LPP SA

WSE:LPP

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Hello. Welcome. Magda Kopaczewska, Investor Relations, LPP; and Przemek Lutkiewicz, Vice President of the Management Board of LPP. Welcome. This is our presentation conference for the fourth quarter and the previous year, where we will discuss our results, our plans for the future and the key events for us. At the end, of course, as usual, there will be a Q&A session held.

But let's start with the key events. Today, the most important event for LPP and for all of us was the outbreak of war in Ukraine. What for us was the most important thing was to ensure the safety of our employees in Ukraine along with the safety of their relatives. We offered our colleagues from Ukraine accommodation in Poland and in the countries where we as a company are present. We offered them both financial, medical and psychological assistance. So far, 250 people who are employees and relatives of the employees benefited from this assistance.

Apart from that help, we also supported facilities and institutions taking care of refugees from Ukraine. This included both financial and in-kind support. We provided 200,000 pieces of clothing, mainly for mothers with children, and also vouchers, prepaid cards by LPP so the persons could purchase their necessities at our stores and at some other stores. In total, we devoted PLN 20 million for the help for Ukraine.

But this is not all. We have been organizing the collections of all the things necessary for the refugees from Ukraine. And these, in turn, were organized along with our partners such as Wosh Wosh. We collected clothing and footwear that was later transferred and given to the persons from Ukraine. We also joined #Power4Ukraine action. This consisted in collecting power banks, charging them and providing the people in -- who are still in Ukraine with them so that these people can contact their relatives in other countries.

There have been numerous bottom-up initiatives organized by our employees such as supporting the refugees by Sinsay and other brands. We collected feeds and some accessories for the animals that were brought from Ukraine. And Cropp brand organized good market action, and this consisted in some employees bringing their handmade items and other employees buying them. And the funds collected this way were devoted to humanitarian aid for Mariupol and the Perugia region.

We are also helping Ukraine by donating our clothing from the stores to person-in-need institutions and also the Army men. This mainly pertains to underwear pieces. There have been several initiatives like that, and we are really proud that we have done so much. And we are very pleased with the engagement and involvement of our employees and the fact that they do not remain indifferent to what is happening in Ukraine.

War in Ukraine, of course, affected our business situation, our plans for the future. And this and the financial results will be discussed now by Przemek.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Thank you very much. We closed the stores in Ukraine with the outbreak of the war. And as far as Russia is concerned, ladies and gentlemen, we also closed our stores in Russia, similarly to all other companies in the fashion industry.

In Russia and in Ukraine right now, the shops are closed, and I will discuss Ukraine in a moment in more detail. Russia stores were closed with the end of March. No new stock is being sent there. We are not opening any new stores. We are thinking now what could be done in the future.

I will also tell you a little bit about write-offs. As far as the costs are concerned, PLN 600 million in write-offs. We wrote off the whole business in Ukraine so the stores and inventory. As far as Russia is concerned, it's almost half of the value of Russian stores. PLN 335 million was in write-offs.

So these write-offs, in turn, costs that -- we received some reservations in the auditor's opinion. It was mainly about timing for the write-offs because, according to the auditor, we should be doing this in 2022 but we decided to do the write-offs for the PLN 600 million to be done in 2021. Why? Because, as you know, our financial year is shifted and it finishes with the end of January. At the same time, in January already, it was visible that the tension of diplomatic talks in the European Union countries and America with Russia was taking place. Russia was collecting the military forces along the borders of Ukraine so it was visible that the conflict was gaining in intensity.

After the outbreak of the war, when we are closing the books, we decided that this whole situation does pertain to the previous year so it would be difficult to talk about a fantastic year 2021. So we decided, as a Management Board, to put the cost -- the write-offs of the whole Ukraine business and some business in Russia there.

I was also asked why we didn't write off the whole business in Russia. This is a difficult decision. Even in the conversations with auditors, we were asked, "So were the stores damaged in Russia?" No, they are functioning. Will they be closed? Yes, they will be closed. We don't know for how long, maybe forever. But generally, we need to refer to that.

So what about the inventory, the stocks? Was it destroyed? No, it's full value items so we still can trade in this. We take some of this to Poland, some to Kazakhstan, to the stores. So the goods are not wasted entirely. The goods are possible to be moved to other countries. So that's why it's not a complete write-off for the goods in Russia, but almost half of the stores, 250 stores written off.

Why 250? We asked ourselves, "What if we simply limited the sales in Russia by 50% ?" It will be 250 unprofitable stores, and the worth is PLN 335 million. So this is our write-off that we have decided for last year. It's quite a considerable one, and it weighted on the results of the fourth quarter. And I will discuss this in more detail soon.

