Kesko Oyj Unsp/Adr

Dear all, warmly welcome virtually to Helsinki, and thank you for tuning in for Kesko's Q1 2025 release call. Today's headline is Stable performance during the slowest quarter of the year, and it describes well the first quarter. Our agenda today is the following. President and CEO Jorma Rauhala will first give the Q1 presentation. We have here together with us our business division presidents, Ari Akseli for grocery trade, Sami Kiiski for building and technical trade, and Johanna Ali for car trade, as well as our CFO, Anu Hämäläinen. After Jorma's presentation, it is time for questions, both by phone and via chat function. All the materials related to Q1 can be found at our web pages, kesko.fi, under Investors. My name is Hanna Jaakkola, responsible for IR at Kesko. I will be at your service after the presentation for questions and discussions. But now, Jorma, the virtual stage is yours. Please.

Thank you, Hanna. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome also on my behalf to this release call. I'm Jorma Rauhola, and I have now the pleasure to present Kesko's Q1 results. Stable performance during the slowest quarter of the year is our headline. Yes. Yes. Q1 is seasonally the smallest quarter of the year and our performance was good despite this seasonality. Now I will give an overview of our business performance and open up elements behind the result. In the end, I'll present the guidance and outlook for 2025 and we are ready for the Q&A. Summary of Q1 2025. Kesko's net sales increased and comparable operating profit decreased. In grocery trade, net sales and profit were down as anticipated due to the timing of Easter and the implementation of the price program. In building and technical trade, sales picked up, especially in the P2B segment in building and home improvement trade in Finland, Denmark and Norway. In car trade, net sales and profit increased. A balanced and comprehensive product and service portfolio supports the good performance in car trade in changing market conditions. Acquisition of Ruslev, the real last handle, was completed at the end of January. Danish competition authorities approved the acquisition of CF Petersen and Sun without conditions. The acquisition is expected to be completed tomorrow. The profit guidance remains unchanged for this year. Comparable operating profit for the year is estimated to be in the range of 640 to 740 million euros. Net sales in Q1 totaled over 2.8 billion euros. It was up by 68 million euros. Net sales increased in billing and technical trade and in car trade. Rolling 12 months, net sales increased to nearly 12 billion euros. In Q1, comparable operating profit was 95.6 million euros. And operating margin was 3.4%. Comparable operating profit increased in building and technical trade and in car trade and decreased in grocery trade. Rolling 12 months operating profit was 646.2 million euros and operating margin was 5.4%. Return on capital employed was 11%. Return on capital employed increased slightly in car trade, was flat in building and technical trade and decreased in grocery trade compared to the year end. Financial position. There was a seasonal increase in working capital that impacted cash flow in Q1. The main reasons affecting the operating cash flows were increased inventory in building and technical trade as we were preparing for the upcoming season. In car trade, there was inventory of hundreds of rental cars up for delivery in Q2 and also new cars waiting for delivery. In grocery trade, cash flow was impacted by calendar, as the last day of the quarter was Monday, while last year it was Sunday. There are typically large outpayments on Mondays. Also, inventory growth affected the cash flow. Net debt to EBITDA was 1.6, below our maximum target 2.5. We continued to investments in growth, and the main capex was the Ruslev acquisition. the construction of Onninen and Keatosset logistics center in Hyvinkää, Finland, and store-site investments in grocery trade. In comparison period, there is a real estate arrangement in the store-site investments and Davidson acquisition. IT investments fare 3.1 million euros. A large amount of IT investments are classified as OPEX instead of CAPEX. We have a clear focus on improving our digital capabilities throughout the company. Other investments include, among the other things, logistics center Onnela. Expenses. Expenses were up mainly due to acquisitions. The largest item increasing the costs was the personal expenses. Approximately half of the increase in personal expenses came from the Danish acquisitions and half from the salary increases. Now, the grocery trade. There was an expected profit impact from the timing of Easter and the price investments. In Q1, net sales totaled 1.5 billion euros and decreased by 29 million euros. The most significant reason behind the decline was the timing of Easter this year compared to the last year. Kespers net sales declined by 0.5%. Rolling 12 months net sales totaled over 6.4 billion euros. In grocery trade, comparable operating profit for Q1 was 72.8 million euros, and it declined by 9.7 million euros. The comparable operating profit declined as expected due to the timing of Easter and price program implementation. Geschäftsoperating profit declined by 1.4 million euros. Profitability was 4.9%. Rolling 12 months operating