Ladies and gentlemen, dear participants of Puuilo's Investor Day. I am more than very delighted in having the opportunity to wish all of you a very warm welcome to participate in Puuilo's Investor Day, where we open the secrecy of curtains of our new state of will with even more ambitious growth targets than ever before in Puuilo's history. Puuilo's growth story is just amazing. We have exceeded all market expectations and our own financial targets and positions in a record time period. Our stomach is not yet full. We want more. We have a clear, ambitious step-by-step plan on how to do it. By strengthening our performance in our core processes throughout the whole value chain and by expanding our store network to a totally new level. Puuilo as a company has many winning factors, just to mention a few of them for you here today.
First, our store concept is visible, cost-effective, inspiring, and price-competitive with excellent customer service daily. Second, our strategy will be presented to you soon. We will perform well in every economic situation. Our tactical ability is effective with short reaction time. Third, our capable management team, who are also present here today, has a strong commitment to the company and a high ambitious level in their work. Fourth, we emphasize cost control throughout the whole company and our processes. We have a very clear roadmap for the future. Dear participants, I am, as a Chairman, very confident Puuilo is not only fulfilling its annual targets year- after- year. Puuilo is on its way to the next level. As a profitable company, we want to satisfy our owners' and investors' expectations and be trustful, reliable, and a forerunner in our business segment.
By these warm-up opening words, I want to give now the floor and speech to our CEO Juha Saarela and CFO Ville Ranta, who together will bring, in Finnish words, "Morjesta pöytään." Dear all, be warmly welcome to participate in our event and don't hesitate to make challenging questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Lasse. Welcome to Puuilo's Investor Day also from my side. Welcome to all shareholders and analysts here in the studio. Welcome to all of you who are participating virtually. Puuilo's management team is also here. They are ready to answer questions if someone would like to ask something from a certain team member. I am Juha Saarela, CEO of Puuilo, and our CFO Ville Ranta is here also, and he will present parts of this presentation with me.
Hello.
Here is the agenda for the presentation. Today we will take a closer look into Puuilo's history, concept, target market, and customers. Additionally, we will go through what makes us stand out from competitors. Then Ville will go through financial KPIs and the drivers behind the development. And then agenda topic number five, we will briefly go through the old strategy, and after that we move to presenting our updated strategy. And we will go through the steps we need to take to reach the new long-term financial targets. And at the end of the presentation, we will take a very brief look at our current sustainability work. And last one, after the presentation, we have a Q&A. And as you can see, the presentation contains many different topics and will thus take more time. However, we aim to keep it within the two-hour time limit. Good. Let's start.
At first we go to a brief introduction of Puuilo. Puuilo's history is a great story. Here you can see some pictures from the beginning until today. Puuilo is a 42-year-old retailer that has experienced various different times. Puuilo has been able to change its shape and adapt to the market changes. However, our core business idea has remained unchanged throughout the history. Here is a brief look into Puuilo's history. Puuilo was founded in 1982. At first, Puuilo sold wooden toys and sewing from a small workshop. This is also where Puuilo's name originated from. In the late 1980s, many Finnish trading companies started importing goods from Asia. This opened a new market as there was high demand for affordable goods. At this point, Puuilo bought used buses, which were converted into small shops.
At the height of operation, there were six buses ouring market squares , mainly in northern and eastern Finland. Times changed, and in the late 1990s, market sales started to lose their popularity. In 1998, Puuilo opened its first store in Kajaani and stopped the business of ouring market squares . Fast forward to 2006, and Puuilo had four stores, one of which was in Vantaa. In 2008, the first Puuilo's web store was opened. In 2015, Puuilo was acquired by the private equity investor. A new management team and strategy were put in place. The strategy was focused on accelerating profitable growth. In 2020, Puuilo had already 30 stores open. At the same time, major investments were made in the systems, structures, and logistics, which would allow successful implementation of the strategy.
In 2021, Puuilo became publicly traded with over 33,000 new shareholders, setting a new record for most new shareholders during an IPO in Helsinki Stock Exchange's history. At the end of 2023, last year, Puuilo had 42 stores open and net sales of almost EUR 340 million with delivering the interesting best profitability. Our current market capitalization is approximately EUR 800 million. Puuilo is one of the leading discount retailers in Finland, albeit with a somewhat unique assortment. We are not a generic discount retailer, but we operate with the same business logic as all discounters do. As of today, we have 44 stores in Finland. Last year's net sales were almost EUR 340 million, and the growth year-on-year was over 14%. This means that we had over 11 million customers during the year, with the average basket size being just under EUR 30.
The average sales growth rate for the past five years has been 20%. We stand out from the competition with our high profitability. In 2023, our Adjusted EBITDA was 16% of net sales. Our product assortment is very broad for a discount store concept. Currently, we have over 300,000 SKUs. Additionally, Puuilo sells also various private label products. Last year, the share of these products was 20.6% of total sales. Puuilo can be considered a supply store. Our assortment consists of products which our customers need in their daily lives. We are not a department or a hardware store. Our customers can find bolts, glue, tape, storage boxes, wheelbarrows, horse shoes, and dog food from our shelves. We don't sell building or decoration materials, and our concept is not cyclical or dependent on season because we don't sell fashion toys, sport equipment, or electronics.
Affordable prices and properly constructed assortment ensure that we are a different concept with its own place in the market. Here you can see the sales growth for the past 13 years. As you see, Puuilo's growth has remained stable through time. It is not based on coincidence or short-term trends. We have realized that sales growth from both old and new stores. The growth rate has varied between years. However, Puuilo has yet to face a year where sales have decreased. We have grown even during times of exceptional geopolitical events such as economic crises, wars, energy crises, and even a pandemic. These events have affected the business environment in different ways. They have changed purchasing power, caused problems in availability of goods, and reduced customers' confidence in the future.
