Elektroimportøren AS (ELIMP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning. Then we're pleased to welcome you to this third quarter presentation with Elektroimportøren, represented by the CEO, Andreas Niss; and CFO, Jorgen Wist. So with that, I'll give the word to you, Andreas. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Trond. And good morning, everyone, and thank you for attending this Q3 presentation. I will take you through the highlights of the quarter and the trading summary, and then Jorgen will follow up with the financials. And after that, we have a brief outlook for the rest of the year, and we'll finish off with a Q&A session. Total sales for the quarter were at NOK 407 million, which is 1.7% higher than last year. Like-for-like sales are down 1.1%. We managed to increase our gross margin with 1.4%, ending at 36.7% compared to 35.3% last year. Expenses are reduced with NOK 7 million from Q3 last year, giving us an improvement in OpEx to sales ratio of 2.2%. This has been made possible through increased efficiencies across the organization, including rigorous planning of manpower in stores adapted to expected customer flow. We have also cut out a major B2B customer activity that we had last year. The reported EBITDA came in at NOK 30 million, which is up NOK 2 million from last year. The EBITDA is highly affected by a write-down of our solar inventory of NOK 13 million. That gives us an adjusted EBITDA of NOK 44 million, which is up NOK 15 million from NOK 29 million last year. The net profit of NOK 33 million, which is up NOK 40 million compared to last year, is positively affected by the release of a NOK 44 million earn-out related to the Elbutik acquisition and negatively affected by the write-down of the solar inventory. If we adjust for these 2 elements, the net profit has increased by NOK 9 million for the quarter. We started off the quarter with good growth in July. It got more modest, but still growth in August, and then we had a slight decline in total sales in September. Smart home products and EV charges represent the highest growth in the period, and we have managed to increase gross margin percentage in every month of the quarter, and this, together with a rigid cost control, have improved our bottom line. We had the pleasure of opening store #28 in Norway this time in Bergen late August. This is a well sought after opening, and it contributes good to strengthen our market presence in the Bergen area and it has been great to finally open a new story, again, having waited 2 years since the last new store opening we have had in Norway. Norwegian stores, there has been no major movements in foot flow conversion rates or average basket for the quarter. Visitors and basket sizes are slightly up and conversion rates are somewhat weaker than last year. SpotOn sales for the quarter ended at NOK 8 million, which is on par with last year's sales. In Sweden, things are moving in the right direction. We have taken actions to improve our gross margins whilst continuing to grow. The local B2B offering in Veddesta in Stockholm is working very well and B2B now have actually a higher share of business in our store in Q3. We continue to work with campaign management and price and assortment adjustments to adapt our offering to the Swedish consumer and professional customers. And we also continued to manage costs carefully. For the quarter, Elbutik delivers an EBITDA of 0 versus a loss of NOK 4 million last year, and adjusted EBITDA with NOK 1 million versus minus NOK 3 million last year. During the quarter, we have extended our Namron range within electro materials and heating products. All products have been well received by our customers, and now we are eagerly awaiting the colder weather. We have managed to increase share of Namron business, both in Norway and Sweden, and we continue to work with further product development and have a healthy pipeline of launches going into 2025. Solar, the solar market continues to be very challenging. Despite a good volume of new product requests coming in, it seems the end consumers and customers are being cautious in making the final decision to place the order. Orders for the quarter is down by almost 80% to NOK 3 million and the order backlog sold not delivered is at NOK 4 million. Due to the challenging market and price pressure on products, we have made a write-down of NOK 13 million of our solar inventory. Total gross inventory at the end of the quarter of NOK 33 million. We continue to push for sales and decreased stock levels going forward and hope that this write-down is the final that we have to do -- the only one that we have to do on this, but the market is tough, but there are signs of recovery coming into '25. With that, I will hand over to Jorgen for the financials.

Thank you, Andreas. We start with the revenue, which has varied a bit through the quarter. We had growth in both July and August, while September had a slight decline. This resulted in revenue of NOK 407 million in the quarter, corresponding to an increase of 1.7% compared to last year. It was growth in revenue in both Norway and Sweden. In Norway, the increase was driven by online and revenue from solar projects, which were finalized in the period. In Sweden, the growth was driven by the store. The like-for-like revenue growth in Norway was minus 1.1% in the quarter. B2C revenue increased by 4.8%, while B2B revenue decreased by 2.2%. Online revenue in Norway increased by 4.2% in the quarter compared to last year. The store in Elbutik contributed with NOK 9 million in revenue for the quarter, while online revenue in Elbutik was NOK 32 million. B2B revenue in Sweden in the quarter are included NOK 7 million. Other revenue is mainly a solar project invoiced from our project department and not sold through our stores. Solar orders were NOK 3 million in the quarter, down from NOK 16 million last year. However, invoiced solar projects in the quarter were NOK 9 million. Gross profit for the quarter was NOK 150 million, up from NOK 141 million last year. This translated into a gross margin of 36.7% compared with 35.3% in the same period last year. In Norway, the gross margin was 38.6% compared to 36.8% last year. The margin has increased because of shift towards B2C with higher margin and the price adjustments in the period. The margin in Sweden is 20.9% compared to 21.1% last year. However, the margin increased from 18.5% in Q2. The lower margin compared to last year is a result of a B2B share of business increasing from 9% last year to 18% in Q3. Margin from both B2C and B2B is increasing in Sweden. The exchange rate and freight costs continues to keep pressure on the margin. Hence, we will follow that closely going forward. Operating expenses are reduced with NOK 7 million in the quarter compared to last year. OpEx to sales ratio at 25.8% compared to 28.0% last year. We think it will be necessary to continue with the same cost control going forward as well. Reported EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 30 million, up from NOK 28 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 44 million, up from NOK 29 million last year. The improvement is driven by improved gross profit of NOK 8 million together with cost reduction of NOK 7 million. The adjustment of NOK 14 million is mainly related to the write-down of solar products of NOK 30 million, reflecting the challenging market situation. We have agreed with DNB to exclude the write-down of solar in the last 12 months and GAAP EBITDA for the covenant calculation. Net change in cash for the period was NOK 13 million. Cash flow from operation was NOK 53 million, affected by positive EBITDA and reduction in working capital during the quarter. Cash flow from investment of NOK 7 million are mainly maintenance CapEx, SpotOn and our new store in Straume. Cash flow from our financing of minus NOK 33 million consists of lease payments and interest paid. As a result of this, we have available cash of NOK 97 million at the end of third quarter. In addition, we have an unused overdraft facility of NOK 120 million. Excluding the IFRS 16 effects, net interest in bearing debt was NOK 151 million at the end of the quarter compared to NOK 365 million last year. Then I hand over to Andreas again, who will take you through the events after the period and the outlook.

