Marimekko Oyj (MEKKO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Anna Tuominen. And with me, I have our President and CEO, Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko and we are happy that you are joining us to hear more about Marimekko's half year financial report and Q2 results today. First, we'll take a while to go through the results. And after that, we'll have a Q&A session, where our CFO, Elina Anckar, will join as well. If you have any questions, please use the chat function of the platform to type in the questions already during the presentation, and we'll take them afterwards. But without further ado, Tiina, please go ahead.

Thank you, Anna, and good afternoon also on my behalf. It's my pleasure to walk you through today our half year financial report. Let's get started. How did we do in the second quarter of 2024? Our business continued to develop well and our net sales continued to grow in the second quarter. Our operating profit was slightly behind the comparison period, but our cumulative operating profit improved. In total, our net sales increased by 8% and totaled EUR 43.7 million. They were especially boosted by the growth of wholesale sales, both in Finland and in Scandinavia as well as increased net sales in Finland. Overall, net sales in our strong home market, Finland, grew double digit by 11%, and our international sales grew by 6%. Overall, then our comparable operating profit totaled EUR 6.4 million, which equals 14.6% of our net sales. Our cash flow from operating activities increased significantly and also our financial position remains very strong. I would say that the continued profitable growth of Marimekko despite the weaker general market conditions really shows the continued desirability of our brand and strong competitiveness of our company. And this puts us in a great place to continue on our journey to scale up our brand phenomenon and growth in the upcoming years. But let's have a closer look to the different factors and drivers behind the results. Net sales in the second quarter, as mentioned, increased by 8%, boosted, in particular, by the growth of wholesale sales in Finland and Scandinavia as well as growing retail sales in Finland. Our wholesales grew in the second quarter by 12% in total. In addition, omnichannel retail sales grew in all market areas. And this is, of course, something that we're very proud of, also given the overall weaker general macro sentiment. Licensing income was significantly lower than in the comparison period, but it's good to note that this is a seasonal variation as in a full year level, we estimate licensing income to be approximately at the last year's record level. Then while the general market situation in Finland continued to be challenging and the business environment highly tactical, our net sales increased double digits. Our domestic wholesale sales increased mainly due to nonrecurring promotional deliveries, which are, of course, a normal part of our business. This year, as we have also mentioned earlier, the domestic wholesale nonrecurring promotional deliveries are clearly weighted in the first half of the year unlike in the previous year. In addition, retail sales in Finland grew despite the weaker macro environment in total by 5%. And I think that this really speaks to the continued appeal of our brand. In the international front, our international net sales increased by 6% and in our company, second biggest market in the Asia Pacific region, our net sales increased with especially retail sales developing positively. Actually, our retail sales in the market area increased by 37%. Licensing income was significantly lower than in the comparison period, which then lowered the growth rate in the region. Also, wholesale sales grew a little bit by 1%, but there were timing differences between quarters that had a negative impact on the sales. Then when we look at the cumulative picture in the net sales development, again, 8% net sales growth landing to EUR 81.3 million. The net sales were boosted by increased wholesale and retail sales in Finland as well as growth in international sales, bolstered by the wholesale sales in the Asia Pacific region. Our wholesale sales grew in almost all our market areas, in particular in the Asia Pacific region, important to us. Our omnichannel retail sales grew also then in all market areas and in total by 7%. On the other hand, RNSs were negatively then impacted by a decrease in wholesale sales in the EMEA region. When we look at our important home country, Finland, our net sales in the first half of the year grew by 9%, especially due to nonrecurring promotional deliveries and the good development of retail sales. As mentioned earlier, the nonrecurring promotional deliveries in wholesale sales, unlike in the comparison period, mainly took place in the first half of the year. On the other hand, then good to note that domestic wholesale sales were weakened by some of the wholesale deliveries in the first quarter of 2024 being already realized in the fourth quarter of 2023. In the international front, our international sales increased by 6%. And when we look at our second largest market area, the Asia Pacific region, the growth of wholesale sales in particular, but also the positive development of retail sales and licensing income increased our net sales in the Asia Pacific region, which in total grew by 11% in the first 6 months of the year. When we look at our net sales split per market area and our product line, no big changes. Finland continues to be the single biggest market and the second largest market is then Asia Pacific. In terms of the net sales by product line, again, no major changes. When we look at the first 6 months of the year, around 55% of our net sales come from the fashion