Björn Borg AB (publ)

Good morning and welcome to our Q1 2026 report. It's a beautiful Wednesday morning and that's not the only thing that is beautiful this morning. It's also our first quarter. So, of course, it's always good to read your own quotes. But to summarize the quarter... Our sports apparel growth continues. Now we've been growing double digit for 15 consecutive quarters. This is also our 21 quarter with sales growth. So of course, we look back at a very, very strong journey and never before have we started a year stronger with both record sales. and a very, very strong operating margin, increasing 37% versus last year. So all in all, absolutely fantastic. Net sales, as I say, 301 million, so that's a record quarter. Super good, plus 7%. The currency neutral, it's just above 10%. The gross margin is at 54%, so a good increase versus last year. And the operating profit, consequently, is also increasing then with 37% versus last year, hitting 47 million. So overall, a super strong start of the year. And given, of course, that the world around us has been fueled with uncertainties, we're super, super proud. And of course, clearly, this is the effort of a very, very strong team that don't actually work quarter by quarter, but rather have a long-term perspective. And again, just to remind us all, This journey was never about making a quarter versus the quarter before. It was about transforming the brand into becoming something bigger, moving into a bigger house, a bigger arena. And the idea, of course, was to build a sports brand from this old, very beautiful underwear brand. Our mission, and that's the one that we would want then the consumer to tap into, is about inspiring people that you can be more. that you should train not to win Olympic gold medals, even if that's okay too, but it's far more important than that. You should train to live longer, be happier, be a better father, laugh more. So that's really the core of our message. And looking at the financial KPIs, we've said we want to grow double digit, 10% currency neutral. We started the year doing that, but of course the world is not currency neutral, so we're a bit shy with just above 7% growth. Looking at our operating margin, of course, well above our target. Well, the dividend, let's see, we've proposed three SAKE, but of course that will be determined in our AGM in about two or three weeks, but a very strong history of a high dividend over the year. So a good direct yield, of course, for the company. Looking at equity, asset ratio is also very, very healthy. And of course, one highlight is that net debt is lower this year versus last year, which of course is also very, very good. Our strategy has been really, really grow online. So both own e-com, but also, of course, our e-tailers and marketplaces focusing on the wholesale business in terms of own channels, really, really pushing D2C with own e-com in the spear front in terms of category. Of course, the most important one is sports apparel. And again, to repeat myself, this is now the 15th quarter in a row with double digit growth. So super, super strong The next, of course, growth engine will be footwear. However, that is not developing the way we want. So we're actually declining in the quarter with 20%. However, there's a few highlights even in the footwear category. So Sweden is actually up 14%. Own Ecom is up 10%. Denmark is up 60% on low numbers. So we see that the footwear collection has been perceived as really, really well in some markets. And then we need to do some structural changes in some other markets where we actually have reinforced the team in both Holland and Belgium. And hopefully then that will also fuel then footwear growth, which is one of the identified growth initiatives going forward. Our focus in terms of geography is still the same. We want to continue to grow where we already are. And what we've said is that we want to open up one new market, and that's Germany. So nothing new, but of course, massive growth numbers from the German market in the first quarter gives us a lot of confidence that this is actually the right decision. Even though we also see that the consumers in Germany are are a bit hesitant even more so than actually the the nordic ones but again you know with small market shares you can grow in a growing market but also in a declining market and that is of course our approach looking at the brand so our most important asset together with the team and the two things that makes us completely unique it's growing in most of our markets in most of our KPIs, but a couple of highlights. So brand strength for HIM in Germany is up 500%. Yes, low numbers. But again, of course, we're slowly building the brand in Germany. Looking at consideration HIM, that's growing. So could you consider buying from this brand? Very, very strong brand KPI. And then looking at Holland, consideration HIM, again, also growing versus last year with 24%. So Super strong traction for the brand and very, very important, of course, to continue to fuel this growth journey that we are on. And here listing, of course, all of the brands around us. It's a very competitive landscape, and we, of course, are dominated by two giants in terms of Nike and Adidas. But when we ask consumers across all our markets, we see that we are one of the few brands that actually are increasing consideration where actually most others are declining versus last year. So of course, that's reassuring and showcasing them that the communication we do, the products that we put into the market and the whole team It's really slowly then building this brand into something bigger and stronger than what it was yesterday. So that is exceptionally good. And with that, of course, we will dig a bit into numbers. And of course, no one is better doing that than my CFO, Jens. So we will continue to talk about records. And again, the highlight, if you missed that, 300 million. We've never sold more. So congratulations, Jens, to a job well done.

