With that, I'll hand it over to you, Andreas.
Thank you very much, Philip, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for calling in. I will start with a short summary of Q1, then I will give you an update on key strategic areas and operational activities for the quarter. After that, Jørgen will give you some more details on the financials before we update you on events after the period and finish off with a Q&A session. We continue to grow sales and profitability in the first quarter of 2026 following the positive trend we have seen over the past seven quarters. Sales are growing evenly across customer segments and geographies, with our physical stores delivering the majority of the growth this quarter. Discipline margin management and cost control are ensuring that growth is also translating into increased profitability.
Revenue growth is driven by all main categories with EV chargers and heating as main growth categories in Q1. In Norway, growth comes from higher footfall to our stores, improved conversion rates, and larger average basket sizes. Sweden continues to deliver growth in both revenue and gross profit also in Q1. In Norway, we have opened our store number 32 in Larvik. This store got a great welcome from both private and professional consumers, strengthening our presence in the important Vestfold municipality. If you look at the financials, the group revenue ended at NOK 431 million, which is an increase of 8.8%, up from NOK 396 million last year. Like-for-like sales increased by 4.9%. Gross profit is up 10.8% from last year.
Gross margin increased to 36.7%, up 0.7% from 36% last year. Operating expenses of NOK 140 million, which is up from NOK 105 million last year. The increase is mainly driven by two new stores and general KPI adjustments. The OPEX to sales ratio at 26.4% is slightly down from 26.5% last year. EBITDA increased to NOK 38 million, up from NOK 36 million last year, and the adjusted EBITDA is NOK 44 million, up from NOK 37 million last year. Net profit ended at - NOK 5 million, which is up from -NOK 8 million last year, and the cash flow from operating activities of NOK 33 million in Q1 compared to - NOK 7 million a year ago.
Looking at customers and market development in Norway for Q1, we see that customer visits are up by 2%. The average basket have increased by 1.4%, and conversion rate in store have improved by 2.2% versus last year. For the 18th month in a row, we outperformed the market, and in the first quarter, we delivered a sales increase on EFO product groups of 9.5% compared to a market growth of 0.4%. Growth is seen in both B2B and B2C and in all three of our customer segments. Looking at Sweden and Elbutik, the positive trend continues with growth in both revenue and profit for the first quarter. Revenue increased by almost 18% in Q1 compared to Q1 last year.
Gross profit increased with 17.3% to NOK 13 million, up from NOK 11 million last year. Positive EBITDA of NOK 2 million, up from NOK 1 million last year. There are no adjustments in Sweden, so the adjusted EBITDA is also NOK 2 million, up from NOK 1 million last year. We look at the development in our key strategic growth areas for the quarter. We see that the revenue from SpotOn is up NOK 1 million from last year to NOK 10 million this year. The online platform project, which we started in January, is progressing according to plan with the Norwegian launch in the second half of 2026. Q1 growth has been driven, as said, by all three customer segments, electrical installers, business customers, and private consumers.
We continue to invest in our people and conducted sales training and store manager meetings during Q1, preparing the organizations for the priorities ahead in 2026. The private label share business continues to grow in Sweden, reaching 20.4% in Q1, up from 17.5% last year. In Norway, share of business from Namron was stable at 34.8%, which is down from 34.9% last year. Revenue growth driven by all main categories as mentioned with EV chargers and heating leading the growth in the quarter. During Q1, operations in Elbutik have been focused on recruitment and training for our new employees that are opening our Kungens Kurva store now in May. With that, I hand over to Jørgen, who will take you through the financials.
Thank you, Andreas. In the first quarter, the group delivered total revenue of NOK 431 million, representing year-on-year growth of 8.8%. The performance reflects solid underlying demand and continued execution across both markets, Norway and Sweden. Revenue growth was primarily driven by higher store revenue in Norway, combined with continued momentum in both physical and online channels in Sweden. In Norway, growth was supported by a combination of like-for-like store growth and contribution from new store opening, demonstrating both scalability of the existing store base and successful execution of the expansion strategy. Category mix was favorable with particularly strong performance in EV charging and heating. Growth was broad-based across customer service. Business-to-business revenue increased by 8.8% year-on-year, while business-to-customer revenue grew by 8.9%.
Like-for-like revenue growth for the quarter was 4.9%. Store execution in Norway remains strong. Physical store traffic increased by 2% compared to last year. At the same time, we saw improvements in conversion rate and average basket value, reflecting continued focus on operation discipline, sales effectiveness, and the in-store experience. Online revenue in Norway was flat year-on-year in the first quarter. This is largely explained by calendar effects, as Easter fell two weeks earlier in 2026. We should reduce online sales towards the end of March compared to the prior year. Adjusted for this timing effect, underlying online performance is considered stable. Revenue from SpotOn amounted to NOK 10 million in the quarter, up from NOK 9 million last year, corresponding to a growth of 3.4% year-on-year.
