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Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Maisons du Monde's Conference Call chaired by Gilles Petit, CEO; Arnaud Louet, CFO; and Julie Walbaum, Executive Director Digital, Customer Marketing and Customer Care. [Operator Instructions] This conference call is being recorded.We would also like to remind you and inform you that this event is also being available live and synchronized with slide show. During this conference call, statements could be made that constitute forward-looking statements based on management's current expectations and beliefs, and you're subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed, forecasted or implied by such forward-looking statements.For more complete list and discussion of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Maisons du Monde's filings with the French Autorité des marchés financiers.I would now like to hand the call over to Gilles Petit. Please, sir, go ahead.
Thank you, Bridget. Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you very much for joining us at a such short notice. As you know, we don't usually do conference calls for our quarterly sales figures, but as you have no doubt seen from the 3 separate press releases that we issued this evening, this is not simply a sales call. Indeed, just today, we closed the acquisition of 70% of Modani, giving Maisons du Monde a foothold in the U.S., in addition to our strong European footprint.While smaller, Modani is a very similar company to Maisons du Monde in many respects. And I will have the opportunity to tell you more about this exciting acquisition in a few minutes.In addition, we have also announced an evolution in the leadership of Maisons du Monde, as I have taken the decision to transfer my operational responsibilities. Julie Walbaum, who has been instrumental in our omnichannel strategy since joining Maisons du Monde in 2014, will be the promoted to CEO -- will be promoted to CEO, effective July 1.I will remain a member of the Board of Directors, although I will also act as special adviser to Julie for the next several months to ensure a seamless management transition. Overall, our solid Q1 sales growth, our first acquisition in the U.S.A. and the evolution in our leadership teams are all positive signs underscoring the continuation of Maisons du Monde's profitable growth trajectory. Given all these developments, we thought it would be worth doing a call to present them briefly, allowing you to ask any questions that you may have. On Slide 3, you see today's agenda. Julie and Arnaud Louet, our CFO, are with me on this call, and now we start with our Q1 numbers. I'll then discuss the Modani acquisition, and Julie and I will then comment on the management evolution before on handing over the floor to your questions. So let me hand over to Arnaud to briefly present our Q1 sales numbers.
Thank you, Gilles, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The first quarter marked a continuation of Maisons du Monde growth trajectory. On Slide 5, you see the headline numbers, which show we are in line with our plan. Our sales in Q1 reached a little more than EUR 255 million. This represent year-on-year growth of 11.5%, of which 5.1% on a like-for-like basis.Once again, this quarter, we posted solid growth in all geographies, categories and channel as you see on Slide 6. In terms of geographies, our sales rose by 9.7% in our domestic market of France, and by 14.3% in our international market.We posted double-digit growth in both our key categories with furniture sales rising by 10.4%, while decoration sales were up by 12.4%. And by channel, we also posted double-digit growth both in stores helped by 10.4% on online, which rose by a solid 15.1%.On Slide 7, we look in greater detail at comparative breakdown in sales in term of geographies, channels and categories between Q1 '17 and Q1 '18. As you see, we gained 1 percentage point in the period in terms of international sales, which now accounts for 39% of our total sales.We also gain 1 percentage point in online sales, which now represent 23% of our total sales. On decoration also is gaining share in our overall sales, reaching 56% in Q1 '18, this is 55% in the same period last year.So we are seeing consistent, well-balance growth across the board.Our growth is also well balanced between like-for-like and store network expansion as shown on Slide 8. Overall, we gained EUR 26.3 million in sales between Q1 '17 and Q1 '18, of which, EUR 11.6 million like-for-like. The rest comes from expansion. In terms of expansion, it's important to highlight the phasing of our store openings. You remember that in '16, we opened exactly the same number of stores in H1 and in H2. Or -- In each semester it was 13 net stores. In '17, our openings we had 10 openings in H1 and 15 in H2.On Slide 9, we turn to our 18 store rollout plan, which is in line with our road map of 25 to 30 net opening this year.In Q1, we opened 4 stores, all in France, but also we closed 4 stores, of which 3 in France and 1 in Belgium.The closures are part of our net normal evolution, as we relocate old stores to bigger and better locations as opportunities arise. Among our openings, I want to highlight the Debenhams flagship stores in Paris, which open on March 3, with very encouraging first signs in terms of sales and traffic. After the close of Q1 in April, we opened 5 stores, 2 of them in France and 3 shop-in-the-shops at Debenhams in the U.K. as mentioned in March in our annual sales calls.Those openings exemplify our first efficient strategy to grow our footprint, which is also evident in our acquisition of Modani, which Gilles will discuss shortly. With the latest openings, Maisons du Monde counts 318 stores as of the end of April. As already mentioned, our stores openings in '18 will be mostly backloaded. On Slide 10, let me conclude my part of this presentation by confirming our outlook for full year 2018 on the back of our solid Q1 performance, despite a challenging comparable base.At constant scope, that is to say, excluding the Modani acquisitions that will further accelerate our growth, as you will see shortly with Gilles, we expect: first, sales growth of around 10%; second, 25 to 30 net stores openings; and then an EBITDA margin above 13% of sales.By further rolling our customer-centric -- our omnichannel strategy and through the continuation of our action plan and commercial innovation, we will build on our [indiscernible] terms to continue executing our medium-term plan to deliver profitable growth.I am now happy to hand back to Gilles to detail the new move we are taking today in our international expansion with the acquisition of Modani.
