Avensia AB (publ)

Hi and welcome to today's webcast with Avensia. The CEO, Robin Gustafsson, will present the report for the first quarter of 2026. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. If you have any questions for Robin, you can send them in the form to the right. With that said, I'll hand over the floor to you.

Thank you very much, Ludvig. Today we released our Q&A report for 2026 and I was going to go through The financial report, of course, gives a small market update, as usual, gives a small operational report and leaves room for questions that Ludvig was talking about. If we look at the first quarter on the same day, our turnover dropped by 10%, which we have communicated in our monthly reports. Commerce fell by 9% to 90.5 million, and information management, our other office area, fell by 17% to 50.5 million. If you look at the turnover, we are defending the turnover relatively well. It landed at 10 million SEK after that turnover. The turnover margin landed at 9.5%, which is just under our financial goal of 10%. Of course, the Q1 is a relatively good quarter, consulting-wise, so we will be a little higher. But I think if you compare it with the market and if you look around at other consulting companies, I think we are doing quite well with this. Commerce was up 14%, which is quite good with that turnover. But I think even more exciting is that information management actually grows to, or turns to positive 0.3%, which is in some cases very bleak, but turns to a very heavy and negative development we had during last year. So it's very nice and very proud to be able to predict that. Kassaflödet är starkt under kvartalet. Vi har haft några ganska stora slag där förändringarna i rörelsekapital blir väldigt positivt, medan vi har haft avsättningar till personal som är väldigt negativt. Vi har haft en del uppsägningar där personalen fortfarande uppbär lön under kvartalet och det påverkar negativt. Summa summarum, these migrations lead to a certain positive outfall compared to the previous year. So we might land at 13.9 million this quarter compared to 11.4 million the previous year. A little more look at the quarter. On the cost side, the staff costs have dropped by 8% and that is our most important cost. 11% less employees and a salary revision has slightly taken out the others and led to these 8% lower staff costs. So the others at 69.8 million instead of 75.6 if I'm not mistaken. Vi har också haft lite sänkta kostnader för underkonsulter, vi har haft något höjda externa kostnader vilket har varit lite IT-investeringar där vi har behövt investera lite i hårdvara och lite andra kostnader som har stukit ut en aning under det här kvartalet. Tittar man på den finansiera ställningen så har vi egentligen samma utveckling som vi har visat de senaste kvartalen. Det vill säga att de materiella tillgångarna minskar, där det huvudsakligen är nyttjanderättstillgångar som faller eftersom vi inte har förlängt våra avtal. Vi ser heller inga stora nya lokalbehov inom överstådde tid. Jag tror snarare att skulle vi idag teckna om våra lokalavtal så skulle vi snarare teckna om mindre lokalavtal än vad vi har idag. We also have decreasing long-term debts, where they in their entirety, 41.6 million, account for the use of rights. So that means that we have no interest-bearing loans to credit institutions or the like, but these are long-term debts linked to use of rights. So we have a strong financial position again, with a decreasing balance and a strong cash flow. Looking at the market we are reacting to, February was very good for e-commerce with a 15% rise, but there was a real downturn in March with a 19% decline. It happens a lot geopolitically, it happens a lot in the world. We see market rates that have increased and changed the sentiment of consumers. Retailers are not our only customers, but they are an important part, and of course they also affect B2B trade in a different way. So the traders are still cautious, they don't really know how they're going to get this market information up and down sometimes. And you also have to prepare for agent trading, and that's something that plays well in our hands. We see the demand in the IEM area, where we see that you need to have better control over your product data and product information in order to support agent trading. So we see that we can take advantage of that. We also see that agent-driven customer projects are close to the door. have a dialogue with a number of customers who are interested in this and I hope to be able to tell about the progress quite soon, where we not only have developers who are AI agents, but also help AI agents for project management and other things. So this is something that naturally is on the ball and it is something that will affect our industry and will make it possible for us to deliver even larger and more comprehensive solutions to our customers without necessarily having to increase costs all too much. Vi ser också en efterfrågan på OMS och supply chain i vår försäljning. Det är ju affärsområden eller delområden som vi har gått in på de senaste åren där vi ser ganska kraftig tillväxt och det är ofta dörröppnare för att komma igång både med e-handelslösningar och för att komma igång med produktinformationslösningar. Så den erbjudande utveckling vi har sett och gjort de senaste åren tycker vi har blivit frukt och gjort att vi kunnat försvara våra marknadsandelar i en ganska avvaktande marknad. If you take a look at the operational development, we have had some different developments in debatable hours. It has gone up compared to Q4 due to calendar effects and gone down compared to previous years due to reduced staff. As I said, we decreased by 11% compared to previous years. If you look at the factoring rate, it has fallen somewhat compared to Q4. Quite close to each other, to be honest, but somewhat down. And a little bit more down compared to Q1 last year. And that is also visible on the factoring. If you look at the timetaxes, they have increased both compared to Q4 sequentially and compared to Q1 2025. Which I think is a healthy sign. It proves that we have a positioning where we can pay for our services. Even if the market crumbles or is declining, we can stand up for our pricing and our premium position. If you look at the share of debiting personnel, it has fallen quite strongly both against Q4 and Q1. And that is a part of the big savings program, or an effect of the big savings program we made within IM in Q4, which in large part was non-debiting personnel. And of course changed a little bit the profitability equation in IM and then directly into the entire group. To sum up this quarter, I would like to point out the increased distribution, which we will leave to make our decision. I would like to point out that the result, given the development of turnover, has pointed to a good cost control in this uncertain market. I would also like to highlight Commerce, which, despite the uncertainty in trade, keeps the margin close to our long-term goals. And last but not least, I would like to talk about the stabilization of the IM. That is, we have a positive turnover result after a very, very red 2025. And we see new opportunities. We see that we get traction on our supply chain investment. And we have a new leadership on the ground that I am quite sure can fortsätta utveckla affärsområdet i en positiv riktning. Naturligtvis, den fallande omsättningen vi sett, fem kvartal i rad, vi vill naturligtvis vända om på i något läge, även om vi inte lämnar några prognoser såklart. Det var det hela. Ludvig, har vi några frågor?

