Good morning and welcome to Duell's webcast for the first quarter 2025 financial report. We have today CEO Magnus Miemois and CFO Caj Malmsten highlighting the first quarter highlights. My name is Pellervo Hämäläinen from Investor Relations. During the webcast, there's an opportunity to post questions via the chat, and we will come back with the questions and answer session at the end of the presentations, so the stage is yours, Magnus and Caj, you're welcome.
Thank you, Pellervo, and welcome everybody from my side as well. The first quarter, meaning in our fiscal year September, October, November period, was a successful period. We managed to achieve progress in basically all the important focus areas that we had set out to achieve in the period. The net sales grew, which is, of course, the starting point for business development. We also improved the profitability, so it's profitable growth. And we continued to make progress on the efficient management of capital, particularly net working capital allocation. And the financial position of the company is, comparing to the same situation one year ago, is significantly stronger. The period quarter one is, in a way, a period of transition. In the Nordics market area, the market is transitioning towards the winter categories, and while the summer categories are strongly moving into an off-season period.
These categories, such as ATV categories and snowmobile categories, are particularly strong categories in Duell's market position. In a way, this is a period we were always looking forward to move into this winter season. Our company is growing systematically in the Central European market area, and this, of course, it's a little bit different weather equation. The season is longer, so it's not as abrupt a transition to a different category in Central Europe. This, of course, allows us to, in a way, harvest business there for a longer period than in the Nordics. The growth continued in Central Europe. This is very important strategically to us. A good quarter. A few highlights from the quarter. As I said, this quarter is the kickstart of the snow season, and Duell has some particularly strong brands in this sector.
One of them is related to rider gear, one of our youngest house brands, Amoq, which has been in the market for a few seasons, and has had a very good reception in the market, which means that ahead of this season, pre-order deliveries for the winter season 2025 was on a higher level than previous years. This is a brand that we are constantly developing. It seems like we have struck some nerves on what the consumers are looking for in terms of design language, but we have also added products. This is, as I said, quite a young portfolio, so there are new products this season in the Amoq range. There are new helmets specifically for addressing the user demands in a snowmobile type of application. We have new boots, particularly for snowmobile as well.
This is a brand that we are proud of, we are very successful with, and it has taken a very good position in the Nordics snowmobile market. Another highlight, ATV, this is in a way an all season. Every quarter is an ATV quarter, but when the real winter is a little bit waiting to appear, then it extends also the market or the season for ATV riders to use their vehicles either in related to maybe forestry or related to pure recreational driving. The ATV category, Duell has a very strong offering with over 5,000 products, many of them related to service products, accessories, and also larger ATV implements, machines that you put either in front or behind the ATV vehicle. This is an important category also that performed very well in quarter one 2025. The third highlight I wanted to share with you is Alpinestars.
It's the largest brand partnership that Duell has, a brand that is massive in our industry and in all motorsports industry, I would say, but particularly in motorcycle. Duell has a very long partnership with Alpinestars in the Nordics for both on-road and off-road and bicycle rider gear. Now we have, together with Alpinestars, also agreed for a broader territory of distribution with some of the products, in this case, the motocross rider gear assortment in Central and Eastern Europe. This is testimony to that when it comes to aligning values and aligning business benefits with key strategic brands. Duell is able to be the partner for the largest brands in the industry. When the winter season is about to start, there are a number of snowmobile-focused customer events. In early November in Finland, in Rovaniemi, Lapland, there is a snowmobile fair exhibition.
In Sweden, a weekend earlier, there are events called Snöskoterns Dag, where dealers are. It's like an open house type of setup where dealers invite customers and have campaigns in their stores. Largest dealers pull thousands of consumers into their stores over that one weekend. And equally, this kind of exhibition event pulls people to the event. Duell was present in all of these, active with our frontline salespeople and showcasing our key brands. And when we look at the statistics from the number of participants in these events, we can see a slight uptick in consumer interest towards the snowmobile sector. And this is, of course, promising in a category where we are particularly strong. If we then look at the results with the key figures, net sales reached EUR 28.3 million, so it grew almost 5%, a result that we are particularly happy with. And also profitability increased.
