WashTec AG ($WSU)

Ladies and gentlemen, we warmly welcome you to the Capital Markets webcast Part 3 deep dive service of the WashTec AG. And after the presentation, we will move to a Q&A session. With having said this, I'm handing over to Mr. Lorenz.

Hello, and thank you for tuning in to our first Capital Markets webcast. My name is Kevin Lorenz, and I'm Investor Relations Manager at WashTec. For everyone who is new to this format, we started our Capital Markets webcast series in July last year in order to create a format where we can share more details on our business areas and on our strategic developments outside of the quarterly earnings calls. The first webcast from July was about WashTec's general strategic direction and our digital solution, EasyCarWash PRO. The second Capital Markets webcast in November looked more closely at our business line consumables and at the different efficiency programs within our group. And today, we will have a closer look at our business line Global Service. Of course, all presentations and recordings are available on our Investor Relations website. With me, I have today our Group Chief Executive and Chief Technology Officer, Michael Drolshagen; our Group Chief Financial Officer, Andreas Pabst; and our Head of Business Line Global Service, Eric Ferreira da Silva. Looking at today's agenda, in a second, Michael will outline the general importance of the service area for the WashTec Group, followed by Eric, who will provide a deep dive into our business line and present one of our newest digital solutions, the CarWash Assist. Last but not least, Andreas will provide a financial summary. And in the end, there will be a Q&A round. Now before we start, just a very quick reminder. Tomorrow, we will publish our financial report for the fiscal year 2025. We would be happy to see you during the press conference in the morning at 11:00 a.m. or during the earnings call in the afternoon at 3:00 p.m. With that, I'm handing over to our CEO, Michael Drolshagen.

