Humble Group AB (publ)

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Humble Group's presentation for the fourth quarter of 2025. My name is Noel Abdayim, and I'm the acting CEO of Humble Group. With me today, I have our Group CFO, Johan Lennarsson. Good morning, everyone. To everyone calling in, welcome, and thank you for taking the time to be with us today. We will now go ahead and present the results for the fourth quarter. There will be a Q&A at the end of this presentation. So let's walk through the quarter. Our organic sales growth came in at 6%, with revenue exceeding 2.1 billion SEK. Our gross profit was in line with last year, And the quarter also marked an important shift for us as a group, where we have accelerated our transformation efforts with clear priorities to build a more performance-driven Humboldt with stronger operational discipline. The growth during the quarter was mainly driven by our segment's future snacking and quality nutrition, where our brands are growing well, as well as our production business within the sport nutrition sector. We saw smaller growth within our Nordic distribution segment and faced a small negative growth within our sustainable care segment, mainly driven by a volatile market in the UK and Germany. In general, our diversified structure and strong local teams continue to deliver a healthy organic growth on a group level, but there's always more that can be done moving ahead. Cash flow remains to be a key priority for us and we delivered a strong cash generation during the quarter with the continued focus to optimize inventory levels. Also, I'm very happy to report that our net debt continues down closer to our financial targets. U1 will now dig into the numbers.

Thank you, Noel. And looking at the top line, we are, of course, pleased to see that we continue to grow the organic sales development. NetSales grew 6% organically during the quarter. And this is, of course, driven from a strong demand in our, mainly in our future snacking and cold nutrition segments. Looking for the full year and a quick glance, we grew, let's say, organically nearly by 7.5%, which is aligned in the financial targets where we say that the majority of the growth target should be organically driven. But for the quarter we ended up as Noah said on 2.1 billion and also worth double clicking on is we faced a significant currency impact of 87 million crowns in the quarter and in total for the full year of 180 million crowns. Looking at the profitability, the gross profit amounted to 665 million crowns in line with last year. That implied a gross margin of 31.4%. It's a small decrease versus last year but please bear in mind again here we notice a significant currency impact of 33 million crowns negative for the quarter. But looking at the profitability and the EBITDA especially, adjusted EBITDA decreased to 139 million crowns. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached 6.5%. We had once again mentioned the currency impact had a negative impact of the overall profitability for the quarter with 7 million crowns. And apart from the challenges in sustainable care, where we have volatile and tough market conditions in both the UK and the German market, we could see a very positive development and possibly positive contribution on the profitability from our future snacking and quality nutrition segments. But with that said, we repeat that the underlying gross profit is a high key priority for us. And we just need to adapt to the volatile currency environment that we are facing. But it's not just about the profitability. If we turn the page and looking more about the cash generation, we ended the quarter on a cash flow before changing networking capital of 127 million crowns. That is in line with previous year. But more positively, it's also that we noted a strong release from the networking capital of 79 million crowns, mainly driven by a good release of our inventory levels, which came down and contributed with 86 billion in the quarter. The cash flow from operations of the changing networking capital amounted to 206 million. which would be compared to 132 previous year. And also looking at some cash flow metrics as our free cash flow amounted to 167, which is a significant decrease from previous year of 95 million. And then we converted 126% of the cash flow in relation to EBITDA. So all in all, we are very happy with the cash flow in the fourth quarter. And also glancing at the full year, just to double click on that as well, we are happy to conclude that Humble generated over half a billion in cash flow from operations during 2025. That is an increase of 80% year on year. With that said, cash flow and be mindful with the capital employed is a continued high priority for us going forward as well. And as a result of strong underlying cash flow, we saw that we can conclude that the leverage is continuing down, reaching 2.6 times adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and end of the year. Now with that said, we do have a lot of all our debt in Swedish currency and we do have a lot of cash in both US dollars and British sterling. So with that said, we have an exchange rate differences in the cash flow and the cash and bank of 38 million SEK for the year. And we also had a negative impact on the profitability of 19 million, 18 million for the EBITDA for the year. So taking these two effects into account, totaling comprising to 57 million crowns for the full year, the FX adjusted leverage would have decreased down to 2.4 times. So with that said, the FX is challenging for us during the quarter, but we need to adapt to the situation we are working in, operating in. Now, we see a very good opportunity and good possibility to continue to drive the leverage further down. We do have, and I want to flag for that, we do have some remaining Calpex investments in the new confectionery site at the Grans in Skövde of approximately around 70 million during the first half during 2026, which will have a temporary impact on the continued deleveraging. But with that said, we see a good opportunity to continue to strengthen the balance sheet and the overall financial position for Humble during 2026. With that said, now I think it's time to move on to the business segments. And Noel, you're happy to go ahead.

