Nilörngruppen AB

Good morning, good morning everybody to NILON Q2 presentation. For your information, this presentation will be recorded. So hope you're okay with that. There will also be possible to ask questions and you can just send them in the Q&A and Maria will later on present them for everybody and read them for us and if there are time for that she will take as many questions as there are time for and but i will share here my presentation

I hope you will see it.

And as usual, I will start with the financial performance and then we'll go over to a little bit more update of what's going on within the group. First of all, as you have seen probably in the report, the order income was up 24% in the quarter. It's a bounce back, especially for the outdoor and the sports brand, which is good, also as predicted in the Q1. So that is what we said in the Q1, and that is what's happening, especially for the outdoor and the sports brand. And that is good because that is what will come in the coming quarters in Q3 and in Q4. It's hard to predict if it will come in Q3 or in Q4. The order is when we buy the goods and put them on the stock and then they are delivered and that will happen here in Q3 and Q4. Sales is up 40%. to 262 million versus 2030. And there was almost no currency effect in the quarter. We mentioned this because historically the currency effect used to be quite big for Nieland. That is due to almost all sales and all turnover is outside Sweden. And as we consolidate in the Swedish krona, and as you all know, the Swedish krona has been quite volatile, So that has been a big effect historically. But this quarter was almost no effect. And the operating profit 24.8 million versus 12.7 last year. And in this year, or 2023 was a quite tough year for us, comparison to the historical numbers. So that also means that it's more easy for us to do easy comparison numbers this year. But if you look into a normal year, 2019, the sales was 196%. And the operating profit of 20 million. So we are also up if you compare to such a normal year like 2019. Then as you probably know, 2022 and 2021 was extremely good year for Nealon. Accumulated number up, order income 13%, sales up 12%. And also here was almost no currency effect accumulated, which is quite unusual for an international company. And operating profit, 48 million. And if you compare here also with 2019, sales was 374 million, so quite up compared to 2019. And operating profit 2019 was 35. So, yeah, we've taken a quite big step since then.

Looking at the P&L.

Here is the three months, and here is the six months accumulated numbers. We'll not go through all these numbers in detail. Gross profit is up. And so... I just want to mention a few things here. One is that if you take the operating revenue and operating cost, this quarter, if you add these two together, was negative 600,000. That is mainly here. It's mainly operating. Currency effect, there are a few other things as well, but mainly currency effect. And if you make the same calculation to last year, then you have a positive 3 million. So the delta between these two is 3.6 million between 2023 and 2024. So personal cost has gone up and that is a combination of a few things. That is we are more employees, especially more employees in countries like Bangladesh and so on. Salaries are lower. But it's also an effect of salary increase this year and is that we are some more employees in Europe with higher salaries and also the bonus effect. When we are performing or the group of performing in some countries, there are more bonuses and that has been booked this year as well. So that has an impact on the personal cost. The net financial income here, $872,000, much less than last year. That is also due to the last year here we had a currency loss effect, which we don't have here. So that is the main impact between the two. And also that the interest bearing debt has come down and also so has the interest rate. So it's a difference combination, but mainly currency effect, but also lower interest rates and low debt. Tax rate, 24% in the quarter, 23% accumulated. And I think here, looking for the year as a whole, we will be around 23%, 24%. That is the best guess for now. The tax rate is very much depending on where we make the money. And we are in 18 different countries with all around Asia and Europe and so on. So it's very much different tax rate in the different countries. So depending on where we make the money, the tax rate will go up or down. But this is the best guess we have so far. The quarterly numbers, we have an operating margin in the quarter of 9.8%. Our goal is to have an operating margin of about 10%. So we are on our way to achieve that now. Looking at the historical numbers, the 10, 15 years before here, the average was around 10, 12%. And then we had 2021, extremely good numbers. 2022, and if you remember, it was, as you can see here, up 16, 16.7%. And then it was really slowed down, especially for the outdoors brands in the Q4 2022 period. And then 2023 here and now back again. And as predicted in Q1, a bounce back for the outdoor brand. And that can also be seen here quarter by quarter. This has been the trend in 2022, extremely strong here. 2022 is extremely strong. And then there was a drop here in 2022 Q4. And that can also be seen in the operating profit where we are here now.

Balance sheet. Long balance sheet still.

We have been working quite well, and Maria, the CFO here, has been pushing quite hard on the inventory level last year. And we have seen that coming down like 50 million Swedish kronor last year, which has been good. And I think we are on a good, comfortable level with the inventory where we are now. To be honest, And to keep up a good service level and not having too much of risk in the inventory, which we historically not have had. That is also depending on that our clients sign up for guarantees that they guarantee the stock, which is unique for Nealon, I will say, compared to other not label companies, but other retail companies that all the stock we have. is client unique we don't keep labels that is can sell to other companies they are all branded the cash has gone down a little bit which is you can say good because we have taken out some dividend from Asia and could repay some of the interest bearing debt so that has gone down as well as you can see here That has given us a better financial position, less interest rate, interest cost. Equity on a good level, strong level. And as you remember, we took out slightly low dividend this year compared to historical, so only one Swedish krona. That is also coming back to that. We are standing in front of quite big investments here, both in Bangladesh and in Portugal. In financial indicators, we have a number of employees has gone up to 612. This is the average number of employees. And it's mainly in Bangladesh, I would say, that we have increased much. And we have increased also in Europe some key positions, like in sales in some countries and some overhead as well.

Yeah, we have a net cash position of 18 million versus minus 28 last year. Split by product groups.

