Europris ASA ($EPR)

Good morning, and welcome to Europris first quarter presentation. My name is Espen Eldal, and as usual, CFO, Stina Byre, will join me on stage in a few minutes to present the financial details for the quarter. And at the end of the presentation, we will have a Q&A session, and that will be managed by IR Officer, Trine Englokken, and please feel free to send in your questions as we speak. Before we start on today's agenda, I would like to thank ABG for hosting today's event. And I would also like to make a special welcome and good morning to those who have actually showed up in person here today and attending live this presentation. Let's have a look at the numbers. In the first quarter, we see a strong performance in Norway, and we see continued traction in Sweden. The reported numbers are solid, but please bear in mind that an early Easter boosted sales in the quarter with around 6 percentage points. And as we said a year ago, in retail, when timing of Easter is different from year to year, you have to evaluate us on the first year -- half year performance. But that said, the Q1 numbers are still very solid. And we had total sales growth of 12.3% with the like-for-like growth for Europris chain of 14.7% and 7.7% in local currency in ÖoB. EBIT was NOK 71 million, driven by improvements in both segments, and Stina will present more details on the financials in just a few minutes. I'm really satisfied with the operational performance we have delivered in the first quarter. Everything has actually worked according to plan. Everything from selecting the seasonal product range through the campaign plans to supply chain and, of course, also the in-store execution. So it's been a good quarter, where we have delivered strong operational performance. Sales growth is driven by increased volume in Norway, and we continued the positive development in Sweden from the fourth quarter with increased sales and also increased margins. Overall, I would say that the retail sector has enjoyed a good start to the new year, especially in Norway, we see strong growth. But we also clearly see that the consumers are still more price cautious. They are seeking value for money and campaigns have been an important driver for sales in both markets. In Norway, this has challenged the gross margin. And with more sales of consumables and also a higher campaign share, we have seen a decline in the margin, partly due to the timing of Easter. In Sweden, the key activity in the first quarter has been the remodeling of 9 stores and the continuation of the turnaround program. If I look at a little bit more detail into the Europris chain and the performance, I'd like to start to say that Europris, of course, we are the seasonal champion in Norwegian retail. And in the first quarter, we really demonstrated that we know how to deliver on the seasons. We saw high sales growth driven from increased traffic, but also from a higher basket per customer. And I think that the Europris concept remains very well positioned to benefit in a market where the consumers are more price conscious. The consumers seek value for money. We have attractive campaigns and that was especially significant during Easter, where we see extremely high campaign sales. Another element in the Europris concept is, of course, doing category upgrades. And every year, we upgrade some categories. And just before Easter this year, we launched new displays for pick & mix candy in most of our stores and that was very well received by the customers and was a really important success factor in the Easter sales we have this year. On the store network, we relocated 2 stores. We expanded 2 and modernized 3 during the quarter, and the pipeline now accounts 8 stores for the new store openings of which 4 are subject to local planning permissions. If we move to Sweden and look at the first quarter performance in ÖoB and also the turnaround plan, it's, of course, a great pleasure to see that we continue the positive momentum in Sweden, which we saw in the fourth quarter last year. Groceries that still accounts for the majority of sales, but we see that our customers respond very positively to the harmonized assortment we have introduced on nonfood and also the seasonal product range we had for Easter. And that drives sales and margin and has been an important success factor in the first quarter for Sweden. But it takes time to establish a seasonal destination. This is under our ownership, just the second Easter, and we continue to work, but we see clear signs of improvements. The Easter effect in Sweden is far below what we see in Norway, but still we see a significant uplift from previous years in ÖoB. Unlike for Europris, the growth in the first quarter was driven by higher customer traffic and also an increase in the basket. I think that the operational improvements, I talked about that from the fourth quarter, we see that it continues into the first quarter. And that is really important for the turnaround plan we are on. And of course, it's especially the in-store operations have been improved significantly. And we just gradually get better and better on campaign implementation and execution and also on the seasons. Every time we practice, every time we do it a little better, and that is just part of the Europris philosophy and energy, and we see that it works in Sweden. And as you know, we really get good traction on the things we are working to improve. Supply chain is also a key success factor in retail, and we have made tremendous improvements over the last year. And one of the key initiatives we have this year is to introduce the same supply chain system for both Sweden and Norway, and we have come far and we are actually going live with this new system already next week. When we look at the turnaround program, that continues according to plan, and we opened 9 stores modernized in the first quarter. So full upgrade of a total of 9 stores. And in the second quarter, we will actually speed this up. We will remodel 5 stores per month. So in total, 15 stores and the first 5 stores, they are actually ready to be opened tomorrow. So it's a big day for ÖoB in Sweden tomorrow. We are opening 5 new remodeled stores. So we are basically on track. And before summer holiday, we will actually have upgraded as much as close to 1/3 of the ÖoB store base. And the store remodeling, that is essential to reestablish ÖoB as a relevant and attractive shopping destination in Sweden. We see an uplift in both sales and margins. But that is not enough to make the turnaround in Sweden. We will also support this with local marketing initiatives as soon as we have upgraded enough stores in one region. And in the first quarter, we are focused on store upgrades in the regions of Stockholm and Gothenburg, which together with Malmö are the most populated areas in Sweden. And as you know from previous presentations, we have combined our sourcing efforts and aligned the product assortment across Europris and ÖoB, and as you heard today, we are also making good progress operationally. We are improving the in-store operations. We have improved supply chain, and we're also getting better and better on campaign planning and execution. And now we are moving forward at speed to modernize and remodel all the stores and improve the customer experience in Sweden. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made on the turnaround program. And I remain very confident in our 2028 target of SEK 5 billion in sales and a 5% EBIT margin for Sweden. I think I'll leave it at there and give the floor to Stina to present the financial details.

