Nimbus Group AB (publ)

STO:BOAT

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Welcome to the Nimbus Q1 presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Jan-Erik Lindstrom; CFO, Rasmus Alvemyr; and Head of Investor Relations, Gunilla Ohman. Please go ahead.

[Jan-Erik Lindstrom, executive]

Okay, then. Again, welcome to this presentation of our quarter 1 report, and I will actually take the opportunity then to talk a little bit about our seasonality. We will now present actually our weakest quarter, that is number 1, and it's closely followed by the quarter 4, which are the weakest, meaning then also that the next following quarter is [ number 2 ] and the [ number 3 ] will -- or are the best ones that we have.You that follow us knows that the recent years has put in a lot of efforts to balance our business here as much as possible. And actually then today we have reached a much better level timing wise and also -- or maybe I should say because of our geographical balance. So now we are becoming true global, and that is actually then what you can see in the order book. So still a seasonality when we talk about sales, but the picture will improve. And this is extremely important for us.If we then look at the highlights of the first quarter, 2024 then, sales increased 13%, and it's actually a close call that I could announce a new all-time high. We are actually in par with the last one that happened last year. And we did this despite the situation then in the world, which we're proud of, of course. So it's a high level -- very high level.EBITA amounted to minus SEK 13.9 million compared to last year, quite a huge number that differs. But then please remember that we are negatively impacted and it's actually then SEK 23 million due to this temporarily reduced production of EdgeWater boats. And why did we do that? Well, when we bought EdgeWater in May last year, of course, to sell though, they did exactly what we have done. They [ tried ] to get as much as possible out of it, of course.So what they do is that they produced a [ lot ] and they filled up the inventory levels at the dealers. And in U.S., you can say model wise that it's good to have roughly half year's production in inventory. And at that time, we actually have almost 1 year. And when is the best timing to do this activities to reduce the production, well, you can always debate around that, but we decided that this was the time.And at the same time, we also then invested quite a lot then in the production unit itself, and we're talking about maintenance -- traditional maintenance. We're talking about sustainability issues. We are talking about working environment, and we are talking about lean production.And of course, the latter one, lean production, we want to improve. We want to be more efficient, as we say, and one of our values is always improve, which is then continuous improvement, if you are talking about lean from that perspective.And this gives us then actually -- if we compare apples-to-apples, the adjusted EBITA, excluding the EdgeWater, which is the new one, the new thing, we get actually an outcome that is in line with the last year. So we are in par. And this again then despite the soft market then in smaller boats, meaning then that the premium boats actually can handle the soft market in the -- from that perspective.We have also one of the things that gives us this position is that we have gradually improved the gross margin and [ align ] them with what we have said before. And the story behind it, I think you remember, but it was the exchange rate that moved quite rapidly. And since we, at that time, had a long order book, which is not that common in our industry. It's good to have a long order book, but you also get -- there are risks to have that. You get exposed for risk when -- for example, then as in this case, the exchange rates moved rapidly.Today, we have the right prices, so to say, for the cost in our order book. EBITA margin ended up in 4%. We have the order book that is on -- and I will come back to that. It is on the level of SEK 789 million, which is then actually higher than quarter 4.And to this we have to add in for out sales, the traditional one from, for example, our [ own ] dealers that will then sell used boats, service, things like that, spare parts and also then, of course, new boats. And then especially the closer you get to season, the boats get smaller, so to say. The decision is [ taking ] much more rapidly, and that's the way it is in our industry.We have a strong order intake of premium boats, and maybe to add smaller boats then is still on the soft side. But what we see then, which is promising is that we see an increasing activity. The interest has been on a very high level, definitely. So the interest are there. But what we see now is that it's more people to -- that visit us in the showrooms and