Good morning, and a Warm Welcome to Rusta's Q1 report as a listed company. And also, of course, a very special welcome to all of you new shareholders, big and small, that have now invested in this company, and of course, all other interested parties. Today, we will present the Q2 in our fiscal year that runs from May until April. So that means that it's the August to October numbers that we will be presenting. My name is Göran Westerberg. I'm the CEO of Rusta, and I've been with the company since 2011, and the CEO since 2012. I will present the numbers together with Sofie Malmunger, our CFO, who's been with the company since 2014. All right.
The agenda today will be first, a business update that will also include a little bit of the background of the company, just since we're, we're new at the market and that we want to reiterate a little bit how we're, how we're functioning. Then we will have a deep dive into the financial performance, which Sofie will take us through, and then we will have a very short summary and then open up for the Q&A. So jumping into the business update. First of all, Rusta is a non-food Nordic discount champion. The vision is to make Rusta the leading and most trusted low-price retailer in Europe. So there's a clear growth ambition, we do believe that this concept has a place in, in Europe, so there's really, growth is really at the core of, of the company.
To our help to achieve this, we have an integrated and really efficient value chain. So we don't produce anything, but all the way from sourcing all the way out to our stores, we control the value chain. We have no franchisees since we don't have any strategic depth, we have no covenants. We're basically free and strong to implement whatever strategy that we see fit. We have a very well-invested platform. We have a state-of-the-art distribution central. We have really well-invested stores. We have a single concept that we've rolled out in our different markets because we believe simplicity and conformity in that way is the, is the way to, to profitability, to really do it simple and do it the same way.
By the end of Q2, we had 205 stores across our four markets, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Germany, but we still believe there's significant white space to grow. On the right-hand side of the slide, you can see that we have about 150 identified locations, which we deem to be tier one locations, things that we have as priority one locations in those current markets where we would like to open stores. We expect the store rollout to continue at approximately the same pace that we've had in the past years, so somewhere around 40-60 stores for the coming three years.
By the end of last quarter, we had 22 signed, approved stores that are to be opened during that time period, which is, I would say, quite normal. Three of those stores have already been opened since the end of the quarter as well. So this is, this is, I would say, a very normal mix. We have 110 stores in Sweden, 45 in Norway, and 50 in total in Finland and Germany. Taking, or say, if we zoom out a little bit and look at the history of Rusta, which was incepted in 1986, we have enjoyed, I would say, a very, very long stretch of profitable growth.
As you can see, we have lived through all sorts of different challenges during these years. Here are some of them. But I'm, I would say, really, really happy about the concept, the way that we're working. It seems that even if the markets are very, you know, very different from time to time, the low prices, the wide range, the single concept seems to be very strong, almost no matter what happens in the market. The strategy to continue to grow with this profitability is, I would say, quite simple. Not easy to do, but it's a simple strategy, and it contains basically, we say, four important legs, if you like.
One, of course, and that's the most important thing, to really maintain the low price position. And here, we're not talking about perception, we're not talking about, you know, just general value for money. It's about actual price leadership, actually making the customer saving money on comparable items. That's super important for us, and we really try to deliver that. That's the, that's the, you know, the, the job that we do on the market to actually save money for the customers. And we do that with a very wide range. So we try to fulfill as many different functions for the customer as possible, and that is, of course, taking down the risk, because there's always something that the customers need.
So even if one product category is maybe having a little bit more of a headwind, we have, which is a strong development in other areas. This is very much also an organic case. This is not primarily about acquisitions, even though we don't rule that out, but the main strategy for us is to continue to open up our own stores under our own brand with the same concept, but more importantly, so drive traffic to our own stores. So like-for-like is really the key to retailing. That's where you build profitability. That's where you get economy of scale. So that's really at the core of what we're trying to do.
