HusCompagniet A/S (HUSCO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
November 4, 2022
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Operator
operatorWelcome to the HusCompagniet Q3 2022 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I'll now turn the call over to your speakers. Please begin.
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveThank you so much. And first of all, thank you, everybody, for dialing in to this Q3 conference call. My name is Martin Ravn-Nielsen. I'm CEO of HusCompagniet. With me today, I have our CFO, Mads Winther. After the disclaimer, we can go to Page 2, where we can look into the summary. And first of all, we...
Mads Winther
executive[indiscernible]
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveNext page, please. Thank you. Here, we have our summary. The sales has decreased a bit more than half year-over-year, but the Q3 decrease was around 75%. We have, in October, made a redundancy with -- around total in October, it is 61 FTEs and we have closed 5 offices. We are pleased actually that we can present EBITDA of DKK 280 million. And we also saw margin was 8.4%. Actually, we are trending up compared to Q3 despite an extraordinary challenging market in this environment. So all in all, we present here some strong numbers. The target of delivering is still 98% of the houses on time. We also could mention that we have bought the factory in Esbjerg, who was closed the 1st July, and it is now renamed to HusCompagniet Production. And the factory in Esbjerg is absolutely a clear strategy going forward, also to a part of our B2B similar segment going forward as a clear strategy. The market, I will come back to later. And when we're looking at the outlook, we maintain our outlook from August. If we are going to the next page, here, we actually can see more around the market. I would say we are seeing a market who absolutely is worse maybe more than the financials crisis for now. We also record high bankruptcies in Denmark in the building industry. The sales activities is very, very strong also for now with continued decreased demand, and the rising interest rate and the high cost inflation also is absolutely one of the parts that we see that our sales is in our significant low level for now. Also, the B2B market, the professional market is also impacted by a slowdown, and the sales level for '22 is also expected to be lower than '21. When we look about the subcontractors, we can see now that it is the pressure here, if you can tell about that. It is a more normalized supply chain in Jutland and Funen, but we still see the order backlog in our industry is longer in Zealand. And therefore, we still have a big stress around the subcontractors in Zealand. But we, over time, the next coming, I would say, the 3, 4 months, then we will see a more normalized situation around the subcontractors. The supply chains, we also -- yes, the visibility has also reduced further. But we are pleased that we still can deliver 98% of our houses on the right time. When we are looking about the prices, it is a bit muddy picture actually because some of the subcontractors we now see into some decreased prices when we are looking about the materials. Then we have increased prices of some of them, and the other is we can live into the decreasing in the prices. For example, wood, we see now that the prices is going down there. So it is, as I mentioned before, it's a bit muddy pictures, but we are on top of the model that we have. So we are looking, I would say, every week around the -- around our cost base. And then we, all the time, secure that we have the right sales prices going forward. And it is also actually what we have provided when we look on this latest number here, that we are on track with our margins that Mads and I all the time, have told you that it was actually our main focus. If we are going to the next page, Page 4. Here, you can see the figure around the demand when we are talking about the Detached sales. It is a significant other picture what we have seen here in 2022 compared to the last year, and especially in Q3, it is on a very low level. What we are looking into, we don't have the right data and statistics for now, but what we're looking into, we -- to -- it is that we maintain our market share. So it is just the market who is down on a level that we haven't seen before in new times, you can say that. And therefore, we now have over the time since the last [indiscernible], we have now made 4x redundancies in '22. Total, we have made it with 150 employees. The last one was in October with around 60 in total. And the reorg in '22 are expected to generate an annual SG&A savings with an annual effect around DKK 105 million to DKK 115 million. And it will, of course, most be in '23. In connection to the redundancy, we also have closed now total 8 offices, but we still are a company with a full national footprint, of course. But some of the sales agencies in the smaller areas, we have closed down. And now we actually are more in the full-scale offices, but we still are around -- near the customers also with our show houses, of course. If we are going to the next page, then we just have some highlights for this year for now. Some of the numbers that you can see is that our revenue is now DKK 3.3 billion, and it is up compared to '21. Our EBITDA is DKK 280 million, down from DKK 285 million, so it's almost the same as we saw in '21. Our EBITDA margin is 8.4%. But we have seen compared to the first half this year in '22 that we have increased our margin despite this very stressed market and industry we are in. So actually, we are -- we feel it is a very strong result that we can provide here. Financial gearing is, for now, at 2.6x. And if we are going to the next highlights where we only have a dive into Q3, then you will also see the revenue is...
