7/11/2025

speaker
Alex
Moderator, Investor Relations

Good morning. So this is the Axfood second quarter 2025 telephone conference. And with me today are Sinéad Margulis, president and CEO, and Anders Leksvon, CFO. In the investor section of our Axfood.com website, you will find the presentation material for today's call. We encourage you to have the presentation at hand as you listen to our prepared commentary. After the presentation, we will be taking questions. The recording of this call will be made available on our website. I will now hand over the word to Simon, so please go to page number two.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. We summarized a strong second quarter with growth that significantly exceeded the market development. We have a continued momentum in Viljus, Hemköp and Snabjos, and through affordable and attractive offerings, more customers are choosing to do the grocery shopping in our stores. In addition, the investments that we made in automation and logistics in recent years are now contributing to efficiency and competitiveness for the group. At the same time, strategic initiatives are ongoing to further strengthen our presence and the market positions of our retail chains. Also during the quarter, we made important progress in sustainability, including the inauguration of Sweden's largest solar park. So let's turn to page three and the agenda for today's presentation. I will start with a brief market overview and then I will give you a brief review of our second quarter performance and strategic agenda. Following that Anders will take you through the financials. And lastly, just a summary from me before we open up for questions. Turning to page four, but let's go straight to page five and take a look at the development during the quarter. In the market, competition remains intense across all segments, and the consumers continue to focus on price, value and affordability. We are convinced that this will continue also going forward, considering the increased price awareness among consumers in general. With our group's business model, with different concepts in collaboration, in combination with a wide and affordable assortment, we have the right conditions in place to continue to navigate a dynamic market. The market growth in Sweden food retail was 6.2% in the second quarter. And growth was impacted by a positive calendar effect of 1.2% from the timing of Easter. Statistics Sweden reported that the annualized rate for food price inflation was 5.4% in the April to May period. This was somewhat higher than in the first quarter this year. However, on a sequential basis, compared to the level at the end of the first quarter, the price development was relatively stable. Growth in Axos retail sales amounted to almost 23%. Excluding Citigrass, which was acquired in November last year, growth amounted to 9%. As such, our growth was clearly above the rate of the market, both including and excluding Citigrass. And volume growth from increased customer traffic and new store establishments, as well as pricing and positive mix were all factors contributing to this development. In e-commerce, growth amounted to 12% compared to market growth of 8%. Excluding Citygross and the discontinued business Middagsfrid, our sales grew 6%. We are now on page 6. Consolidated net sales grew strongly in the second quarter by just over 9%. driven by continued momentum in Viljus, Hemköp and Snabjörgs. Sales in Citygross amounted to more than 2 billion SEK. However, on a group net sales basis, the contribution from Citygross was 364 million SEK due to internal eliminations in Dagab. Please go to the next page, page 7. Group operating profit increased to 934 million SEK and the operating margin was higher at 4.1%. Operating profit included items affecting comparability of minus 25 million SEK related to city gross. Adjusted operating profit, which excludes these items, also increased to 959 million SEK and the adjusted operating margin reached 4.2%. The development was primarily a result of increased customer traffic, strong growth and efficiency in logistics. Overall, the profit development in absolute terms was driven by Willis and Dagab. However, Hemsköp and Snabgross also reported increased profits year on year. So the earnings performance was well balanced the quarter across our reporting segments. Citigroups had a negative impact on the growth profit development, however, to less extent than in the first quarter. During the quarter, work to streamline our support functions was completed, entailing the removal of 100 existing positions during the second half of this year. This will lead to cost savings of approximately 80 million SEK from next year, 2026, which create conditions for us to continue to invest in price value and the competitiveness of our chains. We continue to focus on efficiency and costs in internal processes and procurement. With our structure and the investments in operations, we have a solid foundation for operational excellence. Now let's go through the development segment by segment, starting with Willis on page 8. Willis demonstrated a particularly strong performance in the second quarter, with growth of 10% significantly outpacing the market. Willys holds a unique position in the market and continues to be Sweden's most recommended grocery chain. In addition, the brand always comes out great in customer service, measuring brand equity. Growth in the second quarter was