I'd now like to welcome Irina Zhurba, Head of Investor Relations, to begin the conference. Irina, over to you.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2024 results call. The presentation, as usual, will last around 20-30 minutes, and then we'll allow another 10-15 minutes for the Q&A. As usual, you can find all the presentations, financials, reports, and everything online on the Investor Relations website under Reports and Presentations. The speakers today here with me are Dirk and Stephan, who will guide you through today's presentation. That said, let me hand over to Dirk to begin today's call. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for participating in the call. Hello also from my side. My name is Dirk. I will give you an update on the strategic side of our business, and Stephan will follow with a financial update, and then we're jointly answering your questions. Let's have a look at our focus areas in 2024 and spend some time on them, all right? 2024, we want to focus on creating significant value for our customers. And because only if we do that, we're able, basically, to win more customers, generate higher AOVs, and also followed by higher gross margins. What we're doing for that, we significantly extend our assortment, especially when it comes to prescription lenses, and I will give you a few more insights in the following slides. Second, we're also focusing or sharpening our brand image.
We will add significantly more focus on optical expertise, as we mentioned in one of the last calls, which then allows us also to broaden the customer base. So meaning we want to win significantly more 40- 60-year-old IBA buyers in 2024 and the following years. Second step and second area of focus in 2024 will be the rationalization and optimization of our retail store portfolio. This requires a number of different measures depending on the store. So clearly, for some stores, it's more in the field of generating more traffic via marketing, but also in other stores, conversion rate optimization, which we do by a lot of training of our people. We also selectively increase the number of headcount in the stores. For others, we really look at optimizing the rent that we are spending.
So all of that, basically, gives us a lot of confidence in our store portfolio. We have this exercise already and now implementing all the measures. That said, sometimes, and that's very selectively, we also come to the conclusion that some of the stores may not lead to the target margins we're aiming for, and therefore we also, basically, close selectively stores. We just decided to close one of the retail stores in Sweden, which will happen in the second quarter of 2024, significantly reducing also our negative EBITDA going forward. The third aim for 2024 is really to maintain our cost focus or optimizing cost structure. I think we had some really successful initiatives in 2022 and 2023.
What you see is already in our quarterly results, Q4 and also Q1, that we've been able to maintain that discipline on the personnel and other cost side, selectively also on the marketing side. That's something which we keep on focusing on in the entire organization with a new organizational setup, a process-driven organization in the headquarters functions, but also with our continuous lean improvements across all business areas, meaning operations, retail, but also our headquarters functions. Overall, if we look at our business, financially, it may look like a sidestep, but strategically and operationally, we are very pleased with the progress that we are seeing and that we are making. Let's look at the strategic progress. Once again, we extended our portfolio of frames, also a number of collaborations that we launched again in 2024. We also broadened our lens portfolio.
Looking at the market in German business, we basically developed in line with the market and also the large players. So we grew our prescription and sun business by 4% in the same period where GfK reported 3% for the German market. Financially, we mentioned it in the full-year result presentation. We saw a quite soft start in January but followed by an acceleration in February and March. March was this year impacted by an early Easter weekend, which resulted in the end in a net sales growth of 2%. For the first two months, it was 4%. And we also achieved a significant improvement in cash flow. So it was, in the end, EUR 12 million better on the operating cash flow side versus Q1 last year. So now look at what are we doing on the customer focus.
On our assortment side, we are launching Ray-Ban Authentic, which is basically the Ray-Ban prescription sunglasses with original Ray-Ban prescription lenses, giving a lot of customers products that they're asking for, so creating also a lot of value for customers again. We are launching the second or extended collection for our Mister Spex EyeD, the custom-made, bespoke, 3D-printed frames, which are available in all our stores by today. We're seeing a good traction on this product. On the branded side but also on our collaborations, we added Maui Jim to our portfolio lately, obviously a very, very strong sunglass brand. We also updated collections with Michalsky, for instance, but also had good drops with Jan Delay, a famous German musician, obviously, which shows good results after launching it a few weeks ago.
