Hello, and welcome to the Byggmax Conference Call. Throughout the call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and afterwards, there will be a question and answer session. Just to remind you, this conference call is being recorded. Today, I'm pleased to present Mattias Ankarberg, CEO. Please go ahead with your meeting.
Thank you, and welcome everybody to this Byggmax Q4 Conference Call. With me, I also have our CFO, Helena Nathhorst. As usual, we will speak to presentation available on our website. I will start, Helena will cover financials before we wrap up and move to Q&A. We'll start on page two in the presentation. We end a very strong year, a record year with another really strong quarter, which we're really happy about. We are obviously in a period where we have extreme comparables to face, but despite that, Q4 net sales increased by 7% on top of 29% last year to just over SEK 1.3 billion.
We continue to take market share quite a lot, so in a market that is now stabilizing, which is something we will come back to in a minute. Excuse me. Like-for-like sales did increase a bit, 6%, but also on top of 28% from last year, so about 20% on a two-year basis, which of course is something we're very pleased about. We continue to have e-commerce as a big share of our total sales. We also maintain, slightly exceed last year's record level on gross margin, and we continue to have very strong cost control. In all, like-for-like did decreased a little bit. EBITDA decreased to SEK 25 million versus last year.
We also now see that we are at the level well above all years prior to 2020, which is of course positive. For the full year, sales increased to SEK 7.6 billion, an increase of 12%. We are currently at an EBITDA margin of almost 12%, 11.7% compared to 10.4% last year. On key events, page three, it's a fairly small quarter for us and largely not that eventful. We've been really focused on executing our organic growth initiatives. The main focus has been in the quarter to upgrade our store portfolio to what we call Store 3.0, the better performing concept.
We've done that at a record pace during the quarter, and we now end the year with just over two-thirds of our store portfolio at Store 3.0. We opened one new store in the quarter, and we also completed a buyback program during the autumn amounting to SEK 200 million. All our organic growth initiatives, we could say on page four, are built around us being a discounter. Those who follow retail know that it's a strong phenomenon across geographies and retail categories. We are really pleased that despite a lot of work on improving quality and assortment in e-commerce, we have also strengthened our discount position during 2021 even more. We also get recognized for it by independent surveys in several countries.
This is still very much a foundation and a hallmark for our business. Continuing on the external side on page five and looking at the market environment, which is of course really interesting given how this industry has been impacted by the pandemic. There are two important messages to share with you today on page five. The first one is, well, that we continue to take a lot of market share. We are now happy to have public statistics on the consumer market since two years, both in several countries. We increased local currency 6% in the quarter versus the market decreasing quite a bit. For the full year 2021, we increased 12% in sales versus a flat market.
For those of you who followed us, that is just a continuation of many quarters now, continuously, with market share gains on our part. The second, perhaps a little bit new and interesting observation regarding the market is that we can now look back on the second half of 2021 and see a market that is stabilizing at a new level. If we compare the market to last year, yes, in the Q4, it did decline by 68%. Compared to 2019, i.e., before the pandemic, the market increased by around 8%-10%, which happens to be exactly the same increase as in Q3.
We now, with a bit more open society, removed pandemic restrictions during the autumn and people returning partly to the office and traveling domestically, et cetera, see a market level which is below the pandemic level, but has stabilized at almost 10% above the pandemic period or pandemic levels, sorry. Again, there are, you know, factors moving in different ways to this. As mentioned, some of the pandemic effects impact negatively versus last year, but also we see continued or high activity or record high activity around things related to the home. There has been a record high housing market activity in 2021. We continue to see in consumer research and in real behavior that many consumers expect to continue work partly from home, and there's a lot of leisure activities now connected to the home.
All in all, not at the pandemic level, but stabilizing at a level clearly higher than before the pandemic. If we then on page six, leave the external factors and focus on our own efforts, we have been continued to being focused on the four main growth initiatives that we have now executed for quite some quarters with good results, and we are of course pleased to see that they continue to deliver really good growth results for us. We'll go through some of them in a bit more detail in a minute. Just to get the overview, we know we have executed a lot of store upgrades as mentioned, and we know that they drive 6% on average per store, which is of course really positive. E-commerce continues to perform really strong for us.
