Warm welcome to Tokmanni's second quarter result presentation. My name is Mika Rautiainen. The agenda for today is as follows. I will first pr esent the key figures for the second quarter and first half 2021. After that, I will give you a short recap on the execution, or let's say, the start of the execution of Tokmanni's new strategy, which was launched by the end of March this year in Tokmanni's Capital Markets Day. After that, Tokmanni's CFO, Mr. Markku Pirskanen, will come and give you a more detailed analysis on the second quarter and the first half figures. After that, I will come back to tell a little bit more about our Tokmanni's specified guidance for 2021. Let's start. Then, of course, it's time for questions afterwards. The revenue continued to grow and profit improved. The revenue growth was 5.4%.
We in Tokmanni were very happy about it because last year, during the second quarter, it was almost 20% sales growth. Obviously this was, from our point of view, a very good performance. Actually, several product groups were performing very well during the second quarter. First of all, of course, the most important, garden, as one of our main destination categories. Garden was performing very well. Also other categories. For example, apparel was also performing well after a very difficult last year. With apparel, we came back to the level that we want to have this apparel sales. Of course, other categories as well, like health and beauty care, sports, these were doing very well. It was a good setup for the second quarter. Like-for-like revenue growth was 4.4%. The comparable gross margin was also improved 35.1% compared to last year's 34.5%.
Comparable EBIT for the second quarter was EUR 32.3 million, being 10.7% of revenue, exactly the same as last year. Actually, Markku will tell you a little bit more about the structure or the situation with the EBIT, which basically was on a very good level from our point of view. The cash flow from operating activities was EUR 61.5 million, clearly lower than last year. Now, this is based on the higher inventory level. Last year's sales growth of almost 20% basically ended up with the situation that in the end of last year, June, our stores were almost sold out, and the inventory level was too low. The shelf availability was too low, and this year we have been preparing much better to this situation, which also shows in the inventory level in our stores, which actually, from our point of view, is a positive thing.
Earnings per share was EUR 0.41 compared to last year's EUR 0.38. Th e first half revenue growth of 8.8% compared to last year's 13.3%. This basically was one of the drivers for the specified guidance also. I'll come back to that a little bit later. Like-for-like revenue for stores grew by 7.8%. Comparable gross margin was 34.2% compared to last year, clearly lower level of 33.5%. The EBIT amounted for the first half to EUR 39.1 million compared to last year's EUR 30.9 million. The level of EBIT was clearly higher compared to last year with this 7.4%. Exactly the same story as already during the second quarter, the cash flow from operating activities was due to inventory level. It was clearly lower than last year. Earnings per share for the first half year was EUR 0.48 compared to last year's EUR 0.34.
Let's look at the shopping behavior. We have been talking about our customer shopping behavior in the result presentations. During the first half of this year, it was actually quite a lot of different kind of restrictions in Finland due to pandemic, and the customer visits were clearly lower and on minus. On the other hand, the average basket was growing extremely much, so we were doing very well during the first quarter. During the second quarter, the situation, the shopping behavior has basically normalized. It shows in our like-for-like customer visits, which was already during the second quarter +1.3. The first half already ended on plus figures. At the same time, if we look at the average basket during the first quarter, as mentioned, it was very high. It was more on the normal level.
On the other hand, the second quarter last year, it was very high development also with growth with the average basket. We were able to improve the average basket also on the second quarter. The 6.8% of like-for-like average basket is comparable to last year's almost 10% average basket growth. Good job, I would say. Now, if we look at Tokmanni's performance compared to other players in the Finnish market based on the Finnish Grocery Trade Association's figures, Tokmanni was actually not doing as well as the other players. A little bit lower growth compared to the others. I would like to highlight the figures from the second quarter of 2020, where basically Tokmanni's growth was 19.2% and the market was performing in 3.6% growth. Slightly different setup for the figures or the growth figures for this year for Tokmanni.
That was basically the key figures for the first half of 2021 and the second quarter. As mentioned, we launched Tokmanni's new strategy by the end of March in our Capital Markets Day. The execution has started very well. We're basically talking about sources of growth, profitability, and success. I will just give you some examples, like what has been happening in each of these areas during the first half of 2021. Obviously, we have very ambitious targets for 2025, EUR 1.5 billion revenue. Obviously, we're in the beginning of the strategy period, but the revenue and EBIT growth as planned at the moment. As mentioned, it's been positive effects due to pandemic for the retail sector as well as for Tokmanni. Obviously, we cannot base our strategy targets on the pandemic.