Thank you very much, Arnaud. Slide 12 tells you a bit more about Modani. Based in Miami and founded in 2007, Modani has 10 stores, well distributed in major U.S. cities, giving the company a nationwide footprint. To give you some examples. There are 2 stores in New York, 1 in Miami, 1 in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta. Over the 2010-2017 period, the company has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 22.7%. And in 2017, it posted sales of $41.4 million on EBITDA of $4.9 million, representing a margin of 11.9%.At the same time, the company is highly efficient with only 100 employees. Modani is an inspirational lifestyle brand, featuring high-quality modern design product at accessible prices. Through its stores and its online presence, Modani has a highly effective and scalable omnichannel and customer-centric strategy.Its model is vertically integrated with proprietary design on sourcing relationships to drive margins, and it is led by a passionate team of 3 founders. And I take this opportunity to tell you that these founders are French, which, of course, give a clear commonality of culture.On Slide 13, you see some example of the 1,300 SKUs offered by Modani across 7 categories and 6 styles. As spelled out on Slide 14, the transaction marks a major advance in the growth of our international footprint, and I would also say a new step in Maisons du Monde's growth story in line with the strategy we outlined when the company was listed.With the acquisition of Modani, which presents strong similarities with our company, as you will see shortly, Maisons du Monde is complementing its strong European footprint with a foothold in the U.S. market, one of the world biggest for furniture and design.But we are doing this in a very agile and controlled manner. In this case, we are acquiring a majority stake in Modani in a cash only transaction, demonstrating our attention to financial discipline. The transaction aims both to help Modani accelerate its development and give Maisons du Monde a beachhead in the U.S. to test possible expansion of our concept and offer.[indiscernible] this transaction represents a growth opportunity for both companies, although transaction will allow both Modani and Maisons du Monde benefit from a number of commercial and development synergies. On the right-hand side of the slide, we outline the key terms of the transaction.Maisons du Monde will acquire 70% of Modani with an option to acquire the remainder later. The transaction is funded entirely in cash with no recourse to additional debt. And Modani will continue to operate under its banner and accelerate its expansion. And Modani's 3 founders will remain with the company and continue to run it.In many ways, Modani is something of a kid sister of Maisons du Monde and when its founder came to us almost to 6 months ago, to look into possible cooperation, we very quickly discovered the great number of commonalities and similarities that resulted in our deciding to participate in the competitive process to acquire the [ Modani ] company. Indeed, as you see on Slide 15, Modani business model makes a very strong fit with Maisons du Monde. Like us, Modani designs its furniture collections in-house. Like us, it offer the great value for money through a design-to-cost concept. Like us, it has an efficient value chain and logistics platform that ensures product availability. And like Maisons du Monde, it offers an aspirational in-store experience. All this created a very interesting opportunity for us to gain time in our international expansion plan by acquiring the company, while maintaining our financial discipline.Turning to Slide 16. We intend to leverage these similarities to grow both Modani and Maisons du Monde. Let me be clear that we see significant commercial and development synergies in this transaction, more than cost synergies.From a Modani point of view, the acquisition will allow it to accelerate the opening of new stores and expand its