It did decline in total a bit versus last year and also facing 60% comps. This has a very natural explanation. We continued actually to see very strong positive growth momentum in the store assortment products, but there are certain online exclusive categories that are impacted negatively by supply disruptions from Asia, which impact the total. We can get back to more around that in a second. We have opened one new stores, 10 stores in total during the year, and which has added 2% of the sales in the fourth quarter. Then on top of that, we have acquired stores, which is not included in the 2%. They are in the last comment, which is that the acquisitions actually contribute with 9% growth in the quarter.
We have good development, or I would say, strong development in both the acquisitions, and particularly the most recent, Norwegian Right Price Tiles is less seasonal and impacts the smaller quarters of Q4 and Q1 more for us and really contributes. Four initiatives that all continue to deliver growth for us in a very positive way. I will now say a few words more about some of these. Turning to page seven, we continue to have a really high focus on e-commerce and have had, as you probably know, a really good development now for a while.
As I mentioned, continued to have a very strong momentum on the store assortment products or the products that are sort of available for sales, both when it comes to collect in-store, which has been the strongest driver again, but also for home delivery. Byggmax has been fortunate to not be materially impacted by supply disruptions as we purchase most of our things regionally or locally, but certain online exclusive categories, we do depend on Asian supply, for example, lighting and bathroom, and those have had a negative development due to the supply disruptions, partly compensated by very strong momentum in other online exclusive categories, but not covering the total net. In all, we continue to see that the, you know, the Byggmax stores linked to e-commerce is delivering the fastest growth.
Again, collect in-store is the fastest growing channel for us and has, as e-commerce has doubled for us in two collect in-store has tripled, so it's the group's fastest growing channel. We also continue to see that our e-commerce sales increase in geographies where we open new stores with about 15% e-com lift. Good effects of combining the two channels. On page eight, we'll mention something more about the main focus for the quarter, which has been the store upgrades. Again, we have now three formats that we operate with within the Byggmax brand, all have a Store 3.0 version. We have the small town format, which obviously is a format for, you know, smaller catchment areas. We have the regular format, where we also now include a small garden department since two years back.
We have the large format where we have a wider assortment including a larger garden department. All of those have a Store 3.0 version, and all of those Store 3.0 versions means that we add more product categories and a new store concept with higher quality experience. When we convert stores, we upgrade the store environment to a better experience and a better layout. We also add more product categories. Again, these upgrades are now over a long time shown to see lifting up sales before by 6%. We have also, turning to page nine, some portfolio details, upgraded the portfolio to Store 3.0 at the highest pace we've ever done so far. We end the year with 68% of the Byggmax store portfolio as Store 3.0.
We have opened one new store in the quarter. We closed two. We have upgraded 25 stores to now a total of 123. Again, that's 68% of the total portfolio. In addition to the Byggmax stores, we also have 12 new stores coming in, in Q3, acquired from Right Price Tiles, which are in the Byggmax segment, but not in the Byggmax brand, so not included in these stores. We will come back to it later, but we of course have plans to continue to expand also in 2022, and we have already announced nine new stores for 2022. I touched on the most recent acquisition on page 10, Right Price Tiles a few times.
We have a good contribution from that business in the quarter. It's going to be worth to recap that a little bit, the company and the plans we have since it is fairly new. It closed on last of August, so one month in the Q3, and then now the first quarter into Q4 with Right Price Tiles, sorry, fully included. Just as a quick recap, the business is a Norwegian discount business, focused on tiles and accessories complemented by bathroom products and flooring. It's about just over 15 years old, and has had a really good organic development since then present in Norway.
2020, performance of NOK 300 million and NOK 34 million EBITDA, and continued good performance in 2021, including the last quarter with us as an owner. We like this because it's a discount business, and it's a strong business in the category, but we also like the category per se. Tiles is in a sort of more of an all year category with good margins, whereas Byggmax business is quite seasonal, as you are aware. It is also a category which there are a little bit more younger customers. Bathroom renovation tends to be that. It's also more of a family project where decisions are made as a sort of couple, typically. There are few consumer-focused players in the Nordics.
We are now planning, of course, to both use the strong product portfolio to bring it into Byggmax stores and Byggmax e-commerce, already starting this year, but also to expand this concept throughout the Nordics. We will do it under Byggmax brand, and we hope to open the first store in Sweden during the second half of 2022. We have a second segment, which is a smaller segment, 9% of the group sales on page 11, which is Skånska Byggvaror. Skånska Byggvaror also had a really good end to a record year, and sales in the fourth quarter, almost in line with last year's record. For the full year, a 10% sales increase and a really good continued profitability development.
