Straumann Holding AG (STMN) Earnings Call Transcript
October 28, 2026
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Straumann Group Q3 2026 Results Conference Call and live webcast. [Operator Instructions] At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Guillaume Daniellot, CEO. Please go ahead.
[Technical Difficulty] Sorry for the technical incident. And good morning and good afternoon to all of you. Thank you for attending this conference call on the Stroman Group's Third Quarter 2026 results. Please take note of the disclaimer in our media release and on Slide 2. During this conference call, we are going to refer to the presentation slides that were published on our website this morning. As usual, the discussion will include some forward-looking statements. As shown on Slide 3, I will start with the performance overview. Isabel will then cover the financial details. And afterwards, I will share strategic updates and our outlook. We'll be happy to answer your questions at the end of the presentation. With this, let's move directly to Slide 5. I'm very pleased to present another strong quarter for the Troman Group. Organic growth accelerated to 9.2% despite a continued volatile macro environment, showing that we keep gaining market share in the segments we are playing in. Third quarter revenue reached CHF 667.1 million, an increase of 10.8% in Swiss francs. For the first 9 months of the year, we generated just over CHF 2 billion in revenue with organic growth of 8.3%. EMEA and Asia Pacific were a highlight. The EMEA region increased growth rates for the third time in a row over the past quarters -- and Asia Pacific is back to double-digit growth. I will come to those regional dynamics in a moment. In implantology, our IXL implant system continues to be the major driver of winning new customers in the premium segment while Neodent is gaining significant share in the challenger segment across all our regions. The opening of the third node factory in Curitiba keeps the brand the capacity to further support its global expansion. Today, I would like to take a closer look at our newest importing innovation, the Straumann Fast full launch treatment solution, enabled by the new Sirens APS technology. It reflects the lead we are taking in shortening time to test through our import R&D investments, combining product and digital innovation together. Hence, -- those developments give us confidence in confirming the full year outlook. Let me now turn to Slide 6 and our regional performance during this quarter. Starting with EMEA. Organic growth reached 10.5% in the third quarter and 8.9% for the first 9 months. IXL supported further premium customer conversions while new dent and ontology have contributed to the Challenger segment. Germany, Switzerland and Austria performed well alongside Poland, Romania and Hunger. Our clinical education events played also a key role in this dynamic, helping us introducing our new solutions and deepening customer relationships as education is critical for innovation adoption and fast market penetration. In North America, organic growth reached 7.5% in the quarter and 7.9% over 9 months. This is a very solid performance given cautious consumer sentiment and patient flow remained broadly stable compared with past quarters. The dynamic pace of customer conversions in premium and challenger implantology, together with continued scanner demand shows that our commercial execution is allowing us to outperforming the underlying market. Asia Pacific accelerated to 10.3% organic growth in the quarter, bringing 9 months growth to 6.1%. Asia Pacific, including China, excluding China, sorry, performed well in the third quarter, with strong growth in Japan and India, supported by IXL and commercial activities around our challenger brand across Southeast Asia. China also returned to growth after several challenging quarters, benefiting from the combination of a stable patient flow and a lower comparative base. Finally, Latin America delivered 6.5% organic growth in the quarter and 12.1% over the first 9 months. 2 dynamics shape this performance. First, in Brazil, election-related uncertainty weighed on patient demand. Purchasing by large dental group softened and alternately case volumes decline, while scanner sales remain healthy, although below previous levels. We expect patient demand to recover as this uncertainty eases, and we remain confident in the market's growth potential. Second, dynamics in Latin America continue to expand in Hispanic markets, particularly in Mexico and Colombia, where implant penetration remains low. Overall, -- we will continue to focus on revenue quality and further market share gains in private practices in Brazil. With that regional overview, I will now hand over to Isabelle to take you through the financial performance in more detail.
Thank you, Gian, and good morning, good afternoon also from my side. It's a pleasure to walk you through our financial performance for the first 9 months of 2026. Let me begin with the revenue bridge on Slide 8. Revenue for the first 9 months reached more than CHF 2 billion, up 8.3% organically and 4.9% in Swiss francs. The difference between those growth rates mainly reflects currency movements. Let me walk you through the bridge from left to right. We start the prior year revenue at around CHF 1.95 billion. And translating that base at current exchange rates reduces by around CHF 60 million. while the M&A effect rounds , giving us a comparable base of CHF 1.89 billion. The regional contributions to organic growth then at around CHF 157 million. EMEA contributed CHF 68 million or 43% of that increase, followed by North America was CHF 38 million; APAC was CHF 29 million, and Latin America was CHF 22 million. This brings us to the rounded closing figure of CHF 2.05 billion shown on the right of the graph. Currency still reduced 9-month revenue, but the headwind became a tailwind in the third quarter. Growth in Swiss francs reached 10.8%, exceeding organic growth of 9.2%. EMEA made the largest absolute contribution to organic growth as you see in the graph. This brings me to China and the next phase of volume-based procurement on Slide 9. -- as Gil mentioned, our business in China regained momentum in the third quarter after several challenging quarters marked by uncertainty around the next round of volume-based procurement was the BBP 2.0 -- the improvement is encouraging, while the tender process remains at an early stage, and the rules have not yet been announced. We expect the tender prices to be implemented in the first quarter of 2027. We will be able to assess the commercial implications more precisely once rules are available. But the important point is that we enter this next phase with a broader portfolio across price segments and a strong local manufacturing base. Together, these capabilities give us the flexibility to respond to different purchasing conditions and continue developing a market where implant penetration remains very low. With that, I will now hand back to Guillaume for the strategy update and outlook.
