Byggmax Group AB (publ)

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the Big Mac's Interim Report Q3. My name is Molly, and I'll be coordinating your call today. During the presentation, you can register a question by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad, and if you change your mind, please press star followed by two. I will now hand you over to your host, Carl Samblin, CEO, to begin. Please go ahead, Carl.

Thank you very much, and thank you all for joining us today as we present BIMx Group's interim report for the third quarter of 2026. And as you heard, I'm Carl Sandlund, CEO, and with me is also Helena Nathos, our CFO. And the presentation can be found on our website, as usual, and we will guide you to the relevant sections during the call. And I will start with a brief business update before moving on to Helena and the review of the financials. And as always, as you heard, we will conclude with a Q&A session. We'll start with a presentation with an overview that you can find on page number two. The third quarter is important to us. It's part of our high season where we have a very strong focus on operations, and performance has been robust throughout the full season. As you already might have seen, we continue to improve our profitability in the quarter, and in addition to that, we further strengthen our financial position. Sales looking into the quarter was 7.1% higher than last year, and increased revenue in combination with the continued high gross margin resulted in an improved And we see that the growth is driven by volume. We have more customers and larger baskets. And several of our core categories developed positively. To mention a few timber products related to energy efficiency and insulation, as well as garden as a few examples. In addition to the improved results, we have continued to strengthen our financial position. And also with investments in organic growth, increased inventory levels, ordinary dividends to our shareholders, cash flow from our operations has further reduced net debt compared to last year. And therefore, as you might have seen, the Board of Directors has decided to exercise the authorization granted by DGM and initiate repurchase of own shares. Helena will come back more about the financials and give a little bit more details about this share buyback program in just a minute. But again, a quarter with strong performance, profitability, and financial position. And this secures a solid foundation as we are continuing to develop Big Macs and transformation to enhance customer value and to further support long-term profitability growth. Before we continue into the quarter and more details, slide three. It's just a brief overview for those who might be less familiar with us. We, Big Max, was founded in 1993. We have today 210 stores across four Nordic markets. We serve primarily consumers with a clear focus on building materials for home maintenance with easy access and a high product availability in our stores. And in addition to the Big Max brand, we operate Ride Price Tiles in Norway, which is focused on tires and bathrooms. And we also have the Skålska Byggvaror offering products such as conservatories and greenhouses. As a foundation, we are built for fast and easy shopping, and our driving concept makes it convenient to purchase heavy building materials. while our efficient e-comm enables customers both for large volumes for click and collect but also for home delivery. And at the core of our model is the commitment to the best price. We are low price. And this is enabled by large scale purchasing as well as very highly efficient operating models across the entire organization. As usual, a brief update on the macro environment. You'll find it on slide number four where we see that Consumer conditions are gradually stabilizing, although with differences. Sweden is showing the clear improvement. Consumer confidence rose in the quarter, and housing activity has also strengthened. In other words, the picture is a little bit more mixed, with consumer confidence still lower, and in addition, inflation remains slightly higher than in Sweden. And for us, this is in our sales figures, with Sweden showing the highest growth in the quarter, while local currencies sales outside of Sweden also grew, but at a little bit slower pace than in Sweden. But overall, it's very encouraging to see strong consumer optimism is translating into higher sales activity. Turning to our priorities for the third quarter, starting on slide number five. Well, as mentioned, operational execution is our foremost priority during the peak season because, as you know, activity in our second and third quarters are almost twice the level seen in the winter quarters, which places significant demands on staffing, logistics, deliveries, and so on. And I think we have managed this very well during this season. Beyond operational delivery, we have placed particular emphasis on strengthening the in-store customer experience. This is reflected in a strong Net Promoter Score, which was 56 in September. And we see that our initiatives to enhance logistics and supply, both to our stores, but also directly to customers, are also gaining traction, where we have further reduced the incidence of stock-outs with a particular focus on our largest stores. We have also deliberately increased our inventory level somewhat over the summer and heading into fall. Supported by our strong financial position, we can invest selectively in availability where it has commercial impact, while of course applying a disciplined demand-led inventory management to protect our overall working capital. At the same time as we are focusing on operation execution, we continuously refine and develop our customer position. You see some examples on slide number six, where we most recently, for example, have renewed our flooring offering. We have since long had a strong position in flooring. They're both curated. install range but also complemented by a broader assortment online and now with the renewed range we see that we have further sharpened assortment to even better reflect customer demand and we can offer affordable flooring across all key categories. Ahead of the summer season we also expanded our decking offering with the introduction of a premium range broadening this assortment in a prioritized category for us and we see that more customers are moving away from standard decking and choosing either our premium decking or wider boards for their outdoor spaces. And finally, we continue to see positive effects from the improvements made to our e-commerce proposition. And the e-commerce channel again grew faster than other channels during the quarter. And the customers clearly value our ability to deliver heavy building materials So we're now taking the next steps on our journey. Our profitability and strong financial position provide a very solid foundation. And with this foundation in place, we are entering the next phase of our development, where we will build on our operational strengths by becoming even more customer focused and commercially driven across the value chain from assortment and purchasing to the in-store experience. And we aim to strengthen our position in building materials, but also to become more relevant by meeting a wide range of homeowners needs. And the ambition is to expand our customer base and also to drive profitable growth through assortment development and further strength and sales effectiveness in our stores and online channels. And at the same time, we will maintain strong cash generation and prioritize our resources towards areas with the highest potential. And to deliver on these ambitions, we are focusing on four areas. First, we will strengthen our understanding of customer needs and purchasing journeys and the launch of Our customer program is one important step enabling us to offer more relevant assortment and more targeted communication. Second, we will continue to develop our customer offering based on the customer needs and this includes complementing existing range but also to evaluate selected adjacent opportunities and improving how the offer is presented and activated across our sales channels. Third, while our in-store operations are a clear strength, we see further potential to become even more customer-oriented and commercially effective. And this means providing, improving how we support customers in-store, enhancing customer experience, but also strengthening conversion and increasing their average basket size. And finally, these initiatives will be supported by the continued use of AI and other new technology. We have already, as mentioned before, seen positive effect in selected areas, and we see further opportunities to support our store teams, to streamline admin processes, and also to deliver better customer experience. And taken together, this initiative represents a gradual transformation in how we create value and drive possible growth going forward. With that, over to Helena and our financial

