Ceconomy AG

XETRA:CEC

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome, and thank you for joining the CECONOMY AG Investor and Analyst Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]I would now like to turn the conference over to Stephanie Ritschel, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Stephanie Ritschel, Vice President of Investor Relations]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q3/9M results call this morning. With me today are our new CEO, Karsten Wildberger; and CFO, Florian Wieser. They will guide you through today's presentation. Before we start, let me briefly address the usual formalities. Firstly, this call is being recorded. A replay will be available on our website later today. And secondly, please don't forget that today's presentation and potentially also some answers to your questions during the Q&A session may contain forward-looking statements. For additional information in this regard, please refer to the disclaimer.But now let me hand over to our new CEO, Karsten Wildberger.

[Karsten Wildberger, CEO, Member of Management Board & Labor Director]

Thank you, Stephanie, and good morning, everyone. It's great to be here and to meet you for the first time.Before we kick off today's results call and dive into the details, I'd like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce myself. So my name is Karsten Wildberger. I'm 51 years old and 2 weeks in the new job. I worked internationally in different sectors, consulting, telco and energy. And functionally, I worked in sales, retail products, IT, digital, finance and commercial roles. And topic-wise, my focus has always been around customers, digital transformation, sales, products and services. And probably 2 experiences that in this role stand out is, first of all, the experience at Telstra, which is an Australian telco incumbent, where I also had the chance to lead the digital transformation for the company and also developed the store of the future, which was quite special because it combines in a very nice way the digital experience with the bricks-and-mortar world. And in my last role at E.ON, I think I really embraced the topics of sustainability, recycling and climate neutrality. And there, we -- I had the chance to also turn our core energy sales business back into growth mode and established new scalable growth businesses, which was exciting. But I'm excited to be here. And now that Florian and I have been appointed, the company has finally eliminated its double management structures. And so the roles of CEO and CFO at CECONOMY and MediaMarktSaturn are now united. And let me be clear, regardless of the delayed transaction with Convergenta, which Florian will comment on later, we will now be able to steer and operate the business in this new simplified setup. Let me share with you a few experiences, what I've seen and learned since I took the helm at the beginning of August. So I've already had the pleasure of meeting many colleagues, talking to customers and partners and visiting several stores in Germany and abroad. Firstly, I've met a very dedicated team who's passionate about what we do. And I've also seen the need and the will to continuously improve the customer experience. I'd also like to point out that I've seen a clear determination to execute our strategy where we're making good progress. And I can confirm that this company actually has a strong operational muscle, which is so vital to move things forward. An example is our flagship store in Milan, which is really fantastic, and the process from concept development to opening the store in July 2020 just took 9 months.And furthermore, I've also seen concrete growth options. But let's talk about opportunities and the things we can do differently and better, too. And the opportunities I'll be talking about are all in line with our strategy and build on our current activities. Firstly, a persistent focus on the customer and the customer experience is key. And it's paramount if we are to deliver a more consistent omnichannel experience, which makes shopping with us easy and effortless for our customers. This may sound obvious, but the truth is that it's hard to make it consistently easy for customers to engage with businesses. And this principle concerns all aspects of our value chain, stocking the right products, ease of navigation, delivery convenience and offering relevant attractive services which enhance customers' purchases. Secondly, we have to accelerate our digital agenda. We've already made encouraging progress, and our strong online growth speaks for it. But to have an omnichannel experience that's genuinely exciting, we need to harness the possibilities of digitalization, especially the link between online and bricks-and-mortar. It also includes the use of data to make better business decisions.Furthermore, I've seen that we made very good progress in selling services. But there are also many more services customers want, and we can do better when it comes to selling phone-related services as well as tech support for computers and home office products. And we can also leverage the great service offering we already have, such as the SmartBars in our stores because a lot of customers are not even aware of it. I think we also have to ask ourselves how we can build on our passion for consumer electronics to develop a category leadership mindset. To this end, strengthening our collaboration with our partners is indispensable, and I've also already reached out to them.And 1/3 of Europeans have made at least one purchase at MediaMarktSaturn in the last few years, 1/3. So how can we make ourselves their first choice in the future? How can we take customer relationship management to the next level? And one thing I can tell you today is that also in the coming months, we'll be launching a new membership club with very compelling customer benefits. Many of the ways to reinforce our business are already well covered by our transformation strategy, and this is undoubtedly the right approach to become customers' first choice. And I want to make this also clear, the strategy is the right strategy, and we'll continue to execute on it.And based on a clear company structure and efficient organization, we need to work on delivering a clear customer value proposition, ranging from category leadership through consistent customer experience across all channels and also like to emphasize that sustainability and conserving resources will be an increasingly important part of what we stand for. And despite the pandemic and the related uncertainty, we have made very good progress on our transformation journey. And again, we will continue to focus on executing our strategy. Allow me to briefly share 2 examples of progress with you to make things more specific, and let's start with our stores. For a long time, the doctrine in bricks-and-mortar retail was that more space and more products mean more