Dear all, welcome to the third quarter sales twenty twenty-four of Maisons du Monde. François-Melchior de Polignac , CEO, and Denis Lamoureux, CFO, will be your speakers today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be the question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Alternatively, you can submit your questions via the webcast. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to François-Melchior de Polignac . Sir, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I hope you are all doing well. The agenda of today's conference is displayed on the screen. After the session on highlights and business review of the past three months, I will hand over to Denis for the financial review. I will conclude with the priorities for Q4, and then we'll open the Q&A session. During this quarter, we continued to steadily execute our Inspire Everyday transformation plan, achieving meaningful progress across all dimensions, which I will detail shortly. However, we must acknowledge the reality, the third quarter was challenging. Sales declined by 15.3% overall, and 14.3% on a like-for-like basis, driven by a volatile macroeconomic environment, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and the renovation of our store network, with several locations closed for refurbishment during the period.
While July and August were tough months, we observed a marked improvement in September, with like-for-like sales trending at minus 9.4%. The challenging macro backdrop has undeniably impacted consumer confidence and discretionary spending, a trend reflected across our sector, as highlighted by Banque de France data for the quarter. Our transformation plan is on track, and while the full impact is yet to fully materialize, we are confident that the positive results will become increasingly evident in the quarters ahead. One of the key areas where we've already seen tangible results is in price and assortment adjustments. We successfully completed a price reduction campaign on nearly 3,000 product references, which led to a notable 26% increase in volumes for the 350 references adjusted in September.
Additionally, we streamlined our assortment by 20% for the autumn/winter 2024 collection compared to that of 2022. Our store network transformation is also progressing steadily. We have already completed renovations on 20 stores, with an additional 41 stores currently under renovation and expected to be ready by early November, just in time for the peak season. The performance of our new concept stores is particularly encouraging. Those with the most comparable history are consistently outperforming peer by double digits and have been showing positive sales growth since reopening compared to last year. Moreover, we've made headway in expanding our affiliation model with our first affiliate partner store opening in September. As of the end of September, our total store network includes 336 locations, of which eight are affiliates and three are franchisees, underscoring our continued efforts to optimize our store network.
In terms of organization, we've made strategic adjustments to place a stronger emphasis on the customer experience. We've streamlined the executive committee and consolidated all sales channels under the leadership of Christophe Laporte, who was appointed Chief Omnichannel Officer after joining the company a year ago as Chief Retail Officer. This move is driving seamless execution across all touch points. By unifying retail and digital operations under a single executive leadership, we are enhancing our omnichannel integration and optimizing the business model to deliver a more cohesive experience. In addition, we announced the introduction of a new high-impact collaboration organization, so what we call a winning trial between store and regional directors, merchandising and downstream supply chain at regional level for stores. This initiative is aimed at better aligning head office and stores around common objectives for maximizing sales and margin performance, while minimizing residual inventory.
All three teams are engaged and accountable for each store, all in line with our same global, act local approach. Last but not least, we continue to maintain financial discipline. We are firmly on track to achieve our EUR 45 million cost-saving target by the end of 2024, with solid progress in inventory and CapEx reduction as well, ensuring that we are managing our resources efficiently as we drive the transformation forward. All these initiatives aim to enforce customer centricity as a core priority. Now, on store network. As of 30 September 2024, our store network comprises 336 locations, including eight affiliate stores and three franchisees, together representing 3% of our total network. As a reminder, by 2026, we aim to grow this network to approximately 400 stores with 30% operating under the affiliation or franchise model.
As mentioned earlier in this presentation, we have successfully completed renovation on 20 stores, and an additional 41 stores are currently in progress, with completion scheduled for early November, ahead of the peak season. By the end of this year, nearly 20% of our network will have been revamped, reflecting our commitment to modernizing our store base. In line with our strategy, we've continued the rollout of our affiliation model, with, as I was saying, the first store created by an affiliate partner during September in Bordeaux, France. This marks an important milestone as it strengthens our collaboration with affiliate partners, helping us to expand into white spots and enhance our geographical coverage with a CapEx-light model.... This concludes our business review for the third quarter. I will now hand over to Denis, who will walk you through the financial review.
Thank you very much, François-Melchior, and good morning, everyone. As François-Melchior mentioned, we have been focused on advancing on transformation efforts. Now, let's turn to how these efforts have impacted our sales performance. In Q3 2024, our total sales reached EUR 213.5 million, reflecting a 15.3% decrease compared to the same period last year, and down 14.3% on a like-for-like basis, not adjusted for store under renovation. As you know, we have a lot of store under refurbishment during Q3 to be ready for peak season. Despite macro headwinds and transformation of the store network, we saw an improved trend in September, where sales were down 9.4% on a like-for-like basis.
