Björn Borg AB (publ)

If you haven't been outside yet, it's absolutely beautiful. At least if you're in Stockholm, not sure about the other cities. But we're not here to talk about the weather. We're here to talk about our Q3 report for 2024. So welcome. And well, first things first, it's a record quarter. So never before have we sold more products, which of course makes us extremely happy. Another fantastic victory in the quarter is our own e-commerce that is continuing to having a fantastic development and it's growing 32% in the quarter. Very good. Looking into our channels. Ecom growing, as I said, retail, comparable stores, plus 1%. However, if we just compare retail versus retail, we're down. As you probably remember, since 2018, we've said we want to pull out from concept store on retail development and rather focus on outlets. So, of course, we've been closing store as contracts have been running out. And, of course, that's the reason why our retail numbers have been declining over the years. But, again, comparable stores were growing. wholesale our biggest channel is growing five percent and running through different markets of course we have a few super strong highlights of which one is the development in germany so plus 44 as you have recalled in august we talked about that we want to increase our growth we believe that we're ready to fuel growth even more and that we said that we want to grow at least 10 and one of the focus areas that we have said is to be successful in germany so we simply need to be bigger in a big market so a lot of effort has gone into the german market and here we see you know first signs of very very good progress so growing 44 in the quarters that's very good but um also the other smaller markets are developing very very nicely The Netherlands as well, which is our second biggest market. Looking at Sweden, on one hand, our own e-commerce is growing a lot in Sweden. However, the wholesale business is declining a bit. But overall, a very, very good momentum in terms of sales for the entire quarter. looking at product categories of course you know the victories that we have integrated footwear as you know our former licensed partner went bankrupt at the beginning of the year we took that over and we're seeing q3 that we're growing 29 percent so very very strong development and looking at our own ecom development for footwear it's actually up 114 percent So indication that there is a strong potential for further growth within footwear. Also, sports are powerless growing. So in the quarter, plus 25 percent year to date, plus 29 percent. And of course, for those of you that has been following us for a while, the whole, you know, walk to fame has been to move the brand from underwear to sports apparel and building a sports fashion brand or a sports band with a fashion edge and we've been very successful in doing that transition even though of course it's been taking a lot of time but we see now you know for the last 10 quarters that our sports apparel collection is continuing to grow looking at the margin a bit of a hit so a slight decline versus last year one reason is you know footwear West which short term has a lower margin also we've had a very strong momentum with a few of our really big European key accounts and they have a slightly higher discount and combining the two is leading to a slightly decline in our gross margin looking at operating profit however that's increasing to 42 million So yet again, we can see that we can and we have the ability to drive profitable growth. So growing top line without diluting profitability, even if the profit ratio is slightly lower than last year, still close to 15%. So overall, a good quarter. If we then look into where we want to go, just as a reminder, I think you all know it by now, but of course, our idea is to build an iconic sports fashion brand. That's where we're heading. and one of the trick of doing that of course is to really fuel all our investment is to building that no sports brand proposition and we are determined to do so and of course one of the things that we're doing is investing into the brand and short term of course that's gonna mean that the marketing investment will go up about mid and long term of course that will mean that the brand will be stronger and stronger and of course I would facilitate future growth and So just in the quarter, we actually invested $7 million more than last year, all of course into creating long-term growth opportunities. And looking at the brand, it's developing really, really well. So of course, we are asking 22,000 consumers every year. a bunch of different questions to be sure, of course, that our marketing investment is really, you know, creating attention and making sure that we are building and becoming stronger as a sports brand. And it's it's working. And of course, one of the signs is the very, very strong own e-commerce development. Looking at the the challenge. So of course, you know, we are market leader in men's underwear. We want to maintain that market leadership position. But we want to build not an underwear brand, a sports brand. Of course, that's a bit tricky. But when we are measuring also how the consumers review our underwear, we can see that we are maintaining our market leader position here. And at the same time, of course, gaining strength as a sports brand. And of course, that's reassuring and a sign that we're doing the right things when it comes to communication and building this sports fashion brand going forward. Looking at then the development, so as we said, you know, record quarter is absolutely fantastic. Year to date, of course, is also then a record. So we have, you know, strong growth momentum, but we want to grow even more. If we take out, you know, currency impact, actually, we are growing 10% and 10.4% actually, but without that, we're just shy of 9% growth in the quarter. But again, you know, a very, very strong quarter also, of course, given what is happening around us in the world. uh looking at the different countries as i said initially you know very strong momentum in germany uh sweden is declining a bit where wholesale or partners are declining whilst on the other hand our own e-commerce sweden is growing more than 30 percent netherlands you know our second biggest market is you know developing nicely finland you know belgium and denmark is also having a very very strong momentum And also we've seen a very strong recovery from the distributors that had a very tough last year, but also the beginning of the year was slightly challenging. And here, of course, Norway is our biggest distributor, and we have a good momentum across both Norway and UK and some of the other distributors. Looking at the channels, so wholesale plus 5%, that's our biggest challenge. What we see in Q3 is a strong development with our e-tailers. We have a number of pan-European e-tailers, Boost, Zalando, they're developing really, really, really good. Looking at own e-commerce, I said already, so exceptionally well-performed Q3 with growth of 32%. Also increased profitability, so 17% versus last year, 16%. So that channel is really doing well. Own retail, so declining 5%. However, of course, that's due to store closures. If you compare store by store, we're plus 1%. And distributors are plus 31%. So strong recovery from that side where the Norwegian distributor, again, as I said, is the biggest one. and looking at the online share so as you probably remember what we've said early on is that we believe that the brand has a lot of growth potential within the online environment so whether it's online marketing online communication own ecom marketplaces or e-tailers here's where we saw we have a great opportunity to grow even further And looking at this year, you know, currently it's 41% of our overall businesses coming from, you know, pure e-tailers, including own e-com. So we take a bigger and bigger share here. And of course, that group will most likely continue, even though, of course, we see that there is some changes in the landscape now. So it's a number of brick and mortar doors also doing fairly good. And of course, our idea is to have a very balanced footprint. We simply need to be where the consumers are. and where they want to go in and shop at Stadium, which we know they want, then we need to be there. And if they want to go into Boost, of course, we need to be at Boost as well. And of course, complementing them with a very strong own e-com platform. So I think the combination of the different channels is making us very, very strong. Looking at our categories, they're developing slightly differently in the quarter. So underwear, our biggest one is declining a bit. Looking at apparel, so plus 25%, so very, very good. So of course, now we are into 10th quarters of apparel growth. Looking at bags, declining, but they had a very good start of the year, so still we're growing year to date. And looking at footwear, so again, we integrated that. I think you followed us in the beginning of the year when our license partner went bankrupt. know we took that over we now integrate that into the business and we're growing 29 percent in the quarter and we can also see that the initial challenges with gross morning is actually picking up and looking ahead we believe that the footwear leisure you know is a category that actually will you know help our gross margin development and with that said of course The bottom line is also increasing, but I'm not going to be the one talking you through that. That instead will be Jens. So Jens, you fire away. I will do.

