Good morning. We at SpareBank 1 Markets would like to welcome you to this first quarter result presentation with Elektroimportøren, the company represented by CEO Andreas Niss and CFO Jørgen Wist, and I'd like to hand the word to Andreas. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Trond, and thank you all for joining us this morning. As said, myself and Jørgen will take you through a short presentation of the first quarter 2024. I'll give you a trading summary and the highlights of the quarter, and Jørgen will go through the financials. We have an outlook for the coming quarters, and then we finish off with a Q&A. So, we had a rough start to the quarter with January coming in with a double-digit negative development versus last year. However, February ended better than March, better than March if we compensate for Easter, looked even better. So, a tough start but trending towards growth throughout the quarter. Sales decline in Norway is a combination of fewer visitors in January and March and slightly lower conversion rate than average basket.
Statistics from Statistisk sentralbyrå shows that home sales in Norway has a decline of 13.4% in the quarter, and this is an indicator we link to our sales development. People do refurbish in connection with moving, in and out of new homes. Easter, being in March versus April last year, equals to two lesser days of open stores. This, of course, has a negative impact on the quarter but should be equally positive in Q2. Out of our categories, heating due to a very cold January and Solar are the two categories which show growth in the quarter. Mid-March marked one year since the Easee sales ban hit us, so from now on, sales comparables on EV chargers will be significantly better than the last 12 months. Gross margins for the quarter are up from Q4 but down 1% from Q1 last year.
We have managed to keep a good cost control, throughout the quarter, and we now see last year's savings coming through with a full effect. That gives us the following result with a revenue of NOK 350 million, which is down 8.6% from NOK 383 million last year. Like-for-like sales had a decline of 10.2%. Cost is down NOK 9 million despite high inflation and the fact that we have one more store opened compared to last year. With the decline in sales, we still managed to keep our OPEX-to-sales ratio at last year levels at 27.5%. We deliver an EBITDA of NOK 24 million, down from NOK 32 million last year. We're not satisfied with the top-line development.
We do need to continue to fight for new sales to every potential customer, but at the same time, make sure that margin management and segment level at on-segment levels is on par or better than last year. Looking at Sweden, first quarter revenue of NOK 33 million, which is up NOK 6 million, 6%, NOK 2 million from last year. The sales growth in Sweden is driven by our new store. Online sales is declining. Gross margins are lower than last year, and this gives us a decline in EBITDA from -NOK 1 million last year to -NOK 3 million this year. The market environment in Sweden has continued to be rough in first quarter, but we do see some positive trends for our better store. Mainly, we are succeeding better within the electricians' market whilst we still need to do more to increase knowledge of our brand with the consumers.
We made a reduction in staff at the central warehouse and head office in March, and this will have full effect from July and onwards. Central Bank of Sweden, Riksbanken, decreased their policy rate with effect from today. Hopefully, this will lead to a bit more positive market development going forward. If we look at Namron, share of business for Namron in Q1 was 33.4% in Norway, which is up from 32.9% last year. Namron gross margin at 56.5% for the quarter. Weak NOK to US dollar makes it difficult to maintain or increase the gross margins on Namron products. We continue to focus on product development, increasing share of business in Sweden, and to penetrate business to business in Norway with our Namron brand. Namron sales in Sweden had a share of business of 8%, which is up from 2.7% in Q1 last year.
We still need to talk about EV chargers. Sales of EV chargers were down 25% in the quarter. The Swedish Elsäkerhetsverket have now lifted the potential claim of repairing the already installed chargers. We therefore see it as the risk in relation that was related to repair is now eliminated. Stock levels are normalized, and this together with the fact that it now is more than one year since the Easee sales ban hit us, we believe in a far better development in this category versus last year going forward. Solar sales of NOK 10 million in Q1, which is in line with last year. We have an order backlog of NOK 11 million at the end of March. Margins are being pressured in solar. This is due to greater availability.