Looking at the map. This quarter still, we see here the numbers of stores in Ukraine, 159 and 553 in Russia because, at the end of the quarter, they were fully functioning, at the end of January. Now you can see the crosses marked there because they are not operational.

However, in mid-March, we decided to open some stores in western Ukraine. Why we decided that, because it was requested by our employees in Ukraine and the Ukrainian government so that the facilities and the businesses which could be operational were actually doing business because of VAT tax reasons and the people who are not in direct danger of the war could function as usual. So in response, we decided to open some of the stores, about 50 stores, in the western part of Ukraine.

Of course, these stores are to protect our employees. This is the main purpose. So if any threat or alarms of bombing, the employees are advised to return to safety. The stores operate within shorter hours, not like before, but 6 to 8 hours a day, and only employees who are willing to work do work. We do not force anyone. Safety first. This is the rule as far as the opening is concerned. And because we do not provide any new items, any new goods to Ukraine, the stores sell what they have already in their stocks.

As you can see on the left in the chart, at the end of the financial year, we had 2,244 stores in our LPP Group's chain, almost 1,000 in Poland. And as of today, only 13% of the stores in Eastern Europe are operational, so this is Kazakhstan and partly Ukraine.

Let's move on to the financial results. This is already history all now because everybody is now thinking about the new year, about what the war could bring as far as business is concerned, but let's briefly recap what happened in the fourth quarter. Let me remind you the basis for comparison. 2020 -- the fourth quarter of 2020 was quite different from the fourth quarter of 2021, which I will be discussing.

Why was that previous year different? Let me remind you that in November, there were lockdowns in Poland. In December, the stationary stores were opened. But just after Christmas, they were closed again, and the lockdown persisted in January. From March on, the lockdowns continued. So the previous year was under the influence of lockdowns and COVID very strongly. This year, in 2021, all physical stationary stores are functioning and operational, the same for online stores.

Despite the traditional stores being open, online sales were good as well. But looking at January and moving on to February and March, we observed considerable political tensions relating to the talks with Russia about their aggression. And the outbreak of war saw 20% -- over 20% losses in sales. The first week after the outbreak of the war was very difficult and the beginning of March too, so loss of sales. And from the mid-March on, in April and before, is -- we observed a rebound in sales.

And I can say that the first quarter wouldn't be that bad despite the difficult February. From March and April, we noted good sales, 30%, 40% increases year-on-year in sales. So despite the difficult beginnings, the end of the quarter is rather good.

Please have a look here on this slide. We have this amphitheater, the chart of lockdowns. On the left, we see the lockdowns in 2021/'21 (sic) [ 2020/'21 ], and then on the right, last year. In March 2020, the first lockdowns happening up to May, then the summer period where the lockdowns were lifted. And at the end of the year, the fourth quarter, from November, many countries reintroduced lockdowns and shutdowns of stores and even stronger so in December and January, the first quarter of 2021.

The ending of 2021 was marked by several countries only with lockdowns. We generally returned to normality. Therefore, quite good results of the fourth quarter overall.

Looking at 2021 in overall, 2,244 stores in our portfolio, 80% increase of group revenues, 30% increase of floor space. Online sales grew by almost 80%. Dynamic year, good year, further growth in terms of new stores, good online sales results. And we're entering 2022 with sad sentiment because of the war, of course.

Let's have a look at the chart concerning revenues. We see on the left particular quarters. And you can see the first quarter was rather difficult during the lockdowns and from the second quarter on, considerable increases, over PLN 3 billion, and the record of over PLN 4 billion in the fourth quarter. Quite considerable part of this is due to online sales. This is, of course, very pleasing, but traditional sales were good as well.

So we see the doubling of the revenues year-on-year. All our brands have been selling quite well, high 50%, 60% increases in sales year-on-year. And of course, it is notable that our youngest, Sinsay, brand, the dynamic was over 200% and the value only over PLN 1,500 million. So all our brands noted higher revenues abroad than in Poland. This is probably the last quarter to have such structure of sales because now when we cut off the Eastern market, Poland is returning as the main market for us.

Let's have a look at online. E-commerce revenues, nice increases. In the fourth quarter, over PLN 1 billion in e-commerce alone. On the right, you can see the dynamics year-on-year. In the fourth quarter, over 60% of increase in e-commerce revenues. In Poland, this dynamic is rather lower. It's like plus 20%, but abroad, it has been growing very steadily. And the middle part in the chart, you can see Europe, apart from Poland, doubling the sales in the fourth quarter and good over 140% in Eastern markets. This will not be repeated in the future, of course. Almost 1/3 of sales is through online channels and getting deeper into that.