What we do with this is also we try to create this growth by volume growth, selling more items, because this creates economy of scale, and that's the thing that we try to use to further increase efficiency across the value chain. Buying more makes us basically stronger on the purchase market. We are more attractive as a buyer in the sourcing market, but it also improves the scale effect throughout our value chain. We also intend to continue our low-risk network expansion. We're not aiming to what you say, inflate the number of stores without control. Rather, we're trying to open stores with quality, where we know that there's a very high likelihood of getting to profitability quickly. So rather fewer with quality than many without control.
That's how we have built the success so far, and that's how we intend to continue. Now, having said that, if we move into the quarterly numbers, I'm really happy, of course, to see that this strategy continues to provide us with the results we like to see, and also sets the stage, I think, for continued success. In Q2, we had a total growth of 14.4%, and I think one of the most important things that's maybe not visible immediately is that this growth is primarily volume-driven. It means this is not primarily price effects, which I've seen a lot of in the different, in the market.
But like in Q1, in Q2, we also see that volume is a significant driver, actually, so much so that the single biggest driver for growth is volume. We also have a very solid like-for-like number, +10.8%. We'll come back to the exact definition of like-for-like, but I would say that we have a very conservative way of measuring like-for-like. This does not include online, it doesn't include stores that haven't been open for at least one full financial year, and so on. But Sofie will take us through the details of that. We have an adjusted EBITDA that have been growing, +119.1%, and so, yeah, in short, it means that we have more than doubled our EBITDA since last quarter.
Now, taking all of this down to the first half of the year, we have a growth of 12.9%, a like-for-like of +8.5%, which I also think is a strong number, especially in this market, and a total EBITDA growth that is adjusted +62.1%, and the only adjustments is for IPO costs during the quarter. Right. A couple of things that I would like to highlight during the quarter. One is the continued store expansions to basically connect back to our strategy. During the quarter, we opened three stores, one in Sweden, one in Norway, and one in Finland.
After the quarter, we have also opened three more stores, two of those in Norway and one in Germany, reaching a total of 10 stores now in Germany. I think this is also quite normal. We usually have two windows during the year when we open up stores, and not to disturb the peak sales during Christmas and summer. This tend to be during early spring and during autumn before Christmas sales. The like-for-like volume growth, again, that volume was the major contributor to our sales growth in Q2, and also on a comparable level, it was like-for-like growth that really drove those that increase. I think that's significant, because it basically provides, how to say, the ground for continued profitable growth.
That will give us the tools that we need on the purchase market, on the sourcing market, but also in throughout our value chain, to further improve efficiency and set the scene for continued profitability. Another thing that I would like to highlight is, I think as you, as you've probably seen in the retail arena, overall, that, say, low price concepts have generally been winners, that people are so say moving into this segment and the whole segment is growing. We've seen that we have had how to say more customers coming into our stores. And one very clear receipt, if we take, you know, if we zoom out a bit and then look at the bigger picture, is our loyalty program.
We had, at the end of Q2 , 5.3 million fully registered Club Rusta members. That's an increase of 700,000 new members in the loyalty program. So that's a significant shift, and I think that says something about the stickiness, and it also provides, I would say, a good ground for continued growth, that people are entering the loyalty program. It also provides the possibility for us to further improve our marketing efficiency because we now have contact, we have the, you know, the email addresses, and we can reach them, we get customer data and so on. So that's also, I think, a very good sign for the future.
And then, of course, the IPO during the last quarter, that's something that you're very well aware of, but my point is that I, I'm really happy about achieving such a good result that we've done during Q2, when so much energy have been spent on the IPO. That's not something that one should forget. You're all aware of the IPO, but you're also very well aware of how much energy that tends to take from a company. But I'm really proud over the company and all our coworkers that have achieved these results while we have spent so much energy on the IPO. All right. I will hand over to Sofie, who will tell us a little bit more about the financial performance of Rusta.
Yes. As Göran has showed you, Rusta has a strong Q2 with increased sales and improved profit. We have a total sales growth of 14.4% and a like-for-like growth of 10.8%, and this is an effect of both more customers and a higher average receipt. The strong growth shows that customers are turning to the segment that we operate in, and that Rusta has a good position. Regarding the like-for-like growth, just as Göran said, we would like to highlight that we have a conservative and quite strict way of measuring. It's only for our stores, so no online sales are included, and each store has to have been open a full financial year to be classified as like-for-like.