profit was 428 million euros and operating margin was 6.7%. In grocery trade, sales and profit were impacted especially by the timing of Easter, which is the second most important sales season for the division. This year Easter was in April, whereas in 24 it was in March. K-group grocery sales decreased by 1.4%. Gas price net sales decreased by 0.5%, but still exceeded market growth. K-City market non-food sales decreased by 1.3%. The price program launched in January, so it got good results, but as expected, it had a negative impact on profit. Online grocery sales increased by 5.6%. The total grocery market growth was flat year on year. Grocery price inflation in Finland was approximately 1.8% according to Statistics Finland. Customer flows continued to grow thanks to the price program and campaigns, but the average purchase decreased. In grocery trade, we are aiming for a market share turnaround. The decline in K-Cross market share slowed down in 2024. According to Tornilsen IQ, the research published once a year and is the widest market share research. K Group's market share in 24 was 33.7% compared to 34.3% in 2023. Our market share in online grocery is above 40%. Withdrawal from the next K service station business and closure of smaller K market stores had an over 0.2 percentage point negative impact on market share, but a positive impact on profit. In 24, the total number of K-group grocery stores decreased by 80 units, of which 65 were Nestec-K stores. According to Nielsen IQ statistics, growth in grocery trade has been driven by larger stores. If we look at the first quarter of 2025, K Group's market share development was in line with the market in the hypermarket segment, which indicates that our actions, including the price program, are working well. The market share turnaround in grocery trade focuses on quality, price, and store network. To improve quality, Store-specific business ideas are being refined, with investments particularly in certain departments like bread and fruit and vegetables. Extensive relevant selection are created by data and AI, and digital services are being developed to make everyday life easier. The price program launched in January includes affordable everyday products. Prices have been cut on 1,200 popular products. There are also relevant campaigns and personalized benefits. Kesko and retailers invest jointly approximately 50 million euros to the prices in 2025. Store-specific price investments are also being made depending on the market situation. Investments in the store site network include 30 new store openings and 92 stores renewed between 2024 and 2025. There is a particular investments focus on hypermarkets with eight new or replacement K-City market stores planned by 2028. Annual investments are expected to be around 200 to 250 million euros in the whole grocery store site network. In building and technical trade, pickup in building and home improvement trade supported sales and profit. In building a technical trade, net sales increased by 69 million euros to 1 billion euros. The increase was supported by the Danish acquisition, but net sales increased in comparable terms, too, by 3.6%. Rolling 12 months, net sales were over 4.4 billion euros. The timing of Easter supported the sales, as there were more trading days in March and less holidays. Comparable operating profit for the building and technical trade division totaled 11.7 million euros and operating margin was 1.1%. Rolling 12 months operating profit was 174 million euros and operating margin was 3.9%. Comparable operating profit increased thanks to positive profit development in building and home improvement business and the Danish acquisitions. Building and technical trade highlights for the first quarter. We can see the construction cycle turning. Demand is stronger, especially in building and home improvement trade. Growth in K-rata sales in Finland has been driven by B2B sales, with a significant increase, especially in sales of heavy construction materials. The growth in timber, for example, was double-digit. The B2C trade has also picked up. Sales for Oninen Finland fell short of the comparison period, but also in technical trade. If we look at the product lines, we can see the HIPAA products and certain electrical products picking up in Oninen Finland. These are the products that are used in the early phase of construction. For our customers, as well ourselves, the amount of tender requests for projects and product prices have clearly increased. Building and home improvement rate sales in Denmark and Norway have increased, with only Norway also reporting higher sales. Technical trade sales in Sweden are clearly up. The converted to K-book store ramp-up is still ongoing and affecting the sales. Sales in Poland have slightly declined. Sales of heavy construction materials is up in building and home improvement rate. Other product categories like decoration typically follow with a slight delay. Post-cyclical e-technical trade usually picks up some six months after a turnaround in building and home improvement, B2B says. Credit risks are well under control. Write-downs of overdue trade receivables totaled 0.3 million euros. Keskosenuka did not report its financial asset schedule. In Kesko Q1-25, reporting the share of the result from Kesko Senokai is 0 million, compared to minus 