During those three months. The only new thing on the market is that we have started the introduction of teamwear in Craft in the U.S. and Canadian market, which I will come back to. On the purchasing side, we have also started to be more active in Africa through our Egypt office. Otherwise, it's the same countries that are the main suppliers as well. Brands, nothing new for Q2. It's the same as before, and also the different business segments. And this I actually jump because it's very, very old. Launch of Craft in Canada and U.S., we have finally started. We have planned it for a couple of years, actually. And I think that the clients have really reacted in a very positive way. We still don't have any bigger stock there.
We built up that in Q3, and Q4, and Q1. But if we get the same success as in Europe, this can really be something that will make us grow much, much quicker again in percentage. And of course, in the beginning now, for the first year, it will cost some money. And as usual, I see it as an investment, but it's booked over the P&L. So, but it's a very, very interesting thing, and we're also now in January or on the biggest fair, so we expose it quite broad from January and forward. So that's it. Otherwise, it's no new series. We jump into the quarter. I'm a little bit disappointed on one thing, and that's the sales. I...
Even if the sales actually are over estimations, and we are back on growth, which are nice. But I thought that the market will turn around, when they cut down the interest rates and start talking about cutting it more. I more today have the opposite feeling that the consumers, especially, are quite pressed, and the prices that have been in the past for energy and also higher interest level have actually come and hit the consumers more now than before. And I thought that it would be enough to be a little bit more positive about interest rate and so on, to make they open their wallet again.
So on that point, even if we had to grow, and I'm very happy for that, and definitely we take quite big market shares, I think it's very few companies that are growing at all. You can see the market on corporate; we think is down between 5%-10% or think we're quite sure on that. Little bit depending on the countries, and we still have a small increase. The retail, especially of course the sports market, have had tough times. It's no secret there. We have a couple of public companies as well that is more easy to follow, and we have an increase on 10%. So in one way, I'm happy, but I actually would or did expect a little bit more.
Otherwise, I think it's a very, very stable report. We have a strong cash flow. We have a fantastic, I would say, balance sheet. We continue the investment in the market growth to create growth, and I think I had some of the questions earlier today that, "Why don't we cut down costs if it's a bit tougher?" I think opposite. If it's any time we should invest, it's when our competitors are weaker, and it's cheaper to buy marketing and do investments. And again, most of this I see as investment, even if it hits the P&L. We have also made a big move.
We had two subsidiaries in Stockholm, in Stockholms Väsby, that we have moved to Enköping and put together in one, and that, of course, was, I think, around SEK 10 million, mainly in both Q1 and Q2, but mostly Q2. But there will be a saving instead from next year. It's a totally automatic warehouse again. So in general, I'm quite happy. I'm also quite happy for the gross margin, which I think is very, very stable in this market. And operating margin, it's far away from our goal and a bit lower than last year, but we should also remember there that normally Q1 and Q2 are quite weak if you compare with the rest of the year. So we also have the best years in front of us, actually.
Yeah, sales up a little bit, and actually an all-time high for Q2. And promo generally increased by 2%, and as I said, it's in a market that we think decreased between 5% and 10%, and really retail, 9% up. And we know we are on retail, we have a good network because it's quite a few clients. It's bigger chains, and we know that there's been tough times for them. There's not so much to comment, actually. If we look at the different markets on the quarter, yeah, we take half a year here, actually. No, we take the quarter. U.S. is up 5%. I would say that U.S. economy, I personally think is a little bit weaker than it was before.
Not dramatically, but a little bit. Sweden, I would say, is quite fantastic with the market we have here and how the situation is among consumer, 12.6% growth. I think it's actually one of the better figures we have, we have produced, if we compare with how the market is. Central Europe, 6%. Nordic countries, excluding Sweden, 10%. So at least, they are doing our goal for growth. Southern Europe was a little bit down, and other countries a little bit down. And other countries is mainly due to our trading activities in Asia. Gross margin, 49%, and again, I think it's very, very stable.
As I said already, in Q1, we see a actually a deflation in some of the segments, especially on basic textile. And that we should also remember when we see the sales figures. But we keep stable, and we have not felt that we need to cut down prices or margin to defend the sales. So there I'm quite happy. External costs, you have, of course, some part of it that are increased month inflation that have been in salaries and rents and so on, of course, hitting us as well. But I would say most of it is volume-related and to increase market activities. And also, as I mentioned, the moving costs for Jordbro exit. So I would say it's under very good control.