In addition to the strong sales, we have a gross margin that has increased with 2.9 percentage points, which is then SEK 211 million higher, compared to last year. We have also an adjusted EBITDA that is 2.7 percentage points stronger, and this is an increase with 119.1%. A short summary of the Q2 is that Rusta continues to do very well, and, for the half year, we see an adjusted EBITDA of SEK 468 million, compared to SEK 289 million last year. Rusta's operations are affected by seasonal variations, and since this is our first public report, we would like to guide you a bit on those.
To start with, Rusta has a financial year that stretches from May till April, which then gives us a slightly different split when we talk about quarters. So Q1 and Q3, which is then May till July and November to January, are generally our strongest quarters in terms of sales and profit, and this is mainly driven by the summer and Christmas seasons. Q2 and Q4 are generally our smaller quarters, and today we are presenting Q2. We see a strong performance across all our markets, both in net sales growth and in profit. The numbers you see here for sales are excluding currency effects. So our largest market, Sweden, and second largest market, Norway, has a sales growth of 11.2% and 13.8%, and the like-for-like growth in Sweden of 10% and 8.6% in Norway.
Our third segment are the markets that consist of Finland, Germany, and online. These markets are still relatively new for Rusta, but it increases with 18.1% in sales and has a like-for-like growth of 7.7%. This is, of course, a very positive development and a sign that our efforts in these markets are going well. All segments are profitable, with an increased EBITDA margin, and I would like to extra highlight the 5.5 percentage points increase for other markets. Our profitability continues to increase, and looking at our adjusted EBITDA and breaking it down a bit for Q2, we can see some clear profit drivers during the quarter. It's a clear volume growth or volume increase, both in total and like-for-like sales, just as Göran has described.
We have continued to optimize our prices, but the price optimization has been done carefully and in a way not to jeopardize our price position. The share of volume increase is higher than the share of price optimization in the total sales increase. In the gross profit, we also see positive effects of lower shipping costs. This was a positive effect already in Q1, and it has continued during the Q2. We also see positive campaign effects, where we continue to drive traffic to our stores, but with a lower margin dilution effect compared to last year. So, our gross margin, we can see that in our gross margin, we are on our way back to a normalized gross margin, which for Rusta historically has been somewhere between 44%-45%.
The operating expenses, OpEx, are decreasing as a share of net sales, which is made possible by the scalability in our business model, where increased sales does not generate the same amount of increased costs. So to summarize the EBITDA development, we can see that despite inflation and the cost for 12 new stores compared to last year, we have managed to increase the adjusted EBITDA margin with 2.7 percentage points, which is a great achievement. Then some comments on our balance sheet and cash flow. We have continued to work actively with the working capital. Our inventory has decreased with 11%, which is a mixed effect of lower value and less pieces. Lower shipping costs is one of the drivers, but it's also lower purchase prices.
We see price improvements from Asia in particular, and this is further margin improvement to come and has not yet been realized in the margin. Thanks to the improved profit and positive change in working capital, we have a very limited use of our overdraft facility, and the net debt, excluding IFRS 16, is 91% lower compared to last year. All this gives us a positive effect and a positive development in the cash flow, and the cash flow from operating activities increases with 99% compared to last year. Just as we have some seasonal variations in our sales and profit, we also see it in the balance sheet and in the cash flow.
So the inventory buildup is generally somewhat larger in Q2, which, together with the fact that sales are lower in the Q2, means that we use the overdraft facility to a greater extent during Q2, and this goes for the Q4 as well. But as you can see, this year in Q2, we have a very positive development compared to last year. And then regarding our financial targets, we are committed and feel confident to deliver on our financial targets, both when it comes to net sales growth, to profitability, and to stick to our dividend policy. And with that, I hand back to Göran.
