Synsam AB (publ) (SYNSAM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome everyone to Synsam Group's Q&A session. Synsam released the interim report for its Second Quarter 2026 this morning. My name is Frida Leim and I am Head of Investor Relations at Synsam Group and the moderator of this Q&A. I am joined by our CFO, Per Hedblom; and our CCO, Jimmy Engstrom in the studio. If you are watching the webcast live, you can submit your question using a question box on the webcast page. We have our analyst from Citi joining us. I would like to welcome and hand over to Giang Nguyen.

Thank you, Frida. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me on again. You know how I always like to start my question list. My first question is if you have any comments on the broad consumer sentiment or the purchasing behavior through the course of Q2, and specifically it would be helpful if you could compare it to what we saw in Q1, please.

Yes. If we compare to previous quarter, we see somewhat more positive consumer sentiment across all markets really.

Would you say that this improvement has continued into the early part of Q3?

We see general improvement from Q2 and onwards, yes.

Okay, that's helpful. Since we're now right towards the end of the summer, but we have had a very warm summer here in Europe. Could you talk about what potential impact we could expect in terms of the sales of sun in the quarter?

Yes. The sunglass season has been, as you say, also relatively warm and hot in Sweden, and we have seen a good development also in that category.

Okay. I want to then ask specifically about Denmark. I read in the press release that you called out 390 basis points of contribution to organic growth from changes to the handling of returns. Maybe can you give us a little bit more details around the changes and what kind of positive impact do you expect in the coming quarters?

I think we described that quite extensively in Q1, but it's a technical change in how we account for lifestyle when customers hand in their spectacles, which technically improves sales and reduces gross margin basically, and we are quite open with that in the report. That effect came in Q1 and will continue every quarter during '26. Of course, continue next year as well, but then we compare same quarter by quarter.

Do you expect a similar magnitude of positive benefit to Q2 in Q3 and Q4?

I don't want to give any forecast, but it's the same technical effect that will affect Q3 and Q4 as in Q1 and Q2.

Okay. That is very clear. Just looking at the different regions, I think you have had better than expected performance in three regions, but in Finland it felt slightly short of consensus expectations. Can you give us a little more color on the dynamics in Finland and how do you expect this to trend going forward?

Well, Yes, we have good growth in Finland and we take a market share. That is very important to underline. In the quarter, we had somewhat lower gross margin and we of course have an ambition to be focused on the gross margin very much, but it was somewhat lower in Q2, and also personnel costs were somewhat too high in Q2, which we are looking at very closely. So we are confident that our ambitions are the right ones in Finland. And we have a growth strategy in Finland. Goal is to be #1.

I also noticed that you call out the personnel cost. Is there anything extraordinary here and is there anything similar that you are seeing in terms of pressures in other countries, or is it just a Finland topic?

No, it is more calibration issue. When you grow very fast, you need to ensure that you have enough personnel in the stores, and that need to be calibrated very closely. And we are looking at that. So little bit too much people in the stores, which is easily handled.

Okay, that is clear. So we talked Finland, we talked Denmark. I wanted to touch upon Norway. I saw in the press release you called out planned marketing spend. I just wanted to confirm that this is related to the exclusive partnership that you have with Haaland, and is there any sort of increase in marketing spend that you're also expecting in Q3?

Well, first and foremost, we have increased our efforts and increased marketing throughout the group, especially in Norway. It's not just Norway, but especially Norway. That has given positive effects, I would say. It's very important to underline that the traffic and the attention we got from these initiatives have been very positive. But increased market spend, especially in Norway. We're looking at sort of quarter by quarter on what marketing spend is optimal. I can't give a forecast, but if we see that increased market spend will add to sales and give a good net benefit, we will continue to do that, but that's something we evaluate continuously.

Can I confirm whether you already saw better sales performance as a result of this campaign already in Q2, or is it something that you incurred costs in Q2, but you're expecting to see benefits in the coming quarters?

We saw benefits from our initiatives in Q2 on sales.

Okay. You also mentioned that this partnership increased the awareness of Synsam and Synsam's offering to new target audience. Could you maybe elaborate on what the characteristics of this new audience that it has bring to the group?

There was a World Cup. Erling Haaland was one of the biggest stars. We had this campaign, and we have the partnership with him. That, in general, gave a broad attention to Synsam across all our markets, I would say. But of course, families, kids and young, and in general, a very broad attention to this campaign and to Synsam.

Okay. You also mentioned that you are now starting to have online sales in selected European countries, so I presume outside of the usual 4 countries that you operate. Can you provide a bit more color around this? Is it strictly within the context of this partnership, or is it a direction of travel that we should expect to see Synsam expand more on?

We are testing, as we have mentioned in the press release, online sales in 6 markets in Europe outside Nordics. It's a test, and we evaluating that continuously, the sale of Haaland frames. So, in due time, we will evaluate this pilot, I would say, regarding online sales outside Nordics.