Kamux Oyj (KAMUX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome on board. Kamux, Q3 review. My name is Tapio Pajuharju. I'm the CEO. And next to me, we have Marko Lehtonen, our CFO.

Good morning.

I think all in all, rather happy with the performance, and we have a solid and a certain areas even a strong report. And I think I would like to pass my special thanks for the team who has done a very good job for the review and the report. All in all, I think during the third quarter, we also passed the benchmark of more than 0.5 million cars sold. I don't know the exact date, but somewhere in the month of September, we were there. And I think that's, in a way, one of the benchmarks we've been dreaming off and now we are past that. At the same token, I think we had a bit of an anniversary feelings in some of the stores, and we renovated our Niittykumpu store, and we made a great return of the famous Volkswagen Beetle, and that's not going to be touring throughout Finland and later in Germany and Sweden as well. We have a bit of an event. And the ones who are from the capital region, I would highly welcome to visit our Niittykumpu store. It's not fully new, but it's been renovated. The offering has been updated, and there are some nice surprises. So please have a look and visit over there. All in all, we'll have a bit of a deep dive on the Q3. We'll go through the positioning a bit about the highlights of the performance. And then not a sneak peek on the strategy, but we'll maybe state on what we'll be working on. And later in the spring, we will come out with the update the strategy. Marko will have a deeper look on the financial development, and then we'll share our feeling about the outlook and then on the financial targets. So let's get going. On the vision, I think we are still working on the strategy, but this is unchanged, and we will keep it like that going forward. And I think later on when we go through the report, yes, it's a far-fetched target, but it's not an impossible thing to do. So we will keep this on the agenda. All in all, I think volume is extremely good, especially in Finland and all in all, all-time high volumes throughout the markets. And then operating profitability is making a gradual improvement on that respect. Revenue increased almost 8%. And I think with the constant currencies, especially the Swedish krona impacted, we would have been above double-digit growth roughly on 10%. And for the ones who will go deeper in the report, you will notice that for the Q3, I think the impact of the Swedish krona was roughly SEK 6 million. And then for the first 9 months, roughly SEK 14 million in that respect. Gross profit increasing nicely, and now we've been taking steps and they are gradually coming through on that respect. Adjusted operating profit also reacting favorably and maybe steps on the area. Shell room sales, I think we are rather happy with the like-for-like stores having an excellent growth. That's an impact that we're offering. Our activities are really working on the markets. Then the integrated services, that's a bit of a, I would say, polarized picture on the Kamux Plus insurance and other related items have been rather good. Penetration has been improving, and we've been having an excellent if not good performance. On the financial services, we've been hampered with the margin, and that's becoming visible our profitability. So it's a bit of a twofold street. Then on the volume, I think that's where we've been rather good, both in Germany and Finland and Sweden, mediocre. I will come back on that one. But all-time high volumes on Kamux's history in that quarter. So that's a good and especially Finland being a star in the performance. Then the market, I think they've been also gradually coming back and most of the market is now favorable, still somewhat polarized. And I think even in Germany, where we now see favorable development, the northern part of Germany is still not equally strong as the rest of Germany, and that's bit of hampering our performance in Germany, but all in all, good. Then on the market on the operating areas, Finland, steady growth, and we've been ahead of the growth rather well. Sweden becoming favorable. We'll be not up to the market. And I think it's extremely polarized. The #1 in the Swedish market has done excellent job if not better. And then the rest of the pack is in between. Germany, steady growth, and we've been beating the Northern Germany market. But overall, we are just roughly at par with the total development in Germany. But all in all, rather happy with the performance. And then on the volumes, we've been doing good, but as well maybe you have already read the report, then you realize that the average sales price of the car has been taken a small dent downwards, but volumes have been growing quite nicely. And maybe that's a feature of the current economic environment, people are a bit careful what to buy, how to buy, and that's why they have opted for the more economical versions of the cars. Then all in all, on the marketplace, no major change. Number one, we're still #1. We are just out of the podium. But I think we are not that far away that we cannot be dreaming of the #1 going forward. Then all in all, I would say, rather steady development on the salt pieces. Also, car prices all in all, stable. But the consumer we're making choices. They've been opting for the slightly more economical version that's visible in all of the markets. Then on the impact of Swedish krona, we already discussed. Volume growth in Finland, I think we've been having a bit of a slow start for the year, but we've been gradually gaining speed. And now I think the last quarter was excellent in many ways, and the speed was even going up through the quarter. Sweden for the first 2 months, we were having a bit of a lack of cars and then our inventory was not in a perfect