Bang & Olufsen A/S
CSE:BO
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Bang & Olufsen A/S
Earnings Call Analysis
Summary
Q1-2025
In the first quarter of 2024/25, the company reported a 12% revenue decline to DKK 544 million, mainly due to challenging comparisons. However, gross margin improved to a record 55.2%, up 2.6 percentage points year-on-year, reflecting pricing strategy and product mix enhancements. The company plans significant investments to bolster its luxury brand positioning and expects revenue to grow between -3% and 3% for the year, with an EBIT margin projected between -2% and 1%. Amid these changes, sell-out growth was solid in key markets, particularly with the launch of the H100 headphones, which have received positive market feedback.
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Welcome to Bang & Olufsen Interim Report for the First Quarter 2024/'25 Presentation. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded. I will now hand the call over to your speakers. Please begin.
Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining the call. With me today is our CFO, Nikolaj Wendelboe. I will start by taking you through our key highlights and business review. Nikolaj will take us through the financials in more detail, and I will conclude before we open up for questions. If we move to next slide.
Let us begin by looking at our Q1 performance. We delivered a first quarter in line with our plans and expectations. We had a decline in revenue of 12%. This was mainly due to a strong comparable first quarter last year, which was positively impacted by increased demand ahead of a planned price increase in the following quarter. We improved our gross margin further to a record high 55.2%. This shows the progress we are making in building a more robust financial foundation for the company.
We continued our strategic execution with a particular focus on increased global brand awareness, optimizing the retail network and creating world-class products. We are pleased to report that our Win cities generated double-digit sell-out growth and our branded channels generated single-digit sellout growth. Recently, we have launched our new flagship headphone, the H100. These are the best headphones we have ever created, and we are delighted to see that they're off to a very good start.
Simultaneously, we have worked on preparing for the acceleration of our strategy execution and making the value-creating investments to realize our midterm growth plans, which we announced in July. These investments will primarily focus on strengthening our luxury position by building brand awareness, optimizing the retail network and of course, continuing to build world-class products. We are, therefore, pleased to get strong support for our plan at our Annual General Meeting in August, enabling us to increase the share capital by up to 20% and complete the directed share issue. We expect to complete the directed share issue by the end of November. All in all, we are progressing as planned and are also maintaining the outlook for the year. So if we please move to the next slide.
We have made good strategic progress in strengthening our brand position. In June, we introduced our new brand ambassador, Formula 1 driver for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc. We are proud to have such an outstanding F1 driver representing our brand. We also partnered with the luxury yacht brand, Riva, to create the ultimate sound for life onboard yachts. With a shared legacy of excellence in craftsmanship and an ambition to deliver beautiful sound experiences, we created 2 product collaborations in the Beosound A5 and the Beosound 2. The partnership builds on the craftsmanship performance and design heritage associated with both brands, combining our iconic products with Riva's beauty and style. If we move to the next slide, please.
Our dedicated retail function established in November '23 supports our ambition of creating luxury experiences across branded channels and improving our retail footprint. In the beginning of the quarter, we strengthened our presence in Paris with a shop-in-shop in the prestigious department store, Printemps. While strengthening our presence in key cities, we have reduced the number of monobrand stores in EMEA. Since Q1 of last year, we reduced our monobrand network in the region by 23 stores.
In the APAC region, we opened a third monobrand store in the luxurious SKP mall in Wuhan. We are now present in 3 SKP malls in China, Xi'an, Beijing and Wuhan. In the U.S., we have a particular focus on customer installers and have increased our presence through Origin Acoustics, which is an important partner in the region. Out of our 12 defined global Win cities, we are now in execution in 4 cities: New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong. The Win cities in total reported a sell-out growth of 11%, which comprise sell-out across channels in the city.
