Nobia AB (publ) (NOBI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Nobia Second Quarter Report 2025 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Tobias Norrby, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to Nobia's Second Quarter 2025 Results Presentation. Presentation today will be conducted by our President and CEO, Mr. Kristoffer Ljungfelt; as well as Henrik Skogsfors, our Chief Financial Officer. And with those words, I hand it over to you, Kristoffer.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for joining today. Let me start off with some key highlights for the quarter. So in Q2, we continued to improve EBIT, improve our EBIT margin and our cash flow. And we do so in a continued challenging market with historically low volumes in our core segment, the construction market for residential property. The Nordic region, we continue to perform strongly with an EBIT margin now improved to 8.9% despite sales decline and during a large supply chain transformation, which is progressing according to plan. Group net sales declined organically by 5% in the quarter, driven by the volume decline in the Product segment and less sales on the back of the store closures in the U.K. However, and on a positive note, we are pleased with our growth and performance in the Consumer segment. Some of the growth comes from the gradual recovery in this market, but we also improved as a result of intense work to strengthen and develop our consumer sales funnel, a work that has been going on across all our markets for the last 12 months. Gross margin of 39.4% is 0.5 percentage point below last year or 0.2% below if including the freight cost. The decline was related to the Nordic, where we recorded larger depreciation of circa SEK 20 million and was also hampered by lower volumes in the supply chain, whilst the mix mitigated this somewhat. On a positive note, the U.K. recorded a gross margin improvement on the back of strong retail performance and despite volume under absorption. Having said all this, we're not entirely happy that we were below gross margin last year and we'll continue to drive towards further gross margin improvements. We are, however, pleased with the good returns that are materializing from our cost saving programs, where we recorded a saving of about SEK 80 million in Q2. From our cost programs, we have now surpassed run rate savings of SEK 600 million, which is above plan. Cash flow came in at SEK 100 million positive, which is about SEK 150 million stronger than last year, driven by improvements in Denmark and the U.K. and abating investments in Jönköping. Our strategic initiatives are progressing as planned with the main focus to continue our cost-saving measures, ramp up the manufacturing in Jönköping during 2025 and transition our U.K. operations to a more asset-light model. And I will come back to some more highlights on these topics later. Then Tobias, if we can move over to the kitchen market for the Nordic region. So we continue to see a gradual recovery in the consumer market in the Nordics, especially in the countries where interest rates have started to come down, which drives an increased appetite for home renovation again. On the back of this and on the back of the work we do in the sales funnel, we see better store footfall and better build of our quote banks. We also believe that the slight recovery in housing transactions and the government grants to support home renovation is contributing positively to the market sentiment. We would, of course, welcome more government-backed initiatives like the one we have in Sweden to kickstart the housing sector again in more of our markets. With regards to the project market, it is now on historically low levels, and we do not foresee any material change during 2025. There's a slightly more optimistic sentiment in the Danish market, even if we experience project volume declines also here, albeit at a lower rate. So if we take the next one, please. Over to the U.K. The consumer confidence in the U.K. continued to trade low, even though house transactions and house prices have started to trend slightly upwards. We can see that the continuously high interest rates and inflation is burdening consumers and private home renovations, and we also experienced that it takes longer to close the orders. As for the product market, it continues to be soft also in the U.K. And despite the very large pent-up demand for British housing and new build, the activities during the first half of the year have been challenging for the market and for us. Just as in the Nordics, we do not see any indications of a market rebound during 2025 in the project business in the U.K. So let's move over to the strategic update, where we are making a lot of progress, and we are continuing with these 3 large transformational programs for the group. If we start with the cost efficiency and deleveraging program, we are -- as I said before, we are pleased with the cost reduction initiatives that have delivered solid savings over the last 12 months. We also believe that the