Synsam AB

Welcome everyone to Synsang Group's Q&A session as released the interim report for its second quarter 2026 this morning. My name is Frida Leim and I'm head of master relations at Synsang Group and the moderator of this Q&A. I'm joined by our CFO Per Hedbom and our CCO Jimmy Engström in the studio. If you're watching the webcast live, you can submit your question using a question box on the webcast page. We have our analyst from Citi joining us. I would like to welcome and hand over to Yang Yang.

Thank you for having me on the call again. You know how I always like to start my question list. My first question is, if you have any comments on the broad consumer sentiment or the purchasing behavior through the course of Q2 and specifically, it would be helpful if you could compare it to what we saw in Q1, please.

Yes, if we compare to previous quarter, we see somewhat more positive consumer sentiment across all markets, really.

And would you say that this improvement has continued in the early part of Q3?

We see a general improvement from Q2 and onwards, yes.

Okay, that's helpful. And since we're now, you know, right towards the end of the summer now, but we have had a very warm summer here in Europe. Could you talk about what potential impact we could expect in terms of the sales of sun in the quarters?

Yeah, the sunglass season has been, as you say, also relatively warm and hot in Sweden, and we have seen a good development also in that category.

Okay. I want to then ask specifically about Denmark. I read in the press release that you called out 390 basis points of contribution to organic growth from changes to the handling of returns. Maybe can you give us a little bit more details around the changes and what kind of positive impact do you expect in the coming quarters?

I think we described that quite extensively in Q1, but it's a technical change in how we account for lifestyle when customers hand in their spectacles, which technically improves sales and reduces gross margin, basically. And we are quite open with that in the report. And that effect came in Q1 and will continue every quarter during Q26. And of course, continue next year as well, but then we compare same quarter by quarter.

Yeah. Do you expect a similar magnitude of positive benefit to Q2 in Q3 and Q4?

I don't want to give any forecast, but it's the same technical effect that will affect Q3 and Q4 as in Q1 and Q2.

Okay, that is very clear. And just looking at the different regions, I think, You have had better than expected performance in three regions, but in Finland, it felt slightly short of consensus expectations. Can you give us a little more color on the dynamics in Finland and how do you expect this to trend going forward?

Well, we have good growth in Finland and we take a market share. That's very important to underline. In the quarter, we had somewhat lower gross margin and we, of course, have an ambition to... We focus on the growth margin very much, but it was somewhat lower in Q2. And also personnel costs were somewhat too high in Q2, which we are looking at very closely. So we are confident that our ambitions are the right ones in Finland. And we have a growth strategy in Finland. Goal is to be number one.

That's clear. And yeah, I also noticed that you call out the personnel cost. Is there anything extraordinary here? Is there anything similar that you're seeing in terms of pressures in other countries or is it just a Finland topic?

No, it's more calibration issue. I mean, when they grow very fast, you need to ensure that you have enough personnel in the stores and that need to be calibrated very closely. And we're looking at that. So a little bit too much people in the stores, which is easily handled.

Okay, that's clear.

So we talked Finland, we talked Denmark. I wanted to touch upon Norway. I saw in the press release you called out planned marketing spend. I just want to confirm that this is related to the exclusive partnership that you have with Haaland. And is there any sort of increase in marketing spend that you're also expecting in Q3?

Well, first and foremost, I mean, we have increased our efforts and increased marketing throughout the group, especially in Norway. So it's not just Norway, but especially Norway. And that has given positive effects, I would say. So it's very important to align that the traffic and the... Attention we got from these initiatives have been very positive, but increased market spend, especially in Norway. And we're looking at sort of quarter by quarter on what marketing spend to, which is optimal. So I can't give a forecast, but I mean, if we see that increased market spend will add to sales and give a good net benefit, we will continue to do that. But that's sort of something evaluated continuously.

Thank you. And can I confirm whether you already saw better sales performance as a result of this campaign already in Q2, or is it something that you incurred costs in Q2, but you're expecting to see benefits in the coming quarters?

We saw benefits from our initiatives in Q2 on sales.

Okay. You also mentioned that this partnership increased the increase the awareness of Sinsam and Sinsam's offering to new target audience. Could you maybe elaborate on what kind of, what the characteristics of these new audience that it has bring to the group?

I think, I mean, there was a World Cup. Erling Haaland was one of the biggest stars. We had this campaign and we had a partnership with him. And that in general gave a broad attention to Synsam across all our markets, I would say. But of course, you know, families, kids and young, and, you know... in general a very broad attention to this campaign and to Synsa.

Okay, you also mentioned that you are now starting to have online sales in selected European countries, I presume outside of the usual four countries that you operate. Can you provide a bit more color around this? Is it strictly within the context of this partnership, or is it a direction of travel that we should expect to see SinSan expand more on?

