Thank you, and good morning, everyone. This is the Axfood Third Quarter 2021 Telephone Conference. With me today are Klas Balkow, our President and CEO, and Anders Lexmon, our CFO. In the investor section of our website, you will find the presentation for today's call, which is intended to be viewed in conjunction with our prepared commentary. We encourage you to follow along with that presentation. After our prepared commentary, we will be taking questions. A recording of this call will be made available on the Axfood website. With that, I will now hand over the word to Klas.
Thank you, Alex, and of course, good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining today's call. On page number 2 in the presentation, you'll find the agenda for today. What I will do, I'll provide you with an update on the recent market developments and then go through the third quarter performance for Axfood. Anders will then take you through the financials, after Anders' part, I will continue to talk about our strategy. Today, we will have a specific focus on some of our current initiatives within the area of sustainability. I will also talk about the Bergendahls transaction, which we closed on the 1st of October. The last part of the presentation is about the outlook and the remainder of the year, after that, we open up the line for questions. Let's get going and let's start.
Please go to the next page number 3. That will bring us to the market update. Please turn another page and go to page number 4. During the third quarter, demand in the food retail continued to be strong, but high comparison figures from last year and a low level of food price inflation dampened the overall growth. In pace with the easing of the restrictions surrounding the pandemic, it is now clear that we are seeing a change in the overall dynamics on the market. It is a continued gradual recovery for stores at central urban location, and it is also gratifying to see that the situation for cross-border trade towards Norway is much better. In addition, the trend for the café and restaurant market and service trade has also improved significantly.
In terms of e-commerce, growth has come down a lot in the recent months. This logic can be explained by the high comparison numbers. It also being driven by customers now increasingly returning to shopping in physical stores. Let's go to and look at the total growth in the food retail market, we are now on page 5 in the presentation. The graph you see here on the left side shows monthly growth rates year-on-year. Growth has been low and hovering around 1% or somewhat above that over the past couple of months. In addition, on this page, you can see the trend for the food price inflation on the graph on the right-hand side. While the inflation rate picked up a little bit on the sequential basis in the third quarter, the growth rate was still very weak at 0.3%.
Before we go to the next page, I just would like to add that despite the current low level of overall growth, the food retail market is resilient and consumption levels compared to the situation before the pandemic have remained high. Let's now move to page number 6. As I said, growth in the e-commerce remains low, and you can see this on the right graph on this page. This is, however, not only driven by high comps from last year. If you look at sales growth in the physical store, which is displayed in the left graph on this page, we now have four consecutive months of positive growth rates. A lot of consumers have been returning to stores in recent months as the restrictions around the pandemic have been lifted, and consequently, physical stores are capturing a higher share of the total growth.
In the third quarter, the online segment accounted for just over 4% of the total market, considerably lower than the 6% share in the second quarter this year. Now, while online growth obviously has been outpacing growth in physical stores in recent years, it is good to know then remind ourselves that physical stores still represent the overwhelming majority of sales in our market. That sums up my comments on the recent market developments, and we are now on page number 7 in the presentation. Lets now go to the third quarter development for Axfood, therefore please turn to page number 8. Looking at total store sales for Axfood grew 0.7% during the third quarter, which was slightly below the market growth rate of 1.2%. In the online segment, we continued to outperform with growth that amounted to approximately 9%, while the market growth was 3%.
Let's go to next page number 9. Consolidated net sales for Axfood grew by 2.2% during the third quarter and amounted to SEK 13.7 billion. The increase refers mainly from new establishments and higher net sales for Snabbgross and Dagab. Sales for Snabbgross increased significantly, and Dagab posted solid growth with a recovery in service trade and a strong performance for our retail chain, Tempo. Regarding sales per segment, I will go through them one by one when we cover the details by segment. Please now go to page number 10. During the third quarter, our operating profit includes items affecting comparability and more specifically, integration cost of SEK 18 million associated with the Bergendahls transaction, which were charged against Dagab's operating profit. We've also noted a positive effect from the reduction in payroll taxes for young employees.