driven by a positive trend in both customer traffic and loyalty. In total, the number of members in the Willys Plus loyalty program increased to almost 3.9 million. Earnings grew and amounted to 565 million SEK, which corresponded to a stable operating margin year on year of 4.5%. The higher profit was mainly driven by increased volumes and a solid cost control. Let's turn to page 9 and Hemköp. Hemköp also performed strongly in the second quarter, with retail sales growth of almost 6%, which was in line with the market. and like-for-like sales growth of almost 5%. This was primarily driven by increased customer traffic and a higher average ticket value. Total net of sales for Hampshire increased 6%. Operating profit increased to 97 million SEK. The operating margin was higher at 4.7% and it is a clear evidence of Hampshire's positive development in the recent years. The higher profit was mainly driven by increased sales, a stable gross margin and a solid cost control. Turning to page 10. Citigrass has great potential and gives us presence in the hypermarkets, an attractive segment that Axos previously has not been operating in. This year is a transitional year and we are working according to our plan to strengthen Citigrass for the future. We expect to achieve profitability with Citigrass at some point in the second half of 2026 and today we are reiterating that target once again. We maintain a high activity level by revitalizing the concept and brand, improving the customer offering, implementing a chain management structure and streamlining operations. In late April, a new communication concept and a stronger, more affordable customer offering were launched to contribute to Citigrass competitiveness on the market. Also during the quarter, the store in Bromma in Stockholm was closed ahead of concept change to Willys. And as a reminder, structured measures like this is to create a healthy core in Citigrass that the chain can further grow from. Overall sales growth in the second quarter amounted to 2.6% in total and 3.5% on a like-for-like basis. The chain reported an operating loss of minus 20 million SEK in the quarter. This was mainly due to a negative gross margin development following the recent initiatives to strengthen the price position. Items affecting comparability pertain to structured costs, including closing down the store in Borlänge, also ahead of concept change to Willis. The adjusted operating margin was minus 0.9%. Moving on from Sittergross and now we are now on page 11. Snabbgross continued to deliver strong growth of 6% despite a continued weak cafe and restaurant market. Sales were up almost 5% on a like for like basis. Increased customer traffic had a positive impact on sales in addition to a higher average ticket value. Unlike the food retail market, the overall calendar effect related to Easter is deemed to have been negative. Operating profit was higher than in the prior year and amounted to 96 million SEK, corresponding to a higher operating margin of 6%. The increase in profit was mainly driven by higher sales, a stable gross margin and solid cost control. Next page, page 12 and Dagab. DAGAV's net sales increased by 8%, with sales to Willys, Hemsköp and Snabjörs driving the increase in the quarter. Operating profit increased to 298 million SEK and the operating margin was higher at 1.4%. The performance was primarily due to strong sales growth and lower cost levels due to efficiency improvements in logistics operations. The operating profit was however negatively impacted by a lower gross margin and this was a result of increased market investments to support Dagab's customers in this highly competitive food retail market. The logistics center in Bålsta is now fully operational since a couple of months and focus in on optimization to continue to improve productivity and efficiency. As previously communicated, Dagab is also planning for the next steps in the development of the logistics structure to create additional capacity and efficiency in the southern part of Sweden from the year 2030. And we will come back to this in the months ahead. Moving away from segments, and we are now on page 13. Renewable energy is one of our major focus areas for reducing our climate impact. In April, we officially opened Sweden's largest solar park in Hallstavik in Uppland, which we established in collaboration with the solar energy company Light. Our electricity mix has for a long time consisted of almost only Swedish renewable energy. But with the new solar park, we are adding additional capacity to the electricity grid. This helps to increase the conditions for green transition, while also creating predictability in our own energy supply. The PAR consists of approximately 100,000 solar panels in capacity that enables output of approximately 64 MW or 63 GWh annually, which corresponds to around 15% of our electricity consumption. In addition, we have in recent years established Sweden's largest rooftop solar power facility at the logistics center in Bålsta, and a large solar power facility on the fruit and vegetable warehouse in Landskrona. Also during the quarter, the phasing out of fossil fuels in transport continued through increased use of renewable fuels. Emissions from our own transports decreased sharply by 20% compared to the previous year. Turning to page 14. Now it's time for Anders to take you through the financials. So please go to the next page, number 15. And Anders, please go ahead.

