Good morning, and welcome to Duell's webcast for financial year 2024 announcement. The result will be presented by CEO Magnus Miemois and CFO Caj Malmsten. My name is Pellervo Hämäläinen. During the webcast, you have the opportunity to ask questions via the chat, and in the end, we will go through the Q&A session. Gentlemen, stage is yours.
Thank you, Pellervo. Welcome also on my behalf. I'm Magnus Miemois, CEO. The financial year 2024 that ended in August was successful for us. We made progress with several important focus area that we had set out for the period. Namely, good progress in our business growth in Central European market area, and our work on profitability improvements paid off well. If you look on business results, our net sales grew, although the market conditions in our industry wasn't the smoothest. We made progress on improving our profitability. We also made progress on improving and optimizing the inventory levels in our business. And we did a big change in stabilizing the financial position of the company.
When we open up, peel open a little bit the markets and the environment we operate in, I said we had good and strong growth in the Central European market area. The Nordics market area remained soft for us in the period. But also in the Nordics, there are some highlights and some positives. For example, our Nordics bicycle category was showing very good signs of recovery. We look at the underlying activities, for example, measured by the amount of vehicle registrations, namely motorcycles, ATVs. We can see that in the Nordic countries, it was either. It was mostly a decline in registration of new vehicles.
When we look in the Central European countries, the key countries for us, it's on both sides of the line, but you could say flat to slight moderate growth in the key countries for us in Central Europe. And we have some categories where market demand is clearly challenging, and the marine category and boating-related categories is clearly one to mention there. But overall, satisfied with the progress we made on growth and profitability improvements. When we look at quarter four, a few selected highlights from our business in quarter four, as I already touched upon, the bicycle category, and in this category, we offer spare parts, and we offer accessories, and to some degree, also rider gear in this category.
In the Nordics, this market demand has developed quite favorable for us throughout actually already in quarter three, in the springtime, and then throughout the summer months now, which is our Q4. The second highlight also touched upon that our strategy is to drive growth in Central Europe. Our traditional stronghold market, Nordics, we don't see a tremendous amount of growth potential for us in the long term, but in the Central European market area, we do see potential. We were able to have good results with our strategy in this period, in this fiscal year. The third highlight I wanted to share with you today is one of our premium brands, Alpinestars. Alpinestars is a world-leading brand in anything motorsports gear related, all categories.
And for us, the relevant ones are, of course, motorcycle-related and bicycle-related. And we have a very long tradition working closely with Alpinestars as a partner to them, and I'm happy to also see that the results and the growth with this particular product brand is progressing very, very well, and that we also are gradually hand in hand developing that when we are expanding our market area, we're also able to step by step have a larger area where we sell Alpinestars products. Very highly respected brand in our industry, and we are very, very happy to be a partner to Alpinestars.
Then, then the fourth highlight, which is maybe in magnitude, significantly smaller than the previous one, but as an example to also that we are constantly working with the product range and the type of categories we carry, and our garden and forest category, where we offer affordable parts in for lawn care, for forest related machinery. And this is a quite small still, but an growing category for us. And the point I want to pinpoint here is that since many of our dealers in our dealer network, they are in powersports, but they also carry these kind of products, then it makes a strategic fit that we can leverage and utilize the dealer network, and it offers to them a broader range of products from Duell.
When we look at the results, the key figures, we had good traction in quarter four when it comes to net sales, and this allowed us to also close the full year on good growth, a good growth pace, where we reached EUR 124.7 million , which is close to 5% growth year on year. Also on profitability, we have been focusing a lot on improving margins and improving profitability, and we managed to do this also carry the momentum in quarter four, which allowed us to reach EUR 7.2 million adjusted EBITDA in the full year, and that translates to an EBITDA margin of 5%.
As I mentioned earlier, a big step, if you compare a year ago, is the financial position, where the net debt is on a totally different level right now. And the leverage, measuring net debt against adjusted EBITDA, is now back into the range where we have said we want to be long term, and the leverage factor was two point eight in for the full year. Cash flow, there we have also some aspects in terms of the business generating cash and, but due to timing reasons, not as strong as the comparison period, but a trend that we are reasonably satisfied with. So these are the highlights on growth, profitability improvement, and a restored financial position in the company.
At this point, I'll hand over to Caj, and he will elaborate further on details of the figures.
Thank you, Magnus. Yes, in the previous year, we Duell changed it decided to change accounting principles related to valuation of inventory and overdue receivables. The reason behind here is we want to harmonize and simplify our policies within the group, as well as adopt commonly used valuation principles in the wholesale business. So this will have an impact on both inventory and receivables, as well as equity in the company. And I come back to that, but the new valuation is done for inventory. Aging is done applying set write-down profiles, and the provision for the bad debt has been tightened, and the provisions are made at given thresholds. The change here, as I said, impact both income statement and balance sheet.