0.4 million euros the year before. In this picture, we can see Keirautas and Oninen Seis development in Finland since 2019. We have showed this picture many times already, and here you can see the Q1 development too. Keirauta is the market leader in building and home improvement business in Finland and Oninen in technical trade. Keirauta having over 50% market share and Oninen a bit less than 50%. This big picture describes the Finnish building and technical trade market well. We can clearly see now the late cyclical nature of Oninen business lagging a bit behind Keirauta. Last year, it went surprisingly hand in hand. For the Q2 2025, the quarter has started as expected, and especially B2C trade has grown clearly. This is bookmaker sales development. Norway is our second largest operating country, and bookmaker is among the largest players in the markets. After several quarters of weak development, the Q1 sales development has been clearly improving. For Q2, Easter had a significant effect in Norway. In March, we had two trading days more in 2025, and in April, two days less. Also in Norway, there is a significant amount of holidays around Easter affecting P2P activity. For the whole division, as we have been saying for a long time, we estimate that the construction cycle turns in 2025. We are now seeing the clear positive turn in building and home improvement rate, and we estimate that the technical trade will follow in H2. Car trade Q1. Strong position in different areas of car trade supported profit development. In car trade, net sales for Q1 increased by 28 million euros and were 314 million euros. Net sales increased in all businesses, new cars, used cars and services as well as in sports trade. Rolling 12 months net sales were over 1.2 billion euros. The comparable operating profit totaled 17.9 million euros and increased by 1.5 million euros year-on-year. Operating margin was 5.7%. Rolling 12 months operating profit was over 70.8 million euros and operating margin was 5.7%. Cartridge highlights in Q1. Market demand for new cars stayed muted and Q1 first registration of passenger cars and vans were down by 7%. but first registration of brands represented by Kesko were up by 15.1% in Q1. Net sales and comparable operating profit grew clearly despite the challenging market, thanks to the strong new car sales in particular. New car sales continue to grow, thanks to the good sales of Volkswagen models ID.4 and ID.7. This is what we mean by balanced business portfolio. Last year, The growth came especially from used cars, and now the growth is coming from new cars. We are the only operator in the market that has such a strong position in both new and used cars, as well as services. Services include, among other things, servicing, damage repairs, tires or spare parts, and on top of that, EV charging and leasing, too. In Q1, used car and service sales also grew, too. Net sales and comparable operating profit grew also in sports trade. Profit guidance and outlook for 2025 remains unchanged. Profit guidance for 2025. Kesko Group's profit guidance is given for the year 2025 in comparison with the year 2024. Kesko's operating environment is estimated to improve in 2025, but to still remain somewhat challenging. Kesko's comparable operating profit is estimated to improve in 2025. Kesko estimates that its comparable operating profit in 2025 will amount to 640 to 740 million euros. The profit guidance is based on an estimate of a gradually improving economic cycle in all Kesko operating countries. Key uncertainties impacting Kesko's outlook are developments in consumer confidence, investment appetites, as well as geopolitical crises and tensions. And then outlook for the current year. In grocery trade, B2C trade and the food service market are estimated to remain stable. In 2025, the comparable operating margin for the grocery trade division is estimated to stay clearly above 6%, despite the investments in price and the store site network in accordance with Kesko's strategy for 2024-2026. In building and technical trade, the cycle is expected to improve in 2025 from the historically low levels. Profitability in the building and technical trade division is estimated to improve on 2024. In car trade, To market for new cars is expected to stay at low level. Demand for used cars and services is estimated to remain good. Profitability for the car trade division is estimated to remain at a good level in 2025, despite weak demand for new cars. Well, this was my presentation. To summarize, the year has started off as expected. Of course, Kesko is not immune to the global uncertainties, and especially consumer and business confidence are important, but it's good to bear in mind that we are not an exporter. The clear majority of the products we sell are from Finland or Nordics and elsewhere from the European Union. Despite the turbulence, I am positive and confident about the current year. We see construction recovering, and we see positive development in grocery trade too. Our strategic actions, like the price program, are working well. We see it the first signs of recovering market share development. But it takes time to see the full effect. Also, car trade is doing very well. I see the market situation in all three divisions better this year compared to last year. I guess it's time for questions now.