So on the lenses side, as I said, this will be a core focus in 2024. We started with rolling out Smart Focus, which is basically a single-vision lens with a standard edition, especially for people growing into the presbyopia slightly. So in the 30s, the easy entry into varifocal glasses, which is a very good success for Mister Spex, a very fast adoption by our consumers with good progress online but also in our retail stores. And on top of that, we also extended our portfolio of sunglass lenses in terms of additional colors, additional self-tinting colors via Transitions, for instance, also new polarized lenses. And this allows us, in the end, to really strengthen our prescription sun business.
As you know, this is a very, I would say, strong product, and we have a very strong USP in the market where we are, in our view, significantly better than all competitors when it comes to branded frames, including prescription sunglasses lenses. As a last thing, we also focus more and more on improving our communication towards consumers, so focusing on customer value generated by the lens options that we are providing. A general, I would say, consultation training we conducted with many of our retail employees and still rolling this out. Same applies to all the options that we offer for the lenses. We also, in Q1, rolled out an eyewear insurance, not only for prescription but also for sun, which is now available in all our retail stores and sees a good pickup as well.
Summing it up, I would say you can see we are working step by step in all the dimensions which are important to create customer value in 2024. You will see more to come in the next quarters. I think we're making, as I said, really good progress on a number of topics, although not all of that is already incorporated in our financials, but that will follow over the next quarters. By having said that, I'm handing over to Stephan for our financial update.
Yeah, thanks, Dirk. As Dirk presented, we are moving forward with respect to implementing our strategy. On the financials, we can say that in Q1, we have seen moderate improvements despite low consumer confidence. Specifically, January, February, we were growing by 4%, as you pointed out, GfK numbered 3%. So overall, we grow by 2% year-on-year. We closed one store and we opened up another store. Germany overperformed with a growth rate of 5%. With respect to free cash flow, we have seen and achieved a significant improvement year-on-year. Overall, first quarter was -EUR 5 million. That is a EUR 12 million improvement versus Q1 2023. And basically, it's driven by significant improvement on inventory management and also by a lower investment rate on new stores. Therefore, we are still equipped with sufficient cash and cash equivalents of EUR 106 million.
Now, let's have a look at different product categories. We can see that, also driven by good weather conditions, we have overproportionately grown in sunglasses, whereas prescription glasses, and that's basically driven by the Easter weekend end of March, is at -1%. The contact lenses are growing year-on-year by 2%. So what is ahead of us, specifically in April, we expect to recover from the early Easter holidays, and therefore, specifically, prescription glasses should participate from that. Then let's have a look at the different business segments, Germany and international. As we said before, Germany was contributing overproportionately with a growth rate of 5%, whereas international is down by 8% if we eliminate currency effects minus 7%. Therefore, a key focus of us is this year, the further optimization of our international business, as we are proactively moving forward in Germany, developing our business there.
Let's have a look at our P&L. What we can say is basically that driven by the margin mix development, specifically with the strong growth in sunglasses and slight reduction in prescription glasses, we have seen gross margin deterioration by 1.6%. That basically had an impact on the overall EBITDA on the negative side, whereas, as we said before, cost management is very important and a key focus of top management. We have achieved an improvement of 0.7 percentage points in personnel expenses and 1.7 percentage points with respect to marketing expenses. If you look at the personnel expenses, then EUR 700K are coming from non-cash relevant IFRS charges. If we eliminate those, then we have an overall improvement by 5% despite the fact that we have opened six new stores versus Q1 2023. That's a big achievement.
With respect to other operational expenses, we have seen price increases, specifically on the trade and logistics side, with a slight increase in the category of other operating expenses by 0.5%. Overall, the EBITDA is down by 1.3 percentage points driven by the gross profit margin, whereas the adjusted EBITDA is flat or a slight improvement with a -3.2% versus 3.3% in the previous year. Let's have a look at the cash flow. As we presented before, we have achieved a significant improvement here. The cash flow is -EUR 5 million versus -EUR 16 million in the previous year. That's basically predominantly driven by the improved working capital position and a reduced CapEx with a reduced investment in new openings of new stores. That is a big achievement compared to previous year. Having said that, I would like to open up for the Q&A.
