Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Duni Q2 Interim Report. Today, I'm pleased to present President and CEO, Robert Dackeskog and CFO, Magnus Carlsson. For the first part of this call, all participants will be in listen -only mode, and afterwards there will be a Q&A section. I'll now hand it over to our speakers. Please go ahead. Thank you. Yes, hi and welcome to the Duni Group report for Q2 2021. Me and Magnus will go through what has happened during the year and, of course, especially in Q2 here. I hope everyone enjoyed the summer. It has been a very tough year in many aspects, and I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone in our company for a fantastic job during the past year. We have faced a lot of challenges during the past year, which we have handled in a very good way, and I believe that many of these challenges will actually become really good opportunities for the future for us. We'll go through the period first here in short. The COVID-19 restrictions eased during the second part of Q2 with strong result improvement as a consequence. I think a lot of countries have gradually opened up, and especially in June, we've seen much better momentum in the restaurant business. Strategic partnerships accelerate the sustainability agenda through new materials and new business models. Here we believe that cooperation and partnership will be really important for the future for us. BioPak continues to grow rapidly with strong operational leverage. The fourth one here, the German support program, contributes to the quarter. That was a little bit of the period in short. We go a little bit more into details. Our net sales increased by 37% to a little bit more than SEK 1.1 billion. It was the eased restrictions as vaccination rates accelerated and the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases dropped. It's good. Sales increased in the business area at Duni as private events increased and restaurant visitors returned earlier and at a quicker pace than previous Q2s. Especially in June this year, it's been good momentum. The business area BioPak continues to grow as takeaway benefits from the COVID-19 restrictions and the high demand for sustainable packaging continue. The business area at Duni was well prepared to meet the demand now, while the business area at BioPak's delivery performance has been a big challenge here with, come back to that, a lack of containers and so on. Our operating income is up by SEK 150 million versus last year to SEK 58 million in the quarter. The main explanations for the improved results are the recovery of sales due to the market opening up earlier and faster compared to last year, coupled with growing BioPak sales. Second point is that the German government's support and continued cost control strengthen the results further. Significant raw material and freight cost increases have a negative impact. Year-to-date highlights: net sales are -1% to SEK 2,056 million. Very low sales to the hotel and restaurant industry until the end of May due to the heavy restrictions. Of course, from June, much more positive development. The restriction was in place last year as well, only from the end of March. We see continuously strong growth in BioPak, which is the reason Duni Group's turnover ends in line with last year. If we look at the operating income, it was up SEK 30 million versus last year to SEK 18 million. Volume decreases and high share fixed costs in the business area at Duni have a significant impact on our results. The strong operational leverage for BioPak generates high operating income growth in BioPak. The government support and cost-saving activity supports the results year -to-date as well, further while the raw material and the freight cost increase have a bit of a negative impact. I hand over to Magnus here to go into the business areas. Thank you very much, Robert, and good morning, everyone. I will now go through our two business areas in more detail, and I start with the business area at Duni, representing our products to set the table, like napkins, table covers, and candles. Leaving quarter one, which was heavily influenced by the pandemic and the lockdown situation, the second quarter, and especially the end of May, as Robert mentioned, indicated a significant improvement in volumes directly linked to the easing of restrictions towards restaurants and, I would say, society in general. We are not yet in a normalized situation. We are not out of the pandemic, but clearly we are making giant leaps in the right direction. The improved situation is noticeable in all markets but, of course, very much linked to the vaccination development. The U.K. was one of the earliest countries to open up, and we saw that clearly in our orders coming in with almost no delay and also in the sales numbers for this market. As you can see, all regions increased significantly from last year, although the central region, with Germany as the biggest market, still has some restrictions that have just very recently been eased. Retail channel indicates levels that we have seen pre-pandemic, while the professional channel, like the restaurant, hotel, and catering, is still not back to normal levels. Again, with significant improvements from last year. The result improvement is directly linked to the better market condition I just mentioned, and volumes from the negative results we had last year were almost up SEK 118 million. We're now close to zero. In addition to the increased volumes, the indicated German support program contributed almost SEK 45 million in the quarter, which, of course, is a very important factor. However, we already benefited from various support programs last year, the resulting improvement is linked to an underlying better situation, with better utilization in our factories and, in general, much better cost coverage. The inflationary pressure, as we have seen already in Q1, has remained, we are at historical high levels on pulp and other key raw materials. We have, during the quarter, taken actions to initiate price compensation measures with a planned effect later this year. I will now move over to the business area BioPak. If we move over to the BioPak business area, which is offering sustainable food packaging, we continue to see a strong demand. The growth is even stronger than we have seen in the first quarter. It is clear that BioPak has benefited from the shift towards takeaway solutions coming from the lockdowns. The comparable figures towards 2020: we already had a lockdown situation last year. That indicates that the growth is not only linked to the pandemic situation but also to the genuine increased demand for sustainable solutions for food packaging. It is also noticeable that the growth in our two biggest markets, Australia and Germany, is strong and very firm, although we have totally different situations with a lockdown in Germany and are relatively unaffected