In total, group operating profit amounted to SEK 793 million, and the operating margin was 5.8%. Operating profit, excluding items affecting comparability, amounted to SEK 811 million, and the corresponding margin was 5.9%. In sum up, a very profitable quarter that matched a very strong quarter last year. Let's now go into each of our segment, and we'll start with the largest one, Willys. Please turn to page number 11 in the presentation. In all, total sales growth for this segment amounted to 0.1%, and the like-for-like growth was negative at 1.2%. I must say that the growth figures for Willys chain are low at the moment, but this should be viewed in the light of the fact that Willys is meeting among the highest comparison figures in the market.
If you look at prior year growth for the larger format Willys stores, i.e. growth in the third quarter 2020 compared to the third quarter 2019, it amounted to almost 13%. In addition to that, this quarter, there was this negative effect of approximately 1 percentage point on total store sales from the closed Willys stores in Borås that was damaged, unfortunately, by a fire in May. We hope that we're able to open the store in the nearest future. Now, for Eurocash, the performance was measured against the weak third quarter last year, and sales increased as a result of gradually increasing customer traffic following the easing of travel restriction between Sweden and Norway. However, looking at sales in relation to the third quarter 2019, they were considerably lower, and the decrease compared with that period was approximately 40%.
One should bear in mind that certain degree of restrictions still were in place during most part of the quarter, and certain border crossing remained closed. Now, this date, all restrictions have basically been lifted, and all border crossing are open. Looking at the performance in the recent weeks, the trend is significantly better than before, and we are very pleased to see that things are gradually now getting back to normal. Operating profit for the Willys segment decreased to SEK 457 million, and the margin was 5.8%. The decrease is mainly attributable to the negative like-for-like sales performance. While the development for food prices have been negative, it's worth noting that we, as other business, face upwards pressure in terms of wages and salaries. Operating profit for Eurocash improved slightly as a result of the increased sales but was still considerably negative.
Now, I have to say, Willys has a unique position in the market, and if you go to page 12, I just would like to highlight the progress made over the past two years, i.e. before the pandemic broke out to now. In terms of sales, growth was 12% from the third quarter 2019 to the third quarter 2021, which can be compared to 7% for the market as a whole. Clear market share gains for Willys chain. During the first nine months of this year, we estimate Willys' market share at approximately 13% of the total food retail market in Sweden, which is up one percentage point from the same period in 2019. Willys has, over the past year, strengthened its concept and appeal with the consumers. This is obviously displayed by the market outperformance.
In addition to that, Willys also score high in independent ranking and reviews. Recently, Willys was named the fastest growing brand in terms of value among the 50 most valuable brands in Sweden, according to a major survey conducted by Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy. Let's now move to Hemköp and page number 13 in the presentation. Total store sales growth was higher than the market and amounted to 2.0%, like-for-like growth was 1.5%. The franchise stores saw strong growth, like-for-like growth for the group-owned stores was solid. The Tempo chain continues its positive development and posted strong growth during the quarter of 5.6%. The operating profit for Hemköp increased significantly and amounted to SEK 76 million. Actually, an all-time high number for Hemköp in the quarter. The operating margin was also significantly higher at 5.2%.
The increase is mainly attributable to positive like-for-like store growth and improved sales mix and good cost control. Please now turn to page number 14. While like-for-like sales for the group-owned Hemköp stores increased partly owing to low comparison figures, Hemköp is also benefiting now from the increased flow of people in central city locations. As you can see here on the slide, the external source data in the chart to the left has been compiled using aggregated information from mobile networks, and it shows that the movement in city centers in Sweden has picked up significantly. The data in the chart ranges from January 2020 to July this year, but the positive development has continued also after that. With the sales trend for the stores in these locations are clearly positive, they nevertheless have some catching up to do before they are back to pre-pandemic levels.
