Demant A/S Q4 2020 Earnings 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 had 2 quick questions. One, you gave us some unit and ASP details for the wholesale business. I wondered if you could give us some color as far as the retail business goes? And maybe as part of that, just some qualitative commentary about what kind of pricing we're seeing on More versus Open S at the retail level? And then the second question was just a big picture one, really. Over the last 10 years, the return on capital for both you and the hearing aid industry has come under reasonable pressure as there's been a kind of [arms] race to outspend each other on R&D, distribution costs, and to some extent, competing for retail assets. I guess the question is what's the outlook from here? I mean, obviously, in the pandemic, you realized that there are probably more efficient ways to do distribution. Did you see kind of structurally lower distribution costs and therefore, improving returns? Or do you just think that, that money will get reinvested into more R&D and other areas of the business? I'm curios to know whether you think we've sort of reached the bottom of the return pressure that the industry has seen and maybe the next 5 years will be a period of improving rather than contracting returns on capital?