Safilo Group S.p.A.

Good afternoon and welcome to SAFILO Group's full year 2023 financial 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 risks 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. Angela Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michele Melotti, Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Barbara Ferrante, Director of Investor Relations. I will now pass the call over to Mr. Angela Trocchia, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Trocchia, you may begin, sir.

Hi, thanks. Thanks very much. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for attending today's conference call on the South Philadelphia full year results. In a complex year like 2023, in which a pretty tense and unstable geopolitical and macroeconomic environment added to our direct challenges, it was particularly important to us to achieve a level of revenue and adjusted operating margin very close to the strong performance we recorded in 2022. More than that, the passion and constant dedication of Safilo people has allowed us to further strengthen our group on all its main strategic pillars, from our brand portfolio to our supply chain to sustainability of the business model in the long term. During the year, we faced the undisputed challenge of our main market, North America, which after a weak end of 2022, continued to be affected by the prudent order attitude of customers in our main distribution channels, plus an unfurlable sun season which clearly did not help. Above all, we had to manage the expected decline of our business in the former Grand Vision chain, a significant headwind for our European market, which we countered with great determination by strengthening existing commercial relationships, but also by establishing new partnerships. It was an incredible job. by our teams, which allow us to close the year with the European market suspension in line with an extraordinary year like 2022, when Europe grew 12% over the previous year. This, I think, further demonstrates the resilience of our group and the value of the strategy that sees our clients as the focus of the entire company. 2023 was also characterized by exchange rate headwind as the euro strengthened against the US dollar and most of the other currencies, and continued inflationary pressure, in particular on personal costs. Our headwinds last year did not prevent us from addressing all our priorities. starting from the undoubtedly very difficult one of having to take another look at our industrial footprint in light of a brand portfolio that was no longer aligned with the know-how present in the historic Longarone plant. The project to look for an alternative solution was complex and not without challenges. But we believe that thanks to the active support of all the parties involved, we managed to reach the condition for the best possible outcome with the disposal of the production site, the full employment of all the workers, allowing in turn for the preservation of the sector's existing know-how. 2023 was also an extraordinary year as the quality of the work carried out, combined with the passion and constant dedication of South Africa people, allowed us to accelerate the consolidation of the licensed brand with a series of early renewal, which involved both our core license from Kate Spade and Tommy Hilfiger to the icing on the cake coming in January, This year with the early renewal of Bosch and Hugo, but also many other important brands like Fossil, Giuseccatura, Vajanas, Moschino, Levi's, and the renewal a few days ago of Missoni. Last year, we also signed two new partnerships with ETHRO and Stuart Weitzman, which were added to what is today a rich and complementary license portfolio, which provides us with unprecedented visibility and business continuity over our six years. This is a very important achievement for us, which sits alongside the key project, the pillar of our medium-term business plan. the solid and long-lasting growth of our home brands and almost unique portfolio in the industry, which in 2023 grew to represent approximately 44% of our sales from 42% the year before, thus progressing on our mid-term target to bring in it to represent over 50% of the group ranks. A project that was successfully executed during the year thanks to a focused action plan which gave continuity to the planned investment, allowing us to advance in the development and strengthening of all our main home brands, from Carrera and Polaroid, which continue to gain market share outside of the former GV chain, to Blenders, our flagship brand in the online channel, which in 2023 returned to growth. And together with Smith, further progress in its direct-to-consumer channel, allowed the share of online channels to increase to 16% of our group revenue from approximately 16% in 2022. I look to 2023 as a very resilient year that has set close with the level of sales approach in 2022 when the growth was 12% compared to the pre-pandemic 2019. And if we look at our organic performance, also net of the business in the former GB chains, we grew also thanks to the positive exit to the year, with quarter for sales growth at constant exchange, which marked our best performance of 2023. At the operating level, the year was characterized by the significant improvement in gross margin. Also in this case, we were coming from the sizable improvement recorded in 2022 compared to the lowest level of roughly 50% in 2018. Last year, we invested this strong performance in those projects instrumental to the growth and solidity of the company in the long term. progressing with marketing investment to support our home brand and the new IT and digital system envisaging the business plan. We closed the year with an adjusted EBITDA margin just slightly below the 2022 level, which was the best of the last seven years. 2023 was above all one in which we returned to a positive cash generation, the first after many years. recording a positive free cash flow in each single quarter of the year, with this leading to a lower net debt and a lower financial leverage. Let me stop here and then leave it to Michele to go through the specific sales trend by geographical area and our economic and financial KPIs.