speaker
Anders Leksvon
CFO

Thank you, Simone. During the first half of the year, net sales for the group increased by 6.6% to approximately 44 billion SEK. Including Citigrass retail sales increased by 19.3%. Excluding Citygross, the increase was 5.9%, which was higher than the food retail market in total, where growth amounted to 4.1%. Operating profit excluding items affecting comparability increased 3.8% to just over 1.7 billion SEK. The operating margin excluding items affecting comparability decreased with 0.1 percentage points to 3.9%. where the CityGross acquisition impacted the margin with minus 0.3 percentage points. Next page, number 16. During the second quarter, the cash flow was 39 million SEK and compared with last year, 213 million SEK higher, mainly due to a strong underlying cash flow supported by a positive contribution from networking capital. and the reversal of the negative calendar effect from the first quarter. We also saw a strong underlying operating cash flow for the first half year. The negative cash flow from investment activities of 475 million SEK in Q2 was somewhat higher compared to last year. We now have a higher pace in investments in our retail operations and a lower pace in automation investments since we now are through with our investments in the fulfillment center in Bålsta. Thanks to the strong operating cash flow, Axford has reduced the utilization of credit facilities during the second quarter. By the end of Q2, Exxon utilizes approximately 2.5 billion SEK of our credit facilities compared with 3.3 billion by the end of Q1 and 2.9 billion SEK at the end of last year. And then please turn to page number 17. The net debt has increased since the acquisition of Citigroups in Q4 last year. In addition to the loans raised for the acquisition, net debt also increased with the Citigrass leasehold debt of approximately 2 billion SEK. During July, Exford has successfully refinanced the existing revolving credit facility. The new RCF amounts to 4 billion SEK, where 1 billion have a tenor of three years and 3 billion SEK have a tenor of five years. The conditions in the new agreement are in all essentials unchanged compared with the old facility. The equity ratio amounted to 18.2%, which was lower than December 2024. The lower equity ratio compared to Q2 last year was a result of the Citigrass acquisition. The decrease during the first six months was in line with the previous years and is a seasonal effect from dividend paid. Total investments excluding leasehold and acquisitions for the first six months amounted to 844 million SEK. Year to date, we have established six new Groupon stores in comparison to four new Groupon stores during the same period previous year. We have also increased our store modernization somewhat compared to last year. And we are now on page 18. When we look at the capital efficiency, we had a negative development in our rolling 12 months networking capital. As I have mentioned before, the impact of the Citigrass acquisition is expected to increase the KPI with approximately 0.3 percentage points on a rolling 12-month basis. Capital employed has increased over the last years, mainly due to both the acquisitions of Bergendals Food and Citigrass, as well as the investments in Bålstan. The level of capital employed, however, decreased during the first half of 2025, mainly as a result of the dividend. Due to the decrease in capital employed, the return on capital employed increased somewhat to 17% compared to last year. And thereby I have come to the end of my presentation and I have hand over to you, Simon, again.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you, Anders. We are now on page 19, but let's go straight to page 20. Our outlook for the year is unchanged. We have covered investments and items affecting comparability already in this presentation. As for expansion, we have established six new group-owned stores so far this year, all of them being Willys, and four of them were established in the second quarter. Please now turn to page 21. We summarize a strong quarter in which we grew significantly more than the market and continue to attract both existing and new customers. We have a positive momentum in Viljus, Hemsköp and Snabjors and maintain a high activity level to develop Citygross. In the backend operations, we have become more competitive with our new logistics platform and continue to develop with strategic initiatives in many areas. With the customer meeting in focus, our ambition level is high and we maintain a high pace of development to further strengthen our position. Just before we go into the Q&A session, and we are now on page 22, just a reminder that our Captain Market stay this year will be held on September 18. The event will be held close to our headquarter in Stockholm at Urban Del in Hagastaden. At this event, we will cover many areas that are important for our group. The managing directors of our retail chains will provide an update of their respective businesses, in addition to the managing director of Dagab and the head of IT. Myself and Anders will also present, and more details about the CMD and the link to registration is available on our website. That was all for today, so now let's turn to page 23 and hand over to the operator to open up the line for questions. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. To enter the queue, if you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Gustav Haggeis from SEB. Please go ahead.