That's why we've been working very actively on our strategy action points to make sure that the growth will continue during the coming years. Basically, the revenue growth is also one of the reasons to get a very good growth with our EBIT level. This is going as planned, but mainly we're focusing on action points, for example of our store network, which is growing after a little bit, let's say, more silent time during this pandemic. The target is to have more than 220 stores in Finland in 2025. By the end of June, we had 191 stores. Next week, we're basically acquiring two stores in the northern part of Finland. These two stores will be in our store network from the beginning of August.
In the middle of August, we're opening a new store in Finland's popular summer house region in the southern part of Finland. Basically in the middle of August, we'll have already 194 stores and two more store openings for 2021. Anyway, the store network growth is going according to the plan. We mentioned that we will start developing a new large store concept. Basically with the help of this acquisition, we are basically acquiring a store in Tornio, which is in the north part of Finland on the border of Finland and Sweden. There is actually a twin city, Tornio in Finland and Haparanda in Sweden, and basically this store is located only 1 km or 2 km from the border. It will be the largest store for Tokmanni at the moment.
It's more than 10,000 sq m, and we're basically able to jumpstart the concept building through this store. Obviously, we were saying that the new large store concept will be in bigger cities in Finland. Tornio-Haparanda is not exactly a big city, even though it's a twin city. Anyway, this gives us the opportunity to start developing this large store concept very quickly. At the same time, we're expanding the assortment. We said that in our strategy that we will double the assortment. Basically doubling the assortment as a channel we're using our online store and it's performing very well and we're very happy with this. Actually the assortment or the sales through our online channel are clearly different from our stores. At the same time, the acquisition of these stores from northern part of Finland, they're called TEX. They're also discounters.
They offer us a potential for new categories and products. There are tens of thousands of new products which are potential for Tokmanni. Basically already next week we can start testing and making the analysis like which one of those products could be in the whole Tokmanni store network or online assortment. This is also proceeding very well. As mentioned about the online sales, it's growing, and one of the most important things it's also profitable business for Tokmanni. During this first half, it was 68% growth. During the second quarter, it was only 2% of the total sale. It's still small, but it's growing very well. Basically, the unit price on the products which are sold in our online stores is clearly higher compared to the store sales, which is basically working very well for us. It's a very good service for our customers.
If we talk about the sources of profitability, obviously direct imports and private labels are the most important elements over here. Well, most important or let's say very important elements for the profitability. During the first half of this year, the sales have been both for direct imports and brands managed by Tokmanni. They've been both growing as planned. Very good development on this one as well. Mainly, of course, or especially with own brands, direct imports, it's apparel which is now being on a positive side. I already mentioned about the shelf availability. It has been improving. It's very important also for our profitability and I think it was already by the end of 2019 when we mentioned that we will start improving the efficiency of our supply chain.
To be honest, during the last 18 months, there's been a lot of external issues which have been causing problems for an efficient supply chain, starting from, basically due to pandemic, but different kinds of issues affecting or causing problems for our supply chain. I would say that at the moment we have been able to restart the action points which will basically improve the efficiency with the supply chain. If we talk about sources of success, we also mentioned during the CMD that we will launch the Tokmanni's loyalty program during 2021. Actually, the testing period is currently going on and hopefully during the coming weeks we are able to inform when we're launching this loyalty program. Obviously, loyalty program gives us a tool to basically reward our best customers, the so-called Tokmanni fans.
At the same time, the loyalty program will bring us extremely important customer information. Also with sustainability work, there's good progress going on. We basically said that Tokmanni's own operations will be carbon neutral by the end of 2025, and all the action points are basically working to reach this target and the work is on a good process. We also said that the cotton that we're sourcing will be 100% sustainable by the end of 2024. A big part of the cotton is already sustainably sourced, but it's going to be 100% by the end of 2024. Last, but definitely not least for our sources of success is the more than 4,000 Tokmanni people working for Tokmanni. We basically said that we, or we have been saying this for now already several years that Tokmanni will be the best place to work in retail.
It's all about the leadership, training, compensation, well-being and joint values for more than 4,000 Tokmanni people. At this point, I would definitely like to thank our fantastic people, both here in Finland and in China for the great work during the first half. Let's continue the success story also during the second half of 2021. Thank you. Now it's time for the key figures for the second quarter and first half. Markku will come and present these.
