Good morning, everyone. It's Friday. Not only is the weather beautiful, and it's time for our compulsory sports hour in about a few hours, it's also time to present our Q3 results. We're super happy to share with you that our sports apparel collection continues to drive growth. Of course, as you probably recall or remember, we've been talking about this now for many, many quarters in a row. The whole dream with Björn Borg is to transition this in-the-past beautiful men's underwear brand into a bigger arena to build a sports fashion brand. With that, of course, growing. More than that, also inspiring people that if you should give something to yourself today, it's to move. Whether it's walking to office, taking the bike, or doing a triathlon, it doesn't really matter. Movement is the best gift to yourself.
Not only will you be happier, you also will live a bit longer, and it's going to be a lot of fun. Perhaps not always doing the workout, but certainly afterwards. Q3, another quarter where our sports apparel collection continues to grow. Absolutely fantastic. By far, of course, the biggest highlight of the quarter. If we look at the sales, it's a record quarter. We never sold more than SEK 300 million in a quarter. That's, of course, fantastic. We like to break records. Also, our gross profit is improving versus last year. That, of course, consequently leads to a strong also EBIT upfit versus last year, where we're growing EBIT with 7.3% and closing at SEK 45.1 million in profit. Overall, a solid quarter behind us. That is making me really, really happy, of course.
First, just a reminder of if you want to accomplish anything in life, you need to have a long-term goal. Of course, our ambition is to become a global iconic sports fashion brand. That is where we are heading. It takes a bit of time to get there, admittedly, but we are making progress. Every quarter, we get a bit closer. Our mission, and partly, I would say it is a bit unique. At least we like to think that. This is not about building a sports brand for athletes that want to break world records. You can buy the stuff too, but we think that training is so much more important than that.
It is all about talking about this idea that we want to inspire you, unleash your own potential, remind you that you are the captain of your own destiny, and that working out and training with you, your friends, your kids is something absolutely fantastic that will give you a lot of different benefits. That is why and how we create the entire sports apparel collection. Looking at our financial objectives, we want to grow. We want to make money, of course. We want to make sure that we have a high dividend. Of course, we want to have a solid equity ratio, asset ratio. That is all in place. Of course, the business strategy has been to focus on multi-channels.
Handling both wholesale, we believe that's super important, both brick and mortar and e-com, and also, of course, our own e-com, and then distributors and a few of our own stores. Managing those different channels, we believe, is a key strength. It's clear that if you want to grow, if you want to win consumers, you simply need to be where the consumers are. Looking at how far we got there, a couple of brand KPIs. The brand is tracking in the right direction. Of course, I am sure if you are working out, if you do some running events, you will see our Borg Tee almost for certain, no matter where you're working out right now. That product has really been instrumental in our quest to move the brand into a bigger arena. Of course, it's a 100% recycled polyester T-shirt.
It's a beautifully crafted, perfect fit, and, of course, a very, very strong signature with the Borg on the left and right arm. A very, very strong and what turns into being an iconic product. We launched it 10 years ago, and it's still our most sold apparel. I think it resonates really well with what we want to bring to the market. Looking at a few of the KPIs here, I'm super happy that our work in Germany is continuing to grow in terms of that the brand is getting stronger. Germany as such is actually declining, but that's due to Zalando. It's not sales towards German consumer because that's actually growing 26%. Zalando is declining, of course, and here we can do a lot better and need to do so, of course, as well.
Looking at consideration, I think this is one of the slides that makes me most happy. Of course, here we ask 440 consumers in all of our different markets. From Germany into the bigger ones in Sweden, a bunch of different questions. One is, out of this list of sports brands, who would you consider buying? Here we are number three, ahead of Puma, Under Armour, and a bunch of other brands. Of course, this means that there's just a huge potential for us to continue to drive sports apparel growth. More people out there want to buy our stuff than what they currently are doing. That is what this sign or slide is telling us. That is, of course, good news. Let me bring you back in time a bit, not that far.