speaker
Gustav Haggeis
Analyst, SEB

Thank you. Thank you, Simon, for taking my questions. First one relates to DAGAB. You made almost 300 million EBIT adjusted in DAGAB in the quarter. It was up from almost 250 last year. But if I recall correctly, you had the freezer incident in Båstad last year adding 40 million krona in costs, and you had the double warehousing adding another 30 million. So that's 70 million one-offs, sort of, that I assume we did not have this quarter. So that would mean that DAGAP EBIT is down 20 million, roughly, or 20 basis points on the margin. And basically, EBIT is in line with Q222, right, in terms of absolute EBIT, and that is on a total group top line that is 25% lower. And I assume a lot of those volumes go through DAGAP. And so I'm a bit curious if you could elaborate a bit on this. dynamic, given that you're supposed to have some savings now from the ramp up of the automation investments in both. So to 300 million, to what extent did that actually impact in a positive way in the quarter? And what is the reason to this development in terms of earnings for dog up? That would be helpful. Thanks.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Yeah, thank you. If we look to Dagab, Dagab has a strong growth, due to the growth in our chains, Willis, Hemköps, Navjós. And we also see the productivity gains and efficiency gains in Dagab. However, we have a weaker growth margin, since we're doing marketing investments to support the customers. To elaborate Dagab, we see the efficiency gains coming as we are suspected and how we also have communicated before, but we have a weak gross margin. But on the other side, just to look in a whole, Dagab is performing better than last year and also we see a strong growth in our chain. So it has been a strategic decision from us to drive the group performance in all and to use our business model in that way.

speaker
Gustav Haggeis
Analyst, SEB

Yeah, okay, thanks. But curious on that, given that you then give away the efficiency gains to your customers basically from Dagab. And I guess most of those refer to internal ones like Citigrass and Willys. We saw wheelies outgrowing the market in Q2 on like for like, but the margins were flat. So it seems very costly to drive growth in the market. And given that there's no volume growth in the market basically, right? So with that in mind, how convinced are you that it's the best use of capital to expand warehouse capacity further now, given that it's hard to sort of see at least from an external perspective, see the returns on the investments in Bolst at this stage?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Yeah, if you look upon us as a group, we make a stronger result this quarter and we're happy since we have a weaker result for a couple of months and to see that we're now turning to a stronger result as a group. And I think that's important for us to see how we grow as a whole. For us, it's a very competitive market. And for us, it's always about gaining market share, growing volumes, growing loyalty from the customers, and by that going backwards. And in parallel, we're doing efficiency, taking efficiency measures, of course, with investments in Darjeb, but also as a group as a whole, we have a focus on costs and efficiencies, where the efficiency The work we've been doing with the support function is one part of increasing the focus on costs and efficiency. And for us, it's all about creating the possibility for us to invest in the customer meeting to be really competitive in the market. And I would say since we're outgrowing the market, I think we're doing it quite successfully.

speaker
Gustav Haggeis
Analyst, SEB

Okay, thanks for that. And lastly, just to clarify those two to three hundred million savings from Bålsta, to what extent are they prevalent in this quarter and to what amount will you see a year-over-year effect in 2026 from those savings that you have guided before?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

As we said in the first quarter, we will start to reach those levels from the second quarter, which we are doing, and then But by that said, we will continue to optimize the facility. And that's a part of our daily operations and also a way of doing everyday improvements to create even more efficiencies. But I would say we have the pace that we said and communicated in the first quarter that we're supposed to do in the second quarter. But on the other hand, we have weaker gross margins, and that's on the negative side. Okay, well, that's very clear. But as a group, As a group, we gain the result and the profitability that we expected.

speaker
Gustav Haggeis
Analyst, SEB

Noted. Okay, thank you. Thanks for taking my question.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Frederick Iverson from ABG. Please go ahead.

speaker
Frederick Iverson
Analyst, ABG

Thank you, good morning team. I've got three questions, taking them one by one. First one on Willis, you mentioned that the number of store visits were up. Curious to hear whether you see a lot of new customers trying out the concept or is the sort of increase mainly current customers coming back more frequently?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

So to start with that question, in Willys we both see increase in members in the loyalty program Willys Plus. We also see an increased frequency on existing customers, and we also see an increase in penetration, which means that we meet new customers. So we see positive effects in both new and existing customers.

speaker
Frederick Iverson
Analyst, ABG

Okay, good, thanks. Second one, coming back to Dargab and the efficiency gains, you say you expected two to 300 and it sounds like you're somewhere there already or in Q2, but it's a fairly wide range. So curious if you could share your assessment of where you are in terms of those two to 300 and what kind of upside you see from here.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Yeah, so as you said, we're in the lower, as you said, it's a span and we're in the lower And as I said, we will continue to do trimming the facility and optimizing it to reach the higher level. Thanks for that.