new organizational structure is working well and that it's contributed to faster decision-making and accountability to manage this transition and cost position. Run rate cost improvements from the programs now exceeds SEK 600 million, which is up and above plan. We have also good traction in our working capital programs, especially when it comes to credit collection and inventory reduction, which supports positive cash flows. And obviously, we are also relentlessly driving towards cost discipline, but also especially at this period of time when our core segment is under such constraints, we will continue with our cost-saving initiatives and be very disciplined about spend. If we then focus on realizing the Nordic potential, so even now when we are trading close to 9%, we have so much more potential in the Nordics, both in terms of growth, primarily then in the consumer segment as of now. We have potential in our margin enhancements on the back of stronger average order values and supply chain optimization with -- also with the new Nordic platform that will be implemented at that point in time. Key to unlock this full potential is to finalize the supply chain transformation, and we have a lot to do and accomplish this year. We are ramping up our truly amazing factory in Jönköping, which I will put some more light on later. We are also progressing in moving our Finnish production to Eggedal in Denmark, and there's a onetime cost recorded in the quarter for this move, which Henrik will come into. And with the move to Eggedal, we also open up for the Danish range to be sold and distributed in Finland, which is a very positive move as well. And with this new -- when we do these supply chain changes, we go live with a new kitchen platform across all our markets. And it also comes with a lot of improvements in design, both aesthetic and functional design. It comes with a lot of quality enhancements. We will get cost improvement and purchasing benefits and above all, also industrial-leading sustainability credentials. So it is very exciting times for this reason. As for the U.K. transformation, we are proceeding at high pace, although the transition to the new model gets complicated by the extremely challenging and volatile market we have in the U.K. And on the back of that, I think the U.K. team has done a really well and good job in the quarter to increase average order values and deliver on the cost savings activities in line with plan, all of which contributed to an improved earnings in the quarter. However, and of course, we are not where we need to be and want to be as we continue to operate with losses in the U.K. and we are driving hard now to continue to rightsize the business to the circumstances in the market. Then moving over to a little bit more insights on the Nordic factory. And first of all, I'm extremely happy to announce that we have received a prestigious BREEAM Excellent accreditation for the building. BREEAM is probably the most prestigious award you can get for buildings across Scandinavia, at least, but also in Europe. And the amount of work that's gone into this is truly amazing. We have measured pretty much every truckload for CO2 emissions. We have taken precautionary actions to prevent the fauna and local biodiversity. We have put solar panels on the roof, electric chargers everywhere, improved circular flows of wood waste to the power plant, which is on site and much, much more. And to receive this prestigious award, BREEAM Excellent, we put this really stretched target already in 2019. And I believe or we believe as an organization, it's a true testimonial for the drive we have to set the benchmark for the entire industry when it comes to sustainability. Then a bit more about the manufacturing in the plant. In simple terms, the new factory has 2 sections. The first section is the component manufacturing, where we basically cut edge, drill and paint, and we also manufacture the fronts that go with the kitchen. And this part is now running more and more efficiently every day and has ramped up in most of the phases. And we basically have all the output needed already to supply the demand for both Marbodal, the flat packs in the region, rigid stock cabinets and the supply -- and we also use this to supply the entire network with panels, although currently at a quite low level. The second section is where the assembly and order consolidation takes place. And during spring, we started to ramp up this section for Stock cabinet, which is now running efficiently as planned, although this only represents about 10% of the Marbodal volume. And we are now about to implement the important last stage of the project where we start to deliver highly customized Marbodal kitchens to the end consumers. And this process will start in August with the final preparations now being conducted during summer. And this final stage is expected to be completed this year. So we'll be ready by 2025. So very exciting times indeed for us. Now I hand over to you, Henrik, to give us some highlights on the financials by region.

