Musti Group Oyj
OMXH:MUSTI
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
| 52 Week Range |
20.05
27.15
|
| Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches EUR.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
This alert will be permanently deleted.
You don't have any saved screeners yet
Hi, everyone, and welcome to Musti Group's presentation for the financial statement release fiscal year '22. With you today, we have myself, David Ronnberg, CEO; and Toni Rannikko, CFO. Yes, we can move into the presentation.
So the -- our resilient growth continues. That's the kind of a statement how we're seeing it. There's a lot of things that we have achieved during 2022 that I'm, of course, extremely proud about. If we look at it from the yearly perspective, we see that net sales increased by 14.7%, and we had 38% growth on a 2-year basis. We were also able to increase our gross margin from 45.7% to 46.4% during the year. So it's good progress in that area. We were able to increase our adjusted EBITDA margin with 13.7%, and the cash flow came in at EUR 13.6 million in the quarter, a EUR 46.1 million for the year. There's a lot of other things that we are proud about.
First of all, that we have been continuing opening a lot of stores, the last 2, 2.5 years, we've opened about 100 stores. And last year, we opened 39 stores. If we look at our own and exclusive brand portfolio, that also increased. It went up from 51% share of sales to 52.7%. The loyalty base has also been growing fine during the year and increased to 12%. And also, we were able to increase our profit distribution with 14%. So the total parts for the fiscal year '22 -- so we are very, very proud about.
Let's go into the details in the fourth quarter. So double-digit growth in the fourth quarter. Net sales increased with 11.3% to EUR 101.8 million. In Q4, mainly driven from new customers, we are continuing taking market share. In Q4, like-for-like sales growth was 4.7% and 6.7% for the fiscal year '22. There are some FX and cannibalization effects in this like-for-like that Toni will mention later on.
The group's adjusted EBITDA increased by 2.2% to EUR 17.6 million in Q4. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 17.2% versus last year, 18.8%. For fiscal year '22 for the full year, adjusted EBITDA was EUR 66.9 million, that is up 13.7% versus last year's EUR 58.8 million. So a good progress versus last year.
The number of customers that I talked about, they were growing with 12% to approximately 1.5 million. And if we include all the loyal and registered customers in our online verticals, we are at a new record of 1.8 million customers. Cash flow, I mentioned before, came in at EUR 13.6 million in the -- for the fourth quarter and EUR 46.6 million for the full year.
So let's look at the Musti's puppy acquisition. The Musti's puppy acquisition continues to be on a high level. Musti's puppy acquisitions continues to grow during 2022 and it's clearly higher than fiscal year '21, even though registration from Sweden is down versus last year. And comparing pre-COVID fiscal year '19 with the latest fiscal year '22, Swedish market is up 20%, while Musti is up 75%. And this is because Musti has gained market share of new puppies. And Musti is approximately getting 60% of all the puppies into the loyalty program, which is then more than double our market size. And that's, of course, because we're doing a lot of things in the puppy program that is working extremely well.
And if we look at the retention of the puppy customers, after 1 year, it's on a high level, 90%, which is, of course, very good for us from a long-term perspective. Now we have a bigger pool of puppy customers in our customer base that we can work with going forward.
So let's look more into the growth of the company. Musti's growth trend continues to be solid, double-digit growth despite the economic uncertainty. Net sales increased by 11.3%, as I mentioned, up 14.7% during the fiscal year '22. For Q4, Finland had 10% growth, strong growth in stores and a bit lower online. Sweden had 7% growth, strong growth in stores and a bit lower online. Norway had 31% growth, very strong growth in both stores and online. And the online share of sales came in at 21.3% versus last year, 22.3%, which is a bit the lower than last year because stores are now performing a bit stronger versus online.
If we look at the CAGR yearly sales growth between '19 and '22, that has been clearly steady and has been at 17% during that period. And net sales rolling 12 months was EUR 391 million. Per segment, as we've been talking about before, Sweden and Norway are taking a bigger share, where Finland has had 43%, Sweden and Norway at 57% together. And last year, the same period, Sweden and Norway has 55%. So they are growing the share of the total sales.
So if you look at sales on a bit longer perspective, Musti's growth on a 1-year basis came in at 11%. We have seen a slowdown in discretionary products, what we saw also in Q2. On a 2-year basis, growth was 38% and on a 3-year basis, it was 58%, while we're looking at a 3-year basis. So we look at the growth as an average over time. On a 3-year basis, it's now comping against pre-COVID fiscal year '19. So these 3 years has been a fast-growing period for Musti and the COVID pandemic increased growth for the pet sector globally, which is affecting those 1-year comps, as you can see in the left graph between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022. And over a 2-year basis compared to the pre pandemic levels, our growth has been steady at 6%, which is, of course, extremely good with something that we believe will continue going forward.