It's also an interesting business for us in the sense that it operates more with order intakes for later deliveries. In the Q4 last year, we had a really record high order level through Skånska Byggvaror, and we are really pleased to see now that the order intake in this quarter is almost at that really high level, which of course is a positive sign for the future. We will continue also for Skånska Byggvaror to execute sort of proven initiatives for growth that we have seen delivering now for several years. They are mainly focused on product development and initiatives around digital sales and marketing, and then thirdly, continuing to build up the presence in Norway and Finland. With that business update, I turn over to Helena for the financials.
We are on page 12, looking into sales development in the fourth quarter. We end the year with a strong quarter. It has continued growth despite extreme comparables, and the Byggmax sales increased by 6.5% in the quarter. Like-for-like sales decreased by 5.6%. That is based on very high comparables. In the long term, it is leveled well above pre-pandemic and 2019. We have acquired the Danish Næstved Lavpris Træ and the Norwegian Right Price Tiles prior to the quarter, and they add 9.6% to Byggmax segment sales. We have currency exposures in euro and the NOK, and then the movement in NOK and krona has an impact on the sales development in the quarter.
We move to next page and have the sales development in 2021. Byggmax delivered another record year on top of a strong 2020, and sales increased by 12.4%. The like-for-like sales increased by 5.4%. We see continued growth, momentum, and market share gains in a stabilizing market. This is seen in both our Byggmax and Skånska Byggvaror segments. Growth is contributed from our own initiatives. We have the online sales with broader assortment and improved delivery flexibility, store upgrades at a record pace, doubled number of upgrades versus 2020. We have worked with the store portfolio, opened 10 new stores in the year. On page 14, we have the income statement for the fourth quarter.
Net sales in the fourth quarter increased by 6.5% and reached SEK 1.3 billion. Gross margin strong, in line with all-time high last year. We continue to have the scale from our growth and the acquisition of Right Price Tiles had a positive impact on the margin in the quarter. We continue to focus on cost control and the increase is all related to new stores and the acquired businesses. Small decrease in the EBITDA in the period, an EBITDA of SEK 25 million, and EBITDA margin at 1.9%. Strong finish on a smaller quarter on a more stable market.
Next page is the P&L for the full year and Byggmax Group has a record year, and we have sales increased by 12.4% and reaching SEK 7,645 million. Again, a gross margin improvement. It is impacted by consumer price increases prior to the anticipated raw material price increases, and this was especially seen in the second and the third quarter. We also have the scale effect and a product mix, and it's favored by both segments contributing to the margin. We continue to focus on efficiency, and costs related to new stores amounted to SEK 117 million. Comparable costs increased by SEK 39 million in 2021, a nd the increase is related to our growth initiatives mainly, such as upgrading and improvement and investing in e-com and the store portfolio.
We have EBITDA increased to SEK 895 million and a margin of 11.7%. Both the Byggmax and the Skånska Byggvaror segments contributed to the increased sales and the improved performance in 2021. If we move on to page 16, we have strong cash flow driven growth and shareholders return. The cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 814 million for 2021.
The cash flow increased on the improved EBIT and contributed to the stronger cash flow, while inventory movements weighed in the other direction in the year. Our balance sheet strengthened significantly in 2020, and it remains strong in 2021. Debt amounting to SEK 804 million at year-end versus SEK 467 million at year-end 2020. Looking at the net debt position at year-end 2021 of SEK 804 million, it takes account for a year with increased investments in growth initiatives, high distribution of funds to shareholders, both through dividend and buyback, as well as to M&A activities. On page 17, as mentioned, we have both the dividend and share buyback program in 2021.
The program of a buyback of SEK 200 million is completed in the fourth quarter prior to year-end. We have repurchased shares equivalent to 3.9% of the outstanding shares. The intention is that the repurchased shares are to be withdrawn through reduction of the share capital, and that is to be decided at the general annual meeting. The Board of Directors propose a dividend of SEK 4 per share, and that's an increase versus last year of 2.75.
Thank you, Helena. I will try to wrap up in just a few pages and then we will open up for questions. We are now on page 18, which is our performance versus our financial targets. We continue to be well on track to meet our financial targets. We have a target, if we start from the top, of reaching SEK 10 billion in sales by 2025. We are now at SEK 7.6 billion. In the fourth quarter specifically, we continue to grow thanks to our growth investments, despite a market which is stabilizing and declining versus last year. The EBITA margin target is to be between 7%-8%. We're currently at 11.7%.
