Good morning, and welcome to our 2023 Q4 report. And with that, we also closed 2023, and what a year that turned out to be. High inflation rates, interest rates going up, and geopolitical challenges almost no matter where I looked. Considering all of that, I believe we navigated good in those muddy waters, looking around many of our competitors, also a few of our customers. And more recently, this Tuesday, our licensed partner, Serve & Volley, doing footwear for us, went into reconstruction. So, a challenging year, very clearly. Today, it's my 38th quarterly report. So, looking back, I've seen almost everything that you can throw at one. I remember in 2017, our biggest distributor, Benelux, having massive financial difficulties, and we then taking them over, now turning them into one of our most profitable markets.
I remember going blind because we didn't have any numbers that showcase how we were performing on a month-to-month basis. Investing into an ERP system solved that, and of course, now we have, I would say, probably the best reporting package that you could ever want, and then, of course, a global pandemic. Being somewhere long-term, of course, means that you need to build a solid foundation, something that can withstand, that lasts over time, no matter what is thrown at you, and looking back, I'm just so, so proud over the entire team that has been with me for so long, and no matter what happened, we always prevailed. You know, sometimes we celebrate the victories, and sometimes we simply conclude that we'll try again tomorrow.
But being here long-term, of course, means that you're committed, you're dedicated to the brand, to the team, to the shareholders, and to ourselves. The only downside, potentially, is that the longer you are at one place, the risk pressed you to be a bit, you know, complacent. But luckily, I have a board, I have major shareholders, and of course, an office full of people that constantly challenge me, telling me that, "Hey, we can do more. This is just the beginning. We can do it even better." So, of course, looking ahead, we're filled with confidence that tomorrow will be even better than yesterday. But with that said, you know, let's throw ourselves into some Q4 numbers. And of course, there's many victories, and there were a lot of different headlines that I could have picked from. One, of course, gross margin improvements. Another one, record e-com growth.
Sports apparel, double-digit growth. But also, looking from a different angle, I can also conclude that we're not happy. I'm not happy with our current growth. We can do better. And yes, of course, it's completely isolated to our distributors. So, of course, our comp stores, our own e-com, our wholesale is growing, but the distributors are not. This, of course, we need to change. So, of course, we need to increase our focus on our current distributors, but also, of course, continue to fuel growth in our other business channels. But clearly, of course, you know, looking at the last quarter, by far our biggest victory is our own e-com growth at 46%. Looking at Sweden only, our own e-com grew 39%. And when we look around us, we know that at best it was a zero growth quarter for almost everyone else. So we're taking market shares.
And we can see throughout all our markets that the brand is getting stronger, that the connection that we are building with end consumers is getting better and better. And of course, with that, growth is also coming. You already saw gross margins are on a very, very good level. And for once, actually, you know, the currency is working a bit with us. So, of course, we have many, many years with currencies pushing us a bit back. But for this quarter, actually, we get a bit of a help. But the major reason, of course, for increasing the gross margin is the channel mix. So, of course, strong growth in own e-com, taking a bigger share of our total business. Also, of course, you know, continuing to reduce our discounts across all channels. That is helping to drive up the gross margins.
We also see, of course, you know, a balanced impact and still, you know, from last year, fairly low cost when it comes to bringing the products, you know, back home. Container prices still in this quarter have not increased a lot. And on top of that, of course, we see that the price increases and our ability to charge slightly more for our products is also having an impact on our gross margin looking at the last past quarter. Consequently, of course, our operating profit increased, you know, to SEK 20 million, so plus 160%. So, of course, that's absolutely fantastic. And last, of course, we ended the year with a net cash position of SEK 27 million. So, of course, that means that we're ready, you know, for whatever tomorrow will bring.
If I just repeat myself, and this we do every time, just as a reminder, okay, but what was this all about then? So, of course, first, we have a very strong mission, and we keep repeating that because we think that is important. We're here because we believe that there is a need out there. There is a window that is open for a brand that will inspire people that you can be a bit more. And it's within your control, and that training is the key lever that you should train, not to become an athlete, not to win an Olympic gold medal, so to score any goals. You should train because you will simply be better at something else.
