Natuzzi, S.p.A.

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Order 2025 Financial Results Webcast. As a reminder, if you'd like to join via telephone, please dial plus 1-412-717-9633, then passcode 39252103. Once again, to join via telephone, please dial plus 1-412-717-9633. 412-717-9633, then passcode 39252103. In addition to the link already provided to join via video. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Following the introduction, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. Joining us on today's call, as usual, are Antonio Achille, Chief Executive Officer, Pasquale Nututti, Executive Chairman, Carlos Silvestri, Chief Financial Officer, Mario De Jonato, Chief HR, Organization and Legal Officer, Furthermore, at the explicit request of Executive President Mr. Nertuzzi, also joining us on today's call are Pasquale Jr. Nertuzzi, Executive Director, Chief Trade and Contract Officer, Diego Babo, Global Retail Division Officer, Cauldron and Corama, Chief Wholesale Officer, Daniele Tranchini, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer, Domenico Ricciuti, Chief Operations Officer, and Piero Durenzo, Investor Relations. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Piero. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin, and good day to everyone. Thank you for joining the Natutis conference call for the 2025 first quarter financial results. After a brief introduction, we will give room for the Q&A session. Before proceeding, we would like to advise our listeners that our discussion today could contain certain statements that constitute evidence forward-looking statements under the united states security laws obviously actual results might differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements because of risks and uncertainties that can affect our results of operations and financial conditions please refer to our most recent annual report on point 20f filed with the acc for a complete review of those risks The company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking matters discussed during this call. And now I would like to turn the call over to the company's chief executive officer. Please, Antonio.

Thank you, Piero. Let me start, as usual, by sharing the highlight of the first quarter. We're going to be particularly brief since we want to leave more space To be more space for a quality discussion with the management agency, we invited the core people from the organization. So looking at the light, we closed the quarter at 78.1 million, which is down from the last year by 7.6%. We're going to be commenting the specific reason for this short fall of revenue in addition clearly to a very challenging market condition. Gross margin was down to 34.1 compared to 36.9 of the previous quarter. We will elaborate on this because it's particularly important. The primary reason is because in the first quarter we had a transition phase which was planned. of the shift of production for the North America from China to the Italian market. I will elaborate later on why this contributed for a slight decrease in margin in this quarter. So the combination of the revenue below what we need from scale and margin led to a loss in term of operating loss of 0.8 millions in the quarter. Net financial costs were 2.9 compared to 2.2 of the previous quarter, or the quarter of the previous year, mostly due to currency movement. As you know, the currency has been particularly volatile in the first quarter. Despite all these elements, we continue investing roughly $2 million primarily on the factory side. In terms of cash, we closed the quarter with $22.2 million in cash, slightly above from $20 million at the end of the year. On this regard, it's important to notice that this was also the quarter where we completed the transaction of high point, which contributed to the cash position. we will have uh you know plenty of opportunity to discuss with you uh what we're experimenting as an industry as i would say is global citizens of the world as well in a market that continues to be clearly very challenging i don't let's say expand on this element because it's obvious the reason why i'm doing this statement i was just reading the data on consumer confidence the board confidence for us which went back to the beginning of 2023. I also saw the data for confidence in Europe, which are down 3.1 percentage points. So it's quite evident that we're still working in a market where consumers tend to postpone durable purchases. So as I mentioned, I keep it very short, daylight. I will return later to comment some of these elements. Let me now pass to Pasquale for an overview of the commercial achievement in the quarter.

