Earnings call transcript: Fodelia’s Q3 2025 results show growth amid challenges

Fodelia Oyj reported a robust performance in its Q3 2025 earnings call, with net sales increasing by 6.6% year-over-year to €13.5 million, despite challenges in the logistics sector. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company appears undervalued based on its Fair Value assessment, with solid fundamentals including a healthy current ratio of 1.23 and moderate debt levels. The company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) stood at €800,000, representing 6.1% of net sales. The stock price rose by 1.19% following the announcement, reflecting investor optimism about Fodelia’s strategic initiatives and market expansion plans.

Key Takeaways

• Fodelia’s Q3 net sales increased by 6.6% to €13.5 million.
• EBIT margin was reported at 6.1% of net sales.
• The stock price increased by 1.19% post-earnings announcement.
• The company is exploring expansion into the Swedish market.
• Fodelia targets an annual turnover of €90 million by 2028.

Company Performance

Fodelia’s performance in the third quarter of 2025 demonstrated solid growth, with net sales climbing to €13.5 million, a 6.6% increase from the previous year. The company’s EBIT of €800,000 highlights its ability to maintain profitability amid a declining Finnish food service market, which contracted by 0.9%. Fodelia’s growth was driven by strong performance in its ready meals and Delimax products, which saw double-digit growth.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €13.5 million, up 6.6% year-over-year.
• EBIT: €800,000, representing 6.1% of net sales.
• Year-to-date net sales: €37.1 million, a 9.1% increase.
• Adjusted operating profit: €2 million, or 4.9% of net sales.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Fodelia’s stock price experienced a modest increase of 1.19%, closing at €5.12. While the stock has seen a significant decline of 30.14% over the past six months, InvestingPro data shows the company maintains a "GOOD" overall financial health score of 2.68, suggesting resilient fundamentals despite market volatility.

Outlook & Guidance

Fodelia reaffirmed its guidance for the current year, projecting net sales between €54 million and €59 million. The company is focused on optimizing its processes and aims to return to a 20% growth trajectory in the future. Strategic initiatives include potential acquisitions, similar to the previous acquisition of Maria Vasu, and exploring opportunities in the Swedish market.

Executive Commentary

CEO Reika Wolf emphasized the company’s strategic focus, stating, "The concept of how we operate makes it possible to save money in the production of meals." Wolf also highlighted the company’s long-term vision: "We are not trying to maximize this year. We’re trying to maximize our possibilities for profitable business in upcoming years."

Risks and Challenges

• Logistics Challenges: Oikia’s online store is facing logistical issues that could impact sales.
• Market Saturation: The snacks market is dominated by two large players, posing a challenge for growth.
• Supply Chain: Resolved packaging film production issues, but supply chain disruptions remain a risk.
• Economic Conditions: The declining Finnish food service market could pressure future growth.
• Expansion Risks: Entering the Swedish market presents both opportunities and challenges.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about Fodelia’s production challenges and profitability issues within the Oikia segment. The company confirmed its interest in expanding into the Swedish market and addressed the transition of CFO Kati Kokkone, who is departing. These discussions provided insights into Fodelia’s strategic priorities and operational adjustments.

Full transcript - Fodelia Oyj (FODELIA) Q3 2025:

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Farelia’s third quarter business review. It’s pleasure to have you here today. My name is Reika Wolf. I’m the CEO of Farelia, and I will walk you through our Q3 results together with our CFO, Kati Kokkone.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Good morning.

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Let’s first have a look at our agenda for this morning. I’ll start with the highlights in January and September in in Forelia level, and after that, we’ll comment in few words in more detail our business issue. We’ll go through our business development. Then Kati will tell us more detail details behind our financial figures, and then I’ll get back to having a look at our strategy and our future. And I have to say that I have a very positive outlook on on our future, but we’ll discuss more about that later on on the presentation.

So let’s start with the highlights in the beginning of the year during the first nine months. Our net sales grew by approximately 7% in the third quarter. The growth was lower than targeted, that is obvious. But if you look at it in in more detail, the situation is quite different for Failia and for Oikia. With with Failia, we are there also behind our own targets, but compared to the overall market, which has been actually declining by some 1% in in Finland, we are doing a lot better with our somewhat around 11% growth with failure.

But IKEA has been in in more trouble. Let’s put it this way. It has it it is due to our private label agreements. I will go back to that later on on the presentation. Our operating profit in the group level was 6.1% of of net sales.

