3/13/2023

speaker
Caroline
Conference Call Operator

Hello and welcome to the basic SITS 2022 year results conference call and webcast. Please note that today's conference is being recorded and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now turn over the call to your host for today's conference, which is Richard Pieker, Head of Investor Relations. So, you may begin now. Thank you.

speaker
Richard Pieker
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Caroline. And good afternoon and welcome everyone to this conference call during which we will discuss our results over 2022. With me today are, as usual, René Moos, our CEO and Hans van der Erre, our CFO. This call is being broadcast live on our website and a recording of the call will also be available shortly afterwards. As usual, I would like to point out that Safe Harbor applies. We will start with Rene, who will discuss the highlights and the operational developments, followed by a more detailed look at financial results from Hans. After these prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. The call will finish no later than 3 o'clock.

speaker
René Moos
Chief Executive Officer

And with that, Rene, I would like to hand over to you. Thank you, Richard. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining today's call. 2022 was a year in which we recovered from two years impacted by COVID. At the start of the year, we still had to cope with all kinds of government restrictions, but as these were gradually lifted and consumers were able to join our clubs without limitations, membership growth accelerated. And by the end of the year, our membership base had increased by 51% to more than 3.35 million. Equally important, our 502 mature clubs back at pre-COVID levels with both membership and profitability. This means that with our membership structure changes in France and the Benelux, with a higher average revenue per membership, we have a better starting position in 2023 for further revenue and EBITDA growth. This better starting position also allows us to deal with the impact from cost inflation. With 185 NetClub openings, we ended the year with 1,200 clubs, which is an increase of 18% compared to 2021. Our revenue more than doubled to 795 million and our underlying EBITDA was 204 million. Acting in a sustainable and socially responsible way has been part of BasicFed's DNA for many years. By expanding our club network in Europe, we enable more people to work on their physical health and well-being in a social way. At the same time, we aim to use our natural resources carefully, both in our clubs and in our offices, by reducing our energy consumption and using sustainable energy. We aim to reduce our carbon emissions and be carbon neutral by 2030. Our first goal is to reduce the average energy consumption per club by an average of 20% in the course of 2023 compared to 2022. Our energy department will work on further energy consumption reductions and help us achieve our long-term goals. As we work toward our 2023 goals, gas heating systems in our clubs will be replaced by fully electronic alternatives. and we are installing solar panels on our head offices and on our clubs when possible in the coming years. Let's go to the next slide about the club openings. With a record of 185 net club openings, we have further strengthened our leading position in Europe. At the end of 2022, we had a network of 1,200 clubs with almost 650 clubs in France and nearing the 100 club mark in Spain. We closed six clubs. To start with Spain, we are now the clear number one in terms of clubs and memberships. And this also means that we are now market leader in five of our six countries. In 2022, we opened our first two clubs in Barcelona and we strengthened our clusters in regions like Madrid, Valencia and Seville. In these last two regions, we already operate eight clubs each. And last month, we celebrated the opening of club number 100 in Spain in Cordoba. In France, we further extended our leadership position with 119 net openings to 647 clubs at year end. And with around 40 openings already this year, we are rapidly heading towards a new 700 club milestone. And our team is convinced that we will further extend our market leadership in France as we see potential to grow to 1,000 to 1,300 clubs in the coming years in France. Our third high-growth market, Germany, we opened our first three clubs. Originally, we had planned to do more openings, but as we start to look for the right locations, negotiate contracts, and apply for permits, we learned it takes a bit more time to build a large pipeline like we have today in France and Spain. But we are building momentum and have already 65 new contracts signed for clubs to be opened in Germany in the next 24 months. Lastly, our Benelux club network enjoyed a steady growth of almost 30 clubs to 460 clubs. We will continue to open new clubs with the pace in line with the past few years in the Benelux. Let's move to the next slide on membership growth. Our membership base grew by 51% to 3 million March last year we told you that we had a strong start of 2022 and we benefited from a strong catch-up demand triggered by the lifting of all the COVID-19 restrictions in all our countries, new club openings and lower than usual churn rates. This exceptionally strong performance with joining numbers per club significantly above normal levels continue until September. when joint growth trends returned towards average growth rates that we had before the start of the pandemic. Churn rates were slightly below pre-COVID levels in 2022. All countries in which we operate had a solid performance, and we saw growth rates at new clubs which were quite similar to those in pre-COVID periods. In October, the average number of membership in our 502 mature clubs had recovered to the average pre-COVID level of 3,300 memberships per club. This recovery once again confirms the strength of our business model as well as our cluster strategy. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of immature clubs increased from close to 400 to nearly 700 clubs. Hans will give some more further details on our mature club performance. On the next two slides, I will update you about our effective marketing spend and our successful membership structure changes that helps to lift the premium membership uptake to more than 50%. Let's go to the next slide about marketing. Because we wanted a speedy membership recovery last year, we decided to increase our marketing budget to around 6% of group revenue from previously anticipated 4% to 5%. The increased budget also helped us to support a record number of club openings. If you divide our entire marketing spend by the record number of new members that we welcomed, what you will see is that the average spend per joiner was comparable to the last three years before COVID. This shows that we continue to be effective with our marketing spend. With an average length of stay of around 23 months and a gradual increase in the average revenue per membership, we think we get a good return on our marketing investment. For 2023, we again foresee a marketing spend of around 6% of revenue, like last year. Let's move to the next slide. In an environment with rising cost, basically all our competitors had to substantially raise their pricing during 2022. Because of the low club operating costs and favorable long-term energy contracts, we were able to keep our membership list price unchanged during 2022. In anticipation of further cost inflation in 2023, we optimized the value gap between the basic and premium membership propositions to further increase the average revenue per membership. The premium membership uptake rate increased from 35 to over 50% in the second half of the year. when we introduced the basic membership for all joiners. The result of these changes was that our premium membership penetration rate rose from 23 at the start of the year to 34 at the end of the year. This means that by year end, 11% of our member base are paying 10 euros extra per four weeks. But it doesn't stop here. As we want to safeguard our 30% minimum return of invested capital, we decided to implement another membership structure change, which involves a list price increase. By the end of the year in France, the Benelux countries followed this successful French structure change at the beginning of February this year. With the basic membership in France and the Benelux being replaced by the 5 euro higher price comfort membership, we also added access to all clubs in a country. The introduction of the comfort membership did not reduce the interest in the premium membership, and the uptake is still over 50% today. If the trend continues, I believe that by year end, we could have a premium penetration rate of between 40 to 45%. Let's move to the next slide. Year to date, we already grew our network by 64 clubs. And as you can see in the chart, we have a full pipeline. This year, most openings will take place in France and Spain. In this last country, We worked hard the past few years to build a pipeline with the right location and this is now starting to bear fruit. In Germany we are gaining momentum and are filling the pipeline. We have already 65 new contracts signed for clubs to be opened in the next 24 months. These are the first steps in reaching the 600 club target for Germany. Lastly, in our Benelux markets we will continue to open new clubs with the pace in line with the past few years. That brings me to the last slide about our track record. Many of you will recognize these charts that we always include in our Roadshow investor presentation. We have updated this slide with our results of 2022, and although we ourselves see 2022 as a recovery year after two years of COVID, it is clear that we are reversing our track record of growth. Between 2016, the year of our IPO, and 2022, our KPIs have a CAGR of between 17 and 21%. With the recovery after COVID and the continuous optimization of our product offering, I am convinced we will continue to deliver strong growth rates going forwards. This concludes my part of the presentation and now handed over to Hans for the financial review. Well, thank you, René.

Disclaimer

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