Thank you, Espen. In segment Norway, we saw a strong development in the first quarter, where an earlier timing of Easter has a positive impact on a seasonal concept like Europris. Sales increased by 13.7%, of which around half is estimated to come from the timing of Easter. Growth for the pure-play companies were from Lekekassen, while Strikkemekka continues to be impacted by a muted knitting market in Norway. Impact from Easter, combined with continued price-conscious consumers had a negative mix impact on the gross margin as this led to a sales growth that was largely from consumables and campaigns. This development does, however, contribute to footfall and higher volumes. And that is, of course, positive for sales and gross profit. Higher activity impacted the OpEx development, but scale effects from timing of Easter led to an improvement in the OpEx to sales ratio. All in all, this accumulated to a significant EBIT growth with an EBIT of NOK 145 million. Segment Sweden delivered solid improvement in the first quarter, and it was pleasing to see results from implemented actions. The group has focused on upgrading the nonfood range and to improve campaign execution, as Espen mentioned, both of which were large contributors to the sales growth. An earlier Easter is estimated to have contributed to around half of the growth of 6.6% in local currency. The gross margin improved, and last year's margin was negatively impacted by clearance sales. In local currency, the OpEx was marginally up and costs related to the store remodeling program was largely offset by costs related to the ERP project last year. A low OpEx growth, combined with strong top line growth, led to an improved OpEx to sales ratio. And this was also partly from scale effects from an earlier Easter. The segment still has a significant EBIT loss of SEK 74 million in the first quarter, but this is a solid improvement compared to last year. The earlier Easter this year means that an accurate year-on-year comparison will be possible first when we have the figures for the first half for both years. And this, of course, applies to both segments and the group. Total sales for the group were NOK 3.3 billion, up 11.6% in constant currency, of which around half is estimated to come from the timing of Easter. And this will have a correspondingly negative impact on the second quarter. The gross margin was 39.5%, up 0.8 percentage points and down 0.2 percentage points when we exclude impact from unrealized currency. The OpEx to sales ratio improvement of 2 percentage points was again impacted by scale effects from timing of Easter. Overall, the development led to significant improvement in EBIT, which amounted to NOK 71 million, up from the loss of NOK 37 million last year. Net financial expenses were positively impacted by gains on hedging contracts and on unrealized gains on interest rate swaps. The total positive impact was NOK 18 million this year compared to a negative impact of NOK 6 million last year. Net profit to parent was NOK 4 million, up from the loss of NOK 80 million last year. Cash flow from operating activities are normally negative in the first quarter due to inventory buildup ahead of spring and summer, but it was less negative this year. And that was from higher earnings from favorable inventory movements partly from timing of Easter and from timing of accounts payable. The group has entered into a new 3 plus 1 plus 1 year loan agreement with our 3 existing banks with an increase of facilities of NOK 1 billion. And this reflects the group's expansion over the past years, and it ensures adequate financial flexibility to support future operations, investments and distribution of dividends to shareholders. Cash and liquidity reserves at the end of the first quarter were NOK 2.6 billion. And then I will hand it back to Espen to give you the outlook.