Well, good morning, everyone. Just for everyone's information, I'm Pasquale. My position is the Operative President. So in other words, I'm working together with our CEO, you know, to put all my experience, you know, at the company disposal, considering the situation, I mean, which is complicated, no question about that. I mean, you know, the business environment is very, very difficult. So because I have the commercial responsibility, I'd like just to recap what I wrote on my press release in order to stimulate questions which would be very welcome from all of you shareholders, analysts or bankers, whoever. And that's why also I invited the channel director like Diego Babbo. Diego Babbo has the responsibility for the retail channel. And Codring has the responsibility for the wholesaler channel. And Pasquale Junior and Natuzzi have the trade and contract responsibility, while Daniele Trenchini is our chief marketing officer. Again, I will read whatever, no whatever, what I wrote on the press release just to remind everyone or to stimulate everyone to ask eventually any question. And the channel director, marketing director, that's why they've been invited here to answer to any of your questions because there have been are very much involved in all the activities that have been implemented. So, no question about the market in which we operate have not shown those signs of improvement that we expected. The business environment has been further affected by the introduction of United States trade duties on April 2nd, the producing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and more recently, the escalation of tension in the Middle East In this context, we have intensified our effort to support commercial deployment. We continue to implement our brand commercial strategy that integrates collection, marketing, and customer experience, while closely monitoring its effectiveness in a challenging market environment. The brand guidelines have now been centrally codified to accelerate their global and consistent rollout. This year marked our return to the Salone del Mobile Fair in Milano after five years absence that coincided with the pandemic and post-mandatory period. At the Milano Fair, we unveiled the new Natuzzi edition collection Feel Well, Dolce Vita, and Neo Heritage. During the Milano Design Week in April, we have also presented the Natuzzi Italia Comfortiness and Circle of Harmony Collection, which reflect our evolution in the global lifestyle brand. True to our heritage, Natuzzi Italia Collection have been enriched through collaboration with international designers such as Andrea Steyl, Karim Rashid, Marco Antonio, and Marco Liparini, Mauro Liparini, sorry. For both Natuzzi Italia and Natuzzi Edition, the new collection has been supported by table read high-quality marketing campaign, which I'm sure if you want to have deeper information, Daniele will give you plenty explanation. We have worked to support and innovate the three channels in which we operate, retail, DOS and franchising, gallery, and the newly established contract channel. In retailer, we have made significant investment to improve analytics and intelligence. We have a built-in infrastructure to monitor store performance in real time, focusing on key indicators such as foot traffic, conversion rate, average ticket, and product category performance. This enables a data-driven diagnostic of each store across our network with the objective of progressively improving the performance of our retailers. The reimagined gallery format that was introduced last year, late last year, has become operational in the first quarter of 2025. While still in these early stages, it has started to show some initial signs of positive impact, both in terms of new opening and re-merchandising, particularly in the United States. Following the launch of Natuzzi Harmony Residence in Dubai last November, we are seeing early signs of growing interest in our contract division, an area we consider having significant growth potential and strategic relevance for our group. Pasquale Junior Natuzzi will give you all the explanation you need. Our immediate focus in the full and effective deployment of this strategy in our main market, we have a prioritized initiative aiming to strengthen sales and engagement across our region, although their full impact will depend on market dynamics and execution over time. Latusia America remains a strategic priority. We have implemented a new organization with the appointment of new Vice President Retailer, Justin Christensen, and the new Vice President Human Resources, Sherry McHenry, who will focus on improving our retailer and commercial operation. Justin has over 25 years of experience in the retailer industry, particularly in fashion, having worked with European and American fashion groups, which include Brioni and Ralph Lauren. Sherry, with over 20 years of experience, has held the position of Vice President Corporate Human Resources at Louis Vuitton and Human Resources Director at William Sonoma. In Europe, We have taken direct control of our largest market, the United Kingdom, by appointing a new country manager, Antoine Nicolai, to lead the commercial development for both the retailer and wholesaler channels. Antoine brings over 10 years of experience in the luxury and consumer goods. In Italy, the recently appointed country manager, Roccarella, is contributing positively to improve the quality of both our direct and franchising distribution. In China, we have worked closely with our local JV team to enhance the quality of our retail network and strengthen brand presence. In July, we will present a new Natuzzi Italia collection to our dealers, replicating the Milan Design Week format at the local level. Our new collection has generated interest among both existing and prospective clients, leading to commitment to open a new gallery in France and Germany. We believe that the steps we have taken on collection, marketing and retail management represent a solid foundation for improving our commercial performance over time. Our objective remains to strengthen then brand and enhance operational efficiency with the aim of delivering sustainable value for our stakeholders. However, the actual result will depend on market conditions, consumer sentiment, and the effective execution of our strategy. That's the reason why I got involved. direct channel director and also the marketing director. If you have any question, we'll be very pleased, you know, to give you all the explanation. Thank you.