Our efforts to systematically work on increasing gross margins is seen here as a 1% unit increase in gross margins in average. And this supported then an increase of adjusted EBITDA with up to EUR 0.7 million compared to the EUR 0.3 million in the previous year. So quite a significant step in profitability improvement. And expressed in EBITDA margin, this was 2.4% in relation to net sales. Compared to the comparison period one year ago, the company's financial position is significantly better thanks to the rights issue process about one year ago in early January 2024. So this is a perspective we have shared earlier as well. And during the period when we are in this period of the year, we are preparing for coming seasons. So it means that actually cash is a little bit directed towards boosting inventory for coming larger seasons.
This is seen in cash flow and also the leverage position that slightly increased through that. The leverage position is now 3.1x, so in the vicinity of the upper end of our medium-term guidance. As I said, in this period, cash is directed towards inventory to some degree in this quarter one compared to one year ago to a lesser degree, which again speaks towards the efficiency steps we are taking in terms of how the inventory is turning. So all in all, a successful quarter. Then I hand over to Caj to go through a little bit more in detail.
Welcome from my side as well. I will run through the financial a little bit more in detail. So if we start from the sales side, as Magnus said, a good growth, 4.7%, fully organic, and I would say in a rather challenging market environment. So this we are proud of. With comparable currencies, the growth was 4.4%, so no major impacts from the currency side. And looking also at the growth now, it's the third year in a row where we grow. So from EUR 25.7 million two years back and one year back EUR 27 million, and now EUR 28.3 million. So the direction is correct. And here we also see that the share of business in Central Europe is continuously growing. Now 46% of the business, 44% a year back, and two years back 38%. So the strategy we put in place some time back is working.
We are seeking growth in Central Europe, and it's paying off. On the other meters which we follow, own brand sales and online sales, they are rather stable. Own brand sales around 20% right now, 21, so a little bit down. Online sales more or less same level also, 25% right now. So I would say a summary on the sales side direction is correct. Profitability improved also here, third year in a row from a minus side two years back now to a total of EUR 0.7 million. And a good increase from last year. Gross margin development 1% up, so the actions taken before is now slowly starting to pay off, so we can increase the margins. And here the good contribution during the first quarter ATV and snow.
You all remember we launched the efficiency program in October where we are looking for efficiency improvements in the region of EUR 1 million. The program is now closed, and the impact on the first quarter is rather minor because that is following in the quarters to come and going forward. We are rather confident there that we will achieve the EUR 1 million annualized saving or efficiency improvement which we were looking for. Here also very good development. On the capital side, here the business by nature is with high inventory, we tie up pretty much money in the balance sheet, and a lot of work has been going on around improving the efficiency and improving the inventory turnover.
We can see that here also we have made great improvements from two years back in inventory level, which is the biggest component, EUR 58 million to a level now of EUR 48.4 million. But I would say more important here is to see the turnover and efficiency rate, and now we are on a level of 38% compared to the LTM last 12 months sales. And here we are down from 43% a year back and two years back 47%. So the inventory start to turn over better and better. We are still seeking or expecting more better turnover rates thanks to the actions that are ongoing. But that's to come. But here, good development. As Magnus said, the financial position is now on a healthy level compared to one year back, and mainly thanks to the rights issue.
Here we have a net debt right now of EUR 24.7 million compared to EUR 45 million one year back. And due to the seasonality, we right now tie up pretty much capital in the inventory for the quarters to come. But despite that, the cash flow is still negative, but now on a level of minus EUR 4.8 million, pretty much better than a year back. And the net cash reserves at the end of the period are still on a good level of EUR 5.5 million. Leverage ratio is slightly above long-term target of 2-3x, but that's also typical for the first quarter that we are on a slightly higher level to improve during the remaining part of the year. So if I would summarize the financial in a few words, I would say good quarter, positive development in, say, all the key financial figures what we have.
