Morning and welcome to Orthex interim report presentation for the period January to September. With me I am Saara Mäkelä, our CFO, and Hanna Kukkonen, our CMSO. I am Alexander Rosenlew, the CEO of the company. I will take you through what has been going on, starting with a short introduction and then jumping into the fresh results that came out this morning at 9:00 AM Finnish time.
This is repetition for many of you. We are a Nordic houseware company focusing strongly on Europe and growing in Europe and becoming the number one brand in storage throughout Europe. This is done by producing in our own factories, which are located in Sweden and Finland, and then distributed through our warehouses in the Nordics and one in Germany. This is very shortly how we are set up today. Local presence in the biggest European markets with the highest potential, and then of course our markets in the Nordic countries.
Our mission is to make everyday life easier, so all the products are designed to help you with something in your home. They are timelessly designed, and they are all designed to last tens of years in use, so no single-use products. Storage is our biggest category, helping to organize your things in all kinds of rooms around the home and garages and so on. Storage represents about 69% of sales under the brand Smart S tore.
The kitchen category is also slightly about storage because there is a lot of food storage products in the kitchen category, which represent about 20% of sales. Then we have the last one, which is home and garden, where you can find everything from flower pots to mailboxes and children's products, etc.
A big variety of different products that makes everyday life easier and nicer. Functional award-winning designs and of course, since many, many years already, a very strong focus on sustainability and choosing sustainable materials, starting from producing quality products that do not break when using them. Going into January-September, I think just in words, sales improved slightly. The market was still, I would say, hampered by quite careful consumer activities and also customers being fairly conservative in terms of offerings and action.
Having said this, I think the commercial tactics that we have adopted to these conditions worked fairly well, even though investing quite a lot in activities in the store, in activating our commercial offering, does not come for free. There has been quite a lot of, to say it very bluntly, pushing our goods in front of the consumer in the stores because this is the only way we can ensure sales when consumers are sitting very tight on their wallets.
In addition to this, I think quite tight cost control and fairly stable, steady raw material prices, maybe even slightly declining towards the end of the period, gives us a quite good uplift in profitability. Jumping into the numbers, net sales grew by 2.5% overall, and then rest of Europe grew by 3.3% compared to quite a strong quarter last year. In the Nordics, where I think consumers are of course influencing our action the most because our market share in the Nordics is so high, we still managed to grow by 2.5%. The EBITDA up to EUR 3.3 million from EUR 2.9 million last year.
Still some way to go to reach our long-term targets, but on the right path. A fairly stable and good cash flow at EUR 5.9 million, not a major change towards the same period last year. If we look at year-to-date numbers, the full year until the end of Q3, net sales decreased 1.4%, so we managed to close the gap a little bit, but we did not manage to close it all the way. It was mostly in Q1 of this year that we were behind in sales for specific reasons. Still some way to go to reach growth in total. On invoice sales level, this means a 1.8% decline.
I would say that another quarter, of course our ambition is to grow a bit faster, but given the conditions that we have seen, we are quite satisfied with at least the Q3 result, and that of course brings the overall performance a bit forward. There is some catching up to do on the EBITDA as well. We are now at 6.8 when we were at 7.2 last year, and on the margin percentages, we are getting closer to last year's levels at 10.4%.
If we take a look at the geography, even though I have said most of this, I think it is nice to show in pictures as well to the left, the third quarter, and to the right we have the year-to-date numbers. There you can see that both the Nordics grew and the rest of Europe grew. A comment on the rest of the world where we have one big customer in the US, and that customer is not at the moment doing particularly well. The overall sentiment in that direction is a bit tough towards the US when thinking about doing business overseas.
I would say the main focus today which we have is actually on keeping Nordics at a steady small growth, and then we are looking to further accelerate the rest of Europe. That is the ambition. I think we can jump the year-to-date September figures and go into the categories. Storage, our flagship, I would say, the one which is opening doors throughout Europe, grew quite nicely both in the Nordics and in Europe. That is on the positive side. Our campaigns worked well.
We were, I would say, more active than ever when it comes to putting product in front of consumers in the stores. I have a few pictures about that later on in the presentation. On the kitchen side, however, I think that even though we did campaigns, they were not as successful as last year. On the home and garden development, worthwhile mentioning is that flower pots made of recycled material performed particularly well during the period. That in very short terms. Year-to-date, a bit of the same.
Growth in storage, kitchen, slight decline still. Home and garden, we have a, well, EUR 600,000 is a small category, but worthwhile mentioning still the recycled material going well in this category. Takes me to the strategy, which we are still in, let's say, in major parts committed to, and I would say the most important part in the strategy is the growth in Europe while performing solidly in the Nordics. The target for us is very clear in Europe. It's to become the number one storage brand throughout Europe.
Of course, as an additional building block, we have the e-com business where we are active, shooting photos, making films, investing into being high on the search engines and being a good partner with the e-com channels, the e-com platforms, and also the multi-channel players. Progressing nicely as we also gain experience and knowledge in how to operate efficiently in that environment. An additional part, which is of course on the agenda for us, is actually the market consolidation bit. However, nothing to report at this stage.