Thank you, Angelo, and good evening to all of you. Let me start from our top line. We closed the year with a total net sales of 1,024.7 million euros, down 4.8% at current exchange rates and 2.3% at cost of exchange rates compared to 2022. While our organic business, which represents the most significant indicator of our underlying performance, recorded a minor deviation of minus 1.3%. a level very close to the revenues recorded in the previous year, despite the headwind represented by the well-known weakness of the North American market and by the decline of more than 60% of the business recorded in the foreign exchange following their integration into the Asilo Luxottica network. If we look at the performance of the business, also net of this latest effect, in 2023, The business grew by 1.7%, in particular thanks to Carrera and Polaroid, which made some progress for the second consecutive year, and Blender, which was back to growth after the post-pandemic normalization phase of sales in online channels. As far as our license brand is concerned, 2023 conferred POS and TOMIL figures to our collection as key points of reference in the industry. while among our most recent partnerships, Carolina Herrera, which joined our licensed portfolio in 2022, and David Beckham, launched for the very first time in Iowa in 2020, stood out for a double-digit growth, and both have already become core brands for the group. As said, Q4 was a positive exit to the year, with both North America and Europe back to growth. Net sales stood at 239.6 million euros, down 2.4% at current exchange rate, but up 2% at constant exchange rate, and 3.6% net of the former Grand Vision chains. On our specific sales trend by geographical area, in 2023, revenues in North America amounted to 452.9 million euros, down 9% at current exchange rate, 6.4% at cost of exchange rate, and by a minor 3.7% at the organic level. The North American market started to more measly weaken in Q4 2022, with customers in our traditional high-worth channels kicking off the new year with a prudent order attitude. with the greatest difficulties emerging during the second and third quarter of the year, when also the sun season was not particularly favorable. As discussed during the year, to suffer the most were the contemporary segment, where our product offer is more skewed to, and sunglasses to do the summer season, which was not particularly favorable. On the other hand, as far as our sport business was concerned, last year's meat was penalized by the general significant stocking in the market of bike products following the strong growth during the pandemic year, while it kept growing nicely in its D2C channel, which today represents almost 40% of the brand's North America business. As allotted by Angelo, in the United States, 2023 was a year of growth for blenders, also following the successful collaboration launched in the last quarter with the American football icon Coach Prime and the visibility provided to the brand by the explicit partnership with Oracle Red Bull Racing. And it was the growth of Blenders and Smith in the respective D2C channel which drove North America in positive territory in Q4, up 3% at constant exchange rates. If we just have a look at the traditional channel of independent optician and chains, Our business was more stable than in the previous quarter of the year, thanks to an easier comp base, while in Q4, mid-sales in physical sports shops were affected by a weak start to the winter season. In Europe, Q4 sales were also back to a positive performance, up 2.5% at cost of exchange rates compared to the same quarter of 2022. while the progress net of the former GB chains accelerated from plus 1% in Q3 to roughly plus 6% in Q4. Very meaningful for us, Europe closed the year substantially in line with the strong growth sales recorded in 2022, precisely at minus 0.06 at cost of the exchange rate, while the organic performance also before the former GB chain stood to a growth of around 7%, achieved thanks to the growth progress recorded by the business in the main market of the area, in particular Italy and France, where the group continued to enhance its commercial partnership, and also thanks to its state-of-the-art digital platform, namely EU and South Africa. The year was also characterized by the continuous growth of more dynamic market of the region, in particular Turkey, Hungary, and Poland. where we have been investing in recent year through the creation of direct commercial operation. Moving to our emerging market, 23 was a positive year for both Asia Pacific and the rest of the world, together reaching 15.6% of group sales versus 14.3% they represented the year before. In the full year, sales in Asia and Pacific grew by 3.9% at current exchange rate and 9.1% at constant exchange rate. Up also in the last quarter, plus 4.5% at constant exchange rate, thanks to the positive performance of the brands such as Boss, Force, and Polaroid in China and Hong Kong, and the continuing strong development of Smith in both Australia and Japan. In the rest of the world, revenues reached an important level of 100 million euros, roughly 10% of our total business, growing in the year by 3.9% at cost of exchange rates, thanks to the meaningful double-digit growth posted in the year by India and the Middle Eastern market, where in particular Carrera and Tommy Isiger, but also Boss and David Beckham, recorded significant progress, driving the upside. Last year was instead flat-fished in Latin America, mainly