Safilo Group S.p.A. (SFL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good evening, and welcome to the Safilo Group's Full Year 2021 Results. This call may contain forward-looking statements related to future events and operating, economic and financial results for the Safilo Group. Such forecasts, due to their nature, imply a component of risk and uncertainty due to the fact that they depend on the occurrence of certain future events and developments. The actual results may therefore vary even significantly to those announced in relation to a multitude of factors. Today's participants are Mr. Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Gerd Graehsler, Chief Financial Officer; and Ms. Barbara Ferrante, Director of Investor Relations. I will now pass the call over to Mr. Angelo Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Trocchia, you may begin, sir.

Thanks very much. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for attending today's conference call on Safilo Group's Full Year 2021 results. Last year, it was the extraordinary work of our people around the world, which led to the strong results we achieved with a sharp rebound compared to 2020 and more meaningful, a significant improvement compared to 2019. I really would like to thank each and every one of them for all they did in the year, which was certainly still not easy to face due to protracted health emergency and during which we continue our evolutionary path towards flexible and agile ways of working, transforming the corporate culture and focusing on the trust that the group and these people placed in one other. At the end of January, we pre-released our key economic highlights for the fourth quarter and of the full year. So our aim today is really to focus on and draw your attention to what we consider the main topics of our results, looking more specifically at our performances versus 2019 and how our organic business delivered in our geographies and in our key products category. As always, we will discuss and comment our adjusted results, excluding nonrecurring costs and incomes. And as Gerd will briefly explain later on, we will review our results before the recent change in accounting policy concerning Software as a Service agreement, the impact of which were fully accounted for in the fourth quarter. Let me therefore remind you on the 4 key numbers with which we closed 2021. Let's start from net sales. Net sales reached EUR 969.6 million, up an positive 7.5% compared to 2019 at constant exchange rate. The adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 84.9 million and a margin of sales of 8.8% respectively, up 29.7% and 180 basis points compared to the pre-pandemic levels. The group net debt result equaled a profit of EUR 29.5 million, putting the year back in black after some years. And finally, we are there. EUR 94 million of group net debt more than half versus last year, thanks to the successful capital increase we completed in early November and an overall neutral free cash flow. 2021 was an important period of transition for Safilo, which we prepared for, with practice and determination, working with the clear objective of providing our own and licensed business with the right opportunities of growth. We closed the year over delivering our initial expectation with each quarter's performance consistently driven by the strength of our organic business. The one fully comparable between the period and by our new owned and licensed brand, Blenders, Prive Revaux, David Beckham, Missoni, Levi's, Isabel Marant, Ports and Under Armour, which supported the offset of the terminated license. In 2021, our organic sales were up 10.5% at constant exchange rates versus 2019 with quarter 4 being a positive exit to the year and confirmation of our key growth levers as well as the further business opportunity, which lie ahead of us. In the quarter, our organic sales grew 9.9% versus '19, notwithstanding business environment, which was still not easy, again, impacted by the renewed restriction, which followed the spread on the Omicron variant of COVID-19 with its dampening effects in a number of markets. In a nutshell, I would say that our business performance continued to be driven by a strong North American market in which we achieved the sixth consecutive quarter of growth. The performance of prescription frames consistently positive everywhere and our strong position in the independent optician channel. The quarter-on-quarter rebound of the sunglasses business, recording a growth also compared to Q4 2019, but remaining below pre-pandemic levels on a full year basis. And finally, our online channel overall growing also versus last year's peak. In the last year, we continued to implement the strategic choices we outlined in 2019 to deliver our medium-term business plan, further progressing in our transformation strategy. In 2021, we achieved a quite significant rebalancing of our revenue mix by brand, product and channel portfolio getting closer to the medium-term targets we had set ourselves. By brand and excluding the terminated license, last year, our own business increased to approximately 41% of sales from around 37%, which was in 2019 and a big sign in particular to the significant growth recorded by Smith, outstanding results by the brand. The nice rebound on Carrera and cleared the new business of Blenders and Prive Revaux. Overall, Smith, Carrera, Blenders, Prive Revaux really getting on the right trajectory. Last year, we were able to make significant process also toward our goal to grow the share of our prescription frames business. While partially due to this slower recovery of sunglasses in a number of important markets, the growth in prescription frames followed our clear strategy, which we have been executing for a number of important projects from strengthening