Thanks a lot, Henrik. And good morning to you all. And what a morning it is. In just a few hours, I will be jumping around, playing with my colleagues at our sports hour. And if you are on your way to Frösundavik, join us 11 o'clock today. Beatrice, I haven't talked about Beatrice in a long while. She's been out sick for a few days. She's now back. I'm so happy for you, Bea. And my very good friend Robin is back to training. So it's a fantastic morning. It's a good Friday. But back to the bottom line. So yeah, the gross margin we heard from Henrik already. A few things about slight drop in the quarter, however, due to the footwear and the larger key accounts taking a bigger share in the quarter. But still, we believe going forward that the footwear will actually contribute to our overall margin. So we have big hopes for this going forward. The operating profit, fantastic quarter, 42 million ahead of last year and also the years before. So good development on the bottom line. Net income even more strongly, let's say a development in 35 million versus 32 last year, same quarter. So good development on the profitability where we can see that the growth also comes with a good profit. If we look at the balance sheet items, we can see that our equity of assets or the solidity of the company is still strong, even though a slight dip in the Q3. However, we remain way ahead of our targets that we set for the company. The net debt is increasing slightly in the quarter, 139 million compared to 94 last year. This has to do with the footwear integration requiring some more capital here, but also a slightly higher dividend earlier in the year. Another KPI that we look at internally is of course the working capital and we compare that to a 12-month rolling gross sales and here we are declining which is a good thing obviously for us as we keep good track of that. We're just below 20% and this is despite the fact that we took over footwear that requires more working capital. We have some overbuys in the warehouse to be sure that we have good levels of inventory But despite all that, we are keeping the KPI on a good level. So I'm very happy to see that. So strong balance sheet as we close Q3. And with that short words from me, Henrik, I'll leave it to you to close this fantastic Friday.