The quarter decline includes a net negative impact of EUR 13-14.2 million from comparable stores and EUR 4.1 million negative impact from stores opened or closed between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024. It is important to note that when excluding stores under renovation, September retail sales were down by 7.3% on a like-for-like basis, highlighting a more resilient underlying trend. As shown in the table, our store network has evolved as planned with the transformation plan, more affiliates, less own stores. By September 2024, this has shifted to 336 stores with eight affiliates and three franchisees. Since the beginning of the year, we opened one new store in Belgium, in Hognoul, completed the two relocations in France, mainly Barentin and Pau, and transferred three stores to the affiliation model.
Additionally, we closed thirteen stores across various markets, three in France, five in Germany, four in Italy, and one in Spain. Totally in line with what we have planned. Now, let's dive into the detail of our sales performance by channel, category, and geography. As François-Melchior highlighted at the beginning of the presentation, our figure reflects the volatile macroeconomic environment, still affected by supply chain disruption, which continued to weigh on consumer confidence and discretionary spending, along with the accelerated transformation of our store network. How has it impacted our sales breakdown? If we look by category, decoration sales were notably impacted by delays in product implementation and last year's stronger end-of-season sales performance. In contrast, the furniture category demonstrated greater resilience with a more limited decline of 6.4% over the quarter.
I remind you that Banque de France has published minus 6.6 on furniture on the quarter. By channels, inventory reduction constrained end of season sales in our retail store compared to last year, compounded by delays in receiving our autumn-winter collection. Online sales also experienced a decline due to reduced traffic. However, we saw continued growth in our marketplace, namely in Italy and Spain. In Spain, sorry. By geography, we observe similar trends in both France and international markets, both of which were affected by our ongoing store network optimization. Additionally, France faced some disruption in traffic due to the Olympic Games in the Paris region. You have to know that basically, the Paris region is not far from being one-third of the French business. This concludes the main point of our Q3 sales performance for twenty twenty-four.
I will now hand over to François-Melchior to present our key initiatives for Q4, both from a commercial point of view and from a financial discipline point of view. Thank you.
Thank you, Denis. So now let's explore how our further reconnecting with our customers is indeed at the core of our commercial actions for Q4. We are thrilled to announce that our autumn winter twenty-four catalog is now available not only in stores, but also for the first time as a supplement in popular fashion and home decoration magazine across France, with a combined circulation of four hundred and forty thousand in the paper. This initiative aims to engage our customers where they are most receptive. In addition to this, we will launch for the first time in years, an advertising campaign designed to enhance our brand visibility and reinforce customer engagement in this key Q4. We are also proud to introduce our first loyalty program in France, Ma Maison du Monde, crafted thoughtfully with our customers in mind.
This program creates a world of unique privileges tailored to their preferences, innovative and responsive to the needs of over 4.5 million customers throughout France, especially in this challenging economic climate. Ma Maison du Monde goes beyond transactional benefits. It focuses on relationships, emotions, and services, allowing each customer to experience a sense of belonging as if they were truly at home. This loyalty program, Ma Maison du Monde, is based on three loyalty statuses, Likers, with last year spent between zero and 199 euros in spending, Lovers, two hundred to nine hundred and ninety-nine, and Addicts, from 1,000 onwards in spending. Each group reflects a deeper connection to our brand and enjoys exclusive benefits, including discounts, premium services, and access to exclusive events.
One of the main transactional benefits is a privileged shopping day, where customers can enjoy discounts between 10%-20%, depending on their status. This privilege is not restricted to a fixed date, but is adaptable, allowing customers to choose a day they wish to use their discount... a concept that enhances the personalization of the experience. But beyond simple financial benefits, Ma Maison du Monde focuses on unique services and experiences. Lovers and Addicts customers will have access to private sales, exclusive events, and early previews of certain collections. Ma Maison du Monde loyalty program has been co-developed with our customers, from the naming of the three statuses to the content and privileges it offers, ensuring they truly feel at home while creating their personal living spaces. The launch of Ma Maison du Monde is an opportunity for us to honor our customer promise, drawing on insights from our team and the aspirations expressed by our customers, while also delighting them in new and unexpected ways. For instance, we organized an exceptional weekend experience exclusive to our ten best clients in France. Each of these valued customers were called personally and invited to spend an exclusive weekend in La Rochelle at the Maisons du Monde Hôtel & Suites. here they enjoyed a curated agenda filled with memorable activities designed to strengthen our relationship and show our appreciation for their loyalty. Indeed, our aim is to make this experience truly unforgettable, highlighting the personalized approach that sets us apart.