Even during these times, Puuilo has grown profitably and shown that there is always demand for affordable basic goods regardless of time. What makes our concept special? Good store sites and compact stores. Our stores are in good locations, which are easily accessible by car. The stores are well-sized. Shopping does not take too much time. Furthermore, the store layouts are clear, which further increases the ease of shopping. Our product assortment is different, and the main product groups are better than our competitors. We also sell well-known brand products, so the customers have plenty of choice. Approximately half of the products we sell have sales prices below EUR 20, which makes us quite defensive also. Our stores are efficient, and the sales per m² are high. An efficient layout and a well-planned product assortment enable us to get a broad range of products in a small space.
This results in a fast and easy shopping experience and makes the store's operations cost-effective. Here you can see the quarterly comparable sales development from 2018 onwards. Additionally, you see the Finnish consumer confidence for the same quarters. Our comparable sales development has been robust. Our old stores have increased their sales consistently during the six-year period. The growth originates especially from higher customer traffic. There are differences between quarters. The year 2020 stands out because of the pandemic. This year experienced unusual sales growth in the entire retail industry. Puuilo's sales growth has not gone hand in hand with consumer confidence. This shows that the discount retail, and especially the Puuilo concept, is defensive and works well in different economic situations. Our affordable assortment works, and there is a continuous demand for it. Good. This was Puuilo in very brief.
Where we are from, what is our concept, and how we have performed during recent years. Then we move to introduce our board and management team. Here is the board of directors. Our board of directors has strong industry expertise from various retail sectors in Finland and the Nordic countries also. The board has operational management experience and board work experience in different companies also. Our board supports the operational management to implement our strategy. Then Puuilo's management team. Wonderful group. We have seven members in the management team, and all of them are experts in the retail sector. Puuilo's management team knows and understands very well the daily life of stores and the ins and outs of the discount retail business. All members of the management team are also shareholders of the company. Good. Then our customers, our brand, and our marketing.
Our concept offers a strong value proposition, and it has three basic elements. The first is broad assortment. In several product groups, our assortment is on the level of a special store. Generic hardware stores also certainly have a wide assortment in several product groups, but the price level is clearly above us. In general department stores, the assortment is different and very often focused elsewhere, for example, on home goods or fashion. The business model is also closer to a regular retail store. Often, you cannot buy road salt or uncertain from a department store. The second one is affordable prices. Our prices are affordable. They are not based on continuous sales campaigns, but on always affordable basic selling prices. We don't claim to be the cheapest in the market in all products or product groups, but on average, we are cheaper than our competitors.
We increase the share of private label products so that we can further improve our affordable pricing. The third element is easy shopping. Our staff works during store opening hours, so the service is always available at all times when the store is open. We think that customers don't like to spend a long time in the store and use their expensive time to try to find and shop. This is why we don't force our customers to walk around the whole store. Our store layout is simple. Our online store supports the growth of store sales with product availability and shelf location information. The combination of these makes us a different store. Our sales growth has long been based on an increase in customer traffic.
Last year is also a good example in this sense, when the customer traffic in the old stores, meaning like for like, grew by about 6% year-on-year. This is the best proof that we have our own place in the market. Our customers are mainly handy and price-conscious adults. The share of young people among our customers is not large, which is mainly due to the assortment and partly due to the locations of our stores. We don't sell, for example, clothing, sport equipment, or cosmetics. Our assortment matches with the needs of our main customer group very well. The majority of our customers live in detached houses. There are approximately 1.2 million detached houses in Finland. However, this doesn't mean that those who live in apartment buildings are not our customers.
This is mainly due to the fact that there are a lot of detached houses in Finland, and on the other hand, that there are not enough Puuilo stores in the biggest cities, which have a lot of apartment buildings. There are about 500,000 summer cottages or free-time houses in Finland. A large number of the owners live in apartment buildings in cities. Because of this, Puuilo has a good assortment to offer them as well. Geographically, our customers live in the same areas as the average Finns. However, our customer traffic in the Helsinki metropolitan area and other bigger cities could be higher, so we still have a lot of growth potential there. I go over this case later on this presentation. Next, our brand awareness. We do an annual brand survey every year, and here you can see the results from the last four years.
Aided brand awareness is presented at the top left. Aided awareness tells us whether the customer knows Puuilo when they are asked directly, "What is Puuilo, or do you know Puuilo's store?" According to this, Puuilo's name is well known as the aided brand awareness is high. In other words, Puuilo, as a name, is known and recognized, but it may be that the customer may not have deeper knowledge of our brand or our concept. Spontaneous brand awareness is presented at the bottom left. Spontaneous awareness tells us whether the customer can name Puuilo when they are asked to list discount stores. Based on the results, only one in five mentions Puuilo. From this, it can be concluded that the name of Puuilo is recognized and known. However, yet it isn't known what kind of brand Puuilo is.
The conclusion is that a large part of the respondents have not visited a Puuilo store, and those don't know how to position Puuilo. On the other hand, this also shows that Puuilo's concept is unusual, and it can sometimes be difficult to place us in a typical store matrix. On the right, you can see the customer's consideration. Which discount store or general store do you prefer to shop at? And what other competitors could you consider? More than 50% of the respondents say that they could consider doing their shopping in Puuilo's store. At the same time, Puuilo has become the second most interesting brand in this comparison group. The results of our marketing survey are good and on the rise, but at the same time, they show that there is still room for improvement.
This is a good thing because while we know that we can grow by opening new stores, there is also promising potential for comparable growth as well. And then our brand awareness. Our brand awareness and the interest as a place to shop has grown steadily. During the last four years, the number of Google searches has increased strongly. At the same time, when compared to other players in the field, interest in us has grown clearly faster than others. This is explained, of course, by our expansion in Finland, but also by good marketing work, affordable prices, and a dynamic assortment. On the right side, you can see our brand awareness in different areas of Finland. We are well known in northern and eastern Finland, as well as in some parts of the west coast.
This is because we have had stores in these areas for a very long time. This data shows also that there is a lot of untapped potential, especially in central and the very south of Finland. Our marketing is straightforward and distinctive. We build our brand with various different marketing methods, and we have succeeded very well in that. Our marketing style is considerate, honest, and sometimes also funny. The main part of our marketing is print advertising. We do direct distribution and other print advertising. However, we have also increased the use of other market channels year- by- year. Puuilo's marketing has achieved several awards over the years. Marketing's return on investment is high, which is also evidenced by the fact that despite the fact that we do very good marketing, marketing costs are less than 2% of net sales each year. Good.