New York and London reported strong growth, while Paris reported modest growth year-on-year due to the Olympics being held in Paris in July this year. Hong Kong is still in ramp-up phase. In total, our monobrand network, including company-owned stores constituted 383 stores, which was a net reduction of 22 since the end of Q1 last year. This is in line with our ongoing assessment and plan to ensure that all monobrand stores deliver unique and consistent experiences. All in all, like-for-like sell-out for our branded channels grew with 4%. In terms of multibrand and eTail, we continue to limit our presence and be more selective in both channels. We have changed partner setup in China towards travel retail; and in the U.S., we have discontinued with partners such as Verizon, Best Buy and T-Mobile, resulting in the reduction of multibrand stores of more than 1,400 doors in the region year-on-year. So if we move to the next slide.
In July, we are pleased to announce a 6-year technology licensing partnership with TCL. Through this partnership, we bring elevated audio experiences to TCL's premium TV portfolio with our Audio by Bang & Olufsen proposition, distributed globally via TCL channels and partners. The first TCL TV products featuring Audio by Bang & Olufsen were announced in August. In addition to heightened sound quality and performance, all TVs with Audio by Bang & Olufsen feature our proprietary Beosonic user interface and listening presets, where users can personalize their audio. This enables us to bring authentic Bang & Olufsen technology experiences to millions of consumers. The partnership has the potential to be one of the most impactful partnerships for Bang & Olufsen as there is a scope for expanding into further categories and additional technology experiences. If you please move to the next slide.
Before handing over to Nikolaj, let me add more details on our new flagship headphones. The H100 are the best headphones we have created to date and represent a significant strengthening of the On-the-go portfolio. The H100 are the first headphones built on our new proprietary software platform, the Amadeus platform. The powerful platform and modular building structure enables us to design and build the product exactly as we wanted from hardware, software, user interface and an acoustic point of view. Furthermore, it enables the product to be serviceable and repairable.
The headphones deliver exceptional audio performance, whether you're listening to your favorite music, having a phone call in a noise environment or controlling the effect of the surrounding environment with the active noise cancellation or audio transparency. By building our own platform, intellectual property rights are also being generated and the software platform will be the foundation for future products of this kind.
We also bring our modular design thinking to our wearable category for the first time as a step towards our ongoing journey to improve product circularity across our entire portfolio. For H100, we have prioritized longevity, maintenance and reparability through modular design. We have developed our software with the future in mind so that the headphones can adapt and evolve with new technologies for a true timeless design. To underpin our promise, the headphones come with a 5-year warranty through our Beocare program. As I mentioned in the introduction, the sales performance of H100 was off to a very good start, and we are pleased to see the positive reviews in the market. And with this, I will hand over to Nikolaj.
Thank you, Kristian. Now please move to Page 10. Let me start by going through sell-out for Q1. On group level, our like-for-like sell-out declined by 2% compared to last year. Last year, we made some end-of-life deals, which are reflected in the numbers. And if we exclude these deals, like-for-like sell-out grew compared to last year. If we look at the regions, like-for-like sell-out in EMEA decreased by 2% year-on-year. Sell-out from company-owned stores and the monobrand channel grew. The Staged category grew, while the Flexible Living and On-the-go categories declined, reflecting the focus on branded channels as well as full price sales. Sell-out in the Americas declined by 7%. Branded channels grew year-on-year, supported by growth in both company-owned stores and monobrand stores. Like-for-like sell-out in APAC decreased by 2%.
The monobrand brand channel grew double digit, while declines were reported from the multibrand and eTail channels. In China, like-for-like sell-out declined 8%, both monobrand and multibrand increased over the period, while eTail declined. Inventory levels with our partners continue to improve. Other main markets in the region all reported sell-out growth. Across regions, our Staged category grew by 19%, while the Flexible Living and On-the-go categories declined by 19%. This reflects the change in channel mix towards our branded channels as well as the fewer end-of-life deals than last year that I have already mentioned. Please go to the next page.
Going to revenue development. Reported revenue for the quarter was DKK 544 million. This is a decline of 12% in local currencies compared to Q1 of last year and in line with our expectations. Last year, seasonality was affected by the implemented price increases compared to a normalized seasonality during Q1 this financial year. The price increases implemented in September '23 consequently pulled demand forward from Q1 -- from Q2, sorry, into Q1 of last year. These price increases mainly impacted the Staged categories and the monobrand brand channel in EMEA.
