Good morning, and welcome to our Q4 Report from Björn Borg. But first, I'm sure that you also, as I did, woke up this morning to headlines of war in Europe. So, an attack not only to the Ukrainian people, but also to our democracy. And I think it's clear that this week the world certainly didn't turn out to anything better.
And of course, I think that puts quarterly reports and our daily struggles and daily victories, you know, a bit into perspective. But with that said, we're here to talk about our Q4 report. And looking at 2021, it is clear that this was a record year. And one of the things that really stood out for 2021 is that almost all of our KPIs are pointing in the same direction. And this morning I already got the question: So, why 2021?
I think the quick answer is that we have, for a number of years, persistently focused on the transition of this brand. In 2021, most of the things just fell into place. Ultimately, that's what we see right now. With this strong quarter behind us, we closed 2021 as a record year. All of our KPIs are pointing in the right direction. It doesn't matter whether we're looking at sales, profit, looking at cash, looking at the brand. It's just a fantastic year behind us. Of course, we're full of confidence to continue on this success journey also in 2022. First then, looking at our sales, we grew 12.6%. And a full year we increased to 8.9%. The EBIT margin improved a full year to 13.5%. Looking at our online business, we're continuing to grow and also increasing our share.
Looking at our brand, again, I will showcase some more numbers. But in all the KPIs, we see that our brand is getting stronger and stronger and stronger, and actually has never been this strong before. Our financial solidity also improved. And actually, we closed this year with a net cash position of +17 versus last year -29. So, all in all, a fantastic year. Very, very strong momentum for the brand. And of course, that will also continue into 2022.
So, where do we want to go? And of course, you've seen me a number of times. But just to remind you all, the whole idea behind this journey is to build a brand that inspires you, that you can be more, that you can do more, dream more, and become more. And we believe that the facilitator to that is training.
That's why we do the compulsory Sports Hour. That's why our brand message is Train to Live. That's why we keep repeatedly telling everyone that you can indeed be a bit better. And I think, you know, looking at what happens around us, that's probably never more relevant. Looking at the way to do it. So, what is really the plan then? It comes down to three things.
So, one, of course, is to continue to grow online. We see that our brand is fitting really well with our online business, but also e-tailers and marketplaces. We want to grow and invest into our sports apparel business. And we want to focus even further on Europe. That's really the three facilitators that will take us to becoming a global iconic sports brand. So, with that said, of course, how far did we get then in Q4?
Looking at the brand, I picked a couple of highlights. The first one is brand preference for underwear. So, again, yes, we're moving the brand from underwear to sports apparel. But it still is an iconic underwear brand, market leader in Nordic. And we, of course, want to maintain that. So, one of the things that we said three, four years ago was that we believe that you can do a brand transition and build a sports brand without losing that number one position. And of course, now we know the fact that was possible. So, we are increasing the lead as the number one male underwear brand in Nordic. And we're growing as a sports fashion brand at the same time. And brand preference underwear Him is up 24% versus last year, the same quarter.
Looking at brand awareness in apparel is up 37% in one of our biggest markets, Netherlands. Looking at Sweden, brand top three apparel is 43% up versus last year, and just elaborating on the last one, brand top three means that we ask consumers, show them a list of sports brands, Nike, Adidas, and a few others. And then we ask them, hey, pick your three favorite brands from this list. In Sweden, 25.5% of all that we asked picked Björn Borg as one of those three brands. What a fantastic opportunity. Of course, building on that here, we see on the left-hand side, underwear, unaided brand awareness, and brand preference, and then apparel, brand preference, top trend, and unaided brand awareness, and as we can see, everything is moving in the right direction.
Of course, you know, one of our biggest opportunities, biggest challenges is, of course, the unaided brand awareness. It's still low numbers, 4.1%, but it's increasing dramatically. And again, that last question is when you ask a consumer, just randomly, hey, you know, what sports brand do you think of? And still, of course, that's a low number for us. And here, we want to invest even further.
If we show them a list of brands, then they pick us immediately. But that sort of spontaneous feeling of us as a sports brand, we still need to work even harder. And that's one of our key focuses for 2022. Looking at the top line, of course, as we already said, you know, our record quarter and our record year behind us. So, we closed net sales at SEK 190 million, plus 15%.