Next, we will take a look at the market where Puuilo operates and Puuilo's position in this market. In Finland, there are no public or official statistics on the discount retail market, and for this reason, we have formed a comparison group ourselves to which we compare Puuilo's share. Of course, this is not the absolute truth, as there are competitors in the comparison group which may not be directly classified as discount retailers. However, from this, you can see the direction of the general market and how Puuilo compares in relation to it. As of last year, the total market for this group is estimated at EUR 3.5 billion, and Puuilo's market share of this is slightly below 10%. Our market share has grown strongly every year.
Here, it's good to see that the total sales of this comparison group have also increased, so Puuilo's increase in market share indicates strong performance over the years and the fact that we are getting customers from our competitors. As I earlier mentioned, our customers are on average handy adults. The majority of Finns live in detached or duplex houses. There are approximately 1.2 million detached houses and 500,000 summer cottages or free-time houses in Finland. Our product assortment is especially well positioned to answer the needs of these customers. This can be seen in the results of our marketing survey, which indicated that the majority of the customers do indeed live in detached houses. At the same time, Puuilo's customers have better purchasing power than the average population as a whole. A large part of Puuilo's customers are middle-aged people who often don't have that much debt.
The conclusion from this is that Puuilo's customers are not affected that much by economic slumps, or slumps, or crises. Additionally, the recent rise in interest rates should not greatly reduce their purchasing power. This also partly explains the defensiveness of our concept. We have room to grow, and here is one example of growth potential in larger Finnish cities. Our stores have white spots in the market. We have studied the market and our growth potential on a regular basis, and our skills and experience have also grown over the past years. We have learned to better understand our growth potential. This is also evidenced by the fact that we are reaching our previous long-term sales target clearly earlier than previously estimated. On this slide, you can see our estimation of the sales potential in five large cities in Finland.
On the left-hand side, you can see the sales per population in five smaller cities. The combined average from all is roughly EUR 200 per citizen per year. On the right half, the store is located in a way where it does not cannibalize the existing store significantly. However, this is not so straightforward because often the competition in big cities is harder, and other factors such as accessibility also affect the choice of the shopping place. Nevertheless, we estimate to have a sales potential of at least EUR 100 million if we could increase the sales per population for the Helsinki area to EUR 70 and the sales per population for other large cities to EUR 150. Puuilo has experienced strong growth, which is faster than its domestic competitors and the global discount retail sector in general.
As you can see, the sales for all domestic competitors have increased, but much more modestly. Our size has grown approximately 2.5 times in the past five years. On the right side of this page, you can see discounters' sales development indexed, and we are part of this global trend. Puuilo's excellent and differentiated concept, combined with the ongoing upward trend, is an unbeatable combination. Good. That was a brief summary of Puuilo's concept, market, and market position as well as potential. Next, we have a financier. Ville will go through the recent results and analyze further Puuilo's performance from a financial point of view. Please, Ville.
Thanks, Juha, and then we go into the numbers. Next, we will go through Puuilo's financials, mainly focusing on the period after our IPO in June of 2021.
Sales have continued their strong growth after IPO and the corona pandemic. Notably, the sales growth comes from both old and new stores. More on the sales development of old like-for-like stores later. We saw a notable increase in sales during COVID. This strong trend has continued, and in the last financial year, we achieved a good double-digit growth of 14.2%. Our growth has been robust. It is made up out of several factors, of course: the new store openings, but also the experienced notable sales growth in the old like-for-like stores. This growth in old stores originates from a continuous increase in customer traffic. At the same time, our average basket size has also developed favorably. Between the pandemic year 2020 and 2023, there has been a growth of the basket of about 6%. In terms of gross margin, the development has also been good.
We have been able to maintain our good margin level throughout these years. These years include the global logistics challenges caused by the pandemic, a rapid acceleration of inflation, and the excess inventory situation we experienced in 2022, all of which have been handled well from the point of view of gross margin. The margin level rose significantly between 2022 and 2023, and we believe that this development will continue in the future thanks to ongoing measures in addition to the sales growth in our own brands. In absolute terms, the development of operating profit has also been rising. However, the relative profitability has been a slight downward trend for the past three years, which originates from several external as well as internal factors. Inflation also makes its way throughout Puuilo's cost structure, and we have transferred the increased cost to the selling prices with moderation.
A strong increase in the number of new store openings dilutes the company's profitability because the new stores are not as profitable as older ones during their ramp-up phase. In addition, especially in 2023, we have invested more in personal resources for the store openings. Furthermore, during 2023, we have trained more staff in general. More attention will be paid to this matter in the future, and measures have already been undertaken. And last but not least, our cash flow, where the graph speaks for itself. Puuilo is a cash machine. Our operating income transfers well into cash flow for the company. This is, of course, partly due to our good sales and profitability development, but also due to very low CapEx needs, as we do not build our own stores in the balance sheet. We lease them, as you know.
Additionally, our process setting up new stores is CapEx efficient, as we, for example, use slightly used store equipment. Here you can see the Puuilo's sales composition based on different price points. The majority of our sales come from products costing less than 20 EUR. These products amount to 63% of our sales and 95% of sales volume in pieces. Respectively, products in the next price point, 20-100 EUR, represent 28% of our sales and only 5% of sales volume. Products costing over 100 EUR are clearly a minority, especially from the point of view of the sales volume. The last point on the right hand of this slide, which is very important, is the gross margin split of these price categories.
This type of sales mix suits us extremely well because when we look at the margin differences between the price brackets on the right side, we can see that the cheaper the product, the better the gross margin is. Puuilo's seasonal variation is moderate, and it's not based on short-term seasons. The seasonal variation of Puuilo looks the same every year, and the share of the months also remains roughly the same. From the point of view of seasonal sales, midwinter months are the smallest for us, meaning January, February, while our strongest selling season starts in May and ends in September, October. Notably, we are not dependent on the Easter, Christmas, or Midsummer seasons, and especially not on Christmas in any way. This brings us predictability to the running and planning of the business and helps in the allocation of resources, which is also reflected in our strong profitability.
