Good morning, all, and welcome to this Q1 Webcast with Elektroimportøren. Management is represented by CEO Andreas Niss and the new CFO Jørgen Wist. Please use the Q&A written function should you have any questions, and management will answer them after the presentation. Andreas and Jørgen, please go ahead when you're ready.
Thank you very much, Andrea. Good morning, everyone. We will shortly take you through our first quarter presentation for 2023. I'd like to just comment and say hello. Welcome to Jørgen. Jørgen joined us as CFO for two days ago, but he's been with the company for 14 years. Jørgen is taking over after Nils Petter Bjørnstad, as most of you probably have met. Petter has decided to step down and take an ease of work. He will be with us until mid-July, making sure it's a proper handover to Jørgen. I would like to say thank you to Petter for all the hard work he's put in, and again, welcome to Jørgen.
Thank you.
Yes. We go ahead with the summary of the key financials for the quarter. Our revenues, total revenues of NOK 383 million, which is up just above 4%. Total like-for-like sales has been reduced with 3.2, so we're declining with just over 3% on, in our like-for-like stores and websites. B2B sales is increasing with 1.4% compared to last year, and B2C is increasing with 14.5%. The professional share of our business is actually exactly equal to the consumer part, so it's a 50/50 split. Total sales of SpotOn for the quarter is NOK 9 million, which is up from NOK 6 last year. Overall gross margin percentage at 35.7%, which is almost 2% down from last year in Q1.
OPEX to sales ratio at 27.5% from 25.3% last year. Our reported EBITDA landed at NOK 32 million, which is down NOK 11 million from NOK 43 million last year. The EBITDA margin is 8.2%, down from 11.7% last year. We're not super happy with this quarter. Obviously, we would have liked to have growth. We were trending on growth, came in the starting of March, it looked like we could actually end up with the growth for the quarter. We got a big hit, which we'll come back to, in middle of March, which made sales trends turn around. We would come back more to that.
On an operational up-update, growth in the quarter is driven by the fact that we have now included the full quarter for Elbutik. Last year, it was included from the third of March. This year, it's for the full quarter. It's also driven by two new stores which we didn't have last year, and SpotOn, as you have seen, and smart home products, energy efficiency products is driving growth. Reduction in sales compared to last year in like-for-like is strongly affected by the decline in electrical vehicle charges, which I again will come back to. The gross margin percentage is being reduced, and that's mainly due to the inclusion of Elbutik. Elbutik has a lower gross margin than we do have in Norway, so it brings the gross margin percentage down.
We have also seen higher freight costs and ForEx effect on Namron. Namron representing about 30% of our sales. It gives us a hit on margin when cost of delivering, and buying Namron products is increasing. The cost control in the sales channels continues to be very good. In our stores, we spend less money this year than we did last year, so that we're happy with. For the quarter, Sweden, and of course, also some of us here in Norway, has been working very hard with the preparations of opening our first stores in Sweden, which we did on the 27th of April. We're happy, very happy with the outcome of that opening and looking forward to the continuous learning of the Swedish market.
Sales of solar products have started, and customers are welcoming us into this category. We're very happy with how we've been welcomed by the customers in this product category, which is totally new for us. We'll come back to a little bit more about that as well. It is challenging market conditions, but as we see it, SpotOn, Sweden, solar, still have a lot of growth potential for us. It will be tougher going forward. We believe with the like-for-like product range and the like-for-like markets, but we do see a lot of opportunities in our new growth areas. Coming back to Sweden and Elbutik, Q1 sales of NOK 31 million, EBITDA is a negative NOK 1 million. What we're doing, as I said, we're preparing for opening the first store. That's been our top priority, getting everything in place.
You would think that we have opened 26 new stores over the last eight years, it should be easy. Part of it is quite easy because we've done it so many times before, it is a new country. We've set up new systems, we've learned a lot as well, we're very happy with the outcome. The feedback we've gotten from the customers is excellent. We're just looking forward on continue to grow sales in that stores. The organization that we have is coming to place. We have, during the quarter, we have hired two more employees within the category and buying department in Sweden, which will join us quite soon. We continue to invest in Sweden in people, stores, and logistic facilities for the long term
Getting the people in place, getting the facilities in place is of course, the key. The first thing you need to do, and then it's about starting to work with operational excellence, building the brand awareness around with more customers. Those are our key priorities. Moving into Namron. Share of business for the first quarter is 32.9%, which is somewhat down from Q4, but that's usually how it is because consumer sales are higher in Q4. This is the number for Norway. We've had a good development on sales, but gross margin percentage as I was mentioning is down due to the high freight costs and the weak NOK against the USD. I know Jørgen will come back to this a bit as well.
