Redcare Pharmacy Aktie

Hello, and a very warm welcome also to everybody from my side. Before we start with the presentation, I would like to welcome our new CFO, Hendrik, to this round. We are happy to have Hendrik with us and the management team to further scale Redcare Pharmacy. Welcome, Hendrik.

Thank you. Happy to be here.

Okay. Let's look into the agenda of today. So first of all, we would like to start with the highlights of 2025, followed up by the financial performance, 25%, an update on strategy and in later an update on guidance.

So let's start with the highlights of 2025. The first 3 highlights are focused on Rx. 2025 has been a very successful year for Redcare are on Rx. We almost doubled our Rx revenues in Germany, reaching EUR 503 million. If we look into the relevant competition, our share of 67% demonstrates our clear market leadership position. From a group perspective, revenues are now exceeding EUR 1 billion, more than 33% of total sales. The large bonus for Enform policies was confirmed not only at the ECJ again, but for the first time in history, also at the highest German Federal Court. As a consequence, we introduced a new 1 scheme in Q4, which supported the strong growth in Q4 of last year.

In 2025, including the beginning of 2026, digital health care and Germany experienced a major step forward. Prospects for a new and more comprehensive identification technology, op have been released for local, but also for remote use cases. For online pharmacies, this will massively increase and improve the redemption options. Customers using EGK card will no longer need SMS verification as an additional step in the order process. And on top, the digital health ID can be used to redeem Rx at online pharmacies. Please also keep in mind that at the beginning of 2027, the EU ID wallet will be launched in Germany, expanding digital use cases, including the digital health ID to the entire population in Germany.

Let's go to the next slide. was not only very promising on Rx. We also delivered on our strategy to further increase customer satisfaction, scale, automation and cost leadership. Our logistics capacity expansion in Pilsen went live in Q4 of last year. Pills net 15 million parcels annual capacity to our overall capacity. We are mainly serving the entire Austrian market from Pilsen, but the setup also allow us to serve other markets on nonrec. For the Austrian market, we see Cisco Live faster delivery times higher customer satisfaction and higher NPS. Since majors are lower in bill compared to 7, we also reduced operational costs per parcel.

In Sevenum, we launched our logistics automation project in 2025. Revenue will always remain the heart of our pharmacy, including Rx. Therefore, the automation has a clear focus on Rx, including mixed baskets, but can also serve non-Rx orders only. The strategic rationale is comparable to Pilsen, double our capacity in Seven by early 2021. And here, good news. We are clearly on track to deliver on that. We reduced labor costs by 70% per order and higher speed, faster delivery will lose customer satisfaction and increase our competitive advantage. And then we also strengthened our balance sheet in 2025. The EUR 300 million convertible bond secures the cash we need to execute on our strategy.

Let's get to the next section, [indiscernible] financial performance. Our full year revenues are up 24% to EUR 2.9 billion as a double-digit growth in the DACH region as well as in the international region. Non-revenue up 15.5% to EUR 1.9 billion. Rx revenues up 43% to EUR 1.1 billion. now comprising 36% of the total revenues versus 32% previously. And the Rx Germany revenue, we talked about this already 98% up to EUR 503 million. Overall, a 72% increase on adjusted EBITDA, 0.6 percentage points year-over-year margin improvement, ending up on 2.0% adjusted EBITDA.

If we can go to the next slide. This is our typical breakdown into the different segments. Again, overall, Rx is the growth engine or has become the growth engine of the company. If we look into the different segments, you can see that 24.1% growth. Non-Rx 12.5%, Rx 42.6%. And on international, a strong 23.7% growth on non-Rx.

Looking into the orders, you can see there's a 19% increase in orders processed lapping a very strong 2024, and of course, also reflects somehow the higher average basket we have in our business right now compared to previous years.

Now I would like to go -- give some additional insights into the non-Rx growth situation. So what you can see is that our growth came down in mainly driven by the DACH segment. We have identified 4 main reasons. First of all, we did in 2025, not always find the sweet spot in the marketing mix. meaning the right combination of marketing, pricing, vouchers and also things like minimum order value. So finding the right mix was not always -- we did not always perform in the best way. Secondly, to some extent, we saw currently softer markets. And then number three, we see an increased platform competition, especially in the area of top sellers of. And number four, our overall push for more marketing efficiency, meaning at a certain threshold not to buy the next possible order. Overall, we increased the marketing budget, 2025 compared to 2024, but improved the marketing ratio as a percentage of sales and especially towards the second half of the last year.

In Q4 2025, we were working on top against a very strong Q4 '24, being pushed by you remember the Rx marketing boost campaign. The campaign, of course, had RX as a target, but as a result of our one-brand strategy also fueled non-rec growth in Q4 of 2024. Going forward, we will continue to optimize for growth and profitability using all elements of the marketing base. By doing so, we expect to stabilize the growth rate at 8% to 10% to 10% in 2026. And of course, we are intensively working on the details of the marketing mix to return to different growth rates. Non-Rx is the core competence of Redcare. We consider also going forward, non-gas a profitable, growing cash-generating business.

Having said this, I would like to hand this over to Hendrik.

Thank you, Olaf. Yes, warm welcome as well from my side. Let's jump right into the profitability analysis.

So you have seen we have improved our EBITDA significantly year-over-year. At the same time, we are at the lower end of our guidance. And this is mainly due to the higher share of Rx or the lower share of non-Rx as Olaf just explained in Q4. Whilst the gross profit margin for Rx is significantly lower than for non-Rx, please keep in mind that the unit economics are similar. This is due to the higher ASP for Rx. We have reduced our marketing spend in percentage of revenues year-over-year. And this is because we consider offering a cash bonus directly to customers using ag in some areas is more efficient than our marketing spend.

As we plan to continue to offer Rx cash bonuses throughout the year 26 versus only 4 months and '25. We will as well continue to reduce our marketing spend as percentage of revenues. Whilst increasing at the same time our ROI on marketing. Moving to gross profit. So our gross margin is mostly driven by Rx and non-X mix. You see here the impact of the increasing share, especially via Rx Germany. But we have as well margin pressure on the non-X especially as Olaf pointed out in the Putin Personal Care category. We have a tailwind from country mix. This is due to the lower share of our high ASP and hence, low-margin specialty IX business in Switzerland, many service. And you see as well a positive impact of our Marketplace business. Our Marketplace business has still a share of less than 5% of total revenues, and we are, therefore, not reporting in detail about this business yet, but we expect it to continue to lift our profitability going forward.

If we look at scale, we see core materializes in our selling and distribution and administrative costs. We have reduced our marketing expenses significantly compared to an extra investment in Q4 24 to boost Rx, and whilst we label this marketing Rx, it has as well a spillover effect to non-Rx. So you see a significant drop in Q4 SG&A rate versus Q4 '24. But this is not representative for what we plan for 26. However, we plan to continue to scale in marketing operations and administrative expenses. One example is our automation project in Seven where we plan to reduce labor cost per unit by 70%. This will be completed at the end of '26 and so become effective in 2. You see as well 0.7 percentage points headwind from our country mix and our marketplace business. This is due to the lower share of mid-service which has a low SG&A ratio and the higher share of the marketplace business, which has a higher SD&A ratio versus our core business because our revenues is not the GMV of sellers, but it's actually the seller fees.

Now if we look at EBITDA margin progression without mix effects, you see that it is mostly driven by selling and distribution expenses, mostly by marketing. And the improvement of about 0.5% or 0.6 percentage points in '25 is similar to what you can expect going forward in 26, and we'll talk about more of that in the guidance actually.

If we look at the different segments, so at the DACH segment, as you can see on the left hand, we have constantly increased the share of Rx and our mix. In '23, this was only our specialty business in Switzerland. And then in Q2 '24, we started to scale the IX business in Germany. And now in '25, we have, for the first time for the full year and Rx business in Germany and significantly increased tax share. Despite of that, we have been able to improve our profitability it's only slight improvement, but this is against the headwind of 0.7 percentage points on the gross profit. So we consider basically this as the turning point after the strong decreased 23 24% in adjusted EBITDA margin for DASH going forward, we will improve our EBITDA margin continuously.

Now looking at the international business, there as well. We see scale clearly materializing, coming from minus 6% in '23 to minus 4% in '24 and now minus 1% and 2% in and we expect to break even soon as the business continues to grow. On the cash side, we have increased our cash position by EUR 26 million with a EUR 50 million contribution from our operating results. We have actually improved some of our working capital but our inventory was about EUR 10 million higher than normal as we buffered a little bit of stock for the ramp up of the Pilsen side and as well for the introduction of a new ERP system at MediService, with cut over January 1, and but this will normalize throughout the year. The majority of our investments are related to fulfillment capacity expansion in person and Seven and we'll spend another EUR 30 million on the Seven home automation project in 26. After that, our investment in fulfillment capacity is basically done, meaning that for the next 5 years, we'll have enough capacity to serve our projected top line in the DACH region. And we expect '27 and beyond a CapEx below 2% of revenues.

With that, I'll hand it back to you.

Thank you very much. Okay. Now I would like to give an update on specialty. If you can go to the next slide. I would like to use the first slide in the strategy update section to briefly explain the competitive advantage of Red care as the leading European online pharmacy. The combination of non-Rx and marketplace offer gives us a unique value proposition towards our customers. We can use wherever possible from a leader perspective, the anchor to build trust as a pharmacy and to generate the necessary frequency, especially in the case of chronic yield patients. This trust hunker differentiates us clearly from the more non-Rx platform models, and it also shields us against generative commerce.

Non-Rx and marketplace are becoming the drivers of basket, gross margin and profitability. The combination of pharmacy trust, frequency assortment and higher customer satisfaction will lead to an increasing CLV over time. So the customer lifetime value will go up, and we will show initial results of this strategy later in the presentation. and increased use of automation and AI will lead to both higher customer satisfaction and efficiency gains throughout the entire P&L.

If we go to the next slide, you will see that we used this slide already in last year's earnings call to explain the unique value proposition of the one-stop pharmacy in more detail. Still a very good slide. That is the reason why we are using it again. First of all, it all starts with a highly trusted and top-rated pharmacy brand. One customer ID, on log in one-stop pharmacy on product. On our pharmacy platform, we offer the widest possible assortment.

In the case of Rx, is often translates into the best possible product availability. As you might know, up to 30% of our product is not really available at local pharmacies on the first trial. We claim we have the highest product availability in the market. Customers can check that in our app 24/7.

In the case of non-Rx, it is more about the breadth and the depth of the assortment we offer. In contrast to a lot of our competitors and platform models are focusing only on top sellers in the BPC area. The marketplace allows us to offer adjacent assortment to our customers which make our platform even more relevant and always a good reason to return. Our enhanced pharmacy services are a cornerstone of our offer, especially relevant to chronic legal patients. While complying with national pharmacy standards, we already introduced more than 20 years ago an electronic health record for our customers, including advanced pharmaceutical checks. This service is very well perceived by our Rx customers. Since the introduction of the East, we also launched additional services like to repeat prescription service towards doctors. The reliable delivery is 1 of the key NPS drivers for our pharmacy. Therefore, investments in automation, in logistics do not only improve our cost position, but are also building trust and customer satisfaction.

