Good afternoon, and welcome back to ABG Sundal Collier's Investor Days. My name is Benjamin Wahlstedt. I am an equity research analyst here at the Stockholm office, covering the consumer sector. With me today, I have Embellence Group and CEO Olle Svensk to present his company. So, Olle, go ahead.
Thank you very much. Welcome, everyone. My name is Olle Svensk, and as Benjamin mentioned, I'm the CEO of Embellence Group. I will fairly quickly go through our latest Q3 report, but then also leave open for questions after that. So first of all, I want you to just spend two seconds or even more to take a look at our new flagship showroom in Chelsea for Cole & Son, where we have relocated our head office, actually. So we have a building there with four floors, but this is the flagship gallery that we opened in September, where consumers can enter, of course, but also more importantly, architects and designers. So we are now in the middle, in the center, where many of them are, in the center of London.
Embellence Group, we are a company that own and develop strong brands in interior decoration. We are in wallpaper, in rugs, window films, cushions, and textile. So some highlights from the Q3 . I mean, despite a very challenging geopolitical and also economic situation, we delivered a growth of a little bit more than 8%, but more importantly, more 4.3% organically, and in all three months during the quarter. And over the last one and a half years, we have actually worked relentlessly, I would say, to lower our cost base, and this showed really in the quarter, where we have a nice leverage effect on our profitability as well. During this one and a half year, we have reduced headcount with some 15%, actually.
That is really kicking in here in the quarter. We have no adjustments during the quarter at all, so the EBITDA landed on SEK 26.5 million. The focus ahead, nothing dramatic here. We will continue to prioritize organic growth, continue to make sure that our existing portfolio brands have the right prerequisites to continue to grow in the channels where there is growth right now. And also to strengthen our offering, and with that, I mean, not the least, product innovation, where we have some exciting product that we are launching with some of our brands during next year. And then, you know, the focus on discipline in our spending will remain, but we also need to improve our cash flow.
That was not really on the level that we wanted during the quarter, but I'll come back to that later, later on. Some key figures, probably most of you have seen it here. I mentioned it before, with our sales and profitability. Operating cash flow was not on the level that we wanted now. There are several reasons to it, but our accounts receivable are quite high level during the month or during the quarter, but we actually expect both our inventory but also our cash flow to improve now in the Q4. Net sales, rolling twelve, it's been hovering around SEK 700 million, and the EBITDA, as you can see here in the quarter, was pretty good.
But we still have some miles to go to come back to the levels we were at in 2021 and 2022, actually. Looking into our three segments, historically, the largest one is the Nordics. It's still the largest one, but we are starting to have a healthier portfolio in terms of geographical spread, if you like. Now, we have 35% of our sales in the Nordics, and by far, the biggest part is, of course, Sweden. During the quarter, we were able to bounce back to a healthier level in terms of EBITDA margin with 12%. It was basically the demand in Sweden that was quite good. Norway and Finland has started to come back a little bit during the Q3 , but Sweden was fairly stable.
One of the reasons, but it was only 1.7 million SEK. Actually, it was the launch of Borosan during the quarter, so it didn't have a major impact in the quarter. We do have launches coming into October of that collection, though. So adjusted EBITDA 8.1 million SEK, and the cost-out program that we communicated and launched Q4 or a year ago continued to deliver good efficiencies and also helps us to have a healthier profit level. Europe, which for several quarters now has been our most profitable segment, we reached 58.7 million SEK. Strong growth in the U.K., which is our third largest market, also in Italy, which is our fourth largest market, and in France. We do see weakness in the dealer segment.
In Europe, we are mainly distributed in furniture store or in interior decoration showrooms, not like in Sweden, where you find us in paint shops. But anyhow, dealer segment is softer in the market, and we are able to compensate our overall sales mainly with hospitality business, sales into hotels and restaurants, mainly hotels. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 19%, a good level, and the kind of level we should be above 15% here. So it was a quite good overall quarter, I have to say. But dealer segment is under pressure, but we are compensating that with hospitality and also with our direct consumer business. Rest of the world, which where the largest market by far is US.
It's our second largest market, and it's not only because of Artscape sales, it's also an important market for Cole & Son, and starting to become really important for Boråstapeter. Good sales growth, all major markets in this very big region delivered. But we also have some larger deliveries in hospitality in the U.S., in West Indies, in Asia as well, and in North Africa. Adjusted EBITDA 13%, it's okay, not really on the level where we would expect it to be. It should bounce back to be above 15%, but we're not there yet. But we now have 33. A third...
