5/15/2024

speaker
Manu Busing
Investor Relations

Hello everyone and a warm welcome to the Tony's Q1 2024 presentation. I'm Manu Busing from Investor Relations and today we have on the call our CEO Tobias Wann and our CFO Dr. Jan Medenhoff. We will lead you through a brief presentation and afterwards we encourage you to use the Zoom Q&A function to ask any questions you may have. And now I'm happy to hand over to you two guys.

speaker
Tobias Wann
CEO

Thank you, Manuel. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us. My name is Tobias Wann, the still new CEO of Tony's since January of this year. I'm thrilled to connect with those of you I haven't met yet, and I'm equally excited to see some familiar faces again. Welcome. In today's call, I'll provide first an overview of the Tony story and then update you on our business progress in the first quarter of 2024. Jan will then delve into the financial details and following that, we will discuss our confirmed outlook for 2024. And I'm pleased to share already that it's looking positive. At the end of the call, as Manuel just said, we'll open the floor for any questions you may have. I'm delighted to share this chart once again, one that I will always enjoy presenting. Of course, we've updated it with fresh Q1 numbers. Undoubtedly, you can see Tony's has created the world's largest interactive audio platform for children. This incredible map is displaying the global reach of Tony boxes activated in over 100 countries. Tony's is truly a worldwide sensation. And this is just the start. By now, we've likely touched the lives of over 50 million people with more than 7 million Tony boxes sold since our launch in the fourth quarter of 2016. And we've also distributed about 88 million Tony's figurines worldwide. During our full year presentation about a month ago, we identified five significant opportunities for creating value at Tony's. Today, as a key objective, let me quickly recap those five building blocks. As leaders in our category, the Tony's platform continues to showcase exceptional user involvement. During the first quarter, our customers spend about 280 minutes per week using our products. That's nearly 40 minutes a day. We operate the largest global platform for interactive children's audio, as I just said, and we began successfully in the DACH region and are now expanding into other markets profitably. Despite being sold only in select markets, Tony's, And Tony boxes have been activated in over 100 countries showing global product market fit. Our business model shows loyalty very similar to subscriptions with an excellent customer lifetime value of around 290 euros from Tony boxes, Tony's figurines, accessories and digital sales. Typically, our customers buy about 20 figurines over their lifetime with us. And since 2020, we have focused on five key levers to drive our growth. You probably all remember them, but I'm quickly repeating it here. Number one, scaling internationally. We are extending our successful DACH blueprint to new international markets. Secondly, enhancing margins. We are improving our margins each year through smarter sourcing, refining products, strategic pricing, and the likes. We are developing own content and continue to do so. We are adding more of our own content and IP, which has to be proven very successful. And fourth, we are improving product market mix as well as increasing operating efficiency. So since 2019, those efforts have led to about 20% improvement in contribution margin and a robust EBITDA margin exceeding 16% in the DAH market. Finally, Tony's is more than just a product. It's a cherished brand. Our fans are incredibly supportive, demonstrating their passion with high net promoter scores, exceeding 70 in the US from daily transactions. Impressively, as you probably also remember, Two of our top five franchises are our very own creations, showcasing our ability to innovate and resonate with our audience. And probably most important to you here, since our IPO, we've kept all our promises and built a very strong and reliable track record. now let's look at let's look at q1 our first quarter performance met our expectations we achieved a revenue growth of 20 percent reaching 78 million euros the growth was largely driven by our international expansion although our mature dach market also showed a two percent increase The success stems from our continued exponential growth, as you can see here, in our installed base. In Q1 alone, we expanded our installed base by adding approximately 250,000 Tony boxes and about 5.8 million Tonys. Also, over 70% of Tony boxes ever sold are still actively used. And as I mentioned earlier, on average, customers purchase around 20 Tony's over four and a half years. So what am I showing next? During our deep dive in the next section, we'll look into how are we creating value with our product innovations. We'll discuss strategies for gross margin expansion and further internationalization. And, and I know this is of interest for many of you, we also look at our recent and continued progress in North America and other global markets and spend some time discussing our many competitive advantages. We are reaffirming our outlook for the fiscal year 2024 and are on track to meet our targets. Let me delve a bit deeper into our performance for the first quarter. As I mentioned earlier, our revenue grew 20%, which was in line with our expectations, and we enjoyed strong Easter sales across all markets. Please remember this growth comes against a challenging comparison as Q1 of 2023 saw an impressive growth rate of 42% influenced by several unique baseline factors. Additionally, we navigated through some supply chain disruptions that led to stock shortages and longer shipping times. We tackled these challenges head on by incorporating airfreights to mitigate delays. Despite these challenges, the global activations of Tony boxes and Tony's rose significantly, 30% and 40% respectively, demonstrating that consumer interest in our products remained very robust in Q1. And as many of you know, the majority of our revenue typically comes in the second half of With the strong start that we had now, we expect a significant increase in revenue growth as the year continues. Earlier, I discussed our value levers and I like to show now how we are expanding our gross margin with a fantastic new product, Clever Tony's. We launched Clever Tony's first in the US in the fourth quarter of 2023. and in the Dach region in the first quarter of this year. Unlike our traditional Tony figurines, clever Tonys are designed to be simpler and produced in higher volumes. They, for example, don't require multiple molds, are printed rather than hand-painted, and are made from cheaper, more sustainable materials. This significantly reduces production costs. Additionally, a larger proportion of the Clever Tony's content is produced in-house and they require no licensing fees for the figurines, which ultimately results in a higher gross margin after licensing costs. But the benefits of Clever Tony's don't stop there. They are primarily aimed at children aged five and older. offering educational content across various subjects like animals, science, and professions, for example. They are made with up to 50% biocircular materials, enhancing our commitment to sustainability. And their standardized design, as I said, allows for a much shorter go-to-market time, eliminating lengthy coordination processes with