Very clear category focus, very clear focus on sustainability. Of course, a high innovation rate to keep our products up to date, to launch new relevant products, which Hanna will talk a little bit more about later on. I promised you some install pictures. These kinds of exposures in the stores we are working a lot with, and these actually drive consumer behavior, shopper behavior in the store. When you go in there with your shopping list, it is not necessary that you have boxes or storage or recycling products on that list, but when you walk the aisles of the store.
We hope to catch you with your wallet and your guard down, and hopefully you come out with one or two excellent Smart S tore products from your shopping. There is a lot of innovation going on that we have been doing, getting permanent spacing with in-store materials, building all kinds of shelves and exposures to make shopping both easy and organized with our Smart S tore products. This is, in very short, some evidence of high pressure in the stores. Hanna, I give it over to you now.
Thanks, Alexander. Thank you to our incredible sales and marketing teams for the active work with the in-store implementation. Very active campaigns in the shops during Q3. Moving on to the sustainability and novelties, things happened also around sustainability in Q3. We were awarded with the Nasdaq ESG Transparency Partner badge for the fourth year in a row. What was especially nice, we got a silver medal in the EcoVadis ESG assessment. There we participated the third time in a row.
Now we can say that we are among the top 10% of companies globally assessed by EcoVadis. Quite proud of that. During the whole year, we have actually continued the active work of putting efforts on novelties, and we launched novelties in two launch windows in February and in September. This quarter, we launched quite a lot of novelties. Here are a few examples. On the left, you can see our new Smart Store Comfort. It is a really nice new stylish storage box or basket range, two sizes and three colors, and a really, really nice matte surface.
The second one from the left is Smart Store Flip, a new very handy box for storing your dry food, so your rices and flours and cornflakes. It is very tight. In addition, you have a really handy lid where you can pour easily the contents. It opens and closes easily. The two pictures on the right-hand side are our Smart Store module, a new range which helps in storing vertically. You can stack them on each other.
You can use the shelf in between and a very, very practical storage solution, for example, for shoes in the entrance. Very good start with all of these products at the moment. We continue the work with novelties. Now we move on to Saara and the financials.
Thanks a lot, Hanna. Quarter three was another stable quarter for Orthex. Net sales increased by 2.5% and by EUR 23.4 million compared to last year's EUR 22.8 million. As Alexander already said, the growth was driven by very active campaigning, and we got also some support from a bit earlier phasing of some campaigns. Currencies had a positive effect on the net sales, and in constant currencies, the net sales growth was a bit low. It was slightly below 1%.
Last year, we achieved a very strong growth of 20% in the area rest of Europe. This year, we managed to grow on top of this strong quarter by 3.3%. Even if the growth percentage is not that high, in absolute value, it's a big quarter for us in the area rest of Europe. On the other hand, the rest of the world declined by EUR 300,000. That's not the focus area for us. There are also trade uncertainty, especially in the United States. In general, the conditions are still challenging, and growth is a result of very high commercial activation.
Right now, it's not visible in sales and marketing costs, and we haven't been having a lot of media or anything like that, but we've been pushing campaigns a bit and have been having a bit more aggressive prices in some campaigns. Due to that, the gross margin didn't improve despite the positive raw material effect. Tight cost control on the other hand is visible on the fixed costs, and lower fixed costs were driving the profitability up, and our EBITDA increased by EUR 500,000.
There's no drama in the fixed costs, so nothing sort of non-healthy savings or anything like that. One thing maybe to mention is employee bonuses. We are currently not in line with our sales targets, and we've been decreasing the accruals for employee bonuses, for example. In general, it comes from many smaller items. Next, we have the raw material price indexes. Supply has remained good on the market during the reporting period. Index prices have declined slightly.
It seems that the European production capacity is closely matched to the orders, but imports are strengthening the supply currently. Increase in the freight costs might be affecting the prices, but also a stable quarter regarding the raw material prices for us. Investments during quarter three were exceptionally low, only EUR 200,000. We haven't been holding back or put any plans on hold. It is just related to the investment phasing that it's more phased to the last quarter of the year. We are finalizing a lot of projects during quarter four.
Net debt at the end of the reporting period was EUR 14.5 million, and leverage was 1.0. Cash flow has been strong, and also the lower investment level is visible in the net cash flow on year-to-date level. We have the long-term targets. There are no changes to the targets, and currently we are behind in both sales and in adjusted EBITDA due to the very challenging market conditions. Leverage was low, as said already, and the dividend payout has been high. The latest payment was done in October, EUR 0.11.
The last slide regarding the financials is the reporting dates which we have just published. The full year results will be published on the 5th of March next year. The annual general meeting is planned to be on the 14th of April. The annual sustainability report will be published during the week which starts on the 16th of March.
Otherwise, our quarterly reports are quite much in line with the reporting times during this year. 7th of May, 18th of August, and 5th of November are the dates next year. This was the financials, and Alexander will now summarize the key takeaways from this quarter.
