Westwing Group SE

XETRA:WEW

Earnings Call Analysis

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Westwing Group SE Earnings Call regarding Q1 2024. [Operator Instructions]Let me now turn the floor over to your host, Andreas Hoerning.

[Andreas Hoerning, executive]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our earnings call on the first quarter of 2024.My name is Andreas Hoerning. I'm the CEO of Westwing. I'm hosting the call together with Sebastian Westrich, our CFO.Looking at today's agenda, I will begin by providing key updates on the business, followed by Sebastian, who will be presenting the details of Westwing's financial performance. After our investment highlight summary, we will be happy to take your questions.Let's take a look at Westwing's current state and the key achievements in a strong first quarter of 2024. We were able to increase our top line by 6% year-over-year in the midst of a still declining market. This positive development was also driven by a growing number of active customers, which for the first time since the end of the pandemic saw a positive year-over-year growth of 2%. Besides top line, we were also able to improve our contribution margin significantly year-over-year. It increased by 4 percentage points to 32%.Worth mentioning is also our marketing ratio as we continue to invest into our brand in Germany. Our marketing ratio increased by 4 percentage points year-over-year to 13%. This all led to an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 6 million, or 6% of revenue, and a free cash flow of EUR 4 million. The development is fully in line with our guidance that we published in March.Our net cash position end of quarter amounted to EUR 82 million. Beyond current financials, we are also well on track with our transformation to build a scalable platform and a strong brand. We further increased our Westwing Collection share to an all-time high of 51% of group GMV, and strengthened our premium brand positioning, for example, with an installation at Milan Design Week.Let's briefly put our Q1 top line into perspective by looking at market development. As you can see on the left-hand side, the German online home and living market declined by 4% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2024. We clearly outperformed this market development. Our DACH segment achieved an 8% revenue growth. That's 12 percentage points better than market.We believe that our growth in a weak market proves that we are right on track with our OneWestwing commercial model and the positioning of our brand. An important indicator worth highlighting is the number of active customers. In Q1, after two consecutive quarters with quarter-over-quarter growth, the number of active customers grew for the first time since the end of the pandemic year-over-year, albeit slightly.In the last earnings call, we presented our 3-step plan to unlock Westwing's full value potential. We are currently in the second stage building a lean, scalable platform. Let me give you a quick update on the levers we're working on. Firstly, our complexity reduction efforts are well on track. The switch to a technology stack based largely on software-as-a-service or SaaS is progressing as planned. The consolidation of our logistics center footprint is well on track, and we have started to reroute the flow of goods via our Central Logistics Center in Poland.The restructuring of the Italian and Spanish corporate functions and the switch to a mostly global product assortment in those countries is also on track. We are currently finalizing the handovers to our central functions. Please note that as explained in our last earnings call, the switch to a mostly global product assortment in Italy and Spain will very likely have a short to mid-term detrimental top line impact, which will also be felt on group level for the remainder of the year.Secondly, the completion of the OneWestwing commercial model is on plan. This is linked to the switch of the technology stack. Thirdly and fourthly, we're making good progress on the Westwing Collection share increase and our premium brand positioning. I will be sharing some details on the next slides.We are very pleased with the performance of our Westwing Collection, which is our gorgeous, sustainable private label product brand. Its share of group GMV grew further by 5 percentage points year-over-year to an all-time high of 51% in Q1 2024. This strong development supports our top line as well as profitability since the products are very desirable and they allow us to achieve a higher contribution margin compared to third-party products.A few years ago, we set our long-term target to reach 50% Westwing Collection share of group GMV. Now that we've surpassed this mark, the question arises whether there will be a new, higher target. We will grow the Westwing Collection further, but likely at a slower pace and at least for now, without a new long-term target. As we build Europe's premium one-stop destination for home and living, we're creating a unique product assortment for design lovers consisting of our own brand, Westwing Collection and the best third-party design brands. We still have significant room for improvement on both sides.Regarding our efforts to strengthen our premium brand positioning, let me highlight an event that took place in April. A few weeks ago, we celebrated our debut at what is arguably the most influential design fair globally. It was our very first appearance at Milan Design Week and a real highlight for us, as we invited design lovers to experience Live Beautiful with all their senses in our exhibition.Why did we choose to exhibit in Milan? If I had to name a star on the design calendar, it's definitely Salone del Mobile. The fair is an international hub for the latest trends and innovations, but also a display of heritage in furniture and design. For us, it was a great opportunity to showcase our carefully crafted Westwing Collection in an exciting installation to design lovers from around the world.For this occasion, we designed our new Wolke sofa in a special Fuorisalone edition, which you can see on the left hand of the slide. The installation also included a sneak peek into our collaboration with the famous fabric house, Dedar Milano. The product drop was, which will launch later this year, consists of a range of seating furniture and cushions with extraordinary colors, exquisite patterns and excellent fabrics. Overall, our Milan design week appearance was received very positively by partners, public, press and across social media.I now hand over to Sebastian for details on our financial performance.

