Welcome to the RevolutionRace Q4 Presentation. During the questions and answer session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Paul Fischbein, and CFO, Jesper Alm. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this conference call, where we will address the report for the full year and fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2023 and 2024. Our fiscal year starts the 1st of July and ends the 30th of June. My name is Paul Fischbein, and I am the CEO of Revolution Race. With me today's conference call, I have the company's CFO, Jesper Alm. For those of you who are not familiar with RevolutionRace, I will start by giving you a short introduction. RevolutionRace is an international outdoor brand offering a wide range of outdoor products, mainly clothing, but also shoes, bags, and also other products. Everything started with pants, and that category is still the biggest product category of the assortment.
We operate with a digital D2C business model, meaning that we skip the middleman and sell our products directly to our customers. We do this through our own website, Revolution Race, or through marketplaces such as Amazon. But also, when we sell through marketplaces, we focus on the D2C model. The company, RevolutionRace, was founded in 2013, but it was launched in 2014. So we recently celebrated our 10-year anniversary. We have been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since 2021. Our headquarters is located in Sweden, in Borås, and we have approximately 130 employees.
Of course, since we are focused on our D2C model, digital presence is central, and we strive to have an engaged customer community and also has high customer satisfaction, of course. And this has resulted in more than 600,000 product unique product reviews and more than 1.8 million followers and fans on our social media platforms. And with our digital D2C business model, we can secure our competitive offering and at the same time, maintain industry-leading margins. But also, the model makes it possible for us to act fast and, for example, react to changes in the industry, which is important when the market is uncertain. But it also makes it more easy for us to, for example, enter new markets fast and also at a low cost.
If we continue, we see that RevolutionRace is today an international brand, and this picture illustrates our international presence. We now have customers in around 40 countries and selling from 18 localized web shops. We are currently fulfilling orders at two main logistics hubs. We have partners in Germany and Sweden, and also a small location in the U.S.. We have all our employees working out of Sweden, and we design all our products in-house and work together with more than 25 suppliers for the production in Asia. Now, let's take a look at the performance and net sales development for the fourth quarter, and also for the full fiscal year that we are now reporting.
We can start by saying that we are pleased to report that we continue to deliver growth in all our regions, both for the full year and also during the fourth quarter. During the fourth quarter, our net sales amounted to SEK 407 million, compared to SEK 362 million a year ago, and this represents a sales growth of 13% in SEK. Looking at the full fiscal year, we can reflect on another strong year with high sales growth and profitability that ranks at the top of our industry. Total sales for the year amounted to SEK 1.84 billion, which is a growth of 18%. This performance is particularly significant given the challenging market conditions that we have seen throughout the full year.
As I mentioned, we are pleased to share that we continue to achieve growth across all regions, both throughout the year and also in the fourth quarter. In the Rest of the World region, sales grew by 18% in the fourth quarter. The DACH region experienced an increase of 13%, and in the Nordic region, we saw growth of 7% compared to the same quarter last year. This marks our fourth consecutive quarter of growth in the Nordics, and this is despite a challenging consumer market in that region. For the full fiscal year, we can report solid growth, primarily driven by our presence in markets outside the Nordics. This is fully aligned with our growth strategy to expand internationally.
The Rest of the World region experienced the highest growth at 24%, followed by the DACH region at 20% and the Nordic region at 8%. At the same time, we are proud also to deliver industry-leading profitability and believe we have significantly increased our market share in several markets. It's promising to see a strong sales growth, both during the quarter and the fiscal year in major markets where we have significant growth potential also. I think that United Kingdom, U.K., is a good example of this. Now, let's look closer on the other highlights during the fourth quarter. As I mentioned, we are reporting solid growth in a market that is still considered challenging, and that is proven also by many external data points that we have seen.
And I think, our performance also demonstrates the strength of our offering and our business model. And, may I also say that naturally, we are not unaffected by the dynamics in the market, but we still manage to maintain a good gross margin of 71.9% in the quarter. The EBIT for the quarter amounted to SEK 74 million , which corresponds to an EBIT margin of 18.3%. And as I mentioned, we are proud to be industry-leading, with both earnings and margins, having improved for the full year compared to last year. Inventory has increased as planned to enable higher sales volumes in the future, and our inventory position continues to be well-balanced. We have a strong financial position.