speaker
Frederick Iverson
Analyst, ABG

Right. Good. And last question also on Dagab. You said you took some investments to support the chains. Can you confirm that this is mainly price investments and also if you could share whether these investments were spread across all chains or if it's more related to any specific banners?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Dagab is our support company and they're supporting all our customers and all our brands and they're doing it a bit differently depending on what needs they have but they're supporting all the things and the customers also.

speaker
Frederick Iverson
Analyst, ABG

And was it mainly price investments or any other kinds of support as you call it?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

What do you mean with other support?

speaker
Frederick Iverson
Analyst, ABG

No, I'm just curious whether those investments you made were mainly price cuts or price investments or if it was any other... It's mainly to have a competitive conditions for the customers. Okay, good. That's all my questions.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yes, good morning, Simon and Anders. You gave us some numbers when it came to the Q1 quarter for Citigroup. We don't have the history, but you basically said that you had the same EBIT in Q1 as you had in Q1 last year and it is quite a big improvement quarter over quarter and I do appreciate that we have the calendar effect and all that but could you give us any rough numbers on where you were in Q2 last year on city growth in terms of losses yeah to start with it's a it's a

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

we have a high activity level in city girls and it's a year of transition and we're doing many different improvements in both developing a new store concept improving or revitalizing the brand we have decrease the prices during the Q2. So, I mean, it's a wide agenda that we're working with. And we see, as you say, a little bit stronger sales, but we should also, to be honest with you, as we in the report in hypermarkets, we see clearer and stronger seasonal effects according to Easter and midsummer in hypermarkets than we see in our other formats. So, I would say it's too early for us to say that actually that now we're turning it to something it's I mean, we said that we will turn it to profitability in the second half of 2026. And this year, we see your transformation. So of course, it's some, you can see some positive growth in life for life, which is really, we're really happy to see. But it's too early to say that we have turned it around. We will we need this year and we will work until the second half of next year to turn it to profitability so yeah but of course we have a little bit positive in like for like and also a little bit less loss in the q2 than than q1 and it's pretty much in line with last year q2 a little bit stronger but from low levels as you can see

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Because it does look like even if you adjust for Easter, and I appreciate that it's a larger impact on Citigrass than for the rest of the group maybe, but if it's 1.2% as a total effect in terms of Easter, I would assume still that you would have a positive like for like also adjusted for Easter in Citigrass. Is that correct?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Yeah, that's correct.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. And

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

But also, we did price investments, as you know, from the second quarter, and that has also an effect, of course, both in Topline and in the gross margin.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Yeah. Is it fair to say that those price investments are entirely subsidized by Dargab then, given the discussion we had on Dargab?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

No, no, no. They're taking in the... Part of it. I mean, we don't go into any specific agreements between our different customers. Dagab is supporting all the chains. And as you can see, there's a low gross margin in Citigrass, and that's the result of reduced prices in Citigrass. So they're taking in Citigrass.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

And a completely other question then. There's been sort of back and forth situation with Martem over the past couple of months. What do you expect and what do you see there in terms of, given that you are the biggest supplier to Martem, what impact has that had already in Q2 and what do you see now?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

To start with, I mean, clear questions to Martin is better to ask them. The reconstruction was approved yesterday and we hope really that they find a way going from that to create a healthy business. But for us, it's a small impact. Dargab, as you say, is a supplier. It's less than 1% of Dargab's sales that we deliver to Marterm.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay. And was that sort of 1.5% a year ago? What has been the impact over the past year, basically?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

I think it's better if you ask questions about Martham to Martham. We have a big respect for our customers, so we don't say how their sales are going.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, just a final then. You announced today that you will generate savings of around 80 million as of 2026 from these staff cuts that you've been conducting. Should we expect any sort of severance charges in the coming quarter? Any guidance on that?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

We're taking that in the second quarter. So the cost for the employees is taken in the second quarter across all segments, majorly in AB and DAGAP.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, so was that included in the 25 million, one of them?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Yes, for Citigrass in the 25 and for Dargab and Axfo, they're part of the result.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, and is that meaningful numbers or is sort of any guidance on that?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

No.

