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Fourlis SA
ATHEX:FOYRK

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Fourlis SA
ATHEX:FOYRK
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Price: 4.095 EUR -0.12% Market Closed
Updated: May 17, 2024

Earnings Call Transcript

Earnings Call Transcript
2020-Q1

from 0
Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Jota, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Fourlis conference call to present and discuss the first quarter 2020 financial results. [Operator Instructions] And the conference is being recorded. The presentation At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Apostolos Petalas, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Petalas, you may now proceed.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Hello, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Jota, for giving me the word. Well first of all, I would like to wish all of you to be healthy and safe. Today, we have the regular review for the first quarter of 2020 results for Fourlis Group. Although there are so unprecedented times, I mean, this year, the first quarter results is different from any other quarter. And for that reason, we have prepared an agenda for today's review. We will keep our review very top line, but we will ask you to set questions so we can review all the details you might be interested for. So our agenda will include the first quarter review of 2020 in 2 different times. One is the January and February performance and certainly, what has happened during the March time. We will talk about the implications and the priorities that changed after the COVID-19 issue that appeared in the middle of March in our region. We will talk about what happened during the closed stores period, especially what has happened with our e-commerce online sales, cost management priorities and cash flow priorities as well. And finally, we will talk about the initial experience as some of our stores already opened in certain countries and we have some run rates as of today. And finally, we will talk about how we see the year, especially looking for the priorities for Fourlis Group and mainly about the expansion projects we have in our portfolio for the remaining of the year. Now starting for the first quarter. If we look at January and February performance, we had strong performance during those 2 months. Overall, in our group, we had 6% growth versus the year before the same period. And the EBITDA and the EBIT were on plan. We have strong sales performance in the Sporting Goods sector, about 9% for our region, and very good Home Furnishing performance, about 5% in the region. Clearly, we had indications that the economic environment in Greece was changing. And we have signals that both Sporting Goods and Home Furnishing sectors were growing as well in Greece. And based on the performance in our portfolio, we had clear indications that we were gaining market share in both sectors across the region. Now between March 14 and March 23, all the stores in our region or for our group were closed. But even before the closing of the stores, we had significant declines in the traffic in our stores as the bad news from around the globe were coming from the COVID-19 problems. So March finally ended with about 50% decline versus a year ago. And as I said, by March 23, all the stores were closed. So we had only to deal with e-commerce from that day onwards. Now summarizing the first quarter top line results. Our total sales were EUR 84.5 million, 12.6% below the year before. We had solid gross margin, 42%, in line with last year's gross margin. EBIT was EUR 1.8 million loss versus a small profit of EUR 0.2 million last year. And the PBT was EUR 6 million loss versus EUR 4.1 million of last year same period. The net debt was EUR 121.2 million versus EUR 132.7 million a year before. Now the COVID-19 issue certainly changed the priorities of all companies, humans and states and certainly changed our priorities as well. So immediately after the stores closing, and we really set some new priorities to deal with this unprecedented situation. And the top 6 priorities for us for the management was: a, to maximize e-commerce sales, which was the only channel to be able to service our customers; second big priority, major priority was to optimize cash flows in a cloudy outlook for the coming months; also important priority work to rationalize supply chain and see where we stand in terms of available stocks for the year; the next priority was to manage operating expenses; and of course, focusing on the health and wellness of our employees, of our business partners and consumers was a top priority as well. And in this new era, we had to change the way we operate, whatever was operating during the closed stores period. And for that reason, we strived to set well-controlled environment in our new way of operation. Now taking one by one those major priorities during the closed stores period. In terms of e-commerce, we did -- we really did quite well. The 2 areas that our e-commerce was well organized was the IKEA e-commerce across the region in 3 countries: Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria. But in the Sporting Goods sector, the only well-organized e-commerce operation at the time was INTERSPORT Greece. I will give you some figures in terms of the e-commerce. January and February, in IKEA, e-commerce was about 10% ahead of last year. And it was about 10% of the total sales during 2019. IKEA in March was in index 150. And in April, IKEA had an index versus year before of 250. So we saw a significant increase in terms of e-commerce month after month during the closing period. Now in May, now as we speak, IKEA has also 250 index as of today versus the year before in e-commerce, while a big portion of our stores has already opened over the last 10 days. Now in INTERSPORT, our growth rates were even more significant, but out of a smaller base. In 2019, in INTERSPORT Greece, e-commerce was about 5% of the total sales. In January, the index was 130; in