Clas Ohlson AB (publ) (CLASB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Clas Ohlson Q2 2024/2025 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Kristofer Tonstrom; and CFO, Pernilla Walfridsson. Please go ahead.

So good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Clas Ohlson Q2 report presentation with me, Kristofer Tonstrom, CEO; and CFO, Pernilla Walfridsson. So we'll, as always, go through a short business update that I'll take us through and then we'll go into the financial development, the events after the reporting period and summary and Q&A. So starting by headlining a bit the second quarter and also the start of Q3. We can conclude that Q2 sales came in at SEK 2.8 billion, which is an organic growth of 8%. Also, operating profit was up approximately 11% versus last year to SEK 307 million, which also then translate to a margin of 11%. We can also conclude that online sales now represent almost 1/5 of the Clas Ohlson sales now in the second quarter. So it's obviously clear that driving profitable growth online as well is driving the results. Cash flow wise, also came in slightly above last year and we ended the quarter with a net cash position of SEK 211 million. Also, the start to Q3 was solid with a 13% organic growth in November and we'll get back to a bit more details there. So business update and starting a bit from our strategy and then moving on towards the activities we have worked on during the quarter. So overall, there are 3 big things that really sets us apart that we view as our competitive advantages and that's our assortment, our brand and the customer meeting and the combination of the 3. So we do focus our attention and resources on really differentiating to ensure we have the resources behind those 3 areas to really set us apart. The ambition is to develop a scalable and efficient operating model that is cost effective and we see that the changes we have done over the last few years is helping with leverage in terms of top line growth. We also want to generate strong free cash flow that we can then reinvest into further strengthening our position across assortment, brand and customer meeting. Since we updated our strategy a few years ago, we also have concluded that we are very much a multiniche player versus being a generalist. So we are focusing our attention across 5 niches that we call our consumer missions and you can see them at the bottom here in the slide. Also, you see the brands Teknikdelar and Batteriexperten, which is part of the Spares Group that we acquired now 1 year ago, which is part of the whole Connect and enjoy your home. So looking at our targets. Our ambition is to grow organically 5% a year and deliver an operating margin of 7% to 9% and we also want to be industry-leading when it comes to sustainability with ambitious goals over the next few years. Looking then a bit what we have done across the second quarter linking back to executing on this plan and strategy. First off when it comes to our assortment, ambition from us is to build a strong all-weather portfolio that is very much relevant all year round and I do think we have a few good examples looking at the second quarter. First overall, all the 5 niches are growing. We have had a continued high pace in terms of reinventing our assortment by launching lot of new products. which drives a lot of traffic and that also then drives big sales on the base business. We also see that the second quarter from a pure seasonal perspective has been fairly weak when it comes to seasonal products. It's been a warm quarter, we have sold less heaters, et cetera. But thanks to the assortment strategy, we're compensating by being strong across other areas that are extremely relevant to our customers. The second part is growing online in a profitable way and I think we can conclude that we're doing that. As said initially, almost 1/5 of the sales now goes online and to us our omni structure is very much a competitive advantage. We do see that the combination of our store network with our relevance online goes hand-in-hand and delivers and enables a very high customer satisfaction no matter where you choose to interact with Clas Ohlson. We also see that a big part of the online volume in one way or the other flows via the store network, which again shows how important it is to us to have a solid omni structure. Looking at the Spares Group that now as of November, it's gone 1 full year since the acquisition became of the -- Spares became part of the Clas Ohlson Group, and here we reported sales of SEK 211 million. So that's included in our online sales now. The third big focus area to drive growth is to work with our store network and here we have added 4 new stores across the second quarter and we're on track towards delivering 10 net new stores for the fiscal year. We also work a lot with the store network that we have. We have seen strong like-for-like growth over the last 6 months across the store network. So it's also important to continue to improve the store network that we have. So there are several moves and rebuilds underway and also executed. When it comes to enablers, communication and being close and relevant to customers is obviously extremely important and we do see now that more and more customers associate Clas Ohlson with our prioritized niches or missions than before. So it shows that we are even more clear in our offering. Second, cost base. We do have a more efficient organization and we are doing everything to ensure we keep a solid overhead cost structure so that we get leverage from the sales growth and the growth drivers above. On our sustainability agenda, a lot of things obviously happening on a going basis. To name 1 across the quarter was that we were named one of the most equal companies by the Allbright Foundation in Sweden. Then looking at the most important part, our customer relevance and satisfaction and this links very much back into our assortment, brand and customer meetings. So starting with products. We are a product company. Having the right assortment and high satisfaction behind the products we're selling is crucial. We continuously get high number of reviews of the assortment and the products we're selling and we are also consistently delivering very high scores when it comes to the product reviews. The second area is from a brand point of view to be always very affordable and here we benchmark ourselves to the low price and discount competitors and we do see that we are affordable and we are delivering value to our customers. And then the last point on the customer experience and satisfaction. We constantly measure NPS every day across our interactions. And as reported before, we are constantly slightly above 60, which is a high level versus the retail average benchmark. Moving on then, not going through too many details. But as said looking at our 5 missions, the 5 niches, this is really what drives traffic to Clas Ohlson. We have seen strong traffic growth across the quarter and the month. And these 5 areas drive relevance and it really enables customers to come to us when they have a specific need in one of those areas and they can then find the product they need and they usually leave the store with a few more products that they found when visiting us and usually products they really also need. A couple of examples. We are constantly launching new products and always trying to look for new, simple, smart solutions for our customers to solve their needs. Here on the slide we see some examples of organizing your shoes. I guess everybody can relate to how much space shoes take. So having these type of simple practical solutions to help customers in their day-to-day makes a difference, but also to repair products and then also to clean the home. So just a couple of examples of things that we've been launching. Also, cleaning and tidy up your home is a key part, but it relates to cleaning also your shoes, as an example here with a fantastic product cleaning white shoes. But also very practical solutions for home fixers that maybe do not have the skills to work with power tools, et cetera. So magnetic hooks, hooks that you can push through the wall without using drilling, et cetera. So these are just a few examples of the typical Clas Ohlson product, quirky smart solutions to everyday problems that you want fixed. So with that, I'll hand over to Pernilla to take us through the financial development.