Now, please turn to Snabbgross in page 15 in the presentation. Snabbgross, again, had a great quarter, despite tough comparison period and posted all-time high sales, operating profit, and operating margin. Snabbgross is benefiting from the recovery of the restaurant market. At the same time, the concept has strengthened, and the customer base has grown during the past year, which is contributing to its performance. The third quarter sales increased strongly by 14.3% and 11.6% in our like-for-like sales. In addition to the increase in the customer base, new establishment and higher average ticket value also contributed to the growth. We have continued to develop our membership-based store concept, Snabbgross Club, and it's contributing to a great extent to Snabbgross sales. In late August, we also expanded Snabbgross Club with a new store and are seeing steady growth in membership and interest for this new concept.
With the positive development in like-for-like sales, Snabbgross operating profit increased significantly in the quarter and amounted to SEK 77 million. The operating margin was 6.8%. We are now on page 16 and the operating performance for the Dagab segment. Sales for Dagab increased by 1.8%, driven by higher sales to Hemköp, Snabbgross and the service trade. Owing to a high level of activity and strong focus on productivity, Dagab once again reported favorable earnings despite certain disruptions in the general supply chain that affected planning and delivery reliability. These disruptions relate to the current fragile state of the global supply chain, with issues relating to production and shortages in, for example, raw materials, packaging materials and transports. Dagab operating profit, excluding items affecting comparability, was essentially unchanged compared with the strong quarter a year ago and totaled SEK 247 million. The operating margin, excluding items affecting comparability, was 2.0%.
The prior year period was favorably affected by a positive currency effect. Overall, a very solid performance for Dagab in the third quarter with high efficiency. A few more comments. Mat.se, that is reported in the Dagab segment, continues to develop its concept and with a further easing of the restriction in the restaurant market, Urban Deli showed continued positive sales performance. A strong trend for Apohem continues with high growth and focusing now on strengthening its brand. With that, let's move to page number 17, and I would like to hand over to our CFO, Mr. Anders Lexmon, who will present our financial position. Anders, please take it from here.
Thank you, Klas. We are on page 18. Let me first sum up with the net sales and operating profit for the first nine months. Net sales for the Group increased with 1.9% to SEK 4.8 billion. Store sales for the Axfood Group increased by 1.4% and was in line with the overall market growth for the period. The operating profit, excluding items affecting comparability of SEK 72 million, increased with SEK 92 million or 4.7%. The operating margin increased from 4.9%- 5.0%. Items affecting comparability consist of costs relating to the acquisition and integration of Bergendahls Food and was recognized in the second and third quarters. Let's turn to page 19.
Looking at the cash flow for the first nine months, we continue to show higher operating profit compared to last year, mainly due to strong margin development in Hemköp and Snabbgross, also high efficiency in the Dagab operation. We have a slightly negative working capital effect of SEK 52 million in the period. Further, we saw a higher investment activity in the first nine months compared to last year. The deviation is mainly related to investment in the supply chain and in IT. I'll come back to the capital expenditure on the next slide. SEK 1.5 billion in loan was raised at the end of Q3 when utilizing the revolving credit facility as a preparation for closing of the Bergendahls acquisition as of the 1st of October.
The second dividend payout was made in September, SEK 3.75 per share, and thereby a total dividend of SEK 7.25 per share was paid out for 2021, an increase of SEK 52 million compared to last year. To summarize, the total cash flow for the period amounts to SEK 809 million, a positive deviation of SEK 862 million compared to last year. Let's then turn to page 20. Total investments for the first nine months amounted to SEK 1,209 million, of which SEK 444 million was attributable to automation solutions in our wholesale operation. The investment in our retail operation included both refurbishments and new establishments and were in line with last year. The investment in our wholesale operation was in line with last year if we exclude investment in automation, as I mentioned before.
The investment in our IT operation was up SEK 56 million, mainly due to infrastructure in stores and new merchandise solutions in our ERP systems. Let's turn to page 21. In the first nine months, we have further decreased our net working capital compared to sales from -3.4% to -4.0% on a rolling 12-month basis. We have continued our focus on working capital with improved payment terms on accounts payable, and our SCF program also helps us increase accounts payable. Let's go to page 22. Looking then at the development of net debt at the end of September, we had a net receivable position of SEK 462 million, excluding IFRS 16, slightly higher compared to September last year of SEK 350 million.
