Clas Ohlson AB (publ) ($CLASB)

Welcome to the Clas Ohlson Q3 2025-2026 Report Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Kristofer Tonström; and CFO, Pernilla Walfridsson. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Clas Ohlson Q3 report presentation. My name is Kristofer Tonström, and I'm CEO. And here together with Pernilla Walfridsson, CFO. So the agenda for today is to review the business update, the financial development for the quarter and then the events after the reporting period, then we'll do a short summary and move into Q&A. So to highlight the highlights of the third quarter, really, the key takeaway from this quarter is that we again show a combination of continued sales growth and improved margins. Looking at sales, we came in at just above SEK 4 billion, which represented an organic growth of 8%. Our operating profit came in at SEK 659 million, which resulted in an operating margin of 16.2%. Our operating cash flow for the first 3 quarters amounted to SEK 2.091 billion, and that is also up versus last year. And we still have a solid financial position with a net debt to EBITDA minus 1.3, which means we have a net cash position closing the quarter. EPS for the first 3 quarters came in at SEK 16.22 also that's up versus last year. Today, we also reported our sales numbers for February. I'll come back to that, but we delivered 9% organic growth also in February. So moving into the business update and looking first at our strategic position. In general, we operate in several attractive everyday niches where we can be highly relevant to our customers. And I believe it's the combination of this relevance, but also our focus that allows us to build a business that is both scalable and capital efficient. We focus on our areas where we want to become stronger assortment, brand, customer meeting. And with the focus, we do everything to also develop a more scalable operating model that generates strong free cash flow that can be reinvested. Moving into the strategy execution. This slide really shows how the strategy is being executed across the organization with tangible results. And we continue to see progress in several areas, assortment development, omni growth, store expansion, marketing efficiency and cost competitiveness. So to just mention a few things from the quarter, starting with assortment. We do see continued strong development across our 5 consumer missions, i.e., the 5 niches. We also saw that January came in strongly. And here, we also saw a seasonal effect when the weather turned. We were able to also sell a lot of seasonal products that had slower growth in November, December. We've also kept assortment renewal high. We renew approximately 30% of the assortment every year, which really helps us to drive relevance. On the profitable growing online business, we have seen a continued strong development versus business-to-consumers And the Clas Ohlson stand-alone part is growing 15% in the quarter, and now online sales represents 21% of our total sales in the third quarter. On the robust store network, we continue to see strong like-for-like development, which is obviously crucial. Also high customer satisfaction. And as we're now soon closing the year, we will add 8 new stores in '25, '26, slightly below the ambition of 10, but it's nothing dramatic. We have 7 stores planned now over the next few months. And our target that we announced today for next year is also, again, approximately 10 new stores for fiscal year '26, '27. When it comes to customer communication, I wanted to highlight a survey that came out in Norway during the quarter where Clas Ohlson was awarded the strongest brand in retail in Norway. So the brand in the eyes of the consumers is actually now stronger than local brands like Norwegian, but also big other brands like IKEA. So we have a very solid position in Norway. On the competitive cost base, we announced last quarter that we're increasing capacity but also efficiency in our logistics by investing more in our distribution center. And when it comes to sustainability, we have just signed a new agreement with PostNord. And here, we will have more free fossil-free transports to all our Nordic logistics hubs. Going to the next point. For us, customer relevance is really at the center of the business and everything that we do. And I believe that a strong customer position is really one of the clearest proof points that the model is working. And as you can see on the slide, we continue to see strong customer trust, improving affordability and also high customer satisfaction. The NPS is dropping a little bit in the third quarter, which it usually does, given the high amount of volumes, but across the store network and our e-com, NPS remains very high. So going to the next slide. We also know that and can confirm also for the third quarter that the growth is broad based. We do work with our 5 consumer missions to really win the 5 niches. And here in the quarter, all prioritized missions are contributing to growth. And this also confirms that our assortment strategy is working well, and we're less dependent on individual single product categories. And then my final point is also just a few words about the January sales development. So we continue to see that we are strengthening our relevance throughout the year. January used to be a month where we have around SEK 600 million net sales for many years. And then over the last 3 years, we have really taken steps in the right direction, first, SEK 800 million, SEK 900 million. And this fiscal year, we came above SEK 1 billion in January. And again, I think that shows that a more balanced assortment means that the business actually becomes less dependent on seasonal peaks and that we can be relevant to our customers also in a month following the big peak season. So with that, I'll hand over to Pernilla to take us through the financial development.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Kristofer. I will guide you through the financials of the third quarter. To begin with, net sales were up 6% in the quarter, of which 8% relates to organic sales increase, 1% related to our recent acquired subsidiaries and minus 3% relates to currency effects, 6% of the increase relates to like-for-like growth and 1% related to expansion of the store network. Online sales grew by 17% in total, including the acquired Phonelife and Reservdelaronline businesses. All in all, our business-to-consumer online sales developed very good. At the same time, we still have challenges in the Spares business-to-business, which is reflected in sales in other markets. For the 9-month period, total sales amounted to SEK 9.9 million, and the organic sales increase was 9%. Looking at our home market. We had organic sales growth well above our long-term targets in all markets in the third quarter. We are pleased with all markets, but would like to underline the development in Finland with 9% organic growth in the quarter. Also when it comes to macro trends impacting our business. We have seen a weaker NOK and a weaker U.S. dollar for quite some time now. The NOK has an immediate negative impact, which is not fully compensated by more favorable purchasing in U.S. dollar. Transportation costs remain at reasonable levels, which now is contributing to an improved gross margin, which we'll see on the next slide. Input costs are favorable right now. And together with the previously mentioned transportation costs, these are the main explanation to the big improvement in gross margin by 2% to 46.8%. Currency impact was negative with weaker sales currencies partially offset by more favorable purchasing currencies. Please also note that the gross margin reflects our new reporting method nature of expense method, which we have informed about before. When it comes to the income statement, we see a strong increase in operating profit at SEK 659 million and an EBIT margin of 16.2%, both of which we are at all time high in the third quarter. The increase in personnel expenses related to higher volumes in our logistics chain, wage increases and new stores. Other external expenses also increased in the quarter, mainly due to increased investment in marketing and due to the addition of the acquired businesses. The EPS for the quarter was SEK 8.09 and SEK 16.22 for the 9-month period. The inventory is slightly down compared to the same period last year. The main factors behind the well-balanced inventory were higher efficiency, lower purchasing prices and currencies and higher sales. Cash flow for the 9-month period improved versus last year. Cash flow from operating activities totaled almost SEK 2.1 billion, an improvement from SEK 1.9 billion last year, mainly thanks to improved profit. Free cash flow for the period amounted to SEK 1.5 billion. Net debt to EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16, was minus 1.3x. We maintained a net -- a strong net cash position. And with that, I'm handing back the presentation to you, Kristofer.