Everyone has it in stock, and new products at lower cost are coming into the market, and this is mixed with a decline in consumer demand. We still believe that there is money to be made in this category, but we need to focus on sales to commercial buildings, rather than private houses and cabins. We will also change our model more to an order-on-demand model than to keep products in stock. However, we do need to sell down a major part of current stock at very low margins. Looking at SpotOn, sales in the quarter were at NOK 7 million, down from NOK 9 million last year. The sales at SpotOn continues to be slowed down due to also the decrease of sales in EV chargers. EV charger sales and installations down 49% in the quarter compared to last year.
Gross margins, however, are up 2.6% from last year. And as we have done for some time now, we continue to our discussions with external partners for a cooperation that enables other craftsman areas on SpotOn. We are in dialogue with several potential partners whom are all part of the construction market. Therefore, we do believe that market conditions would have to improve somewhat before we can sign up with a new business partner for SpotOn. Then I lead to Jørgen for the financials.
Thank you, Andreas. We start with the revenue for the quarter. Total sales in the first quarter were NOK 350 million, which is 8.6% down compared to last year. The decline was impacted by a tough start in January but improved somewhat in February, which ended just below last year. The development from February continued in March but was affected negatively by Easter in March this year compared to April last year. The Easter effect we estimate to be approximately NOK 10 million. Stores in Norway had a decline of 8.6% in the quarter. The negative development on EV charger product category, which we have seen the last year, continued in the first quarter but has stabilized with a reduction around 30% or NOK 8 million year-on-year.
From second quarter this year, we expect the sales of EV charger to increase against last year as the sales ban of Easee was implemented from end of Q1 last year. The number of visits to physical stores in Norway was slightly down compared to last year because of the Easter effect, and in addition, the hit rate and the basket is lower. This is a result of customers being more conservative in terms of their spending. Online revenue in Norway declined by 18.6% in Q1 compared to last year. The store in Elbutik contributed with NOK 7 million in the quarter, while online sales in Elbutik was NOK 25 million, which is NOK 5 million lower compared to last year. B2B sales in Sweden in the quarter are NOK 6 million. Gross profit for the quarter was NOK 121 million, down from NOK 137 million last year.
This translated into a gross margin of 34.7% compared with 35.7% last year. Overall, margins were impacted by a shift toward B2B with lower margin and FX effects. B2B margin had a negative development year-on-year due to lower margin on solar products and higher competition in the service segment. B2C increased the gross margin in Q1 compared to last year. The margin decline is also driven by a higher share of sales from Elbutik, which has a lower margin at 21.6%. In Norway, the gross margin was 36.1% compared to 36.8% last year. Increased share of B2B sales impacted margin by 0.2%, and exchange rate effects impacted the margin by 0.7%. Adjusted for these effects, gross margin would have been 37% in Norway in the quarter.
Operating expenses are reduced with NOK 9 million in the quarter compared with last year, even with general salary increase, inflation adjustments, and one new store in Sweden. The group continues to maintain a rigid cost control, and the cost reduction implemented during 2023 is coming through. OPEX ratio at 27.5%, which is in line with last year. EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 24 million, down from NOK 32 million last year. EBITDA margin was 6.8%, down from 8.2% last year. EBITDA decreased due to lower sales and gross margin, but the drop is reduced by reduction in costs with a stable OPEX-to-sales ratio. By that, I give the word back to Andreas, which will take you through the outlook.
Thank you, Jørgen. In the beginning of May, we published our first-ever sustainability report. There's still a lot to be done, in this field for us, but we see a great opportunity in guiding our customers to make informed decisions about more sustainable solutions in the future and in driving development of more sustainable products and services. So we're looking forward to this, for the year to come. Looking at the market, we still believe that market conditions will continue to be challenging. So cost and margin management will be of great importance going forward. However, we have experienced a better development in sales versus last year in the first half of the second quarter, than what we saw in Q1. So slightly positive sales development after the end of Q1 and now first half of Q2. With that, we open up for questions.
