Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this fourth-quarter presentation for Kid ASA. At the end we will have a Q&A session. For those of you present at the webcast, please type in the question, and we will start with questions from the audience when we go into the Q&A session. OK, so let's kick off with the financial summary, the highlights of the quarter, which we will deep dive into throughout the presentation. We had an all-time high revenue and EBITDA in the quarter. The sales increased by 13%, and the like-for-like sales increased by 10.2%. Sorry, 9.3%.
The online revenue increased with 26.6%, and the gross margin increased by 6.5 percentage points. This led to an EBITDA increase of NOK 123.1 million to NOK 419.0 million, and the EPS ended at 5.74 in the quarter. So let's go a bit deeper into what happened during the quarter and the year.
We are proud to present another strong quarter with double-digit growth. Our value-for-money concept remained resilient under the current demanding market conditions, and we see a strong momentum for our like-for-like stores. Growth in the quarter was further accelerated by our omnichannel and category development initiatives. Revenues from the extended assortment amounted to NOK 14.6 million in the quarter. Our loyalty program continues to grow. We now have more than 3 million customers in our customer club across all markets. By the end of 2023, we were able to reach more than half a million customers via email, more than half a million customers compared to last year. Throughout the year we have developed our customer club, and we are at the starting point to utilize the insights in our marketing work.
The initiatives we have seen in the customer club have also been a good contributor to the results in the quarter. In December we also launched our first live shopping event. With live shopping we utilized a new growing channel that both builds brand and contributes to increased sales. In the quarter Hemtex successfully completed an exit from SAP, signifying a year with noteworthy events that include implementation of a common point of sale (POS, or kasse, as we say in Norway) system, and a common ERP system across the group. This ensures a modern and effective IT infrastructure, and going forward we will continue to invest and develop our IT systems to support future growth. Our warehouse project in Sweden is following the schedule. The groundwork is now underway on the site in Viared, Sweden. So let's have a look at the full-year financial highlights.
We had a strong revenue despite a challenging market, with a total growth of 7.4%. The turnover of NOK 3.4 billion is an all-time high for the group. In addition, we set new sales records for Hemtex since the acquisition, and for the first time we crossed the NOK 2 billion mark in Norway. The turnover from our e-commerce business was NOK 416.1 million, and that's also a new record. If we include the click-and-collect sales, the total turnover generated through our e-commerce platform was NOK 593.3 million in 2023. This represents a share of 17.4%. The growth in e-com, along with growth in our store turnover, testifies to a robust omnichannel model. After last year, where the margin was negatively affected by high freight prices, we realized a gross margin of 61.5%, which is high in the range of historical gross margin.
In a year where inflation has put pressure on cost development, we are satisfied with an OPEX to sales at 45.7%, marginally above our long-term target of 45%. EBITDA excluded for IFRS 16 FX of NOK 545 million is our second-highest result in history. We have increased EBITDA by NOK 118.7 million compared to last year. And I will get back to the dividend on the last page. So 2023 has been another year where the innovation, business development, investments in store and other IT systems, and so on, contributes to continuous work with process improvements, has yielded solid results. Strong category development, both through extended but also other category development, has been an important growth initiative. We have expanded the available market to also include furniture, carpet, lamps, and more, which means that Kid and Hemtex now operate in a significantly larger market than before.
The made-to-measure model was launched in Q2 2023, enabling physical stores to sell technical sunscreening products, and this contributed to a strong growth. The turnover of made-to-measure was doubled compared to last year, and with a strong growth in our physical stores in the last month of 2023. The total turnover made-to-measure in 2023 was about NOK 60 million, as previously said, with double the turnover from last year. There has also been a significant project activity in our store portfolio across all markets. Hemtex proudly celebrated their 50th anniversary with a successful campaign, marketing a significant milestone in our journey. With that, I will leave the stage for you, Mads.
Thank you, Anders. So group revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 increased by NOK 144.6 million in reported numbers compared to last year. This represents an increase of 13%. On a constant currency basis, the total growth was still 10.2%, and the like-for-like growth was 9.3%. This is driven by both our physical stores and online platform. We also see growth in all months for the quarter. The substantial growth is driven, among others, by increased basket size, the continuing work with the category development, in combination with the strong development we see online. So regarding the online revenues, I'm proud to point out that we had a quarter with a strong growth of 26.6%. And bear in mind that this performance comes on top of a high online revenue base from last year, where we had 18% growth.
