Good morning. My name is Katariina Hietaranta, and I'd like to welcome you to Kamux's full year 2024 results presentation. We'll have our CEO, Tapio Pajuharju, and CFO, Jukka Havia, presenting the results, and after the presentation, we'll have a Q&A session. Thank you. Go ahead, please.
Thank you, Katariina. Welcome on board. I think the headline says it all. It was not an easy journey on the last quarter, and the full year also was challenging. On the top line, we got hit, and then also on the profitability. The ones who monitored the market in our operating countries, I think understand that the markets were not normal. I think towards the end of the year, since October, both November and December were very exceptional. On the performance, I would say that what the half is market-related, half is our own game, but there is own game we need to also improve. The markets were not normal on the last quarter. That is in a way fair to say. I think we will dive deeper on those ones. Today we will have the Q4 in details.
We will review the market positioning, look at the highlights and lowlights, and then the changes in our showroom network. We will review the countries by each of them, and then we will have a bit of a strategy look. Jukka will go through the financial development targets, and then we share the outlook, and then we have time for questions and comments at the end. Let us get going. All in all, I think on the top line, we were struggling, but that was not the main struggle. I think the main struggle was on the profitability. In all of the markets, the way to operate and obtain metal margin was the most challenging. On our adjacent services, we did a decent and good job, but the metal margin was the one which was in a way hurting the most.
There were a couple of cost elements which also impacted, unfortunately, unfavorably on that one. On the offering we have, I think you will see that the inventory levels on the value terms were higher, and that is one of the challenges we had as our Kamux game. Later, when we have a look on each of the markets, it seems that we had difficulties obtaining lower-priced petrol-driven cars, whereas we were a bit heavy on the higher-priced, and especially on the hybrids and EVs, where we also had a good performance, but I think we were lacking the performance and the pieces of the lower-priced petrol vehicles in all of the markets, especially in Finland. That was one of the main drivers for the performance. On the positioning, we still remain number one on the domestic marketplace. Sweden, we are on the top seven position.
Germany, we are unchanged on that one. The markets are not equal, and there were a lot of changes on the market by market. I think towards the end of the year, most of you who've been monitoring, you've been seeing what's happening in the new car business, what has been happening in the offers and the interest rates, and how some of the players have been slashing both new and used cars to the markets, mainly in Finland and Sweden. Germany, roughly the same elements, but not to the same extent as in Finland and Sweden. On our team, we have strengthening our team. We have Joanna Clark joining us on the 15th of April, the recent announcement.
We have Juha Kalliokoski joining the team 1st of March as COO, and he will take care of the operative selling and buying and inventory management in Finland, then for Sweden and Germany. That in a way enables the rest of the management team to work on the speeded-up execution of the strategy. We have more scale and scope for the strategy execution, and then for Juha's term, productivity improvement on the selling, buying, and inventory management on the consequent markets. Johan Kempas joined us lately on January 1st. He was onboarding during the latter half of December, an excellent strengthening to the team. Beyond the management team, we also have very good capable players joining in Germany. We have Sebastian Janik, who is our new head for international sourcing in the group.
We have Michael Ungerer, who is our new Sales Director in Germany, very capable individuals both. We have Joni Tuominen helping the Finnish operation as a COO, and a couple of other additions to the team. We have strengthened our team, making a speedier execution of the strategy, which in the current climate is definitely needed to become successful and become profitable again. The picture is roughly like in the figures. The pillars are still the same. Top line was not the main challenge. The main challenge was profitability, mainly driven by the metal margin. Adjacent services are doing a steady job. What I think we were lacking a bit on the volume, and that's why the insurance and finance were delivering not as good as in the past. Number of cars sold, we got hit on all of the markets.
I think on the value terms, Kamux performed rather well and actually was strengthening the game. On the pieces terms, even in Finland, we were lacking the pieces, and that's where we had an issue. I think we've been learning how to sell EVs. We've been learning how to sell luxury cars. We've been learning how to sell right-priced cars, but then we were lacking the economy-level petrol cars in Finland. Roughly the same in Sweden. Germany, we had a good offering, but we had other issues on Germany. Adjacent services, Kamux Plus, very steady, good development on that one. Financial as well, but then we were hurt by the volume and also the insurance, the same game. Store count, we've been changing and optimizing. Store count, Finland, we've been opening Hyvinkää with very good results. Klaukkala and Tornio closed.
