Good morning. Welcome to Mekonomen Group Quarter Two Report 2021. My name is Anna. I will be your coordinator for today's conference. During this call, you will be on listening only. However, in the end of the presentation, you'll have opportunity to ask questions. If anytime you need assistance, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to CEO, Pehr Oscarson, your host for this call. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to this presentation of the second quarter 2021. With me today, I have our CFO, Åsa Källenius, and we will guide you through our result. I'm very pleased to say that it has been a good second quarter with increased growth and improved profitability. Again, we set a new record with the best ever sales and EBIT for a single quarter in the group's history. Our solid financial position gives us both security in a continued uncertainty in our markets due to the pandemic, but foremost, the possibility to further invest in growth. During the quarter, we have continued to develop our collaboration model with electric car manufacturers, and we'll be back on the most recent collaboration with Fisker later on in this presentation. We have also had focus on widening and optimizing our assortment.
This in order to increase this so important availability further. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes. All in all, we have a strong market position, stronger now than the last quarter. We clearly see that our concepts and offerings are appreciated by partners and customers. The pandemic has also proved what we already knew. We have a solid business model and a position that is not long-term affected by uncertain times or economic cycles. Åsa, please take it from here and give us some more details of the result.
Yes. Thank you, Pehr, and hello, everyone. We continue to develop strongly with an organic growth of 12% in the second quarter. Adjusting for currency effects and number of workdays in the quarter, the growth was 11%. As Pehr touched upon, the underlying demand for our products and services are stable over time, and we have a good platform to create further growth in all our markets. We had no significant effects from pandemic in the quarter. Even though there are still some uncertainties in the development of the pandemic, we take advantage of our strong market and financial positions. We are on the right track towards reaching our long-term financial goals. Our cash flow continues to be strong. The difference from last year is mainly that we, in Q2 2020, got approximately SEK 300 million in support in pushed taxes and VAT from governments in Sweden and Norway.
Looking at page 4. As Pehr Oscarson stated earlier, we report the highest EBIT for a quarter in the group's history so far. All business areas are on high levels. In Mekonomen, we report an increased EBIT of SEK 52 million from operations. Last year, we had governmental support of SEK 24 million, and we have changed the accruals for holiday pay debt in Norway this year, affecting this quarter negatively by SEK 19 million. Looking at page 5, we see that gross margin has increased further from an already high level, which we think is very positive, of course. Moving over to page 7 and the results per business area. We had another strong quarter in FTZ where we continued to strengthen our market position. The EBIT margin is stable at 10%, same as previous year.
The organic growth in local currency is 12% in the quarter compared to -3% last year, which is a strong proof of a strong underlying demand. Page 8, over to Inter-Team, where we had a continued good development in line with our profitability strategy for the business area. The EBIT margin increased to 6% compared to 4% last year. As in other markets, we experienced a high underlying demand in Poland. We have succeeded to strengthen the market position with an organic growth of 21% in the quarter compared to -3% last year. This proves that our long-term support strategy is successful. We firmly believe we are on the right track with stable profitability in the rapidly growing Polish market. Moving further to page 9 and Mekonomen. Mekonomen continue to develop in the right direction.
The few branches that were still closed in Norway are now open since mid-April. All in all, the restrictions have had very limited effect on the business area during the second quarter. In MECA Mekonomen, we had an EBIT margin of 9% in the quarter compared to 7% last year. The organic growth rose to 10% compared to -6% last year. To summarize, MEKO Mekonomen show solid development where we see the effects from higher demand and increased sales volume in combination with good cost control. Over to page 10, Sørensen og Balchen. In Sørensen og Balchen we continue to have a strong performance with an EBIT of 24% in the quarter compared to very high level last year. All stores are open since mid-April, and the few branches that were closed during part of Q2 had no significant impact on the result.
Organic growth in the quarter amounted to 4% compared to 19% last year. All in all, we are pleased to see that Sørensen og Balchen continue to maintain its long-term strong position, thanks to the fact that they are a sharp niche player. I now will hand over to you, Pehr.
Thank you, Åsa Källenius. I'm very proud that we have delivered a historic result this quarter, I feel confident that we will benefit on our strong market and financial position going forward. On page 12, we take a look at our strong footprint in the market. We will continue to optimize the network of branches to secure profitability and attract workshops with the right quality ambitions, customer focus, and size. We move to page 13 where we see an overview of the competition. The consolidation with few large players and less small independent workshops continues. The established large concept continues to grow, that includes, of course, Mekonomen Group's concepts. As I touched upon earlier, we have managed to strengthen our position and even more compared to last quarter. Looking at page 14 and the drivers of our industry, numbers of driven kilometers and number of cars.
This shows our analysis and prognosis of the development towards 2030. It does not include effects from the pandemic. There is no doubt about the long-term trend. The underlying factors are strong. The market will grow over time. Page 15 shows total amount of cars on the roads in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. We see an increase of number of cars in all our market over the past three years. The number of new car registration was slightly lower during 2020 as a short-term effect of the pandemic. Moving on to page 16, we have a high ambition to develop new solutions, services, and offers to our customers. The purpose is clear. To always be relevant and meet the future customer needs. This enable us to grow and broaden our business.
