Rusta AB (publ) (RUSTA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

And welcome to the presentation of Rusta's third quarter, the important months from November until January, including, of course, the Christmas sales. As usual, it will be myself, Goran Westerberg, CEO of Rusta presenting together with Sofie Malmunger, our CFO. We have a quite simple agenda today. I will take you through a business update where we will go through with the results, but also try to explain what has happened during the quarter and also what we believe is ongoing. Sofie will take you through a deep dive in the financial performance. And after that, we will summarize. We will talk a little bit about current trading and the outlook and then open up for questions and answers. Right. Let's start with the business update. And as usual, I think it's a good idea to have a look at the store network. We're now up to 220 stores in all our markets. We added a new store actually yesterday here in Bro outside Stockholm, and we also opened up one new store during the quarter. As we talked about during the last quarterly presentation during our Q2, we changed our guidance for store openings going forward. We're now aiming for 50 to 80 stores in the coming 3 years. And completely in line with that, we see a continued flowing of new stores in our pipeline. Last time, we reported 38 stores. We have since opened up a store, and we have now added new ones. We're up to 44 stores in our current pipeline, and all markets have got new stores in their list, even Germany, and I will come back to the significance of that extra store that is now in the pipeline for Germany. But we're very comfortable with our guidance going forward, and we also now expect to enter the territory where this will actually have an impact on our opening rate. So for next quarter, we have 6 stores to open, the current Q4 quarter. And from there on, it will start to increase in pace. Looking at the results of the Christmas sales in November until January, we had increased sales. We reached 7.3% in net sales growth. We had a 4.3% like-for-like growth in local currencies, a gross margin of 43.5% and an EBITA margin of 11%. And we saw accelerated net sales growth as compared to the Q2 sales growth that we reported last time. So from here on, it seems that we have taken a couple of steps in the right direction. And also similar to what we have reported in earlier quarters, this is entirely built by continued volume growth. So in fact, we're actually selling even more. The increase in number of items that we're selling is even higher than the 7.3% in sales, which is very good for our business model. When we're buying more, the scalability increases, and our purchase power also improves. We increased the gross profit by 5% -- 5.1% and also increased the EBITA by 3.6%. It's also, I think, important to mention that we started to meet some of last year's IT incident during the quarter. It's for the last 9 days during this quarter, and we stand by the guidance that we reported at the time. So I would refer to those numbers. Another thing that affected the quarter was a currency headwind, both on sales and margin. As we have seen, the Swedish krona has strengthened significantly against basically all of our most important trading currencies, very positive towards the dollar since we're very -- say, we're sourcing a lot in U.S. dollars and also in affecting our transport. But in the short term, it also hit us with some headwind on our Norwegian krones and also in the euro countries. So affecting some of our top line sales in this quarter, but also our gross margins. Looking at the accumulated situation after 3 quarters, we're now up to 4.8% net sales growth in Swedish kronas, and we have a 2% like-for-like growth accumulated in local currencies. The gross margin stands at 43.7% and an EBITA margin of 9.4%. That means that we have an increased gross profit of 5% versus last year and a strengthened EBITA of 7.4% compared to last year. Looking at what has happened during the quarter, there's a couple of things that I would like to stress here. One is that during Q2, we said that towards the end of the quarter and also in the beginning of this quarter, we saw some early signs of a recovery in Sweden. We felt that, that might be the start of a stronger market and hopefully leading into a more positive trajectory, and that has been very much the case during the quarter. We see that Sweden has taken a clear lead, now up to double-digit sales increases. And we believe the combination of our strong Christmas range, our very strong price position, in combination with the regained confidence, has been a good mix that has resulted in this increase. And if we look a little bit deeper into what has happened in Sweden, we see both increased footfall, more tickets, more people coming and also buying. But perhaps, even more interesting is that for the first time since we hit the inflation shock, we now see that the Swedish customer has started to shop higher ticket items again. If you remember, for the past couple of quarters, we have talked a lot about that people have been careful. They have bought lower ticket items. They've also had a higher campaign share in their shopping basket. But here for the first time, we start to see people buying higher ticket items. Again, it's a bigger share and a growing share of the customer basket. Now that is good, of course, for mix, but it's also good for us before entering the summer season when we have a larger share of higher ticket items, if you remember, the barbecues, the garden sets, the awnings, all of those things. If we have, I should say, regained confidence at the customers, I think that increases the probability that we will have a good summer season. Similar to last quarter when we saw positive signs for the Swedish consumers, we now start to see the same thing in Norway. We see that Norway is gaining momentum. And specifically towards the end of quarter 3, we started to see a similar behavior in Norway as we saw in Sweden. Now hopefully, this means