We report strong cash flow for the year, ending with a net cash position of SEK 282 million. On top of this, we also have undrawn facilities of SEK 600 million in place. During the year, we also initiated a share buyback program, and as a result of the company's continued growth that we report, our momentum, our financial position, and the strong cash flow, the board also today proposes a dividend of SEK 1.2 per share, in accordance with the company's dividend policy. Let's continue. The relationship with our customers and their active involvement in reviewing products are central to our strategy and an important part of our product development.
During the fourth quarter, our global community expanded to over 1.8 million social media followers, and we now have over 600,000 customer reviews with high ratings. And this builds trust in our brand and also our products, and it's a very important asset for the company. This feedback also provides us with valuable insights for the development and improvement of our product range. Most of our sales come from what we call the running assortment. That means products that have been sold for at least one previous season. But at the same time, we are expanding and also are enhancing our range with new products that can become part of the running assortment.
As part of our growth strategy, we are accelerating our product development and have expanded our product team. The assortment launched during the spring and also in the summer have been successful, both in terms of sales and customer feedback and ratings. As a matter of fact, product reviews for our new product reached high numbers in June, which, of course, is very promising. We see great potential in expanding our assortment with new categories to reach both new and existing customers. This autumn, we have an exciting lineup of new products. In the shell category, we will introduce three new series across different price points. We are also launching new outdoor garments designed for more active training.
Additionally, we are expanding our successful Alpine collection from last year with a variety of new colors and further developing our shoe category also with more products. Our goal is to become the world's most recommended outdoor brand, and then achieving this requires a strong commitment to long-term responsibility in product development and other key areas. We remain focused on our sustainability efforts and have applied for our climate goals to be validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative this quarter. We have also implemented a new product lifecycle management system, a so-called PLM, during the quarter, and this was actually a major project which will improve the traceability and data management for our products and facilitate future product development, amongst other things.
With that, I would like to hand over to the company's CFO, Jesper Alm, who will present and walk through the financial performance. So Jesper, please go ahead.
Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. So I'll talk you through the financial performance during the fourth quarter and the full year. Gross profit amounted to SEK 293 million for the quarter, which represents a growth of 9% compared to SEK 29 million a year ago. This equals a gross margin of 79% compared to 74.5% a year ago. And the difference in gross margin is partly explained by a positive one-off event of SEK 2.5 million in the fourth quarter of the previous year, equivalent to 0.7 percentage points. Gross profit for the financial year amounted to SEK 1.3 billion for the full year, representing a growth of 17% compared to SEK 1.1 billion a year ago.
That equals a gross margin of 71.3%, compared to 72.2% a year prior. Moving on to operational expenses, we see an increase in personnel expenses compared to the same quarter last year. The increase in the number of full-time equivalents is attributable, amongst other things, to the company's strategy to invest more in product development, as we have discussed previously during the year. Other external expenses increased to SEK 184 million, compared to SEK 174 million a year ago, which, as a share of net sales, of 45%, is at a slightly lower level than last year. The cost increase in absolute terms is explained by these costs primarily being variable in relation to sales.
EBIT for the quarter amounted to SEK 74 million, compared to SEK 68 million a year ago, and corresponding to an EBIT margin of 18.3%, compared to 18.9% a year ago, bearing in mind the positive one-off item last year. The resulting EBIT in absolute terms has increased by 9% . EBIT for the full year amounted to SEK 386 million, compared to SEK 310 million a year ago, uh, an increase of 24%, uh, and that corresponds to an EBIT margin of 20.9%. Balance sheet. The balance sheet remains stable, with limited changes only. Net working capital decreased to SEK 187 million, compared to SEK 218 million a year ago.
Inventory has increased as planned to enable higher sales volumes in the future and continues to be well-balanced. The inventory amounts to SEK 448 million, of which SEK 362 million was goods in warehouse, compared to SEK 403 million a year ago. Cash flow from operating activities came in at SEK 92 million in Q4. Our financial position is strong, and we had a cash position of close to SEK 300 million at quarter and year-end, or a net cash position of SEK 282 million when adjusting only for lease liabilities. We have an undrawn credit facility of SEK 600 million available, and that does not expire until 2028. We have renegotiated supplier contracts during the year, including improvements in payment terms.
