Synsam AB (publ)

Hello, the time is 9.30 and it's November 18th. Welcome to this question time with Synsan Group, with the reason for the quarterly report that we released this morning for the third quarter of 2025. My name is Frida Leim and I am in charge of Synsan Group and will moderate this question time. Today I have the company of our CEO Håkan Lundstedt and our financial manager Per Hedblom who will answer questions. You who are watching this live, you are welcome to ask your question on the website of this broadcast. We will try to answer as many of them as possible during this Q&A session. We also have our Swedish analysts with us on the link, who will have the chance to ask their questions. So I would like to start by welcoming and passing over the floor to Victor Hansen from DNB in Carnegie. Hi Victor, welcome to your questions.

Thank you Frida, hi Håkan and Pa, some questions from me. If we start with lifestyle, promising development there, I think. The renewal sales grew strongly and the turnover decreased. So I wonder, what's behind the lower turnover?

It's hard work, but we are constantly working to upgrade and improve the employment model and make it more flexible and more attractive to more people. And also make sure that those who are in the model feel that there are big advantages to staying. And we also work with the customers who, for some reason, have also signalled that they want to go over to cash or do something else. It is a strong work that is done all the time, which also makes us We feel quite safe with the level on the core. It can vary slightly between quarters, but it is quite stable. As I said earlier with the core, we have several key figures to look at, including customer satisfaction. Our MPS is perhaps one of the most important key figures we follow, and we see that it is very strong, that the customers in the subscription model are very satisfied. This also means that the core will stabilize over time and hopefully will go down as it did in this quarter.

Håkan, you mentioned increased competition. Can you tell us more about that? Which part of the business, which country, which segment?

More generally, if you look at how 2025 has been, it has been a weak underlying consumer market. You can't forget that. And that's why I think it's extra strong that we can create our own market a little bit, to still grow organically with 12.4%. And if we look at the Swedish market, where we grow over 15% organically, we really take market shares. What this does is that the competitors are trying to respond. During the whole year, there have been aggressive plays from the competitors with discounted plays and so on. This is nothing new for this industry. This is what it looks like over time. If you look at the competition situation, you have a small competition of Black Friday, which is not a very big activity that we participate in, but it is generally a competition from the consumer's agenda. We can't say that Black Friday has really started yet. I think many other consumer companies have high expectations for this year's Black Friday. But for our part, it's more of a competition from the consumer's blueprint. So that's more what you should reflect in that comment from my side.

That sounds good. Håkan, you mentioned Sweden and 15% organic growth. If we continue with the Sweden theme, and you rolled out iView during Q2, so how important was iView for the 15% growth in Sweden?

Very important, and what we have said earlier is that iView makes it possible to be accessible. more towards weekends and evenings. And we see that we have had a positive development towards weekends. We have a better availability than what we had earlier. And it is still on a relatively weak market. So that's why I say that we have the ability to create our own market and go much stronger than where the underlying market is. And we have definitely done that in Sweden. And I think we are doing a lot of things right in Sweden now. Our greenfield investments, investments in smaller areas, where we get profitability much faster, and so on, I also think that is extremely pleasing to see. And Sweden is a little ahead of the other countries in many ways, about the conceptual, how we develop our offers, and so on. Therefore, Sweden is extremely important to show that we can go so strongly on that market. It feels positive. Super.

One last question from me. It was in Norway. I think that the sales growth is slowing down and the margin is a little weaker. Can you tell us more about the development in Norway?

Norway's growth, and it will always be in relation to how the market went. Even in Q3, we took market shares. We were the actor that has gone strongest on the Norwegian market. Even there, we can say a little at the expense of margin. But in general, we do the same things in Norway as we do in Sweden and Finland. But if we look at this quarter, if there is something I am not really satisfied with in the Norwegian market, it is that the margin has dropped a bit.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Victor. Then we move on to Andreas Lundberg from SCB. Hi Andreas, welcome to Dina Frågor.

