Europris Asa

Good morning and welcome to Europe's first quarter presentation. My name is Espen Eldahl and as usual CFO Stina Byhre will join me on stage in a few minutes to present the financial details for the quarter and at the end of the presentation we will have a Q&A session and that will be managed by ER officer Trine Engløken and please feel free to send in your questions as we speak. Before we start on today's agenda, I would like to thank ABG for hosting today's event. And I would also like to make a special welcome and good morning to those who have actually showed up in person here today and attending live this presentation. Let's have a look at the numbers. In the first quarter, we see a strong performance in Norway and we see continued traction in Sweden. The reported numbers are solid, but please bear in mind that an early Easter boosts sales in the quarter with around six percentage points. And as we said a year ago, in retail, when timing on Easter is different from year to year, you have to evaluate those on the first year, half year performance. But that said, the QM1 numbers are still very solid and we had total sales growth of 12.3% with the like-for-like growth for the Avropis chain of 14.7% and 7.7% in local currency in EOB. EBIT was 71 million driven by improvements in both segments and Stina will present more details on the financials in just a few minutes. I'm really satisfied with the operational performance we have delivered in the first quarter. Everything has actually worked according to plan. Everything from selecting the seasonal product range, to the campaign plans, to the supply chain, and of course also the in-store execution. So it's been a good quarter where we have delivered strong operational performance. Sales growth is driven by increased volume in Norway, and we continue the positive development in Sweden from the fourth quarter with increased sales and also increased margins. Overall, I would say that the retail sector has enjoyed a good start to the new year, especially in Norway. We see strong growth. But we also clearly see that the consumers are still more price cautious. They are seeking value for money, and campaign has been an important driver for sales in both markets. In Norway, this has challenged the gross margin. And with more sales of consumables and also a higher campaign share, we have seen a decline in the margin, partly due to the timing of Easter. In Sweden, the key activity in the first quarter has been the remodeling of nine stores and the continuation of the turnaround program. If we look a little bit more detail into the Avropis chain and the performance, I'd like to start to say that Avropis, of course, we are the seasonal champion in Norwegian retail. And in the first quarter, we really demonstrated that we know how to deliver on the seasons. We saw high sales growth driven from increased traffic, but also from a higher basket per customer. And I think that the outer piece concept remains very well positioned to benefit in a market where the consumers are more price conscious. Consumers seek value for money, we have attractive campaigns, and that was especially significant during Easter where we see extremely high campaign sales. Another element in the Autopeace concept is of course doing category upgrades and every year we upgrade some categories and just before Easter this year we launched new displays for pick and mix candy in most of our stores and that was very well received by the customers and was a really important success factor in the Easter sales we have this year. On the store network, we relocated two stores, we expanded to a modernized three during the quarter, and the pipeline now accounts eight stores for the new store openings, of which four are subject to local planning permissions. If we move to Sweden and look at the first quarter performance in ÖB and also the turnaround plan, it's of course a great pleasure to see that we continue the positive momentum in Sweden which we saw in the fourth quarter last year. Groceries, that still accounts for the majority of sales, but we see that our customers respond very positively to the harmonized assortment we have introduced on non-food and also the seasonal product range we had for Easter. And that drives sales and margin, and has been an important success factor in the first quarter for Sweden. But it takes time to establish a seasonal destination. This is, under our ownership, just the second Easter, and we continue to work, but we see clear signs of improvements. The Easter effect in Sweden is far below what we see in Norway, but still we see a significant uplift from previous years in OBM. And like for Europe, the growth in the first quarter was driven by higher customer traffic and also an increase in the basket. I think that the operational improvements, I talked about that from the fourth quarter, we see that it continues into the first quarter. And that is really important for the turnaround plan we are on. And of course, it's especially the in-store operations has been improved significantly. And we just gradually get better and better on campaign implementation and execution, and also on the seasons. Every time we practice, every time we do it a little better, and that is just part of the Out of Peace philosophy and energy. And we see that it works in Sweden, that we really get good traction on the things we are working to improve. Supply chain is also a key success factor in retail and we have made tremendous improvements over the last year. One of the key initiatives we have this year is to introduce the same supply chain system for both Sweden and Norway. We have come far and we are actually going live with this new system already next week. When we look at the turnaround program, that continues according to plan and we opened nine store modernized in the first quarter. So full upgrade of a total of nine stores. And in the second quarter we will actually speed this up. We will remodel five stores per month. So in total 15 stores and the first five stores they are actually ready to be opened tomorrow. So it's a big day for ÖOB in Sweden tomorrow. We are opening five new remodeled stores. So we are basically on track and before summer holiday we will actually have upgraded as much as close to one third of the ÖOB store base. The store remodeling is essential to re-establish ÖB as a relevant and attractive shopping destination in Sweden. We see an uplift in both sales and margins, but that is not enough to make the turnaround in Sweden. We will also support this with local marketing initiatives as soon as we have upgraded enough stores in one region. And in the first quarter, we have focused on store upgrades in the regions of Stockholm and Gothenburg, which together with Malmö are the most populated areas in Sweden. And as you know from previous presentations, we have combined our sourcing efforts and aligned the product assortment across Europe and Europe. And as you heard today, we are also making good progress operationally. We are improving the in-store operations, we have improved supply chain, and we are also getting better and better on campaign planning and execution. And now we are moving forward at speed to modernize and remodel all the stores and improve the customer experience in Sweden. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made on the TurnRamp program and I remain very confident in our 2028 target of 5 billion in sales and a 5% EBIT margin for Sweden. I think I'll leave it at there and give the floor to Stina to present the financial details.