And a lot of it is also easy. If, which I don't think, but that really the times will be even tougher, most of the marketing activities and so on, we can actually take down again, and we, with 6 months in advance or something like that. And as I said, the cost for Jordbro exit will turn around to be a saving instead from next year. It normally takes 6 to 12 months before you are really reach full efficiency in a new warehouse like that. Operating result, it's never funny to have a lower than the year before, and it's nothing we are used to the last years. But I think it's easy to understand why now it is. And also acquired business contributed with -SEK 9.9 million.
We still have a lot of companies actually doing and reaching our goal. Also B2C, that was the latest acquirement before. Tenson's is taking down the average operating margin as well, and will do for at least this year and maybe next year, because they were quite far from 15%-20% when we acquired. If we look here per segment, corporate, it's not so much to say. It's a very, very stable area for us. Sports & Leisure, leisure increased sales in all regions, except other countries, and increased sales in both channels. Gross margin a little bit lower, and acquired operations affected at 9.9%, and that's Tenson or 100% Tenson.
which we, of course, have a big hope for to create growth and nice profits in Tenson in the future. I don't know if you have seen, but for example, I don't think they have had any marketing for the last two, three years before we acquired. And I would say we invest more or less what we sell it for in advertising and to build up the brand again. Gifts & Home Furnishings is, I would say, disappointing. I'm disappointed once again, and there we have to work hard to improve it. It's not the right development there. I mean, it was what I think quite bad result already last year, which have decreased more.
So, so that's an area that we, really need, to do better work. You can also say that for that area, most of the profits always coming from Q4. You have a Christmas that, have the Christmas gifts, both for companies and for, consumers. So, so I'm not so, so worried about, it for the first half a year. I hope we can do it much better the second half, and especially Q4. Cash flow, still very strong, and, if we look at, our balance sheet, we are over 60% again in, in equity, ratio, which is a very, very nice situation to have.
Because we have room financially, both for new establishment and for organic growth, and to increase the stock when the days come, so that we see an increment in the market, and also for acquisitions. And I thought last year that I will never see so many suggestions for acquisitions, but actually they have increased since that. And then you can say three out of four, we maybe spent 50 minutes on your own, and then we say it's not interesting. But it's a lot of opportunities. With that said, we should be, as we have been in the past, careful. We should buy the right things, and we should only buy companies that really fit into the group, and that we can do something good with in the future.
But I have quite big hope that we can at least do and announce one or a couple the coming year. Balance Sheet I mentioned, which are very, very strong. We have a quite high amount in credits that are not used today. So it's a nice situation. Rolling 12, not so much to comment. I hope I soon don't have to see 9.5 five something in sales again. I want to break the 10 as soon as possible. Otherwise, there's not so much to say there. And January-June is quite the same picture. A difference, of course, Q1 was lower. We also had, I should say, a small positive effect in the calendar for Q2. And Q1 was a quite big negative effect instead.
But sales on uncertain here is down 1%, so it's a clear improvement if you compare Q2 and Q1. There's not so much to comment. And here we can see that Q1 was, I think U.S. in the quarter was up 5, and here 1, and Sweden was actually down here compared with 6 up in Q2. So it's an improvement if you compare those two quarters. And it's also quite interesting to see that Sweden has been number two after U.S. always in how we show the figures. And actually, now it has been passed also in Central Europe. Yeah, gross profit again, stable. Costs, we have talked about, and it's the same picture if you take off a year. There's not so much to say there.
The cash flow, then a big improvement. Half a million, which also, of course, half a billion, sorry. That, that also depends on that we have decreased the stock a bit. And I think we have a very balanced stock now for, for what we think about sales. Personally, I say, like always, that I would have liked to see a bit bigger stock, because that would have meant that we, we put the market should turn around quick, which we not think now. So it's quite often there when I'm opposite to the market, when the market thinks the stock is too high, I think it's good. So but we will continue with I think, a good cash flow. Yeah, the last comments, growth, 4%, 1% currency.
