Good morning, everyone. I'm Susanne Ehnbåge, CEO of Lindex Group. I would like to warmly welcome you to our webcast, where we will walk you through the key highlights of our January to September performance. But before we start, let me first introduce you to our new CFO, Henrik Henriksson. Henrik joined the group in September, and it's great that we can already now present the result first time here together in this webcast as well. So a warm welcome once again, Henrik, to our team and to Lindex Group. Now, let's continue to the agenda. We will start with the third quarter business updates for our two divisions, Lindex and Stockmann, and then look at the financials more closely. We will finish with an update on our way forward, and after the presentation, we will have time for your questions.
And if you take a look at the next page, we will begin with our business updates and take a look at the group-level key messages for the quarter. During the third quarter, the fashion market remained challenging, and the warm weather, especially in September, impacted our business. Despite the challenging market, I'm pleased with the Stockmann division's profit improvement, both during the quarter and year to date. Successful cost efficiency measures have resulted in these improvement steps. Considering the volatile operating environment, initiatives for future-proofing our business is more essential than ever. On ongoing initiatives, our ongoing initiatives progressed well during the quarter, and I will highlight some of them in today's presentations. For example, Lindex division's omnichannel distribution center and the new operating model.
When it comes to Lindex Group's restructuring program, we only have one disputed claim left of the program, and finally, I would like to state that our strategic assessment is still ongoing. Lindex Group continues to investigate strategic alternatives for the Stockmann department store business, and the schedule remains the same as we have communicated earlier, meaning that we expect to finalize the assessment in twenty twenty-four, and if we then move on and take a look at the fashion market. The fashion market remained volatile also for the third quarter, where the macroeconomic situation kept on challenging consumer confidence together with warmer weather affecting the demand. The Lindex Group's key markets, Finland and Sweden, standing for approximately 70% of the group's revenue. The fashion industry continued to face headwinds.
In Finland, the fashion market declined throughout the quarter, while in Sweden, the data indicates a range from close to previous year to a drop of -12%. If we sum up our Q3 revenue development, the group's revenue for the third quarter totaled EUR 222.1 million. The revenue declined by 2.1%. Lindex division revenue developed well in July, but decreased towards the latter part of the quarter due to lower stock availability caused by logistical challenges. The Stockmann division revenue decreased slightly due to adverse market conditions affecting the fashion market, which negatively impacted sales within the fashion category. If we continue to the profitability in Q3, the group's adjusted operating result declined to EUR 15.8 million due to lower revenue in the group and increased costs in the Lindex division.
I'm pleased that the decline in adjusted operating results was partly mitigated by Stockmann division's improved cost efficiency. The group's gross profit declined to EUR 129.3 million. The Lindex division's gross profit declined slightly due to a decline in revenue and higher share of promotions aimed at driving demand. The Stockmann division's gross profit remained consistent with the comparison period. Looking then more specifically on the next page, on the Lindex division's third quarter, we continued our systematic work to future-proof our business. Our profitability was impacted mainly as a consequence of logistical challenges and a difficult fashion market, together with a higher share of promotions aimed at driving demand and also increased costs.
The logistics were affected by the continued challenges related to the Red Sea area aftermath and also the political instability that has been in Bangladesh, causing capacity constraints in Lindex warehouse operations. This, unfortunately, led to a lower stock availability, especially in our stores. I'm very pleased that we have experienced a strong digital growth of 8.6% during the quarter. We continued to expand our presence on marketplaces further, adding two new markets on Zalando, which brings the total to nine markets. To secure Lindex future growth and profitability, keeping sustainability at the core, we have also introduced a new operating model for the Lindex division. The renewed model adds clarity to accountabilities and supports faster decision-making and strengthens the connection between our offering and brand. The new model was launched on the first of October.
Our ongoing important investments are progressing well. We are working intensively in implementing our new omnichannel warehouse, with extensive phase preparing and testing for go live, and I will come back to give you more details about our new warehouse in a while. Our digital store program is also progressing, and during the quarter, we have fully transformed 76 stores in Sweden to our new point of sales, and a milestone was reached, with one million transactions, and we have also started expanding beyond Sweden with one POS per store for our super user stores in Finland. We are also rolling out mobile devices in all stores. Kids' wear was our best performing category, and we had a successful back-to-school campaign and a very positive reception of our new autumn kids assortment.
