as we move forward. And we think about this platform, I want to make it even more real with Beltone now. When I first starting with GN, the Board asked that I turn around Beltone. That was job #1. And it was also one of the reasons that I joined GN. Beltone is one of the top 2 most recognized hearing aid brands in the U.S. It has a great group of network owners, many of whom I have known. And so we replaced the team at Beltone, brought on people that have a lot of industry experience. And I'm really proud of what this team has been able to accomplish. And it all started with the Beltone value proposition and what we wanted to do. And the most critical part of that was building an infrastructure. And this is the infrastructure across 1,500 locations, over 130 different owners that we all had to agree on what this would be. And let me just bring that to life about what we've been able to do because we've built this confident infrastructure now. So if you see a rendering -- a mobile rendering of Beltone's website here. So just across the top, you're able to take an online hearing test. But moving from that hearing test, you can automatically book an appointment, all within, in real time being updated. But once you enter your information, you're now part of our marketing automation engine. And so you get automated, the things you would expect, automated text message and e-mail reminders about your upcoming appointments, what to expect when you're there, doing it with really a local flavor to it. But also, we were able to launch a Great Start program, which once you have your hearing aid, it's a 4-week program for acclimatization, where we saw a 20% reduction within our return rate. And we did this in collaboration with Audigy. And so this same platform deployed really differently is now available to our Audigy customers as well. And when you think about Accelerate in the future and as we get people on a common platform, we'll be able to deploy this as well within that group. There are other simple things like text messaging and chat now, if you think about for the hearing impaired that's really critical. So we built a call center. And that call center has also helped us with increasing our conversion rate from calls to appointments, but also ensuring that people show up for their appointments. We have new branding within Beltone. We really want to push that Beltone is about care and you can go to any other 1,500 locations across the U.S. and receive care from Beltone. We also started working with other brands that are known with business segment to help elevate the Beltone brand even more. So Clorox is here, which is a Safe & Sound campaign during COVID-19. And then I think if you think about, now that we've built this, how do we get more people there, and once they're there, how do we actually increase our conversion within it. And so we launched the Elevate program, which is all about working with our owners to develop marketing plans, to ensure that they have operational excellence throughout what they do and very clear targets and KPIs within. And so as a result of these efforts, Beltone has had a double-digit growth within the number of units that they have sold. We've also seen a significant increase, 20%, within our productivity within each of our locations based on what we've been able to do with Elevate. The other thing, we've increased our new owners. So part of Beltone had a lot of owners who were thinking about retiring or working part time. But we were able to transition those now to owners who are very engaged and wanting to grow the business. As we transition corporate retail, we move those to new owners as well that have really been able to drive the business from a local perspective. And with all of this, Gitte talked about the high NPS scores within Lively. But Beltone has seen the same, consistently over 60%. And if you think of some of the best brands in the world, hitting that 50% mark is really great result. So we're very proud of where Beltone has been. And as we start thinking about the emerging spaces, Lively has had a really good start to the year. And we've launched new products across -- we've expanded to 3 categories now from 2. And at the beginning of March, I think it was one of the questions in Q&A, we've actually increased the price. And so now there's a new offering at $2,000. So we've moved from the $1,600 to the $2,000 mark. The other thing we've also done with Lively is we've simplified it for the end user, in that we've launched a new app, and it is the first time that we've taken GN's app and integrated it in. So now the same place you go for all the care within Lively, you can also go to have control of your hearing instruments. And we've added a host of new features that puts more control in the hands of the end user. But I think one of the really big and important things with Lively is about the 2/3 of the people who come to Lively and are looking for an in-clinic experience. And when we think about those 2 groups, there's a severe to profound loss where they really need an in-clinic experience and Lively doesn't have an offering for them. And so in the near term, we're going to be rolling out a connection between Lively and our ReSound Accelerate and our Beltone network. And then we're also working on the other 92% who are looking for an in-clinic experience for a host of reasons. Maybe they're not comfortable with remote technology. Maybe they have a special questions that they want to have addressed in person, maybe it's dexterity issues. But we have a pilot program that we're going to be launching in the next couple of months because it's also very important how this user journey occurs, and we need to make sure that it is really simple and seamless for them. And I think similar to Lively is with the launch of Jabra Enhance Plus, we've done this exclusively within our licensed hearing care professionals under the self-fitting regulation, as Brian mentioned. And I think it's been really amazing and surpassed our initial expectation, but we had 2,000 clinics that have registered to become Jabra-certified enhance centers. And there's a commitment associated with that. We have a series of courses that you need to go through. We have guidelines that you sign up to be a part of it. But why are hearing care professionals wanting to be part of this? I mean, one, they recognize that they can -- the potential to have people earlier in the journey. And I think a lot of people want to understand how am I going to incorporate OTC into my practice, how am I going to communicate about that, when do I actually offer it to patients. And they also want to be seen as a leader. They want to have the latest technology within their local marketplace. And I think this is really important because it goes to show really our commitment to the independent hearing care professionals. But it's also, I think, that end users want to know that there's a place that they can go to have this assistance and this help, should they need it. And so we -- after we had FDA clearance, we actually conducted a pilot. And so from this pilot program, we've had our first round of follow-up appointments within our hearing care professionals. And so we -- this data is new. I think it was Friday that the information was submitted. And it's really going to show that the unmet needs or the expectations that we had really are being met within the space. And I think from the hearing care professional side, it was about, is this going to be accretive to their business? Is it going to be additive for them? And I think as you sort of read those quotes across, you have people that didn't want to discuss hearing aids. They hadn't decided what they wanted or just too early with it, are trying to get earlier within their journey. And I think from the end user perspective, they are happy because they were not looking for a traditional form factor or a traditional device. And they wanted something that was going to help them within these occasional sort of use areas. And so I think that we've really done a great job about meeting these unmet needs within these patients. And so maybe in summary, as we think about the U.S. market, I think it's continuing to grow. It's stable, resilient. I think that as Brian shared, with technology, we have really strong road map as we look at 2022 and going into 2023, where we can especially meet those needs within the VA and within Costco. And I think that we have lots of plans in place between our ReSound and Beltone with now a platform that we're going to be able to leverage and complement that within this emerging segment, both with Lively and with Jabra. And so with that, Gitte and Henriette, I'll turn it over to you for any Q&A.

Yes. Thank you very much, Scott. And as I can see a lot of hands here, we are ready for the next Q&A session. And I think this time, we will start with David.

David Adlington, JPMorgan. Two questions, please. Just on Enhance Plus and the price point, the $799, I think, just wondered, any feedback on that price point? Any additional volume or how much additional volume you could -- you think you could drive with a lower price point? And then secondly, just on ReSound Accelerate. Do you charge for that service for being a member? Why have you only got 50% of customers signed up? What are the barriers to that being higher?

So Scott, do you want to comment on that?

Yes. So I'll take the first one on Jabra Enhance Plus first. No, we actually haven't had pushback from the HCPs with the $799 price point. You remember Bose had launched at basically around the $800, $850 price point. So I think that set the bar and the expectation level within. And then our HCPs are also charging for their services on top. And so that is up to them, whether they want to do within the self-fitting or not. So I would say we haven't had pushback on the $799 price point. And I also think when you start to compare the technology from a consumer standpoint too, we put a lot of technology in this device as what Brian talked about. And I think it's a signal also to the consumers about the quality of the product as well and things they might have been experiencing in the past with similar PSAP type devices. And on the second part, with Accelerate, as a lot of things in life, it sort of depends. And so what we've been able to do with Accelerate is we've created a very structured approach now to discounting. So instead of other discounts that might have been applied, we've been able to shift that and now put it into certain services that we're able to offer. And then there are other services that we actually charge for, and then that actually depends on what the service is of what that looks like. And I think the last part of the question around 50%, like how do you increase that even more. From my prior experience with loyalty program, I am super excited that we've been able to get to 50% over the first year. That's actually a really good result. I would say the second part of that is, within this category, we also have, for example, hospital systems. And so many hospital systems won't participate in programs such as this. So I think it also depends -- we will never reach 100% penetration within this category. But I would love to see us grow another 10% or 15% with them.

Let's move to Maja next.

I'll stick to one this time. I'm just wondering on the Jabra Enhance product, now you're selling through health care professionals, but you've also talked about the opportunity selling at Best Buy and other channels. Have you already raised that plan with the health care professionals -- hearing care professionals? And do you anticipate that there is going to be a backlash from this?

Do you want to comment?

Yes, no problem, Gitte. So we've been very transparent throughout the entire process with our HCP customers. And this is about giving them a head start, and that's our commitment to them is that under the self-fitting guideline and with state requirements, it needs to be sold from them within our opinion. So we're giving them a head start now to market within their local communities, to position themselves really well, and also to think about how it's going to fit within their practice. And we've talked about once OTC hits that, that these products are going to be available in a whole host of other channels, like you mentioned with Best Buy or Amazon or Costco or Walmart. So it gives them a chance to think about how they're going to integrate this and compete within the marketplace.

I think Maja just had a follow-up question. So let's just take that and then we move to Christian.

Sorry, are you -- just because you discussed about Lively, were you offered in-person consultation with some Lively customers? Are you also considering to make the link between Best Buy customer and the your professionals that are selling these products to say, like, okay, in case you have a problem like maybe online, you can go and see this professional? Or is there any plan?

You okay if I take that, Gitte?

Yes, absolutely.

Yes. So as we think about our certified Jabra Enhance Plus centers, part of that is exactly that. So if you need some additional handholding or if you need questions, we have a locator on the Jabra site. And in the future, if you were to buy this at Best Buy or anywhere else, then you are free to go to those clinics and ask questions and to get some additional help if you need it. And I think for me, what's really important about that is that's part of building this ecosystem within GN. And if you think about it, that device might not have been right for that person. And now the hearing care professional can start to have that conversation with them and to help move them throughout their journey. And so maybe they start with the Jabra Enhance Plus. But at some point in the future, now they know where they can go as their hearing loss progresses, but once they're ready to take that next step.

Thank you, Scott. Let's move to question.

I have two somewhat related questions. The first is for you, Scott. Can you talk about why you believe the franchise model is the right one for Beltone? It seems like it's somewhat in the opposite direction of where the rest of the industry is moving with instead having direct control over their retail assets. And somewhat related to this, as I understand, the Lively acquisition, that is in part a lead generation model. you talk about these 2/3 of customers or leads coming in, potentially wanting to have a physical interaction as well. How do you ensure that you capture the value best in those patients when you don't have, say, the full control in the retail business? And then a third tag-on question, if we compare the ReSound Accelerate program and your Beltone franchisee network, what does the sort of profitability look like between the 2? Is one of them clearly more advantageous than the other? Or are they similar?

Maybe I'll take the first 2. I'll let you take the last one.

Yes.

Okay. So on -- so the first thing is just to be clear, Beltone is a dealership network and not a franchise network. So I just want to be clear on the difference between that. And I think one of the things for me and my experience has been that hearing aid is very much a locally-driven business. And it's very important, having a presence within your community, knowing where to market, how to market and that one-to-one relationship. And I think in the U.S., I very much found that local ownership is better than corporate ownership. And I think we've seen that within the corporate-owned stores we've had. And as we've transitioned every single one of those, we've seen an increase within the business whenever it goes to a local owner. So I think, for us, I think it's very -- that local ownership is really, really important. And I think the managers and the owners having that financial incentive to really drive the business forward is really, really important. So I want to grow that and expand that dealership network as a result. I think on the second question with lead generation, we have had several meetings now over the last couple of months between our ReSound Accelerate Advisory Board members and our top Beltone owners with Lively. And we have now defined what a pilot program is going to look like. And some of the things that you mentioned are all part of the conversations that we have within those. And maybe I don't go too much other now because we're going to be testing several different things because it's very important that the user has a very seamless experience, and so that this is very easy for them to do. And so I think over the midterm, we'll be sharing more what the results of those pilots are and what that program looks like once we see what the end users are looking for within it.

And maybe then let me get back to the profitability question you asked. Look, I don't want to go into details on ReSound franchise -- ReSound compared to Beltone in the U.S. but I do want to say that the U.S. market is obviously very important to us in terms of profitability. I mean, price levels in the U.S. are higher than they are in the rest of the world. So both the Beltone network and also ReSound in U.S. is clearly adding to our profitability.

Let's go to Oliver.

Oliver Metzger of ODDO BHF. Two questions. The first 1 is your -- on your improvement in Beltone productivity or sales. So you mentioned you had some programs. Also, you had some new ownerships. So would you say that the increase was related of bringing up, let's say, change in 20% of the ownerships translated to huge gains and the programs just contributed a little or was it more a broad-based improvement you saw? The second question is on ReSound Accelerate. So you mentioned was that you claim to have a leading approach in the industry. So given your experience, what's your view, how long such a competitive edge might last or how much time does it take for competitors to catch up?