We continue to gain market shares, and I, I think on the corporate, I think we have taken more market shares than ever in the short period, actually. All-time high for net sales, strong gross profit and cash flow. But again, I'm a bit disappointed on the sales, even if it was a growth. Minus 1 January-June, that I'm not happy at all with. But that was mainly Q1 then, or it was Q1. Cash flow, I'm... We are very happy with. Future, I'm, as always, quite optimistic, and you can say I see the slowdown in the economy was as a big possibility for us, as I mentioned. If you look at...
We have had IT crashes, we have had financial crashes, we have a pandemic, and so on, and we have always come out stronger. I'm very, very convinced that we will do that again. Much thanks to a very strong balance sheet that we do, that we can use the situation. We continue to take market shares, which means that we will gain even more when the market gets a little bit stronger, and we continue to looking at acquisitions. So yeah, that's it. So we open up for Q&As. Do you have any?
I think I can-
Yeah. You need the microphone.
Thank you. So I think if we start off with some of your comments in the CEO, in your CEO words. You're mentioning that your confirmed orders are also looking better than last year. Can you maybe give some more flavors on that?
It's mainly due to Craft that have bigger pre-orders this fall than last fall, and also better than it was for the spring.
Okay. So that's mainly related to the retail?
Yeah, absolutely. I would say it's 100% related to retail, more or less.
Okay.
On corporate, you have more of this day-to-day business, and you don't have that kind of pre-orders that you have on the retail side.
Yeah. Okay. And what are the general takes out there on the... in the retail markets? What are your thoughts about it? And is the growth now primarily driven by restocking or consumers starting to be more active again?
I would say it's mainly due to market shares.
Mm.
And even if still the shoes, for example, is a very small part of us, we're growing there all the time.
Mm.
Also on the teamwear, we get stronger and stronger. So a lot of that is, the growth we have, is due to shoes and teamwear. We're opposite if we calculate money, teamwear and shoes. So it's, it's more market shares. We have not seen that they start to restock a lot yet, but on the opposite side, we have seen that they don't cut down anymore.
Mm.
So, it's more stable again. But it's the same there. I think that if our clients should start increasing the stocks on the retail side, they must believe in a turnaround with the consumer, which I still don't think they do.
I see. I see. And, can you maybe also give us some more details about the current investments in Germany when it comes to the teamwear? Do we see some of these investments maybe hampers the results in this quarter?
Yeah, you do. Not very much, because we have actually so far failed to take the big clubs or failed is maybe the wrong word, because we have the one we have negotiated with, we have the feeling that they're too expensive still, so we take it easy there. You see a part of it, we have invested, but mainly in salaries, I would say now, because we have increased the sales forces. And of course some of the new sponsoring agreements and so as well. We had quite much publicity through the, what's the name in English? Kanot in Swedish, that we have the German team and so on, during the Olympics. So yeah, it's not a huge negative effect.
If I remember right, it could be about EUR 500,000 compared with last year or something like that.
Hmm, okay.
So, but it, it's affecting
Yeah.
A bit. And... if you, if you, of course, if you add on the moving cost, then you add on the Tenson history, and you add on Germany, it's quite a lot of money.
Yeah, I see. And given what kind of development we are seeing on the balance sheet when it comes to inventory levels and looking at the second half year, we're also facing easier comparable figures year-over-year since you-
Yeah
... Frank, last year in Q3 and Q4. What do you think we should expect of the second half of this year?
But I expect growth and at least at the same level or better, hopefully better than we had in Q2. We don't need to increase the stock in this situation, excluding the teamwear US. That's our own story, and that's our pure investment for the future there on that market. But otherwise, we have a balanced stock, so I think we will continue to see a quite nice cash flow.
Are we going to continue to see this pattern with increased spend on OpEx in the coming quarters, related to marketing activities?
Yeah
... et cetera?
Yes.
Yeah.
I think it will be, because I again think it's the right time to do this investment. We have a lot of competitors that are really weak at the moment.
Hmm. Yeah.
And also, the marketing, excluding the biggest sponsorships, has also come down in cost. So I think it's the right time to really take market shares and so on.
Yeah.
If we don't see any big downturn again in the economy, I think it's worth to do it, even if it takes 6 and 12 months to pay off.