February, 130; in March was, 280; and in April, was 720 index. So we have -- we were selling 7.2x more e-commerce than the year before. But as a result of the COVID issue, we had to really change the priorities in terms of the e-commerce launch, which was supposed to happen in 2020 but in a much more accelerated manner. And as a result of this special project, we launched THE ATHLETE'S FOOT platform e-commerce in Greece in March and since then, it is operating with good results. We launched in middle of April in Cyprus e-commerce as well. And 3 days ago, we launched in Turkey the same platform of e-commerce, starting selling e-commerce in Turkey as well. And by the 15th of June, in about 25 days from now, we are launching e-commerce in INTERSPORT Romania and INTERSPORT Bulgaria as well. So in terms of e-commerce, we really did well in the organized part of our operations and we accelerated the launch. So over the next 1 month or so, we are going to have everywhere state-of-the-art e-commerce operation for our Sporting Goods business. So the second big priority was to make sure we have enough cash in order to be able to manage unknown situations. As a result of that, we conducted our banks that we operate together. And we really got additional cash from the credit lines we had in place. Our cash end of December for the group was EUR 41 million; end of January, EUR 32 million; end of February, EUR 28 million; end of March, EUR 83 million; and end of April, EUR 83 million as well. So by doing all these efforts with the banks, we really had enough cash, but that was not enough unless we were able to manage all the other elements that either generate or burn cash. Immediately, we contacted our main suppliers. And there are 4 suppliers that really account for about 75% of our annual purchases. The largest is IKEA International, Nike, Adidas and some other smaller sporting goods suppliers, and we were able to make special deals. For example, in IKEA International, from 37 days normal payment terms that we have, we increased it to about 150 days during the course of 2020. Similar arrangements with Adidas, a good arrangement with Nike, and that gave us really the ability to postpone all the payments for our main suppliers towards the Q3 or Q4 of the year. And that was a very important relief for our cash. Now the next effort was to really contact 160 landlords with whom we have rent agreements. And the first effort was to make sure that we have enough discounts during the closing period. But at the same time, to be able to pay the rent, whatever rent is due to them, after the stores will open. And that was successfully executed during the closing period with most of the landlords. And finally, all the governments took some special measures for subsidizing costs, especially labor costs, but also extending the payment terms for the taxes and the social securities for the next 4, 5 or 6 months. And that gave us good relief in order to be able to really create enough cash as a buffer to face the challenges. Now in terms of managing operating expenses, the 3 categories of OpEx for a retailer like our group consists of: the labor cost, which is about 45% of the total operating expenses; rents and occupancy, 20%; and marketing and communication budget, including the IKEA catalog, another 10%. So all, put it together, makes approximately 70%, 70-plus percent of the total OpEx. And along with all the subsidy programs that, in one way or another, the different governments in the 5 countries we operate, certainly, we took advantage of those programs and reduced the costs significantly in March and April. Also, we contacted the landlords, as I said before, and we've got some special discounts for that period as well. Now summarizing. In March, we were able to reduce the cost base of our group by about EUR 5 million versus the normal. Our group, with the way it is set up with the network of stores today, requires approximately EUR 15 million every month as operating expenses. In March, the total cost was a little bit below EUR 10 million, with all the subsidies and the discounts and the reduction of costs that we did. And in April, this amount was in excess of EUR 7 million or maybe close to EUR 8 million. So good work in terms of the cost management during the closed stores period. Now many, many other things related with the supply chain. The big things that we had to deal with is what is going to happen in Q3 and Q4, when the stores will open, how much inventory we need and to place the right orders, especially in the Sporting Goods, where we have seasons: spring/summer and fall/winter. The big problem for us was that spring/summer was full of product in our stores but closed stores. At the same time, we had to set the right order levels for the -- either for the fall and winter. And certainly, we have to deal with our suppliers in a very cautious manner and we did so. Now finally, we took all the measures required in our stores and in our head offices, in our logistics centers for the health and wellness of our employees and our partners. No issue so far across all the organization of Fourlis. And now that the stores are open, our stores are ready to really deal with all the required measures taken by the government for the health and safety of our consumers and our employees. Now let me tell you what is the status today of the open stores. In IKEA, we opened approximately, as we speak, 98% of our total system. The only store that is not operating today is the pickup point in Limassol in Cyprus. All the 7 big stores and all the other pickup points, 10 pickup points in total, are up and running as of today. While in INTERSPORT, in the Sporting Goods, the situation is not like this. Today, we have 76 INTERSPORT and THE ATHLETE'S FOOT stores open and 60 stores still are closed. Especially closed are those that are in Romania, in Turkey and in Cyprus. We estimate that we will be able to open those stores most likely in the beginning of June because all those stores are in commercial centers and shopping malls. But if we see the rate