Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Natuzzi 2023 first quarter financial results conference call. As a reminder, you can join this conference live via telephone by dialing into the following number, +1 4127179633. Passcode 39252103#, in addition to the link already provided to join via video. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the introduction, we'll conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time. Joining us on today's call are Mr. Antonio Achille, Natuzzi's Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Carlo Silvestri, Chief Financial Officer of the Natuzzi Group; Mr. Pasquale Natuzzi, Founder and Executive Chairman; then Mr. Jason Camp, President of Natuzzi Americas; and Piero Direnzo, Investor Relations. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference call over to Piero. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Kevin. Good day to everyone. Thank you for joining the Natuzzi's conference call for the first quarter 2023 financial results. After a brief introduction, we will give room for a Q&A session. Before proceeding, we would like to advise our listeners that our discussion today could contain certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements under the United States securities laws. Obviously, actual results might differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements because of risks and uncertainties that can affect our results of operations and financial condition. Please refer to our most recent annual report on Form 20-F, filed with the SEC for a complete review of those risks. The company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking matters discussed during this call. Now, I would like to turn the call over to the company's Chief Executive Officer. Please, Antonio.
Thank you, Piero, good morning, good afternoon, to our respected investor and analyst. Before we get started, let me also introduce our Treasury Director, Marilena Scaramuzzo, that today join us together with Piero and Carlo, to handle potential question on more the financial side of our analyst presentation. As we published in our press release, the first quarter sales were clearly below our ambition, and below significantly 2022 first quarter. I do remind you that 2022 first quarter was one of the strongest that we ever recorded, that doesn't, you know, is not enough to describe the situation. The situation is a situation which continue being characterized by a very challenging business environment.
Globally, real estate, which is one primary source of new demand for our business, is very much frozen given the high interest rates. In general, consumer have turned away from durables, privileging more instant pleasure, so holiday is dining out. This is unfortunately a contest we see perduring, even those we know the industry is cyclical, so we deeply believe that there will be a return to normality in due course. Beyond what we experiment globally, we clearly have geography that deserve further reading. If we look at our performances, 75% of the absolute number, negative delta, is driven by two region, North America and China. North America is accounting a delta -$11.7 million versus the first quarter of 2022.
If we read carefully on North American business, most of the, let's say, decrease, come from the wholesale business, especially the unbranded part of the business. The unbranded part of the business, which is still present, even though it's a minority for our business. In 2019, in North America, first quarter accounted for EUR 8.3 million, in the first quarter of 2022, for EUR 6.5 million, and in the first quarter of the current year, accounted for EUR 1.8 million. It's roughly 1/4 what used to be three years ago before the pandemic. This is because we are not intending to divest for this market.
On the contrary, we are opening outsourcing and operation in Vietnam to be more effective, but we do want to do it in a way which is value accretive. We want to do it in a way where we don't serve client situation, which don't give us adequate marginality. Those brought us to be selective. This is our first explanation for the unbranded part of the business. For the branded part of the business, we're sales rep. As we anticipated, we are going through a significant restructuring of our team, in the sense we are powering up our team. We hired a senior executive, Scott Krueger , which come from more than 30 years experience in the sector.
We are also expanding our geographical coverage, mostly through multi-line agents, in order to be cost effective, but to have a more capital coverage of the country. We believe that this will give us, and we already from last data point, a positive momentum, even though it will take time because still we're experimenting that large retailer, they are still in a destocking phase. That's for North America, we have here Jason, as I'm sure will provide more explanation. North America has been dragged down mostly by the wholesale business, whereas retail is up versus 2018, and is in general, performing in line with our expectation. China is the other geography that deserve a further discussion. China is at EUR 10 million below last year.
I've been spending with the core team of executive last 10 days in China. I was there with the Chief Brand Officer for Natuzzi Italia, Pasquale Junior Natuzzi, and the Chief Brand Officer for Natuzzi Editions business, Cosimo Bardi. Beyond visiting stores and meeting dealers, we have been having a serious meeting with our JV counterparts. I do remind you that we are in a minority JV, where we own 49%, where 51 is owned by our partner, Kuka. We use this time with the JV to critically review the business and especially to identify what are the short-term and mid-term action to regain growth. In China, we have 384 stores, mostly franchising, of those, 101 are with Natuzzi Italian brand, the remaining with Natuzzi Editions.
