Redcare Phamacy Unsp/Adr

At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Olaf Heinrich, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Well, thank you very much and also very well welcome from my side. We are happy to have you today with us and to present the 2023 RETCAN numbers. 2023 has been a great year for RETCAN. Let's have a quick look into the agenda. First of all, we would like to look into some highlights of 2023. then looking into the business performance of 2023, and afterwards, strategic update and outlook 2024, and then financial outlook and guidance of 2024. Can you please go to the next slide? So I think we need to start with the guidance. I mean, you know, it has already been a revised guidance, and we fully achieved the guidance across all elements, with record sales and major margin improvement.

So we're really happy about that.

We also surpassed the 10 million active customers. I mean, it doesn't come by surprise because we already saw it throughout the entire year. But nevertheless, I think it's worth mentioning it, more than 10 million active customer. And to me, it's really a result of putting the customer first always and having a great product available including our marketplace and now offering. We also successfully launched the new corporate brand and the vision of this was to reflect a more holistic view on healthcare and also a more international view. At the same time, we also relaunched some of the shops in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland and we even changed and I don't know if you remember, already in 2022, we did the same thing in Italy. So as a result of that, our brand now looks much broader and more consistent. Next page please. Sustainable development is an integral part of the RedCare strategy and it's reflected in our organizational structure, and even more important, our processes. We have identified 12 topics as being relevant for us to track. One of them is circular packaging, and we are happy to report that our share of recycled packaging now has reached 93%. As a result of all of our efforts, we have been upgraded by two ESG Rating Agencies. We received a AAA rating from MSCI mid of last year and at the beginning of this year from Sustanalytic we became upgraded from medium risk to low risk, putting us in the upper quartile of all companies being covered. We also entered into the strategic partnership with Galenica and this is really bringing together the best of both worlds. Phamacy Rx Know-how of Galenica and Mediservice and on the other hand the online expertise of RedCare. And then of course ERX also already 2023 has been a great year for ERX. We saw the introduction of the mandatory eScript beginning of 2024 but already in Q3 and Q4 of last year we saw a ramp up of the number of eScripts being issued And in December, we reached a milestone when Gematik announced that they will release specifications for EGK NFC product, which allows fully digital access for our customers to online pharmacy.

Can you please go to the next slide?

Let's look into the business performance of 2023. Again, let's start with the guidance. We fully met the guidance. I mean, we had great sales, organic, And non-organic, total sales were up 49% on a full year basis and 62 in Q4. And even if we take Mediservice out, I mean we had a 24% growth on a full year basis and 23 in Q4. Non-Rx being a little bit more successful, showing 23% in Q4 and 25% on a full year basis. But at the same time, Jasper, we also had a great, great record EBITDA. So it's not only about the sales, it's also about the EBITDA. We are really proud to report a 3.0 EBITDA ratio for the full year and showing even 3.1% in Q4. And that is 3.7 percentage points better than previous years. And I think Jasper will later talk a little bit about that. And you know, those achievements really are based on improvements across all components of the P&L and all four quarters of 2023 had a positive contribution. Full year free cash flow was positive, 8 million, and we ended up on a solid cash balance around 200 million by the end of last year. Next slide, please. If we look more in detail into the sales, we can see that it happens across all of our reporting segments. So if we look into the DACH region, I mean, we see a 54.6% increase. But even if we take Mediservice out, you can see on the non-NAREX, a 23% growth. And the non-NAREX number on international is even higher with almost 31% in growth. Combined on the non-NAREX, it's clearly above 20%. Next slide, please. And this is also reflected in the number of active customers. As mentioned earlier, we surpassed the 10 million, now ending up on 10.8 million by the end of last year. And as you can see, we added quarter after quarter more active customer to it. And at the same time, we were able to keep the NPS above 70, which we are very proud of, because it shows we clearly are in command of all of our processes and are able to deliver that high net promoter score even if the volume goes up. Additionally, we also saw a slight increase in our average shopping basket value. Next slide, please. And the sales, of course, also, and the number of customers reflected in the number of orders, more than 29 million orders in 2023. And on average, 85% of those orders will repeat orders, which shows clearly how healthy the customer file is. And I think it also shows that the new customers we required in previous years, they have converted really into existing customers, showing that the business model works. And that's pretty much from my side.

