Good morning, everyone. My name is Max Strandwitz, and I am the CEO of Mips. Welcome to our first Capital Markets Day of 2019. We have quite an exciting day ahead of us, but before we go into presentation, for me it's also important, first of all, to present our Chairman, Magnus Welander, that is here today. We also have part of Mips' management team, so Johan Sauer, who is the Head of Sales. With us today, we also have Marcus Seifert, who is Head of Product Development, and we also have Joey Isaksson, who is our Head of Operations. Peter Halldin, who is our CSO, so Chief Science Officer, who is also the founder of Mips here today. With us, we also have the new CFO, actually replacing me in my old position, Mats Juhl, who actually will start on 4th of October.
Before we go into presentation, I will also share a quick movie, which is actually the first time we share. We think Mips has a very interesting story to tell. After today, this movie will actually be shared on social media.
Mips was founded from research and development. Just a couple of guys trying to understand how they could add protection to a helmet.
We didn't have any customers. We didn't have any money. We didn't have anything. We just had an idea, a belief, and a passion. That is what has led us to where we are today.
There has been a lot of challenges. Still, we believe in the idea. It started when I met with Hans von Holst, the brain surgeon for Karolinska Hospital. I met him at the Royal Institute of Technology, where I started my PhD. His vision was to save life by combining clinical and technical competence.
I knew that I could not do this by myself because I don't have any technical experience, but the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, had that. We came up with an innovation considering the rotational aspect of the brain tissue during an accident.
What we are trying to do is mimicking the safety system that we have in our head, where the brain can slide against the skull in the cerebrospinal fluid. This system has been copied into the helmet. Well, most people here at Mips are very active in different helmet sports, we have learned a lot about different types of sports, potential accidents, also how the helmet should fit, the comfort, ventilation. It's not only about the safety, we also try to understand how the helmet is used by the end consumer.
It's not just only a product. It's a way of living. It's a way of thinking. It's a way of just being true to keeping people safe. That's what we do, and that's what we love to do. Quite an inspiring movie. I will just adjust the lights. Like I said, welcome to our first Capital Markets Day. The agenda today is to share our long-term plan. I will start with an introduction to Mips and where we are today. Our reason to be, as you saw also in the movie, science is important to us. Peter will give a short explanation on how Mips is connected to science. I will share our long-term plan and the reasoning behind it. Johan Sauer, who is our Head of Sales, will share with you the sales and the category priorities.
I will then go through the key other activities that is supporting the plan and the financials behind it. We will also open up for an Q&A session. Where are we today? We are the market leader in Brain Protection Systems. Today, we have about 78 customers buying our products and distributing the Mips technology worldwide. In the sports helmet category, we have all the key leading brands in the world. We have today around 448 models on the market, and since inception, we have delivered 9.2 million units. We are organized in 3 different categories, and for the ones that remember, we used to talk about a different category split, and we will explain that later today, why we have decided to organize ourselves in 3 different categories. The first one being the sports category, where you find all the sports related helmets.
We also will have a motor category, where you will find the motorcycle type of helmets. Then we also have a very new but exciting category for us, which is the safety category, where you find 2 types of helmets. First of all, helmets for industrial use, and we also have the LEAF category or subcategory, which is law enforcement and armed forces. Today we have 8 different technologies that are marketing under the Mips brand. First of all, to be able to address different categories, but also to be able to address different price points. If you look at the history and our history, a lot of people think that Mips is a recent startup, but it actually started back in 1995, which you also saw in the movie. A very frustrated neurosurgeon that got a lot of patients on his table with severe brain damage.
He started to look at their helmets. He didn't see any real impact. He understood that there is more to the issue than just having the traditional helmet. He contacted KTH because he understood that he couldn't solve this by himself. There he met a young student, which was called Peter Halldin. Peter Halldin was at that time working with a completely different project. He was working with milk separation. He managed to convince him. He got very interested about the issue. The two of them started to do a lot of research together. The first publication around the Mips technology was actually published in the year 2000 and 2001. That was also the same time when Mips was founded as a company.
It was also decided that the company should launch and manufacture its first own helmet, and it was an equestrian helmet. Peter started traveling back and forth to China, and in 2007, the first equestrian helmet was launched actually at Gothenburg Horse Show, and it was an immediate success. It's a very easy concept to explain, and people directly bought into it, and the company was really prospering. However, there was one big issue. The company had never developed helmets before, and during November when it got cold, the neck retention system, which didn't have anything to do with Mips, it got brittled, and it cracked in cold weather. All the helmets had to be recalled, and the company was virtually bankrupt. Somehow they managed to find new investors that actually believed in the concept under one condition.
They said that, "We believe in the idea, but we don't believe in you manufacturing helmets, and you have just demonstrated that." They convinced the company to develop an ingredient brand model, and that's what they did. During 2009, the first helmet with Mips BPS was launched, and it was a very successful product. However, the industry was not ready for anyone talking about concussion. They didn't also understand the concept on rotational motion. It took a lot of convincing of a very traditional category and industry. In 2012, the product started to get some attention because there was an article being published around in "Popular Science" about concussion and also relating it to the concussions in NFL. It started to become sort of a hot topic.
In 2014, the biggest manufacturers in the world, Bell and Giro, contacted Mips and said that they had tried to pass around the patents, but they can't do it, and therefore they wanted to invest into the company, and they started to launch a lot of products. Two things happened as an effect of that. First of all, they started to validate the Mips technology, and a lot of other brands started to come on board, and the company started growing quite rapidly. Secondly, for the first time after years of losses, the company had enough funds to actually organize themselves as a professional company and really operate the ingredient brand model in an effective way. 2015 was actually the first year when the company became profitable. In 2017, we were listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Stock Exchange. 2018, all the three key legal disputes were settled.
Of course, everyone talks about patents and that they have a strong patent portfolio, but you never know that until they're actually been proven in court, and our patents have been proven in court to be strong. We had a successful outcome also from the legal disputes. Now we are here today launching our first capital market day and launching our long-term targets. What makes us unique to the industry? First, and you will hear that also today, science is very important to us. We do not release product without being able to scientifically prove that they actually work. The Mips technology has been developed through a very successful collaboration between Karolinska University Hospital and KTH.
It is more than 20 years of academic research that has gone into the technology. There are three doctoral theses that are being published around the subject. Soon there will actually be a fourth one. We also have the exclusive right to the computer model of the brain of KTH within helmet safety. That gives us a unique competitive advantage. In order for you to better understand the science behind Mips, I will introduce Peter Halldin. He will give you a background to how it works and why it works.
Okay. Thank you, Max. Our reason to be. Our reason to be is, as I had the opportunity to start the research in this very interesting field. As Max said, I met with Hans von Holst. I was going to start working, actually, for Alfa Laval. I was super happy for my new work. I've always liked to be an engineer, I was looking forward for that. I met with Hans von Holst, a very enthusiastic brain surgeon, and he told me and convinced me to start working in the field of biomechanics. I said to Hans, "Okay, I will give you one year of my life and see what happens." I'm still working in the field. Biomechanics, it's a research field on how biological tissue acts mechanically.