e-commerce presence, while also accelerating like-for-like growth to improve product availability. Modani will also be able to broaden its offer by proposing a selection of Maisons du Monde decoration products in store. Our objective is to take these opportunities in the coming months.From Maisons du Monde's standpoint, this transaction give us a launch pad in the U.S., allowing us to gain knowledge to -- of the U.S. market, with a view to opening our own stores in the future. We will be able to do this by capitalizing on Modani's real estate competencies, supply chain and product knowledge expertise.This will allow us to test the Maisons du Monde concept in a very cost-efficient manner. So we firmly believe that this is a win-win transaction that accelerates Maisons du Monde growth strategy in a very controlled way.Since 2 announcements were not enough, we have a third announcement to make today. As you have no doubt seen in our press release, we are making a change in our leadership team as shown on Slide 18. I am very pleased to announce that Julie Walbaum, who is also with me on today's call, will become Chief Executive Officer of Maisons du Monde on July 1.Many of you have already met Julie, so you know that she will bring a high level of energy, experience and knowledge to the job. Julie has been with Maisons du Monde since 2014, and has played a key role in growing the company's online, multi-channel and CRM capabilities as Executive Director, Digital, Customer marketing and Customer Care. She was also previously a co-founder and Managing Director of Westwing France, an online shopping [indiscernible] specializing in home and decoration. And has 11 years of experience in management consulting at McKinsey and Deloitte. For my part, I felt that, that with Maisons du Monde now on a solid profitable growth track, this was the appropriate moments to make a management transition and I work closely with the board to ensure a very seamless process.Julie was approved by the board nomination today, and this selection involved external candidates. And she is the right choice to lead Maisons du Monde into the future. As for me, I will remain on Maisons du Monde's board, and I will work closely with Julie for the next several months as a special adviser, which I am very much looking forward to. So Julie, congratulations on your appointment.
Thank you, Gilles. I would just like to say that I am deeply honored and proud to have been picked to become the next CEO of Maisons du Monde. Over the past 4 years, I have been able to see firsthand that this is a great company with outstanding potential and today's numbers in news that we just presented on this call prove just that.There is a very strong team here. And I know I can count on the executive committee's support to continue building on what Gilles has accomplished. And I am also very fortunate that Gilles will be advising me closely over the next several months and will remain associated with the company as a board member. I have already learned a huge amount from Gilles. And his experience and advice will be very valuable to me.And for those of you on today's call, I very much look forward to regular exchanges with you in the future. But for now, I would like to hand back to Gilles and Arnaud.
Thank you, thank you very much, Julie. So we have covered a lot of ground in today's presentation. I am sure you have some questions. So Bridget we are now at your disposal.
[Operator Instructions] We can now take our first question from Marie Fort from Societe Generale.
I was focused on the Modani acquisition. If you come back on the -- some metrics about Modani. The first one is the percentage of sales they have online. The sourcing of Modani did you share from the same sourcing? And where the company is sourcing? And also could you come back, if I well understood, in fact, you maintain your strategy to develop Maisons du Monde in U.S., despite Modani. So how will you position one brand versus the other one?
