Hi, everyone. We're waiting for just exactly the presentation. Let's start. Here today, me and Robert, as always, presenting the half-year report, second quarter. You can let's start with the first slide, Robert. We just want to set the scene a bit where we are now. As we know, we are the kind of the only pan-Nordic omnichannel player. I think it's evident now that we are growing quite fast, which we saw in the numbers that we'll also go through. Currently, we have 403 stores, 30 vet clinics, 149 spas, and 23% of the sales is online. The latest of the companies that has been coming in and the new geographical areas, as we know, is Baltics with Pet City. With that, we're also, of course, growing heavily in the other three markets: Sweden, Norway, and Finland.
Going fast, taking market share, and I think that maybe is the key thing that we want to comment during this quarter. If we move to the next slide, we can look a bit more into the details. As I said, fantastic growth. 17% growth. Last year was 0.7%. This is including Baltics. If you exclude the Baltics, it's 8.5% growth. All three countries are performing well. Sweden is a bit slower, but anyhow, good gross margin. When we look at the three countries separately, you can see that Finland had 8% growth versus last year, - 7. Sweden, 1% growth versus last year, - 1. With that said, I would like to point out that we had a better gross margin. Norway, a stunning 12% versus last year, 6%. All the countries are performing really well. Also interesting to see that online like-for-like sales, 4.9% versus last year, 6.6%.
The stores are actually performing better at this point than online from a growth perspective. Really, really positive. It's evident that we are gaining market share, taking market share. Also, when we look at the growth in the market, which we believe is around 2% - 4%, and the data that we're having, it's evident that we are absolutely taking market share. With a gross margin that also is increasing. We took some bold decisions a couple of quarters ago where we did some extra investments in price, campaigning, marketing, and so on so we could get the growth back. Now it's obvious that that is bearing fruit. In this quarter, we have been improving our gross margin. 43.8% versus last year, 43.3%. We are also able to increase our own exclusive product share of sales versus last year.
We are taking down campaign pressure a bit, and we are also able to increase the share of sales on our own brands. Really, really positive on that part. When you look at the numbers here on new customers, it's not including Baltics. When you add the Baltics, it's, of course, much better numbers. We don't have the data fully yet because it's not 100% integrated. Operating cash flow, EUR 11.4 million versus last year, -3.3%. Also a very positive number. If it's one thing that we want to point out that we want to do better, it's, of course, the adjusted profitability, EBITDA. 12.9% versus last year, 12.5% here. We know that we can do better. We have also taken some investments in the quarter for the further growth further down the road. There are investments here that are impacting.
Anyhow, we need to be able to get more out of the machine, which we are confident that we are going to going forward. I think overall, very, very positive quarter. The most important thing is that we're growing much faster than everyone else, which we're doing in all countries. With that, I hand over to Robert to go through the details a bit more.
Thanks, David. Starting with sales, as David said, 17% growth now up to EUR 121.7 million. Driven by all markets, very happy to see that we are actually, throughout the kind of a group, are growing. That's basically now the first really strong quarter after kind of a waiting to see kind of the better kind of a light in the tunnel. Now we really see that the investments that we have made during the last quarter really start to bear fruit. Year-to-date sales is now EUR 241.7 million, corresponding to a growth of 14.3%. Our last 12 months' sales is now EUR 475 million, getting closer to one half of a billion now. Very happy with the growth overall. We'll go into the segments then later. Gross margin also increased. It actually was driven by mainly kind of a favorable sales mix. Our niche share increased.
Also, we sold the kind of a discretionary product sales increase, which had a better gross margin. Comparing to the same quarter last year, we had actually kind of now more efficient campaigning, even though we pushed on growth. These were then contributing positively to this impact. Some small effects positive as well. However, of course, we still are not on the same level as where we were in 2022, 2023. We have still a lot to do also on the gross margin side. Group Adjusted EBITDA increased now to EUR 12.9 million from EUR 12.2 million. Slight improvement. Of course, when we have growth, we are able to kind of also kind of utilize the scalability we have in the group.