Even with that said, of course, that makes me super happy, yes, watching the latest documentary by Messi when he's sitting there in the locker room, still wearing our Björn Borg underwear. So we have nothing against super strong athletes using our products, but sports and training is just so much more important than that. We want to reach out to you, remind you that by doing small things, you can improve your own life. That's what this brand is all about. Our long-term financial objectives is, as you know, annual sales growth of 5%, operating margin of minimum 10%, dividend 50%, and then equity asset ratio of minimum 35%. Here, of course, you can see that all of these we're delivering on, except the first one. We need to grow more. We need to be better at facilitating growth.
I think we have a foundation to do so. Our business strategy has been the same for many, many years. We're very consistent. It's all about increasing our share of online business with own e-com, as you've seen, of course, but also with e-tailers. And then, of course, drive our sports apparel collection. And of course, with plus 17% growth, I think we showcase once again that we have a good, good traction on sports apparel. We want to focus geographically where we are, so dig where we stand, but we do do investments both in Germany and Amazon US that will then fuel further growth looking ahead. So how did it go then? So looking at some of the key pieces, starting with the brand, of course. So brand awareness in Holland for him is plus 45% in the quarter.
Brand awareness for her also in Holland plus 42%. And brand awareness in Sweden plus, you know, 18%. So no matter where we look, we see that and feel that the brand is getting stronger. And perhaps one of the biggest victories is that both underwear and apparel is increasing. So we're building a sports fashion brand, but we're still maintaining our relevance as an underwear brand. Looking at our latest results, we are number one in both Netherlands and in Sweden when it comes to preference for men's underwear. Meaning that we ask consumers, if you can only pick one brand to buy underwear from, which brand would you pick? And we're number one. Number two is the global player, Calvin Klein. So looking at the full year growth, as I said, so we're close near at 872 in net sales, you know, 892 in total sales.
We're growing full year 3.6%. However, of course, last quarter is more or less flat versus last year. And here, as I said, you know, we can do a lot better. Of course, the channel split is developing exactly the way we want, with, of course, you know, high growth in own e-com. And then looking and running through our markets, we see it's a different development. And of course, it's a bit of a timing issue. We really need to look at the full year picture to see how the markets are really doing. But of course, clearly, one of the victories from Q4 is the very strong recovery in Netherlands. Sweden is also doing really, really well. Belgium and Denmark are performing well, while both Germany and Finland are doing a bit slower.
But again, you know, looking at quarters, mostly related to timing effects, we see that wholesale is doing good. We see strong growth looking at 2023. Looking at our distributors, of course, that's where the major challenge is. Here we're losing across the board. Our most important one, Norway, is losing the least, which is, of course, reassuring because, of course, here we have a strong brand. But then the smaller distributors, we have been struggling, and we simply need to, you know, act on this and do it better and support them even more so they also can continue or at least starting to grow looking ahead. If we run through the different channels, so wholesale plus 2% in the quarter. Looking at e-com, so again, that was a record quarter, plus 46%, so absolutely incredible. Own retail, we're declining minus 8%.
But again, as you probably recall, our strategy is to divest, so to close retail stores simply because it's not adding profitability and rather invest that money into e-tailers, marketplaces, and own e-com. And I think that's proven to be very, very successful, as you can see then on our bottom line. Looking at the comp stores, those are flat in the quarter versus last year. Distributors down 49%. So here's where we have the entire drop, as we already mentioned, you know, a number of times. Looking at the online developments, as you know, you know, back in 2019, for those that have followed us a long time, we simply said that we need to redirect our efforts. We need to invest online, both with e-tailers, but also, of course, own e-com.
And that, of course, meant, you know, bigger team, you know, better e-com platform, but also, of course, a much more agile team when it comes to working with various e-tailers that we have in Europe. And of course, that's been a very, very successful route. And now, you know, 45% of our overall business is coming from pure e-tailers and own e-com. And if then you would add also the online business that we do with some of our wholesale partners, of course, we're talking, you know, close probably to 75%, 76% of our business is now online. So continuing, of course, to take a bigger, bigger presence online, which I think is a super important part of the long-term strategy that we have rolled out. Looking at the quarters, sports apparel, plus 70%.