that we will have a Norway that is following Sweden closely behind. That remains to be seen. But from where we stand, I think that's a positive sign. At the same time, so to say, the positive flip sides of the weaker economy that we've been in remains. So customer recruitment continues. Club Rusta members increased by 12.8% in Q3. So the attractiveness of Rusta continues to be there. People are continuing to stream to us, and we also see that in the increased number of tickets during the quarter. We also see a growing social media interest, which has actually boosted some of our products quite well during the Christmas sales and the sales leading up to Christmas. Also the rental market continues to be favorable, and that has been, of course, reflected in the increasing pipeline. So from our point of view, the softer rental market, the availability of attractive locations continues to be good. Last time we talked about that, that seems to be the same across the Nordics. Another change during this quarter is that we now start to see the same thing in Germany. So even in Germany, it's easier for us. It seems to be easier for us to find the locations we're really after, but also on commercial terms that are acceptable to us. So I think, all in all, we expect that the rental market will continue to support our expansion. To continue to follow up a little bit on the more positive outlook that we've had in the Nordics in terms of that, I would also like to say a couple of words on Germany. Before we go into exactly what we're doing right now, I would like to remind you on our approach in Germany. We entered Germany long before we had to. As you are well aware, we have plenty of opportunity to continue to expand and grow in the Nordics, but we have entered Germany because we know that, that is a market that is difficult, and that will take time. So the reason for us to go in there is because it's Europe's largest discount market. It's a very important low-price market, and it's also the key to Continental Europe, which it is our vision to continue to expand in. Our strategy has been to build on strengths and focus on similarities, to have one assortment, to have one concept. This is really about continuing to build scalability and our strength, building on the Rusta concept. Our approach has been to be careful. We have a lot of respect for the German market. It isn't easy. So we have quite a low pace of expansion until we feel comfortable and confident that we have a proof-of-concept. Now as you see in the map, these are the 10 stores that we are operating today. They are quite clear clusters. We have, say, some in the North, some in the East, and some in the West. And we have spent a lot of time now learning from the different sales patterns on these. These are not only in different geographical areas of Germany, but also in different type of locations, mall space, but also external retail parks with different neighbors, different neighborhoods and different demographics. So what we have done is that we have evaluated store performance based on type of location, the demographics, is this our core customer, the type of neighbors that we have, the context that we're operating in, how our marketing has worked and also how that has affected both the sales mix and also ticket size and so on. That study has now been concluded, and we have now a clearer list of specifications of what exact locations are best for Rusta concept. And the decision was made during the quarter to open up 3 to 5 new stores based on these insights. Now provided these stores develop as expected, we believe that we will have taken a significant step towards proof-of-concept. There are many other things that we're working with in parallel that also have to be improved, but I think this is the single biggest step that we will take. And if this develops as expected, then I think that would be, so to say, the door to further expansion into Germany. Now we presented an extra store, a new store today earlier in the presentation in Germany, and that is the first of those 3 to 5 stores that are fulfilling those demands. Having said all of this, that store won't open tomorrow. It will be opening during next year, and we will have some -- we need to have it open for some time to sell to actually see how the trajectory develops. But we are in parallel continuing to look and search for similar locations that are, so to say, fulfilling all of those new demands. And with the softer market in Germany, I feel that -- I'm quite optimistic, I would say, that we will find more stores like this and hopefully also as soon as possible. So we're now really taking a next -- we're entering the next phase in Germany and taking another step forward. We also are now launching an updated store concept that we're rolling out during this year, during 2025. I think it's also important that we continue to invest in our existing stores. So we have identified a new updated concept because as and when we develop, we launch new product offers. Some are continuing up or are very profitable. Some are after a while slowing down in sales and so on. That gives us a reason to update the confidence and reallocate both the space, but also find ways of improving area utilization in our stores. This store concept update will be rolled out to all of our 220 existing stores, plus all the new stores that you saw in the pipeline, the 44 stores that you saw in the pipeline. And this will be on the back of efficiency and also commerciality. So it will also give us a possibility to strengthen our in-store communication and also inspiration. Now we have done this many times in the past, so we have quite a lot of data of how this affects our sales. And our, say, projection now is that this will give us an extra 1.5% to 2% like-for-like boost over and above what we would otherwise have had. It's a SEK 65 million investment with a payback within a year, and all stores will be completed before the important Christmas sales 2025. With that, I hand over to Sofie to take us through the financial performance.