Thank you, Espen. In segment Norway, we saw a strong development in the first quarter, where an earlier timing of Easter has a positive impact on a seasonal concept like Europris. Sales increased by 13.7%, of which around half is estimated to come from the timing of Easter. Growth for the pure play companies were from lekekassen, while strikkemekka continues to be impacted by a muted knitting market in Norway. Impact from Easter, combined with continued price-conscious consumers, had a negative mix impact on the gross margin, as this led to a sales growth that was largely from consumables and campaigns. This development does, however, contribute to footfall and higher volumes. And that is, of course, positive for sales and gross profit. Higher activity impacted the OPEX development, but scale effects from timing of Easter led to an improvement in the OPEX to sales ratio. All in all, this accumulated to a significant EBIT growth with an EBIT of 145 million. Segment Sweden delivered solid improvement in the first quarter, and it was pleasing to see results from implemented actions. The group has focused on upgrading the non-food range and to improve campaign execution, as Espen mentioned, both of which were large contributors to the sales growth. An earlier Easter is estimated to have contributed to around half of the growth of 6.6% in local currency. The gross margin improved, and last year's margin was negatively impacted by clearance sales. In local currency, the OPEX was marginally up, and costs related to the store remodeling program was largely offset by costs related to the ERP project last year. A low OPEX growth combined with strong top line growth led to an improved OPEX to sales ratio. And this was also partly from scale effects from an earlier Easter. The segment still has significant EBIT loss of 74 million in the first quarter, but this is a solid improvement compared to last year. The earlier Easter this year means that an accurate year-on-year comparison will be possible first when we have the figures for the first half for both years. And this of course applies to both segments and the group. Total sales for the group were 3.3 billion, up 11.6% in constant currency, of which around half is estimated to come from the timing of Easter. and this will have a correspondingly negative impact on the second quarter. The gross margin was 39.5%, up 0.8 percentage points and down 0.2 percentage points when we exclude impact from unrealized currency. The OPEX to sales ratio improvement of 2 percentage points was again impacted by scale effects from timing of Easter. Overall, the development led to significant improvement in EBIT, which amounted to 71 million, up from the loss of 37 million last year. Net financial expenses were positively impacted by gains on a hedging contract and on unrealized gains on interest rate swaps. The total positive impact was 18 million this year, compared to a negative impact of 6 million last year. Net profit to parent was 4 million, up from the loss of 80 million last year. Cash flow from operating activities are normally negative in the first quarter due to inventory buildup ahead of spring and summer, but it was less negative this year. And that was from higher earnings, from favorable inventory movements, partly from timing of Easter, and from timing of accounts payable. The group has entered into a new three plus one plus one year loan agreement with our three existing banks with an increase of facilities of one billion. And this reflects the group's expansion over the past years and it ensures adequate financial flexibility to support future operations, investments and distribution of dividend to shareholders. In cash and liquidity reserves at the end of the first quarter were 2.6 billion. And then I will hand it back to Espen to give you the outlook.