Thank you, Isabela. Let me now turn to the strategy update, starting with the size of our market opportunity on Slide 11. When we look at our market position today, 2 things stand out. The strength of the business we have built on the 1 side and the size of the opportunity still ahead on the other side. . This is the logic behind our perform and transform strategy on which we are continuing to make strong progress. On the performance side, we built from real strength. We are the clear global leader in implantology and together with regenerative, our brands, clinical heritage and innovation give us a powerful platform to keep outperforming the market. Leadership is obviously not a ceiling to with 35% share in our core implant business, there is still significant headroom to grow, especially with a strong innovation pipeline. The transform side adds a 0-point dimension of growth. in clear aligners, digital equipment and CADCAM prosthetics, our positions are still small relative to the opportunity. But as seen in previous quarters, the innovations we have invested in and launched lately are now starting to deliver results. Altogether, this gives us a very attractive runway for sustained growth. Now let me talk about how we turn this opportunity into growth by combining product leadership with a better and more efficient experience for clinicians on Slide 12. We our leadership starts with innovation, differentiated solutions, such as primary cell implant performance system for the Cofina. They expand clinical applications simplify treatment and improve clinical outcomes. But being a product champion is only 1 part of the equation. Health professionals also expect connected solutions that simplify daily practice super predictable clinical outcomes and improve profitability. From an access brings these solutions together in an integrated tell ecosystem while education gives clinicians the skills and confidence to adopt that. Across implantology, orthodontics and prosthetic, the same logic applies. Innovation creates differentiation digitalization improves efficiency and engagement and education drives adoption. So we are making great progress on this strategy and our latest investments in product innovation and digitalization are translating now into a real competitive advantage. Let me turn to Slide 13 and highlight 3 areas of very significant progress. First, our scanner business continues to grow strongly and outperform the competition. We now have an installed base of more than 65,000 until scanners across our markets. That scale matters. The scanner is the entry point to digital treatments and a broad install base creates more opportunities to connect cities to our ecosystem. Our own brand accounts for the larger share of our scanner sales and in the first 9 months of 2026, we sold more in our acne units than it's in all of 2025. Second area of strong progress our Straumann access platform is gaining a lot of momentum. The platform now has more than 20,000 regular active users who connect to access to their color scanners and use the services and treatment solutions available for it. The investment we made in the platform is now driving customer loyalty we have access users substantially more likely to reorder on solutions than nonusers based on some initial revenue per customer analysis. Third area of strong progress, our unique end-to-end treatment solutions, leveraging our IXL system and specifically delivered through access are gaining now significant traction. Together with higher reorder rates, this points to deeper customer engagement and the potential to grow our share of implants and prosthetic sales over time. It shows our product leadership and a connected digital experience reinforce each other. On Slide 14, let me then show you how we bring those strengths together with our new fast treatment workloads. Leveraging the combination between product leadership and digital customer experience is at the foundation of our newly launched fast treatment solutions. The fast acronym standing for fast, accurate, simple and trusted. Last quarter, we talked about our fast molar solution release an end-to-end workflow for single tooth treatment. It can save both clinicians and patients at least 1 appointment and an additional 30 minutes across the remaining appointments. It also supports the use of trauma or regional restorative components, creating additional value around IXL. To date, we have sold more than 100,000 specific fast model abutments demonstrating the rapid adoption of this unique solution. This adoption by clinicians is the proof of the significant value we are creating for each practice. It clearly demonstrates the need of connected workflow efficiency among practices and helps drive sales of IXL implant. We have now applied this approach to full large treatment which is 1 of the most interesting segments in our input market. Let me turn to Slide 15 and show how our new Creo APS technology makes that treatment simple. Food arc treatment replaces all the ties in 1 do with a fixed set of these supported by 4 to 6 plus. There are 2 options. Patients can wait until feeling of the implant place is complete before receiving their new set of fixed fees or they may be able to receive a fixed set right after surgery, the so-called immediate loading treatment. Many patients prefer the second option as they don't have to wear a removable denture during the healing phase. For clinicians, immediacy treatments require not only very precise, but also immediate information about the final position of the implants placed during the surgical phase. The clinician needs this information to make an immediate temporary restoration that fits the input. Until today, practices are using a very costly specific scanner only for this. It is a cumbersome process and had extra significant cost and working time to an already demanding for share. Our Xenios APS innovation makes this process simpler and much more cost efficient, powered by the new unique full large scanning APS technology. As you can see in the video, small reference components available exclusively for the Straumann Group implant brands help Serotta scanner capture precisely their positions immediately after search. The digital file is then sent to the access platform, where the clinician and the dental laboratory can work with the same information. This supports immediate full large treatment with our dedicated costly scanning equipment. This serious APS technology enables the efficiency from fast fullage treatment solution, which will be launched in the months to come. For practices, this makes full large treatment simpler, more efficient and more cost effective. For patients, it can mean getting their new smile sooner without going through a removable denture period. And for trauma, more conversions of food large cases to the IXL implant system and more tralscanner cells. Let me now turn to the orthodontics on Slide 16. Clearcorrect delivered double-digit growth in its priority markets as we continue to focus resources where the opportunity among general practitioners is most attractive. We are concentrating our commercial investment where we can build sufficient scale while improvements in production and operations continue to deliver reduced cost. Our new digital tools help channel practitioners identify suitable line cases and treat them with greater confidence. Phase assessment for an optimal case selection, the outcome simulator helps clinicians presenting the treatment and increasing their case acceptance rate while the remote care supports creations monitoring the treatment progress between visits. Together, they give clinicians more confidence from the first consultation to the final phase of the treatment so that they can increase their number of case submission. We are beginning to see these tools enter every day dose. In September, outcome simulator was already used in about 30% of the case submissions while case assessments were used in almost 15%. This offering strengthens ClearCorrect's position with general practitioners while a sharper geographic focus and lower costs improve the economics. As volumes grow. Together, these advances keep the business on track to reach breakeven by the end of 2027. Let's move to Slide 17. We have talked about our innovations and new solutions, but success comes only with customer adoption. The third quarter was filled with sold out clinical education events including international aesthetic days in Copenhagen with 1,600 participants and the Neodent symposiums in the U.S. and upcoming in Asia Pacific. These events are critical helping us deepen customer relationships, drive adoption of our new solutions and accelerate their market penetration. With that, let me now turn to our outlook for 2026 on Slide 9. Following the strong first 9 months, we are pleased to confirm our full year outlook including the profitability guidance we raised in June. During unforeseen even, we continue to expect high single-digit organic revenue growth and an improvement in the core EBIT margin of around 140 to 170 basis points at constant 2025 exchange rate. The acceleration in revenue supports our growth outlook, while disciplined cost management and a more efficient manufacturing footprint underpin the margin improvement. We remain mindful of the different market conditions across regions and the pending VBT tender in China. So our positions in plendology, growing digital reach and disciplined execution give us confidence in delivering the guidance. With this, we are happy to move to the Q&A session to answer your questions. As usual, we kindly ask you to limit the number of questions to two. In order to give further participants a chance to post their questions within the available term. Chorus Call, can we have the first question, please?