Thank you, Jorma, for your presentation. And let's take the questions now. We first turn to the conference call line. So please, the stage is yours.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Kaie Loikanen from Danske BNK. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking my questions. I was wondering about the grocery trade and the price program. So is there any way for you to quantify the impact of the program on the segment's results or margin?

Okay, thank you for your question. And, of course, I would say that there are three main reasons for grocery EBIT performance. The first one is, of course, our price program. The second one is Easter, timing of Easter. And it's good to bear in mind that this year Easter was mid of April. So both wholesale and retail sales came from April, and last year it was opposite. And the third one is cash pro, was it minus 1.5 million euros. So those three elements are the most important, but it was really much what we expected.

Okay, but you don't want to kind of elaborate on the impact of the price program itself?

No, not exactly. But of course, Ari, maybe you can tell a little bit more about how the price program has all in all worked.

Yeah. Thank you for the question. It has started well. If you think about the share of these discounted products, it's increasing by double digits, which actually tells that these are meaningful products for the consumers. But at the same time, because they are in the lower prices, you are getting less sales at the moment. But in the long term, if you look about how the development has gone on, it seems very promising. And especially when we are aiming in the long term that we have bigger shopping basket.

Okay. Okay. That's very helpful. That's very helpful. And then I was wondering about the kind of the timing of the impacts from this program on margins. Is it fair to assume that the negative impact is the largest in Q1 and then that the impact kind of decreases over time as you get more traffic and more volumes and so on?

I don't know, Ari, do you have anything for us? But all in all, I see that it has started as we expected. And all in all, if you look the whole year, we are very confident that our EBIT level will be clearly about 6%.

The price program continues. And if you look about the future, it's difficult to estimate how it affects But I think that, however, the amount of the investment will not exceed. It's very well organized, and I think that in the long term, when customers start to trust to the price level, they will increase the average shopping basket, so the impact start to be less negative.

Okay. Okay, thank you. And then I was wondering about, you mentioned in the presentation that in Q1, your market share was unchanged in the hypermarkets segment. I was wondering about how about the other store segments? How did the market share develop there?

Yes. All in all, if you look at this first quarter, month by month, our performance has improved. So especially March was quite promising. And if you look the whole quarter, kind of hypermarket segment we call city market was in line with our hypermarket competitors and if we also bear in mind that our store network is not so much positive not even in hypermarket segment so that was very promising what comes to hypermarket and in kind of supermarket and market segment we lost a little bit of market share but all in all month by month it was performance improved and So now we can say that also April Eastern time has been quite promising.

Okay, thank you. That's good to hear. And then the final question for me, building and technical trade. I was wondering that was Q1 a positive surprise for you in terms of growth, or had you been expecting the market to turn already now in Q1?

I would say that it was pretty much what we expected. And all in all, if you look at Finland as an example, we remember that 21, 22 was very strong years. And then the K-Route is the first one that the sales start to decrease. It was a third quarter in 22. Then Oninen followed six months later. It was second quarter of 23. And then very, very weak 23, 24. Then we reached the bottom, let's say, last summer. We reached the bottom and then figures started to improve a little bit, still negative, but not so much. And now, as we have also said earlier, that we believe that especially this first half of the year, our comparable figures are quite weak. And now we can see that there is a clear sales improvement in building and home improvement, especially in K-Rauta, in B2B side, but also in B2C side. And we can see those signs that Oninen will follow. We can also see that the amount of tender requests has increased. And we believe that the second half of this year also Oninen, we can see the positive sales because already it can be even earlier. But it has been really much what we expected and also same pattern all the other countries. Denmark has been very strong, but also Norway has been quite nice. We have improved and we have been, what comes to sales growth on market level and quite positive also in Norway.

Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. That's all for me. Thank you very much.

The next question comes from Maria from Wickstrom. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you for the presentation, Jorma. I just wanted to double-check one thing. I think in the summary slide, you mentioned that you have started this gain market here. I thought you referred to the grocery retail, but then... If you commented earlier that you expected the grocery trade market in Finland to have been slashing Q1 and your sales to K retailers declined by 1.8%. So can you really get us a clarity what you meant by your comment in the summary section, please?

All in all, I'm not sure what you mean. But all in all, if you look at the first quarter, we lost a little bit market share. And month by month, our performance was better. But we lost some markets there in the first quarter. But in the hypermarket sector, if you look at the first quarter, we were in line with our competitors in the hypermarket sector. So that's very promising. And as I mentioned also, April and Easter time looks very promising. Of course, we haven't seen yet the figures. But all in all, we lost our market share, but hypermarket sector, which is also very important, especially when it comes to price program. We are in line when it comes to competitors. And Ari, would you like to continue?

Yeah, and like Jorma mentioned earlier, you know, if you look about the hypermarket segment, it is the most critical in the market. And actually, the comparable sales of our sales development was better than competitors.

Yes, because store side.

Because store side, yes.

A bit more to, if you look at like a longer perspective in 23, we lost a bit more and then less in 24. And now we can see the development, positive development there.

Still work to do, but there are some positive elements we are seeing now.

Okay, thank you. I just wanted to be clear on this one that I'm on the same page. Then I wanted to ask on the building and technical trade where the adjusted EBIT was up 4.9 million euros, that how much of this 4.9 million euros was from the first consolidated Danish acquisition?