We believe that by investing in these special moments, and others that I will not detail here, we can deepen our connections and enhance the overall experience of our customers that they have with Maisons du Monde. Last but not least, all lovers and addicts will receive complimentary access to our new innovative platform, Maisons du Monde Plus, created specifically for this launch. This platform has been called by some, indeed, the Netflix of decoration. It serves as a new channel for audiovisual programming, accessible through a URL that reflects the essence, the mindset, lifestyle embodied by Maisons du Monde through our diverse sides and services. Maisons du Monde Plus is fun, inspiring, and engaging platform designed to take our lovers and addicts on a unique journey, offering even more inspiration, support, services, and personalization. We will soon develop a link between this platform and our e-commerce site.
On top of this initiative, you will see something new in our stores in France in the coming weeks. Namely, a number of additional product offers, carefully selected from a small number of categories and partner brands, that will enrich for the first time our offer for end-of-year presence. As part of our ongoing transformation plan, Inspire Everyday, we are committed, as you know, to modernizing and optimizing our store network. This involves, as you may remember, tailoring our new concepts to the diverse typologies of our stores, i.e., city centers, retail parks, namely ZAC in French, and regional shopping centers or CCR in French. We have specifically designed a new concept to meet the evolving expectations of customers in shopping centers, and I'm pleased to announce that our first two pilot stores will open at Polygone Montpellier and Cap3000 early and mid-November.
These stores will offer a fully immersive shopping experience, focusing on three key principles: attract, facilitate, and inspire. Attract, we are implementing open store fronts to seamlessly bridge the gap between the gallery and the store, enhancing visibility and encouraging foot traffic. Facilitate, to improve the customer experience, we are introducing self-checkout stations for quicker transactions, especially for smaller purchases. Additionally, we've designed specialized furniture to showcase items like mirrors, frames, and lighting more efficiently. Inspire, the store layout will feature a curated journey through different product categories with dedicated themed spaces, as well as an inspirational wish list area, where the customers can dream up their ideal interiors. Serve and retain. Finally, we are integrating a service area for click and collect and personalized advice to further enhance the customer experience and build long-term loyalty.
Such concept will prove key to us, not only of course, because it does adapt our store format that we already worked on at the beginning of the year, as you remember, to special location. But also, you have to have in mind that those CCR, commercial centers, are clearly showcased because they have a huge traffic of customers or potential customers going through those alleys. Now, as we continue to navigate a challenging macroeconomic environment, financial discipline remains a key priority. I will not go into too much detail, but you can imagine that we are thoroughly challenging each line of spend and CapEx, and indeed changing the culture of the company to deliver our objectives.
You can bear in mind, for instance, that our efforts that we already spoke about, such on the assortment and the organization, have allowed us to reduce square meters, both in supply chain and head offices in Paris and North, that now directly fuel savings for the remaining months of the year. All these initiatives allow us to be firmly on track with our 45 million cost-saving plans for this year, which is, of course, critical to achieving our overall target of 85 million EUR in savings over 2024-2026. Alongside this, we will maintain tight control over CapEx investment and work to further optimize our working capital. In Q4, our focus will also be on driving sales during the critical peak season, while ensuring our transformation initiatives are fully executed to deliver also long-term return to growth. This concludes our presentation.
Denis and I appreciate your attention and, of course, are here ready to answer any questions you may have. We are ready to move to the Q&A session.
Thank you so much. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star one one again. Alternatively, you can submit your questions via the webcast. Please stand by, we'll compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments.... And now we're going to take our first question on the line, and it comes from the line of Clément Genelot from Bryan, Garnier & Co. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good morning, thank you. I have three questions from my side. So the first one is on the sales in Q3. Are you able to split the Q3 performance between prices and volume? My second question is on the working cap, given the rather poor sales trend in Q3, of course, and then I would assume more throughout, matched globally. Is it still viable to have a smaller working cap inflow this year? And my third question is on the freight. Can you give us an update on the freight, please? Because I would assume that the spot freights are still high and that some ships are still avoiding Red Sea. Thank you.
Awesome. Yeah, Clément, thank you. We could hear you loud and clear for the two last questions on the working cap and the freight, but I'm afraid I could not hear you well on the split in the Q3 sales performance question, the first one.
On the split between prices and volumes.
Ah, okay.
Yeah. Thank you.
I will take the question two on the working cap, and I will let Denis give you an update on the price and volume topics for Q3, and also share with you a freight update. On the working cap, we do not see any challenge in achieving our working cap ambition for this year, because of the fact that the first point we have to bear in mind, we did explain that we had some delays in the implementation of the new collection, and this did impact the sales throughout Q3, notably in August, and still a little bit in September. But the good news for us is that the performance of this new flow is in line with our expectations.
