7/23/2024

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Good morning and welcome to the AmpliMedical conference call where we will review the second quarter results for 2024. My name is Fred Solvason, President and CEO of AmpliMedical. Joining me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Artur Svensdottir, AmpliMedical's new Head of Investor Relations, Klaus Sindel, is also with us today, joining remotely from Copenhagen. Today we'll discuss the financial performance and progress we've made during the second half of 2024. The presentation should take roughly 10 to 15 minutes, after which there will be an opportunity to ask questions during a Q&A session. And if you turn to the next slide, please. We delivered our highest ever quarterly sales in the second quarter. Sales amounted to $217 million, and organic growth was 6%, and local currency growth was 9% when including acquisitions. Sales growth for the second quarter was driven by prosthetics and neuro-orthotics, and strong contribution from our patient care segment. Our rating and support business delivered more modest growth for the quarter, and we'll address the drivers for our sales performance in the coming slides. Our EBITDA margin came in strong for the quarter at 22%, supported by the cost reduction initiatives implemented in manufacturing during the first quarter, as well as positive product mix and scalability. And Artna will cover our financials in more details later on. We are executing well towards our growth 27 strategy, and in line with a good performance in the first half of the year, we are narrowing our full year guidance to 6% to 8% organic sales growth and EBITDA margin to around 20%. as we expect continued good progress for the remainder of the year. On our strategic initiatives, we're pleased to see good progress across several key topics. Earlier this year, we acquired Fuehring Gens, a leading maker of lower limb neuro-orthotic components. The acquisition is an important step in our growth journey and an expansion into the field of neuro-orthotics. a field we are excited about as we are broadening our ability to support individuals with a chronic mobility challenge. The integration of Pure & Gens is going according to plan, and we are pleased to see that both sales and profitability continue to be in line with our business case. And as planned, we are leveraging our sales infrastructure, starting in May, to bring the Pure & Gens products to even more patients, as well as introducing the also to new markets such as Australia. I'm also excited about our progress in R&D as we launched innovation this past quarter in both bionics and liners, which I will cover in more detail on the upcoming slides. A few days ago, we announced our intent to unite our network of patient care facilities under a new common brand identity called Formotion. The promotion brand will be introduced in stages beginning in selected regions in the United States and will eventually encompass the entire network of our global OMP patient care facilities currently operating under different brand names. This global network of OMP facilities will deliver comprehensive, modern and innovative care while celebrating the expertise and heritage unique to each and every location. Lastly, Medicare in the U.S. announced last week the finalized policy which will allow lower limb K2 amputees to get access to bionic prosthetic solutions. The implementation of the policy is planned to take effect as of 1st of September this year. We very much welcome this decision by Medicare, which we believe will hugely improve these individual's lives, helping them become more active and able to perform critical activities of daily living more independently. The extension of coverage will potentially lead to a meaningful expansion of the addressable market for bionics as Medicare so far has restricted access to high active amputees classified as functional level K3 and K4. In addition, the extended coverage may also grant the K2 amputees access to compatible high active K3 food solutions as a complement to the bionic knee when certain coverage criteria are met. In summary, the decision to grant lower limb K2 amputees access to bionics directly supports our overall strategic objective of bringing high-quality prosthetic devices to more amputees, creating value for both patients and healthcare systems. If you turn to the next slide, please, on the geographic performance. In the second quarter, we saw continued strong momentum in the EMEA region with 11% growth driven by prosthetics and neuro-orthotics, as well as a strong performance in our patient care sector. This is the fourth quarter out of five where we post double-digit growth in the EMEA region. Sales in APEC were strong with 9% organic growth. Growth was supported by all business segments, although reimbursement delays in Australia continued to somewhat impact sales during the second quarter. as was the case in the first quarter. We don't think that sales are lost for that reason, but rather they are pushed into the second half of the year. Lastly, sales in Americas continue to show general softness as in the first quarter of the year, although we had good growth in high-end solutions and key patient care locations, which however was offset by slower performance in other product categories and locations. It should also be noted that we have tough comparison from same period last year. And if you go to the next slide, please, some more information on our recent launches. As briefly mentioned in the highlights, we launched the exciting new innovation in the second quarter with two new bionic knees introduced to the market, as well as a new liner solution, the IceRush Seal-in-X blocking TI for more comfort and stability to users with lower limb amputations of all activity levels. On the bionics, we launched Navi, which is essentially a next-generation Rio Knee. The Navi is a fully waterproof bionic knee developed by Usher featuring a powerful actuator provided to support consistency for stair and van descents. Patients using the new Navi solution will enjoy strong support and enhanced mobility when they are walking, standing, or descending as this solution will provide safety and comfort in any terrain. The new Navi is currently in limited launch and we don't expect any meaningful contribution until early 2025 where the full launch is expected to kick in. In addition, we launched Icon by College Park. Icon is a versatile solution for low to high active activity users designed to be user-friendly for every step of the way, featuring responsive sensors, streamlined setup, and the intuitive Stripe Studio app. The knee is currently available in the US, and we expect to bring the knee to European markets later in the year. And if you turn to the next slide, please, for a little bit more details on our prosthetics and neuro-orthotics business. As previously communicated, our prosthetic segment was renamed to prosthetics and neural orthoptics last quarter to include sales from our Pure Engines acquisition. Organic growth for the segment amounted to 6% driven by increased sales and filling of high-end solutions. We would, however, like to note that this quarter is up against a strong comparable quarter in 2023, where organic growth in prosthetics amounted to 18%. We saw continued strong momentum in EMEA, driven by volume growth across key European countries, most notably in bionics. In the Americas, modest growth with some good performance in high-end solutions, partly offset by softness in other categories. In APAC, we posted good growth in Australia, although sales remained negatively impacted by reimbursement delays, while growth in Asia was more stable. As mentioned in the beginning, our new neuro-orthotics business delivered a strong performance through pure and dense with sales and integration well on track. Lastly, we saw Bionics as a whole continue to contribute strongly for the quarter. We go to the next slide, please, on bracing and support. Organic growth amounted to 2% in the quarter. Growth in EMEA was modest and, again, driven by good performance in high-end solutions such as Beyond Loader. APEC, good performance across markets and product categories, while sales in America were flatish, driven by growth in Canada, but offset by a softer performance in the U.S., partly due to some continued impact related to the changed healthcare cyber attack earlier this year, which impacted our customers' ability to process claims in the U.S. And then finally, next slide, please, on the patient care business, which delivered strong organic growth with 9%, for the quarter driven by strong contribution from EMEA across all major markets. We also saw solid performance in APAC and sales in Australia were good although we continue to see some impact on the previously mentioned delays in reimbursement approvals impacting the Australian market. Sales in the Americas were modest where we observed strong growth in certain locations locations were softer. This concludes the sales performance overview for the quarter, and I would like to hand it over to Artna to go through the financials in more detail. Artna, please.