So the first question comes from Hugo Solve from BNP Pariba.
On greater Firstly, on North America, 7.5% organic growth in Q3. Curious whether you think you can keep up that pace into Q4 as the comps get a bit offer. And obviously, there are concerns that the U.S. market could deteriorate next year? I know it's a bit early for you to comment on 2027, but could you share with us your view on what do you think is different in this rate cycle versus the previous one? . And then secondly, on China, I'll begin to hear your thoughts on this open inquiry process for BBP. What do you think it implies and whether that changes your expectations heading into PPP 2.0 next year?
Thanks for the questions that are obviously at the heart of what the short and midterm is going to do for us. When it comes to North America, and as expressed in our press release and the script, we have not seen any major difference from a patient flow standpoint. It's stable. And we have been playing in the high interest rate environment already for quite some time. we have seen the Fed interest rate decreasing a little bit, but not significantly. And the treasury 10-year yield, it's anywhere stayed always at a very high level. Then -- we don't expect this to change, okay? We don't expect this to deteriorate very significantly, then we believe that we can continue delivering a really very healthy growth rate in North America along the lines that we are doing right now, thanks to 2 things. I think the first 1 is obviously very strong execution capabilities. I think the new management that came in last year in May is really delivering then the sales leadership that we have been expecting and especially our innovation pipeline, is the way where we can continue increasing the speed of our new customer conversion. New customer conversion is the name of the game in a rather sluggish market and I think as we are being able to demonstrate in the past quarter, we are able to significantly deliver on it. The new -- then the serial APS technology will be another strong 1 for us. As you know, in North America, full launch treatment is a very important segment of the implant market. And especially, they are done by many specialists using large volume of implants, then being able to deliver this innovation, which is going to increase very significantly the impression process of an immediate full-arch treatment will create a lot of excitement, among the specialist community. Then we believe that Prudus continued innovation, we should see still North America, being then on the good side, I would say, of our performance. When it comes to China, I think China is we have been already, as you remember, I'm sure confident about China future -- and this is, at the moment, exactly happening as we have planned. We have planned a strong second for 2026, which is actually coming -- and I believe that it's going to be the case also in the fourth quarter for 2 things. As expressed first because the patient flow is still stable, the patient flow hit that we have taken with the announcement of EVP20 has been happening last year. and seen this, we have been rather stable patient flow. And as we are now combining this with the much lower comparative base that is starting now for the next almost 12 months or until at least, I would say, May, June next year, we still see China as being a healthy region for us. First, because the comparative base again, will be easing. And secondly, because whatever come with the VBP2.0, we believe that we created all the necessary options to play a lot of different scenarios. We have now local manufacturing for a year almost. Then we are, I think, well experienced with this for 2 of our brands that are the major brands in China for us right now, both Straumann and onto -- and we have also created in that partnership with a local player for entering the eco segment with our Medentika brand that has started than just in the beginning of last year, and that will be important to be ready for the DBP 2.0 and to be registered as such. Then we are playing in all the different price points with our different brands. We are doing local manufacturing with all our different brands also. And we will, for differentiation, potentially have the opportunity to launch Neden by mid-2027. Then we believe that we have a lot of different options to play the different rules, whatever VBP2.0 will be coming with, and that explaining our confidence on China in the months to come.
The next question comes from Graham Doyle from UBS.
Congratulations, Gil. -- hopefully you get some time off now to relax after quite a busy few years. Just a couple of questions. One on the -- on China and the second then just on the midterm guidance. And just on China, -- could you just remind us around the private versus public split here? Because my understanding is private pricing is quite a bit below where we are in the public direct DBP side. . So I'm just wondering if there's a little bit of a dilution of any pricing headwind next year given that structure? And then secondly, again, if you could also remind us in terms of the sort of structure and philosophy around setting the midterm guidance, as that said by the Board in conjunction with you, just we have a lot of questions from investors who assume that, that guidance very much will hold under Christopher's tenure ship. But if you could just talk us through that again, that would be super helpful.
