Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this Q1 Webcast with the management of Elektroimportøren AS. Andreas Niss, CEO, and Petter Bjørnstad, CFO. The floor is yours when you're ready.
Thank you very much, Kjersti, and good morning. We will take you through a short presentation of our first quarter results, and I'll give you an update on the operational part of the business, and Petter give you a bit more insight in the financials. We close off with what we think will come in the second quarter. On the operational side, we have, as you might know, finalized our acquisition of EL-Butikk. We did so on the 3rd of March, and we must say that we think that the integration have started well. Starting to get to know our new colleagues and their way of working and starting some of our own implementation. So far so good.
For the first time in two years, we held a physical store manager gathering. This is something we usually do at least two times a year. It was very nice to get to meet all our store managers again. We spent two full days together focusing on customer service, sales management, and cost control. In January, we opened our store number 26, this time in Kristiansund. This is actually a temporary establishment where we will move to other locations in Kristiansund within the next 18 months. We got an opportunity to move in already now, which we took, and so far the store has been well received. We have started up, actually a few months ago, a pro...
A replenishment project, where we have bought a system called RELEX, which will help us to become even better when it comes to replenishment, so availability in our stores, and space management. We expect this project to be finalized at the end of the year. You will see in the balance sheet that our inventories have gone up, and the main reason for that is that we have stocked more Namron products than we usually do. This is to secure the availability for the coming three to four months. As you might know, there's some uncertainty in the freight market, so we're happy to build some stocks of the really important products for us. A bit more information on EL-Butikk.
Q1 sales was at 34.3, slightly down from last year, which was 35.8. In our figures in the quarterly results, EL-Butikk numbers are included from the 3rd of March, which then adds NOK 10.9 million in sales and NOK 0.9 million in EBITDA. January was the most challenging month for EL-Butikk and has gone better in February, March. We have started slowly in Q1, the introduction of Namron products at EL-Butikk, so very excited to see how that will go throughout the year. We are searching for new logistic facilities. The facilities that we have today are too small and are not set up for handling stores, so we are now actively looking for new supply chain setup, and store locations.
I think we will be able to sign the first stores in the coming quarter, or in this quarter, actually. We will see if it's possible to get them up and running before New Year's. Hopefully so, but finding the right location is more important than opening it in October or February. That's how we see it. The right location is most of the most importance. We are starting to set up new ways of working with our colleagues, and we are hiring key management employees. Actually, last week we hired a new managing director for Sweden, who will start quite soon. We would like to address the fact that we are doing some long-term investments in both people, stores, and logistics, and those will be made throughout 2022.
This is of course totally necessary for us to be able to start the journey that we are onto in Sweden. Electric vehicle chargers, just a little update on that. We continue to grow. Fantastic growth, actually. 64% growth in the quarter. Adding that on 185% growth last year. We have a good supply of chargers. I've seen that some of the producers have had some challenges with components. We have not seen that yet and do not foresee any major delivery disruptions in this category. T he Easee chargers remains our top seller, but we do widen our assortment to also offer our customers different kind of chargers.
10% of the chargers sold in the quarter were sold through SpotOn, so with our installation service, and we're quite happy with that development. A bit more on the Namron. The Namron share of business continue to be good. It's at 32.5% in Q1, and that's despite not being part of the growth in EV chargers. We have increased the inventory, as I said, to secure our availability, and we have a continuous loop of new products coming in and development in all major categories. We have some good product launches coming in Q2 and the rest of the year, and we have extended the team with a new product development manager. Namron is looking good at the moment. SpotOn, very happy with the development in SpotOn.
We had more than 700 installations also in Q1, which is on a similar level as in Q4. That gives us a growth from NOK 1.6 million last year to NOK 6.1 million in the last quarter, which we're happy with. We continue to develop the offer, and we continue to do joint marketing activities with Easee. It's being very well received by our customers. We think we're really onto something good here. We have also increased the number of installation partners to make the service available for even more customers. To sum up the key financials for the quarter, the revenue ended at just about NOK 367 million, which is up 6.3% from last year. Like-for-like sales was reduced with 1.2%.
The online share of business is 14.9%, and that's including sales from EL-Butikk. It's 12.3% if we exclude EL-Butikk, which is down, like, 2% from last year. Last year, the online share of business was very, very high, and now it's because of COVID restrictions not being there anymore, the brick-and-mortar stores are taking more of the sales back. B2B sales continue to be good with 16% growth. While we haven't been able to grow B2C sales, it's down 3% in the quarter. B2B share of business is 51.6%, so up almost 4% from last year, just about, just over 4% from last year. Electric vehicle chargers, as I said, continue to increase. Total sales in the quarter was NOK 41 million, up from NOK 25 million. SpotOn continues, NOK 6.1 million in sales.
Gross margin ended at 37.3%, which is the same level as Q1 2021. Given the shift that we see to more B2B than B2C, and then we have some pressure on freight. We have some high freight rates decreasing our margins. The fact that EV chargers is still growing that much, we're actually quite happy to be able to deliver a gross margin percentage on the same level as last year. That gives us an adjusted EBITDA of NOK 43.9 million, which is down almost NOK 2 million from last year, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 12%, which was 13.2% last year. Petter.