Antonio, would you like me to open up for questions now? If you'd like to ask a question at this time, please use the ask a question feature on your screen at this time to be placed into question queue. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please use the Ask a Question feature. Our first question is coming from David Kane, and your line is now live, sir.

David, I'm afraid you're on mute.

I don't know if you can help David to unmute. Yeah, hang on one second, please. Or you manage it.

David, the line should be open, my friend.

Go right ahead and please ask your question.

Okay, my apologies. Are you able to hear me now? Yeah, please go ahead, David. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. In the prepared remarks, you highlighted that you moved production for various reasons out of China and over to Italy. and then that caused some disruption in gross margin. Furthermore, you explained that you enacted a price increase of 10%. So last quarter Q4 gross margin was 38.1%. So we went backwards about 400 basis points. With the moves now completed, Should we expect a return back to the 38% level, assuming we're doing $75 to $80 million a quarter? Is that a good assumption, or it's going to take some time?

So it's definitely something we want to manage. As you know, since 2nd of April, which is after this quarter we were just commenting, the administration also introduced a 10% out of... Yeah, can you personally mute, David? There is a return in the voice. So after this quarter, which are commenting, the US administration also introduced a duty of 10% for product exported from Italy. So we are definitely reviewing also this aspect in light of the 9th of July, which was the deadline anticipated by the administration, American administration, to potentially review this duty, because absolutely we want to take all the measures to reinforce the margin, especially for this component. In addition, as anticipated in the press release, we're also considering more sustainable production location for naturopathic addition for North America. We know we have, as you know, factory, including Romania, any movement of those production need to be clearly considered in the light of the rigid precondition we have in terms of agreement with the public institution and the contracting with data. So the protection of margin, it would be pursued with two actions short term We're going to be reviewing our, let's say, price list, also in consideration of the duty which has been introduced and would be most likely confirmed. More mid-term, we are also considering potentially allocation of the production from the sedition outside Italy. But this is something which needs to be concentrated also with the local institution. beyond as an industrial transition carefully be planned from an operational standpoint. In case you want to add, which is a very important element, more contents of the constraint and the pre-existing agreement, Mario is the best person in this team to provide them.

Okay, so my question is, in Q2, and for the balance of the year, notwithstanding, yes, it looks like there's going to be a 10% tariff from product coming in from Italy, unless Trump makes a special deal with Meloni. They seem to get along pretty well, but we'll assume 10%. So should I continue to assume that gross margin will remain at the 34% level in Q2 and beyond, you know, with the tariff, let's say, landing at 10%, or will it improve with the price increase and some of the moves? That's what I don't feel like I got a clear answer to.

This is a central question. As you know, we don't provide specific guidance in these figures. not also because they are a result of a complex algorithm where there is price realization, product mix, production cost, materials. So we don't provide specific guidance. What I can reassure you, at least in my capacity of CEO, that we're going to be very determined in readjusting the marginality on attrition towards North America in light of also the tariff. We need to protect our margin because the tariff don't depend on us. It's an industry standard. So definitely we're going to take price adjustment there. In terms of production allocation is a more structural move, but also there the company is very serious about having a discussion with the government to face some of the historical constraints that prevent a more effective allocation for this production.

Okay. And then operating expenses for the quarter were down to 27.4 million in Q1. So had you done 38% in gross margin, you would have actually had almost a $3 million operating profit, two and a half to $3 million. So that's why I'm focusing on margin. That reduction in operating expense of 20 to 27.4 million, Is that sustainable? I know there's some variable costs, specifically transportation, commission, et cetera, but assuming all things equal, let's say $78 million with the same mix, more or less, in revenue, can you maintain that $27.4 million operating expense level, or there was something anomalous that drove it lower?