That was stronger than in the early part of the year, but fell behind the comparison year. So also, that will be under comments later on on the presentation. Then some comments on on our results or actually behind maybe the figures, what we what what the market looks like, what we have been doing here. As we have told before, we have been reorganize organizing our operations, how we operate inside, especially inside failure. This also means that instead of operating with three CEOs on the group level, we have only one CEO at the moment.

And I have been personally in charge of failure until q three. So q three was the first quarter when I was in charge of failure as a CEO of failure and actually also in charge of our factory at Puhanta since our plant director has been under some changes and the new one started now. So it has been actually a great chance for myself to be more in with with our customers to actually hear the feedback from the customers, which is great. Of course, we do have some troubles how we operate at the factory at the moment. I will get back to that later on.

But it’s been now working also as the CEO of Failia, a great chance to have more detailed discussions with customers and also working with our plant at. So it has given me insight into how we operate there, where our challenges are, and maybe how we should be fixing those when it comes to our organization. So we have had some some key recruitments here. At Feria, we nominated new commercial director from inside the company, Ulla Antpila, who joined our group when we bought Maria Vasu a few years back. Ulla has now taken the role of commercial director, and she’s in charge of both Velia and Delimax brands and and sales of those as well as marketing and customer service.

So she has a very essential role in how we operate our commercial team. During these first months, we have already almost doubled the size of our sales team. We have made some investments in in our product category management. We have been recruiting from outside of Fotelia, new talent for that, and also have have new roles from inside the company to make sure that how we operate with our product selection is is up to date. So big changes regarding how we operate our commercial team.

And there, Ulla has a big role how how to make sure that we get the growth figures in the future again. Another very important role for us, of course, is our plant director. There, we also have a new talent inside Failia, Thulia Karkkenen, started at the very September and has been now very active in in maybe taking new views as how we operate the plant at Puhanta. If we look back a bit for how strong failures growth has been. During the past four or five years, the yearly growth rate has been nearly 25% with failure.

It means that it’s it’s been in in a very short time frame, we have grown from quite a small company to a big company. It may usually means when the growth is this fast, it usually means that we need to fix our processes. And this is the year when we make sure that how we internally operate both our sales and our factory is up to date to make sure that in the future, we are ready for the great growth figures again. So this is sort of the year of fixing also internal things to the same level where we have been growing to. We have great professionals operating in in different functions here, and now we have now we have different type of leadership as well to make sure that we are efficient in the future.

So I have a I have a very good feeling in in how we operate at the moment and how we will fix maybe some issues that we have been having to make sure that we reach our growth figures in the future. And one important recruitment for us is the new HR director. Karol Ravkola has been nominated the first HR professional for for Delia. She will start in in in the November. So then back to the figures.

The Delia’s net sales growth in the beginning of of the year for the first nine months was 12.9%, which is greatly above the market. The market has been declining a bit in Finland. So compared to that, even though we fall behind our own targets, we have been actually doing quite nicely. Then about Oikia, the growth of our own brand is is has been delightful here. We have been investing in the marketing of Oikia, of course, as well as taking more sales actions by campaigning with our own brand to make sure that we have visibility in the stores and supporting that with with marketing activities and have seen great growth with Oikia brand this year, over 20% growth cumulatively.

So these are some highlights from our first nine months. Then, again, how we report our businesses, we have two different subsidiaries, Failia, which operates with two different brands, Failia and Delimax, and there we operate with the full service market. And with Oikia, there we target the retail sector. Oikia is our own brand. And with Oikia, private label production is actually a bigger share of our business.

But there that has been declining a bit, and Oikia, our own brand, has been increasing. I will get back to that later on on the presentation. Then we have a joint venture, Foodpark, together with Provedo. We own 50% of that. And that’s the the company when you need both the food and that staff as well, then the solution for you is Foodpar.

Well, I mentioned already that the food service market in Finland has been declining. Here, you can see the charts. So the first nine or actually, the first eight months in Finland was 0.9% decline declining compared to last year, whereas Felias growth during the first nine months was 11%. No, actually, almost 13%. Then let’s take a look on Felias Q3 figures.

Kathy will go through this in more detail later on, but the overall figures here do, followed by some comments as what’s been happening behind the figures. So the growth on the q three was 11% for for failure, and our operating profit, unfortunately, fell behind last year, both both in absolute euros and in percentage wise. This is, of course, something that we are not satisfied with, but, again, still, our operating profit was 9.4%, which is not bad at all for for this food service industry. But we know that we can do better. One quite a big issue behind this is our, FERB system, which we develop for for our customers.