Thank you, Stina. I think we have delivered a very strong start to the new year. But please bear in mind, as we opened up with, that the Easter effect is positive in the first quarter and will have a corresponding negative effect on the second quarter. Looking at the outlook, we live in an uncertain geopolitical landscape. And inflation in Norway has remained higher than expected. And with the crisis in the Middle East, that has major impact on global economy and inflation is expected to increase and when we started the year, there was expectations of rate cuts in Norway that has been replaced by expectations for rate hikes. And higher and more volatile energy prices will impact cost items for all players in the market. And we in Europris, we have already seen an increase in cost for especially distribution to the stores following the high fuel prices. For sea freight, we have not experienced any negative effects from the Middle East conflict yet. And we have secured our rates for the next year and also the volumes we need and the capacity on the boats up until next summer. We see that salaries are increasing, but it's increasing more than inflation, and it's still expected real wage growth in both Norway and Sweden. But we think that the consumers may adopt a little bit more cautious approach to spending. And we are operating a low-price concept, selling everyday products that everyone needs. And both Europris and ÖoB should be well positioned to benefit in the market with more price cautious consumers. We have many traffic drivers for our stores, low prices and campaigns. That is, of course, the backbone in the concept, while seasons creates additional needs for the consumers. And short term, the important spring and summer season are just about to start and with nice weather in Scandinavia this week, we get the kick-start to that season, and we are well -- very well planned. We have received all good on time, and we are ready for this very important season for Europris. Long term, we remain confident in our turnaround plan for Sweden and the targets we have for increased profitability in 2028. So with that, I will actually invite Stina back on stage, and we will open up for questions. So Trine, I guess you have received a few.

I've received a few. Should we just check if there are any questions in the -- among the audience.

Joakim [indiscernible] from Swedish [indiscernible] Market. I was just going to ask you if you are as focused on seasonal product ranges for ÖoB as you are with Europris. I did not understand fully that you focused so much on seasonal products for Europris. So does that go as much for ÖoB as for Europris Norway. And secondly, I was also going to ask you what about the turnaround -- what about refurbishments of the stores in Sweden? Could you explain a little bit more what have been your underlying thoughts with that? Is it regarding store design? Is it product ranges, if you could comment a little bit on that?

Yes. Thank you. It's good questions. Yes, the first answer to the seasonal question is, yes, we will have the same seasonal focus in both Norway and Sweden. And that is basically part of the whole plan that also goes for the stores. We are aligning as much as possible. And our experience up until now is that we can align more than we actually thought. So we are making the nonfood product range, the seasonal focus, the exact same in the countries. That gives us scale both on the marketing and also on the sourcing of the products, and it's easier to manage from a system perspective. And in the stores, we are doing a full redesign of the stores. And basically, we are making them just like the Europris stores. The Swedish ÖoB stores are a little bit bigger than Europris, which is just a big, very good Europris. And I think that the remodel stores we have opened up in Sweden so far, actually looking better than what we see in Europris. And we are remodeling the full store. We are reshuffling the different categories. We are starting with the destination categories. So those categories you come for. So when you open -- go to the store now, you will get the most selling categories at the front of the store. So we start the shopping early for the customers. Then they find what they come for, they relax, they open up and are more interested in doing and open to doing an add-on purchase. So we are remodeling everything, and we are basically for all nonfood categories, we are saying that everything should be the same, and we have some very good exceptions, but it's very few. On the groceries, ÖoB has a larger share of that. And of course, we remain loyal to the Swedish brands that the consumers are used to. But we are also introducing some common private label brands in these categories.

Then we have some questions from the web. Ole Martin Westgaard, DNB Carnegie. The mix, what was the consumables share in Q1? And how did it change year-on-year?

Well, as we have explained, the share of consumables did increase, but it doesn't really make a meaningful comparison until we have done the full first half because of the timing of Easter. But in general, over the past few years, we have seen that the share of consumables has increased as consumers are also more price conscious and we expect that this will likely continue also going forward.

And on the private label, what was the private label share in Q1?

We had good growth both for brands and for private label. So it was not a big change.

And to sourcing prices, how are purchasing prices from China developing?

It's developing kind of flat, I would say. We see some small reductions on some items, but that is outweighed by increases in others. Now especially, we see that raw materials related to oil is increasing, and we see increases on plastic packaging, plastic products and so on. So overall, it's no major impact. And that's -- the small savings we have actually gotten is basically on some seasonal items, especially for Christmas.

And the logistics, have you seen any impact on deliveries of goods?

We have not seen any impacts from the Middle East crisis on deliveries. Sea freight is going as normal. And for us, it has been around Africa for quite some years, and it's not affected by what's happening in the Hormuz Strait.

And the freight agreement, can you comment on the commercial terms of the new freight agreement, its duration and how rates compare with last year?

We would say that it's competitive rates. We are satisfied with the negotiations we have and the rates are secured up until next summer. So it's a pretty long agreement, a little bit longer than usual. And the most important thing is, of course, that you secure the slots on the ships, so you are secured that you get your products back home. But I believe that the terms are competitive, but I will not comment on the exact price.