We have also launched our new innovative Kids performance wear, that are constructed with a groundbreaking, kinetic design and where our innovative garments have a special focus on kids' free play, movement, and longevity. If we then continue with the Stockmann division, Stockmann division's profitability improved as a result of successful cost efficiency measures, and during the quarter, the overall fashion market declined clearly, especially in Finland. Stockmann division's revenue declined slightly, positively impacted by beauty and food. In September, we introduced a new, highly automated and efficient packing solution for e-com at Stockmann's omnichannel distribution center. The new solution was used already during the Crazy Days campaign that took place after the reporting period. The new solution improves efficiency and also flexibility, increasing delivery speed and enables Stockmann's e-com channel growth. In addition, our data-driven staff planning solution and HR system was launched in the third quarter.
These launches are good examples of the work continues to enhance our operational efficiency. On top of this, we continued developing Stockmann department store as inspiring shopping destinations. We did renovation in our Helsinki flagship store, where the formal fashion area for men was renovated, and in Tallinn, the women's fashion department with the whole fashion and accessory areas have been renewed. Crazy Days campaign was held after the review period in the beginning of October. The campaign performed better than the previous year, showing how much our customers appreciate the concept. Then if we continue on the next page, Lindex Group has specified its guidance with the range based on the January to September twenty twenty-four performance.
We now expect the revenue in local currencies to be in the range of -2% to 0% compared to 2023. The group's adjusted operating result is estimated to be between EUR 70-EUR 80 million . And of course, foreign exchange rate fluctuations may have a significant effect on the adjusted operating result. And now I would like to hand over to Henrik, who will talk us through the group's financials.
Thank you, Susanne. And now let's look more closely at the third quarter, and please, we can go to the next page. And with this slide, we would like to present the Lindex division's revenue and adjusted operating result for the third quarter, 2024. And for the Lindex division, our revenue decreased slightly to EUR 159.3 million. Lindex division, the revenue developed well in July, but decreased towards the later part of the quarter due to lower stock availability caused by our logistical challenges. We didn't manage to meet previous year's strong result, but as Susanne mentioned earlier, we continue to see good increases in our digital sales for the quarter, and I'm pleased with the increase of 8.6% in the division's digital channels.
The gross margin weakened to 63.3%, mainly as a consequence of higher share of promotional sales, in combination with higher freight cost. Our operating cost increased slightly for the division, to EUR 62.1 million , compared to EUR 61.3 million in the comparison period, and this is mainly due to cost inflation and digital development for enabling future growth. Lindex continue to focus on cost efficiency and process automation to mitigate future cost increases. The adjusted operating result declined to EUR 21.1 million due to lower revenue and increased costs. We can then move to the Stockmann's division and look at their financials. Looking at this slide, we present the division's revenue and operating result for the third quarter.
As earlier stated, the Stockmann's division's revenue decreased slightly, and the main reason for this decrease, both in department store and digital channel, was the decrease in the division's biggest category, fashion. During the quarter, the revenue in beauty and food categories improved, while home category remained at the level of the comparison period. Exceptional weather, warm weather impacted the revenue negatively, but regardless of the decrease, Stockmann performed in line with the challenging fashion market during the quarter. The gross margin increased to 45.3% due to better clearance sales margin and good inventory management. Stockmann continued its successful cost efficiency measures and decreased costs by 0.7 million EUR compared to the previous year. Adjusted operating results slightly improved, mainly driven by successful cost efficiency measures. Please, let's go to the next slide.
On this slide, we try to visualize the division level changes and their impact on the group's revenue and adjusted operating result for the third quarter, and if you look at the left graph, it shows revenue, which ended up on a slight decrease compared to the comparison period on group level. Lindex division decreased by EUR 3.0 million due to lower stock availability. In addition, the weather, warm weather also impacted negatively. Looking at the Stockmann, it decreased EUR 1.8 million, driven by an overall decline in the fashion market and also impacted by warm weather. Going into the operating result, as you can see to the right, it declined EUR 4.8 million on the group level, and the key reason for this decline was lower revenue and somewhat increased cost for the Lindex division.