customers and more sales. Yet customers' expectations are changing and are rising. They want convenience, advice and, obviously, great value for money. And they only want to engage with brands they trust. We've therefore come up with new store formats for all our stores in 4 categories: the core, the lighthouse, the smart and the shop-in-shop formats, which we also first announced in December.In the lighthouse stores, they are experienced centers designed to inspire customers with regularly changing displays. They showcase state-of-the-art consumer electronics and have showrooms for product demonstration by our partners. And the first lighthouse store was the MediaWorld Tech Village in Milan opened in July 2020. The next one will open in Rotterdam at the end of this year, and more lighthouse stores will follow in other countries.And according to the principle, we are where our customers are. Stores in the smart format serve as touch points in smaller catchment areas and city centers where customers can browse from a carefully selected range of products in stock, and they can also actually access the entire range of products online and conveniently collect them in our stores.And we recently opened smart stores in Rome and Turin. And what impressed me most when I visited the smart store in Turin was the range on display that it was based on a thorough understanding of the local customer segment coming into the store. And I also felt that the fully digital collection process is excellent.We'll continue to adapt our existing store portfolio to these 4 formats step by step. But don't worry, this investment is already included in the normalized CapEx level of 1.5% of sales that we have announced. Let me secondly turn to another area, logistics. We can only become customers' first choice if we have the right products available in the right place at the right time. And that's why we've ramped up and enhanced our inbound logistics in the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. And our new national distribution center in the German city of Göttingen is about to go live.Alongside the improved availability of goods, setting up these NDCs, national distribution centers, gives us more flexibility regarding direct sourcing from partners as well. We're also increasing warehouse capacity for the upcoming peak season. And in summary, these are just 2 examples of where we've made progress. There is much more to come, and we'll fill you in as we implement our transformation strategy. To wrap up my presentation, let me share with you how I regard and how I view the performance of CECONOMY and MediaMarktSaturn in the first 9 months of this financial year, maybe a little bit after 2 weeks with a kind of outside-in view. So CECONOMY had a strong start into the financial year with a very successful peak season. However, the increasingly stringent COVID-related restrictions that were most noticeable in Germany as of mid-December 2020, of course, severely hit the performance of our bricks-and-mortar business in Q2. Fortunately, we managed to offset the adverse effects with our continuously growing online business. And additionally, in markets with fewer restrictions, we were able to satisfy strong customer demand. So the underlying sales momentum continued in Q3 with 8% sales growth year-on-year, and this means 5% on a year-to-date basis. And due to the discontinuation of last year's level of COVID subsidies, together with pressure on goods margins as well as the severe restrictions in Germany and the Netherlands, the sales increase in Q3 did not translate into positive earnings development, but it's important to put the financial into perspective. Despite the COVID complication for our retail business, we clearly remain on a profitable track for the 9-month period with an adjusted EBIT of EUR 106 million. And this is just EUR 7 million less than in the prior year period, which was affected by fewer restrictions. So let's have a look actually of what store closures and the pandemic meant for store openings and all the related COVID measures. Almost our entire financial year has been hit by COVID-related store closures and restrictions. In the previous year, by contrast, most of our stores across Europe were only temporary closed from mid-March to mid-May 2020. And you can see here the impact this had this year.The countries worst affected by closures this year were Germany and the Netherlands. And moreover, the local rules-based opening strategy in Germany made things very complicated for us and confusing for our customers. And the number of German stores allowed to open changed almost on a daily basis. And in addition, customers were put off quite often by the unclear rules applying to Click & Meet.In other countries like Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Poland and Turkey, we also faced restrictions, including temporary closures on weekends and stores in shopping malls being closed. So in summary, comparing last year to this year is very difficult, owing to the COVID constraints being longer and more severe in many markets this year. Now in summary, despite the persistent external challenges, our business remained, in general, fundamentally resilient in Q3. And let me go through with you the main achievements, but also the challenges. On a positive note, we saw encouraging sales development both in-store and online. Countries with less-stringent COVID restrictions like Spain, Italy, Turkey, performed particularly well.Overall, we welcomed around 1.5 million new webshop customers in Q3. And since the beginning of the pandemic, our online shops have attracted nearly 11 million new customers, which is, I think, impressive. And it demonstrates that we managed to divert customer demand online when shops were closed. It also confirms that we are on the right track to improving our omnichannel capabilities. In Q3, we also saw our Services & Solutions business grow well, thanks again to our improving attach rates online. Ladies and gentlemen, let me also address the challenges in Q3. Again, the results in this period were impaired by the COVID restrictions, especially Germany and the Netherlands. Since the easing of restrictions, customer frequency has been recovering, albeit slowly. Customers actually now tend to decide more consciously when to go shopping. And happily, lower store frequency is offset by higher customer checkout values and improved conversion rates. This is also a great achievement by our customer-facing staff. In terms of profitability, we saw pressure on goods margins, which are still currently below pre-pandemic levels. And together with the normalization of the cost base due to significantly less furlough and short-term work in the current year, this resulted in declining earnings in the third quarter. And with this, let me hand over to Florian, Florian Wieser, for a more in-depth review of the financial performance in the past quarter.