Plus, of course, we are carefully adjusting our Q4 plan to make sure that we maintain the flow rate of the new collection, of course, of the older collection in the sale. So we do not expect to have any challenge compared to our working cap ambitions for Q4.
Okay. Regarding this other question on the split on the price and the volume, it is basically, as you have seen, we have a mixed effect linked to more furniture as well as declining decoration, so we have a more declining quantities than the sales due to that mixed effect, mainly. On the third point, on the price side, we are covered by our contract, and so far we can, except for the time, as you mentioned, the delays of deliveries, from a financial point of view, we have a very, very low impact due to the hedging we have on this kind of contract. It will last until the end of the year, and we are under tender for next year.
Excuse me, Clément, do you have any further questions?
No, that's all. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. Alternatively, you can submit your questions via the webcast. And now we're going to take our next question. And the next question comes from the line of Florent Thy-Tine from TP ICAP Midcap. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Hi, just two question on my side. The first one, can we have the impact of the renovated stores on revenues in Q4, negative impact? And second question is on the gross margin, can we have some colors on the performance on Q3? Thank you.
So your question of the impact of revamped stores or stores on the revamping program is really for Q4, right? I heard you well.
Yes, exactly.
Okay. So we expect this impact on Q4 to be much more limited than the one on Q3, for the reason that although the number of stores still under work in October is important, nearly all of them, I'm saying nearly all of them, because you understood that CCR are going to reopen in November. But nearly all of them will have been completed by the end of October, which is a third of the quarter, but of course not a third in terms of sales. So it should be much minor compared to the one we experienced in Q3. Because in Q3, we you know decisively embarked on a number of works during the summertime, which was more favorable for most of our store network.
So I'm sorry, I'm not giving you a figure here, but you can imagine that it's going to be much, reduced compared to what we experienced in Q3.
Regarding the growth margin, there is a... We do not foresee any significant impact on this so far. Of course, as mentioned, there is a little mix effect that, based on the sales, more furniture and less decoration in terms of weight. But so far there is no strong significant impact that we can see, and we do not anticipate big swing on this topic.
... Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. And the next question comes to the line of Marie-Line Fort from Bernsten. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good morning. I'm coming back on your answer about the revamping impact on Q4. I don't understand how it should be less impactful while you're going to refurbish much more stores than in Q3, and Q4 is much more important for your sales, even if October is less than one-third. I don't understand very well how this impact should be less than in Q3. Second question is about international. You don't have traction there while Spain seems to be in good shape in the macro context. Is it just because you didn't put any action on the international side? And could you share also some trends for Spain and Italy, which are the major countries for you?
Okay, thank you for your question. So indeed, what I have to say on the impact of the revamping program for Q4 is the following: we really did embark on a massive number of transformation over summertime, and we also did embark on the most important ones, namely the store that did have a number of weeks closed. So I'm not saying there will be no store closed for some time in October, but it's only very limited compared to what we had in terms of actual store closing from the works in the summertime. Plus, you have to have in mind that a number of, a large number of revamping programs also started, initiated during Q3, went through the worst of their transformation period over time, and are closing to the end now in October. So this is why the impact really will be smaller.
Not only because only less than a handful of stores will be directly impacted as of November first, but also because even the stores impacted in October were in fact starting their revamping program, very often over summertime or in September. So there is no question it will be much, much minor compared to what we had in Q3. And maybe you want to give some color to the geographies?
Yeah, on the geography side, so thank you for the question. You are right, Spain is better than the other markets. So we are benefiting from a better trend in Spain. It does not mean that it is a positive trend on the like for like, compared to last year, but it is for sure far better than the global performance. If we look on Italy side, Italy is more aligned with France. Be aware that, of course, Italy has also we have anticipated some transformation in Italy already in 2023, and one country that is suffering a lot is also Germany, but you have also to have in mind that in Germany we have reduced our presence from a store point of view.
We are now up to six stores in Germany, or maybe seven. Sorry, I'm on this one, but it was far less than the last year before.
And Belgium?
Belgium is suffering a little bit, like, a little bit higher than France.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please press star one one on your keypads. Alternatively, you can submit questions via the webcast. The speakers are done for the questions at this time. I would now like to hand the conference over to the speaker, François-Melchior de Polignac , for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much. Again, as you all understand, we are very committed both on the long-term transformation plan that we embarked on this year, and it's delivering its fruit, and we are quite confident we're going to achieve that. And of course, our shorter term priority is to deliver all our action plans on sales, both on CapEx control and working capital and costs to ensure that we deliver our positive free cash flow by end of the year. And on that note, I thank you all and hope to speak to you soon enough. Bye.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.