Underwear and footwear is declining in the quarter, and also bags, taking a slightly longer view. Then we see, you know, strong development in underwear for the full year and also sports apparel. Footwear, as you know, and we said initially, you might have read the press release, so it's a licensed setup with a company called Serve & Volley that is owned by another company called Unlimited Footwear Group. They filed for Chapter 11 last week, which of course means that one of our partners is struggling financially. It doesn't mean short term that we are having any, you know, financial impact by that, but of course it's a disturbance. So currently, of course, what we're reviewing is how can we make sure that spring summer 24 footwear products that we already have sold in are getting delivered to our customers. So that's our number one priority.
The second priority, of course, is to get the autumn winter orders. Those that we've already sold in but haven't produced yet, those need to be produced so we can ship that to our customers as well. That's the main focus, and there's nothing that indicates that we can't do that. More mid and long term, of course, we need to evaluate. Do we want to operate the footwear business ourself? I think we've showcased when we integrated bags. A few of you might have remembered, but back in 2019, we decided to bring bags in-house. It used to be a licensed partner, and of course, that has been a massive, massive success. It's not only are the products much, much better. We also see, you know, revenue and profit gains by bringing, you know, core products into our range.
When it comes to footwear as a category, it is crucial. We believe, of course, that footwear is needed to enable us to make this transition to become a global sports brand. And of course, both me, you know, people in the board, and of course, many in my team have spent a lot of time with Adidas. And of course, you know, one of the key drivers of Adidas' success back in the days was footwear and sneakers. So of course, here I feel that we have a lot of internal knowledge and competence to drive footwear even further. So that's a key category independently on what business model we will apply going forward. Looking at the bottom line, and of course here, there's just no one else better to run that through than our CFO, Jens.
So I'll take a bit of a break now, and Jens will run through the bottom line numbers, which of course look a lot better than the top line numbers, which is fantastic.
Thank you, Henrik. Yeah, so I'm pleased to deliver the numbers that actually look better. So I'll let you do the other stuff. But bottom line, we really had a good quarter. We talked about the gross margin already that you heard. So a strong improvement compared to previous quarters. So up to 57%. So really strong margin coming from reduced discounts. Our own e-commerce taking a bigger share of the total, which has already high gross margin. So that's a really, really a positive sign, not only for this quarter, but also for what we can imagine going forward then. The operating profit is at SEK 101 million for the year or SEK 20 million for the quarter.
Massive improvement, 160% versus the quarter last year. And clearly the net income, the very bottom line is then following. So a super strong quarter as well as a very strong year on the profitability side. If you take a glance at the balance sheet, again, very solid company at this point. The equity ratio of assets is at 60%. Super strong compared to previous quarters and years. So, and also the net debt, as you can see from this slide, we closed the year on a net cash position of SEK 27 million. Super strong. Two years ago, we also had a net cash position, but other than that, we've had quite, quite high net debt ratios that we managed through hard work to bring down to now a very, very solid company.
The working capital, if we compare that to a rolling 12-month sales, is going slightly down, as you can see from this slide, from 24.21%- 20%. This is also a level that we feel very comfortable with. We should be around 20% of the rolling gross sales. We feel that we're in a good place to move things forward, whatever comes our way. With that, again, that was very short, but sweet. I hand over to you, Henrik.
I'm happy to hand that. That's good. Let's wrap it up then. What was the quarter really all about? Of course, as we saw and seen and talked about, you know, very, very strong e-com growth. The full year has really been doing, you know, exceptionally well.
And of course, also, you know, Q4 was, you know, very, very good at, you know, +46%. So that's amazing. Together, of course, with the improved margins and of course, a massive gain then on our operating margins. That's very, very good. And of course makes us, you know, very confident that we have a very solid platform from which we then can continue to grow from. One thing that we want to highlight again, the brand is continuing to become stronger and stronger in all our markets, both underwear, but of course, also even more importantly as a sports brand. Record sales from e-com. We have okay growth for wholesale. Not happy at all with the distributors. But again, very, very strong gross margin improvement. So still, of course, operating margin, you know, performing really, really well.