For those of you who care to do the math, you will realize that where we are now seeing a stable market and additional growth investment with Byggmax, this is very much in line with our ability to reach the EBITA margin target, i.e., a stabilized market and continued growth investment still, with ability to reach 7%-8% margin. We continue to have a very strong balance sheet. We have a net debt to EBITA excluding IFRS 16 of 0.8x, just slightly above where we were last year at 0.6. As Helena said, we have during the year paid a dividend of SEK 2.75 per share and SEK 200 million buybacks.
We also always include our climate target when we talk about financial targets, where we have an ambition to decrease CO2 equivalent from goods transport by 70% to 2030. We're currently at 32% in 2020 before we get the updated numbers for 2021 soon. If we summarize on page 19 where we stand ahead of 2022, I return to a bit more forward-looking here on two pages. We can summarize the position as we are very much ready for 2022 and look forward to it. Five points from our side. First of all, we see a market that is now stabilizing at a higher level compared to before the pandemic, although not at the pandemic level.
We see that we have all the work we've done over the last three, four years to modernize the Byggmax discount concept means a lot of market share growth. Over a two-year period, the market is up 20% and Byggmax Group is up 45%, which we see as a clear signal to confirm the strength of our concept. We also have on page three, you know, a different and larger footprint than we had just two years ago. We have doubled our sales in e-commerce. We have doubled our sales in Garden. We have really strong performance in other small ticket categories. We turned around Finland, we entered Denmark, and we have made acquisition into tiles category. A broader base to stand on as we move forward, which we feel positive about.
As mentioned in the beginning, you know, it's really important for us that we remain core to the discount position. After all, this is a really strong mega trend and a trend that we are building our company around, and we're happy to see that we have sort of further strengthened that in 2021 and remained the number one hard DIY discounter in the Nordics. Lastly, to basically summarize what Helena went through regarding the financials, we continue to see that we get really big scale effect, and we generate a lot of cash, which allows us to continue to invest in growth and distribute funds to shareholders.
Specifically on page 20, what we are focusing on is slightly boring maybe, but very much a continuation of what has given good effects for us for the last few years. We continue to focus on the proven growth initiatives that still have more to give and build out what we call the modern discount concept through these initiatives. We will continue specifically at a record pace with store upgrades here now also in Q1 2022 to try to be as ready as we possibly can for the high season when it starts in Q2. We continue to build out our e-commerce offer with a larger assortment and better services. We will also open new stores in 2022 and aim to open at least 15 new. That includes two new formats.
The first one is a new format to enter retail parks. The first store will be in one of Sweden's biggest shopping areas in Marieberg of Örebro and during the summer. Then we also plan to take the Right Price Tiles concept to firstly Sweden under the Byggmax brand, and we hope to open that first store during the second half. Lastly, we are also looking at add-on acquisitions, of course, at the appropriate opportunity and that fit with the Byggmax model. In all, we continue to focus on what has given us success so far and hope that that will continue to be as successful in 2022, which we feel really positive about. Then we are fortunate to have trends that give us good support going forward.
We reiterate the view that the market will be larger post the pandemic than pre the pandemic, but not as large as during the pandemic. We continue to see that the role of the home increases with more consumers working partly from home. We continue to see that the shift to discount is accelerating in a higher price environment and made enabled also by easy price comparisons with e-commerce, et cetera. We also have a lot of new DIYers and e-com customers since the last two years during the pandemic. Continued focus on the proven initiatives and support from good macro trends. We would also just lastly mention that we will have an investor update, a short one-hour investor update to share a bit more about our initiatives and the journey ahead.
The date will be March 28, 2022. It will be digital, and we will share details with you separately. With that, we open up for questions and turn to operator.
Thank you. If you do wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing zero two to cancel. Our first question comes from the line of Magnus Råman from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you. If we look back when you presented Q3, you talked about witnessing initial price decline on sawn timber. Perhaps you can elaborate on how this have developed in terms of both inbound purchase prices and outbound and consumer pricing.