Then, on the right-hand side, where the Puuilo sales are divided into two components, the red is so-called base sales and consists of products with very moderate or no seasonal variation. The gray area represents the sales of products with strong seasonal fluctuations, such as garden supplies. The message is clear: our sales mostly come from necessity supplies that are required constantly throughout the years. This is optimal for us, as first of all, it generates steady cash flow, and additionally, it helps us allocate our resources in an optimal way as well. In short, Puuilo's concept is defensive. It withstands warm and cold weather and remains stable even in different economic cycles. Next, we will quickly go through our cost structure. As a whole, Puuilo's operating cost structure withstands in industry comparison. In 2023, operating expenses amounted to 21.1% of net sales.
If we take a more detailed look at the expense type level, we notice that personnel expenses are by far our largest expense item, with their shares of sales being 10.4% in the last financial year. Personnel expenses have risen in a trend-like manner in the recent years due to the same factors I mentioned a couple of slides back. We are putting extensive effort on changing the direction of the recent development. When we look at other expense items, their ratios to sales are on a competitive level. The company's rent expenses are at the level of approximately 3.5% of net sales. This level is competitive, and here too we expect scaling in the future because the forecasted sales development of our relatively young chain network is well above the forecasted growth rate for the rents. Notably, our lease agreements are not based on sales development.
In our contracts, the increased condition is a typical change in the cost of living index or, in some individual contracts, a fixed percentage. Last but not least, depreciations, which is consistently 1% of net sales. As mentioned before, our CapEx needs are more moderate when measured in absolute terms. This is mainly because we lease our stores. The remaining CapEx needs are mainly related to furnishing our new stores, IT investments, and maintenance CapEx for old stores. In summary, Puuilo is clearly one of the most cost-efficient players in the retail sector, and this is one of our strategic competitive advantages that we want to hold on and even scale up in the future. All of our stores are profitable, very profitable, in fact. The graph on the left shows the profitability of our stores expressed as a Finnish accounting standard's EBITDA percentage.
Thus, this also includes rents. Our most profitable stores reach Finnish Accounting Standards' EBITDA of well over 20%, and even the lowest level is over 15%. Notably, the stores at lower profitability are either new or young stores that are still in the process of ramping up. We see that in the future, as the maturity of the store network increases, more and more stores will improve profitability throughout scaling, which in turn directly affects the profitability of the entire company. In addition, we have tools to further increase unit-specific profitability, for example, throughout improving work shift planning and, of course, throughout increasing gross margin. On the right-hand side, you can see the increase in new stores' Finnish Accounting Standards' EBITDA profitability from the opening months onwards. On average, a new store is profitable in two months or less.
This is based on a strong increase in sales, which starts from the opening day. Our store concept scales up to be profitable in a short time. The increase in profitability continues with the increase in sales resulting in scaling of fixed costs. From the point of view of cash flow, the new store requires a total initial investment of approximately EUR 1.8 million, which includes the store equipment and starting inventory. Calculated throughout EBITDA, the payback period for the new store is roughly 19 months. Next, a few examples of like-for-like growth. Here you can see six stores with different vintages. The first store was opened in 1999. During the past 10 years of the sales compound average growth rate for this store has been 9% annually. The next store was opened in 2012, with its sales compound average growth rate being 11% during the 10-year period.
We can see the same results in the store opened in 2013. Next, three newer stores opened in 2016, 2017, and 2019. The conclusion is that like-for-like growth continues year- after- year. The growth rate decreases slightly as with store age. The sales have not decreased since the pandemic. Changes in the local competitive environment or the opening of competitor stores nearby may have an effect but have not turned the sales into a decline. Our like-for-like is therefore steady while it's happening in our entire store network. In addition, it's worth noting that even in older stores, we have not experienced sales saturation. The increase of brand awareness and recognition and interest in Puuilo's concept continues and translates itself in sales growth, even in older stores throughout increase in customer traffic. Here you can see the annual like-for-like sales development for the recent years. Like-for-like sales have always grown.
We have not seen a year with negative like-for-like sales growth. Our sales growth is stable, which can be seen from the graph. Excluding the exceptional pandemic year of 2020, the average annual growth rate has been 5.2%. During the recent years, like-for-like sales have grown mainly due to the increase in customer traffic, which is very healthy and the best indicator of a working and interesting concept. Based on our research, we get new customers from our competitors. We are able to continue the growth in like-for-like sales for many reasons: a young store network, increasing brand recognition, and by improving the commerciality and availability at the stores. Furthermore, we also expect that the average basket will start to slightly increase in the coming years. We are working on a basket size on a daily basis to improve it.
Here is the comparison of operating expenses as a percentage of sales among discount retailers operating in Finland and in different countries. This sample includes large, successful, and well-known companies, all of which are publicly listed in different countries. Puuilo represents itself excellently with its light cost structure, even in an international comparison. The cost awareness built into the company's culture and the frugality mentioned in our values can be seen in everything we do. In Puuilo, we have the ability to prioritize things that really matter to our end customers. Our motto is "Good enough." Our company structure is simple. Due to this, we don't generate excess administrative costs. This can be seen, for example, in the compact size of our headquarters. Puuilo is a cash machine. Our operating profit is translated well into cash. There are several factors affecting this.
Sales growth is good, and our profitability is high. Our marketing clearly works, and our costs are well controlled. We measure and analyze practically everything. The biggest factor affecting cash flow is inventory. Inventory control, procurement process, investments, and further development in store replenishment process development can be seen in the cash flow levels. We have made a good process in these measures. The last factor contributing to our good cash flow are low CapEx requirements. As mentioned before, our CapEx needs are moderate when measured in absolute terms. This is mainly because we lease our stores. The remaining CapEx, as stated before, needs are mainly related to our new store equipment, IT investments, and maintenance CapEx for old stores. Thank you. And then, Juha?
Thank you, Ville. And then, next, a final look at our current strategy before continuing to the strategy update.