We have obtained new showrooms in Espoo, one in Friisilä, which is going to be our flagship store for the capital region. We got Pitäjänmäki from Secto as well, which is going to be our works flagship for the capital region. We are closing Ylivieska, combining that to Kokkola. At the very year-end on the last week of December, we closed Klaukkala and opened in Herttoniemi, which is now our largest showroom in the eastern part of Helsinki. A very good start with that one. In Sweden, we have been upgrading our premises in Sundsvall and Helsingborg, and closed Norrköping, closed Borås, Norrtälje, and Heron City, and then Gävle and Uppsala also closed. While we do that, we have been upgrading our Gothenburg store.
Now, according to the Kamux concept, we have been downloading it with the cars and seems to be delivering a very good, promising game in Gothenburg. That is our largest store in Sweden. Germany, we have opened Siegen. We have closed Lübeck and Kaltenkirchen, which were loss-makers. We are having plans to open one or two stores during this year in areas where Kamux is not present for the time being. Finland, and I think we did a good game on the general thing, but we were lacking the lower price. With the lower price, I mean EUR 7,500-EUR 15,000 petrol engine cars. I think that tells a bit about the consumer confidence. That is where the high demand is. The mobility for the people is what it used to be.
They need to find an alternative car with a used car, but they were not able to spend on the EUR 35,000-EUR 40,000, which seems to be now the most difficult one. Not the most expensive, not the cheapest, but on that level. Especially the petrol engine car seems to be one. We have been rather good in EVs. We're also having a good game on the margin with the EVs. Hybrids, the same. On the price level between EUR 35,000-EUR 55,000, that's where we've been struggling a bit. The capital region game, we only get it better towards the very end of the year, and the results are not, we are not happy with the results in Finland. On the other hand, we know what to do, and we've been addressing that.
Will not happen overnight, but we'll get it better on the Finnish marketplace. Then where we have, I would say, success, which is also indicating about future, gives a bit of indication on the customer satisfaction. We've been going up, and we've been going gradually up. We already now know how it's going to be looking in the month of January. We continue on the very same trend. We have not been doing that with the cost. We've been doing that with our training and service. In that respect, we are on a good trajectory on the customer service. Sweden, and I think when we had storm and turbulence on the market, I think the last two months in Sweden were maybe even tougher than in Finland.
Two of the main players on the Swedish marketplace, one with both on the used cars and new cars, were slashing inventory like no tomorrow. Even the largest player on the used car market had a very, very, I would say, dynamic and aggressive actions, which were gradually hitting the market and hurting everyone on that platform. We are not any better or not worse, but the market was really challenging on the Swedish game. What we see in Sweden, we still have stores which are performing extremely well, but then on the other hand, we have stores which are clearly off the chart, and we need to help them to become profitable faster, and we have all the means to make it happen. I think we believe we can make Sweden profitable. With Johan on the team, we have a good grip on that.
Will not happen overnight, but can be done. Johan has been joining us officially 1st of January. We see the strong grip and strong experience in that respect. I think we are building up a team who can make it happen on that respect. Especially on the used car business, now we have a team who can deliver as well. Will take time, but we'll get there. Germany, we've been doing actually a rather steady journey and a very, very good gradual step towards profitable growth. In the month of December, we were hit with the volume, and that then became a deal breaker for making it happen. It is good to remember, and I think Jukka will share it in more details when we go through the profitability and especially the way we distributed the financial services sales-related profits.
Now it's been distributed equally on a quarterly basis based on the time when we've been selling those and not the way we used to do that on the 23rd when we posted all of that in the month of December. That's the big delta on the profitability of that one. Germany, I think most of the people who follow car industry know Auto Motor und Sport, also outside of Germany, highly respected media. They do mystery shopping, and I think at least to my knowledge, this is the first time we've been awarded two rewards from Auto Motor und Sport. One in Hameln, which is, I think, maybe not the largest store, but one which we've been renovating, making it very Kamux-like. It's an old Audi hangar, but now delivering excellent profitability, excellent customer service, and also being recognized by the local media with their job well done.