Thank you, Stina. I think we have delivered a very strong start to the new year. But please bear in mind, as we opened up with, that the Easter effect is positive in the first quarter and will have a corresponding negative effect on the second quarter. Looking at the outlook, we live in an uncertain geopolitical landscape. And inflation in Norway has remained higher than expected. And with the crisis in the Middle East, that has major impact on global economy. And inflation is expected to increase. And when we started the year, there was expectations of rate cuts in Norway that has been replaced by expectations for rate hikes. And higher and more volatile energy prices will impact cost items for all players in the market. And we in Europe, we have already seen increasing costs for especially distribution to the stores following the high fuel prices. For sea freight, we have not experienced any negative effects from the Middle East conflict yet. And we have secured our rates for the next year and also the volumes we need and the capacity on the boats up until next summer. We see that salaries are increasing, but it's increasing more than inflation, and it's still expected real wage growth in both Norway and Sweden. But we think that the consumers may adopt a little bit more cautious approach to spending. And we are operating a low-price concept, selling everyday products that everyone needs. And both Aeropeace and Ölbär should be well positioned to benefit in the market with more price-cautious consumers. We have many traffic drivers for our stores, low prices and campaigns. That is, of course, the backbone in the concept, while seasons creates additional needs for the consumers. And short term, the important spring and summer season are just about to start. And with your nice weather in Scandinavia this week, we get the kickstart to that season. And we are very well planned. We have received all goods on time. And we are ready for this very important season for Europris. Long term, we remain confident in our turnaround plan for Sweden and the targets we have for increased profitability in 2028. So with that, I will actually invite Stina back on stage and we will open up for questions. So Trine, I guess you have received a few.

I have received a few. Should we just check if there are any questions among the audience?

Thank you very much. Joakim Rådström from Swedish Dagligvaru Nytten Market. I was just going to ask you if you are as focused on seasonal product ranges for ÖMB as you are with Europris. I did not understand fully that you focused so much on seasonal products for Europris. So does that go as much for ÖB as as for Europris Norway. And secondly, I was also going to ask you, what about the turnaround? What about refurbishments of the stores in Sweden? Could you explain a little bit more what have been your underlying thoughts with that? Is it regarding store design? Is it product ranges? If you could comment a little bit on that. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Good questions. Yes, the first answer to the seasonal question is yes, we will have the same seasonal focus in both Norway and Sweden. That is basically part of the whole plan that also goes for the stores. We are aligning as much as possible. And our experience up until now is that we can align more than we actually thought. So we are making the non-fruit product range, the seasonal focus, the exact same in the countries. That gives a scale both on the marketing and also on the sourcing of the products. And it's easier to manage from a system perspective. And in the stores, we are doing a full redesign of the stores. And basically, we are making them just like the Europis stores, but the Swedish OBS stores are a little bit bigger than Europis, so it's just a big, very good Europis. And I think that the remodeled stores we have opened up in Sweden so far are actually looking better than what we see in Europe. And we are remodeling the full store. We are reshuffling the different categories. And we are starting with the destination categories, so those categories you come for. So when you open, go to the store now, you will get the most selling categories at the front of the store. So we start the shopping early for the customers. Then they find what they come for, they relax, they open up and are more interested in doing and open to doing add-on purchase. So we are remodeling everything and we are basically for all non-food categories, we are saying that everything should be the same and we have some very good exceptions, but it's very few. On the groceries, Ölby has a larger share of that, and of course we remain loyal to the Swedish brands that the consumers are used to, but we are also introducing some common private label brands in these categories.

Then we have some questions from the web. Olen Martin Vestgaard, DNB Carnegie. The mix, what was the consumable share in Q1 and how did it change year on year?

Well, as we have explained, the share of consumables did increase, but it doesn't really make a meaningful comparison until we have done the full first half because of the timing of Easter. But in general, over the past few years, we have seen that the share of consumables has increased as consumers are also more price conscious and more And we expect that this will likely continue also going forward.

And on the private label, what was the private label share in Q1?

We had good growth both for brands and for private labels, so it was not a big change.

And to sourcing prices, how are purchasing prices from China developing?

It's developing kind of flat, I would say. We see some small reductions on some items, but that is outweighed by increases on others. Now, especially we see that raw materials related to oil is increasing, and we see increases on plastic packaging, plastic products, and so on. So overall, it's no major impact. And the small savings we have actually got is basically on some seasonal items, especially for Christmas.

And the logistics, have you seen any impact on deliveries of goods?

We have not seen any impacts from the Middle East crisis on deliveries. Sea freight is going as normal, and for us it has been around Africa for quite some years, and it's not affected by what's happening in the Hormuz Street.

And the freight agreement, can you comment on the commercial terms of the new freight agreement, its duration, and how rates compare with last year?

We would say that it's competitive rates. We are satisfied with the negotiations we have and the rates are secured up until next summer. So it's a pretty long agreement, a little bit longer than usual. And the most important thing is, of course, that you secure the slots on the ship so you are secure that you get your products back home. But I believe that the terms are competitive, but I will not comment on the exact price.

