Good morning, and welcome to the presentation of Rusta's third quarter. My name is Göran Westerberg. I'm the CEO of Rusta, and I will, together with Sofie Malmunger, CFO of Rusta, present the results and the financial results of the latest quarter. As many of you know, we have a financial year that stretches from first of May until end of April, which means that our third quarter contains the very important Christmas quarter from November to January. The agenda for today will be a business update that I will take you through, and we'll fly over the results and the status of Rusta. Then we'll go deeper into the financial results, and Sofie will take that part. Then towards the end, I will come back, and we will have a summary, and we will open up for Q&A.
First, a business update, and just to set the scene a little bit, where we are today, we have today or at the end of the third quarter, 208 stores. We have, during the quarter, opened up three new stores, two in Norway and one in Germany, which then became the tenth store in the German market. Today, we have 110 stores in Sweden. We have 41 in Finland, 47 in Norway, and then, as I said, 10 in Germany. We still have, I think, prioritized locations of about 150 that we are constantly guarding and looking for. And as of today, we have 25 signed, approved locations that are already in the pipeline.
So, since last time, then we have opened three of them, and then we have added on, another couple of ones. So the total now in the pipeline is 25. Moving on to the quarter itself, so we've had what I would call an eventful quarter, of course. It's always like that with Christmas, but we've also had the IT incident. The numbers that I'm presenting now includes the effects of the Tietoevry IT attack. So what you see is basically the full results. And the strong sales growth was still 7%. We had a like-for-like growth of 2.5%.
And if we just stop there and we look at these numbers, we can say that this is really, as I say, a very quality-driven sales number. It was. The main driver, again, like last quarter, was volume. So this is not price-driven increases. It's really more items, which is so important for our business model since that creates scalability, and it creates a negotiation power from our side towards our many suppliers. On a total level, from Q1 to Q3, we had a growth of 10.6% and a like-for-like of +6.2%, which I would deem as very, very strong. Now, the really good part of this is the continuation of stronger margins.
We had a strengthened gross margin during the quarter, and the Adjusted EBITDA growth grew by 22.6% during the quarter, and the only adjustments was for IPO costs during this quarter. That takes us to a total of +41.8% improved EBITDA during the year so far. If w e can also comment on one of, one of the big drivers here for EBITDA improvement was purchase prices, but also logistic prices, but also a much better mix, and also that we had a successful Christmas season that meant less sell-outs. Some of the key events, of course, Christmas, that we already talked about. During the last quarter, we discussed the early start.
You can say towards the end of October in last quarter, you can kind of see the patterns, the trading patterns of Christmas, and that indicated that the reluctance or the slow start that we saw in the previous year was not there. People started to shop Christmas items, and usually, that's a very good sign. And we can say that that momentum continued. It went into November, and it continued through December. And that's good because, one, you get big, as I say, a good top line during the Christmas sales, but you also have a reduced need for sales towards the end of the Christmas season. So that, all in all, was very successful.
You can also say that last year, during the Christmas season, there was a lot of discussions regarding electricity costs, you know, very high bills for electricity, so people were not very interested in buying electrical items, and you have a lot of those in the Christmas assortment: light chains, Christmas stars, and so on. But this year, we didn't have that situation. Electricity was cheaper, and therefore, as I say, the reluctance to buy a more profitable basket of items at Rusta was more successful. Also, having said that, Christmas sales is not only about Christmas items, it's also about adjacent business areas such as home furnishing and consumables and so on, and all of those areas went well, so we got a good mix in the basket.
Regarding the IT incident, we woke up in the morning of the twentieth of January to basically blank screens. Our homepage was down. We couldn't sell online. Luckily, we could open up our stores, but we also had difficulties replenishing our stores and also receiving containers at our DC. So we had major disruption in our system. That has had certain effects that we have communicated. All in all, once reviewed, now we've seen that those are slightly less as compared to what we previously communicated. But I think the important thing right now is that the effects of the incident is now over. All our systems are up and running.