in Australia, at least for the second quarter. Since the end of last year, we have seen an accelerated cost development in container shipments, Robert touched upon that from Asia. The increase is almost 600% versus a year ago, especially dramatic only in the last month. This is not only impacting Duni, of course, but basically the whole trade between Europe and Asia. We are doing everything we can to protect the satisfactory development in our delivery performance towards our customers. We have been forced to initiate price increases, starting gradually from the third quarter. To summarize, Q2 was very strong for BioPak, with clear leverage on the volumes as seen in the strengthening of the margin. Again, there are cost challenges seen in the last four to six weeks on logistics. I hand it back to Robert. Thank you, Magnus. If we look a little bit at the COVID-19 situation. We are approaching a more normalized situation with fewer restrictions, there is a bit of uncertainty, and we have this Delta variant that may cause some changes in the restrictions. Still some uncertainty, but it looks more positive, as Magnus mentioned here, than last year in a way. Of course, we follow this carefully with the aim of being well-positioned in a world where the need to meet, eat, and travel is expected to rise. Another focus for us is, of course, accelerating within the sustainability agenda and the digital transformation, which we are working on constantly to fine-tune and continue to set more ambitious targets every day. The last point here is what we've been working on, not just in the quarter but for the time here: building up strategic partnerships, which will enable us to remain more and better-positioned in the post-pandemic world. There are three important partnerships that we want to highlight in this quarter, and that is that we have partnered up with OrganoClick, which is an award-winning Swedish company that was honored for its innovation in designing renewable functional cellulose-based materials. There, Duni has developed a new Bio Dunisoft napkin, where we're using a bio -binder. The binder is like the glue with the fibers. This one is made from corn, lemon peels, and other food waste, which is fantastic. In addition to that, we have our new Bio Dunicel premium table coverings, which we use a renewable binder, which is made from potato starch. This one is developed by Duni's factory team in Germany, which is a great innovation. Both napkins and the table coverings are recyclable paper. The second partnership here is that we're partnering up with &Repeat, with whom we will join forces to achieve circularity of single-use products and take one step further towards the goal of becoming fully circular. &Repeat offers the smartest deposit system and return system to restaurants and offices that make it easy to recycle takeaway packaging, and the purpose is to create less waste. The third partnership starts in a way that we are dedicated to offering the most sustainable solution for any customer occasion. We believe in a combination of single-use, reuse, or other upcoming innovative solutions that will transform us to a more circular society. That's pretty important. Partnering up with the Relevo GmbH strengthens our existing offer within the takeaway packaging, mainly today supplied by our BioPak brand in Europe. We are really happy with these innovations and partnerships and looking forward to many more in the future to take us to our goal of becoming fully circular and also climate -neutral All right. Magnus, I hand over to you. Thank you. Some comments on the financials. If we start with looking at the income statement. As Robert mentioned, volumes increased by almost 40% in the quarter from the previous year. It should be noted that the second quarter last year was very weak for business area Duni. Nevertheless, the growth seen in both business areas is the most important factor for the result improvement of almost SEK 150 million in the quarter versus last year. The other important factor for the quarter is the German government support program, as we have mentioned before. We did receive support already last year, so the net effect is still positive, around maybe SEK 25 million. If we look more specifically at the business areas, they both grow fast, close to 40% versus last year for the quarterly period. Looking at business area Duni for the first half-year, it is still burdened by the first quarter, which basically was not affected in 2020 by the pandemic. As in the previous quarter, BioPak remains the biggest business area since the growth has been significant also before the pandemic but accelerated even further in the last year. The operational margin is 10% for the quarter. Indeed, strong development leverages the volumes. The sharp increase in logistics costs, which has had a negative impact on BioPak, has mainly impacted the second half of the quarter. Looking back on the rolling 12 months curve, on the profit curve, it is clear that we now have a positive development since mid -first quarter, and it accelerates upwards. Looking at the cash flow, it is unfortunately so that although we have a clear profit improvement in the quarter of SEK 150 million, the operating cash flow decreases. This is strictly related to the effect on accounts receivables, which decreased quite significantly last year moving into the pandemic. Now opposite this year, moving on from the pandemic with increased volumes. All other aspects of the cash flow, including the inventory and CapEx, have improved from last year. Finally, looking at the financial position and our balance sheet and some other key financial figures, it is clear that net debt is stable versus year-end, slightly higher than a year ago, mainly for the reason I just mentioned about higher accounts receivables. Return on capital employed developed positively, aligned with the strengthening of the result and firm control on our balance sheet. Also, finally, if you look at the financial targets, unfortunately, we are not able to deliver on those in this tough year, as Robert mentioned initially. They are progressively progressing in the right direction in comparison to previous quarters. We had a tough start of the year, clearly influenced by the lockdowns in almost all markets, lasting basically up until the end of May. Now we have finally seen clear steps towards a more normalized situation where we can meet and eat and socialize together. This is something I think we all have been longing for, Duni Group, and Duni Group will be there to make these occasions memorable. I thank you all and hand it back to Robert. Yeah. Thank you for listening, and we stop there and then for Q&A. Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero on the telephone keyboard now. If you do wish to withdraw your question, you can do so by pressing zero to cancel. There will be a brief pause while your question is being registered. It seems like we have no questions from the audio. I'll hand it back. We have one question coming from Karri Rinta from Handelsbanken. Yes. Thank you very much. Karri, Handelsbanken. A few questions. I guess I'll start with two clarifications. Second quarter, when I looked at the sales per product category, it was table covers that were weak again, and I'm guessing that's about indoor seating and Germany, but I just wanted to confirm that that is the main reason behind the weakness in table covers. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. All right. That's right. Yeah, sorry. Go on. I think, as you say, there has not been any indoor seating, especially Germany has been the one who has been the latest in a way to lift the restrictions. You're spot on. Yeah. All right. A similar observation in BioPak, and you had really strong sales in the West. Is that also all about the U.K. and is there anything other than just relaxing restrictions behind that? You're right, the U.K. had strong development, basically, I would say it's been relatively strong in all regions, and in some markets, depending on the size and so on, it's been even stronger than others. As we have seen, it is partly related to the lockdowns, we're also seeing, since we had a strong development in Australia, which has not had a lockdown, that we also had a strong development. It's slightly difficult to say. We can only confirm that the increase has been quite broad everywhere, particularly West, as you say. Good. I think you may have had some comments in the presentation. Now, I don't remember if it was for Duni or BioPak, but you mentioned that sales in June were almost back to June 2019 levels. If we were to look at the Duni division overall, is there any way to compare sales in June to what the sales were in June 2019 to get a sense of where we are in terms of recovery? Yeah. As we have clearly said throughout this year, the sales in business area Duni are strictly very linked to the restrictions. Once we had seen the restriction, we also saw that last year, we were approaching normal levels. It is comfortable to see that we are coming back quickly. As we said in June, the restrictions were eased almost everywhere in Europe, and we were approaching 2019 levels. Still, there are restrictions, which is also seen in the numbers. We're quite not there yet, but we saw good gradual acceleration in the second quarter. All right. A follow-up to that would be, then, typically if we look at the historical seasonality that Duni has, the company as a whole typically has Q3 sales that are similar to the second quarter. I guess assuming that there are no new restrictions that would be put in place during Q3, it would be safe to assume that we should see higher Q3 sales compared to Q2? Yeah, with the logic of having less restrictions throughout the period, the third quarter, that makes sense. Absolutely. All right. On the cost side, you mentioned both pulp prices and especially container prices. You mentioned with container prices that you had seen this cost inflation towards the end of the quarter. How should we think about gross margins in the third quarter? There is still the incremental pressure from higher pulp prices compared to the second quarter, since pulp prices continued to increase through the quarter. If you didn't manage any price increases for your own products, then gross margins should come down, assuming unchanged volumes. How should we think about how much of these cost pressures should we expect you should be able to offset already in the third quarter, if any? Yeah. As I think we have mentioned earlier, there is always a bit of a delay once you initiate the price increases. You're in a dialogue with the customers trying to come up with the best solutions. There is always a delay, and that varies with customers and regions. I think it's fair to say that we will not be able to come through early in the third quarter, but rather later in the third quarter. This is something that is dynamic, and we are in the middle of it, so it's difficult to say. All right. Final question, maybe more on the long term, then. What is your best sense when it comes to your customers and your customers' customers? What's the rate of bankruptcies or similar that you have seen? Is there any category? Because I would assume that maybe the catering sector has been hit the hardest, and probably due to the structure of that sector being a lot of smaller players, there are maybe quite a few that haven't survived the pandemic. What's your best assessment post-pandemic? What percentage of your customers and their customers' customers have survived? Any rough ballpark number would be very helpful. Yeah. I think it's hard to say a number in a way. I think we believe actually that the world will normalize and people will start to do catering, start to do travel, start to do events, and so on. I think we believe strongly in that, and I think there will be, of course, in some areas, harder hits, maybe restaurants will close down and so on. I think that the consumer wants to eat again. Maybe there are less restaurants, but it's a bigger cake in a way, and of course then it should be the right restaurants and takeaway places for us. It's really hard to say, actually, I have to say. I think we believe that it will normalize for the future. To just comment on that. I think there are two observations. One is for us: we have had very low bad debt losses. There has been a good resistance in the industry, supported by government programs to basically survive over this tough period. The second reflection is that the obstacle of coming back and starting up a new restaurant is normally very low. The more important thing to observe is the fundamental need to go out and eat and socialize. That, I think we have seen, is there. The prerequisites for being heard in that sense and for a quick comeback are good. Unfortunately, I'm not answering in a percentage number, but it's low. That I can say. All right. Even in the catering sector, you feel comfortable and confident that even that sector will come back? The catering sector is also linked to hotels and to bigger companies and so on. It's not only small players. Due to the programs, they have been able to survive through these tough periods to a big extent. Time will tell when we see the first big conferences and so on if it's during the autumn or later in the winter and so on. There will be a market that will quickly pick up the demand from this, I'm sure. All right. Thanks. That's very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. We have no more questions from the line. I will hand it back to our speakers. Okay. Great. Thank you for listening. We want to wish you a great summer and are looking forward to the next quarter. See you soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.
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