Okay. Thank you.
Please, Markku, go ahead.
Okay. Thank you, Mika. Hi to everyone from my side also. Let's go a little bit deeply for the figures. Mika already mentioned a couple figures there, and let's look, as said, a little bit deeper here. Last year, 2020, especially second quarter 2020, was an exceptional development. Therefore, I have picked up in some points also the three years development, looking a little bit longer time period to see how the development has gone and are we going to the right direction, not just looking the two years development. I think that gives a little bit better picture about the development. Okay, let's start. About the revenue, here you see the graph on the right side.
If you look the graph, there are the quarters on the left side, these three bars which is the asset quarters, and the right-hand side are the half year development. As you see, when we are looking the second quarter, the development from 2019 up to 2020 was very strong, and we are happy to achieve now 2021 roughly 5% development to our revenue. Why we achieved this development is that when we are looking our sales performance, it's clear that, as Mika already said, that we had a better shelf availability and that really supported our sales.
Looking the product mix, what we have there, we were able to sell different kind of products in wide specs and especially in garden we continued the nice success, but also happy to see that the apparel recovered from the year 2020 when we had in Q2 very difficult time for apparel sales. About the gross profit and the gross margin. If we look this quarter two figures in gross margin, we are seeing that there are development from 2019, 35.2%. We went down during 2020, 34.5%, now back to over 35%, 35.1%. It's clear that the product mix is impacting to these gross margin percentages. Now during the Q2 2021, we were about more normal sales mix when we are looking what kind of products we sold.
Of course, if we look what kind of product mix we have, it affects also what is the proportion of direct imports and private labels. If we look the half year's number, we can see that we are now on right track from 33.4% in 2019 up to 34.2% now in 2021 half year time. As said, the big effect to our gross margin is when we are looking our direct import share and what is the share of product labels managed by Tokmanni. These product labels managed by Tokmanni includes our private labels, it includes white labels, and also it includes the brands where Tokmanni has exclusive rights. Direct import Q2 from 25.1% up to 26.5%. That's very good development. Also looking the half year's development, it has gone to the right direction.
Private labels or product labels managed by Tokmanni, it has been a bit more interesting development when we are looking the different quarters. Here is not the 2019 figures, but quarter two 2019 figures, but if we look that one, it is roughly 32%. We went down during 2020 to 31.4%, and now clearly over 2019 figures, up to 33.1%. As said, of course, the product mix affects these figures. Operating expenses, and this is interesting part because, of course, when I am looking these figures, we can see that the development when we are looking what is the ratio operating expenses against the revenue. It didn't develop during Q2 2021 well compared to 2020 figures. We went up to 19.2% from a figure 18.5%.
Of course, now trying to look a little bit longer period how it has developed and analyze what are the reasons why we ended up to 19.2%. The biggest reason were the personal expenses, which is part of this operating expenses. Personal expenses were 11.8%, and last year, Q2, it was 11.1%. Increase of 0.7%, which is mostly the explanation why the total operating expenses ratio went to 19.2%. Looking a bit more detailed, these personal expenses, there are different kind of reasons why they were on higher level compared to last year. First one, we invested in shelf availability and commercial setup in stores. That was the decision what we made because when we look last year's Q2, it's clear that we had, for example, some opening hours, which was less in some stores.
Also we noted that our shelf availability was last year on lower level, and we wanted to have it on a higher level, and that's why we invested more working hours to our stores. That was the decision what we made. I think so that we got it better shelf availability, and we got it good revenue. Basically that was a good investment. Other reasons, of course, when we are looking euro-wise, when volume is increasing, it means normally that we have to use more hours, and that of course affected to euro amounts, but of course not to this relative figure. Two points from, I would say, I don't know it's the right word, but legal point of view. First of all, our employee salaries were raised at the beginning of April 2021 by 1.3%, and that affected in euro-wise roughly EUR 0.5 million.
Going back again to Q2 2020, we had at that time the reduction of our pension payments, and we didn't have it during this year. Last year it was made due to the corona pandemic, and that was the legal decision. Now during Q2 2021, we didn't have it, and that affected roughly EUR 0.9 million. When we are calculating together with EUR 0.9 million and EUR 0.5 million, it's EUR 1.4 million, which is roughly a little bit under 0.5%, which explains quite a big part of this increase of 0.7%. The rest, as said, it was our investment decision to increase our personal and working hours in our stores. Looking a little bit this graph, we are seeing that when we are looking the quarters that starting this four years period time, starting from 2018 Q2, we were level of 22.8% coming down to 21.5%.