Thank you, Kevin, and welcome to our third Capital Markets webcast. Today, we would like to give you an in-depth insight into an area that whilst open operating behind the scenes is crucial to WashTec's success, our service. For us, service is far more than just a support function. It is a central component of our value creation and the key to offering our customers what really matters in the Car Wash business, maximum uptime, the highest quality and a seamless experience for end users. Everything we do at WashTec, whether innovations in our product portfolio, digitalization or efficiency programs ultimately contributes to one goal, keeping our customers' operations running safely and profitably. Today, we will show you why service, in particular, plays such a pivotal role in our overall strategy. Before we delve deeper into the area of service, let's briefly set the scene. The industry is changing and significantly so. Operators are facing a shortage of skilled workers, rising demands for service quality and a greater need for uptime, whilst at the same time, the number of carwashes is stagnating in many markets. For us, this means that WashTec must offer solutions that tangibly simplify our customers' day-to-day operations. As presented in our first webcast, our overarching goals as a solution provider are, therefore, clearly defined and embedded in our strategy. First, comfort and ease of use. We design our products and services to be intuitive, reliable and easy to use without the need for specialist knowledge for both our internal and external customers. For operators, this means less complexity in their day-to-day operations and for their customers, a convenient hassle-free car wash experience. Simplicity is a core element of our customer promise and runs through our technology, chemicals and service. Secondly, business success for our customers. Our aim is to deliver clearly measurable business value for all stakeholders throughout the entire product life cycle. We achieved this through, among other things, excellent products, high availability, strong chemistry, efficient processes and increasingly through digital services and subscription models that support recurring revenue and higher customer satisfaction. Third, sustainability in chemistry, water and operations. For us, sustainability is not a secondary consideration, but an integral part of our performance promise, resource efficient cleaning chemistry, optimized water treatment and energy-efficient system solutions. Our aim is to combine environmental impact with business benefits in the interest of both our customers and the environment. And fourth, quality throughout the entire life cycle. We view quality as an ongoing commitment from development and production right through to ongoing operation. Real-world usage data, continuous improvements and technical innovations ensure that our systems perform reliably for many, many years. Our service team plays a key role in this as quality ambassadors in the field. And this is exactly where service comes into play. Uptime isn't achieved through good products alone, but through seamless, reliable and ongoing support. Whilst the sales team is in contact with the customer every few years, our service technicians are on site, carrying out regular maintenance or repairs and are, therefore, the most important point of contact for building quality, trust and loyalty. This is our defense against our competitors, whether they are from Europe, the West or the East and Far East. When we talk about transformation at WashTec, service is one of the areas undergoing the most significant change. We are evolving from a traditional reactive approach to service towards becoming a data-driven, proactive and digital solutions provider. What does that mean in practice? In the past, our service offering was primarily based on traditional full service contracts. This meant that we took full responsibility for maintenance and servicing, but without digital support or data-driven transparency. Service deployments were predominantly only triggered for regular maintenance or once a fault had already occurred. We could, therefore, only react once the customer reported a problem. And the first point of contact was our helpdesk, which provided telephone support but had only limited insight into the actual system status. And last but not least, remote support was possible, but more as an additional service, technically limited and without a continuous data foundation. Let's take a look into today. First is, My.Carwash as a digital platform for our service. With My.Carwash, we are creating a central digital platform through which operators, technicians and our support staff can jointly access real-time information transparently, intuitively and at any time. Second, digital connected systems. Our systems are now fully connected. They automatically send operational data, status messages and error notifications to our platform, thereby enabling a whole new level of service quality. Third, preventive fall detection. By analyzing condition data, we identify problems before they occur. This reduces unplanned downtime and ensures significantly higher system availability. And fourth, increased uptime through monitoring and automated alerts. Continuous monitoring, automated warnings and intelligent notifications enable a service that runs in the background before the customer even notices anything. And tomorrow, our technicians are supported by digital tools, intelligent resource planning, automated spare parts, recommendations and AI-supported diagnostics. This enables them to work faster, more efficiently and with a higher first-time resolution rate. Our commitment is clear. We guarantee our customers stable, reliable and highly available operation every day. Service has always been part of our DNA. Now we are taking this area to the next level. Today, WashTec boasts one of the densest and most efficient service networks in the industry, a genuine competitive advantage, around 1,800 employees worldwide, over 700 of whom work in service. They work daily to ensure the availability of our machines. What makes us the industry leader an extensive service network always close to the customer, excellent availability. 98% of all calls are answered directly and still in person. Rapid spare parts supply, decentralized warehouses and express logistics reduce downtime to a minimum and transparency and efficiency, remote support plus real-time status updates, data-driven fault diagnostics. Our service organization is our economic moat. It creates liability, customer proximity and it protects our market position. And it is our ear to the customer. No other unit gathers more feedback, more experience and more operational insights. Particularly important point. Our machines do not need servicing because they are unreliable, but because they operate under extreme conditions. Good service ensures a longer service life, higher customer satisfaction and stable recurring revenue. At WashTec, service is not a cost center. It is a strategic value driver. The sales team sells the first machine, service team sells everyone after that. And with that, I hope you enjoy Eric's deep insights. Eric, the stage is yours.