The net debt to EBITDA ratio increases slightly and the equity ratio decreased from 24% last Q3 to 22.2%. The main reason for the changes in these key ratios was the RCF drawdown of SEK 1.5 billion at the end of the quarter due to the completion of the Bergendahls acquisition at the 1st of October. Let's turn to page 23. The capital employed increased with approximately SEK 1.7 billion for the first nine months, also that due to the RCF drawdown of SEK 1.5 billion . Return on capital employment decreased somewhat as well due to the increased net debt and the closing of the Bergendahls transaction. At the Capital Markets Day in December, we will come back in more details how and what financial impact the acquisition will have on Axfood's financials.
To sum up, we can conclude that Axfood continue to invest in the future and at the same time have a strong cash flow and a solid financial position. With that, Klas, that ends up my part of the presentation. I hand over to you again.
Thank you, Anders. Now I would like to end up this part with going into our strategic agenda. Please then turn to page 25. Obviously a natural start is that in mid-September, we received clearance from the Swedish Competition Authority for the acquisition of the wholesale business Bergendahls Food and a minority shareholding amounting to 9.9% in City Gross, which is a part of a strategic partnership. Through this deal, which was completed on October 1st, we have to state that we've made history in Swedish food retail. The acquisition creates economy of scale and synergies, and through greater efficiency and improvements in the assortment and logistics, also benefits wholesale customers as well as consumers. As a reminder, the transaction is expected to create annual cost synergies of approximately SEK 200 million that are expected to be realized successively through 2025.
Excluding integration and transaction costs, it is expected that the acquisition will make a positive contribution to earnings per share from 2022. Move to page 26, a few comments on what's happening right now. We are now at work on the integration of the operation, and I must say it feels really great to welcome all the new colleagues to the Axfood family. Right now, until the second quarter next year, our main focus will be on integrating the wholesale operation of Bergendahls Food with Dagab. After this, we will turn our focus to integrating the stores, including City Gross, with our group's processes and IT infrastructure. Of course, there will be some overlap between these two processes, but we will certainly make progress also with the store integration before mid-next year.
On a high level, this is what the integration process will look like at this moment. Moving on then from Bergendahls transaction, and we are now on page 27. At Axfood, we are pursuing a strategy of growth-promoting and efficiency-enhancing priorities to become the market leader in good and sustainable food. I'm sure many of you are already familiar with how we work with our six strategic focus areas, and you can see them on this slide. Today, I would like to highlight some initiatives within the area of sustainability. Our sustainability work is extensive and goes across the entire operation. Long-term sustainable decisions will enable us to grow faster than the market, create new business opportunities and profitable growth, and contributing, of course also to a more sustainable development. If you then go to page number 28.
The most recent United Nations climate report shows that it is urgent to take effective measures that protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Towards this end, at Axfood, we recently presented our food strategy in the report Food 2030, which includes 100 recommendations for sustainability measures for the business sector, politicians, and authorities. 14 of the recommendations in this year's report are new and address, among other things, the need to invest in novel ways to process seafood, support for longer grazing periods for dairy cows, and the requirement that all Swedish beef should have basic animal welfare certification. In our group, we will continue to take our responsibility and work intensively with sustainability issues, but to bring about real positive change, we want to see more faster and bolder initiatives from decision-makers in order to facilitate the transition to a more sustainable food system.
Let's now move to page number 29. We are continuing to focus on renewable energy and in partnership with Alight, a leading company in power purchase agreements for solar energy, Sweden's largest solar park will now be built. With this facility, when it's put into operation in 2023, it will cover approximately 15% of our total electricity consumption. With this initiative, we are taking the next major step in this area. In addition to making our own operation more green, we're also helping to significantly boost the supply of solar energy in Sweden. We have worked on the issue of solar power for many years, and our first solar power facility was actually built at Dagab's warehouse in Backa, Gothenburg, back in 2013.