It's quite evident that the Natuzzi Italia business is the one which is below our expectation in terms of fresh order. We clearly highlighted two, let's say, reasons. One is the first one is the outstanding inventory. During 2022, both our JV and our dealers in China, placed significant order of Natuzzi Italia inventory, because the momentum was very good in terms of new orders, and from a supply chain, there was not yet a normalization of supply chain. JV and dealers, in order not to miss sales, they stocked quite significantly. This is now, you know, a buffer that we need to absorb. The sellout for the JV is relatively better than what we see at selling level, which is our, let's say, sales to the JV as manufacturer.
The second topic, which has been openly addressed, where we have a clear action plan, is that in the new context of, let's say, more selective Chinese consumer, we need to create a better retail execution in China. Regardless, this is happening in our U.S. and in our franchisee. We agreed to have a more systematic integration of systems, IT system and practices, both for our, let's say, U.S., the 14 U.S. Natuzzi Italia, and the franchisee. That when we deal with the franchisee, we don't provide only goods, but we provide the methodologies in term of merchandising or methodology in term of running effectively a store.
These, of course, are action that will be implemented in the next few weeks and months, and we hope to see a rebound of sales in the Natuzzi Italia part of business in China. Whereas Natuzzi Editions business is still growing versus 2022 and in our internal expectation. This is, I will say again, for a very high perspective of what's happening in term of top line and by the main geography. If we then have more reading of the quality of sales, we are, despite all the difficulties, going the direction of our long-term plan. That as you remember, it was around the focusing on core market and growing through retail and brand.
The retail business on total sales moved from 41% in 2019 to 61.7% in 2023. We added 20 base percentage point, sorry, 20 percentage point of retail on the total weight of business. I remind you that for retail, we mean both directly operated store and franchising. As you remind, this was a strategic decision, because to manage a brand is essential to manage also the retail operation. Hence, especially for Natuzzi Italia, this was actively thought as a direction. In fact, if we look at the weight of retail on total Natuzzi Italia sales, the percentage goes up to 85%, which is typical percentage of a vertically integrated company.
The other elements which is important to flesh out is the percentage of total brand sales, which is now 92.3% on total sales, versus 76% in 2019. Again, here we are executing on the idea of becoming a branded company. As I said before, we don't want to neglect opportunity in the unbranded business, which was, if you want, the history of the company, as long as that it doesn't become a distortion of our journey, and it comes with adequate margin. Talking on margin, you have seen that, you know, in a context of declining sales, we were still able to expand the margin, the gross margin.
Gross margin for the quarter was 35.6% versus 30% in 2019, we added almost 6 point of margin. The margin would have been almost 37% not considering EUR 0.9 million of accrual we did for right sizing our sales force. Even in a context where it's easy to become very aggressive in term of, you know, pricing and discounting, we try to be very disciplined. We're doing a regular benchmarking to make sure we are not off, and we are not off, but we still want to, you know, protect our marginality. It's worth noticing that those margin, those margin improvement have been achieved in the first quarter, not applying any further price increase.
I'm sure you remember that both in 2022 and 2021, due to the high inflation, we were forced to do price adjustment. In the first quarter of 2023, we didn't do any price adjustment. Those margin enhancement happen despite the fact that, as I mentioned before, Natuzzi Italia, which is typically the highest margin part of our business, decreased more than the rest of the business. I think that margin increase, to me, it happens really deliberately because we are trying really to focus on margin production.
This talking about the margin, when we look at our fixed cost structure, this is an area where work has been done, but most of the work still need to be done. Because, of course, we were acting during the quarter, in response of this low demand, the nature of those fixed costs require time for materializing those saving. This is an area where, with Carlo and with our HR, we are looking not only at incremental saving, but really to do significant alternative way to look at our organization, both at the center and at the region. In closing, since typically is something I've been asked for, I'll give you a sense of what's happening to our cost base. The underlying costs are mostly adding a positive dynamics.
Transportation is really decreasing significantly, especially from China and Vietnam to North America. Is also decreasing, even though to a lesser extent, from Italy to North America. Of course, that will be benefiting our marginality going forward. In term of raw material cost, in general, is a good picture. Wet blue, the leather, is decreasing. The same, even though to a less extent, is true for motion to mechanics, and to wooden frame. Polyurethane instead is still slightly increasing. In general, our cost base of raw material is improving. You don't see that reflected still in the first quarter because we work mostly with inventory, so the cost of material that we are currently embedding in our production is the one of the previous quarters.