And the like-for-like growth, could you please break down like-for-like growth in Norway and Sweden into volume, price and basket effects?

We don't disclose the exact figures, but I can shed some color on it. If we look at Europris, then the growth is purely volume driven. And if we look at Sweden, it's both volume and also price mix as we have had higher growth in the sales of nonfood that also has a mix impact on the basket.

And Sweden, how does the grocery share on refurbished stores compared to stores that are not upgraded?

It varies between the stores. We see sales uplift, but not only on -- we see uplift both on the consumables and on the nonfood. In general, for the first quarter, we saw that the growth for nonfood was higher both for the upgraded and for the non-upgraded stores.

Yes. Sigurd Flaa from Nordea also asked about ÖoB stores in Sweden. How was the gross margin in the non-remodeled ÖoB stores? And how do you expect the sustainability of the Q1 margin improvement for the non-remodeled ÖoB stores in 2026?

A very forward-looking question. It's a good one. I would say that we see an uplift in the gross margin, both from the remodeled stores and from the non-refurbished stores in the first quarter. And that is basically following what Stina explained that we did some sales and realizations last year that impacted the gross margin negatively. We believe that the key plan in our turnaround program for Sweden is, of course, to lift sales, but also to lift gross margins. And we believe that we will lift gross margin also in the non-refurbished stores for this year and next year. And that is important because we're going to shift the product mix towards more nonfood sales and also more seasonal sales, which carry a higher margin. So we are putting the focus on that. And if we don't manage to increase the gross margin, we will not be successful. So we need to increase it for both the refurbished stores and the non-refurbished we will need to lift it more. And I think we will lift it more for the refurbished stores.

And the last question from Ole Martin Westgaard. What are you -- what margin are you paying on the new bank facility? How does this compare to your previous facility?

We don't disclose that of commercial reasons. I think the banks would not be too happy with that. But we are very happy with our cooperation and to have secured an increased financing with all of our 3 banks.

Hakon Fuglu, SEB, can you quantify the dilutive Easter effect on gross margin for the group and for Norway?

It's not possible to give an exact figure on that. Again, we need to come back to the first half before we can see. But it has had an impact on the product mix. So I expect some of it to be positive for the second quarter.

And Fuglu also asked on the freight agreement, can you quantify the impact of the renewed freight agreement?

It's -- we're not going to quantify it. I think the most important thing is that we have secured the flow of goods. So we have supply then. We get the goods we need to sell in the stores and that is the most important thing. And I think it's also at competitive rates compared to market and also compared to what we've seen before.

And the last one from Fuglu. How does the first pilot stores for ÖoB from 2025 sales developed so far compared to what you reported in Q4?

They continue to perform well. They are performing above the chain average. So we are satisfied with the development. And they are also, of course, impacted by Easter. So the first quarter is a little bit mixed and difficult to compare and we have to evaluate after the first half year. But we are all set and all good and happy with the pilot stores and also the 9 new remodeled stores.

And Petter asked gross margin in Norway declined and you note that consumers remain price conscious with promotional activity acting as a key sales driver. Do you expect a higher share of campaign activity or more aggressive promotions going forward?

I think we expect that campaigns and low prices value for money will be important for the consumers also going forward. And I think we are a very relevant destination for those kind of products. That will put some pressure on the gross margin if the sales shifts towards more groceries. But when it comes to the effect, gross margin effects of campaigns alone, that is up to us to model. And we need to balance the campaigns, making sure we have the right balance between brands and private label products and also consumables and nonfood products in order to get the right gross margin from the campaign. So the campaign, that's on us and when it comes to what the consumers are buying and if they're shifting more towards groceries, that is a little bit on the market.

Yes. And yes, Hakon Fuglu sent another question. What will be your strategy for 2026 in Norway: gaining market share or lifting margins?

We would like both, wouldn't we? We will, of course, focus on growth. If you are a retailer, you need to grow, you need to compensate for increased costs. So we have to do that. But at the same time, we need to balance the margins. One of the strength of Europris concept has been that we are profitable. We've been that for every year, but we have still been able to grow every year. So we will just continue doing what we have done for the past 35 years and just try to do it a little bit better.

And the last question comes from Phillihp Bjerke, Pareto. I think we touched up on it, but I'll send it through. Can you give some flavor on the financial performance of remodeled ÖoB stores versus non-remodeled?

We gave quite a lot of flavor on that in -- when we presented the fourth quarter results. And this first quarter -- now the first quarter doesn't add really much value to that as we have just -- we have remodeled 9 stores during that quarter and we have the Easter effect, which make it less comparable. So I think the best benchmark is to look at what we presented during the fourth quarter presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much and enjoy the summer.