Tack så mycket för presentationen. Några frågor har vi här. Jag tänker första är, ni lyfter geopolitisk oro och svagare e-handel i mars. Hur mycket av tappet ser ni som marknad kontra egna marknadsdelar?

Det är lite svårt att titta på marknadssenderar. Ser jag mig omkring på de benchmarks jag brukar göra, de noterade bolagen som har rapporterat, så ser vi ut att ligga ungefär som konkurrensen i utveckling med våra minus 10 procent. Kanske något svagare. Då kan det vara att de också har drabbats lite hårdare tidigare kvartal. Så jag skulle säga att det är mycket som beror på marknaden. Vi har haft avvaktande kunder en längre tid och tyvärr verkar det fortsätta eller har fortsatt även det här kvartalet.

Thank you very much for that. If you were not the CEO of IEM, why have the plans changed?

I was the CEO of IEM to turn IEM from a stagnant existence to a weak development. Last year, we got a real headwind. Now I feel that we have been able to control the cost side. The challenges we had there, and we have also put these frills, especially for the supply chain and some other options that make it possible for IEM to grow and turn. And in that case, I would like to put in a new operational force that can put a little extra speed on the sales and the area in a more offensive direction. My plan was not to sit there forever. My plan was to turn the area from a very tough situation to something that was a little more developable and easier to handle for a new leader. And now I think we have reached that position.

Thank you very much. Can you tell us a little more about how PLM and MDM are connected to Agentisk AI and whether all e-traders will have to look over their PIM and MDM in front of Agentisk Handel?

Man kommer att behöva titta över sin produktdata. Ja, ska du ha agentisk handel så har du If you have a trade that is more towards people, more through a direct customer impact via a website, it is very much about visual presentation, about making your offer visible, about creating an understanding of the offer in a presentation. If you look at a situation where you have an agent on the other end, it is very much about giving birth to that information or giving birth to that agent. But the information you need to be able to present for the end customer, for the end user. So it means that you work more indirectly towards the end customer. And that puts even more pressure on the fact that your product information is correct, presentable, contains the right information, contains complete information so that the agent can put your product over other competitors' products at the moment of trade. So the product information becomes even more important. If you have product information today at a certain level, you have to lift it up to tomorrow. This leads to the fact that the product information part of both MDM and PIM Thank you very much. Why do you want to trade and invest in supply chain rather than commerce?