Thank you. First of all, I would like to say that in the annual accounts for 2021, we reported according to IFRS, which was the first time, and this report also reflects the accounting policies that we had in the annual accounts. Also accordingly, we have also changed the comparable figures for last quarter. If we look at the revenue bridge going from this quarter, we report NOK 367 million. Last year, we had NOK 346 million. Physical stores, excluding SpotOn, increased with NOK 1 million. We have decreased in online, also shifting a lot from online to B2 to the physical stores in the quarter down NOK 7 million. There are new stores. We opened, we have Jessheim.
We have a new store in Stavanger, and we opened Kristiansund in January. These stores we did not have last year, so they contributed around NOK 15 million. Then, EL-Butikk, for the first time, included from the acquisition date, 3rd of March, with just below NOK 11 million. Also, we have a very good development on SpotOn, an increase with around NOK 5 million from last year. That's the revenue bridge from last year to this year. If we look at the gross margin, we are at the same level as last year. As Andreas pointed out, there are some different drivers underneath. We have a positive development on Namron, which is a positive contributor. Of course, when we increase customer mix, we increase the B2B sales.
We sell more of the EV chargers and also the freight cost element. It's putting pressure on the margin. If you look at Norway, we are a little bit higher than last year, 0.3%. On the total, including EL-Butikk, we are at the same level. If you look at the OpEx, we report NOK 93 million total in OpEx this quarter. We had NOK 83 million last year. Of course, the three stores we did not have last year, so the personnel cost and other costs in these stores is around NOK 4 million. EL-Butikk, we did not have last year. They are around NOK 2 million in cost. We also see that we have higher energy costs in the stores, in the central warehouse, and also in the head office with around NOK 1 million.
We have some somewhat higher cost on the SpotOn, increasing from NOK 1.6 million to NOK 6.1 million in sales, and other cost NOK 2 million. That gives us the adjusted EBITDA NOK 2 million down from last year. Physical stores is NOK 1 million down from last year, mainly due to some higher costs. Online they're down NOK 3 million. New stores, very good. They're contributing in a positive way in the first quarter when they are having figures. EL-Butikk, positive figure. Then we have some other costs on head office and distribution with and marketing with NOK 2 million. That gives us NOK 44 million as adjusted EBITDA. Then we have some transactions cost lying as adjustments with around NOK 1.2 million. That's only transactions cost related to acquisition of EL-Butikk.
Yeah. We think that the trend that we've seen for the last quarters will continue more or less. We do expect some moderately higher growth in Q2. Last year, June was really good for us, so that's where we have the toughest comparables in Q2, but April, May, we think we should be able to outgrow. Cost of freight, shift in share business to B2B, growth in EV chargers, as I mentioned, all these three, they put pressure on our gross margin percentage, and so the importance to balance growth and gross margin will be very, very important in the quarter to come, probably also in Q3 and Q4.
So far I think we've balanced this quite good, and we'll continue to do our utmost to keep gross margins at a healthy level as we grow. Some uncertainty around availability of products, but as we've said, we have stocked Namron products to have a good supply and availability for the coming months, so we do not foresee any major challenges there, and actually not for other product categories either. The integration with the Swedish operation continues, and as we said, we need to do some investments this year. But we're very happy with how things have started, and we just look forward to really get our hands around EL-Butikk and start opening stores.
That's what we had, now we open up for questions, if there are some. I don't know if Kjersti said it, but you would have to type your questions in the chat, or actually where you have the Q&A button, because we cannot hear you. Here comes a question. Margin seems relatively strong given a rather difficult environment currently. How do you believe will sourcing and shipping costs develop during the remainder of 2022? How will that impact margins according to your estimates? Well, my guess is probably as good as yours in terms of where will shipping and sourcing costs go throughout the year. My belief is that the levels that we see now is probably where they will be for quite some time, maybe even higher.
In terms of our estimates, we expect freight costs to be at the current levels.
Probably have sold some older products with a little bit lower freight cost element in the cost price. I think there'll be a maybe a little more pressure on so the freight costs will have a bigger element impact on margin. On the other side, I think we'll see positive effects on Namron with new product.
Yeah
launch and so on. Yeah.
Second one I think is for you, Petter. Do you plan to reduce leverage during the coming year and beyond?
That's a difficult question because I think we will have to look into that and see how Sweden develops, I think.
Mm.
I think it's hard to give a very precise answer on that.
Yeah. Any other questions? Well, if there are no more questions, we thank you for attending. Oh, there comes another question. Put my glasses on again. Herkules seems to have sold their remaining shareholding in 2022, while Aeternum has increased their ownership. How do you view Herkules exiting and Aeternum increasing their ownership? Well, Herkules exiting was not a surprise. I mean, that is not the kind of business that they do. They don't usually own listed companies. Aeternum as a really solid player in the market, and they also have a representative in our board of directors. We are very happy with it, and it was no surprise that Herkules went out and having Aeternum picking up even a larger share is, yeah, something that we see as positive. I'll try again.
If there are no further questions, we'll thank you very much for joining us today and of course all the information is found on our website, and we'll also have two more sessions actually, one in English and one in Norwegian, later today. If you want to attend that, you can contact Kjersti at ABG. I think we say that's it, Kjersti, if there's no more.
Yep.
Yeah.
Thank you. No further questions, and yeah, please get in touch if you wanna attend the group lunch or virtual presentation. Thank you so much.
Sure. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.