Bike24 Holding AG ($BIKE)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to today's Full Year 2025 Earnings Call of the Bike24 Holding AG. I'm delighted to welcome the CEO, Andres Martin-Birner; and CFO, Sylvio Eichhorst, who will guide us through the numbers in a moment. Following the presentation, we will move on to a Q&A session. And having said this, I hand over to you, Andres. Please, the stage is yours.

Thank you very much. Yes, a warm welcome to Bike24's earnings call for the fiscal year 2025. My name is Andres Martin-Birner, I'm the Founder and CEO of Bike24, and I'm very pleased to guide you through today's results together with my CFO colleague, Sylvio Eichhorst. 2025 was a year marked by clearly accelerating growth and tangible operational progress for Bike24. Today, we would like not only to present our financial results but also to show you which measures and structural improvements contributed to this positive development. We will begin by outlining the key highlights of the year and the main success factors. Afterwards, Sylvio will walk you through the financials in detail before we move on to our outlook for 2026. And of course, at the end, you will have the opportunity to ask your questions. 2025 was a year of clear growth acceleration. All 4 quarters exhibited increasing momentum, and we closed the fiscal year with revenue of EUR 289.1 million, representing 28% growth compared to the prior year. High product availability, improved customer experience and expanded reach supported this development. Our profitability also improved significantly. Adjusted EBITDA reached EUR 14.5 million, which is roughly EUR 9 million higher than in the year before. The combination of rising revenue, strict cost discipline and more efficient processes contributed materially to this improvement. Our regional development once again highlights the structural strength of our business model. This GSA region performed exceptionally well with revenue of EUR 196.8 million, up 31% year-over-year. Our localized markets also grew their revenue to EUR 66.1 million, an increase of 29%. Poland and Finland, which were localized just in 2025, delivered above-average growth rates. Our strategic prioritization of the full-bike segment continues to clearly demonstrate its effectiveness. The category grew by 29%, reaching EUR 56 million in revenue. Demand was particularly strong in the performance segments, road, gravel and MTB. Full-bike also continue to positively influence the size of the shopping basket, customer retention and cross-selling into our PAC segment. A key qualitative improvement this year was our inventory management. We reduced the share of aged inventory by about EUR 9 million. At the same time, our inventory to sales ratio remained at a very healthy level. Optimized replenishment processes a more focused assortment strategy and improved transparency through our SAP system were critical drivers. The following slides provide additional insights into major achievements of fiscal year 2025, which significantly contributed to our positive performance. Our European footprint expanded further in 2025. We served over 1.1 million customers in 72 countries last year, demonstrating not only our international reach, but also our steadily increasing brand relevance beyond our core markets. An important driver of this broad footprint was the expansion of our localized markets. We now operate 10 national websites, including Poland and Finland since spring 2025 with local languages, payment methods and shipping options. This setup meaningfully improves conversion rates and enhances the customer experience from the very first interaction. Our operational performance is underpinned by a scalable logistics model. With our fulfillment centers in Dresden and Barcelona, we maintain efficient capacities that absorb growth even in peak phases. Additionally, region-specific carrier strategies, especially in localized markets, help shorten delivery times and stabilize cost ratios. As in prior years, our value proposition continues to rely on a very broad and deep assortment, now comprising over 90,000 products. High availability paired with attractive prices enables a seamless shopping experience and strong customer satisfaction. In 2025, we further enhanced the web shop, both functionally and visually, including improvements to navigation, load times, search and checkout. This results in a faster shopping experience and higher conversion, especially on mobile. We also tailored our shipping and return processes more closely to the needs of our European customers. New delivery options, including pickup and drop-off points, simplify order collection, especially in countries where flexible pickup models are already widely adopted. Right from the beginning, we see a significant shift to pick up and drop-off in countries where we offer this option. In some countries, like in our latest localized markets in Poland and Finland, the proportion already exceeded 1/3 of our deliveries. In addition, we further sharpened our brand with the clear ambition to position ourselves as the leading platform for cycling enthusiasts in Europe. A consistent visual identity, coherent messaging and a modernized brand appearance enhance our relevance with the community. The refreshed brand identity, spending look and feel, visual language and key messages results in a most distinctive profile in a competitive market. Our brand is now clearer, more emotional and more aligned with our target audience. With that short excursion to our achievements in 2025, let me now hand over to Sylvio, who will give more details about our financial development in the last fiscal year.