licenses, for example. So Clever Tony's demonstrate our ongoing commitment to bringing innovative and sustainable products to the market. Let's discuss another example of value creation at Tony's. Our UK team analyzed usage patterns and developed a product to become part of the morning routines for older kids. As a result, in the fourth quarter of 2023, we launched Today with Tonys, our first podcast Tony in the UK. The data we've gathered so far is incredibly encouraging. It has become the most played daytime Tony. It exhibits twice the usage frequency compared to the average Tony figurine for kids aged four and older. And customers who have purchased the Today's with Tony's, Tony, reported a 12% higher net promoter score, a clear indicator of exceptional customer satisfaction. Additionally, the Today's with Tony's podcast earned a bronze medal at the ARIA Awards last week. The team was extremely proud about that. Encouraged by this amazing feedback, we're excited to announce a spinoff called Clever Tony's Jokes of the Day. This is a unique audio concept from Tony's crafted to entertain children with jokes every day, fostering their sense of humor. It's inspired by the popularity of the joke sections in our Today with Tony's podcast, where more than 70% of parents rated their children's enjoyment of the jokes as five out of five. This is how we continuously innovate and add value, keeping our offerings fresh and engaging for our young listeners. Let's look at the commercial progress we've made in the UK and France, where our strides have been significant. In the UK, which is our most developed markets outside the DACH region, our sales figures have been impressive since 2018. By now, we sold more than 8.4 million Tonys and over 850,000 Tony boxes. Our distribution channels in the UK are well balanced with 44% of sales to wholesale and 56% direct to consumer. Over this year, we expect to see wholesale adoption grow, expanding from around 1,500 points of sale at the end of last year to more than 2,000 by the end of 2025. Turning to France, where our revenue tripled in 2023, making us the second largest player in our category in just two years. The French market currently shows a stronger preference for direct-to-consumer sales, with almost two-thirds of our revenue coming from our own webshop and the Amazon marketplace. But also here, we are replicating our whole sales growth story. Let's have a quick look at our success formula. Again, you probably remember this from the full year presentation in April. Success in retail is depending on two factors globally, footprint or number of stores and shelf space. And in all our markets, we are driving both parts of the functions. Back to France, the popularity of our products in France is also climbing, evidenced by a customer survey recently. An overwhelming 97% of our French customers would recommend our products to other families, showcasing the strength of our word of mouth marketing. An NPS score over 80 further confirms that our products are well received by customers. Lastly, we fit two major milestones in France in the first quarter. We've sold well over 100,000 Tony boxes since the market launch and over 1 million Tony's since we started in France. These achievements highlight our growing impact and successful expansion into key new markets. Now. Let's turn our attention to the US, where we continue to see significant progress, a recurring highlight in probably each of our quarterly calls. During our full year presentation in April, we outlined our development trajectory with Target over time. We emphasized our focus on growth opportunities in wholesale, particularly in terms of point of sales and shelf space. This commitment is also clearly demonstrated through our partnership with Walmart, It makes me very proud to see that after launching successfully in 1,600 Walmart stores in the fall of 2023, we are now continuously expanding our presence. Throughout the third quarter of this year, we'll be adding our products to an additional 350 stores, bringing our total to almost 2,000 Walmart stores across the US, as you can see on the map here. Moreover, Remember the function I just referred to, shelf space for Tony's figurines will increase by 37% in 500 of those 2000 stores. This expansion will allow us to showcase a broader range of local and global heroes, enhancing our visibility and reach. Again, our retail growth blueprint works in all markets, whether you look to the US, whether you look to Europe, whether you start in D2C or in a wholesale environment, whether you are in a relatively new market or in a mature market. Now let's turn to one of my key charts in our presentation today. As pioneers and category leaders here at Tony's, we often address questions about competition and barriers to entry. We've identified six main elements that fortify Tony's competitive shield, and I'm going to talk about them now. First, our user experience. Our design is simple and intuitive and tailor-made for kids. Our products see unmatched engagement with an average weekly playtime of 281 minutes. More than 70% of our Tony boxes are used every single month. And our exceptional retention rate shows users acquiring about 20 Tonys over the lifetime of four and a half years. Our brand loyalty is strong, reflected in an NPS score exceeding 70. Second, our product proficiency. We possess in-house expertise in hardware and in cloud technology. Our closed ecosystem is secured by proprietary production site machines, tagging our products uniquely. Our figurine design excellence sets a high barrier for competitors, incorporating complex elements like magnets and NFC chips. Third, our intellectual property library. We've secured partnerships with all major global licenses, consolidating diverse licenses on one single platform. With over 200 licenses and more than 700 agreements, building such a portfolio is time-consuming if you want to do it on your own and hence a significant barrier for new entrants. And remember, our own IP is very successful with two of our top five franchises being Tony originals, for example. Fourth, our season and buildup. We created this category with the launch of the first Tony box in late 2016. Our sales notably spike every holiday season, showcasing a consistent year-over-year growth in our installed base. The chart here highlights cumulative sales since 2016 with a significant rise each holiday season, giving us an eight season headstart. Fifth shield, our financial strength. Our DAH market is now highly profitable, boasting an EBITDA margin over 16% and serving as a financial backbone for our operations. We maintain robust functions, both at headquarters and in core markets, ensuring a sustainable cost structure. And despite rising interest rates, making capital access challenging, we successfully raised 60 million euros in a capital increase in November 2022 and secured a syndicated loan for up to 40 million euros with leading banks to support our working capital needs. And as you probably know, We are now forecasting a free cash flow of over 10 million euro in 2024. And finally, our patents, very important to us. We actively seek IP protection, including patents in key areas like our toy system, NFC communication, and cloud settings. So in summary, these six pillars not only protect, but also propel our brand forward. maintaining our lead in a competitive marketplace. And now I'm handing over to Jan to actually go deeper on the financials.