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes. Thank you very much, Karsten, and good morning to everyone in the call.So let me walk you now through the quarterly numbers in detail, starting with our sales development on Slide 14. As mentioned earlier by Karsten, our adjusted sales growth of 8% in the third quarter was mainly driven by countries without stringent COVID restrictions. These countries more than compensated for the sales decline in the DACH region where we battled with the significant impact of temporary store closures in Germany due to the pandemic. Our performance in Spain, Italy and Turkey is especially worth mentioning. We saw high growth there due to ongoing strong demand for consumer electronics. In addition, sales were also boosted by successful campaigns, for example, in connection with the UEFA European Football Championship.Our group's brick-and-mortar sales growth was supported by the lockdown situation in the prior year. At the same time, our online sales rose on the back of an already elevated level, as we can see on the next slide. The trend towards shopping online with MediaMarktSaturn continued. It was even more pronounced in countries still affected by restrictions, demonstrating the strength of our omnichannel model. Also, the share of online sales relative to total sales declined slightly. Online sales rose by more than 3% in absolute terms. Considering the high comparison base, this is a remarkable result. Of course, the lockdown situation and sales restrictions in both Germany and the Netherlands favored the significant rise in online sales. But in almost all countries, the conversion rate and the average online checkout value were significantly above last year's level. Moreover, we are particularly thrilled by the fact that we gained 1.5 million new online customers and that our pickup ratio went up significantly by 10 percentage points versus prior year. This is a clear proof that our customers greatly appreciate our omnichannel model. As customers get more used to shopping online with us, our webshop doesn't just compensate for COVID-related restrictions. It is also a core channel to reach our customers. In numbers, our online sales share rose from 21.6% in the prior year to 36.3% this year over the 9-month period. Of course, the online sales share varies from one quarter to the next, and there are clear differences depending on whether our stores were open or closed.Nevertheless, we believe that the trend is already visible regardless of the lockdowns. Therefore, we expect that the online share will remain high even when the severe COVID restrictions have eased. In fact, we are curious to see whether the online share will increase even further once customers can start shopping with us under the new normal, especially in the Black Friday and Christmas season. Either way, our organization and our systems are well prepared.Our Services & Solutions business developed well in the third quarter. Services & Solutions sales grew by around 18% on a like-for-like basis, stabilizing the sales share at 5.5%. Compared to the second quarter sales share level of 4.6%, we managed to close the gap to the pre-COVID level, which was at around 6%. On the one hand, the end of COVID restrictions in many countries meant customers could seek advice in our stores. On the other hand, the improvement of our webshop offerings and features led to an encouraging increase in our online services attach rate. However, the current trend towards more transactional shopping behavior, particularly in Germany, negatively impacted the performance of Services & Solutions. With the expected easing of COVID restrictions, the continuous expansion of our Services & Solutions offerings, the strengthening of subscription models and a clear focus on services, we aim to further raise our sales of Services & Solutions towards our midterm ambition. Looking at the gross margin, development was largely stable compared to previous year. Against the second quarter where the gross margin was down by 230 basis points on the previous year, we, therefore, enjoyed a significant trend improvement. Still, at around 16%, our gross margin remained well below the pre-pandemic level of almost 19%. While we saw headwind from the channel shift in our second quarter, lower online sales in the third quarter over the previous year led to a slightly positive impact from the channel shift. The main drivers of the continued pressure on our gross margin were a rising new media share and a more intense promotional market environment with competitive pricing. The prior year quarter was characterized by a strong demand boost after the first wave of the pandemic with low campaigning intensity. On the positive, the recovery in Services & Solutions and the reversal of a temporary negative stock-related margin impact in Q2 supported our gross margin. All in all, we see potential for margin improvements with easing of COVID-19 restrictions and thanks to the effect of various initiatives in areas like logistics and pricing. Let's now move on to our OpEx development. At first