I think for me personally, the highlight in Q3 was August 16th. It was a Saturday. The weather was as beautiful as it is today, late evening, and I was surrounded by 35,500 runners all wearing our Diva Pink Borg Tee. This was only the Stockholm Midnight Run. We also did that, of course, in other cities, but I participated in the Stockholm race. It was absolutely incredible. It really showcased how far we have come compared to when we started this journey back in 2014. Just being surrounded by all these runners all wearing the Borg Tee was absolutely incredible. I think Midnattsloppet really resonates well with how we want to approach sports. Of course, there were a few that did it really, really quick and were competing.
For the most part, those that participated did it because it is fun. It is good to have a run. They work out with different things throughout the week simply to be better and perhaps live a bit longer and do it simply because they feel stronger by doing it. That is why I think the Midnattsloppet really resonates with what we do. It is all about trying to live and not the other way around. Absolutely fantastic. Looking at our top line again, we broke the world record, at least for us, so SEK 300 million. Never sold anything more in an isolated quarter. If we divide it into the countries, of course, super happy to share with you that both of our big markets, Sweden and Netherlands, are continuing to grow. Germany and Belgium are the only ones declining. Germany is a bit concerning.
It comes down to Zalando. Of course, here we need to be better. It is all about managing discounts, putting the right product in the right distribution channels. Here we can do more. We need to do better in order to change that negative trend. Looking at our channels, wholesale is doing really, really well, growing double digit. E-com has slowed down a bit. It is partly due to us being a bit more selective with discounts. Of course, finding our way with all the changes that are coming our way with Google as such. We believe, of course, ongoing that e-com is a very, very important channel for us. Looking at the year-to-date numbers, we are still up close to 18%. Very, very strong performance. On retail, here we are closing down stores.
This will be close to the last year where we'll close down stores. Looking at next year, the store base is where it needs to be. From there, we will rather actually add retail stores if we would want to do anything. We found a good balance now with outlets that are really performing well, that can take care of excess inventories. They're all profitable. Now it's about really building them. We can expect then retail numbers to start growing again, as opposed to, of course, them being declining the last couple of years due to us cleaning up our store portfolio. Distributors are struggling. There are some good news depending on where you look. Austria is doing really, really well. The biggest one, Norway, is declining. Of course, here we need to do a better job.
It's not a priority of ours, but still, of course, we need to maintain our business there as well. The big focus for us, obviously, is own e-com and really partnering up with the right wholesale partners to drive growth in those two channels and continue to win consumers. I think we do that fairly good. Here we've been tracking since 2018 our share of online business. It goes down a bit in Q3, but of course, still a very high share of our business is done online. That's, of course, been a part of our digital-first strategy that is working out really, really well. Looking at some categories, I brought some highlights. We launched a new category called Loungewear. It's just building on our underwear, but really soft hand-feel apparel for men.
We will do a collection for women’s also in the future, but that’s going to come next year. That is working very, very well. Plus 57% versus last year. Again, our apparel has continued to grow. In the quarter, 24%. Full year, it’s growing more than 20%. Bags is also growing in the quarter. I haven’t showcased it here, but of course, the disappointment in the quarter is the footwear collection. We need to do it better. We have reinforced the team. We do a lot of product testing. I’m really happy to share with you that the product that we’re trying right now, that we’re currently selling in, are performing really, really, really well.
Footwear, that's the area where I see the biggest potential, but also, of course, where it requires most of our focus to really enable that to also then become a growth engine, which is currently not the case. With that said, of course, there's also a lot of numbers in terms of the bottom line. As you already know, we're earning more than last year. That's good news. Jens will share some more lights into that. Jens, why don't you fire away?
Thanks a lot, Henrik.
Thank you.
Thank you. Fantastic. Before I start, I've been homesick for a few days, and that made me realize how much I miss being part of the energy that you find in this company. I certainly miss my colleagues and being back in the office. People like Jessica Kim probably watching today. How are you?
It's good to be back soon. I'm really looking forward to that. In terms of the numbers, the gross margin is now increasing again slightly, certainly partly due to a positive currency change that we see at the moment, especially the euro/dollar, but also the Swedish Krona versus the dollar. That's a good thing for us. Slightly going up again. The profitability, as you heard from Henrik before, is increasing, SEK 45 million in Q3 and year-to-date, as you can see in this slide, doing really, really well. Really, really good to see. In terms of the bottom line, SEK 37 million in the quarter. Again, a very strong bottom line result. In terms of net income year-to-date, we've already passed last year's full year numbers. That's good to see. A few numbers on the balance sheet.
