Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Nobia Q3 report 2026 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 this 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 would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Jesper Gylling Olsen, CEO. Please go ahead.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Nobia Q3 2026 earnings call. The presentation will be held by me, Jesper Gylling Olsen, and our new Group CFO, Rasmus Laursen, who recently stepped into the role in August. With that said, let's start the presentation. This is my first full quarter as CEO of Nobia, and I find it very important in providing transparency on where Nobia are today, the challenges we have been addressing, and the steps that we are taking to fundamentally strengthen the business. Nobia possesses a very strong brand portfolio in the Nordic industry. This is a significant strength and a unique platform for future value creation. However, we approach the task ahead with both confidence and humility. We recognize the responsibility of transforming these strengths into a simpler, more competitive, and a higher-performing business.
Our focus is on building the right foundation for the future strength of our operating model, improving profitability, and enhancing the customer experience across all brands and channels. By doing so, we will create value for every stakeholder in our ecosystem and establish a stronger Nobia for the years ahead. Therefore, we have initiated a comprehensive transformation focused on performance improvement, cost competitiveness, operational excellence, and a simplified Nordic operating model. During this call, I will provide an update on the progress achieved so far, the work currently underway, and the strategic priorities that we will support future sustainable profitability. One important pillar is to have more effective Nordic organization. During the quarter, we have presented a new organizational design for Nobia as a Nordic group, and yesterday we announced the next steps in our organizational transformation, which will deliver material cost savings going forward.
The second pillar is our consolidated and brand-agnostic supply chain. During the quarter, we have taken actions to stabilize volumes and deliver performance at Nobia Park, while we also continue the assessment of our Nordic supply chain. Both very important steps in building a stronger Nobia for the future. I will come back to these actions in more detail later in the presentation. With this introduction, let's move forward for the financial performance. Q3 financial highlights. Several brands performed well in the quarter and increased sales in the B2B segment. However, the organic growth rate was slightly negative in the quarter, mainly because of the restructuring of Nobia's market activities in Finland.
The restructuring in Finland has a negative impact on our sales in the short term, but we are confident that the new setup and the transformation and development of the operating model into the HTH brand will support and generate future profitability. The adjusted gross margin continued to improve, driven by higher average order value and lower production costs. The adjusted EBIT was below last year, and profitability remains a key challenge that we immediately are addressing with decisive actions. Moving over to market situations. The Nordic kitchen market. Generally, the Nordic kitchen market remains subdued, and we are not expecting a quick rebound in demand. Looking at the B2B segment, the sales increased in the quarter, driven by higher average order value and positive performance from HTH, Invita, and Sigdal. B2B activities across the Nordic remains at a lower level, but has stabilized.
B2C sales were below last year. The trend in lower consumer demand continues, and we are seeing pressure across all markets and brands. Let me now share some of the key commercial highlights from the quarter as well. As mentioned earlier, we have a very strong brand portfolio, and we will continue to improve the commercial execution power. Nobia is home to some of the strongest kitchens brands, and we will keep investing in our brands and commercial initiatives to drive and develop sales. During the quarter, HTH opened three new stores across the Nordic. The brand also celebrated 60 years of anniversary by revealing a new visual identity, store concept, and products that will be rolled out across markets beginning early next year.
Our strong local markets, Marbodal, Sigdal, and Invita, they launched a new sales concept Within Wood, an updated store concept to drive in-store sales of high-value premium wooden kitchens. A new AI design tool was also launched across several brands in the dealer network to elevate the customer journey sales process through improved visualization. These are all good examples that we want to be forward-leaning and invest in our brands to drive growth in the future. Let's move over to the strategic priorities. Let's start with the current state. Nobia has, as mentioned earlier, a very strong brand portfolio, a strong market position, and strong customer relationships, which provides us a solid foundation for the future. Profitability still remains under pressure by our unfinished supply chain and the fact that our cost base and operating model has not been adapted to compete as a Nordic group.
Therefore, we have two main priorities. First, we need to transform Nobia and reset the operating model to make sure we have a lean and profitable Nordic platform. This includes implementing a new Nordic organization, finalize our supply chain consolidation, and align our cost base, be agile and able to act on short term to adjust production capacity to current market conditions. Secondly, we are investing in our brands to create the right preconditions for future profitable growth. This includes further expansion of our successful HTH brand, positioning and investing in the value propositions of the brands and in our portfolio, and investing in the development of new products and a strong customer experience. During this quarter, we have taken necessary and important steps in the transformation of Nobia. Update the resetting operating model.