We have a goal for solar panels to be installed on at least 25% of suitable roof surfaces at our warehouses and stores, of course, with the approval of the property owners. Up until last year, our greenhouse gas emissions had been reduced by 76% compared with the base year of 2009. A decline that was attributable to renewable electricity from solar, wind, and hydropower, a higher share of fossil-free goods transportations, fewer non-environmentally friendly refrigerators and freezers, and less business travel by air. The goal for us is to achieve net zero emissions from our own operations by 2030. Please turn to the next page number 30. We also have a goal to sell more sustainable label products. This goal aims to help consumers make conscious and safe choices and to drive our work on developing and being better at selling a sustainable assortment.
We continue to expand our private label offering in this area. We have recently launched a number of very interesting new products. Garant, our private label, have launched MSC certified burger made of cod and hake, as well as vegetarian kebab made of wheat and field bean. In addition, caviar made of seaweed was also launched as a vegetarian option to fish roe. These are just some examples of products that have been launched in the past months. In addition to developing our own private label products, we also work with close collaboration with suppliers and also through partnership. Just last week, Cashewmeetly was launched in collaboration with the Swedish social entrepreneur, Linnéa Falkinger. Cashewmeetly is a new and vegetarian meat based on cashew apples that normally would have become waste in the harvesting process of cashew nuts.
All in all, a sustainable and innovative product that really fit with what we actually want to do, and we are happy to be able to support this initiative with a broad launch in more than 300 of our stores and online. Let's now turn page, and we are now on page 31 in the presentation. With that, let's turn into the outlook. Please go to page number 32. Our outlook for the year is unchanged. For capital expenditures, we will be in the upper end of the range of SEK 1.8 billion-SEK 1.9 billion. This estimate includes an investment of SEK 585 million in the automation solution for a new logistical center in Bålsta, as well as SEK 150 million investment in land in connection with the facility to secure further expansion possibilities.
In terms of expansion, we plan to establish 5- 10 new stores, and we also continue the online rollout by adding more stores and locations for our e-commerce to consumers. Right now, we have established seven new Group-owned stores this year. What we're seeing is that we will finish up in the upper end of the store guidance range, also in terms of our store expansion. Please now turn to the next page number 33. To sum up, we are yet to again close a solid quarter with increased sales and high profitability. A lot is happening within our group, and we have a high pace of development.
As we are now in the beginning to see a return on the new normal after the pandemic, it is important to stay in tune with and address the customers' changed expectations and behaviors. We are well positioned in the changing market with our strong and distinctive concept. The deal with Bergendahls and other investments we are making also represent a large leap that we'll be taking in the coming years to ensure long-term profitable and sustainable growth. We're now on page 34. Before we go into the Q&A, just a reminder that our Capital Markets Day 2021 will be held on December 16 from 1:00 P.M. to approximately 4:30 P.M. At this event, we will cover many areas that are of importance for our group. Details around this event will be available on our website.
With that, please turn to page number 35, and I hand over to the operator to open up the line for questions. Thank you.
Thank you. If you will like to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you need to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. They'll now be a brief pause while questions are being registered. The first question comes from Fredrik Ivarsson from ABG. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning, guys.
Morning.
First question on Eurocash. When I look at the last 12 months, it seems like the negative effect from Eurocash is around minus SEK 150 million or so, or 20 basis points on the margin if we look at EBIT. If you get back to pre-COVID levels, that would support group earnings by some 5% or so, according to my calculations. My question is, do you expect to get back to pre-COVID levels in Eurocash, or do you fear that some Norwegians, I suppose, will continue to shop in Norway, for instance?
Well, I think we also commented that after the last quarter when we actually made a survey from the Norwegians in terms of how they look at the situation and their interest in going back. We were very pleased to note that the survey indicates very clearly that they are eager to get back to the cross-border shopping. It is not only a price question, well it is. It's attractive for the consumers to shop, it's also an experience. It's also a range thing in terms of the products they can find on this side of the border. We have high expectations to go back to a more normal level where now the borders are opening up. As I commented as well in this report, we were not in this quarter back to normal levels.