Last year, the drop was very drastic and of course very good, but drastic and big down to 18.5%. Now during this year, 19.2%. Of course, looking a little bit longer period, it seems to be that we are going to the right direction here, and we are continuing to our work to improve this ratio in the future. We are on the right track in any case. If we look the half year's development, looking 2021 half year compared to last year, we were at the same level on 20.9%. Okay. It's of course comparable EBIT, which is ending up from the revenue margin and of course expenses. Looking the quarter development, I'm happy we were ended up to the same level when last year when we are looking percentages, so 10.7%.
If we look the 2019 figure, it was at the level of 7.8%. We have achieved a higher ratio here. Of course, that means that our euro-wise EBIT increased due to the increase of revenue. We ended up to 32.3% compared last year, EUR 30.6 million. Good thing when we are looking the half year's development and looking how the EBIT percentage has developed, it has started from 3.9% in 2019, steadily going upwards to 6.4%, and this year 7.4%. If we look where we are standing now after six months 2021, we are EUR 39.1 million, which is roughly EUR 8 million ahead last year, six months' situation. Balance sheet, financing, cash flow. Mika already mentioned a couple words about our inventories. Again, looking the three years development time.
Last year compared to 2019, the increase, even the revenue was increasing very heavily, was quite small. This year we went up more, basically EUR 25 million to up to EUR 255 million compared to last year's roughly EUR 230 million. Of course, trying to again analyze is this good or bad? This is basically supporting again the shelf availability. We had a higher inventory amount, but this increase of inventories is now located in our stores. In our central warehouse in Mäntsälä, the value of inventories was roughly at the same level than it was 2020. That's of course good because we have now a good shelf availability and products in our stores. Of course, cash flow and lower level due to the development of our inventories. Looking the interest-bearing debts, total debts, we are on a lower level, roughly EUR 385 million.
Last year's EUR 420 million, so nice decrease on that total amount, and that's coming from our lease liability decrease. Lease liability amount decrease. Looking the so-called normal liabilities, interest-bearing liabilities, they are still on the same level, on the level of EUR 100 million. Good development on net debt to EBITDA figure. Now 2.0 compared to last year, 2.5. What we have said in our long-term targets, that it should be on the level of under 3.2, which of course means that compared that figure to 2.0, there are good space for us. Return on capital employed at 12 months rolling, nice development up to 18.2%. About the net capital expenditures, so basically investments. If we look the figures, we are seeing that after six months, we are roughly on the level of last year's, basically on EUR 6 million.
When we are looking the second half of 2021, we are expecting that we are making a bit more investments during this year compared to last year. The total figure last year was EUR 12.8 million, and now we are targeting to be at the level of EUR 16 million-EUR 18 million when we are speaking about the investments. About the investments to logistics center, we published that we are trying to, or we are clarifying possible investments into our logistics center here in Mäntsälä. It's of course big investments, and our feasibility studies and negotiations still continues. It's at this stage still open issue, and we will come back to that issue later on. Okay. Thank you. That about my side about these figures and our explanations and clarifications. Now I give the speech back to Mika. Thank you.
Thank you, Markku, for the very good analysis. Based on these first half figures, we have been revising the outlook for 2021. Basically, at the moment, we're forecasting revenue growth instead of slight growth for 2021. We are also forecasting basically the profitability in euros to improve and to be EUR 105 million-EUR 115 million compared to the previous guidance of the same level as last year group profitability. Last year it was EUR 100 million approximately. We've revised this, and at this point, I'd just like to point out that in 2020, the third and fourth quarter was basically representing approximately 70% of Tokmanni's profit EBIT. Obviously we have been very careful with this guidance and still only yesterday evening we were thinking about this, how to deal with it, because of course the market situation is also still a little bit unstable.
At the moment, as mentioned, we've revised the outlook for 2021. I think this one will be the result presentation. Thank you very much. Operator, now it's time for questions, and I would also like to invite Markku to join me to answer the questions. Please go ahead.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please pre ss zero one on your telephone keypad. If you do wish to cancel a question, you can do so by pressing zero two to cancel. There will be a brief pause while questions are being registered. Okay, it seems like we have one question from Nicklas Skogman from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead, your line is open.