Following several years as a European kitchen company, we are now taking actions to transform Nobia into a competitive and profitable Nordic group. The first step was the new group structure announced 12th of August. It is designed to support Nobia's competitiveness and profitability as a Nordic group. The new design includes a consolidation of group functions, decentralized business units for our brands, and future capabilities built up around two main hubs. The design supports a leaner, more effective, scalable, and customer-centric organization adapted to serve the Nordic market. As a part of building a new Nordic Nobia, we have also strengthened the executive committee with a new Group CFO, a new Group COO responsible for operations and supply chain strategy, and a new Executive Vice President of HTH. Second step, announced yesterday, is the implementation of the new Nordic organization and group structure.
Following a comprehensive review of our entire cost base across brands, countries, and functions, we will begin implementing the new streamlined Nordic organization Q4 this year. This will include role reductions across the group, consolidation of group-wide functions, closing non-Nordic support function, and adjusting our office footprint. These changes will deliver annual cost savings of SEK 150 million from Q4 2027. Combined with new ways of working, it will strengthen competitiveness and value creation over time. The third step is our supply chain consolidation. During the third quarter, progress has been made to stabilize production, volume, and delivery performance at Nobia Park. We will continue to work with Nobia Park ramp-up plan. We are conducting a comprehensive assessment of our Nordic supply chain to define and establish a long-term roadmap for a more competitive, efficient, and scalable operating model. This work is critical to create the right foundation for Nobia.
We aim to complete the assessment and get back with more information in the beginning of next year. A simpler operating model to leverage scale and strong Nordic brands. What we are now building is a Nordic Nobia. The foundation is our shared brand-agnostic supply chain that can effectively serve the brands within the group. To consolidate the company, we will build our future core capabilities around two main hubs, Nobia Park and Aarhus. The new Nordic organization is based on shared group-wide and brand-agnostic functions, covering operations and supply chain, finance, technology, people and culture, category sourcing, and sustainability. With a more scalable and effective organization, we can more effectively use our scale and serve our very strong brand portfolio. With that, I will now hand over to Rasmus to walk you through the financials.
Thank you, Jesper. Hi, everyone. My name is Rasmus Laursen, and I am the new Group CFO at Nobia since mid-August. Let us start with an overview of the quarter. The net sales in the quarter came in roughly in line with last year. We have a slight increase in net sales, which is related to positive currency effects. If you look at sales, we see that B2B sales were positive in the quarter, but it was offset by a negative development in B2C sales. The organic growth rate was slightly negative in the quarter, and this is, as Jesper mentioned, mainly related to the restructuring in Finland. Excluding Finland, we deliver a positive organic growth rate in the quarter. The gross margin continued to improve, mainly driven by higher average order value and lower production costs.
Earnings remained well below where we want to be, and the adjusted EBIT decreased in the quarter, mainly because of pressure from inflation, lower volume and product mix, and investments into brand and marketing. The cash flow was negative in the quarter, and I will get back with more comments on the cash flow when I provide an update on the financial position. Now moving on to an update on the financial items in the quarter. First, we have the IACs. We had IACs of SEK 33 million in the quarter, mainly related to the transfer of production from Tidaholm to Nobia Park. We are currently reviewing the ramp-up in Nobia Park and our broader supply chain consolidation roadmap, and we will come back with more information associated with our supply chain transformation in the beginning of next year, as Jesper also mentioned.
Secondly, we have the cost-saving program that was announced in Q4 2025. This was announced as a part of the divestment of the U.K. business. The announcement stated SEK 80 million in cost savings from FTE reductions and organizational measures. After reviewing the program, we can conclude that the cost savings from FTEs have been realized, but the total effect on SG&A has been flat due to mainly salary inflation and marketing and brand investments. That leads me to the measure announced yesterday. The measures announced yesterday are part of our organizational transformation and implementation of the new Nordic group structure. This includes role reductions across the entire group, consolidations of functions, closure of non-Nordic support functions, reduction of our office footprint. Combined, these measures will generate an annual savings of SEK 150 million from Q4 2027, with initial effects already in Q4 this year.