Thank you so much. I will go back to Sweden. Nice growth you are talking about, but maybe not. Is there a real draw in the margin of profitability? Can you explain that?

Salary in Sweden? Yes, exactly. The margin is stable and easy to increase in Sweden. How do you think Andreas?

In theory, it should have gone up more, I think. It can be related to another question I have regarding the rollout of training of personal eye view and the use of optician consultants. What is the status there and what do you see in the future?

We have an increased margin in Sweden in compared to Q3 previous year. The gross margin is stable, somewhat down, but largely stable. With the growth we have in Sweden and an increased margin on EBIT and EBITDA, we have a strong increase in absolute profitability on both EBITDA and EBITDA. But do you think there is more? Yes, we have more to do at iView. 17% of the visual examinations are done via IVU now. We see that we can do more. Optical consultants, the cost will be reduced continuously. We still have more to do. The work is not finished yet to increase the penetration.

I would like to point out that growing organically over 15% and like for like at almost 12% is very, very strong in Sweden. And of course also being able to grow the EBIT margin from 1.4 to 1.9 is a strong message. Skulle vi tagit ner tillväxten på att få en bättre marginal? I det här fallet tror jag att det är jätteviktigt att se att vi kan ta marknadsandelar nu i ett läge där marknaden är lite svagare. Så jag måste säga att jag är väldigt nöjd med utvecklingen på den svenska marknaden. iView är ju bara i sin linda. Det är inte så att vi har rullat ut iView. full out in all stores. The efficiency of iView is still relatively low, so to speak, but it will come. But what I still find joyful is that we see that we have a positive development towards the weekends. That we can receive several customers now on weekends, which we couldn't before. We see that iView contributes to that, and also towards evenings. So, I think the Swedish business has developed very positively in Q3, but of course we can get better. Absolutely. And we should.

And the brutto market in general, over the entire group, maybe not Sweden as it seems negative, but how do you see that?

The competition situation is that we are not alone on the market. We have talented competitors who really try, when we go forward as we do, and take market shares on three or four markets, of course our competitors try to respond to that. And it gets a little more spiced up with discounts, and in that case increased competition. But despite that, I still think we're doing well during this quarter. But we're getting a little hit on the brutto marginals, that's how it is.

I'll take one more question and then I'll jump out of the queue. Do you say that the stores are a bit overloaded, or the ones that opened on the 24th and 25th? What do we think about it in the future? You are opening new stores, but will there be less burden in the future?

It will be a little less burden. Then our stores will be profitable quickly, you have to remember that. But after this heavy effort from the 24th to the beginning of the 25th, we have a goal of 90 stores in total, new establishments 24 to 26. And that is the goal we aim for, so then it will be a little less and thus a little less burden initially before they are profitable. So a little less speed and a little less pollution in the future. Then we have rebuilds as well, with positive effects.

It is a very important rebuild to move stores or sometimes cluster stores that can be a little too close to each other and make larger, more attractive units. It is also in our plan that we work with and do it continuously. Then, I think in the conclusion report that Per has also presented in the morning here, we also show the development in smaller towns, in shops in smaller towns. And there you see that it is mainly not the big cities that the biggest development occurs in profitability development in smaller shops, but it is done out in the country. If you want to look at it visibly, look at it in the future. The units that we... 90 stores by the end of 2026, that's the plan. And then 80 stores from 2027 to 2029, with a number of completed renovations to Mega and so on. We see that strategy working very well. And just the places that you see that we have come out on in the last 8-10 months, they will, just like Per said, come to profitability very quickly. And there is still a very favorable position out there. It is, the rents have come down out of the country. Or if it comes only from the major state regions, then we see completely different rent levels compared to what it was before. And we really get AAA position. So that... We really have to prioritize now and really be able to take the Russians in the cake and take the best.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you Andreas. Then we move on to some questions here. I have rolled in many questions in the chat. One question is, Finland has had a very strong growth in recent years. How will this continue in the future?

