Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Mister Spex First Quarter 2026 Results Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. I will now hand the conference over to Anke Banaschewski, investor relations at Mister Spex. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everybody, and a warm welcome from our side as well. With me today are Tobias Krauss, our CEO. He will lead you through the strategy update of the company, also Benjamin von Schenck, our CFO, who will give you an insight into the Q1 2026 financials. With this, I now hand over to you, Tobias. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Anke. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to present Mister Spex Q1 2026 results. This is the first quarterly update since we concluded our SpexFocus restructuring program and entered into the next horizon. Over the next 30 minutes or so, we will walk you through what we are building structurally, how Q1 performed financially, and where we stand relative to our full year guidance. I will begin with a strategy update covering the foundation we have built and the operating model we are now scaling. Benjamin will then take you through the financial update in detail. We will close with our 2026 guidance and then open up for Q&A. Let's get started. As you know, in 2024 and 2025, we completed a comprehensive restructuring of the core business.
The core business is now on a solid foundation. We exited unprofitable international markets, right-sized the store network, completed a discount detox, and structurally reduced our cost base. With the next horizon, we now focus on building a scalable and resilient operating model on top of that foundation. Let me briefly ground you where we stand today. Mister Spex is built on four pillars that together form a differentiated position in the optical market. The first is optical expertise. This is at the heart of what we do. We employ more than 120 qualified opticians across our network. Since launching the Eye Health Check, we have conducted over 8,000 screenings, and premium brands is now represent 26% of our sales. We have expanded our service from product sales into preventive eye health care. The second is customer convenience.
We offer a curated portfolio of around 80 brands, our home trial service, and the Mister Spex Switch subscription model. The goal is to make every step of the customer journey as simple and as accessible as possible, whether that journey starts online or in a store, and we will double down on this in the next horizon. The third is our digital native DNA. We have been building the business for 18 years, and we have served 8 million customers through our online platform. That heritage gives us a technology foundation and a data asset that traditional opticians simply do not have. The fourth is our store network. As of Q1 2026, we operate 66 Mister Spex stores, work with more than 250 partner opticians, and we have completed four bolt-on acquisitions of premium optical stores.
Stores are where we bring our expertise to life and where we build lasting customer relationships. Together, these four pillars form a strong foundation, and importantly, they position us exactly where the market is heading. Let me illustrate this. A recent report by Stifel identified a range of disruptive trends reshaping the optical and eyewear markets. I want to highlight four, because they illustrate where Mister Spex is already well-positioned. First, subscription. Customers are moving from one-off purchases towards recurring models, shortening the replacement cycle from approximately three years to one. We are already addressing this with Mister Spex Switch, where customers rent instead of buy, gaining easier access to premium products and driving significant higher AUV. Second, healthcare. Eyewear is becoming part of the preventive health, and the total addressable market is expanding from approximately EUR 143 billion- EUR 360 billion.
Our Eye Health Check positions us exactly in this space, shifting us from product sales to preventive care and building trust as a retention driver. Third, premiumization. Premium eyewear continues to grow at 2%-4% year-on-year, even in a weak cycle. We are actively curating our brand and lens portfolio, prioritizing quality and breadth. Fourth, digital transformation. virtual try-on, online booking, and AI-powered advice are reshaping the customer journey. With 18 years of digital native DNA, we are uniquely positioned to adopt these technologies faster than traditional opticians and deliver a seamless customer experience across online and store. The point is clear. We are not building towards these trends. We are already executing on them. Now let me turn to how we intend to scale what we have already built.
When we presented our full year results 2025, we already introduced continuous improvement as the core company culture. We have now developed this further into continuous improvement flywheel. Four structural enablers that enforce at the other and generate compounding momentum, driving us towards a scalable and operating model. A flywheel gains momentum not from any single push, but from compounding effects of many consistent efforts in the same direction. That is exactly how these enablers work. Each one feeds into the next, and as they compound, the business becomes harder to replicate and easier to scale. The four elements are the unified stack as our scale engine, artificial intelligence as a business accelerator, operating leverage as our efficiency engine, and value creation as the growth driver. Let me now take you through each one briefly.