Yes. Thank you. So in Rusta's third and largest quarter that stretches from November to January, we have a total net sales growth of 7.3%, negatively affected of 0.3% currency effects. So total net sales growth, excluding currency effects, were 7.6%. Our like-for-like growth, excluding currency effects, were 4.3%. We have invested in our price position and decreased our sales prices in Q3, just as in Q2. So the total sales increase is not at all price driven. It's all a volume growth. We have a gross profit that has increased with 5.1% in Q3, but a gross margin that is 0.9 percentage points lower than last year due to negative currency effects and planned campaigning. We still see positive effects of lower purchase prices and have a positive sales mix with a lower share of consumables and a higher share of DIY and leisure products. This has been positive both on sales and gross margin. Just as Goran mentioned, over the past 7 quarters, we have gradually strengthened our gross margin, and we believe it's now on a healthy level. The focus in Q3 has, therefore, shifted from margin strengthening to sales and gross profit growth. We have prioritized the core of our customer promise, the low price, to thereby drive sales, which we have succeeded with. The accumulated gross margin is 43.7%, which is 0.1 percentage points stronger than last year. We have EBITA growth in this important quarter of 3.6%, mostly driven by increased sales, increased gross profit and good cost control. Our EBITA margin of 11% is negatively affected by currency with 0.4 percentage points. So currency-neutral EBITA margin is at 11.4%. We see positive total net sales growth in our 2 largest segments. Starting with Sweden, we see a continued positive development and are strengthening our observations from the second quarter that the Swedish consumer has gradually regained confidence, which has contributed to good Christmas sales and an increase in sales of products with higher price points, just as Goran mentioned. We have a positive cost development in the quarter for Sweden, where OpEx as a share of sales is lower than last year. The EBITA margin for Sweden is 20.5%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points. Accumulated, we have an EBITA margin increase of 0.6 percentage points. Our segment for Norway has sales growth of 7.3%, despite meeting high double-digit sales increases in the same quarter last year. The EBITA for Norway in local currency is pretty much in line with last year, but the EBITA margin of 15.8% is lower and is mostly explained by negative currency effects due to a weaker NOK. Towards the end of the third quarter, the Norwegian customer began to show the same signs of recovery that we saw in Sweden during the previous quarter with an increased average ticket. Other markets have a decrease in net sales in the third quarter, and this is due to strong comparables last year and a hesitant market development in Germany, in particular. Net sales growth, excluding currency effects, is minus 0.4%, but we have a positive like-for-like of 0.6%. Operating costs in relation to sales have decreased during the quarter for other markets, which is explained by good cost control. The EBITA margin decreased during the quarter to 3.6% from 4.1%, which is mainly explained by a lower gross margin due to negative currency effects and continued high sales of campaign items. Accumulated, the EBITA margin is 0.4 percentage points higher than last year. We have positive profit development and an increased EBITA of 3.6% in the quarter. If we look at the EBITA bridge, you will see that we have higher sales where volume is the single largest driver to the overall growth. As I mentioned earlier, we have continued to reduce our sales prices during the quarter due to the shift to more planned campaigning. So this sales increase is not at all price or inflation driven. It's a volume growth due to more customers and more receipts. We also have a positive product mix development. We still see positive effects of improved purchase prices and an increased share of private label. However, the negative effects of a higher dollar and the weaker NOK in the quarter had a strong negative impact. We also have higher sea freight costs in the quarter. OpEx as a share of our sales has decreased with 0.3 percentage points, which is very positive. The total currency effect on our EBITA margin, as mentioned earlier, is negative with 0.4%. So a currency-neutral EBITA margin is at 11.4%. Thanks to the scalability and the positive leverage in our business model, we have a very positive development in both net profit and in the profit per share, which is growing at a higher pace than the EBITA, both in the quarter and accumulated. Accumulated, we have an increase in profit per share of 9.9%. And then some comments on our balance sheet and cash flow. The increase in working capital is explained by higher inventory value, which is partly due to a too low inventory value last year when we could not receive the goods in the warehouse during the IT incident. This explains about 1/3 of the higher inventory value compared to last year. We have a low net debt, excluding IFRS 16, of SEK 54 million. Cash flow from operating activities in the quarter is lower than last year and is explained by higher purchases of goods this year compared to last year. This is a planned inventory buildup due to more stores and increased demand. The deviation is also explained by the too low comparable inventory value last year due to the IT incident that I just mentioned. Cash flow from investment activities for the quarter amounted to SEK 50 million compared to SEK 23 million last year. The increase is explained by the automatization project in our warehouse, new stores and rebuilt stores. As for the automatization in the central warehouse, it's all going well according to plan and budget and is expected to be ready in spring '26. So all in all, we continue to have a solid balance sheet and a very stable financial position, which will support our increased store expansion. We have no need for bank loans, and we will fully finance our growth ourselves, completely in line with our set financial targets. And with that, it's your turn.