This has had some effect on accounts payable and improved the cash flow during the year. So in conclusion, RevolutionRace has a strong financial position and continues to deliver solid growth and profitability. RevolutionRace aims to distribute 40%-60% of net profits for the year, in accordance with the dividend policy. As a result of the company's continued growth and strong cash flow, the board proposes a dividend of SEK 1.2 per share, compared to SEK 0.86 a year ago. This represents a dividend growth of 40%. In addition, we have during the year now ended, we purchased shares amounting to SEK 97 million , for a total of 1.9 million shares. I think that sums up my part, and I'll hand back over to you, Paul.
Thank you, Jesper. So our well-developed strategy and strong financial position give us a unique opportunity to continue our growth journey and increase market share, even in a challenging market environment. The market remains challenging and continues to decline, and as I mentioned, we see many data points confirming that, both reports from industry colleagues, but also from various industry reports and different kind of data reports. In a challenging environment, we believe that we are very well-positioned. Our growth and strong cash flow provide a foundation to boost our market investments in growth markets as we pursue continued international expansion. And simultaneously, we can intensify our efforts to develop new products, always keeping the customer in focus and aiming for high quality at competitive prices.
In the fourth quarter, we announced new long-term financial goals, and over the next three years, RevolutionRace aims to, for sustainable and profitable growth with an annual growth target of 20%, and at the same time, maintain an industry-leading annual adjusted EBIT margin of 20%. And with that said, we are, of course, not unaffected by the current challenging market. During July, we noted continued growth. However, the development of this quarter is due to seasonality, to a large extent impacted by sales in the latter part of August and September. It's now also time to sum up our first 10 years, and I want to finish up by showing this picture. As I mentioned, RevolutionRace is well-positioned for future growth, and looking back, we can see that we have delivered strong growth every year since the company was founded.
At the same time, we've also delivered profitability at levels which we are very, which are very strong in our industry. We celebrated our 10 years anniversary in March, and I think this slide, very much demonstrates the strong performance during the first 10 years of this company's history. We've been able to grow nicely and consistent, despite the fact that recent times have been uncertain and challenging. During the last years, we have, for example, seen a pandemic, a situation with high inflation, wars, supply chain disturbances, increased interest rates, and also weak consumer sentiment. But despite that, I hope you'll all agree that we have been consistent in our performance in this very turbulent market, and that gives us confidence looking ahead. And, that concludes our comments on the result.
Before we finish, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the whole team at RevolutionRace, our customers, our shareholders, our partners and other stakeholders. I look very much forward to continue to build on RevolutionRace success together with all of you. With that, we are now happy to take to answer questions. Operator, do we have any 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 Emanuel Jansson from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Paul and Jesper. I hope you can hear me. A couple of questions from my side here, and if we can start to touch upon the maybe the near-term outlook, you're stating that you're seeing growth here in July, even though it sounds like it's perhaps maybe at a slower rate that you showed in this quarter. But maybe could you give us maybe some more flavor of what you're seeing out there in especially in Europe, when it comes to inventory levels, also consumer sentiments, and also, of course, price pressure and et cetera?
Yeah. Hi, Emanuel. Yeah, as we note in the report, we have noted continuous growth in July. However, due to seasonality, we all know that the latter part of August, especially September, at least from a historical point of view, has much higher volume. So the performance in the current quarter will be very much impacted from the sales in the latter part of this quarter. Yeah, if we look at the market, I think we have seen now maybe up to 10-15 reports from industry colleagues, and it's I think...
Many of these colleagues are operating in many different markets, many international players, and we definitely see that basically across the line, we've seen declining sales, and we also see that many are commenting on the inventory levels. We may see some more positive comments on the inventory level that we have seen before in the market, but if we look at the numbers, sales are continuing to decline. If we look at also industry report, we can take in Sweden, for example, Svensk Handel Sporti ndex, we also see confirmation that the market continues to decline, and this is something that we have seen now 10 quarters in a row.
