Clas Ohlson AB

STO:CLAS B

Earnings Call Transcript

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Okay. Good morning, and welcome to the Clas Ohlson Q4 and Year-End results. My name is Kristofer Tonström, and I'm the President and CEO of Clas Ohlson. And with me today, I have Par Christiansen, our CFO. So we'll do a short presentation before we move into Q&A. And I'll start by doing a brief business update, and then Par will cover the financial development, including events after the reporting period. Then I will conclude and give a little bit of an outlook, and then we will move into the Q&A. So as we go into the business update, I just wanted to take a step back and think about the year that we're actually closing. So if we would have gone back 18 months in time and asked ourselves and made a simulation of all the challenges that could potentially hit us from a macro point of view, I don't think we would have been able to come up with a list of things that actually have materialized over the year. So this has been a year for the full Clas Ohlson organization to very much focus on the things that we can influence. And looking at the macro environment, we've obviously seen complete shutdowns of markets, we've seen traffic going down in physical stores with governments recommending consumers not to visit stores. We've also seen fluctuations in terms of both raw materials, exchange rates and in terms of the global shipping. So it's been a very special year that we're now concluding.So looking at our results as we're concluding year 2021, we have delivered very stable results. So first of all, we've been able to grow our operating profit. So we have delivered 19% operating profit growth, which puts our EBIT margin within our range, and we delivered 6.5%, which is within the range of 6% to 8%, which is our target. That is an increase from 5.2% the year before. We also have a strong cash position, as we close the year. And we have a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio that is actually negative right now. And we've seen our online business growing with 60% over the year. And now the online business accounts for a little bit more than 10% of our total turnover. So net-net, I would say that we have shown, again, that we have a very resilient and flexible business model, also in under these very difficult market conditions. And that we have an organization that is very proactive and spends time within the things that we can actually influence. On top of that, despite the challenges that we'll talk a little bit more about, in Norway, in the recent quarter, we have actually delivered full year organic growth in Norway, which again shows the strength of the brand and our position. So moving a little bit more into the fourth quarter and the top lines, this obviously has been a quarter very much influenced by the events in Norway. So during the period, almost half of our physical stores have been closed in large parts of the quarter, which has resulted in a net sales decline and Norway is the single biggest driver of the decline in the fourth quarter. Also, traffic in the other 2 countries to the physical stores has been a challenge. At the same time, our online sales has grown 89% in the quarter and our gross margin has been unchanged, whilst our EBIT margin declines a little bit. And Par will come back to more details on the fourth quarter in a moment.So in terms of the COVID-19 effects, I have already mentioned a few of the effects in terms of market restrictions, et cetera. But obviously, our #1 priority as an organization is to secure the safety of our coworkers and the safety of our customers and that has been the case also throughout this quarter. So as said, online sales gone up. We've seen traffic decline, but also closed stores in Norway. And also looking at across our markets, the locations that usually are a strength for us as a company with city centers and shopping malls with high traffic, obviously, has been more impacted than other locations during this period. We've also seen recently imbalances in global supply chains with both a shortfall of containers on a global basis, but also the challenges following the event in the Suez Canal a few weeks ago. So looking at the development and our execution versus our strategy. Obviously, we keep focusing on the 3 key areas of smartness and simplicity, our unique customer offer and outstanding customer service. And a couple of examples from the quarter that we're closing. So on the smartness and simplicity, we have now completed the stage -- the first stage of our e-com automation in our distribution center up in Insjön. I was just there the other day, and it was great to see orders that had been placed in the morning, just a couple of hours later, leaving the distribution center. So that's obviously a milestone. But it will take a bit of time before that's fully up and running across the full assortment. We also continued building digital capabilities. We've opened the office and our new store in Malmö as our digital hub. And we have also announced the opening of a office in Vietnam as part of our sourcing strategy to have more breadth and options moving forward.When it comes to the unique customer offer, one thing we have talked about a little bit, and which is becoming more and more of a focus, is very much lifting our focus on our destination categories and going beyond selling products and categories to really solving very concrete and tangible customer problems and delivering on customer needs. And 2 good examples of those are, first of all, our organize, which is organize your home, no matter what part of your home. And the second one that we are focused on has been the modern do-it-yourself, with helping customers to repair, renovate, instead of buying new all the time. Those are 2 examples of us trying to lift beyond the product and category and solve customer problems. And we have learned and are getting a good playbook in place that now can be applied to more categories moving forward.Also during the quarter, we've seen good development with our platform partners as part of their growing business as well. And last, but not least, in terms of our customer service, we've seen continuous strong growth in terms of our Club Clas membership. We've actually added 250,000 new members into Club Clas. And that is a key priority for us moving forward, gaining new members and driving value per member is a critical focus. On top of that, our organization in Norway has been extremely agile and flexible and within hours, have been able to rebuild and restructure our stores from stores to actually distribution centers. And 7 out of 10 e-com customers in Norway have now bought and picked up products outside of our stores. So those are some examples of what we're doing versus our strategy.When it comes to our ambitious sustainability agenda, we have made progress. In terms of offering a sustainable offer to our customers, we have something that -- a range of products that we define as driving a more sustainable lifestyle. That is now approaching a quarter of our total sales, so that's going in the right direction. We've also been able to now secure 100% eco-labeling on our alkaline batteries. And we have also seen growth and given more accessibility to our spare parts assortment, both online and in-store. This is an area that customers are more and more interested in. And last, but not least, we've also closed -- been closing in on our ambition to be more gender-balanced across all our employees.So with that short update, I'll hand over to Par to go through a little bit more details in terms of the financial development in the quarter and the year.