Swedish share of business is at a poor 2.6%. We see as we have hoped and thought that it will be easier to convert customers to Namron products once we open physical stores, when we get to talk to them and show them the product, they can touch and feel and test the products. The small amount of days we've had open the store in Stockholm confirms that that's a fact 'cause the share of business in that store is considerably higher than we see for our online sales. That's good news. Yes, SpotOn. Sales of NOK 9 million up from NOK 6 million last year. We're quite satisfied with that. We're exploring the opportunities right now to use our platform that we've built with SpotOn to increase other craftsman areas.
That means that we're talking with others that we could partner up with that could deliver, for example, within the construction area, craftsman services through SpotOn. Very interesting. Not that far come yet, I would like to just brief you about it. We're adding on new installation partners and inspectors as we go. Just to show you the development in quarter by quarter, it is quite natural that the volume drops from Q4 to Q1, but still a good increase from last year. Coming back to the electrical vehicle chargers, as probably most of you know, mid-March there was a sales ban of Easee in Sweden. You would maybe think that wouldn't hurt us that much because the sales ban is in Sweden and not in Norway.
Those of you who have followed us will know that Easee is a major supplier to us. What we saw is that when the ban hit Sweden, it got an immediate effect on sales in Norway as well. The range of EV chargers have been extended, but it has not been possible to fully replace the missed sales or the drop in sales of Easee in the quarter. Because there's been a shortage of supply, of course, trying to replace the market leader's volume in a day or a week or two is difficult for all of the other suppliers. Q1 sales, down 30%. Easee sales from week seven to 13 down 74%. Other chargers, plus 7%.
We managed to replace 50% of the drop, but that's, it's still hurting our volumes. On solar, we have delivered, our first solar panels and systems to customers. We've conducted trainings for our internal personnel and also for our partners and professional customers. The reception of the products is good. Total sales in the quarter is quite modest, but still being the first quarter, of a year, and us being a new player in the market, we're actually happy with this development because it's actually from Q2 and three that sales should really increase, and we already see that happening. Yes. Jørgen, over to you.
Thank you. Yes, as Andreas already has explained, the sales during first quarter of 2023 has increased from NOK 367 million to NOK 383 million. The main driver for this sales growth in Q1 is the inclusion of Elbutik, which had a sales of NOK 31 million compared to NOK 11 million in Q1 2022. As you know, Elbutik was included in the group from March 2022, so we get the full effect this year. In addition, we have positive sales effect from our new stores in Strømsø and Kristiansund. Our like-for-like stores, we had a decline of 3.2% in the quarter, mainly because of the reduction in the sales of EV chargers, as Andreas explained. During first quarter, sales of EV chargers declined by NOK 10 million compared to last year.
Reduction in sales is due to the sales ban on Easee in Sweden, which have also led to uncertainty among the Norwegian customers. We have started with our alternative solution and sell Amina and increased our stock of Zaptec in order to compensate for the sales on Easee. As Andreas say, we are not able to compensate fully for that lost sales on Easee. Online sales in Norway declined by 1.4% compared to last year, with the same explanation as above for like-for-like stores. On the positive side, we have seen that the footfall to physical stores have picked up at the end of March and is actually increasing. That's positive.
Also SpotOn continues to develop positive in terms of sales with the increase of NOK 3 million in Q1 compared to last year. If you look at the gross margin, the gross margin percentage is 35.7% in Q1, which is lower than last year. Main driver for a lower margin year on year is inclusion of Elbutik. After opening the first physical store in Sweden in end of April now, we expect to see increase in margin in Sweden. We will be able to guide the sales more Namron products with higher product margin. We also see a lower margin in Norway with the 36.8% compared to 36.6%.
Main driver for lower product margin in Norway are higher freight cost and the weak NOK towards USD. OPEX, we have good control on the OPEX in the sales channel. It's more or less on the same line as last year. The only increase we have is the new store in Tromsø. We are quite happy with the cost control in stores. As mentioned, Elbutik was included in group in March 2022. Hence we get a increase in cost in Q1 this year as it is included for the entire period. We have also increased cost to support to support our growth in solar products and increase our efficiency through implementation of a new logistic and IT systems.
We had a gross profit, which was in line with the last year, but because of the increase in operating expenses, EBITDA decreased by NOK 11 million during the first quarter of 2023.
Yeah. Thank you, Jørgen. Okay, what do we think What has happened after the quarter closed, and what do we think about this year going forward? It is a challenging market, no doubt. As I mentioned, we are still optimistic about the growth opportunities that we see. Like-for-like growth in terms of like-for-like categories will probably be difficult, but we believe growth will come from solar, Sweden, and continuous growth from SpotOn. There is a great demand for solar products, and it's a new market for us, so we're competing with some new competitors. We're learning every day, and we're being well-received. As mentioned, we opened the first physical store in Sweden on the 27th of April.
We're super happy with how the store was received by our consumers and professionals that visited the store, so excited about the future in Sweden. Spot-On continues to grow. As I was mentioning, we're looking at further widening the offer through Spot-On. We will make sure that we stay competitive. We have now reduced our results over the last year, more or less, since Q2 in 2022. We need to turn this around. We believe that we will have to look further into cost savings to make that happen, because as I said, markets are tough, challenging, so then we need to look inside our own operations to get more profitable. Yes, that's what we had in terms of presentation. Now we open up for questions. If there are any.