We don't see any structural effects of that, and we don't see any financial effects beyond quarter four, as a consequence of the IT incident. On a more positive note, you can say that we have continued to see the same pattern as we have in previous quarters, that our relative price position is really paying off, but also the environment, the whole sentiment on the market, where many consumers are looking for ways to save money. They're looking for low-price concepts, and it seems that Rusta is really one of the winners in this. We now have more than 5.5 million fully registered Club Rusta member, our loyalty program.
That's an increase during the quarter of 200,000 new members, and mind you, the IT incident made it impossible for us to recruit during the second half of January. And all in all, over the last 12 months, we've had an increase of 700,000 new members, which is an increase of 15%. This is much stronger than last year, and I think it's testament to the fact that we are really recruiting customers now, and I think that also lays the ground for more efficient marketing, but also a good top-line development in the coming year and years. Another thing that I would like to point out is, you know, of course, that we managed to strengthen our margins. We didn't do so by raising prices.
I know that that could have been a worry for some of you. We're not losing our price position. We're really protecting that. We do see that we still have headroom. Instead, this was a mix effect, and it was purchase price and logistic costs that contributed to the strengthening of our margins. And one of the areas where we really wanted to take a big step forward was other markets. That's our newest markets, our most immature markets, but also our fastest-growing markets. Here, we have taken a significant step towards profitability, and I think this is really important, both now but also for the future, as a milestone towards our financial goals. So, I'm really happy about that. All right.
Let's hand over to Sofie to take us through more of the financial details.
Yes, sure. So as Göran has showed you, Rusta has a strong third quarter with increased sales, improved profit, and improved margins. We have a total sales growth of 7% and a like-for-like growth of 2.5%, and this is an effect of a successful Christmas season, where sales started early. Volume, just as Göran said, is once again the single largest driver to the overall growth, where Rusta's low prices and efficient campaigning continues to drive increased customer traffic to the stores. We are meeting two years of strong third quarters, but we still manage to continue our increase, both in total and in like-for-like numbers. As for the like-for-like growth, we would like to emphasize that we have a conservative and 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 2.8 percentage point, which is then an increase with 14.2%. We also have an Adjusted EBITA of 14.4, which is then 1.5 percentage point stronger, and it's an increase of 22.6%. Adjustments are only made for IPO costs, nothing else. The IT incident has not been adjusted for. So a short summary of the third quarter is that Rusta continues to do very well and takes clear steps towards the financial targets with improved margins and profitability.
The financial effects by the IT incident in January amounts to around SEK 60 million loss in sales, with a negative EBITA effect of around SEK 25 million. This is slightly better than previously communicated. Looking to the right, you can see that our third quarter, excluding the IT incident, would have been 1.9 percentage point higher in sales. That means that we would have had net sales growth of 8.9 instead of 7. We would have had a like-for-like growth of 4.4 instead of 2.5, and our EBITA margin would have been 11.9 instead of 11.4. The negative effect during Q4 in sales and on EBITA is estimated to be on par with Q3. And in addition to that, we will have extra costs for system restoration and similar of approximately SEK 20 million.
We expect that the operational disruptions will not have any material financial impact beyond the fourth quarter for this financial year, just as Göran said. We are evaluating the incident and have an ongoing external audit of Tietoevry and of our own operations to ensure a higher level of security going forward. We have also initiated a discussion with Tietoevry regarding claims for damages. Looking at our markets, we see a strong performance and growth in all our markets with increased sales, improved gross margins, and increased profit. The numbers you see here for sales are excluding currency effects. Our largest market, Sweden, and second largest market, Norway, has a sales growth of 5.8% for Sweden and 10.3% for Norway. The profitability in these markets are, as you can see to the right, high.
