Elektroimportøren AS (ELIMP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Q3 webcast of Elektroimportøren. Presenting today will be CEO, Andreas Niss; and CFO, Jorgen Wist. [Operator Instructions] Andreas and Jorgen, if you're ready, please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Mona, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to this third quarter presentation for Elektroimportøren. Start off with the key financials for the quarter. We ended up with a revenue of NOK 401 million, which is slightly up from last year. Like-for-like sales is reduced with 3.3%, and the online share of business stays stable at 20%. B2B sales increases with just above 3% and B2C sales has decreased with 1.7%. Our B2B share stays more or less stable at 49%, up from 48% last year. We continue to have a decline in EV chargers sales, which is down 46% from last year to NOK 23 million. Total sales of SpotOn is at NOK 8 million compared to NOK 9 million last year. The overall gross margin is at 35.3%, which is down 2.3% from 2022. Our OpEx to sales ratio ended at 27.7%, which is up 1.1% from last year. And the reported EBITDA is at NOK 28 million compared to NOK 45 million last year. At the end of the quarter -- and the EBITDA margin is at 7.1%, down from 11.3%. At the end of the quarter, our net interest-bearing debt is at NOK 365 million, which equals to 3.25x rolling 12 months EBITDA. On the operational side, we had a good start of the quarter, we would say, with the growth in July and August, while September came in below last year. Positive development in Sweden, both in the store but also in e-com. It -- we are also happy to see that the cost savings that we made in personnel costs that was executed in May is now coming through in September. We have signed 1 more new franchisee, which will have the areas of Western Viken and parts of Telemark. We conducted our annual partner event in September. This is an event where we gather our 100-plus partner electrical installation companies and spend a few days with them to both present new products together with our suppliers and talk about how we are going to develop our relationship for the coming year. We continue to search for a strategic partner for SpotOn. And a lot of time has been spent during the quarter to prepare for peak season, which we are right in right now, which is about campaign planning, visiting the stores, making sure that they're ready for peak, and building up stock to have good enough availability for the fourth quarter. We look at visitors, basket and conversion, we see that visitors in our physical stores in Norway are up 9%. The average basket is somewhat down, minus 2% from last year, and conversion rate is also going down from 58% to 56%. Happy with the fact that more customers are visiting us this year than last year. Average basket is very much affected by decline in sales of EV chargers. Conversion, slightly down, but we see now that this is coming back up again. In Sweden, Q3 sales of NOK 39 million, which is up NOK 11 million, 39% versus last year. And the reported EBITDA is at minus NOK 4 million, down from NOK 1 million last year. We see an increase in sales, both in the physical store, which is NOK 7 million out of those NOK 11 million, but also in our online sales. So like-for-like sales in Sweden are up NOK 4 million. We have a new category or team and a web manager in place, which is helping us commercially in terms of sales in Sweden, and it's working very good. So marketing activities have been increased throughout the third quarter and pricing and assortment adjustments made to enhance the financial performance. At the start of September, our Managing Director left us. Well, I should say probably, for the time being, I'm Managing Director also for our Swedish business, and I intend to hold that position for at least half a year to make sure that I really get into the details of the Swedish business and make sure that when we employ a new Managing Director, it's the right candidate. Namron, share of business for the quarter is at 33%, which is slightly up from last year. Namron gross margin increases with 2.4% as we expected, mainly due to lower freight costs on the Namron products, continue to work with increasing the share of business of Namron in Sweden, and it is increasing. Last quarter, it went from 4.7% in Q2 to 5.3% in Q3. We need to talk more about EV chargers. Q3 sales is down 46%. It's at NOK 27 million. We said in the Q2 presentation that Easee was going to launch a new product, and they did in August, it took us a while to make the swap from the old product to the new, so we didn't start selling the new Easee product actually for maybe the 2, 3 last months of the quarter. But we are now comfortable with the stock levels of Easee, are at a good level, and we are happy with the swap that is made, and we see that customers are now starting to buy the new chargers. Q2 sales for EV chargers is -- sorry, Q2 sales was NOK 21 million, minus 55%. Easee sales in the quarter is down NOK 41 million, 90% compared to last year. So we haven't seen the increase in the third quarter, but hoping to do so in the fourth. Other chargers have a growth of NOK 19 million compared to last year for the quarter. If you look at solar, order entry of NOK 16 million. Most of the sales that we did, if not most of it, but almost half of the sales that we did in solar for the quarter is going to be delivered in this quarter, Q4. Consumer demand is lower than we had expected due to what we see the lower electricity prices and the fact that there's a higher interest rate. So they're holding back on the investment. So we are, therefore, refocusing our sales strategy to target the commercial buildings, while we continue to offer solar to consumers through SpotOn and of course, also our stores. Despite the fact that consumer demand is low, we are continuing to -- we are continuously optimistic of sales of solar going forward. Look at SpotOn, sales is at NOK 8 million. All categories grow except for EV chargers here as well. EV chargers being the largest part of sales for SpotOn last year. Gross margin has a positive development going from 20.2% last year to 25.8% this year. And we continue to look for other craftsman areas that we could include in SpotOn. We haven't found one yet. With that, I hand over to you, Jorgen.