Over 87% of our -- entries on our sites are done by mobile devices. Over 70% of the value of purchases are than via mobile devices, mobile-first we could say. And we should now concentrate mainly on our website so that they are adapted to the smartphone solutions. We do have the Reserved app, and Sinsay app has been launched. So these 2 brands that sell the most online, we focus on them, particularly so that the consumers are offered the most convenience as possible.

Now foreign revenues by regions. On the left, we can see a high 80%, 90% increases of revenues year-on-year. All the regions noted very good results. Poland, 38% share in the total revenues. In the fourth quarter, very dynamic sales abroad, also the corresponding increases in floor space.

On the right in the chart, you can see that the increase is over 30% last year. The biggest increase is, of course, in the Eastern market. We thought this would be our key development markets, Russia and Ukraine, almost 60% of increase, but as you can see, 90% (sic) [ 19% ] for Poland we do still see the chances for development. I will discuss this in more detail in a moment. This is mainly Sinsay brands in smaller cities and retail parks.

Now let's move on to the profit margin, record over 60% profit margin in the fourth quarter. This is mainly due to increasing the prices for the winter collection. And this is also due to the mix of international sales. The more we sell abroad, the higher margins we get because they do -- they are higher abroad. So considerable and visible due to COVID also stalemating our competitors, we observed.

So our collection, they were very well received by the customers, and they were accepted well. We didn't have to organize sell-offs. The sell-offs -- strongest sell-offs were from February only. So full prices in the fourth quarter were used.

On the right, you can see the chart with inventory, and we can see considerable increase, almost PLN 4 billion of inventory in the fourth quarter, over PLN 2,000 per square meter. This is a lot. And you might be asking don't we have too much inventory. Of course. Yes, this is the case because if you see our sales plan for this year, we announced that we would like to have PLN 16 billion of sales.

So given the gross margin, let's say 50% to make it simple, the goods that we're supposed to sell this year would be worth PLN 8 billion, the value of the goods, so PLN 16 billion in revenues. So for the whole year, we need PLN 8 billion for stocks. So we have the inventory for half a year of trade.

Yes, it's a lot. But please do remember that we were not preparing for this kind of year. We were counting on our Eastern market and PLN 2 billion were accounted for, but we were supposed to have stock for new openings. We were planning for the first quarter over 150 stores, mainly in Eastern Europe, of the Sinsay brand mainly. PLN 300 million of stocks were secured for the new openings. So taking into account the e-commerce development and stationary stores openings and the planned further development of our network after COVID, we were counting on good revenues. That's why we collected so much goods and collecting it maybe more than necessary from Asia because of the previous turbulences.

What we can say now, we're going to have difficult work with the stocks that we have. There is no possibility to sell them on the Eastern markets. What can be done? Similarly to 2 years ago, during the first lockdowns in 2020, the possibility is to shift some of the collections from spring to autumn collection. We will just ship them for the season. And some collections from those countries will be sold in Poland and some other countries where we are present.

There will be, of course, sell-offs organized. This will affect our margins in the first half of the year, but we need to deal with these stocks. In the second half of the year, we decreased by 20%, 25% the orders for the collection so that we can adapt the size of the collections to the limited number of stores and the lack of our Eastern markets.

Maybe trying to answer your possible questions. You might be interested what's happening with China. Is it true that the ports are closed? Yes, the key ports in Shanghai and Shenzhen are closed. And we do experience problems there, but the goods that we delivered there, they were shipped. They were sent, and the ships are now on their way to Poland.

But the goods that we're getting to the ports, they were not -- the new containers or new drivers were not allowed for the pandemic reasons to the port. We redirected them to other Chinese ports, to the port in Ningbo. It's a difficult name. So other ports, they serve now as alternative places from which we can ship the goods to Europe. So as of today, we can say that we do not experience any major problem. So Bangladesh, Vietnam ports are operational fully. So the shipments are conducted on a regular basis, and no problems are envisaged here with the deliveries for the new collections.

Now if you're worried about the costs, on the left, please have a look. I would like to focus your attention on the rental costs, so the bottom part, PLN 53 per meter a month. This is the lowest reading in our history. So this confirms that new stores of Sinsay brands where we rent in smaller towns, they have better terms. This is like turnover base rent, and we can see that this in turn translates into lower cost of rental. And I believe that this trend will be continued and the cost will be lower and lower.

On the other hand, you can see higher personnel costs. On the one hand, it was increase in the salaries for persons working in the stores, additional bonuses in the difficult months. And other costs are also higher. So this was mainly the higher energy cost, 40% increase in energy cost per square meter; and the cost of -- like one-off costs for opening new stores, so all the facilities, all the equipment that need to be installed for these store openings. This in turn causes the other costs to be higher when we open a greater number of stores.