In Sweden, the group's physical store generated revenue of NOK 12 million during the quarter, while online revenue amounted to NOK 33 million. Business-to-business revenue in Sweden contributed NOK 10 million and is included in these figures. Sweden continues to show positive development across both sales channels, supporting the group's long-term growth ambition in the market. Gross profit for the quarter amounted to NOK 158 million, up from NOK 142 million in the corresponding period last year. This translates into a gross margin of 36.7% compared to 36% in the first quarter of 2025. The improvement in gross margin was primarily driven by improved category and campaign management in Norway. This reflects better pricing discipline, more targeted campaign execution, and improved mix, demonstrating the group's ability to generate margin expansion alongside revenue growth.
In Norway, gross profit increased to NOK 145 million up from NOK 132 million last year. Gross margin strengthened to 37.9%, up from 37% in the prior year. Importantly, the margin improvement was broad-based with positive contribution from all product categories and customer segments. Margin development was supported by selective price adjustments and favorable exchange rate movements, underlying disciplined margin management in a competitive market environment. In Sweden, gross profit amounted to NOK 12 million compared to NOK 11 million in the first quarter last year. Gross margin was 26.8%, marginally down from 26.9% last year. The slight decrease in reported margin is primarily explained by a higher share of B2B sales compared to the same period last year, rather than a deterioration in underlying pricing or cost performance.
Margin development remains positive across both B2B and B2C segments in Sweden during the quarter, indicating continued operational improvement despite a different sales mix. Overall, the first quarter demonstrates improved gross profitability driven by better commercial execution, disciplined pricing, and favorable mix effects. Operating expenses increased moderately in the first quarter, in line with planned growth initiatives and higher activity levels. Operating expenses in sales channels increased by NOK 4 million compared to last year. The increase was mainly driven by costs related to the opening of two new stores in Norway. Other operating expenses increased by NOK 7 million year-on-year. The increase primarily reflects generally salary adjustments, higher distribution volumes in line with revenue growth, and KPI-related cost adjustments. Despite the increase in absolute operating expenses, the OPEX-to-sales ratio improved slightly to 26.4% compared to 26.5% in the prior year.
This demonstrates continued cost discipline and operational leverage with revenue growth effectively absorbing the higher operating costs. The cost development in the quarter reflects a balanced approach to the growth, investing in expansion and capacity while maintaining stable cost efficiency. Reported EBITDA for the quarter amounted to NOK 38 million, up from NOK 36 million in the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was NOK 44 million compared with NOK 37 million last year. The difference between reported and adjusted EBITDA amounts to NOK 6 million and mainly relates to one-off costs associated with the CEO transition. Excluding these temporary items, the underlying earnings development shows an improvement compared to the prior year, reflecting stronger operational performance. The EBITDA development demonstrates improved profitability while the maintaining disciplined cost control and absorbing growth-related investments. Cash flow in the quarter was negative NOK 13 million.
The negative cash flow primarily reflects the combination of positive EBITDA, planned capital expenditures, and lease payments during the quarter. EBITDA for the quarter amounted to NOK 38 million and remains the main positive cash flow contributor. Capital expenditures totaled NOK 50 million in the quarter, while lease payments amounted to NOK 29 million. Capital expenditure in the quarter was largely driven by strategic and partly non-recurring investments. NOK 4 million related to the installation of a new pallet racking system. This investment enables subleasing of surplus premises and will contribute positively to the future cost efficiency. NOK 5 million related to the establishment of a new store in Larvik, supporting the group's continued physical expansion in Norway. NOK 5 million related to continued investment in the new online platform project, which remains a key initiative to support long-term scalability, digital performance, and customers' experience.
Importantly, the negative cash flow in the quarter is primarily driven by timing effects and growth-related investments rather than weaker earnings generation. The investments made during the quarter are expected to support future revenue growth, cost efficiency, and cash generation. At the end of first quarter of 2026, the group had cash and cash equivalents of NOK 137 million. In addition, the group has access to an undrawn facility of NOK 120 million. Taken together, this provides a liquidity buffer and financial flexibility to support both ongoing operations and growth initiatives. Excluding IFRS 16 lease liabilities, net interest-bearing debt amounted to NOK 63 million at the end of the quarter. Net interest-bearing debt corresponds to 0.7x last 12 months GAAP EBITDA of NOK 90 million, excluding IFRS 16 effects.
