XXL ASA

OSE:XXL

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Tolle Groterud, executive]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first quarter results presentation. My name is Tolle Groterud, and I have the pleasure of guiding you through today's presentation.

Our CEO, Freddy Sobin; and our CFO, Stein Eriksen, will take you through the presentation then followed by a Q&A session. And for the media, there will be an opportunity to perform separate interviews after the presentation, so please direct your request to our press contact. So without further introductions, I turn the floor over to you, Freddy.

[Freddy Sobin, executive]

Thank you, Tolle, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the first quarter presentation, and just like the headline says, it has been somewhat of a challenging quarter with low sales, with availability holding us back. However, the Reset & Rethink plan is progressing and materializing well, and we'll guide you through some of the highlights and indicators of that throughout the presentation.

Moving on, moving beyond the disclaimer. This is the agenda for my part. I want to walk you through the quarter, what has happened, what have we worked with, what have we done. Then going through the must-wins, the Reset, Rethink plans because that is what we are focusing on every day. That's what's ultimately going to turn the company around to make us a winner in the market once again, and then briefly going into the financial results, of course.

So if we start here, the first quarter. So definitely a somewhat disappointing and challenging top line, minus 21%, nothing that we're proud of, but we definitely saw throughout the quarter that product availability of key products, winning categories, high-moving categories, we didn't have enough inventory. Availability was holding us back, and we weren't able to fulfill the full sales potential that we saw in the market.

However, that being said, also, the quarter had somewhat fewer sales days due to Easter coming early. And also, we need to be mindful of the first quarter of 2023 was very much inflated by XXL's maybe most aggressive campaign ever in the market where we cleared out 500 million of inventory in just 1 quarter. So of course, meeting tough comparables also, but nonetheless, weak sales in the quarter. That's nothing that we are denying.

Moving over to inventory. While we did focus very much on inventory throughout 2023 to get inventory down on normalized levels. We are very much in strict control and have a very tight discipline of inventory. And you can see that inventory levels are further down with 13%, almost NOK 300 million. So we are very much on top of inventory, which we need to be.

In the quarter, the entire company has been working with the Reset, Rethink plan. It's very much well anchored in the entire organization. And everything we do, we value, is it Reset, is it Rethink, if it's neither? We don't do it. We need to prioritize. We need to move forward, and we are seeing very good progress on all of our initiatives. Other initiatives is, of course, the restructuring program, the cost out program, they are also materializing well. We'll also show you a bit more about that.

And late in the quarter, in March, we launched a very successful private placement of NOK 500 million, which was also heavily oversubscribed at market, we need to no discount, which we think is a strength meaning that we ended up in the quarter with taking that into account with over -- or roughly NOK 800 million in total reserves, thus strengthening the company financially and securing the continued runway moving forward. That's the quarter and very much just high-level summary.

But moving over to the plan. You've heard me say Reset, Rethink many times in many quarters. You'll continue to hear me say it every quarter for quite a few more because the Reset, Rethink plan, we've always said and communicated it will take up to 24 months to fully materialize and give effect. And we'll today guide you through a few of the must-win battles of the Reset part of that plan.

The must-win battles, we've talked about them, we communicated them clearly before, so I won't go through them in detail either exactly what they are because I think everybody knows them by now. I can at least guarantee you that inside of the company internally in the organization, everybody knows them by heart. So must-win battles, a few of the enablers, everything is going well. But don't just take my word for it. Let's go into the actual data, the indicators of why we say that.

If we move over to the first one, category reset and maybe our most important must-win battle because it all starts with the products, right? What we sell. So last quarter, we clarified exactly what we mean with the category resets. Here, we've said that we need to rebalance inventory composition, and ultimately, what we offer to the customers, taking a step back and offering more low price, more entry price points like XXL did historically, but still offering mid and high prices because we very much see that we can sell throughout the price ladder. And like I showed you last quarter, we actually have growth in the high price points as we did in the low price points. So still, XXL, we can sell throughout our price points, but we need to have the right balance to meet what the customer actually demands most of the market.

We think this is crucial. You can see that 2023 was 1 step forward towards our ambition of the 40-40-20 composition of this. You can see that the orders for the first half year 2024 will take us further in the right direction. So we are moving towards the target of more maybe the historical and very successful balance of price points in our inventory. So we're very confident that we are continuing on the right journey with regard to the category reset, taking more steps forward as we go.