On the right, let me just comment on SG&A costs. We can see dynamic increase because we have increased in online sales. So this is not to be translated into meters. So the increase is due to the fact that we are increasing the online sales, logistics costs proportional to the sales, of course, and considerable outlays on advertisements to stir the demand and attract new customers.

Moving on now to the results for the quarter. They were rather good -- if not for the write-offs, they would be very good, but PLN 600 million for the fourth quarter. You can see the loss on the operating level, PLN 20 million and net level with the negative FX losses, PLN 150 million. You can see the chart here also for IAS 17. You can see that they are quite better, it was higher -- it was better in IFRS 16.

Now coming back to the whole, costs -- PLN 14 billion of revenues, 80% increase year-on-year, nice gross margin, 5% -- 5 points higher. Costs increased slower than the overall sales, only 150 in the previous year. If not for the write-offs, the EBIT would be even over PLN 2 billion. And taking off the financial costs and taxes, we do end up with almost PLN 1 billion of net profit.

When it comes to some expenses, the most part of that was CapEx relating to the store. But also, we built a new distribution center in Brzesc Kujawski, which is now operational and it started in 2022.

So summing up, it's a rather good year, 2021. We can see high offline revenue dynamics. So the traditional stores returned to normal situation. Double-digit online sales growth was observed, PLN 4 billion throughout the year; considerably better gross profit margin because the collections were better adapted to the needs of the customers. And the change of the policy, new technologies, the RFID technology and the one relating to better management of pricing policy, this in turn contributes to better gross profit margin throughout the year.

When it comes to net cash, we do have it. We are a stable company. So liabilities finance our inventory, so the financial situation of the company remains very stable.

I also would like to encourage you to have a look at the other reports that we are publishing today. This is our ESG report with ESG brought to the fore. This report is only in this online version. You can download it from our website. It is in this new format. Of course, you can read it only online, but it contains a lot of interesting information on how we approach these ESG topics. We can see all the details concerning our water consumption, greenhouse gases, policy, reduction of plastics. I strongly recommend having a look.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

I also recommend.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Let's discuss the outlook for this coming year. So the key information that we would like to share with you is the shift of our strategy. Now we cannot focus so strongly on the Eastern countries. We were hoping to develop there, but we are now trying to shift the focus to Central and increasingly Western Europe countries.

So the change in strategy, it seems that we are well prepared for this development in the West. Why? Because for several years now, we have been developing e-commerce in those countries. We know the specificity of those markets, the customers' expectations, and along with increased outlays on online advertisement, we are able to attract the customers there on those markets.

We have great and stable concept for Reserved and Sinsay. However, Mohito -- because formal clothing has returned, Mohito has gotten some wind in their sails. This is probably the result of the fact that during the pandemic, we simply did not purchase formal clothing and we need to complete the wardrobe now.

What I would like to say is that our company is present in the value-for-money dynamically developing segment. If you follow the reports of our competitors, those who are present in the value-for-money sector, they have been developing the fastest. We do have the Sinsay brand experience in the offline and online areas. We are going to open more and more physical stores of Sinsay but also pushing on this online development.

So our strategy for the coming quarters and coming years is based on 3 pillars. The first is Reserved but mainly in the online area. We are expanding the offer. There will be some of them available only online along with the home section in Reserved brand and more focus on advertising and attracting customers in the Western Europe, so digital marketing. This would be for us the key aspects, yes, definitely.

What I can also add is that Reserved brand is perceived in the Central Europe as like midrange pricing, but in the West, it's considered a lower price range given the purchasing capacity. On the other hand, we will focus on the Western market in Reserved so that the quality and the size were adapted to the Western European customers.

The other 2 pillars, they refer to Sinsay brand. On the one hand, this is the development of traditional store network, entering new markets, new countries. And on the other hand, we have the online sales for Sinsay. We are one of the very few companies that is experienced in selling the value-for-money segment brands. We do have our online app for Sinsay and website as well. We have the expertise on how to organize logistics aspects in this segment. So this for us is the fastest growing sector of the e-commerce.

We can say now that we have a very unique business model because we have a more expensive brand with RFID technology, modern algorithms like Reserved, Cropp, House and Mohito. And here, the main focus will be placed on the online development. And there is Sinsay, a value-for-money brand, which has been developing strongly in the offline and online sector. And because we are aware of how to create modern attractive collections, we are able to provide this youngest brand with good collections and at very attractive prices for the customer.