So, and also, we have access to different kind of data reports from, when it comes to traffic in our segment, and that also confirms that we've seen a decline in the recent months. However, what that means for going forward, that's hard, hard to say. But for the moment, we definitely see that it is a challenging market in many countries.
Yeah, I see. And do you think that the major part of the price, the heavy discounting and price campaign stems from inventory levels or a weaker consumer at the moment?
I think it's a combination. Historically, we've seen over the last two years high inventory levels, and of course, as a result, we've seen high activity when it comes to clearances. But at the same time now, we have seen that the consumer sentiment in our industry have weakened. So as a result, I think that many players have continued to discount more, maybe due to the lower demand, and more necessarily than the inventory situation, because I think that some players have gotten the inventory situation more under control. But I think I mentioned we are not totally unaffected of that.
As you can see, our gross margin has slightly decreased compared to last year, and I think the main explanation is also that, yeah, we have been in the market with higher discounts this year compared to last year.
Okay, perfect. I see. And, I don't know if it's possible, but is it possible somehow to maybe quantify or give you some flavor on how important new product assortment is, going forward. What, what's the current growth rate of the running assortment for the full year this year versus the new product launches that you have seen and what we also should expect going forward?
I think if you look at the last 12, maybe up to 24 months, I think the new product launches have been extremely successful. I used to use the shoe category, the footwear category, as one great example, where we're taking that category from basically zero to a business of around SEK 100 million in quite a short period of time. I think the Alpine collection was a very good launch, a little bit more than half a year ago, and we will strive to more than double that assortment the upcoming season, and have invested in expanding that assortment. That is one assortment that has also been successful. Another category that was successful during spring was our lightweight category.
We can take the Rambler pants as a good example of a successful launch. But however, bear in mind that 80%, roughly 80%-85% of our sales is generated from what we call the running assortment, so that accounts for the vast majority of our sales. But it is important that we continue to launch because we take it a bit slow. We are a bit careful when we launch new products, 'cause we want to balance the risk also with the upside. So, it will take some time to really, you know, for the new products to have big impact. But we have to start somewhere, and I think it's... Yeah, we've seen a promising start in many of the new categories.
Okay. Well enough, thank you. And just here, touching upon the product development going forward as well, you're stating that you're accelerating the product development and also have staffing up the last quarter here. Are you more or less done when it comes to staffing, or should we expect continued to increase there? And also, what should we expect also going forward when it comes to marketing spend, given that you're also accelerating the product development?
Yeah, when it comes to number of FTEs, we, as you have seen, we have increased the number, and we are right now in a good situation. We don't expect that to increase much more from where we are now. And when it comes to marketing investments and the launch in new markets, we always try to find a balance between growth and increasing market shares in new markets and the profitability. And we try to find sort of a balanced answer, but we strive to grow annually 20%, but at the same time, also maintain an EBIT margin of 20%.
So that sort of, I don't want to use the word limit, but it sort of limits how much we can or how much we are willing to invest in marketing activity. So we are trying out different kind of marketing activities. For example, we have been very focused in the past on performance marketing, and that is, of course, something that we will continue to be very focused on going forward. In more mature markets, such as Sweden and Finland, we have also now tried at the same time also to invest a little bit more in traditional TV, for example.
The vast majority of our marketing investments will come from performance marketing, and if you look at marketing in relation to net sales, we're of course over-investing also in more growth markets compared to mature markets.
Okay, perfect. And just touching quickly upon the growth markets here, I think you mentioned in the presentation U.K. as a region that stands out, and perhaps can maybe give us some more flavors on other markets, such as the U.S., for example, on the development there.
Yeah, U.K. stands out in this quarter and have done so for some quarters, as the market that is growing fastest in absolute numbers and also percentage in the rest of world region. Netherlands is a good market for us. U.K. was actually a market where we saw very good performance a couple of years ago before Brexit. And so we know that the demand is there, and I think that U.K. is a market that sort of suits our offering very well. So I would say UK, Netherlands, and Poland is maybe the three markets that sort of stands out in the rest of the world region for the moment.
