Good morning, and welcome to this Q1 presentation by StrongPoint. My name is Jacob Tveraabak, and I'm the CEO of StrongPoint. With me to present the Q1 results today, I have Marius Drefvelin, our Group CFO. In today's session, I will share highlights from the first quarter. I will provide a short overview of StrongPoint, in particular for the convenience of those less familiar with us, and I will then move on to explain some of our exciting customer success stories from this quarter. Handling over to Marius for his review of our financials for Q1, and then I'll come back in again, rounding off this session with our view for StrongPoint going forward. Highlights. We had a flat first quarter compared to same quarter last year. Revenue was NOK 342 million in this quarter.
Recurring revenue in the quarter grew by 3% on a 12-month rolling basis. EBITDA reported in Q1 was NOK 10 million, which is the same as Q1 last year. Cash flow from operations was - NOK 9 million this quarter versus + NOK 8 million last year, principally driven from changes in working capital. With regards to customer success stories, I'm going to talk more about. The first one is Iceland Foods in the U.K. The second one is the leading Norwegian grocery retailer, NorgesGruppen, also some exciting automation projects in the U.K. First, a little bit about StrongPoint. StrongPoint is a technology company focused on serving grocery retailers with efficiency, saving software and products. We have an annual revenue of about NOK 1.4 billion, with around 30% of that being recurring.
Now, more than 80% of our revenue comes from grocery retailers, and we have around 500 employees across Europe, and our software solutions are developed principally in-house with our own development team. In short, StrongPoint's purpose is to make grocery retailers more efficient and sustainable. What about our technology solutions more concretely then? Well, we help grocery retailers tackle five operational challenges, five key operational challenges, while unlocking strategic opportunities from scaling e-commerce and digitizing the store to using AI to reduce theft in store. Firstly, we have e-commerce. We, at StrongPoint, have an end-to-end e-commerce platform that is truly world-class. We provide everything a grocery retailer needs for e-commerce, from software to pick, pack, and process online orders to last-mile solutions. We are, in particular, proud of our proprietary order picking solution.
We dare to say the world's most efficient in-store picking solution that is getting traction with some of the world's most esteemed grocery retailers, including in this quarter. Additionally, we provide order picking and last-mile solutions aimed to ensuring the highest level of efficiency and profitability for grocers in a sustainable manner. Secondly, theft and shrink. We have multiple anti-theft solutions, many of which are AI-powered. This includes Vensafe Select & Collect, AI-powered scaling rates, and AI-powered theft detection self-checkout. Thirdly, store efficiency. We provide a proprietary self-checkout solution, ShopFlow Logistics, our proprietary SaaS-based inventory, order, and task management solution, AI-powered age verification, and AI-powered shelf monitoring with Vusion. Fourthly, we provide pricing and promotions. We have digital solutions for pricing and promotions as a proud partner of Vusion, which is the leader in store digitization and the world's largest producer of electronic shelf labels. Fifthly, handling cash.
Still, even with low single-digit percentage of cash usage in Norway and Sweden, the sheer volume of transactions in grocery stores means that cash needs to be handled efficiently. This is also evident with our recently announced agreement with NorgesGruppen this quarter, the largest grocery retailer in Norway. We're enabling grocery retailers to handle their cash more efficiently in general through our CashGuard solutions. Furthermore, we are developing CashGuard Connect, a unique closed-loop cash management solution that makes cash handling as easy as handling cash payments. We'll talk more about that a little bit later in this presentation. That was about our technology solutions. Now, where and how do we operate? We have nine core markets in which we focus on. These markets are the Nordic region, the Baltics, Spain, the U.K., and Ireland, as shown here on the map.
These are countries where we have our own teams on the ground managing the entire value chain, from sales to installation to service and support. Why is that? Well, we believe that we can build deeper customer relations, customer intimacy, and seize a larger share of revenue from the technology span of our customers. Customer intimacy is extremely important at StrongPoint. It's through those deepening relationships with grocery retailers that, over time, allows us to become a trusted partner. However, we're not only limited to nine countries. We today already serve grocery retailers in over 20 countries with the support from our partner network. Specifically, with our award-winning order picking solution, we're showcasing our ability to serve customers well beyond our nine core countries, beyond customers in our home markets.