It's 20.3 for Sweden, which is an increase of 2.3 percentage points. For Norway, it's 17.1, which is a decrease of 0.3 percentage points in EBITDA margin, but it's still a profit increase in Norwegian crowns. The decrease is mainly due to currency effects, and it's also due to one more store opening compared to last year, which drives more startup costs in Q3 this year. Our third segment, Other Markets, consists of Finland, Germany, and online. Here, we have a strong sales increase of 8.7%, and as you can see to the right, we have improved our EBITDA margin significantly with 3.2 percentage points, and this is an important step and sign that our efforts in these new markets are going well.
As you have seen, our profitability continues to increase, and looking at our Adjusted EBITDA and breaking it down a bit, for Q3, we can see some clear profit drivers during the quarter. We have higher sales, where volume and not increased customer prices are the main factor to the increase. Our gross margin increases with 2.8 percentage points, which is due to lower purchase prices from Asia, in particular. It's also due to more efficient campaigns, less sellouts, and lower shipping costs. We have slightly higher operating expenses, which is due to the inflation. The increase is lower than the increase in total sales, which is important, of course, and this is made possible thanks to the scalability in our business model, where increased sales does not generate increased costs in the same pace. We also have some negative impact of exchange rate differences.
So to summarize the EBITDA development, we can see that despite inflation and costs for 13 new stores compared to last year, we have managed to increase the Adjusted EBITDA margin with 1.5 percentage points, which is an increase of our EBITDA with 22.6%, and that's a great achievement. And 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 15%, which is a mixed effect of lower value and less pieces. Lower shipping cost is one of the drivers, but it's also lower purchase prices. This is following the same trend as previous quarters this year, and we have a good and well-balanced inventory.
Thanks to the improved profit and positive cash, positive change in working capital, we've had very limited use of our overdraft facility during the quarter. We have a positive cash balance of SEK 381 million at the end of this quarter, compared to a debt last year of SEK 242 million. This is an increase of SEK 623 million. So cash flow for the quarter is positive, or SEK 321 million, compared to negative with SEK 13 million last year, so a very strong cash flow for the quarter. So all in all, we have a solid balance sheet, we have a positive cash development, and a very stable financial position. And then some words on our financial targets. We are committed and feel confident to deliver on our financial targets.
Our accumulated numbers for this financial year shows that we have a total and like-for-like sales growth well above the 8% and the 3%, and we have an EBITDA margin moving towards the 8% in the medium term. Our intention is to stick to the dividend policy, where there will be a more exact recommendation in our next quarterly report. With that, I hand over to Göran.
Thank you very much. Right, so I'll try to summarize this and then open up for Q&A. First, I think it's good that we kind of take a step back and look a little bit at Rusta's development. This is one slide that basically shows the growth of Rusta since the inception back in 1986, and for a very, very long time, we have continued to grow. In spite of many different external challenges over the years, we have still managed to continue to grow. I think now that maybe the IT attack as such has become yet another example that shows the resilience of the business concept, but also the strength in the culture at Rusta. So we will continue on that path.
Looking at the strategy, as I said, there is nothing in what has happened in the quarter that has changed our outlook or changed our financial goals, and it hasn't changed the strategy that we are pursuing. Last year, we had heavy inflation that put us back a bit on gross margin, which we did to protect our low price position, but also to keep the wheel spinning, meaning that the volume growth had to be there. That's something that we have succeeded well with, and the challenge for this year has been to recover and get back to our normalized gross margins, which we are now well on our way to do.
What we want to return to now in the coming quarters and years is basically the normal way of working for Rusta, to continue to grow our business, grow the volume, let the economy of scale work to our advantage, and then to protect both our price position but also to drive growth. That means that maintaining a low price position is really important for us. We do it today, and we're gonna do it in the future. We're also gonna have a very wide, differentiated assortment, both to address new possibilities on the market but also to spread risks. We will continue to grow primarily with organic growth, and we will have a special focus on like-for-like growth.