Yeah. Right. So just to summarize then, another quarter of profitable growth, double-digit sales growth, and also an accelerating like-for-like growth, primarily volume driven, which I believe is a really good sign for the future. Also a good increase in profitability. And now on the first half year, we are at adjusted EBITDA of SEK 468 million, which I think is a good solid number going forward. So I think this is. I think it's been a good quarter, and as Sofie said, I think we feel comfortable with reaching our goals. So with that, I think we're opening up for Q&A.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial star five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial star five again on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Gustav Hagéus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for taking my question. Congrats on a good start. I have a few questions, if I may. Starting on your comment on volume there, Göran. What I heard you say was that it was the single biggest driver to sales, but you didn't say it was the majority of sales, but you also said it was the main driver to like-for-like. So should we interpret this as this volume being, it's slightly less than a 14.4% total growth, but it's more than half of the 10.8% like-for-like growth? Is that a logical conclusion from those comments?
I can say, if we go back to the during Q1, we said that we had a balanced effect between volume and other drivers for growth. The difference now during Q2 is that in total growth, volume is the main driver. It's a significant change. It's more than half on the total growth.
Is there a mixed component that is relevant as well, or are the main drivers to like-for-like volume?
There is also some mixed components, and that has to do with the, I would say, a slightly more confident consumer that has started to buy higher ticket value items. So we also see that, or we should say average ticket value has increased.
Thanks. And on the gross margin then, is there a sense of, So, gross margins are up obviously from price, but also lower procurement costs and freight costs, if I interpret you correctly. But I also interpret it as you, there is some more to go, as the full effect of lower sort of market prices on those aspects has not fully been reflected in this quarter's sales, but to some extent, it's reflected in your inventory then. If you did not have that latency, if the gross margin actually reflected current conditions, could you get a sense of how big that uplift would have been in that theoretical scenario?
I think that what we can comment on is, as we described, we can see in the inventory value that the value is lower, and that is a mixed effect of lower shipping costs and price improvements. And of course, this is still in the balance sheet and has not come to the profit and loss yet, so that is a further improvement to come. We see it in orders, we see it in the delivered goods. What's important to say is that these drivers are not, i mean, we are not dependent on further price optimization. It's other areas that are improving our gross profit or gross margin.
Because the gross margin was 43.6%. I think you, in the IPO, you referenced 44%-45% as a target or a level that you would feel comfortable with long term. Would you say that that sort of level where you're trending at the moment, given current market conditions, but it will take some time, or are you above that, or sort of where are you?
Yeah, I would say we're not there yet, but we are on our way to the 44%-45%.
And I would also like to add to that, also be aware that that can differ a little bit during different quarters. So it's a little bit dangerous to talk about one quarter and then compare that to the full year gross margin. So I think it's... you need a little bit of a longer time span to relate to the 44-45. But as we said, we're comfortable with reaching the targets. Gross margin is a very important component in, you know, in reaching those targets, and we do see a positive trend here. Yeah.
It's a positive momentum in the first half year.
Yeah.
Yeah. If two quick follow-ups. Firstly, the membership growth, 16%, 700,000 new members, quite impressive. But it does follow sort of a general trend where loyalty programs have come more into vogue, I guess, on a broad scale. Do you have any sense or view internally how big of a share these 700,000 new members are actually new or rather new customers? And to what extent is it sort of converting existing customer base into that loyalty program?
That's, of course, not possible to answer because we, you know, we, they're not into the system until they have applied, so we can't compare that. But I think it's a bit of both. And I think it's both on the back of people getting more loyal. Maybe you have dipped your toes as a customer to Rusta. Maybe you come once or twice a year, but over this period that you've seen that, no, you know, this is this is a place for me to go, but also combined with newcomers, for example, when we open up a new store in a new area. So I think that this is a mix.
The overall trend is quite clear that the loyalty program really continues to attract significant numbers. We also know that on average, a loyalty program member is much more profitable and tends to come much more often and also tends to buy more each time. Recruiting them into the loyalty program, I think bodes well for the future.