The decline was partly mitigated by Stockmann's divisions improved cost efficiency. Please, let's go to the next slide. Here we look at the group key figures for the quarter, and we can see that the revenue decreased slightly compared to the previous comparison period, and it's also followed by a decline in adjusted operating result. Currency rates didn't have any material impact on the group's adjusted operating result, and the operating result totaled EUR 15 million , and the net result declined to EUR 1.8 million , mainly due to lower revenue and increased costs. The group's gross margin was on par with the comparison period at 58.2%, and earnings per share declined to EUR 0.01, mainly explained by the lower net result. Please turn page.
And then let's review year-to-date outcome, and this slide shows the division level changes and their impact on the year-to-date group revenue and adjusted operating result. On the left-hand side, shows the changes in revenue, and as a result of lower sales in both division, group revenue decreased by 1.6%. They consist of Lindex revenue that decreased by EUR 5.3 million , while Stockmann decreased EUR 5.5 million . Lindex division operating result declined EUR 11.9 million due to lower gross profit, together with increased cost, and the Stockmann division improved the result with EUR 0.8 million , thanks to successful cost efficiency measures. Let's turn page, please.
On this slide, we would like to visualize our adjusted profitability on a rolling twelve months since beginning of 2020, and the result looks as following: It's evident that we see Lindex profitability has improved significantly during the years, despite this temporary drop in Q3 2024. It is also important to note that currency has had a negative impact on Lindex reporting figures due to the weak SEK and NOK the last few years. It's also worth to mention that Stockmann has greatly improved their profitability compared to 2020 and 2021, although it still reports negative numbers. Let me then just mention that the timing of the Crazy Days event influenced these figures, especially if you look at Q3 2023 and Q1 2024. Let's turn page.
Here we are now looking at the cash flow and our capital expenditure. If you look at the group's operating free cash flow, we had a - EUR 40.5 million for the first nine months, compared to + EUR 2.9 million in the comparison period. The main reason for this is increased working capital due to lower accounts payable, as well as higher inventory, mainly from the Lindex division, while Stockmann has a good inventory management. Let us also recognize the impact of lower result and increased lease payments compared to the comparison period as drivers behind the lower operating free cash flow.
Inventories at the comparison level was EUR 198.6 million versus EUR 193.3 million, and total stock is at a balanced level for the group, while the Lindex division experienced a higher share of goods in transits compared to the comparison period. The group's capital expenditure totaled EUR 25.2 million, and it was mainly used for digitalization projects and omni-channel developments in both division. The comparison period include higher investment for the Lindex omni-channel distribution center.
By the end of September, approximately EUR 84 million of the total investment for the omnichannel distribution center of EUR 110 million has been paid. Let's then take a closer look at the cash position, and with this slide, we're trying to visualize the changes in cash position per item from the beginning of the year up until end of September in relation to comparison period last year. Cash and cash equivalents totaled EUR 65.9 million, compared to EUR 108 million at the end of September last year. The third quarter generated a total free cash flow of -EUR 28 million, compared to -EUR 26.1 million in the comparison period.
During the third quarter, Lindex Group operating free cash flow, excluding the investment in the Lindex omnichannel distribution center, was -EUR 24.7 million, compared to -EUR 12.2 million in the comparison period, mainly affected by working capital due to lower accounts payable and higher inventories. Capital expenditures affected operating free cash flow by EUR 8.4 million, compared to EUR 17.6 million in the comparison period. Let's turn to next page. Here we are illustrating how the group's financial position has developed during the last year. In the graph, you can see that the net debt has remained on a good level. Excluding the IFRS 16 items, the interest-bearing net debt was EUR 7 million. Equity ratio improved further and reached 61.9%, excluding IFRS items, and 29.2%, including IFRS items.
Lease liabilities under IFRS 16 reporting standard totaled EUR 612.2 million, and in the Lindex division, the lease liabilities increased by EUR 26 million, and for Stockmann, it increased EUR 37 million, and this is due to prolonged lease agreements for some department stores. Interest-bearing liabilities stood at EUR 73.1 million and consist of a bond. And let's then turn page, and as a summary of the financials for quarter three, I'd like to highlight three topics related to our performance. On group level, our revenue decreased slightly compared to the comparison period. We are seeing volatility in the fashion market throughout the quarter. Looking specifically at the Lindex division, the result was impacted by logistical challenges and somewhat increased costs.