of our operation in Sporting Goods, although 56% of the stores are open, we had [ weight ] in terms of sales, about 70% of our total system is open. I have to recognize that from the initial experiences in all the stores that we opened across the countries in both IKEA and INTERSPORT, it looks like the consumers have changed the preferences in terms of the sectors they spend their money. And both categories that -- of ours, Home Furnishing and home accessories as well as Sporting Goods and sporting goods accessories, rank top on the list of the consumers. And so far, we have some very good performance. I can say that in the Sporting Goods that we operate today, our sales are up 25%. And mostly, those are driven in Greece, but everywhere that we have INTERSPORT stores open, the performance so far is very positive. And the same thing happens with the IKEA operations. I mean IKEA opened on May 11. Today is May 20. And so far, we see about 15% growth across the system almost every day. So this is a good indications that the categories of the Sporting Goods and the Home Furnishings sector are very much preferred after the quarantine from the consumers. And certainly, we need to see how long this will sustain. Now although we opened the stores during the course of this period in May, the e-commerce is still ranking very high. In IKEA, as we said before, the total amount of e-commerce versus [indiscernible] went up to 3x. And now consistently, they stay about 2x versus a year ago. So we have double amount of e-commerce, as we speak, while most of the IKEA stores are open. And same thing in INTERSPORT. In INTERSPORT, we went 6x up during the period for the closed stores. But now consistently, I can say we have about 2.5 to 3x more e-commerce sales versus the year before. I mean this is the situation today. As I said before, we estimate that in the first week of -- most likely in the first week of June, we will be able to operate all of our stores, and we will be able also to offer electronic sales across all the system after launching in Romania and Bulgaria the e-commerce for our Sporting Goods. Now let me tell you a few things about the remaining of the year. Of course, many will ask, what do you expect in 2020? We also look to the experts. And there are many estimations from the experts that 2020 is going to be a year with recession. We hear different figures for every country about the size of the recession. But all the experts believe that most likely scenario is that 2021 is going to be a positive year versus 2020. We believe so. And after having secured all the measures and all the supply chain elements and enough cash to support different scenarios for 2020, we are preparing for the next year. And there are some major projects that will help us a lot as we move to the future. Apart of the launch of the e-com platforms, as I described before, we are expanding our logistics center by about 3,000 square meters, because all this growth, especially in e-commerce, created extraordinary needs for logistics. And this process will be completed in end of July. We are preparing the new -- the first small IKEA store in Varna, Bulgaria, 8,000 square meter store. And Varna will open in September, and it will be a very important experience for us, a very promising experience actually. The Varna small IKEA store will replace the existing pickup point, and we estimate that the sales will be at least 4 to 5x bigger than the current pickup point in Varna. We have secured the first small downtown store, 2,000 square meters, for IKEA [ in the center of ] Piraeus. Piraeus is the second largest city in Greece, I can say. And we leased this 2,000 square meter store. And this store will operate in the coming [ October ] as well in center of Piraeus. About 2 weeks ago, we launched the first INTERSPORT flagship store, 2,000 square meters, in Downtown Athens at Ermou Street, which is the most -- the street with the most traffic, the shopping traffic in Greece. It's a very interesting store, a very futuristic. We have many good -- a lot of good feedback from the consumers that visited this store. Although the COVID issue -- the initial sales results are very good. And in the same place, we have also the first flagship THE ATHLETE'S FOOT store in Ermou Street as well. We are preparing 3 new INTERSPORT stores in Romania. And overall, for the year, we estimate that our CapEx will be around EUR 18 million, very close to the amount that we had last year. Now as you know, a big project that we had in our priority list was the real estate company that we were preparing for. We still believe that this is a big idea for our group and our shareholders, and continue all the technicalities in order to complete the establishment of the real estate company. Certainly, with the COVID issue and with the malfunction of the different -- especially the different state services, it will take a little bit more time, but we go there and we believe that during the course of the year, the new company will be up and running. And certainly, at the same time, we are evaluating all the elements that relate to the economic environment, the real estate, the valuations, the yields and the interest of the international investors for real estate in Greece. So this project is -- continue to be on and with all the careful steps in order to be able to organize that properly. Now finally, as you know, we initiated a buyback program for our stock, especially after the COVID issue started. We will continue this buyback program as needed. Now in -- on June 12, we have the general assembly meeting for our shareholders. Because of the unknown factors of 2020, the Board decided not to ask the shareholders to approve for a dividend pay in this year in particular because of this uncertainty, but we will continue investing money for the buyback program. So this is pretty much what we have prepared for today. And I think it is the time to give you the word for questions if you have any.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Draziotis Stamatios with Eurobank Equities.

