Duni AB (publ)

Hello and welcome to the Deluny Group Q1 Interim Report 2026. There will be a question and answer session at the end of the presentations. Questions will be taken by phone only. I will now hand over to Robert Dakishkov, President and CEO. Please begin your meeting.

Thank you. Yes, hi and welcome to the Interim Report for Q1 2026. And the headline for this quarter is Stabilized Development in a Challenging Market. And if you look a little bit on the agenda here during the presentation, a little bit highlights in the beginning, and then some market outlook and market insights. And then we have the Q1 summary, and then we're moving into more details within the two business areas. And then at the end, financials and our long-term targets at the end. And then a summary, and then we'll go to Q&A via telephone. All right, so if we move into the highlights, the quarter came in, the net sales is broadly in line with last year, if you look at the same currency as last year. And that is, of course, it's been a quite challenging and volatile market environment here lately as well, as we know. And if we look at the organic sales trend, that improved quarter-on-quarter. Come back to that, but it was minus seven last quarter, and now it's improved, even if it's a little bit negative still. There is a price-focused demand continuing in the market, so with the mix rather than volumes being the main challenge for us in the restaurant market. And then positive in the quarter was food packaging solutions, quarter more balanced performance this quarter. And coming back to that as well. So if we look a little bit on the market, of course, the market remains subdued across the Horeca sector, especially if we look at Germany, as we looked at the data from Germany on the top there. And then, yeah, lately here, I think yesterday was published the Consumer Confidence here, and it dropped significantly in the bottom right there in March because, of course, of the Iran war. And, of course, real revenues continue to decline in market and extending this multi-year downturn that we had. Of course, cost and inflation is a pressure for the market, and especially in labor. And there is purchasing behavior stays a bit cautious with a lot of focus, of course, on cost and efficiency all over the market. If we look a little bit on the higher level here, the European food service market, how that looks now and the projections for 2026 is that the visits have continued to further decreasing in the market. 2025 was actually down and predicted maybe when we went into 2025 that it was supposed to increase. But it's still very low if you compare to the pre-COVID. And these two slides, then, is the five big markets in Europe. And there are some other markets, of course, in Northern Europe here that have come back better, actually, than the top five countries in Europe. If we go into the main growth drivers in Europe at the moment is that, of course, delivery offers is one part where it's – driving growth area. And then, of course, digital ordering is a big thing as well and how you order and the behavior around that. And when it comes to a little bit to food and so on, healthy indulgence is a big trend as well. We also see that breakfast is growing in many parts of Europe and bakeries and so on. And, of course, it's a lot of focus on price value and promos in general in the horeca sector. And then one thing that is very important now is socializing experience when you go out and eat. It's more maybe about that than actually about the food in a way. So, getting to socialize, getting atmosphere. And I think here, Dune can offer a lot of things in the different areas. Delivery, we have our packaging part, and especially the uniform part. We'll come back to a little bit what we found there. And, of course, the social part at the end there, that is where we actually are our core, where we create atmosphere with our napkins and table covers and lights in the restaurants and also, of course, in all areas of the breaker sector. All right. Top line here, then, Q1 financial. If we look at the total net safe, then, it might be 1.764. billion SEC, which was lower than the last year, but in line if you look at the same currency. Operating income, 10 million less than last year, and operating more at 5.7, which is 0.2 lower than last year. And the main things here, then if we comment on the net sales, I think it's important then to look at the peak currencies, of course. It's a lot of currencies going up and down here in the world. And there we are in line with last year, so that's positive then versus last quarter where we were down. Organic growth then was also a positive trend compared to Q4 then. We have a negative mix effect in dining solutions where we have selling less premium napkins, so demand for that. at the moment, but still selling a lot of premium products, and our main products, like Tendusoft and Dunelin are the main ones there that we're really focusing on there. And, of course, the Middle East instability affected the dining solution a lot in the quarter as well. We'll come back to that in a minute here. And a food package loosened sustained growth in local currency this quarter, which was positive. The operating income declined with 10 minutes, as I said, mainly because of paper remits, but also it resulted from a little bit demand from lower-priced products. Of course, also affected the sales was the geopolitical tensions outside, especially in the Middle East here and Asia, where we have some business. The cost developed through a quarter. We have done some, which we announced last year, cost reduction initiatives that helped us during this, but we got some higher costs in energy, logistics, and IT costs during the quarter. And, of course, there's a lot of currency fluctuations, and there was positive impact of 5 million compared to last year. So that was a little bit at a high level, and we might as well move into dining solutions.