Thank you. Dear ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to welcome you today. My name is Eric Ferreira da Silva, and I have the privilege of leading the global service business line at WashTec. Over the next 20 minutes, I will take you on a deep dive into the world of WashTec service, our footprint, our performance and our strategic direction. A few moments ago, Michael Drolshagen outlined WashTec's strong positioning in service leadership. I would like to build on that by highlighting the true scale and strength of our global service network. Across 14 countries from Germany and Austria to the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, our service entities operate under a unified centrally coordinated structure from our headquarters in Augsburg. Why is such service footprint of importance for our customers? Our car wash sites are regularly visited with an average of 6 to 7 interventions per year, resolving our customer cases in 87% with the first intervention. Our footprint is not just impressive, it is essential. It ensures that our customers receive local support in their own language with consistent quality and internationally certified standards. WashTec service is generating more than a quarter of million service reports annually. We are able to serve our customers efficiently all over the world, thanks to WashTec attractiveness as employer with a strong brand, local entities adapting to market conditions and proving the best working conditions possible as well as personal development through an established competence management system. Dear ladies and gentlemen, with this slide, I would like to provide you the service revenue perspective. Since 2021, our service revenue has grown at a compounded annual rate of more than 8% and the share of the service business line has risen from 26% in 2021 to 31% in 2025. This growth is driven by expanded regional coverage, strong pricing power and best-in-class service performance. Let's describe the activities performed by the WashTec service organization, leading to this high revenue level with the following slide. Our service organization delivers a broad portfolio of activities. Digital services, a powerful digital platform offering real-time insights into machine usage, status, maintenance history and annual cost. The WashTec service is installing our equipment at customer site as part of the machine delivery and handover process. We are able, thanks to the support of our partners to install complex sites in record times all around the world. By such, ensuring the highest performance and quality right after commissioning the equipment. We cooperate with construction companies and architects to provide a complete functioning site to our customers. This activity represents around 30% of the total working hours performed by the organization, in this case, mainly by partners. Preventive maintenance. WashTec service is maintaining the equipment on a regular basis to secure correct functioning and best washing quality. On request for high users in extreme environments, WashTec service is providing an extended preventive maintenance plan. Repairs. WashTec service repairs all technical installation related to car wash systems at our customer location within the best-in-class reaction time and quality. Through remote support and our helpdesk, we answer our customers' inquiries and incident notifications. A large share of incidents can be resolved remotely through the cooperation of our customers on site and our helpdesk. Preventive maintenance, repairs and remote support account for a share of 55% of the activities. The service organization is ensuring the implementation of our warranty obligation and goodwill support. Spare parts management, administration training account for around 7% of the activities. We have now a good understanding of WashTec service activities. With the following slide, we will describe how those activities relate to the service portfolio and market segments. We differentiate between 2 main service models. First, vehicle and spare parts are related to customers without having a service contract with WashTec, representing around 60% of pre-consolidation service revenue. WashTec is reacting to customer incident notification and solve those in 87% of the case as the first intervention. Our customers are contacting WashTec through helpdesk available in local language. Spare parts are provided to the customer side either through a web shop order or through an order triggered by the helpdesk. The second type of service model is service amendment contracts. Those are tailored frameworks for key accounts and non-key accounts, including remote monitoring, guaranteed response times and full maintenance packages. Our service contract offering is adapted to the market segment, the local requirement and is combining many different types of service activities. Just to mention some of those, remote monitoring, intervention within 4 hours after incident notification, preventive maintenance, site activity dashboard and many more. For key accounts, we guarantee service level for their complete network spread across several countries. Service cases are managed according to key account requirements and IT systems. Financial contract management is adapted to our customer needs. On the other side, our non-key customers are profiting in all countries from our best-in-class service performance. Through full maintenance contract agreements, our customers secure their cost base for their WashTec equipment until end of life, giving them visibility on their profit pipeline. Our market positioning supports our pricing strategy, best-in-class service for our customer paired with a strong pricing positioning. Today, WashTec is servicing 70% of the WashTec equipment installed basis. 