Customers will have to devote more money now to the increased energy bills. Maybe the share of the household budget that could be devoted to fashion, to purchasing clothes since they might gain popularity and interest of the customers. And we are hoping that Sinsay will benefit from well, those difficult times.

Let's have a look now at the geographical segment. The CEE is our key region, so the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland. This is our key region. We will focus on further development here in these countries, mainly online but also in offline. We can see possibilities for development here. Also, I'm thinking about retail parks, smaller towns in the Czech Republic, Poland, the Hungary. Sinsay will be entering those markets, and we will add Cropp and House in the locations in the smaller cities.

But with the development in mind, we have interesting insights from other countries. The Baltic countries, rather stable, small markets, but looking at the potential, we think there could be 10 stores in each of these markets added per year. With, of course, a lot of advertising online for our brands, such small countries, they are like gems for us. They are sometimes overlooked by the competitors. So when we were preparing the online advertising for those markets, we had a fantastic rate of return because nobody really paid attention to those markets so I believe that they're worth paying attention to.

The most -- the region with most growth potential would be the Southern/Eastern market, Romania, Bulgaria or Serbia. These provide the most developmental possibilities and potential for Sinsay for development in offline and online. In Romania, we have this warehouse that sends goods from those countries -- to those countries, and we are planning to open -- you can see Albania here. This will be launched with stationary stores this year.

Now when it comes to Western European countries, difficult markets, I would say. And as you know, we are present with our traditional stores in the U.K. and Germany. In Germany, the situation has been improving, especially with online sales. First time in history that the German company was profitable, and this is mainly due to the online sales.

As far as U.K. is concerned, 1 store in London still. But because of Brexit, the business is the most difficult in this country. We observed that the London store returned to the first place when it comes to the sales results among all our stores. So we have been observing some good signs with more potential for the coming years. And we can look at these countries, Germany, U.K., with hope. Today, the conditions are different to when we opened 8 -- 5 years ago.

When it comes to Finland, we are present in Finland. It's rather sideways markets, but we are increasing our presence there. Two new markets that hopefully will be opened, this is Greece and Italy. Sinsay will have new stores. We see a lot of potential here in the Southern Europe with online and offline offer. We wanted to test those markets more and hoping that the tests will be positive, and we will continue with the development there.

The European Union countries that you can see here in this pinkish -- in this orange color, we want to increase online here. When it comes to Cyprus, we would like to open Reserved stores, but these will be franchise stores, Azadea from the Middle East.

When it comes to Eastern Europe, as I said before, only 50% -- 50 stores are opened in Western Ukraine, other ones are closed. There are some stores completely devastated because of the war in Ukraine so we do not know what the balance would be overall. But all the stores in Russia are closed.

When it comes to the Middle East, this is a region where recently not much was happening. We experienced some geopolitical problems there, but today, we can see that the situation is stabilizing. And I think that the football championships contributed to the situation. We see that the countries are willing to accept tourist flows and the purchasing power is quite good.

We were talking with our franchise partner, Azadea. And they proposed -- they have like several dozen projects of openings in this region. So we are looking at it with interest, maybe with the potential to develop more in this region.

So summing up our targets for 2022. As we announced before, we would like to -- despite the possibilities of trading in the Eastern Europe, we would like to be the company that generates PLN 16 billion of revenues. And with the online, we would like to exceed PLN 5 billion in online sales and have dynamic increases here.

The fall in floor space, it would be 4%, 5% due to the loss of Russia and Ukraine stores, but we would try to fill this gap mainly with Sinsay brand stores in other countries. So we are planning to open over 400 new Sinsay stores this year. And given the fact that other brands will also have their opening when it comes to new stores, it will be like 500 new stores this year.

Due to the surplus goods that we have in the first half, we know that the profit margins will be lower, and of course, EBIT and EBITDA will be lower as well. So when it comes to the percentage, this will be worse results than the previous year. Our target is to maintain net cash, of course, and we will be investing in our development. CapEx plan for this year is over PLN 1 billion, of which over PLN 600 million is for new stores.

Let me just note here that building the stores in European Union country, we can count on fit-out. This is the additional incentive from the landlord and owners of the shopping malls, and this was not possible in the Eastern market. So the CapEx, despite we are developing strongly, it will be a bit lower in the stores in those markets because of this participation of the owners of retail park or shopping malls.

When it comes to opportunities, so the value-for-money interest and the fact that we can turn inflation into prices and we can diminish this or translate this pressure into the target customer, new technology like RFID or big data algorithms, all this helps us to manage the stocks better and to generate higher margins. Of course, when it comes to risks, we do see what is happening in the East, the war in Ukraine and its impact on the businesses and the economies. We still are unsure of what this will bring. In China, especially the COVID situation and further restrictions, so the pandemic situation is still a big question mark for us.

