Fluidra SA Q4 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Christoph Greulich - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : Yes. I would like to start with a question on pricing. So you mentioned that you're going to implement another price increase in the coming days. So could you give us any indication on the magnitude of the price hike and when exactly it will really feed through the P&L.? So I understand there might be some delay between implement and the price increase and then really affecting the prices of the products you're selling. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 28, 2022 / 10:00AM, FLUI.MC - Q4 2021 Fluidra SA Earnings Call

Question: Christoph Greulich - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. That's clear. And you are seeing there are some differences between Europe and the U.S. So the magnitude of the price hike, is it very different between the 2 regions?

Question: Christoph Greulich - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. That is clear. Then I was wondering, when I look at the organic growth figures in Q4 for the individual regions, I mean, we have seen so far in the year until the Q3 that the U.S., by far, or North America was the strongest growing region from an organic point of view for you. I mean it seems now that trend has somewhat changed in the fourth quarter. So I was just wondering if there are any kind of important factors that have led to this change in the trend.

Question: Christoph Greulich - Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And then my last question is with regards to the inventory levels you see at the distributors at the moment at your clients. Are these levels basically in line with what you've seen pre-pandemic? Do you think there's still further room to increase those if, basically, the supply chain further normalizes? Or what's the current view on that at the moment?

Question: Manuel Lorente - Mirabaud Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : My first question is on a like-for-like basis, we have seen revenues go up roughly 36% on the full year '21, of which, if my understanding is correct, roughly plus 6% has been a combination of price mix. So the remaining 30% should be coming from volume. Can you give us an idea of the split of that volume growth? This is mostly upgrades and updates? This is mostly in your build? This is a combination of more or less both or is too early to say?

Question: Manuel Lorente - Mirabaud Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : I see. And my next question, sorry to come back with this again, it's about the phasing of the margin expansion for this year. I'm a little bit intrigued about what Eloy was saying about further margin compression in Q1. This is from the 20% margin of the fourth quarter stand-alone or from the 25% margin over the full year?

Question: Manuel Lorente - Mirabaud Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : This is very difficult to see because visibility at this stage is -- it's very limited but it is fair to say that this 20% margin of that whole quarter should be the trough of this year, right?

Question: Manuel Lorente - Mirabaud Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Yes, sure. I mean, your implicit guidance points to 25.5% or more than that margin for 2022. This is a back-end loaded type of margin. That my point is whether this is going to be a 20% margin throughout the first half of the year and then roughly a 30% margin in the second half of the year or we should not expect such a margin erosion on the first part of the year because of the combination of price hikes, operational leverage, efficiencies, et cetera, et cetera. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 28, 2022 / 10:00AM, FLUI.MC - Q4 2021 Fluidra SA Earnings Call

Question: Manuel Lorente - Mirabaud Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And in my last question, probably, with the -- it looks like now that price per dollar pool with the price hike from the last 2, 3 years has significantly increased. So did you see any potential acceleration of the do-it-yourself type of business, further competition from their side or something like that?