[Par Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you, Kristofer. Good morning, everyone. Looking at the financial development, starting with the sales development in the fourth quarter, we saw a decline of 6% to SEK 1,538 million. Our organic sales was down 6%, and like-for-like sales was down 6%. We saw a decline in all markets. On the positive side, we saw a very strong growth on online sales, up 89% to SEK 274 million, and it was corresponding to 18% of the sales in the quarter. Then looking at sales development for the full year. Total sales was down 5% to SEK 8,284 million. Organic sales was down 1% and like-for-like sales down 1%. We saw a decline in Sweden and Finland, but quite good growth in Norway for the full year. Online sales was up 60%, and the network of stores was unchanged during the year. Looking at the gross margin in the fourth quarter, the gross margin was unchanged at 39.9%. On the positive side, we saw improved product mix, lower campaign intensity as well as a weaker purchasing currency U.S. dollar contributing to the margin. On the negative side, we saw effects of the currency hedging on the NOK as well as some exchange rates effect going through our inventory. Looking at the share of selling expenses, we saw a small increase of the share of selling expenses by 1.6% to 40.9%. Main factor was the decline in sales as well as some increased cost due to the increased Click & Collect offering in Norway because of the closed stores. Our administrative expenses in the fourth quarter declined by SEK 3 million compared to the same quarter last year. And this is the effect of our focus on cost as well as finding better ways to optimize the way we work and find more efficient working methods. Looking at the operating profit in the fourth quarter. The operating profit decreased to SEK 64 million negative compared to minus SEK 41 million in the previous year. Looking at the EBIT margin, it was minus 4.2%. Earnings per share was minus SEK 1.02. Then looking at the full year, we ended the full year with the EBIT margin, excluding IFRS, of 6.5%, which was in line with our target to have EBIT margin of 6% to 8%. Looking at operating profit itself, it improved to SEK 608 million compared to SEK 549 million previous year. EBIT margin, including IFRS 16 effect, was 7.3%. And for the year, earnings per share was SEK 6.65. Looking at the full year investments, they were in line with the previous year, ending at SEK 228 million. We invested mainly in new stores and refurbishments, IT systems and also investments in our distribution system. Inventory level increased somewhat to SEK 1,832 million, compared to SEK 1,811 million previous year. We also improved the inventory rate to 5.8x compared to 5.6x previous year. We also ended the year with a strong cash flow, SEK 749 million compared to SEK 1,817 million (sic) [ SEK 817 million ] previous year. And as Kristofer said earlier, we have a net cash position with a net debt-to-EBITDA to minus 0.7x. And we also have approved credit facilities of SEK 1.1 billion. Today, we've also received the proposal from the Board, and they proposed a dividend of SEK 6.22 (sic) [ SEK 6.25 ] per share to be distributed in 2 separate payments, equally distributed of SEK 3.125. And this is in line with the previously communicated dividend policy and guidance. Then moving on, looking at events after the reporting period. Today, we also announced the May sales. May sales was down 3% to SEK 610 million. Organic sales was down 5%. And like-for-like, sales was down 5%. In the month, we have a negative calendar effect of 4%. Online sales was up 21%. And we have increased 1 store compared to the end of May last year. Now handing back to Kristofer for a summary.