speaker
Daniel Schmidt
Analyst, Danske Bank

Okay, thank you.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

The next question comes from Nicholas Ekman from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Thank you. Yes, most of my questions have been asked already here. But maybe just follow up here on Willys and the very strong growth here of over 10%. That's a market pickup from the 3% growth we've seen in recent quarters. How much of this would you say is Just easy comparisons and how much is there any notable change in the competitive landscape that you've seen compared to what we've seen in the past four quarters?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Now, I would say that the landscape is pretty much the same. There's a high competition and also there's still a strong price sensitivity by the consumers. So really, it's a really, really strong performance, as you say, from them, both in like for like sales and also with four new stores in the last quarter. That creates also some growth. But the majority, as you say, is from like for like growth.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay, very clear. And just adding the numbers here. You are outgrowing the market by more than two and a half percentage points. ICA, we don't know, but in the first four months, at least, they outgrew the market by almost half a percentage point. And you guys are 75% of the market. So it seems like the others are losing significantly. I mean, we're talking almost double the declines or underperformance from Coop, for instance. What are you seeing out in the market?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

I mean, we see the same as you do. So, I mean, better to ask the competitors about their figures. We see, as you say, that we're really outperforming the market and doing really well. And we're primarily so happy to see that there are so many customers that is doing their grocery shopping in our stores. That creates volumes for us, which means that we can scale on our investments that we made. And together with the increased productivity, it makes a good position for us to grow from.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Very good. Very good. And also, just coming back here to city graphs, if we had 80 million in loss in Q1, 20 million now in Q2, and both of those seem to be largely in line with what you had last year, can you give us some guidance on what underlying was in Q3 last year?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

I would say that, I mean, last year was 200 and a rolling 12. Yeah, so that's and last, the fourth quarter was 40 for us. That's when the part that we had in our figures. So then you calculate backwards. So November, December, we had 40 and they had 200 approximately on rolling 12 months. And for us to be clear, I mean, we are building city growth for the future. So we're not doing any quick fixes. We are really aiming to create a really strong hypermarket segment here. And that will take time. So, yeah.

speaker
Nicholas Ekman
Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Very clear. Thank you. Thanks so much for taking my questions.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

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

speaker
Rob Joyce
Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

Thanks very much for taking my questions. First one, just thinking about Willys and the operating leverage there as we look into the second half. I guess sort of let's say the half as a whole for the first half, you've got 5% like for like probably a percent of volume growth in there at least and flattish margins. How do we think about the second half? Do we think we should see more operating drop through in terms of that margin in the second half or are we thinking broadly flat margins still? Thank you.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

We don't do any guidance for the future. I mean, for us, it's really important to keep a good momentum and really just continue to attract new customers. And we had really strong performance this quarter and also over time. So, yeah, there is a competitive market. And as we told before, for us, it's always about having a really, really strong customer meeting. And then by that, we get volumes. And then we have to be really efficient and have focus on costs. And by that, we create a good and healthy result in growth. So for us, it's difficult to... We don't do the guidance for the future.

speaker
Rob Joyce
Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

Okay. Okay. And then maybe we can help think about some of the gross margin investments you've made. Will you be able to give us an idea of how the price position sits, particularly versus, I guess, Ecomaxi now? Has there been any change there and where that is absolutely?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Yeah. From competitive reasons, we don't go into deals about our price strategies and price gaps. For us, the business idea for Willys is to have the cheapest bag of groceries in Sweden, and we will never lose that promise to the customers. But I won't go into any details about the pricing strategy.

speaker
Rob Joyce
Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

How is it? Do you think it's improved now, obviously, those investments? Can you at least give us a directional sense? Is the pricing improving? or is it kind of holding its own?

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

There's still a high competition in the market. The gross margin in wheelies is down a little bit, and we're compensating it with volumes and cost efficiencies, and that's how we are able to create a stable profitability, a growing profitability, but a stable margin in wheelies. To be clear and honest, there's still a very high competition and the gross margin is down a little bit in Willys.

speaker
Rob Joyce
Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

Okay, and then thank you. Final one. On the working capital now for the year, so strong performance in the half versus last year. Do we have an idea of what sort of working capital levels we should be expecting in terms of inflow for the year now?

speaker
Anders Leksvon
CFO

Now, we believe that we will see a quite stable development. And as I mentioned, if you compare to net sales, we have a little delusion according to or due to the city growth acquisition and that we will see in the Q3 as well.

speaker
Rob Joyce
Analyst, BNP Paribas Exane

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

Thank you very much.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.

speaker
Sinéad Margulis
President and CEO

So thank you all for joining us today. And I wish you all a really nice summer and see you back in August or September. I mean, CMD, sorry. See you in CMD.

Disclaimer

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