Within KTH, we started a research division called Division of Neuronic Engineering, focusing on the brain, and the cervical spine, trying to reduce the number of injuries. Actually, half of my PhD was about helmets, and half of my PhD was regarding neck injuries. We developed, or I developed, a very sophisticated mathematical model, a finite element model of the human neck. That is where my expertise are actually, which has been a very good help, also to understand how we should test helmets, because we have the head, we have the neck. Do we need very complex way to test helmets? Well, if we know more about the neck, we can simplify the test method. That has been very important.
During these years, you saw this yellow line, and over 20 years, there's been a lot of research ongoing at KTH and within Mips to understand all type of questions when it comes to helmet, or impacts where we are wearing a helmet. Understand bicycle accidents, motorcycle accident, ice hockey accidents, and all of this for each sport, try to understand how to best test the helmet. During this year, we have built up a very large contact network within this research area. I will give you some background to start with how Mips works. When I first met Hans, I didn't really know anything about helmets, to be honest. I didn't really know so much about the head and the brain.
I could, anyway, read that, well, we have the brain, and we have the skull, we have the cerebrospinal fluid between. I said, "Hans, maybe we can use this sliding layer into the helmet." Hans said, "Yeah, I had about the same kind of idea." We then started to work together to develop this system. From the beginning, we learned, okay, helmets are tested in pure vertical impacts. We tried to understand real accident situations. We saw that you're actually impacting the ground at an angle. I said to Hans, "Okay, let's try to mimic this impact in the test lab." We started to build new test methods as realistic as possible. Small steps in the beginning, when we put all these pieces together and understand, okay, this is something real important.
We need to start working to change the test standards. We started the company, and we developed different products around this idea. What is important with the Mips concept is, it stands for Multi-Directional Impact Protection System. Multi-Directional is that we do have an omnidirectional protection system that should work in all type of impact directions, angles. We should always make it better. What happens when we impact to the ground, or what we try to do with Mips, is a little bit mimicking that you fall on ice. If you fall on ice, the head will continue in the direction it was supposed to go instead of grappling into the asphalt and get the rotation into the helmet and then into the head.
We have put a sliding layer inside between the helmet and the head, kind of mimicking the ice impact scenario, but we have the ice surface into the helmet. When you think about the concept, it is quite simple, easy, but it took a lot of time to get this into the first product, as Max explained. Some people say, "Okay, why do I need a helmet with a sliding layer? When I put it on my head, I can anyway move the helmet. Is this really something that actually will make a difference?" The answer is, of course, yes, it is. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. The impact happens in a very short time. It's about 10 milliseconds. A blink of an eye is 100 milliseconds. During this very short time, the force is extremely high between the helmet and your head.
It's like having more than 10 people standing on your helmet during this short time, and that's why you need this sliding layer with a low coefficient of friction to make this icy surface between your helmet and the head. That's a very important aspect to understand why Mips works and why we need it. The second question is, why is our brain so sensitive to rotation, or is it? There's a lot of scientific publications, of course. First one was 1943. A guy, Holbourn, said that concussion and other brain injuries are probably coupled to the rotation. In the '70s, there was a couple of researchers in the U.S.
The most famous one is Thomas Gennarelli, and he did a lot of experiments and his team on monkeys, where he applied different loads to the monkey, and he could also see that severe and mild brain injuries are related to the rotation, and more related to rotation than the linear motion. We know, or you maybe have seen from boxing or some ice hockey accident, but if you look at boxing, they can stand hitting each other round after round until someone will get an uppercut. You get the rotation of your head, and that's when you're knocked out and get a type of concussion symptom. That was what we understood, and also one of these pieces we put together to understand the potential of Mips. We have also done our own research.
What you see here is an experiment that my colleague at KTH, Professor Svein Kleiven, he joined experiments in 2001, where they took cadaver heads or heads from dead people. This is a head upside down, here's the front side of the face. They install small black targets into the brain that they could follow on high-speed X-ray camera. In this movie here, we can see 1,000 pictures per second, we can follow these small black targets, markers, relative to the skull. Here we can see how the brain is deformed during an impact to this surface here. We have developed, or my colleague, Svein Kleiven, he developed this finite element model. It's a numerical model, which you create in the computer, a three-dimensional representation of the human head and the brain.
This method, the finite element method, is normally used when you design cars, bridges, houses, but we use it to understand the biomechanics of brain injuries. We do the same impact with this numerical model, and we can see how the brain moves, deforms during this type of impact, and we can also compare the experiment to the numerical simulation. This tool has been important for us to understand what happens during a pure linear impact. That is how helmets are tested today. This type of test where you only measure the linear acceleration is a test that only can say something about the risk for a skull fracture. When you impact at an angle, you get the rotation, and then we can look at the difference here, how the brain is affected during a linear impact.
This simulation here, we can see the brain impacting a foam material similar to what you have in a helmet. Compared to an impact where we impact at an angle, there's a color scale here from blue to red, and the more red, the higher risk for a brain injury. Here we will see the color go up to light blue, compared to when we have an angle, we get the rotation. We can see a complete different pattern, and a much higher deformation in the brain that can damage the axons in the brain. This information, or this tool has been very important for us when we have designed and tried to optimize the Mips system into helmets. As we have said, 20 years of research, we have our tool, the experimental test lab, a very important tool to design helmets.
Every helmet where we have implemented the Mips has gone through the Mips test lab in Stockholm with a test comparing helmets with and without Mips, and see that we do get a significant reduction with the Mips system installed. We have the other tool, the finite element model. Of course, we need to validate the concept outside Mips. There has been third party validations of the Mips concept, both in Europe and U.S. Another thing that has been very important during this year, as I said, is to work towards safety or better test methods. The standards in both Europe and U.S. have historically only tested helmet for pure vertical impact. Since 2012, we have been working within CEN/TC 158. That is the test standard committee in Europe for sport helmets.
I'm the convener for one of the working groups, where we have been working towards a new test method that is very similar to the test method we have at Mips, not working towards this test standard only to prove Mips. This is a test method that more should replicate a real accident situation. Within this test standard organization, or our working group, there's people from different universities, different test labs, and helmet manufacturers in Europe. It's not only we developing this, we have done it together. There's other organizations in the world, for example, FIM, that is the MotoGP federation proposing and to use a new test method very similar to the drop against an angled surface. ECE 22.06 is the new motorcycle test standard in Europe, also trying to make something very similar to this.
