This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk02: Hello everyone and welcome to the Essilor Luxottica first half 2022 results presentation. At the end of the presentation there will be a 30 minute Q&A session where you will be allowed a minimum and maximum of two questions.
spk03: If you would like to ask a question you may do so by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. I now turn the call over to our host Francesca Mulleri, Chairman and CEO.
spk08: Thank you for joining us. Before commenting our first half results let me spend some words to celebrate the memory of Leonardo del Vecchio. It's already a month since he left us and we all miss his patience, his dedication and commitment to innovate our company and the whole industry. I am honored to have the responsibility to continue the journey he started. and to grow a Silor Luxottica inspired by its values, vision and strategy. Leonardo would have been particularly proud of the results we are presenting today, with the achievements of the second quarter and the first half of the year. In a deteriorated macro environment, our open and flexible business model as well as our diversified footprint continue to drive the growth of our sales and margins. We are the only player in the industry with a leading presence in all the geographies and all the business segments, which help us to mitigate the market headwinds and to capitalize on its positive trends. In addition, Our fast and effective decision-making process greatly helps us to adapt quicker and better to the evolving customer needs. This is the kind of result we target. As a network company focused on the evolution of the industry and the upgrade of the category, driven by a sustainable and inclusive business platform, for the benefit of the company and all its stakeholders. At this stage is not comparable revenue grew in all the countries worldwide, excluding China and Russia. What we are especially proud of is our strong margin expansion. In the context of rising inflation on energy, labor, transport, and raw materials, we managed to deliver a 100 basis point lift. in the adjusted operating profit margin, up to 18.4%. Free cash flow delivery was also solid and continued to support our investments in the innovation of products and services. We look forward to meeting you in September at our Capital Market Day in our brand new digital and design hub. where you will have an immersive experience into the future of our company and industry. And with that, I will leave the floor to Paul and Stefan.
spk11: Thank you, Francesco. And good morning, everyone. Happy to be with you today. Before I share with you a few highlights from our H1, I would like to echo Francesco's words and address a special thought for Chairman Leonardo Del Vecchio. His unique vision and values will continue to guide us as we carry on his inspiring legacy with our team. Looking at our results today, you see a strong and unified company, effective, impactful, and on a clear trajectory. This was made possible thanks to a few factors. First, the unique commitment and talent of our 180,000 people worldwide. We have created a unified, efficient, and focused organization with highly skilled and experienced leaders across the company who are putting in place their integrated organization while delivering on objectives. Together with Francesco, We thank our teams for the outstanding work done in H1 in a complex environment. Second, our unique innovation and solutions capability. Since the beginning of the year, we have seen our innovation truly at work. Ray-Ban and Oakley continue their healthy growth, notably with Ray-Ban Stories, Oakley Prism, which we will continue to roll out. On the land side, Varidux, Grisal, Transition, and Eisen continue to perform extremely well while we continue to expand status. Third, our brand portfolio delivered great results, benefiting from our omni-channel approach and the performance of our luxury eyewear brands, as well as Revan and Oakley. Stefano will tell you more about it. It was quite impressive to see our collection during the Essilor Luxottica Days held in our Torstena new showroom in Milan throughout July. We had the pleasure to welcome hundreds of customers from all regions in the world. Four, the progressive integration of Grand Vision. The past months have further highlighted their complementariness skills, and know-how which truly enrich the organization. Fifth, I would like to highlight the power of our supply chain from a manufacturing, logistic, and lab standpoint. This unique global network of plants, distribution centers, and labs has once again proven its resilience and adaptability in a very complex environment. and we continue to invest significantly to make this supply chain even stronger and support our growth. And last, but not least, mission and sustainability, where we celebrated some important milestones in H1. First, the launch of the one-site Estee Lauder Luxottica Foundation, which unites all of the group's global advocacy and philanthropic actions to scale them up and accelerate them. The foundation will play a key role in realizing the United Nations resolution vision for all. And second, the first anniversary of our sustainability program, Eyes on the Planet. Since its launch, we have been implementing projects to advance on each strategic pillar, carbon, circularity, world-side inclusion, and ethics. A key highlight in H1 was the completion of our first carbon footprint assessment globally, bringing a complete understanding of our direct and indirect CO2 impacts at each stage of the value chain. The collection of data not only improved our reporting capabilities, but also provided a clear overview of Scope 3 emissions. While progressing towards our 2025 carbon neutrality target for direct operation, we want to widen our effort and prepare a more comprehensive and long-term roadmap covering scope 1, 2, 3. As you can see, we have solid fundamentals in place, which makes us an effective and focused organization and supported our performance in H1. Looking ahead, we will keep this focus to deliver on H2 and prepare the ground for 2023 and the years to come. With that, I hand over to Stefano. Thank you very much.