And last, of course, we talked about sports apparel for many, many years. And of course, now we have a ninth quarter in a row with strong sports apparel growth. So we're slowly, of course, gaining traction, becoming bigger and bigger and moving ourselves into this bigger arena of becoming a sports brand instead of just an underwear brand. So I'm very, very happy and pleased with Q4. It was a challenging year. You know, many had massive issues. I think the entire team has navigated through all those obstacles on a very, very good way. And I think it's clear with a team that's been here a while, you know, we know the things, we know our business, we're very, very committed. And last, we have felt that we want just to, you know, add a few points.
Those were the same points I looked at when I decided to invest in Björn Borg, you know, back in 2014 when I joined. So of course, I'm also a shareholder together with you. Of course, for me, it adds, you know, something different than when I work for Peak Performance or Adidas. It's this, you know, sense of ownership that is, you know, it's also my company and it puts a bit different perspective to things. For me, it's clearly, you know, one of the reasons why I decided that it's going to be, you know, a long-term commitment. You know, I'm here for the long run. I'm here because I simply think we do things a lot better. Even with, you know, 38 quarter reports behind me, it still just feels like this is the beginning. We just have so much more to do.
There's just so much more things that could be done even better. So super, super excited about the future. But again, of course, looking back, we have a proven track record of steady profitability. We have a, what I believe, a very convincing strategy that will drive profitable growth. We've seen that as well. I think we now have proved ourselves in terms of value creation. So looking at the last five years, we're up 217% versus OMX at, you know, 78%. Looking at last year, I think we did 52%. We have a stable and high dividend. So as we've said, you know, for last year, it's going to be SEK 3. We have a very strong, you know, equity ratio of, you know, 55%. You know, we start the year with a net cash position. We have a very, of course, easy for me to say professional team.
But if you exclude me, the rest are absolutely incredible. So that's a company I would want to invest in. And we also have a very solid foundation. So we did a lot of the boring stuff that you might not have seen. ERP, you know, redoing the supply chain, closing warehouses, only having one warehouse, new e-com platform. A lot of stuff was done, you know, between 2016 and 2019 that really built that foundation so that we can continue to grow in the future. So I think with that said, I'm sure that Jelmer will have tons of questions. Happy that you listened in and have a fantastic Friday. Yes, Jelmer.
Perfect. Thank you so much. I guess if we start off by talking about the gross margin and if we look at the FX adjusted level, it's still a very good level in the quarter here.
You mentioned, of course, the channel mix here and also, I guess, the average pricing point. Could you elaborate a bit on the balance between these two dynamics in the quarter? How much is the increase then in own e-commerce and how much? Are you satisfied with the average price level here that you have in Q4?
No, I think on one hand, of course, the biggest impact is the channel mix. So of course, you know, e-com, you know, growing 46% while the other business is, you know, flat or wholesale, you know, growing 2%. That has a massive impact on our margins. So of course, that's one thing. But also on e-com, as with all other channels, one of the signs that we see that reassures us that the brand is getting stronger is our ability to reduce discount.
So we reduce discount towards our customers, but also towards our end consumers. And of course, that's simply a sign that the brand is getting stronger and stronger. So people are simply willing to pay a premium price for premium products. So that we see as well. So it's a combination, of course, of channel mix. That's the biggest reason. And of course, also reduce discounts together also with increasing your price points, RRPs, partly, of course, due to inflation and increased costs, you know, a year ago with the price increases. But that, of course, leads into a very, very strong gross margin in the quarter.
Do you feel confident that you can maintain this price level that you currently have? And how do you look into the future in terms of prioritizing growth or prioritizing margins? Could you elaborate a bit on this?
But looking, you know, since 2019, we said that we want to have a theme that is called profitable growth. So the idea was that we want to grow profit, you know, quicker than top line. And now, of course, looking ahead, you know, the foundation is in place. We did a lot of investments. I think we have a solid platform. Again, we started the year with a net cash position. So I believe that, you know, we're now ready to, you know, fuel growth a bit more to focus on, you know, gaining even more, you know, market shares. And I think, you know, e-com, the brand, looking at the product range, this is a lot of components that for me now indicates that, hey, we're ready, you know, we can do more. So for me, we don't do any forecast, of course, to look into the future.