Looking into the development. Let's go to the next slide please. Looking into the development of our active customer base, we can see that this strategy is working out well in the German market. In total, we increased the number of active customers by EUR 1.4 million. On Rx, we increased the number of active customers by EUR 0.6 million in 2025. If we break this number down, we see that the additional active Rx customers are joining us in 2 ways: converted non-Rx customers, we like the Rx offer and are making use of this additional offer, a good effect of our assortment strategy. And secondly, first time completing new customers to Redcare liking the Rx value proposition, starting their journey with us on Rx. Additionally, they are buying nonrec at an increasing rate.

This slide should also look familiar to you. Let's talk about customer lifetime value. We are here comparing the Q1 25 cohorts of non-Rx customers with the Q1 25 cohorts of Rx customers, including all follow-up orders throughout 2025. Key takeaways, like also in the past, the accumulative for revenue and gross profit confirms that Ag customers have a superior customer lifetime value compared to non-Rx customers and also including the impact of an Rx bonus in Q4 of 25%. But also non-art cohorts are growing and are generating customer lifetime value. what the cohort analysis, of course, also shows is that from a customer lifetime perspective, it is best to have the combination of both cohorts, higher baskets, higher frequency, increased share of mixed orders and higher gross profit.

If we go to the next slide, you can see we would like to give you some of -- we would like to give you some more insights into the drivers of our RX business. Most important to see that the average eRx basket is improving significantly to EUR 130 in Q2. we have 2 main drivers for that. One is the mix order rate meaning additional non items in the basket. We see an improved mix order rate about 40% already in Q4, and as part of our platform strategy, you can imagine we would like to bring this number further up. And secondly, the other main driver is the increased NPS. Existing customers are trusting us as a pharmacy once they had an experience with us on Rx. And that means they are redeeming more expensive and more complex Rx products with us and also more scripts and units at the same time, also pushing the average basket value.

If we can go to the next slide, you can see as a result of the one-stop pharmacy strategy, we have an increasing gross profit per average active customer over time. currently at EUR 47, almost EUR 48. Please keep in mind that we have been only for less than 2 years in the eRx business in Germany. And the marketplace also still, as Hendrik pointed out, represents only a smaller part of our sales. Nevertheless, you can already clearly see that the CLD of our customer is improving, and this is just the beginning of it. Having said this, I think we should go to the next section, update on guidance.

I will hand this over to Hendrik.

Yes. So kind of building on what you just said, Olaf. So if we look at the key drivers of our EBITDA margin improvement, you will see a lot of this is things that we are already doing. We're not inventing a new strategy, but we're basically continuing on the path that we are. So going forward, we have sketched out a plan to consistently improve our profitability with the building blocks that you see here. So increasingly, we expect Rx to become the driver of organic new customer acquisition, reducing the cost of new customer acquisition. And then we will, with upselling and cross-selling, increase the customer lifetime value of all customers, and non-Rx. We will continue to see automation in all areas, not just in logistics, but as well there. And some of this automation will reduce costs. Some of it will as well improve the customer experience. We'll continue to see the scaling effects that we have on our overhead costs. We continue to drive marketing efficiency, to some extent by scaling, but as well as we make our marketing more sophisticated and differentiated. And then we expect over proportional growth and profit contribution from the marketplace and the Retail Media business who are structurally more profitable than our core business. So with these building blocks, we lead over to the guidance. Our 26 guidance is for total sales growth between 13% and 15% for Rx revenues in Germany in excess of EUR 670 million for non-X growth between 8% and 10% with an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 2.5%.

Beyond '26, we have slightly adjusted the articulation of our outlook, but we stay committed to the above 8% in the long term. we will achieve a margin of 5% in the midterm and above 8% in the long term. At the same time, we want to announce that we are changing our forecasting practice here. So we will, going forward, no longer provide EBITDA guidance beyond the next financial year. as we become a profitable company will as well move to earnings per share. We will focus on the next financial year and not provide any outlook beyond that, aligning with the practice of most tax companies in Germany.

So with that, we conclude the presentation, and we move to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Jan Koch from Deutsche Bank.

I would like to take them 1 by 1. The first question is actually on your sales guidance, which implies a steep growth slowdown in OTC compared to the full year 2025. Could you try to unpack this and explain how much of the lower growth rate is driven by, a, the market weakness? B, your decision to spend less on our EC marketing; and three, on intensified competition. any remarks on the new entrants would also be helpful.

Yes. Happy to take that. So we consider the Q4 drop in non-Rx growth as an anomaly. And we see, to some extent, that this is proven by the current year trading where we see a rebound in non-ag especially in Germany. So why is it a one-off? The drop is mostly driven by -- and mostly, I mean, like in the order of 60%, 70% by the marketing spend reduced year-over-year. So as I laid out, we have spent in Q4 '24, significantly on Rx awareness. But every time we do this, there is a clear spillover effect on Monarch. So whilst internally, we label this Rx marketing, it's actually marketing for shopper take. And with our understanding of our marketing efficiency, we can clearly attribute 60% to 70% of this drop to our marketing. Now overall, the market has been soft if you look at the off-line pharmacy reporting. That is true to some extent that was true as well in Q3, yes. So there's a soft environment, but it's a lot smaller share of the explanation. And when it comes to new market entrants, I think we discussed this before. We take them, obviously, Sirius as a competitor, we have not seen any significant traction. It will probably take some time to build a larger business. But at this point, we don't see any impact of DM on our non-Rx business. Does that answer the question?

Yes. Just as a follow-up. So essentially, you mentioned that year Q1 was impacted by some one-offs in but you still put a 9% growth and essentially your guidance for 2026 at midpoint is also for 9%.

So I'm not sure I got you. So Q4 is impacted by one-offs. And then what we expect for 26 is that this one-off is not really a change in the trend. However, we acknowledge that there is a longer-term trend of decrease in growth I mean we have seen this basically since Q4 '24. And as we look at our current trading, and our understanding of the market, we assume that this will stabilize and balance out over the year and hence the 8% to 10% guidance that we're giving.

So we see a rebound versus Q4 and the stabilization overall.

Okay. Understood. And then on capital allocation, thanks for providing the comments on the planned spend for the automation project. But could you also share your assumptions for the overall CapEx and net working capital assumptions for 2026? And given the low share price and your strong balance sheet, would you be open for a share buyback program?

Yes. So we're not providing a cash flow forecast, our guidance is our guidance, as articulated here. As you can see, we are well funded. We have this EUR 30 million as kind of a one-off everything else is similar to the past in terms of IT capitalization. And this means that we're going to see a very much reduced CapEx in percentage of revenues to below 2%. So at this point, I think we are obviously not happy with our stock price, but we think that we will wait for any announcement on buybacks until we have reached profitability and this is the current plan. But obviously, this is a constant discussion that we have, but we have nothing to announce in this area at this point. There's nothing planned in terms of share buybacks.

Okay. Understood. And then finally, could you help us with the phasing of your sales and margin guidance for 2026. Lastly, you provided some comments on the Q4 call for Q1, especially given that Q1 is typically the quarter with the lowest margin in the year.

Yes. We expect the same seasonality, if you want to call it like this in '26. But overall, we obviously Think of this as a very balanced forecast. But yes, you should expect the same lower margin in Q1 as we have seen this in the past.

The next question comes from Sarah Roberts from Barclays.

I have 2, if that's okay, but we'll probably go through them 1 by one. So just firstly, on the EUR 670 million guidance for Rx, can you just walk us through beyond offering bonuses customers that seem to be having a positive impact. What are the levers do the business have in terms of driving that penetration of Rx online further. I think particularly given investing been education element around consumers today and you seem to have pulled back a little bit on kind of brand advertising and television advertising. So I just wanted to understand what you can do that's within your control to kind of drive that online penetration higher?

Well, I will try to give it -- so first of all, we need to apologize a little bit about technics. So sometimes you probably only see me or Hendrik, so I apologize for that. and also for some of the noise in the back. So I will try to answer that question. Yes, I mean, I mean, we see the change of behavior is not happening at the pace we would like it to be. So that is also the reason why our growth rate on Rx is coming down. and what is really in our hands to have a great product, great delivery. We have the bonus now out there. And of course, we need to continue to do the education additional things which could come in and might change this is the introduction of the digital health ID and maybe also a change more on the way how often cone patients have to see the doctors throughout the year. But when it comes down to 2026 is really we have to continue to do the education. And at the same time, need to want to have efficient marketing spend. So that's the reason why we ended up on this growth rate rather than on higher growth rates.

Got it. And then my second one, there's been a little bit of noise around proposed Section regulations around the pharmacy supply chain and reforms there. I think some concerns around the temperature control elements of those reforms as well. Just wanted to understand how materially you think these changes could impact the business? And should we expect any meaningful cost increases kind of going forward? Any thoughts there would be helpful.

Well, that's a good question. You know the about reform going on in Germany, having 2 parts. One is really a new law being introduced and the other, there's more regulation on the pharmacy operations. And in this section, there are new proposals how to introduce, let's say, new measures on temperature control. So the current version we think is not going to be the final one. So therefore, we are just -- we are currently working on this 1 and with all of our partners. So therefore, it's really too early to say something to this 1 at this point in time.

The next question comes from Christian Salis from Cantor Fitzgerald.

I've got a follow-up on the non-Rx growth topic. So you mentioned the increased competition in Germany. So from which channel is this really coming? Is it coming from multichannel retailers that are entering the market? Or is it from other online feel plays. Could you just please provide a little bit more color on that? And the second question would be regarding the fix, there have been positive comments by the German health minister. So could you confirm that this will have a positive impact on your profitability? And to which extent is this already reflected in your full year '26 guidance.

Okay. So I will give it a try on the competition. So there has always been competition in the market. Yes. So we the platform, the big ones like Amazon, they have been out there for 10 years, and we also always had other online pharmacies competing against us. So that is not really something new. So -- and we simply have to find a good way to deal with the competition. But if you're to be more explicit about it because of your question, we see more of the platform businesses out there currently who are offering, let's say, especially in the area of top sellers via lower price. That is more the competition than some of the new entrants new guys entering the market. So right now, we don't see any impact of those brick-and-mortar drug store chains entering our market. Of course, we are watching them closely. But so far, there's no impact is really more about the online platforms. But again, I mean, this has been out for many, many years, and we will find a way to deal with this also going forward.

The second question -- second of your question is on the fix. Yes, we also read that there are -- the discussion on the fixed room has been going on for quite a long time already. It's already part of the coalition agreement. And so now the question is when if and when there will be a fixable increase we don't know more than you know. So we also follow that discussion. But what is going to happen? Nobody knows at this point in time. The Ministry of Health also set up a special, let's say, committee to look into a reform overall on the health care system. So therefore, at this point in time, we cannot give you any additional information. for sure, we don't have any increase in our guidance for this year or in our long-term plan. So there is no assumption of an increase on the fixed minute.

The next question comes from Volker Bosse from Baader Bank.

Also 2 questions. First of all, on the CapEx in 2016, you said it will remain on an elevated level before it drops down then to 2% of sales. So where will be the in 206 is for fair to assume 3%, 4% and in that range. You mentioned the EUR 30 million for automation in even, but perhaps more details on that, please? And the second question would be on current trading. I mean, you said -- you reported non-Rx growth in Q4 and also said there was an unnormal slow growth. So can you confirm that you expect a return to above 9% means double-digit growth in nonrec in Germany? Or how do you see this momentum? It also linked to the question Mr. Koch from Deutsche Bank regarding the phasing of growth for the full year, you expect 8% to 10% on Rx growth and said 9% in Q4 was a normal low, perhaps a bit of details of the phasing.