Yes. Also from my side, a warm welcome. I would now like to move on to the business update. Let us start with our group revenue. As you can see, our revenue performance across the 4 quarters shows clear upward momentum. Our growth in the fourth quarter was the seventh quarter in a row where we were able to increase our growth compared to the quarter before. In all quarters in 2025, we achieved a double-digit growth year-over-year, 18% in Q1, 25% in Q3 -- in Q2, 32% in Q3 and 35% in Q4. And in Q3, as you can see, we reached the all-time high of our revenue. We consistently expanded our revenue base and closed the year with our strongest quarter. The driver for our revenue in the fourth quarter was clearly our curated offer in the week of Black Friday, and a strong sale of bikes during the fourth quarter. With this growth, we clearly grew above the trend in e-commerce and in the bicycle industry. On the next slide, we will show you the revenue growth by category, and we'll see how strongly both bikes and PAC contributed to our overall growth. The total revenue increased, as already outlined, to EUR 289.1 million, corresponding to a growth rate of 28%. Our largest category, PAC, reached EUR 232.9 million in revenue, growing by 27%. This stable growth is driven by a broad brand portfolio and contained a favorable mix shift with the share of closing, increasing from 23% in the prior year to 29% in 2025. In the full-bike segment, we generated revenue of EUR 56.2 million, an increase of 29%. This means that the segment once again grew faster than PAC, showing particular, a continued high demand for roads, gravel and mountain bike models. Besides the increased volume in bike sales, we were also able to slightly increase our average selling price per bike, driven by a deliberate expansion of our premium offering and continued focus on the enthusiast customer segment. As already mentioned, revenue of bike was particularly strong in Q4, with an increase of 55% compared to last year. In the next step, let's have a look at the geographical revenue distribution, which illustrates how broadly our growth in Europe was supported. Our core region Germany, Switzerland and Austria grew to EUR 196.8 million and achieved an increase of 31%. This market benefited from strong demand for performance-oriented bicycles, stable pricing in the non e-bike segment and improved inventory availability. The localized markets, France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Poland and Finland increased revenue to EUR 66.1 million, corresponding to 29% growth. Poland and Finland, both newly localized delivered above-average growth rates with revenue rising by 62% and the number of new customers grew by even 168%. This shows that our faster localization efforts hold significant potential. The remaining European markets achieved revenue growth of 18%. Outside Europe, however, revenue declined by EUR 1.9 million or 30%. As this area is deliberately not a strong strategic priority. The next slide shows how the growth momentum is reflected in our customer KPIs. In the GSA region, the number of active customers increased significantly to 745,000 representing plus 27%, and in the localized markets to 326,000 customers, corresponding to plus 24%. Year-over-year, we expanded our total active customer base from 916,900 to 1,142,447 customers, an increase of 25%. But not only the number of customer increased, we were also able to raise the average revenue per active customer, both in GSA and in the localized markets by 3% or 4%, respectively. However, the average order value remained stable at EUR 144, which means that the average order frequency per active customers continued to rise. This combination shows that our growth is supported both quantitively and qualitatively. Let's now move to the development of our inventories, which as already mentioned, show an improvement in quality and in efficiency. Despite significantly higher revenues, our total inventory remained very stable and stood at EUR 64.2 million, only slightly above the prior year level of EUR 61 million, meaning that we were able to realize growth without materially increasing our inventory level. In addition, more important was the reduction of our aged inventory. We reduced our older stock, meaning stock older than 12 months from EUR 60 million in the previous year to EUR 6.7 million, representing a decline of nearly 60%. As a result, the inventory to sale ratio stood at 22% at the end of 2025 compared to 27% in the previous year, leading to an accelerated inventory turnover of an average 111 days in 2025 compared to 135 days in 2024. Looking at category level. PAC inventory remained almost stable at EUR 47.6 million, plus 3%, while bike inventory increased moderately to EUR 16.6 million, plus 12%, driven by the full-bike revenue growth. On the next slide, you will notice the development of our personnel and other costs and the associated scaling effects. Our personnel cost ratio improved significantly in the fiscal year 2025 and is now 2.2 percentage points lower than in the previous year. This underlines the effectiveness of our structural cost efficiency measures and an overall optimized team structure. Similarly, we achieved an improvement of 0.6 percentage points in miscellaneous