Our current strategy is simple and workable. We open new stores every year, and we have untapped potential to grow, and we continue expansion in Finland. The second, the majority of our store network is rather young. About half of the stores are less than five years old. We expect the store sales to increase in the coming years as recent years have proven, especially with the increase in brand awareness. LFL sales and growing customer traffic are the most important metrics for our business and concept. Increasing the number of private label products and their share of sales is an important strategic target. By this way, we can improve gross margins and profitability. This is one reason why we have improved our logistics capability as well. Puuilo is a very profitable retail company. Cost control is our competition advantage.
Our fixed costs are several percentage points lower than other retailers in Finland and neighboring countries. Last one, online store is an important part of our service and concept. Customers keep self-evident that a nationwide retailer has an online channel for to shop and check prices and availability. Here are our current long-term financial targets by the end of the financial year 2025 and three years' statistics showing how we have achieved these targets each year. Our net sales target is above EUR 400 million by the end of financial year 2025 and Adjusted EBITDA margin at least 17% every year. We aim to distribute at least 80% of the net income as dividends each year. Our target is to keep the net debt to EBITDA ratio below 2x. As this table shows, we are doing quite well in achieving our targets.
The net sales target of EUR 400 million will be achieved soon and ahead of schedule. There is still potential for improvement in adjusted EBITDA. We are paying special attention to this current financial year, especially because our growth is now faster than recent years and inflation has increased operating costs. Good. Now let's take a look at our updated strategy and long-term financial targets. Here, our new strategy and long-term financial goals. As you can see, it is for the most part an update to the former strategy. We don't need a completely new strategy as the former one has worked very well, and we still see much more growth potential to be had in Finland. This strategy is for the period 2024- 2028, which ends in January of 2029. This makes the length of the strategy period approximately 4.5 years.
The five key objectives in our strategy are: the first one, opening new stores and continuing our expansion in Finland. For this period, our target is to reach over 70 stores in Finland with the current concept. The continuation of like-for-like sales growth in a market where we have a lot of room for growth and lots of untapped potential. Third, maintaining and further improving our current position as one of the most cost-efficient operators in the sector. And then, an omnichannel customer experience. An easy and fast shopping experience is an important factor for our current and potential customers. And the last one, we also include sustainability as one part of our strategy. This is done under the theme of responsible retailer. Under this, we include the key elements in our sustainability work.
Working towards these five objectives will allow us to reach our new long-term financial targets, which are presented on the bottom half of the slide. By the end of the strategic period, we aim to reach net sales above EUR 600 million. Regarding profitability, our goal is to reach adjusted EBITDA above 17%. We target to reach absolute adjusted EBITDA above EUR 105 million by the end of the financial year 2028. We aim to distribute at least 80% of company's net results to shareholders. Here is a slight change to the previous targets. This includes also other possible ways than dividends. The way of distributing profits to shareholders is dictated by the AGM, of course. Regarding net debt, we keep the same goal as before: net debt to adjusted EBITDA below 2x. Good.
Next, a closer look into the further expansion of our store network. We will continue our expansion in Finland with the current concept. Our goal is to grow the chain to over 70 stores with the current concept. As it now turns out, we are not expanding our operation to another market as there is still a lot of growth potential in Finland. This allows us to continue profitable growth for several years with the current concept. Currently, we have 44 stores open, and if all goes according to plan, at the end of this year, the store count will be 48. When we open 5-6 new stores annually during the strategic period, we will reach our goal of approximately 70 stores by the end of 2028. Over the past years, we have underestimated our market and the functionality of our concept.
Now that we have done more research and gained more experience with our expansion and the competitive situation, we see that there is still room for new stores and we can continue our growth. This is a very good thing for our shareholders as well, as this very likely also means continued profitable growth for the years to come. In addition to relying on our own expertise and experience, we have also studied our growth opportunities with third-party consultants. We can roughly divide the additional demand potential into three sources. The first one, larger cities in Finland where there are no or there are too few Puuilo stores. Second, medium-sized cities where there are no Puuilo stores. And the last one, smaller rural towns or rural centers where there are no Puuilo stores yet.
From these sources, we can quite easily find growth potential for 2025 new stores with the current concept. Here is one example of data analysis done to model the market demand of a single city. As of today, we currently have two stores in Oulu. The first one opened in 1999 and the second one in 2016. We decided to open the third store as we knew there is a commercial potential for one if we could find a good store location. Based on econometric analysis, we can make potential sales heat maps which take into account, for example, Puuilo's own stores and they influence the distance of competitors and they influence the existing purchasing power of the area. This analysis, of course, is theoretical and is not a sole basis for decision-making by itself.
But based on our experience, it is in the right direction and supports the assessment of our growth potential. As you can see, the model shows that there might be potential for a fourth store at Oulu area as an example. It is a good question how many store locations there are still left, for example, in Turku, Jyväskylä or Kuopio. Then we will take a look at the effect of competitors' store openings on the sales of our stores. Our sector is very competitive in Finland, and competition has increased in recent years. Additionally, many of our competitors have also opened new stores in close proximity to ours. Puuilo's concept is unique and different, and we have shown that although the competitors' actions, of course, affect us, our performance remains on a good level. So far, the effects of increased competition have remained minor.
The analysis on this slide includes two of our main competitors who have opened stores in the close proximity in the same four locations where Puuilo has already had a store open. We have indexed the average sales performance of these four Puuilo stores for the period around the opening of our competitors' store openings, one year before and one year after the competitor opening. On average, our growth has continued in these four stores, and in some stores, the growth has been, of course, a little bit faster and the other slower, but sales continued growing in any case. This is very significant information and partly supports our understanding that Puuilo's offering and concept is positively differentiated from our close competitors. Then, like-for-like sales growth potential. We have 44 stores, and more than half of them are younger than five years old.
As shown before during this presentation, new stores grow faster than old stores, which is natural. Currently, we have a large share of these young stores in the entire network, so it is completely reasonable to expect that like-for-like sales will grow more strongly than the market on average. This growth is also supported by the previously mentioned drivers: increase in brand awareness, improving the commerciality of the stores, and improving the ease of shopping, better availability, and so on. Here is something more about the current LFL potential from a different point of view. In our more than 10-year-old stores, the sales per m² is quite high, and it is approximately EUR 4,300 per m² . As you can see on the graph, the sales per m² of stores approach these averages as the stores age.