our product assortment to progressively improving our service level. In 2021, prescription frames accounted for approximately 40% of our total business from around 38%, the numbers which we had a couple of years ago. By distribution channel, our sales mix instead confirmed the dimensional jump we made in the online channels. Thanks to the acquisition of Blenders and its e-commerce business growing 90% on a pro forma basis versus 2019 and around 9% year-on-year, but also thanks to the strong growth of the Smith direct-to-consumer sales, doubling versus 2019 and growing 35% year-on-year as well as a significant jump recorded by the Internet pure player customers. In 2021, the share of the business generated by online channel amounted to 13.4% of our total sales from 12.7% in 2020 and 3.9% in 2019. On the other hand, in 2021, we also continued very meaningfully to strengthen our competitive positioning with the main distribution channel of the independent opticians, making considerable progress in the digital transformation of our business model for the full implementation in Europe of the new B2B system You & Safilo. We joined the digital platform already present in other markets altogether today, generating around 20% of our 3Os' revenue. The validity and the unique digital and physical ecosystem we are building around opticians to become their preferred partner was specified last year also by the strong achievement record in our annual customer satisfaction survey aimed at understanding customer 360 perspective on Safilo main business area. Product, commercial team, customer care, service, trade marketing and B2B website. Key metrics exponential increase in 2021 compared to the last 2 years. Today, over 80% of our European officials would recommend Safilo as a business partner to other opticians, while within the overall customer satisfaction index, over 92% of the customer expressed full satisfaction with Safilo customer care. In 2021, we then continue to reshape and expand the reach of our business according to our specific target in terms of consumers, product and channel to serve. We signed 3 new license. Dsquared2, an interesting brand addition, which gives us the chance to grow in the premium segment. Carolina Herrera, already a well-established brand in eyewear, which provides us with an immediate opportunity to strengthen our women proposition in some of our key geographies. And finally, with Chiara Ferragni, a new brand in eyewear, which expands our reach to new generations and into the digital universe where we keep investing. Last year, keeping with the past take in the previous year, we continued to strengthen our commitment to people, product and planet, the 3 cold pillars of our sustainability vision with initiatives aimed at amending them in the fabric of our business functions and operations. In 2021, we were proud to renew until 2024, our support to the nonprofit organization Special Olympics, the international nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. Over 18 years of collaboration, we have donated more than 1.3 million pairs of optical frames and sunglasses to disabled athletes around the world. Last year also, we see the new collaboration with Save the Children in Italy for rewrite the future campaign, specifically supporting the Punti Luce network, composed of high-intensity educational centers contributed to the development and the social culture welfare of the communities. 2021 was also a particularly important year for us due to the significant number of materials and solutions with reduced environmental impact that we introduced in our collection and in our production processes. We were extremely proud to be the first player in the eyewear sector to exclusively use Metal X, an innovative patent by Coventya that allows for a 90% reduction in the use of precious metal in the galvanic treatment for the production of the optical frames and sunglasses. On material last year, we had 2 significant additions to our collection. On one side, thanks to our 20-years partnership with Evonik, we introduced into our premium sun lenses TROGAMID, a sustainable high-performance polymer made from renewal energy and with a 50% lower carbon footprint. On the other side, our partnership with Eastman has enabled us to include 2 other sustainable materials in our sunglasses and optical collection, Acetate Renew and Tritan Renew, 2 innovative polyester, which have significantly lower greenhouse gas footprint. Over the recent year, we have been implementing several energy saving projects in order to reduce -- to decrease energy consumption and CO2 emission from the installation of the first solar panel system at our Chinese plant, leading last year to electricity energy saving of 7.6 gigajoule to the progressive conversion of the company car fleet in favor of hybrid vehicle towards sustainable mobility with around 60% of the company cars in Italy, which were last year new hybrids. In 2021, also following the restructuring initiative implemented since 2020 within our industrial footprint, we reduced our total energy consumption by 1%, while our CO2 emissions decreased by 15% compared to 2019, remaining overall substantially stable compared to 2020 despite a quite significant increase in manufacturing activity. Thanks to these energy efficiency practices and investment, the use of sustainable low environmental impact material and the reduction of carbon emission at the end of 2020, we updated the ISO 50001 energy management system certification for our Italian plants and for the Padova headquarters. This year, we will continue along this path to evolve further and find new solutions that will enable us to take a step forward toward our sustainable position. I stop here and I hand over to Gerd for additional details on our economic and financial results. Gerd?