We serve customers with the order picking solution in New Zealand, Cyprus, Iceland, to mention a few. This is a very important part of our strategy forward, building ever more recurring revenue base with our order picking solution across the world. Now, coming back to the first quarter and success stories. I want to point out three of the success stories with customers we had this quarter. Firstly is Iceland Foods. Iceland Foods is one of the U.K.'s best-known grocery retailers and have been part of the British grocery market for more than 50 years. Since starting in 1970, the business has grown into a nationwide retailer with close to 1,000 stores, around 30,000 employees, and a annual turnover of more than NOK 55 billion.
One of its claims to fame is that it was the first grocery retailer in the U.K. to launch a nationwide online shopping service which was introduced in 1999. This is not a first-comer for e-commerce. Hence, we are also extremely proud to have announced that Iceland Foods have chosen StrongPoint for all their e-commerce picking operations. The project is beginning now with a planned proof of value phase, with a broader rollout to follow, subject to satisfactory results of the proof of value phase, which we really, of course, believe in. That another leading grocery retailer like Iceland Foods has chosen StrongPoint is just another proof of the fact that we truly believe that our order picking solution is world-class. Very, very pleased with that.
Secondly, NorgesGruppen, the largest grocery retailer in Norway and one of our most long-standing customers, is set to replace a portion of their already installed base of CashGuards and Vensafe solutions. We are extremely proud of these two agreements. CashGuard and Vensafe are examples of some of our most tried and tested proprietary solutions. It also demonstrates that even the, these are well-known and well-used solutions, they are still highly relevant to our customers. That Norway's largest grocery retailer is continuing to trust and invest in our solutions means that our solutions today remain integral to their operations. It is also a reminder that even in a country that is a poster child of cashless society, grocery retailers continue to recognize the efficiency and other benefits from using cash management solutions. Thirdly and lastly to mention in this aspect is AutoStore.
We've had multiple AutoStore automation projects in the U.K. this quarter. In the quarter, we've been asked to build three AutoStore automation solutions for retailers in the U.K. Two of these are for AutoStore's more compact solutions called Pio, and one is for the traditional larger AutoStore solution. The largest of these three is to design and build an AutoStore and associated automation solutions for a global e-commerce retailer based in the U.K. These new contracts demonstrate our U.K.'s business continued transformation from its shop fitting routes into providing a wide variety of high-tech automation services and the spillover effects of our focus. Now, from the highlights with customers onward to some strategic projects. Firstly, our order picking partnership with the U.K.'s second-largest grocery retailer, Sainsbury's. As we have previously shared, the first Sainsbury's stores with our order picking solution went live in Q3 2024.
At the end of Q1 this year, our solution remains live in a double-digit number of stores. Admittedly, the rollout is taking longer than we anticipated, and there is some additional work needed from both us as a technology supplier and from Sainsbury's as the customer. Our operational teams are working closely together in the stores to ensure that the solution is getting worked at, tested, new features and developments to the solution, gets into place so that we can continue to work healthy together. A few weeks ago, I joined our operations team in store, starting at 5:00 A.M. in the morning to follow Sainsbury's e-commerce operations firsthand and to see how our solution is being used in the live store environment.
It was valuable to see up close how our teams and Sainsbury's teams are working together day-to-day, identifying issues, testing improvements, and making progress, just as a true partner. Regarding CashGuard Connect. First of all, CashGuard Connect is a fully closed-loop cash management solution, as illustrated on this picture. This means that end consumers are able to pay with cash at manned or unmanned tills, and a grocery retailer will never have to touch the banknotes again. Banknotes are automatically transported directly from the till to the back of a safe and to the cash in transit provider. This means a lot more efficient cash handling and operational efficiency for the grocery retailer and for the staff and customers increased safety. However, this is still a solution that is under development.
It is not the finalized solutions, and we are still working on preparing a solution that is ripe for large-scale manufacturing. Furthermore, we have previously announced that a local partner company, Hart Automation, went into bankruptcy proceedings. Hart provided expertise on the solution in its early stages and has the majority stake in our local joint venture. The bankruptcy proceedings have taken or created more delays to the project than we anticipated, but we have and are taking legal steps to ensure that we maintain the rights for the solution. These proceedings are still ongoing, but we expect them to be finalized in the second quarter just now. With that, I will hand over to Marius, our CFO, to share more details on our financial performance. Marius?
