Nobia AB

STO:NOBI

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Nobia First Quarter Report 2024 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.I would now like to hand the call over today to your speaker, Tobias Norrby, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Tobias Norrby, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for calling into this Q1 results presentation. The presentation today will be conducted by our new President and CEO, Mr. Kristoffer Ljungfelt; and then our CFO, Mr. Henrik Skogsfors, will dig into all of the financial details.With that, I hand the word over to you, Kristoffer.

[Kristoffer Ljungfelt, executive]

Thank you, Tobias. And good morning, everybody, and welcome to this quarterly update. I am Kristoffer Ljungfelt and CEO since 1st of May. Some of you might know me as CFO back from 2016 to 2022 and now I'm back here again. I have a good chance to talk to all of you and it's great to be back in this fantastic company. I start with the financial update for Q1. Our sales dropped considerably in the quarter, however, it was very much in line with our expectations and earlier communications. Organic sales of minus 20% whereas U.K. was minus 14% and the Nordics was minus 25%. Top line was heavily burdened by the large decline in housing starts and completions in the construction industry. And on the back of the poor completions, our organic sales decline in the project business was about 35% in both Nordics and the U.K.However, on a very positive note, we see indications of recovery in the retail segment in all our markets and our appointments are picking up again and our consumer campaign generated an improved order book for Q2 deliveries. Another positive note is that gross margins improved by 0.6 percentage points to 37.3% on the back of improved average order values. It was also driven by the segment mix where the consumer sales with a higher gross margin was more resilient in the period. We're really pleased to see that the gross margin improvements in the Nordics as we have worked hard to sustain efficiency and order values despite volume decline. We had a slight gross margin decline in the U.K., which was below our expectations. However, the drop was mainly related to our underabsorption in the supply chain whilst our average order values in Magnet was up year-on-year, which is in line with our strategy to drive sales in the mass premium space.We're also very confident that we took share in retail in the mass premium segment in the U.K. during the winter campaign, which is a testimonial that our strategy works. Despite the high inflationary pressure, our currency adjusted SG&A was improved SEK 116 million compared to the same period last year. That's a good result, but it's not enough to drive positive results in this very difficult market and consequently, we are investigating further opportunities to come down in cost in all areas and we'll return with more insight on that during the second quarter. EBIT came in at negative SEK 27 million, which is in line with expectations given the market circumstances, but it's also clearly a disappointment. However, on a positive note, as the consumers have now shown signs of improvements, we will push harder for sales growth in that segment and review our cost base again.Cash flow is normally weak in the first quarter due to seasonality. The operating cash flow, including investments, amounted to negative SEK 574 million. The primary reason behind the deviation compared to last year is the higher seasonality outflows and investment in our Jonkoping factory and Henrik will come and shed some more light on that one. If we take the next slide, please, Slide 3. As you know, we have strengthened our balance sheet considerably during the quarter and I really have to thank Jon and Henrik and our shareholders for completing the share rights issue. The sale and leaseback of the Jonkoping factory and the divestment of noncore assets, which let us have the chance to focus on our core operations where we historically have shown we can make solid double-digit margins. On the back of that, Henrik and team managed to extend credit facilities with our banks with maturity in 2027.With these measures, we are in a substantially better financial position to deliver on our strategic priorities