speaker
Artur Svensdottir
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Svetlana. Cross-profit modeling was 64% in the second quarter, compared to 63% in the same period last year. The increase is partly resulting from cost reduction initiatives in manufacturing executed during the first quarter of the year. as well as positive product mix and scalability had a positive impact as well. We are happy with the progress in OPEX with 3% organic growth in the quarter relative to delivering organic sales growth of 6%. The lower OPEX growth is attributed to cost control but also less variable compensation in Americas in relation to soft sales performance in the region. With a strong gross profit margin and low OPEX growth, I'm pleased to report a strong EBITDA margin of 22%, or a 3 percentage point expansion from Q2 last year, despite the small currency headwind. Net profit ended at 20 million for the quarter, on 9% of sales, compared to 8% in Q2 last year. The effective tax rate remains around 24%. And if you would please turn to the next slide for status on our cash flow and leverage, please. During the second quarter, CAPEX spent was $11 million, or 5% of sales. The current level remains above a normalized level as we continue to invest in facility upgrades in key locations to support the company's growth. It is, however, expected that CAPEX will lower in the second half of the year as the current CAPEX expansion programs are expected to largely be concluded in the second half of the year. Pre-cash flow was stronger in the quarter and benefited from increased cash from operation and lower capital compared to the same period last year. Our current inventory level remains elevated due to build up of the new bionic solutions in preparation for launch. On the contrary, we are seeing inventory in our basing and support business continue to decline and it is in line with our expectation. For the second half of 2024, we expect cash flow to improve further operating profits are expected to increase and CAPEX to come down. On the leverage side it is worth mentioning the net interest bearing debt to EBITDA continues to be above our target range following the acquisition of EURJPY earlier this year. Leverage level has begun to decrease as our debt has reduced and we see stronger operating profits. Until we return to our communicated range of two to three times, our shared buyback program will remain on hold. With this, I will hand over to Sveit for his final remarks and comments on the guidance. Next slide, please.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Thank you, Artnav. As communicated in the beginning of this presentation, our guidance for the full year 2024 is narrowed in line with the good momentum and profitability recorded in the first half this year. The updated guidance for organic sales growth is now 6% to 8% from previously 5% to 8%, while EBITDA margin before special items has narrowed to around 20% from the previous 19% to 20%. For the remainder of the year, we expect continued strong performance in prosthetics and neuro-orthotics and patient care, as we have observed in EMEA to date, as well as we expect some of the reimbursement headwinds we have seen in Australia to ease. We expect increasing sales performance in bracing and support should market conditions in the Americas improve after the indirect impact from the changed healthcare cyber attack. Lastly, we continue to expect strong volume growth in addition to positive mix from functional trade-off in bionics, It should be emphasized that the new bionic products we launched in the quarter are not likely to contribute meaningfully until early 2025, as the initial launch will be carried out in a limited number of clinics to ensure a smooth launch and uptake. Neither have we assumed any meaningful impact on the new U.S. Medicare reform, which is expected to be implemented in September, as it will take time for the market to adapt to these changes. Regarding the EBITDA guidelines, EBITDA margins before special items are amounted to 19% for the first half of 2024. We would like to highlight that EBITDA margin is seasonally stronger in the second half of the year for our business. The full year EBITDA margin is expected to increase year over year following the cost reduction initiatives in manufacturing implemented during quarter one, in addition to impact from positive product mix scalability and cost control in OPEX. With this all your presentation is now concluded and we would like to open the call for questions and move to the last slide please operators. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To answer your question please press star 1 1 again. We will now take the first question. from the line of Christian Reum from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Christian Reum
Analyst at Danske Bank