We see that the growth is coming from all of our markets, but we're super, super happy with the progress we're making in Germany. So, we're up 42% versus last year in the quarter. And actually, Germany is the market where we're growing in absolute number the quickest. So, it's working really, really well. And as you know, of course, together with the UK, Germany is one of the biggest markets in Europe. And one of our challenges in the past is that we've been big in small markets. But now, of course, we're slowly getting traction also in a big market. So, that's very, very encouraging. So, very, very good result across the board, growing almost in all our markets. Looking at the whole transformation.
As we've said now, quarter after quarter, year after year, you know, we want to turn this whole brand into a much more digital world. And that's progressing really, really well. So, 35% of our share is coming now from pure online business. And here, we're not calculating the online business that is done by a wholesale partner that is also doing brick-and-mortar stores.
So, it's only the pure e-tailers. So, very, very encouraging. We really see that we have a super strong traction online, both own online, but also, of course, with e-tailers. And the brand is really, really fitting in well and resonating super well with how consumers are shopping online. So, this is encouraging. Looking then at our channels then. So, own retail, yes, we are declining here versus last year. But again, that's part of our strategy.
So, what we're doing here is we believe that the concept stores are playing a less vital role for us going forward. So, we're closing them down. Instead, of course, we'll reinvest that money into driving online business instead and investing into e-tailers, our own online shop, but also our brand. And looking then at the online business that is growing, both our own online, but also our e-tailers.
But we also see that we have a fantastic momentum with our wholesale partners across Europe. And it's predominantly actually the department stores that are working really, really well for us. Of course, at the back of a lockdown with COVID, we see that traffic is now increasing. And we expect high turnovers also going forward from the traditional wholesale channels. And then, of course, looking at bottom line, I brought with me Jens to run through that again. And he will say this, but I'll repeat it again. Bottom line, a record too. So, Jens, please elaborate a bit more on that.
Thank you, Henrik. I will, I'm sure you will hear the words "record year" many times in the coming days because that's really what it is, but before we go into that, it's also the engagement, I would say, in this company. If you have the opportunity, just swing by our head office outside of Stockholm in Solna and just come join us for training or just take a coffee.
The engagement and motivation that you will feel among the staff is just crazy, and we feel that we're just starting here, and it's just a fantastic momentum that we have at the moment, and everybody is just fired up to go, but if we look at the, let's say, the bottom line indicators for 2021, they're all pointing in the right direction, and they're pointing strongly upwards. You can see the EBIT is on record levels.
We're above SEK 100 million for the full year of 2021. And as you can see on this chart, we haven't really even been close in the last few years. Q4 isolated SEK 10 million versus SEK 6 million last year versus SEK 1 million in 2019. Really fantastic numbers also in the quarter and a super strong record year for 2021 when it comes to EBIT. Obviously, net income is following the same trends. SEK 86 million on the very bottom line, SEK 11 million in the quarter isolated.
Just fantastic, fantastic numbers to present to you today. The gross margin on the left-hand side of this slide is improving. We had a decline a few years back. But now, on a full year basis, it's starting to increase again. And that's despite the quite tough climate of increased freight costs and concerns all around the world, actually.
Focusing a little bit on the EBIT margin as a ratio of sales. The top line here, the one on the very top, the black one is representing 2021. And as you can see, all quarters are above the past years. So, this sums up to around 14% for the full year. But as you can see, we've been up 22% in Q3, as we already presented to you a few months back, but now 6%, which is above both 2020 and 2019.
So, huge momentum for our profitability of the company. And we're super proud to present that. If we dive into the balance sheet, equally important, obviously, perhaps even more. And here, everything is really pointing in the right direction as well. From left to right, you see the equity to assets or the solidity going well above 50% and continues to increase.
So, 53% we close the year. But in the middle, you see the net debt or actually it should be called net cash at this point. So, for the first time in, well, as far as I know at least, we are showing a net cash position at Björn Borg. So, positive SEK 17 million when we closed the year. And as Henrik briefly mentioned in the opening here, versus 29 when we closed 2020.
Then just look at 2018 and 2019. That's really where we used to be having a net debt above SEK 100 million. So now we are just a very good cash position or liquidity position, if you will, in the company. On the right-hand side, we can look at the working capital or the core working capital, which is decreasing as a % of 12-month rolling sales.