In general, our branded channels outperformed multibranded channels, which was a result of the ongoing channel optimization with focus on branded channels and reducing presence in multibranded channels. All in all, the Staged category declined by 4%. This was mainly driven by the effect of price increases implemented in September '23. Decline was partly offset by the strong performance of Beolab 8 and higher average sales prices relative to last year.
Flexible Living declined 12%, mainly driven by the end-of-life deals made last year. The On-the-go category declined by 24%. In general, the reduced presence in multibranded channels affected this category negatively year-on-year. The decrease was partly offset by the successful launch of Beoplay H100. Our brand partnering and other activities declined by 23% in local currencies, which was mainly driven by reduced license income from HP in line with our expectations, and due to the expiry of the agreement with HP as of June '24. As Kristian mentioned, we are pleased to have entered into the partnership with TCL in July, which has a strong potential in the coming years. Please turn to the next page.
Looking at the split of product revenue, the EMEA and APAC region declined, while Americas grew revenue year-on-year. In EMEA, revenue declined 17% in local currencies to DKK 251 million. Revenue from our branded channels declined by single digits. Our company-owned stores grew, while the monobrand channel declined due to high comparables last year. This impacted the Staged category, in particular. In addition, end-of-life deals were made last year, Beosound A9 as we introduced our fifth generation in Q4 of '22/'23.
Revenue from multibrand and eTail decreased by double digit compared to last year, in line with our strategic transformation. In Americas, revenue increased 3% in local currencies to DKK 68 million. Revenue growth from branded channels was double digits, supported by growth in all branded channels. The eTail and multibrand channels declined year-on-year. Revenue in APAC was DKK 165 million, which was a decrease of 3% in local currencies. Revenue from China decreased by 12% in local currencies. In China, revenue from our monobrand channel increased year-on-year, and we continue to see demand and improve inventory levels despite lower consumer sentiment.
The eTail channel decreased as we continue to limit our presence in this channel, while multibrand increased. We have changed the multibrand channel to focus more on travel retail in China. Please move to the next page. In Q1, the gross margin rose to a record high 55.2%, and was up 2.6 percentage points compared to last year. The improvement was supported by a combination of our pricing focus, combined with an improved product and channel mix. The gross margin trended upwards throughout '23/'24, a testament to the progress we are making in our strategic focus on building robust financial foundation for the future. The EBIT margin before special items was negative 3.1%, which was mainly driven by the lower revenue level. In general, Q1 is a quarter with relatively low activity. Please turn to the next page.
Moving on to capacity cost and net working capital. Capacity costs increased by DKK 12 million year-on-year. Looking at the composition of the capacity cost, development cost increased by DKK 16 million, mainly due to an adjustment of COVID-19 relief packages received in Q1 of last year. Distribution and marketing costs decreased by DKK 9 million, and our marketing ratio was 10.1% compared to 11.6% last year. Administrative costs increased by DKK 5 million year-on-year, driven by the mentioned COVID relief adjustment and partly by advisory costs.
Net working capital increased by DKK 19 million during the quarter to DKK 282 million. Inventory was at an overall stable level, while a decrease in receivables was driven by seasonality with lower sales in Q1. Sales with extended credits were 3% and continue to be at a lower level. Payables decreased by DKK 36 million and other short-term liabilities decreased by DKK 45 million to DKK 126 million during the quarter, which was primarily driven by employee-related liabilities. Please turn to the next page.
And finally, the free cash flow for Q1 was up DKK 25 million to minus DKK 36 million. The developments in last year was driven by an improvement in cash flows from operating activities. CapEx was at DKK 40 million for Q1 and mainly related to new products and platforms. Capital resources amounted to DKK 299 million at the end of Q1, of which available liquidity was DKK 139 million. Please turn to the next page. As we said earlier, we maintained the outlook for the full year '24/'25. The outlook is based on the assumption that we can make the required investments to accelerate our strategic execution. We are pleased to see the 20% authorization was approved at the AGM, and we're expecting to execute a directed issue by the end of November as planned.