And in the income statement, we have a one-time impact on gross margin coming from the inventory of EUR 0.54 million, and an impact on EBITDA, coming from the receivables side of EUR 0.3 million. In total, EUR 0.8 million impact the year, the income statement side. The whole change of the principle has been booked as a one-time item against the equity in the balance side, with a one-time impact of EUR 4 million, and correspondingly, the net tax impact taking a little back, so a net in total impact on equity, EUR 3.5 million. These numbers are adjusted in all the adjusted numbers in the presentation, so the shown figures are comparable. Going to the net sales side, we had a pretty good fourth quarter, 5.7% growth.
And here we had Central Europe now coming up to 50% of the total sales, and on a full year basis, 47%. So the Central European growth strategy is working. If we compare here then on all the quarters of the year, we can see that we have, comparing to similar quarter past year, we have a growth every quarter, and that we are very proud of. And looking then to if the Central Europe is growing, then the demand in Nordic is soft and or remains soft. And this we can see here from the own brand's sales declining a little bit for the full year, 18% which compared to previous year, 21.8%.
As a total, also the online sales is growing, 26% of total sales for the full year. And here we can see that the dealers are gradually adapting sales models to multi-channel models towards end customers, and gradually, online sales is growing. So all in all, good sales development. Going to the profitability side, adjusted EBITDA and margin percentage, quarter four, we have a six-time growth and amounting to EUR 1.4 million . Here we still see, although the number is good, we still see a certain impact from the higher logistics cost still affecting a little bit of the spring effects, Red Sea strikes, harbor strikes in Finland. But all in all, pretty good. Full year figures, 35% growth. In real numbers, EUR 6.2 million .
For the full year, a margin of 5.0%, so more than 1% growth compared to last year. Here we are gradually coming back to a stable profitability, which is important. We continue to focus on cost control and making more efficient things in the group in order to further improve here. Going to the inventory and net working capital development, we can see here that the inventory level has decreased since previous year by 10%. Here we have to remember that here we have a one-time impact of the change in accounting principles from the inventory side, so that effect is EUR 2.7 million. But all in all, the inventory level is the...
is lower, and what's even more important is the turnover, inventory turnover rate is better, so we are utilizing the inventory more efficiently. So in terms of percentage of net sales, now in end of 2024, 36%, which is clear improvement. And looking to net working capital, then we cannot see the same improvement here, although the inventory is growing well. It's a smaller improvement on the net working capital, only EUR 1.6 million. That means that the receivable side and payable side didn't really develop in our favor. But all in all, inventory going in the right direction.
Financial position improved significantly during the year, and main contributor here is the share capital increase or the rights offering in January, which has strengthened our balance sheet and bringing our net debt to EUR 19.6 million, compared to a year ago, EUR 38 million. So a 49% improvement here. Net cash situation is EUR 9.3 million end of the year, so good level also. And leverage ratio is in the range of our midterm target of two to three times, and ending figure 2.8.
So as a summary, I would say, all in all, challenges here and there, but financial development, a good step in the right direction, and it's good to start and move forward with a new year from this starting point. And back to Magnus.
Thank you, Caj, then I'll switch over to talk about outlook for this financial year, for the year that has started, which we call financial year 2025 , ending in August, end of August 2025 . The way we see the market is that the markets have stabilized a little bit compared to a year ago. But given consumer, let's say, purchase power with relation to the uncertainties overall in the economic climate, we feel that this is quite a fragile equation, but we do expect that the demand in the coming year will be slightly better, but we also expect that there may be some variations between the various categories we operate within.
When we look at the industry context where we operate, it's in our view still a quite fragmented industry, but also this we feel is giving long-term opportunities, particularly for the larger players in the industry to make movements. And we certainly consider ourselves, count ourselves to the larger players in our industry. So in terms of guidance for the financial year 2025, our guidance is that we expect the net sales, considering from organic and with comparable currencies, that it will be at the same level or higher than the previous year. And we will continue to focus on improving profitability. So our guidance on profitability is that Adjusted EBITDA will improve from last year's level. Then on a longer horizon, medium term, up to five years, this is unchanged.
We are still working towards the target of growing the company to over EUR 200 million, in the range EUR 200 million- EUR 300 million, and this of course then also includes inorganic steps. Profitability, we have a good year behind now. We are in a good direction, but of course we see that this is an area that we need to continue working to get to the point where we are aiming for in the medium term. As commented earlier, our leverage already is within the guided range, and as also communicated earlier, this of course may have temporary fluctuations such as, for example, if there would be an acquisition transaction. But this, to reiterate, medium term and to state the guidance for financial year 2025.