Hmm. I see. And a final question from my side. I think the development in the promo wear business is really impressive, given the market environment. Also looking for the next coming six months or so, you think that you must see a decrease in interest rate in order to see that start growing, or can you already see the start of growing?
No, the market have not turned around. I mean, the few clients we have that are public in that sector, they have, I think all reports decreases in Q2, and
Yeah
... I think they have a quite tough start on Q3 as well.
Hmm.
Then it's very different in different segments. I mean, a nightmare right now in Sweden, for example, is the construction companies. So that's... I shouldn't say the market is standing still, but it's not so far away. But also, I'm quite optimistic for the fall because we launched now and made a quite huge investment on jacket collections, where we really, really have synergies between our different brands.
Hmm.
So we have a stronger product program, I would say, in the fall and corporate that we had in the spring.
Hmm.
It's hard to say. I don't think the interest, yeah, it's for sure it affect, for example, workwear and construction companies.
Hmm. Okay. Fair enough. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
That's all my questions for now. Anybody else?
Just a quick question, then on the Craft launch, the team wear in the US, what are your early findings, and when should we expect you to increase your inventory in that market, or perhaps-
Starting Q3. I start with the inventory, Q3, more Q4, and also Q1, as we have to build it step by step, also depending on lead times. What surprised me about the US market and Canadian market, especially there, is that we found it very similar to Europe, even if it's a bit different distribution. We found our competitor have the same weaknesses as in Europe, which are maybe not strange in one way, because several of them are global brands. I hope we can make a quite quick and bigger move there. You can say it always take one and a half year before you have the distribution in place and so on. I would say I'm optimistic for it, and it's less differences than I thought.
The brand seems to work well in the U.S.?
Yes, but you can say the good thing is that on the team wear side, we're not only competing with the brand, because I'm still not so crazy as I think that Craft is beating Nike in brand image. But you're also competing with the logistic, to be able to supply, to be trustful, and a lot of other things. So the brand is one part of it, and we have a lot of other ingredients as well, how much products you have for females, et cetera. So we have very good argues there, as we have them had in Europe.
Okay, perfect.
... Thank you. Good to learn about the Craft teamwear North America entry. Any estimate on investment impact in Q2, midterm potential growth for, profit impact?
You, you can say the investments is not huge, and that's make it maybe more difficult for you, because you have the loss intents on that or so much. You have the move of Jordbro, and you have the investment in US, you have Germany, and each of them could be 5-10 million SEK. But in total, it's quite a lot of money. I think, yeah, we will reach profit if you take only the US market and Canada. On teamwear, I would say that we will be profitable 2026. I also think 2025 will cost some money if we really want to make a footprint there, and that's what we want.
Thank you. The table tennis player Truls mentioned your relationship in a previous interview, and thank you for your commitment to the sport. Do you have any plans to sponsor table tennis more long-term in the future?
You can say we are involved in table tennis with Craft quite a lot. We have actually many of the clubs, and we have a cooperation with Stiga and so on. I think Truls Möregårdh can affect Stiga, but I don't think it will affect us so much, and we have no plans to increase. We're doing what we should in that sport, so no big changes for us there. But it's since I'm an old table tennis player, I think it's fantastic what happened in the Olympic Games. And we really see an increase, for example, in the table tennis club in Kosta, and we have the same report from most table tennis clubs.
It's nice to see, but it will not be any big change or effect in our business.
Thank you. Can you elaborate on Tenson's sales developments, which looks weaker than expected? Will you stick to the target of SEK 500 million in sales 2026?
Beg your pardon?
Can you elaborate on Tenson's sales development-
Yeah
... which looks weaker than expected? Will you stick to the target of SEK 500 million in sales 2026?
Yes. We do. I wouldn't say it's weaker than expected. I mean, we know it will take some time. So, I'm not disappointed that way. And I think visually, most of you can see that we really have increased the marketing and so on. And of course, we need to build it a while, but I believe very, very strong in the brand.
You state in the report that you have started the launch of Craft teamwear in North America. Can you please comment a bit on the potential seen in the launch, launch over the coming years? Also, will this have any material effects on the inventory levels?
If we start with the inventory level, it will have an effect. I estimate it can be, like, SEK 100 million this year, but it's an estimation, which means that it can be between SEK 70 million and SEK 140 million. Then I think we need to increase during 2026 up to maybe SEK 200 million-250 million. Because, again, it's no idea to enter a new market and not be better than the existing ones. And the second question was the sales?