Okay. Thank you, Graham. Yes, I think really a good question on the China side, and I will try to do this sick enough. But Yes, first, private versus the public hospital business is split in between 70% to 75% of the total business is private. -- is public hospital. What the VBP is really then applied in a mandatory manner is first on the public hospitals than those 25% and this is where the price of what has been implemented in 2023 on the RMB 7,500 for a single print single implant case for patients have been still then valid for the whole period. . However, then on the private side, they have been much more competition in between all the different private practices and DSOs than the price of a single implant case for patients went significantly down, meaning that from RMB 7,500 -- the average pricing for an implant treatment is between [ RMB 4,000 to RMB 4,500 ] we can and significantly below meaning that, obviously, on the private sector, the ASPs have been also decreasing. Then that's where you -- then the question is really interesting, and we express that as well that even though the VBP 2.0 will decrease pricing potentially a little bit -- it will anyway still be higher, certainly about the pricing that are actually being experienced on the private side. Then let's say that you have a 20% price lower on the VBP side. It will have a very strong caution effect by the fact that the private already lower than this. Then that 1 of the reason why I was saying that the overall DBP 2.0 price effect will be maximum 5% to 15% down, not more than this. because of the fact that the private sector is already much lower than the VDP 1.0 pricing level. When it comes to then the guidance, yes, the midterm guidance has been obviously set than very, very strongly with the Board. We had our strategic midterm then the strategic session with the Board last year in April, May, and we all set our, what we call our go-beyond, then the objective of 10% CAGR for the period with the Board. And we do believe that this is a mid term guidance still in place, and this is what Chris offer, but also the whole team here at the Straumann Group is committed to.
Next question comes from Hassan Alvalkiel from Barclays.
Firstly, on Lat Am, if you could please quantify the Brazil performance in Q3 and discuss whether the weakness you've seen is temporary to your mind and a function of political uncertainty that you see improving in or indicative of maybe something broader. And I think you mentioned the quality of revenue with regards to the expansion? And then secondly, on 2027 margins, if you can talk to the confidence in achieving midterm targets next year, and the building blocks around VBP 2.0 based on what you see today, some of the synergies from Smarty, Shanghai, the momentum in scanners but also cost inflation and FX, which looks to be a tailwind at current levels.
Thank you, and I will take the first question with regard to LatAm. Yes, indeed, we have seen this -- the Brazil side being -- entering into a challenging environment as the election was coming -- and I visited Brazil in September and really witnessed myself a very polarized country in between the 2 sides that created also a very different kind of vision for the country for the future than people were kind of stand by in order to look at what things will happen. Then as there is clarity now, well, for as much as we can say based on the news that we have also learned today about both on our moving outside the country, we believe that we will come back to a more regular situation, and we will see then the higher growth rate when it comes to Brazil and Latin America. This being said, I think you have also noted an important point. We want to make sure that in this kind of volatile environment, we are then ensuring that our quality of earnings stay at the right level, then we think that we don't want to buy market share with payment terms, deterioration as an example. Then we are also going to monitor this. And as we believe volume will come up -- we are also going to continue doing that in a manner where we can continue to deliver the right gross margin from an improvement standpoint and for the overall profitability, which is a good segue for having Isabel answering your second question.
Yes. Thanks for your question, Hassan. So I know that you don't expect the 2027 guidance, but let me maybe start with a more midterm outlook. So Gillum already said, we have a very clear strategy stand by our commitment of a 10% growth CAGR on the top line side. And the same is true for our -- for the quality of our earnings, which Gillam just referenced as well. And there, we said we will see a CAGR of 40 to 50 bps every year. I think to reiterate, the raise in profit guidance this year is not to pull forward effect. So it means we will still see an uptake next year, and we are confident we can deliver on our midterm strategy on the midterm guidance. And I think the biggest building blocks you already mentioned, so for me, confidence in achieving our midterm guidance really comes from -- on the 1 hand side, from the auto transformation being fully on track. So we expect to reach our breakeven in the later half of next year. In Q4 2027, obviously, with a very good contribution from Smart where we will then see the full year effect in our COGS. And same, of course, is true not only for the Shanghai campus, but for our production network. I'd like to look at it in a much broader way that we now really have a strong production network, and we can leverage our capabilities to respond to not only the PP, but for example, to tariffs, we have in the U.S. to flexibly move around volumes and make sure we can get the best benefit for the group of it. And last but not least, obviously, the continuation of all the profit improvement measures we've put into place in terms of OpEx as well.
Next question comes from Dick Chopra from BMO Capital Markets.
For me. Maybe for starting off with China. As China returned to growth in the third quarter, I'm curious whether you saw any changes in competitive behavior ahead of BBP 2.0, particularly from the domestic implant manufacturers? And then I had a quick follow-up, please.
I think when it comes to China, we have not seen major difference competitive behavior. Over the period, we have seen more aggressive pricing from Koreans. As an example, that drove some of that also lowering the price on the private sector, but this has been happening now for the past 2 years. What we see and what has been has been public is that they have been much more Chinese companies registering for the VBP 2.0 and some that are still at a very early stage some that are known already from us for quite some time. Then obviously, we believe that we will see some more active local Chinese company competition but they will first from our perspective, attack the challenger segment where Koreans are strong. Then once again, we still need to see the rules that are going to be implemented to be able to map out what will be the next competitive landscape in the Chinese end market.
Great. And then my follow-up question was on fast. I'm just curious, is there any pricing premium to this? Or is the benefit purely volume and share and then when is the fast full are launch? I'm just trying to figure out if that's a contribution in 2027 or if it's more of a 2028 story?