Couple of highlights of events after the review period. We have communicated today that we have launched an efficiency program. Why? In order to react to changes in our market context, in the market environment where we operate, we feel that we need to be proactive on this and address certain areas where we feel we can improve the efficiency to be well-situated in a changing market condition. We have also today communicated that the board has proposed to the AGM for the AGM to decide on a reverse share split with the ratio one share for 200 co-existing ones. Of course, the exact terms and term sheet of that proposal will be included in the invitation to the annual general meeting in November.
Short strategy recap of Duell Corporation. Our strategy is very much about capturing and driving growth in the Central European market area. This is where we call it the growth markets. We have very strong position in the Nordics and size of market in the Nordics doesn't allow us huge growths there in the Nordics. Whereas we see in contrast, in Central Europe, we see clear opportunities to continue growing. And the financial year 2024 is a good example of how we are managing to drive that strategy. So this continues. Equally continues to improve the profitability with a variety of actions to have a better profitability of the business.
And equal efforts to gradually make more efficient, let's say, capital efficiency, particularly then related to our stocks and the other components of the net working capital. When we look at the value chain positioning of Duell, we feel that we have a quite strong position. We have a very broad offering, a broader offering than some of our competitors. We are active in many categories. We have a growing network. We today have distribution centers in five European countries, meaning Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, France, and U.K.. We can address the total European market with our footprint. We have a distributor network, a dealer network that is active towards the range of consumers that are relevant for our product offering.
Of course, both sides of this equation is constantly under development. So we feel we have the positioning in the industry to capture opportunities and growth in our industry. So to summarize, financial year 2024, we had a solid year with improved profitability, with growth, and we had restored financial position during the year. We have good growth with our Central European business, the strategy that we are driving, and can show the results of a well-working strategy. Going forward, we will continue this strategy, and we will continue to improve profitability in the fiscal year 2025. This ends our presentation, and I think, Pelle, it's now time for questions.
Yes, thank you for summarizing the financial year. We have few questions. So first is related to the inventory levels. So how do we see the dealers are managing their inventory levels currently, and what is the trend?
Of course, now we have to talk about general sentiment. Each dealer have their own equation for this, but in general, we feel that the last couple of years has forced dealers to really consider how much inventory they carry, and they maybe also challenge themselves to new levels. We see some gradual return of this, but we don't believe it's gonna go, let's say, back to the heydays in this respect. On the other hand, we feel that there is an opportunity for us as a company to offer a value proposition that is a stronger partnership, where we can support dealers in growing their business with a lower inventory.
Do you see any differences between the categories?
Certainly, and we see different demand with the different categories, so there is. It's not a uniform equation when we look at across like this, nor per country.
Then we have one question related to the bicycle-
Mm
... segment or category. Despite we don't publish the kind of the size of the businesses-
Mm
... but, there was question: how big is the Nordic bicycle business, or how would you describe how it been developing?
Correct, we don't disclose the exact volumes per each product category, but what I can say is that Duell is a major player in the Nordics bicycle parts and accessories market. We are in the top three, certainly, maybe top two. And this is in a position that we intend to grow. We feel we have the position that we can continue growing in this space. And again, differences between the countries, but certainly in Finland, we are the leader, and then when you go to the other Scandinavian country, other Nordic countries, then the position in the ranking order may shift a little bit, but overall, one of the major players.
What about the dealers then?
Mm.
They might actually provide both motorcycle and bicycle.
Yeah, yeah.
Is there a trend that they are kind of combining the offerings?
To some degree. Traditionally, bicycle dealer network has been a little bit more, should I say, maybe urban oriented, more fragmented, smaller players, more local players. But we certainly see a certain shift in that power sports dealers carry bicycle products, but not from the traditional... They're actually entering it more from the typical brands. The manufacturers on motorcycles have partly gone. Some of them have gone into, mainly then the e-bikes, the hybrid bikes. So it's like a little bit a new segment, where you have powerful machines, where you need a different type of protection, etcetera. But at the same time, the traditional independent bike dealers are alive and well in the traditional network.
Mm.
We have many, many channels to the market there.
Very good. Then going to the Central European market-
Mm
... so, what kind of, let's say, investments input we would need to grow that market further?
