Elektroimportøren AS (ELIMP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Q1 webcast of Elektroimportoren. Presenting today will be CEO, Andreas Niss; and CFO, Jorgen Wist. [Operator Instructions] And with that, I will leave the word to Andreas and Jorgen.

Thank you for that, Mona-Cathrin, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for dialing in. I will start with running you through an operational summary of the first quarter, and then Jorgen will give you some more detail on the financials, and we'll finish off with an outlook for the coming months and a Q&A session. We're happy to report that Q1 is the third consecutive quarter with year-on-year increased sales, increased gross margin and increased profits. Sales growth is consistent across countries, customer segments and major product categories. However, the quarter started a bit slow with January having single-digit growth, but then in February, sales picked up and helped by a new store opening and Easter falling in April. This year, sales grew with double digits in March. We had a strong increase in visitors, and that's the main reason for the sales growth. But the general price increase that we made in January and improved category management was also helping sales to grow. This has also impacted our gross margin in a positive way compared to last year. And in March, we opened store #30 in Norway, this time in Lillehammer and both professional and consumer customers have given the store a positive welcome. We're very happy to see strong revenue and margin growth in Sweden, making our business -- making our Swedish business contribute with positive EBITDA for the quarter. Total revenue was at NOK 396 million, which is up NOK 46 million from last year and an increase of 13.1%. Like-for-like growth was at 8.8% and online sales in Norway grew by 13.2%. Sweden as a whole had an increase of 21.1%. Gross margin is up 1.3% from 34.7% last year to 36% this quarter. Operating expenses is at NOK 105 million, which is up NOK 9 million from last year. This is mainly driven by the 3 more stores that we didn't have last year. However, the OpEx to sales ratio is down 1% from 27.5% to 26.5%. We delivered an EBITDA of NOK 36 million, which is up 50% from NOK 24 million last year. Net profit for the quarter is at minus NOK 8 million, which is an increase of NOK 3 million from last year. Looking at our key strategic areas, we continue to focus on being a total provider of electrical installation material delivered through an omnichannel solution by our specialist employees. We support this -- we support our profitability with the constant product development of our own brands and making sure we're ready to gain from the coming market opportunities that lies in the electrification of our society. Last but not least, we continue to look for new store openings. And for the quarter, 2025, we opened 1 more store, as I said, in Norway, and we are in negotiations for 3 more stores with possible openings in 2025. We have continued with the process of integrating SpotOn back into the operations of Elektroimportoren, and our specialist position is proven by growth across customer segments and market share increase in B2B and the fact that 72% of our customers rate us as having employees that are very highly skilled. The Namron share of business increased to 35% in Norway and was above 10% in Sweden. We see growth in all major categories and EV chargers has reentered the top growth position for this quarter. With more than 20% sales growth in Sweden and gross margin growth at almost 30%, we are happy that step-by-step, we're making solid progress towards profitability in Sweden. In Sweden, we grew sales by 21% and gross margin with 25%. EBITDA is lifted from minus NOK 3 million to plus NOK 1 million for the quarter. And having delivered positive EBITDA also in Q4 last year, this is the first time we delivered a positive EBITDA in Q1, which is usually the weakest quarter of the year. So we're happy to see that all KPIs are moving in the right direction for Elbutik. In Norway, visitors to our stores are up 12%, new store opening and our new store opening campaign and of course, 2 new stores compared to last year were the main drivers for this growth. Average basket had an increase of 1.5%, whilst conversion rate decreased with 1.12%, still high 53.7%. B2C sales were up 13.5% and B2B sales increased with 12.8%, giving B2B a 54% share of business in Norway for the quarter. The perception of being a specialist with highly skilled employees is slightly increased to 72%, up from 70% last year. And with that, I'll hand over to Jorgen, who will take you through the financials.