Well, here it's on one page. First to start with the sales line. So the sales in the fourth quarter, they increased from 328 million last year to 531 million sales this quarter four, and which was an increase of 62.1%. And on a full year base, we expanded our sales from 1.2 billion to 1.8 billion. Thank all the colleagues who have been able to achieve those great results. And that's both, if you look at the 62% from those that work on making the sales like marketing or category management, but also all the people that work in quality control, last mile operations, in finance, paying the invoices, enabling the company to really grow by 62%. If you look at the full year number of 49, actually a little bit less than half of that, Phamacy Unsp and it's also great to work together with the people of Galenica and the people of Mediservice in Tsoukio. As Olav mentioned already, also an achievement we're very proud of the last year. So with those 1.8 billion sales, let's immediately go to the adjusted EBITDA margin line, because actually the lines in between are impacted by Phamacy Unsp & Adr The sales increase, together with the margin expansion, leads to the line adjusted EBITDA in Euros. So for the full year last year it was a minus 8 and this year we achieved a positive 50%. An increase of €61 million of adjusted EBITDA year over year. And for reference on this slide, also the fully loaded, straightforward P&L EBITDA, and that one even increased at €70 million. And the difference is explained by the significant reduction of adjustments. And already making a forward-looking statement, it's likely that our adjustments this year will be again lower than last year because some of the adjustments So all in all, sales growth in euros, better margin leading to significantly more adjusted EBITDA. If we then go into the segments, so on the left side, we see the 3.7% increase for the total group, but very important from our perspective to emphasize that this was actually driven by all countries and driven by the two reporting segments. So in DAG, also last year, we were positive. 1.9%, but this year we expanded to above 5% positive adjusted EBITDA, while growing very fast. And the international segment had a similar improvement of almost 4 points from minus 10 to minus 6. Then the bridges, explaining why we increased our adjusted EBITDA margin by close to First, you see the 27.5%. That's going to 24.5%, including everything, including Maidy Service. But what is relevant is if we take the Apple and Apple comparison, then we see that in the comparable base, in the three building blocks, we increased in total by 0.6%. And block number two and number three basically show we are in control. There is no big mix impact. There are no other relevant items. and that is an increase of the margin we achieve on the products that we are selling. And there are many reasons for that, where we make improvements, whether it is sourcing, whether it's assortment optimization and so on. So the total gross profit margin improved fundamentally with 0.6%. And then the next one. Thank you. So the selling and distribution even improved by three percentage points. And here, if I immediately go to the bridge, which is also made on a Shipping and packaging, so last mile and packaging and operational labor. Despite the inflationary environment where we are all in, we were actually able to improve those costs as a percentage of sales. And that's clearly reflective of skill, of efficiency, and also with a little bit of help from an increased average basket, which is important for our business model. If you go to the first block, Marketing as a percentage of sales benefited from the strength of our brands that we are having. It's not harming our growth, as you have seen in the numbers that we've published already. And adding this all up is leading to a 3% increase of our selling and distribution as a percentage of sales. And on the next slide, what does it mean for our cash? We were very happy with the free cash flow of a positive 8 million, and we started the year with 180 million. We have some cash and we put in a fixed deposit to earn some interest income. So those two together were 180 million and we ended the year slightly above 200 million from left to right. So we start with the operating results close to the EBITDA of some 50 million. We had 48 million of operating income cash, then a positive impact on working capital movements, investments of around 50 million and then financing, were more than offset by a 29 million capital raise, leading to an end balance above 200 million. And I think this is, for now, the last finishing slide. So back to you, Olaf. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. OK, strategy update. So I think, in a nutshell, it's pretty easy. We would like to strengthen our European online pharmacy leadership in 2024. How do we want to do this? Phamacy Unsp & Adr The platform business is a marketplace and now you know we successfully introduced this in Germany and in Austria and we would like to continue in those two countries but also to roll this out on an international level. At the same time we would like to realize the strategic rationale of our Swiss partnership. You know in 2023 we had a very smooth transition into the new setup Phamacy Unsp Adr At the same time, you saw earlier the 29 million orders we processed last year. So we have to maximize also our capacity in distribution at the same time. So we will work in Italy and also in Sebenum on our capacity. In Italy, we will simply add more warehouse space, but not really increasing the degree of automation, so more of the same. Whereas in Sebenum, for the first time, we will install AI-based robots in our picking area. So 24 robots. And the overall idea is to, of course, increase the outcome per hour and to decrease the cost per order. And at the same time, we want to become the leading online player in the German ERX market. Can you please go to the next slide? Let's talk a little bit about ERX. I mean, this slide you are familiar with. We presented this already in Q3 of last year, and the story is also pretty easy. The e-script finally has arrived in Germany. More than 70% of these national health insurance scripts in Germany are e-scripts at this point in time, and more than 75% It's a great success and the introduction of the mandatory eScript beginning of January of this year has by far exceeded what most of the experts and also analysts have expected. Nevertheless, it looks great and I think the eScript will continue to be a success in Germany. If we can now please go to the next slide. You are also familiar with this slide, at least to some extent, because we also presented it in Q3. I mean, we want to show how we are positioned as an online pharmacy to participate in that market. And the good news is already today, we have two ways which our customers can use to redeem e-scripts. First of all, it's the Gematik app. And then secondly, it's the paper printout. Yes, the Gematik app, you know, Here you need as a customer, you need the EGK card, so that's the German healthcare card, plus the PIN. And on the paper PIN, you simply need a paper printout from the doctor, which is a very low barrier. So, and our customers are currently using both ways. Then, you know, there's this EGK plugin solution, which does not work for online pharmacies because you physically have to present your card in a brick and mortar pharmacy. And therefore, We are really happy that Ematic announced in December, as I mentioned earlier, to launch the eHealth CardLink product. And with this product, we have a level playing field with brick-and-mortar pharmacies. So that means customers can decide to use their EGK card without a PIN either in a brick-and-mortar pharmacy or they can use that to do business with online pharmacies. If we look into the status on the eHealth card link, I think that is pretty easy to explain. Gematik decided that this becomes a product of Gematik, and because of that, they have initiated a standard process. And the standard process is releasing specs. They did this the first time in December. They also did a release of specs in January, and then they will eventually end up with final specs. They will release the final specs. And then at the same time, we are building our product against those specs. We have started to do that already in 2023. And we are constantly adjusting our product based on new and updated releases of the specs. So that is actually the process. And now the tricky question or the open question is on timing. And here we can say that we assume that in March we will see the final release of the specs by Gematik. But please keep in mind, the process is not in our hand, so we cannot guarantee this. At the same time, on the product side, we feel pretty comfortable because we have always aligned our product development to different specs releases. But here we need to see what the final specs are going to look like. So we might need to do some minor adjustments or not. And once we have done this, we will then ask for approval from Grammatik. That is all we can say today on the process. If we can go to the next slide, please. We can see once we have achieved all of this, we will have a great product available, very easy to use. You can see on the left-hand side, I mean, you can either use the QR code, which you can already do today, or you can use card link, meaning you can use your EGK card. You simply attach this card to the smartphone and all of the ERX data will be retrieved from the Gematix server and then you're in the regular process of ordering like OTC, BPC or own product means you can select delivery options, payment options and that's pretty much it. So it's a great product already today with the QR code. Phamacy Unsp & Adr

