OTC • Last print unknown ago
$50.75—Stale · unknown old
Ingmar Grapenbrade: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's analyst and investor call of the Fielmann Group AG, following the publication of the half year financial figures of the first half of 2026. And with this, I'm happy to hand over to Fielmann's CFO, Steffen Baetjer. Please, the stage is yours.
Steffen Baetjer: Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot, Ingmar, and welcome, everybody. Well, great, that was very, very fast. Thank you very much. We'll come to that later. You know the rules, 2 questions per head. Welcome to our half year results call. We obviously published interim results and preliminary results already on the 9th of July, so the numbers are more or less well known. So let's go through that at speed. Before we start with the -- yes, we're not -- yes, before we start with the with the overall summary, and you can go to the summary, Nils. Thanks. Obviously, you all noticed last week that we issued an update to our guidance for the year, and it was obviously a downward correction. Well, let's address that before we start about those numbers. When Nils and I started taking over Investor Relations for Fielmann, we talked to a lot of you, and we said we stand for honesty and transparency and reliability. And we feel that we already guided you based on our June numbers, we already guided you towards the lower end of our expectation. And when we saw July and August coming in, we felt necessary that we update our guidance because it became apparent that it might be the lower end, but it might be below the lower end. And therefore, we updated our guidance to you guys. It was a year, let me say, full of surprises. Who would have thought that we have an Iran war and a scarcity in crude oil and exploding prices all over again? Who would have thought that 8 months ago? We definitely didn't. And we need to reflect that in the consumer sentiment, and we see that being reflected, and therefore, we adjusted our guidance. We specifically chose a slightly broader range. We chose a range, not just a 2% range, but the 3 percentage point range, 2 to 5 percentage points, percent growth. We also softened the language around the EBITDA margin going from around 23% to 22% to 23%. The only reason is that it's -- quite honestly, it's not my favorite thing to give you a guidance update. And I'm good with doing one for the year. And therefore, we chose a slightly broader range. I think the important thing is to note that this is a temporary demand drip. It's not -- there's nothing fundamental going on in our cost structure. You see that our gross profit margins are super intact. We see actually that July and August have already increased in terms of growth pace. So we're confident -- we're definitely confident that this is the last guidance update we've been giving you in this year and hopefully for the foreseeable future. But just to be on the safe side, once we do it, we said we want to give you a broader range so that whatever surprises all those people and presidents and whoever has out there for us in the making, we're basically covered. It would be probably stupid of me to say, this is it, and 100%, but I can -- you can rest assured that all the internal models point in a direction that we're definitely within -- if the world continues as it does today, we're definitely very comfortably in the range that we have given you. Now with that, let's move into the half year, #1, figures. We say that despite our challenging consumer sentiment, with everything that you know, the macro climate, the geopolitical uncertainties, the consumer sentiment, the uncertainty that people, especially in Europe, feel because of the new geopolitical environment, the uncertainty that our U.S. customers feel because of the uncertainty around the price development, we still deliver growth, and we continue to grow -- we grew at 2.3% at constant currency. We see an acceleration in the growth rate in our international markets. It's the same pattern that we've seen over the last 2 years that the further away you are from Germany, the better your growth. Unfortunately, Germany is our home market and our biggest market, but we've seen that Germany has been struggling, and we come to that later. We've seen that Germany has been struggling. But whilst we had a lot of weather and uncertainty impacts in our other European countries, we see that they have gone away. And for example, Spain is back to their usual 9%, almost 10% growth rate for the year. Our EBITDA margin is very stable at prior year levels, almost 24%. We continue, obviously, to do cost management. We invest into growth. We do that through increased hirings because the opticians we -- the more opticians we have in our stores, the more customers we can serve. And yes, we still have an issue with not serving all the customers that we could