Good evening, everyone. I hope you're all doing well. So the agenda of today's conference is displayed on the screen. After the session on highlights and business review of the past three months, I will hand over to Denis for the financial review. I will conclude with the priorities for Q4, and then we'll open the Q&A session. So during this quarter, we continued to steadily execute our Inspire Everyday transformation plan, achieving meaningful progress across all dimensions, which I will detail shortly. However, we must acknowledge the reality, the third quarter was challenging. Sales declined by 15.3% overall and 14.3% on a like-for-like basis, driven by a volatile macroeconomic environment, ongoing supply chain disruptions, and the renovation of our store network, with several locations closed for refurbishment during the period.
While July and August were tough months, we observed a marked improvement in September, with like-for-like sales trending at minus 9.4%. The challenging macro backdrop has undeniably impacted consumer confidence and discretionary spending, a trend reflected across our sector, as highlighted by Banque de France data for the quarter. Our transformation plan is on track, and while the full impact is yet to fully materialize, we are confident that the positive results will become increasingly evident in the quarters ahead. One of the key areas where we've already seen tangible results is in price and assortment adjustments. We successfully completed a price reduction campaign on nearly 3,000 product references, which led to a notable 26% increase in volumes for the 350 references adjusted in September.
Additionally, we streamlined our assortment by 20% for the autumn/winter 2024 collection compared to that of 2022. Our store network transformation is also progressing steadily. We have already completed renovations on 20 stores, with an additional 41 stores currently under renovation and expected to be ready by early November, just in time for the peak season. The performance of our new concept stores is particularly encouraging. Those with the most comparable history are consistently outperforming peers by double digits and have been showing positive sales growth since reopening compared to last year. Moreover, we've made headway in expanding our affiliation model with our first affiliate partner store opening in September. As of the end of September, our total store network includes 336 locations, of which 8 are affiliates and 3 are franchises, underscoring our continued efforts to optimize our store network.
In terms of organization, we've made strategic adjustments to place a stronger emphasis on the customer experience. We've streamlined the executive committee and consolidated all sales channels under the leadership of Christophe Laporte, who was appointed Chief Omnichannel Officer after joining the company a year ago as Chief Retail Officer. This move is driving seamless execution across all touch points. By unifying retail and the digital operations under a single executive leadership, we are enhancing our omni-channel integration and optimizing the business model to deliver a more cohesive experience. In addition, we announced the introduction of a new high-impact collaboration organization, so what we call a winning trial between store and regional directors, merchandising, and downstream supply chain at regional level for stores. This initiative is aimed at better aligning head office and stores around common objectives for maximizing sales and margin performance, while minimizing residual inventory.
All three teams are engaged and accountable for each store, all in line with our same global, act local approach. Last but not least, we continue to maintain financial discipline. We are firmly on track to achieve our 45 million cost saving target by the end of 2024, with solid progress in inventory and CapEx reduction as well, ensuring that we are managing our resources efficiently as we drive the transformation forward. All these initiatives aim to enforce customer centricity as a core priority. Now, on store network, as of 30 September 2024, our store network comprises 336 locations, including 8 affiliate stores and 3 franchises, together representing 3% of our total network. As a reminder, by 2026, we aim to grow this network to approximately 400 stores, with 30% operating under the affiliation or franchise model.
As mentioned earlier in this presentation, we have successfully completed renovation on 20 stores, and an additional 41 stores are currently in progress, with completion scheduled for early November ahead of the peak season. So by the end of this year, nearly 20% of our network will have been revamped, reflecting our commitment to modernizing our store base. In line with our strategy, we've continued to the rollout of our affiliation model, with, as I was saying, the first store created by an affiliate partner during September in Bordeaux, France. This marks an important milestone as it strengthens our collaboration with affiliate partners, helping us to expand into white spot and enhance our geographical coverage with a CapEx light model. This concludes our business review for the third quarter. I will now hand over to Denis, who will walk you through the financial review.
Thank you very much, François-Melchior , and good morning, everyone. As François-Melchior mentioned, we have been focused on advancing on transformation efforts. Now, let's turn to how these efforts have impacted our sales performance. In Q3 2024, our total sales reached EUR 213.5 million, reflecting a 15.3% decrease compared to the same period last year, and down 14.3% on a like-for-like basis, not adjusted for stores under renovation. As you know, we have a lot of stores under refurbishment during Q3 to be ready for peak season. Despite macro headwinds and transformation of the store network, we saw an improved trend in September, where sales were down 9.4% on a like-for-like basis.