Thank you, Kristoffer. As Kristoffer mentioned that while the market remains challenging, we are pleased with the progress in the Nordics. The improvement reflects the impact of several key initiatives, including focused cost reduction efforts and a strong push to grow sales in the Consumer segment. And these actions are delivering tangible results and represent a first step in the right direction. The organic growth declined by 3% in the second quarter, primarily due to the continued challenges in the product market. Despite the ongoing pressure on overall project volumes, we delivered a solid improvement in profit. Adjusted EBIT increased by SEK 21 million to SEK 134 million, representing a close to 2 percentage points EBIT margin improvement to 8.9%. Gross profit and gross margin was impacted from lower volumes as well as higher depreciation costs in the Jönköping factory. This impact was partly offset by continued positive sales mix with the Consumer segment helping to mitigate the decline in the Professional segment. The gross margin declined by 1.6 percentage points to 36.4%. Although both gross margin and the gross profit declined, our strong focus on cost-saving initiatives through the cost-out programs that we initiated last year and ongoing cost discipline drove the solid improvement in adjusted EBIT, which rose from SEK 113 million to SEK 134 million. And as a result, as I mentioned earlier, that the EBIT margin then increased to 8.9%. As we have highlighted in recent investor calls, Denmark's strong performance continued in the quarter and remained a key driver of the overall improvement. Norway and Sweden also continued with gradual margin enhancements supported by higher average order values and lower SG&A cost. Finland continues to present challenges. However, we are taking decisive steps to improve the situation. In April, as you all remember, we announced the closure of the Nastola plant as part of our strategy to enhance the cost efficiency in the Finnish market. And due to that, in the quarter, we have reported items affecting comparability of SEK 80 million, which primarily are related to the Nastola closure, but also some costs for the transition associated with the ramping up of the new facility in Jönköping. And as we mentioned also in the press release on April 9, we expect that the move from Nastola production will generate annual efficiencies of approximately EUR 4 million. Over to the next slide, please. And similar to the Nordics, we continue to see encouraging consumer volume growth in the U.K. However, this was offset by double-digit decline in the Professional and Trade segments. Organic sales declined by 7%. But when adjusting for the 17 store closures, the year-over-year sales were flat. And as Kristoffer was alluding to a little bit earlier, we are pleased to report that despite the negative impact from the underabsorption in U.K. due to the decline in professional volumes, the gross margin improved by 1 percentage point to 41.6%. This improvement was driven then by the more favorable sales mix as well as impact from the cost-out initiatives. On a currency adjusted basis, SG&A expenses decreased by approximately SEK 37 million. The cost reduction measures implemented last year are delivering the expected savings. The EBIT from the quarter improved to a loss of SEK 21 million compared to a loss of SEK 32 million last year. This improvement was driven by the better gross margin performance and the benefit of lower SG&A expenses. Over to the next slide, please, the financial position. As Kristoffer mentioned, the cash flow improved during the second quarter. Cash flow from operating activities was SEK 236 million compared to SEK 165 million last year. Slightly higher EBITDA was supported by positive working capital. The accounts receivables and inventory movement was close to flat when comparing to the second quarter last year. Accounts payables improved year-over-year on back of the decision last year to exit the supply financing program. The overall working capital impact was slightly lower compared to the second quarter last year, primarily related to timing effects. If you instead look at it on a year-to-date basis, the working capital has improved by SEK 260 million year-over-year. As previously communicated, we are intensifying our focus on operational excellence through our new operational structure that we set in place in end of Q3 last year. The key component of this is our ongoing initiative to reduce inventory balances. And these efforts are continuing to impact cash flow positively, primarily driven by U.K. and Denmark, which is offsetting the planned inventory increase that we had in Jönköping during the ramp-up phase of the new factory. The operating cash flow, including the investments amounted to positive SEK 100 million, which is SEK 150 million better than last year. Of this investments in the quarter, mainly related to the machinery for the new factory in Jönköping was SEK 138 million, which is down from SEK 227 million last year. The net debt, excluding leasing and pension increased year-over-year by approximately SEK 0.6 billion to SEK 2.5 billion, driven then by the investments in the new factory. The net increased by SEK 37 million compared to the end of the first quarter. This small quarterly increase is related to the cash flow in the quarter and abating investment levels in Jönköping. And as Kristoffer told you about before that after the very hard and dedicated work from the Nobia team, we are very proud to announce that we received the BREEAM Excellent excellent certification for the factory. And as a finance guys, I'm even more happy that due to this BREEAM Excellent certification notification, we have, after the quarter end, received an additional SEK 70 million from the buyer of the factory building. And we have now approximately SEK 40 million outstanding before we have received full payment for the building that we divested last year. That was all on the financial section. So over to you, Kristoffer. And next slide, please.