Okay, if I return then and we review the guidance for financial year 2025, which we have kept unchanged, and I just reiterate and remind that in this fiscal year, we expect that the organic net sales with comparable currencies will be at the same level or higher than the previous year, and regarding profitability, that expressed in adjusted EBITDA will improve from last year's performance. And the quarter that we now report is supporting this guidance. A short reminder on the strategy of Duell. As we have a couple of times already today mentioned that the strategy is very much about seeking growth in Central Europe, and we did so also in this quarter, and the way we do this is to expand the area and the geography and basically the countries where we operate, where we have dealers for our business relations.
This is an ongoing business development process, of course. We have also during this period added new dealers in Central Europe, and we have grown with the relationships that we had established earlier. You could say it's the strategy at work every quarter, every year. Our focus areas remain to continue to increase the profitability as we have also in this quarter. We continue to seek growth as we have in this quarter, and we continue to also optimize and seek efficiency gains in how we apply capital in the business equation. This journey continues. Duell has, in our view, a very strong position in the value chain.
We are one of the companies in our industries that has a particularly broad product offering serving all these categories: ATV that we highlighted earlier, bicycle with parts and accessories, marine and motorcycling, both off-road, on-road, and the category that is very much at play now during the winter, snowmobile, and so we are a little bit unique in this sense that we really can be that right partner for our dealers. We also touched on the brand relationships. In this quarter, we highlighted both progress with major third-party brands, and we have progress with house brands, and this optimization and evolution of both the offering in terms of what products we have in these portfolios and the brand portfolio, that how do we what makes sense for us.
This is, of course, a result of sensing and discussing with our dealers and taking consumer input on what are the products that the consumers seek in these various categories. We have a multi-channel approach to the market, as you could see in our key figures. We slightly grew the online sales in this period, and this indicates the ongoing transition that consumers to a larger degree prefer easy channels to conduct their purchases through. Our dealership network is equally constantly growing and utilizing these channels. Duell is a partner toward that process. We believe we have a quite good place to execute our strategy in the position we have with the offering we have.
Then, to summarize a good quarter with progress in all the areas, we have to note that when we compare to one year ago, the winter weather gods. They were quite decisive last year, and when the winter came, it was winter and it arrived early. This year, they seem to be a little bit more indecisive, and some days winter, some days not. But this is the things we can't affect. But given that, we are quite happy with the performance of the quarter. Growth and profitable growth, very important things to continue the journey from, and gradually, we can see the effects of the efforts we are focused and continue to focus on improving net working capital application or allocation and how we manage inventories and how we manage assortment.
So this is a quarter and a result that we can stand by, and it gives a very good foundation for us to work forward towards the ongoing quarter and the following ones. So that wraps up the presentation part, and over to Pellervo.
Thank you. So we have quite many questions here, so we can go through, and Magnus and Caj will then provide the answers. So we have told that we are investing in new e-commerce platforms. So what kind of magnitude are those investments in general?
I can catch that because I remember the figure, and so the e-commerce platform development, we already have an e-commerce platform, but we are updating this, and it's a quite significant investment that will also improve how dealers engage with us, and so the investment is over EUR 1 million. It's over EUR 1 million, but below EUR 2 million in that range.
Okay, good. Then we go to the Central European market. So which are the, let's say, the products or in the categories that are driving the market or the growth in Central Europe?
It is still the majority is motorcycle rider gear. Why? Because when we went into the Central European market, we decided that it would be the best success would be achieved by using, let's say, playing the strong cards first, utilizing strong competence, strong know-how, and strong portfolio that Duell has. Of course, combined with that in the Central European markets, the number of consumers is quite high. So this was a deliberate tactical choice, and this is as a result of that, this is also where most of the volume is related to motorcycle rider gear category.