As a third point, I'd like to highlight that Stockmann performed well and improved its operating result, both in the quarter and year- to- date. That's all from me.
Thank you, Henrik, and then I will continue. Looking then at the way forward. For Lindex, we are consistently implementing our strategy, focusing on accelerating our growth while continuing our transformation into a more sustainable business, and also to improve the scalability and efficiency of our business. The division's three strategic must-win areas are to accelerate growth, transform into a sustainable business, and also to decouple costs from growth. Let's then take a closer look at our strategic progress this year on the next page. This is the really crucial one. For us to be able to accelerate our global growth efficiently, a crucial step and a big milestone is to take our new omnichannel distribution center into operation. Right now, we are in the final stage of site acceptance testing and aim to start our operations in Q4 2024.
We will maintain our existing warehouse operations during the transition period, and our new warehouse is planned to be operational on a larger scale during 2025. Our new DC, that is located in Alingsås, just right outside Gothenburg, is designed for growth. Here we have streamlined our sales channels into one efficient stock operations. The highly automated warehouse will reduce transaction costs for e-commerce orders compared to existing manual warehouse operation, lower rents, and also positive effects on our margins. We will have a significantly higher storage capacity to secure our future sales growth and also to enable warehouse flexibility towards our different sales channels. Thanks to our new warehouse, we will be able to increase our inbound throughput capacity with 50% and also increase storage by 50%. We have planned for future expansion, ensuring our capacity is built for future growth.
The extra space that we have built for future expansion is now leased by NKT until the space is needed for Lindex. Sustainability is a high priority at Lindex, and with BREEAM Very Good certification, self-generated electricity, and infrastructure for transportation electrification. Our new warehouse will start generating the savings gradually. The savings will increase as going forward, leading to a projected annual EBITDA savings of EUR 10 million in 2026 and onwards. If we then take a look at the next page, please. This year, 2024, is the year with many important launches, supporting our transformation and accelerating our global growth in an efficient way. The ongoing investments are essential enablers of our strategic development. Apart from the launch of our new warehouse, we will continue to implement our digital store program, and further strengthen our foundation for efficiency, flexibility, and innovation.
During the fourth quarter, we plan to complete the rollout of the new mobile devices to all of our stores and also plan to roll out the POS to all stores in Q1 2025. Continuous growth in e-commerce and marketplaces, as well as in new sales channels, are important focus areas for us. We'll also continue improving our efficiency by digitalizing our supply chain with a primary focus on enhancing supplier collaboration and 3D design to increase flexibility and to also reduce lead times. Looking then at the Stockmann division's strategy, our key target is to ensure profitability and future growth. The Stockmann division has four strategic must-win areas, which are to elevate offering by increasing focus on premium and luxury, grow and leverage loyal customer base, as well as optimize omnichannel performance and improve operational efficiency.
So on the next page, when it comes to the Stockmann division's way forward, we continue focusing on strategy execution with the important target to improve the profitability of the business. At the same time, we'll always have the customer in focus. We continue to develop our customer-centric offering towards premium and luxury, brought to the customers through a strong omnichannel model. Helsinki flagship store and stockmann.com that serve widely both for domestic and international customers will lead the way in strengthening our position on the market. In the area of operational and cost efficiency improvements, we have a lot of good work ongoing. On top of the earlier mentioned highly automated e-com packaging and data-driven HR system, we are further leveraging digitalization and technology by having implemented RFID tagging into our fashion category and piloting AI-assisted processes in product data enriching.
The developments in digitalization and technology will also support us in growing and leveraging our ever-important loyal customer base. The revised organizational structure from first of July will further support strategy implementation and organizational and process efficiency, and last but not least, the first steps then have already started at Lindex. The team has been preparing memorable experience for our customers by showcasing both trendy novelties and traditional classics, available both in our stores and online, and with these words, I suggest that we end the presentation part and move on to your questions, so we are happy to answer your questions now.
Yes, good morning. We have here at least two questions related to our logistical challenges. So maybe, Susanne, you could take the first two questions. Are you able to provide more detail on the nature of Lindex's logistical challenges?