Thank you, Angelo, and good evening to all of you connected via conference call and audio webcast. Let me add some color to the main highlights already provided by Angelo, starting from our net sales performance. For the sake of time and relevance, I will primarily focus my comments on our performance versus 2019 at constant exchange rates, also summarizing the key trends we achieved in the course of the year. We are on Slide 7 of our presentation. Our full year net sales grew by 7.5% versus 2019, 3.8% in the fourth quarter to take the second semester total sales growth to plus 7.3%. This positive performance reflected our strong organic business, up 10.5% in the full year after growing sizably also in Q4 by 9.9%. Overall then, our organic growth in the second semester of the year was plus 12.9% compared to the same period of 2019, showing an acceleration versus the organic performance of plus 8.3% reported in the first semester. Last year, quite consistently through the quarters, these positive trends were driven by the majority of our core brands. 2021 was certainly an extraordinary year for Smith, which became the biggest brand in our portfolio. Also thanks to the significant development of its online channel as outlined by Angelo, enhancing at the beginning of last year with the launch of a new e-commerce site. Carrera also had a strong 2021, which allowed it to surpass its 2019 sales. Last year, we took an important step towards Carrera's omni-channel strategy by launching a new Carrera D2C site, dedicated exclusively to sunglasses in the United States as a unique opportunity to boost competitiveness and improve its market position. This investment was also intended to enhance Carrera's brand awareness in the market with the ultimate objective of benefiting all U.S. wholesale customers. Also, our key licenses progressed fast in 2021, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Kate Spade and Jimmy Choo were all up double digits throughout the course of the year, each with the specific trends by channel end markets. Polaroid had a positive year-on-year rebound, however, not yet sufficient to match its pre-pandemic levels due to business mix still skewed to sunglasses, a market segment, which generally speaking, has not yet recovered pre-pandemic levels. A big theme for us last year was the opportunity and ability to compensate the business decline deriving from the licenses terminated at the end of 2020 and at the end of June 2021 with our new owned brands, Blenders and Prive Revaux and through the launch of the new licenses of David Beckham, Missoni, Levi's, Isabel Marant, Ports and Under Armour. Last year, our business, each with specific targets in terms of consumers, global, local relevance and channels at a very positive reception from our customers and consumers providing eventually very effective in overcoming the gap and in this way, equipping us with a strong balanced portfolio going forward. Looking at our net sales performance by region and commenting mainly our organic performance versus '19. North America, our biggest market in 2021 represented around 48% of our total business, up from 36% in 2019. Last year in North America, we had a double positive effect on one side, a particularly strong perimeter effect provided by the acquisitions of Blenders and Prive Revaux, which together with the new licenses in the portfolio, and I would mention here, in particular, Under Armour for the second half of last year gave a new dimension to the market. And on the other hand, a very meaningful organic business growth equal in the year to a plus 15.9% at constant exchange rates versus 2019, consistently driven throughout the quarters. With Q4 up almost 20%, in this case, driven by a nice improvement of all of our core licenses, Carrera and also Polaroid up double digits, while Smith showed a high single-digits growth versus 2019 despite a tougher comp space. Europe, which represented 39% of our sales in 2021 had a strong year-on-year organic business rebound, which led the region to close up 4.5% at constant exchange rates versus 2019. In Europe, the big driver last year was our prescription frames business, up plus 20%, very strong in all channels and for all of our brands. In Europe, we had a quite evident, however, as expected, performance swing between the third and fourth quarter, with Q4 down 2.7% versus 2019 after Q3 being up around 16%. This was mainly due to a phasing in the shipment of some orders, which were anticipated into the third quarter of the year, as we have commented in the November trading update. Looking at the sum of the 2 periods. Also in Europe, our organic business performance versus 2019 accelerated in H2 compared to H1. Last year, total reported sales in Europe did not yet recover pre-pandemic 2019 levels as the region together with Asia was the most highly exposed to the terminated luxury licenses. In Asia Pacific, organic business also saw improving trends in H2, turning to a positive plus 1.8% versus the same period of 2019 compared to the negative performance of minus 7.6% recorded in H1. In Q4, the performance of our main own license brands in the region, namely Carrera, Smith, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss led to an organic growth of 13.8% versus Q4 '19, fully offsetting the negative performance recorded in Q3 when the resurgence of COVID-related lockdowns and restrictions in most Asian markets and Australia were even more marked. In the full year, the organic sales in