Good question. Yes. First will come to see not so much as an additional than the price but it will drive our higher end product portfolio, which is IXL, then it will drive a positive mix in our overall portfolio sales, which is the effect that we're also expecting because the fast when it comes to fast mode or even fast food launch, will be on the Straumann portfolio on the torque connection. That means the IXL connection for those reference components, meaning that all customers and also then the competitors that will be willing to use this very significant cost-effective workflow, we need to be using and that's the very strong interest that we have here. As we explained a couple of quarters before earlier, all our innovation will come within the IXL environment that will really significantly drive that mix. And secondly speaking, we expect to launch it by very early January in North America and Europe, and we -- and same in Latin America where we will need some additional registration in the largest Asia Pacific countries such as Japan and China. And it will be a 2027, okay, interesting innovation that would support 2027 growth rate.
The next question comes from Jan or from Morgan Stanley.
Gilman Isabel. Just following up on Latin America, do you see Brazil slowdown as temporary or more persistent? And how do you feel about consensus 14% growth expectations for 2027. And then a technical question on EMEA, given the particularly strong Q4 last year, how should we think about the growth trajectory over the next couple of quarters? Are you planning any price increases towards the year-end, which on top of the strong performance of IXL could offset the tougher comp?
When it comes to Brazil, then once again, I think it's -- we believe that the situation will ease -- it's a bit too early to tell you exactly what we see right now as election has just been done last week. And we entered into the quarter only 3 weeks ago. And -- but when we look at the resilience of this country that has proven to be pretty impressive in the past, we believe that there is no reason why Brazil would not be able to come back to, again, a healthy growth rate, especially looking at our capability to keep delivering also innovation. . The thing that is going to be interesting is the fast workflow will over time be available also on the Neodent portfolio. There is a lot of full arch and immediacy treatment done in Latin America and especially in Brazil. This is the way then the Neodent portfolio has been designed for immediacy treatment. And finally, when it comes to 2027, you know that they will -- we will have a major product launch for Neodent starting, obviously, by midyear in Brazil and Latin America, which is the new implant system from Neodent which is going to be the GDPs replacing the existing already very successful implant system. Then we have innovation to support growth in addition to an easing of the market situation. Then we are still confident for Latin America for 2027. When it comes to EMEA, you're totally right. I think Q4 in EMEA last year was really strong, but something which is really, really interesting when you look at our EMEA performance in Q3, we have a very small performance coming by a super well distributed performance. We have our -- on the 1 side, when you look at the geographic standpoint, we have a very good performance from mature market. We explained in the press release Germany, Switzerland Nordics as well, actually, but also from our Eastern European countries, Poland, Baltics, Hungary, Czech Republic have done very, very well during the third quarter. And as we are seeing also then on the Middle East or at least that part of these regions, we have Turkey, which has done very well. Then we are not depending on 1 place in EMEA is the entire regions where we have invested, if you remember, from a go-to-market standpoint, especially on Challenger is delivering very well. The second very healthy indicator of growth is that all our franchises, premium challenger digital and orthodontics are all growing either high single digit or low double digit. And that means that we have a very well-distributed growth from all the innovations and portfolio that we have in this very large region, which means that for us, we're adding a very, very balanced growth like this. We expect this trend to continue obviously, a little bit lower in the fourth quarter based on the very comparative pace but still very confident for the months to come and also in 2027. Obviously, we are going to plan some price increase that we are doing every year. That will happen in January 1, and we are currently finalizing all of this together with the teams.
The next question comes from David Adlington from JPMorgan.
Most of my questions have been answered. Maybe just a technical 1 for Isabel. Maybe , could you give us an update on the FX impact on the full year guidance for this year, both top line and margin would be great. .
Yes, sure. Thanks for your question. David, happy to do so. as we already indicated, Q3 has been the first quarter in a very long time where we had a little bit of tailwind from FX. So what we currently see, obviously, it's a little bit gas working. But if you just applied the spot rates we saw end of September, we would expect an impact on the EBIT somewhere in between 70 to 80 bps and roughly 200 bps on the top line. Obviously subject to how the exchange rates will now develop in Q4. But it is much, much milder than what we still expected to see when we disclosed our half year results.
The next question comes from Julian Odor from Bank of America.
The first 1 is on digital, which I think on our estimates has contributed to roughly 200, 300 basis points to group growth so far this year. I mean it broadly the right order of magnitude. And I saw on your slide, thanks for providing the 65,000 installed base. Can you just provide some color about the split between the and shape. And maybe just the expected kind of placement for the full year? And just finally, on digital, I mean you begin to lap tough comps in 2027. Should we still think about similar contribution to group growth? Or should it need to moderate next year? And just a quick follow-up to Graham's question on the midterm targets. Just in order to reach the ambition of the 10% CAGR in 2027, do you need improvement in the underlying market growth or all the innovation that you did on this call and market share gains alone can get you there?