speaker
Dr. Jan Medenhoff
CFO

Yes, good morning also from my side. I'm very glad to see many of you joining us this morning. I wanted to start off with a recap from something that we published about four weeks ago when we announced our full year results for 2023. And it's our segment reporting. And I just wanted to show it again to highlight what we are doing, what Tobias said, we're replicating our profitable DAF blueprint model internationally. And you can see it's really nicely profitable with 16% LTA margin in the DAF region. And that has led the group as per end of last year, 2023, to a positive clean and reported EBITDA with a margin of 2.4%. And I also want to remind that we publish segment reporting on a full year basis and half year basis. So you can expect us to report more on profitability For H1, for quarterly results, we only report our revenue figures. And let's look at the numbers that Tobias already shared a few minutes ago. So from a CFO perspective, I'm pretty pleased. I see a stable business that is growing exactly as planned. We see growth across all markets. I'm very happy to see that also our mature duck market continues to grow just as expected in the single-digit range. North America with a very good growth, despite already high growth in last year, and the rest of the world also performing very, very well. I think Tobias said it, I'm very happy with the development in France, but also UK. That's been a pretty good Q1 for our rest of world expansion. I also want to call out again that the consumer sentiment is good. And that is probably something that we are not surprised to see, but happy to see our activation. So the number of Tony boxes and Tony's that get activated that we can track as a tech platform is healthy and strong. And that's very good news and a good indicator for us to steer our business. Second information on this chart is we are staying true to our track to become an international company. Company, almost half of our revenues are now coming from our international expansion markets, that is the US, UK, France, and some other international expansion, despite the fact that DAH is still growing. So I think continued nice development and execution of our strategy. Let's look across the product categories. Also here, you can see that we are growing nicely across all of them. And I think it's also noteworthy if you really compare it that the kind of the mix of the product category is somewhat stable on a quarterly basis. So here you can see that Q1 is really Tony's time, and that's not surprising. We sell more Tony boxes during the Christmas season, especially in our growth, international growth markets, people are buying the Tony box as a Christmas gift. And then, of course, they love the system so much that they get into this collection and subscription-like behaviors. And to be honest, I said it before, on average, people buy about 20 Tonys after four and a half years. And that's what you really see coming through here in the Q1 phase. figures and the product is somewhat stable with a bit of upside on the accessory side. And I think that's just unfolding nicely to what we have announced previously. With this, I'm already done with the financial parts. You have a CFO that is happy with what we have achieved in Q1. Handing over to Tobias, who can give you an outlook of how we see the full year unfolding as of now.

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