Good morning, and welcome to our financial statement 2022 session. As before, I have our CEO for Lindex, Susanne Ehnbåge, and our Group CFO, Annelie Forsberg. The Stockmann Group's annual revenue and profit clearly improved for both divisions, and we reached an all-time high revenue and operating result for Lindex. If we summarize our achievements in 2022, operating results clearly improved. Undisputed restructuring debts were paid. Investing in growth and efficiency in both divisions, and we had a record number of new customers last year, and sustainability agenda is strengthened for both divisions. If we look now Q4, 2024, we faced a difficult market situation, but we managed it well. When we look at the Stockmann Group, fourth quarter revenue declined slightly due to the decrease in sales in the Lindex division because of the unfavorable rate of exchange rates from SEK to EUR.
The revenue was down by -1.8%, and operating results decreased by EUR 3.5 million. If we look Lindex more closely, the revenue in euros was down by -3.2%, but when we look at it in Swedish crowns, it was up by 4.5%. adjusted operating result was down in euros by EUR 1.3 million, but when we look at it in Swedish crowns, the result was almost positive. Stockmann had a +0.7% growth and reached a little bit over 100 million EUR revenue. The sale in the brick-and-mortar stores grew by 3.1% due to a healthy improvement of visitor flows.
When looking at the Stockmann division operating, adjusted operating result, it's important to remember that we sold this property in April 2022, and the depreciation impacted our result roughly EUR 5 million for last year. When looking at the group results for the full year, the Stockmann Group revenue grew by more than 9%, which together with efficient cost management, clearly improved the adjusted operating result for both divisions. The group was up in revenue by 9.2%, and the adjusted operating result increased by EUR 11.5 million. Lindex revenue was up by 8.8%, and the division reached an important milestone of revenue exceeding SEK 7 billion. In Swedish crowns, the Lindex revenue was up by 14.1%, and the operating result all-time high, up by EUR 9.7 million, reaching EUR 90 million.
Stockmann division revenue was up by 10%, reaching over EUR 300 million, the increase was driven from the brick-and-mortar sales due to the higher number of visitors, but also increased average purchase for the customers. Stockmann division halved almost the losses, being still negative, but again highlighting the impact of the depreciations for last year was EUR 5 million. When we look at the group by markets, it's clear that we are very much Nordic-based, Sweden being the biggest with 36%, Finland 33%, and Norway 14%. Lindex represents 67% of the group's turnover, Stockmann is 33%. We are a fashion company, fashion representing over 80% of our turnover. Now, let's look closer to Stockmann division. As I said before, the revenue was up by 0.7%, reaching over EUR 100 million.
The brick-and-mortar sales grew by 3.1%. The share of online sales was 14.7%. Slight decline versus previous year. When comparing with 2019, our online share was 8.7%. The gross margin was slightly declined. This is due to the higher share of clearance sales. The operating cost, excluding depreciations, decreased by EUR 0.4 million to EUR 36.2 million due to the cost-saving actions which also mitigated the impact of inflation-driven cost increases, especially increase in energy. Adjusted operating result was +EUR 3.3 million. When looking at the operating results, it's good to remember that the Crazy Days campaign was 8-day-long campaign, started 28th of September and ended 5th of October. Partially also falling into the quarter three.
The sales for this campaign increased 6.4%. Clearly, fashion was the best performing category in this campaign. Looking at Stockmann Division full year, I would say it's a solid revenue growth. We clearly improved our results. The revenue was up by 10%. It was in brick-and-mortar, +14.6%. The visitor flow increased, or visitors increased by over 22%. We had a significant increase in non-merchandise income and strong annual sales in fashion, boosted by 70 new brand launches. Adjusted operating result increased to EUR -5.4 million. Strong sales and improved gross margins is the reason, and cost saving actions. Again, the impact of the agreements selling the property, the depreciations are impacting EUR 5 million in 2022. We expect the impact to be this year between EUR 6 million and EUR 7 million.