Okay, and final for me, I note, so that in the other markets, you swing from -24 to +3, EBITA, excluding IFRS. Is this? Are you now sort of firmly in the black there, or is this a strong season for other markets? And if you could give some granularity on sort of what's driving it, is it less costs returning to the turnaround in Finland, online, price makes, like for like, that'd be helpful. Thanks.
So maybe if I start a little bit here. You can say that, I mean, we have chosen to report now in three segments, and one of those are combined with online, Germany and Finland. Because they're not mature markets, it's still very much developing. One of the things that you can say regarding that segment is that, you know, a good result in that segment is not possible without a good result in Finland. And I think that's safe to say, since Finland is quite dominant in that segment. Also, again, this is one of the quarters. It's not one of our bigger, you know, more important quarters.
So I think to conclude on where that segment is heading, I think we need to have a little bit of a longer time span. But again, I think in broader terms, in general direction, I think we like what we see during Q2, and I think we again see that as one of the important parts, primarily long term, to reach our financial goals.
Yeah, I could just add, regarding the, if there's a difference between the segments. The sentiment and the sales pattern that we see are very similar in all segments.
Okay, thanks. So Sofie, Göran, thank you so much for taking my questions.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you. A couple of questions from my end as well here. Firstly, can you say anything about current trading? You mentioned here in the written results, you talk about a very strong end to Q2 and a strong start of Christmas sales. And given that we are more than halfway through Q3 now, can you give any granularity? Are you seeing any similar momentum to what you've seen here in the strong Q2 or any flavor here would be appreciated? Thanks.
Well, well, we could, but we won't, Niklas. I'm sorry. But I think what I can say is that you know, Christmas is one of our most important seasons, and the start of that, the early start of Christmas season, is towards the end of Q2, towards the end of October. That's when we're rolling out all of the Christmas items and so on, but also in other areas in the store. I mean, it's everything from home furnishing and so on. All areas within the store are affected by Christmas sales.
Historically, we can say that the strong start of any season, whether it's summer or Christmas, is usually a very good signal for how the rest of the season will continue. A strong start takes down the risk that you will have things to, you know, that you have to sell out with really deep campaigns towards the end of the season. It means that you usually get better mix in the basket, that you get more sold more at the prices that you actually intended from the beginning. I think what we can see in Q2 is a positive signal for the season as a whole.
That's very clear. Thank you. And also, turning to other here, and then we talked about this here before, but, can you give any indication here on the difference between Germany and Finland? Is there a material difference in, sales per store and profitability between those two markets?
Well, what we can say is that we should say, I mean, in Finland, we have come further in Finland. That much we can say. It's of course, you know, we have a higher penetration of the market. We have more stores. There's a bigger momentum, so we're a little bit ahead of the curve there. Both because of the way that it was started, where we acquired a chain over there with experience and so on. So we got really a running start, and that, of course, has continued that momentum. Whereas in Germany, we're smaller, first of all, compared to the other markets, because we only have 10 stores there, but it's also compared to a much larger market.
So I think they have, you know, maybe, what you should say? There are different parameters, but we like what we see. That much I can say, that they have different timelines, they have different challenges. We are attacking that in, I would say, the adapted way for the market conditions in those markets. But we like what we see. We think that Germany is progressing, as per what we have expected, and also Finland as well, so.
Very good. Thank you. And on a similar topic there, when you talk about expansion, the contract that you've signed seem to be very much skewed towards Sweden and Norway, and less so in Finland and Germany. Is that a deliberate move here? Are you pacing yourself a little bit in those two markets and waiting for momentum to pick up on a like for like basis, or can you just talk a little bit about the strategy there?
Yeah. So, okay, so first of all, like, the bigger strategy is that that's always been to go, you know, a little bit slower, a little bit more carefully in Germany. We knew that was, you know, it's a big challenge. It's something that you really have to have respect for. So, already at the outset of that project, we said that, "You know, we're gonna go slow, we're gonna adapt, and so on." And that's what we're continuing to do.