We have a goal to become the leader in Finland, so we aim to continue a strong growth. We have a strong concept in Finland, so if we look at the exact percentage, we expect a strong growth in Finland, absolutely.

Finland, I think, really shows that you can grow like-for-like. Like-for-like to growth. It's important to look now. We follow like-for-like. New stores are all the same. But that you grow in your core, that you grow in existing stores, is extremely important. There we can see in Finland that an incredibly nice like-for-like to growth. The best concern we have in Finland, apart from Sweden. So that the Finnish, so to speak, The consumer or the customer has really taken to the visible concept. We see that Finland will continue to invest and grow with profitability in the coming years. And I also believe that we are on our way to becoming the next largest on the Finnish market. We are on our way to pass the second place. So if it has happened now during Q3 or will happen during Q4, we will see. But a very nice development in Finland.

Thank you. I have one more question. Why increase net debt?

Yes, we have both divided and repurchased. You have to remember that this year we have had the effect of our repurchase program that affects net debt with 262 million, as well as the division of 260, so that's why it's increasing. We have a strong cash flow basically.

Thank you. Let's move on and welcome Emanuel Jansson, Danske Bank. Hello Emanuel, and welcome to your questions.

Hello Frida, thank you very much. Good morning Håkan and Per. I thought we could stay a little longer in Sweden, where we had a very strong and nice development. With the influence of iView, do you feel that, especially from smaller cities, you feel a stronger growth now, or broader in the country, as you see the growth take off?

No, but the growth comes on the width. It's not just in one place, but we have a nice... It's not a special country or a phenomenon that we have grown, but we have grown both in the countryside and in the big city. About the same amount. So... Then... Should you remember that iView makes it possible today, perhaps not a higher efficiency, but a better availability. It's important to point that out. And as Per said, it's his linda. It's 17% of all visual examinations that are done now in Sweden by iView. or with iView, and it will increase with time. But again, it's in its infancy. Before we get this to sit, we have a lot of work to do. That we get the full effectiveness out of it. And we haven't done that in all the places yet. But that we see the effects of iView, absolutely. And it's above all the availability. If you can't do a visual inspection on weekends, you don't get a real turnover either. So, of course, we have increased the capacity and the opportunity to continue to grow.

And where do you think you are now in the rollout itself? But as you say, training and efforts are required there. Where do you think you are and when can you say that you are ready to fully ramp up and get the effects of iView?

Yes, but that iView is rolled out and we have the machines on site in the stores does not mean that you are fully ready and have trained all staff fully. Even if you have trained the staff, it is very important for them to work in the right way and get efficiency in it and get the whole team to work more effectively with the whole flow. And that is not 100% yet. We still have a lot to do there. And that's really nothing strange. It's about the same thing as once upon a time when we rolled out Visible Lifestyle. It didn't sit in all places directly either, but it was a successive work before it So we are far from having a full effect of iView, but you can still say that it has fallen a little on the margin, because we have had a better availability of hours where we could not have done a visual examination earlier.

Can you be there at the end of next year, do you think, or is it even further away?

I mean, our hope... My hope is... If you're going to take... If we compare it with Synsan Lifestyle, which I think is good, because the whole training effort to get the whole team to work with it in the right way, it's pretty similar. It took almost two years before you were fully implemented in the whole chain with Lifestyle, that it worked. It's probably the same way here, that it will take a little time before it's on all sites. Some places are incredibly capable of working with this now, so they've come a long way. But it's a bit different from the top and bottom. And that's where we're going to get the whole thing to sit. So we're far from satisfied with that yet. But our ambitions are high.

Should you do something bigger? If you look at Norway, in Q2, 20% of the research was IWU. Again, 20% in Q3. Should you do something bigger out of that?