Okay, perfect. Thank you. The last question, just going forward here, your target is to grow 20% per annum. Do you think that the market needs to improve a lot in order for you guys to be able to grow at this rate?
I mean, that target is what was set with a sort of assumption that the market is somewhat stable. We've seen reports that the market is declining between 5% and 10%, depending on, or maybe 3%-10%. So of course, one assumption is that over time, the market will sort of be more stable and maybe, you know, grow with a couple of percentage points at least. So if the market continues to decline, which I don't expect. But if it continues to decline with a couple of percentage points over time, we will not be unaffected, but we expect it to come back to normal at some point.
Yeah. Okay, perfect. Thank you, Paul and Jesper. That was all of my questions for now. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Benjamin Wahlstedt from ABGSC. Please go ahead.
Hello, Jesper and Paul. So, following on your, your comment on contingent growth in July, could you give us an indication on the relative size of the three months, in terms of sales in, in Q1, please?
Yeah, well, just to give you an indication of what we have seen, you know, like last year when the years before that, you can estimate roughly that September is sort of double the size or something compared to July. So, I mean, the current quarter will be highly impacted on the performance in the latter part of this quarter. That is why we want to be, you know, careful of some saying something on the what we believe on this trading, because we simply don't know.
Yep. Perfect. Thank you. And then, perhaps following on, on that as well, this is more relevant to the Nordics, I believe, but both July and August of last year was very, very wet, which perhaps implies more, sort of rain jacket sales for you. Should that, or, or should we, should we take away, a tough August comp, perhaps, from that observation, or, or how should we think about that?
It's hard to comment. What we do know is that we had a very good quarter, Q1 last year. It was high growth. So, but as you mentioned, it was a wet period in July and, I think the two, three first weeks of August. And actually became pretty good weather, if I remember correctly, in end of August and also in September. So, of course, a wet month is sort of helpful, if you look at what we actually try to sell. I think that's not a big secret.
Perfect. Those were all my questions for now. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Niklas Ekman from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and sorry to be sticking to this comment about current trading, but given that you're almost halfway through Q1, is there anything that you've seen here in the first half of Q1 that gives you reason to believe you cannot deliver at least 10% sales growth? That's my first question.
I think it's difficult for us to comment more than that we sort of explicitly write in the report. So, we like to sort of comment on what we really do know. We know that we had continued growth in July, but on top of that, we have no comments on the current trading.
Okay, fair enough. Rest of world here, I mean, you sound excited about the U.K., and you continue to see good development in Netherlands and Poland, but sales growth there used to be over 40% and it slowed to 18%. What would you say is the main reason for that slowdown, given that that should be a region where you still have much lower maturity than in Germany or the Nordics?
I think it's a combination of that, as I mentioned, the market is more challenging. We see many markets with declining sales, and also that we definitely want to, and that is an important part of our growth strategy. We want to, and we see big potential, as you mentioned, in the rest of world region. But we also need to balance that with our profitability and don't want to go into sort of a discount race too much. So I think it's a combination that we want to keep growing in that region because it's really from a strategic point of view and long-term growth perspective, important. But we always try to find the good balance between growth, how much we invest, and profitability.
But does that mean that you have deliberately focused a little bit more on DACH and the Nordics in this current market, and that you're holding back a little bit on rest of world at the moment?
Not necessarily, but of course, the profit or the EBIT target that we have and what we want to deliver is somewhat. I mean, I think it's fair to say that it's indirectly somewhat limits the marketing investments. But I think, I mean, we're here to generate shareholder value, and I think it's always comes down to sort of find the right balance between how much we can short-term invest and how much we want to grow.
Okay, fair, fair enough. Another question, if I calculate correctly here, your payout ratio was raised from around 40% - 45%. Why not more, given that you have a very strong cash flow, you have almost SEK 300 million in net cash? Is there anything particular? And, and, and saying this, appreciating very much that you do have a strong net cash position, but, but still, are you saving for anything in particular? Are you, and what's your view on M&A, for instance?