Yes, good morning and thank you for taking my questions. I have three, please. First two on the top line and then one on gross margins. So first on Australia, can you help us with a rough sense of your estimate of the impact of these reimbursement delays How much of that impacted your growth for, say, the APAC region over the last couple of quarters? And do you expect that to be fully recouped, or do you think that there is likely some of that that will be lost? And then the second question also to the top line is whether you could help us with a sense of the growth rate that you've seen for the Fjord & Gens business whether that's been in line with what you reported for the business at the time of the acquisition and in Q1, or whether there's been any significant movement in either direction. And then the third and final question is on the gross margin. And A question on whether you can help us with getting a sense for the bridge, for the drivers of the gross margin from Q1 to Q2. So I think when you're just for special items in Q1, the gross margin is up by close to two and a half percentage point from Q1 to Q2. How much of that is safe can be attributed to the savings initiatives that you've done? How much of that is scale? And how much of that is mixed? That's my questions.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Thank you. Hi, Christian. Thanks for the questions. On the first one, you could assume that Australia is around one-third of our APAC business, approximately. And if we look back over the last years, this region or the Australia region has performed well on the back of changes that were implemented well now years ago to the NDIS system or the public reimbursement system in Australia that allows for better access to better mobility solutions. Partly also similar to the change we will now observe in the U.S. where the public reimbursement system has recognized the benefit of paying for or funding high-quality mobility solutions for the benefit of patients and simply for cost efficiency also. So this region or Australia has delivered quite stable double-digit growth where here in the first half of the year or in quarter one, we see some decline. We're back on a growth track here in quarter two and should also recuperate some of the lost sales in the first half of the year and the second half of the year. I hope that gives you a little bit of assumptions to work with. It does. Thank you. Perfect. On the Furin Gantz status, the Furin Gantz business is performing very well. We did communicate as when we acquired the business here in quarter one that we expect our business case was largely based on driving at least double digit growth. And that is what we observe here in the first half of the year, even slightly above our expectations. And we continue to work on bringing these solutions to other markets leveraging our commercial infrastructure. Great, thanks. And on the gross profit margin, if we adjust for the special items here in Costa 1, our year-to-date gross profit margin is at 63% compared to 62% the same period last year. And what is driving the higher gross profit margin is a combination of a few things. It is obviously these cost reduction initiatives that we implemented in Costa 1. It is product mix. It is Also, just a better rhythm and increased productivity. We have talked about, let's say, over the last couple of years, post-COVID, the impact we've had from supply chain complication on our productivity and rhythm in our manufacturing organization. We are now gradually moving, getting back to pre-COVID levels in that regard. So it is a combination of these things. I hope that gives you a little bit of color. And also just a reminder on the impact on the cost reduction initiative. It's about five to six million on a full year basis.

speaker
Christian Reum
Analyst at Danske Bank

Yes, great. Thank you. And maybe just a quick question for clarification. cross-margin implications of faster growth in the patient care business, is that that is generally a high, that's generally accretive to the group cross-margin, or how should we think about that?