The first enabler is the unified stack, and it is the starting point for everything that follows. Today, we still operate on a patchwork of legacy systems across our online and offline. We are now changing that. We are migrating our technology infrastructure to an integrated Salesforce platform. Salesforce Commerce Cloud for our online business and Salesforce Retail Cloud for our stores will replace our legacy systems and create one platform, one data layer, and one customer view. Why does this matter? It is the technological backbone for all other enablers. Without a unified data architecture, you cannot automate, you cannot personalize, and you cannot scale efficiently. Once the unified stack is in place, every new store, every partner, and every new service connects seamlessly. Over time, it enables integrated customer relation management and a consistent customer experience across online and offline.
The core KPIs that tell us whether this enabler is working on net sales because they show whether the integrated platform carries the business overall. Like-for-like store sales because they show whether existing locations become more productive on the platform. Time to market because it measures how quickly we can deploy new features, integrate new locations, and scale services across the platform. The second enabler is artificial intelligence, and it builds directly on the unified stack. Once you have a unified data layer, the question is, what do we do with it? Our answer is to deploy AI across core business processes to enable automation, personalization, and predictive steering. Let me make this concrete. In marketing, AI-driven allocation helps us direct spend towards the channels and audience with the highest return, reducing customer acquisition costs.
In our product journey, AI-powered personalization and upselling shifts the mix towards a higher margin product, particularly premium lenses. Across customer interactions, predictive models help us anticipate needs and serve customers more efficiently, increasing the value of every transaction. This is how we turn data into a better commercial decisions at scale without proportionally scaling headcounts. The KPIs that measure progress here are average order value, because personalization increases the value of each transaction. Cross margin, because AI-driven upselling shifts the mix towards higher margin products. Marketing efficiency, because AI-driven allocation lowers acquisition costs. The third enabler is operating leverage, and this is where the first two enablers reshape our cost structure. The process optimization enabled by the unified stack and AI creates the conditions for structurally decreasing marginal costs. Manual workloads are reduced and resources are redirected towards value-adding activities.
As a result, fixed cost structures become more flexible and the organization becomes leaner. Revenue can grow without proportional cost increases. As the unified stack and AI scale, they will accelerate this effect further. The KPIs here are personal expenses because they show whether automation is replacing manual workloads. Other operating expenses because they reflect the structural streamlining of the organization. Adjusted EBITDA margin because that is ultimately the proof that the lever is working. The fourth and final enabler, and the one at the core of everything we do, is value creation. This is where it all comes together. The objective is to develop a value-maximizing operating model through structural improvement of revenue quality. Revenue scales with the cost-based disciplines driven by operating leverage. The unified stack and artificial intelligence increase scalability and precision, creating the condition for adjusted EBITDA growth.
As adjusted EBITDA expands, the operating model demonstrates increasing returns, and those returns convert into free cash flow. We gain real financial flexibility. As the market recognizes the quality and durability of that earnings trajectory, we expect this to be reflected in a multiple expansion. That is the direction Mister Spex is taking. A solid core business and continuous improvement flywheel that compounds our progress and a clear structural path toward a scalable and resilient operating model. We are confident in this path. With that, let me now hand over to Benjamin, who will take you through the numbers.
Thank you, Tobias, and welcome everyone on the call. Let me walk you through Q1 2026 financial highlights. The headline for this quarter is clear. Profitability improved despite a challenging macro environment. Net revenue came in at EUR 40.7 million in line with our full year 2026 guidance. This reflects the continuing normalization of our revenue base following reduced promotional activity, as well as the discontinuation of five unprofitable international online shops, which we closed in the second half of 2025. This development takes place against the backdrop of a persistently weak consumer environment. According to GfK, the consumer sentiment remained at a low level in Q1, driven by declining income expectations, rising inflation concerns due to higher energy prices, and global turmoils, and a weakened consumer demand.
Adjusted EBITDA improved to EUR 1.3 million, which is an increase of 88% year-over-year, reflecting the combined effect of the structural margin improvements and the lower fixed cost base that we have been building over the past two years. Gross margin expanded to 58.8%, up 234 basis points year-on-year. The primary driver was a higher share of prescription glasses and total revenue, which increased to 57% from 53% in Q1 2025, supported by the targeted expansion of our lens portfolio. Additionally, Mister Spex Switch contributed positively to gross profit, with approximately 13% of store revenue now generated through the subscription model at an average order value of 2.4x higher than non-prescription purchases. Cash and cash equivalents, sorry, one slide back. Forgot that one.