Mads Winther
executiveIt's the next page, Martin.
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveThank you. The next page is -- yes. Here, we see the highlights for Q3. Also revenue, it is in a level as '21. And the EBITDA margin, here, we can see it is very strong, actually, the market also when we are looking into a very stressed industry. So it proved our very strong margin focus that we have promised you over the time that we still can maintain that in this stressed industry. If we are going to the next page. Here, you -- yes. Here, you can see our deliveries. It is actually up almost 18% year-over-year, driven by growth in especially Semi-detached and also in Sweden. If you are looking at the figure in the middle here, you can see the numbers in our growth that we have more deliveries in the synergy tests and in Sweden as well. So all in all, it has been, and it is, at '22, that we have a very strong focus on the deliveries in the right time. But most of all, also very important for me to again and again tell you how much we are focused to deliver strong margins as we have done. It is also we will have more focus on in the coming period, of course. If we are going to the next page, then we also can see the split up in our sales because Q3 have been very, very tough quarter because it is downward 75% compared to the same period last year. And it is also in all our 3 segments, it is in Detached, it is in Semi-detached and it is in Sweden as well, who all 3 segments for now, there is an impact there. So this is just to give you some highlights around the market and what we have seen and looked into. And then maybe, Mads will go to the next page where you could talk about our flexible business model around the [indiscernible]. So here we are.
Mads Winther
executiveSo on this page, we have shown this before. We are trying to probably have 2 messages on this page. So the first one is, which we're also demonstrating with the redundancies, the margin was peaking around of these 150 people that has made redundant the last 6 months, right? So we have a very flexible business model where we have very few liabilities that goes beyond 6 months, basically. So here, within 6 months, we can go down to 20% of our cost. Of course, this is sort of just a scenario reflecting so what is our commitments on different elements. But then equally important, so the second message is probably in the text of this 100%. So our SG&A was, in the end of 2021, it was DKK 475 million. And with the redundancies we have done now, and remember, we still have a factory in Sweden that is quite busy. We also have a fairly busy work here in our Detached. Then keeping that, we are down to like-for-like DKK 360 million. And then we bought the housing production, which adds DKK 30 million, and that means that after this reduction, we will be at DKK 390 million. But like-for-like, it's DKK 360 million. And moving to the next page. We've gotten a lot of questions from different people on our bank agreements clearly due to the markets. So we have stipulated on this page what are our terms and what do we have. So of course, we cannot disclose all elements of the agreement, for example, the interest rate, et cetera. So we hope you appreciate that. But we have DKK 675 million of the term loan, then we have DKK 400 million in addition of a revolving facility. That means that we have around DKK 1.1 billion of facilities available to us. The liquidity, for us, will not be an issue as we are harvesting in the next period, and our business will go down from where we are today. But then we have 2x covenants. We have -- some of this is also stipulated in our prospectus when we were listed, but we have one which is the leverage ratio, which is net debt over EBITDA, which is where we have a covenant of 3.5x. And so -- and this is, of course, going LTM basis is measured on. And then we have a second covenant which is our landholdings that may never see excess a certain amount. And this is what we can say, we cannot disclose the exact amount, but this is not something that will be relevant at all in the current activity level, but also in what we are looking into. So this is not a covenant that will, in any event, pay out at these sort of activity levels that we would need to be significantly larger land banks, et cetera. Then when it comes to our interest, we disclosed in the prospectus that when we had a leverage of 2x to 2.5x, that we were at 155 basis points. And then when we are looking at our Q4 levels of 2.6x, we're at 165 basis points. The existing agreement, if you look at Bloomberg, et cetera, it says that it terminates November 2023. We have exercised one of our options of extending the loan for 1 year. So therefore, we have extended our agreement, so it expires in November 2024. We have full repayment holidays. So we are not repaying anything. We only pay interest on the loan until it expires in November 2024. Moving on to the next page. Clearly, giving the markets, we are looking into different things that we can do to protect our solidity and liquidity. And there's different levers we can utilize in our balance sheet. And just, for illustration purposes, we have shown a few here, not saying that we will do all of these. But we have a portfolio of show houses. This is our inventory on our balance sheet, show houses and land plots. And these 2 elements are some of the assets we have. And we -- a reduction down to around 40 houses would trigger around DKK 75 million in cash. In our land, our current land basket also includes DKK 80 million that is currently for sale. So those are also something that could be harvested in the next period so. And lastly, we have -- when we acquired the factory in the production in Esbjerg, we