glance, our cost structure deteriorated by around 1 percentage point. This was driven by the discontinuation of last year's extensive COVID-related subsidies, especially for short-term working. In the prior year quarter, we benefited from COVID-related savings of around EUR 180 million compared to EUR 40 million in the current quarter. On a normalized basis, our OpEx ratio improved by 2.3 percentage points, thanks to ongoing tight cost control, the benefits of our new operating model and reduced location costs. All in all, the normalization of the cost base and the good margin, still below pre-COVID levels, resulted in decreasing earnings in the third quarter.Adjusted EBIT declined by EUR 48 million year-on-year. This was solely driven by the decline in the DACH segment. The main driver was Germany and the material impact of the country's COVID restrictions, which led to a declining gross margin and lower COVID-related cost savings compared to the prior year. Earnings in Western and Southern Europe came in at around the prior year level. In Spain, the strong sales development and an improvement in gross margin, chiefly due to the recovery in income from Services & Solutions, more than compensated for the normalization of the cost base. In Italy, underlying operating earnings also improved due to higher sales and margins. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, the result was impacted by severe COVID restrictions. Moreover, higher campaign intensity led to pressure on margin and earnings in the country. In Eastern Europe, adjusted EBIT improved due to positive results in both Poland and Turkey. In the segment Others, the continued positive sales performance in Sweden offset the associated cost of the increasing digital share. On the other hand, holding cost at CECONOMY increased slightly, leading to a stable segment result.Let me now move on from EBIT to EPS. Reported EBIT for Q3 was slightly lower than the adjusted EBIT, mainly due to nonrecurring effects. These are roughly equally split between COVID-related store closures, the introduction of our new operating model and expenses resulting from the Convergenta transaction as well as the reorganization and simplification of our corporate structure.Some of the remaining nonrecurring expenses will be incurred in Q4. In addition, there will be a certain amount of trailing restructuring expenses that will come through in the new financial year. However, irrespective of the phasing, the total amount of nonrecurring expenses related to the program has not changed. In terms of savings, I'm very pleased to say that we are reaching our targeted savings run rate of EUR 100 million much earlier than expected. We are thus well on track with our operational cost efficiency.The decline of the reported EBIT in Q3 was more than offset by an improved financial result as well as a tax effect. The increase in our financial result was mainly driven by another dividend payment from M.video. Furthermore, we have seen some favorable exchange rate developments.The tax rate on a 9-month basis stood at 20% following the integral approach applied during the course of the fiscal year. The nontax effective reversal of the Fnac Darty impairment had a positive impact on this. Please be aware that the tax rate does not yet reflect any benefits related to the acquisition of the MediaMarktSaturn minority stake since this is conditional upon the closing of the transaction. All in all, our EPS for the third quarter came in EUR 0.10 better compared to last year. Let's now have a look at free cash flow. In the 9-month period, free cash flow was mainly influenced by the negative change in working capital. Firstly, our trade payables were high at the end of the last fiscal year, which marks the starting point for the development shown here. As you might remember, we deliberately raised our inventory at the end of last fiscal year to ensure sufficient availability for the very strong peak season in 2020. Secondly, in light of ongoing supply chain disruptions, especially from Asian markets, we decided to build up higher inventory levels in the third quarter of this fiscal year. Regarding tax payments, the special situation regarding COVID in both the prior year and current year is clearly visible. In the prior year, we saw corona-related tax deferrals and reductions in advanced tax payments. These resulted in a reversal effect in the current year.Looking ahead, the 2 negative factors affecting the net working capital will also be valid at year-end. Together with the restructuring-related cash outflows, expected tax and lease payments as well as cash investments of around EUR 250 million, free cash flow will most likely be negative for the full year. Obviously, this year's development is heavily influenced by non-sustainable effects and active decisions to build up inventory given supply risk from Asia and, therefore, cannot be taken as an indication for future years. Operational improvements will also support the generation of positive free cash flows in the future. We are looking ahead in every respect. This is