XXL ASA

OSE:XXL

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Tolle Groterud, executive]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the fourth quarter results presentation. My name is Tolle Groterud, and I have the pleasure of guiding you through today's presentation. Our CFO and Interim CEO, Stein Eriksen, will take you through the results and the key drivers and then followed by a Q&A session. And for 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, Stein.

[Stein Eriksen, executive]

Thank you, Tolle. Good morning, everyone. Yes. So Q4 has certainly been another eventful quarter for XXL, and I will come back to it in more detail. I wanted to start with this slide. As you know, it has not been a secret that XXL has NOK 500 million too high inventory. And in order to reduce this, XXL has launched the biggest clearance campaign in the -- during the 3 last years, and we launched it last Monday. And I can secure that you won't find any better offers on the most fresh sporting goods in the Nordics during the next weeks. The campaign has started off really good. And so far, during the 1 week, the campaign has lasted, we have sold out 60,000 pair of shoes, 15,000 different rackets from padel to tennis and so on, 2,000 treadmills, 1,300 spinning bikes and so on. And I have to say I'm very glad to see that our efforts on marketing has really showed great progress during the last couple of months using more of the traditional marketing message that worked so well in the past, plus that we having one message in all media channels. So great work to the marketing department of XXL. But that being said, I have to say I'm also really impressed by the whole XXL organization from making the decision late December to launch it at the end of January is nothing but impressive. No one has the power, the spirit and engagement like XXL when we step on the gas. So as I said, Q4 was an eventful quarter. We -- first of all, we obtained a waiver agreement with the banks and new share capital was secured. We made a decision to exit Austria in 2023, and the Austrian segment is now treated as assets held for sale and classified as discontinued operations. Also, the market, no doubt about it, the market continues and will continue to be very challenging. And this has led to an extraordinary write-down of inventory and consequently, poor results. 2022 ended up with disappointing sales in a challenging market. EBITDA was at record low levels due to both the reduced sales and weakened gross margin than partly explained by the additional write-down of inventory. During 2022, XXL experienced, like almost the whole sporting goods industry, a buildup of inventory. But as I will show, since second half of 2022, we have had significant reductions in both incoming goods. We have had cost reductions, and we had record low CapEx or investment activities. But going forward, we will have strict inventory and liquidity control. And as I already mentioned, we have then launched a massive clearance campaign in order to adapt to the challenging marketing -- market conditions. So some pure facts and number for Q4. And all of these numbers are now excluding Austria as it's classified as discontinued operations. But operating revenue ended at NOK 2.3 billion, a decline of 13% versus Q4 2021. All segments with -- declined versus last year and also we had declined on e-com with 7% and representing around 26% of total revenue. Gross margin ended significantly below last year, negatively impacted by more clearance activities in a very competitive market, as well as increased sourcing costs. EBITDA then adjusted for the additional write-down ended at NOK 65 million, down from NOK 403 million last year, mainly then explained by the reduced revenues and lower gross margin. As I said, the sports retail market, Nordics sport retail market has been very challenging compared to 2021, with all markets, as you can see from this slide, having strong decline, both in the quarter and the full year, explained by the weaker consumer sentiment and reduced demand for sporting goods. That being said, and as you can see, XXL is losing market shares also in Q4. That being said, if we measure the volume shares, we see that it's flattening out in Sweden, and we are probably gaining some shares and momentum in Norway and Finland. The outlet segment within sport is still growing, but we will -- XXL will fight back to regain our position and the launch clearance campaign is one of the measures to regain our market position. So moving over then to 2022. It has definitely been a challenging year for XXL with operating revenue ending at NOK 8.4 billion, down with NOK 1.2 billion versus 2021. And what we did experience was a sudden change in demand from May and onwards due to the opening of the society, reduced reallocation of consumer spend towards travel and services, combined with the weakening consumer sentiments and the decline was broad-based across all segments. Also, as I stated before, gross margins were impacted by the very heavy campaign activities, both at XXL and in the industry as a whole. And of course, it doesn't help to have increased freight costs. We have a weaker Norwegian kroner versus U.S. dollar and also higher input costs. As I said, 2022, we experienced low demand and market activity, combined with then record high inventories in the sport equipment industry, both at the retailers and at the suppliers. As you can see from this slide in the middle, XXL is not alone in having very high inventories. Here is an example from some big -- both suppliers and retailers. As you can see, both the supply chain or the -- yes, the suppliers and the retailers have too high inventories, and it will take time before this starts to normalize. But, of course, in order to then get liquidity, there's huge campaign pressure and activities than pressing the gross margins, and this will continue into 2023. We cannot and should not be satisfied with the performance. But that being said, we have also taken powerful measures to improve the situation. As you can see from -- starting from all the way to the right, from increased purchases in the first half of the year where we increased the purchases of NOK 150 million. We have decreased the purchase in the second half of NOK 500 million. We have been cutting costs for the last half year with more than NOK 100 million. And we have had the lowest CapEx or investments that ended at NOK 139 million, and that was the lowest investments for the last 10 years. So the defensive moves gave effect. But, of course, we need more of it. And also, we need some more top line. I'll come back to that. So moving then over to the financials, and these are some technical slides, but I just want to give you some more background regarding the write-down that we have done of the inventory. As I said, we wrote it down with NOK 301 million, and the background for the write-down is the negative top line growth combined with the significant buildup of inventory at both XXL and the sporting goods industry as a whole. High inventory and a very challenging macro conditions will result in high campaign pressure that will continue into 2023. And we have, therefore, done an assessment of the whole assortment and inventory.