Asia Pacific almost recovered pre-pandemic business levels, down 3% at constant exchange rates compared to 2019, thanks to our business in China, almost doubling and Australia growing double digit compared to 2019. Finally, in the rest of the world, organic sales grew sizably versus 2019, up 18.5% at constant exchange rates in the full year and 11.6% in Q4, driven by the 2 main emerging markets of the area, Brazil and Mexico, which remain the key growth contributors throughout the year, followed by the significant progression we recorded also in Middle Eastern markets. Looking more specifically at our organic sales performance by product. In 2021, optical frames continue to show their well-known resiliency, indeed remaining our key growth contributor in all our regions and as said, for all our brands. The organic prescription frames business grew 20.8% versus pre-pandemic levels, up plus 22% in the second half of the year after the increase of almost 20% in the first half of the year. Second half trends were on the right side also for sunglasses, turning 3% positive versus 2019, with both of the last 2 quarters of the year, providing a positive contribution notwithstanding the restrictions that continue to limit store traffic and touristic flows in important markets. Overall, on a full year basis, the organic sunglass business remains slightly below pre-pandemic levels, down 3.4%. And this is clearly the business area where we are all waiting for a meaningful recovery this year. Sport products, which are the goggles and helmets business representing the most meaningful part Smith sales and our other product category had a very strong year, up 28% versus 2019, thanks to Smith's leading position in these business segments, which were favored by a dynamic market environment for outdoor activities. Also last year, Smith confirmed and continued its legacy of disrupting design and innovation, launching in North America, the new Smith I/O MAG Imprint 3D goggle, the first custom 3D printed goggle and built to the individual features of a person's face, eliminating the light leak due to improper fit and removing pressure points or hot spots. Let's then move to our key economic results in 2021 and what we consider the key drivers behind them. As anticipated by Angelo, we are here commenting as always, our adjusted performances, therefore, before those costs and incomes that we classify as nonrecurring. Last year, we booked a total of EUR 23.8 million of nonrecurring expenses, of which EUR 10.9 million at the gross profit level and EUR 19.2 million on EBITDA level. While we have EUR 17 million of nonrecurring income, which you may remember, we booked in the second quarter following the release of a provision for risks and charges in relation to an investigation on the industry carried out by the French Competition Authority, which positively concluded for Safilo without sanctions. As anticipated by Angelo, our comments today are also provided on our results before the impacts of the change in accounting policy starting from 2021 financial results following the IFRIC's agenda decision in relation to the capitalization of costs directly attributable to the configuration and customization of application software under Software as a Service arrangements. For those arrangements, which in our case, are mainly related to the investments in software like Salesforce or SAP, implemented in recent years for the digitalization of our sales channels and the modernization of our IT infrastructure. We thus had to derecognize the intangible assets previously capitalized and increase the EDP costs within the general and administrative expenses. So in 2021, the annual impact of this change, which was fully accounted for in the fourth quarter equaled higher EDP costs for EUR 3.4 million, with an impact on EBIT of EUR 2.1 million as related amortization decreased by EUR 1.3 million and lower intangible assets for EUR 6.2 million. The application of this change was retrospective, so we also had to restate 2020 and 2019 results. Of course, none of this accounting change has affected the free cash flow on the total level. Our economic results last year registered an exponential recovery compared to the operating and net losses suffered in 2020, allowing us to also exceed 2019. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, our improvement clearly materialized at the gross profit level, where in the year, on an adjusted basis, we recorded EUR 512.6 million and a gross margin of 52.9% respectively, increasing 6% and 140 basis points compared to 2019. We were particularly glad about the significant recovery in gross margin we indeed achieved in the fourth quarter, which reached on an adjusted basis, 52.3% of sales, up 530 basis points compared to Q4 2019. More meaningfully for us in Q4, gross margin was back in line with the industry profitability achieved in the other quarters of the year. Overall, the key drivers of our industrial performance last year were a positive price/mix effect, driven first by our accretive online business; and second, by the actions on prices we took in H2 when we started to make selective increases in response to the soaring inbound transport costs. Also lower obsolescence costs impacted gross margins, thanks to reduced sample expenses as we kept digitalizing the presentation of our collections and improved planning accuracy. Last year, we then made a good progress on our COGS savings plan, generating around EUR 14 million of the total EUR 25 