Well, we are testing, as we have mentioned in the press release, online sales in six markets in Europe outside Nordics. And it's a test, and we are evaluating that continuously, the sale of Holland frames. So... In due time, we will evaluate this pilot, I would say, regarding online sales outside Nordics.

Okay. Well, Kiva, look out for that. I also wanted to ask about the other cost line item, which was, I think, minus 28 million this quarter. You call out the inventory... revaluation? Is it something that we should be expecting to see in the coming quarters?

How should we think about this? I don't think we talk about re-evaluation. I mean, internal profit occur when we sell frames from our own central warehouse to the stores and we build up inventory in the stores. Then we need to compensate that additional profit with the reduction, that's sort of internal profit. That effect, if I recall right, was 13 million more negative than last year. And that's an effect of inventory buildup basically. So that makes up a large part of the total increase in negative effect from minus five to 28 centrally. Then we have some additional market costs and other costs in that item.

And is this, I'm just thinking how best to sort of look at this topic going forward, how should we approach the modeling of this?

Well, I mean, in Q2 generally, I mean, now we have quite large inventory build up due to several factors which came in at the same time. But generally in Q2, we have an inventory build up ahead of the sun season, which tend to create some internal profit effects in Q2. These should not be as big in other quarters.

Okay, that's really helpful. Thank you. And I suppose maybe a question in terms of the product mix. So I saw you called out positive sales mix in some countries, but in Finland, for example, and I think you touched upon this earlier when we talked gross margin, you talk about unfavorable sales mix. Is there any particular purchasing trends that's happening in Finland that you are seeing and How should we be thinking about this in the coming quarters?

No, I think we are focusing on the gross margin and the EBIT margin in Finland. So it's a continuous work on ensuring that we get good effects on our initiatives. Generally in the group, the largest mixed effect in the group in this quarter in total was the increase in prolongings for lifestyle, which give a positive effect on gross margin.

Okay, that's clear. And I feel like we touch upon this topic every other quarter, but when I look at the churn rate and you have a time series in the press release, it looks like it has consistently picked up over the last several quarters. I understand also that the live site install base is also growing, so it could be partly that. But anything you can comment on to shed light on this growing trend in terms of churn rates?

Well, if you look compared to Q1, it's a very, very small increase. So it's very quite stable in the group. Important note. It's also important note that we have a stable, slightly improving situation in Sweden. So we see the churn is quite stable right now in Q2. at the group level and improvement in Sweden. You want to add, Jimmy?

Oh, exactly.

Yeah, I think it's... Yeah, sorry.

No, also Denmark, I would say, compared to first quarter.

Okay, yeah, that is clear. I think I was more asking from the angle of if you looked at... the churn rates every single quarter since sort of Q2, 2003. It has been relatively stable, yes, but there is a slight gradual uptake over time. So I think the question was coming more from that angle.

Sorry, please, could you repeat the question so we understand it?

Yeah, so if you look at, there's this, in the press release, it also shows the quarterly churn rates since 2023. And you could see that sort of from around the sub 2% level in 2023, we are now around the 3% level for the group today. So the question was around whether that is a trend that we should continue to see and what would explain that.

Our focus is to stabilize the churn. And I think we have achieved that in Sweden. Whether we will achieve that in all countries and the group, we cannot commit to today. But I mean, we do have programs such as wind back programs, et cetera, to ensure that we keep churn on a stable level. But we cannot give a forecast. That's too early.

Okay, that's helpful. I think I only have one last question to ask and maybe this for Jimmy. AI glasses being sold in your stores, maybe it's good to have a comment on how's it going today and how's it trending versus your expectations?

Yeah, I mean, there is a gradual increased interest and we mentioned also in the report that we see a strong development for smart glasses, which is in line actually with our expectations, I would say.

Is there any specific characteristics to the customer that purchase AI glasses that you have noticed?

No, I mean, this is, of course, a new area and it's sort of a growing niche still. And we see that there are people on all ages and both men and women buying. Initially, there was a bit more men, middle-aged, but now also we see this becoming more popular also with other demographic segments.

That's really interesting to hear. Thank you. Frida, I think that takes me to the end of my question list today.

Great. Thank you, Jiang. So it's time to start wrapping up. But before we close, Panjim, anything you would like to add?

I think we can summarize that. We see that we are well positioned for the future. In Q2 we deliver strong growth, improved operating profit and continuous strong cash flow. Synsam increases its market shares in the Nordics. And we had an organic growth of close to 10%. And since some live subscription grew by close to 17% in the quarter and now has 780,000 customers. So we look positively to the future.

Thank you. Big thank you to Per and Jimmy. And I would also like to thank our analysts, of course, and everyone who has joined this webcast. If you have a question we have not answered today, please send the question to the email address below and make sure it gets answered. Thank you for joining us and see you next time.