The equity through assets, so the solidity is again climbing up in 2025 after Q3 to 51%. Really solid and strong line that you see here, which is very good for the company, obviously. The net debt is slightly increasing compared to previous years, mainly due to the footwear integration that we said earlier, which requires more working capital clearly. In terms of our working capital, if you put that in relation to a rolling gross sales number, we strive to be around 20% now towards the end of Q3 this year, slightly above, but not concerning at all. A bit more overbuying the inventories to cover the markets that need that, but certainly the right inventory at the moment. No concerns regarding that. We are stable around 20ish percent, which is good for us. That is a good KPI for us to keep track of.
That's all I wanted to say this morning. Have a wonderful Friday and good week. I'll leave the word again back to you, Henrik.
Yes, yes. It was good to have you back, Jens.
Thank you.
You do not sound 100%, but of course, since you are 120% normally, I guess you are still running on the 100 then. A couple of key takeaways. The first one, we see an ongoing strength in our brand. The consideration slide that I showed you, of course, is going up. We see strong brand traction. Of course, here we need to continue to invest even more. We do know that we have good traction in big cities. We need simply to focus even more on those to continue to elevate the brand, given, of course, that brand is one of the things that are making us unique.
We own the Björn Borg brand, and that's a very, very strong asset. Here we need to continue to invest. We see good traction. That's very, very good. Secondly, of course, I think one highlight, as I said, we are growing in our biggest market. That's super, super important. Especially Sweden is doing very, very good, 13% up. Also Holland and some of the smaller markets. Denmark is also really, really performing well. Finland, one of our mid-sized markets, also performing good. We need to work harder with Germany and Zalando to make sure that we can find a strong balance between top line and discounts to continue to drive that account. Our Hamburg push is working really well. Sales towards German consumers actually is up 26%, which is fantastic.
Here we are doing a lot of things right, but we need to continue because one clear objective is to win the German market. That will, of course, be a massive game changer for the entire company. Lastly, if we look at categories, as I have said now many quarters, if you want to follow this brand and our journey, look at the sports apparel numbers. That is really what will showcase if we are successful or not. Continuing to have double-digit growth also in Q3, we are growing four times the pace of the market. We are taking market shares. Now it is getting to a fairly sustainable part of the business. This is really our growth driver.
Super happy with how the sports apparel collection is developing, both year-to-date, also the last 10 quarters, and of course, also the, yes, the closed Q3 quarter. With that said, have a fantastic Friday. Enjoy the Friday. My last word probably goes to train to live. We believe that one core ingredient of creating a strong brand is to have a strong purpose, to create a meaning into what you do. If you disappear, people will actually miss you. Our whole idea is to inspire people that you should train, not because you should win medals or compete, but training will give you the control over so many other things. That is the cure to a lot of the stuff that is happening around us in the society right now. It is also something that you simply can do.
It's not up to someone else, even though it might be hard somewhere to get it going. It's not about how fast you run. It's about just getting that run or that walk going. That's really what we want to do, to inspire you and myself, of course, and everyone around us to move, work out, have fun. Doing that will make the rest of life even more fun. With that said, have a fantastic Friday. If you want, 11:00 to 12:00 . in the first week, we have our compulsory sports hour. You're welcome to join. Before I close, I'm sure that Jelmer has a couple of questions that he's dying to ask me.
Of course, of course. Thank you so much for the presentation. I figured we could start with the gross margin.
I mean, it is improving year-over-year, but you also mentioned some increasing discounts here. Could you highlight this a bit? Is this mainly relating to individual customers, or do you feel sort of like a wider price pressure maybe in the wholesale segment?
I think the margin, of course, is getting impacted by many different things. Of course, one is the customer mix. We do see here that the bigger are getting even bigger, and the smaller are disappearing. The bigger you are, the bigger volumes you buy. Also, that comes in then to better terms. In some occasions, it is actually more discounts. Of course, with having the bigger accounts, our very strong sort of key account focus, like win with a winner approach, means that those accounts are growing.