That is, again, we don't do guidance, but it's clearly that should be playing our favor in term of expanding marginality. Strategically, we're kind of playing a double game here, a dual game. The main focus where every one of us is kind of very focused is regaining growth. We are really questioning all the dimension of our business, organization, and business model to make sure we can get, any, you know, potential gain in every geography, in every channel. The other element, of course, is cost control, especially on fixed cost. The dimension where also we are very cautious is investment. Investment, still, prioritizing where we can, the strategic direction. The retail, expansion is continuing.
In the first quarter, we opened two DOS, Miami, which was a kind of buyback in San Diego, U.S. We opened 1 DOS in the U.S., 1 DOS in China, an additional 5 franchising, of which 3 in China, 1 U.S., and 1 in Australia. Especially, of course, for DOS, because on franchising, we don't have direct investment, we are trying to protect those investment. The other dimension, which clearly is something which keep us very focused, and I believe we are really a state-of-the-art approach in monitoring the 1-year rolling cash need, is our short-term financial position, where currently all the different stress tests confirm the solidity of our Group.
As you know, we have zero debt, and in term of cash management, we're very, let's say strict and stringent in managing it. That, I would say, is an overall view of the, the quarter. In term of what we expect, we expect yet, let's say, a market which will not release these negative conditions very soon. We are kind of equipping ourselves for up enduring a challenging situation, even those we start, for instance, the May result of retail U.S. were encouraging. We start seeing some initial positive elements in some of our geography, especially retail. Let me stop here for any high-level question, then Carlo will provide a more accurate reading of our business by geography and channel.
If you have any immediate question to me, I can take it, or I can take it after Carlo, Piero and Marilena will go through the detailed reading of our business.
If there are any questions at this time, please join the queue via the webcast, or you may press star one on your phone if you're dialed in. Good day, David. Your line is now live.
Please.
Good morning.
Good morning. Yes, my apologies. Thanks for taking my questions. I was surprised, you know, given the decline in revenue, that if I add back the restructuring charge, it looked like on an operating basis, you were actually break even, which is kind of a testament to the improvements that you've taken in terms of margin, and it's encouraging for the future. That being said, have you seen any improvement in written orders, specifically in North America and China recently? Is this the trough? Is this the bottom in terms of written orders, or are things still very challenging, is there potential for revenues to continue to decline from this level?
Sure. Jason can expand more on North America, specifically. The situation remain challenging. In term of written order, if we compare with that versus last year, the last 8 weeks , 10 weeks were clearly much better, also because last year had a very strong start in the first part and then softening. If I look at our delta versus past year, it was more negative in the first weeks, that is in the current trading. The situation remain anyhow, very challenging in the sense that we have to conquer every single sales. It's not that we are getting high volume or traffic, and I would say that's true for the industry, unfortunately, because it would be an encouraging sign in a way, if it was just for us.
I think the industry overall is quite cold in term of traffic. In term of trend versus last year, factually, last weeks are improving, but also because last year, you know, by April, the wind kind of changed. We're comparing with versus a second part of last year, which was softer. In term of North America, I might let Jason describing. On China, they have favored the New Year's, but the result on Natuzzi Editions, they are very, very encouraging, the current trading. Natuzzi Italia, as I mentioned before, requires some fine-tuning of our merchandising and fine-tuning of our retail operation before it gets better. On Natuzzi Editions, we had a commercial event in Shenzhen.
They were strongest site on our brand, and the sales are and the orders flow are above last year. Please, Jason, on North America, you might want to comment.
Morning, Dave. Listen, I would say that from a written order standpoint, Q1 2022 was our retail peak. In fact, uniquely, it was almost 10% above any quarter we had ever had in our history from a retail perspective in North America. Of course, what we're most focused on today is, you know, we report revenues to you, and in North America, those revenues, on a retail basis, often come 4 months -5 months after the orders are written, because we import, you know, almost all of our sales from Italy or China. I would say in general that our start to the year on a written basis has been healthier and stronger than how we finished 2022.
The quarters that followed, let's say the back half of 2022, you know, our business year to date is healthier and stronger than what we wrote in the back half of 2022. Lastly, I'll say is if I'm looking, you know, at the health of our retail business against even 2019 kind of pre-pandemic on a like for like or comp basis, you know, we're comfortably running, you know, almost 30% above 2019. In totality, that, you know, that retail business, although still relatively small, you know, we'll probably be in the range of doubling 2019, you know, at a total level. I hope that helps.