So let's look at the gross margin development. Gross margin and share of own exclusive products are strong. The trend in Musti's gross margin has been strong in the last quarters. And during fiscal year '22, it increased to 46.4% versus last year's 45.7%. That's been going up and down a bit versus last year. And during this quarter, we were a bit -- we had a bit lower gross margin versus last year, but we also see that is a swing between the quarters. So we see it more comparing H1 and H2 as periods.
And the strong development during the year in the gross margin is, of course, a lot of things. But 1 very important thing for us is our own exclusive brand share of sales that we can see has been growing every quarter. And during Q4, it was 52.7%. Of the reasons is, of course, successful campaigning pressure, increased gross margin in our pure play and favorable product mix.
So let's look at our EBITDA development. Musti continues to increase the EBITDA. In Q4, Musti delivered EUR 17.6 million in EBITDA with 17.2% margin. And we had a seasonality effect, of course, as before, between the quarter. And that is, of course, also reflected in the margin where Q2 and Q3 is lower and Q4 and Q1 is higher.
For the last 12 months, Musti delivered EUR 66.9 million in EBITDA, and that's close to 14% growth versus the same period last year. And if we look from a longer perspective, CAGR 19 to 22, this has been 21% EBITDA growth during that period which is, of course, a very strong number.
Now I will hand over to Toni that will go through the EBITDA and the segments more in detail.
Thank you, David, and hi, everybody. So during the year, group adjusted EBITDA increased around 5.5% to almost EUR 39 million, which is equivalent to 9.9% of the sales. And this was kind of the main reasons behind it, a strong seasonal sales during the year and improving gross margin in that period, like David mentioned.
Then looking at the quarter 4 adjusted EBITDA decreased to EUR 10.2 million from EUR 11.2 million. And the main reason here was the sort of a stabilization of sales in discretionary items like beds or scratchers for the cats. And despite that -- this is stabilizing, it is still growing. And in the quarter, these items' sales grew 7%.
Also, what is impacting the quarter 4 is that, like David said, during the past couple of years, we have opened a lot of stores. So we have approximately 100 stores that we call that they are in the ramp-up phase and not contributing with all cylinders to the group. So these are also impacting the profitability, but we have grasped the opportunity in the market, what there has been during these years and increased our network.
Also, the currency is not favoring Musti during the past quarters, especially Swedish krona is ahead of us and the strong U.S. dollar. So this had also impact on profitability in to some extent. We've been working a lot with the scalability during the -- '22 and there it's great to see that the development in the overhead cost and our central warehouse have turned in the right direction. So the cost relation to the group net sales was now in the final quarter, 7.7% as it was 9.2% a year ago.
Really proud of the team in our central warehouse Eskilstuna, which is roughly 1 quarter of the pile and then rest is some other central functions like marketing and what we have in the head office.
Then going into the segments. We start with the Finland. Finland is our most mature market. We've been here over 30 years. But still, we are managing to grow double digit in Finland market as well. So net sales increased by 11%, reaching almost EUR 170 million. In the quarter 4, Finland sales increased over 10% as well. This was supported by the stores opened the latest 12 months which is actually 6 stores in Finland, but then also the franchise stores acquired a bit over a year ago.
Some headwind in the quarter 2. You might recall on the uncertainty in the economy, and we can still feel a bit the consumer behavior being more vigilant. Like-for-like growth in Finland, a bit below 2%. And this was affected by the high number of new directly operated stores. So the 16 franchise stores and then stores opened during the year, which are not calculated in the like-for-like. So these sort of overlapping sales is impacting around 3% in the like-for-like in Finland.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 7.9%. And the main reason here is that the growth in Finland stores has been somewhat faster than in online. So we have added more hours into the store, more staffing to the store to respond the more traffic in the stores, and this has caused some weakness in the store efficiency. So in the middle picture there, you can see the development of Finland margin from 24% to 23% levels to bottom levels of 18% and 19% and now turning back into the right direction again in Finland.
In the last quarter, we didn't open any new stores in Finland. And in the near future, we don't expect to open either new stores anymore in Finland, but we focus the growth endeavors in Sweden and Norway. We are a clear market leader in Finland with a 31% share of the total pet food and product market over here.
Next market, Sweden, growing roughly the same pace as Finland and reaching the Finland levels in the group share of sales. And in -- net sales in Sweden increased by 7% in the quarter to EUR 42.5 million. Weakened SEK brought some headwinds in this. So in the quarter and in the year, around 3 percentage points were washed out from the translation impact in the group numbers when it comes to Sweden growth.
Adjusted EBITDA decreased in Sweden as well to EUR 6.5 million, and the decrease was mainly kind of a sales speed, a bit normalizing discretionary item sales also impacting in Sweden and then the new stores opened during the past years are not still contributing with the full power into the group. So it's burdening us with the short term, but in the long term, will be favorable for Musti Group. During the last quarter, we opened 1 new store and acquired 1 store in Sweden. Also in Sweden market, we are the clear market leader, almost a 30% market share in the country.