Thank you, Pernilla. So moving into the events after the reporting period and our February sales numbers that we also released today. So we see that the continued positive sales development continues, reporting 9% organic growth now in February. And the growth continues to be broad-based with Norway having the highest organic growth at 11%, Sweden at 7% and Finland at 5% And we also see broad-based growth across our 5 consumer missions also in February. The store network is 6 stores higher in Feb versus last year. Then moving into the summary. And looking at this slide that I do believe really shows the summarized Clas Ohlson case. So we have a strong brand, relevant assortment, efficient omni model and disciplined capital allocation. Also from the trend, I think we can see that the business is structurally stronger today than it was a few years ago. And of course, we maintain the focus on being really well positioned in our product niches, thanks to the consumer missions, really focusing on the needs-driven assortment and continuously delivering high customer satisfaction and then balancing the strength of the store network and also the profitable e-com growth. So that summarizes a little bit where we are now across the third quarter. So with that, we'll open up for Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from DNB Carnegie.

Congrats on another set of strong sales and earnings. Can I start asking about the margin outlook? If you look at the last few quarters now, we've seen both the gross and the EBIT margin rising by about 2 percentage points. And I'm curious on your view on the outlook here based on current freight and most importantly, the dollar rate. It seems to suggest that this has potential to continue. But is there anything that we should consider when we look at the quarters ahead here in terms of input costs and how that could impact the margins?