Okay, still going through the Central Europe. So as we are growing there, are there some specific countries where we are growing mostly, or have we kind of gained market share, and which countries are the ones that are more successful?
A little bit two-pronged answer here. If we look at the total business in Central Europe, the biggest countries are France and the U.K., where we have strong operations. So if you look at that, where are the big numbers? Then when we ask if we look at where is the strongest growth coming from in a shorter period, like the quarter, then I would pinpoint, let's say, Poland, Germany, Benelux. If we draw a circle, Poland, Germany, Benelux, this is where we see a very good growth progress, which also answers the question that this is where we see new dealer accounts having been successfully established, and we see also growth with the accounts that we had established in earlier periods.
Okay, then about the Nordic markets. So as the winter was kind of having a late start, so how that will affect, let's say, the Q2?
Yeah, we are into Q2. So of course, now we have somewhat of a winter compared to the winter around really late Q1 in the north. So when these events that I mentioned were going on in basically the turn of October, November there in Snöskoterns Dag in Sweden and Kelekkamessut in Finland, there was hardly any snow in northern Sweden or in northern Finland, but it came there a few weeks after. So it's maybe the way we look at it, some transition. Now, I think the most important thing we're following is that will it be, let's say, full winter? I looked this morning in one of the ski resorts in northern Finland, and they had plus degrees there as well today. So winter, yes, but one could maybe say that it's not really a normal winter at this point. But the winter is long.
There will be plenty of days to ride snowmobiles still in Lapland.
Yeah, do you see that the overall demand in the winter season will be lower?
No, I wouldn't say that yet. It remains to be seen. But of course, our perspective today is very much a function of the early season transactions from us to the distributed network. And as we can see in the Q1 figures, that was slightly larger. So the opposite now is the key question whether our dealers are able to move those products to consumers.
Yeah, related to that, so how has the inventory levels for our dealers developed? Are they still trying to keep as low as possible or any kind of increase seen on that side?
For the winter categories, I would say the sentiment was stronger for this season than the year before. And now I hope that the ongoing weather situation won't suppress that sentiment going forward. But we note, of course, that right now dealers are already starting to push campaigns. So already in January, they're pushing campaigns to attract consumers to the shop floors.
Okay, then about the cost side, as we have seen that the transportation, logistics costs, freights, and so on, those being kind of fluctuating and pretty high. So have we been able to transfer the raises to our prices?
Yeah, it's true. If we compare, let's say, a year ago, the freight rates today are significantly higher. Then again, if you compare to freight rates at the craziest moments, they are many times lower. Are we at some sort of a normalized new level now for some period, perhaps? And maybe when we look at freight rates in a basically real-time basis, typically towards the end of the calendar year, towards, let's say, and I'm talking Asia to Europe rates, when you go towards Chinese New Year, then rates increase, and now they are expected to come down a little bit. But yeah, the levels that we see today, we have been able to sustain.
Okay, then about the slightly improved gross margin, so plus one percentage point up. So what was driving the kind of increase? Was it kind of pricing or better purchasing terms?
Yeah, I'll use the same comment as I think I've used before. We play all the strings on the banjo as we manage and learn. So yes, these are the levers we work on pricing, which by and large is a function of how cost develops. For example, transportation cost is one component. Also on the purchase side, our purchase team is stronger today than before to do this work. And then it's also, of course, when you look in one period, it's the function of what is the customer mix and product mix. So in this period, and I believe I highlighted that we are strong in the ATV sector and snowmobile sector, we have good strong house brands in those categories, and this supports also the margin development in a specific fiscal period.
Okay, good, then we dive back to the Q1 and the months, September, October, November, so how did those develop compared to last year's kind of month?
The month split, well, to be fair, I don't have those figures really at my fingertips, and maybe I just reflect that we report the quarters, not the individual months.
Good. Then now when the power is changing in the U.S. and let's say the customs may be raising, so have we looked at those and been prepared to see kind of higher customs?