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

No, it's largely, I wouldn't say that's a big impact, Christian. It's maybe slight positive impact, but not a major driver. Okay, great.

speaker
Christian Reum
Analyst at Danske Bank

Thank you very much, Aljom. Thank you. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question. From the line of Neil Granholm from Carnegie, please go ahead.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Could you talk about potential cost related to uniting your network under your new Formotion brand in the second half and going into next year? Secondly, you have now recorded soft revenue growth in America, actually across all three segments in the past couple of quarters. Could you talk about if you are seeing any general softness in the U.S. market or is it solely due to difficult comparisons? And then lastly, On the new Medicare reimbursement system or opportunity, would you be able to be more specific as regards to the effect on your business going forward now that the paper seems to come through? Thank you.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Thanks a lot, Nils, for the questions. On the promotion brand, this is a big milestone for us to decide to consolidate onto one brand identity, and it's also a signal that we do see further or benefit from taking another step to be more, let's say, global in approach to patient care and leverage some of the network effects there are from operating a global patient care business. We have not factored in any major investment in this regard. There will, of course, be some costs related to branding and and those sort of initiatives, but nothing that will have a major impact on the big picture as such. With regards to the U.S., it is good to remember that quarter two last year we grew 11 percent organically and quarter one 9 percent. So we're up against tough comparison. With that being said, the growth in the U.S. has been slower than what we had anticipated in the beginning of the year. Nothing has fundamentally changed as such. Reimbursement levels are stable and we continue to sort of see opportunity in the market and especially now with this change around the LCD and that leads me to the last question. This is a major change, these reimbursement changes, and the biggest change we have seen in our industry with regards to public payers' willingness to invest in good mobility solutions for decades. And it underpins one of the main assumptions that we have made as a company with regards to, goes back to our philosophy in investing in innovation to drive increased mobility levels and grant or pushing for more access for more entities to get access to better mobility solutions. And this is – and then let's say Medicare has recognized these health economic benefits that come with fitting bionic solutions to amputees. Now, with regards to the more detailed impact, what we The data that we have in front of us is that about half of the claims that Medicare or let's say half of the volume that goes through Medicare is K2 patients, while the vast majority of cost is related to the K3 or K4 population. So as we move forward, the addressable market will obviously expand. And also worth noting that Medicare has also granted access to higher activity level food solutions to go with bionic meat solutions. So it is our expectation that the market will will expand as a result of this decision. We have not included in our guidance any meaningful impact from this change here in the four months from when this will be implemented here in the remainder of the year. But it's likely to have a small positive impact.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

Great. Could you perhaps just briefly talk about if you have a plan for any initiatives to raise awareness about this reimbursement opportunity among end users in the US?

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

There has been quite some interest obviously about this change in the US and our customers are getting ready to be able to serve the K2 population in line with these changes. And this touches on another macro theme in our industry in general is that patients are more influential in terms of what solutions are ultimately chosen and are much more or have much more ability to understand what options are out there. And that will apply here in this case as well. Patients will be aware of this and, let's say, have an opinion on what sort of solutions they will opt for.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

Okay, thank you. I'll jump back in the queue. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. We will now take the next question from the line of Martin Bernoy from Nordea. Please go ahead.