Yes, good morning. I have a couple of questions. Looking at this sales development, which I think was very strong. It looks like it's the average basket size that's basically continuing to be on a very high level. Last year that development was explained by this behavior where people consolidated their shopping trips. They went to fewer places, but they bought more stuff where they actually went. This year, is that still explaining that this metric doesn't drop off more? What do you think is explaining that basically your average basket has now moved up EUR 2.5 or something compared to pre-pandemic?
Well, I think that let's say the economic situation for Finnish consumers, it's actually quite good at the moment. Now there are no money being spent on the services, basically restaurants, hotels, trips abroad, things like this. We can see that, as mentioned in the beginning of this result presentation, several product groups were performing well. It gives us the feeling that customers are also like the shopping behavior is that they also like using money. It's not only to buy as little as possible, but there is a capacity to also to buy more because the economic situation for Finnish consumers is very good, and the customer or consumer confidence is also on a very high level.
Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm assuming this loyalty program that will be launched is hopefully going to sort of prevent that from unwinding once the economy fully opens up. What sort of strategic initiatives do you plan on the back of the loyalty card launch?
Well, for the future, for this strate gy period, for Tokmanni, it's very important to start collecting customer data and because it's also for our forecasting, it's extremely important that we understand a lot more about on the shopping habits on the products, on everything that has to do with the customer data. It gives us more background information for forecasting and also with our sourcing and buying activities. It's very important. If we look at even the store concepts, we already can see now that the stores which are located in the shopping malls compared to the ones which are on the countryside, it's like a different assortment which are working in these stores. The information is extremely important for us. That's probably one of the key drivers for the loyalty program.
At the same time, as mentioned, we can see that there are all the time a bigger crowd of Tokmanni fans. Obviously we'd like to take a good grip on the Tokmanni fans by rewarding them in very nice ways.
Yep. All right. Will it be fully launched by the end of the year, this loyalty card?
Yes.
Yep. Okay. Good stuff. Finally, for now at least, on freight rates and general cost inflation, what are you seeing for H2 in terms of price inflation on products? Is that something maybe that will be more of a H1 next year issue? Basically, what sort of impact are you seeing from the freight rates and the cost inflation?
Well, first of all, it's very clear that there will be price inflation to start with because of the higher freight costs. Well, or actually even if we start from earlier stages, the higher prices for raw materials, the higher freight costs and things like this. There will definitely be price inflation, or we'll see elements of price inflation. We're very happy about our first half of this year. We didn't have only a couple of new, a little bit higher prices. As a discounter, it's extremely important to be the last one to raise your prices. We were able to do that but still with a higher gross margin level. Yes, there definitely will be price inflation. There is no way with some of the raw materials, they will definitely be so much more expensive that we will see that.
It's very difficult to estimate exactly how it is. We also need to see the market situation. Our aim is to be the last one to raise the prices, obviously, as a discounter. We're following all those 600 stores in Finland every week to see what's going to be happening in the market.
Okay. So far it seems like everyone is pushing these prices through to the customers.
Yes. Some key products, there are already clear changes. For example, now when it's the summertime in the Nordics, as you know, and the barbecue time is also very important. For example the liquid gas, for example, it's a completely different price level at the moment. It's a big product for Tokmanni and in the market as well. There we've seen already higher prices for everybody. We were, by the way, the last one in Finland to raise the prices.
Okay. When will the bulk of this price inflation and freight costs, when do you think that is going to start hitting the retail level?
Sorry. The Sorry.
The bulk, so the majority. I guess you've already seen a bit of it now, but I also assume there's going to be more and more in H2. When is it in Q3 already, or is it mostly a Q4 thing, or?
There will be already during the Q3 there will be. Price inflation we can already see clear outcomes of the price inflation. For Tokmanni, it's a little bit depending on our product groups. For example, for apparel. There won't be a price inflation for apparel. I don't think that there will be a price inflation at all. There are no clear reasons in raw materials, maybe a little bit on the freight costs, but that's very, very, very small for apparel. Yeah, on some products, for example, in DIY, we probably will see a price inflation during the third quarter and definitely during the fourth quarter.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We have no more questions from the line. I'll hand it back to our speakers.
Okay. This was the presentation. We wish you all a very good continuation of the summertime. We'll be meeting you next time in October. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you.