30% of the installed base is classified as sleeping customers, a large potential to develop further the service activities in our region. Now we have a good understanding of the WashTec service portfolio and market segments. With the following slide, we have a look at the regional structure. Over the past 60 years, we have developed into a full service provider in the world of car washing. In the equipment sector, this includes our rollover systems where the car stands still and the system moves back and forth and tunnel system where the car is pulled through the system. Of course, we also wash buses and lorries; and those -- for those who prefer to do it themselves, we have our jet wash system in our range. In addition, we have water treatment, which is becoming increasingly important and our chemicals and aftersales service. Europe and other countries are representing an installed base of more than 38,000 sites. EUR 125 million service revenue, where 40% of our customers are under service amendment contracts. Around 70% of the WashTec machines are serviced by WashTec with around 490 technicians. Each technician has an average of around 70 machines under his responsibility. We see a large potential with client service and increase in technician density in selected regions. North America is representing EUR 31 million revenue with more than 5,500 units as installed basis, 30% of the size being under service and maintenance contract. 5% of the equipment are covered by the WashTec service with around 90 own service technicians and several local partners. The machine density per technician is around 32. North America potential results in our benchmark online service offering and regional increase of workforce. Overall, WashTec service covers 65% to 70% of the installed base with more than 580 technicians for a yearly revenue of EUR 155 million in 2025. Looking now at our competitive landscape in Europe in particular. Our market is fragmented, but no competitor in Europe matches our service network density. Our main competitors are the ones active in the carwash equipment business. None of our competitors is able to provide in Europe a comparable service network density. The service offering is a crucial criterion for many customers, especially for key accounts at the time of purchase. Here, we compete with Christ, Istobal and others being manufacturer and service providers. We compete in terms of the overall solution and the total cost of ownership. Since we don't normally service third-party machines, our service competitors are small local service providers or large full-service gas station service providers. After having investigated our competitive landscape, how do we envisage WashTec service growth and profitability in the future? We will continue to grow steadily service revenue through building service contract with equipment purchase, enlarging our product portfolio by introducing new smart and digital products, further increasing our service coverage in areas without service today and also increase our service capacities in areas with a large concentration of equipment, service offering to car wash related areas. While steadily increasing revenue, we are operating more efficiently, thanks to digital tools, data-driven decision-making paired with advanced AI solutions. Efficient upskilling and onboarding of our staff and reducing significantly the effort for installation of our customer sites and changing our logistic model to a hub-based one. I will further develop this later on. And we sustainably operate by reducing the CO2 emissions, thanks to higher remote servicing. WashTec service is also improving the longevity of our machine. Dear ladies and gentlemen, we are not certainly curious on how we concretely do this. So let me show you an example for Germany with the next slide. We see here an exemplary service heat map for Germany. The small squares are depicting our technicians and the dots of our customer sites. By combining our equipment data, type of equipment, age, last intervention with the data related to our service technician, the stock on their van experience, the distance to travel, we are efficiently exploiting our service business. Furthermore, AI tools will support soon on reduction in the service deployment effort. We have in several regions with growth potential, increased the number of technicians. In 2025, the number of technicians has increased by more than 50 full-time employees. Acknowledging the service growth potential given by the market potential around 30% sleeping customers, we are introducing further service type in our portfolio. Here, we distinguish between digital and smart product offering and service extending further our portfolio and activities at our customer side. The new digital and smart service product are real-time monitoring the equipment through our digital backbone and digital platform. We can react to any anomalies reported by the equipment before the staff on site is noticing any breakdown. We are then proactively coordinating with our customers the needed actions to solve the anomaly. As example, we are covering the complete installed base of a large key account customers in North America with this service. CarWash Assist. This is a further evolution of the remote monitoring. Thanks to video streams and interaction with the wash customer, we are able to reset the machine, restart the wash program and many other remote functions. I will further detail CarWash Assist in a couple of minutes. Our digital platform, MyWashTec is offering real-time information to our customer and will be further deployed into the installed bases. We are also introducing EasyCarWash PRO/4U, which is our solution for a customer to offer a subscription service to their customer. Our EasyCarWash PRO is featuring an app-based