Now if I -- what that will ultimately also lead to when buying more of the low price point products is that given the same absolute inventory value, we will actually get more pieces of products into the inventory, when they have an average item value that is slightly lower and actually also a lower average COGS, so cost of goods sold, meaning that availability, product availability in stores and online will be strengthened when recompositioning and rebalancing the inventory this way. So they very much sit together category reset and availability. And our new assortment mix, the new summer spring assortment that is coming in as we speak, we see very good improvement of what we've done throughout last year that is now coming into stores, coming into central warehouses and that will improve availability, no doubt about it.

But as we said, that availability has held us back in the first quarter, we will here share with you the availability of our top 1,000 products. So the most selling products at XXL actually had 19% or rather 81% availability. And of course, that's a problem. Of course, when we don't have enough of the top-selling products, we cannot fulfill our full sales potential. So just being a bit more concrete of how important availability is. And if you have visited any of our stores lately, and I hope you all do frequently, of course, and of course, as you know, every time you enter a store, you need to buy something, please do. But if you have been there, I think you've all experienced that we are out of stock way too often and too many products.

So I think availability has held us back, but we are attacking it structurally, and we have been all the way back since last summer. But let me remind you that the lead times in this business is 9 to 12 months. So from ordering the product until getting it into the inventory and getting out to stores, it just takes that long. So what you're seeing now is actually the orders that were placed in Q2 last year. That's what's now coming in, in Q2 of this year. And that's why we've always said that the plan will take time to fully execute and fully materialize on.

Now category reset might be the most important must-win battle for us. And that's also why I want to tell you some of -- an initiative that we did in February. We did our first ever digital Nordic Supplier Conference. We hosted it for a few hundred of our most important product suppliers, our most important brands. XXL is all about great brands. And for us, category reset actually also means partnership reset. Yes, we need to have a very close partnership relationship with all of our brands and great suppliers. And throughout this conference, we told them more about our strategy, the way forward and how we can cooperate in an even better way than we haven't historically.

Because I think the company, its heritage has been a bit too, may be transactional. We need to be more collaborative, more strategic with our suppliers, with our brands. We need to work together hand in hand to create a win-win situation. And that's also why we've launched several new joint opportunities for our brands to do even more business, stronger business together, to strengthen partnership, to move as many of them up the ladder all the way to strategic partnerships. That is just crucial.

Moving on to the 3 other must-win battles that we also have in the reset plan. Store operations, last quarter, we talked about how we had improved our revenue per worked hour, a very crucial and central KPI for us. This quarter, we want to be a bit more transparent with regards to service workshops. Because here, we -- last year, they had a strategic project that we called workshop full potential. And here, you can see how that project materialized extremely well, extremely successful.

For the full year 2023, all of our service workshops, and let me remind you, we have one fantastic service workshop in every department store throughout the Nordics, meaning 85 of them. Last year, all of them together for the full year at a calculated EBITDA, meaning profitability of NOK 2 million. In the first quarter alone, thanks to the successful project. The service workshops are now profitable in all 3 core markets, meaning Norway, Sweden and Finland and are now actually delivering a result of NOK 11 million for the first quarter alone.

This is also a part of the reset plan because we are working with many parameters and all of them needs to improve, and we need to increase profitability in all aspects. And this is definitely a crucial one. Because if you remember, our fourth strategic pillar of leveraging our service offering, now that this is profitable, we can leverage to offer the customer in the market even more services, they prolong the lifetime of their products and to give them even more joy and value out of the products that they have bought for us, also strengthening XXL as an even stronger destination for sports and outdoors. So a very important project and initiative and a very successful one.

Pricing, the fourth must-win battle continues to deliver well, strict price control and new routines and data-driven systems has meant that we are in a very positive trajectory and journey on our gross margin. For the first quarter, we landed on 38.8% in gross margin. I think that is actually quite a historical high, not maybe the highest that we have been, but on a very high level for XXL historically. We are thus moving quite quickly towards the financial target of 40%. So we are on a good journey with regards to pricing and gross margins.

E-commerce, the last must-win battle. You can see that we continue to adopt best practices, we need to optimize all of our sites. That has meant that our conversion rate is up in the quarter with 0.2 percentage points. Actually, a strong increase might sound limited, but it's not if you have worked with conversion rate optimization. And also, gross margins in e-commerce channels also continue underlying to be strengthened. So actually, all 5 must-win battles continues to materialize, continue to deliver well. And with more time, you'll see even stronger results and this delivering all the way to bottom line.

However, it's not only about must-win battles. We've also, as you know, launched the cost-out program, the restructuring program. In the first quarter, we closed down our mobile app. We exited Denmark, both as communicated in the last quarter. The cost-out program of NOK 300 million is progressing well, and as you -- if you read the report and as you'll see briefly, we've taken out costs in the first quarter year-over-year with NOK 75 million, quite a material sum, if you ask me. So the program is progressing well.