Until the beginning of the year, we have been capitalizing the costs related to Ferb. Now from the beginning of the year, we have been in in a sort of maintenance and small development phase. So we have been taking all these costs directly instead of capitalizing those. And this effect is actually quite big on our figures. And then one big thing is the problems that we faced with our production in the q three.

I will go back to those later on. Those have been sort of onetime items in in that sense that they hopefully don’t exist anymore in the future. But, of course, we haven’t in in financial figures, those are not onetime items, but but business as usual. But something that is not is not normal for our business, so to say. But I will get back to those later on.

First, some comments on the first nine months. So net sales, €32,000,000 and and the change compared to last year, almost plus 13%. And also here, the operating profit is a bit lower in a in a bit lower level compared to last year. Operating profit for the first nine months was 9.1%. But let’s go to the comments and the highlights on on q three and the beginning of the year.

First of all, September was a really good month for us. First time ever, our official net sales for September was over or or for one month was over €4,000,000. And what is especially delightful is is that both ReadyMeals and Delimax products were in in all time high sales figures, so great month for us. And overall, we have a very good positive momentum with with sales. As I described earlier, we have been investing in our sales team.

We have nearly doubled the size of our sales team. We have hired a new product manager. She will be starting in November. We’ve been making sure that we have the resources needed forever. Whatever we need in the future, in the system wise, in the into people to make sure that we have the baseline, like, up and running for the ready for for the future growth.

So when it comes to the to our sales organization, it looks very good. And Ula Antila, who is now the commercial director, has has had a strong start with the team. We have new agreements signed with with some care service chains. We have a pilot project launched with a new private day care center, so great achievements for for our sales team. Also, some great wins for our Telemax products with some some chain level accounts that we are operating there.

And also new projects going on with with the Horeca sector. So there, we see potential also to grow with the private market, for example, with the launch market. There is with different customers, we operate with different timeline. Especially when it comes to the public sector, the negotiations and the sales pipeline is usually quite long. It might be years.

Whereas with the private customers, for example, with the private launch market, it’s the time frame is is a lot shorter. So this is balancing how we operate with our sales, making sure that we win new customers, new deals, both in the short run and in the longer run. So that’s one key doings that we are having with with our sales team at the moment. We also attended in a nationwide trade fair tour, making sure that Failia brand is more well known in the future compared to the situation now. So very good actions with our sales, and it looks like that we that the pipeline for for our sales is up and running and growing again.

So these are the positive highlights. But then a few comments on on the highlight in the not so positive side. We have been having quite huge packaging film issues with our production at Buhanta. Those started in July, and, basically, whole q three went fixing the problems, identifying the root cause and making sure that we are able to fix the situation. This has caused us also costs in in many ways.

We have needed more people in shifts, making sure that the hassle that comes out of these problems is is sort of packed with with more people. We have been we we need extra people to make sure that we get the same stuff out of our production compared to the situation when we don’t have these problems. It has caused us more costs on on our maintenance, how we take care of our equipment, for example. So it it is sort of there is no big one time issue that we would say that this is the one huge cost item, but it has cost us costs in in in many different smaller smaller ways. So it’s has been an issue for us during the q three, but the positive thing is that we have been able to identify the root cause, and now we are almost back to the normal.

Of course, we are running bit behind still with the production numbers, so we need to get more production now during the last weeks and months of this year, but the problems have been now solved. So that is the good thing about this. And our new production director has made sure that that we also take these issues that we had did not have to do with us, but with with the film that we use in our production. But we also make sure that we fix our own processes to make sure that we identify the potential problems earlier on to make sure that they don’t escalate in the future. So but, again, the positive thing is that we are now up and running again, almost close to normal.

And then to Oikia. This is quite different case compared to Falya. With Falya, we are growing strongly, with Oikia, unfortunately not. The net sales decline into Q3 was over 6%, and our operating profit is is totally in a totally different level compared to last year and, unfortunately, not in a positive sense. Last year, the operating profit was 10% of of net sales.

Now we fell to close to zero. Of course, we need to keep in mind that last year was exceptionally strong year for Eukia, But still, we are, of course, naturally not happy at all with these results. It’s mainly because of the private label deals, but I will get back to that later on with the with the comments comment slide. And for the first nine months, the sales net sales, €9,000,000. There, the change to last year was minus 3.7%.