A third of our revenue is from outside Europe and Nordics, basically, which we believe is healthier for us in terms of our overall business. So as a summary then, we achieved strong organic growth despite the, you know, the outside world, if you like. We grew organically 4.3%, which is one of the most important numbers here, but also that we grew all three months during the quarter. Our continuous work on having our cost control is paying off. As soon as we get some organic growth, we have nice leverage on our profitability as well, where it's SEK 26.5 million.
The focus going ahead, as I mentioned here before, will remain, and we continue to build a high-quality company that is really fueled by professionalism and passion, because passion is one of the core drivers, I would say, in this industry.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Benjamin, maybe you have some questions or someone else?
I do. I do. Let's start with a very general one, maybe. So, when speaking to investors, what would you say the biggest misconception about your business is?
I would say that there are... I would probably select three ones. First, one question that I tend to get many times is that, "Aren't you a cyclical company that are, you know, is following the number of dwellings being done in the market?" And we are not. We are not affected when it goes up or when it goes down, actually. So we have a fairly stable business in that respect. A second one is that we are, "Aren't you very much Sweden and Boråstapeter?" Sweden is our largest market, and Boråstapeter Sweden together is maybe a third of our market. But over the last years, we have, we have now, as I mentioned, two-thirds outside Sweden. We have grown organically and through acquisition outside the Nordics.
We have a much healthier and balanced portfolio than we had before. And then I have to mention probably a third one. We are a multi-channel company, so we are not a direct-to-consumer company that sometimes I get questions about. We do do a direct-to-consumer business, and we have a good growth there, but we go into the market, depending on brand, through agents or distributors with the dealers or direct to consumers. What is important for us is that they can present our offering in a good way, and that it's profitable.
Mm-hmm.
We have good growth in direct-to-consumer. We are growing around 30% in that area, but we're also growing on the same, almost the same level in hospitality. So those are our two growth engines, while the dealer segment is softer. So those, I would say, are the three ones.
That's a very elaborate answer.
Yeah.
I also note that I think, previously, when we've spoken in this forum, you've mentioned this 30% growth for the e-commerce channel as well.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
So, growth is not slowing down then, I take it?
No, it's on the same level. It's on the same level as before during the quarter-
Perfect
... or during this year.
You have a very diverse portfolio, both in design, even product type, and also price point. I guess Cole & Son could be resilient due to the nature of the consumers, maybe?
Mm-hmm.
Luxury brand may be not affected as much by higher interest rates. But in Q3, Boråstapeter performed very well.
Mm-hmm.
Mid-price brands typically don't tend to fare very well in times of a tougher consumer market. Could you give us some additional flavor on that, please?
On Boråstapeter?
Yes, please.
I mean, during the quarter, there are two things worth mentioning that fueled Boråstapeter's growth. One is growth outside Sweden or Nordic, mainly in the U.S. And one, I mean, one of our best sold articles in Boråstapeter is, it's priced, Dahlia Garden, is priced at around SEK 900 over the counter. So it's not, I mean, it's in the premium segment, if you like. But the other part that also we had some extra business with, it's the Borosan, the collection to professional. That is priced in the, you know, in the basic segment. So we had good business in both levels, I would say. But the best-selling items is actually in the premium segment at Boråstapeter's.
Hmm. Could you share some additional insights into the consumer behavior here, maybe? It does not sound like you see any, down trading, or anything of that sort.
No, no, I, we have not seen anything like that, that they are down trading. No, I wouldn't say so. I think you should... Maybe if you are a retailer covering with a portfolio with many brands and many price positioning, you could, they could probably answer that much better than I can.
Yeah. Perfect. So, let's talk a bit about Cole & Son. You showed us, well, I guess-
This is actually the building.
This is a sketch, yeah.
Yeah.
Um-
This is the sketch of the building, so most welcome.
Are you able to share with us any learnings from or any initial takes or initial learnings from the opening of the showroom? I appreciate that it's very, very early days so far.
I mean, it is a bit, it's kind of 60 days after opening. So the flagship gallery, as we call it, is here, where we can invite, you know, consumers and architects and designers. And I would say there are... One thing is that all of a sudden, it's much easier to come and visit us compared to where our previous head was. So we're really close to the community that we're addressing, and we are a bit, still a bit unrepresented in this segment in the London area, so it's very important for us here. So we have the flagship store, but we also have a VIP room here, where we have only by appointment meetings here.
So coming closer to that community that are the ones that are specifying luxury residentials and apartments and hotels, that's really important. So we have had many, many more interactions and meetings with them in that segment. The other part is consumers want to have... When they can buy products coming in here, not necessarily are they interested only to buy wallpaper, but they want to buy other categories and to get a bit, a piece of, you know, an accent, a piece of the whimsical design world of Cole & Son, but in a, in another, product, like throws or cushions or things like that. Much, much more, I mean, we should not exaggerate here, but much more than we thought before.