Thank you for that, Robert, and good morning, everyone. So, as usual, I start with a more detailed review of our two business areas and starting off with dining solutions. So, sales declined by 68 million, mainly driven by currency effects, but also a continued weak record market. Operating profit decreased from 102 million to 82 million, a decline of 20 million. This is mainly explained by the negative mix effect, which I will come back to shortly. But in addition, we also experienced cost pressure on variable costs like energy and logistics during the quarter. As a result, the operating margin declined to 7.8% compared to 9.1% last year. So if we jump to the next one. So incomparable exchange rates, sales declined by roughly 1%. So we do not yet have full market statistics for Q1, but our assessment is that this performance is broadly in line with the Horeca market overall. If we look on the volumes measured in pallets and pieces, we actually see a positive development. And this allows us to conclude that in several segments, we're actually flat or even gaining market share. However, the challenge is clearly the sales mix, as mentioned. already, we are losing share in branded premium products, which carry higher margins, while gaining volume in private label and commodity products with significantly lower gross margins. Regarding Germany and their reduced VAT for restaurants, we mentioned that before. We do not yet see any clear trend shift in visits to full-service restaurants. Anyhow, Such measures are important to support fundamentals and make eating out more affordable. But it is a fact that inflation over the recent years has been significantly higher for restaurants than for consumers in general. As Robert mentioned, geopolitical uncertainty remains very high. Consumer confidence is still at historical low levels. You maybe saw that on the previous slide. And cautious continues to dominate spending behavior. And this is not yet supporting a recovery strategy. unfortunately, in the Horeca segment. Against this backdrop, we have increased our initiatives and adapted to the new reality of customers having less financial room. So during the quarter, we launched mid-segment offerings in napkins and table covers, soft-tick and velvetech. This provides smart value for effortless professional table settings. It's still a bit early days, but the reception from the industry has so far been positive, and these products will play an important role in protecting sales momentum during these challenging times. So, over the last year, we have also worked hard to increase efficiency and reduce costs, both backend and frontend. So, despite having fewer resources in the field, we have increased end customer visits by 27% year-on-year. This is, of course, a very important leading indicator for long-term growth and supports the loyalty among restaurants and hotels. So, what the result decline of 20 million is, to try to summarize, is mainly explained by three factors. First, the negative mixed effect that is the most dominating one. We mentioned that. This is a challenge in tough times, but we firmly believe that customers value what our brand stands for and the role we play in creating atmosphere around eating and drinking and not least our initiatives in sustainability solutions. We are well-positioned. However, our focus is not to wait for better times, but to actively shift this curve already now. Second, we saw clear cost pressure, mainly related to energy and logistics, partly driven by the geopolitical disturbances. And finally, third point, we had a positive currency effect versus last year. That supported the result, but not enough to offset the weak markets and the lower share of premium sales. So to summarize Q1, A recovery in organic growth after a weak Q4, I must say. But the key challenge remains the declining share of branded sales, which continues to crash across margins. Positively, again, we are growing in pieces sold, indicating that we are defending and in some cases growing our market share, despite severe headwinds. So moving over to food packaging solutions. focusing on sustainable food packaging. Sales declined by 4%. That is fully driven by negative currency effects. In comparable currencies, actually a slight increase. Operating profit improved from last year, increasing from 7 to 80 million, and that corresponds to a margin of 2.5%. As mentioned, currency is the main driver on sales. It's been also quite a volatile period for currencies lately. This primarily is to the strong receipt versus the euro, but also versus the Australian dollar, which averaged in Q1 this year 635 compared to 690 last year. But at the same time, the Australian dollar has strengthened versus the US dollar, which has supported a gross profit in Australia. Inventory levels, always very important, are now significantly more optimized compared to a year ago. I think diligent work in the last nine months or so has reduced storage costs, especially in markets outside Europe. But this remains a key focus area, and given the continued supply chain uncertainty driven by the geopolitical situation. We experienced a notable cost pressure in logistics and oil and gas-related input linked to the situation in the Middle East, of course. Price compensation measures have been initiated, although the short-term impact is more pronounced in food packaging, particularly so in Europe, where plastic products are still part of our portfolio. But a positive aspect of this is that the vast majority of our products, and especially so outside Europe, are fiber-based. And these products have historically been more expensive than plastic alternatives, and this now creates an opportunity to accelerate the shift towards fiber solutions. Experience from previous price effects shows that close customer dialogue and reliable delivery are critical to gain market share and staying ahead of smaller and more optimistic competitors, which, of course, will always be there. Our recent strategic-focused acquisitions, Linepack in Europe, in Finland, and BuyGreen in Australia, continue to develop well and strengthen their overall