did an assessment of what a sale and leaseback agreement could contribute with. And then I think a cautious perspective probably is around DKK 40 million to DKK 50 million on a sale leaseback agreement. So this is just to give you a reflection on some of the elements that we would potentially be able to tap into if we need to improve our liquidity. Moving on to the next page. Then here, we are reflecting our segment performance. And generally, I think not a lot of things to add to what Martin also mentioned, but I think it's fair to say that in these very changing markets, we believe that actually all segments are doing fairly well, and then we believe that even our production is starting to ramp up a bit as well. And then I think just potentially 1 thing to point down or 2 things, that is the share of own land. We are still operating with a low level of share of own land and that would impact the profitability. So the margins should be seen in that light versus historical performance. And then also, we are seeing that due to energy, due to different elements of people when they buy a house, different renewable energy source, et cetera, we are seeing that our average selling price is increasing and continues to be at this level. So we are not seeing a decrease in that -- from that perspective, which is positive, given it's increased quite a lot since 1 year back or even 2 years back and more. Moving on to the next page. This is reflecting our order backlog. And here, we can definitely see, so the gross order backlog is the cash flow coming in. Basically, you also need to, of course, consume some cash in getting that cash in. But the most interesting is probably the order backlog net. So this is the backlog that will be recognized on our P&L, and that is down from the end of 2021 to -- from DKK 2.85 billion to DKK 2 billion. So clearly, we are looking into a lower activity, no big surprise when you look at our sales since Q4 2021. So -- and it's, of course, mainly our Detached business that is dropping down on order backlog. Then moving to the next page. We have 2 pages on outlook. So we have not really changed anything on the assumptions or the outlook, other than we have said that in the dialogue we have with many investors, it doesn't really make sense for us to guess in a very uncertain market on sales. So therefore, we have basically just removed and will not continue moving forward the guide on sales, basically. Moving on to the -- yes, probably I should say, even though we are making 60 people redundant in October, we are maintaining our special items guidance. That was, of course, because we were not -- when we did our guidance last time, we were, of course, expecting to do some giving the drop of activity and have put in some cushion for what we have done. So we're just maintaining our guidance, which we are happy to do this quarter. Moving on to the next page, which is the last one. Then there are 2 -- 3 points that we would just like to highlight that, first of all, we will not -- we have canceled our sales expectations. Our Semi-detached, they should not be seen as -- or we removed it. It should not be seen as we don't believe in our Semi-detached business, it just seems as we are canceling our sales targets on a yearly basis. It seems, we believe, it's prudent also just removing this. We will still be very ambitious around it, but it -- it's just an outlook that doesn't really make sense given the current markets. Then we have also, due to this lack of visibility, normally, we'll come in November and start guiding on, at least we did that the last few times. On '23, given the lack of visibility, we will cover that guidance alongside with the annual report in March. And lastly, our dividends are suspended in '23, meaning that there will be no distribution to shareholders in 2023, given the drop in activity we will be looking into in 2023. So with that, on to the next page, we are opening up for Q&A.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] The first question will be from the line of Frederikke Due Olsen from Carnegie.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystFrederikke from Carnegie. I have a couple, so I'm just going to take them one by one. First, if you could maybe break down the development in your sales activity by month and give us an idea of how the latest data points are looking in terms of demand, in particular from the Detached segment.
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So I think, of course, we're not disclosing monthly numbers. But I think, looking into the Q3 quarter, I think it's fair to say that July is part of Q3. And July is, of course, a month where a lot of gains have looked forward to summer vacations. And therefore, I think it's fair to say that the Q3 number is also -- the numbers have answered a little bit by the July number. So I think outside those, I think it's sad to say that we're looking at a level of 40 to 50 per month, if you look sort of from that perspective, right?
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystRight. Okay. That makes sense. So [indiscernible] 50, 50 houses per month for the Detached segment or on sales level?
Mads Winther
executiveI think it was under Detached level, our segment.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystOkay. Perfect. Then maybe a comment on how you're progressing with selling your show houses? And how much of the reported revenue is from these activities fulfilling the show houses?
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So I think we're not disclosing how much the show houses [indiscernible].
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystI think it might be that my line is breaking up, but I didn't catch the last part.