Hi, Magnus. Yes, happy to. You're right. That is what we said at Q3. We continue to see a decline in both sort of inbound and a slight decline in outbound. To be really transparent at a much sort of slower pace than at least I personally had anticipated. Obviously, there's been a really big price hike compared to two years ago or 18 years ago. I would have guessed that we would have moved a bit quicker on that, but that has been in the negative sort of direction, but at a very slow pace.
All right. That's clear. Perhaps could I also ask about your cost development here? The OpEx growth is nearly flat on an underlying basis with just for store expansion and acquisition costs. It's impressive, of course, but is there a risk in your view that you are perhaps under-investing in the store experience, staffing and so on? Or how should we view the drivers to this aggressive cost control?
Well, that's you know interesting question. You know, we are not seeing that we are sort of compromising in any way on the store experience so far. Of course, there are probably individual examples where we don't perform as well. Actually we run sort of clear efficiency initiatives, we call them, projects to improve processes in the business. Where it's not to be fewer people meet fewer hours to meet the customer, but make the other efforts, for example, easier for our colleagues with digital inventory scanning and more automatic processes and things like that. We also work really hard on all other indirect costs that impact us and try to always tender and negotiate and find new ways to address those.
We have actually quite the opposite invested quite a lot in improving the store experience with the Store 3.0 concept, of course, but also with staff education and training programs, et cetera. We have seen we're pleased to see quite good development for three years now on metrics like, you know, customer service, quality perception, value for money, et cetera. We are. It's a good thing to keep an eye on, but we are currently not at all concerned that that should be an issue for us.
Right. Then finally on your strong cash flow generation, and you have still contained debt levels here. You lifted the dividend nearly 50% and you have then of course executed the share buyback program. How should we view the coming year? Should we expect more of the same?
Could you please specify your question, Magnus?
Yes. You've had a strong cash flow generation and you still remain at, you know, contained debt levels if you compare to your guidance on gearing. Now you lifted the dividend or the board suggested you're lifting the dividend of nearly 50%. Also you of course in Q2, Q4 executed your share buyback program. How should we view the decision on distribution going forward? Are we at a new dividend level long term in your opinion? Then also in terms of share buybacks, do you think we should expect a new mandate to be requested at the AGM?
Okay. Thank you very much for clarification. I think to answer that also in a couple of points. I think first of all, yes, it is a big increase in dividend versus last year. I think that is meant from the board as, you know, a signal that the company is performing at a new level and with the continued really strong balance sheet and has the capacity to also set dividends at a new level. I think you read that in the right way, Magnus. Then I think secondly, you know, we are a very cash generative company, and we are really so the last few years as performance improves, but we've actually been so for quite some time. I think the board has now
It's allowed us to, if we look back on the last year, for example, both invest a lot in organic growth and do acquisitions and pay dividends, and on top of that do a buyback program. I think the board, I mean, there's no official decision. I would be surprised if the board did not ask the AGM for a continued mandate or a renewed mandate to do buybacks after the AGM. I think the board. The signals should also be seen that the board is active with the capital allocation and try to find the best use of the strong balance sheet that we have.
Thank you. That's all from me.
The next question comes from the line of Carl Deijenberg from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Hi, Mattias and Helena. First, my first question is a bit on a follow-up here from Magnus on the timber prices. I'm just looking here. We're trying to understand ahead of the peak season in Q2 and in Q3 what is the sort of lag from ordering to inventory. Are you ordering here now at these prices now for delivery in Q2? Or what does that cycle sort of normally look like? Just to understand the sort of pricing lag to your inventory.
Yeah. We're happy to answer that, Magnus. It gets slightly detailed, so I'll try to be at the right level, but feel free to ask follow-up questions. I think what you need to consider are sort of two different effects. The first one is the timing of the different price changes, both sort of into us and out to the consumer. As you are, I'm sure you probably remember, we were fortunate this year that, you know, consumer prices increased early on in Q2 before sort of all the inventory was built up with the new prices. We benefited from that in Q2 quite a lot, as Helena said in Q3 also quite a bit, and now it's slightly the opposite in Q4. Despite that, of course, we deliver a good gross margin.
I think the second factor is what I think you're after is the sort of inventory turns. This is, as we are a seasonal company, and particularly timber is a seasonal category, it really varies throughout the year. During these low season quarters in Q4 and Q1, there is a very slow inventory turnover. We of course don't build it up much because there's not a big need for it. During Q2 and Q3, there's a very fast spin on that stock. Any changes that happens to the pricing fairly quickly sort of rolls through the P&L, if that makes sense. I warned you that it would be a slightly detailed answer, but I hope it helps. If not, feel free to ask follow-up.