Sami, do you remember, but if you look at the first quarter of what I remember, of course, Keurata Finland was a strong one. Of course, David Chen was a strong one. And in Norway, we have a good performance. But would you like to continue?

Yeah, it's coming from the builders merchant business and like Jorma said, Finland and Norway and Denmark, but not only through acquisitions. Yes.

Are you, Maria, referring to that latest Ruslev acquisition in Denmark, which we included into our figures 1st of February? Yes.

That was negative.

That was negative because there was this fair value allocations. So no positive yet in QQ1, but it will be going forward.

Yes, Davidson was positive, but not Ruslev. Yes, that's true.

Perfect. I mean, that's very clear. And then I wanted to hear your comments. I mean, given we clearly, I mean, you showed us the chart of K-Rautan on in a performance. And yes, I mean, there are some calendar impacts on the Easter. But do you think, I mean, there is a role of a quite nice March weather playing into a game that, I mean, a lot of the projects have started earlier than they would have last year or later? How would you combat the weather impact?

Savi, would you like to comment on that one?

It's a little bit divided message. Of course, in Finland, because we didn't have winter, so we were lacking a lot of consumer winter products. So that was a good one. Mainly also that we lost some sales there. But then I would say that particularly in Denmark, the whole market, first quarter was growing 7.5%. So there we can see that maybe some of the build construction work were started earlier and we were doing better than market also clearly in Denmark. But I would say a little bit divided message. So in Finland, we don't see so much effect about this winter. Might be some infra, but in big picture, not so much.

Perfect. And then finally, I think you gave a quite good answer, but I just wanted to double check that if I read you right, you didn't see that you have much direct impact from the potential tariffs. It's more the impact what could come from a sentiment change.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. That's the case.

Perfect. I have no further questions. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Mika Ihimaki from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the presentation. On building and technical trade, can you also talk about your expectations of synergies of these recent acquisitions? Should we expect anything into this year?

Maybe I can start and some of you can then continue. But of course, I think what we have also mentioned earlier, most synergies when we are doing those acquisitions, it's happening inside one country. So there are not so much synergies between countries. And now we have Davidson and Ruslev. And tomorrow, 1st of May, we will have also this C.F. Peterstein and so on. And also we know that Tomer Garden looks also very promising. So most probably quite fast we will inform about that also. So there will be synergies, especially when it comes to sourcing prices, when we, of course, we combine those volumes because our volume will be doubled. Those kind of synergies we will get already this year. But of course, there can be some extra costs when we are having one organization, when we are having one common ERP system and things like that. But I would say that both sides, there will be synergies already this year, but also maybe some extra costs. But all in all, Denmark looks very promising, very promising. But Sami, would you like to continue something?

Thanks, Mika. Good question. So So it's like Jorma said, those are the, in a way, synergies, and there might be some dis-synergies always as well also. But, of course, we need to remember that we are becoming a national-wide player, and there's some logistics which we see that we can serve more efficiently and much better our, let's say, national-wide customers, but also some of the customers, for example, in Zealand or Copenhagen area. So these are also... in a way synergies and important synergies and of course then that we can serve our customers in general better and of course like Jorma said also we believe that there's some synergies coming through purchases also but and some cost synergies but maybe we come back to those later on but it looks promising like Jorma said and the market is picking up also in Denmark.

Okay thank you and then if you could follow up with an update on your construction in the logistics center that is due to be completed still this year, giving you some efficiencies there. So will there be any financial impact on the numbers this year, or is it a ladder till the 26, 27? How should we think about this?

I would say so that there will be some extra costs this year when we are having two central warehouse, but that includes our guidance. And those synergies and those efficiencies we will get, I would say, starting next year or is it also me? 26, I would say so.

Yeah, quarter one, quarter two. But like I said, of course, those are in the business case and our guidance, but it will be so that there will be more costs involved during this year when we are you know, building the capabilities and, of course, hiring the people and so on. But then next year we will see more efficiency coming through, of course.

Right, and maybe if I may, last one on Sweden's profitability. You've been closing there several K-Rota stores and technical trade now picked up in the first quarter. So can you just comment, was the operation profitable or are we still seeing weakness there?

Sweden. You mean Sweden? Yes. So, sorry, can you repeat the question? So what was the question?

The question in short was that was Sweden profitable in building a technical trade?

We don't give country specific profit numbers. So maybe if you have another question about Sweden, we can answer.