It's also about further increasing the efficiency across the value chain, utilizing this growth and especially the volume growth, and of course, also continue to open up new stores in markets and, of course, more importantly so outside of Sweden over time. With that, I land on this page, which summarizes the results of the third quarter, and I would like to open up for questions.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you. A couple of questions from my end. Firstly, can you say something about current trading? You mention here that you have good momentum here at the start of Q4, but is there any way you can quantify this? And do you think that you have a good chance of delivering on like-for-like growth of at least 3% in the quarter, for instance, despite IT disruptions? That would be my first question.
All right. So, to begin with, I mean, we have two strong quarters during the year normally. That's usually the seasonal quarters. It's summer and Christmas. And then we have two kind of in the middle quarters. So quarter four is one of those little bit in the middle quarters. It's a less turnover, and it's also a little bit less important to our total results. Having said that, it's also maybe one of the most import... It's a difficult quarters to predict. The reason is that the momentum that we've had for January is very likely to carry over into February, but February is a very small month. April is really the big month in the last quarter, and that is very weather dependent.
So you can say that the momentum and the sentiment that we see, which is positive right now, says very little about April. I think most people living in this part of the world know how much weather affects your behavior. So a sunny, fairly warm April will, of course, have a very positive impact on summer sales, whereas if we would have you know, snow and the really cold weather, that will have likewise a very negative effect on it. So it's very hard to predict.
I can say that, if I look at all the things that we can see, when it comes to purchase prices, our price position, the momentum in the market, you know, some of the sentiment development that we see primarily in Sweden and so on, that's all good. But having said that, this is very much a quarter where the last couple of weeks matters a lot. So it's very hard to predict, Niklas. I would really like to be able to say something more clear, but, you know, February and March likely to carry over the momentum, but April is a new game. That's all about the summer, and it's all about the weather.
Realize this and very clear explanation. And kind of on the same topic, Q4, I note that in the last three years, or sorry, Q4, in the last three years, you've been loss-making. Do you think, and again, with the caveat that April could be both a positive and a negative, in a normal year, do you think that going forward, could you be aiming for profitability in Q4, or will Q4, do you think, always be around breakeven or below?
No, I think our overall target is that we should be profitable all the time, naturally. This Q4, I think, will be particularly challenging, not the least, because of the Tietoevry IT attack that would basically set us back. But we're getting closer and closer to a point where I think Q4 could actually start to contribute to our overall results. But again, you know, knowing that Q4 is so hard to predict, I wouldn't want to make any very optimistic, you know, indications about profitable already this year.
We can say that on the sales side, we're meeting a quite tough Q4-
Yeah
both from last year and compared to two, to two years ago. So, that's the thing we're doing well. We're meeting it the year after.
But we're used to that.
Yes, we are.
Very clear. And just generally, if you could elaborate a little bit on the mix between sales growth and profitability. As you mentioned here, now, you saw very good improvements in profitability here, and not least in other markets, in Finland and Germany, whereas like-for-like growth, for instance, in those two markets was negative. Can you tell us a little bit about your thoughts on the mix here going forward? What are going to be your priorities? Now, obviously, strong margin expansion here the last two quarters, but do you see that shifting back to growth anytime soon?
Maybe you want to start by just explaining what we actually see now.
Yeah, I can actually-
Yeah.
Yeah, what you see in the numbers for Other Markets like you said, the negative like-for-like growth, that is completely due to the IT incident. So if you take that out, it's a positive like-for-like growth for other market, and that is, of course, very important.
So it's both a positive like-for-like and still a very strong profit increase with the 3.32 percentage points for other markets.
Right. And then setting this in a more, as I say, bigger perspective, I would say that, again, remind you what it is that we're doing now. We had high inflation last year. We protected our low price position. We took that on our margin partly. We did raise prices also, which had an effect on volume. This year, the priority has really been about returning to volume growth but also normalizing the gross margin.
Now, coming to that point where we have a normalized gross margin, then, the whole plan will be that we should be the same old Rusta that we've always seen, meaning we continue to invest our efficiencies from purchasing in lower prices, driving volume, driving sales, and continuing.