Thank you, Saara. Just to summarize, and meanwhile doing that, I remind you that there's a chat where you can place some questions, and we're happy to take them straight after this short summary. I think the Q3 was a lot about strong sales activation on all the markets, and at the same time, we had to do it because still customers and consumers are quite careful. I think we were fairly successful in the tactics of activating our products, which is shown in the small growth we have.
Also a comment on profitability, where I thank everyone involved in our organization for good, cautious cost control, not overdoing it, but doing just enough to ensure that we have a good result. In these words, that is the summary, and happy to go to questions and answers. Hanna, will you help us?
Yes. Let's move to the questions. If we start with the timing of the campaigns and the Q3, can you quantify how much the earlier timing of seasonal campaign deliveries boosted your sales in Q3, and does that affect any way Q4?
Yeah, I can take that one. I think towards the end of Q3, we had really good deliveries, and it's also always a question mark, where does the month end, and when does the next one stop or start? No big comments on future things, but obviously, we've been successful in Q3, and we'll keep on working the best we can to implement our strategy of growth.
Thanks. Then Saara, you talked about the costs and expenses already. I don't know if there's anything you want to add to this question. So how sustainable is the drop in your Q3 sales and marketing expense and administrative expense? Are there some one-offs or should we expect a lower level going forward?
I think I covered it mostly, but I mean, there are no significant one-offs or sort of unhealthy savings. The focus in campaigning has been more in a price-driven campaign, so not that much sort of media or in-store investments there. Employee bonuses is one thing what is affecting, but it actually comes from very many small, I mean, EUR 20,000 items, the savings compared to last year. No drama and no expectation that it would be going downwards on the longer term.
Thanks, Saara. Let's move on to the commercial strategy. What does updating your commercial strategy mean in practice? Can you give some concrete examples?
That's a good one. I think it's really important that you critically always look at how you're performing and what you want to achieve. In terms of commercial strategy, I believe that we are doing quite many things in the right way, and Europe is still our target number one to get growth. How that growth is achieved and what kind of resources you put behind the different pieces of growth is something that we are looking quite closely at, how to organize ourselves, which are the exact targets, which are the exact product groups that are or sub-product categories that are in focus.
Of course, when you've operated actively for, I think, almost six, seven years locally on some of the big European markets, all that learning needs to be accumulated, and you need to refine your doing with the learning you have while learning more and following consumer behavior. Really sort of trying to get the edge of what makes an impact and doing more of that and less of the activities that are not that value-creating.
Thanks. Let's move on to the kitchen category sales that has been declining. Can you explain a little bit where the decline in the kitchen category sales comes from?
As said, we have not been as successful on the campaigns on the kitchen category as we have before or the year before in the comparison period. At the same time, the kitchen category weight is the highest in the Nordic countries. As we know, the Nordics, from a growth perspective for us, has been perhaps more challenging than Europe. When there are tough times in the Nordics, it usually hits the kitchen category more than the storage category. That could be one of the reasons. Maybe Hanna, do you want to add something to that?
Yeah, I think it is timing of the campaigns and then some big comps. I think here is the timing of the campaigns on the opposite side. And then the freezer boxes are always a big seasonal product for us and not maybe performing that well this year. Yes, let's move on then to the, let's say, consumer behavior. Have you observed any change to the better in consumer behavior?
I think when, let's say, the sentiment has been so hard for many, many years, or at least two, three, four years after COVID, I think all the small signs you see, you want to be positive and believe they are signs of something brighter coming our way. We are a bit biased when it comes to actually seeing these positive signs.
I would say that depending on market, we can see some good signs of more active consumer behavior and more willingness to actually spend a little bit more on good quality products as well. I think there's a shift going in that direction in some of our markets, whereas especially some local markets are still quite challenging.
Yeah. And then about the customers, I mean, if the consumers are slightly, slightly positive in some markets, then have you still had to limit shipments to certain rest of Europe retailers?
It's an ongoing process where we monitor the credit risks we have and follow what our credit insurance company says. Depending on that, we act accordingly. There are still a few customers which are a bit shaky, to be straightforward, but not to the same extent as in the first quarter of the year. Thanks. There are quite a lot of questions about M&As. No news and can't say much more. Still in the strategy, still on our work table and still a very compelling way of growing as long as you do it the right way at the right cost.
Yeah. Maybe one tricky last question about organic growth. How much do you think you can grow organically in the stores where you are now?
I believe we have huge opportunities to grow organically with existing customers, especially the big retailers in Europe, where we might be in assortment, but we are for sure not with a huge portfolio of products, and we are for sure not in all the stores of the retail chain. There is a good opportunity to grow organically. Launching relevant new products is also a way of achieving more shelf space. We are working heavily on that, and there is a lot of room. Our market share in Europe is very low compared to our Nordic market share. We have to believe that it's the way to grow.
Yes. Thanks. Thank you for the very, very many questions this time.
Wishing all of you a continued good autumn. Thank you.
Thank you.