As we see on page 17, we have a new collaboration with the electric car producer Fisker. During the second quarter, we signed a letter of intent to be their service partner in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Fisker car will be sold online. It will start in the autumn 2022, where the Mekonomen Group's concept in each market will deliver Fisker's services. This agreement is important in more than one way. It shows that we have found a well-functioning model for collaborations with electric car players that can be scaled up. Our network of branches and workshops, our strong brand awareness, and our high competence makes us a very attractive partner. We move on to page 18. We are well in line with the meeting of our target of 1,500 E+ workshops no later than 2022.
E+ is our standard for electric car service that guarantees that the workshops have the right skills and equipment to take care of electric cars. We have initiated intensive training activities in all markets to implement E+ in the workshop concepts. In Sweden, for example, we start a mobility training roadshow this autumn where training or workshop will take place all over the country until next summer. Same kind of activities are also done in Denmark, Poland, and Norway. Page 19. We are now taking new steps to be even more accessible and grow further through broader and more optimal assortments. In Sweden, we have widened the assortment in our branches in order to offer better availability for the workshops locally. At the same time, we have balanced the assortment in the central warehouse, so as not to increase the total stock value.
In Poland, as we have communicated earlier, we have two new regional warehouses in order to be more available to the regions and to optimize the logistics. Moving over to page 20, we like to highlight our updated strategy that we shared during our Capital Markets Day in February. In short, our vision is to be an enabler for mobility today, tomorrow, and in the future. Our strategy is based on this vision and will take us to SEK 15 billion in revenue no later than 2025. Our enabling mobility strategy consists of four focus areas. We will continue to develop operational excellence throughout the group in order to create efficiency, synergies, and collaboration in our core business. Second, we will accelerate our concept development for workshops to increase loyalty and revenues. Third, we will create new customer solutions to make the customer journey easier.
We will forcefully use all opportunities that comes with digitalizations, data, and customer insights. Fourth, we will create new revenue streams through a broad range of actions. For example, by entering new segments and developing new business models. Everything we do within these four focus areas will be done with a sustainable mindset. As we have seen in our result, we stand strong and efficient, and we are well on our way to deliver on our strategy to meet our long-term financial goals. This concludes our report for the second quarter, and we now look forward to your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. We will introduce you with your name when it's your turn to ask a question. First question comes from Andreas Lundberg from SEB. Please go ahead. The line is now open.
Thank you so much. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah. Hi, this is Andreas with SEB. If I start with a market-related question. If you look at the market structure today versus, let's say, pre-pandemic, any differences, or what can you say?
Not sure but I would say, first of all, to conclude that there's a lot of talks about corona winners and corona losers, and I think that our company and our business model is nothing of those mentioned. What we saw in the beginning of the pandemic was quite dramatic. After that, we really can say that the demand has been high. It's somewhat a little bit fewer kilometers driven, but we don't see any big effect from that. I would say that if you compare to how it was before the pandemic, it's pretty much just the same situation at the moment.
Okay. Also similar competitors, similar competitive behavior?
Yeah.
Before the pandemic.
Yeah. I think maybe, that's not driven by the pandemic. It's more the, let's say, the development in this industry. There is, of course, I think that the bigger players are getting better and bigger. Maybe the smaller get a little bit weaker. I would say that's not connected to the pandemic itself. We, on most of our markets, we do increase our market shares, and that's probably on the smaller ones who will lose some shares.
If you look at your own company and maybe from the time that you started as CEO, Pehr. What do you think has changed in your positioning and your competitiveness in the market?
I think during the last years, we did the big acquisitions 2018, which of course strengthened the group in many ways in terms of buying power towards the suppliers and so on. That was one thing. We have just continued to be very focused on concept development and be innovating and create new solutions for our customers. That gives us a good development. This market leader position also makes us, let's say, we really do have all the resources to do what we like to do also.
You also mentioned some potential new revenue streams. I think maybe you touched upon it on your CMD, on these new segments or new business models that you look for, can you give a concrete example of what that could be?
Not concrete example yet, but we have with this how we think about the development in the car sales. As we see with these new electric car manufacturers, there is definitely new parts of the industry that we can take care about that can be deliver the cars to the car buyer. It could be one thing, it could be insurances, it could be a lot of new things connected to the car ownership. That may be the most clear example.
Thank you. Just a couple questions on the numbers here. Service and operations had, at least in my view, a strong growth given the very strong last year. What's going on in that business and why is it still so strong?
It's a good question, but I think that it was very positive during last year. I think we should look at Sørensen og Balchen a little bit longer perspective, then maybe a two years perspective. Then you will see a very clear trend that they are increasing sales and they are improving the profitability. Then quarter- by- quarter, it could be some ups and even more ups or slower ups. They have a long-term very good development. What's going on? Let's say their store concept, the retail concept, is working very well. They have had launched click and collect and other things, and they are also very innovative in many ways. Also find a niche in the market where they can be very successful. It's still a small business area, but growing very fast.