Based on this, we can estimate that the current store network will bring approximately EUR 120 million in more sales if all stores reach that average of EUR 4,300 per m² . Our stores are on average the same size, but there are also smaller or larger ones, but their number is not significant. Good. Then Ville goes through sales and EBITDA growth components of new financial targets. Ville, please. -
Thank you. Okay. Next, we will take a closer look at the financial KPIs of our new strategy period. First, sales development. The compound average growth rate for the period will be in the ballpark of 12% if we meet our target of EUR 600 million by the end of financial year 2028. Naturally, the growth rate between years will fluctuate. Some years might be below this number, while others are above.
I want to highlight here that this 12% is a mathematical figure, and it's not our annual target going on here. Like I said, the growth rate can fluctuate between the years. The second graph shows the estimated components behind the projected sales increase of over EUR 260 million. The first component is the continuation of growth in our current like-for-like stores in addition to web store. Regarding like-for-like growth, we have been conservative in our assessment, and there is a possibility that the growth rate can continue to surprise us even in the future. Historically, our realized like-for-like growth has been roughly 5% per year. The second component represents our current new and committed stores. The sales growth for these comes as the stores mature during the next 4.5 years.
The last sales increase component is tied to our strategic goal to reach over 70 stores by the end of the strategic period. We aim to continue our expansion, and this is seen in the top line growth. Let's then move on to profitability. Our strategic goal is to achieve an Adjusted EBITDA margin above 17% for this period. Furthermore, we aim to reach an Adjusted EBITDA of over EUR 105 million by the end of 2028. If this goal is achieved, the EBITDA compound average growth rate for the period will be in the ballpark of 14%. Again, you can see the components behind our EBITDA goals in the last graph. They are: one, an increase in private label share of sales. This is and remains as one of our strategic cornerstones.
We estimate that during the strategy period, we can achieve an EBITDA impact between 0.4%-1.0% points from increasing the share of private label products in our assortment. Then the second one, scaling in personnel expenses. The working hours in our stores increase at a proportionally lower rate when compared to the sales. During the strategic period, the average sales per store will increase across the network, which will directly lead into lower proportional personnel expenses. Furthermore, we can achieve further savings throughout improving work shift planning. This driver will give us approximately 0.4%-1% points effect on EBITDA. Third one, naturally, there are various other economies of scale as our size increases. For example, our rents are not tied to sales growth. Additionally, our current headquarters function is sized to meet the future growth demand. Thus, we will likely also realize efficiency from there.
We estimate this effect to be between 0.2%-0.5% points on EBITDA. To sum up, in EBITDA development components, the lower end of drivers stated in the box leads to a 17% EBITDA. Midpoint leads to a 17.8% EBITDA, and upper end leads to a 18.5% EBITDA. And then Juha will continue.
Yeah. Thank you, Ville. Then about our private labels. Our gross margin is not particularly high, and it is roughly at the same level as the sector in general. This is good to see as we clearly have an opportunity for improvement here. Increasing sales margin will result in higher profitability and is one of the reasons why we have our own imported private label products and also registered brands. This is done by almost all retail operators, including grocery stores and especially retail chains such as clothing and sports stores.
We do this not only because private label products have a better margin, but also because we can differentiate ourselves. We get the protection from price competition and also improve customer loyalty. We have increased the number of private label products consistently. This is also seen as an increase in their share of total sales every year. At the end of last year, the share of total sales was 20.6%, and our target is to increase the share of the private label products in total sales to 13% in the coming years. On the right, you can see examples of Puuilo's own products, and next to it, examples of well-known brand products. Private label products are almost always more affordable. Additionally, the gross margin can be several times higher than that of the brand products, of course, depending on products.
We have very strong know-how to import trade, and our logistical ability is developed in order to increase private label imports. Then, omnichannel customer experience. It is very important, and it has increased. Puuilo wants to be seen and heard in all channels by the same way. We are also honestly what we really are: a simple discount retailer focused on offering basic goods for everyday use. That must be reflected in all our customer encounters. For us, this means that our communication is clear, that we have a functioning commercial online store, clearly worded marketing communication regardless of the media. In the stores, we meet our customers as human and serve them with joy. We aim to surprise our customers during their first visits to our stores.
Good.
Here is a recap of our new long-term financial targets and how we can reach them.
Drivers for sales development. We will achieve EUR 600 million in net sales by continuing to expand our network in Finland by opening 5-6 stores annually. We realize that we have room for more than 70 stores with the current concept. The sales of the young store network are increasing with customer traffic. This is thanks to our effective and differentiated concept. Our brand spontaneous awareness is still quite low. Our name is known, but the concept is not clear in general. All in all, we have many growth drivers on our side. Then drivers for profitability. We grow profitable and aim for an Adjusted EBITDA of over 17%. We increase the gross margin in many ways. Competitive sales pricing, our negotiating power with suppliers increases with our size and the increase of our own private label products.
Furthermore, the business scaling proportionally lowers almost all operational expenses. Drivers for profit distribution. We are cost-efficient, and our cash conversion is high. We don't need major CapEx investment for our growth. Due to this, we aim to continue to distribute more than 80% of net profit to our shareholders. Drivers for the net debt. Puuilo is already a company with low net debt. Our high profitability and low CapEx requirements ensure that our goal of having net debt to Adjusted EBITDA below 2x is possible also in the future.
Good.
Very briefly, our sustainability work. The fifth theme of our strategy is called responsible retailer. We also included sustainability as a part of our strategy because we see that long-term and purposeful sustainability work has a correlation with sales growth and profitability in long-term.
We understand that we may be in the beginning of our sustainability journey, and there is still a long way to go. However, it is perhaps more about the direction of change and continuous improvement. The theme of our strategic responsible retailer includes all three subprograms of Puuilo's current sustainability program: responsible retailer, good place to work, and consume more sustainably. The annual sustainability report for last year has been published a while ago, and I won't go through it in more detail here. The CSRD reporting requirements have taken effect, and we have started preparing for this. The first CSRD compliant report will be published in the spring of next year. We will specify our current sustainability program and targets in accordance with CSRD requirements.