Cash and cash equivalents stood at EUR 47.9 million at the end of Q1, in line with our full year guidance. Liquidity carefully, as communicated earlier. The cash position reflects both a disciplined capital allocation and a seasonal work. Let me break this down at group level. Revenue declined by 9% to EUR 40.7 million. What matters more is actually what's happening beneath the top line. Revenue mix continues to shift toward prescription glasses, which represent now 57% of group revenue, up from 53% a year ago. Sunglasses remained broadly stable, while contact lenses declined to 25% from 29%. Overall, gross profit came in at EUR 23.9 million, compared to EUR 25.2 million in Q1 2025. This lower absolute number is a direct function of the lower revenue base.
On a margin basis, however, we expanded by 234 basis points to 58.8%, reflecting the higher prescription mix and the premium lens portfolio. Our adjusted EBITDA nearly doubled to EUR 1.3 million from EUR 0.7 million in Q1 2025. Offline outperformance and online efficiency measures are working together to drive this improvement. The structural changes we have made over the past two years are translating into results. As we communicated with our reporting the business through two clearly defined segments, each with a distinct role for value creation. Online is focused on quality over volume. We're now normalizing the pricing environment following the reduction of promotional activities, shifting the product mix toward higher margin private label and premium brands, and reallocating marketing spend toward higher margin traffic sources.
The key objectives for online are to expand gross profit and to build a scalable webshop architecture for the future. Offline is our growth and margin engine, driven by optical expertise. Stores are where we differentiate, particularly through prescription services, the Mister Spex Switch subscription, and the Eye Health Check. We continue to see strong like-for-like momentum. The key objectives are to bring more stores into the 10% EBIT target store band and to further increase prescription share. We're also selectively expanding our store network with up to three new stores in proven catchment areas and considering bolt-on acquisitions of independent opticians where immediately margin accretive. Now, looking at the online segment, in detail, revenue declined year-over-year by 19% to EUR 24.5 million, which amongst others, reflects the continued impact of our pricing discipline as well as the international webshop consolidation.
The product mix is shifting. Prescription glasses now represent 41% of online revenue, up from 38%, while sunglasses account for 16%, down from 17%. Gross profit came in at EUR 11.9 million compared to EUR 40.6 million in Q1 2025, this lower absolute number again is a direct function of the low revenue base. On a profitability basis, the quality of revenue is improving. Adjusted EBITDA for the online segment was EUR 1 million, up from EUR 0.6 million in Q1 2025. This is an important signal. Even with lower revenues, the online business is generating improved profitability. The structural cost reductions and marketing efficiencies are paying off. Turning to the offline segment, this continues to be our growth engine. Revenue increased by 11% to EUR 16.2 million, with a like-for-like growth of 7%.
Prescription glasses account for 82% of offline revenue, underlying the strength of our optical services positioning. Gross profit rose to EUR 12 million from EUR 10.6 million, supported by both revenue growth and a favorable mix shift towards higher value products. Adjusted EBITDA for the offline segment improved to EUR 0.3 million from EUR 0.1 million in Q1 2025. While this is a seasonally weaker quarter, the improvement is encouraging and it confirms that the store network is on the right trajectory. Looking at the store network, the development continues to show strong progress. In Q1 2026, 20 stores achieved EBIT margins above 10%, while a further 16 stores were in the breakeven to 10% range. This means that 36 stores are now at breakeven or above.
At the lower end, 15 stores were in the -10% to 0% range, and another 15 stores remained below -10%. To put this into context, in Q1 2024, 32 stores were in the deepest loss-making category. We have since reduced this number to 15, despite adding another store to the network. Against a challenging consumer environment, this reflects a resilient performance and demonstrates the structural improvements achieved to date. There remains clear potential for further improvement as additional stores mature towards our target EBIT band. Let me give you an update on Mister Spex Switch, our subscription model, which Tobias also mentioned earlier. Switch continues to account for roughly 13% of offline segment revenues in Q1 2026, indicating a stable and sustainably established contribution following prior growth.
Our target for Q4 2026 remains up to 20% of our on-offline segment revenues. The economics of this model are compelling. Switch customers generate an average order uplift of 2.4x compared to non-Switch customers. Total subscriptions reached 14,000 by the end of Q1 2026. Customer receivables stand at EUR 5.2 million. These receivables are financial lease assets, as you can see on the balance sheet, current and non-current, and they will convert into cash over the next 24 months as this is a customer subscription model. Switch was launched offline in May 2025 and online in August 2025. We're still in the early stages of scaling this model, but the trajectory is encouraging and it remains a key driver of recurring revenue and customer loyalty. Let me now turn to guidance.
