Announced in July 2018 and closed in December 2018, the acquisition of GAES, the largest ever undertaken by Amplifon, enabled us to strengthen our global leadership, which now makes up 11% of the retail hearing care market worldwide. With a value of around 530 million euros, this deal allowed us to become the undisputed leader in the attractive Spanish market, to consolidate our presence in Portugal and to enter the Latin American market. 

2019 was the first year of the GAES integration and we completed its initial and most complex phase faster and with better results than initially expected. Indeed, GAES’s growth in 2019, both in terms revenues and profitability, was above initial expectations also due to the synergies achieved in the top end of the range previously disclosed.

The Amplifon Product Experience, consisting of the Amplifon product line and our multichannel ecosystem, redefines the experience throughout the entire customer journey. Launched with great success in Italy in May 2018, it made up 90% of our total sales on the private and paid-up market at the end of 2018, while the App attained 15% of penetration on compatible Amplifon devices.

In light of the excellent results in Italy, we anticipated the roll-out in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the US and Australia to 2019. Technological innovation and hearing aid usage data collection will allow us to provide even more personalized services with high added value, with the aim of offering tailored experiences for every single customer.

While the risks associated to future developments of the Covid-19 outbreak call for caution, the Company is confident that the most difficult phase of the pandemic is now behind. The impressive speed of recovery since the easing of restrictive measures and the positive signals from July performance, with revenues growing vs. prior year, clearly demonstrate the resilience of the business, the unchanged solid fundamentals of the market in which the Group operates and the unaltered consumers’ behaviors.

Therefore, although the situation remains uncertain, given the Group’s recent performance and assuming no further significant re-tightening of lockdown restrictions in the near future, the Group expects a favorable trend in the second half of 2020 and estimates third quarter of 2020 at a similar revenue level to previous year.

The Company also looks positively to FY 2021 both in terms of sales and profitability. The strong measures implemented to reduce the cost base and improve productivity shall, in fact, allow the Company to be even more efficient going forward.