First, to answer your first question on the percentage of the online business for sales, it represent today only 15% of the total sales of Modani, when we are at 23% within Maisons du Monde. That's one of the reason why we definitely think that we can push and bring to this team some skills we have here. And again, I really think that today Maisons du Monde is one or even the best-in-class decoration and furniture company omnichannel, and of course, and on the online business. Here in Paris, we have more than 100 people involved in this business, when within Modani they have only 2 or 3 people. So it will be easy to accelerate the business with them. Talking about the sourcing, it is very interesting because we could see that we have more or less the same sourcing. They are sourcing [ energy ] as we do. We even some time have the same suppliers. But, again, I want to insist on the fact that even if we may find sometimes the same suppliers, we do not expect significant synergies on purchasing because of the design [ took us ] process, because of the way we are manufacturing our product. But it is true to say that these commonalities are very interesting to share with them, because, of course, we can share the suppliers, we can share the experience, we can share the know-how, and it will be -- since its -- will be probably very interesting to do that. Then [indiscernible] you said that despite the Modani brand, we should test the Maisons du Monde brand. It's right. And if you have time I suggest you to give a look to the Modani brand on their YouTube channel, and you will see they have a small movie explaining who they are, what they are selling. And you will, again, see how close they are from our business model. But the products they are selling are definitely American products. When what we are selling are much more European products and we said just to be -- to simplify. So we think that it would be interesting in any case to taste the full concept of Maisons du Monde as it is in France or in Europe, in the U.S. to see whether or not it works. The good news with this acquisition is that we shall be able to do that for a very low-cost investment, as we shall rely on the know-how of the team of the real estate side, for the logistics side, for information systems side, for the regulation side, et cetera, et cetera. So we hope to have the opportunity to open a store. And then after we shall see and we like to do this on that way if the concept, as we think, will be successful, and we have a lot of signals from the U.S. people saying that the concept Maisons du Monde should be successful. Let me remind you that we had a strategic trip in the U.S. in June 16 -- 17 with all the leadership team, and we met major operators in the U.S., who confirmed us that the concept Maisons du Monde could be successful there. But what we like in this operation is that we can do it without taking any major risks. And you know, we are very reluctant with the risk.
Okay. I've got just a quick last questions on the financial impacts. Could you precise when do you intend to consolidate taking acquisition? And if you've got any views on the PPA impact? And shall we consider that Modani, despite PPA might have a positive impact on earnings?
I will hand over to Arnaud to answer that question.
Yes. Thank you, Marie, for these two questions. regarding the integration in our consolidation data, there will be part of our scope till 1st of May. So we'll have at the end of June 2 months in our P&L, and the opening balance sheet will be end of April Which comes to your second questions regarding the PPA. We will work on it. But because of the size of Maison du -- of Modani, do not expect any huge change. As you've said, it's -- we are able to do this deal without any new debt, any new money. We are able to -- we will be able to disclose more details at the occasion of our half year results. But we are able to maintain our guidance with this -- as it -- with this acquisition without any impact.
Okay. So no major PPA impact on this acquisition?
No.
[Operator Instructions] We can now take our next question from Anna Patrice from Berenberg.
Yes, on the acquisition. First of all, regarding the multiples, if you can disclose what kind of multiples you're paying for the company? If the company is in deficit or not? And if you can comment on the cash flow generation of this company? Maisons du Monde comes with a very lean capital structure, very good cash flow generation. Is it the same with the company in the U.S.? Second question is, why the founders decided to sell it? What was the reason for it? And when can you buy the remaining 30% stake of the company? And again, is it -- what are they [ owns out ] basically based on? And then on the current trading, it might be a short-term outlook, the Q1 came up much better than consensus expected. Also, I think, because you have warned that Q1 should suffer from very challenging comparison basis, and despite that if you came up with a very good sales. Congratulations. A 5% like-for-like, if I do a rough calculations, it means that your store base was also positive, but not only the e-commerce, but also the physical stores contributed to growth. And again, despite probably a bit negative impact from the weather. If I look in Q2, would it be correct to assume that you should have an easy comps given the heat waves last year? And if so, it seems that the growth would slightly accelerate from Q1. So why would you expect only 10% for the full year? Implying some slowdown in the full year. That would be quite interesting to understand. And then the final question, again on the U.S. company. The margins are slightly below your margins. Is it because the share of decorations is less than yours? What is the share of decorations for them? Is it their size that is smaller? So there's less opportunity leverage? And you said that they have good network of stores, at the same time, it's kind of all over the U.S. So from logistics point of view, it doesn't seem to be very efficient. Is it? So maybe if you can comment on logistics of this company.