So I'm going to be Going back to your question to make sure I answered in a correct way. Provided the scale is the one we are discussing, because of course there's a method of absorption of those expenses, I have good confidence that we are on a good track to reduce operating expenses. We're also doing a contingency. We just discussed and implemented with our CFO here a contingency on all discretionary expenses. We launched with Domenico here and his procurement team an effort to review the cost of purchasing material and transportation. So provided the scale and the mix, which was in your opening question, stay at the level we are witnessing today, I have confidence that the expenses will go down in person.

will go down in absolute term is a method also then to maintain or increase the scale of the to witness also a reduction in percentage okay and then um mr pasquale uh called out some of the changes that you've made in your uh new i guess you would call it software or technology platform to track retail locations, and he said something like, you're seeing early signs of improvement. Could you just speak to that a little bit, what these differences are, and when did you see this improvement, and how profound is it?

I'll let Pasquale comment on this.

Sincerely, I mean, I don't – I mean, Communication is not really the best one here, and I haven't understood what David said. Can you repeat, please, David, again?

Yes, Mr. Natuzzi. You had said that you had implemented some changes in terms of, I'm assuming, technology, information flow, between headquarters and your retail locations. And this new platform you said is showing early signs of improvement. I believe you said that both for the commercial unit, the new commercial unit, as well as your North American retail. So if you could explain what some of these changes are, you know, before and after, what it was like before.

and the magnitude of the improvements that you're seeing and why just give us more color or depth on on you know these early signs of improvement okay all right so i i you know i i ask diego babo diego is our retailer director so he will give you explanation about that okay diego yes david

Well, actually, Mr. Zuzzi is referring to the fact that we have institutionalized a robust process of ongoing performance assessment with ActionAble inside, translating into precise and timely action plan. This is part of our culture of continuous improvement, which has allowed us to swiftly address underperforming categories and capitalize on emerging opportunities. We are based on a software platform, which is a the Power BI platform, which is allowing us on a rolling basis to look at each single store, not only directly operated, but also including all our dealers that decided to join our system, which are more and more embracing the idea. And we are now able to really make a sound business decision based on facts and figures, as was a practice probably in most of the retailer advanced retail, but not very much in our industry. I have to say we achieved a good threshold and a good level of excellence in that. Through that, by the way, to give you some color, a corner store of our progress in that lies also in our merchandising strategies, which has been measured through this system. In terms of meticulously analyzing the behavior of consumer and in-store dynamics through the system, We have refined our product placement and visual storytelling, making our showrooms, let's say, more engaging and effective in driving the conversion. It's a data-driven approach that is paired with a non-performance analytics that somehow has empowered our teams to anticipate market trends and consumer needs with greater agility. To give you just a couple of examples, By looking at this trend in our store, we have seen we have been able to set action plan in order to try to offset what has been a quite strong decrease in traffic, let's say. And the key factor in mitigating the decline in store traffic has been the dedication and professionalism of our store staff have benefited from target training program this has been achieved by using the system measuring results uh offsetting the the decline in traffic also mostly in us through three main uh pillars and actions one as pj could be eventually commenting more than me is the fact that we are addressing uh the trade business to the architect in our store which is now part of our let's say, double-check activity through our software, which has achieved considerable results. Mostly in the U.S., we have stores where we are exceeding 25%, 30% of our business made through the trade business. And through the system, we also implement action in order to improve the conversion rate of the fewer customers that get in B2C and consumers that get into our stores, together with action that protects the average ticket of our store so everything is now uh let's say uh putting on a rolling basis uh in in the system which is also strengthening our internal collaboration integrating feedback uh loops between retail operations merchandising and supply chain to ensure optimal execution at every level

Okay, I'm going to go back into queue in case someone else would like to ask questions. But I have a request, Antonio, if you would be kind enough to make an introduction to Justin Christensen, the new North American retail VP. I would appreciate that.

Sure. Thank you.

We will put you in contact with our local team. Absolutely. Thank you.

And once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please use the ask a question feature on your screen.