And the last slide in this part, we have also decided to pay our dividend. The resolution was made by the Management Board, supervisory Board approved. And the shareholders will vote in May so that the dividend is paid in the amount of PLN 350 per share in 2 equal tranches, the first one in June and the other one in August this year.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your attention and for joining us here and listening about this, well, let's say, historic -- now historic conference. We are being asked what is going to happen. Despite this history, a record one, it's all in the past. So we welcome you to ask us about the future.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

I can see that we have a lot of interesting questions coming up. So let's start the Q&A session. The first question, have there been any changes as far as availability of financing, factoring reverse factoring in the current accounts? Was it any changed with the situation in Ukraine?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

No, the alliance will not diminish our cooperating banks. We see that this relation with them is long term and very well functioning. We see no problems here.

We are trying to expand the factoring part. We are talking with the banks about increasing the limits, of course. We do have positive feedback here. But for the time being, because of the war, the banks, they kind of limited their appetite for growth. But with every coming week, we see the situation developing, and we are returning to the conversations. And we will be increasing, especially when it comes to reverse factoring.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

The next question is about the monthly cost of the presence in Russia. It's about rent and the cost of salaries for employees.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Okay. When it comes to Russia, the monthly costs -- stable costs relating to wages and to paying the bills for maintaining the warehouses where we have our goods and we need to keep on going with them in the dormant mode, let's say, PLN 50 million, PLN 60 million per month in Russia. In Ukraine, PLN 15 million per month. For the time being, we need to cover these costs, and so we don't know what the future will bring.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What is the demand in particular brands in particular markets right now?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

I would say that in the first weeks since the outbreak of the war, it was visible that the closer the country is to Ukraine and the warfare, the biggest fear and less appetite for making purchases. So the countries located further from the war front, they were not so much affected. But we can see that spring is also conducive of doing shopping. And people after the pandemic, they -- and as we mentioned before, formal clothing interest is increasing. We also observed considerable interest in clothing items also in Reserved and Sinsay brands. So online purchases for kids fashion is observed.

We also see this polarization. On the one hand, we see quite considerable interest in value-for-money brands, so Sinsay. And on the other hand, we can see the interest in styles of higher quality with the Reserved brand. If I were to say what would be the -- so we can say that Sinsay is the best, then Reserved and Mohito when it comes to sales. Then there is Cropp and House. And Cropp, I would say it used to be best in the Eastern countries, and it was the most affected by the war and the closing of the market.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

All the brands are generating quite good results. But on the other hand, looking through the perspective of online customer, in Sinsay and Reserved, we are expanding the product lines devoted only to the online sales, and we are introducing the lines such as accessories, homeware and even beauty.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

That's right. Let me note here how the companies who have considerable online exposure behave. You are very well familiar with online platforms offer. What we see in the players who, just like us, have the physical sales but are willing to expand their online offer, they constantly increase this online offer.

So that -- the website for, let's say, Reserved or Sinsay, we want this to be similar to the multi-brand platform. When we scroll the product, we want the product line to be never-ending so that the range is considerable. And we can see that this is the worldwide trend. So the companies which pay a lot of attention to online sales, they are trying to provide a very extensive range online.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Congratulations on your fantastic results for 2021/'22. Thank you. In the past year, the revenues for the group were PLN 14 billion -- it's million, but -- yes, let's correct, it's billion, of which PLN 4 billion is in Eastern markets. For 2022, you assume the increase in revenues to over PLN 16 billion without the Eastern market. This implicates the revenues for the group to be growing by PLN 6 billion almost for the target to be completed. What part of this would be for Sinsay and how this can be distributed among the countries?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

The majority of this will be for Sinsay. This would be mainly about Sinsay brand. I would also say that our initial plans for this year, they exceeded the amount of PLN 20 billion with the Eastern market. So when we cut off, we talk about PLN 16 billion. This is the shifting of our budget and attention to the Central and Western Europe. And for each country -- and I mean it. For each country, we do have developmental plans for Sinsay brands in each of these countries. We have the lead managers hired, and they are responsible for getting new floor space.