Yes. So if we look at the gross margin right now on the development, let's break it down into a few different buckets. So first of all, when it comes to currencies, as we've shown Pernilla's graph, the Norwegian krone has obviously strengthened over the last couple of weeks, but we've also seen that it's been volatile. So having a close look on the Norwegian krone versus last year, also in the fourth quarter is important. In April, we start meeting kind of a lower base on the Norwegian krone. The U.S. dollar has slightly strengthened a little bit over the last couple of weeks, but all in all, as we also reported this quarter, we do see a help from the U.S. dollar, offsetting the part of the Norwegian krone effect. But net-net, currencies has been negative also in this -- slightly negative in the quarter. So keeping a close eye on that moving forward. Second, when it comes to input costs, obviously, we have done a good job now over the last year to improve input costs. And we don't want to guide specifically on the development on that. But of course, we always work with being as efficient as we can in our buying processes. And the one other thing to keep an eye on is, obviously, the pricing development in the market. The U.S. dollar effect will be something that obviously benefits everybody in the market. And as always, we want to be very price competitive and affordable. So here, it's too early to tell what will happen with the price development. And last but not least, to be clear on the crisis going on right now in the Middle East, there is no direct impact on our freight cost today. But of course, that develops by the day and week. So let's see how that continues, if there are any secondary implications moving forward. But right now, there's no impact on our freight costs. So those are some areas to look at as we look into the gross margin for the next quarter.

Very clear. And just a quick follow-up. Am I interpreting right that you have yet to see any real price pressure in your market because as you said, now everyone has been facing a weaker U.S. dollar and lower input costs. But there's no clear signs of price pressure among your peers.

I think over the third quarter, as always, November, December, obviously, was kind of promotion heavy. We haven't seen any structural big shifts in pricing, but we have heard others communicate and talk about in the market that there might not be a full impact of the dollar. So I think it's -- we haven't seen any big changes across Sweden or Finland now, but let's see how that develops.

Second question here on Finland, where you've seen a very strong improvement since October, but a little bit of slowdown here in the February sales. Can you talk a little bit about it? I believe you had a little bit of a relaunch in your Finnish ambitions. Can you talk a little bit about this and how you're seeing that progressing?

Yes. So we have, over the last, I would say, 18 months work deliberately on improving the performance in Finland. We started with a lot of work on taking out cost, slimming the store network. Then we have also done some assortment adjustments, rebuilt all the stores. And then as of the fall, we started to activate the brand a bit more and have done more in terms of pricing, promotion, et cetera. And we've seen the positive effect of that with the 9% organic growth across the third quarter. As you say then, in Feb, the growth was 5% organic, so slightly below the third quarter. But in general, we see that the activities we have initiated and the work we do is helping us move in the right direction. So of course, the ambition is to continue growing also in Finland being the smallest market. But as I've said before, it won't be a quick fix, but our ambition is to win in Finland. And I do believe we have started to find a few things that work for us.

Very good. And just a final question. Your balance sheet, as you mentioned here, is very strong now. You have over SEK 2 billion in net cash, and that's after a recent acquisition and recent dividends as well. Can you elaborate a little bit on your thoughts on the use of proceeds here? I mean the payout, the dividend payout has only been around 50% in the last 3 years. Is that something you're looking at potentially increasing? Are you looking at considering buybacks? And what is your view on M&A now after the acquisitions of Spares, Phonelife and Reservdelaronline? Is that something you're looking at to continuing?

So as always, we want to have a very strong balance sheet. And then looking at kind of the capital allocation principles for us. We're obviously prioritizing investing in the core business with investments in DC and et cetera, new stores, refurbishing stores. So that's number one. Then we have, of course, done selective growth investments, M&A being one of those activities with the 3 acquisitions. And then third, obviously, it's about distributing the excess cash to our shareholders. So we're trying to really work within that framework. And ahead of the fourth quarter, the Board will make a decision on the proposed dividend following this -- following where we are right now. So we'll come back on that on the fourth quarter, what will happen on the dividend.

Very clear. But can you just quickly say anything about M&A potential? Is that something you're looking at continuously. And then do you see medium-sized acquisitions as well? Or is it more smaller add-ons like you've done in the past?