Of course, even if they do not get more discounts than what they had in the past, they have more discounts than some of the smaller accounts. That is one thing that is happening. The other one, of course, is the product mix. Depending on which category you are selling, that is also going to have an impact on the gross margin. We have done a lot of work with sports apparel, so the margin is really, really strong. However, it is not as strong as underwear, for example. As the ratio is changing, that is also changing the margin. In this case, it drags it down a bit. We have done a fantastic job, especially I think in footwear actually, where the margin is increasing drastically versus last year.
Again, with no footwear growth, of course, we do not really benefit that in the overall picture because footwear is doing not very well. That is one, so the category mix. Then, the other one is the channel mix. If you look at the quarter, we see that own e-com is having a slightly lower share of our overall business than what we had, for example, in Q2. That also means that the margin goes down because e-com, we had very, very strong gross margins versus wholesale where we have slightly lower. Here we talk 15 percentage points lower. Adding all those together, that is the stuff that is sort of dragging down the margin a bit.
Of course, on the other side, we're working with price increases because, of course, the brand is getting stronger. We're working with reducing discounts towards end consumers. Of course, that's going to improve the gross margin. Of course, the currency has a massive impact on the margin as well. If we look at Q3 isolated, the margin is up, but of course, that is solidly due to the currency impact. If we would have taken that out, the margin is declining a bit. Of course, we wanted to grow also without currency help. Super happy because, of course, as you know, since 2014, I think the U.S. SEK conversion then was 60 or something. Even though, of course, it's SEK 9.40, SEK 9.41 right now, it's still a completely different business than when I started.
However, of course, we came from almost close to 11. Currency is what it is. I think we need to continue to drive profitable growth independently on what the currency is.
Yeah, yeah. On the shoe or the product mix side, I mean, you mentioned maybe some current pressure from the footwear segment, but what do you see in the long-term prospects here? Can this segment as a whole be sort of gross margin accretive? What has to develop favorably for this to happen?
I think we know from the past that if you do lesser footwear the way you should do them, the margin should be as high or higher than sports apparel. That is the clear conclusion from, of course, many, many years at Adidas, who is very, very good at sneakers.
Of course, that's the midterm goal when it comes to footwear and margin. Of course, we do know and we feel that there is an expectation and also there's a lot of consumers out there that would want to buy performance footwear from us. We're currently, of course, reviewing that. That, of course, comes with a slightly different price tag in terms of margin pressure. That's not going to be a margin uplift if we do performance footwear. Stuff that you can actually run in will probably be dragging down the margin. Again, of course, that will be incremental business. That's going to drive growth on the other hand. It's all about finding that right balance. We believe that our ambition has been to be around 55%.
We've been going up and down a bit, but of course, we're a bit too far away still from the 55% target. That's still what we're aiming towards. If we manage to do that, that's a very strong margin if you would compare to other sports brands or some of the other D2C players. Most of them are probably just high 40%, just shy of 50%. We believe that we have a very strong margin mix. That's a high focus going forward.
Yeah, yeah. On the own online channel, I mean, you mentioned maybe, I mean, you're facing tough comps, of course, because last year growth was very impressive there. Could you elaborate a bit on, are you seeing some challenges maybe relating to, I mean, paid marketing or something like that?
You mentioned Google there as one of the challenges.
Yeah. No, but I think there's, well, online, as with everything, of course, it's changing. The environment around you is constantly moving. What worked yesterday might work tomorrow, but potentially not. Of course, that is only increasing. We see, of course, AI overuse with Google. We see a lot of different things that are just happening in the various different platforms that we're working with, that if you're quick, it will enable us to continue to grow. If you're not quick, clearly what you did yesterday is not going to work as good tomorrow. You need to be quicker and even more agile to continue to drive growth. That's just a conclusion. We've seen that trend probably the last year, but it's really picking up.
