Hello, everyone. Welcome to Mavi webcast regarding the financial results for the Q1 of 2023. Our CEO, Cüneyt Yavuz, will be presenting the results, followed by a Q&A session. We would like to inform you that this presentation is being recorded, and we kindly ask you to keep your microphones muted throughout the presentation. Now I will leave the floor to Cüneyt Yavuz.
Thank you, Duygu. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our webcast for the financial results of the Q1 of 2023. I would like to take a few minutes to elaborate on the general trading environment in the quarter. Following a very successful year, 2023 started off with a strong quarter, both operationally and financially. Our spring/summer collection was well received by consumers, hence the solid top-line growth was driven both by price and volume. Almost all product categories continued to grow in number of pieces for both men and women. Our strong brand strategy, demand creating newness, supported by a dynamic price planning, helped to offset part of the significant product cost inflation experienced this quarter. We continued to focus on excelling at dynamic supply chain management, flexible and responsive pack planning, and efficient inventory management.
As a result, we achieved a relatively strong gross margin performance for a seasonally softer Q1 . Through effective cost management, supported by the strong sales performance, we delivered 170 basis points improvement in OpEx to sales ratio in the Q1 of 2023. With continued operational cash generation, our net cash position increased to TRY 1, 896,000,000 . In Turkey retail, February was marked by the devastating earthquake that impacted 11 provinces in Turkey. Recall that we had ceased operations in 32 points of sales after the disaster. As of today, five stores remain temporarily closed, with one being permanently closed. Consumer demand returned to its robust levels after March, amid high inflation. The Eid Holiday season moved from May last year impacting the quarter sales.
With the right product, right price, high quality strategy, we continued to grow sales volumes in jeans, women, and men lifestyle categories in Turkey. International sales recorded 12% constant currency growth in Q1 2023, despite an economic slowdown in some of our markets. International sales and margins were pressured this quarter as currency levels remained relatively stable. Online sales growth was mostly driven by mavi.com performance in Turkey and the positive marketplace performance in the international markets. Let's look at the key highlights for the period. Let's move on to slide six. Our consolidated sales in the Q1 realized TRY 3,947,000,000 growing 109% year-on-year. Turkey retail sales grew 119%, and Turkey online sales grew 82%.
Our EBITDA realized TRY 911,000,000 , resulting in an EBITDA margin of 23.1%. Our net income, growing 71%, reached TRY 515,000,000 . In Turkey, we acquired 282,000 new customers in the first three months of the year. Number of active Kartuş card members in Turkey, for the first time, exceeded 6 million. Moving on to review our channel performance. In Turkey, the inflationary environment continued to drive consumers to shop, and we start to make sure we have the newness and variety at the right price to respond to this demand and remain consumers' brand of choice. Recall that Eid Holiday moved from Q2 last year to Q1 this year, further positively impacting Q1 sales.
Our sales in Turkey grew 124% in the quarter, with Turkey retail growing 119%. The wholesale growth of 170% is mostly related to low base. We continue to witness some softness in demand internationally, especially in Europe. Total international revenue grew 12% in constant currency and 50% in TL terms in Q1 2023. Retail and direct-to-consumer online channels were the drivers of growth internationally. With the continued robust performance, 86% of total consolidated revenue was generated in Turkey in the Q1 . Let's focus on Turkey retail business. Growing retail is still at the heart of our business strategy in Turkey, despite the slowdown of store openings in the recent years.
We will continue to expand current stores in square meters, grow our product offering, while constantly taking new actions to make sure that consumers have a great shopping experience. Having said that, in the Q1 , we opened two new stores, closed three stores, to close the period with 328 own operated stores, 167,000 sq m of selling space in Turkey, with an average store size of 510 square meters . On slide 11, let's elaborate on the like-for-like store performance. Traffic growth of 19% in Q1, 2023, displays continued strong consumer demand, including the positive impact of Eid Holiday moving to April. In the quarter, like-for-like sales grew 124%, driven by 94% basket size growth and 15.4% transaction growth.
Basket size growth was enabled not only by the dynamic pricing strategy, but also the newness-driven right product mix. As Mavi management, we always review the success of our growth figures, especially in these days of high inflation, with actual volume growth in number of pieces sold. 12% volume growth was achieved in Q1 2023. This is in line with Mavi's growth targets. Moving on to slide 12, to review category-based developments in Turkey retail. We continue to trace strong growth across our product categories. Almost all categories also delivered growth in number of pieces, as stated earlier. Both denim and non-denim businesses grew 120% in Turkey, with denim constituting 45% of total Turkey retail sales in Q1 2023.