spk09: Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everybody. Let's take now a closer look to our sales results, and then afterwards, let's dig into our profit and loss and our financial position for the first half of 2022. Our top line in the second quarter grew on a 36% on a reported basis. with Grand Vision part of our results in 2022. While if we consider on a comparable basis with Grand Vision in both 2021 as well as 2022, our top line grew 14% at Current Effects and 7% at Constant Currents. This result, if you think about it, is quite remarkable because it comes on top of an 8% growth that the group reported in 2021 second quarter versus the second quarter of pre-pandemic 2019. From a currency standpoint, as you can see, we are experiencing quite strong tailwinds in our results, with the US dollar that revaluated approximately 13% versus euro during the course of the second quarter. As you can imagine, if currencies remain at those levels, we can expect those tailwinds to continue all the way to the end of 2022. But now, let's take a closer look into our two operating segments. We are pleased to report growth in both of them, strong growth, I would say, in both of them. with a professional solution that posted a top line up 5.5% of constant currency on top of a 5% growth that we recorded in the second quarter of 2021 versus 2019. All the four regions posted solid growth, with Latin America leading the way at a double-digit pace, while EMEA posted a mid-single digit, and North America and Asia-Pacific posted a low single-digit growth during the course of the second quarter. The data to consumer segment pulls the top line up 8.5% on top of 11% growth that we recorded in Q2 2021 versus 2019. And that proves once again the strength of our omni-channel proposition with our e-commerce business that was flat on top of 70% growth last year and our brick and mortar that grew approximately double digit with EMEA and Latin America very much driving those results with a double digit pace. But now, as usual, let's start getting into our four different regions, and let's begin with the biggest one, North America. North America posted a comparable revenue in the second quarter, 2.4%, on top of a 16% growth last year versus 2019. Beginning with our professional solution, both frames and lenses posted solid growth during the course of the second quarter. I would say pretty remarkable, in particular on the frame side of the business, where in Q2 2021 we recorded a growth of approximately 20% versus 2019. We believe that the market and the demand in the market is still there. From a channel mix standpoint, our key accounts, our department stores, very much were leading the growth during the course of the second quarter. While our independent ECP channel experienced a deceleration during the course of the second quarter, and we see the price move on the positive side continues to be solid for both lenses as well as for frames. If we now look at our direct-to-consumer segment, We are now positive in the second quarter, despite a very tough comparison base. In Q2 last year, we grew 22% versus 2019. Sunglasses accounts were flat, on top of a 14% comp last year. And LensPractor posted accounts that were slightly negative, on top of 11% comp sales that we recorded last year versus 2019. The last touch on our Oakley retail banner that posted a double-digit growth through the course of the second quarter, proving once again the strength of the Oakley brand, in particular in North America. But now let's go to our second largest region, EMEA, that posted a remarkable 12.4% growth in the second quarter on a comparable basis. Both divisions reported solid results in Q2, with professional solution and mid-single-digit growth, and our direct-to-consumer segment, strong double-digit. In our professional solution, we are pleased to report that Spain was double-digit, the UK was double-digit, and Turkey was double-digit. And we were actually on the high single-digit territory for Germany and Eastern Europe, while the only key count in Europe that was slightly negative during the course of the second quarter was France, And that was very much due to a deceleration on the optical frame business, while on the lens side of our business in France, we are still holding up, dreaming by solid price mix in particular branded lenses. If we now move for a second to a direct-to-consumer segment. Our optical retail chain grew double-digit during the course of a quarter, while some retail binders grew in excess of 80%, with several key locations in Europe that see now a strong rebound of touristic traffic inflows. If we look a little bit closely, our different optical banners, Salmorega and Viganò was double-digit during the course of a second quarter. Grand Vision was actually double-digit during the course of Q2, supported by growth in France, Spain, Nordics, as well as in Eastern Europe. So, a very compelling story for EMEA, and now let's have a look at EAST into Asia-Pac. Asia-Pac reported a growth of 1.7% on a comparable basis for the second quarter. This was another quarter at low single digits for this region, with professional solutions solid positive and a direct-to-consumer segment that was slightly negative during the course of Q2. Clearly, when we talk about Asia-Pac, you all understand