Thank you, Julie. Let's challenging my memory for separations. We try to... Than all of them. Then when it comes to digital, the impact on overall growth, I think we -- I will not -- we don't disclose reasons for franchise. But I would say that it's a really good one. It's a significant impact of digital, but still the biggest in solid value is significantly implant still. Okay. Then that's the really good side for our business is that while we are still selling much more digital, it's still a driver for our core business. And this is really what is super important for us. We don't sell iOS antral scanner just for the Ancascanner segment, but also strategically speaking, for building up our user base. Then which is a good segue to your second question. But I want to also express the fact that while it has been an interesting contribution for our top line, our scanner has been also a very good contribution for the bottom line by the fact that we have been selling much more of our own antral scanner than third-party scanner with a much better gross margin, then we have a very interesting effect this year from that sense. When it comes to the 65,000 antral scanner base that we have a lot, it's still then the free shape, we have still very strong development of connected workflows and that are allowing us to deliver then this kind of connected end-to-end procedure through our access platform. And we see this is something that we are starting to analyze we have higher reorder and higher loyalty by customers using actively our access platform as we were expecting then the non-access users, then we see that loyalty effect starting to come in play as it's a 12-month basis analysis. It's still on a small cohort, and we will not be releasing any number to date. But in the future, we will be able to openly explain and demonstrate the significant impact of doing business model through a platform that will allow us to have those recurring revenue and really strong loyalty through unique workflow. When it comes to our digital sales versus this year versus 2027, we believe that, obviously, launching another innovation on the scanner side with that APS technology will then continue to support growth on the digital side. We are still developing a lot of solutions around then these digital workflows and those digital scanners. And yes, we are confident that we have the capability to continue to grow on top of what we have done this year. actually something to consider and why I'm saying this is that in the past, antral scanner were seen as 1 per practice. And we see, obviously, more and more antralscanner as being on per share meaning several intraoral scanners per practice. And this is where it's opening up also significantly addressable market that would allow us for us for much more significant growth moving forward. especially as you want to use the unique workflow that we have been developing. Finally, when it comes to your midterm question, we do believe that we still have our destining our hands to be able to then grow along the guidance that we gave. Of course, a little help from a little tailwind from the market, we will not be against this, as you can imagine. But I think we have proven that we have been able to navigate complex environments and having an innovation pipeline, which is allowing us to grow significantly despite the macro that we have to fight against. And I would say we are still with our innovation and with the development that we have planned in plants with Neodent 2027 is new technology in 2027 and some additional things that we will not disclose right now will allow us to continue having a good growth rate to achieve the midterm guidance that we put out there.
The next question comes from Richard Felton from Goldman Sachs.
Just 1 question from me, and it's on China and specifically the Shanghai campus. How much of your total China sales is now being produced in China? And is that facility also being used for other APAC markets and if possible, could you remind us of the benefit for -- to your COGS or shifting production to China and the phasing of those benefits?
Yes. So also the good question on our China campus the way we are selling our product right now is really specifically to the private market for the China Compass because on the public market, we need to have our product registered in the VBP because it's really pretty strict -- the public hospital in China are only able to order what is listed in the VDP and our China Compass was not of course, registered at that time. That's why we are also expecting the VBP to come in because we would be able then to deliver 100% of our China product than from our Shanghai manufacturing when it comes to our classic technology. Because when it comes to the private market, we are distributing the larger part of the volume used through China comps, which is titanium SLA, meaning the classic version. While our high end, which is Roxolid and selective and still only manufactured in Switzerland through imported than goods. And that's the way we are doing this, and we are still then looking forward, I think that VBP to serve even more China with our locally manufactured product. We also -- and I think that's also an interesting perspective as Isabel was expressing that we are looking at further leveraging our manufacturing footprint that has significantly evolved for improving our gross margin over time. We are looking at registering our China compass for also exporting options that would be, of course, first for Southeast Asia markets. and beyond if we believe that in nonstrategic SKUs, it would be a way also to leverage our gross margin.
Next question comes from Julien Dormois from Jeffries.
I'm only left with housekeeping questions, I'm afraid. But would you be kind enough maybe to help us dissect the growth in APAC in the third quarter? I think you did the split between China and ex China in the previous quarters. So we'd just be interested to have this for Q3 and maybe how we should think about this into Q4 because, I guess, comps will also play an important role here in the coming quarter. Then the second question is pretty much housekeeping again, but I just noticed that on your slides, when you represent the market size for digital equipment. In the current presentation, you put it at a CHF 1.8 billion market, while you were at CHF 2.6 billion at the Capital Markets Day last year. So just curious whether anything has changed here or just a segmentation issue on that side. And the very last question relates to IDS, which will take place early next year. Anything we should expect from this forum in terms of new product launches or anything that we would like to flag at this stage or don't want to sell the tender, but curious.
Okay. Yes, Julien, good question for housekeeping questions. still from a strategic extent, it's pretty interesting to look at China and outside China, while we will not give really all the detailed growth rate because it was just to give an idea last quarter. But China is on the very high single-digit growth standpoint. And that's outside China will be then the low double digit then we have that dynamic in Q4 that will potentially reversed. We are expecting strong double digit in China based on the very low Q4 and still high single or load up on Asia Pacific outside China, then we still think that a very significant growth anyway from Asia Pacific in the fourth quarter. When it comes to the segment of the iOS, when we were in the Capital Market Day, we were having digital equipment integrating 3D printers, to scanners and meaning machines. And we decided because we are not active in meeting machine anymore to remove the milling machine segment. Then it's only the 3D printer and IOS in which we are active that we have been presented into this program. Then you are totally right with this.
The next question comes from Susanna Ludwig from Berstein.
My first question is a follow-up on digital. Can you talk about how the split between Sirius and 3Shape has shifted throughout 2026. And help think about the magnitude of the margin impact of this shift? And then the second is just on ClearCorrect, you spoke about double-digit growth in priority markets. Can I just confirm whether the U.S. is included as a priority market.