It's my turn, yes. Right. This does not respond. There, okay. Right. So a little bit of summary and outlook. So I think, first and foremost, we have -- Sweden continues to be in the lead. We had a double-digit growth over there, and we're really happy that what we saw during quarter 2 has continued well into this quarter. We also saw Norway picking up, which I think is very positive. Hopefully, that will continue. And I would say the thing now that we are struggling with a bit is the exchange rates volatility. In the long run, it's good. A stronger Swedish krona versus the U.S. dollar is very positive for us, positive for margins and also, of course, for pricing. But in the short run, we have some headwind on -- in our sales market in Euroland and in Norway, and that is something that we're now working very hard with to mitigate both through price adjustments, but also most importantly with productivity increases. If we look at current trading after the quarter ended, February showed strong sales across all segments, and this is very encouraging, of course. That means that Sweden, Norway, Finland and Germany showed a good level, another step up from what we have seen during quarter 3. And it's a combination of increased visitation and also increased average ticket. So I think that's something that we like to see. And hopefully, that continues during the quarter. Having said that, of course, April is a very important month during our last quarter. It stands for about 40% of our total sales. But from where we stand, looking at the behavior and looking at the development, I think it's a good starting point. So -- and all in all, we have -- as Sofie was into, we have a strong balance sheet. We are financially sound, and we're putting our money into good work. So we are investing in new stores with the increasing pipeline of new stores. We will continue to search and look for good locations, on good commercial terms, and we will be looking across all of our markets. And as I said, even in Germany, it seems to be more of a, I should say, softer rental market, which is good for us. We're also investing in our existing stores to drive the like-for-like growth. And among other things, what we do now is this big program where we're rolling up -- rolling out a new updated concept in all of our 220 stores this year. And we're also investing in supply chain efficiency in various ways. And one of those important ways is the investment that we're doing in our distribution center in Norrkoping. So I think we're working with a multifaceted strategy to support new growth, to support our old stores and also to support our efficiency. So I think all in all, we're in a volatile world. But from where I stand and when I look towards the horizon, I generally like what I see within Rusta. I think we are heading in a good direction. So with that, I would like to open up for questions and answers.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske.