Thank you, Anna, for your long list of questions. I will take the second one right now, which was why the seller decided to sell the company. In fact, it's a very good question. We were very quickly convinced that the main reason for them to sell the company was to accelerate the development of this company. Because they were facing some, I would say, financing issues to accelerate, even if the company is profitable, and they really wanted to accelerate as they are definitely convinced that they have a nice concept, a nice business model. So they were looking for a way to accelerate. So I think we won the bid, not only because of our capacity -- our financial capacity to give them more working capital, so to have more stock available, so to accelerate the sales funds to the more bigger transformation rate, conversion rate or accelerating stores, but also because we have all these commonalities and all these synergies with the decoration collection that we have. So the main reason for them is accelerating the business. That's the reason why they wanted to stay as managers of the company. And that the reason why we have set up this 70-30 proportion in the shares between them and us. Talking about the call we have, it's -- we -- it's a long-term period. Long enough, but not too long enough, we shall not disclose it, but to ensure that we shall benefit from them in this project of growing the company and having all the synergies that we can -- commercial synergies that we can get with them. So in my opinion, the longer they can stay with us the better for us because I am convinced that we're going to create value together. And I will take also your third question about the current trading. You said we had a good Q1. I share this with you. We are satisfied with the Q1. And you said it was the most difficult comps we had as compared to last year. And you're right. And your question is, but what do you think about Q2? And what -- why don't you change your guidance? And I will make you the same answer as last year, we definitely think that this year will be difficult because of the very strong comps we have. And we think it's much -- it's too much early to change any guidance today. It's not that the weight of the second part of the year is very important, and especially the fourth quarter. So as of today, even if the Q1 is good, it's in line with our expectations, and there is no reason for changing our global guidance for the year. Talking about the U.S. margin and its impact on the results of Maisons du Monde. Maybe, I'll let Arnaud answer that question, which is really not an issue.
Yes, yes. Thank you, Gilles and thank you, Anna. So first coming back to your first point regarding the price paid for the acquisitions, we are not disclosing the price, but I can tell -- you can assume that we are within the average multiples of the sectors. As I said, we are not re-issuing any additional debt to finance this acquisition. And you were asking about the leverage of Modani, there are no debts in Modani. So we won't increase our leverage with this acquisition. Talking about the impact on our EBITDA margin, you're perfectly right. The large, large part of the moment, 100% of the mix of Modani, is on decoration -- on furniture, sorry, with no decoration. So we will see. It's too early to say anything about it. But with the introduction of decoration, we are supposed to increase the margin. But because of the size of the deal, because of size of Modani, we won't have any impact in our EBITDA margin at the group level.
[Operator Instructions] We can now take our next question from Georgina Johanan from JPMorgan.
Two questions from me, please. Just first of all, in terms of the price, and I appreciate you sharing the 7-year CAGR with us, but obviously that's fairly long time period for businesses of this size. So I was just wondering if you could share the more recent growth rates that the business has been doing, please. And indeed what you expect into next year if you're willing to share that? And my second question is, just on the speed of the store rollout of Modani, roughly how many stores would you be expecting to put down in the next year or in the medium term? And I ask this because obviously we've seen a number of European retailers that expand into the U.S. in the past, without success, and unfortunately so. I'm just trying to get an understanding of how sort of risk averse you're planning to be with the rollout, please?
So thank you for your question. First on the current trading, I think it's a bit early to disclose anything about Modani. What I can tell you is that they are -- it's a growing company as we are. That's a one reason why we were interested in that company. So we shall share the same vision of the growth of the company. So we can talk about double-digit growth, which is something you're used to with Maisons du Monde. Talking about the development of Modani, I told you that we expect to open 3 new store this year, and probably 4. So you have the pace of what we could do. This should accelerate the time to set up and to look for new locations in line with our financial expectations, but the first inquiry that we have done in the first week we have done with the team there, let us -- quite optimistic in the -- in this potential. So on the long term, we definitely think that we shall accelerate the growth of the development. And don't forget that it is one of the main reason for the founders to decide to open their share -- their capital to another company.
[Operator Instructions] We can take our next question from Tushar Jain from Goldman Sachs.
I have 2 simple questions. First of all, just in terms of first quarter, I just wanted to confirm there's no sort of one-off impact that would have given you sort of a boost i.e. more promotions, let top line growth that has given a boost in the first quarter. Second question, just in terms of International, the growth has exceeded in the first quarter, but is there any specific geography that you think might be dragging the overall performance of that particular section? And if I can slip in a third one actually, on Modani, is it fair to assume the profitability split i.e. in terms of first half and second half. It's sort of closer to what you have more second half weighted.