Before, when we had only Reserved and Mohito in mind when we talked about development, it was very centralized. We were like having it centralized from Poland, and from Poland, we were signing the contract with landlords. But now each country has their own lease department. So even small countries like Macedonia or Estonia, they have their own developmental plans. And Sinsay stores will be opened in all those countries with the e-commerce growth. Also, the locations have changed. They are not huge shopping malls anymore but rather retail parks.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Let's move on to another question. What floor space can we expect -- what floor space increase can we expect in the coming years?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

If you look at the pipeline of our projects, because we are today signing the contracts for 2023 and then thinking of new openings, looking at the years to come, we would like to maintain 20% of increase in floor space, especially with 2023 in mind. In 2024, because the base is higher, it will be like 15% increase. But 2022, '23, '24, these will be the years of dynamic growth of our company in the new market but also in the ones that we are already present so that we saturate the market more with our stores.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What is the demand in Poland in March, in the first weeks of April after the outbreak of the war? With the increasing inflation also, do you observe a decrease in the demand?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We observed the lower average deal value. You can see that in total because we see more Sinsay sales but we have the more -- the increased number of items. I would put it differently. We can observe considerable increases in sales in smaller cities and online resulting from the fact that we reach with the Sinsay offer to an increased group of customers. On the one hand, we have countries outside Poland where the dynamic is more considerable than in Poland, like in Romania, Bulgaria, where we keep opening new stores of Sinsay brand. And we have been recording increased sales, and this exceeds the ones in Poland.

The question about the end of March and beginning of April, we see a nice 20% increase in all our brands. And I think this is a good sign for the coming periods. And because we will be organizing some sell-offs, the average, well, costs go down because we would need to redirect the goods from the Eastern market.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Thank you. Another question. How much of the stocks from Russia did you manage to recover?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

PLN 900 million of stocks in Russia. We recovered PLN 100 million, PLN 120 million. We are working on decreasing this value.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

You're planning the increase of final prices in the stores so -- due to the suspension of sales in Ukraine and Russia. Your competitors also deal with loss of sales in those markets. Your competitors experienced the same. Does this mean increased competition when it comes to pricing and the planned increase of prices in the stores?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Our competitors, and I'm thinking of the bigger -- the biggest players, their exposure in the East was considerably smaller than in our case. 28 -- 30% was our exposure. They had like 5%, 10%. So for them, it's easier to deal with the surplus and to cover other markets with it than we -- than in our situation. The loss of sales in the Eastern markets, we have to accommodate this in the Western markets, and it's like 3x more difficult for us.

We do not see the pressure of our biggest competitors to lower the prices. So looking at our experience in sell-offs and organizing promotions during COVID time, I believe we will be able to deal with it quite well. The initial prices were increased. But minus 10%, minus 20%, 30% sell-off actions, we will be able to deal with that. I believe we can manage. We don't observe strong pressure for lowering prices when it comes to our competitors in the markets where we have considerable exposure.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Changing the geographical mix will disrupt KPI. What's the difference between revenues per square meter, gross margin and the operating cost to revenue between East and other markets?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Let me answer in general. Of course, the Eastern markets were most profitable but also sales per square meter was lower. So shifting from Central Europe to Western Europe, the sales will be higher. Of course, costs will be higher, too. So the cost mix, we are mainly looking OpEx to sales cost.

This is to the detriment, of course, when it comes to Central and Western Europe. So the indicator OpEx to sales at the level of 40%, it will probably be higher because this will reach the level of 42%, 43% this year instead of 40% -- 41% that we initially assumed. So the economics might, for some time, be worsened. And we will see what time brings along with the growth of our business in other countries. So trying to catch the effect of scale, we will be able to decrease the cost as regards to revenues, but we will work on it in the coming quarters.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

There's also a question about fixed costs in Russia but we communicated that already. The question also about Russia, what is the deal with the landlord in Russia? Does the company guarantee the lease contracts in Russia?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We have separate conversations with landlords in Russia. Some of them do understand the situations, others make us pay. So generally, we have a full spectrum and there is no single rule in Russia. Some, they want to go to court with us because we are not paying, and some of them are willing to wait for several months or for some unspecified time.

This is a difficult situation. It's very hard for me to provide a 1-sentence answer. But with every week, it's becoming more and more difficult for us to have these talks with landlords because they cannot -- they don't want to understand the situation that the war in Ukraine caused a complete change of business perspective and completely made the company stop doing business in Russia.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

There is another question about disrupted and broken supply chain. So will the purchases for the next seasons be secured? It's about the broken supply chain.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Yes, for now, we don't see any problem. The goods that were ordered, they are being shipped to us or are in the warehouses already. The collections are in production so we do not observe any risk here.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What kind of level of inventory we are talking about given the information of the plant increase?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

So first, second quarter of this year, they will be marked by higher inventory, probably with -- at the level of what we see for the fourth quarter. In the coming quarters, I hope that this will be decreased to the level -- well, it's difficult for now to say to what level when the situation normalizes. It will probably be towards the end of the year.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Another question. How does LPP comment on the success of online SHEIN concept -- Chinese concept where the company had higher market share than Inditex and H&M? Can this be a revolution in the fast fashion segment that can evolve into ultrafast fashion? We want to be a transparent company, paying attention to sustainable development. Maybe no comments here.