The same in Düren, which is our first store in the south. They have also been doing an excellent job, and this is mystery shopping. As you can see, it is a small amount of stores who have been awarded on this one. This reflects the grip we have in Germany. I think going forward, we are going to see the similar type of execution in other stores as well. We are on top of the game in that respect. I think our vision is unchanged. We are just on the podium. We are hanging in. We need to figure out how to speed it up. We were lacking the volume growth, and I think Jukka will dive deeper on that one. On the 24th, we were executing the Project Core. On the project core, the ones who remember, we had two paths.
One is the productivity, which is mainly the way we operate and people-related. That is fully in the pocket. The other half is car-related. That is not fully in the pocket, and we have some tail coming through for the second half of this year. Everything is going to be completely on the car-related cost. In order to improve and speed up the strategy execution, we have selected actually four points. We're going to be putting a lot of energy and effort. One is pricing. I think on the pricing, we realized with our volume, both when buying and when selling, every single euro counts. We've been realizing and monitoring our way of pricing the cars. The way of buying the cars, we leave money on the table.
That money we want to have in the pocket of the company and distribute it on the bottom line. That is what we are going to be working very diligently and hard on. Our offering, I think in general, we had a good grip on our offering, but we did not foresee the change towards the lower end so fast, and we did not see the change towards the petrol engine driven fast enough, and we were lacking the inventory. When we found out that is the name of the game, we were late on the game and had difficulties of sourcing them. When having the opportunity to source, the margins were not even close to the Kamux standard margins. We elected not to do it. That is something we need to do clearly ahead of the game going forward.
I think on the what we call KMS, our ERP system, the process is excellent, but it has to be beefed up a bit. It is flagging up things earlier, and people are following the discipline to the full, and that is where we are working. These are the four points we are operating. Inventory management, which is one of the core competencies, we have been rather okay when you take a time lapse of 120 days, but during the 120 days, you have multiple things you can do. I think we are going to do more dynamic inventory management, which is also reflecting on the pricing. As a result of that, we are going to be able to have better metal margin going forward. I will pass it on to Jukka.
Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go through some of the key numbers and metrics from the group total perspective. Consolidated numbers, and like Tapio stated, of course, we did have really difficult last quarter of 2024, and we had all kinds of challenges in all the markets, but that was especially linked to the profitability because the top line, the revenue was actually quite close to where we landed in 2024. The real challenge has been on the gross profit. The gross profit was down by about 15% on average, the whole group per car sold, and that's quite a major decline, and that had the consequences for EBIT as well. The other challenge on top of the fact that the margins were squeezed is the fact that we have been on purpose driving the inventory value, the average price of the cars up, especially in Finland.
We ended up the year, if you compare end of December 2024 to end of December 2023, having an inventory which is in Germany and Finland about 20% higher than it was a year ago, while in Sweden, both in pieces and in value, we actually draw the inventories down. That, of course, has led to the fact that the returns on the invested capital have gone down, even if we sort of have tried to match the demand of the marketplace. Like Tapio stated, we ended up having a mismatch, and the mix we had on the inventory was not optimal. EPS, the net result of the net profit and earnings per share for the last quarter, was at 50% down from what it was in Q4 2024, and the same applies for the full year.
The full year 2024 EPS landed eventually at EUR 0.12 per share while it was EUR 0.24 in 2023. Finally, we did, like we have announced earlier, go through a refinancing process, so that was finalized. At the end of 2024, the debt on the balance sheet that was refinanced, we have three-plus-one-plus-one year debt facilities in place, so we have the ammunition. However, of course, now we have to be careful managing both the balance sheet as well as the profitability going forward. Looking at this from a pure number perspective, these are the tables. In the middle, you see Q4. On the right-hand side, you see the full year. The revenue for the full year for the second time in a row was just above EUR 1 billion.
There was a little bit of a growth in value, so 1%, close to 1%. However, the further down you go, the P&L, the worse it unfortunately looks. For example, for the Q4, even if we were only down by 2% in EUR terms in revenue, the gross profit went down by 22%. Adjusted operating profit for Q4 was EUR 0.7 million while we had EUR 5.5 million. There is a major decline, and that, of course, affected the full year profitability as well. End of the day, the full year adjusted EBIT was EUR 11.6 million, and that's 1.1% of the revenue. Finally, inventory turnover, of course, when the inventory value went up, we were not able to sell, was also about 20% worse than what it was a year back.