user interface on one side and an automatic registration through plate recognition at the washing side on the other side. On a more traditional side of service offering, we are cleaning the wash bay on a regular basis, recycling the mud from the water reclaim system or refilling chemicals at our customer site. This service offering is being actually pushed and developed. Ladies and gentlemen, let us now turn to a particularly effective lever in our efficiency program, reducing installation costs. In a highly competitive market environment, it is crucial to achieve maximum efficiency, not only in production, but also in the delivery and installation of our systems. Why is the topic of installation so important? Currently, installation costs account for a double-digit percentage of machine sales. This is a significant proportion that has a major impact on our results. At the same time, we see that installation capacity repeatedly become a bottleneck, especially in times of high demand. That is why we have put together a comprehensive package of measures that addresses several levels. Our strategic goals are clearly defined. We are significantly shortening the installation process. Our goal is to reduce throughput time by around 15% to 30%. We use existing capacities more flexibly and efficiently in order to avoid bottlenecks and respond more quickly to customer requirement. And we are reducing the overall cost of installation in the long term. How do we achieve this? A key element is the introduction of the hub concept where -- which we will rollout gradually from the first half of 2026. Regional hubs will serve as consolidation centers where machines and components are bundled and optimally prepared for delivery. This will enable us to significantly reduce delivery time to customer. In addition, we are making our installation teams more flexible. This means that we are setting up the teams in such a way that they can be deployed quickly and efficiently depending on demand and the order situation. This allows us to avoid idle times and better cushion peaks. Another important point is close integration of processes between sales, purchasing, production installation. By harmonizing and standardizing these processes, we are reducing interface losses and avoiding unnecessary complexity, especially with peripheral and small parts, which have often led to delays in the past. What do we expect to achieve? The program is already well on track. We are confident that these measures will not only significantly reduce installation costs, but also further increase customer satisfaction. After all, faster, more efficient and smoother installation means less downtime and faster commissioning of our customer systems. We will see the first effects as early as 2026 with further savings and efficiency gains expected from first quarter 2027 onwards. This will enable us to make an important contribution to achieving our financial goals while strengthening our competitiveness in the market. We had previously a comprehensive walk through how growth is generated for WashTec Service, and we presented our first efficiency program related to reducing the installation effort. Let me now present further efficiency levers, which are accompanying our revenue growth. We are fully leveraging efficiency opportunities through our digital backbone. The service deployment is transitioning to an IE-based tool, enabling more efficient route planning. Thanks to the available machine monitoring algorithm, we can detect degradation of the machine health and before any breakdown, implement a protective preventive measure. Here, as an example, the side brush drive health monitoring indicator. By data fusion of, as example, less activities on the equipment and further development of MyWashTec digital platform, we are driving efficiently the service activities in our market. WashTec service is onboarding also many technicians by such supporting a larger service footprint and revenue growth. At the same time, we're anticipating retirements. To accompany this generation change and staff increase, we are opening a WashTec Academy in Augsburg in first quarter 2027. Thanks to this state-of-the-art training asset, we are reducing the training time for technicians and upskilling the actual technician population for the benefits of our service quality. So now let's have a closer look at one of our digital solutions that we are currently introducing to the market, CarWash Assist. This picture is showing the evolution of our actual helpdesk with CarWash Assist. To support our customers, we are enlarging the possibilities of our helpdesk and interacting directly with the wash customer. On the left screen, the CarWash Assist interface for our helpdesk is shown. Video live streams, machine status and function common are available. On the middle screen, the actual technician position and on the right screen, the incoming call from our customers. Why is the CarWash Assist so important for our customers? The uptime of the machine is the most relevant factor for the operator of the site. Revenue is generated only when the machine is washing. The machine must be available as soon as the wash customer intends to enter the washing bay. So how does CarWash Assist help our customers? In case the machine is not ready to wash or the wash customer requires support to wash his car, the customer used to address the staff on site, which is very often busy with other tasks or cannot further help due to missing training. By interfacing directly with WashTec, a quick response to any anomalies or customer question is ensuring higher uptime of the machine, happy customers and more washes. And to visualize the benefits of the CarWash Assist, let me show you a short video. Operator, can you please start the video? [Presentation]