serve. The more doctors we have in the United States, the more exam capacity we open up, and the more exam capacity we have, the more glasses we sell. So there is an investment going on into personnel expenses. But other than that, we're still very much on a cost-conscious travel. You see the European margin at 25.1% for the first half year. The U.S. dropped by 2.5%. That's mainly due to personnel expenses and building up the capacity. Adjusted EBT margin is stable, and we expect improved growth dynamic for the second half year. I said, July and August, we already see that trend. We're pretty significantly above Q2 numbers, but there's also some seasonality always going on over the summer months when people are on vacation and all that. But we're hopeful because fundamentally, we are accelerating our rate at which we open new stores. That's a tried and tested and overanalyzed way of growing for us. We do targeted hirings. As I said, we still send away customers who we can't serve. So if we hire an optician in those stores, then that will immediately increase our top line and productivity gains, mainly the AI-based refraction. I talked to you about that many, many times. So half year 2 should be better than half year 1 in terms of growth and profitability is still intact. Those numbers we talked about, 2%, 2.3% growth, 1.7% organic. We did a small acquisition in Luxembourg. We disclosed it in our appendix. We added 10 stores. Adjusted EBITDA margin on same year level and adjusted EBT margin at the same level as well. I mean that sounds like, whoa, these guys are only growing EUR 4 million in adjusted EBITDA. But please bear in mind that last year was a record profitability year for this company. So whilst with an updated guidance just a week ago, I should be careful, and Nils always says, "Be careful and tune it down." But I'd say it's less than we expected, but it's still pretty good that we're beating a record year at least on the half year. Next page. Yes, total consolidated sales, we said that 1.8% versus prior year. You still see the U.S. dollar impact. You remember Liberation Day, early April last year, the dollar tanked, and we're translating about $300 million in revenue into euros. So if the dollar tanks, that's not good for us. The dollar has been stable since roughly June last year, so that effect will taper out. 2.3% in constant currency is our growth. Swiss franc works on the opposite. Swiss franc appreciating against the euro, and those 2 level each other out. But 0.5% uptick from the dollar weakness that we have here. Well, the growth, which is great, is still across all our product categories. So we're not a one-trick pony. We're actually accelerating our growth in audiology. We're good on sunglasses. Well, there was a lot of sun, and therefore sunglasses are great. Adjacent health care services grow. Prescription or Rx eyewear not growing as much as we wanted to, and that's the reason why we felt the need to communicate an updated guidance to you last week. Contact lens sales is down by 4%. Reason is very simple. I think we talked about the price development of branded contact lenses, competitive environment, which is going up quite significantly. The competitive environment in Europe where you don't need a prescription to buy contact lenses. So our biggest competitors are Amazon, for example. You can just order them online, and that's a pricing game that we cannot win. And therefore, we're focusing more and more on our private label contact lenses, Atrea, which have a slightly higher margin or significantly higher margin. We see that actually a positive margin development. But obviously, we're selling a lot less because they're also cheaper. And therefore, we have a minus 4%, but that's part of our contact lens strategy and is totally as planned. Countries are growing as well. You see Germany here at 1% for the half year, 0% in the second half year (sic) [ second quarter ]. So a reversal. The first quarter was weak because of weather and strikes. The second quarter was weak because of consumer sentiment. You see -- and that's what you see. You see the half year numbers, and you see the Q2 down there. So U.S., you see half year growth at constant currency, 3%. Second quarter was 5%, so an acceleration of growth. The same for Spain, 7% overall, 9% in the second, in the second quarter. And then you have Switzerland and Austria, and the others, which are primarily driven by our acquisition, Luxembourg. The other countries are slightly down compared to prior year because we're adjusting our market approach to Italy. You know that it's been an ongoing story. First was, let's try and bring this back to profitability. Italy is now mid-teens EBITDA profitability. So okay, not great, but okay, and very good compared to where they come from. But we're still working on the product market fit, and we're cleaning out our store network, and