Thank you, Jacob. I will now go through the key financials for the first quarter this year. Starting with revenue and, as we have already touched upon, the Q1 revenue remained stable at NOK 342 million. We had 17% growth in our international operations, led by the U.K. with year-on-year growth of 93%. This includes solid growth in AutoStore projects and Vusion ESL installations, as well as 33% growth in shop fitting. We are pleased with the positive development in the U.K. and especially with the signs of recovery within shop fitting. However, in Q1, we also had revenue declines in the Baltics, Norway, and Sweden, offsetting the U.K. increase. In the Baltics, we had a decline of 35% due to fewer self-checkout rollouts, and in the Nordics, there was a decline of 21% due to fewer ESL rollouts.
Overall, the revenue came out flat versus last year, which, with all the global uncertainties we are observing, we believe is a respectable outcome. Continue on to recurring revenue 12 months rolling. This increased by 3% year-on-year to NOK 384 million, and comparing to Q4 2025, it remained flat. As we explained and talked about in the last quarter, the recurring revenue from our former ESL partner will diminish in 2026. In Q1, the effect on the 12 months rolling recurring revenue was a reduction of NOK 8 million, impacting license revenue and service revenue. However, we also had higher growth in other service agreements relating to CashGuard, Vensafe, and self-checkout, resulting in the overall growth of 3%. If we move on to EBITDA, this was NOK 10 million in Q1 this year, the same as for Q1 last year.
This is driven by the same development we talked about with revenue, improvement in profitability in the U.K., stemming from the 93% revenue increase. On the other hand, offset by reduced profitability in the Baltics and the Nordics. We continue to expect fluctuations between the quarters. From an overall perspective, over the last two years, as we can see here, we are gradually improving. These were the key drivers of the EBITDA for the quarter. Now let's look at the cash flow movements. We started the year with NOK 99 million in cash and ended Q1 with NOK 68 million, a reduction of NOK 31 million. This includes a positive contribution from the operating result of NOK 10 million and several components, reducing the cash for the quarter. I will revert to the working capital increase shortly.
We had CapEx of NOK 7 million, which mainly relates to our CashGuard Connect project in Spain and our own POS solution in the Baltics. Other cash outflows include premises payment under IFRS 16 of NOK 7 million, interest payments of NOK 4 million, and other prepayments of NOK 11 million. Now let's move further into the key components of the working capital development. Overall for the year, working capital increased by NOK 7 million to NOK 100 million at the end of Q1. This includes an increase in accounts receivable of NOK 20 million, mainly due to the higher activity that we are observing in the U.K. Now, this increase was to a large extent offset by a reduction in inventory, driven by a reduction in grocery lockers and the shop fitting inventory. To conclude, we will look at the development in net interest-bearing debt.
During the first quarter, the net interest-bearing debt increased from NOK 61 million to NOK 91 million, corresponding to the development in cash that I just covered. As we have drawn up our available credit facilities, the disposable funds were the same as the cash position with NOK 68 million. Finally, the equity ratio remained stable at 46%, well above our equity covenant of 30%. With this, I will hand it back to Jacob for some final remarks.
Thank you, Marius . I would like to start by reiterating that we do not provide short-term guidance. What I can say is that our journey towards stable and sustainable profitability will not be linear. In the near- term, we will see both opportunities to capture as well as challenges to address. Looking further ahead, we expect grocery retailers to continue investing and increasing their investment in technology. This is encouraging for StrongPoint. Our focus remains on building and maintaining customer intimacy and Earning the trust of grocery retailers as we bring our broad portfolio solutions to the market. We continue to target international growth, particularly through our global SaaS e-commerce opportunities. At the same time, we recognize the importance of revitalizing our traditional Nordic and Baltic markets. Both areas will be important for us in the future development.
To conclude, the continued interest in our solution portfolio, together with the trust of our partners and customers that they place in us, gives me confidence in StrongPoint's long-term potential. Our ambition remains the same as earlier stated, healthy revenue growth and an EBITDA margin above 10%. We have already now in Q1 delivered a 11% EBITDA margin in our traditional home turf markets, Nordics and Baltics, this provides certainly to me an indication of what is achievable, provided an international scale-up of our business. As for the next presentation, we have our Q2 2026 presentation on July 10. For any questions related to investor relations, please do contact Marius directly. His contact details are shown on the screen and, of course, on our webpage.
I would also like to invite you all to our annual general meeting, which will be held online at 10:00 A.M. today via an audio cast following that our usual Q&A audio session at 11:00 A.M. For both the annual general meeting and the Q&A, you can email questions to the investor@strongpoint.com if you would like to. With that, thank you so much.