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Thank you, Par. So looking forward, before we move into the Q&A. Obviously, having a clear direction is crucial, and our base strategy remains. And we believe that the year that we're closing shows that we have the basic stability and the strong position to continue forward. Looking at -- as we move forward, we want to really build on our strengths as an organization and as a company.And as a starting point, we are playing in a very attractive market. So the home improvement market across Sweden, Norway and Finland as the main markets, amount to SEK 90 billion in terms of total market value, which means that we have a little bit less than 10% market share as a company. So there is definitely room for growth within the existing categories. We have also shown that we have been able to deliver a strong financial track record based on -- especially looking at the last 12 months, we've been able to be both resilient and flexible. And we are investing our both time and effort to really become the industry leader in terms of sustainability across our categories. We also have a very strong brand, and therefore, a strong market position. Our Clas Ohlson brand has close to 90% awareness, very high household penetration, high preference, high likability. So we have a strong base and a strong position from a brand point of view to continue leveraging. Also, looking forward, we do have compelling growth opportunities within the markets where we mainly operate and within the categories where we mainly operate. And our ambition is to take market share within this category of home improvement. We also believe that we're equipped with the relevant competence for the future, and we keep building both in terms of competence, but also structures to become stronger and more adapted for the future markets. We're guided by our strategy and our key focus is on our team, building a winning team with our coworkers and driving high customer satisfaction. And we're guided by our purpose to make a difference to people in all kinds of homes. And as a result, we aim to deliver on our financial targets of the 6% to 8% EBIT margin and the growth of 5%. So obviously, focus forward needs to be to really deliver on the growth as well as profitability. So looking at the focus areas now as we have kicked off our new fiscal year here on May 1, we're very much focusing in on some core parts of our business. With the first one being really taking the next stage in terms of strengthening our key product categories. I gave some examples earlier in terms of organize your home, modern do-it-yourself. And we believe we have the recipe to really continue to lift from product category to broader solutions and to really capitalize on the importance of the home. So even though we plan for restrictions to ease up after the summer, we believe that the home is a very attractive place to continue to operate in. And the key thing is solving customers' real problems and understanding what the customers' real problems are. The second thing is to really capture and start driving traffic. So as said, we have a very strong brand, we have a strong position and we believe and we -- or we hypothesize that with loosened restrictions that there is an opportunity to start driving traffic again come this fall. We have obviously been careful over the last year to drive traffic to physical store given the situation with the pandemic. But assuming that restrictions start to lift off and that we are entering more of a vaccinated society this fall, we also want to start driving traffic again back to our stores. And we do that by optimizing our marketing and by ensuring we have the right relevant offer with the right product in the right time. Last, but not least, in terms of the traffic and brand work, continuously evolving and developing our Club Clas membership program and driving more members and value per member will be even more crucial moving forward, and owning that customer data is going to be crucial. And last but not least, as I said initially, our e-com and online business now is a little bit more than 10% of our total revenue. We believe that we still -- there is still room to grow. We see that our customers are engaging with us online, and we believe we can do more to expand that channel. And it's about shortening lead times. It's about really continuously developing our customer meeting online. And that's why we've made investments in our distribution center, as one example. But also as society starts opening up more, we believe that the integration of our physical channel, the personal customer meeting and the personal service in our physical stores, in combination with a more efficient online business, is very much a differentiator and something to focus on. The customer satisfaction in our physical stores is very high. And our coworkers meeting customers in our stores are knowledgeable and they can give service. So getting those 2 channels closer together and thinking customer and not only channel is going to be crucial. So to close out, again, we've been tested in the last year to ensure that we spend time, energy and effort on things we can influence, and we're going to continue doing that. It's really about executing on the strategy and deliver on our financial targets. I've shared a few focus areas in terms of the key areas we believe will help us start driving growth again. And we, meanwhile, need to ensure that we stay efficient and continuously become more efficient as an organization to be able to balance growth with also a solid operating margin also moving forward. So as said, we want to be very -- it's hard to predict anything in this uncertain times, but at least we're preparing ourselves for more of a reopened society after summer. And while staying very agile and flexible, trying to adapt to things that could change on a short notice. So that's it for the presentation part. And we now want to move in to Q&A. So Niklas.