we have a new managing director for Italy. So the Spanish guy is also running Italy. And all that is going on, and that's why Italy is down half year about 3% compared to prior year, and that's the main driver here why the others are slightly -- if you rip out the acquisition, why the others are slightly lower. Overall, we see, other than Germany, an improved growth dynamic. So it's great because it proves that diversifying into several countries, diversifying into the U.S. as the largest optical market is really something that pays off because we're not so dependent on Germany anymore. Next slide. Yes, profitability talked about that profitability, EUR 4 million higher in absolute numbers and margin more or less where it was last year, which we think is a good achievement given that typically lower sales translate into the lower expected sales turn into a margin impact. But you see here that we keep it all relatively stable because our cost control is still ongoing. Next slide. Yes, it's a half year, so we're going to talk about balance sheet as well. We have a quite significant cash position of EUR 265 million. After dividend, we still had about EUR 150 million in the bank. And yes, we do have plans what to do with it. The -- our leverage, including leases, is at 1.1; excluding lease liabilities, is at 0.1. So you might call this a somewhat underutilized balance sheet, and we're working on that. Equity ratio went up 2.5 percentage points almost to 42.8%. So balance sheet is not our issue. Balance sheet is healthy. We're spending a lot of time in the Board thinking about how we can bring the money to use and expand further, and we come later to that. We're really accelerating our expansion in the markets because we feel that's a great way of growing the company. It's a very safe way of growing the company. And we calculated basically the IRRs for every store opening of the last 15 years. And I can tell you the IRRs are also very good. So it makes all the sense in the world to take the money and spend it on new stores, new openings and additions, smaller tuck-in acquisitions to actually increase our market share, as we did, for example, in Luxembourg, where we're now #1. Looking at the cash flow statement. Cash flow from operating activities slightly lower. Cash conversion at EUR 188 million. Cash conversion was impacted by some temporary working capital impacts. We built some inventory. That's a seasonal thing, but it sometimes happens on this side end of the half year, sometimes it happens on the other side of the half year. We have a slight increase in our new stores and in our -- sorry, in our audiology sales. So there we have more outstandings to the people who actually get the money from the health insurance for us. So this is all, more or less, a seasonal pattern that will normalize over the course of the year. Investing activities is impacted by accelerated store expansion and also by the acquisition that we undertook in Luxembourg at EUR 23 million and financing activities are slightly lower negative than last year. The biggest item is always leases. So the IFRS 16 rent payments, so to say, or part of that. We didn't take any new financial debt. You remember that last year, at this point in time, we refinanced the short-term acquisition debt for the U.S. acquisition into long-term debt and paid down EUR 25 million. That was one big impact. And then we took over the remaining 30% of our Slovenian entity and paid out the owner at EUR 11 million. So that's ours now as well at 100%, and that gives us a lot more control and we can integrate much closer with them on a lot more also operational things like lenses, frames, et cetera, et cetera. So overall, cash flow statement, balance sheet, very happy with that. We're very cash generative. And that's not the first focus point. Obviously, how do we accelerate growth is the main focus point of this company at this current point in time. Next slide. Yes. Capital market guidance. Well, we just issued it last week, so we don't have any changes, and obviously confirm it, 2% to 5%, EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 2.55 billion, adjusted EBITDA, EUR 560 million to EUR 580 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin probably around 23%, but giving you, because of the year of surprises, as we call it, a slightly broader range to make sure that we're not going to need to come back to you and communicate again. Now one is enough. As I said, one guidance update. Adjusted EBT margin should be around 12%. Our customer satisfaction definitely around 90%. We don't see any dip in any customer satisfaction. So really working on that. And as I said, July, August already with some favorable trends going forward. Now this is the normal slide deck that we show you because you're probably interested in what's going to happen in the second half. We're going to accelerate our growth