Yes. Yes. So we can say that Bangladesh, as I mentioned in the presentation, this is then our largest sourcing market, and here we have experienced political instability in Q3. Also, from the sea freight perspective, there has been unexpected from the aftermath of the Red Sea conflict. In addition to that, we have outgrown our existing warehouse setup and capacity, and this is, of course, one of the key reasons why we are establishing our new warehouse that fully supports our business and continued expansion. We have had external things that has impacted the logistics flow, but unfortunately, we also then have a capacity issue at the current warehouse setup.
Yes, thank you. And then following in the same theme, so, are you able to quantify that how large was the negative effect from logistical disruptions? And do we foresee that this effect is expected to continue in Q4 as well?
Mm-hmm. Yes. Well, we calculate that approximately around 60% of the revenue drop was explained by the fact that we had a lower stock availability. We believe that the other part is related to the difficult fashion market that we have at the moment in most of our markets. And of course, looking now at the situation going forward, we have improved the availability of stock, so it's looking better now here in October than it did in September.
Yes, and let's stay then in this topic area still. You mentioned in the presentation that there is a EUR 10 million savings cap possibility thanks to the new omnichannel distribution center. Is that excluding any growth in sales volumes today, or does it assume an increase in sales?
Should I take that one, or Henrik?
You can take it.
Okay.
Uh, hmm.
Okay, mainly we are talking about the impacts on first that I mentioned, that we will have a lower cost for the rental parts. We will also have lower costs for sending out the goods. That is, that we currently have two warehouses. We have the for the stores, we have for the e-com, and added to that, we have needed to rent extra space. So that is a big part of it. But also, since we are now we'll have then one warehouse, we do expect that we are able to improve where we will send the goods or the garments. That would also improve the gross margin stability. So I would say these are the main points in the P&L net.
Yes, thank you. And, one more question to Susanne, related to the strategic assessment. Is there a risk for a delay to the strategic assessment due to that it's only two months left of 2024 ?
We, and I, expect that we will hold on to the time schedule that we have earlier commented, and that is that we will communicate this by the end of this year, so 2024 still holds.
Thank you. Then we go to the sales of Lindex and Stockmann. Were Lindex and Stockmann sales above, below, or in line with the fashion market sales in Sweden and Finland? Would this be something for you to answer, Susanne?
Yes, of course. So yes, as we talked about here in the presentation, in Finland, the fashion market declined, as we could see throughout the quarter. It was between -5% to -6%, while in Sweden we have two different data sources that indicates a range from close to previous year to a drop of -12%. And in Norway, we can also mention that the data that we have was closer than previous year. And then looking at how we have developed in the same period, we can see that Lindex division revenue for the period declined by 1.8%, and Stockmann division with -2.8%. For the group, it was -2.1%.
So I think we were able to handle the market development in a good way, both for the divisions as well as for the group.
Yes, thank you. And then we have a question to Henrik related to the working capital change. So do you expect full year net working capital change to be negative, or will there be a significant improvement in Q4?
We believe, I mean, we don't speculate what will happen in going into Q4. What we are looking into, net working capital as presented in this presentation was based on the outcome of Q3. So it's, I would like to not speculate what will happen during Q4 at this point.
Thank you, Henrik. And, then we have a question related to Lindex's new operating model that would go then maybe to Susanne. Are you able to provide more detail on the key changes in relation to Lindex's new operating model?
Sure. So we have done this operating model, which we have been working on during this year, and this is to secure Lindex's future growth and profitability. And at the same time, we want to embrace the sustainability. So that's why we have introduced this new operating model. And the model encompasses the organizational structure, processes, technology, as well as people. And what we aim for here is to really make sure that we, that we're supporting then a faster decision making. We want to increase the accountability across teams. This, I for sure believe will also drive growth, at the same time, strengthen the connection between product and brands.
This is something that is very changed now in the new organization, and also enable effective planning across the value chain and ensure efficient operations, and really maximizing returns on technology investments. So these are the four things that we have been chasing and wanted to deliver upon in the new operating model.
Thank you, Susanne. And then a question related to the operating profit decline. Yes, sorry, just a moment. Yes. How much of Lindex's operating profit decline has been due to growth in investments?