Now since it has opened up fully, it is clearly an increase in traffic and a positive experience, particularly in the stores. Obviously our coworkers are really pleased to see all the customers now coming into our stores.
Perfect. Thanks. Second one on the disruptions within the supply chain, even though it doesn't seem too dramatic, given that the margin held up fairly well in Dagab. Do you see any improvements of the situation or is it still difficult?
No, I think it's been challenging in terms of our service levels. For the whole market, it's been neutral for everyone as it has been disruptions a little bit all over. In the end of the quarter, I think it has improved. It goes clearly in the right direction. We hope that that will stabilize as we move along. As you all know, the whole supply chain situation in the world is an issue that we need to follow closely. So far, we've been able to handle it in a positive way. Obviously, it differs in our way. We have a range of products and a range of suppliers. If one supplier has issues, we can add another one.
We have a little bit more flexibility to make sure that we have a true good customer offer so we are not having empty shelves.
Right. Excellent. Last one from me, on the private label share in Willys, that was down a bit, I think year-over-year. I suppose your gross margin for the group was slightly lower than last year as well. Do you think that this is an effect of markets normalizing and people getting back to offices and so forth?
No, I think we're looking at the overall trend here. As I comment, we are constantly working with our regular brands and with innovative there. We also are adding more brands in our private label sector and then driving that agenda as well. I don't think you can connect it to that.
Okay, perfect. Thanks. That's all my questions.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Daniel Schmidt from Danske Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes, good morning, Klas and Anders. A couple of questions. Coming back to Bergendahls Food, which has been consolidated by the 1st of October. You gave us some numbers in May in connection with the announcement, stating, I think that you saw that Bergendahls Food were making SEK 90 million on EBIT on the rolling 12 months as of the end of Q1. Would you care to update that number by the end of September rolling 12?
Good morning, Daniel. I don't know if you can comment on that any, Anders?
I haven't the exact numbers here, Daniel, actually.
They closed their annual year end of August. We can come back to that. We don't have it by end of September.
No. Do you have it by the end of August? Has there been any change to this SEK 90 million? They've been on this turnaround trajectory.
They have increased the result, yeah, in the recent last year.
Yeah. Also compared to where you were in March or is that the same?
No, there is some higher earnings in Bergendahls Food when we saw the figures for August.
Yeah.
One can add, Daniel, as well, again, that decision was made October 1st, and prior to that, the communication, all of that is related to Bergendahls. They've been public in terms of City Gross has made, what I would say what I've seen a good performance the last month as well, which is positive of course.
Am I getting you right in believing that SEK 90 million that you talked about by the end of March rolling 12 months, maybe is that sort of SEK 100 million or SEK 95 million or something like that by the end of August?
Slightly above SEK 90 million.
Okay. Clearly they're moving continuously in a positive direction. That's fair to assume then. Also when it comes to City Gross, as you said, Klas.
Yeah.
I think you, Anders, you also said that you will be back in connection with the CMD in December with more details. Is it too early to give any indication when it comes to purchase price allocation in terms of amortizations in connection with the transaction? What we should expect on a yearly basis? Also anything sort of when it comes to the timing of synergies? Was that entirely sort of something you will talk about in one month's time or two months' time?
Yes. Quick answer.
Oh, yeah.
We are just now focusing very much on closing this deal, and we'll give you more update at the CMD.
Okay. Just coming back also to Eurocash again. If I do the math also, I think you said you were 60% down in Q3 last year, and you're still down 40%, slightly more versus Q3 2019. Implicitly, that means that you grew by around 40% in the quarter versus Q3 2020. I think you said you were growing by 5% in connection with the Q2 report when referring to July or the beginning of July. Are you close to the levels that you were by the end of September, beginning of October, where you were two years ago, or are you still trailing quite a bit?
Now you are into days and weeks here, Daniel. September, the quarter has improved as you made your math.
Yeah..
That's right. Now, the full opening was actually in the beginning of Q4. What I can say is that I've been positive to see the effects of the full opening. Hey, let's sum up some more weeks and see how this develops.