shape. And the portfolio was not up to the market demand. On the last leg of the quarter, we were able to update that. But unfortunately, the impact on the numbers was not fully there. And then in Germany, our organic growth is good. And then I think Duren store has been adding up quite nicely. But like-for-like store growth is 8%, and that's very good in all of the markets. And profitably is gradually coming through. And I think we are not where we have been, but clear improvement compared to prior year in that respect. Then on the number of cars sold, I think the graph is rather nice to look at. And especially when looking at the home market, we are back on the growth. We've been gaining speed, and we are clearly #1 on the market, both in terms of volume but as well as on the value on that respect. Sweden, not equally good as we would have hoped. The lack of cars is visible. But then Germany is gradually coming up and doing a very, very steady job over there. So rather happy for the volume. And then that is translated into slightly less in the value because of the average price in Finland, Sweden and Germany is slightly going down. Then on the integrated services. I think on the Kamux Plus, a very steady and gradually improving trend on that. Insurance is also a very good job and gradually improving financial services. We've been doing okay. But the competition of the marketplace has changed. And unfortunately, we'll be not able to push through all of the increased interest rate to our customers, and that's slightly visible on our profitability in that respect. Then on the store openings, I think Germany, we've been very happy with the Duren store. The relocations of the 2 other stores, rather good. Then in Finland, the Tampere new showroom, the flagship store is underway. And the next spring, we're going to be over there. We're expanding the Pori ware store, roughly double the volume we used to have over there. And then the Niittykumpu, which has not made it on the list, and I think it's worth having there. And we made a major renovation of the portfolio, updated the, I would say, navigation and the way people would like to look at the cars and then also the service concept is updated over there. So highly recommend to have a look for the ones who have access to Niittykumpu store. Sweden, I think we've been gradually improving the relocations on the good speed, and I'm expecting to see good visibility on those. Then the Gothenburg store, which is one of the mega stores, we are not yet where we would like to be. But I think we are seeing the early signs of improvement and nice development on the top line as well as on the bottom line getting where we would like to be. Finland, I think this is something where I raise both times, a job well done. And on the volume, extremely good job on the profitability, also a rather good job. I think we have some areas where we can still improve. And I think we have identified what to do. We have also identified how to do, and we have made a plan how to take it forward. Integrated Services, I think we've been doing good, but the financial has been hurt a bit, and that's visible on the finish number. So good jump in Finland overall. Sweden, I think we have had a steady job over there. For the first 2 months of the quarter, there was really a lack of cars and availability of the cars was challenged. Then for the last month of the quarter, that changed, I think, rather dramatically. And for the ones who monitor the Swedish market, for example, Blocket and the others, then you see that, okay, the available car amount has increased quite substantially, but also became visible on our offering. At the same token so far, the market prices have been stable, and that's in the way good. Imports out of Sweden has not increased a lot. And I think that's in a way a result of the high demand still in the Central Europe and Southern European marketplace. We've been importing some of the cars, but not in a big volume. Metal margin has been improving quite nicely. Our operative performance and productivity has been improving. But all in all, we are not fully yet where we would like to be, but a steady job in that respect. Kerim Nielsen is unfortunately leaving us at the end of the year. And I think we've been progressing rather well with the recruitment. And I hope to have some news in the coming weeks or months going forward. But all in all, looks good in that respect. Then in Germany, a very steady job. And even on the pieces of the cars sold, a good job even though the Northern Germany has been not the ideal marketplace where to be. And now we realize the difference between Duren stores and the northern part of Germany. And the ones who will be monitoring our information, we've been informing we're going to open a store in Hammond, and that's only halfway between Duren and Hamburg and in an area where there is high density of cars and a high demand for the cars. So we will continue expanding outside of the northern part of Germany. Then on the Integrity Services, we've been doing a rather steady job, but the financial service have been impacted by the increased interest rates, and our ability has not been fully monitoring the increased rates in that respect. Then on the strategy, I think I will not go in details and unfortunately, I cannot provide a sneak peek. We are in the middle of the process. And I think we've been -- let's have a look on the next piece are the ones which are currently valid and prevailing. I would not anticipate any big changes over here. But some of the priorities will be changed. And then especially the road map, how we are implementing and executing things will be done in detail. And I think during the spring, we'll be more than happy to entertain more in details on that. Then I think it's time to pass to Marko. Marko, you can have a deeper dive on the numbers.