Yes. Thank you, Jorgen. Well, market conditions continue to be challenging, especially in the B2B market. The consumers show some positive reactions to good campaigns but are otherwise still selective about their spending. However, so far in the fourth quarter, we have managed to grow sales in both countries. On the 4th of November, we opened our store #29 in Norway, this time in Skøyen in Oslo. It has a great location, great visibility and the opening was a success. And now we have established a second store in the Oslo area, which we are very happy with, and this will a good contribution to our store portfolio. With that, we start with the Q&A session. Trond, has there been any questions coming in?

Yes. I can see there's a question here coming in. First part of the question, what was the revenue from EV charges this quarter?

I don't have it in my head, to be honest. I recall growth of 8% for the quarter, but I don't have the actual number of total sales, 8% growth.

Okay. Next part of the question, B2C outgrew B2B this quarter. Do you expect this trend to continue?

Well, in the fourth quarter, we usually have a larger share of business for consumers B2C, mainly because of the activities in November and Black Week. It is also a big quarter for B2B. But the trend so far, at least in Q3 and start of Q4, has been that there is -- it's tougher to generate growth in B2B than in B2C for the moment.

Yes. Yes. And as we already said, the market for B2B is tough at the moment, and we will think it will continue to be so at least in the coming quarters.

Yes. And the last part of the question was, can you add some more color on what's driving the margin uplift?

Yes. As we said, there are 2 explanations. First of all, it's the shift towards B2C and the other one is the price adjustments, which we have done 1st of July, which we see is coming through. And that we have done on all of our products, of course, not same increase in all of them, but it's done on most of our products.

And of course, our category managers works every day with pricing to consumers. At B2B, prices are more or less set 2 times a year. B2C, pricing is something that we work with every day, every week, and with an even more focus on getting the right margins, that's the day-to-day job that they do, which has been successful.

And I think that covered also the -- there was another question exactly about the same increase in gross margin. I think that's -- you answered that now. So let's see. Can you please comment on the earn-out release? Are there any additional provisions for this?

No, there is no other additional provision. That was the whole provision. It's agreement with Elbutik or the owner -- previous owner of Elbutik, which -- it was a certain level which we need to reach within 2025. And based on the updated prognosis and the budget for 2025, we see now that, that target will not -- will be or most likely will not be reached. So that's why we have released that provision in total.

Yes. No more questions at the moment. If there are any more, please ask them in the chat function, please. Otherwise, we'll -- maybe we'll hold for a minute and then if there are no more questions, then we'll just wrap up there.

Well, there seems to be some, Trond, at least I see what are the sales prognosis for the Skøyen store? Is this expected to reach parity with [ our ] location at any point? I would say the expectations for the Skøyen store is that it -- when it's up and running on year 2, 3, 4, it's going to be larger than an average store. And the average store is roughly NOK 50 million a year. I believe it triple that and more. I don't think -- I think and I believe we stay #1, but I believe in time, over a few years, Skøyen will be competing with Billingstad and Åsane about the #2 position.

Thank you. I saw there were 3 questions coming in at the same time pretty much. The next one was, could you explain the earn-out part of net financial items? Was that covered like...

I think that we already -- I think we explained that at the moment and the question, I think we have already explained that one.

Yes. And then there was -- the last one that I can see here is, could you please give a little flavor to the revenue development during the quarter and how you see the development so far this quarter...

Yes. Well, revenue development, it was almost double digit in July, slower in August, and then we had a slight decline in sales in September, mainly -- well, yes, mainly due to lack of solar sales in September. All of the other categories were actually performing okay in September. Start of this quarter, actually, October, we must say, has been similar -- well, we've had growth so far in both Sweden and Norway. It's -- yes, that's what we can comment on, I think.

Okay. Great. Thanks. I can't see any other questions right now. There may be more. So let's just hold on for a little bit.

I think we call it there, Trond. Thank you very much everyone for attending.

Thanks so much.

Thank you very much, and have a nice day.