CDON AB ($CDON)

Good morning, and welcome to the CDON Q1 2026 Earnings Presentation. We are joined today by Fredrik Norberg, CEO; and Carl Andersson, CFO. Welcome, gentlemen.

Thank you. Thank you, and welcome to this earnings call at a new time, early hours, and we will continue with this new time going forward as well. Together with me today, as usual, we have our CFO, Carl Andersson, who will dig into the numbers later on. First, a little bit summary of who we are. We are one of the leading marketplaces in the Nordics, having 3 million active customers with 100 million annual visits. We are operating 2 segments, CDON and Fyndiq with an asset-light and scalable business model. And we are operating in a highly attractive market with large potential where we can see an anomaly in the Nordics compared to the rest of the world in how you shop online, where we shop much less online through marketplaces in the Nordics. And that we want to change, of course. To summarize the quarter, we have a solid start of the year. We continued solid growth from our last quarter. We have 14% in GMV growth and 9% in GPAM growth. We continue with a positive EBITDA trajectory and rolling 12 months, we have an EBITDA of SEK 27 million. And now really happy to show that our European giants have begun to show their really good potential. And ending this quarter, 5% of our CDON's GMV consists of GMV from these giants. And really happy to also report that our growth initiatives are running according to plan, and we expect to see some scaling in that area through next quarter. So our GMV ended up just below SEK 400 million, plus 14% versus last year. Our gross profit after marketing, our main KPI, was plus 9% versus last year, ending on SEK 42 million. And our EBITDA ended on minus SEK 2.8 million compared to last year's reported of SEK 0.2 million, but also compared to adjusted for extraordinary costs of minus SEK 4.4 million. And we can now conclude that we have 4 consecutive quarters with growth, and we continue with this solid growth trajectory that we had from Q4 last year into Q1 this year. And one reason for this, a small reason, but still now we can show the numbers for our European giants. So these numbers are from our 5 giants that now are live on CDON, will supply with sales. Looking at the bars at the bottom, you can see how the supply have grown. And now they have roughly 200,000 products live on CDON. Looking at the line, you can see the growth in GMV for these giants. And you can see it now for March, they are just below SEK 7 million in total GMV. And looking at the top, you can see their share of our total GMV for the CDON segment starting at end of September, October, just above 0% when they got onboarded. And now looking at the end of March, we can see just shy of 5% of the total GMV. And we will continue to follow up on these giants as we see this is the main strategy for us to really create growth in our core business. Moving over to our growth initiatives. Starting from the left, we have our Retail Media business, enabling our merchants to push their products on site, getting higher positions in the listings and so on, but also enabling and open up for external brands to market relevant products on our site. We will report on retail media revenue that now according to plan is 0, but we are really going according to plan here. We have our technical solution in place. It's implemented during Q1 and is live now. We have our retail media manager started, and we have been able to run and test the whole technology with 15 different merchants throughout the quarter. And we are now looking into ramping this up and starting to get the first revenue in the second quarter. Moving to the right, we have the Nordic growth opportunities, where we want to really expand our exposure in the rest of the Nordic countries. We can see that we are very underpenetrated in the rest of the Nordics compared to Sweden, and we want to change that. Here, we have chosen to share our main KPI, which is the Nordic growth. So these are the growth in the countries except for Sweden, of course. Looking into CDON, we have a 7% growth for this quarter versus last year for the Nordic countries versus 2% last year. For Fyndiq, we have 32% for this quarter versus 38% last year. And of course, I mean, as we grow in Fyndiq, it's harder to keep up this really high growth rate, but still, we are happy to be above 30% in growth rate. We have, throughout the quarter, done improvements in the customer experience for the Nordic countries, but also focusing a lot on enabling more supply. And this is really the main enabler for the Nordic countries to get more of the good supply into the Nordics. One way of doing that is to integrate to aggregators, which we are just in the final step of a big Finnish aggregator, which will enable a lot of other merchants to be able to sell through CDON. We are also looking into expanding our existing good merchants in the Swedish market into the Nordic markets. Looking into the brand marketing, we are talking about really revitalizing our brands and reintroducing both brands into the market. It was a long time ago since we had brand marketing efforts in both brands. Here, we will follow up on our main KPI, which is brand consideration. We will not share the brand awareness, and this is due to the fact that we have really high brand awareness. Both CDON and Fyndiq are well-known brands. But the problem is rather the consideration, that people can consider to buy from both segments. So this is the KPI that we will follow now. For CDON, we have a brand consideration of 42% and Fyndiq 31%. And we compare to August last year, which is when we started doing this measuring with this measuring tool. So this is why we're choosing August last year. We have signed a partnership with a brand marketing agency called Save Our Souls, and looking forward to be able to push the first brand marketing ads already now in the second quarter. And last but not least, we have our tech resource boost. Our new full-time employees, but also consultants are in place and delivering with high output. And this has really been now boosted with our Agentic coding enabled by Claude's recent updates. And I must say I haven't seen this big of a change of output in the company ever that we have seen in Q1. Of course, the value from it is not instant, but I see that throughout the year, this will really boost everything that we're doing from finance, to marketing, to analysis and to building our platform. So really looking forward on that area also for the rest of the year. All right. That's it for me. Let's talk a little bit more about the numbers.