rate. Why is that? We do have accelerated expansion, and I have a slide on that. We're also going to increase productivity. Okay, let's talk about -- Nils said, "Let's talk about accelerated expansion." Okay, Nils, I do that. Why don't you go to the next slide, then? So this is the number of net new stores that we're adding to our footprint. As I said, we analyzed new stores of the last 15 years to death. We looked at the IRR. The IRR is extremely double-digit nice. So it makes a lot of sense. We had a lot of discussions in the Board where basically I said, "Let's talk about it because the IRR is great. We have the money. We have the management teams. We have a great market position. We have great EBITDA. So let's do a little more." And our sales Board member also said, "I have the teams, and I have a very clear view of where our white spots are. So why don't we do it?" So we got together, and basically the teams opened a lot more new stores. You see 2024, we opened 10. 2025, we added net 22 stores in the full year. We are now at 37 already in the first half year. That we added 11 of those acquired, and 26 opened. And we have in the pipeline another 33 stores for the second half year that we're going to open. That's excluding any acquisitions. So this is pure store openings across Europe and the U.S. So every country does something. This is a push for expansion that's not just singular in terms of we only do it in Germany or GSA or the U.S., we do it across the company. Every store obviously adds immediately revenue. We typically have good brand recognition. If we open a store, they tend to be full. We have -- they turn then profitable depending on the country and the repurchase interval is between 1 and 3 years before they turn profitable, which also explains the slight margin dip from the expansion. But once we build that and once they turn profitable, as I said, the return on the capital invested is quite significant positive, and that's why we do this because we're building a foundation that will carry us into the next decade. So 33 more stores, and then we have about 70 open this year, which would be a significant acceleration compared to 2025, and we're currently in budget discussions for 2027. And well, sneak peek would be more. So let's see how many more we're going to do. Besides accelerating the expansion, we're also increasing our productivity. I talked a lot about AI-based refraction. That's now in many, many hundred stores in operation, and it's day to day -- it's a day-to-day thing. Basically, as I said, I did it. It cuts down refraction time by about, or eye test time from about 15 or 12 minutes by about 4 minutes, which opens up a lot of productivity for our opticians to then serve more customers. And then we're going to expand eye exam availability, and that's mainly through hiring doctors, through hiring opticians so that we really have the capacity. In Europe, we're adding the capacity that's needed to serve customers that are coming anyway. In the U.S., and that's why you see the margin dip, we're adding capacity that customers get used to: "Hey, this is a different experience if I go to a Shopko and SVS in the U.S. than to another optician because we have the capacity." But to offer that, we first need to build it, and then people need to realize it, and then it will pay off, but that might take a while. But that's the dip that you see in our margin from the expansion of that capacity. With that, I'm done with H1 and outlook H2. And with that, I think we go to Q&A. I think we already have a few people now. Need my glasses. I think we already have 2 people who asked their question.
Ingmar Grapenbrade: [Operator Instructions] Mr. Abbott, Craig Abbott, he already raised his hands before the presentation really started, so we hand over to him. Mr. Abbott.
Steffen Baetjer: Craig, this is becoming a running joke.
Craig Abbott: Can you hear me now?
Steffen Baetjer: Yes, we can hear you.
Craig Abbott: I finally found the mute button. Yes, I will limit myself to 2 questions. The first one, just you very kindly gave us an indication a couple of times in your presentation that on trading trends in July, August, indeed, you are seeing improving trends, which is obviously very encouraging. I just wondered if you could indicate whether you are also seeing this acceleration in any kind of meaningful way in Germany? That's my first question.
Steffen Baetjer: And your second question?
Craig Abbott: Yes. My second question, I guess, would be to go over to the U.S. And I was wondering if you could give us an update on, say, the Fielmann-branded stores in the U.S., things like are you investing materially in marketing spend to establish the brand locally? Is this where most of your focus is right now with these doctor new hires? If you could just maybe just give us an update on how you feel about how those Fielmann-branded stores are developing.