also well reflected in the recent conclusion of our post-pandemic financing structure. In May, we laid the foundation with the signing of new ESG-linked syndicated revolving credit facilities in the amount of EUR 1.1 billion. In June, we also issued an inaugural EUR 500 million, 5-year, senior unsecured bond, thereby enhancing our long-term financing structure. This has now allowed us to terminate our syndicated revolving loan agreement with the participation of the KfW Investment and Development Bank. As you know, the EUR 1.7 billion KfW loan facility was concluded in May 2020 during the first wave of the COVID pandemic and supplemented our existing credit facilities at that time. The KfW loan purely serves the backup line and was never drawn. All in all, the new structure underpins our continued prudent financial policy and still allows us to cover liquidity needs even in extraordinary times. This completes the financial section. Before we move on to the outlook, I would like to briefly address another topic, the Convergenta transaction. Until recently, we had expected the closing of the transaction before the end of this financial year. Unfortunately, things have been delayed.Let me summarize the current state of affairs. Back in February, we were delighted that the transaction has been approved by around 99% of the shareholders' votes cast at our general meeting. And let me be clear here, the preference shareholders voted along with the ordinary shareholders on the resolution regarding the transaction.The background to this is that the vote of the preference shareholders had been revised following the suspension of dividend payments for the last 3 financial years. Despite the overwhelming rate of approval at our Annual General Meeting, the resolution was objected to and the lawsuit was filed by a few individual shareholders. On the 8th of July, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court expressed its negative preliminary legal views in the approval proceedings. Owing to this and to give the parties involved transaction certainty, we are considering repeating the resolution on the transaction with a vote of shareholders in their respective classes or the resumption of dividend payments. The latter would lead to a retraction of the preferred shareholders' voting rights. All in all, the recent developments inevitably led to a delay in the closing of the transaction. We will notify you of how we will proceed once we have analyzed and weighed up our options. But please rest assured that we remain committed to closing the transaction to the best benefit of the entire company. Regardless of the delay, we remain focused on strategically and operationally steering the business through this phase of transformation with a newly established, uniform management structure. Let's now move on to the outlook. I will start with some comments on current trading. We are glad to see that current sales momentum is significantly above pre-pandemic level and only slightly below the prior year's level, which was marked by an extraordinary catch-up demand boost after the easing of the first lockdown. This reflects the strong sustained underlying demand for consumer electronics.Our online business continues to grow, and our online share remains on a high level. For Q4, we expect that the online share will come in above the previous year's level of 16.1%. In Germany, which was affected by severe restrictions until June, frequency slowly recovers. Customer frequency overall is still below pre-pandemic levels. Customers tend towards a more focused shopping behavior, which is expressed by a higher average basket and conversion, but lower frequency. We also continue to see a positive contribution from our Services & Solutions business, especially our SmartBar services in our stores and our extended warranties offerings are in high demand. On the cost side, our efficiency measures continue to bear fruit and support the results. However, please keep in mind that last year's EBIT in Q4 was supported by COVID-19 subsidies of around EUR 20 million, which are not expected to recur in this quarter. Based on these current trends as well as the business development to date, we have updated our outlook for the current financial year. Uncertainties regarding the further pandemic development obviously remain. Our outlook, therefore, assumes that stores will remain open without new restrictions and that there will be no further impact due to COVID-19 in the remaining period that could again impact the business. In addition, we assume that global supply chain imbalances will not deteriorate. So for financial year 2021, we now expect a slight to moderate increase in currency and portfolio adjusted sales compared to the previous year. Moreover, we expect adjusted EBIT, excluding associates, to come in at between EUR 210 million and EUR 250 million. In light of the challenging environment and taking into account the duration and severity of restrictions we face, I believe that this is a very solid outlook for the full year.Now back to Karsten for his closing remarks.