[Sebastian Westrich, executive]

Thank you, Andreas, and good morning, everyone.I'm Sebastian Westrich, the CFO of Westwing. Let me start with details on our top line. As you know, we achieved a top line increase of 6% in the first quarter of the year. Given the weak home and living market that Andreas mentioned at the beginning, the top line increase indicates market share gains and therefore, marks a really strong start into the year 2024.If we now take a closer look at the revenue development by segments, you can see that both segments continue to grow. The DACH segment growth of 8% year-over-year is the strongest year-over-year growth rate for a quarter of the DACH segment since 2021. This might also be driven by our brand awareness investments.On the other hand, the International segment grew by 3% year-over-year. The weaker growth compared to the DACH segment is mainly caused by Italy and Spain, where we already see negative top line impact of the complexity reduction and the global shared offering. All other countries of the International segment showed growth rates even above those of DACH. This is in line with our expectations.Looking at our management P&L, we see improvements across almost all P&L lines. In Q1 2024, our gross margin increased by 1.8 percentage points compared to the previous year. As a result, we achieved a gross margin well above 50%. The key driver is the higher share of our Westwing Collection which comes with better margins. We were also able to improve our fulfillment ratio by 2.1 percentage points Q1 over Q1, mainly due to efficiency gains. All this led to a significant year-over-year improvement in contribution margin of 3.9 percentage points in Q1 2024. We are very proud of this development as it proves the strength of our commercial model.Moving down the management P&L. You can see that our marketing ratio increased by 3.8 percentage points in the first quarter of 2024. This was mainly driven by continued investments into our brand in our biggest market, Germany. Looking further down, we made slight improvements in our G&A ratio, which also includes other results. The ratio improved by 0.1 percentage points.The positive effect of a stable G&A cost base at a growing top line despite inflationary impacts was partially offset in Q1 2024 by lower other results compared to the previous year. G&A increased compared to 2023 due to our complexity reduction measure of moving to a mostly software-as-a-service or SaaS-based technology solution.As a consequence, we had to shorten the lifetime of our in-house developed tech assets, which leads to higher D&A. D&A will remain on a higher level until the end of this year. All this contributed to an improvement in our adjusted EBITDA margin year-over-year by 0.9 percentage points in Q1 2024, leading to 5.8% adjusted EBITDA margin.This development is fully in line with our 2024 guidance as Q1 and Q4 are typically seasonally strongest quarters. Please note that in Q1 2024, we had one-time restructuring expenses of EUR 2.7 million related to our complexity reduction measures, mainly for severance payments. Due to their non-recurring nature, we excluded those expenses from our management P&L.Looking at the profitability of our segments, we are pleased to report a clearly positive adjusted EBITDA margin for both segments in Q1 2024. However, the DACH segment profitability declined year-over-year. The reason for this is that our brand awareness investments are focused on Germany, our biggest market. Therefore, the full brand investment was allocated to this segment.The International segment successfully caught up, with our DACH segment achieving 6.1% adjusted EBITDA margin in the first quarter of the year, despite the rather low top line growth. The strongest driver for the improved adjusted EBITDA margin in the International segment is an increase in the Westwing Collection share.Let's have a look at our net working capital end of Q1. It improved by EUR 13 million compared to Q1 2023 and was negative at minus EUR 18 million. This is a really good result and was driven by 2 main factors. Firstly, as shown on the right side of the chart, our inventory levels improved by EUR 5 million in Q1 2024 compared to the previous year's quarter. The reduction of excess inventory from the COVID period is now more or less completed.We are very pleased with the overall performance and improvements we have achieved, and it is worth noting that we have improved our gross margin as we have [ improved and use ] our inventory levels over the last quarters. Over the next quarters, we expect to return to a typical seasonal pattern with an increase in inventories towards the fourth quarter, our peak selling season.The second main driver for the improvement in net working capital besides lower inventories was an increase in trade payables. Looking at the year-over-year development of net working capital, it should be noted that this year the Easter holidays fell right at the end of the first quarter, which had a favorable impact on the net working capital position as of 31 March. In 2023, the end of March was a normal working day.Let's now look at CapEx development. The CapEx ratio increased from 1.9% in Q1 2023 to 4.9% in Q1 2024. This spike is due to a change of the lease for parts of our logistics center equipment. We used to be sub-tenants in one of our logistics centers and subleased the warehouse, including its equipment such as our [ Pike ] tower from our sublease provider.We changed the lease contract and are now direct tenants of the landlord. This changed the contract for our warehouse equipment as well. In order to set up this new contract, we had to take over the equipment from the previous sublease provider. You see the effect in our balance sheet as of 31 March, which amounts to EUR 3 million. Most likely, this effect will be reversed in Q2 as we want to continue the lease of the warehouse equipment. Excluding this effect, our CapEx ratio would be 2% of revenue in line with previous year's level.Turning to free cash flow. We achieved a positive free cash flow of EUR 4 million in the first quarter of 2024. This is EUR 6 million less compared to Q1 2023, which is mainly driven by higher investing cash flows. The increase in investing cash flows is mainly due to the aforementioned changes in the warehouse lease contract. This resulted in the previously mentioned CapEx of EUR 3 million, as well as a rental deposit of EUR 1 million. We are preparing to reverse both effects with a positive impact on free cash flow in Q2 2024.Looking at our net cash. You can see that we maintained our strong net cash balance sheet position of EUR 82 million with 0 debt by end of March 2024. This strong net cash position provides us with a strong downside protection as well as strategic optionality and confidence to focus on our long-term strategy in a still challenging market.On the last slide of the financial update, I'll comment on the financial guidance for 2024, which we published at the end of March in our last earnings call. So far, we believe we are in line with our guidance. In terms of top line, we had a promising start into 2024 with a GMV growth-year-over-year of 6% in Q1 2024.Top line losses in Italy and Spain, which we expect to be between 1% and 3% of group revenue in 2024, are expected to materialize during the remainder of the year. This is connected to the switch from a local to a mostly global offering in those countries that we explained in the last earnings call.Our expectation in terms of overall markets remains restrained, given the low visibility of the future market development and with consumer spending not picking up so far. However, first underlying macro indicators are starting to recover at low levels. In terms of profitability, we are in line with our guidance for the full-year 2024 and expect a typical seasonal development with peaks in Q1 and Q4.To summarize, we are well on track with our transformation to a less complex platform, enabling us to scale with operating leverage. We continue to grow in a rather weak market. We continue to improve our contribution margin with our Westwing Collection and efficiency gains, and we are improving our adjusted EBITDA margin while investing into our brand. We strongly believe in the potential of our business.And with that, I'm handing over to Andreas to conclude our presentation with our investment highlights.