Okay, that's very helpful. Then, you know, from my standpoint, critical to the success of the company, and value creation for shareholders is the continued expansion of branded, your branded presence in North America and like markets in Western Europe. Can you talk about, you know, you said you opened three stores, I believe, in Q1. Is the plan on track for the balance of the year and then also 2024? I mean, in the past, we spoke about 8 stores -10 stores, DOS stores per year or combination. Is that still the case? Will you potentially accelerate that or fund it from sales of non-core assets, meaning real estate? Thank you.
I suggest, Jason, you comment. I can answer yes, for 2023, but I let Jason comment in a more elaborate way. Then if you agree, Jason, I will briefly comment with Carlo on the sales on strategic asset. Jason, do you want to comment on the pace for 2023?
Oh, sure. I think.
Color on where we are opening, next.
Our opening count that is on plan for 2023 for the year. I think in general, we're spending time aligning on 2024. I think, you know, simply said, we're on target to achieve that for 2023, and we're spending time getting aligned for 2024.
Dave, and other investor analyst, in term of direction of our plan, which, by the way, was approved by our board, so is a kind of formal, let's say, commitment everyone is taking toward the board, nothing has changed. Brand, retail, and core market, is a priority, and U.S. is, in that frame, the largest, priority. There's not been a redirection of the plan. In term of sales of non-strategic asset, equally, that is a priority. We are continuing a dialogue, especially for our largest asset, High Point, where, you know, we are in dialogue with a potential buyer, and hopefully we will be able to report back more precise outcome. Also, on the sales side, as you can imagine, with this interest rate, the loan to value for potential buyer is reduced.
We will not accept, let's say, very suboptimal offer, but if there is a chance of fair valuation of the asset, we are very much with the Chairman inside the shareholder, we are very much aligned that is a good moment for pursuing those opportunities.
Okay. Well, again, just to recap, although revenues were disappointing, what was encouraging is the fact that we were more or less break even on an operating basis. You know, when we do return back to a EUR 100 million + in revenue, it seems as though we're positioned to generate meaningful operating profits. I commend you on that and continue the good work of improving margins, holding the line on expenses, and expanding, our North American footprint. Thank you.
Thanks, Dave. I think, of course, is a bitter satisfaction, if you want, but if you were simulating, we're doing this even today, what would it be in the EBIT running at EUR 100 million, which is nothing particularly exciting to write them about, because our clearly a higher target for this year, but would be a significant margin in EBIT with the current EBIT conversion that we're operating. Okay, if there are no further questions, I suggest maybe Carlo drive or a comment from our colleagues or the Chairman. I suggest that Carlo drives through the more, let's say, detail and technical aspect of this press release.
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I will go through the data that we did report for the first quarter 2023, and then I will add some information regarding what Antonio mentioned about the quality of our sales and other P&L aspects. At the first quarter 2023, the Natuzzi Group reported revenues for EUR 86.1 million, with a gross profit of EUR 30.6 million, and an operating loss of EUR 0.9 million. With financial costs of EUR 3.4 million, and the share of profit of our investments in the JV in China of EUR 1.1 million, we close with a loss before tax of EUR 3.2 million and after ca tax of EUR 3.3 million.
In short, we had revenues for EUR 86.1 million and a loss of EUR 3.3 million. In order, as Antonio did correctly mention, to give, not as a justification of our performances, but to give you a better perspective of our performances, we will refer to not only the first quarter 2022, but also to the first quarter 2023, given the fact that 2022 was under the spotlight as the last quarter of 18 months expansionary phase, starting immediately after the COVID. If we analyze the data, starting from overall perspective, our sales, excluding the other revenues, so focusing on our core business, we did land at EUR 84 million. That represent a decrease of 26.2% versus 2022, and 16.9% versus 2023.
2029 was at EUR 100.1 million, and 2022 has EUR 113.8 million. If we focus again on our branded delivered sales, that includes Natuzzi Italia and Natuzzi Editions, we were flat at EUR 77.5 million versus 2019, while we were decreasing of 21.6% versus 2022. Between the two brands, we did see the sales of Natuzzi Editions surging and compensated by the decrease of Natuzzi Italia. Based on our EUR 84 million business, if we refer only on the branded quality, our business branded is now at 92.3% versus 86.8% in 2022, and 76.7% in 2019.
If we go and analyze our sales, giving a specific information related to our retail strategy, we see versus 2019, a increase of 23.9% in terms of sales, even as we mentioned, in an overall decreased performances. This is, again, an underlying the message is, as Antonio was mentioning, that the company is still focusing on the retail strategy, while for the wholesale business, we are not exiting the business, but we are pursuing a different strategy, protecting our marginality for our unbranded business. It means that we are focusing on selective distributor, with that will bring results on the later stage, while for our branded strategy, as Antonio mentioned, we have a new agile structure in U.S. that just started its activities.