Yes. Thank you for your 2 questions. So we have no specific one-off in our Q1 growth performance. And as you said, we are satisfied with the performance of Q1. Nothing special to mention. And talking about the different geographies, I know that we are aware -- you know the answer, and Q1 is once again the confirmation of our model, because we have a very similar growth all across our geographies. So nothing special to highlight regarding this performance. And just to take your -- you have the figures on the slide show, but we were close to double-digit growth in our domestic markets, in France with 9.7%, and for the international markets, we were at 14.3% growth.
Got it. And just if you can...
So may be my last comment regarding international is -- as we share last year, we can confirm that we are still in the ramping up period for our 2 new geographies, which are Germany and Switzerland. And I confirm that we are still very positive in these 2 countries.
Got it. And just in terms of the Modani seasonality, the profitability would be second half more I mean, it would be $4.9 million you achieved was more in second half than first half.
Correct.
We can now take our next question from [indiscernible]
I just had one observation, which also will be a question. You're doing several, pretty strategic moves all at the same time, a change of management, entering a big country and I guess, your Head of Digital is now is going to be your CEO, and with the post for digital, so who's going to run the digital function now within Maisons du Monde. So it seems there's a lot to digest. And considering this is a -- an execution story and execution will be key in terms of delivering this, it feels like they have a lot of balls up in the air. So if you could provide some color around how you look at the transition? And whether you feel you're not doing too much at the same time?
Thank you very much [indiscernible] for your question. We see that, as you said, an observation. In fact, I don't really share what you said about that the thought we have too many balls in the air the same times. In my opinion, it's just a contrary. You're right, entering in the U.S. is a strategic project. You can notice that the way we are doing it is really very low-risk project. It's a move forward to a new country, an opportunity to go in a country, in a new territory where we are not -- which is not our traditional territory. But we do that in a very, very, I would say, cautious way. We keep the team, the management team. We do not have any debt. We have a 10 years’ experience from this team. We already have a network of 10 stores. We have a backlog, which is a pipeline, which is clear. So you remember what we said of this, where we like to work in this company, we call the agile way to work. In our opinion, it's just a very agile way to move forward for the company, to follow the strategy we always shared, which is to be a growth story, but without taking this kind of big risk, which should have been a big risk if we were just starting from nothing with a full team, with many, many costs that we shall not have in this operation. So in my opinion, I really thought it was the right time to move forward also in the management of the company. I am in my 63rd year, and I really thought it was the right time to begin, to change the leadership team to change the leading of the company. Now, very progressively and that the reason why I will be very much involved close to Julie and for a large part of my time for many months in the future. That's also the reason why I shall be member of the board in the strategic committee. So I shall follow very closely the business, but I shall hand over on the operational side because I definitely think it is the right time to do it. Julie is the right person. She represents, in my opinion, what we are looking for as an omnichannel company. And you know -- you clearly know my opinion on the fact that we think that we are one of the best-in-class omnichannel company for decoration and furniture in Europe. So I will say that Julie will, even better than me, represent this omnichannel vision and strategy we need to have to continue to ensure the future and to prepare the next phase of Maisons du Monde's story and Maisons du Monde growth. And this will be done at the right pace, not too fast, not in a hurry, which could have been the case within 1 or 2 years. So I preferred to take this anticipation and take it as the way to do it smoothly, better than taking in the as a very abrupt decision. So this is a way we see it, to answer your question.
So who will be running digital?
Yes, so we shall have a succession plan on this. As we have done for the position of Julie, we probably have to study external potential or internal possibilities. Both of them are available.
So the person has not been identified yet?
Not yet. But we have a strong team within the website company -- website activity. You may remember that the during the last -- the roadshow year Julie was not with us, because she had a baby. It's a baby. During that period, the web service continued to run very well. So we have a very good leadership team within the web service. Of course, we need to replace Julie, and we shall replace Julie. But it's not an specific issue or it has not to be done in a hurry, specific hurry time.
We can now take a follow-up question from Anna Patrice from Berenberg.