The group's loans facilities include a net interest-bearing debt to EBITDA covenant of 3.5x . With leverage at 0.7x , the group has substantial covenant headroom. With that, I will hand the presentation back to Andreas, who will take you through the key events and the developments that we have occurred after the end of the reporting period.
Thank you, Jørgen Wist. Looking at events after the period, as announced on the 20th of April, Lars Tendal have been appointed as the new CEO of Elektroimportøren, effective from the 15th of May. Lars and I have already started the handover, and Lars will also be available for questions afterwards. On the April 29th, we held our annual general meeting. The dividend proposed by the board of NOK 0.4 per share was approved. Subsequent to the end of the first quarter, the group has continued to deliver positive sales development in April, with revenue growth in both Norway and Sweden in line with the momentum that we have seen in the first quarter. Store number two in Sweden, Kungens Kurva, is set to open on the May 23rd.
Furthermore, in Stockholm, we have signed a lease for the third physical store, which is placed in Arninge, just north of Stockholm. This will further strengthen our group store network in the Stockholm region and support the long-term growth strategy in the Swedish market. Looking at the market going forward, we expect both B2B and B2C markets to remain somewhat cautious in the coming period, driven by global uncertainty and the risk of rising interest rates. Before we conclude, I would like to take this opportunity to note that this is my final presentation as CEO of Elektroimportøren. It has been a privilege to lead the company through an exciting period of development over the last almost 12 years. I would like to extend my greatest gratitude to all our employees for their commitment, energy, hard work, and warm hearts.
I would also like to thank all our other stakeholders for challenging us, supporting us, and believing in us. Thank you. I'm proud of what we have achieved together and confident that the company is well-positioned for continued growth. I wish my successor and the entire organization every success going forward. With that, we open up for questions.
First one is, what will the new online platform schedule for second half 2026 enable?
The platform that we have is old. It's working and functional, but it's limited in terms of future development. Easily said, we will get a modern platform that is developed for the purpose and the size of the company that we have today. I think probably the most change will be seen for our B2B customers, who today are, in a way, forced to use a consumer setup platform, where we're actually competing with the wholesalers who have a totally different kind of online sales platform.
The next one, in which account is the NOK 6 million in CEO cost booked in employee benefit costs? Yes, that's correct. In the P&L, it's booked in the line for the employee benefit costs. In the APM, it's under adjustments.
What were the EV charger sales in Q1? NOK 43 million.
Up from NOK 30 million last year.
Why did the gross margin in Sweden decline despite an increased nominal share? Basically, it's because of we have had a larger growth in B2B sales than we have had in B2C. As in Norway, we have a lower gross margin on B2B than we have on B2C. Actually, the gross margin in both B2B and B2C are increasing in Sweden. It's just that the share of business for B2B is creating that small margin dilution.
Can you-
Yeah. Sorry.
The third one. Can you provide more color on the new store openings in Sweden, timing, location, and how their revenue potential compares to your existing store?
Well, as mentioned, the Kungens Kurva store is opening in two weeks time, on the 23rd. Revenue potential from that store, we expect it to be on par with Veddesta, but in a faster pace. I think our expectation is that we jump over the year two and we go straight from year one to year three in Kungens Kurva and also in Arninge, which is a similar size store with a similar reach in terms of number of consumers and electricians.
How should we think about the gross margin going forward? Well, as I said in the Q4 presentation, we are now seeing the positive impact from the FX change s. I think the same, what should I say? Positive impact as we see in Q1, we will also see in Q2 this year. Yeah. Do you see any impact on purchasing prices on the back of the increased Middle East tension? As of now, the purchase prices are down 10% compared to the same period last year. Yes, we are seeing some increased purchase prices from our suppliers in China.
How did the timing of Easter impact the Q1 results?
As I said, it's on the stores we didn't see an effect, but on online we see the Easter was two weeks earlier this year, we see that the sales at the end of March is slowing somewhat down. We can see that maybe around NOK 1 million-NOK 2 million is the Easter effect on the online. If you adjust for that, we will probably have around 4% also growth on the online store.
How advanced are negotiations for new locations in Norway? Should we expect additional store openings in Norway this year? Well, two out of four negotiations are very advanced. I would expect us to land those two negotiations before summer, or actually sooner than that, this spring. Whether or not we will be able to open those stores this year, I cannot, I don't know, to be honest. It depends on how fast we close the deal and how the shape of the facilities actually. It should be possible to open both if we don't need to do too much work to get the store in place.
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No? Okay.
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I think that was, every questions.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you very much for calling in.