Virginia Tech in the U.S. is a rating method similar to Euro NCAP for cars in Europe, but they're rating helmets and they also use this test method. It seems like the ball is rolling. There will be a shift, a change in test standards in the future. We don't really know when, but it will happen. That was what I was planning to present to you today. Thank you. Yes. Time for some quick questions. Yeah, if it's quick. I suggest that we take the major ones at the end of the session in order to also have some flow through the presentation. If it's a quick one, yes.
Okay. I'll limit it to one now then. Magnus Råman, [audio distortion].
Well, 10-15 is enough. 20 would be better. We have restrictions, both in the design and all other aspects of the helmet, ventilation, comfort, et cetera.
As a very rapid follow-up to that, if you would utilize air as the friction with the surface. If you would have air instead of a plastic layer, would that be a good way to reduce friction with the surface? Air? Air. I was thinking if you have something inflatable and you have air.
Yeah. Air in between. Airbags are definitely a potential concept. We can take it afterwards. I can explain for you.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you, Peter, for giving us the background to science. I will go into Mips' long term plan. Of course, before we start looking forward, it's always good to look backwards.
In conjunction with the IPO, we launched our financial targets, it's always good to also validate our performance against those as we are issuing new targets today. First of all, we had an ambition of achieving more than SEK 400 million in net sales, which meant at that time that we needed to grow with slightly less than 50% per year. If we look at 2018, we grew slightly more than 50%. If we look at year to date, we are at 61% growth. If you look at the last rolling 12 months, we are at 64% growth. Progressing quite well against that target. The other target we had was around profitability. There we had an ambitious EBIT margin target of 40%. If you look at the year to date number, we are at 39%.
If you do the same comparison and look at the last 12 months, we are actually at 41%, so slightly above that target. We also had an ambition to give dividend, and we did that for the first time in 2018. We had a dividend target of 50% payout ratio of net earnings, and we did pay out 112%. Also there, we are well in line with the target. If we then start to look forward, where do we actually want to be? We intend to become the expected safety helmets or the expected helmet safety feature. What do I mean with that? First of all, think of us. We work as an ingredient brand. When we first launched our product in 2009, we were a very unexpected safety feature.
People saw us into the helmet, they didn't understand what it really was. It required more explanation. When we look at the sport helmet category today, where we are most present, we are becoming very much accepted in that category. I would say in the bike helmet category or subcategory, you can almost claim that in some geographies, we are almost expected where we have the major bicycle brands on board. We have nine out of the 10 biggest brands in the world as the customers today. Our ambition is really to become the expected safety feature of the helmet category. Which brings us to our strategic ambition. First of all, this is, of course, a big sentence, this is really what we want to do. We want to better protect every single user using a helmet. How can we achieve that?
Of course, by being the preferred partner to all helmet brands. First of all, by making sure that Mips has the superior technology, which is also the most cost-efficient solution and always based on science. The second part is, of course, developing solutions that enable inclusions in all relevant type of helmets. Strengthening our IP portfolio is important to make sure that we continue to protect our technology. For us, it's also very important to strengthen the Mips brand, to make sure that the consumer understand what Mips is and what Mips does, and also understand that they should always look for the yellow logo when they look for a safer alternative. If we then look a bit external, what does the external market trends look like? First of all, the consumer is starting to get aware.
The consumer starts to understand that rotational motion is important, and it's not enough to protect only your skull, you also need to protect your brain. We have the consumers with us. Secondly, we have also been validating by a lot of third-party testing. In Sweden, we have Länsförsäkringar and Folksam, in U.S., you see Virginia Tech. As Peter also explained, we see also the standards moving in the right direction. If you then look at our third partly new category, which is safety, and we look at industrial helmet, there is no major construction company today that doesn't have a safety at work program. They all have zero vision injury programs, then inclusion on Mips becomes quite natural. As you also saw today, the total helmet universe of Mips has increased quite significantly versus before.
Previously, we have talked somewhere around 70 million helmets in our total market. Today, we see a much bigger market, somewhere around or above 400 million helmets. The key difference is due to that we have also included industrial helmets in our helmet universe, those comprise of somewhere around 300 million helmets, the 10 is relating to the LEAF category. 310 million total for the safety category. We also see 50 million helmets being sold in the sports category, another 50 million helmets being sold in the motor category. If we then look at what can we actually address? If we start with the safety category, we see that we can address 70 million helmets. 10 of those helmets are the same as before. Those are the LEAF market.
We also have found an opportunity to address a new type of construction helmet, and that's the reason why you see SEK 60 million there. Just to explain, the SEK 300 million helmet market within safety is mainly relating to construction helmet. A majority of those helmets are the traditional yellow hard hats. At the moment, we cannot address those. The price points of those are somewhere between $10-$15, not possible to include Mips in those solution at the moment. Like I said, there has been a market trend, a more sustainable and more durable construction helmet has been developed. It's marketed somewhere around EUR 100, it also enables the inclusion of Mips. It's actually the fastest growing subcategory within industrial helmets, it becomes very natural to include Mips.
If we look at the sports category, we talk about a total market of 50 million helmets. Out of those, we consider 30 million of those that we are able to address, that is mainly relating to price point. Johan Sauer will come back a little bit more to that later in the presentation. Also in the motor category, we had 50 million helmets, we see 30 million of those being addressable. What has really changed? Before we talked about the total addressable market of somewhere around 43 million helmets, now we see a possibility to address 130 million helmets. Quite a big change. The key reason of the change is that we have included 60 million helmets in the industrial safety market, which we previously had not been able to address.
We have also seen that the Moto category has grown. We also see helmets that we haven't included in our helmet universe before. There is still a big gap between the total market in Moto and the addressable market. The reason for that is that there is a lot of scooter helmets being sold in emerging markets at price points that we can't address. We also see in the sports category that the market has grown. We see also a possibility to address a lot more bike helmets than before. Before, we used to have a magic threshold of somewhere around $40 US for a bike helmet. Now we see an opportunity to address all the way down to $30 US. A big increase of the addressable market. If we look at our key strategic thrust.
First of all, looking at the sports helmet market. For us, it's a lot about strengthening the partnership with the customers that we already have on board and really trying to penetrate their whole range. You have seen that some of the customers has already made 100% Mips commitment, but that's really what it is about. It's a penetration game to penetrate their total assortment. Continue also to gain trust and credibility, both in media, but also for consumers become the expected safety solution. It's a 30 million units market, and for us it's really to complete the journey that we have started. We have most of the major brands in the category, and therefore it's a very interesting journey for us to complete. If we then look at the other key strategic thrust, which is in the Moto category.
For us, it's very much about duplicate the journey in Moto and by adopting the same strategy that we already had in sports. Partner with the major key brands. If you look at motocross, we already have quite a big penetration. There the rider, they know that they are exposing themselves for danger. They know when they go out riding their motocross bike that most likely they will have an accident, and they are also very proactive in terms of wearing safety features. There we have relatively good penetration. When it comes to the traditional road motorcycle category or subcategory, we see a little bit of a different animal, much more traditional. If you take the average rider, he's somewhere slightly below 50 years.