Now we are detailing the CarWash Assist offering. Our team of experts monitor the status of the machine. They are alerted by the system in the event of errors and are contacted directly by carwash customers in case of problems. Four cameras provide a live 360-degree view of the car wash and archive all events for up to 5 days. The video material can be used in case of accidents. State-of-the-art technology enables our experts to control the machine remotely due to security policy, on-site confirmation of carwash customer or staff is required to set machines in motion. Third-party devices can also be connected and remotely controlled using our IoT gateway like turning on our flights, compressors, controllers and many more. CarWash Assist benefits our customers and WashTec equally. For our customer, CarWash Assist brings higher customer satisfaction and therefore, also higher customer loyalty, no need for trained on-site staff, which also allow to operate fully unmanned sites and of course, higher up times. For WashTec, the benefits are higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, regular revenue streams and CarWash Assist is an enabler for us to bundle digital tools with long-term service and consumable contracts. Finally, we can increase our operational service efficiency through by solving issues remotely. We are bundling a service contract with a supplier of our chemicals and the customer pays a monthly fee to WashTec, potentially structured as a pay per wash model. We are now at the end of the CarWash Assist presentation. I will answer any questions you may have during the Q&A session. Thank you for your attention, and I'll now hand over to Andreas.

Yes. Thank you, Eric, for this deep explanations about the core of our service business, what makes us unique and why we hold a strong and prosperous market position. Ladies and gentlemen, let me summarize on a more financial perspective, what we have heard. Why is service key from a financial perspective? Let me start with the economics of our installed base. When we look at the average lifetime revenue per machine, it becomes clear that the initial equipment sale is only one part of the story. Over a typical lifetime of around 10 years, roughly half of total revenues are generated after the installation through service and consumables. Equipment accounts for about 50% to 60%, whereas service still contributes another 20% to 30%, depending on the configuration, usage of intensity and product mix and consumables contributes about another 15% to 25%. This illustrates an important point. Each machine we place today creates a long-term revenue stream or, in other words, over the life cycle, each machine sold twice. Even more important is profitability. In the center of the slide, you can see our indicative CM3. CM3 stands for Contribution Margin 3, what we consider gross profit, including selling expenses. You easily notice that our recurring revenues, service and consumables show up with higher profitability. Therefore, no wonder that we want to expand our revenue share in these fields. So overall, service sits in a very attractive position. It combines recurring revenue, strong margins and close customer relationships. On the right-hand side, you see our Service workforce structure. Around 75% of our service employees are direct technicians and share has been increasing year-over-year. Direct technicians stand for quality, productivity and scale service revenues efficiently, while indirect functions focus on deployment, planning and back-office excellence. Let me now turn to how this translates into midterm growth. Our revenue development by business line show a clear structural shift. While equipment remains a strong foundation, the share of service and consumables has been steadily increasing. In absolute terms, we are targeting around 5% average annual growth, driven disproportionately by recurring revenues. This is also reflected in the revenue split on the right-hand side. Recurring revenues represent around 38% in 2022, reaching roughly 47% by 2025 and are expected to reach around 50% by 2027. How do we achieve this? Eric has taken you on a journey how we will achieve this. Summarizing is easy. We increase our customer loyalty through service excellence, high uptime, fast response times and reliable performance are the strongest levers to secure long-term customer relationship. We bundle our offerings through standardized service packages and global configuration, we simplify purchasing decisions and increase lifetime value per customer. And last but not least, digitalization. Solutions like CarWash Assist and subscription-based models enable predictive maintenance, better resource allocation and recurring digital revenues, all with attractive margins and low incremental cost. So the financials speak by itself. But as always, for me, it's also key to understand and track and optimize some other more quantitative KPIs that underpin our strategy. Some are shown on this slide. We compete around 250,000 service reports per year, but efficiency comes with service reports per technicians. Long term, this number increases. But year-on-year, we had a slight decline of around 1%. Deeper analysis show me that this is driven mainly by the number of new technicians, Eric already mentioned, we hired in 2025 to expand our future business. The new colleagues need to be trained. Therefore, this number goes temporarily slightly down and next year, it will go up again. A particularly important metric is sleeping customers currently at around 30%. This represents significant upside potential within our existing installed base without the need for new equipment sales. And last, our first fix rate exceeds 85%. This is not only a quality metric, but also a cost driver. Fewer repeat visits mean lower costs and higher customer satisfaction. Taken together, these KPIs clearly demonstrate that operational excellence in service directly translates into financial performance. To conclude, WashTec's service business is not an add-on. It is a core value driver. It provides recurring revenues, superior margins and resilience across economic cycles. By continuously expanding our installed base, strengthening service excellence and leveraging digital solutions, we are bundling a business model that delivers sustainable growth and attractive returns for our investors. Thank you for your attention. We look forward now to your questions, for which I'm handing over to the operator.

Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Drolshagen, Mr. Ferreira, Mr. Pabst for the time you took to make this presentation. Ladies and gentlemen, now it's your turn. [Operator Instructions] We already have the first participant and we go to Mr. [indiscernible]. [Operator Instructions]. While then we try and get to Mr. Augustin.

And I have 2 questions to start off. The first one is actually the difference between the partner networks and your own network. So to understand a little bit the accounting of your revenues and intentions. So is a partner network completely outside your revenue stream? Or do you supply some service to the partner and then some of that is actually also on your sales and your profitability? And do you consider to enlarge your network by partners in the future?

Who will take this one. Eric?

Yes. To answer your question first, we have already in the past, enlarged our network by simply taking over some partners. In the presentation, I mentioned several time partners, you have to understand is that we are -- we could also call them subcontractors. So they are performing work on our behalf as part of a statement of work contracts we have with them. And then they are counted as cost of sales or internal costs and generating the revenue -- we are generating the revenue towards customers.

Okay. And the next one is actually looking at the differences between the U.S. and Europe. So there is a different amount of machines or penetration of machines versus employees. And my question would be, is there also a difference between the profitability of the service business in the U.S. and Europe? And is that largely connected to that, let's say, amount of machines that is serviced by one employee? And could you help me with bridging the idea for the difference?

Maybe Mr. Augustin, that's somehow part of the story. It's true. If the distances get longer, then service technicians are spending more time on the road, and that means that the productivity is going down because you simply spend more time on the road. So if you have a look at the heat map, which we have in the presentation for Germany, for example, you really can see that the service technicians are, let's call it, surrounded by a lot of installed base by a high density of machines. And you know in North America, our density is not as high as in Europe, and that is one part of the situation, while the profitability overall in service in North America is a little bit lower. But the other thing here is with implementing the digital solutions like CarWash Assist, we really can speed up here and also can increase the profitability there.

We are on a good track record in the U.S. with online services. So we can solve many problems already in the U.S. online due to this huge country size. And in addition, we have done analysis in the last weeks and months where it makes sense to hire service technicians or also to probably have some closer cooperations with subcontractors. And so we speed up this as well that we get this revenue stream closer into our network than it was before.

And we move back to Mr. [indiscernible], you should be able to speak now.

Okay. Two additional ones from my end. One on the, let's say, density in the U.S. was already answered. The other one would be, is there a big difference in service between the different technologies, rollover, tunnel or jet. So are some of these machines more likely to have downtimes? Or is it pretty much the same across your products? The second question would be when it comes to contact centers, that's definitely can develop into a severe cost base. So are there any ideas to replace first level support by chatbots or any kind of AI functions?

Yes. So let me answer your first question. If we make the difference between rollover, tunnel and jet wash equipment, due to the technology used in those 3 type of equipment, we have a different need for service. As an example, tunnels are very often operated with local staff from the operator, which are able to correct simple anomalies. So when WashTec technicians is addressing topics on the tunnel, those are basically more complicated topics than others. For rollovers, the question is basically that all the equipments are installed on site where the staff on the site is not familiar with this type of equipment. And we are then by such increasing the need of having a WashTec response to any anomalies. And to finish with high-pressure systems, self wash, those are subject to interaction directly with the wash customers. So we have degradation of hoses and such type of things, which makes the biggest part of our problems to be taken. So yes, to answer your question, those 3 type of equipment are generating completely different level of activities for the WashTec service organization.

Therefore, we're implementing the training center that we also can train our customers in a better way, especially for the tunnel segment.

And to answer your second question, which is related to local language capabilities of interacting with customers, so mentioned by me in the presentation as helpdesk. Today, we have very high performance of answering calls and are actively working on chatbot AI-related solutions, not only for our customers, also for our own staff being able to answer simple questions and direct to correct solutions. And this is a clear improvement we are working on in particular because the large part of interactions we have with the site are related to basics problems, which could be simply solved with a standard interface and standard response.

Okay. Thank you very much. And in the meantime, we have not received further questions. [Operator Instructions] That is not the case by now. So well, Mr. [indiscernible] again, please.

Yes. If we still got some minutes, I make use of it. You demonstrated that consumables come within a very attractive margin. So is there also an idea if you have, let's say, a more dense service network that this would also, let's say, positively influence the sale of consumables to the customers or is this a complete, let's say, different type of business or distribution?

The two types of businesses are linked as explained, we explained it with previously with the sales of the machine and then having service technicians directly at the contact with customers and customer loyalty doing this. Of course, it is a very strong lever also to explain or to bring our chemicals in use on the different sites. The technicians perfectly sees which type of chemicals are used in the machine we are servicing and give the opportunities, and we are looking into it to better market and to have a higher penetration of our chemicals products.

[Operator Instructions] We come to the end of today's capital market webcast. Thank you to all participants for your interest in WashTec. And if there are any further questions till later date, please feel free to contact Investor Relations. Thank you to the management team for the presentation and your time to answer the questions. I wish you all a successful day and handing over to one of you guys for the final remarks.

That's me. So ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Management Board, I would like to thank you for your interest in our company, and we wish you a pleasant day. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.