A couple of questions from me. Starting off maybe with the gross margin where you've state that it has reached a healthy level, is that an indication that you don't expect it to reach the low end of the 44% to 45% interval that you've talked about before, but rather a notch below?

If I start here, I can say in the short term, as we said, we're having a bit of a headwind when it comes to the Norwegian krones, but also in the euros that is putting some pressure. So I think, if anything, perhaps, it delays it. But overall, even if we would be at this total exchange rates in a little bit longer run, in a couple of quarters, I don't see anything stopping us from getting into that interval. So a delay perhaps, but I think that the direction is clear.

Okay. Good. And what is the lead time when we think about the weakness that we've seen recently in the U.S. dollar? When do you think that's going to have a more positive impact and might be sort of neutralizing the NOK and the euro?

Yes. So I think first, a bit of a disclaimer before we answer that because nobody knows if these exchange rates will stabilize on this level. It could be anything 2 or 3 weeks from now. But let's just, for argument's sake, say that it will stabilize on this level. We have to purchase the goods. We have to transport it to our distribution central and then sell it before it ends up on our P&L. So we're talking about maybe perhaps 6 to 9 months at least before we start to see that positive effect from the U.S. dollar versus, of course, the weakening against the NOK and the euro, which we see pretty much immediately in current trading. So I don't know if you want to add something to that, Sofie.

No, that's true. And of course, when it comes to the NOK and the euro, that's something that we are mitigating now. As for the dollar, we, of course, hope that it will continue on this level or that the SEK will strengthen even more. Who knows? But that is -- on the net, this is very positive for us at the current FX situation.

Yes. On that topic, are you seeing tailwind on the freight side, because freight -- container freight costs have been coming down quite a lot? Or where are you there?

So in the third quarter, we had some headwind on freight, which will -- which also continues in the fourth quarter. But from there on, it will be lower. We believe Q1 will be pretty much in line with last year. And after that, we will have lower freight costs compared to last year.

Yes. And it's also, of course, positively affected by the lower U.S. dollar as well.

Yes. But the lower dollar.

Exactly, exactly. Okay. But that's good. And then maybe jumping on to the German comments that you made. And you've said that you've done a lot of work in terms of completing the study when it comes to neighborhoods and neighbors and marketing efficiency and so on. Have you applied any of these learnings when it comes to the 3 stores that have been underperforming in the German market? And have you seen an improvement in those 3 stores on the back of that?

We're continuously working with all of the stores that we have in Germany. And as I have alluded to earlier, I think they're performing differently. They're responding differently and so on. But some of those stores that you -- that we have mentioned before that are at the lower end of the spectrum have picked up. So yes, in terms of that, we are applying, I should say, our learnings also in locations that perhaps we would not have chosen today. Is that a clear enough answer on your question?

Yes, yes. I'm just trying to get to that sort of -- is that what's building your confidence to push forward basically?

Yes, I think so. I think -- and also if we look at current trading, we're seeing, even in Germany, a more positive development now in February. So -- and that's not clearly, I would say, not on the back of a more positive consumer sentiment. I would say, on the contrary. So I think that means that we're doing something right in Germany.

Yes. Good. And just to be very nitty-gritty here, I clearly hear what you're saying about a good start to Q4. Has there been any disruptions in the past sort of 2 weeks given the quite significant turmoil that you do have when it comes to politics?