Well, as Andreas started with, the total revenue increased by 0.6% for the group in the quarter. This is mainly driven by our new store in Sweden, which contributed NOK 7 million. But we are also seeing growth in the online sales in Sweden by a NOK 4 million. In our like-for-like stores in Norway, we had a decline of 3% in the quarter. The main reason for this is a negative development is still the reduction -- excluding the EV charger, the like-for-like growth in stores is 3.4%. Online sales in Norway declined by 6.1% in the quarter compared to last year. Excluding the EV chargers, the growth is 4.7%. Lower gross margin year-on-year is a result of both lower margin in Norway and the highest share of sales in Elbutik with lower margin. Gross margin in Norway of 36.8% is lower than last year due to lower product margin on normal products, higher sales to B2B driven by product sales and tougher campaigns. However, we have managed to keep gross margin to consumers in Norway at the same level as last year. Operating expenses increased by NOK 7 million. This is mainly driven by our new store and organization in Sweden. For our like-for-like operation in Norway, we have reduced the cost somewhat even with the general salary increase and the index adjustment of rental costs. We will continue with a rigid cost control and we look further for potential reductions. And the EBITDA decreased by NOK 17 million in the quarter. The EBITDA in Norway was NOK 33 million compared to NOK 44 million last year. And the EBITDA for Sweden was minus NOK 4 million compared to NOK 1 million last year. And this is, as I said, are a result of lower gross margin and higher operating expenses. Then Andreas will take you through the outlook.

Thank you. We see in the start of the fourth quarter that sales in Sweden continued to grow, both in the store and online. So a positive development in Sweden continues. Sales of EV chargers are picking up. We expect the decline in Q4 to be lesser than it has been for the last 2 quarters. The move of our Swedish operation, which was supposed to be done in October is now moved to December. We're moving our warehouse and head office in Sweden into new facilities where we have an autostore up and running in mid-December. As Jorgen was mentioning, rigid cost control is most important, and we continue to keep good control of our costs, and we will look for further possibilities to reduce costs going forward. It is a challenging market, but we see that footfall to our stores are increasing, and we see EV chargers having less decline. So we are positive that our concept stays strong and will do so also in tougher times. And that's what we had. So we will go continue with a Q&A session.

Inventory is up year-on-year, both in numbers and relative to cost of goods sold. Could you please share some light on why this has happened? You want to take it Jorgen?

Yes. It's different reasons. It's -- one is the solar, which is up NOK 50 million compared to last year at the end of September. And then we have also increased our assortment, which is contributing to a higher inventory. And the last reason is the -- now we have started to use our new RELEX system in order to buy more for the peak season. So we are now in a better place in terms of the peak sales coming now in October and November. So that's the 3 main reasons.

Yes. Another question, sales in Sweden is quite good during the quarter. Do you see the far higher growth as a trend that may continue? Do you see this as a more temporary development, please elaborate? Growth in Sweden, we definitely think will continue. Well, I mean, if we should probably talk about the like-for-like growth. We see that the online sales are growing as well as the new store, obviously. If we're going to have 40% growth in Q4, I don't know, but double-digit growth in Sweden definitely going forward. And so the good trend is what we believe something that will continue, whether or not it will be up to 40% or a bit lower. We don't know. But a lot of good things have been done in Sweden, and we don't see this as a temporary development, no. There is another question. What's your expectation for EV charger sales in Q4? As we said, the decline is going to be less, that's for sure, I would say, as sure as you can be. At least that's what we see in October that but we still think there will be a decline, probably not in the minus 40% range, but probably around, say, 20%, 25%, I would guess. Well, expectation for Sweden in Q4, I think I've mentioned that already. So I'll jump to the next one. Gross margin slipped 2.3% compared to last year versus a decline of only 0.5% in Q2. Is it possible to explain this deterioration in any way.

Yes. As I said, the main reason for the decrease in gross margin in mainly Norway then is the Namron product, which is still being hit somewhat by the freight, which is on the freight cost, which is included in the stock we have on Namron products. It's the exchange rate on the -- which have developed negatively in terms of the U.S. dollar. And it's -- we have a couple or a few actually bigger sales on to the B2B with low margin in the quarter. And we are -- because of the tough market, we have to do more aggressive campaigns, which is contributing negatively to the gross margin. But as I say, even given that, we have managed to keep the gross margin to the consumer. So it's to the B2B where it has been decreasing in the quarter.