million envisaged in the 2024 business plan. In Q4, around half of the improvement we recorded versus 2019 came from the positive price/mix effect and the structural savings recorded in the quarter, while lower D&A as a result of the rightsizing of our manufacturing footprint explain the rest. Moving down the P&L and reminding you that we're commenting on our operating and net results before the impacts in the accounting policy. Last year, our SG&A cost structure benefited from the recovery of operating leverage led by the top line growth and by a leaner overhead structure, which we continue to manage with disciplined cost control. As a reminder, last year, we achieved EUR 5 million of structural overhead savings with which we completed the EUR 20 million plan announced in December '19 within our group business plan. In the fourth quarter, our improvement in gross margin supported the increase of investment in marketing and new sales activities already started in the third quarter. In Q4, our adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 16.1 million, up 44.5% compared to 2019, with the margin on sales standing at 6.9%, 210 basis points higher than in 2019. This quarterly result allowed us to achieve a very solid H2 performance, equaling an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 35.2 million and a margin on sales of 7.7%, confirming a respective increase of 45.2% and 220 basis points compared to the second semester of 2019. As H2 2020 was already a period of initial operating year-on-year recovery, it is also meaningful to notice that our H2 adjusted EBITDA and margin increased, respectively, by 20.1% and 110 basis points versus the same period of 2020. Finally, our full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA equaled EUR 84.9 million, up 29.7% compared to the EUR 65.4 million recorded in 2019, with the margin on sales at 8.8%, which increased by 180 basis points compared to 2019. Below the operating line, also last year, we had a positive accounting adjustment, which equaled EUR 32.2 million, reflecting the reduced liability for put & call options on non-controlling interests, namely in particular, the revision of Prive Revaux financial plans following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, this positive adjustment had equaled EUR 19.8 million. On the other hand, net financial charges at EUR 23.5 million remained pretty much stable compared to 2020 and above the EUR 7.3 million recorded in 2019, mainly due to the higher average gross debt and to negative exchange rate differences. Last year, finally, our effective tax rate stood at 42.5% against last year's total tax benefit of EUR 14.4 million, mainly as a result of the U.S. CARES Act, which provided us with the opportunity to carry back net tax losses. Finally, we closed 2021 with an adjusted group net result, which equaled a profit of EUR 29.5 million and a margin on sales of 3%. Moving to our cash flow and financial performance in 2021. We also had here some positive results, ending the year almost cash neutral with the free cash flow, which absorbed EUR 2.7 million against the EUR 31.3 million in 2020 before our acquisitions. Looking at the different components of our free cash flow. We closed the year with a positive cash flow from operating activities before the change in working capital of EUR 38.1 million, which reflected, on one hand, the significant improvement of the operating performance and on the other, a cash out of around EUR 19 million in relation to the ongoing industrial restructuring plan. Changes in working capital, which generated a cash absorption of EUR 20.8 million, mainly reflected the normal increase in inventories following the good performance of the business and the preparation of new collections. In the fourth quarter, net working capital dynamics also reflected, on the one hand, a negative effect driving from greater goods in transit due to some shipment delays in the United States and on the other, a stronger-than-expected cash collection, which reflected for approximately EUR 10 million anticipated payments from customers. Clearly, we will miss this cash in the first quarter of the current year. In 2021, the cash flow for investments reflected for EUR 20 million our CapEx investments in the maintenance and modernization of our plants and above all, in the digital transformation, systems and processes on which we are working. While EUR 10.2 million were divestments related to the sale of the industrial site in Slovenia and an administrative office in Italy. Concluding with the group's net debt, this stood at EUR 94 million at the end of December 2021, EUR 52.8 million pre-IFRS 16, down sharply compared to the EUR 222.1 million we recorded in 2020. This reduction came, thanks to the net proceeds equal to EUR 133.1 million, deriving from the capital increase successfully completed in November 2021. If we look at the key components of the group's net position last year, we moved from a gross debt of EUR 311 million to EUR 193 million, of which EUR 41 million was the IFRS 16 impact, EUR 108 million, the term loan facility guaranteed by SACE and EUR 45 million, the term loan facility signed with the company's banks in 2018. As for the rationale of our share capital increase, in November, we fully repaid HAL's shareholder loan. We then closed the year with a cash position of EUR 99 million. I stop here and I hand over to Angelo for his further remarks on the business evolution at the beginning of the year.