We ended up having on group average 55 days in the inventory, days of inventory outstanding, while it was 46 a year ago. Towards the end of 2024, a lot of these metrics went unfortunately to the wrong direction. The equity ratio was quite close to where we were, so that is still around the 50% mark. Now here you see for three years, 2022, 2023, 2024, end of the quarters, net working capital on the left-hand side, inventory on the right-hand side, and the inventory value went up by almost 12%. Driven by Finland and Germany, even if in Sweden inventories declined, still we had much more capital tied in. That then, of course, led to the fact that we also had end of the year more debts, interest-bearing debt on the balance sheet. That is the key driver.
The change in inventory is the key driver for the fact that the cash flow for Q4 and cash flow from operating activities, which you can see here on the left-hand side, was EUR 14.8 million, still clearly positive. If you looked at what we had in 2023 and 2022, there is a major decline. Now the capital is tied on inventories, and now into 2025, we then have to manage the inventory turnover as one of the key metrics and part of these focus points that Tapio mentioned in the strategy execution. That applies to all of our markets. That then leads to the dividend proposition. The board of directors have yesterday decided to propose to the AGM.
The AGM will be held end of May, 22nd of May, that we would pay a dividend of EUR 7 per share out of the EUR 12 as EPS, which would imply about 58% payout ratio, so that it would be paid in the autumn and so that it would be paid based on board's discretion and its maximum EUR 7. In reality, it's anything between 0-EUR 7 and is up to the board of directors to decide in autumn 2025. That is the proposition towards the AGM to come. Last year, so from financial year 2023 results, we paid out EUR 17 per share, quite close, same type of payout ratio, but it was split into two tranches. The first tranche was paid after the AGM in springtime, and the second tranche was paid in the autumn.
Now the proposition is to pay all of it out end of the year, the second half, and secondly so that it would be fully at the discretion of the board of directors. With that said, I think going forward, Tapio, you maybe can jump into the longer-term perspective.
Yeah, that's something discussed before the meeting as well. They are unchanged. We are on the journey of going for 100,000 cars, revenue of this, and then the EBIT target is unchanged of 4%. We are a bit far off on that one. We know how to improve the game. I think domestic marketplace, we know what to do. Sweden, we have a long journey. We started with a negative one. Germany, we are getting closer to the breakeven and going to go above. On the NPS, we actually good trajectory on that one and good development.
I know what is the outcome on the early first month of this year. We're going to be good. Employee NPS, we are still low, clearly below. We are one notch up. We used to be on six. Now we are seven. Finland is way better than this one. We still have issues in Sweden, and that's reflected on the number for the group. For the outlook of 2025, we expect that adjusted operating profit will be exceeding this year, and then repeating what we had on this one. Really challenging period, especially the Q4, and especially two last months of the Q4. Top line, not where we want to be, but close to prior year. Profitability due to the metal margin, not where we want to be. Inventory higher up than we want to be. Lack of the lower-level petrol engine cars. Now we know what to correct
Correcting, as you know, will not happen overnight, but I think in our way of business where the stock rotation is still rather high, can see visible results rather soon.
Thank you.
No time for questions.
No time for questions. We will begin by questions from the teleconference line. Let's go ahead.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Maria Wikström from SEB. Please go ahead.
Hello, this is Maria Wikström from SEB. I had a few follow-up questions. First of all, I think you mentioned that these—how to call them in English?—like post-sale repair costs, they were up and hurt the gross margin.
I was wondering, have you discovered that the pricing of Kamux Plus product has not been correct as you are getting more of these after-sale service costs? Or how would you describe the situation there, and how do you prepare yourself better for these repair costs in the future?
If I've said that, then I delivered the wrong message. Actually, the after cost is going down quite nicely. Pre-cost have been going up, and we've not been able to limit as we had on the project core. Now we have a way how to do that. The people who are buying the car, they are estimating the pre-cost, and we follow up how good they are on the estimation. I think we also set certain limits how to do that. The same applies for the after cost.
But the after cost, we've been actually going quite nicely down on that one. Pre-cost is the issue where we need to focus, and then we've been trying to consolidate the partners with whom we do the pre-cost. We are halfway on the process of having the right partners and having the right price level with the partners.