In Europe, he's actually 47 years old, and he have been riding a motorcycle for 20 years. He never had an accident, and he's really good at riding his motorcycle. Most probably he doesn't even want to have a helmet at all. A very different category or subcategory, has been very traditional. Here we also helped, like Peter explained, by the standard of FIM, which is also driving consumer awareness. A 30 million helmet opportunity. For us, the third key strategic thrust is within the safety category, and it's really for us to initiate the journey, become the relevant partner also in the safety category. It's a very large market for us. It's a 70 million unit market if we also include LEAF, and we have just started.
We did launch our first solution within this category in May, a very interesting market to start penetrating. What does that roll up to? First of all, we have an ambition of achieving a net sales of more than 1 billion SEK. If you look at the 2018 number, it means that we need to achieve an average growth per year of somewhere around 27%. We also want to maintain a very profitable margin and achieve an EBIT margin of more than 40%. We also want to enable a dividend and a payout ratio of more than 50%. Now I will hand over to our Head of Sales, Johan Sauer, and he will go through the sales and the category priorities.
Thank you, Max. Good morning, everyone. My name is Johan Sauer. I'm head of sales at Mips. As Max explained earlier, we have changed, or we are introducing a slightly different category definition. Today, I will walk you through that definition in a little bit more detail, talk about market drivers and opportunities and objectives within these 3 categories. We are looking at 3 main categories. The first one being sports, where we include bike helmets, snow sport helmets, equestrian, hockey, mountaineering helmets, and other types of sport helmets. The second category is moto, which includes road bike, motorcycle helmets, motocross, other moto and power sports helmets. The third being safety helmets for industrial use, LEAF helmets, so military and police law enforcement, and other types of helmets within professional safety.
Organizing ourselves according to these 3 categories will ensure that we can give the right attention, the right focus to each category, taking into consideration the differences in Mips maturity. It also ensures that we have the right resources and right competencies to facilitate the growth we need within each category. It helps us align marketing and communication activities so that they match the specific needs in each category as well. If we look at the overall picture, market dynamics, market trends for these 3 main categories, it's a positive picture that we see. In sports, we see an underlying growth. Volumes are growing, and consumers are willing to pay more for safety. Brands are pricing up accordingly in retail.
If you look at the latest retail data from the U.S., there is a very clear price jump in retail prices. It's being identified as a Mips effect. In moto, similarly, we are seeing volumes growing, especially in emerging markets. In retail, prices are flat or stable. Safety being our sort of new category, there's strong underlying market growth. In addition, there is a very clear, like what Max talked about earlier, shift from the traditional yellow hard hats to a more robust, more expensive Type 2 helmet in the relevant markets, which accelerates the potential in that category even further. Reiterating a little bit what Max talked about.
If we look at our helmet universe or the Mips total market, we now see a little over 400 million units, 50 in sports, 50 in moto, and 310 in safety, where safety as in construction helmets, 300 million is the biggest addition in volumes. Looking at our focus market then, which is the market that we consider being addressable. Those of you who have followed Mips, we have been talking about 43 million, 130 is our increased view of that market. The big difference within sports is that we now consider price points down to $30 retail being addressable, increasing the number from 10 million to 20 million. Similarly, in moto, we also see that we can address a larger number of price points, increasing that market as well.
The big addition is the SEK 60 million in safety, the type 2 helmets that we previously have not considered being addressable. Two important notes to make. Currently, Mips has helmet models in the market with Mips integrated in all these subcategories except for LEAF. In LEAF, we have an approved helmet out for testing. Looking at how much of the market we have captured, looking at 2018 numbers, we had captured only 3% of the considered potential. If we look at our key strategic ambitions for each category, we need to take into consideration the differences in maturity, where we are today in each category. In sports, it's a strong momentum. We are working with most of the major brands already, and it's about completing what we have started.
Continue to grow with the wide customer group that we have to become the expected solution in this category. In Moto, we have a strong foothold in motocross. We are working with some key brands on the road side as well, but there's more work to be done. It's about duplicating what we have achieved in sports and what we have done in sports in order to become the accepted solution, partnering with existing brands, but also adding key additional brands to our customer portfolio. Safety, the third, not the smallest. New category for us. Very interesting in terms of potential. Very interesting in the underlying market dynamics, but it's a new category for us. Here, it's about initiating market entry, partnering with key new brands to enter that market. How do we win with our customers? This is super important for an ingredient brand.
If our customers win, we win. We see three main initiatives that we are following. Firstly, to broaden the product portfolio. If we are truly serious about becoming the expected solution, we have to offer competitive products at as many price points as possible relevant for each category. That way, we can make all-in commitments from our brand partners or customers possible, and we will become the one go-to solution in Brain Protection Systems. Secondly, sharing technical insights. Peter talked a little bit about our scientific background and foundation. One of the things that makes Mips so unique is the long history in science, in research, our technical capabilities, our scientific capabilities, and the collective knowhow based on more than 27,000 tested helmets. By leveraging that, we can give our customers a competitive edge that they cannot find anywhere else. Thirdly, supporting sell-through. If our customers sell, we will sell.
By supporting brands and supporting retail to sell Mips, we will also help support our own growth. With an improved educational platform and in-store execution, we can help drive sales of Mips-equipped helmets, but also help the categories price up for the added value of Mips. As you can see, a lot of very interesting opportunities in the three categories, positive momentum, and we're confident in our strategic direction going forward. With that, I would like to hand over the word back to Max.
Thank you, Johan. I will then go through the other key activities supporting the plan and also give you the background to the financials. First of all, when we looked at the other activities, for us, it's extremely important to continue to invest behind the Mips brand, really promote the yellow logo, make sure that people start looking for the yellow logo, which they already do in some of our categories. The yellow logo should be expected by the consumer when they consider a specific helmet. The yellow logo should indicate that the helmet has added protection and that it is a safer option. We will keep our mandatory requirements. Today, when you see a Mips helmet, you always see the yellow logo at the back, and that is something which we keep mandatory. We think it's a very strong marketing story around that.
If we then look at what we want and which tools we are going to use to support the Mips brand. PR is a very important tool for us, and when we enter into a new geography or a new category, we always do the same. First, we invite all the journalists in that area or in that category to make sure that they understand how Mips actually works. They can write the correct article without having any misconception. It has been an extremely successful tool, and we will continue to invest in that. We also continue to educate retail and distributors with live training material, and we have launched something which is called Mips Academy, where they can log on to the internet and get a quick crash course on how Mips actually works, and they can also get access to all the templated material.