Good.
This is the end of our presentation. It took much time, so thank you for your patience. Now it's time for questions.
We have two microphones here. Please raise your hand.
Svante Krokfors from Nordea. Thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. First one regarding your EBITDA margin target change. You earlier had 17-19. Now it's above 17. Clearly, there are several components that affect that. But how much does the fact that the world has changed quite much since 2021 when you set the targets? There has been hard inflation, which obviously impacts that. But also, does it also impact that you actually now will open more new stores compared to earlier? Could you elaborate a bit around that? How we should look at the EBITDA margin target change?
Do you like to start?
Yeah. First of all, it's over 17%. So we are not saying that it will stop to something. So it can be higher.
All the figures we showed you here have been done a bit conservative way. So we want to be sure that we will reach those targets in the future as we have reached the previous targets as well. We believe that our EBITDA percentage will grow in the future as the company continues to scale up, and all these measures, what we here presented, will take place. We are working on those on a daily basis. But we thought that we want to remove the upper end because we see that there is. Well, of course, there is no limit to uplift the company's profitability. But of course, the limit is somewhere. So we are now aiming to over 17% and it be higher, like I told you in my EBITDA slide, that the lower midpoint and upper ends will drive profitability in some numbers in the future.
I like to add that we have investigated recent years by many ways to our effect development, and we see that our scaling is starting now. Our company size and the scaling capability is much better than the recent years. But if, as you know, that we are a little bit boosting our growth and new store openings, it means that we need to take care and manage our personnel costs more strictly than before. This is one risk. I like to say that. But anyway, there are many good drivers to develop our profitability. For example, as I said, that scaling. Second one is our private labels and our cost structure in general is those kind that, that it is, We don't see that the big reasons to resource our growth in Finland anymore.
As Ville said, that for example, how our headquarters is, let's say, a good site or size to grow. There are no reasons to, for example, hire in a big amount of new workers to our headquarters.
Thank you. And then a question on inventory and working capital. You didn't have any slide on that. Should we interpret it as that we are at that level doesn't get any better from here? Or are you happy with where we are now?
Let's say that at the moment the situation is, let's say, good enough. Of course, we can improve that number, inventory turnover more. But we think that if we put attention too much to that number, it brings our focus to the other side.
We need to focus on the most important things, which are our dynamic assortment and creativeness, our assortment and the competitive sales pricing and our internal process efficiencies.
Yeah, I would like to add here that the working capital is mainly change in inventory in our business. And as we grow, it will scale up, well, automatically, I would say, because we see from our internal reports that the ratio to net sales between the stores are huge. So the bigger the stores are, the smaller the percentage of the inventory is compared to the net sales. And this happens on a company level as we grow. We are having more and more, over 10 million units in the future, and this will start the scaling in the big picture.
And at the same time, of course, when we are growing bigger, we have the possibility to have better payment terms, for example, and we can develop our sourcing where the working capital benefits can be outweighed in the future.
Thank you. And then on a competitive landscape, perhaps you touched it in your presentation. But do you see any. I mean, most of the successful discount retailers have the same plans to expand as you? And I mean, you have earlier mentioned that, for example, sharing a parking lot with Tokmanni is positive for you because it increases the footfall there. But are there some competitors that you would not like to share a parking lot with?
It is quite typical that competitors like to open their stores to the same place or same areas because it increases the total demand. That is a, That's true.
It is not our decision where the competitors like to open their stores. We, let's say, we are not pushing too much effort to think about that. If they do that, welcome. Our concept is different, and we have proven and we have experiences how new stores opening affect our sales. As we showed in our presentation, we have data about that. We are quite confident about in the future what is coming, our competitor situation.
Thank you.
Thanks, Joni, from Nordea. Maybe a question related to warehousing. Now, when you have a target to reach above EUR 600 million sales, so what's the plan? Are you happy with the current structure or are you considering maybe some internal warehousing on this front?
Our logistics model is, It is not, It is not.
Yeah, it is a little bit different, but it is not worth if we're talking about retail companies and this size companies. But that's true that our logistics model is different than typical this size company of this size. Main part, 75% of the products comes directly from our suppliers to our stores. Why we can do that is because our store size and store annual sales volume is so big that we can do that. If you have very small stores, for example, standard store annual sales is only EUR 2 million or EUR 1 million, you have more reasons to establish your own warehouse or distributor center. But as you know that our average, our store annual sales is about EUR 8 million. It means that we can operate with this model. But we need a warehouse. We need a distributor center for our import.
Because we are bigger and bigger, we can order the big amount at the time, for example, European wholesalers and suppliers. And that is one reason why we need this capability. And we have it. We have outsourced our warehousing and the distribution center to an external very big company. And by that way, we have this capability for the future demands.
Okay, then second question related to your concept. You now mentioned that 70-75 stores you can manage with the current concept. What's next? Is it a change of concept or then expanding outside of Finland? I know that it's from 2028 onwards, but it's still, It's soon. You have to prepare for this.
We prepare to the time after this strategic period, what we have published today. But now it's a time to expand in Finland with the current concept.
But what is coming in the future? I don't like to say anything about that, but we have some good ideas, let's say by that way.
Okay, thanks.
Calle Loikkanen from Danske Bank. I just wanted to continue on that kind of new store openings and the impact on margins. Would you be willing to kind of elaborate on how much opening 5-6 new stores in one year dilutes the EBITDA margin?
If you look at our history, we have opened 3-4 new stores per year. Years vary it. There are years when we have opened only two, but there are years when we have opened five. If we calculate how many percentage new stores are per year, like-for-like stores or older stores, it is quite the same number. If you share four new stores, for example, by 30 existing stores, it means that it leaves the same number if we open six new stores with current 45-48 stores. So effect is about the same.
Yeah, can I add that less and less in the future? Because like you have said, the existing group grows behind the store network, and then the 5-6 new stores are not diluting so much as we go further on an EBITDA level margin.