Okay, cool. On Mekonomen, you did this change in the accrual of all the holiday pay debt in Norway.
Yes.
It was SEK 19 million. You don't report it as a one-off. Is it an isolated cost?
No. We do not report it as an item affecting comparability because in the full year 2020, there will be no difference between the years. It only shifts from quarter- to- quarter. It will have no effect on the full year. It will be some positive effects the coming quarters, you can say.
Got you. Lastly, CapEx for the full year, what do you expect?
We expect it to be around SEK 150-SEK 180.
Thank you so much. That concludes my questions.
Okay.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. Do please, if you're sitting in an open landscape, please close your phone while the hosts are answering your questions so we don't get background sounds into the call. The next questions come from Mats Liss from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
Yeah. Hi, thank you. Congrats on a very solid report. First, looking at organic sales, 12%, very impressive. Could you say something there about price and volume in the mix?
When we compare to last year, there is a price effect adjustments, which was done mainly around New Year, I would say, beginning of the year. I don't have any exact statistics, but most of it comes from volumes. Maybe two-thirds, at least, from volumes and the rest from price.
Yeah. Great. Going forward there, we have had some substantial increases in the raw material prices, steel and so on. Are you gradually increasing prices now? Could you say something about that?
We work in both ends, so to say. When it's needed, we will, of course, increase the prices, but we're also trying to push back and use the buying power which we have, and also use the buying power together with LKQ to push back price increases. We simply ask the suppliers to raise the prices to others than to us. It's on both ends, and we managed to keep the gross margin so far, and it looks good in the future as well.
Okay. Sounds good for you. There is a quite substantial shortage of everything in other industries. Do you have those kind of issues as well, that you have a limited availability of some spare parts? Well, lead times and so on?
There is some small disturbance on single product numbers, but with an assortment of more than 100,000 SKUs, it's still very small. We have some kind of protection because since we have stock in so many levels, we have products in the branches, we have regional warehouses, we have central warehouses. The immediate effect, we don't suffer. If you, for example, compare to the car manufacturers who buys the product and they got to deliver in the same day it should be on the car. We have maybe stock that lasts for two or three months. We also have time to find alternative suppliers and so on. Yes, some small disturbances, but we manage it well.
Great. Looking among the business areas there, I guess all of them performed well. Inter-Team from a low level did well, managed to outperform somewhat more. Is this a new level or how should we see it going forward?
Yes, I think already when we reported last year, we had higher levels than expected when it comes to EBIT margin and a little bit higher than we forecasted when we did the acquisition. I think that what we see now is a new level. At least I wouldn't say that it's stable exactly, but we have reached a new level when it comes to profitability. I would answer yes to that question.
Good. Well, I appreciate the new sort of contract there with Fisker and I guess you have a couple of ones out there waiting for you, more brands to electrify to service them. I was also wondering, some of the main brands in the Scandinavian market, like Volvo, they're trying to sell more cars bought Care by Volvo directly to their customers instead of using dealers. Do you feel that helps you sort of compete on a more even level compared to Bilia, for instance, in the Nordics?
Yeah. Short term, I don't see that trend, but of course if kind of a philosophical question, but if the connection between the car buyer is more to the car producer than a dealer, then the connection or the relation with the dealer doesn't exist, and that's also where you used to go when you used the authorized workshop. Maybe there will be a more loose relation, which could help us to attract the owners of very new cars as well. Short term, I wouldn't count on that.
No. Just finally, we have come quite a bit in the third quarter here, do we have any reason to believe that the demand or demand trends have changed compared to the second quarter in any way?
I'm looking out the window on the E4 here and looking at the traffic, and it seems to be quite okay traffic now as well. Not to give any guidance, we know and we talked about what are the main drivers, and there is no sign that there is any dramatic change in that going forward.
Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Mika Karppinen from Handelsbanken.
Yeah, hi. It's Mika from Handelsbanken. One question concerning that gross margin bits which you show for H1. When trying to calculate the impact for Q2, it seems that the sort of this negative contribution from this customer product mix sort of clearly increased. What's behind the sort of that negative trend there? Could you open up that a bit?
Well, we do not see it as a negative trend. We see it as could shift from quarter to quarter. This six months, the start of this year, it has been negative, but it varies between quarters and years. I wouldn't say it's a trend.
No, you should see it more like a fluctuation over the quarters. It could be dependent. Sometimes we see, for example, in the winter months, if it's colder weather that affects sales, but it could also affect the product mix and so on. It's more fluctuations than trends.
Okay. To start with, gradually that component should start to sort of normalize all of the negative impact level out?
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah. Okay, good. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. There's nobody in the queue at the moment, so I will connect you straight away. Thank you. So ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one now. There are no further questions coming in, so I will hand the call back to you again. Thank you.
Thank you. Just to repeat a little bit from the beginning that we are very pleased to deliver this second quarter report. We have a very strong financial position going forward. Thank you all for listening and for the good questions. Goodbye.
Bye.
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