S
Stamatios Draziotis
analyst

I'm glad to hear you're safe and healthy. 3, actually, if I may, please. Firstly, just on what you said on -- about the [ high street ] performance since the opening. Just to make sure I understood correctly, you said that IKEA has posted growth, 15% at -- overall, with effectively all stores operating. And Sporting Goods is up 25% if we isolate the 76 stores which you currently operate. Is that correct?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Yes, it is correct. On a comparable basis, yes. The stores that operate today in INTERSPORT, if you -- like-for-like, let's say, sales are up 25% for the period that the stores are open.

S
Stamatios Draziotis
analyst

Sure. That makes sense...

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

IKEA is plus 15%, yes.

S
Stamatios Draziotis
analyst

Great. Second question, you had -- well you basically said that your operating expenses basically fell to EUR 7.5 million, EUR 8 million per month after incorporating the relief measures announced by the government, including rent subsidies, payroll, et cetera. Just wondering, assuming no further government support in H2, could you tell us to what extent do you think you can adjust your operating costs in order to counter the effects from a potentially weak demand environment in the rest of the year?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Yes, I said before that in March, I said most of the stores will open during the first part of the month. The total cost savings, we were able to achieve, was about EUR 5 million for the month of March. And during the month of April, the equivalent amount is about EUR 7.5 million to EUR 8 million. We will see that in the second quarter. Now of course, one concern is if the market will be soft and the categories of Sporting Goods and Home Furnishings will be soft for the remainder of the year, what we are doing? And as I said before, about 70-plus percent of our total operating costs is labor related and rents and occupancy. We are planning to really do whatever is possible to take those costs as low as possible, but in the same time, to really offer excellent service to the consumers, healthy and safe visits in the stores, and also to expand our stores. We are also negotiating with most of the landlords, especially those that will have minimum fixed monthly pay in order to replace for the period between now and the end of the year, instead of having a minimum pay to have percent on sales. This discussion is on with all the landlords. And as we go, we believe that we will be able to achieve savings but not of the nature of what has happened during March and April where the stores were closed.

G
George Alevizos
executive

So Mr. Draziotis, the answer to your question is that it depends on how the market will evolve and especially how our business will evolve.

S
Stamatios Draziotis
analyst

Okay. Yes. I understand that, George. And last question has more to do with the long-term outlook and actually something that -- to which you also alluded with your speech. So I'm just wondering, what sort of structural shifts do you expect in the aftermath of the -- this social distancing dynamic? And what opportunities or threats you reckon such trends [ may embed ] for your business? For example, as you also said, you've been seeing [ a seed ] from, let's say, experiences to [indiscernible] when it comes to spending. Do you think this is something what might eventually boost demand for do-it-yourself goods structurally, also due to the fact that there will be more people working from home?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well we do believe that, a, this major issue with the COVID-19 will affect many competitors of ours, and we believe that some of the competitors will not be able to make it. So we believe that the strong retailers will become stronger and they will be able to take market strength. Now the economic outlook for 2020 from all the experts is estimated to be weak. But for our categories, as you said, we believe that those categories will become more important now for the consumers. And we believe that there is high possibility that the size of the conferencing market can increase as a result of the preference of the consumer at the cost of other sectors. So we believe that consumers will spend less money on traveling, less money on entertainment and less money on other categories that's used to spend before. And we believe that home furnishing is the place that consumers will spend more, and that will give us opportunity to increase our sales and increase our market share. Similar take to the -- for the Sporting Goods. We already have these kinds of indications, but it is a very short period of time. And after the current deal, we cannot really conclude, but we are working all this interesting evolution very carefully.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from the line of Memisoglu Osman with Ambrosia Capital.

