Hello, welcome to the presentation of the Björn Borg Q1 results. I will start off by sharing some of the financial results for the group. Henrik Bunge will follow with some more great news for our company. If we summarize the first quarter of 2021, we can conclude that our online sales continue to grow strongly. It actually represents over 50% of our turnover for the first quarter of this year. If we include our own e-commerce, our wholesalers, e-tailers, also our wholesalers' own e-commerce sites, we are well above 50% of our turnover online. The first quarter, however, we should note, was continuously negatively impacted by COVID-19, obviously. We have seen lockdowns in some of our markets. For instance, in the Netherlands, the entire quarter was closed. Also, we see lockdowns in Germany and in the U.K.
That obviously results in some challenges in our own retail business and clearly for our retailers in the wholesale segment as well. Overall, net sales increased by 7.4% in the quarter compared to last year. We see a strong quarter for our wholesale channel predominantly driven by the e-tailers, as I just mentioned. They're growing with 68% in the quarter, very strong online, as mentioned earlier. Our own e-commerce site is also doing really well, + 40% in the quarter, they continue to show a great momentum. The own retail stores, however, declined 44%, clearly the impact of COVID-19 is still with us with the lockdowns that we've seen in some of our markets.
The segment of external distributors grow very strongly in the quarter, plus over 100%, and the main increase we see in Norway, which is having a great momentum at the moment, and also a strong recovery in the U.K. that has shifted from being an integrated part of our business to an external distributor as of January 2021. The licensed business declined in the quarter, mainly Bags category that is representing this decrease as this category has been brought in-house towards end of 2020. That clearly represents a change. Currency neutral, the sales increase is above 14%. Gross profit in the quarter declined slightly 0.8 percentage points. This is mainly driven by some inventory writedowns that we did as a consequence of the lockdown in our retail channels. Currency neutral, the decrease was above four percentage points.
The operating profit, on the other hand, increased to SEK 22 million versus SEK 7.2 million last quarter last year. This is quite a large increase. It has come from the focus that we've had on profitability in the gross margin, but also the measurements and activities the company's taken to reduce our operational expenses. If we try to summarize this in net sales and profit over the last three quarters, we can see, as I said, 7% growth this quarter versus last year. The positive drivers that we can see on the turnover is coming from online. Our own e-commerce, 40% up, e-tailer in the wholesale business, 68% up, distributors, mainly driven by Norway and U.K., over 100% increase. Clearly the downsides are to be seen in own retail, which is declining with about 40% in the quarter. Profit-wise, a very large increase compared to last year.
This is coming from generally a good control of our operating expenses from the activities taken by the company to reduce the OpEx base, let's say. We have less wholesale discounts, improving the margins slightly, but on the downside, there is some inventory write-off due to the lockdowns in our own retail segments. Summarized in a simplified P&L, we can see again, the sales increasing 7.4%, as mentioned, slight decline in the total gross profit margin of 0.8 percentage points. Operating expenses, on the other hand, decreased with close to 10%, resulting in the operating profit increasing well over 200% from SEK 7 million- SEK 22 million. That gives us an operating margin well above 10%, so 12.1% for the quarter.
If we try to see which of the channels is providing the growth, on the left-hand side of this slide I'm showing, we can see that the wholesale segment or the wholesale channel is driving an increase in sales of above SEK 12 million in the quarter. Distributors, as I said, growing 100%, is increasing close to SEK 6 million in the quarter. The downside is our direct-to-consumer being our own retail combined with own e-commerce. In total, the direct consumer is then declining to SEK 2.5 million, but also the licensing is decreasing by SEK 2 million. If we look on the operating profit for the quarter, the main driver for the increase in the quarter is driven or coming from the wholesale channel, almost SEK 20 million versus last year. We do see a downside on the direct-to-consumer, but also licensing.
Distributors are increasing with a SEK 1 million in the quarter. The wholesale is showing a very strong growth in our e-tailer segment, so + 68%. The operating profit is then increasing with this increased sales in the online, but also due to improved gross margins and reduced operating expenses. Wholesale is having a really strong quarter for the first quarter of this year. Direct-to-consumer, we can split up in own e-commerce and own retail. Own e-commerce increase in sales by 40%, whilst the own retail decreasing 44% due to the lockdowns mentioned earlier.
Operating profits then clearly declined due to the lower sales and also slightly lower gross margins. Distributors over 100% increase, strong development in Norway, but also in the U.K. As I mentioned earlier, the licensing business declining due to the fact that we brought the Bags category in-house, so out of the licensing business. I would like to hand over to the CEO, Henrik Bunge. Thank you.
Behind us, we have a year and a few months of a global pandemic, but we also have a record quarter one for Björn Borg. Of course, we've learned a lot during the last year, but there's a number of things that is popping out which gives us confidence to believe in a future that looks much better than the past. There's an ongoing health trend that has never been stronger. People are looking for brands that inspires them, that you can indeed be more, and that training is more crucial than ever to allow you to unleash your own potential, and we're that brand. When looking ahead, it's clear that people listen to brands, but more and more importantly, it is clear that people listen to people.
During Q1, we did a massive push with our brand with a number of different influencers in all of our biggest markets. We can see that the new arena for us is clearly online, and that the connection that we have gained with consumers in various online channels is impacting our brand in a very positive way. We see record numbers when we're measuring how strong our brand was looking at our Q1 results. First, of course, we did an influencer attack with more than 100 different influencers that immediately, of course, increased our brand awareness. As we've seen in the past, that's been one of our biggest challenges. People simply do not look upon Björn Borg as a sports brand, even though we are.
If we remind them that we are a sports brand, then one of three will pick us as their favorite brand, and that's a massive potential and a massive opportunity. Of course, the whole idea was to build brand awareness, and we saw that increase by more than 100% during Q1 versus last year, only through focusing all our resources on online. Of course, the whole idea is to continue to be where the consumers are, and we can see it's also immediately correlating to growth. Our eCom business, as you just heard Jens talk about, had yet another record quarter where apparel business grew more than 294%. Looking ahead, we see a number of different challenges, but more than ever, we see that our brand and what we stand for resonates really well with what consumers are looking for.
Already back in 2018, we felt that the new arena is online. That's where the consumers will be. We already saw a quick move from physical retail into online e-tailers and marketplaces. Of course, during last year, that simply boomed. Our approach has always been to increase our online business simply because we believe that that's where the brand should be. There's a number of things that points in directions we can really thrive in that environment. Looking at our development, very shortly, the majority of our business will come from online. We are slowly turning Björn Borg into an online company with an online proposition, building and living and communicating our brand online where the consumers are, and that we intend to continue. It's not only about being online.
If that's where the consumers are, it's also about taking a responsible view on how you come across. For us, of course, making the promise that we want to make you better also means that we need to take a responsibility in how we impact the environment around us. Sustainability is a very high focus and will continue to be so. We have made a massive progress in terms of different sustainability initiatives that we implemented in Q1 and will continue to implement throughout the rest of 2021. We truly believe that the combination of focusing online, building a brand that will inspire you that you can be better, and having a very high sustainability focus, that's really the recipe for a massive success going forward.
With that said, I think looking at our mission, that we want to be here to inspire you that you can be more, be whatever you want to be. I'm not talking to you that are running seven times a week, that are running and competing in marathons. I'm talking to you that just want to be a bit better, live a bit longer, feel a bit stronger. Those are the ones that we want to reach out to. We want to inspire you that you can be whatever you want to be. Looking at Q1, we did that. We have a record quarter behind us, and we have high faith in our business idea and in our brand mission, and we'll continue to deliver on that also looking forward. With that said, thank you for listening in.