Yes. Thank you, Tapio. Now we went a bit too far. But yes, in the third quarter, the gradual recovery in the used car market was very nicely visible also in our financial figures, boosting the volumes and, of course, the margins as well. As Tapio was mentioning, the average prices have been slightly lower than the previous year, though the prices themselves have been stable, meaning the customers have been seeking for more economic cars. And of course, usable cars for the families has been always our stronghold. So in that sense, we performed in that market well. The gross margins have been also improving. Margin per car, EUR 1,517 a bit better than last year, and that is mainly driven by the metal margins. So meaning the margin's what we get from the car trading. What I'm also happy is that the operating leverage is working. So meaning revenue was growing 7.9%, gross profit, 21.5%, and adjusted operating profit, 36.6%. So this is, of course, good development. However, the costs still are in our focus, and we see some increase, for example, in the personnel cost. And of course, the general inflation is still there. So that is the area that is in our radar. Successful inventory management would be, we basically were able to grow the business with a smaller amount of euros in inventory. So the inventory was in effective use, which is, of course, good. And also, we had a really strong balance sheet during the quarter, at the end of the quarter. So the equity ratio was 48%, including IFRS 16 lease liabilities, which was good. And all at this time, our strong balance sheet has been the backbone of our strategy. Then a few highlights about the key figures. If you think about the dynamics of the year, last year, it was going so that from the beginning of the year, the market and the market conditions were generally degrading or getting worse all the time every quarter. And now if we look this year, that has been totally opposite picture. So start of this year was very difficult. And then in the second quarter and third quarter, we have been gradually recovering. If we look also at the top line, and as Tapio was mentioning, the weak crown impact has been quite visible. So meaning, if we would basically have in constant currencies, we would be growing over 10%, the top line in the third quarter. Like-for-like growth, very strong. Of course, keep in mind our formula. So we are measuring here the stores, which have been over 2 years in operation. So the older stores, the older network that we have has been very strongly performing, which is a very positive thing. If we look the inventory turnover, we were able to put the inventory in Sweden at the end of the quarter to the target levels where we wanted it to be. And that was, of course, having a slight impact to the inventory turnover days. However, when I'm looking at the inventory as a whole, and as I was mentioning, the efficiency of using inventory, meaning the sales performance versus the amount of inventory, what we hold, I'm pretty satisfied about that. I would also like to highlight that our earnings per share was growing 33.6%. So that was also a good development there. Then if we talk a little bit more about the inventory. So we can see that the inventory was slightly decreasing compared to the previous year and net working capital, I was a bit more decreasing. That was impacted by the trade payables, which were growing a bit faster than the trade receivables, which are mainly in our case, from the financial companies. The structure of the inventory was healthy, and the write-offs at the end of the quarter 3 were relatively modest. So that is also telling a very clear message about the sound and goodness of the inventory, what we had. The purchase market was working relatively well during the third quarter. Of course, as we mentioned, in Sweden. In July, August, it was a bit more difficult, but the