And despite then that XXL has a record low inventory of all products. Actually, the inventory above 24 months has never been lower. But despite this, we have done an assessment and we find it prudent to do an additional write-down of inventory of NOK 301 million. We have started a massive clearance sales in all markets that should contribute to top line growth and liquidity, and this will strengthen the financial position. Also, we believe that strict inventory control, combined with reduced purchases will consequently lead to a more normalization of campaign activities from second half of 2023. Short-term effects, of course, this will have negative effects on the gross margin. Then moving over to Austria. XXL decided to exit Austrian operations in 2023, and the Austrian operations will, according to IFRS 5, be classified as discontinued operations as of 31st of December 2022 and treated as asset held for sale. The results from the Austrian operations will be presented separately in the consolidated income statement until the sale has been completed and prior periods has been restated accordingly. The fair value assessment results in impairment of some of the assets related to the Austrian operations and net impairment on the asset is NOK 6.4 million, and XXL also booked a provision of NOK 2.4 million for costs that will occur due to the decision mainly related to personnel and other OpEx. You can find more information regarding Austria in our quarterly report. As I said, a lot of things has happened during Q4. We have also secured a refinancing of the group and an agreement with the banks. The agreement with the banks will give XXL greater operational flexibility in 2023. We now have liquidity covenants for the next 12 months that will be in the range between NOK 200 million to NOK 300 million in the first half of 2023 and between NOK 400 million and NOK 600 million in the second half of 2023, until XXL returned back to a leverage covenant from December 2023. Also a private placement of NOK 500 million will be executed in Q1 2023 and a potential subsequent offering of up to NOK 100 million will be executed in March 2023. And the first NOK 500 million will be used to pay down the existing loan facilities, while the NOK 100 million additional will strengthen the liquidity reserves going forward. Also, as I said, we will work hard with our own balance sheet. We have significantly reduced purchases in 2023 versus 2022. So we have an ambition to reduce the inventory of NOK 500 million by the end of the year. So then moving over to the P&L for the Q4. A lot of numbers and also discontinued operations, as I said, in Austria. But this is the P&L, certainly, disappointing results. Then if you look at the EBITDA on the bottom of NOK 236 million negative, heavily then impacted by the additional write-down of inventory of NOK 301 million. Adjusted for the write-down, we ended at NOK 65 million, down from NOK 403 million last year. Main explanations for the decline in EBITDA were the lower revenue and reduced gross margin. And then moving over to the gross margin, and this is adjusted for the additional write-down, but as you can see, significant reduction in the gross margin. And as I said, very much impacted by the high campaign activities, both from XXL and from our competitors. OpEx increased with 3.3% up to 30.2% in Q4, explained by the lower revenue. We had a decrease of OpEx with NOK 16 million due to strict cost focus. But, of course, the lower income is not enough to cover for the OpEx percentage. EBITDA, as you can see, negative development versus last year, all segments then posting a negative development, mainly explained then by the lower revenue and the decreased gross margin. So then moving over to the net debt and balance sheet. As you can see, net