So the only month that we're commenting specifically on is, of course, February, the first month. But I would say, in general, when we have -- because this is, of course, a question that's on our mind, what's happening with the trade wars and, of course, the ForEx volatility. We don't see any direct negative effect on our strategy or on our operations as a consequence of the trade war. I would say, on the contrary, in the short term, we actually see some positive effects, especially in Chinese sourcing because of many American retailers withdrawing from that market, making it more of a buyer's market. However, this -- it's a very fluid situation. So I think in the long term, trade war is not good. In the short term, we don't see any direct effects that are negative. If anything, slightly positive. And I think the direct effect we have right now and that we are, so to say, occupied with, that is the volatile foreign exchange market.

The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from Carnegie.

If I can start there with the current trading we talked about here, is there any way that you can quantify the effect? Are we talking about a significant improvement from the 4.3% like-for-like reported here in Q3? It sounds like you're talking about growth in all markets. And in Q3, there was only really growth in Sweden, for instance. So it sounds like it's a measurable improvement, but is there any way to quantify that?

Well, what I can say is that the February sales increase is a step-up from what you're seeing in Q3.

Okay. Fair enough. And on the topic of Germany, you sound more optimistic here, obviously. What would you say is the main difference for your optimism? And is there any way you can quantify your journey towards profitability in Germany? How far do you think right now -- what's your best guess how far you are from profitability in Germany?

I think we're still talking about years, not months. Obviously, it will take some time to open up these stores and to see the results of them. But I think as we open the new stores, we will fairly quickly get an idea of how well the market responds. In terms of when we will have profitability, it's a very difficult question to answer because if we start to see positive signs, I think the first thing that we will do, if these new stores develop as we hope they will, I would say that our immediate decision would be to open up even more stores. So I would say the share of new stores will, of course, be negative to kind of profitability soon. But I think in the little bit longer term, of course, that's very positive to us if we start to see on a store level profitability that is up to our expectation to have that kind of breakeven on a country level. We have discussed earlier that we probably need a cluster -- a total cluster of stores performing on that level on perhaps 25 to 30 stores to be profitable on country level. So I think if you calculate a little bit with those numbers and the rate that we're going on, it will be still a couple of years away.

Very clear. I'm also curious on -- when you talk about kind of price investments or at least you're talking about a shift here from margin expansion that we've seen in previous quarters to focusing more on growth, your margin now, if you look at the last 12 months, your margins are at 7.1% on adjusted EBITDA. Do you think that is likely to level out at that level if you look kind of over the next 12, 18 months? Or do you still see potential for that to expand towards the 8% margin? Or is 8% margin, is that more like at least a year down the line?

So I think if I just start, I would say that we -- our financial target is that we should be around 8%, and that's absolutely -- it's a real target for us that we are going to go there. And now we have said that it's in 2 to 5 years. We're now entering the first year in that span from -- since the IPO. We're going to get closer. Some of the exchange rates that we're having right now is perhaps delaying it a quarter or 2, but we're definitely heading in that direction. And again, as I said, if the sales are picking up the way that we see it right now, if the U.S. dollar weakens significantly and continues to stay that way compared to the Swedish kronas, I don't see anything stopping us with a little bit of perspective to get into that area.

Yes, I can comment. You mentioned the like-for-like growth of 3%. I -- as of now, we feel confident that we will reach the target already this year, the 3% currency-neutral like-for-like. As for the other financial targets, just as Goran said, they are in midterm, so that is between 2 to 5 years. So next year being the first year that we should -- that we are in that span, basically, and we still feel confident we will move towards the 8% EBITA, not in the first year, but within that span.

Very clear. I'm also curious about this new concept that you are rolling out. Can you tell us a little bit more? Because you're talking about a fairly limited investment and to refurbish stores -- all 220 stores before Christmas. So it sounds like this is not a major facelift we're talking about. We're not talking about changing the lap in the stores, for instance. Just how big of a refurbishment are we talking about here?