[Karsten Wildberger, CEO, Member of Management Board & Labor Director]

Thank you, Florian. Ladies and gentlemen, let me briefly wrap up today's call. And here are my key takeaways. We look back on a financial year that has been characterized by a very challenging environment. Nevertheless, under these exceptional conditions, we've put in a very solid performance. And underlying, we've also made substantial improvements in many areas that will pay off going forward. Looking ahead, there is still lots to do, but we're on the right track. And we'll be very well positioned for the period after corona, and we will take advantage of our opportunities on all channels. In broader terms, the consumer electronics market is and will remain an attractive growth market, and we are well poised to benefit from the opportunities in the longer term. Our company has everything it needs to play a leading role in this market: the right strategy, the necessary expertise and above all, the right attitude. This brings me to the end of today's presentation. Thank you, everyone, for your attention. And I will now turn the call over to the moderator for your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Clement Genelot with Bryan Garnier.

[Clement Genelot, Analyst]

I've got 3 questions from my side, if I may. The first one is on the overall guidance or the previous one in mid-May, there are 2 -- and now you're with EBIT being up further on year-on-year. And this new guidance still implies an EBIT that can be either up and down year-on-year. So does it mean that you don't have more visibility as of now versus May? My other question is still on the May guidance, just to get a view on the -- what are the moving parts behind your May guidance? Is it all about in-store and operating leverage, the sales of services or whether back margins from brands and players?And my last one is on Germany. Do you have any insight on the financial shape of [ euro and experts ] in the country? And do you think -- or do you think that some -- when you expect some members are really in a bad shape and why not willing to rejoin them [ on the math ]?

[Karsten Wildberger, CEO, Member of Management Board & Labor Director]

Thank you, Clement. The first 2 questions regarding the guidance, Florian will take, and I will comment on your third question. Over to Florian.

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes, I'm happy to comment on the guidance. So now we have much better visibility compared to May or to February at the moment when the guidance was suspended. The reason why we were only able to give you a guidance yesterday was the restrictions which we faced, especially in our core market in Germany. So we extensively commented on the restrictions and on the very difficult and complex situation for us and for the customers. Now we can clearly observe that frequency is returning. We've seen an uplift of Services & Solutions, and this now led to the new guidance, which has now a clear corridor between EUR 210 million and EUR 250 million. The previous scenarios, which we provided in the Q2 call, were just scenarios which didn't have expectations. So we just commented it can be either below previous year or it can be above previous year. So now we have, yes, a precise clear range. And the achievement of this range and of this EBIT guidance will depend on the ongoing improvement of the frequency which we currently see. It will depend on the continued improving consumer sentiment. It will depend on the uplift of Services & Solutions, which we currently clearly observe and which we were very pleased in the third quarter. And you also commented on the supplier contracts. And as you know, we have a significant amount of supplier income which we incur at the end of our fiscal year. So we are positive on this one. So you see that the sales development has been positive in the first 9 months. So we are clearly above previous year. And we are also, in the sales development in the first 9 months, above the fiscal year '18/'19, which still didn't face any pandemic-related impacts.So at the moment, there's -- from our point of view, there are no concerns. And I think these are the main implications which we currently see, and that led to the, yes, to the issue of the new guidance which was published yesterday. I hope that is answering your question.

[Karsten Wildberger, CEO, Member of Management Board & Labor Director]

Let me turn to the third question that you asked, the view on the German consumer purchasing habits and the outlook. So based on the ongoing research going on and based on the research that I've studied in the last days, actually, there are a few things to point out.First, COVID has accelerated certain trends in consumer behavior. And this is expected, I remind you, to continue to drive demand for consumer technology. We have also seen a strong online growth, especially in grocery shopping. And a lot of consumers actually say in other sectors really can't wait to go outside again to go shopping, which is, I think, good news. Secondly, there is an increasing willingness to invest in the home, home office, there has been already a lot of consumer spending, and an increasing willingness to actually spend quality. And we see also categories growing like urban mobility and health and well-being products. And I think this is something that for us is an important category to grow further in. And we will continue to invest in those topics. And the question on the competitive situation and the financial shape, look, I can't comment on the financial shape of competition, clearly, and I will refrain from it. But just in general, some remarks about the current market dynamics across Europe. We see an increasing pressure in the consumer electronics sector. And we've seen in some markets also the exiting of competitors like Italy or Spain. And we, for instance, recently acquired 17 stores in Spain from a local competitor.So the way I would say is selective consolidation on a local basis can also help to fill in white spots, and we will watch that very, very carefully. And one last mention which I think is very interesting and insightful, when we have an expansion of local presence, we also see the online sales in that catchment area rise, which I think is a very important insight. I hope that answers your questions.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Fabienne Caron with Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