Strong customer focus paid off. Great achievements. We got over 88,000 new loyal customers last year. As you know, we measure our customer satisfaction with an Emotional Value Index, and there we have a clear improvements, which is indicating customers to be more satisfied what we're doing. We celebrated last year, our 160 year anniversary with unique partner collaborations together, for example, with Minna Parikka, Artek, Marimekko, and Fiskars. The systematic sustainability work is continuing, and Stockmann Division will invest in more strongly in product ranges and services that support the circular economy. Stockmann has been selected to the Circular Design Programme, which is part of the implementation of Finland's Circular Economy Programme. For the future, we have a strong focus on improving Stockmann Division profits, customers, and sustainability.
We are targeting profitability, investments, and focus on digital growth and omnichannel capabilities. We want to increase our non-merchandise income, including the rental and commissions income, as well as the media sales. We will keep a close eye to our cost. The core of Stockmann division is the customer-centric way of working. We will drive our offer more to premium positioning and widening luxury and semi-luxury offering. We will build even more better omni-experiences, which are data-driven decisions making to optimize customer touch points and personalized offerings. As I said, systematic sustainability work will continue, and we are developing our products, brands, and services, and selections with this sustainability and circular economy in mind. Now, I would like to hand over to Susanne. Susanne, please, welcome.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We will now continue with the Lindex division, and we will start with the fourth quarter. Yes. The revenue for the fourth quarter was EUR 172 million, and that meant that revenue was down in by 3.2%. If we instead look at this in the Swedish krona, we increased the sales by 4.5%. During the quarter, we can see that we had a little bit of a channel shift where the brick-and-mortar stores increased in sales, but at the same time, we had a decrease in sales in the digital sales. That is due to some extent that we had some pandemic impact the year before, and also that we had a lower intake from the global e-commerce platforms the, this year.
This meant that the share of the digital sales was approximately the same. It was 19%. The business area lingerie increased the most and was up by 7%, and that meant that it stood for partly about 30% of the total sales for the fourth quarter. The gross margin increased to 64.8% versus 64.6% the previous year. This was despite the fact that we had a more expensive purchase price this year. That was due to a historical strong US dollar, together with that we also had increased price for the raw materials. We were successfully handling this, mainly due to efficient sourcing, and also that we managed to increase the full price sales. That meant that we had a lower markdown.
Also that we had a bit of a shift in the channel mix together with the product mix. We have also increased the prices towards our customers, but we have not fully compensated for the cost increases that we have received, because we think it's so important that we continue to have a really strong price value. If we then continue to the operating cost, they decreased by EUR 6.5 million, and the main reason for this is that we have a currency impact between the Swedish krona and the euro. The overall is that the cost has increased during the quarter. We can see that we have a more normal business compared to the previous year, that we again had some pandemic impacts, and also that we have seen that the inflation has increased during the quarter.
We have handled this successfully, and therefore we have a really good cost situation also for the fourth quarter. The adjusted operating result was EUR 23 million compared to the previous year, EUR 24.3 million, which is a little bit lower. Again, if we look at this in the Swedish krona, we can see that we actually increased the operating result also for the fourth quarter. The CapEx was EUR 18.5 million, and this is mainly due to our very important investment in the omnichannel warehouse, and that stood for EUR 15.5 million. If we continue to full year result. The past year has been again a quite turbulent year. We started with some pandemic impacts in the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, we had the war in Europe that started a year ago.
It would continue with quite a difficult situation in the supply chain. We had the inflation rising and also the increased cost for the US dollar. We have been able to manage this, and we have actually taken Lindex to new profitable levels. I'm happy to say that we have reached all-time high sales and also all-time high full year result. The sales in revenue was up by 9%, and in SEK it was up by 14.1%. This meant that we reached a really important milestone for Lindex to be above SEK 7 billion in sales. We increased our sales in all markets and in all business areas, and we had especially strong sales in the brick-and-mortar.
The adjusted operating result increased to EUR 90.3 million and was up by 21% versus the previous year. If we then take a look at, like, the really important highlights for the full year, that also will be really important for us for the coming years, I would like to bring forward four things, that is that we have invested in the omnichannel DC. This will be a critical enabler for the future growth, especially concerning the digital sales. The other part is that we have been able to recruit 1 million new customers thanks to a really good setup that we have this really strong employee engagement together with our offering and customer centricity. This means that we now have almost 5.7 million registered customers that we can have an ongoing dialogue with.