Thank you very much, and welcome to the financial part of this presentation. Let's start with some headline numbers and reported numbers for the group. So growth continues with profitability on track, and we can report a 14% GMV growth, equally strong across both of our segments. Net sales grew by 13% as 3P now make up an even larger share of our mix and therefore, net sales correlate more closely with GMV. Also fairly high merchant performance fees in Fyndiq contributed to net sales growth. GPAM increased by 9% following slightly higher marketing costs and an effectively flat take rate. OpEx increased compared to last year, but bear in mind that bad debt reversal of SEK 4.6 million in the comparison figure. All in all, this led to an EBITDA of minus SEK 2.8 million compared to the SEK 0.2 million of last year. However, in an adjusted like-for-like comparison, we actually improved by SEK 1.4 million compared to last year. So let's take a look at our segments, starting with GMV, and it was really balanced growth across both segments and both engines have been firing. The group was able to sustain the positive momentum from previous quarters, and we did exceed the benchmark of Q1 last year and almost that of '24 as well. In the CDON segment, growth was fueled by 2 strong forces, both the giants that we spoke about that are improving our assortment, both in terms of competitiveness and coverage and also overall strong performance in our large categories, both Home Electronics as well as Home & Garden. It was another strong quarter for Fyndiq, where the growth could have been a bit questionable. Q1 is typically -- could potentially be impacted by the timing of Chinese New Year. However, this year, the team worked very well and mitigated and managed those effects, and we got back to a double-digit growth in Q1, reversing the negative trend that we saw in Q1 of last year. So very happy about that. Segment take rates continue to diverge. And just looking at the top line group take rate, which was effectively flat versus last year at 19.1%, we need to dive into the respective segments to understand this better. The CDON take rate was down to 14% compared to around 15% last year. Part of that is due to the very intentional category and merchant mix that we will see following the giants being onboarded and us focusing strongly in those 2 categories I mentioned. But also the negative gross profit from our 1P business, the clearance of old inventory, did have a negative impact on take rate in the quarter. Adjusting for the 1P negative gross profit, take rate would have been closer to around 14.5%, so not as big of a shift. In Fyndiq, the take rate exceeded 34% and is very high. Last year, 31% was also high, and the growth this year is driven by the higher merchant performances. Underlying commission levels in the segment are stable. So this is really an incremental addition and not a structural shift to our take rate. Marketing cost intensity is stable and the spend in Fyndiq was rather elevated. So on a group level, marketing cost as a percentage of GMV increased to 8.4% compared to 8% a year ago, but also down from the peak in Q4 of last year of 8.8%. Also here, we need to study the respective segments. And in CDON, we were able to effectively stay flat versus last year and down from the peak in Q4. And the exit from Prisjakt as a channel did impact this. That channel was not profitable for us, and we are actively looking to reinvest that marketing spend in other more profitable channels to find incremental volume to continue to fuel our GMV. For Fyndiq, marketing costs increased to 13.5% and effectively showcases the continued growth of paid over organic traffic in that segment. Net of this, we land at gross profit after marketing, where Fyndiq effectively drove the group GPAM growth. Effectively, all of the GPAM growth in absolute terms came from Fyndiq. GPAM in the CDON segment was down 2%, but bear in mind that was driven of the take rate effect that we previously spoke about. In the case of Fyndiq, the higher take rate more than offsets the higher marketing costs, increasing our GPAM by some 25% year-over-year. Controlled OpEx as growth initiatives are proceeding well. OpEx is slightly higher than the adjusted OpEx of last year, up some 5%, but it remains controlled. We saw increased costs in personnel, reduced cost in consultancy, a very conscious shift. And happily, we can also see cost savings in our core tech platform despite those increased AI costs that we spoke about. Also in the quarter, we had SEK 1.1 million of OpEx related to the growth initiatives, a number that we will continue to report on going forward for transparency. All in all, I would argue that cost control is maintained. EBITDA trajectory remains intact when considering the adjustment of last year. Yes, negative EBITDA of minus SEK 2.8 million in a seasonally weak quarter, but it follows the pattern. On a like-for-like basis, it is an improvement, a small one, but it is an improvement. And I would really anchor on the chart on the right-hand side where we can look at the LTM EBITDA for the group, SEK 27 million is a 3x improvement compared to Q1 a year ago. And the small difference versus Q4 is rather arithmetic than a dent to the trajectory. So we do remain on the positive trajectory where we see operational leverage on our costs where GMV flows through nicely to EBITDA. Lastly, a few words on our balance sheet and cash. Strong liquidity position with improving cash flow. Operating cash flow before changes in working capital was negative SEK 5 million, but follows the strong seasonal pattern of previous years. Q1 is our seasonally weakest cash generation quarter, and we do expect to get back to positive cash flows in the coming quarters. High end-of-period cash balance of SEK 96 million compared to SEK 77 million a year ago. The share rights issue completed in '25, of course, materially improved our current ratio. Merchant debt reduced to SEK 107 million compared to SEK 133 million a year ago. So overall, I would argue that we are well equipped, in a good position for continued growth in Q2 and onwards. With that, I leave it back to you, Fredrik, for some concluding remarks.