Yeah, I can start by commenting, and then maybe ask also Jesper to address this. Now, I mean, we have an asset-light business. We are investing in inventory. If you exclude all the investments we take over the P&L. We are investing in inventory, and I think it's more financial maybe oriented question, so I'll ask Jesper to address that.
So one should bear in mind that we have an ongoing share repurchasing program. To date, this year over the Q3 and Q2, we have bought back shares for a value of SEK 97 million. We have the 10% mandate given by the AGM and communicated by the Board up to SEK 200 million, up to the upcoming AGM, so theoretically, another close to SEK 100 million up until November. So we seek a balance between dividend growth over time. We balance the financial position with also using buybacks. And it is a challenging market, so it's always good to keep reserves for whatever may happen in opportunities going forward.
So it's a balance between all of the above, bearing in mind using the repurchasing program as calibrating the balance sheet, basically.
Yeah, may I also add that we feel that the strong financial position with no debts is also an important component in a challenging market. And just to sort of also add, answer one of your questions. No, we don't have an M&A agenda for the moment, and yeah, so we don't plan to act on any opportunity, but who knows in the future? But it's not something that we are saving for, if that is the question.
Very clear. And yes, as I said, I do appreciate your strong financial position. I think that's important to have, particularly in this market. Can I also just-
I agree.
Yeah, good. Good. On this buyback mandate, can I, can I just ask, is the idea that this is kind of a one-off buyback program that will end now in November and not continue, or do you aim to have a running buyback program? Is that the way we should see your buyback ambitions?
Yeah, I think, I mean, it will come down to the AGM, of course, to decide whether we will prolong the mandate that we have. But my you know, personal reflection, if I look out, I think that if you have a long-term view on buyback and also dividend growth, those companies tend to be highly appreciated over time. So, I'm not saying what exactly we will do, but it's at least my reflection may give you some sort of indication on what my personal thoughts on the topic.
Sounds great, and, I agree on that topic as well. Thanks. Those were all my questions.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Tommi Saarinen from Inderes. Please go ahead.
Hello, guys, and thank you for taking my question. My first question is about the rest of the world market area. You launched Canada, South Korea, and Japan a year ago. What are the lessons learned in these markets, and do you think you need to modify your internationalization playbook somehow on different continents?
Yeah, well, first of all, those countries are still very small for us. We have used our sort of dip the toe strategy, and that is what we have done with those markets. Yeah, we see that, clearly see that there are differences, especially among continents, but also between different countries in Europe also, for example. We see that the season we are in right now, the northern part of Europe and the southern part of Europe, they differ a lot when it comes to seasonality. So that's one difference that we are sort of being better on to address.
Of course, I mean, logistically, and from administration point of view, there are many differences when it comes to the different kind of markets that we have entered at. But yeah, that's something that we need to address, as we go on.
All right, and then regarding the inventory investments, let's say you hit the 20% revenue growth target during the next three years, at which point you would need to open new warehouses, and where do you think those warehouses would locate?
I think we have a pretty good position for the moment to have one warehouse covering the Nordics and one warehouse based in Germany covering mainland Europe. Then we have a small location also in the U.S. that can facilitate U.S. and or North America. In the future, I don't think that we necessarily need to grow that footprint for the moment. I think it more comes down to maybe growing the inventory level, maybe in the U.S. warehouse, if sales takes off. But in terms of footprint, we don't see in the near future that we need to expand the number of warehouses that we have for the moment.
All right. As a Finnish equity analyst, I feel I need to ask, there was quite a difference between the development of your revenue in Finland and Sweden. Do you think this reflects the development of the end markets, or have you targeted some specific actions to your home market to increase sales?
Yeah, so we have—I mean, Sweden, especially Finland, are the most mature markets that we have. I think it was a couple of months, eight, nine months ago, we actually started to sort of address our marketing strategy in the more mature markets. So for example, in Sweden, we started with TV advertising. That is something that we felt was quite successful. So that is something that we have now recently also launched in Finland. From August now, for example, we've started with more traditional marketing investments in order to sort of continue to build the brand in Finland. So that's something that we yeah want to sort of copy from Sweden.
In terms of market share, Finland is actually the market in our whole portfolio, where we have the highest market share. So I guess Finland is the market where we are mostly exposed to the development of the market in general. So yeah, that's also a comment on that topic.