Also now we have made investments, taken in costs that are kind of taken in for building the kind of future growth and also making sure that we are kind of taking market share on a long-term basis. These are then impacting negatively to the profitability. Effects didn't have any significant impact on the Adjusted EBITDA level. Now the year-to-date Adjusted EBITDA is EUR 25.7 million. Moving into the segments, starting with Finland. Finland sales increased by 6% to EUR 47.7 million. Actually, our like-for-like growth was higher, 8.4%. Total growth was lower due to the fact that we closed a couple of stores during the quarter. In the market where we have the highest market share, we are very happy to be able to actually increase like-for-like sales by 8.4%. Very strong situation. I'm happy to see also that it's to a large extent driven by the stores.
Adjusted EBITDA also slightly increased. As David already said, here we have much more to do. We need to now focus on growth. We need to now really switch focus onto profitable growth to make sure that we can increase our efficiency. We have a number of things where we see that we can increase efficiency in the group, which will be a focus point going forward. Sweden: Here, sales increased by 7.8% up to 45.4 million. This was partly driven by FX effects, partly driven by the fact that we have newly opened stores that are contributing more and more due to the fact that they are still in the ramp-up phase. Like-for-like increase was 0.5% in this quarter. Also, the Adjusted EBITDA increased here from 7 million to 7.4 million, driven by the fact that we actually in Sweden had a better gross margin.
On top of that, the sales growth contributed through the scalability. In the store network, one third-party store was acquired and three directly operated stores were opened during the quarter. Norway continued to show very strong momentum. Sales growth actually increased up to 16.9%, which was mainly driven by a very strong like-for-like sales of 12.3% and the opening of new stores. The FX rate did not have any significant impact; in fact, it had a slightly negative impact. Also, Adjusted EBITDA increased from 3.8 million to 4.6 million, driven by the strong growth. We had some operating leverage in the scalability in the store network and a stable gross margin. Here we opened three directly operated stores during the quarter. Finally, new markets, which consist of the Pet City business that we acquired late last year. Sales in the quarter increased compared to the Q1 to the previous quarter.
Now it was 8.8 million. Also, the profitability at Adjusted EBITDA level increased from 0.5% - 0.8% in this quarter. However, it's important to understand that this acquisition is still in the integration phase. We are progressing well in that and according to plan, but we still have some parts left to finalize. Once we have done that, we will focus more on increasing market share and developing the store network. Moving on to financial position, cash flow from operations landed at 11.4 million. Last year, it was actually -3.3 million, but that was impacted hugely by non-recurring items. This year, they were clearly lower. Also, last year, we had a negative net working capital movement. Now, this year, that was more or less stable, which meant that the higher impact of the EBITDA actually flowed through to the cash flow.
Net debt amounted to EUR 196 million, consisting of EUR 112 million interest bearing loans and commercial papers and EUR 95 million leasing liabilities, ending up with a leverage of 3.3. Also, the cash and liquidity situation was stable and on a healthy level during the quarter. Now, at the end of the quarter, we were on a level of 11.8%, which was the same as at the end of the last financial year. Investments increased from EUR 3.7 million to EUR 5.9 million, driven by the kind of investments we make now into scalability and future growth. That was it. I hand over to David for the conclusions.
Thank you, Robert. I think when we look at the report overall, as I said earlier, growth very, very strong, including Baltics, excluding Baltics, also very strong. Norway, Finland, from a growth perspective, performing the best. Sweden also positive growth, but a bit weaker. In Sweden, we'll be focusing more on the gross margin. All three countries taking market shares are extremely happy with that. We're also able to increase the gross margin, which means that we're not diluting the business. We're actually selling with higher gross margin driven through the things that we talked about earlier. Profitability increased 3.9%, but we have taken investments for further growth. We believe that we can get more out of it.
Now it's all about integrating Baltics and continuing the strategy, which is then opening more stores, push more online, get more of the spas and the vet clinics in all countries, and then look at the opportunity for more geographical expansion. We are happy with the position that we're having. It feels like the things and the decisions that we've done are bearing fruit. The team and myself, Robert, and everyone is, of course, extremely happy with being in the situation now to have this strong, strong growth. With that, I think we can hand over to Q&A.