Steffen Baetjer: Yes. Sure. So acceleration trend, yes, we see that also in Germany. Be mindful, summer vacations, et cetera, et cetera, but Germany looks a little better than it used to look in Q2 and Q1, so we see an acceleration there. But then again, it's 2 months, and it's been very difficult. I mean you live in Frankfurt, so you know how difficult the sentiment is in Germany at the moment. But yes, we see an acceleration there, and let's wait and see for the Q3 numbers in early November. The U.S., well, we opened the first kind of Fielmann-branded stores around Northern Illinois and have been trying those. We've been seeing that the U.S. markets, basically, or the U.S. stores, the Fielmann stores in the U.S. are still lacking a little bit. They're not really -- from the whole setup, they're not really transporting what Fielmann stands for. So you know it, you're in Germany, you go into Fielmann store without knowing the logo, you know that you're in a Fielmann store. We don't have that experience in the U.S. that yet. So we actually piloted one more store, which we opened about a month ago in Machesney Park in Rockford, Illinois, where we have one Fielmann store that's really done from the bottom up. It's really the first fully fledged Fielmann store with training, with a vision guide, software-based and tablet-based consulting, so that we can take the optical retail associates that are -- that we have in the U.S. rather than the opticians that we have in Germany, helping them to better consult our clients. And first numbers are great, but first numbers are always great when you open a new store, and everybody from Hamburg is looking onto it. So we're monitoring this, and we're still adapting how we're going about, but that's where the focus is. At the moment, the focus is on the brand promise, the translation of the brand promise into store design, and definitely the translation of the brand promise into how we interact with our customers. And that's for us the biggest thing, and that's a training task that we have ahead of us. But that's where the focus is. Other than last year, where we were really about, let's bring these 2 companies together and build one. We're now really building -- we're starting to open a few stores, also in the U.S., which we didn't do so much last year. So there, we are embarking more on the normal course of business, not yet on the accelerated growth path. So if you see the full year numbers, you're not going to see that jump into reaching the billion that we want to reach by 2030 is not going to be a straight line. It's more going to be -- we need to find our way, and then we're going to very aggressively grow. So that's where we stand on the U.S. So building the capacity and making sure that we have the right footprint and then -- and trying it out, and very carefully looking at it and analyzing it, and then driving the growth. Ingo, I think, had the next question: The U.S. has a considerably more demanding litigation and compliance environment than Germany. Given Fielmann's history of internal control issues, how confident are you that the company's current compliance framework is sufficiently robust for its expanding U.S. operation? That's a great question that I don't really relate to because internal control issues, I'm not totally aware of that. We haven't had any product or treatment-related issues in our European footprint. So -- and obviously, we tightened up a little bit on the compliance and regulatory framework in the U.S. But as you all know, who follow us for quite a few time, SVS and Shopko both are in the U.S. -- active in the U.S. business for more than 50 years. We have a very good general counsel and a legal team there, so you can rest assured that we are not losing sleep over that. Cedric: Steffen and Nils, here are my 2 questions, please. A, the midpoint of the revised adjusted EBITDA guidance implies a circa 5% decline in half year 2. Of the various pressures on profitability, notably retail expansion, unfavorable geo mix and lower operating leverage, which do you expect to be the largest drag on the margins? Rx glasses were up only 2% in half year 1? Correct. I presented that. Likely reflecting softer trends in Germany. Correct. Have you seen any signs of deferred purchases that could lead to pent-up demand in a few quarters? Thanks. I'll take the first -- take the second question first because it's easier. Well, people are wearing their glasses longer than they used to. The repurchase interval has increased, basically in Germany, for example, by half a year. If you convert all that, somebody took 17% out of the market. And when you look at ZVA numbers, so the German Association of Opticians, you're going to see that the German market is shrinking in absolute terms. And we're actually holding steady, and that's not too bad in a shrinking market, but it's obviously not what we want to