So starting with the CapEx question. So we don't provide cash flow forecast. I will leave it as the CapEx in 206 plan is below the CapEx in '25. I will leave it there, but we don't provide more specific guidance. On the non-X question, so as I said, this is basically the fact that we are seeing a stabilization of a long-term trend. And we are trying to be prudent here in our forecast because yes, we have seen a drop in Q4. We now see a rebound, but it's only 2 months into the year. and it's hard to assess with sort of a dynamic environment, how this is going to evolve. But what we are saying is that we will optimize our marketing and our pricing to reinstate growth in the non-X area. And at this point, we assume that we are breaking the long-term trend across the road, and they were stabilizing that. but we are not predicting that we can really go back to 25% growth rates and turnaround completely the longer-term trend. Does that help?

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Olivier Calvet from UBS.

Yes. Can you hear me?

Yes?

Yes.

All right. Cool. Just first question on sort of non-Rx Germany. So you basically have touched on the fact that it was more driven by online than off-line competition. I just wanted to get a sense of specific categories that were under pressure. You mentioned PPC.

And then the second question on Rx, just curious why you're focusing on the point estimate as opposed to a range. Is there a specific reason to point towards a point estimate or any reason where you would try to go meaningfully above that level or just towards that level? And I guess also related to that, if you could touch a bit on the main drivers of the higher Net Promoter Score for eRx that you flagged?

Okay. So maybe we can split this a little bit. So my understanding was first question is on non-Rx Germany competition. Yes. So -- and also giving a little bit more of insight into this one. Yes, there is competition. So for example, we mentioned the categories earlier. We always talk about non-Rx but non-res actually 2 elements. The 1 is the OTC part, where you require where a pharmacy license is required and then there is the beauty and personal care. Those products are usually sold in a pharmacy, but you do not need to have a pharmacy license. And we see, especially on that area, let's say, on some of the top sellers in those areas, we see a little bit more competition also driven by a price. So that means what I was saying earlier in the presentation that we need to adjust our marketing mix, it also means that we will look going forward a little bit more into the pricing strategies in different channels, different product categories, et cetera. But of course, also working on the other elements of the marketing mix, vouchers, minimum order values, those kind of things. We do not want to give really a detailed insight into our strategy, but this is something we really have looking deeply into it, working on it and we're pretty sure we can, going forward, also develop a good strategy to get back to growth. I would like to reiterate again that competition has been out there for many years.

And to also answer the second part of your question, it is not so much about retail chains, drug store chains entering into the OTC market right now. The second question, I think, was on Rx guidance? Or is it -- Hendrik [indiscernible].

I'll take it. So the question was on why not a range for Rx but similar to 25 statement of what minimum will be achieved. So as Olaf pointed out, is Bob, this is a very new and nascent business, right? So we have really started this in 24. And it is not easy to predict this business. And therefore, we are saying we are giving a minimum target here instead of a range. But it's nuances, it's maybe a question of taste. I wouldn't read too much into this, frankly. What we are overall seeing and I think Olaf pointed this out as well as a constant steady increase in the penetration, but we're not reaching a tipping point where we have a step change.

Now at the current level where we are at 1.5% to 2% penetration of eRx. It's really very small. But at some point, you could expect that it really takes off because it becomes much more commonly known and used. And you asked about the impact or the drivers of the increased NPS, we think what really works is the cash discount. So giving the money to customers that use the product is supposed to create kind of word-of-mouth effect or at least the stickiness where people see not only to smooth experience and with pulp and everything going on as well on our side, we make an even other less rich experience in 26. But I have as well a very concrete cash advantage. And it's only A couple of months that we're doing this cash bonus. I don't think this is widely understood and perceived. So this adds as well uncertainty to our Rx upside. Again, those reference to current trading, we're happy with the performance of the Rx business year-to-date.

Maybe to add to the NPS because there has been a discussion for quite a long time, especially on Rx. When we started the Rx business, the NPS came down a little bit because we were not so experienced. I think some of you will recall this. And I think now over a period of 1 year, we really have we really better understand the entire journey. We understand the pain points, and that really starts already in our product in the app when we talking about availability and other things like this, interaction checks, all the way into the delivery service and the promise we make. So it is, of course, the bonus we are giving in Q4. But we already saw in Q3 an improvement. So we compete -- we better understand the customer journey, customer needs and then throughout the entire value chain, we optimize the product. And so I think that's that happened within 1 year, and that is actually a good achievement allowing us also to be #1 on the Rx and not only on the non-Rx.

Okay. super helpful. Maybe if I can squeeze in a tiny follow-up on the midterm or sort of fulfillment commentary. Is there a level of revenue or total orders that you are comfortable with once the fulfillment capacity expansion CapEx that you planned for in 26 is over like billion or a number of orders, yes.

So I didn't get -- happy with? I mean we are -- the message is that we don't need that in the past, you have seen significant investments obviously, the colon side as such, but as well the build-out of even. And going forward, we are good on capacity for the next 5 years. So obviously, we're now very eager leverage all that capacity and make good use of it. And obviously, the main driver is going to be the business trend.

Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Olaf Heinrich, CEO, for any closing remarks.

Yes, thank you very much.

I'm sorry to interrupt. We have a follow-up. Last minute follow up from Jan Koch, Deutsche Bank.

The first 1 is on your updated midterm and long-term targets on the margin. Could you define what midterm and long term mean? So do you expect to achieve that 5% adjusted EBITDA margin 2 for 2029. And then secondly, on the margin guidance of at least 2.5% in 2026. Should we view this as a floor and what needs to happen that you exceed this target.

Yes. So on the first one, we understand midterm as about 3 years. and long term, 5 years and beyond. So that's to your first question. To your second question, as discussed, the biggest contributor to our EBITDA margin is the mix of Rx and non-Rx. So if we have a bigger rebound of our non-Rx business, then obviously, we will do better. So that would be the main driver of exceeding the 2.5%.

Now we don't have any other questions from the phone that over to you for any closing remarks.

Yes. Okay. So many thanks. So again, sorry for some of the complications we had throughout the presentation from a technical perspective and also many things for all of you with questions. We understand that the 2026 guidance is below the expectation, but we are convinced that we have the right strategy in place, and we will deliver on our mid- and long-term outlook. Wish you a great day and looking forward to seeing you next time. Thanks.

Thank you.

A very warm welcome to everybody from my side. Before we get into our presentation today, I would like to give some initial statements. First of all, we announced on the 26th of September that Jasper has stepped down as CFO of Redcare, but will remain with the company until the end of the year for a smooth transition.

As part of this smooth transition, Jasper and myself will today make this on earnings call like we did also in the past. Secondly, we also announced on the 26th of September that there will be -- that we will present a successor rather soon. This statement still holds true. Please be aware that due to strict market regulations, we cannot give any additional information on this topic today. And number three, as you have seen the development of our share price this year, as you can imagine, we are not satisfied with this at all, and we take it very serious.

To us, it is an incentive to continue to deliver on our strategy and execution and to deliver results. We want to use this earnings call also to bring 3 key messages across. First of all, we are scaling Rx across the entire P&L from top line to full results. Secondly, we are strengthening our already positive operating cash flow and are fully funded to execute on our strategy. And number three, our capital-light business model is set up to scale and generate cash. Having said this, let's have a look into the agenda of today.

First of all, we would like to talk about financial performance. Then an update on Rx Germany and then number three, outlook and guidance 2025. If we start with the financial performance, let's look into the 9-month financial highlights. Our group sales are up 27% year-over-year. It's a continued strong growth. It's fully organic, and it happens both in non-Rx and in the Rx business areas.

Our non-Rx growth is up 18%, 15% in DACH and 26% in the International segment. Overall, and I think that's an important message, particularly in Germany with strong market share gains. Our year-over-year growth in Rx in Germany continues to be fast. It's 122% compared to the 9 months of the previous year. Our adjusted EBITDA is at 2.1% or EUR 44 million, already in line with the full year guidance range. And full year guidance, we confirm on all of these elements.

Let's look into the next slide. You're already familiar with those slides. It's a breakdown between DACH and International. And I think it's -- here, you can see we are growing in both areas, 26.7% in DACH, 25.8% in international. And in DACH, it's driven on the one hand by a 14.9% non-Rx growth, but even stronger by the 46.4% growth on Rx.

If we go to the next slide, you can see, first of all, our development of the active customers. We added another 0.2 million active customers in Q3 of 2025. And you know you need to keep in mind, Q3 is always the weakest quarter in terms of adding active customers to the file because of seasonal effects. And I think it's also fair to say that only because of ruling and rounding of rounding, we are almost talking about 0.3 million, but I think that that's not the most important message. It's really about the seasonal effects here.

If we look into the NPS, we are really happy to report that the NPS is back on track compared to previous quarters. And actually, it's the second best ever for Q3 reporting. And we had the discussion in the past, I mean, why did our NPS come down? And now we can say, especially on Rx, we learned what is relevant to the customer. We now better understand the patient journey. We understand the needs better. We communicate better. We optimize our product, including the app, but also the last mile. So we're really proud and happy to see that we brought this NPS up to a level above 70.

And then if we look into our basket size, also here, you can see the impact of Rx, a strong increase now to EUR 67. And as you all know, the higher the basket, the better it is for our business model. So overall, very good news on the customer side. And again, we're really proud of bringing the Net Promoter Score back to 72.

If we go to the next slide, you can see we are following the typical pattern of our business. So Q3 always being a little bit stronger, a little bit weaker than the other quarters. But overall, we're pretty much in line. It's 22% the orders are up. And you saw the sales are up a little bit higher. So this is also, of course, the impact of Rx. And also, I think important to point out, our customers are happy customers. You can see we have a share of repeat orders of 90% now. So that means customers are happy, NPS is up and happy customers are returning customers, and this is what we really want.

Having said this, I would like to hand this over to Jasper.

Yes. Thank you, Olaf. So where did all those orders lead to, and you had it already in the highlights, but here a little bit more granularity. So here, the customary table with the numbers of quarter 3 and year-to-date for the total group from sales up to and including the adjusted and regular EBITDA.

Sales in the third quarter ended at EUR 790 million, which was an increase of more than 25% versus last year's third quarter. And after 9 months, our sales increased from around EUR 1.7 billion to EUR 2.15 billion this year, which is an increase to be precise of EUR 451 million or almost EUR 0.5 billion of sales more than over the first 9 months of last year, a growth of close to 27%.

It's organic growth, same websites, same countries. And then this time later, you will see that we added more slides to point out a couple of relevant margin developments that we are seeing, and I will show these later. On this slide, the key messages are more if we go from the sales immediately to the adjusted EBITDA, where the margin of current quarter, as you can see, at 2.4% was 0.4 percentage points higher than last year.

And with the increased margin that we had 0.4% and the fast sales growth that we had, if you multiply that, you get to the adjusted EBIT. And the adjusted EBITDA in euros increased from EUR 11 million to EUR 17 million and EUR 6 million, albeit still small numbers, is an increase of 50% of our EBIT and with that of our cash generation.