Yes, please raise your hand if you have a question to David or Robert. I think Alexander Stenman, please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for taking your question. Actually, it's regarding the difference in market dynamics between Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Finland and Norway, you've got very strong organic growth. Sweden, you said you were focusing a bit more on gross margins. In all countries, you're winning market share. Does it mean that you're winning more market share in Norway and Finland? Does it mean that the Swedish market is a bit slower? How do you explain the difference in growth? Going forward, do you see a convergence or a structural difference?
Yeah. We see that Sweden is a bit slower overall, we would say. All the market data that we're getting is that Sweden is not ramping up as fast as the other countries. The consumption is still a bit slower in Sweden. On top of that, last year, we had quite heavy campaigns that we now are meeting. We are reducing the campaign pressure and focusing a bit more on profitable growth in Sweden. When you look at Norway and Finland, you have more of the market that is growing a bit faster, but also that we are growing faster. We believe that Sweden will come back, but we're not fully there yet.
The second question I had was good growth. I mean, growth accelerating, gross margin is there. EBITDA margin, not so much or not yet. You spoke about scalability going forward. How should we think about it, about the margin per country? When do we see the leverage back again?
I think what we've already always communicated is that we use Finland as a yardstick. The strategy is to get Sweden and Norway and all the other countries that we take the market bond position in is to take it to Finland levels. There's obviously a lot of drivers behind it. You can say that Norway is closer than Sweden. In the end, we believe that everyone has the possibility to reach the Finland levels.
Okay, thank you.
Anyone else? Questions? It seems like we're done then.
Okay, thank you, everyone.
I have a question.
Yes.
Yes, long time.
Long time, yes.
Yes, good to see you. I'm just a bit curious on the input costs. How do you see currently input costs of the products that you are sourcing as well? If you think about, I mean, your own food production, is there any changes in the input costs that you are seeing at the moment?
Yeah, maybe Robert, if you want to.
Yeah. No kind of significant changes at the moment. It's actually quite a stable situation. The only place where we have seen kind of a bit higher cost is actually distribution costs. That's something we are working on both on a kind of a long haul, but also on a kind of a last mile part. As such, the kind of inputs in terms of the products that we are sourcing, they are pretty stable, actually, at the moment. We have also utilized a bit more the kind of a Sonae network in terms of China operations and China sourcing, which, of course, helps us. No significant kind of changes there.
What is your current outlook for further expansion? You have acquired the operations in the Baltics. Your balance sheet looks okay, but maybe it doesn't, in the near term, allow that much acquisitions given that net debt/EBITDA is 3.3%, if I recall it right. Can you talk about, because now it has been, time flies, how long has it been since the Sonae made the bid? Maybe more than a year. I think knowing that they have substantial operations in Portugal and in that area, is there something new that we should expect in terms of the expansion?
I think we're reviewing all the possibilities out there. Of course, we believe that Portugal, Spain could be absolutely something that we will review more in detail going forward. There is also opportunity, of course, we could acquire and pay with shares if that's also an alternative. I think the most important for us is the next acquisition and geographical expansion that we do, it needs to be a really good one. We're showing, I think it's too early now to say regarding Baltics, even though they have increased profitability and growth, but the full integration is not done. We need to do a bit more there before we take the next step.
Finally, a little bit on the strategy, on broadening the offering. Currently, we talk about the vet clinics. Have you elaborated if you would be adding new services? I think at least in the past, it has been this kind of a vaccination, more like easy to easy procedures that you have been offering. Is there any view that you wanted to expand that offering? Also curious about the strategy because I can't recall that when I covered the company more in detail that you had this 140 spas. What is the offering and what is kind of a profitability model in the spa business?
The strategy is to open more vet clinics. Today we have about 30. We would like to have more vet clinics, but it's no stress. We will probably do more opening organically. Spas is more grooming, trimming, etcetera, and that's something that has been growing steadily the last years. We have, as we said, 400 stores, so there's a lot of space where we can have the spas. Spas is growing really well. Vet clinics is growing really well. We don't see the spas as a separate P&L. It's part of the complete offering. When you look at the store, when you have this grooming, trimming, etcetera, we look at it as the box, total box, including the store. If you should look at it, it's profitable, but it's more having an extra sales uplift on the total sales in the store.
Okay. Thank you. I mean, this was helpful. I have no further questions. Good to see you.
Thanks a lot, everyone, for listening in. Have a great summer. We see you soon again.
Thank you. Bye.
Thank you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.