No, but I think that's very clear. I mean, following up on that topic and trying to understand here the sort of positive mix effect seen in 2021. I mean, the gross margin here year- on- year, full year 2021 is up by, I think, 120 basis points or something, compared with 2020. I mean, how much do you attribute that to sort of the pricing effects and vice versa, sustainable effects? Just to understand sort of the gross margin assumptions going into 2022 all else equal.
Yeah. I think, you know, I'll put three comments to that. I think, you know, you're right in spotting it. Firstly, you know, we've been on a really nice gross margin development all the way back since 2019. So part of that is scale, part of that is product mix. As we talked about before, that's the biggest two drivers, and that has been a continuation. So that is not sort of finished that journey, hopefully, as we continue to get bigger and continue to upgrade stores with attractive margin categories, et cetera. So that's point one.
Point two, specifically in 2021, you are right, there was then sort of front-loaded pricing effect in Q2 and Q3, and we estimated it to about 150 basis points in Q2, and I think we were at 50 or 100, I can't remember, 50 probably in Q3. I mean, for a full year basis, I guess that's around, what, 50, 70 points, maybe something like that. We can come back to you with a you know, more firm estimate. But there is a bit of benefit, so to speak, specifically in 2021, which makes the previous nice trend look even a bit better here in Q4, and then sorry, in 2021.
Thirdly, Magnus, I'd just like to add that, you know, the most recent acquisition we've done, Right Price Tiles is. Sorry, Carl. Also a higher gross margin business, which also helps us going forward. Hopefully when we introduce those products also into a wider Byggmax network.
Yeah. Perfect. That's very clear. My final question is on store expansion here going into 2022. You were talking about at least 50 new stores, and you were also talking about two new concepts. Could you elaborate a bit on these new concepts and maybe explain a bit here what you see on store expansion by quarter here going in 2022? Is that going to be front-end loaded or back-end loaded, or is it going to be fairly evenly distributed between the quarters?
Mm-hmm.
If you could, just say something about that would be very helpful.
Yeah. Absolutely. I'll take the two questions point by point. On the new format, it is to be fair things that we have sort of commented on before that we had in the pipeline, but now we have firm plans for launch. You may be aware of the ideas previously, but the first one is that we would like to become even closer to our customers. We today operate, sorry, with quite big stores, as you're aware, with big outdoor areas. We take 8,000-10,000 sq m with our biggest format. We would like to be in retail areas, in retail parks, as it's called, handelsområden in Swedish.
We have developed a new format where we can fit all of the large format assortment and the experience, including drive-in, into a 3,500-4,000 sq m box, all indoors, and be in retail parks, which we think is a very interesting and exciting opportunity to come even closer to sort of retail trade and consumers' homes. That's the first one, and that will open during summer. The second one is based on our acquisition of Right Price Tiles, which is a very well-performing business, and we're happy with it, but it's only in Norway, and we would like to be in all of the Nordics. We are focused on building out the Byggmax brand particularly.
We will introduce a hopefully slightly improved version of that under a Byggmax brand, in Sweden during H2. Those are the two new formats. Then regarding timing, we are happy to get back to you with more details. It would be fairly even between first half year and second half year. There will be, I cannot remember now if it's one or two new stores in Q1, but primarily otherwise in Q2 in the first half year. Q3 and Q4, to the best of my memory, is fairly even between them. It's not like a major spike in any quarter that I can remember right now, except that it's a bit slower in Q1 because we plan the openings to be ready for high season, which typically is part of Q2.
Okay, very well. Thank you. That was all of my questions. Thank you very much.
Just as a final reminder, if you do wish to ask a question, please press zero-one on your telephone keypad. We have another question from the line of Anna Sörenson from DNB. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, congratulations to a great 2021. I just want to follow up on the last question regarding new stores and 15 new stores is a substantial one compared to what you've done before, a couple of years ago and so on. Is it possible to actually see how much revenues into full force that will actually add to your top line?
Yes. We can do that. We also did provide some further details at our Capital Markets Day in March, if you would like to look that up. We can say it a bit like this. We operate three different store formats. They of course have different catchment areas and different sales per store average. If we assume sort of an average mix of that 50 new stores for last year, we could look at the average sales per store of Byggmax now. The ramp up is typically a three-year ramp up, where we see a clearly slower sales in year one, also because we don't open January 1, and a very close to full ramp up for sales maturity in year two, and then the full sales maturity at year three.