Mads Winther
executiveThere's a bit of noise on your end for your colleagues. So I said, just to be clear on the revenue part, there's not a lot of revenue coming from show houses, just to be clear on that. But of course, we are slowly starting selling some show houses. So on the same part, there are some offshore houses, but not on the revenue part as such. So I think you're asking revenue part, right? So it's very, very limited. So it should not be seen as there's a lot coming in. There we will see the show houses. So when we said show houses, normally we like to use those houses for a period of time, the long time until we hand over the house. And therefore, it may be something that will happen in Q4 and then running into the next year where we will see the effect of this show houses, to just to be clear.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystOkay. Perfect. And sorry for the background noise. Then maybe if you could help me break down the development in FTEs. So you have made total cuts to your organization of, I think, almost 150 FTEs, but you've added 60 employees from the factory in Esbjerg. So net, that should be a kind of almost 90 employees, but then how is it that your year-end FTE has been higher than in Q2?
Mads Winther
executiveSo I think, first of all, when we make people redundant, they are still on the payroll, so to say. So fortunately, it is that you're not kicked out of this all the day after, right. And remember, we also made some of these redundant in October and not in Q3. So that is making a lot of sense from that perspective. So 60 of these 150 [indiscernible] in Q4.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystRight. Okay. So around 430 FTEs would maybe be the number that you have today?
Mads Winther
executiveThat's more correct, yes, but potentially lower, yes.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystOkay. Perfect. And then could you maybe comment on what you expect from savings of the closing of offices?
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So in the SG&A savings, that is both people and offices. And to be fair, offices is not a big ticket for us. That's part of our business model. It's not [indiscernible] fancy offices in the middle of Copenhagen. So the SG&A cost, we have [indiscernible] in these 105 to 115. Those are including offices savings, just to be clear.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystOkay. Perfect. Then I'm just -- I just wanted to make sure that I understood this land on your flexible business model correctly. Could you maybe repeat the comment on how we should understand the DKK 390 million or the DKK 360 million without production.
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So the thing we're saying is that if you ended -- when we ended 2021, we had DKK 475 million in SG&A. Then when we are looking at the redundancies we have taken, that number would have been down to DKK 360 million. So also reflecting the SG&A savings of up to DKK 115 million. Then what we are saying is that the DKK 360 million, that was a comparable number to 2021, but we've been to all our factories where there is due to the fact as [indiscernible], then there is DKK 30 million in SG&A cost of that factory, and that ends you up in the DKK 390 million. So that's the way it fill up. The like-for-like is the DKK 475 million versus the DKK 360 million. But then we, of course, also bought a factory that has [indiscernible] but, of course, also revenue to cover for those waivers, et cetera, but DKK 390 million.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystOkay. Perfect. On your covenants, what happens if you breach this 3.5x. Can you credit accelerate the debt? Or will it just trigger some constraints to the payout?
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So I think in reality, what will happen is basically we'll have a discussion with the banks. So in instance, they, of course, can cancel the loan. But the reality, you will have a discussion with the bank. And as for waiver, and we will then take it to the Credit Committee and debate what kind of -- what kind of elements would be put into that waiver of different elements that they would think of it like something that is [indiscernible].
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveWell, I think just to elaborate on that, we are very focused on not coming there. But of course, we -- yes, we now move into -- so we're not going to be there. But of course, it could be, but it is what we are trying not to be.
Mads Winther
executiveSo we don't foresee any covenant bridge in '23, but of course, all the bids on the markets and so forth, right? But I'm just saying that we are not in a discussion with the bank around covenant bridges and is not seeing a reason for the [indiscernible], just to be clear.
Frederikke Due Olsen
analystRight. No, yes, absolutely. And we appreciate that you disclosed this number just to get the full picture. And then just the last question for maintenance purposes. Any special items from these redundancy processes that you still have yet to book?
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So what you're seeing is, of course, Q4 and where we have DKK 13.5 million of special items, and we have guided this DKK 25 million to DKK 30 million and I'll just say that we will use those DKK 25 million to DKK 30 million, just to be clear. So those -- with October and the extra offices closing, et cetera. And in October, we also took more of the senior people in that sense. So we expect to actually use those DKK 30 million, just to be clear, or DKK 35 million -- sorry, DKK 25 million to DKK 30 million. We expect to use those, and that's why we guided it.
Operator
operatorThe next question will be from the line of [ Sebastian Carl ] from Nordea.
Unknown Analyst
analystSo I have a few. First, you have 138 units sold in the quarter. And I mean, activity level below that of the financial crisis. So I'm just trying to really understand the dynamics here. What makes the market today even more hesitant than it was back then? Is it a general lack of interest for new build? People not being able to sort of sell their own houses before buying new ones? Or is it lack of financing opportunities? Could you please help elaborate a bit on this, please?