debt going from NOK 707 million by the end of 2021 to NOK 1.1 billion at the end of Q4 2022. The main drivers, positive adjusted EBITDA of NOK 538 million, then contracted, as you can see by the additional write-down of inventory, and other changes in working capital is mainly related to an increase in accounts payable, where XXL is not fully utilizing cash discounts towards the suppliers. CapEx, as I said, ended at NOK 139 million, the lowest level for the last 10 years, payments related to lease contracts of NOK 602 million then leading to net debt, as I said, to NOK 1.1 billion. Then liquidity reserves for the group, ending at NOK 746 million, and as I said, NOK 1.1 billion in net interest-bearing debt. We will continue to have a strict focus on inventory and liquidity during the upcoming months. So some outlook and closing remarks. I showed you this one before. We are prioritizing 6 actions during the next months: category strategies; private label; full-fledged omnichannel; improved campaigns and marketing; Austria strategic review; and adapting the cost to sales. I want to comment a couple of these action points. As I said, I'm very happy to see that we have improved our campaigns and our marketing efforts, been doing great work there during the last couple of months. Then I want to move over to Austria. XXL entered Austria in 2017, and we have invested NOK 200 million to build a position in a very competitive market. In addition, XXL has suffered losses of NOK 500 million, due to both, of course, very strict COVID restrictions, but also challenges to obtain the needed assortment. And in total, we have burned NOK 700 million during 5 years. And despite all efforts and -- evaluating all efforts -- all options and strong efforts then by the Austrian team, we -- it has not been good enough to turn around the business and hence, a decision to exit Austria in 2023. And we have an ambition of not having any negative cash effects from Austria going forward. Also, like I said, we have reduced costs with more than NOK 100 million during the second half of 2022. That's something we also have to have focus on in 2023. We are working toward a more flexible cost base, both in the stores and at HQ. And we have already implemented some of the actions, and we will implement more actions in order to scale down the cost base going forward. And right now, it seems far away, but we still have an ambition of 40-30-10, 40% gross margin, 30% OpEx and 10% EBITDA. And as you look from the historic figures, we absolutely think that this is achievable going forward. So to sum it up, XXL, I would say, we have worked on 3 axis in order to get in a better shape. First of all, we have done some structural measures. As I said, we have exited or we will exit Austria in 2023. We have got a new waiver agreement with the banks, and we will raise new equity in Q1 2023. We are working with defensive moves. We are significantly reducing purchasing volumes. We have strict inventory control and, of course, still focus both on cost and on CapEx. But lastly, and maybe the most important thing, we are also doing offensive moves. And that means we will regain market shares. And one of the short-term actions we have executed on is the massive clearance campaign that we launched a little bit more than a week ago. So Tolle that was the Q4 results.

[Tolle Groterud, executive]

Okay. Thank you, Stein. 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. So there are no questions from the audience. So I then call upon the conference host for further introductions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] There are no questions over the phone at this time.

[Tolle Groterud, executive]

Okay. So crystal clear then, Stein. So that ends our session. So thank you all, and have a nice day.