situation also started to normalize there in September. And of course, the new car deliveries in Europe and in our countries have been relatively positive. So there, I have to keep in mind that the new car dealers have been delivering their strong order books, but the new orders have been, of course, relatively downbeat, in a way to say modestly. Then if we go to the cash flow, the operating cash flow was very strong at the quarter 3, EUR 13.9 million. We were slightly still increasing during the quarter 3, the inventory compared to quarter 2. But as you remember, our sales is also relatively seasonal. So we don't expect really to any more raise the inventory during this quarter. And we are, of course, adjusting the amount or the level of inventory to our sales forecast, and that is including the seasonality. This strong cash flow from the operating activities, we were using into paying out the short-term revolving credit facilities and also some of the commercial papers we had. And that, of course, was also contributing then to the strong balance sheet we had at the end of the quarter. Investments were relatively modest in the quarter 3. We were basically investing EUR 0.3 million, where it was for the tangible investments, meaning showroom upgrades, EUR 0.2 million; and intangible EUR 0.1 million, which is basically our own IT systems. I was, in the last report, telling you about our financial system update project. So that was mainly completed in the quarter 2, so that didn't really have any more material impact in the quarter 3. And as also in the previous quarters, you can see very clearly that our change of operating models here is very visible. So we are in the digital area doing more ourselves, which means that our group functions costs are more, and we are using external resources, meaning investments less. About the dividend. This year, dividend was paid in 2 installments. And the latter and also the bigger part share of the dividend, which was EUR 0.10 per share was paid out at the end of the October. Then I will go to the outlook and to the financial targets. And when we were thinking about the financial targets and the strategy period '21 to '23, that was, of course, made into relatively different picture and different conditions in the market what we had. However, as we have said, we will update our strategy and financial targets at the beginning of '24. And if we look at just the current performance, what we have, so of course, you can see that the very difficult start of the year means we are on operating targets mainly behind the target levels currently. Our outlook for '23 is unchanged. We still see a lot of uncertainty in the markets. We see that the consumer confidence is still relatively fragile. The interest rates are still high. Inflation has not really disappeared. Also, there are certain signs on the softness in employment. However, we believe that the adjusted operating profit will be over EUR 17.5 million this year. I would also like to underline that we don't expect to make here a very big or material overachievement. Then I would like to make a summary of all the report of the quarter 3. So revenue was increased by 7.9% to EUR 282.4 million. Gross profit was increased by 21.5% to EUR 29.4 million, primarily driven by the good development in Finland. Adjusted operating profit was increased by 36.6% to EUR 7.1 million or 2.5% of revenue. Like-for-like showroom revenue grew by 8.2%, and the revenue from integrated services increased to EUR 13.6 million or 4.8% of total revenue. And we had a strong cash flow from the operating activities, EUR 13.9 million. Number of the cars sold grew by 14.2%, all-time high, 19,364 cars. Growth was particularly strong in Finland. And the market growth was stronger in quarter 3 and the first half in all Kamux operating countries. Prices of used cars were stable but at a lower level than in 2022.

