Earnings Call: Q2 2026

Sep 23, 2026

Summary

Q2 revenue rose 9.3% and EBITDA 9%, with higher margin and more efficient marketing. Management expects sales and profitability to improve through year-end, supported by premiumization and tighter inventory management.

Good morning, everyone. Janusz Maraszewski, Investor Relations. It is Wednesday, September 23rd, 2026. It is past 12:00 P.M., and I am pleased to welcome you to this meeting with the management of Answear.com. Joining me are Mr. Krzysztof Bajołek, founder, lead shareholder, and CEO of the company. Good morning. Good morning. Mr. Jacek Dziaduś, Vice President of the Management Board for Finance. Good morning. Good morning. Answear.com is a Polish e-commerce platform operating in 12 European markets, offering a wide selection of clothing, shoes, and accessories from over 800 global brands. The company has just published its financial results for the first half of 2026. Our meeting today will be dedicated to those results and development prospects, which are crucial for the e-commerce industry in the third and fourth quarters. Our guests will tell you all about the details. I would just like to remind you that this meeting will be divided into two parts: a presentation that you will see in a moment, followed by a Q&A session. For my part, I invite you to listen to the presentation. I encourage you to ask questions during the session, both here in the conference room and via social media on YouTube, Facebook, X, or LinkedIn. Now, I will not take up any more of your time and will hand it over to our guests. Starting the presentation. Gentlemen, the stage is yours. Good morning. We warmly welcome you once again following the results for the second quarter and the entire first half of 2026. It was a good quarter for us. Revenues increased by 9.3% and amounted to PLN 436.3 million. Online sales grew even more, by 11.5%. This is the second consecutive quarter where revenue dynamics are higher than in the preceding quarter, which is very pleasing, as is the fact that these growing revenues are accompanied by an improvement in gross sales margin. It seems the presentation isn't visible. Ah, now it is. This gross sales margin in the second quarter of this year reached 44.9%, which is an increase of 1.3 percentage points year-over-year. This is very pleasing, as we know it impacts subsequent profitability. Marketing and logistics costs are growing slower than sales. Marketing costs increased by 5.9% year-over-year, with online sales up by 11.5%, so you can see that our costs are growing significantly slower than sales, and thus the marketing cost ratio fell from 20.7% to 19.6%. Logistics dropped from 12.2% to 11.9%. This, of course, contributed to an increase in EBITDA to PLN 22.1 million, a 9% increase year-over-year, and net profit rose to PLN 8.3 million, a 196% increase year-over-year. EBITDA growth would have been even higher were it not for write-offs on some older legacy stocks acquired during the takeover of an organized part of the enterprise amounting to PLN 1.8 million plus bonuses. Reserves for employee bonuses paid out after the first half of the year because we basically achieved nearly as much as we planned, so those bonuses had to be accrued and paid out after that half-year. Also, some development costs in the product or technology area, especially related to artificial intelligence, which is developing quite rapidly in our industry. We also have to invest in this. We can move on. Let's move now to the details of what we presented or published yesterday in our stock exchange report. We are increasing our sales momentum. We are starting precisely with sales. For the entire half year, revenue grew by 8.4%. This means that in the second quarter, it grew faster than in the first. In the second quarter, we had an increase of 9.3%, and this is the second consecutive quarter with an acceleration in sales revenue dynamics. The monthly sales chart here at the bottom of this slide looks interesting. First of all, we started the quarter weakly in April with a year-on-year decline of 6%. April was cold, and that is visible in the Answear results. Virtually the entire industry complained about this month because customers were not motivated by warming weather to shop for the summer collection. In May, the situation changed and improved. The weather began to be favorable, and from mid-May, we launched a wide-reach campaign which, thanks to the approach we applied this half year, also contributed to the improvement of results in the short term, but we will talk about the campaign later in the presentation. Now, let's focus on sales. May saw a 22% increase year-on-year. In June, the continuation of dynamic growth. We grew by 17% year-on-year. A word on the currency impact. Here, the impact is actually limited to the zloty versus hryvnia pair. Currencies did not help us. If it weren't for the weakening of the hryvnia, the total dynamics would have been two percentage points higher. But we still have reasons to be satisfied. Online sales growth in the second quarter was 11.5% year-on-year, and that is despite a demanding base. Last year at this time, we grew by 14% year-on-year, so these are quite good results. Let's try to jump ahead. Yes. We compare ourselves to the competition with every publication of our quarterly results. Here's also a slide on this topic, and we see that there are some changes in the immediate environment. We are no longer the sole leader in sales dynamics in the second quarter. More companies in the industry had positive news about their results. In terms of sales dynamics alone, for example, the Scandinavian Boozt was better in the second quarter. We also see that companies in the industry were improving their margins. Not only Answear did this, but also other players. Though not all of them. Zalando, for example, is currently having a problem with that. We improved our margin by 1.3 percentage points. It is known that only the simultaneous combination of these elements, i.e., sales growth and margin improvement, allows for generating higher sales margin in value terms, and this grew by 12.5% in the second quarter for Answear. Which is a result that stands out against the competition. A word of commentary on the growth of the average basket value. The momentum is slightly below expectations, as a 2% increase in the basket value for Answear online or no growth for PRM online are certainly results that can be easily beaten in the coming quarters. We see the potential for this in offline sales. PRM is