I'm also very glad to say that we have a solid growth in our stores, in addition to the online development. The group online share in the quarter was 12.8%, up by 1.8 percentage points from last year, driven up by both Kid Interiør and Hemtex. For Kid Interiør, reported revenues were up by 9.3%, and the like-for-like growth was 8.5% compared to previous year. The like-for-like growth includes the online revenue growth of 28.4%. Excluding the online revenues, the like-for-like growth from our stores was 6.4%. New categories and initiatives continue to fuel the growth, where the extended assortment had a positive impact on the revenues by NOK 14.6 million. For Hemtex, we experienced a strong reported growth of 19.6%. On a constant currency basis, the total growth was 11.9%, and the like-for-like growth was a key driver, with a growth of 10.7% compared to last year.
This like-for-like growth includes both our physical stores, like-for-like, and the online growth of 24.8%. Excluding the online revenues, we had a like-for-like growth to our stores of 8.2%. I would give a couple of comments to the revenue development and the strong performance in Hemtex, where we see that we had this Hemtex 50-year anniversary, driving traffic and giving results. We had a campaign in October. We had also somewhat higher marketing activities related to the Black Week and Cyber Week compared to last year. This is something I will come back to on the slide I have on gross margin shortly. I can also add that in Hemtex, the like-for-like growth to stores and online was positive in all markets for physical and our digital channel, except the like-for-like stores in Estonia.
In terms of revenues from Hemtex 24H, I would just say and comment that it was fairly stable compared to previous year. That said, I'm very pleased to say that we present that we have a total revenue growth of 7.4%, given the start, as you can see on the chart in the very bottom, where we had a rough or tough start of the first half of 2023. In constant currency, the group revenue development was 5.5%. In terms of gross margin, the gross margin increased by 6.5 percentage points to 63.4% for the group. This development is driven by both segments, from Kid Interiør and Hemtex.
This gross margin level is strong in a historical perspective, and the improvement to the gross margin is attributed to the price adjustments with full effect implemented during Q1 2023, which we have done to meet the higher currency hedges levels going forward, combined with an inventory comprising lower freight costs. In addition, I would also like to highlight the following items related to the margin. We had a strong sales and revenue development in the quarter, which has reduced the need for seasonal sales, a positive impact to our margin. I'm also happy to say that regardless of the strong extended development, we maintain a robust margin for the group this quarter. And also, on the other side, we had somewhat increased marketing activities in Hemtex, driving growth, which impacts the gross margin, with reference to the previous slide of revenues.
With that said, I am very happy to present a full year 2023 gross margin of 61.5%, which is in line with the historical levels and our previous communication. Let's get to the operating expenses, and the OPEX to sales ratio, excluding the IFRS 16 effects, was stable and unchanged of 36.7%. The OPEX increased 12.2% in the quarter, but excluding the bonus expenses in the quarter, the increase was 6.9%. In terms of employee benefit expenses, the increase was NOK 43.6 million, and is mainly due to bonus expenses accrued in the quarter of NOK 18.2 million, as a result of the profitable and performance delivered this period. In addition, we see that I have explained also in previous presentations, but we have in 2023 a change of line item from logistics, since we have taken the logistic operations for Hemtex, the Swedish, Estonian, and Finnish market in-house.
So we have seen a line shift from other operating expenses to employee benefit expenses. That effect is approximately NOK 8 million in the quarter. In addition, I will also highlight that we had a currency effect of NOK 4.2 million in the period. And all these items increasing our employee benefit expenses was partly offset by our cost control through stable working hours in our store across markets. The other operating expenses were reduced by NOK 2.7 million, mainly due to the effect I explained, where we see a shift from other operating expenses to employee benefit expenses related to the logistics operation in Sweden in-house. The decrease is partly offset by increased marketing investments, in addition to a significant currency effect of NOK 5 million in the period.