Thank you, Johan. So let's talk a bit more about our segments. If we start off with the future snacking segment, we continue to grow well. During the quarter, the organic growth in the segment reached 21%. And several brands within the segment continue to gain market share through new launches and increased listings. During the quarter, we also started the installation of our new production facility in Skövde. And over time, the new candy production facility is expected to strongly contribute to the segment's future international expansion while strengthening our position on the Swedish market. We have also launched our flavor dates, True Dates, in the US at top retailers such as Sprouts and Sam's Club, which is owned by Walmart. If we move ahead to the sustainable care segment, we had a more challenging quarter with organic net sales declining by 1%. We continue to see a volatile market in the UK and Germany. And our subsidiary Solent, which constitutes a significant part of the segment, performed fundamentally well, although the loss of a distribution contract negatively impacted the growth for the quarter. The EBITDA and the segment was also affected by currency effects of minus 5 million SEK. Within quality nutrition, which is our sport nutrition segment, organic growth amounted to 11%. And we have seen a strong recovery in the production of sport nutrition products. And our assessment is that this positive development will continue into the new year. We have also completed the full integration of our supplement production units. And although this has involved some short-term costs, the long-term efficiency gains are now in place and will strengthen margins and operational performance moving forward. The EBITDA in this segment was also affected negatively by currency effects of minus 5 million SEC. Sorry, 2 million SEC. Finally, we have the Nordic distribution segment that grew organically by 3% during the quarter, with a stable gross margin development. The business continues to contribute significant value through an established distribution model with broad market presence. And this strengthens both our own brands, but also our external partnerships. At Prevab, we have also initiated a warehouse relocation to support our future expansion. At the same time, the consolidation of the platform into one Prevab is progressing according to plan. Together, these new initiatives will strengthen our operational capabilities and position as well to hopefully win more additional contracts within Swedish retailers during the year. Finally, let's look ahead to what's next for Humble. After one quarter as acting CEO, my view is clear. Humble has taken an important step towards a more operational approach where we act more actively as owners and devote more time and effort to our businesses. The efficiency program is progressing according to plan, and we are confident in achieving the communicated cost saving targets. The work to streamline the group through selected strategic initiatives and potential divestments are also underway, and we hope to share some more news within the upcoming months. At the same time, we are also looking at new M&A. We're continuing to work hard to strengthen our financial position and balance sheet, where we are focusing on reducing leverage and maintaining a strong cash flow generation. just as we did during the fourth quarter. The whole team are very excited about the road ahead in shaping the new and improved Humble Group. We're committed to delivering value to all our customers, partners and shareholders. Thank you all for listening in. We will now open up for the Q&A.

Thank you, Noel. During the presentation, we can see that we've had quite good interest and many interesting questions coming in. Just trying to navigate a little bit through them and take them as we go. We can start with Hans-Marius from D&B, asking about if there are any positive effects from FX going forward, as well as on gross margins, strong SEC versus purchases in US dollars. And yes, here we can just, in short, say we're talking about two different currency effects. When we talk about currency effects in the report, we are talking about mainly the translation effects. Then, Hans-Morris, you're asking about the transaction effects. And yes, there is a somewhat positive underlying effect from this, but there is a natural lag from when we do the purchases, from when we transfer it through the inventory and can see the positive impact in the P&L going forward. So some positive impact to be expected, but we will see when that turns out.

We have one question here regarding the strategic review. In respect for the processes, we do not want to share any financial details on how the potential deals might look like. What we can say is that we are working on a few potential divestments. And as mentioned before, our hopes are that we'll be able to to release some news to the market within the upcoming weeks and months. There's a question here from, let's see, in which segment do you see the greatest potential for divestments and acquisitions? I would say that in the potential M&A deals that we're looking at, as our quality nutrition and future snacking segments are growing well, And we see that we are good owners of these companies. These are segments we are definitely looking at improving and inviting more companies into.

One short question about ongoing CEO recruitment. And Noel, do you want to reply on that very short?

Yes, so the board has actively been working on the recruitment process for some time. And it's obviously following a structured and thorough approach. The progress, the process is progressing well, and a decision will hopefully be communicated to the market in the near term.

One question from GLG about any measures targeting the inventory and working capital levels going forward and yes of course we do have several different measures that we apply internally working capital in relation to net sales and the working capital ratio is two of them but of course there is many different to apply and The challenge for us of course in terms of when speaking of the working capital is how to make sure that we have enough inventory to meet the strong demand in our underlying segments while being as efficient as possible with the capital. So that is the core questions that we balance on a day-to-day basis to reply on that question. Yeah. And Noel, maybe from Victor at DNB Carnegie, a question about the US expansion for Swedish candy. Would you like to elaborate a little bit on that one?