offer. And in Q1 this year, we also signed the acquisition of Silsu as a small acquisition around 50 million or so in revenue. But that has a very meaningful impact on Duniform offering in Sweden, but also in the Nordics. Duniform is Duni Group's sustainable food packaging concept. And the integration will start 1st of April for Silsu. We continue to see foreign exchange volatility. So while we see a stronger Australian dollar that supports the gross profit, we also saw some negative revaluation effects in Biopack Group during the quarter. Long term, a strong Australian dollar versus the US dollar is positive, just to be clear. To summarize, Q1 is a seasonal weak one, and margins remain below normalized levels. However, as shown by the rolling 12-month trend to the right. Profitability has slowly but steadily improved since Q2 last year. If we now jump in a little bit more to the financials, starting off with the income statement. So as mentioned, we have FX effects that reduced the sales by almost 5% in the quarter. Organic growth improved significantly from the week previous quarter, now close to zero, minus 1%. So although we are defending our market position by offering more affordable alternatives, the negative mixed effect that we said a couple of times now continues to put pressure on the profitability. So gross margin remains resilient, and that is supported by dedicated cost reduction initiatives that we have done. especially so in our production facilities, but also in the front end. Also, price compensation measures were implemented or at least initiated to mitigate these costs increases seen, especially so in the second half of the first quarter. As communicated earlier, we are seeing higher costs also related to digital investments. That includes an ERP replacement project. But adjusted for the inflation and higher IT costs, That is roughly 20 million a quarter. All in all, we've also taken out costs of almost the same, and that is in line with our previous guidance. Financial met last year was positively impacted by currency translation effects, and therefore was exceptionally low. This year, we also have an effect on interest rates from the leasing contract in our new warehouse, explaining the main difference we see now between 26 and 25. If we jump to the business areas, financials, and dining solutions, if you look on the last 12 months, just below 10% margin, which is, you could say, relatively strength, given the market environment. Food packaging improves slightly to 3.3%. Look on the rolling 12 months again. But I would say both business areas remain 3% to 4% below targeted levels. primarily due to the low volumes and pressure on the branded sales. And that's more so than the structurally weak gross margins or any excessive indirect costs. So with improved volumes, we know from experience that operational leverage will support margins going forward. Indirect costs are therefore adapted to the pressure on sales levels. And during the last year, we have reduced the cost, particularly so in sales and marketing and in production. Okay, if we look on the operating cash flow, it's typically negative in Q1, also this year, in line with prior years. However, there are some slightly differences. Inventory increased significantly last year, as you can see, particularly so in Biopack Group in Australia. That had negatively impacted both cash flow, but also the profit we were part to reduce in 2025. In Q1 this year, inventory development improved clearly with only a normal seasonal increase. So, the negative deviation mainly reflects lower accounts payable. That is partly a timing effect, partly lower purchase volumes. Okay. Moving on to the financial position. I would say the prolonged recession and industry challenges over the last two, two and a half years have started to reflect a little bit in our financial position. Working capital remains stable, both in value and in days. Net theft has increased versus year-end, and that is fully explained by our long-term logistic partnership and the related lease liability we have of approximately $600 million. So, this is not an increase in traditional interest-bearing debt. It does not influence the covenant, just to be clear. So, the solution secures our deliver performance with this warehouse for many years. And I stated earlier, we expect to generate annual savings of around 35 to 45 million, starting at the end of 2026, once the warehouse reallocation from Ramse, where it is now, to map when it's completed and stabilized, I would say. Finally, we have reached the slides to the group targets. And as previously communicated, we have updated our both financial and sustainability targets effective from 1st of January. So we now target total growth about 6% in comparable currencies. Currently, we are below this level, as you can see. mainly due to the weak Hoveca market. M&A has contributed until quite recently, but had a marginal impact in the quarter. The operating margin closed at 7.3%, stable, I would say, versus the last quarter or quarters. But as also you can see, it is below our 10% target. The board proposes a dividend of five cents per share, That's unchanged from last year. It corresponds to a payout ratio of 75%. That is above our target for 50%. We also have updated our sustainability target to 2030 to lead and secure our role as being the trusted sustainability leader. First, we should have at least 90% share of circular input materials, renewable or recyclable, and that ended on 87%. of the first quarter. Second, our way to net zero should be reduced by 77% versus 2019. Here we ended at minus 58%. And third one, we should be a great and safe place to work in, and we measure this by the below 10 lost time injuries per 1,000 employees. Here we ended at 16. We continue to invest heavily in our production to ensure we gradually reach our targets. And finally, supplier responsibility. 100% should have signed the group's business partner code of conduct by 2030, and here we are at 83%, and we work diligently to reach that. So thank you for listening, and I will now hand over to Robert for his concluding remarks.