So I think one of the targets that we set going into this, because this is something that we have done many times in the past decade, we have looked at ways of simplifying, getting a bigger effect with small means and also building on the current structure that we have. So yes, absolutely, as you're into, this is not about changing all the interior in the store and throwing it out. It's about reutilizing the things that we have, but reallocating, changing the look and feel of the store, but also introducing some new tools in the stores where we can utilize space that is today not utilized at all and, therefore, being able to fit more goods into our stores. And to give you a feel of it, you can say that around 40% of the store will be directly changed here. And in those areas, we are both changing, I would say, location of goods, getting them in a better context. We're also removing some product areas that we believe is now -- is kind of at the end of the life cycle. And we will also be introducing certain new ranges. So the total, I should say, logic and so on is built on a simplified and accelerated and, therefore, also cost-efficient rollout. So it's an improved way of changing our concept. Generally, a concept renewal at Rusta has taken a longer time. But now we have found ways that we are quite confident with, will be much faster to roll out and will cost less.

Very clear. Do you see any risk that this change up might negatively impact your sales, that there will be periods of refurbishment or lost momentum or anything like that? Or do you expect this to have a relatively limited immediate implications on the customer experience?

So that's always the question you have to ask before you do any changes, right? But I think in the same way as we avoid opening up stores in peak sales periods, we usually do it in the kind of the smaller, middle quarters. We don't do it during Christmas. We don't do it during peak summer times. We, of course, apply the same logic here, so -- which we are doing the change concept before Christmas, but after the summer sales. So that's one thing. The other thing is precisely a reason why we want to do this in an accelerated manner because the faster we can do the change, the less the impact will be on the customer and as a consequence on the sales. So there is always that, how should I say, downside while you are rebuilding, but keeping that short and doing it in a period where you have less sales as compared to big sales is, of course, the plan we have.

And we also -- as you know, we do revisions continually during the year as of today. So we will, of course, do it together with those as well. So it's not -- it can -- it will be when we roll out the Christmas, for example, which we start with during end of Q1, beginning Q2.

The next question comes from Gustav Hageus from SEB.

I have one on consumer sentiment or trends in your -- amongst your customers. I appreciate that from what I understand, you have a trend of your customers mixing up and being more willing to buy higher ticket items. Do you see -- on that note, do you see any trends of sort of how your customer base is responding to campaigns and promotions? Is it harder to get the same push in terms of volumes when you have a discounted -- temporary discounted product, for instance, or any of that sort? That would be interesting to hear.

I would say no. I think a low price and a strong campaign is, of course, attractive even if you have more money in your wallet. So I would say that the power of campaigns dominated, of course, during the recession. But very much also for the reason that people coming to the stores were not impulsive enough to buy other things. And that, I think, is the change now. So I think the campaigns at the low price point continues to attract people. The difference is that when they enter the stores, they are slightly more open to respond to higher ticket items and, perhaps, I would guess, unplanned items, that you're more impulsive when you have a little bit more of, how should I say, financial freedom.

Appreciate that. And then I'm a bit curious on the members here. You passed 6.2 million members, right? It's quite impressive. Do you see any -- below that net number, do you see any change in the customer mix? Are there any of the shares of the cohorts that you acquired during the height of inflation that have -- you have struggled to reactivate in any way?

So first of all, I think the distribution of increase is quite logical. It's -- percentage-wise it's, of course, lower in Sweden, our oldest and most mature market where we have the maximum share of the population already in the program. Percentage-wise, it's, of course, the highest in Germany, where we're new and small and still are, I should say, attracting many new members. So I think that's quite linear and logical, as you would expect. Looking at what has happened in the, I would say, recent months and the recent year, I think the thing that kind of stands out, a traditional core customer for Rusta is quite close to the middle class. It's a woman generally. It's middle age and so on. Where we have been weakest has been with young males. And what we see in recruitment is this -- that the fastest-growing area during this period has actually been young males. And that's, of course, we're very happy to see that. All right. I think that concludes the questions. So thank you very much for listening. And see you at the next quarterly report, if not sooner. So thank you very much for today.

Thank you.