StrongPoint ASA (STRO) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome, everybody, to this investor presentation following the earlier announced Labels divestment we did this week. I'll just jump straight to it. We said earlier this week announced the sale of our Labels business unit to industrial group, Volati, in Sweden. Very pleased about having ensured that our Labels business now has a natural owner with full focus on the labels business, where I'm sure it will continue to thrive. For StrongPoint, we have seen a financial gain of NOK 165 million. We're not at liberty to disclose the exact transaction enterprise value, but I can reveal so much that we're very, very pleased about this transaction. This also continues the journey that we've had with the divestment of Cash Security Q4 last year and now with Labels to provide StrongPoint becoming the pure retail technology company that we have been seeking it to become. So what does it mean to be a retail technology company? At StrongPoint, we focus our efforts on grocery retail. There are certain spillover effects to other retail verticals, but grocery retail is the core of what we are doing. We are, today, serving all the major grocery retailers in Norway, in Sweden, in the Baltics, and emerging so in Spain. And beyond that, we have a tremendous amount of traction with major, major grocery retailers on some of the solutions we offer. With the transaction of and divestment of our Labels unit, we really become a pure retail technology company. So the purpose of StrongPoint means more now than any time else, namely ensuring we provide retail technology in every shopping experience for a smarter and better life. So 1.5 years ago, we had our first strategy update session. We then revealed the financial ambitions for StrongPoint going forward. And with that, we set forth 2 financial targets: one being a NOK 2.5 billion revenue target in 2025; and the other being an EBITDA margin of 13% to 15%. I would like to assure you that this ambition still holds. So I'd like to take you through how are we going to get there. In this strategy update session we held earlier this year, February this year, we showed you this waterfall or a buildup to become that NOK 2.5 billion company. Not surprisingly, e-commerce is a very important part of this journey ahead. Now with the divestment of Labels, we're seeing that the starting point, so to speak, shrinks, we're a NOK 1 billion retail technology company. And with the divestment of both Cash Security and of Labels, we now see that we have close to NOK 0.5 million -- NOK 0.5 billion to fill that gap with. And we're substituting the noncore contributions with core retail technology contributions through patiently looking at M&A opportunities. So what are these M&A paths or opportunities that we are, and I must stress, patiently exploring? Well, they're threefold. Number one, we are continuing to see that there is a lot of demand for our solutions in markets outside the current core markets. Most notably, we see Denmark, Finland, U.K. and U.S. and more, but these are markets that we are very much exploring M&A opportunities in as well to capture a bigger part of the value creation that is being -- taking place in these markets. Secondly, we are exploring technology additions, in particular, in e-commerce and in checkout efficiency area. We're exploring both acquisition opportunities but also relevant partnerships where that makes sense. And with certain of these partnerships we are exploring, there are also investments to be done in the necessary systems and people. And lastly, we will continue to be strengthening our core markets. We put the core markets in reverse already here compared to what we normally do with Spain on top. Spain probably being the 1 market in which we have the most to gain from strengthening the existing position. So we're pursuing all these 3 M&A opportunities. And speaking of Spain, as we rounded off with on the previous page, Spain, I think, deserves just an additional few words. First of all, Spain has been and very much hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of that, we have had to pivot the strategy, accelerating the move from cash management into other kinds of retail technology solutions and into the grocery retail space. Those of you that have been following us will have seen that we announced Lorena Gómez as the new MD of Spain in February. And naturally, with a new MD, there follow changes. And there are 3 changes I'd like to emphasize for this group: number one, we have been and are continuing to cut costs, we've had layoffs, and we've had outsourcing of certain support functions to ensure we have a robust cost base; number two, we are cleaning up and have cleaned up the inventory and stock levels; and number three, we're also making sure we get the necessary and appropriate personnel to take advantage of the technology opportunities in the grocery retail space. And that leads me on to Glovo, the strategic partnership we announced earlier this year. We are both investing to ensure we deliver on the Glovo partnership, but not least also to leverage on the opportunities arising from the attention with Glovo. It's taken some time to get started with Glovo, but now we're getting started. 2 weeks from now, I'm very pleased to announce that the first pilot will be starting, and it will be starting with no one else but Carrefour in Spain, so very pleased about exactly that. Lastly, we have had some challenging financial quarters in Spain. In the short term, they are going to be challenging, but I remain very positive about the medium and long-term development of Spain. Rounding off before we let the audience come with Q&A Again, I'd like to just reemphasize what we are in the midst of here. We are in the midst of a storm. We're riding the e-commerce mega trend. We talked about the double opportunity for StrongPoint, both from providing e-commerce solutions to grow to retailers, but also from ensuring we have a store that is highly efficient as more and more of the e-commerce or grocery volumes go outside the stores. And technologies, the answer to both these trends, and I believe strong product is very well positioned to meet exactly those. So with that, I'd like to open for questions. Dominic, please?

Yes, we have 3 questions sent in advance. First question, will the positive cash situation result in an extraordinary dividend?

So we're now at a negative net interest-bearing cash position or debt position of NOK 200 million, that leaves us ample headroom to do the activities we believe are necessary to continue the growth ahead. The Board has decided that we will have a steadily increase of dividends, and we will likely continue to do so. But we are also of the opinion that the current position provides us with the necessary headroom to go ahead and grow the company. So it's not in the current plans to provide extraordinary dividends.

Second question, what is the status of the picking software?

So status of the picking software is that the third generation is now being launched along with the Glovo partnership. So that's just, technology-wise, the third generation is in place. As for interest, the interest is tremendous. I'm not at liberty to share specific customer names, but I can reassure the audience that we're talking with something like top 3 out of top 5 grocery retailers in Europe about our picking solution.

And lastly, despite all the pilots and lockers, why have we not seen any rolled out -- rollout yet?

Yes. I think why have we not seen that, I mean, we have to recognize that this, meaning e-commerce, is something new to our customers to the grocery retailers. In the past, and still to some extent, there has been a massive growth in e-commerce. And grocers are still struggling to see the profitability coming out of e-commerce in the same manner as they've done in the stores. So I think it's natural to say that with something brand new, which e-commerce really is for many of the companies we are having as customers, it is also a very big investment to doing something that currently profitability is difficult to see. We believe, number one, that first of all, the customer demand is there. That's proven once and again. And as number two, it's not a question of if, but how do you ensure the best profitable business, the best operational business for e-commerce. And that I can foresee no other good explanations to that, but having the best picking and the best last mile development or business solutions, and we have those and Click & Collect, as we pointed out specifically, is certainly one of those. I remain very positive about the rollouts. But I think we also have to recognize that it takes time to roll out something that is relatively new. I think that was the last question we had. With that, I'd like to thank you all for participating. Have a nice summer if you're there and hopefully see many of you back in close to 2 weeks to present the Q2 financial figures as well. Thank you.