So, I don't see any massive number of stores being opened there, but more, you know, very systematically, step-by-step, implementing new learnings into the new stores in terms of locations, neighbors, flow, pricing, marketing, all of those things, so that we continue to learn in that, in that. We will see, I would say, a majority of store openings outside of Sweden, so that means that I think, I think Norway and Finland will continue to be drivers in, in, in potential. But having said that, there's still potential in Sweden. What happens, though, is that it, you know, it's always easier to find the right locations if it's, like, the first 10 or 20.
But, you know, when you already have, like in Sweden, 110 stores, to find another 20 or 30, you can find locations where you would like to be. But for those, you know, stores to open up or those locations to open up, that happens when it happens. So I think it's more, you know, a statistical thing, so to say, that they happen when they happen, and it's less likely that you will find a big cluster of new stores at the same time in Sweden. Sweden will continue to feed into the pool of new stores, but at a slightly lower pace, and which is, I think, entirely natural. Most of the growth, when it comes to new stores, will take place outside of Sweden going forward.
However, we will continue to be careful in Germany.
Very clear. Thank you so much. And just a final question. If you can talk a little bit about the path towards your 8% margin target. I mean, you've taken a massive step now, both in Q1 and then even more so here in Q2. But what do you see driving the margin further from here? What would be the main driver? It would be price input, cost gap closing further or rather efficiency and economies of scale. How do you see that mix in terms of getting to this target?
Yes. I think we'll both have our take on this from different directions. But I can say overall, I mean, we've been through a strange times now with heavy inflation and so on, which has impacted, I think, the whole retail industry and, of course, much larger parts of society than that. And I think for many, it's been possible to, you know, raise prices, and customers have still come. I don't think that's a good idea in the long run, especially not for a low price chain, so that's not something that we're relying on. That's also why I'm so happy about that.
We're back to, I would say, old-fashioned retail handicraft, which is really about campaigning in an efficient way, making sure that customers are visiting your stores, but not giving away too much margin. It's about having a significant like-for-like growth, and it's having that built up by more customers and more volume of items, which in turn gives economies of scale, sets the scene for better negotiation power with the suppliers, and so on. So I think the latter part of that is really at the core of our strategy going forward. What things will look like after Christmas, I think is very open. I mean, we usually talk about January, at least in this part of the world, being the poorest month of the year.
I think what's different this year is that it's probably the poorest month of the decade, if not longer. So, I think it's very much an open, you know, open case here of where pricing and so on will continue. We do see that inflation is continuing up. That means re-prices are continuing up. But how the market pressure will pan out, we don't know. So therefore, we rely more on, I would say, old-fashioned retailing, really being, you know, active with campaigns, with marketing, with mix, and with purchasing and efficiency. That's where. That's what we rely on.
Yeah, I think you covered it all, but,
Sorry.
Of course, there's also always a short-term perspective and a long-term perspective. What Göran mentioned is it goes for both, but we can, what we can see in the short term is, I mean, it's the shipping cost that I mentioned, it's the, the price reduction from Asia in particular. Of course, there's a negative effect in cost due to inflation, but that has been taken into account in our business planning. So, and then you have the Forex, which is to be seen what happens. So, what we can foresee in the close future is increased margin based on these things.
Super. That's, that's very clear. Thank you so much for taking my question.
The next question comes from Simen Aas from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys, and congratulations on a very strong quarter.
Thank you.
So I'll just follow up on the pricing side. So could you just elaborate or, or tell us a bit about how the market is moving? Do they still raise prices? And do you believe that you still have the lower prices compared to your competitors? You previously talked about somewhere between 20%-25%. But do you think you still have this edge, or have you closed that gap in some ways? That's my first question.
Right. So, I think, first of all, if you look in the rearview mirror and looking at what's happened on the market, I do believe that there has been continued to be price increases on the market. I think that's quite clear. I also think that the inflation numbers that have come out, even though they are on a lower level compared to the peak, they're still at a very high level. And that, of course, indicates, and I think is evidence, that prices are going up. So, I think over the year, we, like many others, have had to adjust our pricing to our customer to some extent. We've been very careful about that, but we have done it.