Very good. Thank you. And now I think it's time for entertaining questions and comments. And we will start from the audience.

It's Rauli from Inderes. Two questions from me. Firstly, on the Swedish purchasing market. You mentioned there was a dramatic change towards the end of the quarter. So can you elaborate what was driving that?

I think we still don't know exactly what is driving that, but somehow even the small changes on the krona seem to have a big impact on the availability and the amount, of course, available on the marketplace. At the same time, I think still the export of the cars from Sweden continued. But somehow, people maybe got a bit too greedy about the asking prices and that's why it was piling up on the marketplace. But I think now it's stabilized, and let's see how it's going to be going forward. But I think market prices have been, in a way, becoming almost the same as anywhere else. So that's why it's been piling up and now people have been taking a bit more hesitant look on the marketplace.

And then generally, looking basically all of your markets going forward, like you mentioned the new car sales are expected to turn down at least in Finland, and the growth is likely to ease probably throughout Europe. So how do you see that having an impact to your used car markets?

I think on a short and medium term, I don't anticipate any big changes. Then in longer term, if the trend continues for a, say year or 2, then there might be an issue. And on the new car sales, I think it's extremely difficult for the private people on the company cars in all of the markets seems to be rather normal. But on the private people making a decision, they may go for the tech time out, go for the used car or then don't do anything at all.

Mathius Jon from Handelsbanken. I would like to ask, you mentioned about Sweden that the market leader has been operating extremely well, if I don't understood you wrong. Could you elaborate a little bit on that one? What have they been doing well? And in what areas would you be doing like they are doing?

I think we don't know in detail and don't know them intimately, but we monitor their numbers on a daily basis and a weekly basis. They've been operating very centralized in many ways. All of the checking and conditioning of the car is fully centralized sales is selling, sourcing is sourcing, and then they've been extremely good in the tire sales. And with our estimate, maybe even half of the profit is done with the tire and rim sales. And then lately, and we don't know whether this is just an incident or a decision, but they've been also offering a wholesale package on the marketplace with a couple of hundred cars in one pack, which they've never been doing before. But the Swedish market simply is polarizing. They are doing extremely well and growing fast. Don't know about the profitability, but the growth we see. And then the rest of the pack is clearly in a different, I would say, magnitude.

And then a few smaller technical questions. Maybe the first one to Marko. On the operating cash flows, there's a big position called adjustments which makes up, I think, almost 40% of the -- what is that?

Yes. So actually, in our report, we are also opening those positions from the presentation reasons they have been presented in a relatively compressed way. But for example, there is the depreciation, what you need to add back to the cash flow and so on.

Need to check the report more in detail. Then just a little bit outside of the Q3 presentation, but I've been wondering about this a couple of times is that we have now the 10th of November, which means it's more than 40 days after the end of the review period, and Kamux is among the last ones that come out with the figures. So could you shed some light on if there's a logical reason to this? Or is it just some internal complication that makes it take 40 days until you have the figures put together.

Putting this topic a little bit to the perspective, I think it's also good to keep in mind that Kamux is still a relatively young company in the market. I mean we have been basic listing since 2017. And obviously, there has been a certain learning curve in the processes. It's also good to keep in mind that we have had a massive program improving our systems. So meaning the KMS, what we basically have been spending. I started in Kamux 2019. So we were basically already that time working it, and we only basically last year or end of the previous year, completed that program. And thereafter, we upgraded the financial system. So I fully agree with you that we are not superfast or aggressive, but I would say that we are on the latter quartile of the presenters who are coming out with the results. But that I think is clearly a topic for us to work on in the future.

Good question, and I think we are reading between the lines.

Yes. And then just the final one. Any comments on October? We've had one month accruing. Anything you want to reveal on that? You're happy about it?

I think October, we cannot comment, but I think some of our numbers are visible on the systems for the people who have access to the system.

And I think the overall public market numbers in October doesn't offer any kind of big surprises.

Do we have any further questions or comments in the audience? If not, I think we still have a telephone line as well, and we can take on the chat as well.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Maria Wikstrom from SEB.

This is Maria Wikstrom from SEB. I have a few questions which I could start with asking about the finance penetration in Sweden that came slightly down during Q3 this year, if you can give a little bit more light. I mean, what's happening in selling the final product in Sweden?

I think the competitive market has changed a bit, and there are a lot of offerings and some are also with, I would say, rather aggressive offerings. That's maybe half of the thing. Then the other half is that we have a bit of a younger generation in the team. And our training has been maybe not, I would say, up to speed with some of the ones. So this is an outcome of these 2 issues.

And I think on the training, that's in our hands. That's something we can improve, then the competitive landscape is out of our control, but I think we will work on our own turf at least.

Okay. And then if we stick to the integrated services and I think you indicated throughout the year that given the current compensation model and you're expecting to get more of these like back and back-end loaded fees from your partners during the Q4. So how is the outlook currently, I mean, receiving these volume-based kickbacks now Q4 this year?

That's maybe a question for Marko, but I think the analogy is exactly what you mentioned.