However, I want to focus on our store optimization, the store footprint, store portfolio that we have. I think we've been very vocal and clear what we want to do, what we want to achieve. We have 85 fantastic department stores. We believe in our stores. We believe that with great stores, strong e-commerce, we can create the leading omnichannel offering in the market. However, with the 2 last year's rent increases being driven by the index clauses, we have to act because rents have just increased too much. So we are optimizing our entire store portfolio.

So we did, in the first quarter closed one of our Helsinki department stores in the Redi shopping mall. And that's just to show you that we do close when we don't believe that there's a long-term profitability to be achieved because of either the location not being strong enough or the rental terms not being the right ones. We do act, we do leave.

Throughout this year, we will relocate several of our stores. We will downsize several of our stores, and we will continue to work closely with landlords and property owners to secure that XXL has a strong resilient and ultimately profitable store portfolio throughout every market. The pipeline currently is actually slightly increased. Last time I told you that we had an ambition to take out 15,000 square meters or excuse me, not an ambition actually signed contracts to take out. That pipeline has now been increased from 15,000 square meters to 16,000 square meters. So we continue to do more. And the pipeline for 2025 is also materializing and being more concrete every day as we go. So we are committed to restructuring and optimizing our store footprint but we are also long-term committed to our stores. Let there be no doubt, we believe in stores, we believe in e-commerce, we believe in omnichannel. That's the way to win in the market.

So the restructuring program, the cost out program also positive side, we are definitely moving forward. We're doing what we said that we would do. If we move over and look at the market. We know that the sporting goods market historically has had a growth of 5% plus in CAGR, but the last 2 years, 2022, 2023 have been negative with a negative 5% CAGR. That means 8 consecutive negative quarters in the sporting goods market in the Nordics. We believe that the first quarter of this year and not all reports in all markets have yet come in, continues with the same trend, unfortunately.

We believe that the sporting goods market is still fighting and being challenged from a consumer perspective. XXL in Q1, that means that we now have had 4 consecutive negative quarters of growth, but the entire market has had 9 is what we believe. So the market continues to be very much about high campaign pressure and also the late entry of spring this year has also meant that campaigning has been kept on a quite high level also after the first quarter in general in the market.

Now if you look at the recent rate hiking cycle in the market and the macro, we know that, that has held back consumer confidence and consumer spending. But we much believe and we are by no means macro or interest rates experts. But when listening to those who are, we very much believe that we are now at the top of that cycle and that what we have in front of us is a downward cycle once again. And ultimately, that will, of course, improve consumer confidence, consumer spending in the market. exactly when that will happen remains to be seen. But every market that goes down, will eventually go up. And we are more than ready when the market goes up again.

Now in summary, financials. A tough quarter sales-wise. However, if you look at the gross margin, very positive sign, we are able to increase it by 7.4 percentage points, 38.8%. I think that's a strong number. OpEx-wise, we get OpEx down by NOK 75 million, that's a quite big number as well in 1 quarter alone. So we continue to be very much convinced that we are on the right track with regards to cost control and cost awareness in the company. That means that even though a very tough top line in the quarter, we do achieve a positive EBITDA. So we are just slightly above 0.

Inventory is very much under control, NOK 300 million down year-over-year, and liquidity, NOK 153 million stronger year-over-year. So all in all, a weak sales performance, but otherwise, most other parameters are actually moving in the right direction, once again, showing you that the plan is actually working and is materializing.

So we remain optimistic. We believe that we are on the right journey, on the right path, we will continue on this way. And with that, I'll leave it over to our CFO to guide you through the numbers in more detail.

[Stein Eriksen, executive]

Thank you, Freddy, and good morning, everyone. So let's have a look at the financial review of the first quarter of 2024. And before moving on to the Q1 results, we can start to share some more insights regarding the private placement that was launched in 21st of March. So on 21st of March, XXL launched a private placement of NOK 500 million and a potential subsequent offering, all approved by the extraordinary general meeting held on the 12th of April 2024. The private placement was successful and oversubscribed.

Parts of the private placements, NOK 300 million will be used to reduce the existing RCF facility from NOK 150 million down to NOK 850 million, while the remaining amount will strengthen the liquidity of the company.

As you can see, the covenants are changed. Hence, the minimum liquidity covenants will be reduced from NOK 300 million down to NOK 200 million, and the leverage covenant will be amended and at the same time, extended from Q4 2024 to Q2 2025.

That was a little bit more about the private placement. We can then move on to the P&L. And Freddy has already mentioned some parts there, so I will try to be brief. But we posted an EBITDA in the quarter of NOK 12 million, and this was an improvement versus last year of NOK 57 million then explained by the margin uplift and the lower OpEx levels this year.

