Good day, a nd thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Nobia year end report 2022 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Tobias Norrby. Please go ahead.
Thank you, welcome everyone, and thank you for connecting to the Nobia Q4 2022 results presentation. We will do it the usual way, starting with our President and CEO, Mr. Jon Sintorn, taking us through the highlights of the quarter before our Acting CFO, Mr. Henrik Skogsfors, will dig into some of the more important financial details. With that, I hand over to you Jon.
Thank you, Tobias. Good morning everyone, and again, thanks for joining this update. For this quarter, markets held up fairly well, but retail was softer than last year, whilst the project market compensated as expected. The organic growth in the quarter came in at +2%. We managed to grow U.K. trade in a more challenging market environment. Projects in the Nordics continued to grow in the period backed by strong order book we had going into the quarter. In line with our strategy, our average order values continues to trend up in general as we move more sales over to the higher end of the market via new products and concepts. On a negative note, the headwind from raw material continues and is now also impacted by a surge in electricity and overall inflation.
I believe we have done a good job in mitigating those increases by price increases and higher average order values. They were not enough to offset all of the headwind and the additional supply chain costs. We continue over the year end to increase our market prices. We also experienced a gross margin decline in the Nordics due to the loss of some retail volume, especially in Denmark, but also as a result of the previously announced productivity issues we have had in the Nordic supply chain, and more specifically in the plant. We announced that we are exiting unprofitable parts of the U.K. project business. We are taking out low margin products to pursue in our strategy to go for the more mass premium and higher average order value segment.
We also go for more with the central London or premium project segment has been struggling in the market for a long time by now and hence moving over to a more viable cost model. As a consequence, we close two our U.K. manufacturing sites and consolidate more in our plant in Darlington. We are also flattening and simplify the U.K. overhead structure, continuing in our plan to empower more in the sales organization and less of central administration and cost. The total cost for the program is SEK 450 million, recorded as items affecting comparability for the fourth quarter 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. It is a significant cost reduction program generating an annual run rate saving of SEK 300 million by mid-2024, SEK 220 million by the end of this year, 2023.
Looking at the market for the quarter, as already said, we have seen a softer retail market across, and also so in the Nordics, whereas the stable project market on the back or being supported by housing completions that continues. In the U.K., the retail market was softer. The trade market in the period on par with last year, and as I mentioned, the London super premium project market remains weak. Similar trends also in Austria and the Netherlands, retail market softer and a more stable project markets. As we mentioned also, the headwind that we see, the inflationary pressure continues. The total own cost for material, energy, and transport in the quarter of roughly SEK 260 million. As mentioned, we continuously continue to further mitigate that by continuous price increases in our various markets.
We also continue to drive immense progress in the bigger transformation and the strategic initiatives. I'd like to highlight again the progress that we're doing with the new plans. We are following plan and budget, and we are this quarter being able to start component manufacturing that we can use in our Nordic supply chain. I think that's a big step for us that we can start use this asset as we are progressing that well. We're also doing well in aligning our product platform. It's a big task, of course, to coordinate the various ranges that we have but that's making good progress and will, in the future, render good efficiency.
In terms of market, we are doing the repositioning as per plan, going for the more mass premium segment, discontinuing low-margin products in the U.K. as one example, and introducing new concepts and new products addressing that segment more specifically. All in all, good progress in these initiatives.
Thank you, Jon. Over to slide Nordic region Q4. The Nordics now represent 54% of total sales in the group. Organic growth in the quarter came in at - 1%. Volumes were slightly down on the back of negative development in the consumer segment in all countries, while the project segment held up well, especially in Finland. Price realization was good across the board and continued to drive top line. As mentioned in the third quarter call, we had some capacity and output constraints, especially related to the Swedish factory in Tidaholm. The problems continued also during the fourth quarter. However, with improvements in the end of the quarter. By country in the quarter, sales increased in Finland, they were flat in Norway, while Denmark and Sweden declined slightly. The gross margin declined by approximately 6 percentage points to 13.7%.
This was clearly a disappointment and the main driver behind the decline in operating profit. Continued headwinds from direct material costs and supply chain issues burdened the gross margin. On top of this, we also had higher transport costs and impact from the higher energy bills. We have had an improvement related to the capacity and output constraints in Tidaholm compared to the third quarter. We had an adverse impact around SEK 20 million in the quarter. The improvements are continuing, and we are expecting to have a cost around SEK 15 million during the first quarter compared to same period last year. In summary, EBIT of SEK 128 million compared to SEK 250 million last year. Please note that this is excluding the quarter's items affecting comparability of minus SEK 86 million that was communicated in January.
Over to the next slide, please, Tobias Norrby. Region U.K., t his region now represents 32% of total sales on a rolling 12-month basis. Organic growth came in strong at 5% in the quarter. Volumes were down, this was more than offset by our higher average order values. Top line increased for both Magnet brand sales as well as the OEM retail sale. In percentage terms, OEM sales growth was double digit, while Magnet brand was low single digit. The gross margin came in at 40.2% versus 43.3% same quarter last year. Despite the margin decline, the absolute gross profit increased in the quarter. Given the heavy inflation in direct material and basically all cost items, it's a decent gross margin number for Region U.K.