So obviously, I think we have proven that M&A is part of the toolbox if the right opportunity arises. There is nothing here and now. But of course, we'll always keep track and look for opportunities. When it comes to the acquisitions we have done, they've all been done kind of in the same on the same platform, starting with Spares and then 2 add on acquisitions to strengthen that platform further. So we're open. Nothing is assumed will happen, but we're open for it. But I also believe, as seen over the last few years, there are very few targets that actually meet our threshold, and the 3 we have done have done that. And of course, we're open to find more, but there's nothing I would count on.

The next question comes from Andreas Lundberg from SEB.

A few questions from my side. Going back to the input cost question. You said you benefited on that for some time. Could you talk a little bit more perhaps about how much is structural and what is cyclical and whether it can be repeated going forward? That's my first question.

Andreas, so looking at the input cost, we have done a lot of work over the last few years in terms of becoming structurally stronger when it comes to sourcing. And the key thing here has been to broaden our sourcing network. And today, we have our own organization based in Shanghai, in Vietman, now in India since a few months back, in Poland, and we're also looking at setting up an organization in Turkey. And then, of course, we're also sourcing as much as we can locally from the Nordics. So I think one part of the improvement comes from us having even more options to choose from. I think the second part of the improvement also, of course, comes from scale. We have grown volumes significantly over the last few years. But then I would say when it comes to the more cyclical, obviously, there has been -- if you look at the producer price index, especially in China, that has been minus for a while. So of course, there are some cyclical elements also to the input costs. So I don't want to guide specifically on this moving forward, but I believe it's a combination of becoming structurally stronger and combined with also some cyclical elements, especially related to China.

Okay. And a follow-up on the M&A. What are your thresholds? And what are you looking for, be it product channels, geographies, et cetera? Can you give more color on that?

So I think the easiest way to talk about that is to talk about the 3 we have already done. So I think the key for us when we identified Spares, Phonelife, and Reservdelaronline as attractive targets, it's really been the combination of the strategic aspect of strengthening Clas Ohlson in one of the prioritized niches. And these companies, obviously, operate within connect, tech accessories and spare parts niche. So it's really about strategically strengthening us both in terms of assortment, customer relevance and the right pricing. The second aspect of these companies have been that they are all profitable. They've been built as profitable companies as of day 1, there are no turnarounds and we've also reduced positive cash flow since a long time back. And third, obviously, we also believe that all 3 of these are scalable. So they are in different parts of their journeys, but we all -- we believe they all have the potential to grow further, so that the stand-alone become an attractive investment. So those are some of the key things that made us conclude that those were the right 3 things. So if we were to do this again, those are some of the important criteria. But again, I want to emphasize, there's nothing in the pipeline here now. It's an opportunity. We keep that door open. But obviously, in terms of capital allocation, number one is strengthening the core.

The next question comes from Erik Sandstedt from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Just a few follow-ups. Firstly, just you mentioned Middle East already, and if I understood it correctly, you see no sort of direct impacts. But do you see any impacts from rerouting and delays?

So at this stage, obviously, we need to be careful to conclude given how -- conclude exactly what it will look like. But if I look here and now today, we obviously have already rerouted our transportation from Asia following the issues in the Suez Canal, if it was 1 or 2 years ago. So we have already rerouted transportation around Africa. So there's not been any changes to that here now. But then as I said, of course, we are monitoring this to see whether there could be any secondary impacts following the other routes, so to say. But there are now no direct impact on the routes that our transportation is taking.

Yes. Perfect. Also, if you could maybe share -- I know you touched upon it, but share some more details on Norway and the strong performance there. What have you done differently? Or are you getting help from improving macro, maybe trying to sort of divide that a little bit? We've obviously seen pretty strong growth rates now for quite some time there.

I think as a starting point, the business model and the foundation and the core is exactly the same in Norway as in the other 2 countries. So we have the same strategy. We have the same core. Then what I think stands out in Norway is one area is, of course, the strength of the Clas Ohlson brand in the Norwegian market with the high trust that I referred to earlier in my presentation. And second, I think the network and the availability in Norway, given that it's half the population than Sweden, and we almost have as many stores as in Sweden. Obviously, the strength of that store network gives a very strong availability for our customers, and it really helps us both on the store side and on the e-com side. When it comes to more macro aspects and then the Norwegian economy is obviously strong. The consumer confidence has been lower in Norway over the last few years. But versus the other 2 markets, we still have seen a cautious consumer also in Norway, but maybe less impact versus a, for example, comparison with the Finnish market. So in general, the core is the same, but I think the strength of the core is even stronger in Norway than in -- especially in Finland, but also versus Sweden.