And is it a situation you think will hold up?

I think that the supply chain is something that handles the goods flows, by definition, and it handles quite large values for the traders. In a situation where you are a little unsure, you want at least a protective margin, you want to optimize your flows, you want to make sure that you do not have wrong things on the shelf, you want to make sure that you are properly equipped with the most important products, that they do not run out, etc. So in a situation where you are unsure of how the end customers will behave, you at least want to focus on your internal business, and that's where supply chain comes in a lot. So it's an area that you use a lot, even in a defensive direction, that is to say, make sure that you Att man inte binder för mycket kapital, att man inte har fel varor på hyllan, att man inte saknar de viktigaste varorna. I en relativ värld så blir det viktigare än kundbemötandet om man är osäker på kundernas köpförmåga.

Tack så mycket. Ni såg ett bättre momentum successivt under Q1 såvitt jag förstår. Har det hållit i sig i Q2 hittills givet att handeln tvärnitade i mars?

Vi kan inte kommentera det på grund av att vi inte lämnar några prognoser tyvärr. Men snart kommer ju aprilsiffrorna naturligtvis att komma ut. Så då får man väl frågeställa ett litet kvito på det.

Tack så mycket. Hur ser dynamiken ut när ni höjer priser i en tuff marknad?

The dynamic is very much in comparison with competitors. We have to show that we deliver something that is worth paying more for than what the competitors do. And we do that in a few different ways, of course, through our specialization and our competence and our reference list, but nothing else. We have a longer reference list than most of them and of course many positive projects behind us. And that makes the customers maybe choose us despite a slightly higher price tag because we We have done this hundreds of times and we have done it with success every time. So that's why we managed to keep up with the prices as well.

Thank you very much. The staff strength is down 11% at the same time as you are starting to recruit new employees within the supply chain. Are you done with the effectiveness or how should you think about that?

If you look at the sequential change in the staff, I think we decreased it by two people between Q4 and Q1. My hope is that we have dropped. You can't complain about that, of course, because it depends on how the market develops. But my hope is that we will be able to start to increase again at some point here. And then this supply chain also reflects a little bit of the shift in our offers, that we need to strengthen ourselves in some areas, while we can allow ourselves to be a little bit on the other side. That's a natural part of the offer development, I would say.

Thank you very much. The IM shows positive results for the first time. What do you need to make it stable and profitable from here?

Increase in revenue, quite simply. And a little more successful sales efforts. And we are of course investing in that.

And then we take the last question here. Commerce holds a 14% margin despite a lower turnover. How sustainable is the level if demand continues to be weak?

Our long-term goal is to reach 15% over a full year with the entire company. So we assume that there is a lot more to do at Commerce. We had almost 19% in the previous year in the same quarter. There is a little more to work on there. If it's sustainable, I think it's sustainable. We believe in it because we set up the financial goals. How much better or worse market do we need? Maybe a little positive development. We can't have a 19% drop in e-commerce month after month and think it's going to happen. But I don't think it's... It's a level we should be able to defend and improve. But it requires a reasonable market. I can't answer better than that, unfortunately.

Thank you very much. Another question came in. Do you think that the Swedish trade barometer is a good indicator of the activity level in the market for your business? The trade barometer figures are very sluggish month by month. It reports down 19% in March but up to 10% in February. These are unreasonable figures if you compare with what the consumer actually spends. If not, what is a good indicator of the investor's will to invest?

Jag brukar titta på den och jag brukar titta på Postnods e-handelsbarometer. Den kommer ju dock kvartalsvis i efterhand så svensk handelsbarometer kommer lite tätare. Sen är det klart att handlarna agerar ju inte på konsumentsentimentet månad för månad utan de har ju A little longer horizon. But at the same time, they are not affected by global events, fuel prices, interest rates, etc. There is a link, yes, but of course it is not one-to-one. It is not that our customers take down their investments with 19% in March and up 10-15% in February. There is a link, but it is a little loose, with a little rubber band in between, one could say.

Tack så mycket för det. Det var alla frågor vi hade fått in här, Robin. Så stort tack för att du tog dig tid att presentera och svara på frågor. Och stort tack till alla som har tittat och skickat in frågor. Ni får ha en fortsatt trevlig dag här.

Tack så mycket, Ludvig. Tack alla.