Phamacy Unsp & Adr We see from a helicopter view, from a total company perspective, no indications of a change. There's still a great opportunity in all of the seven countries. So we see strength across all our countries and this is driving our sales growth at a solid margin. And as if that's not enough already, there's also then the ERX opportunity on top of that. ERX implementation in our DAG segment in Germany, and now already more than 70% of all public scripts are digital at the moment. So it's the first full year that there is this pool available of electronic scripts. But I presume that you will understand that though we are very happy with the developments, everything is too dynamic to at this moment give precise guidance on ERX. There are many things where we can give you guidance on. So our guidance as always for the full year, so for the full year 2024. We expect at this moment that we are able to increase our sales to a total sales of 2.3 to 2.5 billion, which is a growth of 30 to 40%. One of the drivers of the growth is non-Rx continuing to grow by at the midpoint of 20% in a range of 15% to 25% with growth in both segments. May service, first of all, there is the full year impact, 12 months this year, seven and a half months last year because we included it as of mid-May, but we expect that the core business of May service will grow by mid-single digit in the current year. and those sales growth to achieve at solidly positive margins between 2% and 4%. That's the same range that we gave you last year also at the start of the year. It is including several scenarios also in relation to the ERIX opportunity there is. But in all cases, we are at a positive margin is our expectation at the moment, 2% to 4%. And this also allows me to reiterate that we are confident with the mid to long term guidance of an adjusted EBITDA of our business model in excess of 8%. So that's unchanged. That's what you can say for the year. Yeah. And I think operator, if you could please open it up for questions, if any.