Uh, the-
Uh, the-
Yeah, exactly
... the other part of the question, I meant.
Yeah, the other part was the inventory level. But, could you please comment a bit on the potential you see in the launch over the coming years of-
Yeah. The potential is enormous. I have all the respect that it takes some times. But the potential is not less there, maybe even bigger than Europe is. So, if we are sitting here five years from now and don't have a quite big turnover there, it's we that have failed and done a bad job. It's not the market. So the market is wide open. But again, it takes time. You should break relations. They are bought from others in many years. Some clubs that maybe want you today can't take you today because they have an existing agreements on two or three years and so on. But, I'm very positive. But again, it will take some time to really break it.
Thank you. If we look at Tenson, any early signs of improved order already ahead of autumn/winter season?
We have a little bit better this for this fall than last year, but, but not so much. And then the big test is, is really the pre-selling for fall winter 2025.
Can you give any picture of how the operations in Kosta are going?
Yeah. As the figure shows, not so well the first half of the year. Now we need to improve that. When I said that we see clearly on the retail side and sport leisure, that it's tougher market, we have seen that there as well. I would say thanks to the Danish, it's not a catastrophe. But the tourist season and those part have not been as expected. And it's not the number of visitors, it's more that each visitor spend a little bit less money, which I think is obvious also for a lot of other companies, both in retail, in restaurants, and so on. So we have a lot of improvement to do there.
Thank you. You say you are looking for buying one or more sport brands the coming year. Can you tell us something more here? What kind of sports brands are you looking for? You have teamwear cross-country skiing in Craft, outdoor skiing in Tenson, and golf. Can you see yourself as owner of a bike brand?
Can we? Absolutely. Then we should also remember that it has to be a very... If you take bike, it has to be a very strong brand, because Craft are quite active in bike. If you look at possible acquisitions, we look more into product areas than to brands, I would say, because it's no idea to add on a lot of brands with exactly the same product or assortment and start competing internally. So it's more, for example, we are big today in clothing for football, for example, but we don't have the shoes, we don't have the protection, we don't have what you practice with, and that's a situation we have in most sports. Also outdoor is an area we want to be stronger, tents and gear and outdoor.
But we are still not in the cooking equipment, tents, or we could be more on hiking and all this kind of outdoor areas. That can be acquisitions or it can be product broadening in tents on. So it's a lot of possibilities in it, but again, we are quite picky when it comes to acquisitions, because we should also be 100% convinced that we really can do something good with them in the future, so we don't just acquire to acquire or to show growth.
Any more questions here?
So just on the teamwear side, have you seen any indications that your competitors are changing their offerings or trying to find corporations to match your full service offering? And the second part, could you imagine supporting brands in other markets where you're not in to, with the rest of their offering to be partly like you are?
You can say that the only changes we see from competitors on teamwear is in some countries, they increase their spending on sponsoring. And that's also the reason why we had to say, "No, thank you," to a couple of bigger, more famous clubs. But we don't see any change in behavior on our really strong sides. And one of our really strong offers is wholesale merchandising. And I mean, we can offer, as we have talked about before, we can offer Hammarby, for example, if we take Stockholm, everything from beer glasses to wine glasses, to cotton T-shirts, to hoodies, and everything from stock, which really increase their sales on merch.
I think it's a very long run for competitors that only doing teamwear to start supplying hardware and glasses and stock a lot of cotton items and so on. And I think the lowest figures now I got from Hammarby, I think we have tripled the sales on their merchandise since we started the agreement. So, and the second question, absolutely. I mean, if we theoretically find someone that are very good on hardware in a sport in the U.S., we can of course add on Craft to that distribution. So geographical acquisitions could be interesting, and that's not only in sports, that's also on corporate.
We still have some big countries where we have too few clients according to me, that we might can kinda acquire the distribution companies and then introduce our brands on that client list.
Perfect.
Any more questions? I think that was all.
Okay. Thank you all very, very much for listening. Have a good day.
No, that's the one.
No, that was the question he asked. That was from the... Yes, they had a lot of questions. Okay, thank you very much, and I wish you all a good day.