If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. Once again, if you do wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. And your first question comes to the line of Cédric Rossi from Bryan Garnier. Your line is open.
Yes, good morning, everyone. I have two questions. The first one is regarding your initiative to broaden your customer base. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that? Because I know that it's been something that you try to implement with the physical stores and also EyeD. So I was curious to know whether you are planning for new initiatives on that front. And my second question is just coming back to the marketing cost, which have significantly decreased in Q1. Would you be able to break it down between what were efficiency gains and really a reduction in marketing cost? And do you think that it is sustainable going forward, considering that you are also planning for new marketing initiatives from Q2 onwards? Thank you.
Sure. Thank you, Cedric. So on the customer base, maybe first, there are a number of initiatives that we are planning but also working on at the moment. So there will be an even further increase in our lens portfolio over the next weeks and months, which then allows us to really, I would say, address even more customers. I don't want to say too much at the moment, but you will see that soon, basically. And latest, I think, in our next conference call, we will give you more insights into that. So that's one of the things. Second is that we are also working on the brand positioning, as we said. And you will see also some updated marketing campaigns on that in the second half of 2024, which should address also more 40-60-year-old customers. You will see that, as I said, in the second half.
We probably give you more insights as well in the next call. Probably can even give you some more insights on the campaign that we then launched. The other thing is that I think we focus a lot on training in our stores of our store staff to increase conversion rate in the stores and also being able to, I would say, better serve a broader range of customers in terms of age groups in our stores. That's something which we're continuously working on. If you look at, I would say, the overall customer base, what you may see at the moment is that we slightly shift from contact lenses to more prescription. That's something which is intentional, obviously, to focus on high-value prescription customers plus prescription sunglasses. That's something we're working on.
Maybe second, on the marketing side, I think it's hard to break it down because it's really in terms of efficiency gains versus cuts. So what we do, as you know, we're optimizing marketing spend always in a way that we are profitable in each country and channel after marketing cost. Therefore, all of the marketing spend that we are doing is efficient, but we obviously want to invest where we can create or generate more high-value customers. Partially, we're also shifting marketing budget to the second half due to the upcoming repositioning of the brand that I just mentioned. And so therefore, you're right, probably looking at marketing spend in terms of % of net sales, that may increase in the second half, especially with focusing on repositioning our brand to cover, basically, a broader spectrum of prescription glasses customers.
Okay. Thank you, Dirk.
Your next question comes to the line of Ralf Marinoni of Quirin Privatb ank. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Maybe you can give us a trading update on your start into the second quarter. And further question is, you have been able to improve your cash flow from operating activity in the first quarter by EUR 9 million. Congratulations with that. Can we expect an increase also on a full-year basis? I think your operating cash flow from operating activities amounted to roughly EUR 6 million in the last business year. Thank you.
Okay. So let me start with a trading update for second quarter. As Stephan already mentioned, we saw, I would say, on the prescription glasses side, a good rebound in April. So far, the trading, basically, in April but also early May is in line with our expectation. We see that also sunglasses at the moment, due to the, I would say, good weather, perform in line with expectation. So therefore, I would say we are pleased with the development of the revenues so far. If we look at cash flow, you're right, we saw a very positive cash flow from operating activities in 2023. That was, I would say, driven by a significant improvement in the EBITDA that we've seen, but also on working capital optimization. So far, we see, and Stephan just mentioned it, a good improvement on the operating cash flow also in Q1.
That was mainly driven this time by the working capital, right? So there will be some changes in working capital throughout the year. But overall, we do expect an improvement in the cash flow from operating activities in total in 2024 also versus 2023.
Okay. Thank you very much, Dirk.
Just wanted to add that specifically, as we have seen the prescription glasses were suffering in March, we have seen the rebound now in April with a significant growth rate in April already.
Okay.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. As there are no further questions, I'd like to hand back to our presenters.
All right. Thank you, everyone, for participating in this Q1 update call on our earnings. Then also thank you for your questions, Rolf and Cedric. If you have any further questions, please reach out to Irina and talk to you soon.
Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.