First question from Christopher Yonan, HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yes, thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. First question, last year you gave a free cash flow guidance, not this time around. Is there a reason for that or is there any color you can give? It would already be helpful if for some of the important items like capex, if there is any sort of color you could give us on that. And then second question on the EBITDA guidance. The range is, I think, quite wide. Just trying to understand your thinking here, you know, what would have to happen for you to reach the low end of that range or the high end, just to get a better understanding on your thinking here. Thank you.

Yes, go ahead. Thanks, Chris, for your interest and thanks for your question. Yeah, indeed, last year we provided for the first time in the company history a guidance on cash. We were happy that we delivered on that guidance. Each year we look at what are the most important indicators, but also where do we have a large degree of certainty that we are able actually to predict upon that. As to the CAPEX, I can already tell you nothing peculiar there. So assume the same level or perhaps a little bit of growth in line with the sales growth. So nothing special on the CAPEX in 2024. So that's together with our positive EBITDA guidance should bring you already to the area where you want to be. The reason for us to not give guidance this year is actually just to and potentially even more dynamics, also particularly related to ERX. And then at that moment, the guidance which includes working capital, like we had last year, or total cash change, that can be in certain occasions, just because of timing, in handy. A scenario where you would have a fast increase, for example, suddenly in quarter four, we worked on a very solid balance sheet since 2021 already, so we are ready. for everything, but it would be unhandy if we at a certain moment say in December, actually we can grow a lot, but okay, we also have this guidance of working capital. That is just so we want to have some flexibility there. It's not reflective of any other change that we expect compared to last year. It's just allowing us a bit more flexibility to the positive and to the negative of working capital. So that's the only reason, rest assured, we are fully focused on cash in all our decisions. Even our guidance, yeah, I don't think it's a large range, 2 to 4%, but I hear what you're saying. I think it's reflective of the state where we are as a company. In 2022, it was still at minus 0.7, and now we're saying that the low end is 2%. Also here, there can be certain scenarios where perhaps our additional business, also from our X, is immediately contributing. Perhaps in certain occasions, there's a certain investment, I think that's it.

Okay, thank you a lot.

The next question from Jan Koch, Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Hi Olaf, hi Asma. Thanks for taking my questions. I also have two. I would also like to start with your margin guidance. What are your assumptions on incremental marketing spending for 2024? And then I was positively surprised by the sales outlook for your non-RX business. What gives you confidence that you can achieve such growth despite tough comms and an online penetration rate that is already quite high in Germany?

If you want to give some color on the second one, I can also do that. The marketing expectations from us, there are several scenarios possible. At the moment, the scenarios that we can imagine are all included in this guidance. I think one of the strengths, of course, of former shop apotheker, still our brand in certain countries and currently Red Care, is actually our ability to have very good direct communications with marketing also to our direct customers. And at the moment, there's an opportunity like, for example, the RX opportunity in Germany that will not be all on top. It will also be in part, it will be a shift, but within this margin range, there's a lot of flexibility. I mean, the numbers of sales have become larger for us, but the percentage is leading to more flexibility in absolute euros. So I think that certain scenarios that cross your mind, we feel at this moment comfortable that this is within this range. So there's nothing peculiar for you, I would advise, to take into account as to marketing. Do you also want to give it a try on the second one?

Or maybe I can add to this then?

Thanks for the implicit compliment, Jan. Yeah, if you look at all our countries, we don't see any indication of a slowdown of the momentum. We have quarter over quarter already for many years. We have a customer data model that we use internally. We have indicators of customer loyalty related to conversion and to returning customers, etc. And based upon all the predictions that we're having, we feel comfortable about this, indeed, continuation of strong growth of our core business. Yeah.

Yeah, maybe just adding to this, but I see it the same way. We have a great product out there. We have a great product out there and the markets are still large. I mean, huge. I mean, the online penetration, yes, it is increasing, but still there's a lot of room for an online player and I think we are best positioned to fill that space.