operating income and expenses. The combination of cost control, process optimization and an overall heightened cost awareness supported this positive development. This brings us to the details of the income statement. As you can see, gross profit amounted to EUR 78 million, representing an increase of 27% year-over-year, broadly in line with our top line. Looking at our cost base, performance marketing was the only cost line that grew slightly above 28% revenue increase. However, the ratio remains essentially unchanged, confirming the sustained efficiency of our acquisition channels. Selling costs also increased, but strictly in proportion to the higher shipping volumes. The rise was even slightly below revenue growth, supported by higher transaction volumes. A larger share of deliveries was in the GSE region and an optimized carrier mix. As a result, contribution profit grew by 26.9%, underscoring the operational efficiency and the scalability of our model. As mentioned before, both personnel expenses and miscellaneous operating expenses rose only under proportionally by 2.8% and 7.5%, respectively. Consequently, adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 14.5 million, up EUR 9.2 million or 172.7% compared to last year. Please let me add a technical note. EBITDA adjustment resulted 2025 in a net reduction of minus EUR 1.6 million. Due to our strong performance, a write-up of previously written off fixed assets was acquired. This stands in contrast to plus EUR 3.9 million in adjustments added back in 2024. The following margin view confirms the structural improvement in our cost base. Margin developed positively overall. Gross margin remained stable, while the performance marketing ratio held steady at 1.3%, underscoring the efficiency of our marketing activities. Selling costs improved slightly, supported by an optimized ceramic and efficient fulfillment. Personal and other operating costs decreased materially, reflecting structural efficiencies. As a result, the adjusted EBITDA margin increased significantly to 5%, demonstrating clear operating leverage. Let me now walk you through the development of 2 of our key financial KPIs, cash flow and net debt. Our free cash flow increased markedly by EUR 5.5 million to EUR 16 million, a rise of 53%. This improvement was driven by the higher quality of operating earnings, further progress in inventory management and a favorable development of trade working capital. In particular, the close interaction between improvements in trade working capital and the increase in EBITDA is reflected in operating cash flow. While in 2024, we reduced trade working capital by EUR 10 million through targeted inventory measures, it improved by an additional EUR 1.7 million in 2025 due to higher inventory turnover and increased trade payables at year-end. At the same time, EBITDA increased by EUR 14.7 million, providing additional momentum to free cash flow. Investment cash flow came to EUR 1.9 million, broadly unchanged from prior year. Consequently, the combination of stronger EBITDA, lower inventory levels and less capital expenditure enabled us to reduce net debt significantly by EUR 11 million. In addition, please let me also remark the syndicated loan agreement was extended for another year until April 2028, ensuring finance security for our growth in this year's ahead and further strengthen our financial flexibility. From a cash flow perspective, 2025 marks a clear step change in financial strength. Operating cash flow before taxes increased to EUR 17.9 million, reflecting the significantly improved bottom line performance and disciplined working capital management. Free cash flow before taxes came in at EUR 16 million, up from EUR 10.5 million last year, underscoring our enhanced ability to convert earnings into cash. Investing cash outflow remained stable at EUR 1.9 million, demonstrating our continued capital discipline, while financing cash flow improved due to lower scheduled loan repayments and financing costs, which contributed to a year-end cash position of EUR 19 million. With the following slide, I would like to conclude the detailed review and briefly summarize the key points once again. 2025 was a year of clearly accelerating growth with every quarter exceeding the prior year level and especially strong finish in Q4. In parallel revenue -- with revenue growth, we significantly improved the quality of our earnings, cost ratios, particularly in personnel and fulfillment decreased noticeably while revenue continued to scale. This combination resulted in substantially stronger profitability. Furthermore, we optimized working capital and materially improved inventory quality. Together with a significantly better operating result and stable investment levels, this led to a meaningful increase in free cash flow and contributed to a stronger financial position, including the ability to prolong our syndicated loan. Overall, the combination of increasing market reach, stable profitability in a scalable operational model and improved capital efficiency provides a robust foundation for achieving continued profitable growth also in 2026. With that said, I close the detailed business update and I would like now to hand over back to Andres, who will lead us through the guidance.