the clear leader here. A brand that shows there is customer acceptance for high-end products with higher price points. The average receipt value in PRM physical stores has risen to over 1,100 PLN, which is a 24% year-over-year increase. On this slide, we also provide additional information. The number of items per receipt decreased by 3% year-over-year. This is also an effect of the premiumization process, and increasing the value of a single stock unit, as well as the entire order, improves transaction economics, and we should see the results in the company's performance. To sum up, regarding the average order value, we have both the potential and the ambition to grow faster on this parameter than in the second quarter of this year. Geographical breakdown of sales. Poland is growing the fastest. Sales results here are supported by the activities of the stores in Norblin and the marketing events organized there. However, outside of Poland, we see certain changes in the segment structure, with an acceleration in the European Union segment. Of course, this segment includes many markets and we observe different dynamics in individual ones, but collectively this segment grew by 10% in the first half of the year, and by 15% in the second quarter alone. Export markets are under pressure. Ukraine, with a weakening hryvnia, maintained sales at a similar level year-over-year in constant currency, but in zloty terms, the dynamics are negative. Also, non-EU markets for the PRM brand do not have their momentum. The spiral of rising customs barriers, which started in the second half of last year, is hitting this segment, causing a weakening in sales dynamics and affecting the margin. These two factors cause us to see a decline in sales in the export segment. But in this whole picture, we see the advantages of diversification. In such a volatile and often unpredictable environment, having a presence in many markets means that the company's total sales are growing. Even if some markets or some channels are performing slightly weaker at a given moment, we are able to grow as a whole company. This is significant. We operate in a large market where we are still a relatively small player, so we still have room to expand our presence. All the more so, as it is a growing market. Here we have some statistical data regarding the market in June, which shows that total retail sales in Poland in June, at constant prices, grew by 6.2%. At the same time, the share of the internet in total retail was at the level of 9.1%. That is an increase of 0.4 percentage points compared to last year, so it is clear that e-commerce is managing to carve out an ever larger slice of the pie here. In our category, this e-commerce share is much larger, amounting to 22.6% and it continues to grow. Forecasts for the entire European market for the years 2025 to 2030 show that the average annual growth rate of e-commerce sales in the fashion industry is projected at 3.8%. In Poland itself, according to Statista here, this market is expected to grow a bit more slowly, by 3.1%. Honestly speaking, I don't really believe that Europe will grow faster in e-commerce than Poland. While it's true that our market grew quite dynamically in previous years, I don't see a reason why it would slow down so much now. I personally think that these growth rates in Poland may also be higher. In June, clothing and footwear in Poland grew by 3.3%, while total online retail grew by 12.3%. You can see that these increases are currently much higher than what is planned for the coming years by Statista, but as I said, they probably underestimated this growth a bit. What is most important for us, and what makes us very happy, is that we are able to grow much faster in this market. Our growth in June was 17.1%, so it is clear that this is much more than the market average. These increases result from various reasons, primarily from adjusting our product offering to the market segment, to the premium customers that we are positioning ourselves for, and there have certainly been some big positive changes here. Besides the fact that we are constantly adding new brands to this segment, we are also optimizing our inventory structure in terms of sales. It is known that when entering a new market segment, we didn't know which brands would sell better and which would sell worse. At the moment, there is a period of verifying and re-weighting the brands that sell best, and removing brands or categories that sell worse, and consequently, this optimization is happening. It is new fuel for further growth. This can be seen in the different behavior of individual categories. For example, clothing grew by 14%, which is the highest. This is likely because we are perceived as a fashion specialist rather than for footwear, which also grew, but only by 8%, because for footwear, others are likely perceived as more specialized stores. Accessories grew by 13%, so basically all categories are seeing solid growth. Interestingly, our private label is also doing very well against this backdrop, with June sales up by 23%, and what's interesting is that this happened with fewer colorway models year-over-year. Generally, we have had a trend recently of having more brands because we are constantly introducing new ones, but fewer colorway models, as we are simply cutting back on items that are less profitable for us. This then leads, on one hand, to sales growth, and on the other, to improved margins and better inventory turnover. These types of changes in the offering are also taking place at PRM. The dynamics are even greater there because we are adding more new brands. Maybe not as fast as we would like, because we would like it to be even faster, but we know these are long processes and the market isn't that easy when it comes to acquiring new brands, but it is happening slowly, and above all, the sales structure is changing. When we took over this business, it was mainly focused on selling sneakers, which accounted for over 80% of sales. At the moment, the share of total footwear in these sales has fallen to just 52%. While sales of clothing have increased from 12% to 34%, and accessories from 6% to 13%. You can see that these changes are taking place, and they are certainly changes that will drive further revenue growth, making it more balanced, stable, and also better in terms of profitability because you can achieve better margins on clothing categories than on sneakers alone. These are the changes that are happening within PRM and that will continue in future quarters as