Good morning and welcome to our interim report for the first quarter of 2025. Together with me, I have Saara Mäkelä, our CFO, and Hanna Kukkonen, our CMSO. My name is Alexander Rosenlew, and I'm the CEO of the company. I will take you through a bit of background, then of course, for most of you, the most interesting part, the first quarter performance, strategy, financials, and then reminding you of the Q&A session at the end. You can post questions in the chat during our presentation, so feel free to do that, and we'll answer them at the end. Orthex today is a European company with the ambition to offer leading brands and strong products throughout Europe. We have three factories of our own, and 90% of the products that we offer are offered under the strategic brands Maesto, GastroMax, and Orthex.
We have local sales organizations in many locations throughout Europe, and we have three fully automated, or not fully, but far automated factories in the Nordic countries. Looking at what we are doing, we are having a very clear mission. We are improving everyday life with our nice, well-designed, durable, qualitative products. That is one of the key cornerstones in our sustainability, to actually offer products that do not break when you use them. You can use them for years and years, and they can be recycled after their life has come to an end. We invest a lot in new products. Hanna will tell you a bit more on the newest of them, and what is going on there. For us, storage is by far the biggest category and also the spearhead when we are talking about expansion into Europe and new business.
Kitchen products are important as well. Of course, the link to storage is around food storage, but a lot of other very practical good products leading to about 21% of our turnover. Then we have the home and garden category, which is about 11%, where storage is close to 70% of sales. Going into Q1, Q1 was affected by a quite tough environment. We had a market situation where a lot of consumer carefulness is out there, a lot of customer carefulness is out there, and it means actually not shopping so often and also going for perhaps the cheapest possible alternative in some cases. This, of course, is quite tough for somebody who offers the more qualitative solution on the market. That is one point which affected Q1. Then we had a few unfortunate things around strikes in Finland that affected efficient production.
This, I think, I think we had tight fixed cost control, but unfortunately not enough to protect the margins. Since the factories are so highly automated and we have the structure in place when the does come as expected? it's not so easy or fast to align the quite fixed cost base that we have. The outcome in general for the first quarter is clearly weaker than our ambitions. Keep in mind, this is still not a sprint. This is a marathon with a clear strategy on delivering growth and result and becoming the strongest player in Europe, of course, in the storage category. What we're doing is we're sharpening our efforts, and we need to adapt to the reality we operate in, quite frankly said.
Perhaps one brighter thing is during Q1 is that we have quite a strong balance sheet, and we had a healthy cash flow during the otherwise not so pleasant quarter. If we look at the numbers, the net sales decreased by 4.7%, and this is clearly below what we had hoped for. In invoice sales, that transforms to almost 5%. As said, it is affected to quite tough operating conditions at the moment. When the top line is down, it suffers. For us, it suffered quite a lot, even though cost was well in control and we did not see any cost inflation or we actually mitigated that one. EBITDA was at 1.7% and respectively 8.2% of sales. Cash flow is EUR 4.7 million compared to EUR 4.1 million last year in the same quarter.
Going into the geographies a bit and how we performed, Nordic was slightly down by EUR 200,000. Here, especially affected by, I would say, the overall conditions, but also the strikes and the difficulties to deliver to the Finnish trade where the warehouses were shut due to strikes during about two- weeks. Looking at the rest of Europe, of course, the numbers are quite small. That means that the percentages look quite dramatic. There are a few quite clear reasons for the decline, and there is a few that is worthwhile mentioning. We had a few customers already in Q4 that we had to limit the shipments to because of credit risk and precautions. That continued in Q1. We were a bit cautious, and I think for good reasons. The other thing is a few customers not performing on sellout that well.
Having said that, we haven't lost distribution. On the contrary, we have gained interesting new opportunities, and that we are working on all the time to expand our footprint in Europe, especially. We have had a strong push to compensate for the lack of consumer demand. You need to look good in the shops when consumers are not that prepared to buy. There has been a lot of focus on actually making us accessible and good in the shelves and in the e-com environment. If you look at the storage category-wise, I would say it's not a surprise that when going at stuff, it's usually storage, the biggest category that gets hurt the most in absolute terms, and that we can see here with a drop in sales of 7%.