I don't think you can... You shouldn't look at both Sweden and Norway. Sweden is much more likely to reach a higher percentage than Norway. We have a much greater need in Sweden right now, so it can also differ over the quarter. But the way up, that we believe that 20% is not a level that we will be satisfied with, but we will continue to develop this, so that percentage will go up successively. But how fast it goes, I don't want to speculate in that.

I was thinking that the percentage of investigations in Norway hasn't increased compared to Q2 and Q3. It's still 20%.

We have an ambition to increase in Norway. Regardless of which quarter we increase, we have an ambition to increase from 20%.

Yes, great. And then I think that we see a stabilization on the Danish market, especially when it comes to cash sales, which is growing well. I'm still disappointed with Abremang. What have you done during the quarter that has driven cash sales? Is it mainly campaigning and trying to market the products and that has given an effect? Or what do you see over there?

We are working with the whole offer in Denmark. It is also that we are trying to improve and simplify even in the abandonment model. Even though we have this prohibition against us, it is still the case that we also become better there and find solutions. But it has also become that the content business has become more focused in the Danish business. Naturally. But if you look at Denmark, there are many things we should do better in Denmark in the future. And that's actually an offer. So there it is that we look at this with the strategy that we have to be the best in every city. We are not in Denmark, and that is what we are going to fix, that we become the best in the city in every place. Then you remember something when you look at Denmark right now, I think the underlying business works very well, works effectively, is good, has good cost focus, has an EBIT margin. At 14.8%. There are many Swedish companies that are not close to that. When you look at Denmark, you should remember that we have a profitable business in Denmark. Then we are not satisfied with the growth development. We think we can grow more in Denmark. With that said, I must say that the Danish market has been weaker than the other Nordic countries. You should also bear that in mind. That you have a greater resistance in Denmark. But if we look at the future, we have high expectations for the Danish business. But it will take some time.

When you look at the market as a whole, do you think that the market has become a little stronger in Q3 vs Q2? And how do you think we should expect the market to climb in the fourth quarter?

The underlying market is still weak. I don't think the consumer behavior has it with us. It is as weak as in Q2. It continues in Q3. So the hope is, what is it that will kick off? I also think that it has been very watchful of Black Friday as well, in general. Now I'm not just looking at our industry, I'm looking as a whole at the consumer sector. Has it been watchful? It is possible that it will kick off properly in connection with Black Friday. I don't know. And probably no one knows. But I think that consumers... Thank you very much.

Thank you, Manuel. Let's move on to a few questions from the chat. Many questions have come in. Several are about smart glasses and how they are sold.

Yes, the sale of smart glasses has started well and is actually following the plan. And this is still in its infancy. It doesn't have a huge impact on our business in the nearest quarters, but it is still there. But it is extremely exciting because it is actually a product of the future. What we've seen in the last week is incredibly exciting, I think. It's Nuance, a hearing amplifier in the beacons. We have 2.5 million people in the north who have a hearing loss. Most of them haven't received help, or haven't received help, because the threshold is so high. You don't want to go with a hearing aid in your ear. This will even take it away. You won't see if you have a hearing aid, or if you have a hearing aid in your ear, or if you listen to music. You don't see anything, but that will make a lot of 40, 50, 60, 70-year-olds choose these waves. Because I think everyone knows someone in their vicinity that you suspect doesn't hear well. It could be a dad, it could be a friend, it could be whatever. But this will be a new world for them that opens up. And of course, the combination of the hearing aid and the glasses, the vision aids for the glasses will be a perfect combo. And they will be visible.

Thank you. One more question. Historically, other central functions have been a volatile position in your annual reports when it comes to profitability and growth. How do you see this moving forward?

We have a stable level now. It has been historically volatile, but we have made sure that there is an even distribution. If you look at last quarter's EBITDA statements, it is a stable level that we should be able to maintain.

Thank you. We will now move on to Niklas Skogman from Odea. Hello Niklas, and welcome with your questions.