O
Osman Memisoglu
analyst

I just wanted to touch upon the net debt, if you're able to give us any kind of rough guidance on where you see it by the end of the year given that you've pushed back some payments. Now maybe there's some change on those terms as stores are opening. If you could give us any color on that, that would be helpful.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well as you know, many things on the actual net debt at the end of the year depends on how the market will evolve, the size of the recession as well as our ability to manage working capital. And yes, CapEx is pretty much in place. We know the figure. So we believe that -- I mean there are several scenarios about sales forecasts for the year. In our base scenario, we assume that, most likely, we're going to have a decline versus a year ago. But this is our scenario, yes? Many things depend on other factors. And yes, that will increase versus the end of last year. Last year, we ended with...

G
George Alevizos
executive

EUR 106 million.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

EUR 106 million, yes? But we believe that the range of the net debt will not -- in any scenario, unless there is a disaster scenario, the COVID comes back, the stores close for 3 months. I mean there are many, many potential scenarios for the year. It will not be more than EUR 20 million tolerance to that amount, of course, to become worse than what it was end of 2019.

G
George Alevizos
executive

One, if I may add to what Mr. Petalas mentioned. Just to give you an indication, on the 3-month results, the net debt was better than prior -- same period of prior year, around EUR 11 million. But it's because that was -- there was a postpone of some of the payments. However, this payment delay does not affect the year-end. Even with the IKEA, we have a delay in payments within the year but not for the next year. So other things equal, and if we will -- just to give you another indication. As we talk, yesterday, we have a net debt of EUR 115 million, which is better, approximately [ EUR 15 million ] versus prior year same period. This is because there are some delays. This is because we have generated cash that way. And of course, on a 12-month rolling basis, we have added a positive free cash flow. Now for the end of the year, it's very difficult to assess anything because this is related with our reduction on our EBITDA.

O
Osman Memisoglu
analyst

Yes. Can I just follow up on that? You mentioned the base scenario is a decline. Any guidance on roughly what type of decline you have in mind?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well generally, we don't give the guidance, and it is at least very premature now to talk about. So we are preparing our own, for internal purposes, different scenarios. And what we call internally based calls for some decline versus a year ago.

O
Osman Memisoglu
analyst

Okay. I guess the short takeaways, you seem to think, because of the shift, this is not just pent-up demand. There will be [ second part of it ], there will be continued demand for both segments. That's what I understand.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Yes, yes. And to be honest, in our base assumption, May performance already is much better from our base scenario, but it is too early to assess.

G
George Alevizos
executive

As you all know, today, we have an announcement from the Finance Minister that the recession will vary in Greece, always in Greece, will vary between 8% and 13%. And with the subsidies, it will be reduced by something between 3% and 8%. So if we will take all this into consideration, we are talking about a recession or we are talking about the deterioration of our GDP that will exceed 5% and it will go up to 8% according to the announcement. As a matter of fact, it is between 2% and 8%, if you do the maths. So basically, there will be a pressure in the market. On the other side, for our business, in athletic goods and furnishing and home Accessories, due to different reasons, we strongly believe and we see that in the market that there is a shift of the consumer toward our products. So as we talk, we see something better than expected. But definitely, it is very difficult to assess what will happen during summer periods and especially after summer period with the effect of tourism in the whole market. If it will be better than expected, we will manage to reduce the best way we can our cost base and present a year that it will be better than initially expected when the lockdown started, because at that time, all of us, we were very sad for everything. Right now, we are seeing something better, but it is too early to assess for everything else.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Kourtesis Iakovos with Piraeus Securities.

I
Iakovos Kourtesis
analyst

Just clarifications on May comments. You said about Sporting Goods division, that it accounted -- it was 3x up as far as I call for January and March and 2.8x up in April, but 7.2x up in May. This is because of the launch of the e-commerce platform in the additional countries, isn't it?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well on e-commerce, we need to separate Sporting Goods and Home Furnishing, yes?

I
Iakovos Kourtesis
analyst

Sporting Goods and [ matching ]...

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Okay. So on Sporting Goods, as I said, the index in January and February was 130. In March, it was 280, index e-commerce to e-commerce. And April, 720.

I
Iakovos Kourtesis
analyst

720, but this is 7.2x up?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

7.2x up, yes. Now since the opening of the stores, in Greece, the stores of INTERSPORT started in May 4. E-commerce now runs about 3x versus a year ago. We don't know if this will be sustainable or not. But certainly, it's going to be much better than what it was. The impact of the new launches still is not material, because by launching, you need the time before you increase the awareness of the product to the consumer. So the sales from the launches did not impact that much as of today.

I
Iakovos Kourtesis
analyst

Again, for IKEA, it is 2.5x up in May, correct?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Yes.