Yes. CRO versus free shaped was the large majority of our units before we launch Sirius. And the strategy with Sirius was really to go into emerging markets. Just to explain also how we were viewing this. As our strategy is to enable all our users worldwide to connect to the trauma access platform and leveraging our unique workflow, we have done that through then our lower technology at a lower price now that we can really address all our different markets. And in the meantime, it happens it happened that new competitors came in, signing flyers an example, but some others like Medit that were really aggressive in terms of pricing even in mature markets -- that's what we also brought our Serious technology. And based on this, we have seen that on the global market, the ion scanners that are, I would say, above [ CHF 15,000 ] or per unit have been reducing significantly, and the major part of the market is now like the middle or the entry-level scanner, which is going to be between [ CHF 7,000 to CHF 15,000 ] and Sirius has been part of it. And that's where we have been able also to compete in mature market with CROs and as a consequence the largest part of our Atara scanner today, which is like something like 2/3, I would say, big picture is going to be our own technology. Then when you compare then a third-party product like free shape, like we were having margin like a distributor versus our own technology, then there is obviously a significant difference when it comes to grow margin. And it's, I would say, twice as much, at least when we compare the gross margin we are doing on serious versus Free-Shape Trios technology. Yes. On the ClearCorrect side, yes, U.S. is definitely, I think, our #1 priority market -- and we have been very pleased to see growth actually in the third quarter in ClearCorrect also than in North America.
Next question comes from Veronica du Bao from Citi.
I really appreciate it. I'm going to return to the favorite topics of the day, which is China and the U.S. And on China, apologies, I must have misunderstood this. So I just want to make sure for the benefit for all of us that we understand your expectations for next year, Gil. When you talk about the 5% to 15% price cut you're expecting, is that across your entire portfolio? So that blended average of public and private? Or is that just the price cut you are anticipating in the public segment. It wasn't clear to me. And then if you can remind us, obviously, yes, the market much more private than it is public, but your market share in the public space is much stronger. So what your breakdown for revenues is that would be super helpful. And then my second question is on the U.S. consumer. And obviously, I think the ADA survey that recently came out looked pretty poor. What do you think explains the sort of stability in patient flows that you are seeing and commenting on versus the deterioration in that ADA survey sentiment.
Here, fully understood that those kind of a price perception in China or import and need as much clarification as possible. Then things to be very clear. When we are saying 5% to 15% we are talking about what we expect as a consequence from our total portfolio from a price reduction standpoint. Now again, it will a lot depend on the rules. And it will -- when you are saying what it will be between private and public is not yet easy to define because it will depend on the segment that is going to be defined. Are we going to have segment in between locally manufactured and not locally manufactured. Are we going to have segment between high-end technology and lower-end technology like Roxolid on 1 side, titanium on the other side. They are -- that's why I was expressing different scenarios and looking at those different scenarios, we believe we have some really good way to play, seeing that -- when we look at those minus 5, potentially minus 15% maximum, we will have the opportunity on our side by playing all our different options to increase significantly our volume first, because of the local pirate base on the first 6 months and also because of potentially being well positioned on some of the segment, which is going to be defined. Then at the end, as a conclusion, that's why we're seeing China as positive as we have been expressing also for the subbasin, which is happening this year. We believe the different scenario and market structure will allow us still to perform. Coming back to our own sales we are still selling much more to the private sector because of the volume than the public sector even though where you are right, our market share in the public sector is more -- is higher than the market share in the private sector. But still the biggest part of our business is on the private side. When it comes to U.S. consumer and ADA side, I think U.S. is the highest priced market when it comes to dentistry worldwide. And what does it mean? It means that when you are very low conservative treatment, which is already still expensive, but when you do a DK treatment or when you do a cleaning treatment, some are reimbursed for the people that are having some insurance. The rest is always anyway copayments. And if you are short and if, obviously, then inflation is eating a lot of your discretionary income, you don't go to the dentist for the small treatments. However, for the people that can afford having an implant, which is already $6,000, $7,000, very often this part of the population can still afford having an implant. And the price of the gallon being higher is having somewhat an impact -- but when you can really pay $6,000 or $7,000 USD in cash to a dentist, that means you can still be doing it. The fact that we have been working in a high interest rate for quite some time as already eliminated all the patients that were seeking for significant consumer credit for doing their full arch treatment as we explained in the past. Those cases did not come back yet because of the high interest rate that stay then on those kind of level since end of 2022, meaning that Again, we are not losing them anymore because they did not reappear. Then the reason that we see some of that stability is because the people that are being paying some single implant or several implant cases are still having the financial capability to make it. That's the way we're explaining the difference in between the implant kind of performance and implement development versus the more conservative treatment where a certain part of the population in the U.S. cannot afford that anymore.
The next question comes from Brandon Raskas from William Lair. .
Maybe I can ask you kind of a higher level picture as we look into 2027 and I know we'll probably get more details on this in the future. But if I could try to get a tease from you on what new products or pipeline products we might be expecting as we go into next year? I think the story, of course, is driven by innovation. And so I think investors are kind of curious like kind of what's coming next or even at least in what segments do you guys think we might see some new products as we go into next year? And then 1 follow-up for Isabelle. In the past, you guys have talked about moving your COGS to more of the local manufacturing where your local currencies are to help offset some of the FX headwinds . I'm curious if you could update us where you think we are in that process and how meaningful of a benefit we could see from that at all, if you could quantify it at all on a go-forward basis.