We also entered the very interesting femtech market, and we successfully launched Female Engineering. During the year, we have continued our work within the sustainability and also the circular transformation. Here we have done a lot of pilots. For example, we have had a second-hand pop-up store, we have done this online, and we also did a very important investment in the new viscose fiber OnceMore. This is a blend where we are using recycled material together with material from the forest. Here we have now produced 1 million new garments, and we have those now available in our sales channels. The beautiful dress that you can see in the picture is one example of this.
I thought it could be a good idea just to get a overall view on how it has been looking for the last couple of years. Here we have the base year of 2019, over the last couple of quarterly reports, we have often related this to the pre-pandemic year or the more normal year. As you can see here, we at that time had a sales of EUR 576 million. In 2020, unfortunately, the sales dropped due to pandemic impacts. For Lindex, it meant that we needed to close down all the stores in 15 out of 18 markets. Already in 2021, we were able to increase the sales and be above pre-pandemic levels. We have continued with the sales growth also in 2022.
This meant that the sales increase has been approximately 15%, mainly driven by the digital sales. The digital sales has increased from EUR 38 million to EUR 122 million during these years. The adjusted operating margin has improved from 7.1% to 13.6%. This is mainly driven by the increased sales together with an improved gross margin and also a good cost control. For Lindex, I would also like to explain the Lindex currency exposure. On the top graph, you can see the development between the Swedish krona and the US dollar over the last two years. As you can see, it has increased approximately with 25% in 2022. For Lindex, we buy then about 80% of all of our volumes in US dollar.
The second part is then the euro versus the Swedish krona. Here we can see that Lindex then is converting our group results then from SEK to euro when then presenting this as part of the Stockmann Group. Here we also have an exposure. The euro versus the Swedish krona has increased by approximately 10% during 2022. Looking at our way forward. We believe that the uncertainty and the challenging market within retail is expected to persist. However, we have already been taking a lot of cost-saving actions during the autumn that will have an impact already this first quarter of 2023. We will continue to have a flexible approach, and by that I mean that we will review our priorities, cost, and development projects.
In the long-term perspective, our strategy remains strong. This means that we have high set targets to deliver, and that is focusing on a global, digital, and sustainable growth. This means that we will continue our investment in the omnichannel warehouse, and also to invest in digital tools and digital sales. We will continue with our investment in the femtech market, and of course, the important work within the sustainability, where we also have very high set targets to deliver. We will launch our sustainability report within the next couple of weeks, where you can read about our development so far. Just looking at the first couple of weeks, the eight first weeks of 2023, our sales growth have continued.
I know that I can speak for the whole Lindex team that we do look forward to improve the customer offering, also for 2023. By that, I would like to hand over to you, Annelie.
Thank you very much, Susanne. Hi, everyone. Yes, we can conclude that Stockmann Group stood strong during quarter four, that was despite that we had a difficult market situation where both inflations, currencies, and also consumer demand impacted the business. The group revenue decreased with 1.8%, but we can see that if we compare with the same currencies we had one year ago, it actually increased with 3.1% if we had used the same currencies. The gross margin stood strong as well, at 57.4% compared to 57.7%. Here we can see, like Susanne explained, that the Lindex division stood strong, and also the Stockmann division was impacted by more clearance sales.
The group operating cost declined, decreased due to that, the currency effect. When we exclude the currency effect, we can see the cost actually increased. Most for Lindex division and for Stockmann division, it actually decreased when we exclude depreciations. That is a good action. The group adjusted operating result ended up with EUR 26.1 compared to EUR 29.6. That is a decrease of three and a half million EUR. Here we can see that Lindex division had a decrease from EUR 24.3 to EUR 23, but this is explained of the currency. Stockmann division had a decrease from EUR 6.3 to EUR 3.3, and that is due to the higher depreciations.