What both the REIS, the variable data, detailed information services, the variable data has gone up from 24% to 27%. That is the RFID, Nealon Connect, et cetera. So that in proportion of the total sales has gone up. And so has packaging. Packaging, we're doing, it's here, we also see the luxury segment. It's part of packaging, quite much packaging in that. And if you see where we have increased, if you're looking at Q2 2023 and now this year, where the changes has come from, there you can see also here, 31 million is from the retail information services product, 17 million from packaging, and some from labels. Yeah, as mentioned, strong order income for the quarter. That looks promising for the autumn. Operating margin back again, almost 10%. The goal is to be between 10% to 12%. Outdoor segments coming back as predicted in Q1, slightly softer in the luxury segment. We are spoiled by really strong segments in the luxury segment, and now we see a bit slower effect here. Our marketing department, we set up more focus and put people into our marketing department. And its activities has increased quite much. And I hope and I'm sure, and if you don't, please follow us on the LinkedIn. Then you can see what's happening in the market. It could be interesting for you also to follow. So follow Nilan on LinkedIn. Our operation in Vietnam is now up. We have signed off for warehouse and office. We will now during the autumn time set up also printing production according to plan. Both in Bangladesh and Portugal, and it's still very early in the project phase, but we have identified some land, still not signed off for that, but we're working in parallel on the both two here projects. So it's two big projects, still not signed off, but we have identified land. Stock level, as I mentioned, has gone down. We've seen a big interest for what we call the Nealon Connect, and that is also a part of the cooperation with World Favor, where we now support our clients on their journey to digital product passport. That is EU legislation that is coming in Europe. Which is a big headache for many of our clients where we can support them. Nealon is well equipped to handle both challenges and opportunities in the future. And just some slides about what is Nealon Connect. It's connected. It's a digital platform, a digital service to support our client in their journey towards a digital product passport, but also towards the client. So you as the end consumer can scan the QR code and where you get the product information directly in your mobile or in, yeah. So we see that now this is the key. When we are selling to the client, we are talking very much about the Nealon Connect. So we are trims and packaging, and we still, of course, that is what we are making our money on, is still trims and packaging. Historically, we've been very good in design. We will continue with that. Retail information services here is all the variable data that we've seen also increasing now in the Q2. Logistics solutions is where we supply the labels and the packaging and the trims around in Asia, but also in Europe. Where we support to make sure that we deliver the goods where the clients want them. And then we have compliance and CSR sustainable where we are now focusing very much on the data carriers.

It's a QR code that you can see on the picture, but NFC chip or RFID chip.

So why Neelam Connect and why do we need to add? Why the client needs that information about the brand that is legal compliances. A lot of European Union legal compliances is coming. There's more to come. And also enables circular solutions, repair, resell, recycle, etc. And that this is to come even more. And many of the brands set up now so you can repair in the shops and drive consumers engagement. They can communicate with the brand owners through this digital platform. They can change and you as an owner of the brand can go in through the QR code or through the NFC chip and get information about the brands, etc., And here's the digital solutions with the mobile app, with the new unique. So each and every garment will be unique with the data carrier where they can follow the digital carbon footprint and all the certificates, et cetera, about the garment. Yeah, the financial target to have a growth of at least 7% and an operating margin of at least 10% and a strong balance sheet.

Yeah, that was my presentation so far.

And now see if we have any questions, Maria.

Yes, we have received questions from one person, and we are running out of time, but I think we have the time to answer to these questions, at least. And you mentioned in the last report that you expect a recovery in sports and outdoor in 2023. Would you say that this still applies today?

Yes, as I mentioned, the strong order income we see now in this quarter is mainly bounced back from the outdoor and the sports brand. And that will take effect here in Q3 and Q4. It's hard to predict where, if it comes to Q3 and Q4. But yeah, an order income will most likely also turn up in turnover. Otherwise, there will be some issue. But no, for sure. Yeah.

Thank you for that. And that pretty much replied the second question here. The ordering take appears to continue to normalize. Is this mostly due to sports and outdoor clients?

Yeah, I would say so. I would say so. And as I mentioned also earlier, the intellectual segment is not that strong as we have seen in the past, but the outdoor and the sports brands is now coming back. which was predicted in the past and which is really good to see now that it's coming back again.

Yeah. And we also got another question about the segments. You wrote about a weaker development in the luxury segment. Do you expect there to be as much volatility in the luxury segment as there has been in the sports and outdoor segment?

No, and the volatility in the outdoor sports brand was very much depending on the pandemic. And during the pandemic, when people was working from home, they consumed a lot of sports and outdoor brands. Everyone was home hiking and walking and sporting. And so there was extremely strong demand. from our clients in so they ordered a lot of labels and so did we and then in 2023 there was a really bounce back slow down in these segments that is now back to normalized again i don't predict that to happen in the luxury segments but luxury has been really really strong for us so i think this is more also a normalization we see here in the luxury segment

And then we had a question about the gross margin that was quite strong this quarter. Was there less packaging in your sales mix this quarter?

It was actually, if you compare to Q2 2023, there was slightly less packaging, I would say. But this is very much also depending on the client and product mix. But it was slightly lower packaging. Yeah.

Now we'll take the final question as we now have passed actually the time limit, but we will take one final. Could you explain a bit more about the bonuses impacting the costs in the quarter? Are these to be considered one-offs or something that will continue as long as sales remain strong?

Yeah, what... Actually, we're not 100% sure here because now we will, in the bookkeeping, follow this more on the separate lines, the bonus scheme. We just know that when talking to the subsidies that they booked up the bonus scheme for all, for the employees and so on. And we know that companies are performing better in the group, which has bonuses. So that is part of that. But it's hard to predict how much it is. And as long as we perform this well, the salary level will continue on the high level, I would say. So it's a correlation between high performance and high salaries will remain.

Thank you. And that was the questions we got. And we actually had the time to reply to most of that. So that's good.

Very good. Thank you very much for taking your time and listening to our presentation here. And have a great summer. Thank you.