reflecting a difficult con base for Brazil in Q4. The exit of the year was in fact mixed in the rest of the world, overall weak-ish at minus 6.6% at constant exchange rates, driven, as said, by more challenging quarterly dynamics in our second-biggest Latin American market, while the Middle East continued its growth trajectory. Turning to our economic performance, our following comments refer to the adjusted result, excluding the cost incurred in the year for the non-recurring activities, which were mainly related to the disposal of the Longarone plant, the fact of which partially fell also in Q4 as the deal was completed at the end of October. In Q4, we then booked no recurring costs for determination of activities related to the exit of Jimmy Choo and for a write-down of some intangible assets related to Prevariable. The total of these no recurring costs were $16 million at the gross profit level, $29 and $42 million respectively at the EBITDA and EBIT levels. Leaving these expenses aside, throughout the entire year, our just economic performance was characterized by two very distinctive dynamics. 2023 was certainly the year in which our gross market nearly reached its all-time high, posting significant year-on-year improvement in each single quarter. This was a very meaningful achievement for us, reflecting some very clear drivers. In primis, an effective Pricing policy implemented over the last year with the main purpose of offsetting inflationary pressure. Then we achieved higher efficiency in procurement activities, and we also benefited from the decline in transportation costs, which had mostly impacted the group in 2020. Q4 in particular was also favored by a very positive channel mix, which reflected the positive performance we recorded in our direct-to-consumer business as previously commented. In Q4, the adjusted gross margin was in fact the highest of the year, reaching 59.5% of sales, 280 basis points higher than the margin achieved in Q4 2022, and bringing our full year gross margin close to the 59% level, precisely 58.7% of sales, 320 basis points higher than the 55.5% gross margin recorded in 2022. The other clear dynamic for us last year was the negative leverage on our operating expenses, which now we stand in the top line, increased by roughly 1.7% due to the high personal costs following inflationary pressure and the peak of the investment in the group digital transformation and in the marketing activities that we intentionally continue to implement in order to execute the development of our own brands. More specifically in Q4, if the growth of our D2C business supported an enhancement of the gross margin, on the other hand, it drove a quite sizable increase of logistic costs to fulfill order deliveries. All in all, our adjusted BDA margin in Q4 stood at 6.9 percent, 40 basis points higher than in the same quarter of 2022, while 2023 adjusted BDA margin reached 9 percent, 40 bps of the peak we recorded in 2022, our highest of the last seven years. Below the operating lines, our full year group net results were burdened by the same two dynamics we had seen in the semiannual results, in particular a pretty significant negative variation of explaining 90% of the decline compared to the year before due to the valuation of the put and call option of non-controlling interest. As a reminder, while last year we booked an income of €31 million as a positive accounting effect resulting from the reduced liability on non-controlling interest due to the revision of the related financial plan, this year, on the contrary, we booked a charge of around €8 million in relation to the extension of the second and third tranches of the put and call option in blenders. In the year, we then recorded higher net financial charges from €15.5 million to €19.2 million, mainly due to the increase in interest rates. All this brought our group-adjusted net result to €14 million from €58.3 million in 2022. Concluding with our financial performance, thanks to a positive cash generation also in the fourth quarter, equal to around €30 million, we close the year with a free cash flow of €35.1 million before a €6 million payment made in Q3 to exercise the first option on an additional 10% of Blender non-controlling interest. This is our first free cash flow generation in many years. In 2023, cash flow from operating activities increased to 47.7 million euros, thanks to 21.5 million euros of cash generation at the working capital level, mainly driven by an effective management of inventories and a good cash collection, with the latter also supported by the performance of the direct-to-consumer business in Q4. The cash flow from investing activities was reported at 2.7 million euros, and this is the result on one end of 13.3 million euros of capital expenditure, while on the other end of sales consideration for the disposal of the Longarone plant equal to approximately 11 million euros. Let me add here that it is partially counterbalanced the total cash out of around 16 million euros connected to the deal, which were mainly accounted for in the cash flow for operating activities before the change in working capital. As commented in the previous occasion, the total negative cash impact from the disposal of the Longarone amounted to around 5 million euros. Finally, at the end of December, our group net had decreased to 82.7 million euros, 43.7 million pre-IFRS 16, corresponding to a financial leverage also per IFRICSAS of 0.5 times. I stop here and end back to Angelo.