And the like-for-like growth. Could you please break down like-for-like growth in Norway and Sweden into volume, price and basket effects?

We don't disclose the exact figures, but I can shed some color on it. If we look at Europris, then the growth is purely volume-driven. And if we look at... At Sweden, it's both volume and also price mix. As we have had higher growth in the sales of non-food, that also has a mix impact on the basket.

And Sweden, how does the grocery share on refurbished stores compare to stores that are not upgraded?

It varies between the stores. We see sales uplift, but we see uplift both on the consumables and on the non-food. In general, for the first quarter, we saw that the growth for non-food was higher, both for the upgraded and for the non-upgraded stores.

Sigurd Flå from Nordea also asked about the ÖB stores in Sweden. How was the gross margin in the non-remodeled ÖB stores and how do you expect the sustainability of the Q1 margin improvement for the non-remodeled ÖB stores in 2026?

That's a very forward-looking question, but it's a good one. I would say that we see an uplift in the gross margin both from the remodeled stores and from the non-refurbished stores in the first quarter. And that is basically following what Stina explained, that we did some sales and realizations last year that impacted the gross margin negatively. We believe that the key plan in our turnaround program for Sweden is of course to lift sales but also to lift gross margins. And we believe that we will lift gross margin also in the non-refurbished stores for this year and next year. And that is important because we're going to shift the product mix towards more non-food sales and also more seasonal sales which carry a higher margin. So we're putting the focus on that, and if we don't manage to increase the gross margin, we will not be successful. So we need to increase it for both the refurbished stores and the non-refurbished, but we need to lift it more. And I think we will lift it more for the refurbished stores.

And the last question from Olle-Martin Westgård. What margin are you paying on the new bank facility? How does this compare to your previous facility?

We don't disclose that of commercial reasons. I think the banks would not be too happy with that. But we are very happy with our cooperation and to have secured an increased financing with all of our three banks.

Håkon Fuglø, SEB. Can you quantify the dilutive Easter effects on gross margin for the group and for Norway?

It's not possible to give an exact figure on that. Again, we need to come back to the first half before we can see, but it has had an impact on the product mix, so I expect some of it to be positive for the second quarter.

And Fugle also asks on the freight agreement, can you quantify the impact of the renewed freight agreement?

We're not going to quantify it. I think the most important thing is that we have secured the flow of goods. So we have supply chain, we get the goods we need to sell in the stores, and that is the most important thing. And I think it's also at competitive rates compared to market and also compared to what we've seen before.

And the last one from Fuglø. How does the first pilot stores for ÖAB from 2025 sales develop so far compared to what you reported in Q4?

They continue to perform well. They are performing above the chain average. So we are satisfied with the development. And they are also, of course, impacted by easing. The first quarter is a little bit mixed and difficult to compare, and you have to evaluate after the first half here. But we are all set and all good and happy with the pilot stores and also the nine new remodeled stores.

Petter asks, gross margin in Norway declined, and you note that consumers remain price conscious, with promotional activity acting as a key sales driver. Do you expect a higher share of campaign activity or more aggressive promotions going forward?

I think we expect that campaigns and low prices value for money will be important for the consumers also going forward. And I think we are a very relevant destination for those kind of products. That will put some pressure on the gross margin if the sales shifts towards more groceries. But when it comes to gross margin effects of campaigns alone, that is up to us to model on. We need to balance the campaigns, making sure we have the right balance between brands and private label products. and also consumables and non-food products in order to get the right gross margin from the campaign. So the campaigns, that's on us. And when it comes to what the consumers are buying and if they're shifting more towards groceries, that is a little bit on the market.

Håkon Fuglø sent another question. What will be your strategy for 2026 in Norway, gaining market share or lifting margins?

We would like both, wouldn't we? We will, of course, focus on growth. If you're a retailer, you need to grow. You need to compensate for increased costs. So we have to do that. But at the same time, we need to balance the margins. One of the strengths of the Oedipus concept has been that we are profitable. We've been that for every year. But we have still been able to grow every year. So we will just continue doing what we have done for the past 35 years and just try to do it a little bit better.

And the last question comes from Philip Bjerke, Pareto. I think we have touched upon it, but I'll send it through. Can you give some flavor on the financial performance of remodeled OBS stores versus non-remodeled?

We gave quite a lot of flavor on that when we presented the fourth quarter results. And the first quarter doesn't add really much value to that, as we are remodeling nine stores during that quarter. And you have the Easter effect, which makes it less comparable. So I think the best benchmark is to look at what we presented during the fourth quarter presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much and enjoy the summer.