The group operating result in total ended up with EUR 24.6 compared to EUR 50.6, and that is explained by that we last year had this capital gain when selling the real estate in Tallinn. For the full year, the revenue increased and the profit reached new levels. We can see that the group revenue was up with 9.2%. If we do the same calculation as for the Q4 and compare with the same currencies we had one year ago, it actually was up with 12.8%. Like Susanne said, there was an all-time high revenue for Lindex, and also the Stockmann division improved the revenue with 10%, like Jari said. The group adjusted operating result increased to EUR 79.8 million compared to EUR 68.3.
That is actually a double result compared to 2019. That was pre-pandemic. The group operating result when we also include the capital gains of selling the real estates and also the restructuring cost was up to EUR 154.9 compared to EUR 82.1. If we look at the division's profitability over the years, we can see that Lindex has improved the profitability, so, and they are now on a very high level. Stockmann division is steadily improving the result as well and are almost on plus. Sorry. The cash flow.
The cash flow for quarter four was positive, that is due to that it was a positive operating result, and also that it was a change in working capital which impacted in a good way. If we see the cash flow on the year-to-date basis, we can see that it slightly declined the cash due to that we have heavy investments in the Lindex omnichannel distribution center together with also repaying the pandemic loans. If we look at the interest-bearing net debt, we can see that during the last couple of years it has been quite high level. Since selling the real estate of Helsinki in quarter two, the group is actually in a net cash position now and has a positive cash. The equity.
The equity ratio further improves. The cash position is strong. As we can see here, the equity ratio now is 53.4% compared to 40.9% in 2019, and that is due to a lower balance sheet but also a higher equity. The adjusted earnings per share is stable, and that is despite more shares. We can see that there now is a positive net result due to a positive operating result and also lower interest costs, although there are more shares which dilutes the adjusted earnings per share. It's on a very high level, on a stable level anyway. The guidance then. Yeah. The guidance.
In 2023, Stockmann expects the group's revenue to be in the range of EUR 960 million-1,020 million, and that the group's adjusted operating result will be in the range of EUR 60 million-80 million, and this is subject to foreign exchange rate fluctuation. This guidance is based on the assumption that there will be a continued high inflation that will increase costs from 2022, but at the same time, the Stockmann Group will continue to take firm measures to minimize these impacts on the cost increases. The market outlook for 2023 is that there will be, and there is a current challenging geopolitical situation and the high inflation level are expected to continue. However, it's predicted that the inflation will slow down compared to the latter part of 2022.
This together with high interest rates is forecast to have a negative impact on the consumer confidence and purchasing power, so the retail market is expected to remain challenging. That was all for the presentation, so then we open up for questions.
We have also participants here in the room.
Yes
... have any questions, or do we have any questions online?
Yes, we have plenty of questions online. Shall we start with them, or do you? Yes. Okay. First, we have here a question. How much was the currency effect on Stockmann Group's operating result?
Since the euro to SEK is approximately the euro is 10% more expensive, then we can see that the adjusted operating result for Lindex should have been EUR 2 million higher if we had calculated with the same currencies.
How do you see JC Holding becoming a shareholder in Stockmann? Have you met them, and are there some changes they would like to bring to the organization?
We do not comment the owners related to questions.
Then we have a question. Why doesn't the company settle the rest of the legal cases and exit a restructuring program?
Well, as we said before, there are these disputed claims mainly coming from the landlords. As we saw, there was a Supreme Court decision in December, which was again in favor of Stockmann and the restructuring program. We strongly believe that this will be and focus this year is to clarify and get out of the restructuring. They are in the district court hands, and we try to find a solution how do we solve the remaining the disputed claims.
Yes. Could you please specify what is meant by valuing strategic options that are mentioned in the CEO comment, and what options are on the table?
As Annelie showed and as we've been explaining that we have paid our debts, we are cash positive. That creates new opportunities for the group, for both divisions, and this is part of our strategy process what we are currently going through and looking all kinds of options moving forward in this new situation as we are facing.
Yes. Will the separation of Lindex and retail be discussed in CMD? How about the ticker change reflect the strong position of Lindex?
We do not speculate or comment speculations regarding the separations, but the CMD, we have decided to postpone that further because, as I said, we are just currently going through our strategy process, and we want to be more clear about the future options for the group and for the division. We will come back with the date for the CMD.