Thank you, Gerd. Let's have a look to 2022. In the first month of 2022, our business, which is now enriched by the launch of 3 new licensed brands signed in 2021, Dsquared2, Carolina Herrera and Chiara Ferragni Collection grew in all our main geographies and product categories, confirming a constant currency, high single-digit growth trend. We work in a business environment which is still influenced by the development in the COVID-19 pandemic by global inflationary pressure and more recently by the conflict in Ukraine. Our sales in Russia and Ukraine accounts for less than 2% of our total business. In 2022, we will remain focused on strengthening our business model, confident that the growing power of our brand portfolio, coupled with the greater competitiveness of our omnichannel distribution will push us in a new phase of the development of the group. This concludes our presentation, and we are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Domenico Ghilotti of Equita.

I have a question clearly on the 2022 outlook. Particularly, I'm trying to understand how do you see the different moving parts in terms of profitability? You are mentioning cost inflation. So I'd like to understand if you have particularly any issue on the supply chains? And how are you dealing with the cost inflation on your price lease done with your customers? And then if I understood properly, so far, you have seen growth pretty well balanced between the different regions. I want to understand if in terms of channels and between prescription and sunglasses, if you are seeing really the rebound in sunglasses strengthening in these early months. And what could we expect for same going forward?

I tried -- I catch the last one, and then I'll leave the inflation to Gerd. I mean, the first 2 months, honestly, they've been really good, and we've been happy really horizontally for geographies and categories. Clearly, we see that the optical keeps still going on with the pace of last year, but first sign of sun honestly, especially in the European market, they were there. So obviously, now we need to see what is going to happen because we are very close to the season. The season has not start yet. But let me say, keep the optical keep going on and positive sign on the sun by sure.

Yes. So I will answer them on the profitability of the inflation. I mean, clearly, this has been a headache for us last year. So we have had an impact of about 200 basis points negative on the gross profit from increased overall inbound logistics costs. So the cost of shipping our finished products from suppliers and from factories into our distribution centers. And then the rest is various other inflation impacts. We have, however, been able I think to manage this reasonably well. As we were also commenting in the last call, we have been taking pricing interventions as always, in a selective way across our portfolio and that we believe we have been able to counter that, and we have not seen negative impact on demand. So this has been positive. The inflation topic clearly continues also in 2022. Clearly, we are seeing it in the first quarter as well. So still the actions we took last year, they are helping us. And considering that they have been working, we will continue with these kind of actions to address further inflationary pressures across the year. The supply chain, obviously, remains always a challenge. I mean, especially everything which goes by boat or by sea freight, which affects, particularly some of our sport products. That's why I was also commenting we had some increase in inventory at the end of the year because there is still quite some congestion on the freight routes between Asia and North America in particular. So goods keep coming in with some delay, while for the rest of the portfolio, I would say, on -- with air freight, it costs more money, but at least it arrives timely.

And maybe just follow up on the top line. So how do you see the online evolution? First of all, considering the strong base, but also if you can say, extrapolate on replicated performance of Smith with other brands. You have been mentioning Carrera, in particular. I wonder if you have additional opportunities.

Yes. I think, I mean, first of all, we do have a very strong H1 comp space that we are running against into this H1 now. We are very happy that we continue seeing the Smith D2C business growing strongly across the categories. I think Smith is somehow with the whole outdoor focus really, let me say, on trend. Blenders, which clearly has a much bigger e-commerce business, we have to remember that in Q1 last year, the Blenders business grew by about 80%. So we have a quite strong base, but we are quite happy to see that overall, the online business is so far continuing to grow. Now we're obviously in middle of March. But I think that what is important for us this year is that we keep growing the online business rather than necessarily increasing the percentage because we do have quite a lot of, let me say, offline business also growing, also rebounding, especially on the sunglasses front, as we were saying. So we'd like both of the channels to continue growing rather than being now focused on the percentage, which was clearly impacted also by quite some base period effects.

