Ontex Group Nv Ord (ONXXF) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm Geoffroy Rasquin from Investor Relations. I'm pleased to have with us Laurent Nilly, our CEO, and Heath Peters, our CFO, to present the results for the first quarter of 2026. Before that, let me remind you of the safe harbor regarding forward-looking statements. I will not read it out loud, but I will assume you will have duly noted it. With that cleared up, Laurent, over to you. Thanks, Geoff. Good afternoon, everyone. I will provide a few introductory comments on the quarter. Cleart will cover the financial analysis, and then I will come back to give you a few thoughts on what we see and also on our strategic review progress. Overall, Q1 was a relatively soft quarter. Not a surprise, as we had indicated in February, that our results this quarter would be in line with Q4 of last year and thereby down versus a relatively strong first quarter in 25. And importantly, we delivered on what we expected. Revenue was down 4% like for like compared to a year ago because of weaker market demand in baby and feminine care, even if in retailer brands we slightly outperformed the market overall. And because of some lower sales in contract manufacturing, especially in the U.S., as we had expected. The adjusted EBITDA was in line with Q4, but lower than the previous year. Margin came down by two percentage points due to the impact of lower volumes and higher net costs, which we partially mitigated through continued savings efforts in operation and in SG&A. The lower adjusted EBITDA this quarter drove the last 12 months adjusted EBITDA down, which led to a slight increase in the leverage ratio despite the reduction in net debt. Now, if one looks at the past five quarters, reported revenue on the left of this slide and a...