well. How does this translate into the company's results? On this slide, we announce that the margin is growing faster than sales. Let's look at the details. Gross margin grew by 8% in the first quarter, meaning the margin generated on sales in terms of value, and by 12.5% in the second quarter. This translated into the EBITDA result, which was still falling year-over-year in the first quarter from PLN 10 million last year to PLN 6.6 million this year. But in the second quarter, we are already seeing growth, and this growth would be even higher if not for three main factors. The first is an inventory write-down created in accordance with our policy for PRM segment inventory dating back to the first half of 2024, and we write off unsold inventory from two consecutive seasons as costs. This additional write-down amounted to nearly PLN 2 million. Among other factors, it is worth mentioning a very strong finish to the first half of the year, both in terms of sales and margins. in May and June, as could be seen on the slide commenting on online sales. We had very good results, and as a result, we met our margin target for the first half of the year, which led to semi-annual bonuses being paid out in the organization, and that burdened the costs of the second quarter. Simply put, after the first quarter and the month of April, there was no basis to assume that this goal would be achieved. The third factor, the last one, although it should actually be mentioned at the beginning, is continuous investment in development, in rearming the organization in a selective way, but nevertheless in resources, in systems, in solutions that enable the implementation of a long-term strategy of building a fashion e-commerce leader. Let's try to scroll. A change in purchasing. Effect on the balance sheet. A mysterious title. Let's try to explain what the author meant. We are improving the way we order goods because the foundation in this business is the continuous improvement of the offer, selecting brands, acquiring new suppliers from the higher segment, and working on sales data, which translates into an improvement in the way goods are ordered. First of all, the brand portfolio is being continuously improved. We are eliminating weaker brands, strengthening budgets for good brands, and this more accurate selection allows for deeper ordering of those products that have better sales characteristics. We work on analytics and on conclusions drawn from data coming from successive seasons of our operations in the premium segment. We already have several of these seasons under our belt, and it is starting to pay off. More products per model, color also means a lower cost of preparing content for the site, better resale of stock after the season, better performance during the sale period because the offer is not as picked over as in the case of shallower ordering. As a result, we have less stock after the season, and at the same time I have growth in sales revenue. This effect is visible both in the multi-brand and in our own brand, where with a much more limited, excuse me, offer of model, colors we generate over 23% growth in sales in the second quarter. Such an approach has a very great significance for working capital ratios. On this slide, we cite turnover ratios from the stock exchange report, and we see that while maintaining receivables and payables turnover ratios at the same stable level, we clearly improved inventory turnover in the first half of the year. We increased sales revenue on one hand, but at the same time we improved sell-through, ending the half year with 7% lower inventory on the balance sheet at the end of June this year than it was at the end of June of the previous year. The effect is that the inventory turnover ratio shortened by 34 days and the cash conversion cycle shortened by practically the same amount. If we have an improvement in working capital efficiency, then we also have lower demand for financing. Now, out of the available limits worth nearly PLN 400 million in total limits, which consists of guarantees for suppliers and credit and factoring lines. We are not even using half of the limits granted by the banks. Meanwhile, the net debt reported on the balance sheet as of June 30th decreased year on year by 29% compared to the end of June last year. This is happening precisely as a result of a significant improvement in the cash conversion cycle. The available credit lines we hold provide security on one hand, but above all, they give us the capacity to stock up for growth in the coming season. We are planning such growth, and we can achieve it without the need to apply for additional financing. One more important factor. Net debt and lower utilization of available limits, as well as lower net debt, reduce interest costs, which in turn improves the company's net result. Moving on to our marketing expenses, as this is an important area in our cost structure that largely influences the efficiency of our business. These marketing costs are rising, but they are definitely growing slower than sales. In the second quarter alone, marketing expenses amounted to PLN 86 million compared to PLN 81.2 million in the same period last year, which is an increase of just under 6% with online sales 11.5% higher. It is clear that we are growing revenue much faster than marketing costs here. That is how we plan for it to continue in the following quarters, especially this year. There certainly won't be such a spike in costs in the fourth quarter as we had last year, which resulted from high TV campaign costs that we are simply not planning this year. For this year, we have planned all marketing expenditures in the online channel. It simply allows us to reach premium segment customers more precisely than we can via television. In television, as you know, you buy certain reach, and you buy it with the benefit of all users who watch television. We don't need to advertise to everyone, only to our chosen target group, meaning premium customers, and that is why it is easier for us to reach them via online channels in a more precise way. We can also certainly benefit from the high base of brand awareness built in previous periods. This causes that at this moment, these online expenditures are quite effective. This is visible in the volume of traffic generated. In the second quarter, this growth in visits, the number of visits to the site, amounted to 26.3% year-on-year with relatively little higher marketing spending than a year ago. It is clear that here we can operate efficiently and continue to