The quarter decline includes a net negative impact of EUR 13-14.2 million from comparable store and EUR 4.1 million negative impact from store open or closed between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024. It is important to note that when excluding stores under renovation, September retail sales were down by 7.3% on a like for like basis, highlighting a more resilient underlying trend. As shown in the table, our store network has evolved as planned with the transformation plan. More affiliates, less own store. By September 2024, this has shifted to 336 stores, with 8 affiliates and 3 franchises. Since the beginning of the year, we opened one new store in Belgium, in Hognoul, completed two relocations in France, mainly Barentin and Pau, and transferred 3 stores to the affiliation model.
Additionally, we closed 13 stores across various markets, three in France, five in Germany, four in Italy, and one in Spain. Totally in line with what we have planned. Now, let's dive into the detail of our sales performance by channel, category, and geography. As François-Melchior highlighted at the beginning of the presentation, our figure reflects the volatile macroeconomic environment, still affected by supply chain disruption, which continued to weigh on consumer confidence and discretionary spending, along with which the accelerated transformation of our store network. How it has impacted our sales breakdown? If we look by category, decoration sales were notably impacted by delays in product implementation and last year, stronger end of season sales performance. In contrast, the furniture category demonstrated greater resilience, with a more limited decline of 6.4% over the quarter.
I remind you that Banque de France has published -6.6% on furniture on the quarter. By channels, inventory reduction constrained end-of-season sales in our retail store compared to last year, compounded by delays in receiving our autumn-winter collection. Online sales also experienced a decline due to reduced traffic. However, we saw continued growth in our marketplace, namely in Italy and Spain. In Spain, sorry. By geography, we observe similar trends in both France and international markets, both of which were affected by our ongoing store network optimization. Additionally, France faced some disruption in traffic due to the Olympic Games in the Paris region. You have to know that basically, the Paris region is not far from being one third of the French business.... This concludes the main point of our Q3 sales performance for 2024.
I will now hand over to François-Melchior to present our key initiatives for Q4, both from a commercial point of view and from a financial discipline point of view. Thank you.
Thank you, Denis. So now let's explore how our further reconnecting with our customers is indeed at the core of our commercial actions for Q4. We are thrilled to announce that our Autumn/Winter 2024 catalog is now available not only in stores, but also for the first time as a supplement in popular fashion and home decoration magazine across France, with a combined circulation of 440,000 in paper. This initiative aims to engage our customers where they are most receptive. In addition to this, we will launch for the first time in years, an advertising campaign designed to enhance our brand visibility and reinforce customer engagement in this key Q4. We are also proud to introduce our first loyalty program in France, Ma Maison du Monde, crafted thoughtfully with our customers in mind.
This program creates a world of unique privileges tailored to their preferences, innovative and responsive to the needs of over 4.5 million customers throughout France, especially in this challenging economic climate. Ma Maison du Monde goes beyond transactional benefits. It focuses on relationships, emotions, and services, allowing each customer to experience a sense of belonging as if they were truly at home. The associate program, Ma Maison du Monde, is based on three loyalty statuses: Likers, with last year spent between EUR 0 and EUR 199 in spending, Lovers, 200 to 999, and Addicts, from EUR 1,000 onwards in spending. Each group reflects a deeper connection to our brand and enjoys exclusive benefits, including discounts, premium services, and access to exclusive events.
One of the main transactional benefits is a privileged shopping day, where customers can enjoy discounts between 10% to 20%, depending on their status. This privilege is not restricted to a fixed date, but is adaptable, allowing customers to choose a day they wish to use their discount, a concept that enhances the personalization of the experience. But beyond simple financial benefits, Ma Maison du Monde focuses on unique services and experiences. Lovers and Addicts customers will have access to private sales, exclusive events, and early previews of certain collections. Ma Maison du Monde loyalty program has been co-developed with our customers, from the naming of the three statuses to the content and privileges it offers, ensuring they truly feel at home while creating their personal living spaces.
The launch of Ma Maison du Monde is an opportunity for us to honor our customer promise, drawing on insights from our team and the aspirations expressed by our customers, while also delighting them in new and unexpected ways. For instance, we organized an exceptional weekend experience exclusive to our ten best clients in France. Each of these valued customers are called personally and invited to spend next weekend in La Rochelle at the Maison du Monde Hotel & Suites. There, they enjoy a curated agenda filled with memorable activities designed to strengthen our relationship and show our appreciation for their loyalty. Indeed, our aim is to make this experience truly unforgettable, highlighting the personalized approach that sets us apart.