Yes. So I think [indiscernible] Beltone, Elevate is viewed within Beltone as being super, super important from an owner's perspective. And part of what that program does is we're able to go in and -- I mean, one, we mystery shop; two, we're able to go in, and we start taking metrics, and we're able to compare those metrics against our benchmarks across the Beltone Network about what's the best in practice. And then we're able to identify is it training that's needed for the front office staff or within an HCP, is it marketing pool, is it the type of marketing you're doing, is it your right marketing mix. There's a whole host of things that we're able to evaluate and measure and then determine what it is that's the right next step in order to drive that productivity. And I think where the new ownership gets really, really important is those new owners are very receptive and open and want that level of feedback and that degree of collaboration. So it's actually created this really great win-win environment for us both to be able to do that. And I also think one of the things that's really special and unique about Beltone is that Beltone owners don't compete with each other. So they are in defined geographies. And as a result of that, Beltone owners are very much about sharing best practices, about working together and about elevating the entire network. And so I also think within those new owners, they've been able to bring in some outside ideas and some fresh perspectives, too. And then we're able to leverage that and share it across, and that's what the Elevate team is able to do is to take some of that and pepper it within different parts of the organization. And to the second question on Accelerate, it has taken us -- one is -- we've hired a team of people who really know this industry and know how to build engagement programs within it. So one is, I think, that's an advantage that we have. I also think that the infrastructure and the technology to pull all of these different sources together, that's taken us a couple of years. And we're still not where we want to be. There's still more that we're going to do, but it takes quite a bit of time to get that in place and to really be able to build it. And I think 1 of the things that we also had as an advantage is Audigy had the beginnings of this infrastructure, and we've been able to leverage Audigy now as a bit of a center of excellence to help accelerate for this program for us as we started to develop it.

Thank you, Scott. And actually I think we have a question online now?

Yes. I think we have a question from the queue, Julien from Exane. If you can unmute and show us your pretty face, then we have you on the screen here as well. I guess.

So 2 very quick ones for you, Scott. First of all, have you heard about Bose maybe walking down and closing its hearing aids business, I mean, even before the start of the OTC regulation implementation, et cetera? So any thoughts here will be super helpful. And second question, still on OTC and kind on the Jabra Enhance Plus, it seems that you charge $200 for service with the device within Beltone. So first of all, is it mandatory for the customers? And do you think that this is, let's say, the ideal long-term business model for OTC? I mean, do you think competition will follow with similar offer, et cetera?

Thank you, Julien. I don't know, Gitte, do you want to comment first?

Yes. Maybe just a comment on Bose. I mean, normally, we don't comment on our competitors. And I think that is still good practice. So maybe you want to ask Bose what they are thinking about their business. And do you want to comment on the next one, Scott?

Sure, Gitte. So, yes, within Beltone, there's a $199 service fee that's basically for the provider's time in order to do the hearing assessment and the hearing test and all the different -- there are different tests that may be required depending up on the state. So that ensures that everything is done. And we actually have a statement on that with on -- if you go to shop.beltone.com, you'll see that listed and also about that that's a requirement that we need to do. And I think that we've left it up to each of the HCPs about what that service price would be. Beltone and all the network owners came together and decided that was what they felt would be appropriate. And so that's where they've set the price within the marketplace. I think when OTC comes, the requirement of the OTC regulation is that you need to be able to self-diagnose, self-fit -- or self-test and self-fit without the need for the intervention of a hearing care professional. And I think that's still going to be the case once we see the final regulation, but it doesn't exclude from being able to offer services if you want to do that. You just need to be able to buy the device and be able to meet those 3 requirements. And so I do think that a lot of hearing care professionals now, and this goes a little bit to unbundling within the marketplace and for professionals to start thinking about this unbundling -- as when I mentioned about giving them some time to see how OTC would integrate into their practice. And so, yes, I see people being able to charge for their services in the future as they offer just a pure OTC device.

Thank you, Scott. I think we -- let's just take 1 final question from Veronika. Then we need to close up the session.

And my questions are also for Scott. The first one is just -- it's Veronika from Goldman. The first 1 is just, Scott, obviously, you've come from a business that is an owner of what is technically the biggest online player in the U.S. market. And I just love your thoughts now that you have Lively under the belt, how do you think the 2 platforms compare? And inherently -- I'm sure you're going to say Lively is, of course, the best asset out there, but I'd love to maybe get some pluses and minuses. And then my second question is obviously lot to focus on the VA and Costco for you. What are your share ambitions? What do you think? What's the point? When you think we can start seeing an inflection in that share momentum in those 2 channels? And what is it that you -- is it really about the BTE? Is it about the BTE and the ITE? Is it about new platform? And if you can give us some guidance on those, that would be helpful.

That's great. So, Veronika, I was at Sivantos when we did the acquisition of Audibene, and I worked very closely with that launch in the U.S. So yes, you're right, I know that program really, really well. And it's interesting because the 2 are really different in a lot of ways. Yes, it's online platforms, and it's a place -- a new place for consumers to go and find out information, but why they're so different is the user journey and what that experience is. And I think that hear.com is -- there's a lot of interaction between the staff at hear.com and with the patient. And I think that Lively in the early stages is much more the end-user is empowered, and I think that Lively really tries to empower the end-users for on-demand care. And so you always have access to the audiologist, and -- but you can also do that remotely. And so I think it's just a difference -- hear.com goes a little bit more to the high, high type side that Gitte talks about. And I think that Lively is a little bit more in that lighter touch side of it. And I think that's probably the 2 biggest difference between the models. And then, of course, hear.com -- I think today is still all 100% with sort of buy online and pick up within clinic. And of course, that's different with Lively where they've been able to leverage ReSound's remote capabilities to be able to really create an in-office experience virtually. In the end, I think -- I was trying to remember -- the second question, Veronika, was on expectations between VA and Costco and when do we think we will start to see some changes within that share. I think that...

Obviously, we don't guide specifically on the share in VA. I just want to say that, but you can still comment, Scott.

Yes. Okay. I wasn't going to go there on share, Gitte, but I would -- thanks for stopping me just in case. I think that what we are launching now is a great reason for us to be able to talk about ReSound ONE and to be able to talk about M&RIE again as well. And also, I'm very excited about the fall about what we're going to be able to bring with the new platform, but also within the rechargeable ITEs. And on the Costco side, I'm excited about some of the software improvements that we're going to be launching over the course of the next few months, too, that are going to help within their workflow and productivity.

Thank you very much, Scott. And I think we now have time for a break, and this will conclude the GN Hearing session. We can, of course, come back to questions later again. But we'll have a break, 15 minutes, so 20 minutes 2, we will start again, and we will have GN Audio on stage. Thank you. [Break]

Good. We are back here in the room in Copenhagen. I think we are fresh on coffee and cake and ready to kick off the next session. So CEO, GN Audio, Rene Svendsen-Tune. Go ahead.