[Niklas Carlsson, Group Head of Communications]

Thank you. And I'll start by handing over to the teleconference and see if we have any questions in line there.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from the line of Niklas Ekman from Carnegie.

[Niklas Ekman]

Just a couple of questions, if I may. Firstly, if you can elaborate a little bit here on the strength that you saw the last summer, if you can give some background to why the figures were particularly strong and if you think there is any chance that you can see a similar result this summer, considering that the staycations are likely to continue this year? Or will that not be a similar positive factor in the coming months? That's my first question.

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Sorry, now the line was breaking up a little bit. But if I heard your question correctly, it referred to last year's base and the growth that we saw last summer, was that correct? And how we look at this summer, was that correct?

[Niklas Ekman]

Yes, exactly.

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Okay. No. So as you say, I mean -- and as you can see in the report, obviously, the first quarter last year was a very strong quarter. And obviously, Clas Ohlson, together with the rest of society, was preparing for a summer of lockdown in terms of both being very cost focused, cutting anything that wasn't crucial, while also prepping for a downturn in terms of consumption. And obviously, what we saw last summer was an increase in sales and traffic, especially in Norway. We saw it across. But looking at our growth numbers in Norway, they were more than double-digit growth. And we do see, looking at -- as Par talked about our May numbers, May was still impacted by the restrictions in Norway, and we have seen traffic in all markets actually being below last year, May. So again, it's impossible to predict, but we are planning for more of a return, again, maybe starting as of September and that's a little bit the status as we look at the closed May numbers.

[Niklas Ekman]

And you're not expecting any impact given that a bit of the restrictions that many thought would be [indiscernible] are progressing quickly? You're not anticipating any opening up effects here during the summer of this year?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

I mean, obviously, we're doing what we can in terms of, in a responsible way, driving traffic. But again, we see traffic -- at least now at the May numbers that we just released, we see traffic still being down versus last year. And then, of course, it will depend on the speed of ease of restrictions. If we do see restrictions easing earlier, and if we do see traffic return, obviously, we're going to capture that earlier, but at least our hypothesis is that the bigger trend will come this fall.

[Niklas Ekman]

And perhaps, I don't know if you came up with the [ general read ] there but because you have not closed that many stores, but looking at many malls today, you see a lot of vacancy, the many stores that are closing that will slightly push down footfall even as the markets reopen. Do you see that as a problem and has that, in any way, impacted your view on your store portfolio? Or are you looking at maybe closing more stores than you had an initially planned maybe 1, 2 years ago?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

So obviously, that's a very, very relevant question. And I mean, looking across the whole market of retail, obviously, stores that used to be the biggest strength, 1, 1.5 years ago, now are -- might be more of a problem, whereas the stores that used to be a problem are now high-traffic area stores. So I think what we can conclude is that it's been very unpredictable. As you said, there are some shopping malls, obviously, more impacted than others. And for us, it's really about balancing here in terms of not making too rush decisions because I don't think anyone knows what will happen as society starts to ease restrictions. As an example, will people go back more to their offices or not? Will the city centers and the shopping malls regain? We simply don't know. And for us, it's really crucial to continue being disciplined as we are today to look at store by store and ask ourselves, does this store serve a purpose, both when it comes to financial development and financial attribution to the rest of the business, but also in terms of the customer journey. I mean we've done a good job of sending products directly from stores to customers, doing pickup in-store, Click & Collect, et cetera. So it is really about looking at the full customer journey. So it's really about having a bit of patience. And -- but if we do see big trends that are long-term shifting, obviously, we will react on that. But we believe it's important not to make rushed decisions in this time, but still scrutinize every decision and every store independently.