Okay.
You opened up five new stores last year. Do you want to give a number on the dilution on the margin in 2023?
It is very hard to calculate what is a dilution for this, but there are other reasons also behind if you are talking about our personnel cost of last year.
And I like to add that there are some other improvements things behind of that. For example, our training programs and those kind of things. We are coming back to the former model to open new stores, and this case will be over next year, this year.
Okay, fair enough. I was wondering that in 2020 you had a sales of. And I know, of course, it was an exceptional year, but you had a sales of EUR 240 million roughly, and you did 18% EBITDA margin with that level of sales. Now, in the new financial targets, you would have EUR 600 million of sales. Then, I mean, what's the kind of. What's the biggest kind of headwind in terms of margin? Why the margin wouldn't be higher with that much higher level of sales and bigger volumes?
Do you like to.
Yeah, okay. You are talking about the pandemic year, 2020. So we got no inflation then. So that was the one reason, of course. So there were no increase in cost side. But in 2020, our net sales grew 40%. 40%. So it's something. Well, I would say crazy, but it happened to all. So the scaling in that particular year happened in a very short period of time. We were a bit having. On that year, I remember we were a bit having problems with the resources then. So the company was a bit under-resourced in some months, at least in the pandemic year. So that's maybe the one reason for the high profitability then. Secondly, in the pandemic year, If you recall, we sold a huge amount of these face masks and disinfection liquids.
No one remembers them anymore, but we got a very high margin with those products. And of course, when we are planning the future, we cannot expect the new pandemic to come. Sometimes I'm hoping it will. That's a bit of a joke, but at least in 2020, we got quite a good experience business-wise from the pandemic. So maybe that's where the main reasons. The year was exceptional.
Okay, thank you. And perhaps lastly then, reaching that EUR 600 million of sales, do you need to invest in, you know, IT or ERP. I mean, do you have any big significant investments that you need to do in order to be able to deliver EUR 600 million of sales?
At the moment, we don't have. And I don't see that we need to make the big investments, for example, our IT.
We have done those in recent years, and we have a capability and, let's say, our architect of IT or the other resources are in place. We can grow in current structure and current resources. I don't see the big investment needs. Of course, there are something if you like to, for example, create, for example, a Puuilo app. I don't know that is happening, but for example. But those are very minor investments.
Arttu Heikura, Inderes. Regarding the store network target of 70 over 70, how much have you counted in the fact that your competitors are also expanding their network quite aggressively?
Yes, we know that and we are following them. Some of them are opening to more and some of them are, let's say, almost stopped expansion here. Some of our competitors are struggling at the same time.
At the same time that part of them are expanding and opening a new store, we get customers from others. That is good to know and understand. So we are sharing the market now and we get benefit about this situation. Even at the same time, some competitors are opening stores. But as you showed in our presentation, there was one of our two main. There were two of our main competitors who are expanding here. And this. That slide shows you that it seems that their new opens doesn't affect our sales heavily. We are quite confident about the future.
Okay, and these competitors of you showed in the slides, are they focusing on DIY stuff or ?
Yes, yes, mainly yes.
Okay. Then about the risks of finding new store locations.
So are you ready to wait a longer time if you don't, you know, find suitable store locations, even though you are targeting the over 70?
What is coming to the coming years? Of course, I'm sure that there will be a different amount of store openings because we are not doing that at any costs. We are not going. We don't sign the agreement with the too high rent price, for example. And we continue to the same policy as last years, that if there are possibilities to get the, let's say, brilliant store locations. But if the store location. If the rent level is too high, we can't go there. And that is one of the elements of our profitability also. So it means that some years we may be open only four, but maybe some years we open seven stores. Let's see what happens.
Okay. Then about the new store coming to Oulu, Finland, which is kind of near the city center of Oulu. And when we compare it to your previous stores, which are kind of not in the center of the city. So is this kind of a way to test whether the Puuilo concept is working near the city center? And then you can, you know, if the model works, you can test this kind of expansion also in other cities.
Yes and no. We didn't decide to do that mainly for to test how our concept works next to the city center. The main reason was that Oulu is quite a big area. There are Oulu areas. There are living the 200,000 people. There is a big potential to get. And we find a very good location. What is next to the city center or city center area?
This location doesn't locate in the city center, but next to it. The next to that location is a very big area where people are living in detached houses, for example. But yes, you are right. Maybe we get a little bit more of the customers who like to visit our store by walk or by cycle, for example. But we don't think that this is a this is a big number. Our customers go to our. Come to our stores mainly by car, and we have a good parking place there also, and we can offer them the easy shopping there.
Okay, thank you.
Good.
Yeah.
Joni Sandvall from Nordea. Maybe one more question from me about demographics. You mentioned that you have maybe a bit older client base, let's say. So have you seen any changes on this?
For the future, do you have some focus groups that you especially are willing to increase the sales from?
We don't see big changes. Of course, we understand that in the future there can be minority changes, but it takes time. It takes tens of years. Time. And we get new customers from the younger when they are buying their own house or summer cottage or something like. They are typically 30 years, 35 years old. Those kinds of customers come to our. People come to our customers because their needs of their life change it. And that is why we get new customers also. This is not the big risk in our case. Those kinds of changes are very slow.
Okay, maybe follow up on this. There was, how would I say, a boom in buying summer houses during past years, during the COVID years.
So I would assume that there is a little bit of a cooling down effect there. So are you expecting any impact from this on your sales?
You are right. In pandemic time, people like it to buy summer cottages or free-time houses, huge amounts. We are not in the building business. We are not. Our offering to the building purposes is not so big. We are not selling wood or steel or building accessories, building materials. Our core business is if you need to maintain your summer house or your house or your free-time house or your boat or your. So on. And we see that our situation is much more better compared to the before the corona time because people and customers have much more summer houses and they need to maintain them. And our assortment matches very well with those needs.
Good. Any more questions?
Now it seems that all. That's all. Questions are answered, hopefully. So thank you, all your participants. And all of you who are here in place, we can end this this meeting. Thank you.
Thank you.