Since 2019, we have really worked on the working capital, collecting the invoices, the payments from the customers, working with our suppliers with the credit terms and keeping the inventory under control. That really has paid off and is now going close to 20% of rolling gross sales. That's just numbers that we're super proud of and obviously helping the liquidity and the cash situation for the company, making it really a solid and great company to be part of. That was some numbers from the bottom line balance sheet. Just wish you a very, very good day. Thank you. Here's Henrik again.
Brilliant, brilliant. Thank you, thank you, Jens. And again, you're full of victories no matter where we turn our heads. That's absolutely fantastic. But as to sum it up then, so as we've seen then, Q4 2021 was a strong quarter and of course a record year for Björn Borg. And again, as I think, as Jens said, I think we want to really reinforce that.
We still feel that this is just the beginning. We do believe that Björn Borg has all the ingredients of really becoming a global iconic sports fashion brand. And we're just getting started here. But looking at the three things that I just want to highlight, the first one, of course, the brand is gaining significant traction, both regarding awareness, but also regarding preference. So more and more people recognize us, more and more people really prefer us.
And of course, that's really where it starts. What will follow, of course, is then sales growth. Second one is, I think we've really managed to profitably sustain a very strong profit level to a completely new level. So as you saw, Jens, over the quarters, we're now on a very new level. And of course, the intention is to stay there. And last, of course, the whole transition towards online business is in full swing. And we see a very, very strong momentum. And also, I think we managed to very quickly also change the way we're working. So of course, being strong in online means that you need to be much more data-driven. It's much more testing, testing something, doing it again, changing something and then doing something new, which is completely different from the traditional wholesale.
But we can see though that traditional wholesale will benefit from all those learnings as well. So overall, of course, I think there's a number of really good things from 2021 that will bring us into 2022. And also, of course, give us another record year. At least that's our plan. But of course, ultimately, I just want to finish off saying that what we see here, of course, is the result of all the individuals working from Björn Borg and of course also all customers that really are believing in what we believe in.
And again, if you take out all the numbers, really this is all about inspiring everyone that you can be more. And we do believe that that's resonating really, really well right now. And we'll also do that for many years to come. And we do believe that it's really about being authentic.
So as Jens said, if I would invest, I would visit the company and join us. And of course, then you will feel the energy and the whole idea that this is just the beginning of something fantastic. So of course, I think with that said, we're super happy to also, of course, reward all of us being a shareholder with, I think last year's performance was plus 150% or something in terms of the share value increase. But of course, together with that, a very, very strong dividend that also showcased the confidence that we have in our numbers and also in the plan going forward. So I think with that said, thank you for listening in. And I think that Jelmer might have a few questions for us as well to round this presentation off.
Thank you very much. And first off, of course, congratulations on a strong quarter and a strong 2021. I was thinking maybe we could start with your clear online strategy because since you launched it, you've seen some strong growth in the online sales channels. And of course, that includes own stores, own online and the e-tailers and the marketplaces. Could you elaborate a bit on the key factors looking forward? How are you going to execute on this strong growth and maintain the growth levels looking forward?
Absolutely, absolutely. And good question. I think it starts out, of course, just reminding everyone the strength of owning your own brand. So of course, Björn Borg, that's ours. And that's one of the things that sets us apart from everyone else because only we have Björn Borg. And then, of course, the second one, if you have a strong brand, of course, then you need to understand, okay, where are the consumers?
And that's where you need to invest and focus your energies on. And of course, three, four years back, we realized that there's a massive transition away from physical retail into a completely new online environment. And that's where we said, hey, we want to be there. That's what we want to take part of. And so we did. So I think one answer is that where you're focusing, that's where you're also getting rewarded.
Of course, that focus will continue also in 2022 and also 2023. I think that could also change. Of course, having the brand will also enable us to work with different distribution channels depending on where the consumers are. I think one clear answer is where you focus, you also get benefit from. The second one is also to then understand in order to be successful online, there are different capabilities than being successful in traditional wholesale. I think one of the things that really is very, very different is the ability that you have to test things online. It's a slightly different way of doing things. It's much more data-driven. You need to A/B test things regularly.
You need to have the courage to try out things, even though that perhaps sounds mad, and then learn and then readjust and then test again. And I think those are really the two things that will enable us to continue to grow. So a strong online focus means that everybody understands that this is where we want to grow. Of course, having the courage to test a lot of things. And of course, lastly, then of course, the benefit of having a strong brand will of course also help the online growth. But that will also, of course, also help the growth with department stores and all our other customers. Ultimately, of course, I think a strong brand will everyone benefit from.