How about when do you expect to be able to pay dividends?
This is obviously linked to the restructuring program. We need to get out of the restructuring program, and we need to solve this or disputed claims now, and the focus is fully to solve this during this year.
Susanne mentioned about cost saving actions in autumn that will already have an impact in Q1, 2023. Could you talk more about the cost saving actions?
Yes, of course. These are cost-saving actions that is within the whole company. We have expectations for the Q1 and Q2, that this will impact for approximately EUR 4 million, to sort of mitigate the inflation that we see is coming and will hit us, during these next coming months.
About our flagship store in Helsinki, would it make change to keep the flagship store in Helsinki city center as it is today? Are there enough volumes in the top floors? Would there be a possibility to transfer the top floors to apartments or offices?
As we sold the property last year, now we are going through a full program of how do we improve and renovate the building. Obviously this we do closely together with our owner. As we speak, we are going through floor by floor what is the way forward and what we have already communicated. We will open the biggest toy store in Nordics this spring in the sixth floor, and we will open a new kind of a children's wear store also in the sixth floor. Work ongoing, and we will come back when more information to be shared.
Okay. We still have some... Yeah. Okay. We have the audience.
Yes. Hello. Rauli Juva from Inderes. The question on your guidance, you're basically guiding flat sales and slightly lower EBIT on a group level. Can you say anything? Is that the similar picture for the two divisions, or do you see some other kind of varying drivers for the two divisions? Thanks.
The retail market is challenging at the moment, so it's very difficult to predict the consumer confidence and what will happen. Although we see that we will be in the same range with different actions for the revenue. For the adjusted operating result, we see that inflation will hit the result together with also higher purchasing prices, although we will try to mitigate this in the best possible way.
Can you say anything on the divisional level? Is the picture similar, or are you expecting something different?
No.
Okay. [crosstalk]
I'm sorry. I can't do that.
Okay. I was actually wondering the Lindex you are presenting now figures in EUR and in SEK, which I think both is kind of been mixed by the FX impacts one way or another. Can you share the kind of sales growth in Q4 in local currencies?
The currencies is impacting in many different ways.
Yeah [crosstalk]
since we are acting on in so many markets. We haven't published the all up, bottom up.
Mm.
If we calculate from SEK.
Mm
to euro, we can see that this has an impact of approximately 10%.
Yeah. Sure.
That is the effect.
Yeah. Yeah. [crosstalk]
It's approximately EUR 8 million on the revenue side.
Yeah. Yeah.
In local currencies, we see that we are approximately a little bit above, that we have an increase as well.
Yeah. Yeah. That's what I would estimate as
Yeah [crosstalk]
as well, but that would be a helpful figure definitely to have in comparable currencies rather than having the effects one way or another.
Mm. Mm
mixing the numbers. Okay. That's all for me. Thanks.
Hi. Samu Wilhelmsson from Nordea Markets Credit Research. You mentioned the cost consciousness many times and also in your outlook, could you give some more color on, for example, what kind of concrete actions these, like, cost mitigations in the inflationary environment contain, and also more color on why price increases actually aren't a viable solution. You mentioned, you know, customer value.
Mm
Just to give more intel on that.
Do you want to start, Susanne?
Yes. I can try to do that.
Mm.
Regarding the cost measure, of course, in the short-term perspective, it's looking into hours, and what we can do in the short-term perspective. In the long-term perspective, we're talking about the landlords, renegotiations, investment in automation, and so on. A good example of this is the omnichannel warehouse that for sure will drive a lot of efficiency for us going forward. It's a mix of both short-term and of course long-term.
When it comes to Stockmann division, we have had already three years of very heavy cost saving program. Now it is the non-merchandise revenues where we are focusing how to increase that. That means media sales, how are we working with different partners, and we will come back that more in the future with the clarity. Obviously it is, like Susanne said, also, seeing the hours we use in stores, how do we adjust according to the customer behavior. Stockmann division is increasing the prices, so we are not impacted same way as Lindex is with the US dollar or euro. When we are buying ready branded goods, when the supplier is increasing the prices, Stockmann increases the prices.