Right. That's all from me. Thank you, guys.
There are no more questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Okay. Thank you, operator. And before we wrap up, let's see if there are any questions online also. Maybe I can ask Jesper to read the questions, and then I will try to answer them.
Yes, we do. We have received a number of questions, and some of them relate to the same topic, so I'll try to gather them. One of the questions is commenting on the volume growth that it has been the lowest in this quarter for several quarters, and if we can comment on that?
Yeah, one comment is, of course, the comments that I've made already, that the market seems to be continued to be challenging. We've seen many reports from industry colleagues, but also industry reports saying that the market continues to decline. So I guess that is one comment on that that question.
Another question is on the development of the average order value, that it has increased and quarter-on-quarter a year ago, the increase is 12%. What is driving this increase in average order value?
Yeah, it's the composition of what we've been able to sell. Yeah, we always try to sort of encourage people to, if they buy a product, maybe they should buy two products, and yeah.
A comment on the traffic volume for the quarter, and what initiatives are being taken to continue increasing the traffic volume.
The traffic is, of course, generated very much from how much we invest in marketing. It doesn't necessarily mean that we invest in increasing the traffic, because I think it's more important to invest in two things. One is continue to build a brand, and another one is to convert the customers or the visitors and the traffic to concrete orders. But that doesn't necessarily mean that we invest in increasing the traffic per se. I think it's more important to focus on the quality of the traffic. And sometimes, as I mentioned, in Sweden and Finland, for example, we started with TV advertising. That doesn't mean it converts to traffic. On top of that, we are, of course... There's no, like, silver bullet.
It comes down to many details and the performance of the ads and the offerings that we have, and we follow on a daily basis the performance on our content and, yeah, how they perform in terms of conversion.
A question on how big share of the Alpine collection that has been produced for this season already now, and that is basically on route in containers on its way to Sweden-
Yeah, it's all-
or Germany.
Yes. So, most of that collection is already on sea, on its way to our warehouses. We had a successful launch last year of the Alpine collection. We are striving to at least double the volumes of the Alpine collection. We added many new colors and also further developed some of the existing products. So I think the first season was very promising, and we hope to, yeah, more than double the volume in the upcoming season.
And a final question on, we mentioned, that we're launching, three new products in the shell category, with different price levels, and if this is a shift in strategy, launching products in different price segments, if it's a shift in strategy compared to before? And we, we've previously talked quite a lot about Pro, Base, Pro, and Statement, which are the three price segments that we have used. So this is, in line with how we've done, our product development also in the past.
Correct. So no, there's no real, real shift in that strategy. But so it's a further developing something that already exists, and then can be with more as an add-on.
That was actually the questions received by mail, and we have one further question from the audience.
Okay, we will be listening to one more question.
The next question comes from Nicklas Skogman from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everyone. I think partly the question I had was answered by one of the emailed-in questions, but it was on the orders, order value, order growth, and so on. And you mentioned volume. Only 1% growth in volume, driven by weak markets, while the composition is impacting the value. I was wondering, have you raised prices? Is it possible that raised prices have had an impact on the development, on the value versus volume in the quarter?
Yeah, somewhat that is possible. When we have launched new products, we've tried to establish. I can say we haven't increased prices, but we have somewhat tried to sort of launch new products at somewhat new price points. We've only also as we can also mention that we have seen a slight increase also in freight incomes. That is also something that has impacted the average order value, of course, that has increased.
Okay, I understand. Thank you very much. And just going back to the current trading update here, 'cause in Q4 last year, you provided some additional detail on the current trading, and arguably there, there was the same seasonality in Q1 last year, so... Or, is there anything that is different this year compared to last?
Not really, besides that we have sort of learned one more year that it's a difficult quarter to actually say so much more on because it is, as we say, really impacted on the development in the latter part of August and, especially September.
Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you. Maybe I'll just finish up by saying thank you to all of you for joining us today and for your interest in our journey. We are eager to engage with you again in the near future as we continue to share our developments. And may I also remind you that our report for the first quarter will be announced on November fifth. So with that, thank you and goodbye.