Thank you very much, and good afternoon to all of you, both in the room. It's very good to see you here. And of course, also to everyone online, we appreciate you taking the time. It's a challenging date we're living through, so we are very happy to have your attention here. So thanks to my Hearing colleagues. We will now shift to Audio. And we will get out of this and to here. So I have brought some of my colleagues here today. I will spend a little time sort of looking back, setting the scene, talk a little bit about ambition. And then I have Holger Reisinger, who is running our -- what we used to call our office business, now we call it professionals because we are not always in the office anymore. I have Aurangzeb Khan with me to talk about collaboration and video and the ecosystem and to a large extent the technology we bring to this space. And then I have Ehtisham Rabbani. Some of you know him well because he was trying to list the company here called SteelSeries, and now they have joined us instead. We're very happy to have them on board. And I thought it might be good to always look a little bit back before you look forward, and actually, this speaks to the recent 6 years of GN Audio's performance. We have shown a nice top line growth, 24% CAGR over the 6 years and a little bit better bottom line improvement, so 30% CAGR over the recent 6 years. In 2016, we were #2 professional headset vendor in the world, and we were a top 15 consumer stereo product vendor. Today, we are #1 in the professional headset market in the world. We are top 5 true wireless, defines now this stereo consumer business. We are an emerging player, let's call it that. In video and collaboration and with the -- having a SteelSeries join us we have a very well-established position in gaming. And of course, you can say now what, because with that history, of course, we are somehow obliged to find ways to deal with this going forward and see that we can bring corresponding similar growth and profitability through the years to come. And that's what this will be all about. We try to discuss where this growth should come from, from market perspective, trends, and of course, how we will respond and then see how we get there. But I thought before we do that, maybe we talk about -- a little bit about what is on everybody's mind, namely supply, and how do we deal with the volume requirements we have from the market and how can we respond to that. And I thought we started talking just a bit about the model we have created and developed and nurtured over recent years and a model that is very resilient, very scalable and has served us really well. We do the R&D, we do the innovation. We pick the components. We source the components. Then we hand it over to our contract manufacturers. They do the products. And then we outsource a global distribution machine. We have very large suppliers doing that for us, and they can deal with the volume in the field. This has worked beautifully. There is just 1 issue with that is that the silicon components have not been able to follow the volumes we can take out of the market. So we have talked about this a lot, if that was guiding for a negative growth in Q1. Also talking about the year would be a supply-driven year. What we have seen is we saw this massive decline in commitments or sort of the weakening commitments in Q4. We have seen a difficult January and February, little bit better March. The good thing is that now we get what our suppliers are promising us. So they don't promise as much as we want, but we're getting what they say. So, so far, so good. Then a week ago, we had a situation -- COVID situation in China. And of course, that has caused a lot of debate, discussion and hassle around, and I thought the simplest way to talk about this is some red, green and yellow dots here. And just for all of us, for products to come out, we need components, we need manufacturing capacity, and we need logistic capacity. If I start in the middle one, that has not been a problem. We have had all the capacity we needed and actually in excess because we have not cut it back with the lack of components. On logistics side, well, we know about, we hear about it. It's a challenge, it's expensive, but it's manageable. We can get the capacity we need. So that's not the problem. The problem is the component will turn yellow in Q3, red in Q4 and has been red and is red still. We are not getting all we need. So then last week, when the whole thing shut down in Shenzhen in Southern China, then they all turned red. And of course, this is what created a lot of noise around the world. And what happened there was -- of course, nothing happened to components there, it's the same. We get the components we have been looking for all the time, but the factory shut down and logistics shut down. Now we are a week later, factories are to a large extent open, logistics to some extent open. And the way we organized in Southern China is that we have different sites, and some sites are fully operational. We have this concept in China talking about locked campuses where if you're on a locked campus you don't have traffic in and out, so everybody goes back to work. We have some logistics in open campuses, and they are still waiting. So what I'm trying to say with all this is that it locked down for a week completely. It didn't have any impact on the components because it is what it is. It did have impact on manufacturing for a week, but nothing we cannot recover very fast because we have capacity. And it had impact, we couldn't ship products that are already there out of the region, out of China into different parts of the world. We are now, a week later, we are shipping. We are manufacturing again. But -- I think what Peter also said here, it will likely have some impact for the first quarter assuming there is not a big new lockdown coming. If there's a month of lockdown coming in April or May, of course, we have a completely new situation, but that's not what it looks like. If that's the case, we may have some slippage from last week of March into first week of April, that's it. So while this may have an impact for Q1, for the minus 25% we have talked about, it is very unusual we guide for a quarter, but we have done that. It will have no impact for the first half. So I guess that's what I can say about this. It's clear this is with what we know today. I mean, it was quite dramatic. They locked down 18 million people for 50 cases of COVID, but that's the way it was. And it is opening again. And what happens in 2 weeks from now, I don't know. So that's what I wanted to say about that now. And I'm sure there will be probably a few questions on that matter when we get that far. The intention was to calm down the situation a little bit. So then, just like we have a -- built what we think is a very strong supply chain machinery, very scalable thing, we also built over the years a very solid go-to-market machine that we are using for different purposes. And we are not going to sort of talk a lot about that, but I just want to repeat the machine here. So we have a 2-tier model. We have distribution partners around the world, 15, 20 large ones. Behind them, we have resellers who are selling enterprise products into different markets. Some of them are regional, some of them are domestic, some of them are across regional, big and small. We have thousands of those across the world. And then we have our own sales force dealing with large global accounts, so top 500 world accounts. They are selling concepts. They are sort of driving our solutions to these customers, but yet we don't fulfill. So everything is handed back to the channel, and they fulfill whatever these global accounts sell in conjunction with resellers around the world. This is our model. This is a very scalable model. We are not intending to touch it at all. It delivers, you can say, every time we put a new product of enterprise nature into the market the same machine can tackle that. This, of course, gives us leverage. It drives barriers because we have a very solid model that competition cannot just copy-paste. And of course, it gives a lot of loyalty because we bring business to the channel, and they bring business to us. So then to setting the scene and talking about the business going forward. We are looking into a market of around USD 35 billion. Big part of that is consumer, where we have a small piece. But if we take it sort of where we are today you can see we have around $5 billion for classic enterprise business in terms of both audio and video, and we have around $5 billion now for gaming gear with the acquisition of SteelSeries. We have different market shares in different spaces, but we are well and solidly represented in all of them. We are #1, #2 in the enterprise part, we are sort of top 5 true wireless player, as I said, and have a solid position on the gaming gear side as well. Most of these markets are growing to double digit. At the high end of the gaming space, we are growing sort of 7%, 8%, 9%, but also close to 10%. So there is a nice market out there growing with $3.5 billion a year, basically, what we are looking into. So that's, you can say, the market starting point. Then like Gitte spoke about the trends, where do we have a headwind or tailwind, and we think we have a lot of tailwind actually right now. We are starting with the fact that -- we have talked about hybrid work for a long time. Work is something you do, not a place. That has become, of course, even more relevant or way more relevant with -- throughout the COVID period, where we were forced to work from where we were. And once in a while, maybe we could come to the office, maybe we couldn't, but what these systems showed is that actually they were super agile, scalable, and actually within weeks, we all could work where we were. Then what also happened in this period was that where it was not custom 3 years ago when you had a conversation you would switch on the video camera, now you do. So we saw the video communication machinery accelerate dramatically through COVID, and there is no sign that it will somehow turn back. It's here to stay. Then we have talked about this consumerization about enterprise products. People want not only the tool, they want something for the music. They want to look good. It needs comfort, and they want to bring it out in the private sphere if that's needed basically. Then we see that unified communication, the Internet communication is moving beyond the office. We'll talk about that more. We are seeing gaming go mainstream. This is not something for 90-year-old voice in a dark room anymore. This is for grown-up people like ourselves, and it's all over. It's a communication platform. Ehtisham is going to talk a lot more about that. And then finally, of course, the sustainability matter that Peter spoke to actually drives a lot of headwind. Building conference call systems, of course, helps the environment if we can cut out flight traffic across the world. But also we can put a lot of -- do a lot with our products in the way we build the business to drive sustainability. So we can turn this into a tailwind as well. So on that background, sometimes pictures speak more than words. This is our ambition. This is what we want to do. We are an audio mainly leading player in our markets. We want to be an audio and video and gaming gear leading player in this total market. We are just seeing that the markets are there. So it's really all up to us and those who will try to stop us. But we'll do our best. So that's the ambition. And then, how will we do that? Well, in this space, we can see 3 businesses in high-growth markets, namely what we now call professionals, what we call collaboration and video and the gaming space. These are growing markets. If we can take share in these markets, we will grow very nicely. Then we have 2 spaces where the market growth is less, the contact center business and the consumer business, but there's a lot of space to take share in that space. We're not #1. We could start with that, but there is a share gain play. And then the final 1 is what we now call industry solutions. These are what we also call deskless people. They're out of the office. They're doing work on the road or in the field or at least moving around. And a segment, we think, will develop or can develop a market that can be made very nicely in the years to come. Holger, Ehtisham, Aurangzeb will speak to these high-growth paces. So I thought I would say a little bit about this deskless workplace or these industry solutions. So what happens here is a couple of things. One is that we see this virtual communication going places where it was not before. I mean we have seen through this pandemic that universities, they created a truly virtual auditoriums. We were selling in cameras and speakers and so forth. We have seen -- you can visit your practitioner, your doctor remotely, and it will be supported by and, and, and. So we have seen sort of close-to-office cases happen with this technology. We also see now that there's a space. We have been watching people using walkie-talkie for tens of years, right? Now this is getting a bit old-fashioned. You have 4G, you have 5G, you have data connections and so on. So you can build better communication tools than the walkie-talkie can do. You can have the same functionality, but you can do it with better tools today by using mobile phone technology. And then finally, it's not only about personal communication. When these tools are there, there's a lot of data collection you can create. You can monitor in the retail are there any more sort of cans of sugar left. And if the system tells there is nothing, you go and put some more in. So there's a lot of stuff you can do with this IoT kind of thinking, both on personal communication, but also driving data collection and so forth. And then, of course, is it just us who are thinking about this? No, it's not. This is a quote from Microsoft this -- early this year, and they say, here together with our partners we are equipping frontline workers with tools that allow them to stay connected with their team and company, da, da, da. So they're doing this. They're building all the infrastructure to make this happen. And it's up to us or someone else, but we will try to be the ones to go and help them and support them with endpoints. They are not the same necessarily as we bring into an office or into a home, but it's a different endpoint that serves specific purpose in a specific segment, be that hospitality, in the hotels, restaurants and so on and so forth. There's no need for walkie-talkies. They would be -- need much smarter tools tomorrow as an example. So then, of course, the question is how big is this. And the reality is there are 2 billion deskless workers out there. Not everyone will need or will get a tool the day 1, but over time maybe. 8 out of 9 companies have deskless workers. These companies are our customers already. They buy from our resellers. They buy from -- they already have UC structures in their companies, and they just need to move it on to this space. Of course, this is a market to be made. It takes infrastructure like Unified Communications. In many cases, you will need special software, say hotels. They will need software built on using end devices like we could bring to make a meaningful application for that. And others will need other, so new ecosystems will have to be built. It's going to take some time, but the technology is here to be exploited now, basically. So then, of course, what about us? Well, we are already looking into this. So we are working in this space. We are selling headsets to transportation. We are in logistics. We are going to the educational sector. We have been working with health care applications and so forth. We are selling hearing protection gear to defense and security and so forth. So we are doing this, but of course, not in a systematic, very scalable way. And that's basically where we want to go. And we have said earlier also that, well, there's a lot we can do with our own technology. We can do market making with the right partners. Likely we will need M&A to accelerate this, to make it happen faster like we had done when we went to the retail space. Maybe we could have done it ourselves, but it would have taken time, and we did not know whether we would have landed in the right place. So we acquired ourselves into that skill, and now we have it. And we may do exactly the same here if we want to get faster to say hospitality endpoints. Maybe they're out there, and maybe we can buy some technology and then get there with speed. So that's the logic. This is all we're going to say about industry solutions today, but we are strategizing in this. We are investing in this, and this is -- we're very determined to make this a next bigger thing for us. So that's what I had for now. Then I will invite Holger Reisinger. Holger is a Audio veteran. He's been with us for many years. He was instrumental and the key architect between the Evolve product line. This is the best-selling enterprise product portfolio out there ever. And he's going to talk about the professionals. He also runs, I would say, our strategic alliances team and also the global accounts team that we have. Over to you.

Thank you very much, Rene. Warm welcome from my end, good afternoon, also to the people online. I'm glad this time Rene was not calling me the dinosaur in the company. But maybe it's good for you to get a little bit better understanding what we're actually doing in the professional solutions space and in this large enterprise business. I really have the pleasure to lead some very powerful teams within the organization, maybe starting with the global and international accounts organization. It's roughly a team of 100 sales and marketing people. We run them in a virtual setup. So they are reporting into the sales offices we have in the regions. And this team has built a white-glove service for a select set of roughly 300 accounts. So think about the largest banks and insurance firms, think about big automotive, pharma, retail organizations, et cetera. So as Rene said, we are selling in direct, but we have high-touch people sitting with those customers together identifying their needs and pains and translating that into product roadmaps and to things we have developed. So using those insights, activating them actively in our product development. Another part of the team is working with what we call alliances partner. So the large ecosystem vendors, this entails companies including think Microsoft, think Zoom, think Google, think Cisco, Meta, these type of companies. Firstly, they love those insights from more or less the same enterprise businesses they are dealing with. Secondly, they really appreciate that we have our subject matter expertise to make their solutions shine. So jointly, we built something that really excites user and drives these great experiences, those platforms can deliver. And lastly, we have a joint go-to-market because they are selling through major global system integrators and DMRs. It's more or less the same go-to-market network and 2-tier system Rene was talking about we are leveraging. So we have a lot of things in common when we identify opportunities, address customers and position ourselves and the value that we are driving together. So that's what the organization is doing and what I have the pleasure to lead. I'm taking you on a journey now through the next 9 slides, and I'm -- it's a little bit like a history, what we have been on. But the purpose or the perspective I was describing is to really educate a little bit on the enterprise market and more importantly the future opportunity. So let's think back, I mean, we and GN talk about hybrid working, or it wasn't called back in the day, it was called remote working. We call it new ways of working for more than a decade. So what was that? So first and foremost, there was a place called work. So we are going there Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00, and get stuff done. So it has been a location, right? And then there has been a small exclusive number of people who were in a remote work setup. So it was down to a special role or a special position those people were having. But it was an exception, that was not the rule. Suddenly, the pandemic hits, so with lockdowns almost everywhere, people found themselves in the situation to get stuff done any place, any time with the tools that were given to them. So that's ultimately what happened recently at large scale. And there have been businesses adopting this way of working in less than 2 quarters, what some of the big companies, including the big tech I was describing developed over the last decade. So that's why it was possible. So think about ubiquitous Internet access, think about wireless technology, think about these powerful UC platforms, think about cloud. That's why that scale could certainly happen and was in place. So work is now what we do and not a location we are growing anymore. What that means for our categories? It was not just a nice-to-have tool. Some exclusive people needed to get stuff done, it became business critical. It was the main driver why people remain productive no matter where they are. That's the big thing that has happened. So with this great positive impact we have on people's productivity, no surprise that during the pandemic, the market literally exploded. What I brought you here on this slide is on the left-hand side, what we call these personal solutions, so primarily body-worn headsets, audio technology you put in your body. On the right-hand side -- part of the slide, is what we address in the collaboration solution. So think about video and audio collaboration. So this is still very favorable growth numbers we foresee on this much higher base we have accomplished during the pandemic, right? So why is it still growing at such fast pace? I get this question quite often. And the answer on a macro level is very simple. The penetration rate of this technology is still extremely low. So before the pandemic, we saw an attach rate of roughly 17% amongst the workforce of the professional solutions we are providing. Nowadays, it's around 20%. When you look to the collaboration side of the slide here, some of the penetration rates are even much lower than what I was just talking. So that's a fundamental driver out there that will still give us ample opportunity to grow our business. So you saw the chart on the left-hand side here on the slide before. So I want to double-click now a little bit on the underlying micro-drivers. So UC is now available to 98% on a global scale of all professionals. With that availability of UC, adoption of voice and video is picking up. What people now experience is when they are not using professional devices or when they are using what we call wrong devices, consumer-grade tools that they are not able to leverage the powerful UC platforms these vendors are providing to them. At the same time, we have this effect of work from anywhere. So that means there's more location, more places in those locations and more spaces that needs to be outfitted. And last but not least, the requirements of those users are growing. We are used to customized and adjust the tools that are given to us to our needs or we are even making the selection ourselves. So on the back of those trends and needs, we see 3 other main drivers for growth. So firstly, people become more demanding. Our devices become more desired. So there is a strong replacement happening, what's so-called consumer devices into professional tools. These more demanding users, they want wireless freedom. They want multi-connectivity. They want longer battery life. So usually, they are getting more demanding in the quality and the capability of the devices. So price points, average price points of the equipment users are buying is going up. And then organizations who embrace the way of working becoming more attractive for employees, providing them more autonomy and providing more flexibility to the way they work became not only more powerful winning the war for talent, but also more resilient to shaky economics around us. So these are underlying trends. So hybrid work means that people work at least from 2 locations. It's the office, and it's so-called home office. And then many occasions in between. So on the go, other locations, satellite offices, shared spaces, et cetera. So that means there's more people outside the office. And if you want to stay connected and collaborate virtually, you have to outfit more spaces in the organization. You are not meeting them on the corridor anymore. So you need more equipment in the offices to stay in touch with the increasing number of people who are in the field. That's number one. Then the individuals, especially when they are on the go, when they cannot rely on the IT organization, they figure out themselves what's good for them, what enables them to perform their task. Then those workspaces look very different what you have at home, what you have at the office. And office layouts are changing. They are adjusting to people being in a more flexible fashion, breaking out in small teams, needing concentration spaces, et cetera. So the environment is changing. You need multi-connectivity, you need charge for the full day and stuff like this. So what we figured out in our research that those people who were trying to deal with all that with consumer-grade devices, if they get an opportunity to use professional tools. So firstly, it's not many. 6 out of 10 who use professional UC platforms are not having professional tools available. Those who tried those, more than 9 out of 10 stick with a Jabra Evolve type of product, when they saw the performance compared to what they used to use as a consumer or not or experiencing nonuse. So the 2 main barriers for those guys, either my company didn't offer it or I haven't been aware what this category can do for me. So that's, in my eyes, fantastic opportunity moving forward. So Rene spoke about our channel. I want to talk a little bit about our customer base. The customer base is massively diversified. So now it's almost all segments. And you can see 1 thing here that the SME segment has particularly grown. So number one, a more diversified base. Number two, all those segments grow double digit, then SME becoming increasingly important. Why is it happening now? Because as I said earlier, these big companies, the first-movers, the early adopters of technology, they build that infrastructure. Now it becomes affordable and is accessible. It scales also for smaller businesses and also for public sector. So those who have access to that technology and consequently have a need for our products, that base has grown. And the key thing for me is we are growing and taking share in all segments. Rene was talking about the deskless worker opportunity, right? So here, I'm still talking also about still what we call the back office. So there are indeed a lot of front office people. Our high-touch teams are, of course, touching these enterprise accounts and selling our entire portfolio, including what they need in manufacturing or in transportation and logistics or on people having a front office role, but the task we are having here to broaden that access to those opportunities is also to educate the channel who is serving those customers. So they have to carry that message on that we have great solutions for deskless workers as well. So just to make you believe that all this is true and happening, and hybrid working is the reality -- unfortunately, I cannot name those people here, and I can -- I don't want to show the logos of those companies. But just to give you 3 examples, and I hope you can all relate to those use cases. So number one is talking to, yes, we give our people more autonomy, we want them to work more flexibly. So we also have to realize they use multiple devices, and they are probably also willing to attach more devices. So those who use the headset, viz. a smartphone, viz. a PC and are now increasingly in other locations that might not be outfitted bring a personal speakerphone, bring a personal camera. So we are having always the opportunity to sell more than a single device, headset, speakerphone, camera, I count 3. Some of them buy 2 headsets and will leave 1 behind at the office or at home. The second decision-maker here is talking about the fact, yes, we want people back into the office. But wait a minute, what we have experienced in our remote working time is actually the flexibility and the life-work balance. So not all of them are wanting to be commanded back to the office 5 days a week. So there's a lot of people who will stay away, at least 2 days a week working from another location. So this decision-makers talking about that we have to care about all roles in our organization and we have to give them more choice, they can work equally productive and flexible no matter where they are. The last person obviously being somewhat related to contact center business, et cetera, is talking about that the employments are getting more fluid. People have massively changed jobs and roles. They have left the companies who are not offering flexible working, but due to the fact that they enjoy flexible working, they have a tendency to change jobs more frequently. This usually drives a higher amount of replacement rates in the business, what is also a growth driver for us. So let me go a little bit deeper on this SME segment. And now I'm talking really about the S part, so really small firms. So think about little law firms, doctor's offices, I don't know, marketing agencies, consultants. So here, there's no IT department backing those people. It's very often the business owner or the individual making a decision for a product, right? So they are not necessarily looking at fancy IT infrastructure and standardizing the setup and layout. Most likely, they are approaching it from what's good for me as a consumer, what brand do I know, where can I access it, probably online or offline retail. But then they are in touch with professional businesses who have these professional UC platforms. And very often, they are confronted with the situation that they made the wrong choice. So our job now is actually to really make them aware what the difference is between a professional tool and a cheap drilling machine. I mean, try the green and the blue Bosch, if you're into drilling, I don't know. But -- so there are definitely people willing to buy professional devices, but they need to know that they exist, right? So we have to market ourselves, brand ourselves accordingly, and we need to be present where these people are shopping. I think this is a great upside for us. So summing up what I said. We got into this very favorable leading position like Rene described because we do a good job with these ecosystem vendors. They need us. They also want us to be successful because if the endpoint devices are bad, then it creates a bad reputation for the platforms they are building. So we have a symbiosis, you can argue, together. And we are really driving innovation together, and the products we are providing are differentiated because we have these deep insights as industry leaders. So there's a huge opportunity to drive that conversion from non- and wrong use, like I described. And then, yes, we have the ambition. I mean we are selling -- we have millions of devices deployed. We are selling every month millions of devices. So that mind share we are having with those people using these personal solutions, we want to carry over into the infrastructure piece. So when people have preference for personal-owned Jabra devices, they will also have an increasing say about infrastructure, so endpoint devices and meeting rooms, et cetera, the company should choose. And I think that's probably a good handover back to you, Rene, introducing our next speaker. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Holger.