lower the marketing cost-to-revenue ratio, which in this second quarter was 19.6%. A drop of 1.1 percentage points, and we are setting such goals for future quarters as well. This results, as I said, from shifting these marketing expenditures from offline to online. Of course, the specifics of these internet activities are different, meaning they allow us to target appropriate groups and user segments. Because of this, we have to produce a few more different campaigns for them. But we can definitely reach them at a lower cost and more precisely. This seems to be a good direction. At least for now, it seems to be working well and effectively. It seems we are on a good path to further reduce these marketing costs. There are at least a few reasons why it is worth continuing this policy in future quarters. It certainly helps us here already. The scale of the business and the still-growing scale of this business means that these reach-based campaigns, regardless of the medium used, including the internet, where you pay for a specific reach, simply spread over that higher revenue and do not weigh as much as before. This factor should continue in the coming quarters because I expect our revenues to keep growing while we buy these reach-based campaigns at relatively fixed prices. The lack of new market openings in the near future should also help us optimize these marketing costs. It is well known that acquiring new customers in a new market is more costly than penetrating markets where we are already present and have built some brand awareness. This should also hold true in future quarters. It should also influence higher conversion because a higher level of brand awareness leads to higher conversion. We have been carrying out these types of activities in the recent quarters. It is clear that this has been yielding results, so we plan to continue. Also in the coming quarters, in the form of a balanced policy of image and sales-oriented activities, conducted mainly in the online channel, because here we can optimize it better, adapt it to the market and the consumer segment we are targeting, resulting in cheaper and more effective campaigns, and what's more, more flexible ones, right? Because in online, we can manage the budget on a week-by-week basis rather than quarterly or even semi-annually, as is the case with offline media. We are already utilizing, one might say, a large base. On one hand, the customer awareness built in individual markets, and on the other hand, the base of customers we already have in our marketing databases. That is 2.7 million active customers over the last 12 months across 12 markets. There is still potential for further sales growth because statistically, our customers buy 2.4 times per year on average. It seems we can still improve this indicator, and we are certainly able to improve traffic and conversion rates from that traffic. In the last half year, the number of visits increased by over 20%. It is clear that there is still potential here to increase conversion from this traffic, and we are definitely on the right track to record this improvement in conversion. The share of returning customers in our total sales is at the level of 80%. This is already a good result, but we still see that we can improve it a bit, especially by recording a higher number of transactions per customer. You can see that this is also slowly happening and should continue in future quarters. Overall, we can say that we are consistently executing our strategy of building a leader in the premium fashion segment in this part of Europe. It is well understood that premium does not start and end only with the product or the product offer. It is also about the way customers discover the brand, make their choices, and use our services. In this regard, we strive to be a high-quality, on one hand, partner for our customers and on the other hand, a partner for the brands that we see want to strengthen their cooperation with us. Because we are such a high-quality partner, it appeals to many premium brands. This gives us room for further cost optimization and performance improvement, especially in terms of profitability. Importantly, we have been pursuing this policy for some time, and it is clear that we are fully capable of delivering on the promises we made in previous quarters. Meaning, we announced that sales should grow in the coming quarters, and it is clear that they are indeed growing. The sales momentum is accelerating. We had 4% growth in the fourth quarter of last year, 7.4% in the first quarter, and 9.3% in the second quarter of this year. We expect that we will definitely improve this result even further in the third quarter. The fourth quarter also looks quite promising. We are optimistic here. Generally speaking, about this second half of the year, we promised an improvement in gross margin, and we have achieved that as well. The margin rose to 44.9%, which is an increase of 1.3 percentage points, and we also expect year-over-year growth in this percentage margin in the coming quarters. Marketing costs were supposed to decrease, and they are decreasing, especially in the second quarter, with a drop of 1.1 percentage points year-over-year. In the second half of the year, there is even more room for this reduction because last year's base was high, so there is space to lower them. Inventory optimization and the acquisition of premium brands are progressing. We have more of these brands, while at the same time the number of models and colors has decreased, which allows us to optimize operating costs relative to sales. All of this contributes to the improvement of EBITDA profitability, which already occurred significantly in the second quarter. We expect the best in this second half of the year, especially in the fourth quarter. What priorities have we set for ourselves for the near future? Basically, nothing new will appear here compared to what we have already discussed. We will continue to rebuild the Answear offer toward the premium segment, acquire new brands and optimize stock in terms of sales, margin, and turnover by stocking up on what sells best and phasing out what sells less. In marketing, as we said, we should continue these effects of optimizing marketing expenses in relation to revenue. This should be supported by more sales, the number of app downloads, and the number of people in the loyalty program. Strengthening teams and investing in artificial intelligence should also help us better manage our product offering, achieve better margins, and save on operational