[Niklas Ekman]

That's very clear. And you mentioned some changes here in your assortment. Are you looking at a change in a number of SKUs as well? Or is it merely fine-tuning and it shifts from one category to another?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

So obviously, we do have a very broad range, and it's not -- we're not specifically planning to significantly increase the total range. It's really about having depth in the right areas to really allow customers to find full solutions to their problems. So it's more that focus than significantly expanding. That said, obviously, we need to be flexible and agile, and that's what we're trying to build into our value chain as well, if we do come across new areas where we're currently not present. But at least looking at it right now, it's about the relevance of each offer than making enormous SKU expansions.

[Operator]

And the next question comes from the line of Carl Deijenberg from Carnegie.

[Carl Deijenberg, Research Analyst]

And so my first question is related to online sales made up roughly 20% of sales here in March and April and around 12% here in May, and I understand that is a lot related to Click & Collect and primarily in Norway. But could you say anything sort of where you're aiming to be a bit more long-term in online share of sales? And maybe also how that is affecting your margin on group levels? And maybe also how the average order value is different say in between physical and retail because I assume also that you have some more cost compared to retail or physical retail given fulfillment costs?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

So maybe I'll give an overall perspective and then maybe, Par, if you want to comment on the margin between channels. But overall, as you say, we've seen 89% growth on our online business in the fourth quarter, 60% in the full year. And obviously, part of that has been driven by the situation in the last 12 months. We believe, again, that there is further upside and potential. And that obviously relates into the category question of ensuring the right offers in the right time to the right customers. So by trimming and improving our customer satisfaction in e-com, we believe there is more upside. But of course, it's about being responsible and balance that also from a margin point of view. And there are some differences in patterns in terms of what and how much you buy online versus what and how much you buy in the physical stores. And it's really about having the ability to optimize the online channel for that customer experience, whereas we optimize it for our physical stores. So we believe there's more sales upside. I don't want to give specific numbers in terms of percent of total sales because, of course, that has a lot of different variables and factors. But again, I think the key thing for us is to move even more from how we sell things and ensuring that is great, but then really to what we sell across channels. So I hope that gives a bit of perspective. But maybe, Par, you want to comment on the margin?

[Par Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. Yes. And if you see online as something that actually converts online, then it, of course, then could divide into things that are delivered to the home, to a pick-a-point or delivered through a store. And by dividing the online sales into that, of course, there are different pockets of profitability. As we have seen now in Norway, where there is a pick-in-store increase, there is a positive movement in both ATV because people are buying more, they don't want to go there twice. But on the other hand, then, in the physical store visits, we see a different change in the frequency. So looking forward, I think we should see it as a more combination on omni offering, where they contribute. Looking at pure e-com, of course, there is more sales of known brands, which has a lower margin, and there's more price pressure on that. But when you look at the omni offering online converting, the margins are starting to meet each other because it's the same type of customer, the same type of customer journey. So I think that over time will convert into a better margin in total and more sales. But just separating order type of online and order type of store, then there's a big of a difference between the -- what we call online and stores. So there, you're right.

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

And if I can just add one thing on top of that. The reason we also talk a lot about our Club Clas and our membership is -- membership program is, of course, that we want to drive the overall value of our different customer groups. And obviously, some high-value customers can make some low-value, low-margin transactions here and there, but it's really about thinking about the longer-term value impact on the customer level. And that's why it's such an asset for us to have the relationships with millions of customers and also their data. So that's also a little bit what I mean with going beyond channel to customer value focus.