Thank you.

And next speaker will be Aurangzeb. He's also a veteran. He is a Silicon Valley veteran. He is the founder of Altia Systems, which -- who joined the GN family 2, 3 years back.

Three years.

Yes, 3 years ago now. So we were looking around. We decided we want to be in video. We needed the best technology out there. We did our own research, and we also got a quite strong hint from Microsoft to actually talk to this guy. And we did. And here we are, so please?

Thank you. Thank you very much, Rene. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for your time and interest. It's great to be here and also very good to see the folks online on Teams and through the online media. Look forward to a great discussion with you down the road. Collaboration is changing in a very fundamental way. It's an exciting time to be in this space because it has fundamentally evolved from something a few people did to something hundreds of millions of us do every day. And as Rene said, we've been fortunate to be part of high-performance teams driving a number of industry-first products, and that journey continues here. But let me pull back a bit and talk a bit about what's happening in the market around us. Many times, the world changes slowly. But sometimes it changes all at once, overnight. And that's what happened with the pandemic back in March of 2020. Satya Nadella said that around that time, he had seen 2 years of growth in collaboration in just 2 months. And video really took off because people were finding and are continuing to find a human connection through video. It helps us communicate and relate better when we can see and read the body language of the folks we are working with. The numbers are quite staggering. Before COVID, for example, Microsoft Teams had 20 million daily active users. That number is now up to 270 million active users. Zoom, another company we work very closely with, was a 10 million daily active participants, now over 350 million participants. So as Holger said, as Rene alluded to, this is a sea change in how we live, learn, work and play. It affects all aspects of our life, and we believe this will be a sustained change. Because once we have found how well these products and technologies work, provided you have the right products and the right technologies, it's just a great, empowering experience. Especially for knowledge workers and down the road for 2 billion deskless workers, it's just a very powerful way to conduct our lives. This gives you a landscape of the market opportunity that goes with that collaboration, UC service explosion. We are seeing 0.5 billion people needing new products for their personal spaces. We've had webcams around forever. They do a certain job. We have invented a new category of experience with the PanaCast 20 that I'll tell you a bit more about, that simply elevate the experience in very meaningful ways that matter to people who are using it for work or for education. If you look at the small and medium and large meeting rooms, we pioneered the technology to create a multi-camera array system to address the huddle room opportunity. That opportunity is continuing to grow. But if you look at the small, medium and large rooms where these kinds of layouts are deployed, the video penetration has been quite small. It's on the order of 10%, growing to 45% in small rooms, and on the order of 10% growing to more than 20%, 25% in medium and large rooms. So as Holger alluded to, very large opportunity for penetration and growth in building out new rooms and new facilities. There are, of course, opportunities in other spaces also because many verticals, Rene provided the example of Albuquerque, which we're very happy to have served, one of many, many K-12 educational opportunities that came to us that we enabled for tens of thousands of classrooms and students to continue with their education through these challenging times. There are changes happening in public sector with government processes and telemedicine and so many others, all of which will require new workflows. We have an amazing opportunity here to grow our collaboration market segment share and particularly the video-enabled capabilities in that by 2x to 4.5x over the next few years. Now there are many companies that recognize the need for this collaboration change, and we took a particular approach to driving that change. I'll talk a bit more about PanaCast 50 and PanaCast 20, but essentially, we aim those products to help remote workers and people who work at the office as well as people who work at a third place in between, to meet any of our environment. For remote workers, many research studies show, and I'm sure you have your own data, that it's actually worked out very well. The vast majority of people said they have a better work-life balance. None of us miss having to commute. And we use that time, for example, with our families and children. It's been a pretty good way. And with products like the PanaCast 20 or the Jabra PanaCast and Speak, we've had a good array of solutions, certified professional-grade products that allow us to collaborate and work effectively when we are in a remote situation. However, there are studies that showed that remote work alone isn't the answer. Our own team has grown quite a bit. We've doubled -- more than doubled in the last 2.5 years. And we found that when you have social capital with relationships built with people already, people you have worked with, that allows you to interact with a lot of fluidity and a lot of comfort. And many times, new people who joined the team don't have that same level of comfort. They haven't yet built that social capital. So the nature of work changes, the nature of the office changes, what you do at the office changes. You don't need to go to the office to do the routine stuff. Work is not a place you go to. Work is a thing you do. You go to the office to build that social capital and that relationship, all the things that allow you to contribute to strategic thinking, to brainstorm and to propose new ideas with comfort. These requirements, we believe, mean that people will continue to not only work at home, but they will return to the office. We're seeing that. We're seeing many studies support this as well as develop that meet anywhere solution. We did a study ourselves. Through The Harris Poll, we surveyed over 5,000 people around the world in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany and France. And the data was quite clear. The vast majority, 84%, said that they needed solutions which allowed them to be productive in all different kinds of environments. Holger and the team pioneered the idea that when you are in an open-layout space, you need quiet focus spaces, where headphones give you a personal space to work. But we're not expanding that. So many times I'm at home by myself, and I'll be working with a half a dozen, sometimes 50, sometimes 300 people in a big webinar who are literally spread out all over the world. That big display in front of me and my PanaCast 20 and my headset or my Speak are the way in which I communicate with that group. Those are my brand. If those present me well, I look good, I feel comfortable, I'm presenting well. If those look grainy, if my voice sounds tinny, I'm not comfortable. I have cognitive dissonance and the whole experience is not working very well. Of course, small and medium video-equipped meeting rooms are essential. And there, the requirements have changed. People want to be included. They want an equitable experience. They want a flexible experience. If I'm at home and I have a camera focused only on me, and I have a certain amount of pixel real estate, I don't want to be disadvantaged when I'm in a group setting. So in the old days, we used to talk about physical real estate, the corner office, whatever, however many square feet you have. Now it's really pixel real estate, how well are you presented on that display when you're in a group. And being able to do that well makes a huge difference. Offices are also changing. They are creating hot-desking environments where people want to be able to come in, put their PC and collaborate very easily. So all of these new changes are driving innovation. And of course, we're happy to have participated in this innovation. PanaCast 50 and 20 represent a new generation, the state-of-the-art generation for audio and video collaboration devices. As you can see here, we have products that range across that entire spectrum. And what I'd like to do is share a bit about the new generation of video products we have built and the insights which drove those products. When we spoke to decision-makers, IT professionals, customers to try and understand what they cared about, a few threads of value came back very clearly, right? First, people want to hear and be heard clearly. I want the tone and timbre of my voice to carry all the way through so that when the person hears my voice or I hear other people's voice, it's a natural voice. I'm not trying to figure out what they're saying. I'm not irritated by the quality of that sound. But now equally important, people want to see and be seen clearly. We want to look good when we are on TV. We want to look good when we're on that screen in the UC service. And particularly in the last few years, we think, uniquely, we can provide information. We were very early pioneer in building AI into our devices to anonymously count the number of people and provide that as metadata, as a numerical count that could be used to make decisions about the design and layout of the spaces, the seasonality and ways those spaces were used. That's becoming very important. But really at the top of it, natural and pleasing experiences tie us all together. It's something Gitte started with, and it's something we've believed in very well. We use state-of-the-art audio and video technology with real-time edge AI built into our devices to provide a pleasing experience. Nobody wants to really deal with 3 cameras, 8 microphones, 4 speakers, 9 processors, 2 AI engines. But if we give you a good experience and you're able to have a good meeting and able to conduct your business well, that's it. That's what we believe provides compelling and differentiated value. And of course, we play well with the ecosystem. We are a good citizen and a good partner with our customers and with our ecosystem. Now out of all of those dimensions, I just picked one dimension. And I'm sorry, this is a bit of an eye chart. I will not narrate it for you. We spoke about those 3 areas of use, the personal use, the meet anywhere use and the meeting room use. Our products deliver specific unique value in each one of those environments. In the meeting room space, we were the first to pioneer a multi-camera array technology that could give you any field of view up to 180 decrease. That continues to be very important. In the personal space, we are the first ones to pioneer a state-of-the-art edge AI processor built in that autonomously improves the experience of your meeting. And I'd like to share a bit more with you on these dimensions. So starting with PanaCast 50. PanaCast 50 builds on the heritage of Jabra PanaCast, which really was a realization many years ago that cameras fundamentally are quite old. They haven't changed in hundreds of years. This camera here, most cameras have 1 lens, 1 imager and they have a certain field of view. If you push it much beyond 80 to 90 degrees, they start to create a lot of distortion. We believe the right way to solve that was to create higher-performance multi-camera arrays that could react with very low latency, doing the kind of things that we do in collaboration, but in many other use cases, including IoT. And we invented all the algorithms, all the core technology, all the silicon technology to build the PanaCast Vision Processor, which allows us to do that. One unique attribute of this processor, we put all the pixels mathematically on a cylindrical panorama. But as you're seeing here, one unique attribute is it maintains human-scale fidelity. If you take a single camera and make an ultrawide-angle lens, you see up to 90% distortion in the X dimension. So people look trapezoidal. They don't look normal. In our devices, they look how they look, no matter where they are across that 180-degree field of view. So that releases stress in your brain. You're not irritated by what you're seeing. You're just having a great conversation. Of course, with social distancing, the 2 folks here would not be visible, only the person in the middle would be visible. And intrinsic to our devices is the use of AI to create real-time data and information and to use that AI within the device to create pleasing experiences. An example of that first attribute is shown here. This is a popular camera in the industry used for UC collaboration. You are seeing 3 people. You're seeing [ Suna ] in the middle looking a little narrower than he is. You don't see him in person. But trust me, that's correct. And then the people on the side are looking like they're being pulled up to the corners. That's not normal. And your eyes and your brain is trying to figure out what is going on, you're dealing with that dissonance. And actually, more importantly, there were 2 more people who were completely left out. So if you're not on video and you're in a conference, you don't count, you're not an equal citizen. That's a pretty annoying feeling. Nobody wants that. So we uniquely address that challenge, include everybody, maintain human-scale fidelity and be equitable in your presentation of all the people. We then combined a real-time audio signature using a dedicated audio AI processor in the PanaCast 50 with the knowledge we have from the video AI processor on with the vertices, where are all the people. So we know who is speaking and where they are situated. We also know, for example, if the next person speaks, if they're next to them or far away. We worked with moviemakers to understand the psychology of human perception and, through that, created a set of algorithms that run in our device to frame the shot. So if 2 neighbors are talking, it will frame it 1 way. If 2 people far away are talking, it will zoom out and then zoom in. We won't bisect people. We don't need people half in, half out. We do things that you don't perceive, may consciously be aware of, but that give you that much more of a natural experience, an actual respectful, engaging experience. And it's for these reason that these products are winning awards from the best and brightest in the industry, and of course, thankfully, from our customers. The whole idea is to manage complexity to deliver simple and natural experiences. People don't really care about the amount of hardware, but we do think they notice when the experience is just that much better and that much more natural. Intrinsic to that, of course, is the incredible history, a 150-year history of innovation at GN in audio technology. Here, we built our own DNN to do the beamforming vector definition, the direction of arrival vector. We also built an electro rigid architecture to give you high-fidelity sound with full music range reproduction through those speakers and many other technologies, particularly including also full duplex. So you can interrupt each other, talk over each other as we do in real life, and still have a good audio experience. The purpose of all these technologies and all of that AI is to deliver a very natural experience. And we're very pleased to have worked closely with Microsoft, particularly over the last year, to deliver the next-generation experience. You may have heard about Microsoft Front Row. You may have heard about intelligent gallery view. That is a technology that we have pioneered, which will be coming forward with Microsoft, also with Zoom. And the idea here, uniquely, is that when you are having a meeting now with this technology, you will be able to first see everybody in context of each other. So all those 6 people, where they sit and how they're situated. But then we take the last 4 active speakers and give them prominent real estate. We focus in on them and show them that much more equitably because they are very actively participating in that conversation. We work hand in glove with the UC service providers to not only certify the devices, but to certify and improve the experience. They can use these multiple streams coming out of our device to create that kind of a compelling experience. And you're seeing a tiny vignette of a video shot here. That's the remote experience. This is how it is presented in the room when you are present in that room. We pioneered and we are still the first and only device to not only deliver a 180-degree field of view or an intelligent gallery view or a virtual director experience, but also simultaneously implement a whiteboarding technology, where you can see the whiteboard on the right side. It's a very large board. It's about 4 feet tall, 8 feet long. It's 90 degrees to the camera. But we're able to extract, rectify and present it as if you're standing directly in front of it. I often think with my hands. I like using the whiteboard a lot. And if you're not in that room, somebody walks up to the whiteboard, generally, people are lost and they're irritated because they've just lost being part of that conversation. That is not true anymore. If you have an MTR system or a Zoom Room system, you'll be able to bring in a second video stream of that whiteboard. So from this one physical device, we are delivering multiple video streams concurrently. And there's a rich road map ahead of more innovations to come, all of which will leverage the level of AI and our core innovation in building those algorithms and helping them run efficiently in these kinds of devices. Telemetry is quite important now. In the anonymous people count data we now have integrated Microsoft Teams as a piece of telemetry that they're using. So for example, if a room has a capacity of, let's say, 5 people, if we detect that there are 5 people present, Microsoft can use that data to put the panel at the outside of the door red, saying that, that room is at capacity. IT can also store that anonymous information to create data lakes of information that they can use to figure out the seasonality and pattern of use. How do people use the physical real estate, what would make it more optimal for the needs of the people who use that building and that real estate? These are just the start of a rich array of kinds of data sets and information that will become available through these devices. These are now being rolled out through Microsoft Teams as leadership features. Earlier this year, Microsoft talked about how they are rebuilding their own campus, redesigning all of their many thousands of spaces, to put employees first, to create compelling experiences that matter and to measure the result and value of these efforts. And you're seeing on the left, a design of such spaces. PanaCast 50 is intrinsic to those designs. You're seeing the Front Row layout, you're seeing transcription round the side. Slides on the screen, and at the bottom, the Front Row experiences, the PanaCast 50 allowing them to use 100% of that physical real estate. Anything else, they would basically waste about 40% of that group. They have also just announced earlier this month, the enhanced Microsoft Teams Room experience. It's a brand-new category, one of a brand-new category of rooms that are being implemented by themselves and by their top customers worldwide. That room architecture, that room topology, fully benefits from PanaCast 50. You're seeing that arrayed table in the front, PanaCast 50 right behind it and a projected screen creating a large amount of pixel real estate to bring in all the remote people who are not physically present as well as the whiteboard on the right-hand side. All of the technology gets orchestrated through the PanaCast 50 into Microsoft Teams. Now to touch briefly on the personal side, this is my go-to device, Jabra PanaCast and Speak. Mostly if I'm going to be in a group setting or this if I'm at home. PanaCast 20 is a new category of personal devices, and it brings differentiated value that is immediately visible to people on a few dimensions. Let me take the first one. On the left 2 video panel grabs you're seeing, [ Avi ] is using a popular webcam on the right picture right here. And this is a dumb camera. It exposes for the average amount of light. So it gives you a great view of his driveway, but [ Avi ] is silhouetted and he's off to one side because it has no comprehension of [ Avi ]. In the picture on the left, we -- the camera knows the person of interest is the person. It's [ Avi ], and that we want to make him look as good as possible and put him front and center. And if he moves around, the device will unobtrusively track him, keeping him front and center at the right scale, whether he comes close, if he goes far away. That's what's being illustrated by the lady in the middle. And then a really powerful feature input from educators and others, when you're in a STEM class, you're trying to show an organic molecule, you would like to show something, you're trying to do a show and tell. You're teaching people about molecules, you want to show a 3-dimensional molecule, and you want to be inset so you can describe and explain what it is. This camera natively produces dual video streams. But because some services cannot handle that, we combine them in the device to create 1 composited video stream, which goes out to any UC service or streaming service or your favorite way of consuming video, but it allows that person to do a great show and tell. You could do a pitch deck, you could do so many other things. You could have a whiteboard or a flip chart. It allows you to have that flexibility, a very powerful tool for educators, for salespeople, for anybody who's trying to do a show and tell or share information. It is for this reason and many that the product's been rated very well. And I'm happy to say, earlier this month, ZDNet gave it a rating of 9.5 out of 10. We believe it is a category-defining product. And we believe this wave -- once people get used to good technology, there's no going back. And to Holger's point, certification matters a lot. I really would like to make a pitch for that. Those are not trivial things to achieve. And we work very, very hard to achieve ultra-low latency, high-quality experiences. And that manifests in the fluidity and naturalness of your meeting experience. So it's a high bar. We're happy to achieve it and happy to continue striving. Now looking ahead, Holger touched on this briefly and Ehtisham will build very strongly on this. Collaboration is right at the threshold of combining physical and virtual worlds. We're seeing that a bit today, right? There's a number of us here. There are many of us who are not physically present who are seeing and following and will interact with us. That will continue to grow in very powerful ways. And let me give you a very simple experience. All of us know to raise our hand. I know how to raise my hand. I got taught that in kindergarten. So if I raise my hand in the real world, why does it not show up as a raised hand in Teams? Why do I have to press the button, find the menu? We've been playing with that. This is a very tiny example of the work [ Ilyas ] and our R&D team is doing. In our device, we can detect skeletal frameworks of people. We have a richer information about your face, your posture, your areas of interest, what you're looking at, where you're looking. And what he just did can easily get turned into a hand-raise in Teams. So that's just one example. There are many more to come, and I hope I have a chance to come back and share more of those with you down the road. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, AK. And I think if you just push the button one more time, we are ready for the next Q&A session. We just have the audio team here on stage with me. And who would like to start the session? Let's start with you, Christian.