Thank you, Sylvio. Let me now walk you through the guidance for the 2026 fiscal year. Shortly summarized, we expect solid profitable growth in 2026. This outlook is based on the continuation of the operational focus areas that supported our performance in 2025. In particular, strong product availability and competitive and well-managed assortment, efficient logistic processes and a consistently reliable customer experience. We also expect margins to improve further. The scale benefits from our 2025 measures, together with efficiencies and core processes should support a higher profitability level. In 2025, we demonstrated stable and disciplined management of our key financial metrics. Improved working capital management, a leaner cost structure and a stronger balance sheet form the foundation of our guidance for 2026. For this fiscal year, we expect revenue between EUR 318 million and EUR 332 million and an adjusted EBITDA between EUR 16 million and EUR 20 million. These targets reflect current market conditions and assume a stable economic environment. Let me now show you our important dates for the ongoing fiscal year. In 2026, we will publish our quarterly results on May 6, August 12, November 12, and on June 30, 2026, we would like to invite our shareholders to our Annual General Meeting in Dresden. With that said, thank you for your attention. And now we came -- we come now to the Q&A session.

Thank you very much for the presentation, and we will now move on to the Q&A session [Operator Instructions] We have some participants already raising their hand. [ Nicolas Fer ], you should be able to speak now and unmute yourself.

So Nicolas Fer here from Montega. First of all, thanks for your presentation. And therefore, we have 2 questions right there. So firstly, maybe a bit more macroeconomic regarding the recent situation in the Middle East. Have you maybe already observed any direct or indirect impacts on your supply chain or your logistic costs? And maybe specifically, are you seeing any rising freight rates or longer lead times for shipments? And then secondly, maybe looking at the first quarter already, is it fair to assume that the business has trended very strongly so far? Would you say that from a revenue perspective, you're currently operating at or maybe you're perhaps even slightly above the upper end of your full year guidance range?

Okay. Maybe I'll start with the first question. To be honest, yes, it's -- and I think it's for all other industries, it's very -- yes, still too early for us to fully assess the situation and predict what will happen in the coming weeks. Of course, we are monitoring the situation daily. And of course, it could happen that we see impacts to supply chain, maybe also container costs and later on also inflation or consumer sentiment. But to be honest, today, it's very early. What we've heard from the industry that some containers or shipments could be a little bit later and energy prices, especially shipment prices could be a little bit higher. But yes, the impact today is when we see our business is very low. And the second question was regarding developments in the first weeks of this year. What we can say that the year started very promising, and we saw double-digit growth rates in the first 2 months of this year. And that's why I think our -- yes, we feel very happy with today our guidance that we are in line with our guidance. And -- yes.

We move on to the next participant. And Mr. Speck, you should be able to unmute yourself.

Sorry for the delay. Four additional ones from my end. First, on growth in 2026. You're usually not talking about free cash flow, which has been growing outstanding in the last year. But are you also, let's say, sure that you will manage decent free cash flow growth this year as well? Or could it be a year where you have to raise CapEx or plan to build up working capital that would have negative effects on free cash flow? Second question is on customer acquisition costs or customer retention costs. Is it still a largely captive channel business? Or do you expect some step-ups here as, let's say, the efficiency of channels could change? Then on competition, can you give us some insights how you see your main competitors, be it stationary sales or the online platforms are currently operating? Any view on strengths or weakness would be welcomed. And finally, on aftersales, you do not yet control, let's say, maintenance or repair network. Any plans to further roll that out or to strengthen that?

Can you maybe repeat the last question because we -- was a little bit disturbing here.

Yes, you informed us of, let's say, some improvements or some more options on the delivery side with pickup options. Are there also plans for some type of aftersales service going into direct maintenance and repairs?

Okay. Okay. Regarding cash flow, I can say, okay, this year was really -- we made also a big step. I think we can keep an increase in our free cash flow, but it will definitely much that high as in prior years or in the prior year, particularly since we also expect the working capital build up slightly with our growth. And then the retention, the second question was about which channels our customers came to us as this continued like in last year, it will be the most come to us unpaid in a direct way.

Yes. Today, we don't see the big changes in -- yes, regarding to our channels and what reflects our customer retention. The competition you asked for -- yes, of course, competition is visible. But when the year starts, it's very early to say about that, how we see the competition mainly in spring and summer. It's a little bit more visible for us to see how competition works. But yes, we see some weaker competition and sometimes also competition is very strong. So it depends a little bit on the player in the market. But we see Bike24 very strong in our core business. So enthusiasts and especially also in our core segments, road and gravel. And that's why yes, we see Bike24 in a very good position in that point. And it's also that, as you know, gravel, road is very, very popular. And that's why we don't see negative impacts from competition there. Yes. Then you had the question of aftersales services. Yes, that's a point where we are looking for maybe about -- that we are looking for cooperation with players in the market. I would say, to shrink or to decrease the hurdle maybe for also to buy a bike online. But today, it's in an AB testing phase. So we will start it in the next few months, and then we will look what will happen. But of course, full bike and service around that and especially what you mentioned after sales service is important for customers. And that's why we are looking for cooperation in that specific point.

And we have a question placed by Stefan van Kligen in our chat box. I'll read it out for you. How do you assess the overall market situation or the consolidation to your advantage? And do you attribute your growth to stronger demand auto gains in market share?