And, again, the operating profit close to zero. So that’s, of course, something that we operate now to make sure that the situation is not this next year. But key points behind the doing. Our own brand products, Oikia, is on the rise. The growth rate for the first nine months is over 20% there.

And so you could say that the focus is shifting a bit from the private label production to our own brand. The decline in our net sales is due to decrease in private label sales. To be able to keep these contracts, we have had some some significant sales decrease in in these. And there, the discussions that we have ongoing with the customers is around the fact that we are the only player who can guarantee that we in in Finland that we use Finnish potato. We have the production in Finland.

There is no other brand who is as Finnish based as we are. So, of course, with the Finnish customers, that is something that we hope and believe that is of issue also in the future. So it’s our focus that we make sure that the deals that we may hopefully make for next year look better in in private level sector also, and we continue our work with with our own Oikia brand. Online store is not meeting its targets. That is clear now.

The what’s preventing us what is between us and and a profitable business is the fact that we need to cold chain from us to the end customer. So the logistics is here the hard part, which we are now looking in a bit different way, trying to find partnerships, how we can operate also with logistics in in more positive way when it comes to costs. But the good news here is that in the group level, when we look at Oikia, we are not losing money. So it’s running on its own, but, of course, we are not satisfied where we are now and working on on on that in the future. But in the cash flow sense, it’s it’s not taking any money in the group level.

But, yeah, the profitability is under pressure here due to multiple factors that private label deals is a big thing here. But, of course, we have been also investing on in our own brand to make sure that the marketing supports the actions we take with our sales. So we need to get get the sales up and running, and one part of big part of that is, of course, marketing. There are two huge players in the Finnish market when it comes to snacks and potato chips, especially. So compared to them, we are quite small player, but working on getting in in get getting to be a lot bigger in the future.

And then before it’s got Easter, a few key points of of food part. There have been some great wins this year and last year year as well, and especially that from last year, it has been on a ramp up phase this year. It started in, February or March March with the the more difficult phases of of of that, ramping up the whole business, which has caused Futbars cost level be rising. But in the future, we see that the deals that Futbars is able to win is, of course, good thing for failure as well since we are working on to be even bigger player with together with Futbark. And we have started some new product development to make sure that we are able to meet Futbark’s targets better also in the future.

And then I will let Kati to continue in more detail with the financial figures.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Thank you, Rika. Let’s first take a look at the summary in third quarter. So our comparable net sales increased by 6.6% and amounted EUR 13,500,000.0. Last year, it was EUR 12,700,000.0. We have taken our divested businesses away from comparative figures.

Our EBIT was €800,000 and representing 6.1% of net sales. Last year, it was 8100000.0% of net sales and EUR 1,000,000. Our year to date figures our comparable net sales increased by 9.1% and amounted EUR 14,500,000.0 compared to EUR 37,100,000.0. And our adjusted operating profit was EUR 2,000,000, representing 4.9% of net sales. Last year, it was €2,400,000 and 5.9% of net sales.

And if we when we take a look at the key figures or the profitability ones, our adjusted EBITA was 9.9% of our net sales and compared to 11.9% last year in third quarter. In year to date, our EBITDA was 8.6% of our net sales compared to 9.8% last year. Our adjusted EBITDA, 888,000, 6.6% of net sales compared to 8.8% last year third quarter, and then the amount was EUR 1,100,000.0. And year to date, EUR 2,200,000.0 this year last year, 2,700,000.0. So we have went down a bit in our all the profitability figures and in adjusted EBIT, euros 826,000 this year, last year €1,043,000 There are a lot of small things affecting on these figures, not big ones.

As Rika mentioned, development expenses, increases in raw materials, challenges in failures production, a lot of changes in our organization, though nothing one of big thing this year. Cumulatively, we have reported one off items as some of the restructuring costs, but the indirect ones are not there. So it’s visible here, and it’s now like time for fresh start to continue and increase both net sales and the profitability. Here are key figures by business segments. As a summary, in net sales, Failure’s net sales was 10,700,000 a change of 10.9% compared to last year.

And year in year to date, the change was 12.9%. The total figure was EUR 32,000,000 compared to EUR 28,400,000.0 last year. In oil gas operation, net sales went down, unfortunately, 6.7% and year to date, 3.7%. There are price decreases affecting in snacks business that makes quite a big amount of the sales, this change in sales. Here you can see the graph of Podelia Group’s net sales development.