This is to say and to give you a quick recap, that based on the EUR 84 million, at retail level, we are at 61.7% versus 54.8% in 2022, and 41.4% in 2018. Just a few comments on as Antonio was mentioning, in China and on the U.S. market, specifically about China. Anticipating one of the information you will find in our profit and loss, China is still facing a challenging situation, but the company is still profitable and is focusing on the destocking.
The combined action from our JV team has brought out a positive effect of EUR 1.1 million in our performances, that I repeat, is shown as a with the equity method within our P&L. We do not consolidate, we just show the performance with the equity method. China has a benefit in our performance of EUR 1.1 million. Talking about the marginality, and we are today at 36.6%, with 2022 at 34.3%, and 2019, about 30.1%. The combined effect is about sales mix and channel mix and decrease in tariff. This is, of course, given the fact that we have seen some inflationary phenomena that stopped with a decrease of raw materials and utilities.
Also, given the fact that our purchase process will reflect the full results of decrease in the tariff in the next 60 days. These margin is still incorporating some purchases and inflectionary processes started in the last quarter of 2022. Talking about our overall performances in terms of operating expenses, I would like to talk about the percentage impact that our overall cost has on our sales. In 2022, we were at 33%, while now we stand at 36.6%. As Antonio did mention, this, of course, where we don't want to be in terms of impact. We are aware of this. We are working on this.
In a different direction, we are reviewing our organization in order to see and to find further efficiencies, and we are trying also to work on different levels, including the optimization on the working capital, and see how to control and focus on cost control, specifically on discretionary expenses. For what we said above, for in the fact also that we do include in our results EUR 0.9 million to streamline our workforce. If we deduct from our loss of EUR 0.9 million , the EUR 0.9 million credit we did invest to streamline, we would have been breaking. Specific attention needs the finance costs, because we are all aware about the spike in interest.
In our P&L, we have seen an average interest rate that increased 52% in the first quarter, 2023, versus the fourth quarter, 2022. Even if we did try to decrease our average loan exposure, we are now facing a total financing cost of EUR 2.1 million versus EUR 1.8 million in 2022. These, same as for the operating expenses, is a challenge for the company, and we will further work of this, because the internal target is to rebalance the situation and moving towards an out of using of the sources. Talking about the cash, is the last point. The cash was of EUR 48.3 million as a result of EUR 5 million invested in working capital, EUR 3 million in CapEx and EUR 1 million paid to reduce our workforce.
These are all the comments related to the, our P&L. If there is any question, please do let us know.
Thank you. As a reminder, if you'd like to be placed in the question queue, you can join so via the webcast, or you can press star one on our telephone keypad if you're dialed in. One moment, please, while we pull for further questions. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please do so via the webcast or by raising your hand, or you can press star one to be placed into question queue. One moment, please, while we pull for further questions. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. You may either raise your hand to join the web Q&A via the webcast, or you can press star one on your telephone keypad. I might turn it for any final remarks from Antonio and Carlo.
Thank you, Kevin, for moderating. It's usually very effective, our conversation. I thank you all supported people, who have been attending for the last 45 minutes, our conversation. We've been, and we continue, we will continue being extremely transparent on our business. We do remain confident on the potential of this group. I mean, when we go around talking with our dealer, our partner, even our final customer, we really believe that what we set ourself as a midterm goal is absolutely achievable, and this company deserve it. At the same time, I want to say midterm plan need to recognize that, you know, we encounter a strong headwind, and this will be, you know, causing the 18 months plus shift in term of, you know, execution over time of our plan.
In term of direction and goal, we have not changed of one inch our conviction on the potential of this company. Thank you very much. Unless the chairman or the colleagues want to have additional comments, I thank you for the time you dedicated to us today.
My comment is very simple. Business environment is complicated, no question about. I mean, you know, I mean, there are tension between China and America, tension between Russia, China, against Europe, certainly, all those tensions, they impact negatively, obviously, on the consumer confidence. We are a company with a very strong and clear direction. Today, the team is more united and strong and professionally prepared to face this kind of a situation, I'm totally confident about the future of the company, despite the environment, again. Thank you very much for everyone, for attending, you know, this call, we hope to give you a better news in the next one. Thank you very much again.
Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Bye-bye.