And also year-to-date, you see a number that you pointed out already. After 9 months, the adjusted EBITDA stands at EUR 44 million and the regular EBIT at EUR 39 million. And later in the cash flow bridge, I will also get back to these numbers. And before we go to the next slide, one other thing because that is not including mix that's relevant from a total company perspective.

Underlying administrative cost margin, you see that we are achieving scale there. We are moving away from the around 3% of sales and are now going into the direction of 2.8% -- 2.7% of sales. And then the first more granular level of retail is, of course, the split in our 2 reporting segments, DACH and International. And I start with International because that story is easier. So the total of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Italy did grow after 9 months 25.8%. So we were crossing after 9 months already the EUR 400 million of sales. And subsequently, at the same time, because profit margin improved, the selling and distribution did and the admin did.

And with that, we are 2.7 percentage points better there than we were last year. And important in International, if you look in the purple column, you see that the fully loaded adjusted EBITDA is minus 0.9% admin is 4.9%. So that makes clear that the contribution margin is not a little bit, but is very solidly into the positive now also in international.

And only in 2020, this number was still the adjusted EBITDA minus 10%, minus 9.8%, then it was minus 6%, but we are now here in positive territory. So improvements across the board in international from scale, market leadership and a couple of actions that we took. And then to DACH after 9 months, so the 26.7% increase, but there's also an asterisk on this page, if you look at the margins because if you compare the margins, it's relevant to realize again that the NFC carting solutions started mid-April last year.

So the numbers include last year 4.5 months of really a push after the NFC into growing RX and also in fast growth of RX and this year includes 9 months. In total, the adjusted EBITDA in DACH is 0.8 percentage points lower than last year. But still the title is saying that DACH grows strongly and scales in RX. And for that, it's important to combine this 9-month view with the current quarter, which is on the next slide.

And to go here then to Q3 immediately to DACH, you see that our growth was 25% and our adjusted EBITDA was roughly flat. It was 0.1% below last year at 3 percentage of sales. But with that and the fast sales growth, you see that our adjusted EBITDA -- adjusted EBIT increased by 4% or almost 30% compared to the year before. So in Q3, you really see the scale in DACH kicking in. International, the same story in quarter 3, even stronger than it was in 9 months with improvements across the board.

On the next slide, please. If we now again look from a total company perspective, first to the gross profit margin development as we used to do and then to the SG&A as a percentage of sales in the bridge graph, it's the 9-month view, and we achieved a better product margin. So that's check. We achieved country mix, that's a check and other, for example, from the benefits, particularly also from our platform model. A check and then you see that there is the mathematical impact of Rx in Germany.

But remember, it's a lower percentage of gross profit margin, but in euros, it is not lower. And to the left, you see Q3, which is giving the same picture, but a little bit more because it is including more of the Rx sales.

The next slide, please. SG&A. Also here, across Europe and also particularly in Rx. So in 2 of our business areas, we achieved efficiency and we benefited from our market leadership and scale. We already alluded to the fact that we improved admin as a percentage of sales. And this on total group level included some mix impact, and I can be precise there. Actually, this country and platform mix that you're seeing is only because of [indiscernible] service that actually grew very nicely and fast this quarter, but not as fast as our total company.

And here you see that the platform expenses are divided by the net sales and not by GMV. So after 9 months, a slight improvement of 0.1%. But what you see in Q3, that's to the left side, you actually see that we have been improving from 21.3% to below 20% of sales, to be precise, 19.7%. Now a new slide that we're having here. And the header is operating cash flow and operating cash flow straightforward defined as in the IFRS cash flow statements.

This even, for example, including the impact of income taxes and working capital. And the header is saying this operating cash flow on a rolling base rolling because we want to neutralize the seasonality of working capital is without Rx Germany already at EUR 100 million. There are 3 key messages on this slide, and they are to the right hand of the slide, but I would like to point them out.

Number one is we have fundamentally a strong operating cash conversion. I'll get back to that later. Number two, even with our significant Ex marketing at the moment, we have and we are on a rolling base continuously in a positive operating cash flow territory. So we do in Rx what we believe is the right level of Rx to push into the market leadership and into the market, and Olaf will later show you all the successes that we achieved there.

But with spending in the Rx opportunity, we actually see that in part also because we already get the contribution margin from those Rx sales. But you see that as a total company, that's the black line, we stayed in positive operating cash. Number three of the key messages is that our -- what [ Heather ] is saying driver and improving significantly is also the business excluding Rx Germany.

To make this a bit more clear, everything that I'm saying here, let's start with the upper graph. In the upper graph, the black line that you're seeing there is the operating cash flow as we reported in our cash flow. It's simply our operating cash. So the last number, EUR 32.8 million that you're seeing there is actually a little bit -- not the most favorable point to show here, but it is exactly what it is, but it still includes what you find at the bottom, the minus EUR 5 million of adjusted EBITDA that we achieved last year. And there was some timing -- negative timing impact in Q3 that will reverse in Q4. But having said that, this number is continuously in positive territory.

And why is that? And that is actually because our adjusted EBITDA, our EBITDA in total translates very strongly into operating cash, and that's what we name the operating cash conversion. It has been consistently over the past years above 90%. And actually, in the last 2 quarters, it was even 95%. So what you're seeing here is that we were able -- that's the red line, that's the EUR 2.5 billion of sales that we will do this year. We have been able to build there a strongly growing market leadership position, a cash-generating business. That's what you're seeing here.

And this is only the start of the line. This will continue to go up because the sales will increase and our margin will increase further. With that, we are funding the Rx opportunity. And that means that actually with the knowledge that we have with the business that we had already, applying that to also the Rx, that means that the black line, the total cash will go up extra fast because not only because of our ongoing business, but also of the improvement that we will achieve in Rx.

To the next, please. So after the rolling view, let's look at where we stand year-to-date. So this is the customary cash flow bridge. We started the year with EUR 178 million of cash, and we're standing at the end of September, we stood at the end of September at EUR 266 million. Start to the left. So the operating results translated into cash. If you remember, adjusted EBITDA, EUR 44 million, total EBITDA EUR 39 million and the operating cash impact of that is EUR 41 million. We indicated here that that's including the spending that we're doing in the very attractive Rx market and then still remaining at EUR 41 million positive.

But moreover, if you include working capital as well, we're standing year-to-date at EUR 50 million. And if you then include our regular investment level, which has been consistent in the past years of around EUR 40 million, we are still at a positive EUR 20 million year-to-date. This means that we are funding with our business, not only our growth that we are having, but also the working capital requirements and also our regular investments.

In regard to regular investments, we have targeted investments, a temporary peak, and we have a clear slide on that on the next page. And the increase of the financing I explained already last quarter. But just to repeat there, this is the result of our successful transactions that we did on April 8, where we basically rolled forward our debt that we have through -- in a concurrent transaction where we first placed successfully a new convertible bond and then bought back the far majority of our existing bonds.

Again, we are generating operating cash, as you can see, which is, of course, a driver of value creation, and we are very solidly financed with EUR 266 million of cash at the end of September. Then to address certain questions that we also sometimes got about the increase of our investments, but there's nothing new here. It's exactly the same as we disclosed to you earlier, for example, at the start of the year with our full year results of 2024.

The gray block that you're seeing here in the main graph is our investments as a percentage of sales. It was in 2023, around 2%. In '24, it was below 2%. And also this year, we will be clearly below the 2%. But on top of that, we are very happy that we have the opportunity, and we will talk about that later, that we actually have opened Pilsen to add capacity to our European infrastructure and also major step change in the automation of our logistics.

That is this year leading to a peak and to a smaller extent, also the coming year. But then for many years after that, we will have the capacity and a step change in our efficiency. And we can easily finance that with our balance sheet. We also have the option to potentially later decide to lease a large part of the logistics automation. But this to clarify that the increase of automation -- sorry, the increase of investments that you might have seen in Q2 and Q3 is here on the slide. It is only in 2025 and 2026 because to the best of our expectations, we believe that we will go back to below the 2% in the years after these investments.

Being at around 2% of sales, that means that we are, in my classification, a capital-light business model. You know that our longer-term mid- to longer-term adjusted EBITDA guidance stands. So it's 8% of sales or more. It's only requiring around 2% of sales even if you include those peaks, if you look at it from a couple of years average perspective. Olaf, that was a lot.

That was a lot, but thank you very much for giving this update, which clearly shows that our asset-light model is ready to scale, I would say. And 3 key messages again here. First of all, but I Jasper pointed this really nicely out with a strong operating cash conversion from EBITDA to cash. Secondly, already today in 2025, our operating cash flow that we generate is more than sufficient to finance our scaling and at the same time to fund the level of our regular investments.

In 2025 and 2026, we have a temporary and targeted investments in build logistics and logistics automation, and we will look into that in the 2 upcoming slides. But also for this, we are very well funded. So if I look at this picture, I think just it's fair to say we have everything we need in our hand.

So over the past years, we have achieved market leadership and cash-generating business in non-Rx through excellence and execution. And now we will do the same kind of thing and conquer the Rx market. So therefore, we are all on our way and the initial numbers clearly support that we are in that direction also of scaling the Rx business.

Let's have a look into the 2 investments, very good news on our new site in Pilsen. So our new site in Pilsen is now operational. Many thanks to our operations team for delivering this on time and on budget. It's a great job. Thank you very much. The first parcels have been dispatched. So now we are starting to scale the site. Please remember, the main targets for Pilsen are really to achieve shorter delivery times and hence, strengthening the customer satisfaction on the one hand and on the other hand, lower cost per order.

With Pilsen, we are adding EUR 15 million -- capacity of 15 million orders per year for our European non-Rx distribution. Please keep in mind from the Czech Republic, you are not allowed or we are not allowed to send Rx products. But for our non-Rx business, we are adding EUR 15 million -- 15 million orders per year for European distribution.

If we look into the next slide, you can see our automation project in Sevenum. This is our next generation of intralogistics, and it is fully on track. Just some highlights from our really major investments. With this investment, we will double our capacity. We will double our capacity at the beginning of 2027.

Special focus is on Rx, but this solution also works very well for non-Rx orders. And we will not only increase our capacity, but we will also increase our competitive advantage by reducing labor cost per order by 70%. And with this, we have a great breakeven calculation for this investment.

And on top, we will increase efficiency, more streamlined order fulfillment, more automation and of course, also more speed. So it looks very good, very promising. We are on track starting 2027, and we are really looking forward having then more updates from these nice visuals and then at the beginning of 2027 also to really show you the fully automized flow.

Having said this, I would like to go to the next chapter, which is really the update on Rx development. Let's start with the first slide, looks so easy, but just to remind all of us, the huge opportunity which is ahead of us. We have -- if we look into the German market, we have this EUR 11 billion non-Rx market. And this market has today online penetration of 23% to 25% and us owning a very good share of that one.

And then we look into the Rx market. It's a EUR 55 billion market hasn't changed, even increasing. And here, we see the online penetration, it's still at 1% to 2%. So it's a huge, huge opportunity out there. And I think it's always important to keep this in mind. This is something a new opportunity we can grab in the future. If we look into the next slide, also here, you are familiar with this slide, but we added some additional information.