Hello, thank you very much. Can we go back to Norway one last time? This is actually the third quarter in a row, which is at around 20% as part of the research. Even in Q1 it was 20%. What is the main reason that we do not see an increase? Because you mentioned that you want it to increase and also maybe if you want to say what level you see at some point in the future that it is at.

In Norway, it came up to 20% very quickly. A little surprisingly quickly. And then it stuck. It's not that strange. When you follow how we implemented the employment model, even on the Norwegian market once in a while, you reach a little level quite quickly. Then, before you take the next step, it's actually... Nyckeln ligger i operations, att med ytterligare utbildningar att få det här att fungera i alla butiker. Där har vi inte satt det i alla butiker i Norge. Även fast vi har utrustning på plats, så är det stor skillnad mellan Top and bottom in Norway. Even bigger than in Sweden. And that's what we're going to reduce. And when you've trained and put in training efforts to be able to take the next step, you'll also see an increase in Norway. But that's true, as you say. You've been stable at 20%. And we're not going to be happy with that number. Absolutely not.

And do you have any goal numbers for this with iView?

I mean, we look forward, and you look a year ahead, how much of the visual examinations you will do with iView. And then we see in the future that there is nothing that prevents you from maybe being able to do up to 40-50% of the visual examinations with the help of iView. And I think that will be a good combination. But we're not there yet, as I say. And we shouldn't do that either, because then we would have lost in quality. Remember, this is a whole new way of working with visual examination. It's a paradigm shift in this, and it takes a little time. You often get up to a certain level pretty quickly. Then you have to work a lot with both efficiency, processes and so on, before you lift it to the next level. And that's exactly how it is now, specifically with Norway, that we need to work through the stores that are on the lowest level of users of iView now, before we get these 20%. Yes, but that's how it looks and it's not strange. We didn't think we would reach 20% as quickly as we did in Norway. So that, on the other hand, surprised us. Then we have a while left, but now we're going to take the next step there too.

Sounds good. And then on this question about why the churn has decreased sequentially, you mentioned that ni har gjort abonnemangen lite mer attraktiva. Vad är det ni har gjort då som utifrån den kommentaren bidrar till minskad churn?

There are several things that do. It's not just that. What we also work with is also win-back activities. It is very important. We see that we have made it easy to fix things. Sometimes there has been a misunderstanding that makes you choose to go out of the model. We have also become better and better at fixing that. So there are several factors that make a flexibility in the model make you stay longer. That is important. An improvement. Another thing is the win-back activities. Also important. Then it is also our way to really sell our subscriptions. Our stores do the right demand analysis when you come in. You should not sell subscriptions to people who do not actually need it. That is just as wrong. That does not create satisfied customers. So we see now that when we follow the value of MPS, which we have cut down on every store, we see that when we go in and make efforts, even on sales management, it also affects the future market. In a positive way. When you look at Synsam, you can see that we have two good legs that are growing. The content business is very important for us. It also grew by 11%. And then we have the subscription business with 11%. It's a good combo to continue to grow in that way. But it also requires us to be on our toes all the time, never satisfied, never see ourselves being beaten up and say, now we're here, we'll never be done. But in order to earn the customer, we have to get better all the time. Now we have the tools, and what we don't measure or follow up on, we haven't done yet. We've gotten better at that. And that's when we see, that's when we plan our course.

Just specifically on this, you mentioned flexibility. What have you done there? Can you remind me, please?