Denim's weight in sales is higher in the Q1 compared to the 39% in full year 2022, due to seasonality, as spring lifestyle products are relatively smaller ticket items, and holiday season sales include more denim products. We are constantly following changing consumer preferences and enriching our product range, especially in casual lifestyle categories. Knits business, constituting of T-shirts, sweatshirt, and jersey offerings, grew 117% year-on-year, and make up 25% of our retail sales in Turkey. Capitalizing on the same trend, our new category, non-denim bottoms, grew 141%. Jackets, being one of our focus categories in the recent quarters, continued its strong momentum and grew 173% in Q1 2023. Accessories grew 105%, shorts grew 100% this quarter. In the next section, let's review our online sales performance.
Our direct-to-consumer online sales are made up of mavi.com and marketplace sales that are reported under e-commerce channel. In these charts, we review the total online sales of Mavi, including the sales to third-party digital platforms to which we wholesale. In the Q1 of 2023, our direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales share in total consolidated revenue is 10%, whereas including the wholesale e-com, total online sales is 11.4% of total consolidated revenue. Online sales in Turkey consists of only direct-to-consumer channels and grew 82%, driven by the 115% growth of our own website, mavi.com. Marketplace performance varies among platforms. There are some platforms growing aggressively and some that are cutting down on marketing spend, hence performing softer. Online sales now constitute 8.3% of total Turkey sales.
International online business grew 56% in the Q1 , largely driven by direct-to-consumer channels and constitute 30% of total international sales. With retail being a significant channel for the consumer, especially in a Turkey context, omni-channel capabilities are becoming more important for future growth and in improving the shopping experience for consumers. Mavi will continue to invest in digitalization and CRM projects that support omni-channel growth and make sure online business continues to be a positive contributor to margins. Let's move on to review our consolidated financial results. On slide 16, we review our gross margin performance. Recall that in 2022, the higher product cost started kicking in in the H2 of the year. In the Q1 of 2023, there was significant product cost inflation due to low base.
With the exchange rates remaining relatively stable, we are also witnessing deterioration in international gross margins in the last three quarters. Meeting high consumer demand with newness, variety, and the right product price positioning supported cost mitigation. The gross margin decline of 670 basis points should be considered a normalization from the extraordinary base, and we view the 49.7% growth gross margin as a seasonally strong performance, given the macroeconomic conditions. On slide 17, we review our EBITDA and bottom line performance. The significant OpEx inflation in the Q1 was again leveraged by the strong top-line growth. We continue to deliver improvements in our rent ratios and our central operating expenses. Total OpEx to sales ratio improved 170 basis points year-on-year.
Our EBITDA, excluding the IFRS 16 adjustments, grew 66% year-over-year, resulting with an EBITDA margin of 19.6%. EBITDA margin, including IFRS 16, realized 23.1% in the Q1 of 2023. Thanks to our net cash position, the increase in net financial expenses were limited, and hence the operational performance was mainly reflected to our bottom line. Our net income increased 71% to TRY 515,000,000 and net income margin realized at 13.1% in the quarter. On slide 18, we look into our operational cash flow and working capital performance. Operational cash conversion is relatively lower in the Q1 due to working capital requirements.
This is in part due to seasonality of the quarter, is also the result of the increasing cost of inventory and the initiatives taken to mitigate product cost pressures, such as cash payments, early booking, advanced payments for raw materials, and so forth. The 447% year-on-year increase in inventory level at the end of April 2023, is largely driven by 107% product cost inflation year-on-year. Inventory number of pieces in Turkey is 27% higher compared to an extraordinary low base of Q1 2022, in line with business plans and demand expectations. Inventory, as always, comprises of all fresh spring/summer season products. Let's now move on to the next slide. We spent TRY 86,000,000 in capital expenditures in the first three months, resulting in a CapEx to sales ratio of 2.2%.
On the retail side, we had few store openings and new store concept transformations taking place. Apart from retail, we have been investing predominantly on IT projects and digital investments. With positive cash generation in the Q1 , our net cash increased to TRY 1 , 896,000,000 . All of the foreign currency that you see on our consolidated reports belong to our subsidiaries, all borrowing in their respective local currencies. Hence, they do not pose a currency risk. We continue our approach of holding no foreign exchange position in our balance sheet. On the other hand, average cost of debt is increasing in Turkey. We foresee higher rates going forward. We are sharing our financial, official financial guidance for the year as promised.
For the financial year 2023, we are expecting 75%, ±5% consolidated sales growth, with net five store openings and 7 sq m expansions planned for the year. We expect an EBITDA margin of 18%, ±0.5%, excluding IFRS 16, and 22%, ±0.5%, including IFRS 16. We are foreseeing a decline in our net cash position within the year due to our plans and strategies to use cash in mitigating cost pressures, but we target to stay in the net cash territory. We are planning to spend 3% of sales as CapEx. I would also like to provide some insight on the current trading environment, as I traditionally do, to give you a flavor of how the business is running following the closure of Q1 .