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

No. Well, let's do comment because as far as business model of SHEIN is concerned, it's amazing. As far as I'm concerned, they have been hugely successful in the American market but also in the Western Europe. This is a kind of new business model because the company is a Chinese one. It has been selling in the Western European market with considerable success.

The goods, well, we are happy that SHEIN focuses mainly on Western Europe because we have time to focus on Central Europe and to respond to the challenges that SHEIN is posing. And our response would be the fact that we do have Sinsay in online sector. And looking at SHEIN phenomenon, I believe we can generate similar success when it comes to Sinsay brand.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Another question. Does LPP plan to increase prices in 2022? If yes, how much compared to last year?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Yes. For the spring/summer season, the prices on the price tags is already in the stores. They were increased 6%, 12%, depending on the brand. This is the range of increases.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

As far as the logistics center, what is the value of the logistics center in Russia? What will happen with this center? And what are the political risks in Russia, in your opinion, pertaining to the assets of the companies that suspended their operations in Russia?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

The first part of this question is we don't know what's the value because we rented and this is owned by a Russian operator. What will happen, it's hard to say. Many companies are simply waiting for the war to end and maybe some political decisions to be made. It's also being said that there will be a nationalizing act that Russian duma will be planning to adopt. Maybe it will be nationalized. For now -- for the time being, I don't know.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What increases of the autumn/winter collections do you observe in comparison to spring/summer collections?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

So the increase of purchase prices for the goods, 5%, 10% for now in dollar terms. We can see inflation increases because of the raw material price increases.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

In what the scenario of supply in the Russian market -- the Russian stores will the development of these stores be continued? How many stores were destroyed in Ukraine?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We already gave you this answer. Let's reiterate that completely destroyed stores, we have 13 out of 150 stores in Ukraine. But when it comes to Russia, it's very hard for us to say anything about any future scenario. This is not dependent on us and our decisions but rather political and war-related decisions that will be in place. We can only adapt to the situation there.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

There's a question about Serbia, traditional already in our quarterly conferences. When can we expect online stores in -- available in Serbia?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

It's hard to answer. Right now, we are working on the launching this year, but third, fourth quarter, I cannot say. But it's a nice market, a big one and promising market. And we do remember to develop this online availability. We do have the stationary stores there but online is missing.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Will the dividend be paid out every year? And why is it in 2 tranches?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

We hope that the dividend will occur every year. We want to be a dividend company. Two tranches, the reason for that is because these are considerable amounts when it comes to cash flow. That's why we divided this into 2 tranches and maintaining liquidity and planning our cash flow is easier this way.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Do you have any plans of moving production from Asia to Europe or Africa or other countries?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

It is happening gradually. We are moving this production to Europe, Turkey, also in Africa. But it's difficult because not many factories are there in Europe. The production costs, of course, are considerably higher in comparison to Asia, and Asia seems to be the place for production for the coming years.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

There is a considerable interest in online kids fashion. Is online kids offer in Sinsay brands the fastest developing? Are you planning to develop for this? And will Sinsay compete with [ Smyx ]?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

Please summarize the logistics development in the recent months in LPP. What would be the target when it comes to logistics? And are you planning to decrease the Sinsay delivery time as compared to your competitors?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Our development plans in logistics are as follows. We wish to open new e-commerce distribution centers. Right now, we have this logistics center in Brzesc Kujawski which is operational. In Podkarpacie region, we are also planning to open a new one. And we are thinking of new locations for distribution centers also outside Poland. And it seems that if Sinsay plans will be achieved, of course, the development of new centers will follow.

What is helpful is the functionality of shipments from the nearest store to the customer. And this option is available for Sinsay brand, and it helps. When it comes to delivery times, of course, we are working on improving this. Depending on the location, this may be 3 to 5 business days. But looking at good results in online dynamics for Sinsay, the longer -- well, I don't think they are so long. The longer delivery times, they do not affect the sales. We see the increasing interest.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

What level of operating margin can you expect this year?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

It's hard to say for sure. It will be a single-digit margin. I would say somewhere about high single-digit values.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

The cost that you provided per month in Russia, will they be decreasing in the second part -- half of the year?

[Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, executive]

Yes. Probably, yes. I'm not even thinking about the next half of the year in Russia. We are now focusing on this first half and what will happen now. So in the long run, these costs will diminish.

[Magdalena Kopaczewska, executive]

This was the last question from you. Yes. Thank you very much for all your questions. Thank you that you are present here at the conference. And we invite you to attend the next one in June. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. Goodbye.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]