Norway, our fast-growing segment, almost 40% growth to EUR 56.5 million. And on the right side pillar, you can see the development of Norway during the past couple of years from almost no profit to a EUR 10 million profit contributing unit for the group. So a really, really good story. And during the year, Musti Norway was also awarded as the fastest-growing retail business in the whole Norway. So that was a great achievement and acknowledgment in the country. Norway, we had a bit of a tailwind from the currency during the fiscal year '22. And in the fourth quarter, still now that has also a bit changed. But in the last year, we enjoyed that.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by almost 36% to -- in a quarter to EUR 2.5 million. During quarter 4, we opened 3 stores and 2 stores were acquired in Norway. And also in Norway, Musti Group is market leader in -- with a 13% share of the total pet food. Retail -- grocery retail, of course, still the biggest as combined, but as a single player, Musti biggest one on the Norway market as well.
Then moving into our financial position. And as David mentioned already earlier, we collected cash flow for the year of EUR 46.1 million, and bit of a decline there compared to last year. That was mainly due to that -- during the year, we increased the buffers in our inventory to secure the availability of the goods for our customers and that burdened our cash flow and increased our inventory and also net working capital.
Now as we see that there is more stabilization in the supply chain and better grip on kind of other forecast of the good flows, we have started to normalize the inventory in Musti Group.
Net debt amounted in the year for EUR 143 million. And then if looking at the interest-bearing loan part of that being a bit less than EUR 75 million. So that relation to the latest 12 months EBITDA leverage. So the total leverage of 2.1, but calculating only the interest-bearing loans, the multiplier is a bit below 1. Similar way of looking at the gearing with only interest-bearing loans, the gearing number is up 37.5.
Cash and equivalent at the end of the period, EUR 10 million, exactly where we wanted to be. And during quarter 4 investments of the Musti Group, a EUR 7 million split between growth investments in the store network and acquisitions of new stores.
And on my final slide, long-term financial targets remain. And on the dividend, Musti Group Board is proposing to Annual General Meeting, the dividend of EUR 0.50 per share, equaling to a 75% of the net profit.
There, I can hand over then back to David for a summary.
Yes. Thank you, Toni. So doing a summary of the quarter and the year, we had a strong sales quarter. Net sales growing a bit more than 11% and close to 15% for the fiscal year '22. On a 2-year basis, it was actually 38%. Pet sector proves that it continues to be resilient, over 70% of the products are nondiscretionary.
Gross margin has increased during the year to 46.4% versus last year, 45.7%. We have increased our O&E share of sales. We have increased our customer base with 12%, and we have had a very strong expansion in the last 24 months with close to 100 stores. The burden of short-term profitability, yet it supports reaching our long-term target. And as Toni said, mostly is on track with the long-term financial targets.
So with that, we're handing over to Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] We will take the first question.
Svante from Nordea. Hope you can hear me. First question is regarding your gross margin, you had a negative impact from inflation. Could you elaborate a bit on your pricing strategy there? Are you -- have you been reluctant to raise prices? And what will you do going forward?
We're not hearing anything. It's really bad connection.
Maybe for the moderator, is there another method of delivering questions for [ Ross ]?
We will take the next question.
Hello. This is Maria Wikstrom from SEB. Can you hear me or no?
Sorry for the interruption, we are unable to hear you. Thank you.
Okay. Some technical issues if you all hold for a while in the line, and let's see if they will make it work.
Okay. Let's have a second shot. If you try to ask questions, we try to hear them.
[Operator Instructions] We will take the first question.
Svante Krokfors from Nordea. Can you hear me now?
Yes, we can hear you. You can go on. Thank you.
Svante Krokfors from Nordea. A couple of questions. I hope you can hear me now, David and Toni. Great. So a question regarding your gross margin. You said you have a negative impact from inflation. What about your pricing strategy? Have you been reluctant to raise prices? And will you step up that? Or how should we look at that?
Maybe I suggested in a way that if there is people on the line who have questions. So you can be in touch with our Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Essi Nikitin and you can book a separate slot with me and David and share your questions with us. Apologies for technical inconveniences and I want to thank you all for being on the line.
Yes. Let's see if we can fix this. But people are still left. We are sorry for the technical issue, but let's continue then.
[Operator Instructions] It appears there's no question at this time. Thank you.
Okay. So me and Toni will be available for any questions. Please reach to Essi during the day or whenever, we can do it -- a call regarding questions coming up separately. We are so sorry for this. But unfortunately, it's out of the company's control and we will make sure that this will never happen again. But thank you for listening in. And please get in contact with us so we can maybe give answers on your questions. Thank you very much.