To summarize the development in the fourth quarter, we had increased revenues by double-digit growth, robust gross margin developments, and the OpEx base, as explained. This resulting in an all-time high EBITDA of NOK 420 million, which is an increase of NOK 123 million compared to previous year. The cash flow, I will give some comments this quarter. This shows the change during the quarter. The cash flow from operations was record high in the fourth quarter, mainly due to the strong profit for the period and historical low net working capital. The cash flow from investments mainly relates to capital expenditures to our store portfolio. That is new openings and what we call store projects. The cash flow from financing is specified a bit more, and we see that we have a dividend payout in November of NOK 112 million.
We had lease payments following the IFRS 16, and a net change in debt of NOK 226 million. And finally, the net interest expenses of NOK 20 million. This results in a change in cash of NOK 228 million, excluding the currency translation. And at the end of the quarter, we had cash and cash available credit facilities of a total of NOK 827.1 million, and a net interest-bearing debt of NOK 296.6 million. This results in a financial gearing ratio of 0.54 compared to 1.12 last year. All in all, a robust financial position for the Kid Group. So store portfolio, Anders.
Yes, thank you, Mads. The fourth quarter was yet another quarter with many store projects. In Hemtex, we did 4 projects, of which opening in Sickla in November marked a new standard. The store size was 825 square meters, being able to display furniture for the first time. And the revenue in this store and other store opened in Hemtex in the quarter has been very positive since opening. We have now signed 3 contracts for new extended stores in Norway, and we see several exciting opportunities, both for extended and other store projects across all markets. So we expect to sign more contracts within the next months. So we remain optimistic of our market position and growth initiatives going forward. However, we expect continued high cost inflation in 2024.
Due to unusually high inflation experienced across all markets during 2023, rent index regulation for 2024 will be in the range of 5%-7%, with other operating expenses being adjusted in accordance with inflation. In the first half of 2024, we have so far signed nine store projects in Kid and four in Hemtex. These projects include a combination of refurbishment, enlargement, and/or relocations. Among the store projects, there are several expansions and relocations at the largest shopping centers, both in Norway and Sweden. Many of these stores will be well above 600 square meters, though not as large as the extended stores. This will enable us to display a larger portion of our extended range, in addition to more space for inspiration from our already existing range of products, which is an important growth driver as well.
We will launch the extended assortment online and in selected largest stores in Hemtex during Q1. Actually, you can now buy it in all our e-commerce business across all markets. We haven't started the marketing yet. We will do that within a couple of weeks. Made-to-measure, as mentioned earlier, the made-to-measure technical sunscreening module will be introduced in Hemtex, both in physical stores and online during the second quarter. We will continue to strengthen our marketing position in a challenging macro environment, but we are positive looking ahead of 2024. Last but not least, the board of directors will propose at the annual general meeting a dividend of NOK 3.50 per share to be paid at the end of May this year.
Including the dividend prepayment of NOK 2.75 in November, the ordinary dividend for 2023 is NOK 6.25, representing a nominal increase in terms of value and a payout ratio of 81%. With that, we finish this presentation, and we open up for questions. First, from the audience, present here in Oslo. For those of you listening to the webcast, please type in the questions. Are there any questions from the audience? Yes? We will give you a mic.
Hello, Egil Dahl. Congratulations on great results for the group. I have one question regarding online sales. Can you comment on the gross margin for that segment?
Well, we do not share or report on gross margin in e-commerce, but I can say that there are no large differences between gross margin in physical stores and in e-commerce channels.
Thank you. And also regarding freight costs for the first half of 2024, can you comment on how much of the freights you have on a fixed deal, and how will extra sailing distance affect costs?
We buy all our overseas freight in the spot markets. We have seen an increase in spot rates, but we now see a decrease again. We will do necessary actions to deliver on our financial objectives when it comes to gross margin. When it comes to lead times, we see some delays, but not more than 14 days, as we see now. We do not expect that to impact negatively going forward.
Thank you. Last, do you see any change in consumer behavior in Sweden?
I would not say that we see any change in consumer behavior, but we have ramped up the marketing activities in Q3 and Q4, which obviously have been positive and an important contributor to our revenue growth. But in general, I would not say that we see any changes in the market all over.
Thank you.