Perfect. And also maybe if you could help us better understand how to think about sort of comparison basis now going forward in terms of revenues here because March sales was very strong last year. I suppose it had to do also with the shift of Easter, whereas April was a bit lighter. So maybe just to sort of get the basis correct here. Was it the Easter shift that drove March last year?

Yes, you're right. So last year, the Easter shift drove more growth in March. Looking at the calendar now for this spring, Easter is still in April. So there's no shift, but it's a little bit earlier in April this year than it was last year, but no major shifts. So the same type of calendar as last year. Yes, so I don't think there's -- yes, so no major shifts as it was last year.

Okay. Then just a detailed question perhaps, but depreciation continues to be lower year-over-year. Is the current level now a good proxy for how to think about it over the coming year or so?

It's a lot of different things that affect the depreciation. I mean we have certain effects on IFRS 16, we renegotiate agreements and things like that, and that has an effect. And then there is depreciation that is a thing that is fully written off, and that has been a mix of things during the quarters. So if we look forward, I think that this is approximately a good mix.

Great. And then just finally, maybe if you could share any more details on your work with agentic commerce and whether relevant for your business. And if so, how your work is progressing.

Yes. So of course, this is high up on everybody's agendas, and there's a big hype of course, about this. What we -- our hypothesis and our paradigm is very much that the key thing is to have structure in terms of data structure, in terms of relevance, in terms of product pricing, product mix, et cetera. So we're doing a lot of work, as always, to ensure a strong base structure. Then second, of course, there are a lot of examples flowing around, and we have seen things happening in the U.S. with ChatGPT starting and stopping with buy buttons, et cetera. So we're following this progress. We have chosen to work very closely with Google across the Nordics and obviously, are part of their AI search and work with that. And we believe the basis, if we can continue being as relevant as we are today versus the customers, we need to find ways of being as relevant if the market moves into agents actually shopping for customers. However, we believe that won't change overnight. So as always, we don't want to rush into things, spending a lot of money on things that has yet to be proven, but we're very close to the development, and we're working very much with our core to ensure that we are well positioned no matter what happens. And this, of course, goes into development of the website and all of those things. So we're keeping a close eye on it. And of course, the development in this space is fast. So hope that's helpful.

There are no more phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.

And we do have a couple of written questions also. First one from Phillihp Bjerke. Could you provide some color on the split between price and volume growth in Q3 and in February?

Yes. So it's really a combination. And as we have seen that over the last year that there is a combination of volume growth and pricing, and we do not report this in detail. But it's a strong combination. And for us, it's important to ensure that we also keep driving volumes and in that sense, also capital efficiency by turning over higher volumes.

And we also have a question from Lucas, Lundbeck. You cite mix effects as a partial driver of gross margin improvement. Has the share of Clas Ohlson branded products in your revenue mix increased over the past 2 years, and is that a deliberate strategic priority going forward?

So let me divide that answer into 2 buckets. So the first one, I think this refers to the 9 months explanation of the gross margin improvement. And when we refer to mix here, the primary aspect is that the sales on Spares business-to-business has been lower over the last few quarters. So there is a structural mix effect because the gross margin on business-to-business is lower than business-to-consumer. So I think that's one of the key drivers of the mix impact on gross margin over the first 9 months. Then to the second part of the question on private label. We obviously work with both private label development and strong brands and always see private label as a top priority, but we want to carry both and we want to grow both. So of course, private label is a way to drive uniqueness but also gross margin. But primarily, what we referred to in the report was linked to the business-to-business impact.

Great. So that was all the questions from the teleconference and from the webcast. So by that, I'm handing over to Kristofer for some final remarks.

Okay. Thank you very much for calling in. And before we close off, I also wanted to just make a quick reminder. We sent out a save the date for June 3, where we plan both to report the Q4 numbers during the morning. And then during the day, also hold the Capital Markets Day. So we haven't had a CMD since 2022. So we felt it's a good time to now update about the -- a little bit about the future. So I hope to see all of you there on June 3, and more details will follow on this as we get closer with exact timings and locations, et cetera. So thank you very much for today. Have a good day.