that our results were impacted in a way by the severe lockdown that was mandated in China during the course of the second quarter. With quite a few restrictions, they were easier just a few days before the end of the second quarter. If we would exclude mainland China from the results of Asia-Pacific regions, you would have seen a growth in the range of 20% during the course of the second quarter. On the professional solution side, I would highlight a strong delivery of India, a triple-digit pace, very much driven by volume growth in both lenses and frames. But also Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, they all reported strong growth during the course of the second quarter. In China, our professional solutions segments were back to positive in the month of June, supported by our growth in the lens branded portfolio. In particular, thanks to Stellis, that as we speak now, very much at the end of July, we already sold more units with Stellis lenses in China than in the entire 2021. We're now very excited as we're getting into the high season of the back-to-school period because we believe that that volume growth is going to further accelerate. On the retail side, we posted double-digit growth in the Sun business, very much driven by Sun Grassets in Australia, as well as in Southeast Asia. And on the optical side, we observed a decline in China, very much due to the lockdown that I described to you before, but we were then pleased to see a rebound in our OPSM business. The overall was flat during the course of the second quarter, with a double-digit pace in the month of June. And now let's move to the last region, that is Latin America. Latin America was for the third consecutive quarter the best performer region in Astrolux Optica. Both professional solution and direct-to-consumer were at double-digit pace. In professional solution, both Brazil and Latin America, both frames and lenses performed on a double-digit pace. On the lens side, our growth was primarily driven by price mix, very much due to the branded lenses, with our key branded lenses Barilux at a double-digit pace. Let's touch on our critical assets in the region, that is Ocica Carol, that posted a second quarter of double-digit growth rate. If we move for a second to our direct-to-consumer segment, both our optical retail banners and our SAM banners delivered a double-digit growth during the course of a second quarter. GMO that was double-digit, with Grand Vision that was double-digit, with Sunglassat that did another double-digit growth in Andes, Mexico, as well as in Brazil. So, a very nice way to close the journey across the different regions. And as I anticipated before, let's now take a closer look to our profit and loss. As we've always been talking about Astroloops Optica, we said that our storyline is a storyline of top-line growth and margin expansion. And what you can see in this page is very much a confirmation of that statement. I won't spend too much time on the top line as we already commented before. And I think what we should focus on is very much our profitability. As you can see, we were capable to expand margin with top line growth. Our operating profit on an adjusted basis for the first half of 2022 was 18.4%. That means 100 basis points improvement, a current effect rate, and excluding currency, you will be looking at 80 basis points improvement on a constant effect basis. The key areas of improvement in our profit and loss was the gross margin, where you do see a 30 basis points improvement versus 2021 first out. Both professional solutions and direct-to-consumer show margin expansion during the first half of the year. And the main driver of that margin expansion for the first half was very much our price mix. In addition, it's important to mention that our profit and loss was capable to absorb the headwinds deriving from the inflationary impact around the world and if you ask me how much do you estimate that i would tell you that we were probably absorbing 100 to 150 basis points of headwinds deriving from inflation if we look at below our operating profit on a net profit basis you will be looking at the margin improvement of 110 basis points versus first half of 2021 with a margin rate at 12.9 percent on a net profit If we exclude currency, you will be looking at 100 basis points improvement on our net profit. So overall, margin expansion quite remarkable for the first six months of 2022. The last chapter of our finance section is very much dedicated to our free cash flow generation. For the first six months of 2022, Epsilon Lux Optica generated in excess of 900 million free cash flow. That free cash flow was achieved despite a quite material lift in CapEx investments. As a matter of fact, we invested 350 million more than what we did in 2021, where investment in supply chain, in strengthening and diversifying our manufacturing capacity, in renovating our store footprint, in converting progressively our IT infrastructure into a single platform. All in all, we were capable to generate strong free cash flow and at the same time continue to invest in the company. Our overall net debt position is at $10.4 billion, and our net debt to EBDA is below 2 at 1.8 for the first six months of the year. With that, let me hand it over to the operator for the Q&A session.