Thank you, Kristofer, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to once again have the privilege to guide you through the financials of a really strong quarter. As previously communicated, total sales was up 14%, of which; 8% is organic growth, minus 3% relates to currency effects and the acquired Spares Group stands for 9%. Looking at the organic growth in detail, 4% comes from like-for-like and 4% comes from new stores. Online sales growth in the quarter was 6% excluding Spares. Excluding currency effects, online growth was 9%. Including Spares, online sales was SEK 527 million for the quarter, which adds to an online share of total sales of 18% rolling 12 months. Looking at the sales per market. Consumer confidence remains relatively weak, but despite this, we see positive development in all markets. I think it is impressive that we have such good momentum in sales despite the macro climate. There are, however, as always, some external factors that impact us. Firstly, it is positive that freight prices have declined during the autumn. The previously higher prices for transport will keep affecting us in the coming quarters as we have different types of transport agreements and a lag effect due to the turnover rate of stock in trade, but we will see positive impact from this recent decline later on. When it comes to currencies, the weak NOK impact us negatively due to a larger share of sales in Norway and the U.S. dollar has been challenging for quite some time with a further increase in relation to the SEK during November up to as high as SEK 11 for USD 1 in mid-November. All in all, gross margin declined by 1.5 percentage points to 39.8%. Looking at what has impacted the margin. There are of course a lot of components affecting the gross margin. The main positive effects come from reduced cost of sourcing and transportation compared to Q2 last year. Currency effects, including hedging, impact us negatively also this quarter and the structurally lower gross margin for Spares Group also impact gross margin negatively with slightly more than 1%. If we disregard the Spares effect, things we have actively worked with ourselves are strengthening the underlying profitability. Operating profit amounts to SEK 307 million compared to SEK 245 million last year. We have no one-off effect during the quarter and the comparables include last year's write-down of IT systems and costs relating to reorganization. Looking at the first half of the fiscal year. Operating profit has increased to SEK 510 million. The EPS for the quarter was SEK 3.6, an increase from SEK 2.7 in last year's Q2. Looking at the inventory, we see the effect of the usual buildup for the third quarter sales period, which of course includes Christmas sales as well as longer lead times with the current longer sea freight routes. The inventory is sound and supports future sales with good balance between different products and categories. Please also remember that the inventory now supports more stores and includes Spares Group's inventory as well. Cash flow for the first half of the year was strong. Cash flow from operating activities totaled SEK 530 million, an improvement from SEK 520 million last year. Free cash flow for the first 6 months amounted to SEK 176 million compared with SEK 211 million last year. The cash flow was strengthened by an increased result, but the early buildup of inventory and higher investment were key factors behind the slightly drop from last year. And as previously stated, we define free cash flow as cash flow after investing activities including amortization of lease liabilities. Net debt to EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, was minus 0.2x. So we maintained a net cash position well in line with our financial targets. And with that, I hand back the presentation to you, Kristofer.