speaker
Martin Bernoy
Analyst at Nordea

Hi, thank you very much for taking my questions. I just have two questions and then I'll jump back in the queue. The first one will be also on the LCD. I think you said something interesting, Sven, which was that when Australia changed their reimbursement system, which was sort of the same as what we're seeing in the U.S. now that led to sort of double-digit growth. Is that fair to say that, you know, with this also being the same sort of mechanics in the U.S., that this is also what we should expect going forward in the U.S.? That's the first question. And the second question is sort of on the patient care side. Can you maybe just Give a little bit of context how this fits into what you were saying at the Capital Markets Day in terms of uniting your retail network and how you can lift profitability from that. Just, you know, what does this actually mean in terms of profitability, how you work as, you know, to cross-sell, et cetera, et cetera, and the issue you make, of course. Can you maybe just put a few words on that that would be very helpful? Thank you.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Thanks a lot. Yes, I mean, the comparison to Australia is just a good one. I don't want to confirm or comment on what the growth rate in the US will be, but the reason I mentioned that as an example is that What we've seen in that market is that, because remember, our business is about, most of our business is about serving an existing amputee population that is out there that consistently needs to maintain, upgrade, and renew their mobility devices. So what happened when the NDIS system changed in Australia, as patients come in for maintenance upgrades and renewals, they all as equal, they have access to better mobility solutions. And the same will now happen in the U.S. So the patient population will gradually get access to better mobility solutions. And that is good for patients and that is good for payers. So it's important to think about it like that. That it is, yeah, gradually the patient population will have access to better mobility solutions. Going back to the patient care business and also our capital markets day and sort of strategically how it all comes together. We, in its most simple form, our goal strategy is about deriving the benefits from operating a vertically integrated business that is serving individuals with a chronic mobility challenge. We are operating a product business, which where the goal is to obviously grow our market share and get as many people as possible using our mobility solutions, while on the patient care side is to deliver best-in-class patient care. And being strong in these two areas is, you could say, mutually reinforcing with regards to our strategic direction. If we're strong on the patient care side, all that's equal makes us a better enable us to be a better partner for independent clinical customers and as well as we're stronger on the patient care side we are sorry on the product side we could be a better patient care provider so taking this step with Formotion is just another step in our maturity journey where we see opportunities to leverage the network effects of operating a global patient care at the end of the day with a goal to just offer best-in-class patient care.

speaker
Martin Bernoy
Analyst at Nordea

Makes a lot of sense. Just one quick follow-up, and then I'll jump back. Sorry. The new product launch here, the Navy Biomec Me, is that product launch and the timing of it anyhow related to the LTD being finalized here? Is there any sort of read-across from that?

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

No, not as such. Both of these development initiatives were in the pipeline before we got the news of the LCD change as such, but it obviously strengthens our position to address the increased demand that there will be for these types of solutions, that we now have a much broader bionics portfolio and more alternatives, basically.

speaker
Martin Bernoy
Analyst at Nordea

Okay, thank you so much.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. That's star 1 and 1 if you wish to ask a question. We will now take the next question. From the line of Niels Granholm from Carnegie, please go ahead.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

Thank you. Just a quick housekeeping question. Your net financial expenses were pretty high in this quarter. Could you talk about any unusual items affecting this quarter and how we should look at the net financial items for the next couple of quarters?

speaker
Artur Svensdottir
Chief Financial Officer

Net financial expenses. So net financial expenses, you can see it. I expect it to be similar in the common quarter, increasing interest expenses by acquisition of fuel and gas, increased our borrowings. But we also see interest rates coming down a bit compared to last year, so the interest cost is stable from last year as well. But we use this quarter as a base for common quarters.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

Great, thank you. And then just on your network capital, how would you expect this to develop in the next couple of quarters?

speaker
Artur Svensdottir
Chief Financial Officer

So the networking capitals, we will see capitals coming down as we are finalizing those big projects, facility projects we've been working on for a while now. They will come to an end in the second half of the quarter. So I expect the capex to come down and stay within the margin, improving our networking capital. We also expect that in relation to, as our second half is more profitable, pre cash flow from operation will also increase. So overall, networking capital is helping in net cash flow in the second half.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Nils, I would also maybe just advise to sort of look at seasonal movements from prior years regarding just the major working capital components on AR. In particular, AP is not such a big topic for us, but inventory has been somewhat stable, and DSO in general is stable.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

Okay, great. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Yiwei Zhu from SEB. Please go ahead.

speaker
Yiwei Zhu
Analyst at SEB

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I don't know why, but my line of cues was not opened and the question was not taken. But I have four questions here. Firstly, and regarding this US CMS change, It was said in the press release saying the clinician must use the knees with integrated stumble recovery. Do you see this as a limitation to your bionic knee products or an opportunity for you to take market share from your main competitors? And I'll do one question at a time. Thank you.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Hi Wayne, good you got through. Sorry about the technical complications. No, all our needs have stumbled with recovery and are therefore eligible for this new LCT change. So we don't have any issue in that regard. It's just a very competitive portfolio.

speaker
Yiwei Zhu
Analyst at SEB

Could you maybe also comment on the competitors' portfolio? A bit more color.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Yeah, sorry about that. Now I'm into deep water in terms of the detailed technical specifications around all our competitors. But the major competitors will have, I assume, in a similar situation.

speaker
Yiwei Zhu
Analyst at SEB

Okay, thanks. And then, secondly, a follow-up question on the fuel giants. You have commented on the current growth trajectory in line with your initial expectation. But then, could you also maybe comment on the synergies? What we understand is that Fieldchains is mainly a local player in Germany, but with your global sales network, what are the initiatives you have taken to expand outside the German market or any synergies do you foresee in the second half or maybe in 2025?