The traditional ones to serve customers better. The investments we have done so far, and that has brought us here, is very much on the front line of driving business, so basically sales, operations. And of course, the investments we have done in acquiring companies in Central Europe. And going forward, we need to do all of the above. We need to continue broadening our customer base, meaning spending more time on the streets, developing customer relationships, so business development. We need to always seek the ways to serve the customers faster, better, higher quality. That may also bring us to reconsidering some of our footprints, that is there some blind spot that we need to cover better, etcetera.
Now I'm talking sort of medium terms, but principally, increase customer base and increase customer service level.
Very good. Then we have one question related to currencies. Which currencies were kind of mainly impacted in the Q4? So how would you kind of give a color on that?
I would say the GDP mostly, but also the Nordics little bit, but mostly GDP.
Okay, very good. We have before talked about that there have, has been some challenges with the logistics, like, let's say, Red Sea, and let's say, higher container prices. So how this has been developed in the latter part of this year and, let's say, starting in Q1?
Mm. Yeah, so the Red Sea-related issues that led mainly container liner traffic to go around the Horn of Africa prevails largely at the moment. It has stabilized to a degree that the availability of containers and let's say tonnage is not as upset anymore, and this is also reflected in pricing. So prices are on a downtrend. If you look at, for example, for us very important perspective is Asia to Europe liner traffic, which has come down from the peaks, but still on a significantly higher level than a year ago. So the trend is encouraging, and we can't wait for it to normalize.
Okay, then we have a question related to the savings. We announced this efficiency program, like, the target to achieve 1 million EUR savings, so how do you see that? How much is kind of landing to this year, and is it kind of a sustainable level that we can reach?
Oh, of course, it's hard to say at this point in time what's landing into this year, because we need to complete the program and get the efficiency changes that remains also in the future. But so at this point in time, can't say how much impact can be before this year.
Yeah. Do we see that the operating expenses are increasing kind of throughout the year? So we are fighting against, with this efficiency-
We are fighting against normal cost increases, and of course, try to find more efficient ways of handling things.
Yeah.
Yeah. We had also the previous efficiency program, where we targeted for EUR 3 million-EUR 4 million annual kind of cost savings, so how that has been kind of finalized? Did we reach the result?
Yeah, this is now the next step,
so yeah. That's correct. There was an earlier program that had certain actions and certain benefits, and this is now the next step.
So how we see the kind of. There was question related to, let's say, different categories. Are there big differences? We touched this earlier, but it's kind of good to remind that we have several categories. Mainly, we have kind of a bigger coverage in the Nordic countries, a few in, let's say, in European countries. But how do you see the differences between the categories and the markets?
It's correct that when you look at the product categories that Duell offers, in the Nordics, we play all the strings on the banjo, so all the categories we list. Currently, when we are going into Central Europe with the growth strategy, we have selected to focus on initially where we have the... Where we perceive we have the best strength to play, and this is in the motorcycle-related categories, and in our French company is also very strong in the bicycle segment. But of course, our strategy over time is to seek growth with also leveraging the capabilities of Duell as a total where there is a need.
Obviously, there are some, for example, snow-related categories that may not be very relevant further down south in Europe, or at least not as relevant, so it's also a match with the underlying market needs.
Very good. Then, let's say, get back more to the strategic targets, let's say, the growth. We have the target to achieve at least EUR 200 million kind of net sales level.
Yeah.
Are we now more active related to acquisitions that we have, than we have been, let's say, last fiscal year?
So last fiscal year, 2024, has very much been agenda of stabilization, and as we can see now, we are moving in the right direction. So now is also the time to gradually start to shift also to the longer term horizon and seek those opportunities.
There was one question related to the inventory levels, and let's say, currently, how they are kind of moving forward. Of course, we just can't disclose any information on first quarter, but kind of trend-wise.
Our ambition is to continue the optimization on how we utilize the inventory, and essentially, this means, it's very simple. It means higher inventory turnover rates, and through that, a lower inventory level in relation to our net sales.
Yeah, and then about the, let's say, competition and competitors, how have they been kind of pushing or dumping prices going, let's say, in the last, let's say, end of summer?
In the end of the summer, it's always when the end of the season approaches, there's always everybody have their clearance sales, and let's say, de-stocking, including Duell and including the competitors. So but in this respect, I wouldn't go as far as to say that there has been a big difference to the normal dynamics in our business. But if you look at the months over the year, then certainly this effect is visible in the late summer months.
Good. Looks like that we don't have any further questions here, so, I would like to thank Magnus and Caj, and also just remind that Magnus started as CEO in early June, and Caj as new CFO mid-August, so welcome also.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for attending the webcast, and as next, we will have the annual general meeting taking place on 20th of November. Also, the annual calendar for financial statements has been published and can be found from our web pages. Thank you very much.
Thank you.