spk02: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. If you would like to remove your question, please press star followed by two. Please limit your questions to a maximum of two and ensure your phone is unmuted locally. Our first question today comes from Susie Tibaldi with UBS. Susie, please go ahead.
spk01: Thank you. Thanks for taking my question. So my first question would be on the top line trends that you're seeing both in Europe and in the US, because you mentioned several times that the macro conditions are a little bit deteriorating, and especially at the lower end entry level point of the product portfolio, whereas it sounds like the higher end is still doing quite well. um so can you just give us a little bit more comments especially on these two very important regions um also in light of um of the second half of the year because i know you don't comment on the current trends usually but um you know your midterm guide is for a mid single digit growth is this something that you feel comfortable with for h2 or do you think a low single digit growth would be more more of a reasonable expectation Then secondly, a question on the margins. You delivered a really excellent margin expansion despite the inflationary pressures. And I know you don't really like to split operating leverage and synergies, but just to understand about this algorithm and when we think about the the actual leverage, is there any price that you have also taken? Because previously you said that you have been doing some price action selectively, but not across the whole product range. So I was wondering if this is something that you have been considering also when it comes to the lens portfolio and some color on the synergies, because clearly there must be already quite a decent amount of from Grand Vision coming through to deliver such strong profitability. So if you can give us some color on that, it would be very helpful. Thank you.
spk09: Good morning, Susie. I'll take your question, both of them. With respect to the trend that we see in North America and EMEA, Just to give you a flavor of the evolution, especially during the month of July, we do see Europe continue to be very solid on both channel, professional solution as well as direct-to-consumer. Again, if you think about it, in Europe, the only real country where we had a deceleration in recent months was France, and that was very much on a specific part of the business because the reminder part remains, I would say, pretty healthy. But Europe is trending well. We're solid and we continue to have solid growth in both channels. With respect to North America, North America trend is pretty similar to the one that we've seen during the course of the second quarter. But again, my expectation for the month of July is to see North America in the positive territory overall. Now, with respect to the growth of the second half expectation, as you know, we don't guide on half of the year. We have a guidance that is a long-term one, a mid-single-digit top line growth. There is an expectation to hit the 19% to 20% margin on an adjusted basis by 2026, and we're marching in that direction, I would say, pretty well. We continue to believe on the strength of our platform in our network company, as Francesco well described before, and we believe that we are very well in control of our business. If you remember at the beginning of the year, I shared a flavor of what could be an expectation for this year with respect to a storyline of top line growth and margin expansion. And today, we can confirm that. With respect to the margin, the strong margin and operating leverage that you've seen during the first six months of the year, let me say a couple of things. We drove price mix. thanks to the innovation. We drove price mix thanks to the new product launches, thanks to the strength of our luxury portfolio frames, thanks to the strength of our branded lens portfolio. And that very much helped us to lift progressively the mix in the upper part. We haven't really taken material price adjustments around our portfolio. um we only took a selective adjustment whatever was needed for filling the gap of currency discrepancies but we haven't really taken any other adjustment in in our pricing position in that respect so the the the receipents and the pillars of the margin expansion that you've seen on the first outfits very much price mix on the gross margin lever. And on the other side, on the OPEC side, I would say a couple of things. On one side, a very diligent cost control. On the other side, the realization of the synergetic work stream that we are undertaking, not only but also the early stage of the work that we start doing on Grand Vision. So the combination of that allows us to keep the cost under control, to ease the investment whenever we believe was the right place to do, and ultimately where we believe we have the proper return. And that is a myth that allows us to very much absorb the headwinds deriving from the inflationary impact.