But personally, and what I would want us to see is more focus on growth going forward.
Thank you. And then on the own e-commerce, of course, like you mentioned, we see a market growth in Sweden of roughly 0%. But then you managed to still display this impressive growth here. If we look into the future, do you still think that, I mean, in terms of marketing spend, do you feel you need to invest additionally into marketing to maintain a satisfying growth level here? Or how do you perceive the future growth in the own e-commerce?
I think a very tricky question, of course, to answer. I think the good thing with e-com, and I think we have a few things that are really sticking out. So on one hand, of course, we have a very strong team in place.
They're also working, you know, very closely with our marketing team. And that's really, you know, it's connected. So it's all about performance marketing. And of course, the strength of that is that we'll see immediately when things are, you know, starting to go in the wrong direction. So whether one market is then slowing down because the ROAS is going down or one market might be picking up because the ROAS is going up. So the return on ad spend, for example. If the click-through rate on some of the newsletters is, you know, dropping or there might be increases in some other markets, of course, here you get instant feedback on what you're doing. And I think the team is really geared up to work on day-to-day adjustments to continue to drive the growth.
So whether, you know, next year will be as good as last year, I don't know. You know, it was an exceptionally good year last year. But our ambition level is certainly we want to continue to drive further growth with e-com. And we want that to, you know, disproportionately grow quicker than everything else. And of course, looking at our total turnover on own e-com, it's still nothing if I compare it with, you know, some of the other, you know, global sports iconic brands that we are competing against. So I think there's possibilities for further growth. But of course, it's not easy. But 2023 wasn't easy either. So a strong team, you know, focused on performance marketing, those will be the key levers to continue with own e-com growth.
All right. And then, if we move on to the distributors you mentioned then, and then they've been facing, they've been challenged during 2023 here. But I was wondering, could you elaborate a bit on maybe the drivers for this year? Is it a more cautioned approach to the underlying market, which is reflecting the purchase intent? Or what is the main driver that we see for the development during 2023?
No, but if we look at distributors, of course, the business model is that you have a very strong local entrepreneur that is running a business. Some, like in Norway, he's only doing Björn Borg. In other markets, like in the U.K., they're also doing other brands. And of course, throughout 2023, and of course, at the end of 2022, that's when they bought the product that was supposed to be sold in 2023.
Of course, we saw, of course, you know, massive US dollar gains versus the Swedish krona or the NOK or the pound. Of course, these guys are buying in US dollar and then, of course, selling in local currency. Of course, you know, they're also businessmen. Of course, they try to optimize that. Of course, they want to find this perfect timing where they feel that the US dollar ratio pound or NOK is, you know, as good as it can be. Of course, they want to make their purchase. Also they're shedding on some inventories themselves. Of course, looking at last year, you know, one explanation clearly for the poor development was that that never really happened.
It's only, you know, probably last three months when we saw that the exchange rates are swinging a bit in the favor of the NOK and pound, for example, versus the U.S. dollar. So that's one explanation. Of course, the good thing, if we look at Norway, for example, here we have an underlying very strong business. So the brand is strong. We have good distribution. It's high margins, low discounts. Our own e-com is, you know, growing almost 100% that we're driving ourselves in Norway. So, of course, there's a lot of signs that the Norwegian business will, you know, get back into growth mode. That's very, very clear. When it comes to those smaller markets, U.K., Eastern Europe, well, of course, they do other brands as well. And of course, the brand is not as strong there.
So here it's about, you know, us spending time and also helping them to invest into those markets so we can grow. So I think that's a bit the, you know, the dynamics, if you will, with the distributors.
Thank you. And then, of course, you mentioned your footwear partner, of course, and the situation that is emerging there. But you mentioned then that maybe in the short term that you can still display, I mean, at least a limited risk for sales to be affected there. Can you remind us on the visibility within this segment and how far into the future can you actually project the development?
Absolutely. So if we look at 2023, just so, you know, get the numbers right then. So last year, we did SEK 68.64 million in our own market.