Very cost-efficient way of educating the retailers and the distributors. We will also continue to invest in our in-store execution. Like Johan said, it is very simple. If our customers sell, we sell. For us, as you also saw in the beginning, the movie, social media is important to us, and we believe we have a very compelling story to tell, and social media is a very cost-efficient tool for us to build awareness. There we will really accelerate and also invest in making sure that we do that happen or make that happen. As you saw from Peter, for us, it is important to invest in research. We want to be and maintain our position as the global leader in Brain Protection System.
We will continue to research, and we will also keep collaborating with the key universities, especially KTH, to make sure that we are in the forefront of the industry. We will also use our unique competence to make sure that we maintain our competitive advantage, especially around the brain modeling. We will also continue to be active when it comes to harmonization of standards and also in development of testing methods. When it comes to the other part of our R&D, it's the D, so in terms of product development, also a very important aspect for us. When I started in 2016, we had basically one solution. Now we have eight different product technologies, and that has enabled us to enter into new categories, but it has also enabled us to access different price points, a very important area.
IP, we are an IP-based company. Patents are important for us. Today, we hold 36 different patent family, a higher number than you've seen before. We have 180 granted patents, and we have a little bit more than 90 patents being filed. We will continue to invest in our patent portfolio. We will also actively file more patents to make sure that we broaden our patent portfolio. We will make tactical IP acquisitions, which you also have seen when we identify them, and we will acquire also complementary technologies when needed. This picture is quite important to understand because, of course, it's how we are organized as an ingredient brand model and also explains how we can achieve quite a high EBIT margin. First of all, if you look at cost of goods sold, we do not own any own manufacturing facilities. All our production is outsourced.
Today, we use 15 different subcontractors, mainly in China. Two key reasons of doing that. The first one is that we don't want to sit in endless capacity discussions, and the second one is that we always want to have access to the latest technology. When it comes to selling expenses, since we are operating as an ingredient brand, we can reach out to quite a lot of customers with a relatively small sales force. Oh, sorry. When it comes to research and development, we have, as Peter also showed you, the required in-house competence in R&D. The customers are paying for their own customer development projects. When it comes to general and administration, we have the infrastructure in place to facilitate a lot more growth, and that's also where the scalability of our model is.
When it comes to the other part, which is the balance sheet, like I said, we have outsourced production. We're not going to invest in any manufacturing facilities. Where we do invest is in patents. Patents is important to us, and we also invest in testing facilities to make sure that we have a state-of-the-art test lab. Inventory, we manufacture directly at order, so we don't hold any finished goods stock, and we invoice everything directly at delivery in China. It's actually that that enables us to deliver a 40% plus EBIT margin. It also gives us very good cash generating capabilities, which also allow us to have a very asset-light model.
When we look at the development of the Mips organization, and just to give you an idea on how that will develop, there is a couple of areas where we will invest in line with net sales. Research, it's super important to us to invest in research to make sure that we maintain the competitive advantage that we have at the moment. We also will continue to invest in product development, and we will also invest in the marketing organization to make sure that we can also deliver on the marketing priorities. Other areas where we'll continue to invest, but in lower pace than the growth, is in sales. We need to strengthen our sales organization, and as Johan explained, especially in the motor category and in the safety category, we need to have the relevant people to be able to address those categories.
We also need to be able to continue to recruit engineers to make sure that we can facilitate the growth agenda that we have. In supply chain, we will grow very much with volume, and today that is mainly in China. If we look at where we have the big scalability of our model, it's in really we have ERP systems in both Sweden and China, and those can facilitate a lot more growth. We have a limited need of increasing the back-office functions, and we have the legal functions in place to coordinate both the IP and the legal activities. As you know, we have done two M&A activities during the first half year. We have done two complementary acquisitions.
First of all, they will be marketed under the Mips technology. The product development process is currently being ongoing in order to develop the product to pass the Mips testing standards. We are always exploring and scouting for new IP to acquire that would complement our portfolio within brain protection. At the moment, there is no third-party technology that we are looking at. For the ones that have followed Mips, our financial model remains intact. For us, it's first of all, to continue to grow rapidly with attractive gross margin. There is a couple of areas where we will continue to invest. First of all, we invest 5%-7% behind the Mips brand. That needs to become as strong as possible. We also want to invest 5%-7% of net sales in R&D.
The areas where we will invest less, and that's also where the scalability comes, is in selling expenses, also in legal cost, and in admin. That is actually what will enable a 40% plus EBIT margin. We also have an ambitious target of deliver a 50% dividend. First of all, we have a very asset-light model. We do invoice directly at delivery. Our operational model do require quite low inventory, and we are only investing in IP and in our testing facilities, and we do not invest anything in manufacturing, and it's that what enables a 50% dividend payout. Just to reiterate, we want to become a SEK 1 billion net sales company. We want to maintain a 40% plus EBIT margin, and we also want to enable a 50% dividend of net earnings.
When we look at the granularity of the reporting that we are going to give you going forward, we always get asked for a lot of data. On top of what you are getting already today, you will get the net sales per category. Do remember, when we talk about category, it's the sports category, it's the motor category, and it's the safety category. We will also give you the number of buying helmet brands per category, also in sports, motor, and the safety category. On a yearly basis, we will give you the volume per category, and you also will get the number of models per the same categories. This reporting will be applied from Q1 2020. As we are also growing as a company, we will relocate to new facilities in December 2019.
They are located in the same area, so we will still be located in Täby. We're only moving about three kilometers. This office we have today is a bit small, and we need to increase our in-house testing capabilities and also be able to onboard more people, and that's the reason why we are moving. Also important to know, even though it's not directly impact our long-term targets, tariffs has been implemented also on helmets. Previously, this was exempted because helmets was considered as a safety product. 15% at the moment. We do not export any products because we deliver directly in China. Of course, we are a component in a helmet, and therefore we could be impact. We do expect some short-term volatility. We have seen that in other industries coming quarters. In terms of long-term demand, we do not see any change.
With that, we open up for a Q&A. Yes, Magnus?
Yes. Thank you. Is this on?
No, I don't think it's on yet.
Hello?
Yes.
There we go. Thank you. Magnus Råman, Handelsbanken. First, just to tie into what you talk about the U.S., China tariffs.
Yeah.
Just to get a grasp of the magnitude.
potentially of a short-term impact, would it be something for us to look at the problems you had with relocation of production facilities in China a few quarters back, and how that impacted you? Would you say?
As you know, we do not give any forward-looking statements. The only thing that we can refer to is what you have seen in other categories, that there is always volatility related to implementation of tariffs. For us, it's probably not so much about what's actually the tariff that's such, but what we have seen is that there is a big insecurity around the tariffs. For instance, when you think on the way they were implemented, first of all, no one knew that they were actually coming. Everyone thought that helmet was still implemented. Then there was a proposal to implement tariffs of 10%, then two days before actually launching the actual tariffs, it was increased to 15% due to the increased tension between U.S. and China. There is a lot of things happening, it's more the insecurity that creates the volatility.