spk02: Our next question comes from Graham Renwick with Berenberg. Graham, please go ahead.
spk00: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Just firstly on price mix, how should we think about that going forward? It's been a big driver of margin expansion in the first half, as you said. I think your guidance initially was that most your growth would be volume driven and we shouldn't expect much price mix. so do you do you expect price mix to stabilize across h2 or maybe possibly reverse in a tougher macro backdrop and is it reasonable to believe that gross margins can again be up or at least stable across the second half of the year um and then the second one can you sort of remind us how much of your u.s sales base is to customers that are covered by vision insurance and to what extent do you think that would the U.S. business in a downturn, and does that also explain perhaps the resilience at the higher end categories and the weakness at the lower end products, which I guess would have had a higher mix of uninsured customers? Thank you.
spk09: So, good morning, Graham. With respect to your first question on price mix, Let me put it this way. We already seen today, and I believe more so going forward, a fairly balance between volume and price mix on the frame side, which very much goes into the reaction of your question, which is what we've been, you know, guiding for the longer term. On the land side, we're probably more out-balanced on the price mix in that respect. Over the longer run, if you remember, we said we don't have expectation to materially lift our gross margin profile, let's say, over the next five years, because I think we have pluses and minuses compensating each other. Clearly, we're pleased with what we've seen in the first half of the year. But again, over the longer run, I think we're going to see a rebalance also on the land side of our business. But today, that balance between volume and mix is more on the frame side. With respect to North America, I would say 40% to 50%, depending on the period, is what is our insurance, let's say, coverage, broadly speaking, on our business. It is a part that it's pretty resilient despite competition in the market. But I believe what has been more resilient in North America is the work that we have done with commercial programs that were customized for our independent ECP. For example, that is the EL360 program. We have over 4,300 ECPs that are now part of the EL360 program, which as you know, encompass commercial proposition for frames and lenses together, but also, the managed vision care assets that is made available for DCP that embrace the EL360 program. That program, that activities that are done on a jointly basis, frames, lenses, insurance all together are proven to be definitely much more resilient in the North American market.
spk02: Our next question comes from Cedric Licabo with Stifel. Cedric, your line is open.
spk10: Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two actually on the U.S. The first one is about availability of optometrists. A competitor of yours, not in the same segment, pointed to some difficulties to retain optometrists. Do you have any pressure either on volume of optometrists, number of people, or sharp increase in wages? in this field and what are your thoughts on this to secure the retail business in the U.S., number one. And number two, you mentioned some trade down and some higher price competition at the lower end. What are your offset strategies going forward? You mentioned also more pressure on your independent ECPs, which is your good business. Does it mean that the chains and some value chains are gaining share currently and how do you intend to react? Thank you very much.
spk11: I can take, Cédric, the second point on the lower end of the market in the U.S. I think the competition, there has always been competition in the mid-tier part of the market, and I think Estee Lauder Luxottica is well positioned in the lens with offering, with all of our network of labs, partner labs and independent labs, And the acquisition of Wallman is reinforcing our cost competitivity and our offer competitivity, including the Shamir lens and the Shamir design. So I think it's always been a competitive market. What Stefano pointed to where the branded lens were performing well, meaning the value of the transition, the Chrysal with the new offering in Chrysal is a very good example. of our position in the U.S., including vis-à-vis the vision care program. But you should consider that the platform that we have in place and the structure of offering we have in place for Lancers is very well set up to compete in the mid-tier part of the market, vis-à-vis the key accounts, the large retailers, or the more mid-position independent practices. So for me, this is not a concern. The company is very well positioned in the two segments.