On the kitchen side, quite a, I would say, still Nordic-centric business and quite much affected by local strikes and business in the Nordics. A glimpse of positiveness is clearly a small growth in the home and garden category, especially behind the flower pot sales. That is it on the Q1. A small reminder about the strategy. Of course, we have to adopt. We have to make sure it is always relevant, and that is constant work. Also, the different points in the strategy are emphasized in different ways depending on the business climate around us. The building blocks to continue the growth that we have shown over the years is clearly to keep winning in the Nordics, and that is on a market where we are really present. It is about getting the shopper to get excited about our products.
It's around a clear strategy on the category, a clear way of displaying our products in the store, and bringing new product is one of the key things to keep in mind here. On the European side, we have a good structure in place. We have salespeople in place. We have a lot of interesting customers. We need to deepen the collaboration with the existing ones, getting more campaigns, getting the, let's say, the good, and do that on a market which at the moment is very, very competitive and with, I would say, a lot of low price offering triggered by retailers selecting to display lower prices to enhance the, let's say, the careful consumers' buying. We need to adopt to all of this.
We have a strong belief that there's room for a high-quality product, not too highly priced, though, but at the right price for the quality solution and design that we can offer. We have the online, very interesting growing segment. There as well, I mean, if everything is about looking good online, the same way as looking good in the physical store, when you look good online, you have a good offering, a relevant offering that usually drives business. That's the third relevant block. Market consolidation is still out there, and we look actively to find the right solutions for market consolidation. All of this with the ambition to become the number one storage brand in Europe and strengthen our Nordic position as a houseware supplier.
I'll give it to Hanna now, who will show a few examples of what we've accomplished and where we are at the moment.
Thanks, Alexander. As you said, we've been continuing the hard work to have a strong presence both in physical stores and online. So far, this spring, we built over 150 nice point-of-sales implementations, and on top of that, we've had quite a few nice campaigns, as you see here in pictures. This is a very special year for us because we are celebrating the 30th years anniversary of our SmartStore Classic boxes. Here's an example of a campaign implementation on the left in Sweden and on the right-hand side, an implementation in Finland. As usual, the highlight of the spring is the fair at Frankfurt, and we were present this year as well.
We could say that it was a huge success this year as well. We had more relevant customer contacts than ever, both new customers and existing ones, and a big interest towards our novelties. We had quite a lot of novelties to present this time. I'll come back to that. Sustainability is in the core of our strategy. We produce long-lasting, high-quality products that can be recycled after the end of their life cycle. We promote circular economy. One of our main targets is to increase the use of recycled raw materials in our products. That's the way we continue. In January this year, we were recognized for our diversity in our senior leadership. We came seventh in a Nordic business diversity index amongst the small-cap companies.
In March, when going on to the reporting, we published our annual and sustainability report. That report shows that we continued the systematic work towards our environmental, social, and governance goals. We have also continued the preparation to operate sustainability reporting directive, the CSRD, which was supposed to concern us from the beginning of 2025. There have now been changes from the EU, and as it looks now, this directive will not concern our size of the companies. We will follow this situation carefully. Despite that, we are continuing and improving our sustainability work. We started this spring a materiality analysis to analyze a little bit more in depth what are the materials, so the most relevant sustainability topics to us. We did this materiality analysis in 2022, so this is now a really good time to do it again.
The novelties. We launched several novelties in February, and all of them include renewable raw materials. As I said, we presented them in the Ambiente Fair. Here are some pictures of them. From left to right, we launched the SmartStore Access stackable containers, small containers with open front that you can stack on top of each other. This way, you can use your space vertically. This product was awarded a German design award this year. Very proud of this award and this new innovative product. The second one is a SmartStore Compact Sort. These are five different- size organizers that help to organize your drawers both in kitchen or bathroom and very handy to organize the drawers. The third one, SmartStore Compact Line Extension, a couple of new square sizes for our SmartStore Compact range.
Then the fourth picture on the right-hand side, that's the Gastromax Bio Kitchen Utensils and Cutting Board range, which is made from sugarcane and wood fiber. This range got a nice new fresh white linen color this spring. Happy to present so many novelties during the spring and can't wait to see them coming and arriving to the stores. That was in short my part, and then Saara on financials.