Are there any more questions from the audience? OK, I think then we'll go into the questions from those listening into the webcast. We'll try to both read the question out and answer at the same time. I'll start. The first from Francisco Vilchez. First of all, congratulations on the results. Considering the growth the group has experienced in the last five years in the online segment, how does the group expect this segment to evolve in the next five years? Does the group see a certain competitive advantage in this segment due to logistical complexity of the countries in which it operates? Well, we don't do any guiding in terms of sales, but we have invested heavily in the e-commerce business, both to drive growth in the e-commerce channel, but also that it's an extremely important growth traffic driver to the physical stores. We have also invested in people.
We invested in our e-commerce platform, and we have heavily invested in our logistical setup. We have a good logistical hub serving the Norwegian market and now a known hub serving for Hemtex. And during 2025, we will move the logistic hub in Norway to Sweden, serving all the markets. I believe that we have a strong competitive advantage when it comes to the logistical setup. But most of all, we have products our customer wants, which is the important thing in our business. So we expect good growth going forward in all channels, including our e-commerce channel. OK, then next question is from Peter Billing. Thank you for the presentation. We have three questions. Oh, that's good. We'll do the first one. Can you elaborate on the very strong gross margin for Kid Interiør this quarter and on the softer Hemtex's margin?
Yeah, so to compare these two segments in Hemtex, as we described or we described here, is that we saw an increased marketing activity during the quarter, which has impacted the margin of Hemtex. In addition to the marketing and campaigns in Hemtex, we also have a business we are referring to as Hemtex Juvir & Hå, and also a franchise business. That is something that also has impact comparing the margins between Kid, Interiør, and Hemtex. And in addition, we can also say that we have done the price adjustments we did in the first quarter is on some different level comparing the two segments.
Yeah, to maintain our strong market position, being slightly more aggressive in the Swedish market, I would say, on some categories.
Yeah.
Second question. Are you seeing increased footfall in Q4 as seen during Q3? And how has Q1 been so far?
Yeah, so in Q1, we do not guide or say anything.
We'll be happy to give you the revenues in the beginning of April.
Yeah.
That's the answer.
Yeah. And in terms of footfall, we see a mixed picture where we see some. I'm not sure how much detail we want to share in terms of footfall.
No, but we can generally see the least top-level comment.
Yeah.
Let's get back to that. The last question. You guide on lease index regulation of 5%-7% for 2024. But how are your work on maintaining profitability? Well, we saw even higher index regulation in 2023. We have a high focus, of course, on profitability in terms of driving revenue growth with category expansion, investment in our store base, and so on, being able to also have good profitability going forward. OK, next question is from Knut Harald Nilsson. Can you give some flair on the Q on Q decline in extended sales? Is the seasonal as expected? I'm not sure if I.
Is the quarter-over-quarter revenue where we have a decline in extended revenues in the fourth quarter comparing to Q3?
Yes, I would say the Q3 is an extremely important quarter for furniture sales. So the sales we've had and experienced in the fourth quarter is above our internal expectations. So we are very happy with the sale of furniture and the additional categories in the fourth quarter. Next question comes from Stefan Sommerstad. What is the average payback time for new store opening? And what is the average payback time for an investment in an extended store? Well, the average payback time for the investments in our stores is somewhat in the area of ±1.5 years, depending on the lease agreement. So we normally invest some NOK 2 million-NOK 2.5 million, but sometimes even lower, depending on the lease agreement. And the payback time could be as little as one year or up to 1.5 years.
So I would say around 1-1.5 years on average. The extended stores are if you look at an extended store that is a greenfield opening where there's not been an extra store earlier, it's the same payback time. If you see at an extended store that has enlarged and refurbished, it's somewhat a bit longer, but not much longer. So in general, I would say in the range of as a greenfield, meaning a store that's new, it's the same, and slightly longer, but not much longer, for an expansion of an already existing store. Do you have any more comments to the questions, Mads?
No.
No.
No.
Are there any more questions for those in the webcast or for those of you present? Please shout out now. Yeah, seems like we've been pretty clear. So with that, I say thank you to the audience, both for you present at the webcast and those of you here in Oslo. Have a nice day.
Thank you.