And the fact Sweden has a larger share of business. Are there any -- how much stock is left of the EV chargers?

At the moment, it's 11 million. So we have managed to sell quite a lot actually during -- or since it was launched in September. So we don't see that as a risk. Given the speed we have now on the sales, it's -- we have sold all of that at the end of the year, yes.

Are there any potential risks of future customer claims related to possibility of a bankruptcy in Easee? Well, if products claim is made on an Easee charger, and there is no Easee left. We would, to be honest, we -- of course, we have looked into this, but there is not a clear answer today. What we can say is that the claim rate on Easee so far is extremely low. So the product is working just fine.

Yes. And I can also add that DNB have not -- they have said that it's not likely that it will be return of the product, which is already installed. So given that, I don't think that's a big risk.

Could you provide some insights into the profitability of the stores is there a wide range of performance within the portfolio? Well, what we can say that, yes, there is a wide range in terms of profitability, and it's all related to turnover. We have stores that vary from annual turnover from NOK 17 million at the smallest to roughly NOK 160 million for the largest. So a huge difference in terms of profitability on those. I think that's the most we can elaborate right now.

We can add that all of our stores are contributing positively.

Yes, all of the stores have a positive store contribution. So even the one that's turnover is NOK 17 million. Sales of EV chargers are down 46% year-on-year. Is this a combination of your product availability or weaker demand or both? I think both. Throughout the quarter, product availability has been going up and down. And we believe also that the market is down. However, now in start of Q4 with better availability on more brands. There is a tendency that the decline in the market is smaller than we thought. Why is inventory up NOK 410 million versus NOK 310 million in Q3? Did I get it right? If I believe I heard that sales in Norway was higher year-on-year in Norway, adjusted for EV chargers sales? Yes, you did. So if we exclude EV charger sales from last year comparisons -- or yes, if we exclude EV chargers, we have growth in Norway.

Both in stores and in the online sales.

Yes. Yes. Why is inventory up 410 million versus NOK 310 in Q3 2023?

I think we have already explained that. We have one more for B2B.

For the B2B segment, do you have any indications on order book development and expected activity in coming quarters? Well, to be honest, we have never had a lot of book building in terms of the orders. What we see is that there are -- the only area where we actually have that is in solar, which we haven't had before. It's not huge, but it's, as I said, almost half of sales in Q3 for solar is going to be delivered in Q4. So otherwise, when we talk to our electrician customers, they say that market is somewhat rougher, but there's still customers that need installation in the line of business that our customers are in. Entry into Sweden has undoubtedly been tougher than you expected. What are your thoughts on the road ahead? Yes, you are definitely right, [indiscernible]. It's been tougher than expected. Thoughts on moving forward is that we need to increase the volumes. We need to increase sales. That is being done now by better commercial team and the fact that the store is growing month by month. If the store will follow the pattern of our all the stores we have opened in Norway, we believe that volumes next year will be quite significantly up from this year. And then we need to work with the margin. We believe that the way to increase margin -- number one priority in Sweden is to increase sales of Namron, where the average gross margin is much higher. And then we need to, of course, keep good control of our costs, but the turnaround of Sweden into a profitable business again is about turnover and margin management. What is the leverage covenant level in Q4 '23 and Q1 '24?

Well, our covenant cannot be higher than 4 until Q2 2024. Yes. So it's 4.

What can be done to reduce debt on the balance sheet?

Well, we have a quite good plan mainly to reduce our inventory, of course, both in terms of the peak season, which will help us on that, but we will also go through our assortment and do more in reduction of SKUs in our assortment. So we have a quite clear plan on that going forward.

And we will pay NOK 20 million (sic) [ NOK 40 million ] on our long-term debt to DNB in December.

It's NOK 40 million.

NOK 40 million, sorry, NOK 40 million. Net income has now been negative the year-to-date. What is the plan to restore profitability? Well, Q4 is the largest quarter, the most profitable quarter, but we are a bit behind on net income. Target is, of course, to make money on net income as well. But we will see how the market develops. And -- but of course, I mean, I think what we've said in this presentation in terms of what we do with volume, margin and cost, that is what we do to make -- to restore the profitability.

And of course, to turn around the negative contribution from Sweden to more profitable -- yes more profitability.

How did your market share in Norway developed this quarter? Market shares nowadays are very tough to measure because EV chargers and solar are not in the official numbers. Therefore, we do not know, to be honest.

Someone is saying that we're doing a good job. Thank you.

I think that was the end of the questions. If there are no more, Mona, Katherine, I think we'll hand over to you.

All right. Well, I would like to thank everyone for attending the presentation today, and thank you, Andreas and Jorgen.