So first, of course, as we've said, the Bjornborg brand is continuing to develop well. That's our biggest asset. That's what sets us apart. That's what we are fully owning ourselves. So, of course, very important to continue to invest. Secondly, it is a record quarter. Yes, we always want to grow even more, especially myself, but still a record quarter. We see a strong momentum across all channels. I think highlighting e-com once again, so 32% in the quarter is clearly significant. way better than almost all of our competitors and those we compare ourselves against. Last, of course, looking at the categories. As I've said many years ago, if you want to look at our development, watch out for our sports apparel development. When we get traction there, that's when you can really see that the brand is getting slowly to where it needs to be as a sports brand. So sports apparel growing 25% in the quarter. Year-to-date, 29%. footwear is growing 29 percent in the court and also a very very strong development so uh that those are the three main key takeaways i think um if i would just give you one sort of victory from q3 i think it has to be the development in germany so we really need to be big in a big market we need to get some tractions in a new market and um 44% up in Germany, I think is absolutely fantastic. We're working together with German e-tailers. We're investing into our own e-com in Germany that is actually growing 48%. And we're also slowly building a strong community in Hamburg with physical space, with partners, with individuals. And we believe really that building the brand from one city will be the key to fuel further growth in the German market. We also have this last slide. Again, looking back, I think we now can conclude that we have shown profitable growth and a solid development since a long, long, long time. It has been a bit of a dividend case. Of course, we've had high and stable dividends. Looking back... It's a strong team that has been on board. And of course, we're really, really dedicated. We also, of course, have invested ourselves heavily into this. So we want it to go good. And I think also with the growth initiatives that we now have in place and we have all the ingredients to to turn this from, you know, a mid-high single-digit growth case to a double-digit growth case. And that's really the ambition going forward. And clearly, just to highlight, what you should look for then is sports apparel that needs to grow, of course, footwear, of course, but also bags. Underwear we need to maintain, but that's not really where we see double-digit growth. And in terms of market, it's definitely Germany. Yes, we need to continue the good development in other markets, but Germany is really where we need to get a strong foothold in. We also are looking into the US, but that's fairly slow. We're a bit careful there. But Germany is really where we want to invest our money into. And looking at channels, we continue to believe that we have a very relevant place online. So meaning investing in own e-com, investing in marketplaces and, of course, in e-tailers. And, of course, the combination of those, we believe, will enable the brand then to lift to a new level when it comes to sales growth. So I think with that said, good to be here. I hope you have a fantastic Friday. As Jan said, join us for the Sports Hour. Training is going to make your day a bit better. You live a bit longer. And remember, train to have fun. Train so you can take that beer later today, not necessarily to do that triathlon on a Saturday. So with that said, I'm sure that Hjalmar has a bunch of questions for me as well. So Hjalmar, jump on board. Fire away.

Yes, good morning. Nice to meet you. So first, the numbers so far indicate that the transition of the shoe or integration of the shoe business has gone smooth. And you seem very positive about this. Could we say that the integration now is, could we say it's on a good track to fully integrated or are there any risks remaining to the full integration here?

Well, I think first, perhaps, you know, smooth, most likely is not the word that the project team would use when it comes to the integration. So, of course, it's always very, very challenging. But I think you're right, though, in terms of how the numbers are evolving. It looks a lot better than what I earlier anticipated. I thought that this would be a bit more challenging. But I think it tells, again, that the brand is strong. We have strong partners. The products are good. And then, of course, internal challenges will simply be mitigated by that. But of course, looking ahead, we are taking over distribution from markets where we have not distributed footwear ourselves before. And that's going to be a bit of a challenge. Also, of course, we are creating the footwear ourselves. And that's going to slightly change then from how things were done in the past. And when you do changes, there's always no risks. We, however, believe that it's going to be a massive opportunity. And even short term, we believe that we could expect, you know, further growth numbers from footwear. But in order to really, you know, get the full benefit of footwear and see the full potential, then that's going to take, you know, a couple of years. But we will definitely, you know, see, you know, footwear growth going forward. That's that I'm very, very confident on.