Of course, while you have a strong online presence, the majority is still physical store sales. Of course, there's been some headwinds relating to the pandemic and such. Could you elaborate a bit on the start of 2022? Have you seen some growth in the stores? Could you maybe elaborate a bit on your expectations for 2022 in same store growth?
Absolutely, and of course, trying to avoid then to start giving forecasts since we don't want to do that, but I think if I talk in general terms, we see a very, very strong recovery in physical retail versus last year, and depending a bit on which market, of course, but of course, you can imagine looking at Netherlands, Belgium, where most of the stores were closed last year in Q1, and now they're open, so of course, it's very easy numbers to beat, so of course, with that, we should expect high growth numbers from physical stores in all the markets and also for most brands, but depending a bit in which market in terms of how much those growth numbers will be, but at least we anticipate a fairly strong recovery in physical retail, both for our customers, but also for our own retail stores.
Thank you. And looking at your gross margin, it was a substantial increase during 2021. Could you elaborate a bit on the efforts that you carry out in order to display those strong levels?
No, absolutely. I think, of course, one indicator of having a strong brand is, of course, that you can price the products higher. So of course, continuing to invest into the brand means that people are willing to pay more. So there's a brand premium, of course, that we need to continue working with.
Looking at 2022, it's clear that there will be price increases coming our way, and it doesn't really matter which industry or which part you're looking at, but we will also look into that as well, and of course, that's one way of mitigating the increased costs that we have, both for fabrics, but transportation and creating the products, and of course, not to mention the whole sustainability focus that we're having that is costing slightly more, but of course, it's benefiting because the products are much, much, much better.
So the plan going ahead is to focus on the product portfolio, the customer mix, but also, of course, we'd recommend retail price increases to mitigate the increased costs that we see coming our way. And we do believe that even though we had a bit of a dip in Q4 in terms of gross margin, that we should be able to push that back to a slightly higher level also looking forward.
Thank you, and if we move a bit further down the P&L, you also have a strong EBIT margin this year, well above your own target levels, while you also increased dividend. Is this a sign of confidence? Do you believe looking forward that you can maintain these levels of operating expenditures, or do you need to invest in order to grow? How do we look at that?
No, I think we definitely need to invest in order to grow. And of course, the trick is where do you invest and where do you divest or where do you save? So of course, what we are planning to do is not to increase the OPEX ratio, not because we don't want to invest, because we want to invest heavily. But at the same time, of course, we want to reshuffle our resources. So of course, last year we closed a number of concept stores and most likely we'll continue to close concept stores. And of course, then we'll utilize that OPEX and invest that into where we can get a better benefit and higher return on investment, which is, for example, then online. The only ratio that we're planning to increase for 2022 is our marketing investments.
So we do believe that we want to continue to invest into the brand and we want to increase those investments because we see that that communication is really, really working and the brand is getting stronger and stronger, which of course then also will then translate into higher sales. So looking at the OPEX ratios, or the OPEX ratios, we don't see investments changing those. However, of course, we still want to invest, but the plan is really to reshuffle our resources where we can benefit the most.
All right, thank you. And then finally, maybe you could elaborate a bit on the current state of the supply chains. Do you see any current issues? Has there been some improvements in the start of 2022? And what is your current view of the whole supply chain?
I think when we look at Spring/Summer 2022, so the stuff that is now being delivered and also, of course, High Summer, that's been delivered later in the quarter and also Q2, we see that versus 2021, it's actually better. So it's much more in tune to how we have planned. It's still, although a few delays, so it's not exactly where we want it, but it feels like it's slowly becoming a bit better. We anticipate that looking at the fall and Christmas, that we'll be back to more normal levels where you can plan the business more properly. We think that the worst is behind us, even though, of course, I think first half year is still a bit tricky, but it looks better than last year at least.
All right. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Jelmer, and thank you for listening in, and hey, don't forget this Friday, 11 to 12, we train every day. It's compulsory. Jelmer, would you join us today as well, and of course, by doing so, he'll become a slightly better version of himself, so I think with that, thanks a lot and have a great Friday.
Thank you.