looking and starting, so to say, the process. Will this happen in 2024? Well, I shouldn't say impossible to say, but we for sure see more activity '24 then we saw [ in ] '23.We have also press release that we withdrawn the bond issue that we were looking at. And to make it short, it was simply too expensive for us, according to us, at least. We wanted to have the money for expansion, of course. But what I can say about that is that there are always other ways to find a way, so to say, forward.And again, then taking the opportunity when we are in this picture on the slide. The picture you see there is Nimbus V11 you can see, and that is actually one of our latest launches we have done from the Nimbus design team.And our product development will for sure then not be affected of the fact that we withdrawn this launch. So our product development will continue then in the same pace as before. And for example, then we have launched, or about to launch I should say, the 50 [ feeter ], the biggest Nimbus we have done and we also have the Aquador line with their biggest one, the Aquador 380. So they are still to come and much more on the drawing table, but this will not be affected.If we take the next slide. I will keep it short. This is the history. But for you, that is me for the first time, founded '68. So long experience, and we have a long history of international trade already. 1970 exported the first boat. And we are then a true house of -- and we're well-known brand with a very high brand awareness, as I say.And why is this good then? Well, we can work then with many segments, much more segments than we had before. We can work on many geographical markets, which makes us less dependent than of course. It's always summer somewhere on the earth. And we can also get more dealers, and more dealers, it's [indiscernible], as simple as that. So this is important, [ true ] household brand.I will not go into details here, but the last one there at the bottom, acquisition of the EdgeWater Power Boats. Well, of course, a game changer for us because that makes us actually to be able to look upon North America as a home market. It is, in fact, the home market, which is important. The North American market is about 50% of the world market.If we then look at the drivers, I have talked about this also before. Keep it short, but the overall wealth is increasing. We have more than -- 2 times more money in our pockets to spend if we look at the recent 20 years. We can see this trend that started way before the pandemic that we tend then to use, the staycation.We tend to have our recreational time close to home, which means that we spend money then on different things, seasonality things maybe, but it could be caravans, it could be motorcycles, summer houses, and then, of course, boats, which is good for us. And this money again then we are -- since we work a lot, as I say, we are also prepared to spend money to get this quality on the recreational time.If we look at the industry itself, it's a fact then that we have an aging boat fleet. Most of it -- absolute majority of it is older than 20 years. And that definitely means that it has missed the technical development that we have seen on the last century, which has been rapid, but also then aiming at things that we need to have in the boating industry. Before it was the automotive industry that was the driver. And I can give you a very short example.I was actually out with our new 50 [ feeter ], which is doing the sea trial for the moment, and I did a test drive, and it's absolutely stunning that I could actually handle it all by myself. We have the docking support. You have the maneuverability, et cetera, et cetera. So -- and this, of course, makes the journey for the captain, but also for the passengers less stressful. And that is important because our products should give you this relaxing [ moments ], the enjoyment, because that is actually our mission, is to provide you with tools to recharge your batteries.And then my final slide for this, the order book development, down 17%, and we can then say it has normalized in size, but the premium part of it is 88%, which then gives us that the rest is then 12%. Among that is small boats and actually including also the [ traded ] boats. So the premium boats size is an all-time high in our orders.It is -- as I said, the order book is geographically well balanced in relation to world market. In our order book, the North America is representing 51%. And that is also worth mention that is actually a 66% increase year-over-year. But in total, the order book is more or less a picture of the world market.And of course, then finally, we only have confirmed orders in the order book. That means that everything is in order. We have a production [ slot ], and we have the signing fee paid, et cetera, et cetera.And with that, I give the word to Rasmus.