and make us an even stronger company. Let's have an update of our strategic priorities, which we divide into 3 segments; it's maximizing cost efficiency and deleverage, realize full Nordic potential and the U.K. transformation. So let's start with the first one where we've come, as I just said, a long way to strengthen our balance sheet. I will not dwell more on that. We have also done a huge job in taking out costs across all parts of the business. However, with current market situation, we are looking to do more on cost as long as the market remains soft. And any measures we do now will also give us good operational leverage when the market finally recover. Secondly, realizing the full Nordic potential. I am encouraged by the progress I have seen in Jonkoping, which I visited with some customers a couple of weeks back.We have already started to manufacture components and certain cabinets to other parts of the supply chain network. The quality and efficiency we get out of the new machinery is really impressive and as a true kitchen geek since 10 years, I must say that I have never experienced anything better than that what we can get out of that factory. There is a long way left to manufacture full scale kitchens in Jonkoping, but I have a lot of confidence in the team and the progression that's being made. We have fantastic brands in the Nordics. With the new harmonized product platform; the brands will have even better products, a better choice within the mass premium segment and yes, much more cost efficient range. And we also in the Nordic harmonize our processes and systems to drive further efficiency in our support functions.And you can already see that as an example our brands; Sigdal, Marbodal, Invita and Novart; they operate in 4 different countries, but they look very similar in pretty much everything they do. Thirdly, the U.K. transformation is going well. We are addressing our large fixed cost base by consolidating manufacturing, segmenting unprofitable store leases and consolidating certain functions. We probably have to go harder on cost for slightly longer due to tough underlying market situation and are investigating further options during Q2. And currently, we're also carrying out strategic review of our store portfolio. On a very positive note, the Magnet brand is extremely strong in the marketplace and with improved product portfolio, we can already demonstrate improving average order values also helped by better segment mix of consumers as it's growing again.And with this really good brand and strong brand, it's been fairly easy to find partnerships and have conversations about selling the brand in different channels through concessions and mainly we have done concessions and discussions in and around London and also to some extent in Scotland and we have signed our first franchisee in South London, which is very interesting indeed. The next one, please, so on the market. So I already shed some light on it, but a bit of a repetition here. As I alluded to, it's been a difficult market situation. But in general, we see the consumer sales recovering somewhat. And in the Nordics, consumer confidence is trending up and we estimate that the market will recover further from this point. The Nordic project market is, however, extremely challenging and we currently don't see any triggers for improvement in the short to midterm.And adding the 4 Nordic markets and housing starts, which you have there to the right, if you add those together during normal market circumstances, housing starts is about 40,000 per quarter, dwelling per quarter whilst currently we are trading around half of that. In the U.K., the situation is somewhat similar. The consumer market is still soft, but the trend and trajectory is positive and on top of it, Magnet is performing well in that space. Housing starts in the U.K. is historically very low as well as you can see on the graph here. We all read that the U.K. government talks about demand of about 40,000 new dwellings per year. So current situation must be unsustainable and the pent-up demand is just keep on building. However, this is obviously not something we can do about the short term. We just have to make sure that we win the few projects that are out there to the right margin.And next one, then I hand over to you, Henrik.