On the positive side, the price impact was good, and we had some savings coming from the cost out program launched in the second quarter of 2022. We continue to invest in sales driving activities, especially in store and sales designer density, ahead of the important winter sales campaign, which together with a high inflationary environment, burden the operating profit. As we mentioned in the third quarter, and as Jon just mentioned, we are addressing our cost base to mitigate the effects from inflation and other potential softer market through our recently announced restructuring and cost out program. However, and again repeating what Jon said earlier in the call, we are now pressing ahead with the U.K. restructuring program we announced in January, in addition to the measures implemented last year.
EBIT of - SEK 72 million compared to + SEK 1 last year. No effects from the items affecting comparability program in region U.K. impacted the fourth quarter of 2022. Please over to slide number nine, Tobias. Portfolio business units, which represents 14% of group sales. Portfolio business units grew by 6% on an organic basis on the back of higher prices. Volume was more or less flat in Austria and the Netherlands, which is a good development given the business fundamentals. While the volume in the Commodore and CIE continued down due to the very challenging market for the luxury and super premium segment in London, which is the main market for Commodore and CIE. EBIT for the region was SEK 27 million compared to SEK 41 last year.
Operating profit in Austria and the Netherlands combined was flat, offset by the weaker Commodore and CIE performance. No effect on the item affecting comparability in region portfolio business units in the fourth quarter of 2022. Part of the U.K. restructuring program that we have communicated is now being implemented relates to the project business in Commodore and CIE, and will be visible in portfolio business units P&L going forward. Next slide, please. Financial position. Cash flow from operating activity was slightly lower than corresponding quarter last year. We are very pleased to see that our focus on working capital is paying off, resulting in a very good underlying cash flow considering the decline in operating profit.
Change in working capital had a favorable impact driven by inventory reduction, as well as last year being impacted by safety stock on back of COVID-19, as well as some timing effects in accounts receivables year-over-year. The operating cash flow was -SEK 81 million in the quarter, primarily related to the cash outflows related to the investments in fixed assets as we are progressing with the building of the new Nordic factory in Jönköping. Total investments in fixed assets were SEK 484 million in the quarter. Looking at the full year operating cash flow, it ended up at -SEK 746 million , down from +SEK 670 million in 2021.
The negative year-over-year deviation in operating cash flow is explained by a lower operating profit in combination with a SEK 1.7 billion CapEx expenditure, where all SEK 1.2 billion was related to Jönköping. We have a leverage of 2.36x in the quarter. In our covenant and financial target calculations, we exclude the effect from IFRS 16, meaning leasing, as well as the pension debt. By that, over to you, Jon.
Yes, to summarize, going forward, we will continue with price increases and as per our plan, drive towards higher average order values to target that segment. We will execute on the overall cost program. That's the key of key activity going forward, also the repositioning in the U.K. We will normalize productivity in the Nordic supply chains and keep the momentum in the major strategic initiatives. You are, of course, very welcome and invited to our Capital Markets Day, 22nd of March, so you can see how the new factory in Jönköping is coming alive. As I said, it follows plan with slightly early in component manufacturing, and it will be up and ready by the end of 2024. You're more than welcome to see it, but already 22nd of March. There's lots to see.
With that, thank you very much, and we are ready for Q&A.
Please, operator open up for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To restore your question, please press star one one again. We will now take the first question. One moment, please. It comes from the line of Victor Hansen from Nordea. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, Jon, Henrik, and Tobias. It's Victor here from Nordea. A few questions, maybe to start off. Jon, you mentioned in the report, a good or the backlog levels in the Nordics, and I'm wondering if you could quantify this or at least tell us roughly how long it will last?
We typically don't quantify it b ut we still have good planning horizon, if I put it that way.
Okay. You can't say how many months or something similar?
No, we typically don't say that but I would like to iterate that we have or like to underline that we, as we stand right now, we have a good planning horizon in order to manage the situation with it if the order book would change materially.
Okay. Okay. I'm wondering about the price level in your backlog here. Is there still a mismatch in the backlog versus current cost levels? Was it improving?
No, not really.
If?
I'm trying to understand the question. Can you repeat the question, please?
Yeah. Sure. Of course. The pricing level in your backlog, compared to where your current cost levels are, is there still a mismatch here which is impacting your margin negatively? Or is the pricing level improving to reduce the mismatch?
Over some time, that will be reduced. There is a lag on our price increases that we have communicated before, so take some time before to roll into the book. Other measures we're taking in terms of cost and productivity, of course. We should gain a little bit on the previous announced price increases that rolls in.
Yeah. A follow-up, more generally speaking here, are you seeing any input materials at all coming down in price, or are they all still increasing?