But it's also been very important, especially in other markets, where we're coming from a long period of really investing. I mean, like, going into a new market, you have to be even more aggressive on pricing and so on. And what we start to see now is that the market can actually... Our price position allows for us to, so to say, not to lower prices more than what we've done, and thereby strengthening our margin. So it's basically our purchase price development that is contributing to this, and also with both head and tailwind on currency effect. So I would say what we want to go to is really the normal way of doing efficiencies, investing in price, driving volume, and creating that positive spiral. This year, it's been very important to get back to a normalized gross margin.
Yeah, a normalized gross margin for us stays somewhere between 44% and 45% and that's what we are moving back towards.
Very clear. Thank you. I'm going to leave open for others soon, but just a quick one. Net financials, SEK 55 million in Q3, all of that more or less related to leasing. Is that a good proxy, do you think, for coming quarters?
Yeah, I believe that it will be slightly higher, a bit more negative due to more stores, basically. I think maybe a proxy of 59 instead of now it was 55, as you said, but that's all due to leasing.
Okay, very clear. Thank you. I'll, I'll open up for others, and I might come back later. Thank you so much for taking my question.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Gustav Hagéus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. If I can start with the membership growth here, 200,000 new members and 700,000 last twelve months, could you give us an indication whether or not this is partly driven also from Germany and perhaps Finland, or is this still in your main markets that you have the main part of that growth?
Yeah. So, we have growth in all segments, and I can also say in all countries. From a percentage point of view, we have the strongest growth in the German market, which is something that has also been in line with our strategy, and of course, also something that we're very happy about. Besides being an indication of, say, new customers coming to us, it of course also creates possibilities for us to increase marketing and also reducing cost. It's basically cheaper to reach many of our customers when they're a part of our Loyalty Program.
Perfect. And regarding the gross margin expansion, your improved costs from procurement, could you give us an indication what type of headroom that potentially give you from lowering prices further, as we go forward?
Yeah, I think, for obvious competitive reasons, we don't want to name a number here. But I would say that we have a comfortable Headroom as we see it over here. It basically puts us in a very good situation as far as I see it. It means that we can now, we have plenty of space to react, whatever happens to the market. We have a good purchase price development. We have good logistic cost development. The volumes are growing.
We come strongly there, so we know we have an influx of how should I say gross margin positive momentum, which we could use, either investing in growth in certain markets or in certain segments, or we could potentially also use to strengthen our margins in certain areas further if we like.
I can just comment that on the purchase prices improvements that we've seen, that's mostly from Asia. That's what you see in the margin. But moving forward, it's mostly Asia, but as well, Europe is sort of coming towards that as well.
We don't see any positive effects in the margin from Europe yet, but that is very possible and probable to come during next financial year.
Okay. And in terms of bargaining power, would you say that your bargaining power within procurement has strengthened due to your volume growth this year? And is that something that you think can be material as you renegotiate prices going forward?
Yes, absolutely. That's the whole point of our idea. I mean, that's what we have seen over decades now, that really matters. It's the growth that matters. That creates economy of scale, not only within Rusta, but it helps to create economy of scale at our suppliers, and it also makes us very attractive as a buyer. And I think that the both the global market now, where many countries are so to say, questioning a global supply. You know, there is a shift in the behavior now where you source, but also many retailers not having volume growth and being very careful in buying things on the market. That puts us, I would say, in a very good position right now.
So, I think that will be helpful going forward and continue to keep this positive momentum rolling.
Perfect. Those were all my questions. Thanks.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Simen Aas from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and congratulations on a very, very strong quarter. I have a few questions. So the first, just to touch upon price again. So, you know, a key element in your gross margin recovery story was actually closing the gap versus your peers in terms of, you know, price gap. But to my understanding in how you're communicating now, is that is not. You know, you haven't been raising prices that much, so is the gap widening? Because the data that we look at in the market is actually that your competitors is still raising their prices. So, so could you just elaborate on that and give us more color on that?