I think you can pretty much take sales per store for Byggmax segment, divide it by number of stores and multiply it by 15, and then you have a ramp up factor which is slower in year one and close to full maturity in year two.
Okay. Well, that's clarified everything. Thank you very much. The other one is, do you see any kind of consolidation going on right now, or is it just that you continue to grow your business organically here?
Well, we have started to. I think there are two points to that. I think, if we look around us, I think we did see quite a lot of consolidation before the pandemic on the B2B side. We are of course more B2C-focused. That may pick up again, who knows? It's not really sort of our target, but I guess within our industry, so it's interesting to observe and see what the impact may be. Secondly, of course, we have been a bit more active now on the M&A side. We have a plan that we like, which is organic, to grow into both new, you know, more of the geographies we are in, but also new categories.
We have realized that there are quicker ways to get there by acquiring, you know, similar companies to us. It is a little bit of an effort to find them because we are focused on DIY, B2C, and low price. We have been active in that in 2021, and we are looking also now at potential further add-on acquisitions of about reasonable same size, going forward.
Okay. Thank you. The last one from me is, everyone talking about higher prices and they're going to raise prices. How do you think about that?
We have a very simple pricing strategy, and it's we are a price follower. It's really important to our sort of brand and core customer offer that we are the lowest price provider on the market. It's very simple to execute. We look at everybody else's prices, and we put ourselves at the same or just below that level. For us, it's more sort of following the industry, and the industry has shown for all the years that I've been here at least, that you know sort of input prices have been you know realized in output prices, and sometimes a little bit ahead of time, like in last year in timber. Sometimes it's taken a quarter or two, on occasion, maybe three. The industry has passed on raw material prices to consumers, basically.
We don't see a change in that. We see that continuing to happen also now in Q4 and start of 2022, we can mention.
Okay, great. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from the line of Julien Batteau from Pascal Advisers. Please go ahead.
Hi. Hello. Two quick questions for me, if I may. The first one and bouncing back on the last discussion around the new store contribution. I mean, I made back-of-the-envelope calculation. Is it fair that between the full-year consolidation of Right Price Tiles plus new stores and those opened last year that will be at close to maturity, it gives me around 5% top-line growth, let's put it this way. Is that right, or you don't want to comment on that?
Hi, Julien. You're breaking up a little bit, but you know, if I understand your question right, you're asking about new stores and acquisitions. For the full year, you know, we had an impact of three percentage points from new stores and just over 4% from the acquisition. Of course, the last acquisition, the bigger one, came at the end of August, so it will impact at a higher level on a full year basis.
That's my point, is for 2022, would you agree that it should be lower than 2021 but not far in terms of impact of new stores plus M&A?
I don't see new stores being lower if we manage to get the 15 stores up in good time. In M&A, it's for the already acquired businesses. It's just a matter of sort of mapping it out because we will have already the Danish business as of January 1 last year and already this year. On the other hand, we only have about, I don't know, 100 out of the sort of NOK 300 million revenue from the regional Right Price Tiles. I haven't done the math in my head, to be honest, but fairly simple to do. Yeah.
The other question I would have is are you actively looking for M&A or you are focusing on integrating Right Price Tiles first?
Well, I think I'll answer it like this. Number one priority for us is our organic growth plan because we really like it. It gives us scale effect, and, you know, we've done the same things for several years, and we know it gives effect. Number two, yes, there are, you know, interesting M&A candidates, and we will be active and, you know, assess something that is a good fit with us. Again, it's not a long list given that we would like to find something that fits with Byggmax, but we will participate in those growth initiatives also.
Clear. Thanks.
The next question comes from the line of Daniel Schmidt from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, Mattias and Helena. Just a short question from me. The sort of normalization of the market in the Nordics when it comes to DIY in Q4 that you said was -6% to -8%, do you think that is a relevant correction for 2022, you think, for looking at the full year 2022 versus 2021?
Yeah. I think that's a good question.
Is that what you're planning for?