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveYes. Thank you. There is a lot of [indiscernible] that, that is part of why we see what we do now, and also what actually we see that it's a bit more tough than the financial crisis. And one of the thing is also the customers' confidence, it is historically low. We also see, when we talk about the lack of finance, it is also what our customers is struggling about and the interest rate is significantly increased over a very short time. So there is a lot of indicators who actually means that we see for now that a lot of private customers for a period is actually stopped up. And a lot of banks just also seeing please stop. And some of the customers who actually is allowed to build the houses and can get the finance and so on. There is also some other things is that a lot of customers actually are a bit afraid of is the right time and friends and so on, everybody, say wait, wait, wait. So this is also what we are seeing generally in -- for now.
Mads Winther
executiveAnd I think, just to be very clear, Sebastian, so when we are having webinars, when we are having these kind of things, we're seeing a lot of interest. So it's a bit of an odd thing because when you're looking at our funnels, on the leads and how many offers we have out, et cetera, it's actually looking quite good. Quite good should be seen not as in 2020 or 2021, but it looks actually quite decent, to be honest, and not at all of these numbers, we're looking at. But people are hesitant. And as Martin says, everybody wants to do a good deal, right? So there is a lot of interest. Some is stopped by the bank. Some is stopped by people's basically ability because they lose a job or whatever. And some of is just people just waiting to see when does this thing stabilize, and then when is it sort of a safe time to buy a house, right? So I think those are -- but the interest is there. And then, of course, on a rainy day, from a sales perspective, that can make us look a little bit more happy that actually our product is very much in demand. It's just not something that is very odd, right.
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveAnd also just needs some extra words around that. A lot of our customers have over the last -- I would say, half year thought that the building prices will decrease over time, maybe it will be better prices for the customers going into '23. So we are waiting. But more -- most of them actually also receive we have inflation, so maybe it not will be a better price going forward in '23. So what we actually are seeing now is that our office to the customers is actually on a higher level now compared to 2 months ago. So more people now are coming to our offices, and we give them some prices and offers around the price for the new house. So there is actually an increasing interest for the customers for now. But the other thing is that when it so come to the right time that they have to sign a contract, there is a lot of banks who are telling them that they haven't offered it now. Yes. So it is something that -- so whatever it is, it is a very modern picture now and to look into what we will look into the next 3 to 6 months.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. Okay. Very, very helpful answer indeed. So on the note of cost inflation and I mean, cost inflation, deflation, you cut prices 5% approximately on Detached houses and start October, which I think it appeared to be linked to beginning cost relief from areas such as Craftsman and specifically in Jutland. Now Martin, you alluded to the -- you're experiencing a more normalized situation around subcontractors on Zealand in the coming months. So does this mean cost deflation? Or what are your expectations on this going forward?
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveTo be honest, it's very difficult to break exactly the cost prices. But I can tell you 1 thing. We have a very clear data-based model that we have our cost prices, and therefore, we are a cost-plus model that, therefore, when we are seeing our costs for periods are going up, and we have seen that significant for the last 24 months, then we have increased the sales prices. But we now have seen in our data and we have a dip in the prices. And it is, for example, some of our subcontractors, and we also see some of the wood and other things decreasing prices. And therefore, we, all the time, are so focused on the right margins as we also have provided in this latest number. So therefore, it was possible actually to decrease the price a bit. But will we increase the price in 1 or 2 or 3 months? Yes, maybe, because our very flexible model is -- who also is rather database, it has been our very big advantage in this very difficult industry.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. My next question is on Sweden. And as you write in the report, you see cancellations from previous sales impacting the sales numbers in Q3. So to what extent are you seeing or experiencing cancellations in general? And has this trend accelerated during the last couple of months? Or could you maybe put some more color to this, please?
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So I think that, I think, it's fair to say that we have seen the last 2 months that they have increased, they are still not at a high number but they have increased. So that is part of the reasons why we really have spent a lot of focus on activating our order backlog so making sure that they are because if it comes in the beginning of a process, it's very inexpensive to terminate in Sweden. And when you come to actually ordering the house for factories, so you need to get it delivered in 5, 6 months. And there, it becomes quite expensive, very expensive to cancel a house, right, basically to the extent you probably won't do it right, slight Denmark. So therefore, we have seen a slight increase here in the last 2 months. Whether or not this is a trend, it's too early to say. But of course, we are very focused on it given the general market we are seeing, right? So you would expect that it would increase. So -- but it's only in the last 2 months we've seen that. But it's still at a fairly low level. But of course, if you have low sales and then you get cancellations, so what -- the way we do it is, if you have, let's say, 10 sales in a month and you have 6 cancellations, then you do 4 sales, right? And of course, then Sweden, you could see Sweden not selling a lot because of cancellations because then you led up the new sales with the cancellations, right?
Unknown Analyst
analystAnd you could potentially see negative sales given potentially...
Mads Winther
executiveRight.
Unknown Analyst
analystOkay. Okay. Then my last question will be around your capital allocation. So I mean you suspended next year's dividend, and I guess that makes a lot of sense. But generally speaking, how do you see this, I mean, capital allocation going forward? I mean, also your land bank remains fairly small. Do you see any whatsoever possibility for you to sort of leverage on opportunities within this field? Or is this too early?
Mads Winther
executiveYes. So I think that -- so generally, we are a very solid company still. So we believe we are very well positioned versus the industry. We will see the debt, of course, going down. So that will give a little bit more flexibility. We will also see EBITDA going down and that counter that, of course. But for example, on the Semi-detached market, I think, definitely, we see that there's less players that are solid. And there, you could easily see us making agreements on buying pieces of plot where we do back-to-back with big real estate funds or pension funds, et cetera. So there, there is a big potential for us to increase our business. And then, of course, we are able to still operate on trying some cash out, et cetera, so that we will still have flexibility to do so. But of course, we're very much focused on not buying up too much in a few projects. So it will be running payments, et cetera, all of these things, right? So there, the market has changed. And in our framework because we have not been willing to, of course, be a speculator in that sense, and everybody, of course, are now at the same point as where we are. So it's more a level playing field for us, and we believe this is really good for us relative to other competitors.
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveBut there are also some words around our B2B. It is very important for me also to give some words around that because we only have around 3% to 4% market share in the Semi-detached segments. So yes, the market is going down for a period there. The professional investors are stopped up. Some could believe that this kind of the market will start up earlier than the B2C market. It is -- nobody can -- can tell us for now, but we actually have a huge potential going forward because we are in this industry also going forward. We also see now that a lot of customers want to talk with us around the prefab house, the sustainable houses in our factory. So on the long run, our strategic focus going forward with sustainable and prefab houses from factories and go into this market around the Semi-detached, we are so sure that it is the right strategy going forward.
Operator
operator[Operator Instructions] The next question will be from the line of [ Anders Bettman from Nordea ].
Unknown Analyst
analystIt's Anders from Danske Bank here. Just 1 question from me about redundancies. So how big of a market decline would there have to be for you to make some extra adjustments to the organization and the FTEs?
Mads Winther
executiveSo Anders, I think for us, it's probably a little bit different the way we approach it, to be honest. So we basically use our data and look at how many houses are we selling, how many houses are we producing? And then we look at that and then we take our decisions on behalf of that. So for us, it's not really -- if this -- if we see that the market is continuing to be as low as it is today, there could be more coming. That's just the way it is. We will have to adjust our business accordingly. So I don't think we are sort of looking at how big of a market, we're just looking at how many sales do we have. And then as Martin said, what is important, of course, for us is that we have 2 elements. We have one that we can see that we are not losing market share. That's, at least, according to all our intelligence. So that definitely means that the whole industry is hurting quite a lot. And let's see if everybody is here in the next year or 2. So that's one thing to have in mind. And the next one is, of course, that we will also come to a certain point where we have to protect the future of the business to also ramp up. But that we haven't come through yet.
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveAnd also it's important for me to say that our order backlog, it has different impact in our FTE because there is also some different times in the -- so when the sales guys -- yes, we also can have a decrease in the staff there before we can in the construction managers because it is actually the guys who have to give the customers the keys in the end. So therefore, we also have to make the right timing on the different kind of jobs in FTEs.
Operator
operatorThere are no further questions at this moment. So I'll hand it back to the speakers for any closing remarks.
Martin Ravn-Nielsen
executiveJust from Mads and myself say thank you, everybody, for dialing in on this conference call, and have a nice weekend.
Mads Winther
executiveThank you.
For developers and AI pipelines
Programmatic access to HusCompagniet A/S earnings transcripts and 32,000+ others is available through the
EarningsCalls.dev REST API. Plans from $24.99/month — full transcripts, speaker segments,
full-text search, and the recently-added /api/v1/transcripts/recent polling endpoint for ETL pipelines.