Once again, if you'd like to ask a question at this time, please use the ask a question feature on the screen. We're just going to pause for further questions at this time.

Once again, if you have any questions, you can use the ask a question feature on your screen.

David, there are no further questions at this time. You can proceed with any further questions you may have, my friend.

So if there are no other questions, why maybe people are... David, I have David.

David's on, but I just want to make sure he's unmuted, okay?

Okay, please do. Otherwise, I would have moved to comment the figure more in detail with Carlo. Please, David.

David, can you hear me, my friend? I'm just going to make sure you're unmuted.

Thank you, Carlo. Okay, thank you. So my last question is on the commercial division. Also, you called out that you're seeing early signs in that business. If you could give us an update, what is longer term, what is the potentiality of the size of that business and any color that you can give us in terms of the early signs that you're seeing now that are encouraging.

I'm not sure if you're referring to, are you referring to the trade, the projects business, the trading contract business?

Yeah, is that what is that not what you call the commercial division like selling to hospitality?

I think that's the reason why the team was a bit puzzled. We call it the contract, not commercial. Commercial is all the division. Contracting is what we refer more with this, let's call it B2B or B2BC opportunity, which is led by PJ. PJ, I believe you are the one best suited to address the question. Please go ahead.

So, Mr. David, As you well know, we're overseeing for sure, first of all, a phenomenon which is pretty positive on one end for consumers, which is, you know, the growth and the extended, let's say, lifespan of furniture products that is growing. And that is causing, as a matter of fact, a significant, you know, a slower pace in the repurchase cycle for consumers. That's a phenomenon that we're somehow looking at on a retail side. Then, if you consider macroeconomic pressures that we're all feeling, clearly that impacts, like Antonio was opening in his remarks, it's definitely impacting on consumers' confidence and purchase intention. Now, there is we are seeing there is a shift in our retail business model. There is somehow hybridization of what was a B2C purely type of commercial dynamic into a B2B2C model, where the business-to-business is represented by the relationship with the design community, which is what I'm looking and overseeing with what we call trade and contract divisions. which is a team and a business unit that overlooks on two, let's say, business trajectories. On one end, we do develop and deliver bespoke solutions to hospitality operator, hospitality and entertainment, commercial, residential, not to mention, of course, bespoke solution in the residential field, of course, which is very important. So that is what we call contract, is bespoke, and it's what also gave life to the incredible best practice of the Harmony Residences in Dubai, which was a relationship, let's say an opportunity built over a relationship started with... a real estate developer based in Dubai, and that is now being replicated in different geographies of the world that are adding onto the opportunity of Dubai by opening up to new opportunities of branded residential. On the other end, we are also in parallel improving the organization by ensuring commitment and discipline growth with design leadership bespoke project development, integrated customization, and leveraging, of course, the Natuzzi controlling of retail, but also leveraging the Natuzzi supply base for whatever that is more related to retail. So the trade business in our retail fleet is what I also overlook at, supporting Diego and his retail teams with, let's say, a dedicated set of skills, guidance and tools to promote the business with designers architects or even you know developer and hospitality operator in all of those adjacent uh uh areas where our retail network lies today and here we're seeing that of course uh there's there's some uh market research of which one is i want to quote it's think lab us who you know reported that the average power of a design studio in America is 40 times higher than an average American consumers. And the top 200 design firms in America have 140 times the spending power potential of an average American consumer. So you can understand that this business-to-business relationship has much more loyalty and potential than whatever we were going after on the B2C side of our retail business. So let's say consider the trade and contract division as a business unit that on one end is trying to leverage on our global retail network, trying to have localised type of relationship or sentinels, business procurers that do grasp, hear out for opportunities of any sort of development in their areas, and they relate to our corporate team, which is a team that I started up over the last year and that does, in effect, contract and bespoke solutions. But then we have our stores. Like Diego said, there is locations today in which implementing and focusing, especially in America, where the potential is definitely the highest, These locations where we're focusing on, consider every Monday I speak to the overall American trade teams of the world in each and every location, and we're seeing an incredible growth where, like Diego said, some stores reached 30% and even more of a share of voice of trade sales in their stores, which is sales where, of course, it's not just delivering the design service, but it's also harvesting the relationship with design professionals which will allow us to have loyalty and long-lasting B2B kind of connection with these design professionals. So, to be frank, I do believe that this is the future of our industry. I also sit in the board of directors of the Italian National Furniture Association, which also owns the Salone del Mobile Furniture Fair, and all of the peers and competitors our colleagues that we have on the international level, they all are seeing incredible results by pursuing the world of contract projects and trade. Because in these period of times, working, you know, once again with design professionals, being specified by contractors, becoming loyal suppliers for big hospitality operators is what can mind the gap of what the global economy is unlikely showing to affect today.