Yes. So we have a solid start of the year. We continue with a positive EBITDA trajectory and have 3x higher rolling 12 months compared to last year. We are on the right track with our key growth initiatives, and our European giants are really picking up speed now. So all in all, a very positive and solid start of the year for CDON Group.

All right. Yes. Thank you so much. So let's start with some questions then. And I figured we should address the giants first. Of course, like you mentioned, they go from 2% to 5%. Can you elaborate a bit on this? How does this impact -- how is the current merchant mix? How does this impact the category mix? And yes, just elaborate a bit on the mix here in relation to the GMV growth.

Yes. So what they bring to the table, it's really a big assortment of good products with good quality, well-known brands and competitive prices. The flip side of it is though that they have lower take rates than maybe the type of merchants that Fyndiq have on the segment with very high take rates. But we see all in all that this is a very positive growth that we will enable and also that it aligns with our brand ambition for CDON. CDON will consist of this well-known brand, high-quality type of supply, and this is the supply that these merchants are bringing to the table. We have 5 now that are live with both supply and sales. Of course, we have also a pipeline of additional giants that we continuously now are onboarding on site. When it comes to the category mix, we have started to focus on consumer electronics because that has been really our main focus both for last year, but it will continue to be a very important category for us. But we are also now expanding into our next categories that we're focusing on for this year.

And this pipeline sounds very interesting. If we look forward, I mean, what conclusions can we draw from the ramp-up time that you had with these giants that we saw now in Q1? Is there anything to deduct from this? Do you feel that can it be more efficient? Or is there something to be drawn from the historical pattern that we saw leading up now until Q1?

Yes. One thing for sure is that it takes longer time than we want and expected. Now we know how long time it actually takes. These are usually several billion SEK organizations in revenue and of course, bigger organizations. So everything takes longer time. So that we have learned a lot from. So now we are adapting our expectations according to that, of course, but also optimizing the way of doing this business, onboarding them, what type of material are they expecting and so on. So I would say this will improve from this point of time. Of course, but now we know for sure how long time it takes.

And then moving on to the brand. You mentioned the new brand marketing agency partner here. What conclusions can we draw from this? Can you elaborate a bit on this? Where do you want to go maybe with the CDON brand following this initiative?

Yes. I think -- I mean, one thing that we have reported consistently almost increasing every quarter is our marketing cost as share of GMV. Now we had a stop from the CDON segment on that. But looking back, this has increased. And we see that in the industry that the dependency of Google increases for every quarter. One mitigation of that is to make people go directly into the site, click more e-mails and so on. And of course, that way of making sure that, that happens is to do more brand marketing. And now is the time we are -- we can really be proud of what we deliver to the market now. We have great products, and we have a good customer experience. And now it's time for us to go out and say, "Hey, CDON is still around and also Fyndiq and come and try us out."

Yes. And on the subject of marketing and customer traffic, could you elaborate a bit on the Prisjakt exit here on the impact and what can we deduct from this going forward? How do you perceive this?

I can start a little bit and then you can hop in. Overall, it has been too costly for us. We haven't done any profit on it for some time. And now we took the decision that we need to cut it off. We are constantly elaborating on the marketing mix and trying new channels and sometimes you need to also deduct channels in order to see their impact in total for the business. But this is something that really had in some categories, both a negative effect and in other categories, a positive effect since we could put more money into other categories.