All the time in the subscription, you look at different things with choices, which products are included and so on. Sometimes we have built-in delays that we have corrected. There have been some systematic things that have made it more difficult for our employees in the store. It has taken too long in the process in the sales conversation with the customer. Tiden att få klart, att göra klart det vid kassan har tagit för lång tid. Alla de här, alltså det är rad saker som vi förbättrar processerna på. Innehållet, vad ska ingå i ett abonnement, exempelvis, det förbättras hela tiden också. Och att det finns flera produktkategorier som kan få ingå. Så flexibiliteten hela tiden ökar. Vi har också då... We have looked at how many boats will be included in the subscription, in order to be completely selectable for even more. We are also looking at that and are constantly developing. So there are a number of things that are difficult to look at. It's not just one thing that we do that we work with, but we try to improve all the time and offer to listen to the customers, especially those who have chosen to leave the model for various reasons. Why do they leave the model? And there we often have the answer to what we can fix. And that's what we often focus on. Is there something in the offer that can be better, more attractive? Is there something that can be clearer? And so on. So there are a number of things we constantly work with and improve. And then we always have air. I mean, we're at 5.0 and we're about to launch 6.0, so it's that kind of air, and then comes 7.0. And then there are different types of changes in that model that make it fit more, basically.

Yes, thank you very much. Last question. This comment that you see increased competition in Q4, I did not see that you wrote that comment in Q2 about Q3, so it feels like there is something sequential here that you want us to take into account. Is it more about sales, the pace there, or are the margins that you may see will be more pressured from competition?

I think we have been good at creating our own market. We have had a tough competitive situation all year round. In Q4, things are always being sped up. And that's actually because we're doing so well and taking market shares. And that also means that competitors are trying to answer with different means. And most of the time what they're trying to answer with is increased discounts. So it's more a way for us to describe that we're growing and doing very well on a tough market. All international players are there, and it is a sector that is also seen a lot in the media, which is a bit discount driven. That is why our use is so incredibly important, where we build long-term customer relations. So more from the point of view of, yes, we do not see any recovery in the underlying in consumption. It is quite flat. Vår förhoppning är att den kommer att vända upp här snart. Men vi har inte sett den vändningen ännu. Det är mer det. Och konkurrenssituationen, jag tror att vi har beskrivit det. För ett år sedan så skrev vi att det var ökad konkurrens också i rapporten. Vi har gjort det lite grann då för att poängtera det. Men det är en konkurrensutsatt bransch vi är i. Okej, tack så mycket.

Thank you, Niklas. It's time to wrap up, but before we do that, Håkan and Per, is there anything you would like to add?

Should you start? Yes, this is a quarter where we have had a lot of growth and a lot of results. We think that we have strengthened our position in the Nordic market.

On that topic, we are going to continue to develop our customer service, and we are never satisfied in that way. We believe that there is a potential ahead that lies ahead. We are far from trimmed in our processes when it comes to iView. I think we can be better in all aspects of our company, but looking at Q3, it's strong. I'm proud of our performance on such a competitive and tough market, and that we can always create our own market, even though we see that the underlying market has been weak. Also, eye health is important. It is not that the customers choose away their eye health, but they will prioritize it. We have seen this throughout the year, that we have had a pressure in our gross margin, because we have bought at lower prices. And that's quite natural. And we have a full offer today, from the lowest prices to the highest. And what we see when it turns up, when it's a little better times, then you start to buy up. Then you prioritize better glass for quality. You prioritize a little more... More premium or exclusive bows and so on. But we have that in front of us. It has not yet hit us, so that is why we have also had pressure in our brutto marginals. And all due respect to our competitors. It is not that they sit and roll their thumbs and see that we only take the market, but they are good. They are also trying to move positions forward all the time. And with that said, I think that we, from a weak consumer market and a tough competitive situation, have performed well during Q3. Then there are areas I wish were better, and we will fix that.

Tack så mycket. Då får det bli slutordet. Stort tack Håkan och Per. Stort tack till våra analytiker och till alla er som har tittat på detta live. Om det är så att du har en fråga som du inte har fått svar på idag så är det varmt välkomna att mejla den till mejladressen nedan i bild så ska vi se till att den blir besvarad. Jag önskar en fortsatt fin tisdag och vi ses nästa kvartal. Tack!