Yeah. Okay.
It's a positive start.
Yeah. Okay. Then maybe finally, you're saying, of course, that everyone can see that and experience that the inner city traffic is picking up, and that's good for Hemköp, and I guess also good for Snabbgross. Are you seeing that trend more fully blown in Q4 as we start Q4 compared to the average in Q3?
I think the trend is clear, as we showed also with some external data that we, as consumers, are now returning more to cities and so forth and to some of these locations. How this will fully develop, if it will be equal to 2019, I think we'll have to see. I think it's positive that we start to return. We also, as I think many of us are relating to, is that how much will we go back to office? Will we go back as pre-the pandemic, five days a week or less? How will that impact the traffic and so forth? I think it's a bit early to make clear statements of this, how it will be equally the same or if it will be some shifts.
The statement that we do is it's positive to see that we're now getting more and more return. We're also seeing an overall return to physical stores in general, which is reflecting our numbers.
Yeah. Do you think that the trend is more obvious when it comes to Snabbgross than when it comes to inner city traffic for Hemköp?
Yeah. Snabbgross is very much supporting the café and restaurant market.
Yeah.
Clearly, that is more of a digital number. The café and restaurant market, since the restriction has been eased up, even if you've been open before, you have restriction in terms of how many could sit in every table and so forth.
Exactly.
Now they can have fully operation. Of course, that is supporting the overall café and restaurant market. I have to say, I think Snabbgross is making a fantastic quarter because if you look at last year, we had actually a very high number last year as well. There was some ease in restrictions last year in Q3, particularly in the summer period, and Snabbgross made a very strong performance during that period. Despite that, we are clearly outperforming last year with now the even further ease of restrictions. I think the whole café and restaurant market is now clearly gaining and picking up.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Thank you. That's all for me.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Yes, I got a couple of questions here. Firstly, on food inflation. If you look at the monthly food inflation, it's reversed from deflation of 1% in May to inflation now of 1% in September. I'm curious what you see where this is heading short to medium term. What kind of inflation rates are we likely to see? Also in the past, food inflation tends to be positive for your earnings. Do you think this could still be the case, or is there anything that's different this time around?
It's difficult to predict. I think you have many wise people who's trying now to say how the inflation will be. You're right. If you look at it, we're coming from a deflation period and now a more gradual inflation over, even included in the quarter, even if the sum up of the full quarter was 0.3%. Now it has increased also in September. There are many things that relates to that, and I think we also need to look at last year, which was a fairly high inflation year. In this year, we have the currency, they have some raw materials effects and so forth. I think it is a bit tricky to say exactly how it will, but the trend right now is somewhat more or at least that we're not in a deflation mode.
Obviously we'll see how this turns out. We're also meeting in Q4 versus last Q4, a lower inflation rate. We are in one way meeting easier comps in that perspective.
Okay. Fair enough. Turning back to the issue of supply disruptions in Dagab that you mentioned before here, are you actually seeing significant shortages or is it mainly a question of delays and/or rising costs?
I think in the quarter, it has been a disturbing quarter on certain products and in certain areas. We've been able to balance that with taking in different products and other articles. We've been able to keep it up fairly good, but it has been a bit disturbing for Dagab to handle this because we're getting shortage on one product. It's been a bit tricky for doing some of the campaigns if a supplier gets short, then we have to replace that and so forth. It's been more on the tricky side. We've seen a somewhat lower service grade levels to our stores. I think we've been able to handle it fairly okay. As I comment for some other questions, it has improved over the quarter, so it's getting better and better, and I hope it will continue to do that.
Very good, thanks. Finally, just a question on Bergendahls. You talk about cost synergies of SEK 200 million. Do you also see any kind of sales synergies when merging these two businesses?
Well, since the merger now is on the wholesale business, obviously that creates some synergies, but obviously we also think and believe that if you do this right, we can work on the assortment, we can be more relevant, and with the scale, we can be more effective with our campaigns and so forth. Obviously, we think over the period here and also some time to go ahead, I think this will benefit to make us even a more stronger player that could be more relevant to the consumers as well. The majority part initially is where we can get more synergies out of the costs. Then obviously, we hope that we can support City Gross with our logistical platform in a different way versus historical. As I said, pleased to see their positive development the last months, and I hope we'll continue to support that.