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Yeah, the logic for why we acquired Fjøring Clients was that, let's say, first and foremost, that this patient that needs these types of solutions, they also are in very many cases referred to orthopedic and prosthetic clinics, which is our core customer group, if you will, in addition to obviously our own patient care network. When it comes to the mobility problems that we are able to solve with the furin-gan solutions, they are in many ways similar to, let's say, a mobility problem as a result of limb loss. These are obviously chronic mobility challenges. And even though for, let's say, these neurological mobility-related complications, The limb is still there, but the muscular function is lost for a variety of reasons. So from a biomechanical standpoint, let's say the mobility problem we are solving is very similar. And it also goes back to our intent to position the company to serve, let's say, mobility or chronic mobility challenges in a broader context. has built an exceptional portfolio of components that can be used to build these types of solutions. They have – principally their businesses have been in Germany. Seventy percent of their sales are in Germany. That's what we communicated when we acquired the business. And our integration efforts have largely been around the commercial side of the business. This is not a cost synergy case. This is first and foremost a case where we are leveraging our global relationships with orthopedic and prosthetic clinics that are serving individuals with these types of chronic mobility challenges and we are going let's say we have done lots of training here in the first half of the year and are preparing to go direct in a handful of European markets here in the second half of the year and we also are are establishing this business more formally in Australia. And we are happy to have Fjöring Gans now part of the Ampla Medical family, and this is an area where we will invest and where we intend to bring these solutions to more patients.

speaker
Yiwei Zhu
Analyst at SEB

Great. Very helpful. Thank you so much. And then my next question is on the growth margin improvement. So you previously mentioned that it would be 6 million annual savings. And have you seen sort of full effect and materialized in the quarter here? I mean, 1.5 million roughly.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Yeah, I mean, I think we said in quarter one that it would be four to five million for this financial calendar year, but on a full year basis, five to six million. So, I mean, gross profit margin can fluctuate from quarter to quarter. I mean, quarter one is always a little bit lower just given that it's a smaller quarter, less operating leverage. So, I would encourage you to look at it over a slightly longer period. But let's say the trend is still consistent with what we have assumed, meaning that we have benefits from these cost initiatives that we have taken. We have a positive impact from simply just more productivity and also both in our manufacturing business and also in our patient care business. So we are largely moving in line with how we, uh, how we expect.

speaker
Yiwei Zhu
Analyst at SEB

Okay. Uh, thanks. And lastly, um, uh, Anna mentioned that they all packs, uh, uh, uh, uh, increase only 3% organically. Um, but what do we understand is that, uh, you also paid lower variable compensation to your us office because the current performance. I was wondering if you can sort of indicate that on the normal level in the US, what would be the OPEX increase in a quarter on the, also on the current account in the currency basis?

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Yeah, I mean, there's sort of, yeah, we highlighted that variable composition is This is not where it was in the U.S. last year, given just the high growth we generated in the region last year. So that has some impact on our cost growth here in the quarter. I will say that OPEX will be a little higher here in the second half of the year, but again trying to point back to big picture, it is still our expectation that we have some positive impact from operating leverage on a full year basis and what that means essentially that we expect to have lower OPEX growth than our top line sales growth just to give you something to work with there.

speaker
Yiwei Zhu
Analyst at SEB

Great. Very helpful. Thank you. I'll jump back to the queue. Thanks, Wade.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. And the next question comes from the line of Nils Grantham-Less from Carnegie. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

speaker
Neil Granholm
Analyst at Carnegie

I have already asked my questions, so thank you.

speaker
Operator
Operator

Thank you. I would like now to hand the conference over to your speaker, Sven Solvason, for any closing remarks.

speaker
Fred Solvason
President and CEO

Thank you all for joining us this morning. If you have any follow-up questions or topics, please reach out to our investor relations team. And then I would just like to thank you again and have a nice day.

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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.

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