You need to be really, really on your numbers and also really looking into the engine room for e-com to continue to drive profitable growth. And then also, of course, we elaborate with discounts. We want to ideally, of course, sell all our products at full price. So we took away mid-season sale, for example. We will participate in Black Friday, but not as aggressive as potentially some of the other brands because we believe that we have the right price points already before any mid-season sale or Black Friday discounts. But it is a commercial happening. So of course, a lot of the volume created in the whole industry is done in those periods. We want to be there as well. That is also an impact, of course. A bit tight on discounts.
On top of that, of course, we had a fantastic success last year on own e-com with Wooly, which is a women's footwear winterized model. It has been an exceptionally nice weather. It started out in August, which was simply incredible. It continued into September. Actually, it is still really, really warm. Of course, now we are into Q4. Of course, that means that you will not sell as many jackets and some of the more expensive items. That is not so much related to us, but I am thinking about in general in the sporting goods industry. What needs to happen right now for the whole industry is snow. Of course, I expect Black Friday and Christmas to be record sales for the industry as such.
Yeah, yeah.
Like you mentioned, I think, I mean, you managed previously to sort of drive sales without participating in maybe the campaigns that the wider market sort of are. Are you confident that you still can do that in the direct-to-consumer channels? Like, do you see currently any sort of campaign pressure from competitors? How do you sort of view the current landscape as of maybe now going into the campaign season here?
No, I think the pressure there is increasing. Of course, we see, of course, on one hand that consumers have more money. That goes for almost the entire Northern Europe than what they had a year ago. However, of course, they're still as worried as they were a year ago. We see consumer confidence shifting a bit, so actually growing a bit in Sweden. I think Denmark's a bit flat.
Germany's a bit up, but something's happening. Unfortunately, of course, the world is not turning into a more stable place, at least not as quick as I was hoping. Of course, that affects a bit how we consume. The feeling I'm getting when we're out there talking to end consumers, but also customers, is that the expectation is that there's a bit of a, there is a desire to purchase. People are cautious, of course. Off price has been almost like a new, well, perhaps not a new, but a sport. You want to buy exactly what you want, but you simply want to have a bit of a discount. With that, you need to participate, but of course, you need to be cautious how you participate so you can also long-term build a very, very strong brand.
We constantly, of course, evaluate the right approach. We will definitely participate in Black Friday, but we will not be the most aggressive ones. With that said, I expect us still to be able to grow Black Friday because I really foresee the Black Friday to become a record sales period, not perhaps so much for us in that sense, but for the whole consumption. I think people have been waiting a bit. Everyone wants to make a good deal, obviously.
Yeah. You mentioned the loungewear concept. Could you elaborate a bit on this? Is this a concept that you're targeting current customers? Is this sort of like an upselling challenge to current customers? Maybe some on what customers you're targeting here and what potential you could see?
Yeah, no, it's really built on this very, very strong underwear heritage. Similar distribution points.
Perhaps you bought our organic cotton stretch for many, many years. You really love the underwear. Of course, the next step would be to buy a lightweight organic cotton T-shirt or like a soft product that you can wear at home. It is close to like a pajamas kind of a feeling. That has been received very well. We will also add actually a collection for women in the future. It is not a big business, but I think it is something to add towards our really loyal underwear customers. Of course, we are seeing the quarter has been perceived and received very, very well, growing 57%. That is super happy. Somewhere in between underwear and the sports apparel that you train in. We need to continue to elaborate a bit and try new things in our journey to become a sports fashion brand.
Yeah, yeah.
On sort of like a big picture kind of question, do you see with the product offering that you have and that you are developing, is the fashion risk increasing, maybe the risk relating to individual collections so far? Or do you still feel that that is roughly the same as it has been previously?
Yeah, I don't think there's no risk in terms of changes in fashion so that we do a color that for fashion reasons is not relevant when it's been launched. I think our biggest challenge and our biggest opportunity and our biggest focus is all the same, and that is to create really, really good stuff. It sounds easy, but of course, it's not that easy. For us, it comes down to creating a product that has a unique expression.