Thank you. So a couple of questions. The first one on, unfortunately, on the supply situation. So you said, Rene, that you -- as I understood, you're reasonably confident that you won't see similar lockdowns looking forward as the one that you experienced last week. What gives you this confidence?

I tried exactly not to say that. I said if -- I mean, whatever lockdowns come, I don't know, right? But what I said here is that this one that happened here, I mean, it was a full lockdown first. Started in a part of Shenzhen, and then it became full lockdown on Shenzhen. It hit the factories and logistics. Had nothing to do with components because they were flowing its own -- they're living its own life. So this was a specialty. And it opened next week, partly. For the factories we are working with, partners, they're all running. But not all logistics is running. What -- I mean, I talk to these people every day. What it looks like, it's going to -- whether there is a new lockdown in a week, I have no clue.

Makes sense. And then second question, when is the future? And that's, of course, a specific question to your Slide #90, where you showed that in future sort of as far as I could eyeball out of it, that you believe, I believe, indicatively that video might be as big as your gaming franchise. Is that something we're talking about 5, 10 years down the road? I believe you might have put some thought into that.

We have not guided exactly when and what, but it's clear that if we have not made, in 5 years, a very significant video play, we will not succeed, right? So this gentleman does not have that much time, basically. So we can put a little bit of pressure in the room here. So I know we have to succeed now. As I think we try to display, we have very strong technology components in hand now. The products are coming out. And of course, we need to start taking share. The market is here. And the penetration is actually lower as the 2 gentlemen talked to. So of course, if we can feed that market fast, there should be a chance of building a business part. We need more products. That's clear we need a different room, we need perhaps also lower price point products end-to-end, but it cannot take 10 years, then it's gone.

Thank you, Rene. Let's go to Maja.

Thank you very much. Rene, if we just look at the general situation in audio. I mean I do remember the times 2007, '08, '09, and I believe some others in that room as well, audio did have quite a disastrous performance, if we can say so. And the business confidence surveys that are coming out of the U.S. from the CEOs are actually more bearish. They talk about freeze in hiring but also holding off on some CapEx spending. What is your thinking about the current situation? And how would audio fare? Should we take 2007, '08, '09 as a reference? Do you believe the business in a different situation? That's the first question. And the second question, I guess there isn't a cookbook recipe that you could give us with like 4 weeks of stop in manufacturing are manageable for full year guidance or if the ports are close or logistics is down for 5 weeks, we'll still be able to squeeze it out somehow. Is there anything that we can all just kind of monitor? Or is it -- will it be just very depending on your performance?

Yes. Let me take the first question first. I joined the Board of GN exactly when that happened, and I remember very well that it was no fun, really. I think GN is in a completely different spot today as regard a lot of things. I mean our presence in the market, our engineering capabilities, the way we have established ourselves in the channel and, and, and. So I'm not saying that the world cannot go through -- I mean, we are living right now at the edge perhaps of a tough time to be seen. It's a -- I think we're all affected by whatever happens in Eastern Europe as we speak. But I think the business model of GN is quite resilient, I think, as we speak. I think we have 2 different models. But in audio, I mean, we built this whole supply chain and the go-to-market machine to be scalable up and down. Of course, we don't want to scale it down, but it is actually quite resilient from that perspective as well. And if I look at the total GN model, I think also it's way more resilient today than it was -- it is now 15 years ago, almost 13 years ago. So I think -- will the world go through tough times? Maybe so. Do we have -- I think what we saw when the pandemic hit that we are in categories actually that people don't cut back. They actually do the opposite. I cannot say that there will be no cutback in investments in these kind of tools. But it is something that actually drives -- helps productivity. It helps your travel cost. It helps you this and that. So in that sense, we are perhaps hopefully in categories that are less vulnerable to this kind of situation. And to the cookbook, I mean if you look at the situation in recent 3, 4 months here, this has been a component issue only. We have ample capacity of manufacturing. Logistics can be a -- it's not cheap and it's not easy, but it's available. We fly things around and so forth, so it's doable. If you go back to 2020, of course, we had a situation in late February, early March, where everything stopped. So we sold out what we had in our own inventories. And the channel stock was empty and so forth. But still, I mean, when we ended the year, I think we had delivered 42% growth, right? But we had absolutely no growth in couple of months in spring. So could we come back if we have 3 weeks of shutdown in China? In -- not if it happens later in the year, where there is no catch-up time. But if it happens in Q2, if we can get the components, I would believe so, actually. But if we have -- I mean, we can speculate all kind of things. But if there's a shutdown more than a week, for sure, we can come back if we get the components.

Good. Thank you, Rene. Let's go to Niels Leth.

Two questions, if I may. So first question on capacity and especially in relation to your collaboration business, so which are your bottlenecks in terms of capacity right now? Is it entirely components? And what kind of access to manufacturing capacity do you have? And then a second question would be, what are your plans to enter new categories such as microphones, lights, et cetera?

So you want to say to something?

I think on the first one, I'll just echo what Rene said. We are not constrained through capacity. We think we're good there. We are seeing strong demand for the products. We are a bit constrained on component supply. And that's also actually -- we're addressing it in multiple different ways, I would just say. So -- but capacity is not an issue to us.

Manufacturing capacity.

Manufacturing capacity.

But we have been severely component-constrained.

Yes.

So you have two, we get more components and there is a redesign done also on this product actually so we can do with other available alternative components.

Expanding the sources of supply.

And now I forgot your second question.

About entering new categories.

New categories.

So I think you're going to talk to a content microphone is, of course, is an obvious discussion. And we have not announced that we will go there at this point of time. But if you think about all of us as sort of personal streamers there, that would be, one day, quite obvious thing to have in an office as well, right? So -- but we have no product launches. But there are other categories. You can also talk about software sort of carrying across various devices in the office and so forth.

Good. Thank you. Let's move down to Veronika.

Veronika from Goldman. Two questions for me. One, I want to circle back on the component supply, Rene. And obviously, you have your light system, but I think all of us are sort of trying to understand just how much progress you're making and how much progress you need to make to hit the guidance. So I don't know if you're able to talk about if you need to get to 100 in the second half, are you at 50 today? Are you at 70? Were you at 50 yesterday, but you're at 70 tomorrow? Just give us a little bit of a sliding scale, I don't know, index, whatever you feel comfortable, just for us to understand how much component availability improvement you need to see as we transition through the next quarter to hit the guide for the full year. I appreciate it might be a difficult question, but please help us. And then my second question, thank you for the video presentation. I thought it was fantastic. It seems like you have a great technology. I'd love to hear a little bit what the selling process looks like. You're obviously going up against some very well-established players. I appreciate the market is growing a lot. But I'm just curious, other than the technology and the R&D and the software that you've put together, what else do you -- how else do you compete against Cisco and Logitech in particular?

Happy to comment on the second, but I'll pass the first one.

You take the second one first, then I'll come back to the other one.

Shall we go with the second first?

Yes, I'll do that.

Sure. So thank you for that. That's a great question. I would say that we've tried to leapfrog the competition by delivering a class of experiences that they're not able to deliver today that matter. So when you look at Microsoft Teams or Zoom and others, the whole idea of intelligent gallery view is front and center, that is sort of the high bar. And we delivered that uniquely in 2 ways. One is just the quality of it because we have three 13-megapixel cameras, so lots of pixels to work with. So we can just give you that much better visual quality of the experience, zooming in and so on. But secondly, also just the fact that we can cover that whole space and provide the panoramic view, nobody else can do that. So to the extent that we have many worthy competitors, lots of great technology, to the extent that we're able to eclipse and leapfrog that technology, and we did that purposefully through the architectural innovations we built into our device. So all of that hardware, all of -- the homegrown processor, all of that is very carefully selected. That also allows us to have a runway ahead. So we're not talking about more products in this category but as we design all the layers of this many-layered cake, it is designed to progress forward quite well.

And maybe the other part of that question, of course, is the channel. I mean are we ready to start selling this? And what you will find out is that, to a very large extent, the same companies, especially the -- I mean there are AV-specific specialties out there. But a lot of the large volumes will be sold like large resellers like Bechtle or other, and they have installation services. They have multiple categories and so forth. So we don't go necessarily to other places to mobilize the channel. So I guess we are at a point, I mean, our sales guys and the channel partners are eagerly waiting for us to bring out more volume as we are planning to do now. And your first question, I try to sum up. I think the -- I don't have a formula for that. But I think, as we discussed, some of us, at least, when we talk to Q1, everybody understood that if -- with the 5% guidance, if we have minus 25% the first quarter, we'll have to have growth in all the other quarters for that to make sense, right? And that's still the case, of course. There are 2 parts to that. One is that we have been redesigning quite a lot of products, especially is a little bit older, high runners that somehow take a lot of volume where we did not want to risk to transition fast to a new product. All that is on plan and will be released during the second quarter here. So we have that ability ready when we hit the second half. So -- and then, of course, you can say the -- many of you have calculated that we have talked a little bit about price increases as well, that the volumes we need for the full year to make the guidance doesn't need to be a lot higher than last year. Of course, we want to do better than that. But I think, I mean, our own comfort with getting -- I mean when we speak to the suppliers, when we see what is available, when we get the numbers in for second quarter, it looks okay, actually. So we are comfortable that this is a meaningful guidance still. Could we get a lot more product -- components soon, fast, and in second, we will do more.

Thank you, Rene. Let's go to Oliver.

It's Oliver from ODDO BHF. One question regarding the synergies between the audio space and the collaboration space. So as Altia was acquired, this was the idea about having the offering from one hand. So now after some years, how has the market accepted this common offering? Is the market already in a position to say, "Okay. You're the #1 in audio. And therefore, we give you also a chance in video"? Or do you have really to fight to get a lead in video for it? That's number one. Number two is just about the general bottleneck in network capacity. So I'm not sure I'm the only one, but sometimes I'm on Teams and the network connection is not that good. So basically, you have to switch off video. So if you talk about really the best camera, the best resolution, is it -- do you still see there a meaningful bottleneck from network capabilities that you have the best product, but in reality, you cannot use it in this resolution?

Yes. Great question. Yes, so I mean I'm sure Holger will have a comment, but maybe I'll -- sorry, do you want to...

No, I mean I can comment on the audio part, right?

Yes.

I mean the companies are very happy with the quality and the performance of our products, and they really appreciate that we are entering the video space. And audio is a big part of that experience. So not only that they expect us to innovate, they also expect great quality. And what we are demoing to them and what they're experiencing with our products is exactly what they are confirming back to us. You make a difference.

So I think -- to that point, we wanted and needed to expand our portfolio, and now we feel with this new architecture and this expansion to the portfolio, we're in a unique position. So the audio heritage opens lots of doors. But our innovation in video, what we've done with the experiences that the key UC providers care about the most right now also make a big difference, right? So we're finding that although there are many worthy competitors, we feel quite confident and comfortable, based on the purchases by the most sophisticated buyers in this industry, about the value proposition of our products. Now to your second question, you are having to turn off the Internet -- video because of some -- I'm sorry that, that's the case. But it does make a difference. And I'll give you a couple of simple examples. Let's say that you don't turn it off, but the Internet throttles you down to low resolution levels. So you're not doing 1080p, you're not doing 720, maybe you're doing 360, right? In our devices, even in the PanaCast 20, we have state-of-the-art 3D noise reduction built-in. What that means is that when you go to low resolution, often you see pixelation or you'll see graininess or what are called dancing pixels, a lot of noise. It just doesn't look very good. We have algorithms built into our processors that understand and eliminate those kinds of noise sources. So technology can do this without loading down your PC. We're not loading your PC with anything else. We're not learning the network. We're not sending more pixels within the network, in some cases, actually a little bit less because we filter all that noise out. So hopefully, you don't have to turn your camera off, but it will still provide a meaningfully better experience when you leave it on, yes.

Niels Leth?

Thanks. A question for Holger, please. So what is your transparency in terms of large tender orders for the remaining part of this year? Are you aware of any super-large tenders that will come up during the next few quarters? And are you even going to ship -- have you already won any of such tenders for the rest of this year?

We are usually not commenting on those detailed level, but we have normal business, normal order intake. Since 1st of February, we also increased prices, so all good, actually. No abnormality or whatever.

Maybe just because it was, actually to your point, years back, we were sort of -- you could see the tenders in our business. But it's hard nowadays, actually. It is a flow business, of course, there are big deals coming and going. But it's hard to see them in the quarters, really, anymore.

But would we -- so is it realistic that you would see any larger orders that would represent several percentage points of your full year revenue coming in later this year?

I don't know. I mean I can't say. I mean if -- but I think we -- it is a flow business. And of course, there is also a constant flow of big deals coming through the machinery but it's hard to see in a quarter that something happened. When it comes to the video business, we can still see that because it is, you can say, it's smaller. And in that sense, you still have this. But hopefully, soon, we can see that.

Is it possible that you could comment on your order backlog during Q1? And then also back to a very public question on the order backlog, maybe talk about the quality of the order backlog. I'm sure everyone is placing orders with everyone. So how do you see the level of the backlog? And how have you seen the composition of the backlog develop? So once things hopefully normalizes, do you expect the backlog to be reduced by 50% day 1? Or what do you think?

So it hasn't really changed, really, so you can say, the order inflow has more or less matched the output. So the backlog is still very much there. I guess, to your point, when the market normalizes, then people want to have the latest sort of demand. And whatever all sits there from a couple of months back or many months back will disappear. I think that's going to be the same again. But right now, of course, there is such a pressure on supply from everybody. So we don't really see that anybody has succeeded so far to bring out volumes to a point that we would have lost business. I'm not saying this cannot happen. But because you're right, distribution will try to get products in hand and the end cost is the same. But right now, the supply is just matching what comes in as we speak.

Good. Thank you very much, gentlemen. I think we will just have a 10-minute break. So 15 minutes past, we'll be back here with the final session on gaming and SteelSeries. [Break]

I think we are ready to get going here in Copenhagen, and we have a bit of refreshment for you guys here. So online, I'm very sorry. We couldn't make it for you, but there is a bit of popcorn, and we are back in the game. So now I think we will hand over to our newest members of the family, SteelSeries. And Rene, maybe you just want to say a few opening remarks here.

Yes. Thank you, Henriette. And the last speaker of the day will be Ehtisham. As I said earlier, some of you know him because he has been the very successful CEO of SteelSeries for quite a number of years now. We have -- I met this gentleman a couple of years back and very, very pleased that late summer or mid-autumn, we found a deal with the owners of SteelSeries and now they have joined our company and let's talk gaming gear.

Thank you, Rene. I hope you're enjoying the popcorn. So I'm Ehtisham, as Rene said. It is a pleasure being here. First of all, I want to thank my new colleagues at GN for making us feel so welcome, all 400 of our Steelheads for making us feel so welcome. Thank you all. It has been a really interesting journey for us. And I see some familiar faces out there. There's going to be some repetition, I apologize. But for the new folks, Maja, you asked for this. We're going to give you background. We're going to give you all sorts of background on both the business and on the brand. So starting out, SteelSeries was founded in 2001. It was founded right here in Copenhagen. It was founded in the basement of a building which actually is not too far from here. And it was founded to help e-sports professionals win, simple. Here we are 20 years later, and we are a leading gaming lifestyle brand. We've become the #1 premium gaming audio brand in the world. Highest ASPs. Very loyal following. And we've done this by -- through a seamless stitching together of hardware and software that's proprietary to us. So you see the patents. You see the fact that we already have over 5.6 million users using our software. That's been the formula. Currently, we're only playing in a handful of categories. Gaming audio is our largest category, and it's about 56% of our business. We're also in gaming keyboards and gaming mice. We've got a little bit of presence in gaming surfaces, gaming controllers and accessories for controllers. But one of the things you'll notice is there's a lot more, and we understand that we've got so much runway for growth over here. These products have been really well awarded. We happen to be one of the most awarded brands in gaming, which obviously makes us feel good, but it results in revenue. And one of the things you'll notice is a really nice revenue trajectory over the last many years, 41% CAGR since 2018. Last year, we had DKK 2.7 billion, which I think is a good number. It's a fine number. We could have done more. The #1 thing driving our business results right now, not surprisingly, is component supply. So it's no different than any other consumer electronics business right now, which is our numbers are being driven by how much supply we have. So DKK 2.7 billion in 2021. I'll take it. Our EBITDA was 13.6%, which was a new high for us. And part of what's behind that number is scale. So we've finally seen the scale of SteelSeries kick in. And one of the things I get excited about and we'll talk more about is that's just SteelSeries scale. Now that we have GN Audio scale as well, I get super excited about where we're headed. One of the questions I'm sure you'll ask me, so I'll just preempt it, is what are you going to do in 2022, right? You're going to ask me that. We've guided the market to grow -- that the SteelSeries business is going to grow over 10%. We're absolutely there. We're going to drive towards delivering that number. Right now, we have a global footprint. We are well distributed. We've got offices around the world. One of the things we're really proud of is how this little Danish brand has made it big in the U.S. That's really a point of pride for everybody who works at SteelSeries. But we've got so much white space, you guys. APAC is a massive white space. We just opened our office in Shanghai last year. So we're just really now getting serious about APAC. So when you think about new categories, when you think about new geographies, one of the things, hopefully, that you'll walk away with is we're just getting started. Now everything that we do starts out with our brand mission. Most of us at SteelSeries are gamers. And so one of the things we believe in is that gamers are awesome. Something that I personally believe in is that gamers are smarter than nongamers. So for those of you who have kids who are gaming, guess what, they're going to be amazing. Don't let them overdo it, right? Keep it under control. But they're going to be better than their nongaming classmates. So our goal in life is to make every gamer feel like a star. You want to walk away from every experience going, wow, that was amazing. I didn't win, but I loved it. And I connected with my community, and I made new friends, and I scored some points. This is great. The way we do that is, again, by building a comprehensive platform that brings hardware and software seamlessly together that connects gear with games, with gaming communities and with esports. That connection point is critical. And hopefully, you'll get a sense of what I mean by that connection point. This just isn't about selling hardware. It's that whole ecosystem that connects all these things together. Now gaming has changed a lot. I've been -- I'm a lifelong gamer. And I used to sit alone in my parent's basement and game. But today, gaming is massive. Gaming has become mainstream. Rene talked a little bit about that. Today, gamers are everywhere. It is the largest form of entertainment. It's bigger than movies, music, TV, streaming video combined. And that's the business that we're playing in. It's this massive entertainment business. A couple of myths about gaming that I just want to explore right upfront. Many people think it's a young man's thing. It isn't. Over 2/3 of all new gamers are women. And -- I know. Over half of new gamers are over 45 years old. So here's a fact. Once you're a gamer, you kind of stay a gamer. It never leaves your bloodstream. You may walk away for a few years, but you'll be back. And you see that in the numbers and the consistency of the business and the growth levels. The other myth is that gaming is just an activity. You start gaming, you end your game, you walk away. That's not true. When gamers are not gaming, they're watching games and gaming and influencers. You can see the growth in hours viewed. It is absolutely massive. This is one of the things that's making gaming so much bigger than mainstream media. The other thing is that gaming is also one of the largest social media platforms in the world. Over 700 million-plus gamers use gaming as their way to connect with their social network. So they're not gaming. They're not watching a game, but they are on the platform so they can talk and they can communicate and they can share. We've talked a little bit about the metaverse. Aurangzeb talked about it a little bit. So gaming, obviously, is a key pillar of the metaverse. And one of the things -- one sort of very quick example there is how you're seeing live concerts being held in gaming platforms. It's really very exciting. Has anybody seen a live concert in a gaming platform? Anybody here? I'd be so impressed if somebody did. Okay. We'll save that for the next time. So big stars like Lil Nas X, like Drake, like Travis Scott, all these folks have done massive concerts in gaming platforms. These are live concerts, huge followings. Just one small example of how the virtual world and the real world are coming together. So in this environment, it should not be surprised that you're seeing explosive growth. But esports is another key driver of that explosive growth. It's not just the fact that these virtual and real worlds are coming together. There are over 0.5 billion viewers of esports today. It is one of the fastest-growing sports in the world, and that is a key fuel to this whole gaming, gaming gear market. In 2019, there was a major milestone reached. And that was when a single championship, which was the League of Legends Championship, got over 100 million views. When I was sitting alone in my parent's room -- parent's basement, I would have never imagined that there would be a gaming championship that got over 100 million views. But that's where we are today. As an aside, that was won by a team called FunPlus Phoenix, which we're very proud is a SteelSeries team. So it won that LCS championship. A lot of mainstream sports, traditional sports, are finding their way to esports. You've probably seen all the new stories. They're investing in teams. They're investing in arenas. One quick example of that is that we partner with AMG Petronas on their esports franchise. We're also partnering with teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers on their esports franchise. So this is everywhere. It's NFL, NBA FIFA, F1. It is all going the way of esports. I think in '21, last year, we had another major milestone, which was when Sports Illustrated had an esports team on the cover for the very first time because there's been a little bit of a debate on whether esports is really a sport or not. And I think by Sports Illustrated putting this esports team on the cover, I think it was a pretty strong statement that esports is a sport. I completely believe it's a sport. That, by the way, is a team called FaZe Clan, which is another SteelSeries team. So we're really proud of that as well. So I know when I say esports, some of you are familiar with it. For some of you, it may be new. I wanted to give you a flavor for esports. [Presentation]

Yes, don't tell me that's not a sport. So esports is a big driver of the business. And it has resulted in a gaming gear category that is growing. So the overall gaming peripherals business is over $15 billion. Right now, we're playing in a fraction of it, as I said. We're playing in about $5.5 billion of that $15 billion. The bar graph that you see on the right are the core categories we are in today, which is gaming audio, gaming keyboards, gaming mice. That's what the bar charts are. As you can imagine, we've got our eyes set on the $15 billion. We want to be masters of that $5.5 billion first and then expand out. As we do this, our focus is going to continue to be on the premium gamer. We're a premium business, highest ASPs in most of the categories we play in. Now why is high-end gear important to premium gamers? It's fairly simple. So these gamers, they're enthusiasts. They're playing 10-plus hours at any given time, in any given day. And when you're putting that much time into your gaming, it needs to be comfortable. You need to be able to communicate seamlessly with your teams, and you need to win. You need to have at least a chance of winning. You need a gear that gives you an edge. You want to emulate your favorite esports professionals, right? You want to be just like the big guys. One other thing which is really important with gaming gear is that it needs to be cross-platform. Gaming is absolutely ubiquitous. Gamers are gaming on every single platform. As we say, 85% of console gamers also game on a PC. 70% of all PC gamers also game on a console. So everybody is basically gaming on everything, and you need gear that cuts across all categories. All right. So with that, one of the things that has driven our business is a pretty simple formula. It's hard to execute. It's very simple in its thinking, which is beyond the cutting edge, solve needs, solve problems, address needs before anybody else does, be first, provide the best solutions, don't just rely on hardware, use hardware and software seamlessly stitched together to provide the best solutions and then be best-in-class market activation. So those are the 3 sort of pillars, the tenets of our business, and I'm going to give you a little bit more flavor on these things. Let's start out with innovation. So I alluded to the fact that our whole mindset is how do we solve problems for gamers that nobody else has solved. How do we make that experience so much better? First of all, it really helps that most of us are gamers. So we're basically trying to make our lives better as well. We obviously work very closely with esports teams, with some of the biggest influencers in the world. So the orientation very much is let's do something that makes a difference. You will not see us throw technology into stuff for the sake of throwing technology into stuff. That makes things complicated. That actually makes the experience much worse. So everything is done with a very, very specific purpose in mind. That has resulted in a number of firsts that makes us very unique. The very first dedicated gaming headset ever made was by SteelSeries. The very first keyboard, which had mechanical switches, was SteelSeries. By the way, that's the standard now for gaming keyboards, is mechanical gaming keyboards. The very first mouse with an onboard processor so you could actually save your settings on the mouse and take it with you was SteelSeries. The very first official Apple game controller was SteelSeries. We brought high-fidelity audio to gaming. I know it sounds like I'm bragging, and I guess I am, but what I wanted to showcase for you is you don't have to be massive to be the tech leader in your business. So we have been leading this business from a technology standpoint for years, and now you're starting to see the results. You're starting to see us starting to hit critical mass. I won't to go through the rest of these. The only other one that I want to point out is in 2021, we launched SteelSeries GG. GG is the very first integrated platform for -- it's a software platform. It's the only one of its kind in our business, and I'll talk a little bit more about that. One of the things as we're working on innovation is we have a very strong sense of Danish design. And what do I mean by that? I talked a little bit about that, which is, look, solve problems, keep it simple, don't make it too complicated, make every product a joy to use, right? That's what we mean by Danish design. We try to do this in a way that is responsible to our planet, to our people, to the communities we work in. But our goal is to make a real difference. And what I'm going to show you is how we talk about our problem-solving mindset when we talk to gamers. [Presentation]

So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of flavor of how we approach our products. It's about solving real problems. All of this has made us the #1 esports brand. Why do I say that? What's my basis? It's 2 things: one, esports professionals have won more money using SteelSeries gear than any other brand; number two is when Newzoo, which is probably one of the largest researchers in our business, when they go out and ask thousands of gamers around the world, who do you see as the leader in esports, SteelSeries is #1. So we are the #1 esports brand in the world, which is hugely helpful because esports, while itself is a pretty contained group of folks, 0.5 billion folks, and there are over 3 billion gamers, but these 0.5 billion folks, they are the trendsetters. They are the tastemakers. They actually dictate what happens in the rest of the industry. And as a result of this, we have over 300-plus major influencers around the world. We've got thousands of micro influencers around the world, but over 300-plus major influencers. We picked out a couple of -- some of these folks, you may recognize. Some, you won't recognize. They're all sort of gaming dignitaries. But you'll recognize Henry Cavill, who played Superman, Man of Steel. We loved it when he called himself the Man of SteelSeries. And then at the bottom, you've got Hafþór. Any Game of Thrones fans over here? One. So The Mountain, he's a regular streamer for us. So when you take our social networks, when you take our influencers, when you take our esports teams, when you add it all together, it's 150 million people in this network. It is one of the loudest megaphones on the planet. We love it. But it's not just about reach. It has to be about engagement. So this is a very important metric to us. It's not just how many people are viewing your stuff, but are they interacting with it? Are they sharing it? We have the #1 engagement rate on social media. That's a really important point. Now I want to show you an example of when we use this megaphone, what are we saying to consumers? How are we selling the SteelSeries story? So this next video really just lays out the SteelSeries story. [Presentation]

By the way, you've now met Lars, our mascot. You saw him all over that video. So one of the lines in that video is why pick on someone your own size, go and find the biggest, baddest bad guy out there. And that's always been our approach as a company. We've taken on companies that are far bigger than us. And I think we've done pretty well. And I think now as part of the GN family, we have the opportunity to do even better. So all of this, the products, our influencers, esports, all of this has resulted in us becoming the premium leader in gaming audio. So what you see over here is a graph that just sort of lays it out nicely. On the x-axis is brand perception. So this is again a survey with thousands of consumers, gamers around the world, asking them, who do you see as the premium leader in the space? It's SteelSeries. And then on the y-axis is actual behavior at point of sale. So in this particular case, this is data from Amazon U.S. But it's representative of what we see around the world, which is we're perceived as the #1 brand, and we have the highest ASPs. We're going to continue playing and focusing at that high end. And that is going to be really important because we have set our sights on the whole gaming rig. That's where we want to be. You see a whole bunch of categories over here. They're -- actually, if you look at some of our influencers' gaming rigs, they're far more elaborate than this. There's a lot more. So we picked a pretty standard gaming rig. One of the things you'll notice is we've got 2 new things on there. Some of you have seen these before. So we've got our brand-new gaming speakers. We're not in the gaming speaker market yet. We will be. And in fact, if you go outside to our demo station, you'll be able to hear the speakers. I really encourage you to go and hear them. They're pretty awesome. And the other thing, somebody asked me about microphones. And you'll see #7 in there. That is not a mockup or anything. I mean that's the actual microphone. So we're getting into the gaming microphone business. I'm not going to give you dates as yet, but both those things are pretty much ready to go. And then we're working on additional categories. Our goal is to be the premium leader across the entire gaming rig. We are going to play in that entire $15 billion segment. It'll take us a while. It's not going to happen tomorrow. It's going to be gradual. We'll get there step by step, but that's the goal. All of that rig, one of the things that ties all those products together is software, right? That's the glue. That's what brings the entire ecosystem together. So what we launched last year -- we've been working, by the way, on software for over a decade. So software is not new to us. In fact, we have more software engineers than we have hardware engineers. What's new is we've brought all these different software offerings under one roof, one streamlined experience. And it's called SteelSeries GG. It already has 5.6 million installs, 2 million monthly active users. Doesn't impress me as yet. We're just getting started. What does impress me is we're speaking to 2 really, really important constituencies. So on the one hand, we've got gamers who have never ever bought a SteelSeries product. They make up 24% of the people using GG. On the other hand, we've got gamers who love SteelSeries and are using more than 2 of our products simultaneously. They make up 21% of the GG user base. This is exactly what we had in mind. It's an acquisition, conversion and retention tool, and we're just starting to see the numbers go up every single month. What you'll see in here, this is -- so this is somebody's home page on their GG experience. On the menu bar, you'll see a whole bunch of applications, right? So these are services and applications that they have chosen. They've got Moments on there. Moments is a proprietary piece of software for SteelSeries. It is the fastest, I think, easiest way for you to capture your game highlights, edit them and then share them with your social media. I mean for those of you who game, it's so frustrating. You had this amazing kill shot in the game, but there is no proof of it. Nobody saw it except for the people who are playing with you. Moments changes that because we automatically capture your highlights. And so you have it there, and you can, with one click, send it out to your social media. We've got SteelSeries Engine, which customizes all your SteelSeries products. And we're adding more and more services. The next big thing, which I cannot wait for, we are in alpha on this and early access on this, is SteelSeries Sonar. This is going to be the most advanced audio suite in gaming. And hopefully, as I'm talking, you're starting to go, you sound a lot like GN Audio because the things we're focusing on are very similar. So what you see on the top there is a Parametric Equalizer. It allows you to control this every -- so if you think about a frequency range, it allows you to control every little point within that frequency range, not just preset bands, but anything within that frequency range. And I can tell you, right now, the game developers are loving this. We've been working with people who make Fortnite, CS:GO, Valorant because one of their complaints has been I sound-engineered my game to sound a certain way, and it is so frustrating that it doesn't sound that way to a lot of consumers. Well, guess what? It is going to sound exactly the way they intend it to be. So that is what the Parametric Equalizer does. What you see below that is also a first in gaming. So if you think about you're gaming, right? So you want to control how your game sounds. You have a team that you're communicating with. You want to control how you sound to your team. And you want to control how your team sounds to you. Three different audio streams are happening. Till now, you could not individually control them. You had to -- it was one control for everything. So if you optimize the controls for your game, guess what? Your team sounded awful. What we are bringing to the market is the very first audio suite that allows you to control each one of these things separately. So a huge, huge breakthrough. It's something that we'd like to call X-ray Hearing. It kind of reminds me of the story of [ Eric and a hearing fish ] like no one else. That's kind of what Sonar does for you. So what you see over here is a stack of barrels. And what Sonar will help you do is almost see the hidden enemy, that sniper, the guy who's probably going to kill you in about 2 seconds behind the barrels before anything happens. It is hugely, hugely powerful. Okay. I could go on forever. What I do want to do is sort of wrap this up and talk a little bit about our many vectors for growth. Look, we're a growth company. You've seen the long-term structural changes that have happened in media consumption, how people communicate, how people talk to their social networks. All of that means that we're in a growing category. And not only is the category growing. It's also premiumizing. So the fastest growth part of the category is the premium side of the business, which happens to be where we play, so it actually works out quite nicely. Number two is market share gains. We have opportunities to grow share in every single category we play in. We have not tapped out on that at all. One of the ways we're growing share is by increasing our point-of-sale experiences. So thousands of more doors that -- where if you walk in, you'll be able to touch and feel and listen to SteelSeries products just like outside. Number three is organic expansion. New categories, expanding into new geographies, we have a lot of runway for growth over here. And then finally, I think software is going to be a major acquisition conversion and retention tool for us. We're just getting started there. With all of these different vectors, our plan is to use M&A strategically to accelerate some of these things. As Rene said, we can do all of these things on our own, but there may be times when we want to actually acquire someone to accelerate our ability to get there. And the great news is now that we're part of GN, there's so much more. So you've heard about all the great technology from the hearing aids team, from the audio team. We're taking it all in. We think there are amazing gaming applications of so much of that technology. So that's going to start making its way into our road map. There are revenue synergies, expanded distribution. GN is present in places we're not present today. So that's an easy opportunity right there. Our ability to serve more of our customers directly, that's going to be huge. And then scale, right? I mentioned how scale has really given us an all-time high EBITDA. That's without GN Audio scale. When you start putting all of those things together, we're super excited about where we're headed with this. We have committed to delivering DKK 150 million in operational synergies. Half of them will come this year. We're on track. It is part of how this business is going to play out, where we really benefit from being part of this great, large company. So with that, thank you all.