Yes. If I can just build on Gerd comment. Obviously, the priority when we talk about e-commerce is Blenders and Smith. Smith, we don't see any reason why these good numbers will come up. As Gerd was saying, the H1 Blenders last year was really the quarter 1, H1 was really a huge number. So we need to be a bit careful on the comparison. On Carrera, I mean, it's going to take time. Its timing, this D2C, it's not the month. But strategically, I think that the launch in North America will -- has to replicate the experience of Smith, where D2C and wholesale running hand-in-hand will enhance the business. I think that more and more we will see moving forward, I think what everyone now talks about omnichannel, but really playing with the 2 channels, not as 2 channel, one against the other, but one together with the other. So it will take time. But I think that the launch of carrera.com will have step one, the wholesale and then with a little bit of time, I think that we will have some positive surprise also out of the dotcom.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Cedric Rossi of Bryan Garnier.

I have 3 questions. The first one is, so I heard about...

Mr. Rossi, I apologize. Can you speak a little bit closer to the microphone?

Yes. Okay. Sorry. So I have 2 questions. The first one is regarding your single-digit growth since the beginning of the year. Could you just give a bit more color on the regions trend? So i.e., Europe and in Asia that were a bit tough last year. So do you see a sequential rebound there? And my second question is regarding Smith. So of course, you are competing versus the demand in costs. I recall that a few years back, you were planning to globalize Smith, especially in Europe. So how advanced are you in your plans to internationalize Smith in Europe or in other regions? And my third question is regarding to the cost inflation. So you -- Gerd, you mentioned some selected price increase in H2. Do we expect a second wave of price increases this year, given the record prices in terms of raw materials and higher logistic costs?

Yes. I will answer on Smith. I mean, Smith, the priority remains North America. I think that the brand has huge opportunity in North America because I think one of the reasons behind the success of Smith that we are enlarging before we were too much snow -- only snow-driven. We are investing in eyewear. We are investing in bike. So the opportunity in bike and eyewear in North America are huge. Said that, obviously, the other 2 big markets for us is Europe, where this year, we are, let me say, putting the right base to start seeing interesting number in 2023. And the other market where we are investing also with dedicated people and dedicated marketing investment is Australia. So yes, absolutely, I confirm that we see interesting opportunity outside U.S., but already in U.S. with this enlargement on refocus on bike and refocus on eyewear, the opportunity in North America can be significant. But on the 2 years base, yes, we have done a plan to become stronger in Europe and mainly in Australia.

On the question on the quarter 1, I think what we're seeing and which is also encouraging for us is we see quite a strong performance of our European business. And yes, you may remember that last year, this was still, let me say, a little bit more subdued due to the general environment. So we have started off very well in Europe, which is good. We also see the United States business in Q1 continuing to grow. And clearly, they had already a strong rebound realized last year and this has also been driving our '21 performance. But so far, in the first quarter, we are continuing to grow there. While Asia, I would say, is more patchy, to be honest. I mean, the situation is still quite tricky in many markets. We can read it also in the newspapers. So China goes up and down or open and close, same with Hong Kong. While in some other markets like Australia, we are seeing progress. So I would say Asia is still overall patchy. But where we have the big businesses, we are seeing a good start to the year. On the cost inflation, let me say that our approach is that we aim to pass through inflation as much as we can. Obviously, as effectively as we can, so with targeted solutions that give us a meaningful impact at the group level without endangering our competitiveness or our value proposition to the consumer. I have to say what continues to impact us mostly when it comes to inflation is actually the logistics cost situation. Clearly, we all see also some raw material increases. I think energy prices in the past weeks have been quite volatile, but those are actually impacting us less. They are impacting but less. And so we will try also this year to continue offsetting any inflationary pressures with the pricing up.

The next question comes from Adam Crocker of Logbook.

Can you remind us when the Blenders optical business started and over time, what kind of portion of the Blenders business that could be? And also for Blenders optical, is there any difference in the channel you sell into and the target customers there?

So on Blenders, clearly, the bulk of the business has been the sunglasses business domestically in the United States through the D2C channel. We started last year with international expansion of the sunglasses online in the English-speaking countries. And we are starting now also with the launch of optical frames. So last year, we spend, let me say, the time to get ready. We equipped and fitted out our lab in our Clearfield manufacturing site. So we are doing, let me say, the Rx job directly for the Blenders, Prive Revaux and Smith optical frames, which the consumers can order on the website, they enter their prescription. And then we basically do the full job and we deliver at home to the consumer. So we just started this, let me say, also now to advertise it to promote it. You can probably see it now also on the Blenders site. So it's early days, but we do believe that this can be an relevant additional business driver for us.