Yes. The overall market situation, I think it's tailwind for Bike24, especially what I mentioned about in our core segment for the enthusiast, road and gravel, what I also mentioned. So that's why I see also that, yes, for the whole market, yes, I may be not the expert because we are more the expert for the online business. But for the whole market, yes, it's -- I see, ongoing consolidation, and this is also helping Bike24 because when you don't find maybe the brand or the product in retailers, I think it's very natural that the first idea is that you are going online and Bike24 is very strong, as you know, in the parts, accessory and clothing business and also today in the bike business. And that's why all these developments will help Bike24. And also, this will also lead to stronger demand. And what we today, as I mentioned, we had maybe some negative impacts of this situation in the Middle East, but it also could help and support Bike24 because what I see today, many, many are using the bike, maybe the car stands, yes -- yes, for your apartment or house and many, many uses the bike to going to job or yes, to schools. So this is also what we see. There's no negative impact. We see it more positive, the higher gas prices, yes.

And we move on to another participant who raised his hands. Mr. Charles Michaels, you should be able to speak now and place your question.

Great. Well, congratulations on a great year. I have 2 questions. The trade-off between growth and margins, given you're targeting margins that are much lower than your historical margins before COVID, how would you characterize the trade-off for you between growth and margins and when you may be able to resume to the level of historical margins?

Yes. It's -- yes, it's really -- yes, thank you for your question. What we are today see in the market is price pressure, of course, because of the historical impacts in the main business. And that's why we are managing Bike24, a little bit more on gross profit and not on gross margins. So this is reflecting our impacts from the whole market. And I see when the market is fully or the industry is fully healthy of, again, completely healthy, then I think it's also possible that we come back to the historical gross margins of around 30%. This is possible, but we need, yes, a healthy market environment, healthy industry. And today, I think there are some players in the market that are not healthy, and so there are price pressures in the market. And I think also a little bit changed is that, to be honest, our gross margin, of course, it's very -- yes, impacted by product mix. So when we sell more maybe electronics, then it's, I think, a negative impact to our overall gross margin, but a very positive impact because it opens baskets, and we will find many, many new customers. So that's why it's a little bit trade-off today. But to be honest, we are managing top line. We are managing gross profit, and we are managing the EBITDA margin. This is our 3 core KPIs today and the priority of gross margin, I would say, is slightly lower today.

Another question for me would be, are you planning to enter any new localized markets in '26?

Yes. We are -- today on our plan are 2 new countries. It's a little bit too early to say what will be these 2. But I think in the coming 4 months, you will see what we will -- what our plans for that. So the localization is still ongoing, and we have 2 countries on our list, and we will bring them online in the next few months.

And we move on to Mr. Milwardt. Mr. Milwardt, you should be able to speak now and unmute yourself.

I've got a more strategic question. You mentioned that you are very popular with the enthusiasts in roads and travel. And if you look on the streets, this is really, really booming. So have you ever considered to also cater to this audience in a way of providing like content in a way that those people like forever, speak about materials and bikes and so on. So my question would be, have you ever thought about moving this model further to, let's say, content and away from a transactional model to a, let's say, marketplace model where people could meet up and consume content, then you could harvest, let's say, the retail media, the bike companies themselves. They have not the individual power to have a full sales function with the logistics attached and so on. So marketplace model could make sense there as well. So have you ever thought about this?

Of course, marketplace, we haven't -- not on the priority list, but it's on a list to think about it. But today, we have no plans to realize this in the coming, I would say, 1 or 2 years. That's why I can say clearly, it's -- today, it's not on our plan. What we see more is that we have enough space to grow. So we see, especially in the localized markets, also in the full-bikes and also in customer experience, a lot of space to grow, and that's why we focus on that things what we manage very well, and we know exactly what we have to do. That is the point where we are very strong and because it's a little bit the same, what I mentioned also last year that the full industry is not healthy, and that's why I think we should concentrate on that what we manage very, very well, and that's why we concentrate on that.

Well, thank you very much for the question. And in the meantime, we have received no further questions. [Operator Instructions] If this is the case, no. So everything seems to be pretty clear. And we, therefore, come to the end of today's earnings call. Thank you very much to all the participants for your shown interest in Bike24. And thank you, Sylvio. Thank you, Andres, for the time to take the questions and answer them. A big thank you to all of you. Have a lovely remaining week. And having said this, I hand over to Andres for some famous last words.

Thank you very much. So today, a little bit more, and I would like to conclude the Bike24's earnings call for the fiscal year 2025 with a few closing remarks. So yes, as you know, despite a challenging environment, Bike24 achieved significantly accelerated growth in 2025 and made important progress across all major financial KPIs. And yes, with the operation and financial foundations established in 2025, we are, I think, very exemplarily positioned for continued profitable growth in this year. And at the same time, of course, we hope that current geopolitical turbulences will soon give way to greater stability for our industry, our partners and especially for all those affected by these events. So thank you for your attention again, and we wish you all a pleasant day. Thank you, and bye-bye. See you.