world, so ready-to-wear and bags and accessories and then 45% of the net sales come from home. And especially, we've seen a good growth in the home product line in the first half of the year. The Asia Pacific region has already the greatest number of Marimekko stores when we look at the split per market areas with the 88 stores out of our total of 166 stores around the world. And the Marimekko Online Store serves customers in 38 countries already. Actually, in the period under review in the second quarter, a new Marimekko e-comm store was actually opened in Singapore. In the overall picture also, when we look at our online store -- online business development, our online sales continued to grow in the second quarter. When we look at our brand sales development in the first 6 months of the year, our cumulative brand sales were EUR 190.5 million. And there, Asia Pacific being the single biggest region when we look at our brand sales accumulation. Moving on then to profitability. In the second quarter, our comparable operating profit was on a good level and it landed to 14.6% of net sales with EUR 6.4 million. What were the drivers behind? Higher fixed costs and weakened relative sales margin decreased operating profit, while then on the other hand, of course, the increased net sales had a positive impact. So what's then behind the fixed cost? Two things, marketing investments and personnel expenses. This year is a very special year for Marimekko as we're celebrating the 60th anniversary of our most iconic and world-renowned print, Unikko, and this gives us a unique opportunity to -- through the works of brand marketing to further expand our customer audience and this way, support and fuel our long-term growth strategy. It was these investments in brand marketing that, among others, increased the marketing spend. And then personnel expenses, on the other hand, were partly impacted by general pay increases across markets. The relative sales margin was weakened by significantly lower licensing income. And as I mentioned already, that is a seasonal variation matter as well as then higher discounts than in the comparison period. In addition, good to know that also an increase in logistic costs lowered the relative sales margin. When we look at the bigger picture, so the first 6 months of the year, the cumulative comparable operating profit increased by 9%, landing at EUR 11.6 million, equaling to 14.2% of net sales, which is a good level. The operating profit was boosted especially by increased net sales. On the other hand, again, fixed cost had a weakening impact on operating profit. The factors behind the increased fixed costs are very much in line with the factors in the second quarter. However, the relative sales margin in the first 6 months of the year was on par with comparison period. Then when we move on to some key events in the second quarter. And I will tell you, this quarter was full of big brand marketing events. In terms of the Unikko anniversary celebration, but also on the collaboration front, and of course, we do all of this to support our long-term scale-up of our brand phenomenon and business and to acquire an even wider audience. Starting with the collaborations. In the second quarter, we launched the second limited edition collaboration collection of the year with UNIQLO, which again allows us to introduce our brand to an even wider audience this way supporting our scale growth story. In addition to the UNIQLO collaborations, we launched quite a bunch of super interesting local brand collaborations. These local brand collaborations are important from two points of view. Of course, they play an important role in further increasing our brand awareness in the markets where we do this. But then in addition to that, they also allow us to strengthen the relevance of our brand in that particular market. And as Asia represents the most important geographical region of our future international growth, of course, many of these are then focused in Asia, but we overall do these kinds of local collaborations in all of our key markets from time to time. So what did take place in the second quarter? First of all, we announced a collaboration with the iconic Finnish jewelry company, Kalevala, that will be coming to the market now in the third quarter, celebrating the iconic Unikko design. Then in Japan, we partnered up with a Blue Bottle specialty coffee and did a collaboration collection, which was very well received in the second quarter. And then in China, we also launched a local collaboration with this new type of tea beverages offering a very cool brand, HeyTea, that was also very excitedly received on the market. Then going into the Unikko anniversary celebrations. In the second quarter, widely visible across our key markets, and as mentioned, the Unikko anniversary really offers us a special opportunity this year with the efforts of brand marketing to expand our customer audience and this way, fuel our long-term scale scaling up strategy. Starting from April. In April, during the world renowned Milan Design Week, we celebrated the iconic Unikko's birthday with a Bar Unikko cafe, product cafe, which attracted huge interest among the viewers. And actually, in the end, we've found out that the Bar Unikko initiative was one of the presentations during the Milan Design Week that had received the most earned media interest. I think this says all about the growing interest in Marimekko around the world. Then in May, of course, it was time for our legendary Esplanade Fashion Show and the Marimekko Day. And these drew large crowds around 10,000 people in the park for the -- of the friends of Marimekko to enjoy the summer fashion and celebrate the birthday of Unikko. These public events open for everyone really represent