That's the footwear that we sold then in Sweden and in Finland and a bit in Denmark as well. Those markets we distribute footwear ourselves. Our licensed partner, Serve & Volley, that is now, you know, financially struggling, they create the products that we then buy from them to distribute in those markets. They also distribute in Europe, which is predominantly actually Netherlands and Belgium and a bit in Germany. That business, they did roughly SEK 74 million last year. Of course, of that business, we're getting a royalty and that's 8% in royalty plus 1% in global marketing. That's roughly, you know, SEK 6.3-6.4 million. Last year, in terms of turnover in our entire P&L, that was roughly then SEK 74-75 million with an EBIT then of, you know, SEK 14-15 million roughly. That was, that's how big the business is.
And of course, the priority right now is to make sure that we deliver the Spring/Summer 24 products, so of course, last year, both in Netherlands and Belgium and in Sweden and Finland and Denmark, they visit customers, wholesale customers, and of course, you know, showed the collection and they have placed firm orders that they now, of course, want to get delivered, and that's really the main focus because all those products are in Europe, so they're currently sitting in Rotterdam and Hamburg, just waiting to be picked up, and of course, here we have a very tight dialogue with the trustees, so those that are appointed to secure the businesses, you know, running as smooth as they can throughout this reconstruction, so that's the dialogue right now to make sure that we can pick up our stuff for Spring/Summer 24.
And then, of course, simultaneously, we also have sold in Autumn/Winter 24. So that's products that will then have a retail introduction date in August this year. Those orders need to be placed right now. And of course, then we have a dialogue here also with the factories, the suppliers, of course, the trustees. Okay, how do we do with the order placements so we can deliver that? And then, of course, as well, then we have Spring/Summer 25. So that's the next season. And of course, here's about creating a new collection, looking at old bestsellers, looking at a number of stock share and then producing new footwear. But of course, the strength here is that we spend a lot of time, of course, working very closely with this licensed partner. And we are ready to do footwear ourselves.
We're also ready to continue in another form with a licensed partner. Regardless of business model, you know, I think our message is very clear. Footwear is a key category. We've seen massive potential and massive growth going forward. With that said, of course, we're currently, you know, in a dialogue with trustees and it's a reconstruction or a Chapter 11, as they call it. And of course, that, you know, could potentially make things a bit more complicated. And that could potentially also short term then have, you know, risks associated with that, both on sales and on profit. But again, of course, the intention is that we'll continue, of course, to make sure that our customers and our end consumers don't really see any of what is happening behind the scene. And we don't see anyone that we're working with that see that differently.
So that's really the focus. But of course, you know, this was not planned, but now we simply need to deal with it. And I think that we are having a very, very capable team in place and a good dialogue with a licensed partner to enable us to do this with as little business disruption as possible.
Thank you. And then finally, then on the wholesale channel, could you elaborate a bit on the dialogue that you currently are carrying out with the wholesale customers? Is there any particular wholesale customer who are facing challenges right now? Are they all developing in a similar manner? And how do they reflect the underlying market that we see in terms of retail sales?
Yeah, and it's very different. So, of course, last fall, of course, you know, one of the biggest wholesale retailers in Benelux and Sprinter went, you know, bankrupt.
While when I look at the Nordic landscape where we have, you know, it's a fairly consolidated market, we have a few players that are very, very strong. And their situation is a bit different. But what you can say though is we still see that there's a bit high inventories in a few of them. We still see that there's a price, quite, you know, price-driven market with, you know, low margins on their side. And that's sort of in general. So we also, of course, saw that even though a few are growing, their margins are declining and their profits are also declining a bit depending on, you know, which one you know talk about. But overall, of course, for our retailers and customers, you know, 2023 was a fairly tough year.
But when we look at our performance with those, we see that we have, you know, very, very strong traction, you know, so good sell-through numbers that our brand is actually gaining visibility. And of course, that's because we're a very, very small player, you know, if you compare to some of the other, you know, much bigger brands. There's also, of course, doing business with these, you know, bigger, you know, Nordic retailers.
Thank you. That's all on my end.
Brilliant. Thank you, Jelmer. And thank you guys for listening in. Remember, it's Friday, 11:00 A.M. It's sports hour. So see you at Frosundavik . You're welcome to join us. If not, I'll see you in a quarter, Jelmer,
huh? Of course.
Brilliant. Thank you.