Yeah, thank you, Andreas and Jørgen. I can see we have some questions in the chat that I can read for you. First question, can you comment on the sales trend in April and May for both Norway and Sweden, please?
Yeah, well, we do not like to give you the exact numbers, in terms of trading, but as said, just now with the final remarks, trading in Q2 has had a better development versus last year than we saw in Q1. And that is also if we take into consideration the move of Easter being in April last year. So trends are a bit better, and that goes for both countries, both Sweden and Norway.
Thank you. Next question, how has EV sales been post the new decision on Easee?
EV sales has continued more or less as it's done for the last six months, in terms of how many chargers we sell every day, every week, every month. The big difference for us is obviously that when we compare sales to last year from 15th of March, 2023, 2024, we do compare ourselves to a much easier comparable than we have had so far.
Thank you. Have you concluded on your strategic review of Sweden?
No, we haven't. And that is partly due to the fact that on our general assembly that we had in 30th of April, more or less a full new board was elected. So out of five board members, there's only one left. And it will be a new session with the new board, of course, where we talk about all our strategic initiatives, Sweden being one of them.
Thank you. And then there's a question on inventory. How much inventory do you have on solar?
At the end of March, it was NOK 37 million.
38.
38 million.
Thank you. When does the new shop in Norway open in second half of 2024?
We don't have the exact date yet. If I remember correctly, it will be in the mid in the change between September and October.
Thank you. Then there's a question, and not the question here. What is driving the increase in lease liabilities?
That's mainly the new warehouse we opened in Sweden end of last year and the AutoStore being installed there.
Thank you. Question about gross margin. The gross margin has had a down trend for the last eight quarters. How do you see gross margin development for the rest of the year?
We see our aim is to keep gross margins at, on roughly last year numbers except for Q4 where we expected to be higher than we had in 2024 2023, sorry.
Okay, thank you. Could you talk about, there's another question about gross margin. Can you talk about the gross margin and Namron share of sales in your physical store in Sweden?
Well, what we can say is that, as I showed, the share of business of Namron was 8% for Sweden in the quarter. The share of business in the store is closer to 20%. So, as we see also in Norway, it's easier to convert and steer the decision of the customer when you actually get to talk to them physically and you get to show the products physically. So online, share of business is far lower in Sweden, and it takes more time to build the brand online than it does in a physical store.
It's also a fact that the B2B shares in the store is quite high, so that's affected gross margin quite, quite heavily.
Yes. So far we can say that we have had much more success in the B2B area with the Stockholm store. And on the other hand, we've struggled much more than we thought on the consumers. So yeah.
Understood. Last question is about second half. Multiple companies believe in the stronger second half of 2024. Does this relate to Elektroimportøren also? It's a positive, positive question, I guess.
Yeah, I mean, who knows? Last year, if you've asked me in, in February what I thought about EV charger sales, I would not have predicted what happened. But given the things that we see in, in Sweden, interest rates are going down. In Norway, it looks like they are flat, or at least not too many are talking about the increasing the interest rates. That is a positive, I think, because we're also getting the, the salary increases coming through now this spring. Well, I, I yes, the, the short answer is yes. I don't think it's going to be dramatic, though.
The good thing for us is that we are in a better position this year when it comes to, to OPEX, so we can, we can handle larger volumes, with less cost, which should make us more profitable second half this year than we were last year.
Yeah, great. I can't see that there are any more questions now in the Q&A function here, so, I don't know if you have any concluding remarks before we, we end the webcast.
No, not really. Just thank you, everyone, for listening in, and yeah, thank you.
Yeah, thank you to both of you. And then we'll look forward to following the company going forward as well. Any questions for the company, then I'm sure you're open to get them during the day in the next few weeks if anyone would like to contact you.
Absolutely.
Yeah, thanks so much.
Thank you, everyone.
Bye.