Yeah. I think put it like this, you know, we are at the 10% level above 2019 in Q4. You are right on the numbers, but just looking at it on two-year base, I think makes the logic easier. We were at almost a 10% increase versus 2019, and that was the same level in Q3. For the full second half year, we have two quarters in a row seen the market lower than the pandemic levels, but, you know, 8% or almost 10% higher than 2019. That is, you know, a good, I think, starting point or starting assumptions when we look ahead.
At least for the first half then if you look at the 2022, and then of course maybe easier comps towards the end. In that scenario, sort of given that you've been taking a lot of market share over the past two years, and you're sort of pushing the fact that discount is your discount profile has become sort of even more evident, do you feel that it's any possibility for you guys to have a like-for-like that's close to zero, or is that sort of too optimistic?
Well, I think you're right in your first comment that, you know, the comps are really, I don't want to say strange, but they have a very unusual pattern given the whole pandemic situation. For the first half year, of course, Q1 is very tough comps if you look at it on a two-year basis. Q2 is extreme, but the second half year is, you know, fully doable to beat. I think we will look at it from that perspective and hopefully can demonstrate that if you look at this business now with a little bit zoomed out view, both the market and particularly hopefully ourselves, we will be at a completely new level.
Thank you. That's all for me.
We have one last question from Dennis Peterson, who's a private investor. Please go ahead.
Hello, Mattias and Helena. Can you please tell me something about the distribution of the sales in other Nordics between the countries?
Yes. Maybe Helena has numbers to share. I think we will have for the full year once the annual report is out. You know, the second biggest market for us is Norway, clearly outside Sweden. Denmark and Finland. Finland is a bit bigger than Denmark, but both of those are fairly small.
Okay. Do you have any approximately percentage for the three?
Yes, we do. Maybe Helena, do you have those numbers from the top of your head? We had in...
Mm-hmm.
Sorry?
In percent.
Not in percent, but I think in terms of for the full quarter, we had revenues in Sweden of SEK 900 out of the SEK 1,300 in the quarter, and the rest of Nordics, SEK 400 compared to other SEK 1,300. That's that. Obviously, we're having really good growth outside Sweden, given also the acquisitions and the turnarounds we've done in those businesses that are now developing very nicely.
Yeah. I was primarily wondering about the other three countries, but okay. I calculated in the high 20% or something in sales.
Yeah.
Up from about the low 2020, going into 2021.
Yeah. You are at 30% now on Q4, from a lower level. Correct. Yeah.
Do you do any sort of hedging on the currency or, when you purchase materials, is it in SEK or is it in local currency?
Our purchases is a combination of mainly SEK, but we do have euro, NOK and some other smaller currencies. To some extent, we do hedge it, but we also have sales corresponding to some of the o ther currency.
Okay. Do you expect the growth to come from mainly Sweden or the other markets going forward? I understand that the increase during this year perhaps mostly comes from the acquisitions. Going forward, do you expect the growth from mainly Sweden or the other countries?
Well, in the very short term, you know, we are really strong in Sweden, and as we are rolling out a lot of proven initiatives, they give, of course, good impact in the home country. We have for the last, you know, as you said, two years, really grown our presence outside Sweden. It's important to remember that, you know, just two, three years ago, we had a really good Swedish profitable business and a good Norwegian business, but we were unprofitable in Finland, we were not in Denmark. Now we are in four countries with profitable businesses in all, and we are able to grow profitably in all. You know, over the next just few years, we clearly see a good growth potential outside Sweden, and to build up a bigger presence there.
Okay, thank you. I was a bit late into this call. Have you said anything about the start of Q1, or can you say anything about that?
No, we have not, but we can share a bit on that. We could say that, you know, of course, we also, you know, continue to face tough comparables, but we are happy with the start of 2022. We are, you know, at the similar or even slightly better trend than when we end the quarter, fourth quarter of 2021 as we enter into January. It's obviously low sales week for us, but still, you know, positive indication. I guess the other thing we could be very transparent about is that we have a business in Skånska Byggvaror, which operates more with a sort of customer placing orders and then deliveries at the customer's so desired time.
We had a record, super record order intake in Q4 last year in Skånska Byggvaror for deliveries during spring. This Q4 in 2021, we almost reached the same high level in order intake. That also, of course, gives us a bit of positive confidence for a continued strong market here in or at least our performance in 2022.
Thank you. That was all from me.
As there are no further questions, I'll hand it back to the speakers.
Thank you everybody for joining this call. Have a great day, and look forward to touching base again on the Q1 call.
This concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines.