Q1 2022 Smith & Nephew PLC Trading Statement Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Thomas M. Jones - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : I have 2 questions. And first of all, welcome to the business, Deepak. The first question is just on supply chains really. I just wondered if -- or you could explain to what extent growth in Q1 was hampered by lack of raw material, lack of production in any sense, but also, whether there was any kind of boost to revenues in any of the franchises that came from resolution of previous supply chain bottlenecks. I recall you had a bit of an issue getting hold of glue in your wound business. And I just wondered if some of the European performance was a bit of a catch-up effect from resolving that particular supply chain bottleneck. And then my second question is just to go back to an earlier question actually on the run rate growth. I mean I would assume January as a whole fairly soft considering Omicron was in full flight in that particular month. So to get to sort of 6% for the quarter does imply kind of growth was trending in the sort of high single-digit range towards the end of the quarter. Is that the kind of momentum you think you can carry on into and through Q2? Or is that too optimistic an assumption? It's difficult for us because the comps in Q2 are kind of all over the place. You were down 30% in Q2 2020 and then up 30% something in Q2 2021. So the comp isn't much help really. So just be kind of interesting to get a feel for what the kind of exit rate from the quarter was in terms of revenue momentum or sort of days per sales, however you want to phrase it.

Question: Thomas M. Jones - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : Good. And then maybe one just follow-up question to David is on the AET business. It did seem that the capital equipment type areas of the business were perhaps a little bit weaker than the consumable type areas of the business. Is that a reflection of the pressure on hospitals that Veronika referred to? Or is that just sort of normal quarter-on-quarter variation? Just wonder if there's anything we should be concerned about the hospital CapEx environment.