It warms my heart. Well, good morning for me as well. It's a beautiful day. Someone once told me that the day will only become as good as you'd let it. I think that's quite wise. That was you, Henrik. I think that's a wise saying, so I'm going to live for that. Anyway, so the sales for the quarter has started really, really well this year. So over 300 million, as you can see from this slide, never have we sold more any quarter in the company history. So that's 7% up, as Henrik already said, currency neutral, that's above 10% growth. If we look at the different categories, underwear had a really, really strong quarter, plus 15%, which is extremely good. Many of the wholesale markets have delivered first quarter in underwear category, super strong. Apparel continues to grow double digit, 12% in Q1. Socks, 30%. Other categories, as you heard, footwear, for instance, is declining and so is bags, so we still have some work to do. Looking at the geographies and the markets in our own subsidiaries, most of the markets are growing. However, the Benelux markets are declining, mainly related to the footwear category, as I just mentioned. but the biggest market, Sweden, is up 3%. Finland, super strong, so 27% up. Denmark, low numbers, but close to 70% growth. Distributors as a whole is growing as well. However, it differs wildly between the different markets. The biggest one, for instance, Norway, is declining, while the joint of the smaller ones is increasing rapidly with 160% up. If we look at the channels, wholesale, as I mentioned before, super strong double digit growth, 11%. And here we see mainly the e-tailers, so the online players within the wholesale segment are growing quite fast with 20% up. But also the physical stores of the brick and mortar are growing 7% in the quarter. OwnEcom is still growing, however, a bit slower than what we have seen before, but still on a good track. OwnRetail declining heavily with 29%. However, that's not comparable, so we're closing down stores. That's why the numbers look like quite a big decline. Comparable stores, meaning the stores that would open the same quarter last year, they are also declining with 8%. So something needs to be done here as well. Distributors, as I said, up 9% as a whole, where the smaller ones actually, Austria, Slovenia, for instance, are growing really quickly at the moment. Gross margin up four points, up to 54, super strong quarter. And also, as you heard before, the operating margin or the EBIT is up 37% in the quarter to 47 million. So extremely strong. Never have we had a stronger EBIT in any Q1 in the history of this company. So super glad to see that, obviously. If we summarize this to a simplified P&L sales, as I said, 7% up over 300 million, margin 54%, four points up versus last year. The operating expenses are increasing as planned with 222 million, 8% up, and that brings us to an EBIT of 47 million. The margin is also increasing with 3.4 points to 15.3. Before I hand over to Henrik again to close this up, a few highlights from the balance sheet as well. The solidity of the company is also increasing, being stronger. 53.5%, 1.5 points up versus last year. As you heard before, net debt is decreasing, so that's very positive to see. We're declining that one with 15 million. and the working capital is fairly stable. We've said before we want to track around 20%, and that's more or less where we are. So there are good numbers in the balance sheet as well. I'm super pleased with the quarter. Wishing you all a fantastic week. And with that, Henrik, I hand over to you.

Brilliant, brilliant. Thank you, Jens. And to wrap it up then, so three, I think, major key takeaways. The first one is Germany. So not only are we growing strongly in the German market, also we see that the brand is getting stronger and stronger on fairly low levels, but still the strategy of really focusing on Hamburg and building it from one street to two street to one city to two cities is really, really working for us. The second one, of course, we have a very, very strong wholesale development. growing in the quarter, especially, of course, driven by Finland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. And here within that, we see good momentum within e-tailers. And we see that the distributors are recovering as well. But again, of course, small numbers in the quarter. Looking at the categories, both underwear and sports is really, really growing versus last year. And of course, again, as we've said now numerous times, If you want to keep track on whether what we're doing is working, look at the sports apparel development. And now, again, 15th quarter in a row with double-digit sports apparel growth. Of course, we're super proud over that. To sum it up, a very strong start of 2026. And Again, we're here for the long run, so I'm sure there will be strong quarters and perhaps there will be weaker quarters. Who knows? But overall, of course, our ambition is to constantly improve and become better every day. And I think we've now proven that for a number of quarters in a row, which is, of course, thanks to a great team focusing on this idea that you can indeed move a strong underwear brand into a bigger arena and built a global sports fashion brand. And yeah. As we've said a couple of times, even though we've been here for a long time now, this is merely the beginning. I think we're up for something really, really big here if we do things right. So I think with that said, you know, thank you for listening in. Let's see if Hjalmar has any questions. He usually has some stuff that he wants to ask us. So let's fire away.