Yes. Currently when looking, last quarter or quarter 4 forecasts feel relatively comfortable with the outcomes we have there in the paper. That didn't answer maybe your question.

It's a longer tail than just a quarter. So I think it's a rather long tail on that respect.

Absolutely. So absolutely. And there is, as we have discussed also before, there are different performance criteria starting from -- of course, volume is important, but there is also other criteria as well.

And then maybe one more on the competition in the Finnish market. I mean both you and Saka has presented very strong figures. And then I think, Marko is very vocal about saying that therefore performing very well on the used car markets. So how do you see the competition situation currently? And if there has been any changes, I mean during Q3 overall during this year?

I think I'd rather comment on our own behalf and we've been improving gradually. And I think the team has done a good job in multiple fronts. And I think we still have some issues we need to improve a big time in certain areas. So in that respect, I'm rather confident that our good performance is going to continue. On the competition, I cannot comment a lot. I think the only things which are in the public domain is that Saka opened a mega store next to the ring 3. And at the same token, they have informed that they have opened a hub where they're most likely conditioning and processing and then checking the cars, and that's also not far away from the ring 3 further north of that. And on the CAG group, I cannot comment in detail.

And then my final question coming to the -- basically, I mean, repricing of the higher interest rates. I think, you said during this year that you haven't been able to reprice your finance products fully, so they translate higher interest rates on your own prices to keep the margin stable. So if you could comment that how is the situation now when the market is more used to a higher rate environment?

And I think to start with, yes, we've been able to increase, but we've been not able to increase up to the level of the increased interest rate. So that's why our margins have been challenged. And gradually, we've been able to take baby steps, but the baby steps are rather small. And I think if you monitor the average interest rate on our financing, it's going up and it's going up steadily, but they are not big steps on that risk. But people do accept changes, but they don't accept changes in a big magnitude.

The next question is from Pia Rosqvist-Heinsalmi from Carnegie Investment Bank.

It's Pia calling from Carnegie. A few follow-up questions. So with regards to the financing and still the competition issue, is this specific for Sweden, or do you also feel the effect of that in Finland? And when you refer to competition, is this -- let's say the competition issue, is it related to used cars specifically, or do you see financing being very aggressive also for new cars?

I think it's not only for Finland and Sweden, it's also prevailing in Germany. And I think the competition in the used cars is not that fierce, but then the benchmark from the new cars is, for sure, visible and available for the people who consider used cars. And lately, and now I think we are approaching the Black Friday. And if you today open the Facebook or Instagram or any social media, you would see rather attractive financing offers from the new carmakers. And I think that's the way and the benchmark for the people who consider buying the used cars. Our financing offerings are not even close to these Black Friday offers. So that's maybe where there is a bit of a paradigm change on the new cars. That's in a way, support from the makers of the cars from the factories. And I think that will gradually fade away as well.

And then maybe coming to Sweden, so your thoughts. Can you share your thoughts on your measures to again start accelerating growth in Sweden? You've been clear in saying that you prioritize the profitability now over growth. But when do you think you are ready and capable?

I think on the priorities, that's absolutely clear. We focus on sustainable profitability in Sweden. At the same token, our offering needs to be relevant for the market that we'll be working on the offering together with our sourcing. And now I think our sourcing team in Sweden is in a rather good tax, and we've been improving the game quite a lot. We lost some time ago, 1.5 years ago, almost majority of the sourcing team. Now we are back on the business on that one. And then the store concept, some of the stores are doing very good. We still have a bunch of underperforming stores, and we focus on those. Our aim is to fix them, improve them. And if not able to fix them, we need to relocate or close some of these stores. That's what we are doing.

And then still to Sweden, the declining average selling price. What does it tell us? Is it about customer preferences? Or is it about you maybe having difficulties in sourcing higher-priced car? Or is there something else?