Thank you, Henrik. And let me just then finalize this call by reiterating our priorities going forward, of which we are crystal clear about. First of all, advancing on our strategic agenda. We are at an important stage now for the ramp-up of the Jönköping factory and a lot of focus is on that. We continue with our turnaround of the U.K. operations, focusing on an asset-light model. And probably above all, we continue to deliver on our cost-out programs and remain extremely disciplined with how we utilize the cost in the group. On top of it then, we will leverage on our strong brands and leverage -- continue to leverage on the new organization. We will capture growth in the consumer sales with what we believe is a proven model. We will continue to increase our average order values by the good product launches that we have done over the last couple of years and by utilizing the strength of our brands. We will continue with our production-enhancing activities and the -- sorry, the supply chain consolidation in Nastola. We will remain disciplined with the cost control, and we will continue with our strict working capital governance programs, which are running in all our markets. Thank you. And with that, I hand over to you, Tobias.

Very good. And operator, we can please open up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] We're going to take our first question. And the question comes from the line of Marcela Klang from Handelsbanken.

I have a couple of questions. The Nordic EBIT margin came at almost 9% this quarter despite a soft market. Can you tell us more about your ambitions when Jönköping is up and running. Can we expect margins around 12% or even more? I mean in 2021, you reached 14% in the Nordics, and that was before the Jönköping factory. So could you talk a little bit about your ambitions regarding profitability in the Nordics once the new efficient factory is up and running?

Marcela, if we -- to answer your question, well, first of all, as you know, we don't give any forward guidance on Nobia as such. But what we have said before is that when we are fully operational in the factory in Jönköping and made the transitions, we will gain another 3.5 percentage points on the gross margin. We are, of course, not where we want to be with the 9%, although we are quite happy at this point in time with such low historic volumes to be at that position. But it also puts us at a very good place to grow our margins once the volumes will start to come back. So of course, on the back of that, we expect to have quite high operational leverage on any volumes coming through later on in terms of the project market.

Then a question regarding project market. In these tough times, are you keeping your professional customers? Or are they possibly choosing other kitchen suppliers given your move from Tidaholm to Jönköping and potential disturbances related to that? Are you delivering to the [ Tidahol ] and Skanska and the others?

Yes. I think with the new factory, we have the both huge opportunity with the current customer base we have. And I have also had the chance to show the factory to many of our larger clients. And I would say that they are both impressed by what we are achieving with that. And they're also very interested to be a part of this journey that we do. And above all, I mean, we will be able to offer them even better services, even better quality products, even better design on what they buy. I think there has been, during the COVID situation, obviously, a lot of disturbances in the supply chain, but that has come not just for Nobia, that has been a general kind of situation for the entire industry. So I think we are in a very good space. I think with the help of the factory, we'll be able to gain even more market share. And yes, I can just see benefits coming from that.

And regarding the machines that you are connecting to each other in Jönköping, have there been any hiccups with automation in Jönköping?

Well, the simple answer is yes. There's a lot of hiccups. It's a very complicated machinery. It's a lot of different machinery and machine suppliers that are being connected into the factory. However, we -- I think we have done -- or the team over there has done a really good job to get this up and running. We have good suppliers that are helping us in this. We also have very good third-party IT professionals that are helping us with the IT solutions. A lot of the machinery is new to the kitchen industry, but it's not new to the world. And therefore, there is experience in how to do some of this. And as we have also said before, we are using a lot of the machine part from the automotive industry, for example. And then we combine it with machinery also from more traditional kitchen industry like drilling and cutting, et cetera.

And then a question regarding U.K. and your U.K. turnaround. Is it going fast enough in your view? I mean you have been making losses in the U.K. for many years. And I mean, looking at, is this the right capital allocation strategy to stay in the U.K. given the changes? And what is your target for EBIT margin in the U.K., 5%? Or would you be able to make more? And maybe also a related question, what is your competitive edge in the U.K. market given your strong competitors that you have there?

Yes. So a lot of questions in one, but let me start then with if we're going fast enough. And also the easy answer here is, well, since we are continuously making losses, we probably should continue to do things even faster. However, I would say that I'm very pleased to see that some of the benefits that we are talking about are starting to come through now. And it has a bit of a lag in the U.K. So we see in the quarter that the gross margin is starting to improve. It's on the back of the product launches and the planned average order value increases. We also see a lot of the cost benefits coming through now as we have both reduced the number of stores and made substantial cost reduction in the U.K. So we're trading towards a much better position. But on the opposite side of that, we have an extremely challenging market in the U.K., where we also see an inflationary pressure in salaries, which has been government-backed salary increases, which we have, by the way, managed to also sustain by the cost reduction initiatives we have had. So yes, it's a challenging period. The edge that we have is that we have one of the most famous and important kitchen brands in the U.K. in Magnet. And with moving over to a more asset-light model with a different type of store network, I think we have huge opportunities to enhance the margins that we have in the U.K. And we know that the products are right. We know that the organization is right to deliver to those promises. But again, we need to step out of the old store network and into the new asset-light model.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to the management team for any closing remarks.

Well, then thank you, everyone. We conclude from our side and welcome you all back on the 4th of November for our third quarter results. Thank you very much for today.

Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.