And you mentioned some positiveness regarding this segment to be margin accretive, I guess. So could you just paint a picture from where we currently are in terms of margins within the shoe business towards like a state where it's margin accretive? How is that transition going to look?

I think partly when we took over, of course, it was a bankruptcy and a lot of the footwear was sold by someone else. And of course, we picked it up from boats, from containers. Customers were unhappy because everything was delayed. No one was really knowing what was going on. So all of that happened in the spring. And in order for them to simply take the goods that they've ordered with the delays, we simply had to give them more discount. So, of course, that's one reason why the margin were a bit lower, but more related to Q2, actually. But it's a bit of that also flooding into Q3. So that's due to a lot of challenges with the whole integration. When we look at our past experience, of course, a few of the team members has been working for Adarax, for example. We know that leisure sneakers, that was the highest gross margin category of them all. And we can also see that if you do sneakers in the right way, you know, the margins are really, really high. It's completely different if you look at performance footwear. And we will most likely get into that as well, but that's not the short-term focus. So we clearly believe, partly based on what we've done in the past, also just looking at the business model that the margin for footwear, you know, should be slightly higher than for sports apparel and even close to, you know, underwear.

Right. Thank you. And you also have revised your financial objectives. Could you just remind us of the objectives and maybe like paint a picture on the growth side, which markets are contributing and how do you see that dynamic playing out?

Yes. I think the biggest difference is that we've changed the growth ambitions. The rest are fairly the same. So what we said that we want to grow in at least double digit. So that was the key message that we communicated in August. And it came out of, you know, a number of meetings with, of course, the management team, but also some of our major shareholders and the board where we simply said that we have invested a lot into the brand, you know, ERP, you know, platforms, cleaning up and, you know, integrating a lot of different categories. And we simply felt that we have a very strong base right now. And from this, we simply need to give the brand what it really deserves, which is a growth mode. So in the entire team, we were sitting down then looking at growth opportunities. So where can we grow? Knowing, of course, that we need to grow in all markets and all categories and all channels, but where can we really drive growth so it's, you know, double digit um and of course in the obvious you know first answer was let's just continue the focus on sports apparel on one hand that's moving the brand into becoming a sports brand and the arena there is much bigger than being an underwear brand and also now we have a proven track record i would say of enabling us to grow sports apparel so again you know 10th quarter in a row uh 25 in the quarter 29 year to date you know it just goes very very good and we also then looked at footwear so initially we weren't sure you know when we could integrate or when we could take over footwear but that you know became an opportunity and we simply just grabbed it because of course we knew that in order to have footwear internally that will give us a massive opportunity to you know control that fully and fueling growth so of course that's the second you know most important growth category so sports apparel footwear And then the last one we believe is a category that we integrated many, many years ago, and that is bags. So our bags, they're fantastic. And they work really, really well, but only in a few markets. And there's no really reason for that. So just by upping the bag sales per capita, so it's equal to what is in Sweden, in, for example, Holland, then we would add another 100 million. And that's really where we believe we can drive growth from a category perspective. And then, yes, of course, underwear will continue to grow. But three, 4% percent stocks will grow. Women's underwear will grow. But in terms of really, you know, making a change, we believe it's going to be apparel, footwear and bags. And from a country perspective, well, all needs to grow. But here really no Germany. That's where we want to invest. You know, it's a massive market. It's as big as all our other mature markets. Of course, we get a foothold here. Well, you know, that's going to be a clear growth driver. And on a side note, we are also doing some work in the US, but here we're a bit more cautious to see and find our way. But of course, there's also massive opportunity in the US. And last, of course, when it comes to channel, we believe that continuing to focus online. So own e-com, e-tailers, marketplaces. Here we see that we have a good traction. 41% of our business has done that already. We see that by focusing on these, we can continue to drive growth. So that's really the growth initiatives going forward.