I don't think anyone knows at the moment exactly what's happening. When we talk to the brands, they don't expect any change long term.
Yes. I appreciate that this uncertainty has led to reduced inventory among the helmet producers or helmet brands. Just to understand the duration, so to speak, of how long that could affect you when we look at the production disturbances we had maybe two or three quarters. What are your best guesses?
Like I said, we don't give any forward-looking guidance, what I say coming quarters, so there could be some disturbance short term. That's what I can share with you.
Thank you. On the long-term targets, we had presented here that the volumes that you delivered in 2018 relates to around 3% penetration of your new target market estimates. Even if you would just utilize those estimates and not expect any growth in the coming years from that volume, your 2025 revenue target would imply a penetration of around 15%.
Yes. If you just do the math, that's correct.
Yeah. Given that you are now talking about moving in several categories from unexpected to accepted and even reaching already anticipated or expected.
Isn't that a fairly cautious stance that you have 15% penetration?
Yeah. I think the 15% penetration, which you talked, is quite a wide number because we talk about 3 different categories. You have the sports helmet category. You are right. There, we have good traction, and we are becoming expected. In the motorcycle category, we have just started. We have good progress in motocross. We still have a bit of a job to do in road motorcycle. When it comes to the safety category, we have just started. We have just initiated the journey. I think you need to look at it a little bit more category by category because, of course, 15% assumption in the safety category would be a very bold number given that we have just started.
Surely. I was just looking six or seven years back and thinking about where you were there in bicycle, for example, and where you are now. On OpEx, you mentioned or you reiterate your marketing to sales.
Yes
target here. At the same time, I feel that you are increasing your ambitions quite dramatically here. You were talking about strengthening the brand in a way that implies that you would actually not only market through the brands and educate them, but actually do marketing directly yourself. You mentioned some examples here, and you also talk about strengthening the relations with counterparties of new categories that I guess would imply new staffing. Is that enough? Is the 5%-7% maintained marketing cost to sales, is that enough?
Yeah. Because of course, you get some scale also in terms of marketing cost. There is a couple of different questions that I think you are asking. First of all, will you do consumer marketing? No. Our ambition is not to do direct consumer marketing. If we isolate social media, because social media is direct consumer, that's to build awareness. In store execution, like Johan also said, if we sell, they sell, and that is extremely important for us. We need to make sure that we can also educate the consumer to help them in terms of aided awareness. They know about Mips, and when they go in store, they see Mips, and that actually helps to trigger the buy. Even though it's not directly consumers, and we are already doing that today within our current P&L.
When we are entering into new categories, if we're referring to the safety category, what we do is, of course, we need to build awareness also there. We are not the expected solution. We do have quite low awareness within construction helmets. What we do is that we talk to the bigger construction companies. We invite them to our office and make sure that we also can educate them why it's important to include Mips in your solution. By doing that, you create the demand. I still believe that 5% is very much a realistic number to deliver the agenda that we have in front of us.
Even noting that you said 5 and not 5-7. Just the final one from me on OpEx leverage here. I was a bit surprised when you mentioned sub-points here that you did not mention HQ or admin or overheads here for the HQ cost. In one of the final slides, you actually mentioned this transfer to new offices.
Does that imply that you do not expect any leverage on management and headquarter costs due to this move in, say, the next three years?
Yeah. We will not increase our facility cost with the growth agenda. Of course, there is a lot of scalability. What I think you also need to understand, and it was also partly mentioned in the presentation, is we do have included also legal costs in our forward-looking plan. We do not have any legal cost today. We are not involved in any legal dispute. Of course, you also need to factor that in.
That you do expect some.
Yes.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Daniel Thorsson from-
Yeah.
Does this work? Yes, now. Thank you, Daniel Thorsson from ABG.
Yes.
A question on the safety category, which is obviously a huge market in terms of industrial. You don't have any clients there today. I guess it's a quite concentrated market in terms of potential clients. Should we assume that to be a back-end loaded growth profile in that sector?
Yeah.
For example, the next 3-5 years rather than the next 1-3 years?
No, you are right. It is a relatively concentrated category when it really comes to the bigger players. We do have customers there today. We have sold our first construction helmets. I would say, of course, we are operating as quickly as possible. Will we get all the customers on board directly? No, I don't believe so. A little bit of patience. I think we have just initiated the journey, but we do see a lot of potential in that category.
Okay. Follow up on the different segments that you introduced now. Do you foresee any difference in the ASP for the different, so the average selling price for the different categories?
Yeah, we have not changed our overall price model, and if you remember, we have sort of a fixed volume ladder. If you want to have a lower price, you normally need to achieve a higher volume. It depends a little bit on which solution you go for. That could differentiate the price. For instance, in motorcycle, you have more advanced solutions, so that could trigger the price up. If you look at the construction helmet, you normally see a little bit of a simpler solution, and there, of course, you could foresee a lower price. Overall, we don't expect a major deterioration of the price because of the category expansion. Where we do see a big opportunity is in expanding also into lower price point. That could put some pressure into price.
We do want to respect our financial model, grow rapidly, attract the high gross margin, use our scalable ingredient brand model, and that's how we want to achieve a 40% EBIT margin, and that model remains intact.
Okay. That's clear. A final one on the gross margin.
Yes.
Given that you have this scalable business model.
We assume to grow 20% per year between 2020 and 2025 roughly.
If we think that OpEx will grow some 15% per year, that would imply the gross margin to go from 70%-60% over those five years.
What can you comment about this trend?
No, first of all, if you take the OpEx, you have two things that will grow with 5%-7% per year, and that is R&D activities and also marketing activities. If your question is relating, do we see some kind of pressure on gross margin? Yes, you can expect that, but not to the level that you're expecting.
Clear.
Just to follow up on that particular question when it comes to ASP. Obviously, ASP is going to fall a little bit, but your cost of goods sold will probably come down a bit as well, given that you're now producing slightly lower end Mips units, right?
If you wouldn't mind commenting on that a bit.
Yeah. We will always do what we can to create as affordable solution as possible. Yes, we're becoming a bigger player in the industry. You can assume that there is some cost leverage of that. Of course, yes, you're right.
Fredrik Molgaard, Pareto. Question on price points. You have expanded your addressable market mainly in the consumer and sports area with lowering the price point in bike, and also to some extent in moto. Do you think going forward that you will be able to lower this lower price point even further in those categories and in other categories as well?
I hope so. Our ambition, as you also saw, is to get into as many helmets as possible. Yes.
Okay. Those projects are ongoing at the moment, or is this something that you will continue or start working on now?
No, we're always working on relevant solutions and of course to be able to enter into as many categories as possible and also to address as many price points as possible.
Okay. On the safety side, you have the Guardio helmet.
Yeah.
Is it possible to say something about where you are in discussions with other major brands?