Couple of questions [ come ] with follow-up questions. First of all, on the current trading, just to understand, was there development in line with the expectation in Q1? Or was it actually better than the expected? And if it was better, in which areas was better? That's the first question. Second question, again, back on Modani. The store network is all over the U.S. So in terms of the logistics, how can they be very optimal in the logistics? And also given that the Internet is quite important in the U.S., do they have enough skill how can they be profitable in their online segment? And how much of the knowledge do you have in terms of their profitability state between online and their physical stores? And then in terms of, again, the stability, were their margins always kind of in the same range as what you -- as what they reported for 2017? Were they below? Were they above? How was their historical development? And the same question also on the top line, was it always even or not? And in terms of their, again, the growth of this company, how much was driven by like-for-like? And how much was driven by their store expansion? And given its furniture, more furniture than home decoration, does it also mean that their working capital, the capital employed, is much higher than compared to yours? And as then seeing that their account for capital employed are significantly lower compared to yours? And then back on the enterprise value, on how much you're going to pay for company? Is that pretty much in line with the multiples of the sector? Looking at your [ books ], at multiples, it's all over the place a bit. I would say on average it's probably around 7x EBITDA. So it doesn't mean that you paid roughly $35 million or will it be closer to 1x of the sales for roughly USD 40 million.
Just to answer your first question. Current trading is in line with our expectation. We're talking about Q1. Now we're talking about Modani. Your question is very good. In fact, which is very interesting is the Modani's business model, is that their set up logistic warehouses close to each of areas where they have stores. So they have the capacity to deliver from these areas one or several stores but the idea, of course, will be to open additional stores and based on the same logistics platform. So it will be part -- it's part of the skills of the Modani business model. Again, very close to our business model. And this is also the way to answer your question about the profitability online on -- in the store. As you know, we have, within the Maisons du Monde, more or less, the same profitability, based on this leverage of logistic platforms. So we can imagine that we shall find the same profitability online as in-store with the Modani activities. Talking about the margin in the past, in fact, they are consistent with the actual figures. And I think I answered all your questions.
[indiscernible] If they have warehouses -- as many warehouses as many stores i.e. close to their -- within the region they operate. It means, that they basically capital employed will be much higher compared to yours so will be not as efficient in terms of return on capital employed compared to you. Would that be correct assumption?
No, no. We are -- I can tell you thanks to the due diligence we have done for this acquisition that we are very, in a similar level, talking about level of inventories and level of working cap. So similar. Very, very similar, because as you'd said, part of this is due to the design took us process. And to be honest, maybe because that's part of this business is linked with the availability of project. We do think that for some part, we can maybe increase, a little bit, the level of inventories just to be able to increase the sale, to increase the like-for-like thanks to the support of Maisons du Monde. So no, no, I can confirm you that very, very similar model. And as a conclusion, very, very similar working capital compared to us.
Okay. And in terms of their sales development and margins development, was the company always or at least over the last few years profitable with same level of margins? Or was 2017 exceptionally strong year? And in terms of growth, again, what was their roughly the growth speed between the store expansion and the like-for-like in the past?
As Gilles said, we are -- it's a small company. But it's a growth story as Maisons du Monde's. We talking about the -- what is your first point was sorry?
The margins of about [indiscernible] and profitable.
Sorry, -- sorry. Talking about the margin, as Gilles said, it's very, very consistent. I can confirm the level of EBITDA in '15, in '14 -- in '16 and '15, were very similar to '17. So no huge impact on '17. The 3 founders ran the company on a very agile way, and connect this history with their own way, but as a growth story. So very, very consistent, which was good in this model and confirm the model. And talking about the driver of the growth between stores opening and like-for-like, there were always positive on the like-for-like on the store basis. And because they had only 10 stores, the year when they opened the stores, there was an impact. But I can confirm you that we are very similar, and Modani is a very profitable growth story.
Okay. And the level of DNA is pretty much similar to yours, right? So it's also will be around 3%, 4% depreciation charges?
A little bit less because their stores are more showrooms compared to our stores, so the level of CapEx is lower compared to our level of CapEx.
[Operator Instructions] As we have no further questions in this -- in the queue at the time, I would like to turn the call back over to you for any additional or closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you. I think we're going to stop the call. Thank you very much for assisting. Hope to see you again very soon. And thank you for your question and your assistance on your responsibility tonight. Goodbye.
Thank you. Goodbye.
Good evening.
Thank you. That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.