[Andreas Hoerning, executive]

Thank you, Sebastian.So as Sebastian said, let me briefly recap the highlights. First, we have a unique, relevant customer value proposition through the specific assortment and the way we serve our customers. Second, the market potential is huge, especially in our existing geographies, but also beyond. Third, we have a strong brand with high loyalty and true potential to grow further. Fourth, we have high and increasing margins as well as operating leverage while we scale. Fifth, we have a great balance sheet with a strong cash position and no debt, strong net working capital and low CapEx. All of this will lead us to 10% to 15% adjusted EBITDA with a continued strong cash conversion.Sebastian and I are now happy to take your questions.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from Volker Bosse of Baader Bank.

[Volker Bosse, analyst]

Yes. Congratulations on the good set of results. It's Volker Bosse speaking from Baader Bank. I have a couple of questions. First was on current trading. How was the start in April? And second question would be on the active customer growth. Congratulations on that achievement. On a year-on-year basis, for the first time, you return to growth. Do you expect this to be sustainable? Or do you expect that the restructuring in Spain and Italy will also have an impact on active customer numbers in the second half? So, yes, question on active customers in the second half.And perhaps also a question on your outperformance in Germany. You said it was driven by the increased marketing spend. How do you look at marketing spending for the rest of the year? Do you keep the higher level of marketing spendings in Germany sustainable for the rest of the year? Or how can we model the volatility of marketing spending throughout the year?And last but not least, M&A opportunities. Do you see any signs of consolidation in the home and living segment? How do you look at M&A opportunities? And given your cash on hand, do you see -- are you looking for something? What parameters do the potential target has to fulfill? And yes, just some words on that front, please.