We continue to see high demand for our products and a positive pricing environment as of today. Turkey retail sales in May grew 92% on a high base. That includes Eid Holiday sales. Online sales in Turkey grew 98% in May, driven by 141% growth of mavi.com. With this final positive note, I'm happy to take any questions you may have. The floor is yours.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please click on the Raise Your Hand button, which is the hand icon on your control panel. When I call your name, please open your microphone before you speak. We have a question from Jamal. Jamal, please go ahead.
Thank you for the presentation, congratulations for very good results. You always surprise us on the positive side, even in the pandemic time. Congratulations once again. My first question is about the trading updates. We see a little bit, maybe slowdown in the international sites, from the numbers. Could you just give us some color on that front? That's my first question. The second question is: Recently, Turkish lira is depreciating steeply, what should be the impact on your financial, the short-term impact on your financials? Related to that, when we look at the Turkish confectionery, you know, like or textile industry, we see some, like, shift from Turkey to other regions like Egypt, Morocco.
We have been hearing in the media that some ecosystem is moving to other countries because of less competitiveness of Turkish players. That was, you know, in the media recently because of, you know, the high inflation and low depreciation and the margin erosions. How do you see that after recent developments? Do you think that, you know, the this kind of shift will make additional pressure on the profitable of the Turkey operations? If the, you know, ecosystem moves to another country, then the producers in Turkey will be less profitable. You know, it looks like a long-term risk. I would like to understand how how is this picture from your side? Any comment on that? Thank you.
Thank you, Jamal, thanks for the encouraging words. It's always nice to hear that, hopefully, across the years, as we coming with the next quarter and the results will continue to positively surprise both ourselves and yours, you, in terms of delivering good results. Starting from the last point you made in terms of the manufacturing environment, you are very right, it's also reflected in the comments that I made. Because of the valuation of the Turkish lira, expenses going up in Turkish lira in terms of labor, energy going up, at the same time, the Turkish lira not depreciating along the sides of our international currencies, whether it's US dollars or euros. Turkey, from a manufacturing point of view, has been losing its competitiveness.
I think it's a point in time, situation, and I think this will be corrected across the board. Therefore, I would be less worried about that. Having said that, I know, and I've been doing this business for 15 years, brands and companies do move their manufacturing to make the most out of opportunities they have. You know, Turkey is one country, Egypt is another, maybe Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, and sometimes African countries, depending on the product portfolio. Big companies do move around. Having said that, I think the Turkish textile environment is quite sturdy. If I look at our own manufacturing base, which is 100+ suppliers that we operate with, they're mostly, well-positioned, financially solid companies.
We do, you know, follow up just to make sure everything is fine, their credit listings, and linings, to see if they're also in business. I think, as we can see after the elections, there has been some impact that has been taking place on the currency and devaluation. Therefore, as the Turkish lira becomes more normalized, I think there will be a more normalized trading environment, and Turkey will, hopefully, remain a more competitive place for manufacturing. Despite all this, I think whether there is this move in or move out, just from Mavi's point of view, I think we are well positioned with our suppliers to continue our business.
I think the cyclical nature of our business is, as you know, is more or less on a six-month outlook is quite firm, and there's a lot of contracts that have been signed in. Therefore, if you talk about the next six months, I mean, from today till the end of the year, covering the fall-winter period, I think Mavi, in terms of you've already placed the manufacturing, products are being produced, our plans are in place, the suppliers are up and running. Either the raw materials or the designs have been submitted. I, you know, directionally, I don't see any big hiccups coming in. Hopefully, with some correction, it will be even more competitive for the manufacturers. You're right, there has been a lot of pressure from that perspective.
For the foreseeable future, I think there will be some correction, and there will be some normalization. That's my take, at least, for the time being. Maybe the following quarter, when we get together, we can do a reassessment of this point, because it's a quite valid point. I think in terms of the depreciation situation, you know, we talked about the negative potentials of manufacturing on Turkish lira depreciation. The other side is, you know, what about cost with Mavi or any other manufacturer who's buying in US dollars or raw materials? What is Mavi's take for the future?
As you would recall, if you've been following us, I'm also sharing this for all those who might be tuning in lately, but we are always, have been across the many, many years, have been hedging against our imports and dollar exposures. If I look at where we are hedged for this year, we are pretty much covered wherever we have US dollar-based imports and costs coming in. I think, if I'm not mistaken, I mean, don't take me literally, but we have hedged more or less everything around $21 .5 so whatever imports we have. We are already more than well off in terms of what is to come, and we are more focused on pleasing the consumer, to making sure that there is a happy consumer shopping, and have.