Thanks, Michele. I would like to conclude this presentation by highlighting that in 2023, our sustainability strategy also achieved another accomplishment through the presentation of our medium-term objectives. In official commitment, we took also on our Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas reduction targets, which we decided to validate with the science-based target initiatives, receiving a positive response this February. This year, Southfield will celebrate its first 90 years, an important anniversary which will see us continue to follow our inspiring principle, giving millions of people the possibility to see the world at its best every day. We look to the year with confidence, hoping that both our challenge and the opportunities arising from the continuous growth of our portfolio of home brand and core license will fund their space in a more stable international scenario. We will, therefore, continue to work, focus on our main objective, the growth and sustainability of our business in the long term. With this, I conclude the presentation and give back the line to the operator to open for Q&A.

Thank you, sir. Excuse me, this is the conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on their touchtone telephone. To remove your question, please press star and 2. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. We will pause momentarily while participants join the queue. The first question is from Oriana Cardani of Intesa San Paolo.

Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on current trade. So can you give us an update on the trend that you see in these first two months of the year? with some details on what's happening in each region. And we know that March is the first significant month, but you can give us some impressions that you have regarding this beginning of March. And the second question is on the gross margin. So what is your expectation for the full year? And finally, we have a question on the price mix. What type of price mix effect do you expect in 2024? And is there any difference between the first and the second part of the year? Thank you.

Okay, I will start with the current trading. As you were outlining, March is definitely the biggest month of the quarter and somehow represents the beginning of the season. But, I mean, March is still a long way to finish. Said that, January and February... we see the European market, which continues to be positive. So we see somehow Europe, which keeps going on the trend, which has been there the full 2023 and in quarter four, where on the other side, North America was weakish in the physical ivory store, where... But somehow, when we read the American numbers, we just need to remember the Jimmy Choo effect in the business in North America. So still, we don't see a significant rebound in North America, where on the other side, the sport has been suffering from a weak snow season in quarter four. So somehow, let me say, we see a continuation of some trend from the trend that we have been reading in 2023 with only the reminder, as I said, that you need to keep into account always this GB2 effect that it will be the biggest effect is going to be in quarter one, in quarter two, and then it will be easy in the rest in the rest of the year. This is how our numbers should be. It's not going to be a linear progression in the number that you will see in 2024.

I take the other two questions. On gross margin, clearly our gross margin improvement this year is structural, driven by the levers that we have been describing in our presentation. So this year, the expectation is clearly to benefit from the greater efficiency of our industrial footprint, namely following the disposal of Longarone. As we commented before, this can give between 50 and the basis point of improvement during the year. And of course, we continue also to have the pressing lever on our side to maintain a positive price-mix effect. On the other hand, we also expect, especially in H1, a rise in inbound transport costs, that should then ease eventually in the second half. It will be necessary to understand how these different topics will counterbalance each other, but definitely the opportunity this year is to make some additional progress in our gross margin. On the question on price miss H1, H2, of course we continue to see potentially a positive price miss dynamics. Of course, there will be some headwind and tailwind along the year, as we commented. I mean, Jimmy Choo will be a bit, let's say, on the negative side in H1 following the depletion of the inventory we currently have on hand. But on the other side, pricing will continue to be supportive. But no major difference other than this compared to, I mean, between H1 and H2.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. The next question is from Frederic Le Cassable of Stifel.

Yes, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. I have actually, I have two. The first one on North America. Could you maybe update us on the weight of the sports category in North America? after the stronger performance in 2023? And maybe on the dynamics of the two buckets you have in North America, did the slow start for the season in Q4 translate into more sales in Q1, even if the overall snow season was poor? Did you see any, should we expect any an improvement, sequential improvement because of this. And on the rest of the business, can you maybe tell us where your wholesale clients stand, especially on ordering? Did they get rid of inventory? And when do you expect reordering from these clients? And the second one is on Europe. You mentioned and you said that Grand Vision is impact was offset through new partnerships. Could you maybe be a little more explicit on what you have achieved in 23 and should we expect an acceleration of these new relationships in 24? Thank you very much.

Okay, I suggest that I will start from your last question and then I go to the other one. I mean, let's look to Europe. In Europe, let me say, we have been doing three things. First of all, improving dramatically the relationship with the customer. We have now our NPS score. We measure every year the NPS score, which is the net promoter score in Europe, and we are now about 80%. This is something that has been growing and keeps growing up in the last three years. This is independent from GV, but is a way to reinforce our relationship with all the opticians. This is pillar number one. Pillar number two, without mentioning specific names, but you can imagine easily the name, with some of the top three French chains, we have been definitely enlarging our portfolio there in terms of shelf space and in terms of penetration in their distribution. In Germany, both in IPP and non-IPP, in some of the main German chain, again, I don't say the name, but I think you can imagine to whom I'm referring. We have definitely reinforced our presence with Carrera, with Polaroid, with Boss, with Tommy. So definitely, mainly in the French area and in the German area, on top of we have a great relationship with the companies which have taken over some of the GV, ex-GV chain, By sure, we have really reinforced our presence, and we have enlarged our share of shelves for our main brand. So this is by sure, and we see in 2023, and to be honest, we see... we see the same trend in the beginning of 2024. So I would say that we will see the same trend in 2024 because it's really something structured on top of that, you know, our UN Safilo platform. I believe it is something which is becoming more and more unique. It's becoming really a competitive advantage toward the opticians. Just to take into account today, we have more than 25,000 customers daily connected to our platform. This is the answer on Europe. Second, there was the question on Smith, if I understood correctly. The line was not great. is a business which has different parts. We've been suffering in quarter four last year, we've been suffering on the snow bit because, as you know, the snow season in North America was really not there until beginning of the year. But from the other side, Smith, where we have done a big investment on the D2C, has been kept growing on the D2C for the full year and even growing faster in quarter four. is in a very healthy position from our numbers, we are gaining shares. Obviously, there are some headwinds, which is one is with the snow, obviously. The other is bike, where you know there is a huge problem of stock in the market. But the brand is healthy, and if you take out the effect of the snow, we see that we are growing shares there.

Just a small addition to get back to the specific question on the number. I mean, sport motorists represent 30% of the total North America business. And I leave it to you, Angelo, on commenting on U.S. On U.S.

Here, I mean, first of all, let's start to say that the numbers, the positive performance in North America were mostly driven by strong B2C performance. both for blenders and for Smith, where in the physical IR channel, also if the comparison in quarter four was easier, we see that the performance were weakish. So these were quarter four, and the first two months, again, to be honest, the real season hasn't started yet. In the first two months, we see a comparable trend with reference to North America.

Thank you, gentlemen.

The next question is from Cedric Rossi of Brian Gagné.

Yes, thank you. Good evening, everyone. So I have three questions. The first one is coming back on the rest of your home brand portfolio. Could you give us a sense of what you are expecting for Carrera and Polaroid, especially in Europe and in the U.S.? So I've seen a strong reception of the Carrera you showed during the Mido Fair. So I was curious to have your view on what you were expecting for Carrera this year. My two other questions are on margins. The first one is regarding the gross margin. You had an impressive expansion in 2023. You have almost reached the 200 to 300 basis points you were guiding on during the capital market day. First of all, do you expect to increase a little bit this range Going forward, know that you have divested the Longarone. And the second question on the margins is regarding the labor inflation. What kind of budget you are expecting in terms of labor inflation for 2024? Thank you.

Okay, I'll start with a question on Carrera and Polaroid. I'd just like to remind you briefly, I mean, these two brands are very different in terms of positioning and in terms also of priority and growth in terms of geography. So Polaroid, U.S., we are not fundamentally there. So Polaroid in terms of geography is Europe and is Asia. where Carrera is more Europe, North America, Latin America, not so much, and India. So this is just to clarify on the geography. In terms of growth for 2024, to be honest, my position is that we will see a growth on Carrera. We see the first number are very positive for three reasons. One, Carrera now has the clear positioning. Second, we are building the sport leg with Carrera Ducati, which keeps going well. And now we up the women leg. As you know, maybe you saw in the middle, we are launching Carrera Women. And the first results are really good. So if I look to 2024, I'd say that between Carrera and Polaroid, I will expect both brands will grow, but I will expect a higher growth on Carrera.

I will take the other two questions. So on gross margin, we have commented a bit before the key drivers. Of course, looking forward, I would say we have already reached a solid and sustainable level. but definitely we can further improve. I would consider a 60% gross margin as our ultimate feasible target in the medium term. When it comes to labor inflation, I mean, definitely labor inflation will continue to be an advent also in 2024, but at a more moderate rate compared to what we have seen in 2023. And for sure, our pricing action will, again, more than counterbalance and inflationary pressure that we might see along the way in 2024.

Okay, super. Thank you.

The next question is from Domenico Ghilotti of Equita.

Good afternoon. I will address three topics. First, your capital intensity. If I'm not wrong, if I exclude the disposal on Garone, you are running with something like 13 million capex so i wonder if if you stick to this number also for 2024 so if the range is really 10 to 15 million and the second question i saw that inventories were significantly down at the end of the year so very good achievement and so is this new level and working capital in general sustainable and the last question on the channel mixes, online in particular. Do you expect online, so you were commenting for sure on North America, and do you expect 2024 to be a growth year for online, or you had some very specific contribution in the Q4 that was not repeatable?

I will start with the last one. We answer the question upside down, just to enjoy. Going on the D2C, the start of the year is positive. What we see, the numbers, obviously, I mean, we are just at the beginning of the year. But to be honest, we see positive numbers. So I am expecting growth, obviously, not at the rate that we are getting used for the last two years. But the first sign, both for Smith and Blenders, are positive. Obviously, we need to see a judge a little bit closer to the season. But the first sign are positive. I think that at the lower base compared to last year, but we expect that D2C will grow. And with the equation also to the IPP, I mean, we see the IPP in Europe, which are picking up compared to a difficult 2023. So overall, I think there should be growth there, obviously not at such a high rate and pays as it has been in 2023. Michele?

Yeah, on the other two questions, so capital intensity definitely also following the case of Longarone. Our cap will continue to be more or less limited to the amount that we have also seen in 2023. I would say a fair assumption for the medium term would be a cap expiry around 15 million euros. In terms of inventory, as I said, we have reached a pretty good level. We have been improving by more than 20 million this year. I would say if we look at inventory from a coverage standpoint, from a design standpoint, it's fair to assume that we should be able to keep and to hold these days of inventory also going forward. We have not done anything that is not structured this year in terms of initiatives to contain and control inventory.

Okay. If I may follow up also on... So I saw a pickup in financial charges. You mentioned interest rates going up, so the run rate was more in the second half, more in the 10, 11 million euro... the semester. So is it fair to assume that this is the run rate and the current rate?

Yeah, correct. I mean, of course, in 2023 versus 2022, the increase is driven by higher interest rates. For next year, we do expect, let's say, a third part very much comparable to the second half of 2023, while we should start seeing some material benefit in second half year following potentially a reduction of interest rates.

Okay, last question really on that. reinvestment of the gross margin improvement. So I understood that you are seeing really some structural upside on gross margin. How much are you willing to reinvest into growth drivers?

I would say, then I will leave also to Angelo to comment on interest of marketing. In 2023, we have reached already a sufficient level to support the growth behind our own brand. So I don't expect in 2024 and 2025 to reinvest further, I mean more than what we have invested already in 2023.

Yeah, I'm fully on that. I think that we have the right amount of investment in marketing. The issue now is more to optimize what we have been investing because, as you know, we have accelerated our investments behind our home brand and behind the priority brand. So now I don't see that we need more money. We need to optimize as we are doing what we do with the money. But I don't see, I think that the percentage is sufficient to keep nurturing the growth.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Louis.

Once again, if you'd like to register for a question, please press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. We have a follow-up question from Frederic Le Casable of Stifel.

Yes, if I may, on your absolute level of free cash flow in 23, which was a effectively positive and nicely positive. Considering the moving parts, would you agree to say that this level could be reproduced in 2024 if we assume no build-up in inventory, if we assume kind of stable CapEx? Is there any reason other than a higher contribution from your operating profit? who assumes that free cash flow will be very different this year than last year?

Let's see. I mean, our medium-term business trend is a continuous improvement, of course, in our cash generation, especially in cash conversion. I mean, the result recorded in 2023 definitely has been absolutely structural. It is a key driver behind the free cash flow generation. I mean, the business did not grow in 2023, and this clearly limited our working capital needs. Of course, in the context of a growing top line, compared to 2023, we would expect some more absorption from net working capital level. But other than this, I would say the results achieved in 2023, also net of the one-off assets we recorded, should be a pretty good base as an example for 2024.

But if you expect to grow somewhat your profitability with pricing or setting wages and gross margin improving slightly from a high base, you might have some offsets between the two.

Yes, definitely we will be in, I would say, the The tailwind will more than offset the tailwind that we are currently seeing in the total profit.

Thank you. Thanks.

Mr. Dante, gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Okay. So thanks very much. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your questions. Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Thanks. Thanks very much.

Bye-bye.

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