It's a bit like paying through the chest, right. I mean you need to take a step back sometimes to understand which customer segments are we addressing with certain channels and whatnot, right? We now have very good data to understand if and how we could continue to work with price comp sites going forward. So I'm happy to see a sort of small but clear stop to our increasing marketing costs in the segment.

Yes. And then moving on to the Nordic expansion. You mentioned here the Finnish aggregator that you're integrating right now. Could you just elaborate a bit or deep dive into your plans for the Nordic sort of market or your plans going forward here?

I mean, it's a 2-part story, right? So firstly, we're working with the customer experience, the site and everything to make sure that it's up to par as per the different countries' requirements and sort of desires. And secondly, it's focusing on supply. And the example of the Finnish aggregator is a very clear one. We're also working with additional aggregators to expand their offering to the other Nordic markets and really to work with selective merchants, potentially the European giants, right, to get them to sell across all of our markets to make their offering equally strong. So 2 parts to that story, and we have made good progress in both of them during the quarter, I would say.

Yes. And then finally, one question on the cash position and the spend. I mean, you highlighted that -- you painted a path last time we spoke. Could you just elaborate a bit, maybe highlight if there's been any major changes in your capital allocation strategy going forward? Do you feel that there's still leeway with the solid position that you are in? Maybe on anything that has changed in the trajectory that you painted following the Q4?

No, I hope the trajectory we painted in Q4 was positive. We continue along that path. Our cash position is way better than it was 12 months ago. The reduced merchant debt, the improved current ratio, of course, adds a lot of stability, and we are well positioned to continue to invest in the growth cases that we raised the cash for during last year. And we are also heading into sort of better season where cash generation typically is stronger for our business. Q1 is challenging for retail. But we are, of course, looking forward to make both profit and generate cash in Q1 in the future.

Yes. That's very clear. And then go -- we're moving on to some questions on the line that we received. So I'll start out with some of the investment spend. How much investment spend was recognized in Q1 across different initiatives? And how should we think about the EBITDA trajectory throughout 2026, given the gated approach to spending?

So we invested a little bit over SEK 5.5 million in sort of development projects, intangible assets relating to development of our tech platform, slightly higher than last year, but rather in line with what we anticipated going into the year. So we expect continued sort of OpEx and CapEx related to the growth initiatives. We don't have a '26 target. We have a '27 target of SEK 100 million of EBITDA, right. But as we said, the EBITDA trajectory continues to be positive. And with the strong growth figures, we would expect continued operational leverage that will trickle down to further EBITDA, right. So as we said, '26 will be a little bit of an investment year. We are continuing to building for the future, but we also do have a sort of foundational positive view on the EBITDA development.

That's very clear. And then one question coming back to the giants, maybe we have addressed this, but we will highlight it if there's any new nuance. Onboarding of large European merchants was somewhat delayed from Q4 2025 into Q1. Can you give us an update? How many merchants are now live? What GMV contribution did they generate in Q1? And what is the revised time line for the full ramp-up?

No, we gave all the numbers here in the slide. And yes, it was delayed probably about 3 months, and we have learned a lot from that. But we have, already from last year, worked up a good pipeline of good merchants waiting to get onboarded, and we are looking forward to onboard more throughout the year. Five giants are now live with supply and sales, and we will expand that during the year.

Yes. And then one question on the retail media. Do you have any concrete KPIs that you could share from Q1 considering retail media, I guess, revenue generation or anything that could give some nuance to that?

The short and boring answer would be no, right? Q1 was the development quarter. We did work with the pilot merchants. We did work a lot with sort of free credits for them to understand both how the tool works, but also for us to learn from it really. So it was only really towards the end of the quarter where we went live. We are now looking to ramp up across markets, across sites and also inviting all merchants and really getting them up to speed. We do carefully track, of course, the operational performance of the different ad formats, and we're working with the combination, right, of sponsored products on our category pages, on our listing pages, on our product detail pages, description pages. So it will be a vast majority -- a vast span of different KPIs that we will track. Revenue was 0 in Q1, but very much according to plan in a quarter where we built for the future.

All right. That's very clear. And then one final question. A new CCO joined in January 2026. Has this affected the commercial strategy yet? Are there any early changes in the direction compared to the priorities outlined in the Q4 call?

No, that's not correct. So we don't have a new CCO in '26, but we will get a new CCO in '26. So hopefully, I can get back on that in the next call.

All right. Sounds very promising. Thank you, and I'll leave it to you for any concluding remarks.

Thank you, and thank you for your attention and looking forward to see you in 3 months again.