Thank you, Pernilla. So looking at events after the reporting period. We also today reported our November sales numbers so the first month of Q3. All in all, we saw strong sales development across November growing total sales SEK 165 million and with 13% organic growth. Here we do not see the same currency effects. We're now meeting a slightly lower base on the Norwegian kroner so no currency effects from a sales point of view. Also, broad-based growth in November. Sweden, Norway, strong double-digit organic growth; Finland, 4%; and Spares grew 4%. So all in all, a good start to the Christmas season and across the board good execution from the Clas Ohlson team welcoming a lot of customers during this very busy season for us. Also, the store network has increased 14 stores compared to end of November last year. So wrapping up before we move into Q&A. We're going to continue to execute on the long-term plan and in line with our simple strategy. It's all about ensuring relevance for our customers, ensuring that every customer that visits Clas Ohlson leaves happy and well taken care of to ensure that they come back more and more. We are continuously working with the store network. We haven't announced any number of new stores for next fiscal year. But for this year, we are on track versus the net 10. And we are satisfied with the stores that we've opened and we do see strong like-for-like development on the ones that we have. So we're going to continue with that. Also we're going to continue building a profitable online business. Now online sales rolling 12 months is surpassing SEK 2 billion. So it is a significant part of Clas Ohlson and continuously working with this, making it more and more efficient and more and more customer-friendly is a key priority. And we will always continue to be very cost focused and cost conscious. There are still macro challenges that we need to mitigate and balance. But at the end of the day, it's about being cost conscious to ensure that we get scalability in the business, but also that we can deliver the absolutely best value to our customers. So with that, we can move into Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Simen Aas from DNB Markets.

Congrats on strong sales figures for November. I have a few questions and I'll start on the gross margin actually. I'm looking into Q3. You mentioned it briefly, Kristofer, but you're meeting easier comps on the Norwegian kroner and obviously we don't know how that will be moving. But how should we think about the gross margin here in November and into December? Is it fair to assume that the pressure on the margin should be lower from external factors or am I wrong in that assumption?

So I think the Norwegian kroner, let's see what happens during the coming months, but we can conclude for November that there is less pressure from the Norwegian kroner. That's correct. Also remember what we talked about during the summer, we saw high transportation cost increases during the summer and then we indicated that those will not start hitting the numbers until Q3, Q4. We do not know the impact of that obviously yet, but that is a factor to remember. And then apart from that, obviously we are continuing to being very disciplined in how we work with pricing promotion, et cetera. But let's see, hopefully a small positive on the Norwegian kroner side, but we also need to remember the transportation cost. I think those are 2 general comments. Anything to add, Pernilla, on just factors to think of, no?

Okay. That's clear. And then on the timing of Black Friday this year and online trade, should we expect some of the sales in November to be booked in December given the timing here or how should we think about that?

So November, the calendar effect of November was the same this year now as 2019. So it was a bit difficult to forecast to know exactly what would happen. We did see -- for us Black Friday is an event where customers are out shopping, but it's not a big part of our focus. We are focused on Christmas sales and of course we do see Christmas coming earlier and earlier. So there was a lot of Christmas sales happening throughout the Black Week, but also the weeks prior to that. So then of course as you state, the month ended on a Saturday so of course there might be some spillover of e-comm orders, et cetera, into December, but we have also seen a lot of Christmas sales early on in November. So let's see where that takes us for December. But yes, the calendar effect -- the best comparison is 2019 I think where the calendar looked similar and we didn't have that big break between Advent and Black Week.

Okay. That makes sense. And then my last question here is how do you consider your inventory position? Obviously it's up somewhat and given the strong sales trends so far in Q2, do you think it's sufficient to meet demand here or should we expect some sell-out issues later in December?

No, all in all, we feel pretty good about the inventory level. I think it's -- I mean looking at the sales growth in November, we were able to secure good availability of products across sales channels. And then also remember that the inventory levels are obviously driven by some that we took -- we have taken home goods a bit earlier given the Red Sea challenges. There's also some structural numbers in there based on the Spares acquisition. But all in all, we feel pretty good about the inventory moving into December now.

The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from Carnegie.

Yes. My first question is on customer recruitment. I think you mentioned this as a major driver of your sales in the past 1.5 years and I'm curious how much of the growth in Q2 and also continuing into November now is related to new versus recurring customers? Is there any change here or are you still seeing a very good inflow of new customers? That's essentially my question.