Mm-hmm. Yeah, like I said, we just started. Just to give you a little bit of an idea on how we work. Before we enter into a category, we always look at, do we have or can we address relevant injury criteria? Do we actually make a difference to the helmet? We started this project about July last year, and it was a very short project period, so we launched the helmet quite quickly. The helmet was then launched in May. In May, when we launched it was expected to be sort of a national launch for Sweden. We saw a lot of interest from a lot of different countries, both from U.K. and also from U.S. A lot of interest triggered us to accelerate that, and that's what we also see today. Yes, we have just started.
Do we expect to have more brands coming on board? Yes. That's why we have that as a strategic thrust. Like I said, we need to have some patience because we just started.
Okay, sure. The 60 million helmet size that you have within Safe or with industrial helmets, can you say something about how you come up with that number?
Yeah. We always buy reports to try. There is no official global data by Nielsen or any of the other data providers. You buy a lot of reports and of course compare them. We always also look at the factories to make sure that we can double check numbers and so on. The data that we received for the Type 2 helmet within construction, it's not the number constructed by us. It's an official data that we have purchased from a report. Okay?
Thank you.
Yes, Magnus.
Just to follow up then on the construction helmets. In the presentation, you mentioned the price points of the ordinary hard hats, the large volume here, to be then $10 to $15 and can't address them yet.
Yeah
You said. For a future potential penetration, do you think that you would have to move back to what Mips was historically actually producing a complete helmet to be able to technically have an implementation at that price point? Or do you envision to actually have some kind of insert?
No, I think it's always try to stay where you are. It's a good ambition, especially if you have quite a big market to penetrate. We don't want to compete with our own partners, our own brands. We are experts when it comes to protecting your brain. That's what we want to do, and we leave the helmet manufacturing for the time being for someone else.
An expected answer. I have one for Peter Halldin as well. You talked about the CE test requirements. My question is, when we talk about the linear impacts that are now, has been for a long time, the test requirements, those are quantified. I guess for approval, you need to come below certain thresholds, on those test requirements. When it would come to certain rotational test requirements, do you think that we could, in the foreseeable future, see certain numbers there? Thresholds.
When it comes to the rotational pass-fail criteria, we need to understand that, first, the test methods are new. There exist a number of potential pass-fail criteria that includes the rotational kinematics, the change of the rotational velocity of the head that we can measure with accelerometers in the head form. There are potential criteria that is, for example, used by FIM when they test their helmets. They're using a criteria that is called BRIC, B-R-I-C, developed in U.S. There are a lot of ongoing work around the world to define new pass-fail criteria that is based on real science, and we are following that. We are doing our own investigations. If, for example, as I said, FIM are using this BRIC criteria that we have also seen has a good predictor of the strain in the brain.
We have a start kind of criteria, but I'm very sure that it will change within, say, 10 years. There will be another criteria or within five years.
Yes, because the ones that FIM already implemented have not failed many models, right? There it's not been shut out of much.
Well, as NHTSA in the U.S., when they first introduced, tried to come up with criteria for the neck in car automotive industry, they put the criteria quite high so that the car automotive industry could learn on start using this criteria. That is also what FIM has done, put the criteria quite high, and then what they have said will lower the criteria. They will have a meeting next week, so we know more then.
When you say high, you mean quite soft to reach, so to speak, and then becoming hard?
Yeah. Most helmet pass the FIM today, we know that, but FIM has also said that they will lower this BRIC number.
That's interesting. Thank you.
To Henrik.
Within safety, would it be fair to say it's longer series, it's less fashion, it's more predictable, and therefore you have a better visibility into that segment?
In terms of when you mean longer series, that there is bigger volumes or?
Yeah.
There is less model. Of course, there is also colors, but you don't have the same assortment. The really high volume runners that you have in that category, they are high volume runners. The differentiation need is not as important.
When it comes to competition, you haven't talked about that at all.
Yeah. Yes.
Would be nice if you could mention something about it. If you see something or if you feel. Earlier you said you probably had to go into trials once a year or whatever. Now your patent portfolio is much bigger.
You don't talk about the competition.
No, we do not see a head-to-head competitor today in the market. We're always scouting, we're always looking. We're also talking to the university to see if there is anything interesting emerging and so on. There is competition, and there is new competitor launches all the time. We haven't seen a lot of
Initiatives similar like our ones, where you have someone operating with sufficient scale as an ingredient brand model, you see some brands trying to launch their own technology and so on. That happens quite often. What we do all the time is, as soon as we see a competitor, we always bring their products in-house and we test them, first of all to learn, but also to make sure if there is something or someone that has a good technology and so on. No head-to-head competitor at the moment.
Can I have a question?
Of course, Daniel.
See if it works. Yes. Thanks. Daniel again from ABG. A follow-up on Magnus' first question.
Yeah.
The implicit 85% of your addressable market in 2025 is assumed not to have Mips in the helmets.
Yeah.
Given the last six years, we have seen you develop from nothing to where you are today.
Yeah
what do you think they will have in their helmets? Will they have nothing? What will be the main reason for that?
No, I think to get where we are today, that took us 20 years. Do we think that we can do the same journey with the other categories faster? Yes, it still takes some time. There will always be non-believers. It's very difficult to really get the whole market. We think that we have an ambitious plan ahead of us. If we see that we are progressing faster, we will have another capital markets day and update you on that. We think for what we put forward at the moment, it's a well-balanced plan based on the opportunity that we see.
Do you think the main reason will be price, or they don't believe in the technology, or something else?
No, when we talk about the global markets are different when it comes to maturity. Mips is and has been very much helped by the U.S. market. Today, 75% of our sales goes into U.S.-based brands. They are much more mature when it comes to understanding of concussions and why rotational motion is dangerous to you. That doesn't mean that 75% our sales is in the U.S. because then they distribute all over the world. It is a much more mature market. You have other parts of the world where you still need to do a lot of convincing and so on. Normally it takes time, at least based on our previous experience.
Can I have one question?
Yes.
In safety, where do you think demand will come from? Is it mainly employers wanting to provide a safe and attractive workplace, or do you think workers, unions will demand it, or is it mainly to come from a stricter regulatory environment or something else?
The current test standard that is in the industry today is not especially strict. We know from before that it takes time to change the test standards. We are educating the industry to make sure that they understand how they better can protect their workers. We believe that's an efficient way to convince the industry. When we launch, we have also talked to the unions, of course, to make sure that they also are aware about the issue. We do have a lot of people using our technology in other area, which is, of course, getting a lot of interest of the products. The main demand that we hope will come is, first of all by brands, but also from the construction companies.
Thank you.
Yes.
Can I just ask you, do you keep track of the pricing trend and what's been happening or what is happening when it comes to pricing of helmets that include your system versus not carrying your system over time?
Yes.
If you look at the sports category, maybe.