the inclusive approach to design that Marimekko has and also very much communicate and represent important values to Marimekko, such as sense of community, equality and inclusion. Then to mark the birthday of Unikko, this special beloved event also traveled to Shanghai and Tokyo in May. And in Tokyo, we also invited our community to this open fashion show for the first time. The Marimekko store network also continued to develop in the second quarter of the year. In the earlier part of 2024, we changed our partner for the Taiwanese market to ImagineX, who is considered to be one of the leading partners in the region. And this meant that during the course of 2024, we are planning together with the new partner to completely revamp the store -- Marimekko store network in Taiwan. And then a lot of this already started happening in the second quarter with 3 new Marimekko stores opening in Taipei and then 1 in China and 1 of them actually here in the picture representing our newest, most experiential store concept. In addition to this, 1 store, a new store opened in Japan. And in addition to that, also a Marimekko web store in Singapore and another online platform were opened. Of course, the Unikko celebrations took place across our stores all around the world. And in addition to that, we also delighted customers with 6 pop-up stores in Japan. Being a very value-driven company and brand, it was also very meaningful and important to celebrate pride together and pride collaboration, brought color to 2 of our key cities, Helsinki and New York. At Marimekko, we have a high ambition to our sustainability development. And an important part in us reducing our environmental impact has to do with our -- with the execution of our material strategy, which guides our transition to preferred materials. For example, organic recycled bio-based and also entirely new material innovations that have lesser impact on to the environment. So we were very happy to present for the first time during the 3 days of design event in Copenhagen, the new Marimekko resonance bag series, which is made of this innovative plant-based Vireo material. Then moving on to the outlook for the rest of the year, starting in general. So of course, the uncertainty is related to the development of the global economy, such as the geopolitical tensions and their impact on the general economic situation and general cost inflation influence, consumer confidence, purchasing power and behavior and therefore, can have an impact also on our business, especially in the important home market of Finland. Then of course, different exceptional situations may cause even significant disruptions in production and logistics chains and may thus have a negative impact on the company, but we're, of course, closely monitoring the situation, and we'll adjust our operations and plans according to circumstances, if needed. Then a few words about seasonality. So first of all, many of you who might be familiar with us for a longer time, because of the seasonal nature of our business, the major portion of our euro-denominated net sales and operating results are typically generated during the second half of the year. So this is the norm in our industry. And then as mentioned, the licensing income in 2024 is estimated to be approximately at the previous year's record level. Then when looking at the net sales development, starting from Finland, our important home market. Despite the weak market situation, net sales in our home market, Finland, are expected to be approximately at the level of the previous year. Of course, they're impacted by the weak general economy and low consumer confidence as well as the development of purchasing power and behavior. Also the tactical operating environment has an impact and what is good to again note that in 2024, the nonrecurring promotional deliveries in wholesale are expected to be significantly lower than in the comparable year and weighted clearly in the first half of the year. International sales are estimated to grow in 2024. The net sales in the Asia Pacific region, our second largest market area, are expected to increase. And this year, our aim is to open around 10 to 15 new Marimekko stores and shop-in-shops and most of these planned openings will be in Asia, just similarly as in the previous years. A few words also about the growth investments and costs. So according to our scale strategy, our aim is to scale up our profitable growth in the upcoming years, and we develop our company with a long-term view. Therefore, fixed costs are expected to be up on the previous year. We're also impacted by the cost inflation in 2024. And as we see the opportunity in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Unikko and opportunity that it offers us to grow our international awareness, our marketing expenses are also expected to increase. There is also the risk of delays of production and logistics change that is higher than usual. And if realized, these kinds of delays can have an impact on the company sales and profitability, but as always, we work actively to ensure the functioning production and logistics chains to avoid delays and to mitigate negative impacts of generally increased cost and to enhance inventory management. And then finally to financial guidance, which we reiterate for 2024. So we estimate our net sales for 2024 to grow from the previous year and our comparable operating profit margin is estimated to be approximately some 16% to 19%. Of course, the development of consumer confidence and purchasing power, especially in Finland, global supply chain disruptions and the general inflation development cost volatility to the outlook for 2024. But with these words, we're ready for the Q&A. So Anna and Elina, if you would like to join me.