costs. PRM. Similarly, although here the effect of developing the offer should happen faster because we still have many brands to acquire there. Acquiring new brands for the offer in this segment is not that easy, but it is clear that we are slowly managing to handle it as well. Further optimization of this offer in terms of sales, margin, and in marketing as well. Here we still have, I suppose, more to do in terms of building brand awareness, so these marketing investments will still be quite significant, but not so significant that we cannot improve results. We also assume that the share of marketing costs to sales in this segment should grow. The share of costs should fall. Of course, in logistics and operations, we are expecting the automation of our warehouse next year, which should allow us to increase its capacity and throughput and also contribute to further reductions in logistics costs relative to revenue. We will carry out these investments next year and the changes should be visible in the following years. Shared logistics and IT infrastructure should lead to further reductions in operational costs, especially in PRM, which is quite important given the scale of this business and should lead to further growth in the profitability of this segment. It is worth remembering that into this second half of the year, we are entering with a lower base than we dealt with in the first half of the year. In the first half of this year, we faced a high revenue base from last year. That is why beating those results was more difficult. We are even more pleased with the result of the second quarter, where this revenue growth of 9%, over 9%, is quite significant, especially since it had a high base from last year. In the second half of the year, the revenue base from last year is much lower, so it should certainly be much easier for us to beat those results, both in terms of sales and profitability, than in the first half of the year. Especially since we are well prepared for this season. We are entering with new brands, with more stock, and with a better fit of this stock, or at least that is what it seems to us, than in previous periods, because we simply had more statistical data on which we could base our purchasing structure for the second half of the year. It seems we have many factors here that should drive further revenue growth and further growth in the sales margin percentage, which should continue to happen with lower marketing spend in the second half. Here is a brief speculation regarding our results and what might be in store for us. As you can see, over the last three years, our profitability has been declining. This resulted, on one hand, from the acquisition of that organized part of the enterprise from which PRM later grew, meaning the costs of building this new brand. They heavily burdened our results, and the repositioning of Answear also resulted in increased costs and profitability disturbances. The result amounted to PLN 61 million in 2022. Then we saw a drop to PLN 56 million in 2023 and PLN 34 million in 2024. You can see that last year this EBITDA profitability improved and rose to PLN 56 million. Admittedly, we did not fully meet our plan, but perhaps it was just a bit too ambitious. It seems that the plan for this year and next year is more of a linear growth relative to the previous period, and it is clearly realistic that if the momentum continues as it has in recent quarters, we should meet it. In any case, they are definitely achievable, as it seems at this moment. That's it. Thank you very much for listening to the presentation. We are happy to answer all questions. Excellent, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Let's turn off the presentation so we can see each other better. Oh, great. First of all, congratulations on the first half results, especially the second quarter, and as you gentlemen said, for the management team delivering on what you promised. The acceleration of sales in May and June is certainly pleasing as well. We are already meeting in the third quarter. Please tell us how it started, how it has been going, what you can say, and what is visible ahead of the fourth quarter. Can we put forward the thesis that, just as better weather in May and June increased interest in the summer offer, this current weather deterioration and cooling somehow increases interest in the autumn-winter offer? Yes, weather changes certainly favor us, and the cooling in September that we recorded definitely favors sales growth, so we are happy about that. In general, as we said, we see plenty of room here for our revenues to grow in the near future, and we expect that these increases in the third quarter will be in line with the trend we have recorded recently, higher than in previous quarters. Everything indicates that this will be the case. Regarding the fourth quarter, it also seems we can be optimistic at this moment. I would still like to ask about these delivery issues. Could we assume that this increase in sales margin is a clear sign that premiumization is starting to pay off, and what you've been repeating for years is now finally working in concrete terms? Yes, I think you could say that. Although we certainly haven't said our last word yet and we still have quite a few things to optimize. So I believe the best in this area is still ahead of us. Regarding delivery, it's certainly impressive, both the inventory turnover and the cash conversion cycle. A reduction of 33 days is, if I remember correctly, a record-breaking change, unless my memory fails me. What was the main reason for this, and how much room is there for further efficiency improvements? Is this what you gentlemen showcased with the slogan, "Change in purchasing, effect on the balance sheet"? Exactly. If we increase purchases of the best-selling brands or assortments, or even manage to target products that have higher sales levels, while simultaneously cutting budgets for underperforming brands or phasing them out, it certainly results in an increase in percentage margin and revenue, but also improves inventory turnover and reduces the capital tied up in stock. It is completely natural that once we have more data, and we have historical data we can rely on for future orders, this optimization progresses. And as you said, I understand it will continue to progress, as you still see room for it. Yes. Definitely. Mm-hmm. And how does this translate to the issues of growing warehouse needs as the scale increases? Because turnover naturally limits those needs a bit, right? Those