Thank you, Hanna. This was a very challenging quarter for Orthex in many ways. Our net sales decreased by 4.7%. With EUR 1 million from 22 to 21 million, currencies had a minor effect to the net sales. In constant currencies, sales decline was almost the same, so minus 4.8%.
We still have customers to whom we do not get credit insurances, and we have had to limit some deliveries to those customers to make sure that we do not get too big risk with the receivables, and that is affecting the sales. In general, the market situation is challenging, and consumer confidence is low, and that is a key reason. Also, the strikes in Finland were affecting our operations and sales in Nordics. During quarter one, adjusted EBITA decreased by EUR 1 million, so from EUR 2.8 million to EUR 1.7 million. The main reason for lower EBITA was declining sales. We were able to decrease the manning at the factories and cut the variable costs at operations, and we have been very cost-conscious regarding fixed costs. Unfortunately, that was not enough to protect the margins, and our gross margin declined by 2.7 percentage points.
Our operational setup and commercial organization are built for growth, and significant short-term savings and cost decrease are very hard to find. We are, of course, committed to find cost savings, but the key to the profit improvement is to get sales back on track and back to the growth path. The next slide is our raw material price indexes. Fluctuation has been on a normal level, so no big peaks up or down. Post-inflation has increased price pressure. On the other hand, crude oil prices have been declining due to supply dynamics and geopolitical uncertainty. That actually did not affect the raw material prices. The raw material price effect during the quarter was negative despite the crude oil price decline. For us, it still seems that the raw material price suppliers are balancing their capacity to defend the prices. Then the investments.
Investments were EUR 700,000 during the reporting period, so EUR 300,000 less- than- last- year. Investments may mainly relate to novelties. In general, this year, the investment plan is to concentrate on novelties, and we have also planned some safety improvements to our current factories. Capacity increases are not needed as we currently have free capacity at factories. Our net debt at the end of the reporting period was EUR 16.8 million and leverage 1.2. Healthy cash flow and a very strong balance sheet give us room to invest for future growth. We have the long-term financial targets. This quarter was definitely a disappointment to us, and actual figures are not in line with the long-term targets. We will have a strategy review during this year, and we are currently working with our long-term plans, but for now, the targets remain unchanged.
Regarding the dividends, we had an annual general meeting at the end of April, and the meeting decided that we distribute 63.9% of the net result as a dividend, so EUR 0.22 per share. The first part was paid already last week, and the next payment is going to be in October. Just as a reminder, the next reporting dates, we will report quarter two figures. The half-year financial report will come out on the 21st of August, and the third quarter will be published on the 30th of November. I'll hand over now back to Alexander to summarize.
Just a short summary here. Thank you, Saara and Hanna, for taking us through that. I would say for us now, which is important, is full focus on sales growth, taking the opportunities and fine-tuning where we can and have focus on that. That's one of the points.
Already in Q1, of course, as always, there has been full focus on sales growth, and we need to continue that. We are affected by the current quite negative consumer sentiment. I think we have to admit that this sentiment might go on, and we have to adapt, and we have to be even stronger. Looking actually forward to continuing the race this year, it is not a sprint, it is a marathon. We are well positioned to do better. I think this final remark opens for questions.
Yes. Thanks, Alexander. Shall we start with the strikes? There are a couple of questions regarding the Finnish strikes. Can you—I will put two questions together. Can you quantify the financial impact of the one-week strike in Finland?
Do you think that you can reverse the two weeks of loss of sales in Q1 than in Q2?
I might comment on that one. It's really hard to quantify when operations are not efficient and what that actually means. For us, it means one week of efficient production lost. That comes with a cost, clearly. I think even more worrying is during that week we couldn't deliver, and during the following week, our retailers were—many of them couldn't do goods because they had their respective strikes. Efficient time lost is at least two weeks, if not more, because first struggling to sort of survive the situation or plan the situation and then catching up again. A good question is, can we recap or can we retake that?
Of course, it's our ambition to grow, but is that growth a recap or is it just growth? It's a tough question to answer.
Yes, it is. Thank you. Let's go to the consumer sentiment. The slower sellout to consumers from retail than the weak consumer sentiment. What do you think?