Yes. Thanks, Brendan. I will tend to -- I actually -- I really like -- it's a good opportunity to summarize all the opportunity we are creating for 20 explaining a little bit the reason why we are confident whatever the macro comes with on the implant side, when we come first to the Straumann premium side, we have all our unique workflow, which is going to be launched just as I explained today since January, we will have all that technology APS that will allow us to have a very significant differentiation on full launch, and we will continue to roll out the single fast model treatment. . We are going to have also some new development on the prosthetic side, then we will continue to deliver additional options on the Stroman Green side. We are also something important starting to promote a very interesting design from our IXL implant which is machine neck that will allow us to fight again, potential complication around implant, and you will hear about this, I'm sure, into our full year release in February where it's going to give another options on the IXL implant portfolio that will be really attractive. Then still on implant, we are going to have our new Neodent complexly new system then that it's called already GTs being presented at IDS, launched already in Asia Pacific than the starting of the second quarter, then the same for North America, Latin America fully launched in June with a major national Congress then a lot of very important news when it comes to our challenger brands. When it comes to our difficult side, there are some big news that we are going to work with, of course, our partner on the free Printic side, there have been a release of new technology on chairside 3D printer, which is an incredible technology called Nano, which is going to be connected with Sirius and the Straumann platform then prosthetic will drive also then the innovation and attraction and revenues, together with than our Serious APS technology that will drive further Casale. We are still working and be excited to work alongside free shape that should come also with some development for IDS that we cannot talk about, obviously, right now, then digital will also be very well covered. And I think we are obviously excited about is on our ClearCorrect side where then our scallop stream line will become more widely available with all the different than the regulatory approval that we should get along 2027. Then in all our different business franchises, we have a lot of things to present that will drive then the additional revenue. And we are really excited about what's coming in 2027 and what the team will be able to execute on it together with -- and I want to express that as well, those kind of congress and significant marketing and promotion and education activities are critical for this adoption -- and I'm really happy to say that we are going to have a huge congress with the World ITI Congress taking place in Italy in May next year. It's opening every 3 years. The last 1 gather more than the -- in between 5,000 to 6,000 participants driving a lot of sales of our new technology, and it will also happen in 2027, together with the international esthetic days that we do in the second part of the year and also our yearly Noden Congress in LatAm in Brazil, but that will be a worldwide congress. And a lot of opportunity to not only launch innovation but present innovation and our team fully ready to execute on the commercial side. And this is a bet will answer you with the sale on.
Yes. I mean as excited as Gomes about the innovation, as excited I'm about the lower exposure to the Swiss franc, obviously. So very good memory Brandon. Just to remind everybody, a lot of the translational impact we saw was coming from the fact that we had roughly 20% of our cost base in Switzerland, but only 1% or 2% of our revenue. . And 1 of the big measures we took to mitigate this a little bit is point one, the Shanghai campus, where we now produce an RMB for China. -- and then transferring more volumes to our campus in Andover close to Boston, especially for the U.S., the South American market. This is now would say fully finished, but Andover is up and running, which was 1 of the huge mitigating measures for the tariffs as well. And Shanghai, as Guillaume explained earlier, a lot of the private market is now already delivered via the Shanghai campus the public market not yet given we would need to wait for VBP, but this is to come in 2027. So having said this, we are very confident we can reduce our Swiss franc cost base, but roughly 3 percentage points compared to last year, where we expected to be, just looking at it isolated is roughly 4 percentage points, but obviously, still a little bit more to come, especially in China once the VBP has taken place.
The last question we can take today comes from Patrice Perten from Berenberg.
Can you hear me? Just on ClearCorrect, you highlighted a more focused allocation of resources in Europe. Would you be able to expand a little bit on this and how does impacting business performance? And then just quickly on -- following up on LatAm. I'm sorry if I missed this earlier, but would you be able to perhaps quantify the growth in Brazil versus LatAm ex Brazil? -- give us a sense of how these markets compare relatively in terms of size?
Yes. When it comes to ClearCorrect, we have -- in EMEA, we have a good traction. We have been then continuing, obviously, to focus on the more the Western European side of EMEA when it comes to ClearCorrect, which is the most interesting market -- and we are actually delivering very well along the plan. And we are going to continue to drive that growth before investing further in go-to-market for getting the critical mass on this side. And -- but again, when I look at all our 14 focused market that we have been defining worldwide. We have a really good contribution from all of them. And we are really looking forward to keep this dynamic in 2027. When it comes to LatAm, Brazil represents something like 80% of our total business in Latin America, then it's still a very big part of our business there. However, we know that the market potential of all the other Latin American countries are representing much more than 20%. Then we have a double-digit strong growth rate in what we call Hispanic hub, then countries like Colombia, like Chile, like Argentina right now, driving really strong growth. And that's where we are also investing additional resources as we have our own subsidiaries. Then most of our competitors are still acting for distributors that are, let's say, cautious when it comes to investment and we have the benefit of really driving all our activities ourselves with our direct selling teams then we believe that Hispanic is going to take more and more share of our overall Latin American business. We see generally speaking, the ratio Brazil, Latin America is more 70/30 and 80/20 that we have on our side, that's where we believe that while Brazil will continue to grow. We expect our Hispanic ups with the investment we have done, we'll continue to really super see growth of Brazil and take a larger share of the total business. With this, then I want to thank you personally for your continued interest in Somalia I obviously now handing over to Christopher Norby, my successor. This is my last time speaking to you at this earnings call. I have valued a lot of our conversations, dialogue, and the trust, especially that you have placed in us over the years. Your questions and your perspectives or challenged me and the rest of the team in a good way and tapped us always focused to deliver the highest potential performance. I believe deeply in our strategy, obviously, our team around the world and the purpose we share. And I'm also confident in the Straumann Group future and in Christopher's leadership, to continue our legacy, but especially to bring now Stroman Group in the next growth phase. For those of you I won't have the chance to see again. Thank you, and goodbye for now. since it's a pretty small world, I hope our path will obviously cross again. Thank you all for joining us today. Wish you a very nice day, and goodbye from Basel.
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