Operator

The next question comes from the line of Kalogeropoulos Yiannis with Beta Securities.

J
John Kalogeropoulos
analyst

I have 2 questions, one regards your bond loan issued by house market, a loss, if there are any covenants from that bond loan related to IKEA performance. That's the first question. Any potential covenants on the -- if you could remind us on the bond issue for IKEA. And the second question relates to -- if you could provide us a little more color on the margin differential between store sales and e-commerce sales for both IKEA and INTERSPORT.

G
George Alevizos
executive

As regards the bond, there are no covenants. There are not any covenants on the bond.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Yes. Now e-commerce, in e-commerce, in our IKEA business, e-commerce is the most profitable channel. The gross profit -- the gross margin is about similar to the stores. Generally, we don't discount. When we offer value to the consumers, we offer either free transport, free assembly, this kind of offering. But because of the excellent logistics systems we are having and a very low return ratio, this is the most profitable channel. In the Sporting Goods though, e-commerce is about similar with the store sales in terms of the EBITDA, that's percent on sales. The gross margin in Sporting Goods is lower than the stores because most consumers in the online sales are looking more for special offers than those visiting the stores. But on the other hand, because of the excellent logistics systems we are having and the low rate of returns, it comes at parity with EBITDA in the stores.

G
George Alevizos
executive

The e-commerce -- Yiannis, the e-commerce contribution during the first quarter was one of the reason why we saw this reduction on our gross margin for INTERSPORT. The most important reason was the fact that, especially in Romania and due to the weather, we are obliged to do more discounts on our sales and on our prices. But another reason was that e-commerce was starting to grow, and the blend in terms of margin affected a little bit our gross margin overall. Because as Mr. Petalas mentioned, the clients, especially in the Sporting Goods, as I think it happens in that kind of sector, the clients, they are price sensitive. They are looking for discounts. They are looking for price opportunities. And that reduces a little bit the margin, although the costs related to this channel are lower versus a typical store. So the EBITDA margin is similar in a physical sales and e-commerce sales for the Sporting Goods. In IKEA, it's substantially better.

J
John Kalogeropoulos
analyst

Okay. That's clear. And could you elaborate, George, a little bit more on the differential of sales between Greece and the international sales, both on the -- on both divisions, on both IKEA and INTERSPORT, related to the fact that despite that Greece and Romania closed, what, 10 days earlier than Bulgaria and Cyprus, still, international sales were much more impacted than Greek sales. Where is that due? Where does that come from?

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well although the stores in Romania closed a little bit later, as I said before, because of the very bad news around the world with the COVID impact, the visitorship in the stores was very much declined. So either we had open stores or not, didn't make a big difference in the terms of Greek sales and international sales during March.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from the line of Fletcher Matt with Arrowmaker.

M
Matt Fletcher;Arrowmaker;Investment Advisor
analyst

Just interested to understand what structural impacts the social distancing measures are having on your footfall and hence, your sales capacity, obviously, bearing in mind there's a positive offset with the higher e-commerce.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well it is true that visiting an IKEA store today versus before the COVID is not the same. Today, the restaurants in the IKEA stores are all closed across our region. Same thing for the Smaland, for the nursery services. It's not allowed by the law. Now on the other hand, there are several measures that keep the distance between employees and consumers, and that limits, let's say, the capacity. But one positive thing that really changes the rules of the game on a positive manner is that the time of the visit is much faster. Normally, when an IKEA store operates with all the services and all the restaurants, the average stay of the consumer is about 2 hours or 2.5 hours. Now it's about 45 minutes. That means we can service more customers during the course of the time. So I think one neutralizes the other as long as those measures will be in place.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Petalas for any closing comments. Thank you.

A
Apostolos Petalas
executive

Well again, thank you for being with us this afternoon. We believe that with the sudden change of the rules of the game, the management of Fourlis was able to really tackle the proper buttons during that period. And also, we have prepared for the remaining of the year in different scenarios. I think it's good that our base scenario assumes some decline. But on the other hand, we are optimistic that we can be much better than that. We believe that, as I said before, the competition will have fresh pressure. And on the other hand, the categories of Sporting Goods and Home Furnishing will become more important for the consumers. There is no doubt that Fourlis will be there to service the consumers properly, the product will be available and the service would be excellent. And also, with a more organized e-commerce across the region, we will have more opportunities for the remaining of the year and definitely, for a much, much stronger 2021. So thank you again for being with us.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.

All Transcripts

2023
2021
2020