Thank you for the clarification. I wanted to ask that now during the Q4, you saw that there was a great demand for cheaper gasoline cars. Obviously, I think you've been quite many times hurt by changing customer preference, I mean, on a very quick time. How you can prepare yourself to be more agile to the changes in customer preference and read probably the market more correctly so that your inventory will be positioned to current customer demand?
I think that's part of the S&OP process, which I think has been more indicative. Now it's going to be a decision-making process. We have our own data based on the KMS. We see what is moving, where we book the margins. Then we have the market data, which in the car industry is very accurate and online. We just need to make faster decisions based on the data, nothing else.
Okay. I think you sounded quite positive in your statement in the report about Sweden, saying that you are confident that you can return the operation to profitable levels. What makes you so confident that you can actually turn Swedish operations to black figures?
Yeah, we still have a lot to do, but I think we know what to do, and we have great examples of good performing stores.
At the other token, we have the bad performing stores. We have an idea how to lift them up, and we still may need to consider closing some of those if we cannot make them profitable. Now we have collecting a team who can do that. I think Johan's grip and then beefing up his team can do the job.
Okay. Finally, given that you made some changes in your organizational structure and you appointed Mr. Kalliokoski as Chief Operating Officer, but at the same time the board is basically the boss of the CEO and Mr. Kalliokoski still sits on the board. How does this reporting structure really work that you will be the boss for Mr. Kalliokoski, who then will be your boss, given that he sits on the board?
I think time will tell. We have no experience on this one within Kamux. You see this type of arrangement in some of the companies where the founder is a big shareholder and operating in the company. In the co-op area, you see this actually quite often. Time will tell. We've been working with Juha in the past. The other way around, I was in the board. We had a nice good relationship with him. He's a capable professional in his territory. I don't foresee any major issues, and I think we can work together quite well.
Thank you. I had no further questions.
The next question comes from Calle Loikkanen from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi there, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a few ones, if that's all right. If we start with the inventory and perhaps the inventory today, how does the inventory today match the current demand? Basically asking that, will you struggle with top line and margins also in Q1 and onwards?
I think the Q4 was not only the inventory. It was the market and the inventory. Markets are similar for everyone, so that's something we cannot change. The market will prevail as it is. Our own inventory, we've been addressing it, and we are gradually going towards a more suitable fit for the market, both in Finland, Sweden, and in Germany. I think the way to obtain metal margin, we are in a better shape, but the market is still the market.
Okay, okay, okay. All right. I was wondering about the Q4, and obviously, based on at least my calculations, you lost a bit of market share, quite a lot of market share actually in Q4. I was just wondering that can you give any color on who have actually won the market share in Q4? I'm not asking for any specific names, but perhaps more broadly, that is the small players or the big players or who has been gaining market share?
It varies market by market. On the domestic market, the ones who've been having a good grip and good availability of the lower-end petrol engine vehicles, they've been gaining pieces. In Sweden, I think it's been buying market share, which is clearly not profitable and not healthy. I would not count that.
The main players have been either forced to do that or been doing it with their own will. In any case, it has not been a healthy way of gaining market share. Germany, it's everyone. If there's one phenomenon which is fair to highlight, I think the branded dealers, the ones who have big brands in their pocket, they have had, in a way, automatic supply of some of the needy cars. They've been gaining some share, and most likely with a healthy and profitable way. What is the outcome of the others on this one is still a mystery. I think we're going to see the numbers when some of the non-public companies will go out with their P&L and filing it. I think in Finland it's towards the summer. Sweden, roughly the same timeline.
In Sweden, the ones who monitor the Swedish marketplace, I think there are more than 100 companies gone out of the business and no longer playing the game. It is an automatic consolidation. We have seen that in Finland, but clearly smaller scale. Germany, roughly the same, but not the scale like in Sweden.
Okay, thank you. That is very, very helpful. I was wondering about the market overall. I mean, obviously very challenging, but has the market changed now in January, February? Are there still a lot of aggressive offers on the market and so on?
Yeah, maybe still I forgot to say one thing. On the pieces, Kamux has lost market share. On the value, not so much. I think we have been gaining in some of the areas' value.
Commenting on the marketplace, I can only comment what is visible on the—if you go to any of the social media, open any magazine, any other media, you still see lots of interest rate offers. You see some of the car offers, which are, I would say, strong, maybe no longer aggressive, but strong. I think some of the inventory cleanup is happening by some of the players. It is in a way easing up. I think we are gaining strength and speed towards the season, which is soon to start. Still some players are playing with the tools which are normally not used.