Thank you, Andreas. We start with the revenue, which has increased in both countries and all sales channels during the quarter. This resulted in revenue of NOK 396 million, corresponding to an increase of 13.1% compared to last year. The like-for-like revenue growth was 8.8% in the quarter. As the Easter was in April this year compared to March last year, we had a positive Easter effect of approximately NOK 15 million compared to last year. Adjusted for Easter effect, the like-for-like growth was approximately 5%. The quarter started with a strong performance in our consumer business, while B2B picked up in the second half of the quarter. B2C revenue increased by 13.5%, while B2B revenue increased by 12.8%. Online revenue in Norway increased by 13.2% in Q1 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 29 million. B2B revenue in Sweden in the quarter is included with NOK 9 million. Gross profit for the period was NOK 142 million, up from NOK 121 million last year. This translated into a gross margin of 36% compared with 34.7% in the same period of 2024. Overall, margins were impacted by improved category and campaign management, such as improved purchase prices, supplier bonuses and price adjustments. In Norway, the gross margin was 37% compared to 36.1% last year. The margin in Sweden is 26.9% compared to 21.6% last year. Margin on both B2C and B2B continues to increase in Sweden. Operating expenses in sales channels have increased with NOK 9 million compared to last year. This is mainly a result of 3 new stores in Norway and general salary increase. Other operating expenses are in line with last year. Total operating expenses of NOK 105 million is same as in Q1 2023, but with 4 new stores, general cost and salary increases over 2 years. This efficiency improvement is a result of the cost focus over the last year. OpEx to sales ratio at 26.5% compared to 27.5% last year. The group continues to maintain a rigid cost control, but the comparable will be tougher going forward due to the cost savings during the last year. Reported EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 36 million, up from NOK 24 million last year. As you can see, both countries and sales channels contribute positively to the increase in EBITDA. The negative effect from other is mainly provisions and nonrecurring items. EBITDA margin in Q1 was 9%, up from 6.8% last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 37 million, up from NOK 27 million last year. The improvement is driven by improved gross profit of NOK 21 million. EBITDA, excluding IFRS 16 effects for the quarter was NOK 10 million, up from NOK 1 million last year. Net change in cash for the period was minus NOK 44 million. Increase in working capital is mainly a result of new store and seasonal movements. Cash flow from investment of NOK 7 million are mainly maintenance CapEx and our new store in Lillehammer. Cash flow from financing of minus NOK 21 million consists of lease payments. The IFRS 16 interest expense of NOK 6 million relating to lease payments are included in net financials. As a result of this, we have available cash of NOK 95 million at the end of first quarter. In addition, we have an unused overdraft facility of NOK 120 million. Excluding IFRS 16 effects, net interest-bearing debt was NOK 150 million at the end of Q1, which corresponds to 1.9x the last 12 months NGAAP EBITDA. The loan facilities had a net interest-bearing debt EBITDA covenant of 4 at the end of Q1. Then I hand over to Andreas again, which will take you through the events after the period and the outlook.

Yes. Thank you, Jorgen. First step of integrating SpotOn 100%, as I mentioned, into Elektroimportoren has been completed. We are buying back the -- we have bought back the 8% of shares previously held by our employees. So Elektroimportoren is again the sole owner of SpotOn. We expect the cost savings from this to come through in the second half of the year. On the 30th of April, we held our Annual -- General Annual Meeting. Sales in Q2 so far has been positive. April is, of course, a bit slowed by Easter, but otherwise, the positive trends from Q1 have continued. We have also decided to show you to eliminate the Easter effects, we have reported January to April sales of NOK 515 million. This shows then a growth of 8.3% versus the same period last year. So 8.3% growth then with Easter in both years. We expect the market to continue to be uncertain with continued low consumer confidence. We follow the sales of homes and as we believe this to be one of the most important macroeconomic factors for us. And as of now, we continue to be cautious, optimistic for the coming 3 to 6 months. Yes. And with that, we open up for questions.

Can you comment on the performance of the new stores in Norway? Yes. The new stores in Norway, the 3 last -- it's #2 in Bergen, it's Skøyen and it's Lillehammer. All 3 of them are performing well and as expected. So we see a similar trend as we have done with other stores we've opened previously. But of course, out of these, Skøyen is the largest one, and then we have Bergen and then Lillehammer, but Lillehammer Lilamer is also the one we opened last. So -- but we're happy with the performance of those stores. And yes, it seems like they're trading as we wanted to. Another question is, what was the revenues from EV chargers in the quarter? And how does this compare to last year? To be honest, I don't have it in mind. I said that EV chargers has the largest growth, which is a fact. But I cannot right now recall exactly the growth number, but I will -- my guesstimate is that it was around 40%, which is quite a good growth. I don't have the actual number of how much is it. No more questions. I think we'll give it just half a minute or something to see if there are any more questions. There's one. Could you provide some more details on the derivatives loss of NOK 8 million?

It's NOK 6 million, and it's the result of the change in both euro and U.S. dollar. So it's no -- we are buying derivatives every month. So it's just a change in the exchange rate, which is the result...

How should we think about Sweden going forward? As we present, Sweden is moving in the right direction. we continue to work with the concept to work with efficiency, to work with our marketing. And as of now, that's where we are. The store is moving in the right direction. We're increasing sales quite much, both online and offline. And as we've said before, we just want to make sure that when we have a profitable business model for the store, the new evaluation will be made in terms of a further store rollout or not. But that's what we can say. Well, Mona-Cathrin, if there are no more questions, I think we should wrap this up.

Sounds good. Well, we'd like to thank everyone for listening in. And if you have any questions, you can always reach out to Andreas and Jorgen.

Absolutely. Thank you, everyone, for calling in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes. Thank you.