I think all in all looking at Club Clas members, obviously we have grown 400,000 members over the last year. So there is of course a combination of new and recurring. We do also see the activity rate in Club Clas being very high. So I don't have any exact numbers, but I think it's a combination of new and recurring customers.

Okay. Fair enough. And on November sales just to clarify given that we've seen kind of how Black Friday has gone to be a Black Week to Black Month, have you seen higher markdowns than usual? Is that like an industry phenomenon you're seeing or would you say that your markdown levels have been fairly similar to previous years in November?

Yes. For Clas Ohlson, it's fairly similar. We haven't been more aggressive on promotions, campaigns, et cetera. We are very much focusing on having the right prices on a going basis. So of course we have done some campaigning, but not more than previously.

Okay. Very clear. Also, you talked about stores here. You've net opened 14 stores in the past 8 months, but you only have 4 contracts now over the next 12 months. Any indication here of what we can expect? Are you looking at -- I think for fiscal year, you net opened 8 stores last year and I think it looks like you're opening 10 stores this year. Are you expecting a similar pace going into next year or any reason to assume a slowdown?

Now for us, it's all about quality versus quantity so of course it's about finding the right store locations. I don't think there's any reason to expect either a big break or acceleration of store network expansion. We're very much evaluating the stores we have opened and in general, we're very happy with the development and we see continued strong like-for-like. So we hope to be able to keep a similar pace, but of course it's always dependent on finding the right long-term locations and ensuring quality. So we'll come back to that with some further guidance on that as we enter the spring. But hopefully, we can continue in a similar pace as we have done over the last 2 years.

Very clear. And can you just help me clarify when you talk about online sales now being close to 20% and almost half of that is related to Spares so you're a little above 10% or around 10% in online sales. Is that with or without Click & Collect? So basically what's the percentage of Click & Collect sales?

Yes, it's including Click & Collect. So online sales is every transaction that closes on our e-comm sites and then the customer chooses how to pick that product up. But any transaction that closes on our e-comm site is regarded as online, including Click & Collect.

And what is the rough percentage of Click & Collect in Clas Ohlson stores? Is that like 50% or more or less?

In general, I would say approximately half of the volume online flows via our physical stores and then we have different ways of getting the product. So Click & Collect, we also have what we call collect in store where you can order online and then pick up the order in store and then we also have the feeder store. So all in all, approximately half of the volumes flow from DC and the other half goes via the store network. But we haven't specified exactly what percentage Click & Collect is and that also varies a lot between quarters and months. But approximately half via the store network is a good rule of thumb.

The next question comes from Magnus Roman from Kepler Cheuvreux.

A lot of the key questions already been answered here, but I can ask one about the capital structure. I mean you run now on a net cash position if we exclude leases. Interest rates are going down. You actually have a financial target to be at below 2x. So I mean do you see a limit here where you think you're overcapitalized or do you rather view it as a positive to be prepared of potential investment needs, acquisitions or other in the coming several years? If you could respond to that.

In general, we want to be in a very strong financial position and we want to always act from a position of strength. But then of course over time it's important to ensure the right structure. But in general, we view it as a positive to be in a position where we can invest back into the business. So yes, I think that's in general that we want to be in a strong position.

Right. And just coming back again to the questions around gross margin, just the factors that you mentioned here or the drivers in the presentation. Firstly, you mentioned the Spares addition and now I guess looking forward, that is annualized so I presume that we should expect small if any effect from that on a year-on-year basis going forward. Could you also acknowledge if freight you mentioned here, if you're going to consider that a headwind both for Q3 and Q4 with this lag, but turning positive thereafter considering current spot rates? Is that correct? And then thirdly, maybe if you could talk a little bit more about the balance here of your efforts or the effects of your efforts to concentrate your sourcing and find efficiencies if that is much annualizing looking ahead or if you see further positive driver from that?

In Q3, we expect less negative effect from the NOK, as Kristofer mentioned before, due to the comparable figures are much easier. But we will also not benefit from the positive term effect we had last year. And then on the other hand, the recent weak SEK in relation to the U.S. dollar will have a negative effect going forward, but we don't expect that that will hit us in Q3. Then we talked a bit about the -- you asked about the freight prices, but I think you answered that before. So maybe you will add.

Yes, exactly on the freight prices. Yes, Q3, Q4 and then looking at the current trend of the freight prices, hopefully that headwind will ebb out after Q3, Q4, I would say. But let's see what happens. But right now we obviously has a good trend and it was a big peak during summer that will impact mostly Q3, Q4.

And it's correct to assume a small effect from Spares as it has been annualized now going forward?