All right. During the third quarter, the adjusted operating result, as you said here, it declined to 21.1. It was previous year, 26.2. This was then mainly due to the lower revenue, but also that we can see it is due to the increased operating cost. However, how much then has been going to the growth investments? I would say a big part of it. Of course, we have also inflation impacting the cost development, but otherwise, it has been the investments in mainly the digital part that was also mentioned, that we have the digital store program and digitalization in the supply chain, and also to be ready then for the new channels that we have been working on with the marketplaces, for example.
Thank you. Then, let's stay in the area of cost items. So what sort of cost items were behind Lindex's rise in operating costs?
If I may, if you look at what we said in the presentation, the Lindex divisions is having this operating cost increase by EUR 0.8 million, right? And that's due to cost inflation, and cost inflation impact many different areas of the different cost types that we have. So we are seeing cost increases due to that that we have not really been able to mitigate in this short period of time. But our focus is to continue focus on cost efficiency and process automation to mitigate these cost increases going forward. And that goes if also for, I mean, if we're talking all different costs, including rent, parts of the rent contractual indexes is impacting increases in rent, for example.
When it comes to the increase of, let's say, the lease liabilities, they are mainly related to prolonging contracts for those divisions.
Thank you, Henrik. And, let's stay still in this cost area. Now we go to the savings questions. So, are you able to outline how much of Stockmann's targeted cost savings has already been achieved? And then there is a follow-up question that how much more savings are left to be achieved?
If I may, then, I think the cost savings, without going into details where they were, they were made in a balanced manner in all cost areas, but it was mainly then related to sales, site expenses, that is then of course, related to department stores cost and then marketing. Those were the main parts. So was there a second question also related to that, Magda?
Yes, that there was actually that it was a forward-looking question, that, how much more, or how much is targeted and how Stockmann can think to reach how many how much, how many, how much cost savings Stockmann can still reach?
I mean, as we have been talking about, we have made changes in the organizational setup that we anticipate will give good savings also going forward. We have done several actions when it comes to technology, looking at the Jussla logistics center. We have the RFID, we have the HR-related investments, and all of these we expect will give both savings this year, but also then, of course, going into the coming years without then naming exactly the amount then.
Yes. Then we go to Henrik. Are you able to explain why lease payments have been increasing, particularly relative to rev, to revenue declines? Should we ex-
Oh, sorry.
Should we expect lease payments to continue to trend up?
I tried to explain that in the previous question. When it comes to index adjustments, they are contractual, and we have to oblige, so of course, there are increases from that, and then the lease liabilities are increasing when we're prolonging lease agreements and add new stores, for example.
Yes, thank you. Then a question related to taxes, and I guess this goes also to Henrik. Your taxes have been clearly higher than the pre-tax profit, both year to date and Q3 2024. What is the reason for this?
I mean, the tax expenses arise from the profitable entities we have within the Lindex divisions, while there's still some entities that are not yet profitable at this time. And of course, there is definitely a opportunity to improve our efficiency in business going forward. But we have not recognized deferred taxes for the entities with negative profit taxes. This is mainly that some entities are performing well and some others less well.
Yes, thank you. And then we have a question to Susanne. Helsinki District Court should rule today in the case against LähiTapiola. If that ruling is disputed, could you escrow the disputed amount and end the restructuring, even if that single remaining dispute drags on?
Mm-hmm. We are waiting, of course, to hear the result later today. We are also curious, but we cannot speculate with the possible outcome. We will continue discussions with LähiTapiola, but, and when we are ready, we will also communicate regarding this.
Yes. And then we have actually now, at the moment, the very last question: How has the weather been for the company at early Q4 2024?
The weather? Okay.
The weather, so.
Yeah. I think the weather that you can easily maybe find a good data on otherwise, but I think we can say it has been fairly warm also going into October. But that said, I can also mention, I think, that we have had a good success with the Crazy Days campaign that was held after the reporting period for the Stockmann division, and that performed better than the previous year. And I'm also happy to see that we have a better situation with the stock availability for Lindex. So hopefully a bit of a colder weather and people getting ready for buying the winter clothes as well.
Thank you, Susanne. And, do we have any more questions from the audience? This was the last one, what we had got into our chat. No further questions here.
All right
... pending. Thank you-
Yes
... Susanne, Henrik.
Thank you for all your good questions. And of course, later this year, we will also share the calendar for the next year. And by that, all of us would like to wish you all a nice day. Thank you for listening in.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.