Yes, we do monitoring that. In the beginning when we were introduced into helmets, you saw us in really high-end helmets. Normally, you would see a solution with Mips, and then you will see exactly the same solution without Mips. There you have a direct price comparison. What has happened now, and of course, as we get more mature in the sports category, a lot of the brands are launching only the Mips solution. Therefore, it starts to get worse to compare, but you still see some kind of threshold between SEK 20-SEK 40 add on for a helmet with Mips versus without Mips. We have, as we also start to get introduced into lower price point, see the price differentiation being smaller than before.
If you look at the percentage markup, has that changed in any way?
To be honest, I haven't looked in the percentage markup as such. Yes, for a cheaper helmet, the markup is not as high. Exactly what that becomes in percentage, I don't know, to be fair.
Thank you.
Okay.
Just to follow up on competition questions asked before.
I believe, without mentioning perhaps the name, in the street motorcycle category.
one of the absolute leaders, global leaders in terms of helmet brands there, has a proprietary rotational motion.
technology. Do you see that as a hinder for you to get the similar breakthrough order in that category as you did in the bicycle category with Bell & Giro?
Yeah. It's of course difficult without knowing exactly. I think you know which one is hinting. You will always have brands launching their own solution. Of course, we want to convince the big brands that the Mips is the right option. It's easy to launch a solution. Anyone can do that. Of course, you also need to make sure that it works. That's where most of the brands are failing. Also to maintain that kind of technology, what do you do next, and so on? We do invest 5%-7% in R&D to make sure that we have the right solutions for the right price. It's very difficult to do that as a helmet brand when you also need to invest in helmet development. We believe it's more cost efficient to go with Mips.
There will always be issues where it's not invented here. Do we want to get all of the bigger brands in motorcycle? Yes, of course, we want to do that. We will try to convince also the one that you are hinting that Mips is the best solution. Is it a blocker for us? No, we don't see that.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah, one more question. When you released your last targets, you only included existing clients. Are you using the same method now?
No. Yes, what we did at that time was that we based the plan primarily on growing with our existing customers, so that's right. In this plan, you have mainly the existing customers within the sports category, but given that we still want to grow in moto and in safety, it's also based on that we will get new customers on board, especially in the safety category.
Rutger Schmidt. You may have to correct my math.
Yeah
In your goal for 2025.
Yeah
turnover of SEK 1 billion, 15% of your focus, that equates to around 20 million units.
The price of SEK 5.
on average. Do your customers really mark up their product with SEK 20-SEK 30 when their cost for your product is only SEK 5?
Yes, that's correct.
That hamper your market share significantly.
I don't know if it hampers the market share, but if you look at normally the multiple from cost of goods sold or from production costs versus what is sold in the store, you normally have a multiple of somewhere around 4x-5x. That is correct. When it feels like hampering our market share, it would be good if you can
Well, if a helmet could be sold at SEK 10 lesser price.
Yes
you could, of course, sell more helmets.
Yeah. For us, it has always been very important to respect the value chain. What we always do when we look at the value chain is to make sure that everyone in the value chain makes money. The factory in China, which is normally producing the helmet, should earn a bit of money. We want to earn the money. The retailers need to earn a bit of money. Distributors need to earn a little bit of money. All of our helmets are not sold for SEK 5. In some of the lower volume customers and in some of the lower or higher price points, the difference is much bigger, and therefore you need to apply also the same multiple of SEK 4-SEK 5 or times on a different SEK rate, so to say.
On another note, among your customers, are they active in your three focus groups? That is, are a producer of a helmet for a bike also active in safety for construction?
Yes, some of them are. Some of them offer solutions in the sports helmet category and the safety category. Some of them offers in the sports category and the moto category. I don't think there is anyone that is really offering in all three of them at the same time, but at least two of them. There is a little bit of a cross-category approach that we will apply, yes.
Because that would then simplify your entrance to the construction.
Yes. That's correct.
region.
Yes.
You have on your first slide, and that's nothing new, you have eight different solutions.
Could you say something about the differences of these solutions and what that makes for the price?
I think easiest is to explain is that, for instance, here you have a solution which is high-end. It's normally around SEK 200-SEK 300. Here you have a Mips solution that is integrated directly behind the padding. You actually don't see it. The only way you see it is, of course, with the Mips logo and so on. Those solutions you find normally in highly ventilated helmets, a bit more expensive to produce. The more affordable helmets, so the cheaper helmets, there you will find an injection molded plastic version, which is of course cheaper to produce and also enables different price points. What we do not compromise is safety, because we don't think that the size of your wallet should determine on how safe your solution is, but it can be presented in a different way.
There you have a little bit more of bulky injection molded plastic and so on. That's the main differentiation that we do. Equally safe products, but presented in different ways at different price points. Yeah.
When you look at the market and set up your financial targets, what type of overall increase in helmet use penetration do you assume, because some countries don't really use helmets, et cetera?
Yeah. We have based our future growth plan on existing markets. We have not assumed that the market will grow significantly. That will come as a bonus.
Can you say anything about LEAF segment?
Yeah. LEAF segment, it's a very interesting segment for us. We have solutions where we know we can actually make a difference. It's a very difficult area to enter in. It requires a lot of testing and like Johan said, we have launched solutions, and they are currently being tested. Today, there is no test standard, especially not for military helmets and so on. To get into the buying specification, it takes a bit of time. We still believe that there is a big opportunity in the category for two reasons. First of all, we make a difference. If you look at the U.S. market, there is today 380,000 soldiers in U.S. suffering from traumatic brain injury. A lot of people think that you get injured during war, but that's not when you are getting injured.
It's during training, you're riding a motorcycle or falling off a car or doing parachute and so on. There we know we can make a big difference. For us, it's also very important because it's a very nice aftermarket. If you look at ballistic helmet today, they are very expensive, and they tend to change the inner content of the helmet one to two times per year. It's also a very interesting aftermarket for Mips. Will it take some time? Yes, we believe so, and we also talking to other industries and so on. We know that it takes quite a lot of time to get into the military market. When you do, there is a lot of volume to go for. Okay. Is that it?
Another one on the helmet category. I guess most people, and correct me if I'm wrong, but are using a too old helmet. Are you doing anything to increase awareness and to speed up the replacement rate of helmets that consumers use?
No, we are always trying to educate the industry, of course, but our primary objective, first of all, is to make sure that they wear a helmet. You're right, people tend to wear their helmet too long, and especially if you take commuters and so on, the helmets tend to dry up a little bit by sunshine and so on. We are not active in terms of increasing the replacement cycle of helmets, no.
Why not?
Yeah, I think where we are at the moment, we are about brain protection. We are trying to grow as fast as we can. We are trying to invent the right products, and we're also trying to build our Mips brand. Sometimes you also need to make your priorities, and those are the priorities that we think is right at the moment. At one point, it might be the right priority, but for the time being, we focus on where we can really make a difference at the moment. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for coming to Mips' first Capital Market Day.