Very helpful. If I may, one follow-up question. If I consider the outlook for your sub-segments, your new sales guidance implies about 90% growth in your ROX business, excluding mini-service.

What are your assumptions here? Indeed, I understand the mathematical exercise that you did, and it's also a correct exercise. But it's just that we give guidance on everything where we can give guidance on. And we are happy with the RH developments, ERH developments, but we don't give guidance there. So mathematically, it's correct what you are doing, but that allows the room to not comment on that. But I understand how you do the exercise. But there are, of course, several ways to roam to get to the 2.3 to 2.5. But if you take the midpoint everywhere, I understand what you calculate. Yeah.

Okay, great. Thank you.

The next question from Patrick Holstein, Apotheke. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. I would like to ask three questions. The first one would be if you could disclose how many e-prescriptions you received during this first quarter of this year. The second one would be if the RX bonus, which you reintroduced last week, will be a part of the strategy in the future. And the third one is about the marketplace. Could you please disclose how many cities you have in Germany where you have this now concept and how many partners you have? Thank you.

Yes, do you want to start with the first question? It's just a disclosure question, so it's easy to answer.

Thanks for your question. But indeed, today we discussed 2023 and our guidance for 2024. And let's say the question around how many e-scripts we did exactly, we cannot answer. We don't want to answer at the moment.

And maybe I can add to that also on the third question, was the question on if I understood it right, marketplace and now partners. We also don't disclose any of those numbers. First of all, it's about 2023. And secondly, we don't do that on that level. And then there was the second question was on the bonus, if I got the question right. So you said we reintroduce the bonus. I don't see it that way. We still have the picker for bonus on our web page. And you know the bonus is an ongoing story. And once we have updates on that one, you will see it on our web page.

Thank you.

The next question is from . Please go ahead.

Hello gentlemen, thanks for taking my questions. The first one is, am I understanding this correct that there is no change to the or not impact from the Mediservice to the average basket size? Is that correct? And the second question would be if you could provide some color on the international business and the product mix What specifically led to the decline in the growth margin in the international business? Thanks.

Do you want to do that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, indeed, if you would have disclosed the average basket, including many services would have been a huge increase of the average basket. We have very high Rx baskets in Service business. And to have an Apple and an Apple, indeed the number that was also presented by Olaf of an increase, I think, 1.9% of the total average basket is an Apple to Apple to last year, and it's of everything excluding Baby Service. Otherwise, indeed, it would have been significantly higher. That is correct, but that would then be a number that wouldn't make a lot of sense in comparison to last year. Phamacy Unsp International, yes, sometimes we have a more aggressive promotion. Sometimes we don't need them. So, I mean, there's nothing worth mentioning, I would say, also in international. There's not something like an ongoing trend or a different business model that we have in the other countries. Actually, in the end, the unit economies are very comparable to each of the seven countries. But in the end, there is a different life cycle where we are in certain countries. And indeed, we for we were able to accelerate our growth in international and we ended in total with more than 30%. And perhaps we did some more promotions to also stimulate the growth there in one of the international countries or in more than one of the countries. But nothing worth mentioning there. It's in the total, it's mathematically true that the gross margin was somewhat down and we had a very strong performance of SMD, but it's really not something relevant.

Okay, great, thanks. And just one quick follow-up. Just a technical question on the balance sheet. The non-controlling interest from the Mediservice joint venture, it changed as of nine months from 100 million to 25 million at the end of 2023. Is there a reason for that?

Yeah, there is. that was temporary accounting until the year end. Let me get back to that to you offline, though the exact details are in our annual report also. But it's a bit technical how much of the intangibles you activate and then have a non-controlling interest. But there are also some other ways how to account for it. After discussions with the two expert accountants, we now have finalized the accounting of MAIDI service at year end. and there was on the balance sheet only a slight change compared to the first six months of the year. Yeah.

Great. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for catching this. Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Heinrich for any closing remarks. Thank you.

Well, yes. Thank you very much for turning this back to me. It has been a great session. Thanks for all of your questions. 2023 has been a very successful year to RedCare Pharmacy and 2021 is going also to be a decisive year. And we are ready for this and see you next time in the quarterly earnings call. Thank you very much.