Revenue, like Freddy already stated, continued to be weak related to both the challenging market, low product availability and the extraordinary sales campaign last year. And as stated, the gross margin ended at 38%, an improvement versus last year and the OpEx in absolute kroner was reduced with NOK 75 million, but the EBITDA and the EBIT were still at low levels than explained by the weak top line.

So moving over then to the gross margin. Last year, gross margin was heavily impacted by the previous year’s clearance campaign. However, we have now improved the gross margin during the last quarters, and Q1 was no exception. And as you can see, all markets posted a positive development versus last year. Also then from a technical perspective, please be aware that we did a reversal of obsolete provisions explaining 1.9 percentage points of the margin uplift in Q1.

OpEx. The percentage increased with up to 38%, up 4.4 percentage points than all explained by the negative like-for-like growth, hampering the scale in operations. Like Freddy mentioned, we see effects from the cost program that we have started, but -- and reduced then with NOK 75 million explained by both lower personnel costs and reduced marketing investments. But in percentage, like I said, it's up, hampered then by the weak top line.

EBITDA improved from negative NOK 45 million to positive NOK 12 million this year, helped by improvements both in Norway and Sweden with higher gross margin and lower OpEx. Finland also had a margin uplift and the decline in OpEx, but it was not enough to cover up for the soft top line development. And also, as you can see, from the text, XXL had a reduction of overhead costs at HQ with NOK 23 million.

Moving then over to the cash flow in the quarter and the key takeaways. Net debt goes from NOK 900 million in Q4 up to almost NOK 1.1 billion in Q1 and a positive contribution from EBITDA and working capital. We have a very low CapEx level, the lowest for several years with NOK 19 million. But what hit us is the payments recognized as lease contracts with NOK 183 million and then interest payments of NOK 18 million.

So the financial position before raising then the capital of NOK 500 million. Like I said, operational cash flow of NOK 24 million. That's an improvement versus last year of NOK 81 million. This gives liquidity reserves of NOK 591 million versus NOK 438 million last year, and then net interest-bearing debt ending at NOK 1.1 billion, that NOK 200 million above last year.

So that ends the financial review. Freddy, I'm leaving the floor back to you for some final remarks.

[Freddy Sobin, executive]

Thank you, Stein. So in summary, we believe that we have a strong plan in place, a clear plan in place. That plan is fully anchored in the Board of Directors and the senior management team and the entire organization. And that's what we're acting on every day. We also believe that we have an extremely strong team in place now to execute on our plan, and we are strengthening that team every day as we go.

And as you can see, we also are very much have strong data, strong indicators that both the must-win battles, the restructuring program, the cost out program is materializing, just like we said that they would do. But also, like we said, this will take time. That's also why we successfully did the private placement to prolong the financial runway to be able to fully execute on the plan.

And from a more personal perspective, a more personal reflection. I'm 1 week shy of celebrating 1 year in the XXL jersey. It has been a fantastic first year. Yes, it has been intense and challenging. But foremost, it has been exciting and a lot of fun. And I think, as always, when entering into a new company and with most companies, the most fun is actually all of the great colleagues that you get to meet, old and new ones. And I think the colleagues and XXL organization, the team in XXL is an extremely strong one, a very committed one. And we are here to succeed and win in the market, once again, but no doubt about that.

However, many of the colleagues, and also many people externally outside of the company since I started, have asked me what is XXL all about. Let me, therefore, assure you that XXL has always been about great brands and great prices. And we are still committed to great brands and great prices. Nothing has changed. That's what you see in front of you. That's what you see in our stores. That's what you see online. XXL is all about great brand and great prices. We will continue to be that. We will strengthen that even more moving forward. Let me also assure you that we are still very much committed and staying true and loyal to our purpose.

Our purpose is, of course, All Sports United – Sports Unite All. That's what motivates us. That's what gives us energy and our purpose to go to work every day and do everything a little bit better every day. So yesterday, today, tomorrow and beyond, XXL is all about great brands, great prices. And we fully believe that we are All Sports United and the Sports Unite All. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your time, and we open up the floor for questions.

[Tolle Groterud, executive]

So then we open up for questions. First from the audience present here at Alnabru. So please wait for a microphone, and we kindly ask you to introduce yourself. So please go ahead. All right, there are no questions from the audience. So then I call upon the conference host for further introductions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] I will hand back to you, Freddy, to conclude today's conference.

[Freddy Sobin, executive]

All right. So thank you all, and that's end our session. So thank you, and have a nice day.