So we are running now to increase a little bit the inventory on those kind of products because they want to have it today, now, this Saturday. They are not willing to wait.
Hmm.
Sometimes there are some lead times on these products. So I would say this is the key findings so far, but 60 days in.
Yeah.
I'm sure you will come back to that question a year from now.
Absolutely. I'm curious as well, if I've understood it correctly, a large part of Cole & Son sales are through decorators. Essentially, people hire someone to decorate their home-
Mm-hmm
... to hang the wallpaper. Do you see any sort of difference in the customer mix in this store compared to what you would see otherwise or elsewhere, or anything?
I mean, given the location and the area we are, it's more of an upscale audience that visits here, but it's a large portion is professional ones, but also consumers here. And we, as I mentioned before, I mean, one of the key reasons of several to move here is to be able to interact with them much more because it's quite. There are a lot of them that have their studios in this area here. So we do have a different audience. I mean, they didn't, in plain English, they didn't visit us in the last place because it was so far off. It was London postcode, but it was too far away.
Moving on perhaps to Artscape then. You've been talking about the European expansion for the brand.
Mm-hmm.
Can you share with us any updates in that regard?
What I can mention is that we have signed with a distributor, a couple of months back. The launch has taken longer time we expected. We have had several meetings, both the distributors, but also, colleagues from Artscape team with the customers in Europe. I mean, we get praise for in terms of design and quality and compared to any, it's nothing like that in the European market. Have we sold a lot into Europe? No, we haven't. So that's it.
To be seen, I suppose.
Mm-hmm.
So, if looking at your whole portfolio, you have Boråstapeter, very, very strong brand-
Mm-hmm
... market share is very significant. Cole & Son, a customer that should be pretty price insensitive.
Mm-hmm.
And Wall&decò also has quite a unique offering as well.
Mm-hmm
... with outdoor wallpaper and so on. I was wondering, your thoughts on pricing power. It seems to me that you're in pretty good spot.
I mean, one, we are not in a bad spot, no, and this is, I mean, what we decided many years ago to focus on, and that's one of the, you know, the core pillars in the company is to develop and build strong brands, because we get a certain pricing power here. And over the last two years, when we have this cost inflation everywhere, we have been quite aggressive in pricing. Having said that, this is also a balancing act, so we have to be careful a little bit not to push too much. Now, we have not planned for any price increases at beginning of next year.
So we do, we do have a strong position, yes, with our brand, but right now, we have not planned for any price increases for the next six months, if nothing extraordinary happens. But if anything, there seems to be a softening in both freight costs, but also in direct material, and that gradually will be visible in our numbers as well. As we mentioned before, we have two production sites in Sweden, as you know. Both of them, we purchase everything in euro, and the Swedish SEK has not helped us now. Now, hopefully, it will not become worse, at least.
But the softening or the lower in purchasing prices has mitigated some of the exchange rates effects with SEK so far-
Yeah
... or all of it.
You talked about cash flow perhaps not being as strong as you had wished in-
Mm
... in Q3. And if we look at a bit of a longer time horizon here, in the last two years, your working capital as a share of sales-
Mm
... has increased by roughly 10 percentage points.
Mm.
I was wondering, what are your thoughts in this regard over the coming years? Should we see a reversal of this, with the accompanying strong cash flow? Is that something you expect?
I mean, now, the short answer is that we expect an improved cash flow now in the Q4 . But if I elaborate a little bit on the numbers you mentioned here, if you compare 2021 with 2023, what has happened since 2021 is that we have done one backward integration, acquired a weaver in Pappelina, and then we acquired Artscape. So, in absolute terms, I mean, we have increased the inventory there.
Mm.
Artscape has, relative to its revenue, a little bit higher inventory levels, as we don't produce anything ourselves, and we try to balance and optimize the purchasing price. And that's connected to the production volume or production runs, actually. I mean, and then, another point worth mentioning is that we did have a little bit high inventory beginning of this year or the H1 , and the sales was softer. So we have been working quite a lot to bring down and take down inventory. Now, with the better sales, I'm cautiously optimistic now. So we should arrive on a inventory level that is just north of SEK 130 million, I would say, end of this year, which is-
Mm
... more or less where we were, end of last year.
Perfect. I think that was our time, unfortunately. So thank you very much for participating.
Thank you very much.
Stay tuned for more presentations will follow. Thank you.