Okay, okay, that is clear. I was just wondering about kind of your thoughts on—and now talking again about the pieces, not the value, but the pieces of cars.
When do you expect that you have made sufficient changes in your inventory and your offering so that you could actually go back to gaining market share rather than losing it? Are we far away from that point?
I think in theory, when we look at our rotation times, we say that six weeks should be doable. In real life, six weeks is not doable because you have the ones which are moving very fast, and then you have the long-day stock. I think we are talking about weeks.
Okay, okay. Yeah, thank you. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thanks, Calle.
Thank you, Calle and Maria. Now we are ready to take questions here from the audience before moving into some of the questions we have received from chat. Any questions here? Pia?
Thank you, Pia from Carnegie. A few questions, and I'll start with the increased maintenance and repair costs. Could you still clarify, is this a result of inflation, a business mix, or something else?
I think inflation, when I see what the workshops are charging for certain things, both on the spare parts and on the hours, that's clearly gone up. Our ability to estimate how fast it's going to go up has not been perfect. That's why we have taken the, when buying the thing, taking the pre-cost estimation very, I would say, vocally and strongly, and start to follow how good we are on that. It has a major impact on the pricing of the car. I think the other thing is that we are still in the used car business, and that's the area which is in our own control.
How good do we repair the car? When we are in the used car business, if it's a car which is three years old, we would need to accept that there are certain scratches on the bumper. When it's a one-year-old younger car, it should be perfect. That is where we need to have a good grip on how to make them sellable with a standardized way.
Thank you. Regarding your network in Sweden, you say you are critically reviewing your network, and I don't know if it's specifically Sweden or the overall network still, but does this mean that Kamux will continue to contract before growing the network again?
I think we have certain stores we are monitoring very closely, whether we can make them profitable. If so, we'll continue. If not, then we need to close. On the other hand, we know that we are clearly underrepresented in the greater Stockholm area, so that's under our radar, something we need to do over there. I think we will not open before we have the current capacity in a good shape.
Also, in the northern part of Sweden, beyond Sundsvall in the north, there is a big market, actually a very lucrative market. We are not there. I think longer term, we need to be there. Regarding Finland and Germany, we still have some areas where we are addressing the optimal network. We'll need to make decisions. In Germany, we are in a need to open one or two stores this year to make it scale in Germany.
Thank you. If I continue still, you say you believe it's possible to make the Swedish business profitable. Do you dare to say anything about the timeline?
That is something we will come back to later. Now we have you and the team on the game. We know what we are doing. We will see how fast the medicine will be delivering results. Already we know that some of the stores we have been able to beef up and make rather good. The question is how we can lift up the bottom end of the stores faster than in the past.
Thank you. If I continue with the guidance, listening to you today, should we understand that it is really H2 weighted in terms of earnings growth?
I think we give guidance for the full year of 2025, so it will come during the year.
Finally, if I can, I have two more questions still. Regarding the change in management and appointing Juha Kalliokoski to the CEO, is this a change driven from within the company or is it a change driven by the board?
We appointed Juha Kalliokoski as a COO, not CEO.
Sorry, sorry for that.
No problem. It's a common decision. I think we know Juha from the past and also as a board member who knows how to buy, how to sell cars, how to manage inventory, and how to increase the productivity of the team. That skill set, we have a need for that. I think we could have that also outside of the company. Once we have an individual in, it's clearly faster and we know the individual. It's a safe choice in that respect.
Sorry for misspelling. Right, then finally, regarding your dividend commitment, should we understand that the dividend can be zero this year?
I think the most important thing is that we're going to stay in the business. We have all the means to be successful in the business. I think our intention is to pay the bonus, but it is for the board discretion to decide do we pay or not.
Thank you.
Jussi Koskinen. I do understand that profitability is the main challenge, but coming to this CMD EUR 1.5 billion sales target, reaching it in reasonable time requires high signal growth several years in a row. How does that sound?
I think when we set the target, we said it is mainly organic. On top of that, we may have non-organic activities like M&A, acquiring something and adding up.
Thank you.