Thank you, Magnus. Yeah, and a little bit of final remarks here. There are two topics, of course, our sales, net sales, and trends there, and what we're doing there, and I think, as Magnus mentioned a bit, we have been focused on transforming our goods market model in terms of both marketing and the sales force, and done a big job during last year, and That is starting now to get in place, and as I just mentioned, we get more visits, about 27%. Also, in order to drive more growth and find new type of segments and customers is that we're launching a mid-segment table cover and napkin assortment for especially the south part of Europe in order to hit those type of trends in those restaurants and segments. And if we look at the profitability there, of course, we're working a lot now with quite a big change here in the years with the whole logistic move, of course, and also internally on IT and so on in order to be more efficient going forward in both end of 26 and 27 here. And also looking into, I think, food packaging, good turnaround in the quarter. And it's of a good and important balance for Dubny compared to many years ago, actually, that we have two business areas that actually complement each other, and also the packaging actually taps into mega trends in the society, especially with Dubny Forum here that we are investing in and seeing good momentum in. Yeah, that was a little bit short summary and recap, and then I will move you to questions. Thank you.

Thank you. And we will now begin the question and answer session. If you do wish to ask an audio question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing star 2 to cancel. One moment, please, for your first question. And your first question comes from the line of Eric Sunstead with Kepler Shoebrew. Please go ahead.

Hi there, thanks. Yeah, Eric Sandstedt here with Keppler Chevrolet. A few questions, please. I want to start off with the organic sales growth and how we should think about that relating to margins. Organic sales growth is improving in the quarter, but it's still negative. So do you think you can improve operating margins this year even if organic sales growth were to be negative?

Yeah, I can start here. It's, of course, a bit of a hard question depending on the mix, how we sell. And, of course, it's important for us to sell Duraline and Ubisoft, which are the premium, in order to reach that margin, actually. Because if we sell them, let's say, one-ply, two-ply, three-ply napkins, then, of course, that's a lower value on those. So that could be tough. But I think our main focus is really to As I said, with Salesforce, everything is focused on driving the premium, which is the core.

Yeah. But I'm a bit curious how much pricing power you have now, given the pretty tough consumer backdrop and the fact that consumers are trading down. can you still raise prices on your premium products, or is there a risk that that kind of re-accelerates the trend towards cheaper products?

Yeah, I think, I mean, it's always a risk, of course, especially with the restaurant situation. I think, yeah, certain prices when you see now inflation coming in and so on, it's a little bit easier maybe to adapt to that. And I think going back a little bit to the napkin, role in the restaurant it's a very little part of the whole expenses in a way but of course when restaurants are under pressure it's tougher but I think that speaks for it that we can actually take out the increased inflation on the premium also it's important for us to actually charge the right price of course on the lower products that's an important part yeah that makes sense

And on that topic and on the back of your comments that you see consumers trading down to cheaper products, does that mean they are not willing to pay a premium for sustainable products either? I'm thinking a little bit about the upcoming PPWR regulation and whether this can be a competitive advantage for you and how to think about the price proposition in relation to that regulation.