You have received one question.
Okay. I cannot, we cannot see them. If you could please read them to us, Andrea.
Yep. The first question is quite long. What are the plans for further store rollouts in Norway and Sweden for 2023? How should we think about the impact of the soft EV chargers sales for Q2? How much of... Do you want me to read all the questions, or you want me to-
Yeah, let's answer the first two first. How, what do we think about store rollout in Sweden and Norway for this year? For Norway, we're taking an opportunistic view on establishing new stores. We are looking for opportunities in the larger cities. We're looking for actually two, three more locations in Oslo. That will not happen this year, but we're open. When the opportunity rises, we will be able to rapidly open a new store in the Greater Oslo area. We're also talking to, which I have informed earlier, possible franchisees. We're quite long in the discussions and negotiations in that.
If we arrive on an agreement before summer, it's also possible that we will see our first franchisees opening their stores in Norway for 2023. When it comes to Sweden, we will stand on the plan that I think... well, we have communicated before. We have now opened a store, so it's our first chance to learn about the Swedish consumers and how they react to our, and respond to our concept, our product ranges, our prices, our marketing. Once we feel confident that we have adjusted and we have the concept that we need, we will start to roll out stores more rapidly. Hopefully, we will get one more store opening in 2023, but I'm not sure that will be possible. That's how we look at it.
Not a lot of stores this year, but, probably, a lot more in 2024. The next question was on-.
How we look at the EV chargers.
he impact of the EV chargers for Q2. There is still shortage of supply from the competitor of Easee or other suppliers to us. The demand is still there, so for us, it will be about getting enough EV chargers in stock. I do not think we will have growth in EV chargers in Q2, but I do believe it will be less, we will be less affected than we were in Q1. But I am not sure. Please continue on there.
All right. It continues on the EV chargers. How should we think about gross margins in the coming quarter given the impact of most likely lower EV charger sales and increased Namron share and launch of new products as solar panels and heating pumps?
Yes. Yeah, I mean, you know, EV chargers is a low-margin category, so if that goes down and Namron goes up, gross margin should increase. Solar is a more profitable category than EV chargers, but not super profitable, so it's below our average margin. Yeah, it could be indications that we should deliver somewhat higher margin compared to last year, well, somewhat higher margin than we did in Q1, in Q2.
All right. You mentioned cost cutting to protect profitability. Can you add some color on what these initiatives are and what we should expect in terms of savings?
No is the short answer. We are looking into all the aspects of our business to see where we can increase efficiency. Well, it has not just started. We have done cost cutting exercises for quite some time now, but we need to dig deeper and see what we can do. I cannot give you a target. I'm sorry for that right now.
Can you comment on how you see the price development year-over-year on goods from your vendors?
The price increases that we saw in July last year and January this year are the highest price increases that we've seen at least as long as I've been here, and I've been here for nine years now. Quite considerable price increases compared to what the market has seen before. Yeah.
I can also add that on the price increase on other brands than the Namron, we have been able to take it out on our customer, to increase the prices more in line with the cost control, cost increase. The margin on the other brands than Namron is quite stable compared to last year.
Yes. Are there any more?
Moving on. On the GM, you highlight higher freight costs. When will you start to benefit from the lower rates we are seeing?
We are seeing that already now. From Q2 we will see better freight cost.
Also, on GM, you will start to face easier comparable numbers as Elbutik was included in Q2 last year. Does this mean that we should expect flattish GM year-over-year in the coming quarters?
I think as Anders said, at least it will be closer to last year than it was in Q1.
All right. Could you please describe the reason why other OPEX increased given gross profit and direct store cost was flat year-on-year?
Well, as we said, the OPEX increased because Elbutik was included in the entire period for Q1 this year. Also we have invested in people in terms of the solar category and also in terms of our replenishment system, which is have increased our OPEX in Q1 compared to last year.
If the question was also about why it's flat on our like-for-like business in stores, it's because of that we're being more effective, in the operations in stores right now.
Thank you. How much of a headwind to gross margin was higher freight cost year-over-year?
On the Namron products, we are not able to split the freight cost and exchange rate fluctuations. In total of these two, we are seeing now 5% decrease in gross margin.
Okay.
that's 5% on 30% of the total volume.
Correct.
Yeah.
Thank you. We have one final question regarding your new Swedish stores. What was turnover at the new Swedish stores in the first week?
I do not want to share that, actually. We're satisfied with the opening, but for competitive reasons, I do not want to share the details of the store opening. We're happy with the opening. Of course, we still have work to do in Sweden, but really happy with how the customers welcome us and the results of the store.
Thank you. That was the final question.
Okay. Thank you everyone for listening in.
Thank you.
Thank you for presenting.