But first, let's look into the -- what we usually report, and that is the market share here. Looking into the definition of the market, EUR 55 billion and then looking into our total Rx sales. We started last year Q1 at a market share of 0.27%, which was at that point in time, an annualized sale of EUR 150 million. And now if we look into this year, Q3, we are at a market share of 0.94%, which is actually an annualized sale of EUR 520 million. So it's a huge step-up and that only happened within less than 2 years.

So it's really great development already today annualized sales above EUR 500 million. And then we added a second line here, and that is the line what we call the market share e-scripts only. You know in Germany, we have not all of the market is an e-script market. But for the market which is e-script, we would like to give you some more details and insights. So we have here also the line of the market share. And of course, it has to correspond somehow with the overall market share.

But it's interesting to see that on the eRx business, which is the more dynamic business, we are now already at 1.19% market share, so 1.2% market share, and we keep on growing. So we think we added that information because a lot of you guys have asked for that one and to give some more transparency about the, let's say, the e-script business on its own, we added this number.

If we go to the next slide, you are also familiar with this one. Those are our -- this is our view into the cohorts and the Rx cohorts continue to perform stronger than the non-Rx cohorts. So the way it works, we look into a certain quarter. Here, you can see 3 quarters, the first quarter of last year, the second and the third quarter. And then we see the follow-up performance of those customers we acquired. And what you can see there, we see a 5x the sales we are making on an Rx cohort compared to a non-Rx cohort. And again, the non-Rx cohorts are already strong. We are generating more than EUR 100 million operating cash out of the non-Rx.

So it is a great business, but the Rx business is even greater if you look into the cohorts comparable look into sales and also on the right-hand side, if you look into the gross margin, gross margin is 3x higher than what we can see on the non-Rx cohort. So it's a confirmation that the Rx business is also very valuable and that the customers we are acquiring are good customers in terms of quality. And of course, it's driven by their chronic diseases, yes.

So that means they have a higher share of returning, more frequency, higher baskets, all of those things you are familiar with. But you can also clearly see in the numbers that even after 6 quarters, those cohorts continue to outperform the non-Rx cohorts.

Having said this, I would like to give this back to you, Jasper.

Yes. Okay. So to finalize it, indeed, let's look at the outlook and guidance that we said it already in the press release and also at the start. To date, we have been able to deliver upon the expectations that we have set at the start of the year.

Our guidance for the year was again to continue to grow fast, but at the same time, improve our margins -- we are well on track. And with that, we reiterate that we expect this year to grow our total sales on a full year base by more than 25%. In Germany, to cross the EUR 0.5 billion of total Rx sales over the calendar year on an annualized basis, we are already on the calendar year, that was our target there.

Non-Rx for the total company to grow in excess of 18% and adjusted EBITDA margin ending for the full year between 2% and 2.5%. So we reiterate this guidance, and we're very happy with that. And with that, I think we should go to the -- see if there are any Q&As -- any Qs. Yes, any question...

Any Qs and we will try to give some answers to that.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Jan Koch from Deutsche Bank.

I have a few on your German Rx business. So obviously, great to see that the growth in your Rx business has accelerated again sequentially in Q3. Have you made any changes to your strategy here? And in relation to this, could you provide initial feedback on your Rx bonus campaign?

Then my second question is on the operating cash flow. Thanks for providing that number, excluding Rx Germany. When do you expect the operating cash flow in the Rx business to achieve breakeven? And then finally, how many of your German Rx customers are using the Rx bonus solely for the copayment?

Okay. So I think I will give it a try on the question #1 and 3, Jasper. And you will give it a try on the #2. But maybe I will also try to answer the question 2, and then you can step in Andreas. So yes, thanks for the question. I mean the first question was on our growth strategy, Rx, if I recall it right, and the Rx bonus campaign.

So you know, I mean, in the past, we -- when we started with the Rx business, we introduced it more like, I would say, an Rx convenience model where we did not really give a lot of bonus. We gave a onetime incentive to use our app. But besides that, we've launched it as more as a convenience model. And now with all of the learnings we have from, let's say, May of last year, we switched this more into, let's say, bonus campaign. So that means -- and you can clearly see this on our web page that we are now offering a bonus for each script you're ordering with us.

So that means there is a little bit of a shift in the, I would say, go-to-market strategy from education on marketing more towards, let's say, direct financial incentives from a customer perspective. So there is a little bit of a shift. Nevertheless, we are still doing -- having a great product out there, which is not only about a bonus, but there is a little bit of a shift. And at the same time, of course, you will see that we will not spend so much then on the marketing any longer because there's only one P&L, and we have to balance the whole pieces.

So it's also a shift from, let's say, a marketing more towards a bonus kind of approach. I hope that answers the question a little bit. The second question was operating cash flow breakeven on Rx. So that would be a forward-looking kind of thing. So that is difficult for us to do. I mean on the non-Rx business, it took us quite a long time to get to where we are. I mean I think on the Rx, it will happen faster.

But this is completely in our hand, and that is what I was trying to say earlier. I mean we think we are growing at the right pace with the right investments in terms of marketing and bonus. So -- and therefore, it will continue until we are in a breakeven, but we do not give a certain period or day or something like this. But I mean, here we are flexible because, again, it is all in our hand. We can steer it. What you can already see today that we are improving -- we are scaling Rx. We are improving not only on the growth, but also in the individual lines like marketing, for example, but also for also overhead.

So the scale also happens on overhead. So it happens across all P&L lines, but we do not want to give any forward-looking statement on a concrete breakeven. I think, Jasper, that's probably fair to say. And then there was a little bit on the German Rx customers co-payment, I think, was the question.

So yes, you know, I mean, we have a reduction on the co-payment, but also our bonus we are offering can also be used for non-Rx, let's be more specific for BPC products. So customers who do not have a co-payment can use the bonus for orders on BPC. And so therefore, we think it's a very compelling value proposition.

The next question comes from the line of Sarah Roberts from Barclays.

So firstly, just a small clarification point. On the rolling operating cash flow of EUR 32.8 million, can you clarify the negative timing impact you mentioned between Q3 and Q4, which led to the temporary dip in cash flow in Q3?

And then secondly, we're now 9 months in EBITDA margin guidance for the full year remains at 2% to 2.5%, which is a fairly wide range. Can you walk us through the key drivers for hitting the upper versus lower end of that guidance range and which cost levers are within your control? And I suppose given that the year-to-date margins are at 2.1%, does this point to the low end for the full year? Or do you see scope for improvement into Q4?

And then finally, my last question, we've seen recent reports suggest new players are entering the German OTC space with some potentially fulfilling from the Netherlands. How do you see your positioning in OTC? And what level of investment into the customer proposition or marketing might be needed to defend against these new entrants as we move into next year?

So on the first 2 questions, you will give it a try, Jasper. On the third one, I did not completely get. I think it was...

I think it's about competition.

Competition, but I did not get the name of the competitor. But I think the third question was about competition. Can you maybe just clarify this a little bit?

Yes. Sorry, I didn't name any specific competitors, but we've seen a couple of press reports just suggesting that new entrants are moving into the German OTC space.

Yes. Thank you, Sarah. And let me start with your first one. Yes, the thing is that the rolling is, of course, the rolling of the last 12 months. So that's the last 12 months -- the last 4 quarters in this case. And the reality is that if you look at the bottom graph of this Slide 14, you see that last year, we were some EUR 20 million lower than you were used to see in a quarter, and that was our deliberate choice, and that brought us market leadership in Rx. And this minus EUR 20 million -- this minus EUR 5 million EBITDA, EUR 20 million lower is included in this EUR 32.8 million still.

So this means that this number will go up in next Q4 because then you have -- in next Q4 because you have a new Q4 instead of last year's Q4. So that's one of the 2 items I mentioned. And the other one, it is quite some millions, but it is structurally not that important. There was some unfavorable timing in the working capital balances in Q3 that will reverse in Q4. And those 2 together will -- everything else being equal, lead to this line going up, and you will see that in our cash flow statement of quarter 4. So that's number one.

Then number two, yes, to us, it's a rather narrow range, I have to say, 2% to 2.5% and better understand your question there. Now at the start of the year, and that's, I think, relevant, we said we ended Q4 last year with minus 0.7%. We said this year, it's going to be different. It's going to be a positive, and it's going to be between 2% and 2.5%. And the first quarter will -- because of our agenda and some seasonality, the first quarter will be lower. And that's exactly what happened.

Q2 was 2.6%. Q3 was 2.4% at the moment, yes. And we stick to this guidance range for the full year. And I think it's -- we are now on the level of Q2 and Q3 and now we enter Q4. So it is what it is, I have to say. We don't precise it any further. Competition, I think in general...

Competition, I will give it a try. Yes, I mean, yes, it's a good question. So there's a lot of information coming up that potentially competitors are entering our market. But I mean, those rumors, I mean, I started in this business 15 years ago or so -- 15 years ago, actually also one of that competitor, which now the rumor is on also try to enter the market.

So what I can say from our perspective, we are clearly positioned and it's what we also showed, I think, in the full year presentation, we are clearly positioned as an online pharmacy, not as a marketplace and not as a drugstore or something else. We are positioned as an online pharmacy, and we have the full assortment, OTC and Rx, and that is what we can play from the Netherlands.

So being positioned as a pharmacy, we have tons of happy customers. You look into our NPS into the repeat orders. So customers love to be with us while they have also today other options. If you look into, let's say, other marketplaces, which are around in Germany, where you can also buy online pharmacy products, I mean that has not really hindered us on growing over the last 15 years.

So there has been competition out there before. And we think we have a strong value proposition, trust, pharmacy brand, great product. And therefore, of course, we look into new -- potentially new competitors. Of course, we have to do that, but we feel really comfortable that we have a great position and that we can continue our growth despite also maybe potential other competitors potentially entering into the market.

Basically, there's nothing new.

Yes. There's no news we have to say. But of course, we look into what others are doing. But again, I think we are very strong positioned.

[Operator Instructions] We now have a question from the line of Olivier Calvet from UBS.

I hope you can hear me, all the best for your future. Two questions from me. Number one, of the upwards of EUR 100 million operating cash flow, which you generated in non-Rx over the last 12 months. Could you confirm if the international non-Rx business is a positive operating cash flow contributor? Or if not, another way to ask is what's the right ballpark to think about when we think about the German non-Rx operating cash flow contribution?

And then the second one would be a follow-up on competition. So Olaf, we've seen partnerships in the past and among others at one of your competitors. Are you open to partnerships with some of the retailers that have been mentioned? And what would be the key that would make you partner up or not? What's your position relative to this? Are you rather reluctant at this point or potentially open?

Jasper, do you want to give it a try on the first?

Yes, thinking about the answer there. There are several angles to answer that. I think you know what our EBIT is that the fully loaded is around 0. So that's basically also answering the question that you have there. But more important is that you see the rapidly improving track that we also have in International. It's very important that we actually in international do exactly the same that we did in Germany before.

And then in Austria, we did in Belgium, and we successfully do it in Italy and the other countries that we mentioned, where we also have traction there. So the business is exactly the same where we are gaining market shares. We're having market leadership. We achieve skills. We apply centrally efficiency measures that we have and how we conquer the market. So actually, there is -- normally, you would expect not any difference between international and between. You talked about Germany.

And the only difference is where you are in the life cycle because some of the countries in International, we are less fewer years than we are in Germany and Austria. So for the future, it's the same that you're saying there. And at this moment, yes, you see -- you know what our EBIT is there. So you also know how then the operating cash flow is there.

On the second question, this competition question, as I said earlier, I think we are very well positioned as the leading online pharmacy, have a clear value proposition. So that means we feel really comfortable and I would never rule out any kind of cooperations or so, but this is clearly not on our agenda, very well positioned. We feel comfortable with what we have. And therefore, that's really not on the agenda today.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Patrick Holstein from APOTHEKE ADHOC.

This is Carolin. I swap for Mr. Holstein. I have 2 questions. Could you tell us more about the new bonus model, which would come at the end of this year? And how does -- the second question is, how does the litigations burden the company?

So the first question, I understood. The second was about mitigation. Can you maybe please?

The second, if we are burdened, we have of ongoing litigations in general...

Well, I mean, I think the bonus model, we said everything to the bonus model. We have a current bonus model, which we are using and where we feel really comfortable with. So therefore, I don't see any additional or new bonus model coming up. The bonus is part of our commercial offering. So it might change over time, but this is just, I would really say, operational commercial piece.

But besides that, we are offering a bonus, and we feel comfortable the way we do it also from a legal perspective. And mitigation, so I don't see there are any major topics. So we feel really comfortable on where we are right now in our setup. And therefore, nothing to add on that topic.

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Olaf Heinrich and Jasper Eenhorst for any closing remarks.

Yes. Okay. So then I would like to use this slot actually, the final remarks to say thank you to Jasper. Jasper has been more than 5 years with the company. And during this time, the company has made a tremendous progress in terms of growth, but also in terms of profitability. So Jasper, thanks for all of the work and the dedication you have put into the journey of Redcare, yes, and all the best for the future.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It has been a great pleasure for me to at the end of the year then I've served the company almost 6 years. and it was magnificent. It was really great. And I can also assure everybody that the company is in excellent hands with Olaf and all the other great people at Redcare Pharmacy. Thanks a lot.

And to everybody else, many thanks for all of your questions and also your interest into Redcare. The next earnings call is only in March 2026. So now it's a long time to go. So looking forward to hopefully see you all next time, and wish you a great day. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, and good morning to everybody, and a very warm welcome from our side. Let's have a look into today's agenda. So first of all, we would like to talk about financial performance, then an update on Rx regulatory landscape, then I'll update on our Rx development and then by the end, an outlook and guidance for the remaining part of the year.

If we go to the next slide, we can start with the financial performance. Group sales are up 27% year-over-year. So we are showing a continued strong growth. It's fully organic, and it's in both areas, non-Rx and Rx. Also in non-Rx, we are showing a growth of 18%, 16% in the DACH region and 26% in the International segment, overall and particularly in Germany, with strong market share gains.

So if we look into the German market, I mean, we can see, especially in Q2 of this year that our competition and also brick-and-mortar is almost flat in sales. So we are really lucky to report a continued growth and showing our strength in that region and in that market. Also fast year-over-year growth on Rx sales in Germany, 155% compared to the first half of last year. And looking into the EBITDA, we now show an adjusted EBITDA of 1.9%. It's a doubling from the margin from Q1, which was 1.3% to 2.6% in Q2. Also, we worked on our balance sheet. Now we have a much more robust balance sheet. We successfully launched a convertible bond of EUR 300 million at the beginning of April and also bought back already 70% of the existing convertible bond, and Jasper will talk about this probably a little bit later.

And then also, we confirm our full year guidance on all elements. If we go to the next slide, we can see this is our breakdown by regions. Again, a total growth of 27.3%. In DACH, we are growing slightly higher at 27.5% than International on 26.1%. If you look into the non-Rx, it's the same picture we saw in previous quarters, internationally is growing stronger than the DACH region.

If we go to the next slide, you can see our customer development. And again, we were able to add 0.4 million active customers, now showing 1.9 million customers we added over -- the active customers we added over the last year, ending up on 13.5 million active customers. Also the NPS, we stabilized at 64. You know we have a lot of new customers in a lot of Rx customers, but we are happy to report that we stabilized and improved on the NPS. And so we are really happy to show this number. But of course, our objective is still to bring the NPS further up. Also very good news on the large basket. Here, you can see the impact of the Rx business. Our basket is increasing. It's now showing EUR 63.92, almost 8% up year-over-year. So very good development also in terms of unit economics.

If we go to the next slide, you can see our orders. We continue to grow EUR 22 million orders in the first half of this year. It's up 25% to the prior year. But you can also see here clearly the Easter shift. So Q1 being a little bit higher and Q2 being a little bit lower because of the shift of Easter. Having said this, I would like to turn this over to Jasper.

Yes. Thank you, Olaf, and good morning to everybody also from my side. Thank you for joining today's call. So here, the customary table with the financial numbers up to and including the EBITDA. So if you look at sales, we increased the sales from EUR 561 million last year to not less than an increase of EUR 148 million in just 1 quarter to EUR 709 million this year, an increase of 26.5%. And year-to-date, in the first 6 months of the year, we increased from EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 1.4 billion, to be precise, a little bit more than EUR 300 million more sales than last year, and everything is organic. So same website, same countries and also as a disclosure, we have been growing in each of our 7 countries. So 27.3% year-over-year fully organic sales growth. If we then go to the gross margin and S&D and admin as a percentage of sales, there's quite some mix impacts, et cetera, which we will later explain in the bridge. The gross margin is increasing 0.4% year-to-date, 0.2%. The selling and distribution is up 0.6%, 0.8%, but it's more relevant to look at the sum of the 2, which is the adjusted EBITDA margin.

And as you said already, Olaf, from 1.3% in Q1, it doubled to what you see on this slide, 2.6% in the second quarter. And with the 2.6% in the second quarter and the EUR 709 million of sales that we achieved, we had an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 18 million. Now EUR 18 million is the highest number that we ever achieved as a company in 1 quarter. And on an annualized base, that is something around EUR 70 million to EUR 80 million. If you look at the current year, we are standing year-to-date at 1.9% because we started with 1.3% and have now 2.6% and with a lower margin than last year only because of our first quarter of this year, you see actually because of our sales growth that the absolute euros of adjusted EBITDA we generated at EUR 27 million is equal year-over-year.

So achieving more than EUR 300 million more sales, growing 27% in each of our country, by the way, in some countries like Germany or Italy, for example, with huge market share gains, and we were able to do this at the flat margin. But before we go to the next slide, also, a helicopter view remark, if we then look at the 2.6% in quarter 2, which is relatively flat to last year's 2.7%. It's important to know that, that is not because it sometimes we suggest that we save on marketing costs, for example. This number includes actually an increase of the marketing in Germany, in absolute terms and as a percentage of sales. So the number that we report today is because of the strength of everything else. Each of our country improved year-over-year the margin. We see scale. We see efficiency. We see a loyal customer base in total. And it also means that the number that you're seeing here is actually also a sort of base to build upon further towards our mid- to long-term guidance of an adjusted EBITDA in excess of 8% because the scale and efficiency will just continue with our business model as we have at the moment.

On top of that, we will, of course, have next year. The advantages of our distribution center in Czech. The year after, we will have also our e-Rx automation bringing it to a next level. So a couple of remarks from my side to cover the picture, but let us now focus again on the current quarter results. And here is then the bridge of the numbers that we just saw to the left, the gross profit margin up 0.4% year-over-year and year-to-date 0.2%.

The third block of the bridge, the large one there, that is the impact of the success of Rx, but actually, you see that this block of the Rx gross profit margin is fully offset by improvements in the 2 first and in the fourth block. So our product margin, including the mix of the products that we are selling, improved compared to last year. The country mix Rx also positive benefits to our overall performance. And in other, you see, for example, the impact of our success -- with our platform. So when one would potentially expect, hey, Rx perhaps your gross margin as a percentage is slightly down, we're actually year-over-year up. And then we go to the selling and distribution and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales. It went up from in the quarter, 20.7% to 21.3%, an increase of 0.6%. And year-to-date, so over the first 6 months, it was an increase of 0.7%.

And also interesting things happening here because you see the block of the increase, which is mainly actually the country mix that we are having there in total. And to the left, you see 2 blocks which have been improving in total and to start with the efficiency and scale. So taking all the SG&A costs before mix into account, so from the individual countries, you see that the cost increased -- sorry, the cost improved despite what I already just mentioned, the increase in our marketing costs.

So again, the efficiency and scale and the success of our business model are reflected in the improved margin over there. That may be slightly improved. We slightly lowered as a percentage of sales compared to the same 6 months last year. In the end, it should all sum up to the cash flow that we're seeing. And also here, not only talking about what we've seen in the first half of the year, but also taking a helicopter view. We have never had a stronger cash balance than we have at this moment. So we ended up well beyond EUR 300 million. I late the wall on the individual blocks that are also positive. But of course, the main reason for the significant increase of our cash balances is the -- what you referred to already successful 2 convertible bond transactions that we executed on April 8.

First of all, we placed a new EUR 300 million convertible bonds. But at the same time, in parallel, we bought back in a couple of hours with a tender already 70% of our existing bonds, the 2021 bonds, which was in total EUR 155 million. And likely, we will also pay the remaining 30% before or lately in June 2026. Why did we do this transaction? It's proactive management of our debt profile and rolling forward the debt maturity or using simpler words in total, instead of having to repay our convertible bonds potentially in 2026, we don't have any significant payments due until 2030.

We also did a top-up, a slight top-up in the convertible bonds, and that is actually because with that, we established the target liquidity that we think suits a company of our profile. So that's done now. So we have the balance sheet that we want. We have the debt profile that we want. And with the target liquidity, it's important to realize that we, as a company, have doubled in size in just 2 years. We did EUR 1.2 billion. Last year, we did EUR 2.4 billion. So we're there from a balance sheet perspective, we are robust then back to the current year, EUR 25 million in the bridge you see we generated from our operations. and a very favorable working capital inflow of EUR 45 million. We have structural improvements. We have better terms. We have better management of our working capital consideration of the past many years. The majority here, however, has also to do with timing and seasonality.

Those 2 blocks and then a relatively large block of investments, though the net of those 3 blocks is still a positive EUR 30 million. The investments are at an elevated level because we invest in distribution capacity for the Austrian market in Pilsen and we invest in the e-Rx automation here in Sevenum. Because of the convertible bond transactions, there was no need for any other loans related to our lease, so we have been paying that out of our existing cash. But at the moment that we will start, it's very likely that we will replace it with a lease. So, this is the total that we have here. Take into account that, from the balance of the EUR 350 million, we will probably pay the last 30% in January to completely have repaid the convertible in 2025, which is a little bit less than EUR 70 million.

Thank you very much. So, we saw a lot of development, I have to say, positive development, in H1 on the Rx regulatory landscape. And for that reason, we added an additional section in our presentation. So, let us start, first with CardLink, our access to the e-Rx market and then let us switch to the German Supreme Court ruling.

Let me start with a high-level message. Our CardLink license has been extended until January 2027 to support a seamless transition to the next generation of e-Rx technology. CardLink has been built on a Gematik backend technology called VSDM, which, by law, has to be replaced in March 2026 by a new version called PoPP. PoPP is the Proof of Patient Presence. Since the migration from VSDM to PoPP takes longer than the market originally anticipated Gematik has extended our CardLink licence to ensure a continued access to the German e-Rx market during the infrastructure migration phase.