Yeah, I think that's like a two-edged sword here in a way, because you have, I think, if you look at all the research and we see also that they say that, I mean, sustainability, that, yeah, the willingness to pay isn't really there. Actually, I think it's like 2% are choosing restaurants because of own sustainability. It's quite a tough measure, so in a way, but that is, so it's a very low number of people actually choosing the restaurant for that. On the other hand, I think as you're on to with all regulations coming in, I think we are ahead there. I think that's very important. And we are long from ahead, I would say. I mean, what we've done with the airline now moving into this bio binder, I think that's something that is really important. And we were the first one in the world with that. You know, PFAS on packaging, we were also the first. We moved early there. And then you could say, yeah, well, it's early. But I think, yeah, we moved because we know that regulation would come in a way. So I think, yeah, long-term, that would be a winner. I'm definitely sure of that. But short-term, of course, the pressure on restaurants. Yeah, they're looking into, yeah, everything they can cut, you know, from meat or detergent in the dishwasher, everything. They're looking into everything, you know. So if the restaurants now, hopefully, like in Germany, if they get a little bit better, maybe financial with the VAT, maybe if that moves. We haven't seen that yet. But if that comes, of course, they get a little bit more. And maybe the napkin is a very small part of it. So that could actually make a big, big, big change in the restaurant if you have a little bit creating atmosphere. And that's one of the things we've seen in the research also that Atmosphere is important for the restaurants because people come there to socialize maybe more than eat nowadays, actually. So that part we are really onto. And I think we're also, I mean, putting a lot of effort into light now, especially LED light. And that is also something we see a big potential here in long term because you can see that when you're out there, atmosphere is so important for the restaurants to actually get people in.

That's great. That's helpful. And also, maybe I came on the call a little bit late, so maybe you have talked about this already, but how should we think about higher input costs on the back of the high oil price and geopolitical tensions and so forth? Is that impacting you? And if so, can you offset it through efficiency measures or pricing?

Yes, it is impacting us. We see that already in the second part of the quarter, especially from the forwards, the logistics costs, but also the energy. Of course, it's very uncertain how it will play out. But as Robert was into, I think the cost increase is there. It's visible. We are taking initiatives. And the mindset for the customers to accept this, when you have these clear signals to adapt and to also accept certain price compensation measures. Yeah, so energy, logistics, some parts of our products also indirectly impacted the resource from Asia. That is one part. The other part is if we see disturbances in the supply chain. We haven't seen that so far yet, but that's also a risk blocking certain routes in the world. that can also have an impact.

Yeah, sure. Just finally from me, I think you mentioned it towards the end of the call here, but the financial expenses, did I understand it correctly that there was a leasing impact on the financial costs in the quarter, or basically my question is more how to, what's the normalized kind of cost of debt for you right now?

Yeah. That's correct. And if you compare it to last year, the last year was very low for certain positive revalidation effects. I think it's fair. Everything else is the same, that this leasing impact is around 7 million per quarter, just to give you an idea, higher. So it's not that big difference we should expect going forward. And, of course, then there are a lot of components in that financial net. So it can, of course, move up and down. going forward as well.

Yeah. That's at 7 million in leases in this quarter. Correct. And also going forward. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

And once again, if you would like to ask a question, seem to press the star 1 on your telephone keypad. And our next question comes from the line of Johan Fred with SEB. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I apologize if the question has been answered during the call. I was a bit late here, but just trying to understand the dynamics here, especially the discrepancy between gross margins and operating margins. Gross margins were stable. Volumes were roughly flat. but still the operating margin was down significantly. Can you just explain the dynamics here and also what needs to happen for the operating margin to improve in 2026? Thank you.

Yeah, as I understand, I understand the question, the difference between the gross margin and the operating margin, which declined slightly, the operating margin in the quarter. Yes, we have taken out costs. That should contribute, and it is, especially so in production. That impacts gross profits. You won't see it there, but sales and marketing is impacting positively on the indirect cost, the difference between gross margin and operating margin. However, we have taken some costs. Some are mainly related to IT, the change in ERP systems and digital solutions there. Some of them are temporary in 26, part in 27. It should be reduced going forward. We also have some other costs we've seen related to M&A and so on. So that explains a little bit the dynamics in the rate cost. So we're both positive and negative impact in the quarter.

But just so I get this straight, sales mix was negative. You're losing share in brand products, which I assume have higher gross margins, but still gross margins are relatively stable while you're gaining volume in sort of private label and commodity products. Wouldn't that sort of be beneficial for operational leverage in dining solution, or am I getting this wrong?

No, I think, as you say, the gross margins are relatively stable, although we have a severe negative impact selling less brand sales. So the reason why it is stable is the hard work we're taking out costs, especially so in production, and that supports the gross margin. So in order to, from a sales perspective, improve the gross margin, then, of course, we need higher share of brand sales. So it's protected. The gross margin is protected by very much cost out.

Okay, got it. Thank you so much for taking my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to Robert Bakishkov for closing remarks.

Thank you for listening and great questions. Thank you and we'll see you in the next quarter. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you, presenters and ladies and gentlemen. This now concludes our presentation. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.