Three questions from my side. The first one, regarding the Convergenta transaction, could you tell us if you go for the dividend solution, what would be the dividend payback that you will have to pay for the preferred shareholders so that we get a feeling in terms of millions? How much are we talking about there? The second question would be on input cost inflation. We see input cost inflation is eating as well the consumer electronic market. We see, for example, in Germany, Amazon is very active. So I was wondering if you could share your view on the possibility to pass inflation to consumer? Or do you see many competitors like Amazon using this to put more pressure on prices? And how do you see it developing going forward? And my third question would be on Germany specifically. In Q3, the like-for-like was not that bad with minus 2.8%, given the fact that Germany was closed store-wise for the bulk of the quarter. Could you give us a bit more granularity on the like-for-like in Germany, maybe to say if it was mid or high single-digit decline in terms of like-for-like in the quarter?

[Karsten Wildberger, CEO, Member of Management Board & Labor Director]

I will comment on the first 2 questions briefly, and the third one for Florian. So Fabienne, the first question around the dividend, we have not taken any decision whether to pay a dividend. And we are actually detailing out the path forward. What I can say, we are absolutely committed and confident that we will find a solution. And we will update you on further progress as soon as we are able to actually talk about this and share details. At this point in time, I ask you for your understanding, we can't share any more details. But a lot of work is going on, I can assure you that. The second question around input cost inflation, yes, we are seeing increasing price pressure from suppliers along the supply chain. And this will also lead to, of course, higher recommended retail prices. And we watch this very, very carefully because it's, of course, about ensuring profitability. So the expectation is clearly that we will be able to pass on higher prices. This will hold for all the sectors. And we are very careful, of course, around profitability here.With that, I'll pass on to Florian.

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes. Like-for-like sales in Germany, I fully agree, was not bad given the very complex situation which we are facing with all this incident-based regulation. So overall, we have seen a sales decline of -- this was a mid-single-digit figure in Germany, the sales decline in Q3. And as we mentioned in our speech that we really see some encouraging signs now. So sales are moving upwards. We see more encouraging consumer sentiment now already in July and current trading August, and that was also one key factor which led to basically the new guidance, which we issued yesterday.

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

Okay. Let me come back on what Karsten said. Does it mean as well that your main competitors are increasing prices as well?

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes. So I think there are 2 aspects to it. First of all, we see really a more promotional environment. So if you compare to last year's Q3, there was almost, yes, almost no campaigning also of competitors, and that led to, yes, a more favorable gross margin level. And we also mentioned that gross margins were under pressure in Q3. That's one aspect. We also saw Amazon Prime Day in June. So that was -- that is one impact in the market which is leading to pressure on the margins. And the second question or the second aspect, are there price increases from competitors based on the increasing prices from suppliers and -- that we can clearly observe? So we clearly can observe rising price from suppliers, and we can also see that some competitors are basically passing some of these price increases further. But it is also fair to say that there is currently still no clear trend. So it is still too early to comment on a, yes, on a reliable trend.So you saw our approach, we deliberately increased our inventory. So we have significantly higher inventory compared to last year because we have seen the supply chain restrictions and wanted to make sure that we have availability. And so I think we have to observe the next 2 to 3 months to see what is the trend. And as you know, we do -- yes, we have artificial intelligence for pricing, and we closely monitor the reactions of our competitors, and we'll react accordingly.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. [Operator Instructions] We have a follow-up question of Fabienne Caron with Kepler Cheuvreux.

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

I use this opportunity to come back again. A few modeling questions, mainly from Florian. I lost a bit sight of the nonrecurring items. Can you remind me how much should we expect in Q4? And how much of it will be cash? And the next question would be on the slide when you show the 4 blocks for the gross margin movement, would you be able to quantify a bit more these 4 blocks?

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes, let me start with the gross margin. So basically, I start with positive ones. We had a positive contribution from Services & Solutions. So we mentioned 18% like-for-like growth in Q3, and we saw respective positive impact in the margin from services. We also saw the negative impact of good valuation in Q2. You might remember in the last quarterly call, we said that this good valuation impact will basically come back in Q3, and that was absolutely the case. So positive impact from good valuation. And then there was some positive impact from other income, also from governmental subsidies. And these are now the 3 positive items. And as you know, the gross margin remained broadly on the prior year levels. So the negative impact was on the goods margin, and the major contribution on the negative goods margin development was the much more promotional environment, which we saw in Q3. I think that's the gross margin development. And regarding nonrecurring items, your first question, I think that you're referring to the new operating model?