needs are still growing, despite everything, they are just growing more slowly. Yes, and besides, we also want to be prepared for further growth, because strategically the company definitely expects growth in the coming years. And the investments, since the question is likely heading in that direction, that we are planning for the warehouse are exactly the investments meant to make this possible. They cannot be carried out overnight but must be very carefully thought out, planned, organized, and executed. So we will certainly be investing in warehouse automation, as we mentioned during the presentation. Clear. So, the most important topic of today's or recent meetings is marketing costs, as there are many questions here, but I would like to start with my own question, because since the middle of the year, these new regulations have come into effect, adding extra fees on foreign trading platforms, especially the Asian ones. How has this affected the market situation? Have those costs, those marketing cost dynamics, slowed down in any way as you gentlemen expected? Mm-hmm. It certainly has a positive impact on the market in the sense that, well, those entities are no longer as aggressive with their advertising in the ad space as they used to be. They are also optimizing these expenses a bit. Perhaps it doesn't affect our segment that much since we sell premium products that you generally won't find there. But in we are fighting for the same phrases, you could say we are all partly competing for the same ones. So in some sense, yes, it definitely helps us. Certainly these regulations are not quite there yet. There could still be some more adjustments because, calculating it precisely, those fees are still not high enough to offset the customs duties and taxes that normal distributors pay compared to those entities. They still have lower rates, at least on those higher receipts, than a standard entity operating in the European Union. Sure. Thank you very much. A question from a viewer, Mr. Adrian. Is there any chance that marketing costs will ever start to fall in nominal terms, or are there no such plans? Well, it's a question of how far into the long term we look. At the moment it seems that our priority is to continue growing in revenue, so we do not intend to lower marketing costs nominally because we fear we would not be utilizing the growth opportunities here. So we will try to spend no less, and perhaps even a bit more, but more effectively, to use these expenditures to earn higher sales. We are looking at marketing expenses in relation to sales revenue and that ratio should improve. And this last quarter showed that you are doing it even more effectively. Mr. Kamil also asks about expenditure issues and writes, "The annual result will be decided as usual in the last quarter of the year." So, should we expect similar marketing expenditures in 2026 as last year, or will the planned budget be a bit lower this time? It will be lower because as we mentioned, we are not planning a TV campaign this year, which was the main expense in this area last year. This year we are focusing on online marketing, and that will be adjusted to the level of sales, so this level of marketing expenditure in the fourth quarter will definitely be lower. Sure. Thank you very much. And one more question in this area. You showed the effects of shifting a broad reach campaign from TV to the internet. Was the entire advertising budget spent online in the past quarter? And if not, could you say what the media split was approximately? Mm-hmm. Yes, we said so. We are currently mainly. Not entirely, because some offline activities are obviously being conducted, but those are relatively small outlays compared to what we mainly spend online at the moment, and yes, almost the entire budget is allocated there. Mm-hmm. There is also a question from Mr. Leszek. To what extent is marketing expenditure a significant lever for sales growth? What does the economics of the operating leverage look like? What sales value is needed to generate PLN 90 million in EBITDA, which is the goal of the incentive program? Certainly, in this industry, marketing expenses are a lever for sales growth. There is no point in hiding it, otherwise we wouldn't be spending so much. The question is quite, are they a significant lever? Well, they are a significant lever. In reality, a lot depends on the efficiency of these expenditures and on the amounts allocated to digital marketing. What sales value is needed to generate PLN 90 million in EBITDA? This year we anticipate that we need, well, a small but double-digit increase in the growth dynamics of sales, while simultaneously also a gradual, slight, but still improvement in sales margin, which is what we have actually been achieving so far. Well, and also with the optimization of marketing costs. Mainly yes. This is the last question, and let's close this topic of marketing costs. Mr. Maciej asks specifically if we can assume that marketing expenses in the fourth quarter will fall below PLN 100 million. We relate this to revenue. We don't look at nominal values, that would limit us too much. If we are able to generate higher revenue, we simply try to do so, which follows directly from the answer to the previous question. Yes, marketing expenses are a lever for sales, so I think there's nothing to discuss here. Okay, so a question about the incentive program. Mr. Kamil asks how you see the chances of achieving the goals of the incentive program in 2026. You showed this chart. How optimistic are you about it? Well, as you could see there, if we only maintain the momentum we had last year and which we have in these first 2 quarters, it seems that we are on the right track to achieve it in full, and if not in full, then to be very close, and we are currently optimists. So it seems that we have a chance to achieve it, and if not 100%, then it should be. This is also the main goal of the incentive program now. Let us recall, or perhaps emphasize, that the general meeting changed the criteria for granting the incentive program for employees, eliminating the stock price criterion and focusing 100% on EBITDA. So, for the time being, we are all in the organization pulling in that very direction to deliver on that EBITDA this year. Clear. Thank you very much. Next question from Mr. Kamil. Are the write-offs in the second quarter of 2026 a one-off situation? Should we expect a similar situation in the following quarters? Even if the situation were to repeat itself, it will certainly be to a