And as you can see, the quarterly net sales has been very steady during this year and also the level is about the same than last quarter last year. We expect and want this trend to change so that we can increase our quarterly net sales, what has happened in the history. Now we have been in the level of EUR 13,500,000.0 compared to 12,000,000 last year, first quarter and second quarter. And if you go down twenty three twenty twenty two, it’s, of course, much slower because so we have had very good increase in net sales, but now it has been quite steady phase. Here’s the development of net sales in failure, ready meals and deli meats, juices and purees.

Ready meals increased about 11% compared to last year’s third quarter, and Telemax net sales grew a bit more, 14% in this quarter. And as Rick commented, the September was very good in both. So hopefully, that is good trend for the future. Here’s the development of Oikia’s net sales. You can see in the gray color the discontinued operations.

We divested those last year. And in continuing operations, Oikia shows what we see in group level as well that all the third all the three quarters in this year is about the same level. There is a decline compared to last year’s third quarter and generally the trend last year. Last year in Oikia’s business was very good. Here you can see EBIT by business segments fairly uprings our profit, I could say, 1,000,000 in this third quarter.

It went 15% down from last year, but still the level is quite good. In year to date, 2,900,000.0 in this year and last year. Oikia’s business changed profitability in the Oikia’s business changed a lot, and that affects quite significantly also in our group level profitability figures, Minus 92.3%, that is huge gains. Last year was very good in Oikia business as a profitability wise. We have presented one off items here.

In year to date figures last year, the business divestments are there and then some share based payments and this year some restructuring costs in second quarter. Here you can see quarterly development of EBIT. And you can see last year, third quarter was very good, totally different for the other quarters first. And now this third quarter is the best in this year, so the trend is much better than in the beginning of the year or and at least very much better than when we compare to second quarter. Yes, some other key figures.

I would like to point out our balance sheet fee figures. Our equity ratio is high, 55.1%. It’s even better than last year at the same time and last year, the whole in the end of the year. Our net carrying is also in good level. It went down, so we have decreased there our key figures, and that is very good.

And then the return on equity and return on investment, they are also in quite good level in this third quarter, better than in our EBIT, I would say. The adjusted return on equity, 17.9% and adjusted return on investment, 20.1%. They are better than in third quarter than in year to date figures. Our balance sheet total is a bit less than last year. And also, our average number of personnel went down in this third quarter.

In year to date, also same trend, but the level amount of personnel is was higher in the first half of the year. Thank you. This was financials. Enrique will continue about strategy and future.

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Yes. I have to say that more deeply I look into failure and also with with our own brand, the more I believe in our business. It has been, as I said already, but I cannot help to but to mention it again, it has been a great chance for myself to also work with our production closely during the past months. Although having said that, I’m very happy to have our new plant director with us taking charge of of our production at Buhand. But working now as the CEO of also Failure has given me the chance to operate also and work also with our customers, have discussions with our customers.

And it’s clear and it is obvious that the concept that we have created during the past years here at Failia is a great one to answer, to response all those key trends that we have underlying in in in our society. Our population is aging. We are lacking money in the society. We need to find ways how to do things differently in the future. And failure’s concept is answer to many of these underlying issues.

I I would like to say that to all of them. The concept how we operate makes it possible to save money in in in the production of of the meal meals. We don’t need the heavy central kitchen model anymore. We can produce the food in in in more cost efficient way, and it can be just warmed up in in where it is eaten. So instead of using money in the heavy central kitchen model and into people cooking the food in many different places in Finland or in other countries as well, We can do that centrally at Puhanta and make sure that the people who operate, for for example, in the hospitals, in the day care centers, is that they use maximum amount of their time for the care job, not for cooking the food.

We can do that part, and we can do it in more cost efficient way. So the concept that we have created fixes many problems that we have when it comes to money. And when looking at, for example, the emergency food concept, at least here in Finland, we have a national law telling how we need to be prepared for different type of emergency situations. Failure’s food is also answer to these situations. So that is something that we are concepting better also at at this time and and hoping to see quite good sales figures, growing sales figures in that in the upcoming years.