Of course, this one says Borg, so of course, that makes it unique, but also create garments that perhaps without a logo look like a Björn Borg product. That is one thing. The second one, of course, we want to create stuff that has a very good fit. When you put it on, it needs to be perceived as this is simply perfect for me, just like our underwear. This one is oversized, so it should be a bit bigger. Some other stuff is not. Perfect fit is the second attribute that we really are focusing on. Then it is about making the products good in terms of functionality. Here we have said that there is no point in overdoing the training T-shirt because most people do not need a compression T-shirt for EUR 200. It is enough with a recycled polyester. It is really nice for EUR 40.
Let's do that instead. And then, of course, we work with long-lasting quality, which comes then to a very, very high sustainability focus. Also, of course, not creating product that is not on trend. We want to create stuff that makes you look good today, but you can wear the same T-shirt four years down the road, and it will still make you look good. I have no concerns that we are entering into fashion and by that, of course, being vulnerable for trend shifts. Of course, I'm always concerned that we're not making the best product that we can and that we need to continue doing and continue to invest in.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Then, I mean, maybe we could finish off with the, you mentioned the consumer sentiment in Sweden. We see an uptick here.
Some actors are predicting or sort of quoting expectations on a very strong Q4 in terms of retail apparel sales in the market. Do you feel optimistic about Q4 and what can we expect going ahead?
No, but so, and we try not to, of course, give any forecasts on Björn Borg. I will leave Björn Borg on the side. Yes, talking about what I see around me. What I see around me is a quarter that I will believe will be finishing strong, but there will be a high share of off-price business that I think will increase more. If we look at how November and December will finish off in Northern Europe versus how we will finish off last year, I believe that the volume will be much higher, probably 5%-10% higher than what it was last year in total.
I also believe that the off-price business in general will be having a higher share versus last year. That is my view in terms of what happens outside Björn Borg. Of course, for us, it is about continuing on our journey, focusing on doing the right things, not getting distracted and jumping on too big clearances because that will help a short-term result, but rather to build every quarter so it becomes better and better. Ideally, of course, at a quick pace, but at a solid pace. We do not do something that will then simply later hurt us. That is the world that we are living in, to sort of balance that off.
Thank you. We actually have a viewer question as well on the share repurchase possibilities.
Could you elaborate a bit on the prospect for this and how are you reasoning with regards to share repurchases?
What we do, of course, we have a very, very active board. Of course, that is when we have those conversations. In the same light as we talk about the dividend, my personal, of course, view on share price repurchase is that it needs to be a long-term strategy. Those that have done it really, really successfully, I think Swedish Match is one that they usually use as a reference, has done it over time. For me, I think it is a possibility. I think it comes down then to a bit of a change in direction in terms of how we would want to evolve the company.
Because I believe if you want to do it successfully, it's about doing that over a 5, 10, 15-year period. That's when you're going to make the biggest impact for the benefit of the shareholders. If you are too optimistic or too perhaps entrepreneurial, whatever you want to call it, and then you do it once, but not then, I think that's going to not be good. Again, that's a discussion with the board. What will happen next year, we will see. We will do that, of course, together when we talk about the dividend. If we will start doing that, then I would think that's going to be then part of a sort of a long-term strategy because that's clearly what will be the best interest for the shareholders, such as myself.
Of course, I want to make sure that my shares are going up and being a solid investment, which by the way, they've been doing. I'm super happy from an investor perspective as well. That was that on, I think, share price.
Thank you so much. I'll leave it to you for any concluding remarks.
No, thank you so much. Happy to be here. Join our sports hour. For those that are tapping in and listening to me and to us, we're super grateful for all of your shareholders. You can't have a public company without having a lot of fans believing in what we do. I'm very, very happy for that.
I think, again, the clear highlight and of course, what makes me really proud is the team and our efforts in really repositioning the brand and moving this whole brand into a new arena. I think the midnight run that Saturday evening was just the pinnacle of that. When I stood there surrounded by 35,500, whatever, Diva Pink Borg tees, it was clear that we have a long road ahead to become a global iconic sports brand. Also when I looked back, we've come a long, long way from when we started this journey with colorful underwear. It made me super, super proud. Of course, thank you all for joining us on this quest to take a fairly small Swedish company and turn it into a global iconic brand. Perhaps we're not even halfway, but at least we're making progress.
Have a great Friday. And thanks for listening.