spk07: Good morning. I tried to answer the first question of optometrists and doctors. and more than pressure level cost and availability, I believe that the issue is how engage doctorate optometrists much more in the future to be a part of our mission and our We are working with two main projects. One is teleoptometry. We just delivered a beta test in the U.S. Teleoptometry leads to optometrists and doctors the role, the central role that they have but at the same time is able to optimize the availability and the time of doctor. That means that you have doctors in some room everywhere and you can really connect to different stores and doctor rooms and take the visit. This is supported with a really strong system of information, images, and so on. I believe that this will be the way we can react to the pressure on availability of optometrists and also really make their life a little bit better so they don't have to travel too much, they stay home or in the specific office, they can connect and better serve our and their customers. The second is VisionSource. You know that VisionSource is the biggest community of optometrists and independent opticians in U.S. really high-hand focus on science, focus on quality, on visit. And SILOR Luxottica is leading more than owning the association. We are just starting a really interesting program to better involve doctors and optometrists and all the store managers really to share information, to share understanding of the market, and to share how to better manage customers and business. So I believe that these two combinations, to be open to a network, to be a more open company to listen to the needs of optometrists and doctors, it will help to guide the market to the next level. So the combination of two with many other initiatives that we have in place, I believe they will improve the quality of our service and take the price under control. Thank you.
spk02: Our next question comes from Luca Solka with Bernstein. Luca, please go ahead.
spk06: Thank you very much indeed and good morning. Maybe I will start with a general question. You have a very complex business exposed to many different fronts manufacturing brand marketing licenses retail wholesale insurance lenses frames classes digital physical high-end low-end and also Multiple geographies each with its own specificities I wonder what your vision about these challenges is do you feel that but Silo Luxottica's mission is to compete on all of these fronts and that they are more or less equally important. Or is there a hierarchy in your mind so that some of these areas are going to be more relevant when it comes to dominating the category in the long term and producing a high return for shareholders? My second question is more focused on the American market, not so much on the demand on which you already explained, but about the shifting ground when it comes to competition. We've seen consolidation, especially in the lower end value retail portion of the market. This is probably one of the most exposed markets to digital penetration. You have now new players in the high end as well. potentially building up their position with Caring Eyewear buying Maui Gym. I wonder how you see the competition in this market and how you are planning to confront it and win against it in the long term. Thank you very much indeed.
spk07: Try to take the first. If I take your question and I change one word, I believe that everybody can understand our position. You ask mission to compete on all the fronts. I really, I won't say mission to help the market in all the fronts. That is the approach that we have. Since our dimension is difficult to find a target to compete. is really difficult to think in this way. So what we start now is really to approach the market in the way we can improve quality of service, we can improve quality of product, and help all the market really grow. With this in mind, the complexity that you underline on our company is really the key factor. We compete in all market, all segment, all type of product, so we are the only company that i can define complete that understand exactly 360 of the market the needs of the castle and remember that when you are thinking about different channels different type of store and country and so on you refer always to just one single things Customer is one. It's not, we don't have different customer. Then we have a different way to approach customers depend on age, capability of spending and countries and culture. And that is what we try to do through our digital platform and the capability to manage big data. Big data are really key factor behind anything right now. You know that we collect all the sales every day. Every day at night, we really know how much we sell, which skew we sold in a certain country, how is the mood of our customer. They are preferring yesterday, they are preferring round, oval, red, brown, and whatever. And this is really the key factor that helps us to forecast the future, forecast the need, not just for our store or our e-commerce, but also for Olsay. That means serve more than 400,000 different stores and partners. So I believe that in long term, but also we show that also in the short term, that can generate a good return for all shareholders can protect the market and can really also protect the people that works in in the market this is much more than business strategy this is the way we join the mission the right to see with the commitment that we took with shareholders to remunerate their investment. So this is the way we see the actual strategy and the future strategy. Thank you.
spk02: Our next question comes from the line of... Our next question comes from the line of...
spk11: Excuse me, operator. I just wanted to address the second question of Luca on the U.S. and the shifting competition. I think you should look at the position of Estee Lauder Luxottica in the North American market, but actually in many markets as one of addressing the different segments of the market. I think Francesco touched on it. Stefano touched on it. We have always been serving the different segments, the independent channel. We have this position that we refer to with the vision source, with all of our partner programs, the F360. We have always been, at the same time, serving the large retailers, the NGI, the Costco, the Walmart that are acting in the market with a different proposal, different lens proposal, different frame proposal, different service proposal. And then we have, of course, this whole ecosystem around the managed care in which we are very well positioned serving the existing provider like GSP or using our own platform like IMED. And then you have the e-commerce, which is taking a certain segment that we serve with independent platform like iBuyDirect. So the approach we have is to really be well positioned in all of the different, segment, channel, in parallel to be present with our own retail. And I think it's a very powerful and good position to be able to grow the market, the different categories, to bring our innovation at the different price points, our different brands, sunglasses, eyewear into the market. I would look at it that way, Luca. And then the market is dynamic, the competition is dynamic, but this is not something that just happened. It has always been that way. And we keep reinforcing. I did mention earlier the Woolman acquisition, which I think is a very interesting move to reinforce the mid-tier service capability of the company. Just a few highlights. Back to you, operator.
spk02: Thank you. Our next question comes from Julien Demois with BNP Paribas. Julien, your line is open.
spk05: Yes, hi, good morning everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. One relates to the seasonality of margin in your business. If you could just remind us what are the main drivers of what is usually a much higher H1 margin across your business. And I think last year, for instance, you had more than 300 basis points of difference between H1 and H2 margin. Is it fair to assume that this year could be about the same difference as we saw prior? And the second question is a quick update on Stellest, if possible, please. I think last year in fiscal year 2021, you had sales which were just shy of €150 million just for Stellest in China. You indicated that you already sold more units in the first half of this year than you did in the entire year 2021. So is it fair to assume that you expect at least a doubling of that business for fiscal year 2022?
spk09: so good morning julianne so the the first question uh with respect to seasonality on the margin between first half and second half of the As part of our business model, yes, we do have anywhere between 250 to 300 business points, let's say, of difference in the margin between H1 and H2. The main reason for that, it's very much on the sun season that is stronger at the later stage of Q1 and obviously at full exploitation during the second quarter, and then it'll progressively fade out during the remainder part of the year. With respect to stateless numbers, the 150 million euro sales retail value, we continue to see price makes holding up for stateless in China, and clearly that number will be much stronger. Hard to tell with the visibility that we have in China right now whether we're going to double 2020 But I can tell you that as we speak really today in this week, we're already past 2021 level in terms of volume of Stellar Slant in China and I would say around the rest of the world.
spk02: Our next question comes from Dominico Gilotti with Equita Group. Dominico, please go ahead.
spk04: Good morning. Two questions on my side. The first is on cost inflation. Inflation in particular, well, I wonder if you are expecting, say, wage inflation picking up in second half of 2023. And on the other hand, if you see cost inflation from other items, from freight rates to raw materials already, say, having picked in first semester or close to peak level already this year. The second question is a follow-up on North America. Could you provide a bit more color? Because I'm not sure I catch your indication on the current slowdown. And as you did for Europe, if you can give us some color on the two different performance in the two divisions.
spk09: I'll take both the answer to your two questions. First of all, on cost inflation, when we look at our cost inflation, you know, the primary driver of that, as you rightly pointed out, is the wage inflation. It's the biggest part of that headwind that we're feeling. I think it has been probably stronger in the second quarter more than in the first quarter. And I believe we'll carry on throughout third quarter, and then we'll see how it's going to evolve throughout the latter part of 2022. Hard to predict what we can expect in 2023. But again, the work that we've been doing, it's very much in the direction of protecting and offsetting those inflationary trend. Being the largest one, labor is not the only one. We're also exposed to cost, as you rightly pointed out, and obviously the energy cost. Probably the least of the exposure that we have from a profit and loss standpoint is material. A lot of our business model is being vertically integrated, very much reduce the exposure to material, and I think we found a lot of measures that allow us to offset on the material side. So labor, freight, logistic cost, and energy cost are really the three most important drivers, with labor being by far the largest one. With respect to North America, again, I want to point out that we are relying on this. We do expect North America July business to be on the positive territory. And that is true for our direct-to-consumer part of the business as well as our professional solution. So that's the picture.
spk02: That was our last question of our 30-minute Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to the management team to conclude.
spk07: Thanks for staying with us and we hope to have some rest at least a couple of weeks and so see you after the summer break. Thank you.
spk02: Thank you everyone for joining us today. This concludes our call and you may now disconnect your lines.
Disclaimer