Pierce Group AB (publ)

welcome to the pierce group q1 2024 report for the first part of the conference call the participants will be in listen only mode during the questions and answer session participants are able to ask questions by dialing hash 5 on their telephone keypad now i will hand the conference over to the speakers ceo goran dolin and cfo frederick eidstrom please go ahead

Good morning, everyone. This is Göran Dahlin, CEO of Peers Group, and with me is Fredrik Ideström, our CFO. So diving directly into the Q1 summary. During the first quarter, we saw a strong improvement overall. The demand gradually improved throughout the quarter. Our sales grew versus the same period last year with 3%, and our margins improved versus last year with 5.9 percentage points. The improved margins for the results of a combination of increased prices, lower shipping costs and the reversal of our obsolescence provisions. Adjusted EBIT improved significantly from minus 25 million SEC in Q1 2023 to plus 7 million SEC in Q1 2024. Note though that we had a significant positive effect from the reversal of our obsolescence proficience with 9 million SEK due to successful work with managing our inventories. We have a solid cash position with 278 million SEK in cash and this has been driven by our continued focus on stock efficiency as well as increased focus on our slow moving stock. The market outlook remains uncertain, but we anticipate the modest improvement in customer sentiment over the course of 2024. And we will continue with our conservative approach in terms of purchasing and inventory to safeguard our strong liquidity position. However, we expect somewhat increased stock levels going forward in support of seasonal fluctuations, the need to ensure product availability and to capture future growth opportunities.

Next slide, please.