I can comment that way that last time when we were here, we commented some issues what we have in Norway and also in Sweden. But I could say so that in Norway, both sides, byggmarketer and only the technical trade looks now promising. We have solved those issues. Now the profit improvement is quite nice. In Sweden, we still have work to do. All in all, Kbygg is doing okay, but we have some problems with those eight stores that we are still converting from K-Rauta to Kbygg. So they are not performing as well as we expect. But it's good to mention that it's our smallest country, smallest business, only eight store. So it's kind of a limited problem, but we will solve that one. But Norway is very promising and a good performance, but still work to do in Sweden.

Okay, great. That's all from us.

The next question comes from Rob Joyce from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks very much for taking the questions. First one, just in the grocery space, you referenced market inflation at around 1.8% in the period. Can you give us an idea of your own internal inflation and how that compares maybe to Q4 last year, please?

About inflation, Ari...

Yeah, if you think about food inflation in market was, you know, 1.8%, if I remember correctly. Food inflation in Austria much, much lower because we had this price program and we actually discounted the prices. I can't give the exact numbers.

Okay, but closer to flat.

Yeah, it's closer to flat.

Okay, thank you. Okay. Thank you. Very clear. And then the second one is just in the building technical. Poland looks like a bit of a standout as actually going negative comp sales in the period. I just wondered if there's anything you'd flag on the Polish market, what's going on there and what the outlook for the year is.

Sami, about Poland market, how is it?

Thanks, Rob. Good question. So Poland, the market actually first two months, so market is minus 2% and we are doing a bit better than market in Poland, but the market is actually looking a little bit soft in Poland. We are doing pretty well there. But I would say that it's a little bit too early also. Like I said, it's a quarter one, so there is a small quarter and maybe too early to make adjustments for the whole year. Okay.

Sounds like a bit of a change. It was very strong last year, right?

It was, but if I remember correctly, it was also so that the first quarter was a little bit also soft and then it started to pick up a little bit better and we were performing well there. So it might be a little bit the same story, but it's also in Poland so that the availability of money and also the interest rate is highest in our target markets or countries where we are operating. So we are a little bit also Well, there's a forecast that the interest rates might go down also during the spring or summer, so that might be the – or will be the positive effect, of course, then. And if the availability of money is getting better, so for the construction business, then it might be more positive than we see now.

Understood. Thank you. And sorry, just to quickly loop back on grocery. It's my understanding that if we X out Easter, probably a minus two, minus three percent, you think volumes would be would be up in the grocery business?

I think that it's it will be at least this, you know, three percent better impact for the volumes also in Easter time, because people are buying generally, you know, better food, bigger baskets in the Easter.

Thank you very much.

Very good. Thank you, Kalle, Maria, Mika, Rob, for good questions from the conference call line. I will now have a couple of questions here from the chat function. First, Arttu is asking about the Easter, too, like Rob was asking. Grocery trades Easter sales. Is Easter sales generally more profitable than average sales? And this way, the declining grocery trades profit would not be driven only by the declining volumes during Easter. Arttu Heikura, Indelesääski.

Okay, like I mentioned earlier, you know, it's true that people are buying, you know, bigger baskets and more quality products for the Easter. So you can generally say that it's more profitable. But also during the Easter time, there is lots of, you know, campaigns and prices are discounted. So it's like a mix of these two effects.

Thanks, Ari. And then Svante Krokfos asking, could you elaborate on the Senukai late reporting? Senukai posted a minus 0.4 million contribution last year in Q1. And is it fair to expect that the actual numbers are not materially worse than zero?

Yes. Okay. What comes to Kesko Senukai, as we mentioned, they did not report their financial asset yield and Of course, it's also clear that we still have some disagreements with the owner and what comes to management and the strategy of the company. But we are actively seeing a solution to this situation. And all in all, Keskosenukai joint venture, our share was last year, it was 20 million euros. And this first quarter was last year minus 0.4. And now we are reporting that as a zero. But we don't expect anything because we haven't got those actual figures yet.

Very good. Thank you, Jorma. And I guess that was all. That was all the questions. Thank you, everybody. I wish you all the greatest 1st of May. And any final comments or thoughts, Jorma, for the audience?

Yes, thank you. Thank you for the question and discussion. And all in all, what we have mentioned, the first quarter, of course, is the first quarter, clearly the first quarter of our business. But all in all, it was pretty much what we expected. And to be honest, I'm quite confident what comes to what comes to future. So thank you all and have a nice day on the 1st of May. Thank you.