Going forward, we will report the outcome and progress of these measures on a quarterly basis. With this, let us move on to the overview of the financial statistics. Our cash flow from operating activities in the quarter was negative SEK 46 million, reflecting working capital seasonality and timing effects from a stronger-than-normal Q2. Working capital development was affected by payments timing and a reduced contribution from supplier payment phasing compared with earlier periods. Our financial net debt amounted to SEK 2 billion and 39. The increase versus last quarter in net debt primarily related to weaker operating cash flow, working capital movements, and continued investment and transition-related outflows. Our current credit facility of SEK 2.5 billion will be reduced by SEK 500 million by the end of June 2027. So the credit facility will be SEK 2 billion after Q2 2027.
The reduction of the facility is part of the terms we agreed with our lenders and has been included in our financial planning. We have a clear plan to adjust our utilization of the facility ahead of the reduction. Thank you. Back to you, Jesper.
Thank you, Rasmus. Building a stronger Nordic platform. To summarize, we saw some encouraging growth for our brands and positive sales development in the B2B segment. This was unfortunately offset by the restructuring in Finland, which is the main reason behind the negative growth rate in the quarter. Our top priority is to improve profitability and create a stronger Nobia for the future, and we have taken several important steps over the past few months. Our focus going forward will be complete the supply chain assessment and present the roadmap in the beginning of next year, execute the organizational transformation, and keep investing in our brands and commercial initiative. With that said, I would like to thank you all for listening, and I will now open up for questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, you will need to press star, one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star, one again. We will take our first question from Igor Tubic from DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hello. Thank you. Hi, Jesper and Rasmus. I have a couple of questions. If we start with Finland, can you say anything what the organic growth was if you exclude Finland, and was that primarily driven by price increases, would you say, or how was the split between volume and prices? I'll stop there.
Hello, and thank you for the question. First of all, in all the brands across the Nordic, excluding Finland, we have seen a minor growth, and if we combine it, we will have 4% growth in this quarter, excluding Finland. The growth is not related due to price increases only. It's also related to increased average order value, and it's across the different markets, excluding Finland, we've seen that.
Okay, thank you. How should we think about the restructuring program in Finland? How long is it? How long will it last? When do you expect Finland to normalize, let's say?
Yes, thank you for the question as well. We are entering the last phase of the transformation and restructuring in Finland. With that said, we have really made major changes in the Finnish market with Nobia. With resetting to the HTH operating model, we look into the last period of the transformation and expect during 2027 to finalize it and normalize the sales and the ability to drive a profitable brand in that market as well.
Okay. Is it like in H1, or should we think by the end of 2027, a normalization?
You need to be aware that the major changes we have done will affect into first half of 2027, and we will see improvement during second half next year.
Great. Very clear. Thank you. In terms of items affecting comparability, should we expect that to be on similar level in Q4, and what about 2027?
Yeah, so in terms of items affecting comparability, also, if we look at the quarter, they are mainly related to the ramp-up and the transition of the supply chain from Tidaholm to Nobia Park, including the double running cost during this period of running production in parallel. We expect that these temporary costs will, as a part of the assessment of the Nordic supply chain, and not just Nobia Park in isolation, will be covered in the assessment we are doing at the Nordic supply chain as of now. But relating to Q4, isolated, we will expect the same level.
Great. A couple of more questions. In terms of the financing cost, they were quite much bigger this quarter. How should we think about that going forward? Were there any one-off finance costs there?
No. There were not any one-offs.
No one-offs. Okay. Should we expect similar levels going forward?
Yes.
Okay. Thank you. In terms of the RCF and that you have drawn SEK 2.1 billion and that it will be reduced to SEK 2 billion by mid-2027, are you comfortable with that or do you have any negotiations to keep the same level of the RCF post mid-2027 as well, or how should we think about that?
We are comfortable with the overall position. The reduction of the facility to SEK 2 billion is a part of the terms we agreed with our lenders and has already now been included in the financial planning. We have a clear plan to adjust that utilization of the facility going forward towards the reduction.
Okay, great. Very clear. Thank you. That was all from me.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone. There seems to be no further questions at this time. I will hand back to the speakers.
Thank you. Thank you all for listening, and I wish all of you an excellent day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.