do. So I don't think it's deferred purchases, like, "Damn, I need a new car. I don't want to do it this month. Why don't we do it next year?" Because that's not how purchasing glasses works. I think it's an overall feeling of, "I better be careful with bigger ticket items," and bigger ticket -- other than tourism, and bigger ticket items in -- is a pair of glasses. Because, yes, you can get very, very, very good glasses from us at EUR 19. But if you are in a, if you want medium quality, progressive lenses, you're talking EUR 300, EUR 400, and that's a lot of money for a lot of people. And they say, well, why don't I wear them a little longer? So we're not going to expect, like this magic switch, that something happens and then everybody floods our stores. Unfortunately, we need to wait for overall consumer sentiment to come back, and that will only happen most likely next year because the GDP recovery that we see in Germany, as small as it is, is not consumer-driven, but it's defense and infrastructure-driven. So that translating into consumer spend is going to take a little longer. And that's basically the big difference to Spain, where we see that, yes, first quarter was not so great because of weather and a lot of uncertainty. But there, the GDP growth is, a, higher; and b, it's driven also by consumer spend, and that's -- therefore, you have a more direct transition into our P&L. And therefore, we need to hold our horses a little in Germany and open stores and hire the right opticians and do what we do best, which is treat our customers in a nice and great way, and give them the right product at the right price. And then they will come to us as almost 60% of German customers do. Second, the midpoint -- the second question is the first question. The midpoint of the revised guidance implies a 5% decline. We do have some phasing issues in spend, especially in the biggest portion here is marketing spend. We're probably going to spend, and that pattern, much to your delight, I can assume, but that spend pattern in marketing shifts year-by-year. It's not seasonally stable. But sometimes we say big campaign in the first half year, not so much in the second half year. And then you remember 2 years ago, we didn't do anything in the first half year, and then we did a big brand equity campaign, Your Glasses, in the second half. This year, we're probably going to spend as much marketing in the last 5 months as we did in the first 7 -- and those effects, those -- some projects that are running and consulting spend and some marketing expenses, that's basically leading to a smaller or lower margin on an EBITDA level than in the first half year or in the first 7 months. First 7 months EBITDA margin is basically the same as in the first 6 months, though. That's great. That's stable, but that might happen, and that's the reason why we updated the guidance. I'd also said, the '22 and the '23, I wouldn't really necessarily look at the midpoint because the '22 take it more as a very, very cautious measure on our end because we just don't know what surprises this year holds for us. See 2019 incident in Hamburg. Yes, I wasn't here in 2019. So maybe somebody can remind me of what the 2019 incident was. But yes, maybe we take that offline. Thierry: Steffen and Nils, are the 2030 targets maintained on revenues and margin? And if maintained, is there a higher portion of M&A than before and a lower estimated growth rate organically? When do you expect to start M&A in the U.S.? As you told us, that a series of targets were already identified and it is part of your ramp-up to the EUR 4 billion sales. Well, in football terms speaking, we're in the 19th minute. This is -- it's still 0-0, but we're not giving up on winning this game. So no, our 2030 targets are fully maintained. It's way too early to translate a temporary demand drip into -- or drop into a long-term doomsday scenario, and therefore, the growth is not going to happen. When do we start? We're planning to start with M&A. Well, probably next year, the year after, but it's going to be very small tuck-ins. If we do something bigger, if we could choose, it would be 2028, 2029. Unfortunately, with M&A, it's not only the buyer who can decide. Sometimes the seller also says, well, now I want to sell. And then we need to look at it and act on it. And that's what we're going to do. But so far, the 2030 target strategy is still intact, and we don't see a reason to change that. And if we do, then we'll let you know. Thomas: Fielmann's lease payments declined by 11% to around EUR 49 million in the first half, while the store network increased. Can you please provide some information of the drivers of the decline? The decline is from EUR 58 million to EUR 49 million. I think that's the investing cash flow, right? That's the financing cash flow. Nils sits opposite me. Sorry, when I look like that, I mean, Nils. That we need