A broad question again, a very broad question. I believe that the consumer sentiment being quite weak results in a retailer reaction where price gets all the focus or a lot of the focus. They are finding alternatives to put on the floor in the best promotion spaces that drives the low price image, which is quite common. That is why we put so much emphasis on looking good in the stores ourselves and making our shopper offering really appealing. We have to work harder in those situations.
I think it's a combination of consumers, of course, being careful and that leading to retailers catering to that carefulness. That, of course, takes out a little bit of value in the category.
Good answer. Thanks. About improving our financial performance, you mentioned in the report that you aim to take measures to improve your financial performance. Can you elaborate a bit more what you mean by that?
Maybe Saara wants to answer, but I can say first that by selling more is the best way to actually cover costs. Saara has some other comments as well, I'm sure.
I was basically about to say exactly the same. I mean, of course, we will try to find all the possible savings. We've done that already. We need the sales growth, and that's the key to the healthier profitability level.
Yes, I agree.
There is a question about the ESG and the sustainable raw materials. How much do the products made from sustainable raw materials, so from recycled or bio-based raw materials, sell and what's the share of their turnover? I can answer that. The share of the products made of sustainable raw materials increased last year from 15.8% to 16.6%. The sales of the products made from sustainable raw materials were actually three times faster than the overall sales last year. These are now 2024 figures that can be seen in our sustainability report. They are selling very well, and we are actively looking to find new raw materials and more raw materials so that we can increase significantly the share of sustainable raw materials.
What is holding us back today or the growth back is that there are not yet available transparent food-approved recycled raw materials. A lot is happening and a lot of research is being done in this area. It is changing fast. That was the ESG. About raw materials, let's go to the raw material price. Are you expecting to see lower prices for raw materials in Q2 to Q4 due to low oil price?
I can take that one. It is clear that the raw material prices have dropped faster outside of Europe than in Europe, and it started earlier. If we follow the official indexes for Europe now, we can see a small downward trend in the raw material prices. At the moment, at least, the published ones are a bit lower than during Q1.
That hopefully will come through once the products are produced and have gone through our warehouse and out to the market. That takes usually three to six months before we can see a real effect on the margins. There is nothing at the moment pushing the raw material price upwards other than, I would say, or keeping them at a higher level other than limiting supply in Europe.
Yes, thank you. About the European customers and the credit risks, could you elaborate on the credit risks mentioned in Q1 as Q4? Maybe in addition, another question, have you lost any customers?
If Saara takes the credit risks and I take the customers, would that be good, Saara?
Yes, yeah.
I mean, if you do not get the credit insurance for customers, we do not want to take the high risk, and then we have to limit the amount of receivables. That has been affecting the sales. We have several quite significant customers. We have to follow on each payment and agree before shipment. I mean, that is of course not—it is time-consuming for sales, it is time-consuming for finance, and I mean, it is limiting the possibilities to grow, unfortunately. Let us hope that the customers' financial situation gets better and we can get out from that kind of a circle.
On the question of losing customers or losing distribution, no, we have not. We have gained customers and we have gained distribution. I am a bit positive there. Having said that, there are a few customers in such trouble that we are not shipping to them or have stopped shipping to them.
That clearly affects short term. There are some really interesting pockets of opportunity in customers. I think the Ambiente Fair is always a good place to deepen those collaborations.
Thanks. Let's go back to the long-term financial targets that Saara mentioned earlier. There is a question about our margin targets. It is now roughly four years that you have tried to reach 18% margin, and no quarter has been at that level. What are the main drivers for you to reach that level, or is this too ambitious a target? Saara or Alexander?
That is a good question, and that is a question that we should be asking ourselves constantly. So far, we have been of the opinion that with strong and fast sales growth, we can get there. We have been very close to the 18% EBITDA.
Looking at especially Q1 figures with lack of sales growth, we get even further away. It is quite natural that we are in a period where we assess the strategic targets. That is ongoing at the moment.
Thank you. I think that was it. Thanks for the very, very good questions. Maybe see you then in August next time. I wish you all a great week.
Thank you very much. Thanks. As we say internally, let's keep pushing because we have a really good offering and good products that we would like to spread all over Europe.