So the more more we work with this concept together with our commercial team, together with our production, the more I believe in the concept and in our possibilities to grow profitably profitably in the future. And I’m quite sure that now that we are taking the time to fix our processes to make sure that we operate efficiently now and in the future, we are actually able to be even more profitable in the future, being ourselves more efficient. That is what we create for our customers, and now we are taking the time to make sure that our own processes are streamlined and we are able to grow profitably in the future. So I’m quite looking in in a very confident way our our future and our possibilities in the future, especially with failure. But, of course, with with Oikia and with our own brand, we like to grow, and we are quite sure that we are able to operate also in a better way with the private label customers in the future.

Our guidance for the year was taken a bit down at the July. And now looking at the guidance for this year, it remains the same. And, of course, looking at our figures after the first nine months, it’s quite obvious that we are closer to 54 than to €59,000,000, but but still remaining on the same guidance for the whole year. And our plan is to work in the long run. I’m not trying to maximize this year.

I’m trying to maximize our possibilities, how we create profitable business in the upcoming years. And that’s what we are building now together with our new team and also, of course, with our existing teams, making sure that the processes are streamlined. We have a new organization up and running. People we have right places. We have the right people or right places doing right things, which will naturally lead to growth in the future.

That is our goal at the moment. So this is sort of the year of temporarily slowing down to make sure that next year we are again able to grow in greater figures compared to this year. And then about our long term financial targets. Our target for 2028 is to reach the annual turnover, net net sales of of around €9,000,000. That, of course, the closer that is coming, the more difficult this is is, the more we work on this.

And, also, of course, we are looking for possibilities to maybe acquire something. If we look at Maria Basu, that has been a great acquire for us. There, the one plus one certainly is more than two. That is one thing that we actually see at the moment. Together putting Telemax products together with Failia products, we are able to cross sell.

We are able to have better meetings with the customers with a greater offering for them. So those that that is an example of of a very good acquiring for for us back. And in in looking back, I mean and now that is if we would be looking for acquirers. That would be something similar to that. But most of all, we are concentrating on how we are able to grow failure and make sure that we get back on the growth track profitably.

So other than that, our or actually or our long term financial targets remain the same. And so far, we have been rating quite nicely the figures, and the plan is, of course, to do that also in the future. And now I can see that we have quite a bit of questions online. So, Kati, you could maybe help me out here to go through those, and together we can answer those.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Yes. There is several questions about our growth, and especially in failure, that it third quarter growth was pretty good, but there has not been no growth from first quarter to third quarter. So what are our thoughts on this?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, the quarters are not similar. There there are differences. First, the third quarter July is usually quite low since since the schools are not up and running. Day care centers are are in a in a smaller level compared to the normal year. So the quarters are not comparable to each other.

But of course, we are working with our sales on our sales pipeline to make sure that every single quarter is a growth quarter in the future.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And if we expect the growth, what will drive the change?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, we are working on the Failure, of course, is the growth driver here. We are working on our sales pipeline. As I mentioned earlier in in the presentation, it’s it’s combining the short term and long term operating with with our sales. With different customers, the time frame is different. With the public sector, it might take years to close the deals.

Whereas with, for example, the private, launch market, the time frame is a lot shorter. So we are balancing that this whole time and making sure that the pipeline for the public sector as well will be growing again in the future. It it it was not it did not look as strong as I hoped it should look looking at it in in more deeper way myself during the summer. We had invested as well here also on our sales team to make sure that we have the professionals to work on this in the future.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Yes. Then we have wrote in our reports that the commercial Horeca market has opened up. So can you explain a bit more of that?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, for for example, the lunch market is something where people eat when they, for example, drive from one place to another. So that type of places and many others as well. But the lunch market especially is quite interesting interesting for us.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And then let’s move to Oikia. In Oikia, both sales and profitability is down. Is this because of lower sell through volumes for customers? Or is this mainly because of our us being forced to accept lower prices to keep our business to business customers?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: The latter. So it has been the pricing issue.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Yeah. And what are our actions taken against this?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, we believe that with the Finnish customers, the Finnish potato, Finnish production is an issue also in the future. So that is something where we need to be strong to communicate where we are strong and how we can operate and help our customers to grow. So that’s, of course, in every single business, we need to fix our customers’ problems to be able to grow ourselves. And and especially when we talk about potato chips and the private label production, the the benefit that we have is that we are a Finnish player with the Finnish customers. That is an issue.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Then Ojjaroka’s profitability, what we can tell about that as of now? And what is the cash flow situation? I think you mentioned something about that.

