Rusta AB (publ)

Good morning and thank you for joining us for Rusta's presentation of the first quarter of the financial year 2026-27. My name is Katrin Wigsell, I'm the CEO of Rusta and I'm here together with our CFO Sofie Malmunger. Rusta delivered a solid start to the new financial year and we're pleased to take you through the quarter today. Looking at the agenda, I will begin with a business update and the highlights of the first quarter. Then Sofie will take you through the financial performance in more detail. After that, I will share a few words on the outlook ahead, and then we will finish by opening up for questions. Let's start with the business update. Rusta delivered a solid first quarter with sales growth and improved profitability across all segments of our business. We welcomed more customers to our stores. We saw higher conversion and increased sales per customer. Great combination for driving growth. We opened five new stores in the quarter, and the expansion continues at a high pace. Only for this fall, we have 14 stores in the pipeline. Our store concept renewal continues to support like-for-like growth, and we're rolling out the next phase, health and beauty, starting now in September. The gross margin continued to develop positively, driven mainly by our assortment renewal and by positive currency effects. Finally, we have started the tuning of the automation project at our central warehouse. Capacity is increasing step by step as the system is calibrated and the ramp-up is progressing according to plan. Looking at the quarter in figures, net sales grew by 9.9% and like-for-like growth excluding currency effect was 2.2%. Sales increased in all segments with other markets in the lead with a growth of 13.2% excluding currency effects. The gross margin increased by 1.7 percentage points to 44.3% driven by our successful assortment renewal and supported by currency tailwind in line with the previous guidance. EBITDA amounted to SEK 330 million compared to SEK 280 million last year, an increase of 17.6%, delivering an EBITDA margin of 9.5%. We also saw strong cash generation. Cash flow from operating activities increased by almost 61% to 758 million SEK. So growth, margin expansion and cash conversion are all moving in the right direction at the same time. Taking a closer look at our store network and our expansion plans. We now have 248 stores across our markets. 129 in Sweden, 57 in Norway, 52 in Finland and 10 in Germany. On top of that, we have a solid pipeline of signed and approved locations with new stores planned in all our four markets. We expect to open 40 new stores this fall, of which three stores were opened in August and one store was opened now in September. And we maintain our guidance of 65 to 80 new stores over the coming three-year period. Our expansion potential grows as our brand recognition increases, which makes it possible to open in smaller cities than before. As an example, we had a really strong start for our new store in Vagnhärad in Sweden, which opened in the first quarter. And this is a really good example of us being able to drive traffic and high sales in a smaller community. A softer real estate market also gives us opportunity to good locations on attractive commercial terms and our strong financial position allows us to act when the right opportunity appears. As always, our bar of entry remains high and the quality of the pipeline is good with a large share of locations in or around major cities. A few words on the renewal of our store concept, which is an important driver for like-for-like growth. Phase 1 of the updated concept was launched in the autumn of 2025 and the rollout has continued since then. The results are encouraging and support our guidance of an uplift in sales growth for the updated rooms following implementation. The next step is the health and beauty area where rollout has started now in September with great engagement among our colleagues in the stores. The concept renewal is a key part of how we grow sales in our existing stores. It makes it easier to shop, it improves efficiency and it strengthens the customer experience. I will now hand over the word to Sofie to go through our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you, Catherine. Turning to the financial performance, Rusta delivered a solid first quarter with profitable growth across all segments. Net sales increased by 9.9% and excluding currency effects by 8.7%. Like-for-like sales excluding currency effects increased by 2.2%. Growth was supported by more customers, higher conversion and more items per customer. Gross profit increased by 14.5% and the gross margin improved by 1.7 percentage points to 44.3%. The improvement was driven by strong results from our assortment renewal and positive currency effects. EBITDA increased by 17.6% to 330 million corresponding to a margin of 9.5 compared with 8.8 last year. This reflects the combination of strong gross margin development and continued good cost control. Looking at the segments, all three delivered sales growth, positive like-for-like growth and improved profitability in the quarter. Startinging with Sweden, net sales increased by 6.6% and like-for-like growth was 2.4%. Customer footfall and conversion continued to improve, while the updated store concept supported sales, particularly in home decoration. EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 improved by 2.4 percentage points to 21.4%. In Norway, net sales excluding currency effects increased by 7%. Like-for-like growth excluding currency effects was 3.2%. Strong campaigns, increased footfall and conversion and updated store concept again contributed positively. EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 increased by 1.8 percentage points to 13.7%. Other markets delivered the strongest nest sales growth of 13.2% excluding currency effects and like-for-like growth excluding currency effects was 0.7%. Growth was driven by new stores and the positive development of Rusta online. EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 increased by 2.5 percentage points to 6.2%, supported by effective cost control and strong overall sales growth. Overall, the quarter shows profitable growth across all segments with strong performance in our mature markets and progress in other markets despite continued challenging marketing conditions in Finland and Germany. If we look at the profitability drivers, the improvement reflects both stronger gross margin and continued cost discipline. Sales KPIs developed positively across the board. We had more customers, higher conversion rates and more items sold per customer. The gross margin increased by 1.7 percentage points to 44.3% and the main drivers were strong results from our assortment renewal and positive currency effects. Operating expenses as a share of net sales decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 32.9%, reflecting good cost control throughout the value chain. This is particularly strong given the five new store openings in the quarter compared to none last year. The negative contribution from other reflects mainly negative currency translation effects on balance sheet items compared with last year together with higher depreciation. Despite this, EBITDA increased by 17.6% and the EBITDA margin improved to 9.5%. Returning to cash flow and the balance sheet, starting from the middle in the picture, cash flow from operating activities increased by 60.7% to 758 million SEK compared to 472 million last year. The improvement was driven by stronger profitability and a positive development in working capital. Networking capital decreased to 1243 million SEK, reflecting a good turnover of our summer assortment. Our financial position strengthened further. We ended the quarter with a net cash position of 587 million SEK. This strong balance sheet gives us continued ability to invest in new stores, in the supply chain and in other long-term growth initiatives. Let me finish with a few words on our financial targets. Our medium term target remains unchanged and we are well positioned to deliver on them. We aim for an annual average net sales growth of around 8%, like for like growth above 3% and an EBITDA margin of around 8%. Our dividend policy is to distribute 30-50% of net profit each year, taking our financial position into account.

Thank you, Sofie. A few words on the outlook before we move over to the Q&A. Our expansion continues in a high pace. So far this financial year, we have opened nine new stores and we have an additional 11 new stores in the pipeline for the fall. The store expansion is complemented by the continued development of Rusta Online that is now available in all our markets. We also continue the rollout of the updated store concept and as mentioned, health and beauty is the next area for renewal. On current trading, we see stable sales development in August. We expect the continued geopolitical uncertainty to lead to higher freight costs and cost of goods by the end of the second quarter. But we expect these to be mitigated by currency tailwind. As you might have seen, this year Rusta celebrates 40 years, and we will continue to meet our customers with very strong offers throughout the anniversary. With that, I would like to open up for questions.