But I think one consideration, if I can add on Blenders is that we will enlarge the footprint of the channel. When we bought the business, it was 100% D2C. I think that we have taken an important decision as always the heart, the core of Blenders will be always D2C, but we have opened, we are opening this week the second shop. We are investing in selected wholesale key accounts. So -- and we are investing outside of the U.S. So the 2 -- the strategy of Blenders is go out of U.S. on the D2C but look carefully with a very, very tight control on the brand equity on retail -- so I'm talking on retail, so Blenders shop and very selective wholesale. So the success of Blenders will be, in the future, more a combination of these 3 channels more than just a monochannel business.

The next question is the follow-up from Domenico Ghilotti of Equita.

I have a few follow-ups. So the first is on cost inflation. Could you give us the sense, the order of magnitude that you're talking about in terms of cost inflation or price hikes that you need to cope with the cost inflation? And second is on the CapEx and projects that you are planning for 2022. Should we assume that it's quite similar to 2021 or you need more investments? Third question is, well, if you have a comment on -- we read about Maui Jim. So if you were interested in the asset and if you have any comment on that? And last but not least on profitability. I'm trying to understand if all the moving parts are pointing to some margin expansion for 2022 or difficult to say if you commit some -- or do you think you can get some margin expansion compared to 2021?

I mean let me start from Maui. Obviously, Maui Jim is a great brand. I mean, full respect from what the founder Walter has built on. Obviously, let me say, we have been looking to the company with the full respect. But I think, let me say, obviously, there are no official figures, but we have been looking with a very clear financial framework out cold. So at the end, I mean, congratulations to carrying that they got it. But I think the market is bigger and the opportunities are maybe more interesting from a financial perspective.

Okay. On the other question, so in terms of cost inflation, what I can say is that last year, this has impacted us with about 200 basis points. Obviously, a lot of that inflation started in the middle of the year. And I mean, I don't want to give an indication on magnitude or timings of price increases, just reconfirming that we will use pricing to offset whatever inflation. We are seeing clearly right now, the situation is pretty volatile on a number of markets. But last year, we were able to do it, and we will -- we aim to continue doing that. On the capital expenditures, let me say that in principle, we will go up a little bit in terms of capital expenditures next year compared to 2021. But this is natural as we have clearly started again in 2021 with a lot of system rollout projects, which now into 2022 they are going to be accelerating. But again, we will stay within the 2024 business plan, cumulative CapEx commitment that we set at the time in December 2019. On profitability, I mean, look, the way I would see it is we have a pretty good OpEx cost structure after the completion of the savings there. We are growing the top line, which I think is a good start into the year. And we still have about EUR 11 million of our EUR 25 million COGS savings program to do. We did about EUR 14 million by the end of last year. Not all the EUR 11 million will come in 2022, but a portion of it will come and a portion of it will come thereafter. And if all that works out, and we are able to tackle the inflation as we think, and we don't have a, let me say, a bigger macroeconomic crisis as a result of the worldwide situation at the moment, then I think our idea for this year is indeed to expand the EBITDA margin compared to last year. But as I said, we need to navigate COVID, which is always popping up again. We need to navigate the current situation that we geopolitically see and the inflation, as I was saying.

And just to close, on the marketing spending, could you give us a sense of how much was compared in 2021 compared to 2019? And if you see an additional increase in terms of as a percentage of sales.

I mean on the marketing expenses, clearly, I mean, some of it is driven by our channel mix. So clearly, as we are more and more growing on the online business and our own brands, we basically will -- we will have higher marketing costs on that side. But on the other hand, we will also have a higher gross margin that is able to offset that. So clearly, versus 2019, our 2021 marketing expenses are about 9% higher and that you can put basically in perspective of the top line growth.

[Operator Instructions] Ms. Ferrante, gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Okay. So a big thank to everyone and have a nice evening, and thanks very much to have been with us.

Thank you. Thank you, bye.

Thank you. Thanks very much.

Bye. Bye-bye. Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.