Given the investment plan, '24/'25 will be a transition year for us, and bear in mind that effects from the value-creating investments come with a delay. Also, capacity costs are expected to increase as we will hire the right competencies to help us execute the plan. In the financial year '24/'25, we expect to increase our capacity cost and our CapEx spend compared to last year. For the financial year '24/'25, we maintain our outlook, with revenue growth in local currencies from minus 3% to 3%, with an EBIT margin before special items from minus 2% to 1%. Free cash flow is expected from minus DKK 100 million to DKK 0 million. With those words, I will hand the word back to Kristian.
Thank you, Nikolaj. To sum up, the quarter has been in line with our expectations and plans. While revenue declined due to the strategic changes we are making, we generated a record high gross margin. Finally, we were pleased to report double-digit sell-out growth in our Win cities and single-digit growth in our branded channels. And we will now open up for questions.
[Operator Instructions] First question is from Niels Leth from Carnegie.
Can you provide an update on the expected growth investments that you talked about back in July? Have you already initiated the cost ramp-ups that you talked about back then? And secondly, could you talk about the revenue effect which you had in this quarter from the sell-in to the Genesis collaboration in the U.S.? It seems like there was a positive sell-in effect there. And then thirdly, if you could talk about when we should expect the effect of the multibrand ramp down in China to be kind of phased out in the year-on-year growth numbers.
Yes. Thank you, Niels. I will let Nikolaj start to take the question, and I'll comment on the last one.
Yes. So on the growth investments, we have not conducted any of them at this point in time. We are in the planning phase, as we said, when we announced the midterm targets in July. So we are currently preparing for the investments that we are going to make, getting the right people onboard, preparing for the stores, et cetera, that needs to be upgraded. So there's nothing in the numbers in this quarter that is really a ramp-up of these investments. I think it's important to note, as we've said, that especially the CapEx part, the timing of those, are dependent on finding the right store locations, moving the stores to those locations, et cetera.
So there's an uncertainty to that timing. But nothing is included in the first quarter. And we expect, especially on the OpEx part, that we will start seeing something in the coming quarters. Then there was the revenue from the Genesis partnership in the U.S. So we're not going to comment sort of on specific numbers on that partnership. But in general, sort of that segment of our revenue in the U.S. is growing high double digits right now compared to last year. And of course, that has a short-term effect as long as we are building out these dealerships with them. We expect that growth to decline in the second half of the year.
And on your final question on the multibrand in China. Monobrand and multibrand and eTail will continue to be important channels in China for us. What is happening right now in this that there's a lot of discounting taking place in the multibrand and in eTail, and we try to avoid that and stay out of that to the largest extent possible. So we -- I can actually not answer exactly when we will have that winded down. It's also dependent on when our monobrands are picking up more and the monobrand expansion that is part of the midterm ambition. So on multibrand we will be there for next year as well.
[Operator Instructions] I see we have a follow-up from Niels Leth, let's bring him in again.
Okay. I'll just continue then. As far as I remember, you have announced an ambition to launch 4 or more products this year. And in quarter 1, you introduced one new product. Could you talk about your product launch plans for the remainder of this year? Should we expect any major product launches that could have a material effect on revenue in one of the upcoming quarters? And then also on the expected share issue to be finalized before the end of November, what's the status here? Are you in discussions with upcoming investors? And can you basically just provide a status for this process?
Yes. Thank you, Niels. On the product launches, we have the plans that we have, that we have announced, and I will not be able to share anything more on that here and now more than we're following our plans. And of course, we will have exciting announcements when we announce them. And with H100, I think you can see what there is to expect. We try to build the best ones and increase the performance and increase the design and everything. And also software releases are important going forwards. So we will have to come back when we announce them and share more at that point in time. With regard to the directed rights issue, we're keeping the time plan that we announced when we asked for the authorization. And obviously, we have, like we said, as well dialogue with existing shareholders and potential new shareholders. And I will not be able to provide any more context to that at this point in time.
At this moment, we do not have any further questions from the telephone. So I will hand it back to the speakers.
Yes. So everybody, thank you very much for joining today and for your questions, Niels. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to reach out to our IR department. I wish you all a good day.