Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Verkkokauppa.com Q4 presentation. My name is Panu Porkka, and I'm the CEO of the company. Today, joining with me and also available for questions, CFO Mikko Forsell and investor relations manager, Marja Mäkinen. So if you have any questions during the presentation, please feel free to send them to investors@verkkokauppa.com, and the questions will be then dealt at the end of the presentation. So as typically, I will start with the operating environment, then some highlights out of the report of this morning, and also highlights from the whole fiscal. We renewed the strategy, our strategy during the last quarter, so I will have a few topics around that. And then we have our view on the market and guidance for this year, and then key takeaways and questions, if there are any.
So if you start with the market environment, the last quarter was pretty much the same that we faced during the third and the second quarter as well. So here in the Finnish market, the consumer confidence is on a record low. Consumers' confidence in their own economics is low, and this is probably, well, regarding the geopolitical intention, but I think the biggest drivers are the high inflation that has been going on throughout the year, although going slightly down, but especially the high interest rates, which are eating a big portion of the consumption at the moment. So the time is seen as really unfavorable for durable goods, for discretionary shopping, and this is impacting our market environment and the market as such. In B2B segment, which is roughly 20% of our revenue, we also see a tough, tough market.
Here in the Finnish market, there is a record high of small businesses going bankrupt, and also mid-size and even bigger companies are postponing their equipment investments, so that is impacting the total demand side. Maybe on a slightly positive note, the inflation is not on the peak level that it was last year, but still is... It is overpowering the development of salaries, for example. So if you tap into the report, I think the revenue development was decent. We got close to previous years' levels, down by just sort of 3%. Especially if you look at the segments in B2B and B2C, we were close, or we were on par to previous year. On the other hand, we lost sales in export business, which was difficult during that period of time.
The main channel, online channel, almost on par to previous year as well. Our private label, so own products, exclusive products, have been performing strong throughout the year. Also, during the peak season, growing almost by 30%. A positive sign is that in our core business in consumer electronics, in core categories, sales grew by 1.3%, and if you consider that, that GfK measured same market decreased by 5%, so it, it means that we, gained heavily market share, in these categories. On the other hand, we decided to take down some portion of our evolving categories, because they were not profitable enough, but that impacted the sales as well. So evolving categories going down almost by 30%, almost by 25%.
From the margin side, you cannot compare it to the previous year, actual figure, because that is containing a one-off write-down because of inventory. But if you look at the previous quarters, the third, second quarter, for example, so it went down slightly. The price intensity took on during the last quarter, and especially that the peak season started earlier than before, and us matching prices impacted negatively our margin development. On a positive note, if we can shift sales from A- brands to private label, we have a positive impact on the margin because the private label products typically are of a higher margin. Also negatively impacting the margin is the sales mix.
As you can see below that the share of consumer electronics of core categories has increased because they were slightly growing and the evolving categories were losing sales. The core categories, consumer electronics market, has lower margins than the other ones, so that is negatively impacting the total margin. So if you look at the whole P&L revenue, we talked about getting closer to previous year levels. Gross margin was impacted by the price intensity and the price fight. We have been quite successful in cost management. Personnel costs down by 10%. In other operating expenses, we have few components negatively impacting that or increasing the levels to previous year. Credit losses and credit loss provisions have been increasing.
We also decided to slightly increase our marketing efforts to push on the main season. Because of certain peaks during that period of time, we had to take some external work as well to help us out. So those three components impacting the total cost position. So ending up in operating profit of EUR 1.8 million and comparable operating profit of EUR 1.6 million, better than the previous year, but like I said, that is has incorporated a one-off write-down regarding inventory. Financials, few figures from our balance sheet. We have been quite successful in managing our inventory throughout the year, also during the last quarter, taking it down by 16% in a declining market. That is a good achievement. Last year was favored as an investment light year.
Not that we took any decisions to postpone or not invest in certain areas, rather than the years before, we have conducted the major investments that we need in our business. Last year, basically the only big-ticket items were renewal of our e-commerce site and data analytics capabilities. Our cash flow is from a totally different planet than it was the year before, so nice improvement there. Also, strong cash position, equity ratio slightly going up, still not on a level we want it to be, but going into the right direction. So all in all, the financials of the company is solid and strong. So if we sum up the whole year, we lost revenue by around 7%. We anticipated the first and the second quarter to be the most intense ones.
Well, it ended up that second and third quarter were the most difficult ones. During the first and the last one, we got closer to previous years' level. Gross profit slightly increasing due to high gross margin or good gross margin development, and due to our cost efficiency measures and profitability measures, we were able to have a decent development on the EBIT side, towards or in correlation with previous years' levels. Cash flow already mentioned, really nice development. So if we sum up the operations from last quarter and last year in special, we initiated a significant cost improvement program early in the year to make sure that we have a decent outcome for this year, focusing on inventory management, category management, our operations and campaigning, and so on and so on. So that yielded as expected.
We also invested in future capabilities. We renewed the site. We strengthened our service portfolio. We enlarged our fast deliveries, for example. So that's important to develop the company for long-term profit and value creation as well. And on top of that, we worked on our strategy and renewed the strategy by end of year. So a lot of things happening, although the market was not that favorable. Sustainability, I wanted to highlight. This is actually quite closely incorporated in our being, in our operations, in our values. We want to be the sustainable retailer, always on customer's side and making sure that we solve the problems rather than just sell products for a need, where the need would be maybe in a certain direction.