We're confirming our full year 2026 guidance as communicated in March. Net revenue development of 0% to -10% growth versus the last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin of breakeven to mid-single digit percent and year-end cash and cash equivalents of approximately EUR 25 million-EUR 30 million. Current trading is in line with guidance expectations. For Q2 2026 specifically, there are two items to be aware of. On the one hand, purchase price payments for bolt-on acquisitions that will total around EUR 1.3 million will impact the cash, and there will be a low single-digit EBITDA adjustment relating to transformation effects on special projects. Looking ahead at the investor relations calendar, our AGM will be held virtually on June 11, 2026.
H1 2026 financial results will be published on August 13, 2026, and nine-month 2026 financial results on November 12, 2026. We will also be attending the EF Equity Forum in Frankfurt next week from Monday to Tuesday. We look forward to meeting many of you there. Thanks for your continued support. Let me now hand back to Anke to open the floor for questions.
We will now begin the question and answer session. If you want to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Cédric Rossi with Stifel. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Tobias, Benjamin and team. I have three questions, please. The first one is referring to what you were saying, given the months of April and current trading. Some of your peers mentioned that they were negatively impacted by unfavorable weather conditions in January and February. I was curious to have your observation on March and April, whether you have seen also some signs of an improvement there. That's my first question. And the second regarding the subscription-based model. Very interesting to see the positive trend going on.
Do you feel that, according to your data, what's the main rationale behind the Switch subscribers when they decided to choose this subscription model? Is it helped by the tough environment or is it also your differentiating offering? I was curious to have your view on that. My third question is regarding the one-off impact. If I heard it correctly, Benjamin, you were mentioning a low double-digit impact on Q2. Does it mean that the bulk of the impact you were expecting for the full year will occur in the second quarter? Thank you.
Great. Let me take the first two questions. Regarding trends seen in retail in Q1 2026. We have walked through the different phases within these different months. The year started q uite difficult because of weather conditions, as you already mentioned. Improved a little in February, and when the war in Iran started, it declined again. It started bad. It's improved a little and then went back down again. This again shows the resilience of our business model is better compared to many of our competitors, who are pure play retail or offline players.
As you could see, even though we have a declining revenue in online, we could still, as we say, start the online machine and the drive to store machine in order to really push against these trends and trying to keep the frequency of people coming into our stores, especially having Eye Health Checks or eye tests and up.
There again, resilience of our business model is good and is improving. If we compare ourselves to competitors, we need to make sure that we compare things which are comparable. The best way to compare us to our competition, especially the listed competition, for example, companies like Fielmann, is to compare our offline business with these businesses, since they don't have a large online business. If we compare these businesses, as you could see from the numbers of Fielmann, in Germany, they grew by 1.5%. We grew like-for-like by 7% in offline. We do not only see that our business model is resilient and is improving, but we also see that our offline operations are very strong.
One part of this is, as you already mentioned, Switch. Especially in times like this, when we see that customer sentiment is down and people really consider every euro that they are spending, it is helping them that they don't have to pay for their glasses in a one-off, but they can pay it over 24 months. Argument number one for Switch for sure is that it is somehow not as dependent on consumer sentiment as a one-time payment is. Second one for sure is the additional services. Customers are asking for the insurance of their glasses. As you know that this is included within our Switch product. That's number two, and of course, the Eye Health Check.
We see a growing number of Eye Health Checks we are executing on. The topic as part of this whole longevity development is getting bigger and bigger. We do have it in our stores. We do have it as a part of our Switch product. This is why, a good argument for Switch. Again, it goes back to the product itself or themselves. Many of our customers, they don't have a second pair of glasses. For them it's very important to have them. There again, Switch helps to bring especially younger customers into a second pair of glasses.
Regarding the third question on the one-off impact, first on Q1 . In Q1, the majority was related to special projects like the implementation of Salesforce, stuff that we're doing there. We're going to see a similar development in Q2. It's not that the bulk of the overall transformation costs in 2026 will be in Q2. That's not it. We communicated in the last call, total cost of EUR 14 million are kind of adjustments for this year. It's not gonna be the majority. I guess it will be roughly comparable to Q1 and Q2.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, please press star one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.