We believe that by investing in these special moments and others that I will not detail here, we can deepen our connections and enhance the overall experience of our customers that they have with Maisons du Monde. Last but not least, all Lovers and Addicts will receive complimentary access to our new innovative platform, Maison du Monde Plus, created specifically for this launch. This platform has been called by some, indeed, the Netflix of decoration. It serves as a new channel for audiovisual programming, accessible through a URL that reflects the essence, the mindset, lifestyle embodied by Maisons du Monde through our diverse sides and services. Maison du Monde Plus is fun, inspiring, and engaging platform designed to take our Lovers and Addicts on a unique journey, offering even more inspiration, support, services, and personalization. We will soon develop a link between this platform and our e-commerce site.
On top of this initiative, you will see something new in our stores in France in the coming weeks. Namely, a number of additional product offers, carefully selected from a small number of categories and partner brands, that we enrich for the first time our offer for end-of-year presence. As part of our ongoing transformation plan, Inspire Everyday, we are committed, as you know, to modernizing and optimizing our store network. This involves, as you may remember, tailoring our new concepts to the diverse typologies of our stores, i.e., city centers, retail parks, named ZAC in French, and regional shopping centers or CCR in French. We have specifically designed a new concept to meet the evolving expectations of customers in shopping centers, and I'm pleased to announce that our first two pilot stores will open at Polygone Montpellier and Cap3000 early and mid-November.
These stores will offer a fully immersive shopping experience focusing on three key principles: attract, facilitate, and inspire. Attract, we are implementing open store fronts to seamlessly bridge the gap between the gallery and the store, enhancing visibility and encouraging foot traffic. Facilitate, to improve the customer experience, we are introducing self-checkout stations for quicker transactions, especially for smaller purchases. Additionally, we've designed specialized furniture to showcase items like mirrors, frames, and lighting more efficiently. Inspire, the store layout will feature a curated journey through different product categories with dedicated themed spaces, as well as an inspirational wish list area where the customers can dream up their ideal interiors. Serve and retain, finally, we are integrating a service area for pick and collect and personalized advice to further enhance the customer experience and build long-term loyalty.
Such concept will prove key to us, not only, of course, because it does adapt our store format that we already worked on at the beginning of the year, as you remember, to special location, but also you have to have in mind that those CCR, commercial centers are clearly showcased because they have a huge traffic of customers or potential customers going through those alleys. Now, as we continue to navigate a challenging macroeconomic environment, financial discipline remains a key priority. I will not go into too much detail, but you can imagine that we are thoroughly challenging each line of spend and CapEx, and indeed changing the culture of the company to deliver our objectives.
But you can bear in mind, for instance, that our efforts that we already spoke about, such as on the assortment and the organization, have allowed us to reduce square meters, both in supply chain and head offices in Paris and North, that now directly fuel savings for the remaining months of the year. All these initiatives allow us to be firmly on track with our 45 million cost saving plans for this year, which is, of course, critical to achieving our overall target of EUR 85 million in savings over 2024, 2026. Alongside this, we will maintain tight control over CapEx investment and work to further optimize our working capital. In Q4, our focus will also be on driving sales during the critical peak season, while ensuring our transformation initiatives are fully executed to deliver also long-term return to growth. This concludes our presentation.
Denis and I appreciate your attention, and of course are here ready to answer any questions you may have, and we are ready to move to the Q&A session.
Thank you so much. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star one one again. Alternatively, you can submit your questions via the webcast. Please stand by. We'll compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Now we're going to take our first question on the line, and it comes from the line of Clément Genelot from Bryan, Garnier & Co. Your line is open. Please ask the question.
Good morning, thank you. I have three questions from my side. The first one is on the sales in Q3. Are you able to split the Q3 overall performance between prices and volume? My second question is on the working cap, given the overall poor sales trend in Q3 for us, and what I would assume more or less matched to globally, is it still viable to have a smaller working cap inflow this year? My third question is on the freight. Can you give us an update on the freight, please? Because I would assume that the spot freight are still high and that some ships are still avoiding Red Sea. Thank you.
Awesome. Yeah, Clément, thank you. We could hear you loud and clear for the two last questions on the working cap and the freight, but I'm afraid I could not hear you well on the split in the Q3 sales performance question, the first one.
Let me split between prices and volumes.
Ah, okay.
Yeah. Thank you.
I will take the question two on the working cap, and I will let Denis give you an update on the price and volume topics for Q3, and also share with you a freight update. On the working cap, we do not see any challenge in achieving our working cap ambition for this year, because of the fact that the first point we have to bear in mind, we did explain that we had some delays in the implementation of the new collection, and this did impact the sales throughout Q3, notably in August and still a little bit in September. The good news for us is that the performance of this new flow is in line with our expectations.
