Embellence Group AB (publ)

STO:EMBELL

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Operator]

Welcome to the Embellence Group Q2 2024 report presentation. [Operator Instructions]

Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers. CEO, Olle Svensk; and CFO, Karin Liden. Please go ahead.

[Olle Svensk, executive]

Thank you, and yes, welcome to the presentation of Embellence Group's Q2 report for 2024. My name is Olle Svensk. And with me today, I have Karin Liden, our CFO. Let's get into the quarter. Looking at the highlights for the period. We delivered a strong second quarter with sales growth of plus 13%, and of that 12% was organic growth. And we delivered an EBITDA that grew from 8.9% to 13%.

One should, of course, remember that this is versus a weak Q2 of last year, but it also means that on a market that is still soft, we are gaining market share. When we look at peers in the industry, we are actually performing better. Then I also want to mention that on May 21, we held our first Capital Markets Day, where we presented an updated brand-focused strategy and long-term financial targets.

Moving on to our segments. Well, brands grew with 5%, and it was Borastapeter and Artscape, that stood out and delivered solid growth. Cole & Son is experiencing a sluggish consumer demand in its home market, the U.K., which is actually also their biggest one. And I have to mention that we are not satisfied with the performance of Pappelina, but with the new management onboard and in place, and we have initiatives underway to improve the situation.

In the retail channel, which for all of our brands is actually the largest channel, we continue to see soft demand. But thanks to good performance in our 2 strategic growth channels, hospitality and direct-to-consumer, we were able to mitigate this. In our second segment, manufacturing, we are gaining market share in the Nordics, and we recorded a sharp increase of our net external sales, and we more than doubled the revenue.

But let's have a look at some of the brand-focused sales and marketing activities that has taken place during the quarter. We have participated at a few larger international events like Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone, both taking place in parallel in Milano. Salone del Mobile is actually the most important of all fairs around the world in interior decoration, design and furniture. And this year, it reported an increase of visitors with more than 20%. So there is a lot of buzz in the industry, I have to say.

Wall&deco also participated at HD Expo in Las Vegas and this is an event especially focusing on the hospitality sector in the Western part of the U.S. But we also complemented with our own targeted brand events. Borastapeter continued launch events for Orangeri. Cole & Son held its second salon at our flagship gallery in London and Pappelina, held PR events in Paris and Stockholm preparing the ground for the brand's 25th anniversary this fall. And if you look at the picture on the right, that is actually from a hospitality event in Lisbon that Wall&deco did together with its new distributor.

Okay. We are a brand-focused company, and I must give you a flavor of some of the exciting things that played during this quarter. I believe everyone knows Harrods, the iconic British department store. And for their 175th anniversary, they invited 7 different brands to collaborate with and make exclusive products with. And we are grateful that Cole & Son was one of these 7 brands and actually the only one in interior decoration. So in June, at the joint event, we gave a preview of Cole & Son, and this is a result of a collaboration between the 2 design teams, the one at Harrods and the one at Cole & Son. Wallpapers and cushions is a result and the products will be available from mid-August this year.

When Borastapeter launched the collection Orangeri, the market reception was both immediate and positive, very positive. So during the quarter, we continued to present the collection and held a successful multi-day event in Stockholm, where both professionals and consumers were invited. In April, at Salone del Mobile, the design for 2024 of our patented wet system with Wall&deco was launched. It's a beautiful collection. Just take a look here on the picture on the left side, what a joy to have your daily showers in a place like this, right?

Now over to you, Karin.

[Karin Liden, executive]

Thank you. Numbers in the second quarter are solid. We reported a sales growth of 13%, reaching SEK 191 million of sales compared to SEK 170 million the same quarter last year. The gross margin ended just above 60% and the EBITA margin improved to 13%, thanks to the sales development. In addition, the operating cash flow for the second quarter was SEK 43 million, which is a big improvement compared to prior year. The 2 main reasons for this is, of course, the solid operating result, but also an improvement of working capital of around SEK 20 million.

If you remember, we ended the first quarter with very high accounts receivable, especially in Borastapeter and Artscape. The outstanding invoices from the first quarter have now been paid and we are at a more normal level of accounts receivable. The inventory has increased with SEK 12 million, and that partly offset the positive development. However, this is a normal seasonality where we always build stock before the holiday period when our main factory is closed. The absolute level of inventory is SEK 144 million, and that is somewhat lower than prior year.

Looking at the sales and EBITA trends. We are approaching SEK 780 million of sales in rolling 12, and we are approaching almost 14% of EBITA margin. After updating our brand-focused strategy and also our long-term financial sales target in May, we also changed the segment reporting during the second quarter. The new segments that we report are brands and manufacturing. Olle shed some details before, but if we start with reviewing the brand's performance, Borastapeter performed well in Sweden, partly thanks to many invoicing days in April following the early Easter, but also exports and primarily U.S. grew. Cole & Sun performs relatively well in a very sluggish U.K. market that has continued to develop negatively. Wall&deco is flat and report positive development within hospitality that mitigates a continued weaker retail. Pappelina reports 4% growth and a mixed market performance. Sweden and direct consumer are positive. Artscape continues their strong development with 19% of growth and continues to take market share in a growing U.S. market.

Looking to the manufacturing segment, which is the Boras Tapetfabrik, we are happy to report a growing sales from SEK 12 million to SEK 24 million and especially content with the fact that this is a mix of growth with existing customers that are doing well, but also new customers for the year.

And over to you, Olle.

[Olle Svensk, executive]

Thank you. Well, here you see our updated brand focused strategy, and this is what we presented at the Capital Markets Day in May. If any of you still haven't read it, I invite you to visit our website to read it or listen in on the recording that we made on May 21.

Back to you, Karin.

[Karin Liden, executive]

And looking a bit at our updated financial targets, really, it was only the net sales target that was updated on the Capital Markets Day. And the new target is to reach SEK 1 billion of sales by 2028. In the middle column, you see the baseline where we started from in 2023. The current performance is that we reported rolling 12 net sales of SEK 778 million and rolling 12 EBITA margin of 13.9%. Our leverage is 1.2x of EBITDA.

And back to Olle for a summary.

[Olle Svensk, executive]

So to sum this up, we delivered a strong quarter against the weak Q2 of last year. Net sales amounted to SEK 191 million, which equals to 13% growth. This means that for the fourth consecutive quarter, we delivered strong sales growth. Our EBITA margin for the quarter improved and we went from around 9% to 13%. At our Capital Markets Day, we presented an updated brand-focused strategy, focusing on organic growth and an updated long-term financial sales target. The markets, they remain challenging, but with signs of recovery. The exception is U.K. where we believe it will take a bit longer for the market to be back to growth.

Our strategic growth channels, hospitality and direct-to-consumer, which we expect to outperform the total market in these segments or channels, we are gaining market share.

Well, that was all. And now we leave it open for questions.

[Operator]

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

[Olle Svensk, executive]

Okay. So thank you very much for listening in, and I wish you all a great summer and hope to meet you or hear from you after the holiday.