We have been implementing and developing our circular economy services. We have been enlarging our assortment when it comes down to reused products, for example. The thing that I'm personally proud of is our return percent. Last year, it was again on a record low, number of 0.7% of all goods sold. That is probably one of the lowest in the total market, industry low, which really states that we are selling for a cause, we are selling for a need. That's important. We have been investing in work balance. We have been investing in diversity. We have been, for example, auditing almost 100% of our private label suppliers. So a lot of work ongoing on these topics as well.
Lastly, on operations, as a reminder, we started early in the year with a significant profitability improvement program focusing on commercial and operational part of our business. Now, as we have concluded the program, we promised to have a positive impact on EBIT between EUR 5 million and EUR 8 million. Now, after calculations, the actions impacted by EUR 6 million. On the other hand, all of the profit was made throughout the program, as we have been in a declining market and also losing revenue levels. Then a few development things still. The site renewal is...
It's not just about how it looks, how it's laid out, it's rather how it can be used, how it supports purchasing decisions, the searchability, findability, how the easiness of shopping, and we have different kind of metrics to measure how the site functions, and it goes in the right direction. It's a good tool when we are accelerating the transition from offline to online. The service portfolio, like I said, been strengthened. We have almost 80,000 account customers, Verkkis account customers, really loyal customers who want to really focus their purchases towards our site and our assortment. We have been ramping up the trading service, so customer can return a used product to our site, and we refund it, and that can be then used in other purchases on our site.
The last part, which we are also proud of, we are the fastest in Finland. Everything within 60 minutes to home, something that we want to achieve. At the end of the year, we had over 20,000 active users on these fast express deliveries, so we really want to set the bar and raise the bar when it comes down to being fastness in the Finnish market. So let's go shortly into the updated strategy, which is quite focused and crisp. Our mission is to accelerate the online shift. We strongly believe that being the fastest, having the fastest fulfillment, the easiness of shopping, is one key driver from offline to online, and that's an area where we are investing heavily, and that's something we really want to exceed in the Finnish market.
We will be focusing on our curated assortment, hero assortment of 30,000 SKUs, for example, so really vouched by customers. The best possible availability, best possible product information, probably always cheaper and being delivered within 60 minutes to home door. That is the area we are focusing on, and we want to increase our private label share of that significantly from the levels that we are at the moment. On top of that, of making our core business grow and more profitable, we are seeking for additional profitability and growth streams, also outside of the Finnish market, and this all keeping in mind that we are cost-efficient.
The cost efficiency has been a key competitive advantages throughout the year, that we have been able to succeed growing the market with lower margins because of, of the cost efficiency and making sure that we can provide probably always cheaper prices. So being fastest, what does it mean? So our ambition level is that by end of strategy period, we would be having all of the major cities in Helsinki covered within these express deliveries, so roughly one hour. And also by end of strategy period, all online purchases could be delivered home, guaranteed next day. These are ambitious, but we have a clear plan, and we have been actually going into these directions already, so we are confident that we will be able to provide this to our customers.
About the additional growth, retail as a media, so utilizing our platform better is something that we have on our roadmap. Additional services, lifecycle services, for example, are on the roadmap as well. And like I said, we are open to having growth outside the Finnish borders with different kind of approaches and maybe with partnerships. So we want to have additional growth stream on top of the core business as well. And this yields in our long-term strategic targets, so we expect to have a CAGR of +5%. So regardless of the market, we want to grow faster. By end of 2028, we aim for profitability above 5% while having the cost ratio below 10% of revenue. And we want to get back on track with our quarterly growing dividend policy.
More specific, 60%-80% of our profit should be then distributed in growing quarterly dividends. As a note, the board will propose to this year's AGM that there will be no dividend to be paid out from last year's EBIT, but then after that. So how do we look and see the market develop? At that point, it is fair to say that there is no big drivers impacting it in the one or another direction. So we expect the first half to be pretty much favored the same way as last year was. The biggest impact, like I said, I, I believe, will be interest rates.
So when those will be starting to go down here in the Finnish landscape, as most of the customers have some certain kind of debt, that will positively impact the purchasing power, and that will then positively also yield in our demand. The B2B market will stay the same. Historically, B2B market has been adapting slightly slower to changes going down or up. It adapted slower when it was going down. Probably, that will recover slightly after the B2C market does. On the other hand, we are confident that we did the right things last year. We took the profitability again on the right path.
We invested in our operations so that we can gain growth and profitable growth again when the market opens up, and we are confident that we have a good, solid strategy and a roadmap to fulfill our targets. So from the financial side, what do we expect out of the upcoming year? So the first half will be difficult, will be same way probably as the last year was. The second half, then probably starting to recover. But if we combine these two, the expectations is that we will end up roughly on the same level on the revenue that we had previous year. On the other hand, regardless of the market, we will be pushing for profitability, we'll be pushing for increasing our EBIT in comparison to previous year. So that's it. Short takeaways from the whole presentation.
The last quarter was, as expected, tough. Price fight started slightly earlier, impacting our margins. We actually managed quite well when it comes down to revenue in our main segments, main channels, main categories. We outgrew the market significantly. We were able to introduce new private label, which will yield in better margins going forward, so that's a good sign. If you look at the total year, private label grew by 26%, so it was not just the last quarter, but throughout the year, nice performance. Profitability improvement program, we were early to adapt to the changing market environment, executed that thoroughly, and basically all of the EBIT was done by own actions, own hand. The market didn't help at all.
We have been already raising the bar on being the fastest, fastest fulfillment, Finland's fastest in delivery experience within 60 minutes, so that is something that we will be expanding, and we have a good, solid strategy to make us grow and profitable growth again when the market opens up. So thank you all, and I look there seem to be no questions, so thank you and have a nice day.