Very clear. Thank you for taking my question.
Thanks.
Thank you. Final question comes from Magnus Råman from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. A lot of questions already been answered, but perhaps on online growth here with getting clearly above the market and in terms of penetration, you're also above the market. At the same time, you reiterate that online sales in aggregate is unprofitable for you, I believe. For the long term, you've stated that customers need to carry more of the delivery cost for a sort of sustainable profitability profile for online groceries. How do you view these different facts in relation to your own pricing for delivery?
No, I think our guiding star is that we are going to meet the expectations from the customers and the demand from the customers and want to make sure that we are a very good alternative, both in physical stores and on the online part. We are driving two agendas here, but we think it is as a whole in our language, the omnichannel is the way we go for it. When it comes to profitability, I think we've been clear around that to take the further big step you need to go into the backend with automation. The part of that is as you see in the plans that we have with the Bålsta investment, but also as we announced in July that we're also making an e-commerce automation in Gothenburg. That will support some help.
Now the click and collect alternative is also better in terms of profitability. And to the point that you have, I think we have one retailer that is very clear in terms of what this is costing. That is Willys, who has a clear fee system out there, which is very transparent to the consumers, and it's also very appreciated by the consumers.
That fee is still not covering your cost, correct?
Well, it depends on how you look at it. Over time when you're getting up the volumes, it will do.
All right. Okay. Yeah, there's been a lot of topics and questions relating to potential increasing profitability for you going forward. Perhaps I could just continue on one smaller perhaps, but one further here. You mentioned, I think it was mentioned here that your increased IT investments in stores here, do they also relate to a ramp-up in the rollout of automated checkouts? Perhaps you can update us on what share of checkouts being made in total in your systems are automated checkouts today and if you have any targets ahead, then potentially if you can give us any lead to what type of profitability on a transaction by per transaction basis, what type of profitability improvement you get from automated checkouts. Thank you.
Well, we continue, Magnus, to roll out self-checkout solutions in our stores in new stores and also when we refurbish them and so on. Approximately two-thirds of the stores today for Axfood total have this solution.
In terms of if you would count all your checkouts, what's the penetration of automated checkouts?
Two-thirds in our stores.
You're talking about now number of stores that have automated checkouts or are you talking about the actual number of checkouts being made?
Number of stores.
Right. What I was alluding to was the penetration of checkouts of your total-
Sales
- each customer making one checkout-
Yeah.
- of your total sales.
Okay. I understand. Of the sales in terms of how many goes through the checkout and how many goes through the normal cashier? I don't sit with that number handy, unfortunately. No.
Is it one-fourth or is it half or any [crosstalk]
We'll get back to you on that.
Right.
We can talk that with Alex. We can get back to that. Obviously as you're pointing out, the automation part of this is positive, but also gives the opportunity to give even further service in the stores with the staff rather than just sitting in the cashier.
Excellent. Just a final follow-up on that one. I see some of your competitive group, for example, has launched the ability to shop completely in the store with your smartphone without having any sort of physical device in the store. Is that a step you will take as well and does that further improve profitability or is it requiring a lot of IT development? Do you have any comments?
It is requiring IT development. We already have it out in a few stores today in Willys. We are already having that in a few stores that we're offering. It's also somewhat early days to see because that's you're coming back to in terms of how many consumers actually are using it. I would say it's still fairly low. We'll see how that develop, if that will be some stickiness in that the consumers rather go with their mobile phone when they shop or if they want to have one of the other tools that we are offering. I think you'll see how that turns out because obviously, when you're shopping one or two or three items, maybe it's more convenient versus when you're shopping 40 items, et cetera.
All right. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. We have no further questions, so I will pass back to the speakers.
Well then, just to end up and would just like to say thank you for listening in and have a good day. Thank you.