Depending if PoPP is in full swing, current Gematik plan is to start a phased rollout from mid of '26 on, starting with a brick-and-mortar use case, and then followed up by the remote case, including the eGK in Q4 of '26. We expect the necessary specifications from Gematik for the remote case in Q3 or Q4 of this year. So, there is sufficient time to do the implementation and to develop the product for the start in Q4 of '26.

Also very good news, PoPP continues to support the eGK redemption without PIN. This means low barriers and freedom of choice for patients. In addition, PoPP will also support the digital ID, which may allow future use of face ID or fingerprint, enhancing convenience and security.

If we go to the next slide, you can see this more on a timetable, but actually, it's telling exactly the same story I just told you. This is the Gematik seamless migration plan for PoPP, phased rollout of PoPP, starting mid-'26 with a brick-and-mortar use case. That's the upper yellow box. And then the rollout of PoPP eGK remote case, the success of CardLink starts then in Q4 of '26. We expect the necessary PoPP remote specs in Q3, Q4 of this year.

If we go to the next page, let's talk about the Rx bonus. So also here, I would like to start with a high-level message, the German Supreme Court confirms Rx bonus for EU online pharmacies. After the ECJ ruling on Rx bonus from 2016, this is another landmark ruling in our favor. And let me explain why. As you all know, the European Union introduced free movement of goods and services within its member states as part of the single European market. This is, let us call it the default setup in Europe. The German pharmacy business has installed 2 protection layers against competition, the ban on foreign ownership and the Rx fixed price regime. To open up the protected German pharmacy market, for us as a Dutch online pharmacy, the ECJ, in 2016, ruled that there is no justification for the German Rx fixed-price regime to be applied to EU online pharmacies.

And now the German Supreme Court confirmed this ECJ ruling. The plaintiffs and I think even more important, the German Government, were unable to provide evidence that EU pharmacies harm the national supply of medicines. I mean we all know this. We saw the number of pharmacies in Germany declining from almost 23,000 to below 17,000 the last couple of years, and our market share on Rx never exceeded 2%. But it's the first time that this has also been acknowledged by the German Supreme Court. With its demand for database evidence, the Supreme Court followed the line taken by the ECJ. In our interpretation, that is also -- it's also the current Rx band established in the 129 social law book, will not meet the strict ECJ and Supreme Court justification test. So overall, in sum, the confirmation of our long-standing position that we are allowed to offer Rx bonuses.

And before we go to the next slide, I would also like to talk briefly about what is going to happen later in the week. You know there's another Supreme Court oral hearing on a bonus case. This time, it is not about the bonus. I would just like to mention this in terms of that everybody has a full picture here. So we are really clear on that we are allowed to give a bonus. The court case later the week is about advertising on bonus. So there have been an ECJ ruling in February of this year on the advertising of this bonus.

And the question here is, are we allowed to only give a direct bonus? Or are we also allowed to give an indirect bonus? Direct bonus, for example, is a reduction of the co-payment on Rx or it's a cashback on Rx. Indirect bonus, for example, could be a voucher for a sale in the future. And if you recall the ruling from the ECJ in February of this year, they clearly allowed direct bonuses or advertising for direct bonuses, and they were a little bit more reluctant on the indirect bonus, meaning giving vouchers for a second purchase.

And this is now back at the German Supreme Court, who forwarded this case in the first place to the ECJ, and there's this oral hearing by the end of this week. So we will see what the outcome looks like. But please keep in mind, we are allowed to give the Rx a bonus, and it's only a question on the advertising, I would call it, commercial kind of setup direct versus indirect, and we are all looking forward to that oral hearing.

If we go to the next page, this is now about update on our Rx development. Also, very good news here. So, let's start with the market share. What you can see, we continue to grow our market share. We reached 0.87% in June of this year. And we are growing year-over-year, and we are growing quarter-over-quarter, now reaching 0.87%. But to neutralize the Easter effect, '24-'25, we are additionally showing the average of March, April '24, '25. What did we exactly do? Because we determined the monthly '25 market sales by using the seasonality of '24, reported March is artificially high. So the 0.87% in March is artificially high and April is artificially low. Combining March and April, thus neutralizing the Easter impact, the average market share was 0.82%. This is what we are trying to show in the image. So what you can clearly see, we continue to grow our market share is an upward trend.

Also, what you can see throughout the last 15 months, we have different marketing objectives. In 2024, we wanted to become the market leader and establish ourselves as #1 e-Rx brand with a patient and to achieve reasonable CAC -- I mean, and we achieved that objective in '24. In '25, we put more emphasis now on CAC and breakeven period. We are spending, as Jasper pointed out, we are spending significantly more marketing than last year, also in percentage of sales. But at the same time, we also take our learnings we had, and we are optimizing on the CAC. And I think that is the right thing going forward.

So we have good control of what we are doing, and that is also why we feel so comfortable confirming the guidance. We know what we are doing in terms of CAC management. So also very good news on this side. If we go to the next slide, and you know this for those who are following us also in the previous sessions, you know this slide already. This is our cohort comparison between the Rx and the non-Rx cohorts. And what you can clearly see, we continue to add strong, strong Rx cohorts quarter after quarter. And also the gap between the Rx cohorts and the non-Rx cohorts, it continues to widen. So great non-Rx cohorts and even better Rx cohorts. And what did we do here? We added -- so because, in the past, we only showed the Q1 of '24 cohort.

Now we added the Q2 and Q3 cohort of last year. And why did we do that? Because now we have one year in the book for the Q2 cohort, as well as for the Q3 cohort. And what you can see, super-stable, super-comparable. On the sales side, the Q1 cohort was the best of last year, but if you then look into the gross margin, which I think is the more relevant one, you can see, Q2 was even more successful than the Q1 cohort. And what is the reason for that? There are many reasons, but I mean, 2 are pretty obvious. One is because of the Rx fixed price regime -- of the Rx reimbursement scheme in Germany.

So you get a fixed amount of money per Rx unit. So it could be that the Q2 and Q3 cohorts that they have more Rx units in the basket. And because of that, the absolute margin is going up. It could also be that the mixed basket share is higher, so more OTC is in the basket. But I think those are all details. More important is, especially on the right-hand side, all cohorts are stable. We are adding great customer quality quarter after quarter. And especially when you look into gross margin, they are very close to each other. So overall, also looking into the cohorts, we are on track, and that is again the reason why we feel so comfortable giving the guidance for the rest of the year.

If we then go onto the next slide, we would just say, well, we have been now in this business for 12 to 15 months. And our key takeaway out of this period as Redcare, Jasper, is very simple. This is all just the beginning, I have to say, or we have to say. Look, I mean, the adaptation of digital pharmacy solutions is rising fast. I mean we see triple-digit growth in online pharmacy, as we just showed you. But we also see German pharmacy platforms using CardLink and supporting the digital transformation. Since those platforms have thousands of participating pharmacies, more and more patients are getting used to digital pharmacy solutions.

So that's really, really good news for the patients, for the system, for the participating pharmacies. It's all the development into the right direction. We also see individual pharmacies offering digital services via CardLink. Also, those are supporting the digital transformation. And at the same time, unaided awareness of CardLink is still pretty low. So we see a significant upside potential with approximately 80% of Germans not having new online redemption methods top of their mind, 80%. And what does that mean in reality? So a chronically ill patient goes to the doctor, receives a script and then leaves the doctor's office and then does not have the online redemption method top of the mind. So it's, of course, then looking for brick-and-mortar pharmacy.

And if we can increase that share, yes, or reduce the 80%, there's a huge potential out there. And please keep in mind, it has only been 12 to 15 months. Also, we have tailwinds, both from national and EU regulators. The digitization of the German healthcare system is ongoing. Use of ePA, the electronic health record, and also the digital ID, is becoming more and more prevalent. Yes, it takes some time, but the overall direction is clear and will even accelerate in the future. And also on EU level, we see the European health data space in the EU wallet coming up, and both will clearly help to further boost digitization of the health care system. Within the European health data space, the e-script is even a mandatory element. So putting this all into a larger perspective, I mean, we had great success in the first 12 to 15 months as we show in the numbers. But I mean, there is more to come. We think it is all just the beginning. Having said this, I would like to hand this over back to Jasper.

Yes. Thank you. And after the utmost relevant helicopter view that you provided on the years to come, we also have, of course, still, to deliver 2025. And we are well on track for that exciting year where we are now halfway. We reiterate the guidance we gave at the start of the year in all its elements, and I'm just repeating it here. So, full-year sales growth in excess of 25%. We’re standing, year-to-date, at over 27%. Rx in Germany in excess of EUR 0.5 billion, which would be a doubling year-over-year.

And, yes, that implies that, in absolute terms, our Rx sales in the second half will be higher than in H1. We have an internal plan to get to the guidance, and we are on track of that plan. In non-Rx, everything, beauty, personal care, or nutrition, OTC, in all our countries, we expect to continue to grow double digits. Year-to-date, we are standing at 18.2% or 18.3%.

And for the full year, we also expect a growth of higher than 18%. And this is an adjusted EBITDA positive between 2% and 2.5%, and what I tried to explain already, when explaining the quarter 2 numbers is that we actually also consider this as a base to further build from, because the efficiency and scale that we achieve and the rapid leverage of the e-Rx, marketing and structural and fundamental improvements kicking in, it is clear that not only the full-year guidance for this year, 2% to 2.5%, but also the real result that we delivered in the second quarter are all paving towards our clear target of an adjusted EBITDA margin in excess of 8%, and that guidance is also unchanged. So, with that, I think we have ample of room for some questions if there are any. So please, operator, continue.

[Operator Instructions] And we have the first question coming from the line of Jan Koch from Deutsche Bank.

I have 2. The first one is for Jasper. You have mentioned, in the trading update in early July, that the Q2 EBITDA margin should be above 2%, and you have delivered on that. But you also mentioned that you expect further improvement in the second half of the year. Does that really mean that we should expect an adjusted EBITDA margin of above 2.6% in H2, or did you just see even higher margin in Q2?

And then, secondly, could you elaborate a bit on your strategy to accelerate the Rx growth in H2 to meet your full-year guidance and to reassure the market?

Yes. Hi Jan, yes, thank you, and indeed that's literally what I said, but the Q2 margin came in somewhat to the positive sense to the end. Certain things fell to the positive because of a good operational performance. We reiterate today our full-year guidance between 2% and 2.5% with a midpoint of 2.25%, of course, what we have, and we are not changing that one. So though literally, you are correct there. But then stating that today, we say that the next 2 quarters will for sure be higher than the 2.6%. I cannot confirm that, but it is clear that both quarters need to be clearly above the 2% to meet the full-year guidance. So that's a little bit in direction. So thanks for clarifying that. So, it could be, but based upon the very strong Q2 results, I'm not repeating the same sentence as I said during the trading statement.

Second question, shall I give it a try? I think the second question, Jan, was about acceleration in the second half of the year, if I remember it right on Rx. Yes. So yes, I mean, as I pointed out, we now have a clear understanding of how to grow. I call this CAC management. So we know how much marketing money to invest and how many customers we will get back for this one. We clearly learned over the last year. So based on that and what we are seeing in the market and also what we see in July, we feel really comfortable that we are able to accelerate to reach that guidance based on the know-how we have gathered within the last year.