Yeah. So, first of all, you could say that we were quite active with pricing over the last year. So you have a run rate effect, of course, carrying over into this year. But then also you can discuss prices in different ways. So, for example, having less of a need for campaigns, number of campaigns, but also depth of campaigns. When that is reducing, that is, of course, also a price effect, and that's part of what we have seen. So you can say that half of what you're seeing in the gross margin strengthening is because of that. It's because of mix, it's about less campaigns and sellouts after Christmas, but also some carryover effects from things that we have done in the past.
The other half is then the purchase prices and so on, that is feeding into this. So, I would say right now we are fairly stable on our actions on pricing out there. What we have planned for seems to do the job, basically. We are in a relatively strong position. We see that there is headroom, and we'll see now what happens. I mean, we're moving into a new season, where the summer sales, you know, where the pricing will be, we don't know. So but we're ready for whatever happens. That's basically the situation.
Yeah, that's very clear. And then just on the sort of impact of the purchasing prices. So that's... Is this the first quarter where you saw the positive impact from that? Is that correct, or it started already in the-
Yes.
That's correct. It's the first quarter. We've been guiding on that it will happen, and now it, it was the first quarter that we could see it in the gross margin.
Yeah. And then just on, on that topic, you know, the Red Sea event, you know, with the increased freight times, et cetera, and just... Could you just give us an overview of how that will impact you? And are you sort of, in terms of your spring/summer goods, they are secured, and you, you believe that you get them in time, or is it anything that we should be aware on, on, on that front?
Yeah, we, we're not worried about the summer seasons. Regarding the lead time, it has increased our lead times with about 8-10 days, and that's not a problem for Rusta at all. So, and from a cost perspective, this will increase the freight costs slightly towards the end of the fourth quarter. But still, the rates for freights are still, I would say, if you compare it to where it were during Corona, this is more of a sort of normalized level.
So, we don't see a big shift in this. So, the situation, both from a logistics point and from a cost perspective, is very much under control for Rusta.
Okay, okay. That's very clear. And then just one final one, in terms of could you just give us some color on the performance in Finland and Germany, just some, which performed best and which performed worst, which was most impacted by the IT issues and then. Yeah, some color on that would be very helpful. Or are you in black figures in both markets, or is it Finland that is contributing positive here?
Yeah. Now, like I've been before, I mean, we have this segment for a reason, and that's very much because it's immature markets, and we don't wanna comment on country-specific items. But it goes without saying that you can't have a successful other markets without a successful Finland, because Finland is so successful in this market. And also from a strategic point of view for us in the shorter term, has, of course, been to drive the development in on the Finnish market, and that's also I think you see the results of this in these numbers. When it comes to Germany, I would just say, you know, hold your horses.
It's positive development, definitely, but I stay on with the guidance that I've had in the past. It's a couple of years away before we could say that, you know, this is, t hen we have a fair chance of reaching a break even. That's not around the corner, but I think this has been an important step on that path towards the guidance that we have been out with before. The third part of other markets is online, of course, heavily impacted by the IT incident. I mean, we had sales down for about a month. Now, luckily, during this time of the year, that corresponds to less than 1% of the total sales of Rusta. So for Rusta as a whole, that wasn't too bad.
However, for the segment of the market, that was, of course, much more important, and that's why we also saw some effect of that in that segment. So I would say, you know, all parts perhaps except with the exception of online, with its, you know, particular situation that we had during this quarters, both markets are moving forward. But of course, Finland is ahead of Germany.
Okay, thank you. That was very clear, and that was all for me, so I'll jump back in the queue.
Thank you, Simen.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Then I thank you, all very much for listening, and see you on the next quarterly report, which will be the last for this fiscal year on June 13th. And then we will present the full year results. And until then, take care and see you next time. Bye.
Thank you. Bye-bye.