They are all not increasing. I think we could see potentially some early signs of improvement, but it's early days. I wouldn't say that we really see a trend downwards by any means, but early indications of different momentum.
Okay. Okay. We'll stay on the lookout then.
Yeah.
Then I'm wondering here.
Early.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm wondering here if you're able to use your entire SEK 5 billion in credit that you have available at your current adjusted EBITDA levels, or will you go above the covenants before utilizing the full SEK 5 billion amount?
We don't comment on our terms and conditions with our revolving credit banks.
Okay. I had to try.
But we have [crosstalk] enough room in our covenants.
Okay. Yeah. You have headroom. Great. Okay.
Yes. Yes, we have headroom.
Great. Two more questions here. First, how much will you save from moving some of the component manufacturing that you have discussed to Jönköping?
We will gradually do that over longer period of time. On the run rate basis, as we stand right now, it's less round about between SEK 50 million-SEK 75 million on a yearly basis.
That's great. Great. Finally here, what's the year-on-year price effect in your organic sales, growth? Is it similar in all regions? The price versus volume.
Can you please repeat the question?
Yeah. Sure. Sure. What's the year-on-year price effect in your organic sales growth? I'm wondering how much has price driven your organic sales?
We don't give you any specific details on that one. As we have mentioned, we have done price increases as well as we have higher average order values as you can see across all our regions.
Okay, great. Thank you all. That's all from me. Have a nice day.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question. It comes from the line of Hanna Lindbo from DNB. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for having me. I know you touched upon it just now, but I was thinking about the covenants because I know in the last conference call you said that you were still confident in your position with them. Do you still feel like that?
Yes.
Yes. On the sale of the factory in Jönköping, at the earliest, when can that happen?
We communicated in December in conjunction with going out with this investment that that was a possibility to do. As for now, we have not a decision on doing that. If that's good to materialize, it's around about 10-12 weeks.
Okay. 'cause I would like, also 'cause I look at your financial position and so, If you come to that point, would it be an option to pause investments or would you rather raise equity at that point?
We will not raise equity.
Okay. You feel confident that you will not need of raising equity?
Absolutely.
Okay. Great. That's all questions from me. Thank you.
Thank you. We will now take the next question. It comes from the line of Rasmus Engberg from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes. Hi, guys. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Very good. How much do you have remaining to invest roughly in Jönköping?
It's around between SEK 1.5 billion and SEK 2 billion.
That would basically double your net debt from these levels?
Nah.
Okay.
That you can't say because we also have a very positive underlying cash flow.
Yeah, excluding that. Yes.
Yes.
That is then enough to meet any type of covenant discussions, or are you sort of anticipating that higher earnings would help you?
We are confident.
Okay. Very good. You talk about the inefficiencies in the Nordics, and I guess you're talking about Tidaholm here. How much did they amount to last year? As they continue in Q1, you know, what do you think the swing factor will be, you know, help from that reduction in those?
In the fourth quarter, we had SEK 25 million, so giving us approximately SEK 75 million full year.
Okay. If Q1 , then the last?
Yeah. As we mentioned, we've seen an improvement in Swedish Krona.
Yep.
We still believe that we will have maybe around 15 and maybe some little effect in Q2.
Okay.
It's trending and the trajectory is in the right direction.
It's very much in the right direction, in that trajectory, and we'll be able to devote by second quarter.
Okay. Very good. Then, with regard to your gross margin, you still see a need to continue to raise prices. Did your costs increase sequentially in the fourth quarter so that you sort of have as long a way to raise prices as you have before the fourth quarter, if you see what I mean?
No. please repeat the question.
Yeah. If we were standing at the end of Q3, you obviously had a need to raise your prices. Would you say that need is now bigger or smaller after the Q4?
Slightly, I would say smaller, if I understood your question right.
Yes. You're sort of slowly catching up, but.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Very good.
If you ask.
Can you remind us your backlog, typically how long into the future is? I mean, if you put over on the consumer side, I seem to remember that it's something like six weeks or somewhere around that. Is that correct?
Absolutely. That's where you see some swings because of the shorter lead time.
Exactly. That is catching up and then on the project side, the orders are much longer and then.
Longer, more predictable.
Yes. Yes. Very good. Can you just explain one thing also? When I look in the report, it seemed to be that you paid a lot of tax compared to what you reported. What was the reason for that, if you recall?
I don't have that information in front of me.
I can tell you roughly. You had a tax paid of about SEK 200 million for 2022.
Yes.
You had a reported tax of only SEK 30 million.
Yes, it's also the impact is coming from the items affecting comparability program.
Okay. How is it affecting paid tax as opposed to reported tax? I didn't understand that. That's why I'm asking. Maybe you can take that offline. I'm just curious to understand that.
Yeah, we can take that offline.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand back over to the speakers for final remarks.
Well, very good then. That's it for this time, welcome back everyone on the 27th of April for the Q1 results. Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.