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

Yes.

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

So on Q3, we have booked in total EUR 12 million, which was allocated really to the 3 components: so to the [ CSA ] transaction, to the new operating model and the stores and the remainder of the year. So we are still, yes, a little bit more than EUR 60 million which are going to be booked. They are still open. And we expect some of these parts booked in Q4, and the remainder will be booked now in the new financial year. There is still no precise guidance on this one because we also depend basically on some restrictions in the countries. So we cannot give you a precise figure now when these costs will be precisely booked, but we still expect the full program to be booked Q4 and the next financial year.

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

Can you remind me the EUR 60 million in Q4, will it be cash relevant or not?

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

You mean the one-off with...

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

With your cash outflows, yes, will it be...

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

No.

[Fabienne Caron, Head of Food Retail Sector]

No? It's noncash, okay.

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

No. And just one more time, don't expect the full EUR 60 million we booked in Q4. So there will be a substantial part also coming in the next financial year. There will be some spillover.

[Operator]

The next question is from the line of Lorenzo Margiotta with Bank of America.

[Lorenzo Margiotta, Research Analyst & Associate]

I think you commented in the presentation on Services & Solutions attachment rate increasing online. Could you possibly give us some color or an idea of how this now compares to in-store, attachment rates in-store?

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes, happy to do so. So that's a very pleasing trend in Q3. We worked a lot on this because the lower attachment in online was really bothering us during the lockdown. So -- and the online service income share almost doubled in Q3 compared to Q3 prior year. And what we did is, first of all, we improved the customer journey, so making services much more visible on our webshop and basically the product -- the customer starting -- like the customer journey for our product, we really implemented services as an integral part now of the journey. And number two, in the past, it was not always possible to select more than one service on the webshop. So now we basically improved our functionalities, and now it's for customers also possible to attach more than one service to like a product purchase. And I think these are the main 2, yes, material changes which we implemented and which are clearly visible.And last but not least, of course, I said we need to put even more focus on services. There was always high focus on services, but we are relentlessly improving our offering and our attention. And I think this attention is now also clearly visible in our better figure.

[Operator]

We now received a follow-up question from the line of Clement Genelot with Bryan Garnier.

[Clement Genelot, Analyst]

Just one more on my side. Are you still facing some buyers in Germany impacting in-store traffic such as -- I mean that's [indiscernible] in some regions.

[Florian Wieser, CFO & Member of the Management Board]

Yes. So in-store traffic in Germany, that is really the complex situation Karsten highlighted in his speech. So what we've seen in Germany that the rules, how you can access a store in Germany is really different store by store. So recently, I talked to a store manager, which is responsible for 7 stores in the same region of Germany, and she clearly said that there are 7 different rules on which customers can access the store.And first of all, we make -- we have to make sure that we comply with these rules, which are quite regularly checked by the government. And on the other hand, consumers got really confused. And some regions did better, some regions did worse. And in general, what we tried to outline is, from our point of view, other European governments did a better job in giving clear rules, so nationwide clear rules. And what made it really difficult for the frequency in Germany, and that's really visible in the figures, is that these incident-based regulation really led to an impact on the frequency.So Karsten, I think, will give you some more color on this one.

[Karsten Wildberger, CEO, Member of Management Board & Labor Director]

Yes. It is, of course, a dynamic -- still a dynamic situation. We also realized that in the beginning, high street locations were more impacted because customers were not coming that much into the city center. So we were recovering faster in areas where the shops are outside the centers with parking spaces or shopping center-type locations where we also see now a recovery in city centers. And this is, of course, a dynamic situation. But basically, it was rules-based and -- but we see a continuous recovery, albeit a bit slow. But I'm hopeful also, based on the consumer sentiment, that things will return back to, hopefully, normal.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I hand back to Stephanie Ritschel, Vice President, Investor Relations, for closing comments.

[Stephanie Ritschel, Vice President of Investor Relations]

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's results call. Thank you for your time and questions. As usual, if you have any follow-ups, please feel free to contact us at Investor Relations. We look forward to talking to you. Take care, stay healthy, and bye-bye.