to take apart for you, and we can post that later on this -- we put an addendum page to the Q2 notifications and post it with the presentation on the website. And could you please remind us how much total CapEx is being spent on Chomutov, and what the distribution looks like over the years? Chomutov is about a EUR 75 million investment. And then we're spending about EUR 20 million on top for the operational backbone OVB, which is the full -- we're basically ripping out the full order and supply chain SAP R/3 that we still have and putting in a very modern, standardized S/4 that's going to run all the way to the year 2028, end of 2028. The biggest part in Chomutov is implementing a so-called shuttle, which is a fully automated or an extremely automated warehousing and distribution thing that costs about EUR 40 million. I've been in Chomutov last Thursday, Friday -- last Thursday, and it's actually there and it's standing there. So that part has been spent already. So EUR 40 million of the EUR 70 million has already been spent. The rest is now putting in some glazing. So putting together glasses, some glazing equipment and getting the operations up and running and connecting it to the IT networks and then the OVB as well. And we're going to go live with Chomutov for the -- for our e-commerce by mid next year. And then we are dealing with the brick-and-mortar business for another year, and then we take that live again. And that's basically the spend. So EUR 50 million has been spent in total already on Chomutov and the remaining EUR 40 million we're going to spend over the next 2 years. Are you able to provide an update on market share dynamics and the competitive environment in the U.S.? Is this evolving in line with your expectation from a year ago or so? Our growth is still lower than the growth of the Warbys and the Essilors of this world. As I said, at the moment, we are really working on finding the right approach to the market rather than growing aggressively in the U.S. That will take a little bit more time, as I said, the first fully fledged store is now open, including the training. We now have people from Europe on the ground in the U.S., so it's starting. But before we reach out and change things in 225 stores in the U.S., we want to make sure that we do the right thing. And until then, we're growing at 3%, 4% in the U.S., but hope to accelerate that, obviously, from mid -- probably mid-'27 onwards. There are 6 notifications, but the question is -- these are the old questions.
Ingmar Grapenbrade: There are -- there is one last participant with a raised hand. Michael Kuhn. So we still can't hear you.
Steffen Baetjer: Doesn't work. I think that sums up our first half year. Yes. Michael, do you want to just type it and then I read it, and then we take it? We can wait. Growth. Same-store growth versus new opening versus Lux M&A. As we said on page -- one of the earlier pages in the deck, 1.7% organic growth, 0.6% from Luxembourg. New openings, I don't have that number off the top of my head, but new openings, even 33 -- I mean we have 1,299 stores, adding 33 stores within the first half year, that are not all open on the 1st of January, but over the course of the month is that growth impact is relatively limited. And therefore, I'd say, chop off 0.1% and you're on the safe side. Profitability impact this year from -- I like that, like bang, bang, bang, spare the niceties. Profitability impact this year from new store openings this year. Again, so far, H1 numbers that we're talking about, very limited. Typically, as I said, the first year is negative, but we're not losing tons of money on a new store. So again, relatively limited 0.2 percentage point margin at max.
Ingmar Grapenbrade: There's a follow up from Mr. Kuhn. Typing his last question. If that's the case, we'll wait a few seconds. And other than that...
Steffen Baetjer: All answered. Okay. Well, Ingmar, it's your turn, and then my turn. Sorry.
Ingmar Grapenbrade: That was the last question, and that was the last answer by the way. We have no more questions on the line, so this concludes this call for today. Thanks to all the participants for your shown interest in the Fielmann Group. And with this, from my side, I wish you a lovely remaining week and say goodbye and hand over to Mr. Baetjer for some final remarks.
Steffen Baetjer: Well, thanks a lot. Hey, everybody, thanks very much for your continued interest in our company. As you know, we're doing whatever we can to grow this company and -- but grow it carefully and not do strange or difficult things. And well, summer is over, so I'm going to see a lot of you probably over the next 2 months in Paris, in Munich and -- or in Frankfurt on these conferences. So stay tuned. And again, thank you very much for your continued interest. Much appreciated, and thanks very much for your questions in this call today. Have a great Thursday.