Plus, of course, we are carefully adjusting our Q4 plan to make sure that we maintain the flow rate of the new collection, and of course, of the older collection in the sales. So we do not expect to have any challenge compared to our working cap ambitions for Q4.
Okay, regarding the first question on the split on the price and the volume, is basically, as you have seen, we have a mixed effect linked to more furniture as well as design and decoration. So we have a more declining quantities than the sales due to that mix effect, mainly. On the third point, on the freight side, we are covered by your contracts, and so far we can, except for the time, as you mentioned, the delays of deliveries, from a financial point of view, they... We have a very low impact due to the hedging we have on this kind of contract. And it will last until the end of the year, and we are under tender for next year.
Excuse me, Clément, do you have any further questions?
No, that's all. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for a name to be announced. Alternatively, you can submit your questions via the webcast, and now we're going to take our next question. The next question comes from line of Florent Thy-Tine from TP ICAP Midcap. Your line is open, please ask your question.
Hi, just two question on my side. The first one, can we have the impact of the renovated stores on revenues in Q4, negative impact? And the second question is on the gross margin, can we have some colors on the performance on Q3? Thank you.
So your question of the impact of revamped stores or stores on the revamping program is really for Q4, right? I heard you well.
Yes, exactly.
Okay. We expect this impact on Q4 to be much more limited than the one on Q3, for the reason that although the number of stores still under work in October is important, nearly all of them, I'm saying nearly all of them, because you understood that CCR are going to reopen in November. But nearly all of them will have been completed by the end of October, which is a third of the quarter, but of course not a third in terms of sales, so it should be much minor compared to the one we experienced in Q3. Because in Q3, we, you know, decisively embarked on a number of works during the summertime, which was more favorable for most of our store network.
So I'm sorry, I'm not giving you a figure here, but you can imagine that it's going to be much reduced compared to what we experienced in Q3.
Regarding the growth margin, we do not foresee any significant impact on this so far. Of course, as mentioned, there is a little mix effect that based on the sales, more furniture and less decoration in terms of weight. But so far there is no stronger significant impact that we can see, and we do not anticipate big swing on this topic.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question, and the next question comes from the line of Marie-Line Fort from Bernstein. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good morning. I'm coming back on your answer about the revamping impact on Q4. I don't understand how it should be less impactful while you're going to refurbish much more stores than in Q3, and Q4 is much more important for yourself. Even if October is less than one-third, I don't understand very well how this impact should be less than in Q3. Second question is about international. You don't have traction there while Spain seems to be in good shape at the macro context. Is it just because you didn't put any action on the international side, and could you share also some trends for Spain and Italy, which are the major countries for you?
Okay, thank you for your question. So indeed, what I have to say on the impact of the revamping program for Q4 is the following: We really did embark on a massive number of transformation over summertime, and we also did embark on the most important ones, namely, the store that did have a number of weeks closed. So I'm not saying there will be no store closed for some time in October, but it's only very limited compared to what we had in terms of actual store closing from what we did in the summertime. Plus, you have to have in mind that a large number of revamping programs also started, initiated during Q3, went through the worst of their transformation period over time, and are coming to the end now in October. So this is why the impact really will be smaller.
Not only because only less than a handful of stores will be directly impacted as of November first, but also because even the stores impacted in October were in fact starting their revamping program very often over summertime or in September. So there is no question, it will be much minor compared to what we had in Q3. And maybe you want to give some color to the geographies?
Yeah, on the geography side, so thank you for the question. You are right, Spain is better than the other markets. So we are benefiting from a better trend in Spain. It does not mean that it is a positive trend on the like for like, compared to last year, but it is for sure far better than the global performance. If we look on Italy side, Italy is more aligned with France. Be aware that, of course, we have anticipated some transformation in Italy already in 2023. One country that is suffering a lot is also Germany, but you have also to have in mind that in Germany we have reduced our presence from a store point of view.
We are now up to six stores in Germany, or maybe seven. Sorry, I'm off on this one, but it was far less than the last year before.
And Belgium?
Belgium is suffering a little bit, like, a little bit higher than France.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question over the phone, please press star one one on your keypads. Alternatively, you can submit questions via the webcast. The speakers are done for the questions at this time. I would now like to hand the conference over to the speaker, François Merlquier de Polignac, for any closing remarks.
Thank you very much. Again, as you all understand, we are very committed both on the long-term transformation plan that we embarked on this year, and it's delivering its fruit, and we are quite confident we're going to achieve that. Of course, our shorter term priority is to deliver all our action plans on sales, both on CapEx control and working capital and costs to ensure that we deliver our positive free cash flow by end of the year. On that note, I thank you all, and hope to speak to you soon enough.