So we, of course, taken probably some of that space, but also, at the same time, it has been, you know, refilled because of the continued price increases. Exactly where we are right now in that a comparative way, we don't have a new study on that, and I think that has to be done on a full year. But of course, internally, this is really something that we work systematically with, and we've done for quite some time. Where we see there is that on the things that customers are comparing, which are important, which are high volume and so on, we maintain a significant distance, and that's really important. That's really at the core of our customer promise.
So that's, I would say, it's still there. Where we'll go tomorrow, that's going back to the question that Niklas asked, that's a little bit unclear. We're not counting on that being, I would say, a big source for margining strengthening, but that's more back to, I would say, old-fashioned, real hard retail work.
Okay. That's very clear. And then to touch a bit on Germany again. So in the report, you said that this is an increasingly important market, and it was a part where investors were a bit skeptical about how you should reach and when you should reach profitability here. Can you just update us on how many stores in this market is profitable now? And do you have any timeline on when do you expect to be break even here?
So, we have a total of 10 stores. The last one was, you know, just recently opened. In terms of like-for-like, the first six like-for-like stores are profitable. That means that they're contributing to our profitability, net profitability, overall. And nothing has changed because we haven't got any more like-for-like stores into the mix. That will then probably change next year. And as I said, I think this is. It has been a long-term plan. We have, I think, estimated before that we think that a total timeline for that is around 10 years, and we've been there since 2017.
So I think, you know, if you do the math, that's somewhere where we believe that it's possible for us to have a break even on a country level, right? So also and also on top of that, we can say that to do that, we need a critical mass in terms of number of stores. And 10 stores is, I would say, a tad too few stores to also reach that. So we need to add on a couple of more stores.
Yeah, if you-
Okay, and then one-
I can, I can just add that if you compare to Norway, we became profitable the fourth financial year, but we then had 16 stores. I mean, Germany is obviously a larger market, and that's why we say it will take a bit longer and probably a few more stores than in Norway before break even.
Yeah. Okay, and then one final for me. So Europris has recently won the case and its option to acquire ÖoB. It's not decided whether they will exercise that option, but, given that, they have been very weak in the Swedish market over the past couple of years, do you believe this will change the competitive landscape in Sweden, given that Europris has, have been so successful in Norway, if they were to implement, you know, their strategy in the, the concept in Sweden?
Well, first of all, not immediately. I think that whatever, I mean, it depends, first of all, or it depends on what they intend to do with ÖoB, which I think is, you know, unclear at this point. At least I don't have any information about it. But I would say that we haven't had any problem meeting ÖoB in Sweden, and I think we've also enjoyed significant growth and also had a fantastic development in Norway, meeting Europris there on that local market. So, I don't see any immediate, you know, shifts in strategy and so on for us. That we'll have to wait and watch and see what's going to happen.
But otherwise, I would say, again, if I zoom out a little bit and I look a little bit around us in, especially in the Nordics, I think we have a different idea on how we are crossing borders and how we're expanding our retail business compared to our peers. We believe very much in having a single concept, one brand, one range, really efficient, and to export that same Rusta concept across borders. And from what I've seen from other retailers, it's different channels, it's different brands, it's different concepts, and it's different management and so on. So I think there are two very different strategies meeting here. Having said that, I think we're right now in the Nordics, in a place where the whole low price sector is actually growing.
So it's entirely possible for many concepts to be successful at where we are right now. We're only, you know, 3%-4% market share of low price in the Nordic sector, as compared to, you know, 9% in Germany and in the U.S. So I think we're still in the beginning of a long runway. I think there's still, you know, place. I think it's entirely possible for many retail chains in the low price sector to continue to grow. It's not a zero-sum game, but we have different strategies. So I think in the long run, we might see some differences of what is successful or not.
Okay. Thank you for that, Göran and Sophia. That's very clear, and I wish you a merry Christmas when that time comes, and speak to you soon.
Thank you. Same to you.
Thank you. You, too.
The next question comes from Arttu Heikura from Inderes. Please go ahead.
Hello, it's Arttu Heikura from Inderes. Thank you for your presentation, and congrats on a great result.