Okay. Thank you for that commentary. Last question. I had made an introduction, Antonio, to probably the largest home furnishings e-commerce company. And I believe it was something that you were going to get stood up. Could you give us an update on that when you expect to launch and give us an update there? Thank you.

I will pass it to who has been the person implementing this opportunity.

Thank you, Antonio. David, thank you for the question.

have met quite a few times they have visited us during milano during salone del mobile we've had great time together we have also met again they have followed up with a meeting in high point market in october and we are now in the going through some technicalities in time in in terms of finding the common ground in in moving forward technically speaking I will also be meeting with their executive leadership team in Florida where they have a Congress upcoming in September. We are confident that we will be able to positively conclude discussions by the time we meet in September in Florida. So first and foremost, thank you for bringing this opportunity forth. We're working on it and we're cautiously optimistic about moving forward in a positive way.

Okay. Thank you, guys. Thanks to you.

Thank you, David. And a ton of further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments.

So, in closing, maybe, as typically we do, Carlo, you want to, Carlo and Piero, you want to highlight uh some of the key dimension of the quarter as uh as uh reported even though they believe that most of the audience is a well-educated audience which had the opportunity to review yeah maybe antonio with figures please if you want to provide any commentary on the performance and more on the economics element yeah thank you antonio do you hear me well yeah we do yeah

Thank you, Antonio. I will provide a couple of comments that maybe it's worth to underline again related to our performances while we have been discussing about the gross margin given the situation in both channel mix and, let's say, between retail and wholesale and the new, let's say, production location. What is maybe worth to be let's say confirm is that in the other industrial cost we see a decrease from 4.9 million to 4.4 million so we have a saving on half a million euro given as a result of a lower related depreciation following the closure of our shanghai plant and the move to the new plant of Punjab, so this is a saving that will, you know, it's in our P&L as a result of this transition process. Then going back to, you know, the selling expenses, and while we have seen an overall increase in the transportation costs as a result of higher tariff of Italy-North America shipping route, On the other side, we have benefited of 800K euro saving given this new industrial location, so we've lowered deliveries from China. So this is like a plus of, you know, all the process we are going through in terms of, you know, industrial location. And adding on the question of Mr. Cannon, we need to confirm that we had closed in 2024 three non-performing stores, one in Spain, one in UK, and one in Italy, and this is benefiting us with $700,000 saving in selling expenses. So these are data that confirm that our active portfolio management is indeed giving benefit to our P&L. On the other side, when, let's say, some few remarks on our financial costs, why we'll see the impact of the decrease of the interest rates that is reflected in financial costs from 2.6 million last year to 2.2 million we have been overweight by unfavorable currency movements on the trade receivable and payable. So we did not have any change in our edging policy. This has been basically the results of the floating and unpredictable exchange rate of the US dollar in the first quarter that has brought us 1 million loss compared to 200,000 profit losses last year. So these are, let's say, something on top of what we have fully described in our press release.

Okay, thank you, Carlo. Kevin, I believe if there are no further questions, and as always, we also welcome the audience to reach us separately, individually after the completion of the call. I believe, Kevin, if there are no further questions, we can thank the audience on behalf of Natuzzi. I also thank Pasquale and all the team who joined us today, and we can close the meeting.

Thank you, and thank everyone for joining us today. That does conclude today's webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

Thank you.