Wall Street Trader schreef op 9 februari 2024 14:31:
Where do you think North America could get to as a percentage of core market sales, say, in 5 years' time or any other time horizon, you feel is appropriate versus the 10% to 15% of core market sales it represents today?
Gustavo Calvo PazOur strong 2024 is a strong double-digit growth that we are forecasting and it's based on, I would say, already aligned business with new customers in the retail environment, Dollar Tree, Dollar family and some others, which I would not disclose all of them due to competitive reasons. But yes, we have aligned already and that strong growth, double-digit strong growth that we're expecting for this year we feel very, very comfortable.
Our ambition is very, very big in U.S. But our ambition is quite big, because the opportunities in U.S. market is huge, not just from us gaining share within the existing retail market. But from us using our expertise that we have developed for many, many years in Europe, helping retail markets in U.S. developing their own retail market and the excitement between them and us is huge, I can tell you. And we are investing behind that, creating more capacity for them to feel assured that we will supply them.
How big could that be, just sort of ballpark numbers?
Gustavo Calvo PazYes. So look, if we think on being on having to getting closer to our fair share in U.S. and think opportunities on the U.S. market to grow, that business for us could represent €1 billion in 5 years.
Are you in constant dialogue with the credit rating providers and the agencies to try and get them to revisit their ratings and outlooks for Ontex?
Gustavo Calvo PazWe strongly believe that there is some headroom to go up for us. So we hope they share our enthusiasm on the results. What we will do, of course, is in the coming weeks to have contacts with them to further explain the results and to see whether they have any concerns.
Gustavo Calvo PazLet me conclude. We accelerated our 3-year turnaround plan over the past year, and I'm very pleased with the excellent momentum we achieved and the encouraging results delivered in 2023. The solid level of activity, continued cost reduction and efficiency improvements all contributed to delivering positive earnings per share and free cash flow for the first time in several years. This marks a major milestone for the group, and it's a huge credit to the entire Ontex team to deliver on our commitments.
The solid improvement in our financial performance and cash flow generation allow us to ramp up our investments for future growth, innovation and further efficiencies gains. Our momentum puts us well on track to restoring value creation for all our stakeholders whom I would like to thank for their support as we continue our journey.