Fabian Joseph
Head of Investor Relations

Hello, everyone. This is Fabian Joseph from Investor Relations. Also on behalf of my entire team, I wish you a very warm welcome to our Q1 '26 conference call.

With me today are our CEO, Guido Kerkhoff; and our CEO, Americas, John Ganem. They will guide you through the presentation. And afterwards, we're happy to take your questions. [Operator Instructions]

With that, I'd like to hand over to you, Guido.

Guido Kerkhoff
Chairman of the Management Board & CEO

Yes. Thank you, and welcome to our Q1 '26 conference call. I'll now begin with the financial highlights of the quarter, followed by an update on our strategic progress and the voluntary public takeover of Worthington Steel.

Before we look at our KPIs, I'd like to make some remarks. As you know, we sold 8 U.S. distribution sites at the end of '25. In order to enable a year-over-year comparison on a like-for-like basis, we've also included the delta for a divestment adjusted baseline. Shipments decreased considerably year-over-year mainly due to the divestment of these 8 U.S. distribution sites. Excluding the divestment of the 8 distribution sites, shipments increased by 2.1% year-over-year, supported by positive momentum in Europe.

Sales came in considerably below the previous year's quarter as a result of a lower reported shipment. However, on an adjusted basis, excluding the divestment, sales increased slightly, also by 2.1%. Gross profit decreased considerably year-over-year due to lower sales volumes. However, gross profit margin remained constant compared to