Okay. Great. One follow-up, if I may. We've seen some positive news flow, that the German regulators are planning to make changes to the doctor reimbursement system by actually, Q4 this year, which should promote the use of the repeat prescriptions. How are you positioned here to benefit from this change? We've seen some positive news flow that the German regulators are planning to make changes to the doctor reimbursement system by actually Q4 this year, which should promote the use of the repeat prescriptions. How are you positioned here to benefit from this change?

Well, I can try to answer your question. So yes, I mean, Q4, we cannot confirm the Q4. So because we see there is a lot of things going on, on the regulatory side. So I would probably see this more at the beginning of next year, but I think that is not so relevant. The more relevant question is, can we participate and profit from this one? And I think in general, you know what this is all about. So the patient does not each time need to see the doctor. If the doctor decides so. So that means they don't have to go on a quarterly basis to the doctor to present the eGK card.

So if that is going to happen, yes, then of course, we think we will benefit from this one because then you have an entire digital journey. So that means as a chronically ill patient, you do not even need to go to a doctor and then the doctor still issues script. And then, of course, if you want to complete the digital journey, then you can use online pharmacies. So therefore, we think that is in our favor. It is in our favor, of course, we are also preparing for that. But again, I mean, there's nothing is set in stolen right now, but we are looking forward to see this kind of development in the market.

The next question comes from the line of Volker Bosse from Baader Bank.

Congratulations on the figures. I would have 2 questions. First is, how do you look on the number of customers you increased by 0.4 million in the second quarter after you grew by 0.6 million in third quarter, fourth quarter? How do you look at that? And how do you interpret this growth, please? And the second question would be on current trading in July, which is nearly done, so perhaps you can give us a sneak preview on how things are progressing, especially Rx Germany?

Volker, you were very far away. It was not very clear. The first one I got.

The first one I also got. The second, I did not get at all.

No, the second one, we did not get.

Could you repeat the second one?

Second one was on current trading, current trading in July.

Current trading, how things are going now in July.

Okay. Maybe I can try to answer the first question, Jasper. If I understood the question right, so I will try to repeat the question. It was about Rx customer development? You’'re saying that we added 0.4 million active customers in Q2 of this year, whereas we had 0.6 in Q1 of this year. I think that was the question. And so, yes, I mean, to us, that's completely fine because the Q2 is not the strongest quarter this year, because there has been an Easter shift. And again, as I tried to point out earlier, we have a good CAC management now in place, so we know exactly what we are doing. And based on that, we will, of course, we have to accelerate then in the second half of the year. Also, in terms of a number of active customers, to really reach, then our guidance. But again, we feel pretty comfortable on that and don't see this as a signal of something that is not working at all.

And the second question was more on trading. I think, Jasper, maybe that's more on your side?

Yes, absolutely. This is still also on the active customers, what you said. When we saw the number coming in, we are satisfied, very satisfied with the number we had in quarter 2. And it's also clear that we also benefit a lot from trading up our existing customers. So I don't know what it means for going forward. But in the end, increasing the frequency, getting BPC, OTC customers that are already active customers towards Rx, that is also a very important development for us now already and going forward.

Yes, current trading, you want to know more then, et cetera. We are happy with current trading. We reconfirm our guidance. We're happy with the trading. Q2 in itself, we didn't want to point out towards excuses and things like that, but had some flaws in the market in total where you had the off days, et cetera. I think we are now back to normal, a good start, some holidays here and there, but the same as last year. Current trading, good. We can confirm everything is running smoothly up to including the moment we started the call.

The next question comes from the line of [ Ramon Juba ] from [ Limit Capital ]. Ramon Hua from Limit Capital.

Just on the updates like since we had this judgment from the -- what was it, the [indiscernible]. So did you see any acceleration from clients? Did that change anything in the market? Did you start spending more marketing? I just saw that I think you were quite public with this bonus. So is that already having an impact on -- or is it too early because it's holiday time?

Maybe, Jasper, I can try to answer that one. I, mean our position always has been that we are allowed to give Rx bonuses. So it's again, it's a landmark ruling. But if you look into what we have done commercially also prior to that ruling, I mean, commercially, we had vouchers out there on Rx throughout the entire year. And after the ruling, we have not really changed that significantly. And so because we think we are in a position that we can give Rx bonuses to us, again, it's just a confirmation of our position, in general, the commercial strategy out there. And of course, this commercial strategy will make use of bonuses or vouchers or any kind of price advantage as you can call it. But there is not this. There was 0 before and then there's a significant step-up after this ruling. Again, we have a commercial strategy, and we will also maybe adjust commercial strategies like we always do throughout the year, but there is not a significant step-up kind of thing because we and our commercial offer have not really changed a lot the day after the ruling.

Okay. And the next ruling coming up, do you think it's important? Or as I understand, it's not that important if you give like a voucher or if you give really, money back? Or you think it's...

Yes. I think all of the rulings of the Supreme Court are, of course, important. But what I was trying to point out, I mean, the fundamental ruling just happened, and that is, are we allowed to give bonus, yes or no? And now it's about the commercial setup of this. Is it only a direct bonus or also indirect bonus? Are they allowed? So this kind of question is, of course, has some kind of impact on a commercial strategy.

So to be very concrete, if you can offer a voucher for a next purchase is something different than to offer a cashback or reduction on a co-payment on the same order. So it's a different mechanic. But nevertheless, we strongly believe that at least the direct bonus, that is allowed because that was the ECJ ruling in February of this year. And therefore, we think we all have what we need to have a successful commercial strategy. But of course, we will carefully listen to what happens next week. And again, please differentiate between a direct bonus and an indirect bonus.

The next question comes from the line of Olivier Calvet from UBS.

I hope you can hear me well. I have a couple of questions left. So the first one would be on the sales growth. If we think about the breakdown between DACH and International in non-Rx, is it fair to assume for the full year that International should land above the group non-Rx, so of 18% guidance, but also above the group guidance of 25% for the full year as it did in H1? In DACH, in contrast, I'm wondering if you're seeing any changed competitive dynamics? I think you evoked something to that effect in Q2 in the non-Rx field.

And then in Swiss Rx, you went from sort of low to mid-single-digit growth in local currency in 3Q to 1Q this year to teens growth in the second quarter. Is your expectation for that business to grow closer to the second quarter level, so sort of teens or closer to the normal run rates we've seen in the prior quarters? And then just on the free cash flow, I just wanted to confirm, typically, you see a seasonal inflow in the first half and a seasonal outflow in the second half. Where do you see working capital changes for the full year, breakeven, positive or negative, just ballpark?

And CapEx phasing, you talked about EUR 100 million automation investment, I think, at the full-year results call. That was spread over '25 to '27, mostly '25 to '26 in my understanding. I knew you wanted to sell and leaseback the automated assets. You have the Austrian bit as well adding up. But how should we think about the remainder of the year in terms of CapEx phasing?

I think Jasper, the majority is yours. So maybe you give it a try, and maybe I add one or two.

Yes. Correct me where...

Please go ahead.

Hi Olivier. Good to hear you. About DACH and International, yes, International is even growing faster than DACH. You talked about some dynamics. Well, I can say that, for example, in Germany, we really, in the second quarter, have significantly increased market share. So very powerful. But also in some other countries, we also did that. But we only have a total company guidance. So I'm not going to split it by segment, but you're saying makes sense, but I can -- I will not confirm that one. We will keep the flexibility there.

As a total company, we want to grow non-Rx beyond the 18%. Then as to MediService, yes, thanks for asking that question because there was indeed a surprisingly strong growth of MediService in the second quarter. That's absolutely correct. Normally, in the past years, it was often around mid-single digits, and it was now beyond 11%.

The strength from MediService came from a higher average order value, and they have already a high average order value. So that is good. It was beyond the market, good performance of MediService. But in the business model of MediService take into account that because of the reimbursement scheme, that is not leading to more gross profit at this case because it's kept already at the max in general. That's MediService, and going forward with MediService, we don't change any expectations the market is having there. We don't have explicit guidance for the company besides the fact that we are happy with MediService, and we expect them to continue to grow.

On the working capital for the full-year, we don't have guidance on cash and working capital. And then the fourth one is...

CapEx phasing.

Yes, exactly. So if we wouldn't have done the convertible bond so successfully as we did, we would have already now had a loan for the automation. And now it's certain that we will do at least at the moment that we start the automation. But during the buildup phase, it is more efficient for us to continue to pay that from existing balances as we do at the moment. And it's -- by the way, besides that, fully confirmed. So we have Pilsen aiming to end this year. And then we have continuing until at the end of 2026, start of 2027, the e-Rx automation here in Sevenum. I can confirm all the numbers that you just quoted.

Okay. So just to understand the sort of phasing, you had something like EUR 40 million cash outflow from PP&E CapEx? How should we think about the full year? Is there going to be some further increment? I mean you're talking about EUR 100 million automation invest. And I know there's the Austrian bit on top, but the EUR 100 million is over, I think, 2 years, right? So just wanted to get a rough sense ballpark figure.

Yes, that's for a bit over 2 years. The majority is in the current year.

Okay. That's helpful. And just a follow-up on the German regulatory situation. So is it -- did you not start offering the same kind of rebates as your main competitor because of you're basically looking to offer more vouchers than direct discounts? Is that basically what we should understand from your earlier comments?

No. I mean, look, we have a clear commercial strategy. And currently, we are offering direct bonus via a voucher. And of course, we are looking into what our competitor is doing. And we will adjust if we think it's needed. But so far, we feel comfortable with what is our current offer. But again, I mean, like in other businesses and industries, I mean, this is not set in stone. So we will act in a flexible way. We will react if we see that we need to change something or if we see advantages in changing something. And that is, of course, based on what the competition is doing, based on what works with the customers. So we have the full set available to us, and then we will change whenever it is needed. But so far, we feel comfortable with the current setup we are having.

Okay. And sorry, just a final one. Is your expectation that you would keep your margin guidance, should you start to offer rebates for Rx?

No, that's not related to each other. We have full flexibility there. I think with bonus and voucher, I mean, we report it on a different line, but that's to me also, part of the total marketing proposition and one is related to the other. So no, no, that's not -- we can do what we want. There's plenty of room in our margin guidance from all perspectives. And we will do what we think is best, just as Olaf said. And what we will do exactly, the marketing tactics, we will not disclose. I think you will appreciate that we don't do that.

[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions at this time. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Olaf Heinrich for any closing remarks.

Yes. Thank you very much. So thank you to all of you guys for joining us and also for asking all of the questions. I think, I mean, what we have seen, especially in the first half of this year is there's a lot of noise in the market. There's a lot of things not everybody immediately understands. So for example, CardLink extension, an ECJ ruling and then the conversion into the Supreme Court in Germany. We also have a new government in place, all those kind of things from the outside. I mean, we can understand, they sometimes look like there's a lot of things are going on.

But please keep in mind, I mean, we have been in this business for many years, and we know exactly what we are doing. And we actually feel really comfortable in this kind of situation because we know how to maneuver in this situation, and we can take also the advantages of all of this. So therefore, we highly appreciate that you ask all of those questions. We know there's a lot of noise, but please, we feel very confident to steer this into the right direction. And again, we think this is just the beginning. So thank you very much for joining, and see you next time 3 months from now.