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

The next question comes from Philip Ramqvist from Sveriges Radio Ekot.

I have 3 questions. I will take them in Swedish and I hope that you could answer them in Swedish as well for our listeners. [Foreign Language]

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The next question comes from Andreas Lundberg from SEB.

Andreas with SEB here. Back to the cash position, relatively solid. Q3 typically a very strong cash flow quarter. How will you utilize the cash you have? I realize that you would like to keep a strong position, but where do you see allocation in the next 2 years?

So overall, I don't know whether I want to comment in detail over next 2 years. But if I look currently, obviously we are reinvesting into the business when it comes to the store network. We're also investing little bit into the IT infrastructure. And then of course the key focus for us is to allocate capital in a smart way also moving forward. But for now I think we are reinvesting into the business. We want to have a strong position, but I don't want to give any further outlook on the next few years there versus what the financial targets and the position that we're currently starting from.

You have a repurchase mandate now. How are you thinking about that?

So yes, we have the mandate, but we haven't announced any intent to use that mandate here, but it's important to also have that as part of the capital allocation toolbox on a more longer-term basis. So the mandate is there, but we do not -- we haven't announced any intention of using that now.

And finally, on OpEx, now when Spares have been included for a year, how do you see? What are the main drivers of OpEx up or down going forward?

Obviously overall on OpEx, we want to ensure that we stay very disciplined on the overhead. We have made a lot of changes to shrink the overall overhead cost pool and we want to ensure that continues and thereby get leverage and scale as we grow. Apart from that, of course it's about investing in the customer meeting, investing in the business; but I wouldn't say I would expect any big ups and downs. It's really about finding a good balance between keeping a solid cost structure in place and then investing when we have opportunities, but not expecting any big swings I would say looking forward.

The next question comes from Martin Eriksson from Sveriges Radio.

I also wish you take my question in Swedish if that's okay for our listeners. [Foreign Language]

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[Operator Instructions] There are no more phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions or closing comments.

To begin with, we do have a couple of written questions from the webcast. It's Anders Rudolfsson, DNB Markets commenting another strong result. Well done. Looking into 2025, how sensitive is Clas Ohlson to lower rates you think?

Well, looking into '25 obviously, we hope of course that it will have a positive impact on our customers' private finances and economies. Obviously we view that as a good thing that the purchasing power hopefully will go up. But I think we have shown overall over the last few years when it has been a challenging macro environment that it's all about being relevant, selling need-based products and having high value for money in everything that we're doing. So of course we'd rather have a positive economic outlook than a negative, but I think we have shown that also in a challenging environment, we can grow significantly. So let's see. We hope that it will have a positive effect, but we're very much focusing on what we can influence, which is of course then the relevance in assortment and the right price points and the right service.

And then we have a question from [ Philip Pareto ]. What was year-on-year revenue growth in November adjusted for new stores?

So the like-for-like growth in November I think it was 10%. Let me double check the like-for-like in November. Yes, I think it's around -- so 10% like-for-like growth in November. Sorry, I just wanted to double check. And then we had a comment here from another participant asking why we answered questions in Swedish. And I apologize for that and of course respect that this is the English speaking forum. The 2 questions that came were from Swedish Radio and thereby wanted Swedish answers. It was not related specifically to the quarterly report and also the comments were not specifically giving any more details or guidance on the report in itself. So I apologize for that for our English speaking audience. That was not really planned.

And finally, we have a question about the organic growth for Spares. Was it above or below 4% during the first 6 months?

So we haven't reported the organic growth for Spares. November is the first month where we report organic growth because it was November last year when Spares was fully included into the books of Clas Ohlson. So this is the first month when we start reporting organic growth also for Spares. So that has not been done before.

And by that, a final question. Do you have like-for-like for Q2 and split between regions for both Q2 and November?

Yes. So I think like-for-like for Q2 was 6%. So let me just double check here. So like-for-like growth Q2, yes, 6% across Q2. And then the split between regions, you can find that in detail across the report, you see the exact numbers. I'll refer you to the report where you will see the regional split sales-wise in Q2 and also in November. But in general, we have seen very strong organic growth across Sweden and Norway with double-digit growth and then in Finland in November, we saw 4% organic growth. But you'll find all the details in the report.

And by that, we don't have any more written questions either. So I'll hand back for some final remarks.

Great. Thank you very much. Thank you for good questions and good discussions. And obviously our focus now is to doing everything that we can to also deliver very high customer satisfaction across December. So we'll all see each other back when we report the numbers for Q3. So thank you very much.