Duell is not addressing the North American markets as a sales territory. So we don't have dealers in that region. Our strategic focus is on Europe. We do have some suppliers in North America, also in the U.S., but we don't believe that the policies that are now shaping and likely to be implemented in North America will significantly impact Duell's business.
Okay, good. Then about one final question here. What were the items affecting comparability, the EUR 115,000 related to in Q1? Maybe you, Caj, have answered.
EUR 115,000 is fully related to the restructuring under the efficiency program. So it's cost related to reducing number of people.
Okay, good. Then looking for the coming quarters, so how do we see the quarters to come based on the pre-orders that we have had? Of course, now the focus has been this fall, actually towards the winter, and let's say the pre-sales for the summer season is about to start, but can we say something about this area?
It's correct that those activities are coming on the agenda now for pre-sales and activities towards the coming seasons, but this is a topic that we will return to then in subsequent quarterly reports once we see the results.
Yeah, thinking about the, let's say, weather conditions, so what is kind of which quarter is mostly affected by odd weather? So like this time when we are looking out, so it doesn't look like a winter.
I think this is a topic that we all can, we should actually have a little bit of a voting if we go into the predicting the weather now, because your opinion is as good as mine, but from the Duell business equation point of view, we are certainly hoping now that we will see a real winter in the coming months in all the relevant regions. And maybe one note there, Easter holiday is a little bit later this year than it was last year. And weather is one driver in this seasonality for when you can use and go out snowmobile riding, but somehow the Easter holiday is where the checkered flag is waved regardless of weather. So we're confident that there's a good amount of snowmobile market days ahead of us in the coming months.
Okay, then we have still one question, and this is more like forward-looking kind of view. As we have now improved our, let's say, performance now year on year, and the coming, let's say, quarters will be pretty challenging thinking about the growth. But of course, we have provided our guidance, and that is unchanged, and that pretty much kind of explains the way to go. But do we see that we have kind of a good space for improvement also on growth side, quarter by quarter?
This is certainly our aim, and the quarter one gives a good foundation for us to continue this work. Of course, we can see certain, what do you call them, clouds on the sky. It's not a fully blue sky. If I pinpoint a couple, we can see that inflation levels are higher in the U.K. than they are generally in Europe now. So this puts a little bit of pressure on consumer sentiment and purchase power in the U.K., a market where we have important operations. This is a concern and something we are monitoring closely. We can, of course, see the economic trend in the large European countries like Germany. I believe the GDP development in Germany in 2024 was negative, slightly negative.
We expected to return to growth, but if you follow headlines such as huge companies there, car industry, etc., which are dealing with some transitional actions, so to which extent this will trickle through to affect consumer demand in our industry. These are things we are really, really focusing to follow closely, and for the purpose of being able to pivot and seek growth where in other places, if we can't grow in, let's say, Germany, then by the amount that we had set out to do, then we go seek it in some other adjacent markets, and this is, of course, the thing that we do, that we have our ambition and we try to manage and manage our activities to achieve the results we set out to.
Very good. There's also another announcement that Duell made today, the completion of the change negotiations part of the efficiency program. So how are the cost savings landing to, let's say, financial year 2025? Since we communicated that those are annual savings, so would you have some comment on that?
Yeah, you take it, Caj.
Yeah, as I said there, so far, very minor savings. But when we have completed, so to say, the change negotiation, then we should start to see the annualized million saving month by month, quarter by quarter, pretty evenly.
But does it mean that the full EUR 1 million savings won't be in the financial year 2025?
No, as we communicated earlier, we were targeting a million annualized savings, so not a full million for this financial year.
Okay, that's very good. Okay, thank you. We had gone through all the questions and answers, and if you, Magnus, would like to summarize and give the final note on this webcast, so please.
Thank you. Thank you for following our Q1 results webcast, and thank you for all excellent questions. I hope it was informative, and please stay tuned in the next one for our quarter two report when we get that far. So thank you and have an excellent continued working day.
Thank you. Bye-bye.