Thank you, Carl. I will take you through the financial development in the quarter, our cash flow, and our capital structure. But let me start, as usual, with a slightly longer-term perspective before turning to the quarter. We are on slide eight. The chart illustrates the earnings progress we have delivered over recent years. while rolling 12-month sales have remained broadly stable, the rolling 12-month EBITDA margin has increased from around 3% two years ago to 6.4% today. This margin expansion reflects the work we have done to strengthen gross margins and improve cost efficiency across the business. The progress is active driven rather than driven by recovery in the market. And it gives us a stronger starting point as we now focus even more on commercial development and profitable growth as we have described by Carl. Turning to the quarter and the EBITDA bridge on slide nine. Sales increased by 7.1%. including a positive currency effect of 1.5 percentage points. Like-for-like sales increased by 5.1% and growth was primarily volume driven. Gross profit increased by 48 million. Gross margin was 37.2%. close to last year, meaning that the margin remained at a very strong historic level. Higher purchasing volumes triggered increased supplier bonuses and supplier cash discounts, and it helped to offset a weaker underlying product margin development in the quarter. OPEX increased by 26 million, an higher increase of 8.3%, but around 40% of the increase relates to currency effects. The remaining increase primarily reflects sales-driven investments in marketing, IT, and the in-store customer offer, including the renewed flooring range that Carl described earlier, personnel costs remained well controlled in the quarter. Overall, this means that the EBITDA increased by 24 million to 296 million and the EBITDA margin improved to 14.2%. On slide 10, we have the cash flow. and cash flow from operating activities on a rolling 12-month basis was $765 million. This is lower than last year because we have increased working capital through higher inventory levels This is a deliberate choice. Strong availability has supported the high season, reduced out-of-stock situations, and also positioned us well for autumn and winter season. We will continue to balance inventory levels against demand and capital efficiency. Investment levels remain selective and disciplined. CapEx increased modestly. mainly reflecting investments in our ERP upgrade and other IT capabilities that support future automation and AI. And even after this increase, CapEx remains below historic levels. Our financial position remains very strong as seen on slide 11. Net debt excluding IFRS 16 amounts to 70 million at the end of the quarter compared with 196 million a year ago. Net debt to EBITDA was 0.1 times down from 0.4 times last year and well below the covenant limit. Net debt naturally varies over the year due to seasonality, and due to inventory buildup ahead of high season. However, our leverage remains low, and we have substantial covenant headroom and unutilized credit facilities. And before I hand back to Carl, we are on slide 12. Against this strong position and background, the Board has decided to initiate a share buyback program of up to 60 million. The program starts on the 26th of October and may continue until the 2027 Annual General Meeting. The program will be carried out in accordance with MAR and Safe Harbor Regulation An independent investment firm will manage the repurchases of Nasdaq Stockholm and make all decisions on the timing of the purchases independently of Big Max. This program complements our dividend policy and reflects the strength of our balance sheet and cash generation while maintaining financial flexibility to invest in the Group's growth strategy. The Board will continue to evaluate the capital structure over time. The Board's long-term ambition is to use share repurchases alongside dividends as part of a balanced approach to capital allocation. And with that, I will hand back to Carl for a short summary before we open up for questions.