Thank you, Tiina. Maybe we could start still by going through, there's a question about the wholesale sales in the Asia Pacific region in the second quarter. So if you would like to just repeat quickly the reasons for the wholesales development, they grew by 1% this quarter.

So cumulatively, actually, our wholesale sales in the Asia Pacific region have been growing by actually 9%. And actually, the Asia Pacific region net sales have been growing in the first 6 months by 11%. So in the second quarter of the year, as mentioned, the wholesale sales in Asia Pacific region were impacted negatively by timing issues between quarters. And then in total, the Asia Pacific region net sales were additionally impacted negatively by the lower -- significantly lower licensing income as mentioned. And overall, on a total level, when we speak about licensing income in the second quarter, that I already mentioned, that is a seasonal variation issue as in the full year level, we estimate the licensing income to be approximately at the level of last year, which was a record year in licensing income for us.

There's a few questions related to the sales forecast or our estimates for the remainder of the year. But of course, since we don't guide by quarters, this might be a bit difficult to answer. But how do you see the international sales growth in H2 so overall, for this year?

Overall, as I mentioned in the market outlook, we estimate our international net sales to grow. We also have mentioned as we sort of guide more precisely in the market outlook, our two main market areas, our biggest market areas of Finland and Asia Pacific region, so also in the Asia Pacific region, we estimate our net sales to grow. So we believe at Marimekko that we have a good momentum, and we're, of course, working proactively to capture more of that momentum with the Unikko anniversary year and all these brand marketing investments that we're doing to also further cement our position in the international markets. Of course, as we say in our scale strategy, we see, especially in the international markets, potential for a lot of room for future growth for Marimekko. And in parallel with that, our aim is also to increase our market share in our important home market, Finland.

There was a question about pop-up stores in Japan in Q2, were they only during Q2, they were there for a few weeks, I think each one of them.

Yes. So when it comes to pop-ups, there are different types of pop-ups. It's -- some of them are for a week, some of them before a few weeks, some of them might be even longer. So these were pop-ups to really celebrate the Unikko 60th anniversary and were very visible across the country.

And of course, we have plans for the rest of the year as well.

Of course and also in the first quarter of the year, we had pop-ups. I believe they were in Australia.

Maybe, Elina, a few questions about the costs -- fixed costs increased in Q2 report, we mentioned this. Would you be able to elaborate a bit on these, for example, their effect in domestic or international operations or anything else?

I would say that -- thank you for an excellent question. We actually do not separate them outside the company between the different market areas or between the domestic and international markets. But I can say that the main reason for the higher fixed cost was related for the planned investments into this -- especially for this 60th anniversary year of the Unikko print and then related to the personnel cost, where the overall general pay increases are part of the reason.

And I would say that because of the continued strong development of our business, paired with the strong financial position of Marimekko, despite the general weaker market sentiment, we have the possibility further fuel our long-term growth and make these important investments that are required for international growth. So this actually further enhances our competitiveness in the longer-term view.

One of the reasons mentioned for relative sales margin was the lower licensing income. Are you able to quantify the impact or sort of whether it was the biggest reason or?

In overall, we have mentioned also earlier that it is very profitable from the profit point of view that licensing income itself. But in overall, like also whenever we write something to our report, we make definitely sure that it is in the right correct sort of like order that the biggest reason is always the best and then like the first and so it continues. So you can read it from the text.

And this timing was the first reason.

Exactly, yes.

Maybe one market-related question. We know that the market in Finland has been weak, the Finnish retail market. Do you see any differences between Q2 and Q1, for example, this year? Or is it too early to say anything how the market is developing in general?

So as we can see in the statistics, of course, the general sentiment has been weak and continues to be weak. Of course, there might be some more -- like a little bit more positive direction that we can see in the statistics, but it's still on a weak level. But at Marimekko, the way that we lead our business, I mean, we don't go behind the market sentiment. Of course, we need to be on the pulse of the customer and understand what is the sentiment in different markets. But our aim is to continue profitable growth despite the generally weaker macro.

And the results in Finland, the sales in Finland developed positively?

Yes, 11% growth in the second quarter and also the fact that in our omnichannel retail 5% growth. So I must say I'm very happy with that development.

There's unisex collection available at Marimekko, and like you said, there's a big brand momentum right now. Do you see that there might be a momentum for men's collection as well?

Well, I think that this is exactly the kind of gender-less collection that we have brought to market and evolved further in the previous years called Marimekko kioski. I mean this is also catering for the male audience. And for example, this just -- was it last week, we just introduced and brought to market our first ever Marimekko denim, so Maridenim collection. So we're always constantly bringing new interesting and quite often, very unisex products on the market. And we believe that really extrude the Marimekko DNA in the best possible way.

Then maybe the last question. What are the recent developments in Marimekko's digital transformation?

So there's been, of course, a lot going on if we just look at 2024. So in the fourth quarter of the year, we opened a new online platform in China called The Red. As many of you might know, in China, the digital business is mainly done on online platforms, such as Tmall, JD.com and then Red was the third one that we opened. Then in addition to that, in the first quarter, Marimekko online stores were opened, both in Malaysia as well as in Vietnam, then in the second quarter, as mentioned, we opened online store in the partner market in Singapore and an online platform called LazMall in Singapore. Overall, the role of digital plays, of course, a really important role at Marimekko, and we constantly continue evolving our omnichannel experience, and overall, leading and running our retail from an omnichannel perspective. I think this is really key because this is also the way that our customer meets and experiences us, partly offline, partly online and the important thing is the integration, and it's always about the customer.

Always. Those were all the questions today. Thank you for joining us. And I would maybe like to take this opportunity to remind you that we are hosting a Capital Markets Day on September 11 on the afternoon. If you would like to join the webcast, you can already go to our company website, company.marimekko.com, to find out more about the program and how to join the day. Thank you. And we hopefully see you in CMD.

Thank you.