Thank you. That's very clear. And going back a bit to the gross margin, you previously indicated that you feel that you have a very strong pricing power in the market, at least that you can maintain good levels of discounts. Do you feel momentum here? Do you feel still that you have a strong pricing power? And what could we expect going ahead in terms of campaign pressure and such?

uh yeah well we believe that the brand is getting stronger and stronger and we see that we're reducing discounts i think that's a strong sign of course especially in our own ecom um however of course when it comes to the margin there's other things of course impacting that as well so you know the category split the country split because it's different different countries and also of course you know we have the currency so It's a bit hard, of course, to guess what the future impact will be due to elections and the political situation that we have around us right now. But at least in the short term, we can see that the U.S. dollar will be stronger. I think that's pretty clear. Even though it went down a bit perhaps in the beginning of the week, I think now it's above 11 again. And of course, we're again buying a lot of our products in US dollars, but we don't have any revenue almost in US dollar. So of course, that's going to impact us for sure. And of course, that we need to then impact or mitigate by looking at prices, looking at product development, looking at where we sell the products, I think we've said a long time ago that our business model should be able to achieve a 55% gross margin. That's what we said. And of course, we're pretty far away from that in Q3. But I think that's still the mid-long-term ambition to work towards those numbers. But we always want to avoid, of course, giving any forecast. So not saying what the future will look like in the short or mid-run, but... I think there's definitely more of an upside on our gross margin than a downside, that's for sure. Even with me anticipating that US dollar probably continuing to become stronger under the new leadership that we have in the US.

Thank you. That's very useful. And also, could you give us maybe a view of the current state of the customer? Of course, there are many items affecting the customer currently on the key markets here. And we have the upcoming holidays and a strong shopping season. What is the current state of the customer in the key markets?

Looking at Nordics, it's been very warm. and that's not really good for the trade because you don't sell the high-priced ticket items like jackets. And that, of course, together with looking predominantly perhaps more on Sweden, where we see interest rates going down, there's tax relief coming into play next year, there's talk about changing amortization, So, of course, there's a lot of indications, things that already happened, that will mean that you will have simply more money to spend. And, of course, together with a slightly warm fall, which means that there's overstock, coming into then black friday and christmas you know i anticipate that black friday and christmas will be a wreck finish of the year i think that's uh that seems to be very clear um we however uh are not sort of following that trend though so it's not like we can do an excess clearance or you know go completely you know bananas here but i think there's a lot of indications um that will enable consumers to you know shop a bit more um and given excess stock and the combination of the two i think we can look forward to a record fall in terms of sales

Thank you. That's very, very useful. And finally, on the highlighted, of course, very positive development in Germany, if you were to maybe elaborate a bit on the long-term potential you see here, what could the German market mean for you in the future?

Well, some people have a tendency to sometimes call me unrealistic, but of course, we can do a billion only in Germany. So again, that market is as big as all of our other mature markets combined. So the opportunity is massive. But also, of course, the challenges. Looking at the political stability right now in Germany, it's been fairly challenging. I saw some studies just last week. The household seems to be fairly confident, but there seems to be a big worry around the country. And that's of course also impacting your willingness to buy things. But we're very, very small. We have a three-step approach. And all of those three things that we have put to play is actually showing good results. So own e-com in Germany is growing 48%. looking at Zalando and some of the e-tailers sales in Germany. It's not in other markets. It's also growing unproportionately. And then we've started to work with Hamburg. And the idea, of course, to build a very small physical foothold and then, of course, grow from there. So it's including then, you know, partnering up with Alster House, with, you know, Tennis Point. with gyms, with, you know, restaurants, with influencers, but in a very small, you know, area. And that is also, you know, in initial, you know, actions has been falling out really, really well. But again, it's very early on. It's still very, very small. But I think that's the approach really to win in Germany. But of course, but if we win in Germany or when we win in Germany, well, that's going to be by far our biggest market, you know, for sure, you know, probably four times the size of Sweden. And that will then take the German market to a billion.

Sounds very positive. Thank you so much, Henrik and Jens, for coming here today, presenting and answering our questions.

Brilliant. Thank you. And thank you for listening, guys. Have a great Friday and see you at the Sports Hour. And if you're not joining, well, do sports yourself. Have a great Friday.