[Henrik Skogsfors, executive]

Thank you, Kristoffer. Nordic region first quarter, a solid improvement of 1.6 percentage points to 33.9% for the gross margin. A strong performance considering the large volume decline. We had improvement on back of price realization, reduced costs on invest material as well as a favorable product mix that Kristoffer was alluding to before where consumer sales holds up better than the professional segment. The improvement was partly mitigated by adverse currency effects. Organic sales just like in the fourth quarter of 2023 experienced a decline of 25%. Price realization continues to support the top line, however, it was counterbalanced by a large decrease in the volume effect in sales performance in all countries and segments. The project segment observed the most significant sales decline by [ 35% ] followed by lesser drops in the retail and the trade sectors. Finland accounted a larger decline in sales trailed by Sweden, Denmark and last, Norway.The selling and administrative costs supported the result in the quarter where the impact from the restructuring and cost outflow that was communicated in January last year resulted in savings of approximately SEK 10 million; mainly staff cost reduction, but also property cost coupled with benefit from the transition we did in Finland in the fourth quarter of 2023. As outlined in the quarterly report, we accounted for SEK 17 million as items affecting comparability in the quarter. These costs are associated with the transition of the new factory in Jonkoping. I am pleased to note that we are successfully managing the situation delivering a positive EBIT despite a very challenging market situation. Next slide, please. U.K. Gross margin remained on high levels in U.K. driven by the progress in our U.K. transformation strategy with higher average order values on back of higher share of sales in the premium segment that Kristoffer talked about earlier.Organic sales declined by 14%. The U.K. kitchen market much like the Nordics was soft during the quarter. In addition, our sales were also impacted by the exit of certain lower margin parts of the project segment. The economic headwind in particular affected the project and the trade segment while the retail segment displayed single-digit growth following the successful conclusion of the important annual winter sales campaign. The decrease in gross margin by 1.1 percentage point is a mix effect of the winter sales campaign and volume deceleration in the project segment following the Dewsbury exit in the first quarter of 2023. The savings resulting from the restructuring cost-out program last year impacted the quarter by SEK 50 million, slightly surpassing our expectations and driving the reduction in selling and admin costs.Despite the sales decline of 14% on an organic basis, U.K. operating profit is flat compared to last year with the strong support from the implemented savings activities. Next slide, please, the financial position. Cash flow from operating activities declined by SEK 593 million minus the negative SEK 258 million in the quarter year-over-year primarily on back of reduced working capital liabilities. Working capital has a seasonality and is usually weak in the first quarter every year. The quarter was also negatively impacted from supplier payments related to machinery purchases in the Jonkoping factory. Working capital is also impacted on a year-on-year comparison by the divestment we did of our business in the Netherlands, Bribus and in Austria, ewe. The strong winter sales campaign in U.K. resulted in an increased accounts receivable balance as well as a ramp-up of inventory. However, that will be seen in sales later during the year.The operating cash flow, including investments, amounted to negative SEK 574 million. The investments in the quarter, which is primarily related to the new machinery for the factory in Jonkoping, amounted to SEK 324 million. Net debt, excluding leasing and pension debt, decreased from year-end by SEK 630 million to SEK 2.8 billion. The decrease is related to the earlier communicated debt reducing activities. The sale and leaseback, the divestment of Bribus and ewe as well, which are the main drivers behind the reduction on net debt in the quarter. The positive effect was mitigated by continued investments in the machinery for the new factory and the effects from working capital that I just mentioned. And after the close of the quarter, we also successfully closed the rights issue of SEK 1.26 billion, which is another debt reducing activity that will positively impact our net debt in the second quarter. It's important to keep in mind, however, that we still have approximately SEK 800 million continued outflows during the year before the investments in the factory are completed.That's all from the financial position. So over to you again and next slide, please.

[Kristoffer Ljungfelt, executive]

Okay. So finally, let's look at the summary of our priorities going forward here. Again retail market is looking better and we will pool our resources into winning share in that market. I expect we will go slightly harder on driving footfall via the digital channels than what we have done previously, but we will finance it through cost control and pulling spend from other parts of the business. We will not increase cost. As alluded to before also, we expect that our project business to remain soft throughout the year and on the back of that, we will target further cost out activities and we will come back on that and what that entails during the [ second quarter].We will drive hard towards completing our strategic initiatives as fast as absolutely possible in order to also enjoy the financial benefits as fast as absolutely possible. Strong focus and priority will be to get Jonkoping operational during the year. With that also comes finalization of our harmonized Nordic range and we expect some new exciting products in the mass premium space to be launched on the back of that. In the U.K., we will close manufacturing in the Halifax site this month, which reduce manufacturing sites from 5 sites in 2023 to only 2 sites by the end of this May 2024. So that's really well done to Team U.K. to deliver that in just a year. We will also continue the strategic overview of our store portfolio and transition to our new partnership model.So thank you for listening and we are now ready to take your questions.

[Tobias Norrby, executive]

So please open up for questions. Thank you.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from the line of Rasmus Engberg from Handelsbanken.

[Rasmus Engberg, analyst]

I was just wondering on the new build in the Nordics. Am I right in thinking that it's declining sequentially going forward as well?

[Kristoffer Ljungfelt, executive]

Yes. I mean it will somewhat -- I mean the decline will definitely taper off from Q2 and onwards, but we expect it to be somewhat declining still in the second half.

[Rasmus Engberg, analyst]

And on the consumer side, can you put some flavor on the potential recovery there in consumer?

[Kristoffer Ljungfelt, executive]

Yes, it's really hard to say at this point. I mean we can see some leading indicators pointing towards a recovery of the market. But it's too early to say how much that will come out of it so to say.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand back to Tobias Norby, Head of Investor Relations, for any closing remarks.

[Tobias Norrby, executive]

Well, thank you, everyone, for calling in today and we welcome you all back on the 18th of July for our half year results. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. That concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.