Absolutely. So we've launched primarily candy as our own brand in the US where we have received several listings at retailers in the US. At the same time, we're also one of the top performing brands on TikTok Shop. We are also discussing with a few partners of potential private label deals for the US market. And at the same time, our distribution arm, Prebop, does still get significant inbounds and sales from different retailers, both online and offline. that are currently selling candy to the United States. So I would say that it's progressing well. And our website is also up and running and performing well. So the US is interesting and a market we are focusing on, not only with the Swedish candy segment, but also our True Dates. So as mentioned earlier on, TrueDates have received several significant listings in the US. And less than two weeks ago, we launched at Sam's Club, quite a big listing, where we're very excited to see how the rotation out of score will look like in the coming weeks.

Thank you, Noel. And just one question from GLG here about the other external expenses of other external costs, 40% of sales. I wouldn't say all-time high, of course, perhaps in absolute measures, but it's in line with the 40% was the same level last year as well. year on year we have a certain percent of other external expenses to net sales. And of course the question about marketing costs and marketing spend, that's something that we continue to monitor closely. We have communicated a little bit about it previously, but we continue to oversee and make sure that we spend the money where we think we get the best bang for the buck. our short thoughts on that one. Let's go through, there's a lot of questions today and that's of course very happy to see a good interest for this presentation. Noah would you like to share a thought on the cost saving program very short, what you think about the progress?

Absolutely, so the work started directly in Q4. And as mentioned earlier on, we are confident that our announced targets will be reached within 2026. When those effects will be visible, we'll probably see it in Q3 of 2026 and moving ahead. But we are confident that we will reach the targets that have been announced

Yeah, and also to tap into that one, of course, now we've made the quarter that we've been through has been, we have had high focus to execute on the reorganization and the efficiency program communicated. And then, of course, there is a delay from when the full effect is expected to be visible in the financials as well, and especially the full cash flow effect, as we do have. a lot of contractual obligations that we are actually paying for as we go right now but that will be expected to be visible at the mid Q2 and especially going into the third quarter during 2026. see what we have more which more questions we've got here trying to navigate them through all bear with us here um one question from victor at capacity utilization how is it progressing in your recent capacity investments when we can when can we expect uh satisfying utilization level during second half 2026 it's a question from from victor at the mba can you can you maybe know what you want to share what's the

With the update of the Skövde factory? Yeah. Absolutely. So we have started the initial installations of the machinery. Obviously, it's always tricky to plan a complete new factory. But with that being said, our target is still to be up and running sometime around the Q3, Q4 period during the year. At the same time, we are working with several retailers, brands and partners to fill up that capacity. And it's looking very promising, not only for our sugar free production line, but also for our standard sugar candy.

Thank you, Noel. One question from Victor also about the working capital, is it structural or seasonal? The effect that we saw here in the fourth quarter, and of course, I would say it's a little bit of a mix. Yes, there are some seasonal impacts to our business, but this is also a very high priority area for Humble to make sure that we are improving the efficiency with the capital employed quarterly, every quarter as we go. uh and also it's very a little bit challenging to to uh guide on the expectations going forward but we can what we can say about the working capital for 2026 is things seasonal things that do have an impact on us on us is that we have an early easter this year in q1 coming in where the sales are coming in in q1 rather than in in Q2 that we had last year that will highly likely be impacting the working capital in the beginning of the year. But with that said, we continue to monitor this and do what we can to optimize the inventory levels to both drive sales but also be efficient with the capital employed. One question from Sergey Suarez at Aguia Capital regarding the outlook for capital expenditure. I think, Noel, you replied to that a little bit regarding the capital investment in Graz. We expect to have approximately 70 million left to deploy in that project. But besides that, we have the Bars investment in Australia that also is near completion. It's not expected to drive that much cash during 2026. Besides that, this maintenance complex mainly, I would say, no new big investments that are planned currently. Our biggest focus is to make sure that we continue to reduce the overall leverage and improve the financial situation, financial position, I would say. Two, I think maybe the last two questions. I hope we've covered most of them. If we want to touch a little bit on Solent, we're mentioning a challenging quarter in UK and Germany, but foremost Solent. Would you want to give a comment on that, Noel?

Sure. So we did lose one distribution contract at the end of the quarter, which affected the sales. However, it's important to mention that it's the name of the game. You win some and you lose some. But we're at the same time happy to say that Solent is still winning new business in the UK. However, it's important to mention that the contracts that Solent work with are usually for the long term. We work with very, very large retailers, which means that if we win a contract today, It might be ready to be released and entered into the store during the summer or in Q3, Q4. So it takes some time, but we feel that the team are on it. We work closely with the management team over there and we're seeing good progress in new deals.

Perfect. Thank you, Noel. With that said, I think we have covered all the questions or at least the vast majority of them. We are continue working on Q1 and delivering a strong 2026. Any final remarks from you, Noel?

No, just as this quarter, we will continue to work on delivering strong organic sales. The leverage needs to get down and we will manage that by improving our own cash flow, but also with the potential divestments that we have ahead of us. And of course, improving the profitability. Thank you everyone for calling in today. I wish you a nice weekend ahead. All the best.

Thank you so much for listening in.