[Rasmus Alvemyr, executive]

Thank you, Jan-Erik. Then we will move on with the sales per market. In the first quarter, the North American sales continued to develop well, and it decreased by SEK 71 million to SEK 160 million. The contribution from EdgeWater amounted to SEK 34 million and that was negatively affected by the reduced production that Jan-Erik mentioned before.As we talked about before, the North American market is now our single lowest market on a 12-month basis. EdgeWater was consolidated as from [ May ] 31, '23. The Nordics has continued to be soft, and the sales dropped by 37% to SEK 77 million, which is slightly less than the fourth quarter and the third quarter last year. The drop continues to be mainly driven by smaller boats.In the Europe market, the sales dropped by 10% compared with last year, and that drop is mainly seen in the northern parts, which shows similar patterns as the Nordics does. We continue to see positive development in particularly the southern parts of Europe.Other markets continue to develop well and increased from SEK 20 million to SEK 51 million, which means -- which is positive, of course, and means that other markets continue to be -- become a substantial geographic market, but also with more potential -- even more potential going forward.On an LTM basis, other markets corresponds to 7% of the sales. On LTM basis, it's also worth to mention that North America has increased from SEK 179 million to SEK 633 million, corresponding to a growth of plus [ 252% ] year-over-year. Also worth to mention that the Nordic sales has dropped 34% on an LTM basis, having a negative impact also on our own dealers and the sales amounted to SEK 692 million. And as we said before, this drop is mainly driven by the smaller boats.And then we come to the sales development in total. As Jan-Erik talked before, the first quarter is among our smallest quarters on a full year basis, together with the fourth quarter. The net sales in the fourth quarter amounted to SEK 344 million compared with SEK 304 million last year, which is an increase by SEK 40 million.Sales of premium books increased by 42%, including EdgeWater. And the sales of smaller boats and traded boats continue to be soft and it decreased by SEK 46 million, which was a drop by 63% versus last year. The organic growth, excluding EdgeWater and currency effects in the first quarter was plus 2.4% and the organic growth for premium boats only amounted to plus 25%.Sales to external dealers and direct sales, including spare parts, increased by 24% and reached SEK 296 million, including EdgeWater, while the sale from own dealers went down from SEK 66 million to SEK 48 million. On LTM basis, the net sales ended up at SEK 1,938 million, which is then an increase by 10% year-over-year.And then we move on with the EBITA. The EBITA in the first quarter amounted to SEK 40 million, corresponding to an EBITA margin of minus 4%. In relation to last year, this is a drop by SEK 22 million. And the drop is then driven by reduced production and productivity investments in the factory of EdgeWater, as Jan-Erik mentioned, which ended up at an EBITA impact of minus SEK 23 million.Normally, we would have expected EdgeWater to contribute positively to the consolidated picture in a quarter, like the first quarter. Adjusted for EdgeWater, the EBITA will then have ended up at plus 3% compared with 2.5% last year.A positive development on the gross margin on premium boat is noted with prices reflecting new SEK currency development. During the third and fourth quarter, many of the delivery boats were sold at old prices, which had a negative impact on the gross margin since we were not able to push forward both currency and inflation cost towards the dealers.Now this has become more normalized, and we expect this to be fully even out during the second quarter. When excluding EdgeWater, the gross margin was actually higher in the first quarter this year than last year, also taking into account what Jan-Erik mentioned before that we have smaller boats that is still -- that the production is still closed, which has a negative impact on the gross margin then. So the underlying margin for premium books is therefore higher this year than last year. On a year-over-year basis, the EBITA amounted to SEK 79 million, and the EBITA margin ended up at 4%.Then we move on to cash flow and working capital. The net working capital in the first quarter ended up at SEK 663 million, which is an increase by SEK 120 million since the fourth quarter and the same level of increase that was seen in the first quarter last year. The stock levels increased by SEK 66 million, whereof 50% is related to boats in transit to the U.S. and the rest is related to seasonality effects.The first quarter normally contains the absolute peak in inventory of finished boats with lots of deliveries ongoing in the retail business. Cash flow in the first quarter amounted to minus SEK 90 million, which is actually an improvement then in relation to both 2023 and 2022. Net working capital in relation to LTM sales amounted to 32% compared with 30% last year, having made then a pro forma of each quarter of -- the pro forma assumption of SEK 500 million.Then we come to our financial targets, and we still believe that these are relevant even if we all know that we are a bit behind today. And we see that our ongoing initiatives will have positive impact on the business going forward and will enable us to strengthen the EBITA margin.Then I leave the word to you, Jan-Erik, again.

[Jan-Erik Lindstrom, executive]

Yes. And then we open up for questions. Just to mention then, the -- from the financial calendar that the annual meeting will then be the 16th of May here in Gothenburg. I think -- is it 12:00 -- 3:00?

[Rasmus Alvemyr, executive]

3:00, yes.

[Jan-Erik Lindstrom, executive]

And the quarter 2 report will then be launched the 17th of July.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]There are no phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for written questions and any closing comments.

[Gunilla Ohman, executive]

So thank you very much. There are no questions either on the chat. So thank you very much for today.

[Jan-Erik Lindstrom, executive]

Thank you.

[Rasmus Alvemyr, executive]

Thank you.