Thank you very much, Ehtisham, and maybe invite Rene on stage as well. We are ready for the next and final Q&A session. So maybe we start with Niels this time.

So a question on entering new categories. So gaming cameras is one of the faster-growing categories. So how quickly would PanaCast be able to redesign one of your cameras into a gaming camera? So that would be my first question. And then when it comes to other categories like speakers and microphones, will you enter those categories in 2022?

So Aurangzeb and I are going to be best friends now. So that's pretty clear. We definitely think there are applications there, but we've got a little bit of work to do to figure out how to bring it in beginning. But you're absolutely right. There is definitely opportunities there. On the categories then, I've learned my lesson. I don't commit. But when you look at the speakers, you're like, okay, you're not that far off. You're ready to go. So this is not just about sort of a hypothetical exercise. We actually have real products, just need the final finishing touches, and we'll be ready to go. That was a nonanswer answer. Hopefully, that worked.

Thank you for setting this up. So we've heard 3 CEOs, very excited about their business. I guess you're all competing for capital. So how is this organized at GN?

Peter, do you want to...

Sure. I can take that one. So yes, we get that question quite a lot. And of course, like many other bigger companies, we look at big opportunities. But what's clear, despite Ehtisham being very convincing and with a lot of big opportunities, not that we now take money away from the 2 other business and put more into this area. So we're not going to spend less in hearing to spread even more in gaming or in audio for that matter. So we, of course, look at all the opportunities we have in hearing, in audio and now in gaming, also in video. But -- and either Rene and I actually manage that quite well, I would say, of course, some time together with the Board, depending on how big an investment. If it's a SteelSeries size, then, of course, we need them to give us a nod before we go down on the path. But it's a portfolio discussion. And we have a balanced view on that.

Maybe it's also fair to say here that actually we have not been in a competing situation, as I remember at all. We are looking at a lot of potential targets, and we go after very few. I mean we always need something that is part of the future and not part of the past. And a lot of stuff you can find there is actually more part of the past than the future. So I think sometimes I wish we had more candidates and we would be in some competition, but we are not really.

Mattias?

Yes. Mattias Häggblom, Handelsbanken. So I'm thinking about this culture fit between SteelSeries and this go for glory style, which I love. But -- so how do you keep this entrepreneurial spirit within the GN group? And interested in both gentlemen's perspective on that. And then obviously, you've been growing historically at a fast pace, 41%. Now you're guiding for 10% plus given the component shortages. But help me understand to what extent the pandemic maybe boosted that number to a certain degree or what else there is to think about this long-term trajectory compared to what you're guiding for 2022.

Yes. So let me start with the second one, and then we can share the first one. On the second one, look, there's no doubt that the number of hours gained grew during the pandemic. But here's the thing. We didn't have -- and most people didn't have products to sell anyway. So if there was a free supply of products, we would have seen a level of lift that did not happen -- could not happen just because the components weren't there. As a result, we're not looking for a big market correction. In fact, if you buy Newzoo's projections, there is no market correction. There's actually continued growth. And I think as I said, that's because the demand in the market was so much bigger than the supply that you never had that bubble. On the second one -- or on the first one, so far, it's felt really comfortable. Look, we're a company that's focused on solving real problems using innovation. That's exactly what you're hearing from GN. I think one of the things that Rene and Gitte and Peter and the Board have been great about is saying, look, let SteelSeries be SteelSeries. We are operating -- we've got our own product development, our own software development, our own marketing, our own sales. The places where we are really leveraging the synergies is by combining operations and by combining some of the back-office financial functions. But other than that, we're like full speed ahead, and now we have all these colleagues to tap into their expertise and the technology that they have.

What I just tried to say is that there's a very clear decision. We will not try to interchange the brands. We will not somehow co-brand anything. The whole marketing machinery and community machinery that sits in SteelSeries, we will not -- we may learn from it and copy/paste it in other parts, but we will not try to integrate these methods. So as you said, it's really a back-end scale machinery and, of course, a sharing of technology where there's a lot we can do both ways next year.

And we have another question from the Teams channel. So Julien, Exane. I think we have a question. Can we pull him up on the screen?

Yes. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Perfect. Yes. So I have, let's say, 2 questions. So the first one on SteelSeries and on the profitability. So I know, Rene, that you sort of guide for 14% to 15% EBITDA margin this year, I think, for SteelSeries. The question is more over the midterm. Do you think that SteelSeries might achieve a sort of closer profitability level than the core GN Audio, like in the 20s, for example? That's my first question. And sorry, Rene, to, let's say, come back on it, but I would like just to jump back on the audio guidance for Q1. So basically, my understanding is that Q1 will be a bit below the initial guidance of minus 25% sales decline as some as, let's say, slipped into Q2. So just to be sure I am right or there is, let's say, still a scenario in which you can hit the minus 25% in Q1. I don't know if you can ship enough products before March 31.

So maybe I'll take the latter one first. And on the Q1, I mean, we had the minus 25% guidance out there. I think it's clear that we were on that path. As I told, we had this massive sort of full shutdown a week back. We're opening now. We are shipping out. There is a risk that the cutoff will not allow us to ship all we need. This is not a component issue. I also want to stress that. It's really about getting products that are made to package and get them out of the door. So yes, there is a risk that we will not meet the minus 25%. Assuming there is not a new lockdown coming, then this will come back right the first week of April basically. So what I tried to say also here, if this happens, we will not do anything silly. But of course, we will ship as fast as we can because our customers are waiting for the products. Will we make minus 25%? That would be fantastic. Great. But we don't really know, right? So -- but for the first half, no change on this. We have the situation you spoke to that we have a new lockdown, which cannot be somehow in our planning. And then to the profitability question. I mean if I look also long term, I mean already now, we are assuming that the combined entities will deliver the 20% profit level, EBITDA margin that we have guided for. I think -- we think that there is opportunity to actually sort of keep raising the profit margins of SteelSeries as we get the scale and we get the different products, we get the synergies in and so on and so forth. Would that be a long-term higher margin potential on the enterprise side than in SteelSeries? Likely so. So you can say the combination probability be a bit higher profit margins on the enterprise side, a little bit lower on the gaming side. But the target clearly is that we will beat the 20% margin. That's been our statement since we launched this venture.

Let's go to Veronika.

I'll just make it a quick one. And obviously, we've heard about lots of parts of the business, but we haven't heard about the old consumer set of headphones in the Jabra brand today, Rene. Just curious, kind of is that still strategically important to you? And how can you leverage this bigger, broader consumer brand that you now have with SteelSeries?

Yes, yes. We couldn't talk about everything today. So let me try to pack it there. Yes, that is still as strategic for us as has been. What I tried to say in this, we are a top 5 true wireless brand. The true wireless is defining the consumers' [ daily ] category. And nowadays, we will be investing in this. We see the same across consumer enterprise synergies coming as we have been working for time. So -- and then I think what you alluded to, of course, is that we -- with these 2 -- these are 2 brands and 2 categories. But of course, the outlet is the same. Whether this goes to Best Buy or this goes to MediaMarkt or this goes to something in Singapore, Australia, we will go through the same channel. We'll be fairly careful. We don't dilute, you could say, our impact from the 2 sides. But it's clear that from a channel perspective, we have synergies. I would expect one day that we might have a true wireless gaming headset. I don't know. It's up to him. But also probably technology levels, we can drive in the future.

Christian?

A couple of questions as well. So when we think about sort of the medium to long term, how expansive of a view of the sort of gaming gear market do you have and do you think would be relevant for SteelSeries to play in to sort of be the best established or continue to be the best established gaming brand? So are we talking about also potentially down the line going into monitors, going into chairs? Sort of how broad a category are we -- are you defining? And then second question, this very sort of specific commentary that you've had around last week and manufacturing sort of hiccup, does that also -- is that also relevant for SteelSeries when we think about Q1? That's my 2 questions.

All right. On the first one, look, I think we have the right to play across the entire gaming rig. The conditions for us entering a category are pretty straightforward. Can we bring something to market that truly helps gamers improve, that it helps with the experience? We're not -- we don't do me-too products. And sometimes it takes a while to figure out how can we truly add value to a category. But that is absolutely critical. The second piece of it is we only play -- or we play at the high end of the market. So we need to be able to enter categories on the premium side of every TAM in that category. If we can meet both those conditions, then it's fair play.

Do you want to answer the second one?

Look, we -- it's very much like GN Audio. It's a lot of the same manufacturers. It's a lot of the same logistics. We go through the same thing.

Niels?

Two questions on gaming. So the first one would be, have you adjusted prices on your gaming products similar to what we are hearing from GN Audio? And if no, why not? And second question, can you update us on the extra spend that you're seeing among your GG users?

So on the first one, we took up to a 10% increase last year on our wireless headsets because that's where the components are most scarce. So that already is baked in, and we'll have the full year effect of that, which will be good. On the second question on GG, I want to hold off because GG is growing so rapidly, Niels, that any number right now in 2 months is going to be moved, right? So let's wait until it stabilizes. But what I can tell you is 90-day conversion rates, where we're taking that 24% of gamers who have never bought a SteelSeries product and converting them, that 90-day conversion rate is much bigger than what we expected. We think there's a lot of potential there.

Thank you, Ehtisham. Do we have any final questions before we round off? That doesn't seem to be the case. Then I think this concludes today. So thank you, Ehtisham. Thank you, Rene. Thank you to the rest of the team here today. And thank you for everybody attending here in the room, attending online. And we really appreciate that you took the time to be with us for a full day today. We will, just outside the room here in Copenhagen, have drinks. You can explore the product. You can explore the gaming ring. And we'll also have dinner just in the room next door as well, just in half an hour. So thank you very much for coming today.