Yes, Rauli from Inderes. Hi, a few questions from me as well. On the lower-priced cars, which you have not been able to source enough, I think this was not the first quarter that happened. It happened also earlier last year. The problem seems to be that you are not able to kind of buy them so that you could make money. Can you give some kind of concrete things what you will make to correct that, assuming that the market will remain as tough as it is?
We have already changed a couple of levers on the lower end between EUR 7,500-EUR 15,000 petrol engine cars. We have, first of all, changed the salary model for the people who are buying it.
It is more motivational for them to buy that because they used to only get on the margin, and the margin they will not earn as they would like to earn. At the same token, we have been increasing our trading power for that. On top of that, since, let me not think what is the day, but it is on the website as well and on the social media and everywhere, we are open from 10:00 A.M. till 10:00 P.M. for the people who are selling the cars, except on Saturdays and Sundays we are until 9:00 P.M. We used to be five days a week office hours. That is where we have been beefing up the team. We have a new team leader on the consumer purchasing team in Finland. We are also then using Webcars in Sweden to help us on that.
I think we have a lot of levers how to get there. Still, the sourcing of these cars is not automatically easy.
Was that compensation model you mentioned, was that changed earlier kind of to the different direction when your strategy has more emphasized the higher value cars?
We changed towards more on the margin made. For sure, you have the higher margin on the higher priced cars, and it's more lucrative for the individual buyer to go for that. Now we make it in a way equal for them whether they buy that or this.
Okay, okay, good. I have to come back also to the appointment of Juha as a COO. Can you give some practical example also from that?
You say that I guess you, Tapio, will kind of focus more on the strategy execution, but it seems the reporting lines for all the countries and operative actions will go to Juha. What will your role actually mean then in the future?
Not only me, I think we have a team who will work on the Kamux concept together with, we will work on the offering, which is the S&OP. We are going to work on the digital and the KMS. This is by the way, Jukka's last show, and we are very unhappy that he's leaving, but he's leaving. Soon we are going to be appointing a new CFO. Working on that matrix.
Where Juha is very strong is on the operational buying and selling and getting the productivity on the country level on a monthly basis, weekly basis, daily basis, hourly basis. That is where his focus is. I am very happy that he is joining that team.
Okay, great. I could have one question to Jukka as well. You have been silent, so you can say something. On the efficiency program, you mentioned that the personnel-related things are in the pocket. Were those fully visible already in Q4, or is there something to be gained kind of still from the beginning of this year?
If you look at it from the cost-incurred perspective, I think the action was done in 2024. That is respected, yes. If you think about the benefits we gain, some of that will flow into 2025.
You can say most of that was done. That is sort of the second or the other half of the program because roughly 50% was linked to the premises and the staff. That was linked to the network optimization as well. That was done. However, there are some actions that still will have impact on 2025. You will get, like originally stated, the full impact would come in the second half of 2025.
All right. Thank you. That's all for me.
Thank you.
Thank you. Good questions.
We have a couple of questions also via the chat. I shall be translating these, so let's see how we go. Have you set any kind of deadline for taking in the unprofitable business in Sweden and Germany? Shall we see a downgrade or sales of Sweden or Germany to somebody else?
I think Germany, we are on a steady path. I feel good that we can deliver the path. Sweden, we feel confident that it's doable. Time will tell how fast. I think if we're not able to make it profitable, for sure we need to consider something else. That is maybe one of the tools in the toolbox.
Okay, very good. Another question. It's a fairly long one, so I'll shorten a bit. Looking by the figures, it looks like that the Secto purchase and Webcars has not given the input into purchasing activities as you might have expected. How would you comment on this?
I think on the Secto, the benefits are to be seen. We are very happy with the cooperation we do with Secto.
Initially, when we acquired the large stock on the transition, some of the vehicles were in a position where we had difficulties of getting the full margin on that one. Now we know that we've been doing exactly what we've been planning and actually at par with that, initially not. With the Webcars, it's very early days of the journey. Be very happy with the capability, skill set, and way of working. Going forward, they're going to be clearly an integral part of our sourcing both for Finland, Sweden, and Germany. Especially Sweden, we're going to work very close cooperation.
Good, thank you. That was all from the chat side. Any further questions from the audience, or shall we call it today?
Thank you for the questions. Thanks for the attention. Enjoy the rest of the day. Take care.
Thank you.
All the best.