I think in overall, and still, it's good to remember in Finland, the cars do be exposed for the car tax. Still, the average price in Finland is way below our prices in Sweden and in Germany. I think that tells about the market preferences and the benchmark of the marketplace. People like to drive with larger cars, better equipped cars, and with the more powerful engines. But in that respect, I think Sweden has also been suffering on the economic of things, and people are considering to downgrading and going for smaller cars and more economic cars, and that's visible on the price points in Sweden. And that's not only for us. I think that's a market specific in that respect.

And even though I know that you might be very tight list about this. But at this point of the year, when you look into 2024, what are kind of the main positives or maybe the main concerns for Kamux's performance in 2024?

We are in the middle of the planning process for next year, but I think it's more of a continuation on this one. And then I think for sure, we are prepared for scenarios if something really bad happens, how should we behave and how should we act. On the other hand, I think we foresee a slight recovery. And if there is a faster recovery, then we need to be intact and ready to be on attack in that respect. So we try to be as agile as we can on that respect.

The next question comes from Calle Loikkanen from Danske Bank.

Most of my questions were already answered, but maybe a follow-up on the financing services. You mentioned that your margin has been squeezed here. And if I understood you correctly, you tried to push back the margin back to normal levels. But how long do you think it will take in this kind of interest rate environment for you to push back the margin, your own margin to the past levels? I mean, how quickly or slowly does this improvement in your margins happen in these services?

I think on the consumer perception and acceptance of the higher financial interest rates in our services, gradually taking baby steps forward. At the same time, I think market is stabilizing. And for sure, we are also working on the sourcing of the finance, and we have always 3 or 4 alternatives. We try to make them compete hard. And I think we have seen the first signs of things happening on that front as well, and we are working on both fronts. But unfortunately, I'm not in a position to give you a certain date when we're going to be done with all of that. But gradual improvement is what we foresee and work on that.

There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers.

So then we have a lot of questions on the chat. Some of them coming from audience, some maybe from Marko, so let's begin.

Yes. I tried to take out which were already answered, but there is not too much duplicates. But group cost level in relation to the revenue was at lowest level during '21 and beginning of '22 since that the relative cost level has continued on increasing trend. How will you manage to turn the relative cost structure back to the '21 levels?

Yes. We've been working on multiple fronts on the cost level. We have our own internal people-related costs and some of the compensation models are under review. And at the same time, we are working with our partners, we buy a lot of services from a third party. And I think we still have some muscle we can use on that one, but it also means a bit of a consolidation of our supplier base and all of that. So we will work on multiple fronts.

Then the second question is, does the low amount of investments affect the opening of new stores? Are new stores, regions or countries still in the plans for Kamux?

Working on the stores, I think we are currently rethinking a bit about our omnichannel concept. How does a store of the future look like, how we're going to do it. And I think it's too early to comment, but I think we're going to see larger stores. Maybe the number of stores like in Finland is not going to go up, but we're going to see larger stores and maybe more of that will be in the dark store type of a thing. And before we are ready with the concept, we will not do big investments on the execution in that respect. Now we have pilots working on Niittykumpu. That's a very light upgrade worth of, say, a couple of tens of thousands at max. And then we are working on the new stores and new store expansions. And that's in a way a pilot going forward. And then we know how we're going to be shaping up the stores. But when we are ready, then the investment level will go slightly up, but it's not going to be still a major, major capital expenditure on that.

Then some markets have reported big declines in second hand car prices in October. Have you seen a similar trend in your markets?

We have not. And I think they've been stabilizing. There can be some individual car models, not even brand, but car models where the prices go up and down, but overall, they are rather stable.

Then the last question. Inventory turnover is still relatively high in the last few quarters. What are you doing to reduce it?

Reduce inventory?

Turnover days.

Days, okay. Yes. I think we will work on the sourcing, and I think we have set certain thresholds for the sourcing and especially on the markets where the big swing from the very low availability to higher availability. So we need to play the game carefully over there. But in other areas, we work rather normally on that one, and I feel rather confident that we have a good report on that.

That was all.

Okay. If no further questions or comments, I would like to thank you, and I wish everyone a good weekend. Thank you. Take care.