All right. Thank you.
More questions online?
Yes, we have, then we have, is the Lindex warehouse CapEx plan still EUR 110 million? How much of that was invested in 2022?
In 2022, EUR thirty-eight and a half million was invested, and the total amount is still there to be EUR 110 million.
This year we estimate roughly EUR 60 million.
Yes.
Yes. Has there been any contact with the people from JC Holding in trying to make retail division more competitive?
As I said, we as operative management, we work with the board of directors, and we do not comment at owners related topics.
How much of your revenue comes from global fashion platforms today? How do you see this the change after Lindex omnichannel investment is completed? There's one more follow-up question. How is the margin for third party platforms compared to your own core margin?
All right. Regarding the global e-commerce platforms, we do not share exactly the share of sales that we have there. It's not a major part of the digital sales. I think everyone that is following how the development has been for the big fashion platforms, we can see that it has been a tough year for them. Therefore, we have also seen that in the Q4 development. We have started to see an increase in their intake during this year, which is positive. Regarding the gross margin, as for all companies, you can see that the margin for this kind of business a little bit lower. On the other hand, we also have lower cost that we need to carry.
Regarding the omnichannel warehouse, this will definitely be a good enabler for us to do this sales increase within the digital sales channels. That is both our own e-commerce, but also the global e-commerce platforms. Really, really crucial.
Yes. Still about this, logistics, warehouse, when will the new logistics hub be operational, and how much cost savings you expect from that?
Yes. We expect it to be up and running during 2024. You can look at this cost in many different ways. We have looked at in the leases. Here we expect approximately around 40% lower lease cost than we have today. Today we're renting several warehouses to be able to handle our ongoing business. Therefore, we will have a positive impact in that sense. Also the new warehouse will be automatic, both concerning the brick-and-mortar and the digital channels. Today we do not have any automation at all for the e-commerce.
Yes. We have a couple of currency related questions. You already commented then the impact of that on our revenue, but how about then, how big was the negative effect from US dollar to the Q4 EBIT?
We have estimated this effect to be approximately around EUR 10 million that impacted the gross margin, although like Susanne explained, we have mitigated this by certain actions.
Yes. How about, how do you see, then, our view on euro versus SEK and U.S. dollar versus SEK as going forward on the group level?
On the group level, we have estimated in our guidance that it will be in the same level as it is today.
Yes. Then, how much in total did the real estate divestments increase depreciation in Q4 and in total on an annual level?
Like I said, for 2022, we estimate it was roughly EUR 5 million, and for 2023, we are estimating the impact will be EUR 6 million to EUR 7 million.
Are you planning to do a sale leaseback on the new warehouse when completed?
We have many different options that we look into regarding future financing of course as well. That is one of the options, but not something that is more positive than anything else.
How about our Q1 sales, how has it started in 2023 so far?
Yeah, I mentioned it. We see at Lindex that the first eight weeks of this year that we have a sales increase that is very positive.
Same applies to Stockmann. Very good.
I think that we have a question related actually not to the financial statements, but more to our remuneration policy, that has been published today as the material for the annual general meeting. Why has, why was the severance pay of the CEO increased from 9 months salary to 12 months salary? So not.
I think that is something for the board of directors.
Mm.
To answer.
Yeah.
Difficult to answer. Mm.
Yes. What lender is the EUR 40 million pandemic loans repayment related to?
It's related to. During the pandemic, Lindex division received loans during the pandemic, and support, and those loans were in 2020, it was approximately EUR 20 million, and in 2021, it was another EUR 20 million. Those loans have now been paid back, EUR 40 million, during this year, 2022.
Thank you. In regards to Stockmann, was increase in revenue driven mainly by increase in sales volumes or price increases?
It's mostly prices, but there is a clear, volume increase also, especially in fashion.
Okay.
I can state that we have clearly taken shares last year in fashion in Finland.
Yes. Do we still have some questions from the audience, here in our flagship store? No? I think we are done with the questions.
Then- [crosstalk]
From the webcast.
We thank you all. As before, you are welcome to shop at Lindex and at Stockmann. Our stores are for you here. Welcome to shopping.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.