Sure.
There is still some uncertainty among the Nordic consumers. So how did you-- how do you see the current state of a typical Rusta customer?
Well, yeah, I think we have a slightly different, you know, perception, you know, knowing that we live in a, you know, in one of the so to say ends of the retail spectrum, that seems to fare comparatively well in this market. So, we do see that we have a consumer that is more attracted, for example, to, you know, campaigns and sellouts and low prices, compared to before. We also see that the mix in the consumer basket is, you know, more tuned towards the lower end of the price spectrum, and so on. That's still that has been true, I think for quite some time now. However, I see a growing self-confidence among our customers.
We have a, you know, an average ticket value that has gone up. We see that we saw it already during the summer, and it has continued during the autumn. A consumer that kind of slowly climbs in the price ladder, they're buying slightly more expensive items at a higher margin. I think we have also been better in adjusting campaigns for the climate right now, knowing exactly what people are looking for and how to make that efficient.
So I think I would say a growing confidence from what we see in our numbers and also a continued inflow of customers because of a general interest and perhaps also an acceptance of low price destinations such as Rusta as a place to go also for people that have generally not been a target customer. Meaning that we have people, you know, far up in the middle class now entering the stores and starting to become frequent customers.
Yeah. Before you mentioned that, Asian purchase prices have declined somewhat, and then you mentioned also that, there is some price pressure on the end prices. So I'm just wondering if there is some decline in the Asian prices. So, have you been able to, you know, lower some Asian product prices for your end customers?
So, if I perceive your question correctly, I would say on the purchase market and on the sourcing market over in Asia, yes, prices have been coming down, and they have, you know, been coming down for quite some time. But there's also a delay in that because that doesn't show up on our gross margin until, you know, we bought it, it's entered our stores, and we've sold it. So therefore, there's usually a, you know, stretch from 6-12 months before you really start to see it in our bottom line. I think when it comes to pricing, I think what we are focusing on is the relative price position as compared to our competitors and the rest of the market.
It's not so that we, you know, we always have a set gross margin that we apply in our products. We always make sure that on important comparable items, which we know are important to many customers, that we have a price leadership on those. So, it's not automatic that we have, so to say, reduced prices on Asian-sourced items, even though we might have on some items, but then we have done it because of market conditions.
Yeah.
Okay, thank you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay, then finally, could you elaborate on the factors that you measure and ways how do you approach a selection of a new store location? Do you see that you do something differently compared to your peers or something like that?
I think, yeah, I think there's a couple of things that stands out perhaps in the way that we're attacking new store locations. One is that we try to be as similar as possible. We don't have many different store concepts, you know, like super big and small and so on. We try to stay as close as possible to the store size, about 2,000 square meters, that we have the same range offer, the same pricing in all of our stores, you know, depending on country, then, of course, but also that we don't have any franchisees and so on.
So I think it's kind of, you know, a very standardized format for how we operate our stores, and we try to be as same as possible because that is giving us the, you know, economy of scale. That's one thing. The second thing is that over time, we have learned a lot. Since we have that single concept, that has, as I say, enabled us to learn very much in which locations, which neighbors, you know, what kind of marketing, how the traffic is moving and so on. We have a quite elaborate financial model, which we utilize when we're evaluating stores. So, you know, we've never had to close any store in the history of Rusta because of that reason.
You know, in Sweden and Norway, which are our most mature markets, 100% of our comparable stores are profitable. Usually a new store turns to profitability in around one year. So I think it's proof that we have, I would say, quite an advanced and solid model for how to evaluate new stores. And that's also perhaps one of the reasons why, you know, the number of stores might not be that impressive, but the stores that we open, we open them with quality and with a high likelihood of profitability.
Okay. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thank you very much for listening. And once again, welcome to all new shareholders at Rusta. This, it's been a pleasure to present the results and also to take your questions. I also already now welcome you to the next quarterly report, which will take place the fourteenth of March next year, which we will present, of course, the very important Christmas sales. And until then, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Thank you very much from our side.
Thank you.