lesser extent than the one in the first half or the second quarter of this year, as it relates to inventory from the beginning of the PRM brand's operations, or actually the organized part of the business after the acquisition in mid-2023 and the order structure, which was still clearly made for a sneaker store, and we were changing this structure over time. This was also during the presentation. It was said that this structure was becoming less burdensome over time, let's say, for footwear products, and as a result, this slower-moving inventory was becoming smaller and smaller over time. So even if there is any impact in the second half, it should be smaller than in the first half. Clear. Thank you very much. Next question about one-off events, but this time from the revenue side. Were there any one-off events in the second quarter that would have increased the level of revenue? If so, what were they and what is their impact on the results? No, there were no such one-off events that would have affected sales revenue. A broad reach campaign was conducted slightly differently, which certainly improved parameters in the short term, mainly traffic on the site. This traffic also partially translated into sales revenue, but it's hard to call it a one-off event. It's rather a correction in the approach to marketing activities, let's call it that broadly. There were no one-off events. Clear. Thank you very much. Staying in this area, a question from Mr. Przemysław, who writes that in the second quarter, revenue from the sale of services increased strongly by over 38%. A request to explain the reasons and whether this could be a permanent effect. Services in the income statement are sales revenue from products and services. In services, we have three main categories. We have shown there the commission we show, and now the Medicine brand is actually doing well in sales with us at the moment and is improving year-on-year dynamics. As a result, we also have growth there. We also monetize various services that we provide to our customers. Such services as cash on delivery or the ability to register a return for a package below the logistics threshold, where we are efficient and can make life easier for the customer, we also try to monetize that, and we have additional revenues from this. The main factor here remains the shipping fee for orders below the logistics threshold and the service of running the Medicine online store, which we provide to our sister company. That brand is developing nicely and dynamically, as are online sales, which is why revenue from service sales is also growing. These are the three main things. Additionally, perhaps less regularly, there is also revenue from marketing services provided to our business partners and brands. Depending on the efficiency of our marketing team and the willingness of brands to collaborate, this also generates additional revenue, which is also reflected, you could say, in the costs, because these are marketing services that we perform for our suppliers. I think that after this analysis, one can say yes, this income statement line item is growing and will continue to grow, I think, at least as fast as sales revenue. Thank you very much. A question from Mr. Jakub, who writes, "Are there plans to remove the sales limits for VAT invoices? Competitors are showing year-over-year growth in wholesale sales as a way to get rid of stagnant stock, and we in Poland are blocking such sales. While a few years ago I fully understood it, looking at how overheated the entire market was, I don't quite know what justifies such a policy now." It stems from the fact that we don't want to, as we focus on sales to the individual end customer. We don't want to bother with B2B sales, and premium brands certainly do not want someone buying from us and then listing the same products on Allegro or similar channels. We are more of a loyal partner to these brands, so we do not pursue a policy that they simply do not want. I would even go further and say that economically it makes no sense. If someone could buy from us at wholesale, sell at retail, and surely they weren't doing it without a profit, then we say, "Let's not make life easy for them. Let's just sell directly to the retail customer straight from Answear," and that is why such sales are blocked. We are not ruling out sales, I don't know, for example, of complaint stock, which we do sell from time to time in this way to companies specializing in managing these types of products. But we are not making life easier for people or entities that want to buy a product from us and resell it with a margin. We want to do that ourselves. Strategically, it is a completely understandable matter to me. Moving on to strategic topics, a question from Ms. Urszula, who points out that she is observing a kind of boom in marketplaces. Does this model tempt Answear.com in any way? I suppose it's not really in your DNA, is it? Not because we strive to provide our customers with the highest level of service. Marketplaces are unable to ensure this level because if they don't have the goods in their warehouse, then, first of all, it happens that they sell something that the merchant won't deliver to them at all. Secondly, the delivery time is longer. Thirdly, if a customer buys several items and chooses products from different merchants, they may receive several packages. If you have to return them, you have to send them back to different merchants. Well, it just causes a lot of trouble. What we offer the customer is that we always fulfill the order. It arrives in one package, returns are sent in one package, so it is a much better shopping experience than on a marketplace. Hence, by targeting our offer at premium customers, such a distribution model is not what we are after. Clear. Thank you very much. A question from Ms. Urszula about the issue of the customs loop you mentioned, which lowered results outside of Poland. Could we ask for a few sentences of additional commentary on this topic? In which countries and through what mechanisms did this negative effect, as I understand it, arise? Ms. Urszula asks. Mm-hmm. Well, the most striking case and example is, of course, the U.S. and, well, and the politics that here are starting to interfere a bit, perhaps unnecessarily, in trade. Yes, well, on that market, we definitely have a harder time currently when it comes to selling the PRM brand because duties have been introduced there for stores that want to sell their goods to customers in the U.S., and, well, we have to include