You know, the best products and the most competitive price that is on offer. Unless there is an extraordinarily, you know, negative downturn on the market, generally speaking, you all by now know that I'm quite bullish about what Mavi can do. I am quite confident we will continue to gain share. We have a very strong, and we enjoy a very strong men's market share with number two position, and on women's, we're number three position. We're quite relatively strong and growing. I think with the product offering, the pricing, the quality, even in such, let's say, negative circumstances, I think Mavi will continue to flourish, and consumers, with their very valuable money, will choose to spend it with us.
They would rightly do so, because I think we are offering really good product for a really good price on a very timely and favorable position. In terms of the international markets, Turkey has been growing disproportionately fast, and we were typically an 80/20 kind of setup: 80% Turkey, 20% international. The international markets also themselves are growing top line. As I mentioned in my comments, Europe is the one that is sort of flat. It's only growing 1% in Q1 . North America business is growing between in US dollars, 5% ish. It's also growing. I would like it to be growing 7%-8% a bit faster. Russia is growing at around 50% year-on-year, it's doing better, much better.
Actually, you don't get to see the nitty-gritty, but generally speaking, the slowdown in Europe is being, for us, numbers are being offset by the Russia business, so that's sort of a wash within themselves. We have a rest of the world business, which is more the franchise business in the CIS countries, Balkans, Eastern Turkey, east of Turkey, Turkic republics, and Middle East, and that is growing around 27%. It's small, but growing in the right direction. Generally speaking, I would say international businesses is still growing, not in double-digit, but in a very solid single-digit, high single-digit numbers. I think this will be the case for the rest of the year.
We are also trying to be careful with this part of the business, because, as I mentioned, and as you were mentioning through the manufacturing part, the margins here are under pressure, because what we were selling at $100 is not making as much money as it used to. I think this normalization period across the next couple of months, it should come back to where it was. We did an offshoot. There were good times, there were bad times, and also in Turkey last year, there were good times and then bad times. I think we are coming into a more, in terms of financials, a more normalized known territory, across the next few months. I hope that answers any, the questions you've raised, but if you have any clarification requests, I'm more than happy to oblige.
Thank you. Thank you. It's very clear. Thank you.
Do we have any other questions?
There is one question coming from Alpesh. Go ahead, Alpesh.
Hello. I'm curious about the OpEx growth. It seems that the ratio of OpEx to sales is very low, actually, one of the lowest quarters that I've seen maybe in the last couple of years. Can you give us some details about that? Thank you.
Let me give you a flavor of how the operational costs delivered good results. On the one hand, of course, we had very strong top-line growth, which is, of course, as a percentage, positively impacting the ratio. Turkey retail on the other hand, Turkey retail stores' OpEx to revenue ratio further improved in Q1 , about 50 basis points. Mostly coming from rent and also other store expenses, which other store expenses typically, in the previous periods, included a lot of energy and cleaning-related costs, which are normalized to a certain extent. Rent, you know, I keep also sharing with you that, you know, about one third of our business is on a more rent ratio business, so more of our business, as we do better business is improving. Rents were down about 100 basis points.
Also, at the same time, employee costs increased 130 basis points due to wage increases. In terms of the headquarters, central operating expenses, we were down 40 basis points. I think, from a headquarters perspective, in terms of headcount and headcount progression, in the headquarters, we were, you know, more disciplined and continue to deliver some, you know, good measures and savings. Net-net, international also OpEx sales remained relatively stable while the sales increased. Net-net, we were able to deliver pretty good results in OpEx.
Again, if you recall, generally speaking, I've said that, you know, from a margin perspective, our company, through our digitalization efforts, big data management, consumer and customer service level analytical tools, we will continue to improve and optimize overheads, rent ratios, and also, despite a lot of the challenges, find opportunities to improve the cost of products, gross margins through better markdown optimization. These are again, areas inch by inch, step by step, we are making progress, and we continue to make progress. In this quarter, too, again, I see good improvements in this area. A lot of the headwind that's coming from inflationary pressure, cost pressure, exchange pressure, we do our best to utmost, you know, offset by good product planning, pricing.
You know, buying at the right price and selling at the right price, dynamic pricing, as well as internally making sure that, the other costs related to rent overheads are very much under control. We are quite disciplined, and actually, we work on a more annual basis, and we have pretty good insight of what will happen until the end of this year. We also have a, have a pretty good idea of what will happen next year in terms of where the organization and costs are going. Kudos to my team and their hard work to make sure that to keep the, you know, expenses under control. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Okay, it seems like there are no other questions. I would like to thank everybody for their attendance, and look forward to meeting you all in good health in the next quarterly update. All my best, and have a good summer period. Take care.