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: In a in a cash flow sense, it is it is net positive, slightly net positive. But, of course, we are not satisfied with this. Whether it can be profitable in the future or not, next year will tell that us. The logistics, is there the problem as I actually mentioned already.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Then there is question about if we want to report Oikia snacks and Oikia Rovoke separately in our reports. What do you think about that?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, yeah, why not? And we are actually planning to maybe move the Oikia, the the web store closer to failure since the production is is at failure there. The issue for us is that the brand is the same for both when we operate with the private customers. We operate under Oikia brand. So, yeah, that is something that we can talk about or think about.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Then question about failures. Euros 4,000,000 net sales in September, do we think that is sustainable going forward? Or is it those timing related topics impacting on record sales?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: There might be some timing related issues as well, but, of course, we are working on to be make sure that in in, let’s say, 2026, that would be the new normal and going towards the €5,000,000 target. So but there are always some some differences between months and timing related issues, but we are constantly working on getting the growth track again on a better level compared to this year.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And then about new customers, we acquired many new private sector customers during the third quarter, but how do we see public sector going forward? Is the market opening anytime soon?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: I think I actually already partly commented that in my previous answers. But, we are operating also on the private on the public sector. It’s the timing issue here, and though both are very important for us. The private sector gives us, especially the shorter term wins, smaller wins, and and we are constantly operating in the public sector as well. But it might take some time.

Let’s put it this way.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And then about our growth again, is it possible to get 20% growth again?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: That’s the goal.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And what about export market?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Especially Sweden is is very interesting for us. We work with here in Finland, we work with customers who operate also in Sweden, so it would be quite natural for us to expand together with our customers, and that is something that we are working on at this time. And our our investments in our sales team has also meant that we have invested in in in getting new knowledge how to reach new markets.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Then there is comment about synergies between snacks business and failure and food bar. So what is the role of snacks business in the future in our group?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, the synergies are not that obvious in business and production wise. Of course, there are some support functions where we can operate together, and there are also some sales possibilities where we can work together. But and that is, of course, the role of of the group on the Forelia level to to be able to cooperate in those issues where we can see the synergies between our business areas. But with if we think that we with the other one, we operate with the food service customers and with the other the retail customers, that is quite different market.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And there is question about failures product line challenges on this packaging topic. So can we provide an estimate of the total financial impact, including personnel time, material losses, potential sales impact and other related costs?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: That is not very simple thing. We have been trying to calculate that, and we are still working on that one, and we will get the figure. But it’s about increasing waste. It’s about increasing personal costs, having to have more personal on shifts to fix those problems caused by the production. And then it’s also accumulating new problems because of the focus being on these packaging film issues.

So it’s not very easy to calculate. That has been something that our business controller has been working on for for quite some weeks now, but not an easy task. It has caused us problems in many different small and bigger issues.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: What about customer’s point of view? Have we be have been been able to deliver products?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Mostly. But we do have had some delivery problems as well. And that’s, of course, that my my sort of my biggest problem because we don’t want these problems to be visible for our customers, but that hasn’t been totally avoidable in in this situation.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: And the noncompliant products, have those been delivered to the customers, or was everything visible in the factory before delivery?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Most of it has been visible at the factory. There have been some minor cases where where the the end product delivered to the customer has not met our standards, but that’s not the big case. The most of the problems have been stopped at the factory. Yes. And

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: one question. Thank you, Kalle, for thanking me in my work in this company. So it has been six years I’ve been part of Forelia’s growth story, and I would like to thank for that. It’s now time for me to move on. Patrika, how is the recruitment process going on?

And when we our analyze analysts hear about new CFO?

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Well, at the latest in at at the November, we have well, first of all, I would have have been happy to keep Kathy at at our team. But now have having having been forced to fire a new CFO, I have to say that we have great candidates for that position. It’s obvious that Forelia is an interesting company also for for our CFOs. So it’s, ongoing process at the moment. We have a very experienced recruitment consultant or actually two of them helping us with the recruitment process.

We’ll be starting the interviews next week and then hopefully having the news by the November. But it’s a very, very important recruitment for us. Kati has been a great CFO for the company. Now we are looking for the great new great CFO for us, and we rather take a few weeks longer than than Russ with the recruitment process. So but at the latest, at the November.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: I think we have been through our questions, so it’s time for us to thank you for the audience.

Reika Wolf, CEO, Forelia: Thank you, and have a great day and have a great week.

Kati Kokkone, CFO, Forelia: Bye.

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