these duties in the selling price, and the customer also has to, when buying, take into account the fact that such duties will be charged. This is probably the most striking example of a market where we suffer because of this. Clear. Thank you very much. A question about the concept. If the concept store is working well in Poland, are you considering expanding this model to other countries where Answear operates? We do not rule out such an event, although at this moment we do not foresee that it would happen. We simply haven't made any decisions at this time whether we will be opening more stores abroad or not. The Warsaw one seems to be doing quite well as a logistics center for the entire Central and Eastern Europe so far, right? Supporting the entire brand. It is doing better and better in terms of sales and definitely fulfills those marketing and image aspects. However, it is definitely a large undertaking. Clear. A question about the fashion show described in the report. Was this more of a cost-incurring event, or did it generate any revenue? Is it purely marketing, or does some revenue stem from it? Well, obviously it's largely a marketing and image-building event, but such marketing and branding can be monetized in the long run, right? It certainly impacts our revenues. Although not directly here and now, there was definitely no revenue spike in the quarter the event took place. But in the longer term, such actions influence brand awareness, which then impacts sales and conversion. Sure. Thank you very much. This is one of the last questions. Could you please reiterate the planned total CapEx for 2026 and further into 2027? The new warehouse, automation, what kind of figures are we talking about roughly? For this year, we don't foresee anything beyond the standard in terms of CapEx. So I would say the range between 12 and 15 million PLN. Those replacement expenditures we incur annually, related more to ongoing infrastructure maintenance, is the level to expect. However, the automation itself will be a larger expense. I'm not sure if we can disclose the figures at this moment. Certainly, since it will be a larger expenditure, you should expect a current report once we finalize the agreement. And we will certainly be organizing long-term financing for this purpose. Those will definitely be larger sums. I think an order of magnitude of 80 million PLN, plus or minus 10 million PLN, are the kind of figures one should expect in such situations, right? But these are also intended to translate directly into savings in operating costs, plus enable increased efficiency and storage capacity at the existing location. This is music for next year and the year after, so we should carry out this investment in the years 2027, first half of 2028. Preparations are underway. We will learn the details in the near future. Another question regarding currency issues, because I think it's worth repeating with every earnings report. How does the current currency situation, specifically the weakening of the zloty against the dollar and euro, affect the company's results? We write about this a bit in our financial statements because we try to naturally hedge our expenses and revenues in euros and currencies closely linked to the euro. And here, this natural hedging is effectively already secured. The same amounts we spend in euros are The euro costs we incur are balanced out by our revenues. So I would say that in the long term, it shouldn't significantly burden or help us anymore. Well, it's known that a weakening zloty helps an exporter. In the short term, yes, it affects the valuation of liabilities under IFRS 16, which we have denominated in euros. But these are, you could say, paper accounting entries that we have to include in the income statement, which is also always clearly stated in the financial report, so one can separate cash costs from non-cash costs. Secondly, considering our inventory turnover cycle, the fact that we first have to buy the goods, receive them, and then sell them. If the purchase and sale occur at different exchange rates, then subtle differences can also arise here. Subtle differences that affect either the improvement of margins or their deterioration. And right now, we definitely have a moment where we see a subtle, yet positive impact of the weakening zloty on profitability. Clear. Thank you very much. I think we will wrap up now. I would like to ask for a summary for the last thing, because when we saw each other after the first quarter results in May, you said, Mr. Krzysztof, that your weakest quarter of the year was already behind you. Those words proved spot on, as the second one was already great. Every subsequent one should be better in terms of sales dynamics, and especially profitability. Those words, Mr. Krzysztof, also proved true. That second quarter was also a fulfillment of those words. What is your outlook and what are you focusing on through the end of 2026? You mentioned the lower base, the better balance sheet, and the further improvement in efficiency, and you are entering a key period of the year. How does it look from your perspective? Well, it seems we should continue that, meaning we maintain the statement that each subsequent quarter this year should be better than the previous one. Everything indicates at this moment that this should be the case, both in terms of sales growth dynamics and also in terms of profitability, or perhaps even primarily in terms of profitability. The fourth quarter should definitely be the best, assuming nothing extraordinary happens. Yes, that is right. They should indeed be good. Hence it seems that the goals of the incentive program are well within our reach. If nothing unexpected happens, we should indeed deliver on that or be very close. Great. In that case, I thank you very much for the presentation and for the interesting Q&A session. I am keeping my fingers crossed that these words continue to come true in the coming quarters. I also encourage you to follow the company and visit the answear.com investor relations site, where you will find more information and the full semi-annual report. My guest today was Mr. Jacek Dziaduś, Vice President of the Management Board for Finance at Answear. Thank you very much, Jacek. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Krzysztof Bajołek, CEO, founder, and lead shareholder. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We invite you to the next meeting. Thank you. I also thank you for your attention. Best regards and see you next time. Goodbye. All right.