[Andreas Hoerning, executive]

Volker, thank you so much for your questions. I'll try -- I'll answer them actually in the same order as you just asked them. So the first one was trading. What does April look like? So the second quarter started more or less in line with the first quarter, but we do see an increasing impact of the change in the offering in Italy and Spain that affects actually also the group top line. So, we do see that.And then you asked the question about active customer growth, whether that is sustainable, that it will be growing year-over-year and whether the Italy and Spain effect will also be felt there. I think there's no guarantee that active customers will continue to grow year-over-year because 2% is also just a slight growth year-over-year, right? I know how fast things can change, 1, 2, 3 percentage points here or there. And yes, we also believe that active customer growth in Italy and Spain to a certain extent will also influence the numbers here, less so than in the top line, though. That is something that we believe here.Then the third question was on the German outperformance and the link to the marketing spend where you were asking whether we will keep the marketing spend higher for the rest of the year. It's reasonable to expect that our marketing ratio will also be elevated in the second quarter. And generally, marketing spend on the brand awareness side has a seasonal pact pattern. So Q1, Q2 and Q4 would typically be the stronger quarters in terms of marketing brand awareness spend. So in summer, you typically do less because people also have less of home and living purchases on their mind. So in general, what we believe we will be doing is keeping the marketing ratio elevated in general, but following a seasonal pattern.And the last question was on M&A. Do we see any sign of consolidation in the market and do we believe that we will be active participants in such a development? Consolidation in a market, I mean, to be honest, given that the market is so weak, actually the level of consolidation is not very high, to be honest. We see that companies had to file for insolvency also over the last few months, but then typically they continue in the market. Only very few have exited. And also consolidation, we see very low activity. Of course, that's no guarantee that, that will be the same the case for the remainder of the year or that something more will happen.Do we see ourselves as a driver in consolidation on markets? To be honest, not really. We are not actively looking for M&A opportunities because we believe that we have to focus on strengthening our own structure and we have a very unique approach also towards customers, towards the market that seems to be successful and we want to concentrate on that. Of course, that does not exclude that if a great opportunity comes along that we will look into it and that we will act then in the best sense of customers and investors. That's, of course, also the case, but nothing on the...

[Volker Bosse, analyst]

It's crystal clear. One follow-up please on the Westwing Collection share, which you exceeded the 50% mid-term target. Why are you so shy to give a new guidance in regards to Westwing Collection share? As Westwing Collection isn't a success story and even more a margin driver going forward, why you are shy to give more guidance here going forward?

[Andreas Hoerning, executive]

Yes. Volker, thank you. It's a very reasonable question. Just in the call, we said that we would continue to grow the Westwing Collection share, but at probably a slower pace. Why a slower pace? And why are we not giving out a new target at this point in time? So, when you look at the change in Westwing Collection share over the last quarters, last 2 years, 3 years, you will see the biggest spike actually came after we changed the commercial model to OneWestwing, where we put the shop and the Westwing Collection to the forefront. That was the effect -- biggest effect on the Westwing Collection share, even more so than improving the product portfolio, the assortment of the Westwing Collection, which, of course, we're always working on.So, that effect actually happened. And that's kind of a one-time big leap forward that you cannot repeat afterwards. Now what we're doing is we're continuing on this commercial model. We're continuing to improve the assortment in our Westwing Collection share, but we are also increasingly onboarding third-party design brands that are also really important to design lovers. And this is a development that at the moment, we cannot pin it to a number at this point in time. We believe that we will continue to grow it also this year, but no new target. I hope that, that answers why we are trying to put out a new number. It will certainly grow, but not at the same pace as beforehand.

[Operator]

Thank you also from my side. At the moment, there are no further questions in the queue. So, I'm handing back over to the host.

[Andreas Hoerning, executive]

Thank you so much. And as we haven't received any additional questions, we're ending today's earnings call. Thank you for joining and goodbye.

[Sebastian Westrich, executive]

Thank you. Goodbye.