[Carl Deijenberg, Research Analyst]

That's very clear. And on that topic a bit, the traffic in Norway here, we talk about temporary store closures here in March and April and maybe a bit more of a restoration here in May. But still that footfall, of course, is lower than May last year, but could you give a bit of color sort of the situation where you are right now in May? Maybe you already said it before, but are all the stores in Norway allowed to be open today or what is the situation there now?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Yes. So obviously, there has been almost a daily, but certainly weekly, changes with the situation in Norway, given that the regions make up their own decision. So looking at the fourth quarter, in a large part of that quarter, up to half of the stores were closed. And also the first week of May, we also had multiple stores closed. Then everything opened again. And then there were again some local restrictions forcing us to close 1 store again and another store here and there. So right now, we are allowed to be open across Norway. But again, there are a lot of local differences and restrictions. And it might be that when we're leaving this meeting, something new has happened. So we need to stay very, very close to the development on a daily basis. I think the good news is, I mean, we've shared a lot of imagery internally in terms of what our stores now, across Norway, have looked like during this period. And again, I think the flexibility of our colleagues operating these stores to more or less rebuild the store to a warehouse and then have a pickup point outside, I think even though it's frustrating with these big swings, I think the team has shown that even when it happens, we can do what we can to drive customer satisfaction. But obviously, still a big part of sales is always going to be impulse-driven, and obviously, that is making it difficult to always -- to cover the full drop with our online business. But that's a little bit what the situation looks like right now in Norway.

[Carl Deijenberg, Research Analyst]

Okay, perfect. And then a question maybe a bit more to Par, and that's related to the currency hedges here in the quarter. Has a quite large negative impact, if I understand it correctly. And I mean, looking at the gross margin here sequentially, drops quite significantly, although it's flat year-on-year. And you're writing in the report also that's related to both the Norwegian krone and then, of course, the U.S. dollar and that it differs then, the contracts between a 3- to 9-month basis. But could you sort of elaborate a bit the dynamics here because I'm trying to understand it for modeling purposes later during this year, how this is going to affect you? Because right now, the dollar should be quite favorable for you also going forward. Or is there more or something we should be particularly aware of here going into Q1?

[Par Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer]

I mean in the report, we show the -- as of end of April, the valuation of the current hedges. And looking at that, you can see that since the Norwegian krona has recovered a little bit, there's -- there will be a negative impact in the beginning from the Norwegian hedges and the same for the dollar that has been weakening towards the krona. But then looking at the last months here, the krona -- Norwegian krona has stabilized around 1, being a little bit above, a little bit below. So I guess given that, the hedges will, over time, I mean, be less impacting. Of course, we hope for increase going back to historical levels and then take the hit, of course, of the hedges. But right now, it's -- we have some negative impact coming, if everything stays the same from the NOK. Looking at the dollar, we will have, of course, positive effect from purchasing in dollar, with somewhat a negative effect from the hedges. But also, there's an inventory delay dependent on which kind of product you look at that will go through the inventory and then hit the P&L. We have a moving average valuation of our inventory, which means that over time, everything will, of course, be smoothened out. But right now, we will significantly see a positive effect on the dollar effect for the sales coming.

[Carl Deijenberg, Research Analyst]

Okay. And final question is on the dividend here. It's restored here then after the cancel from last year. But even though -- and looking at your balance sheet today, maybe this is also a bit more for a question to the Board. But is there any sort of investments that you're planning to take during the coming year? Or is there any sort of particular reason why the distribution is not higher here given that you are at a net cash position and also that the cash flows has been very strong in the year despite COVID?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Maybe I can start and then -- so -- but as you rightly say, the dividend decision, obviously, is recommended by the Board. And -- so I don't want to comment that in too much detail. But that said, obviously, it is a good -- we are in a good position. And obviously, we're happy that we -- that the Board can recommend that. So that's the overall. And then I don't know whether you want to comment on the investments' forward part?

[Par Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer]

No, I mean, looking at investments in the business as such, I guess, we expect to have them on a similar level that we have had in the past here, between SEK 200 million and SEK 250 million a year. But if you're a little bit asking for whether we will do any other activities in the M&A or something like that, that's nothing we want to comment about right now.

[Operator]

And as there are no further questions, I'll hand it back to the speakers.

[Niklas Carlsson, Group Head of Communications]

And we have 3 questions from Stefan Stjernholm, Nordea, from the webcast. And the first one is clear slowdown in online growth in May, any particular reason behind that?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Yes. So looking at May, last year, the business online grew almost 70%. So obviously, we have to look at the growth level this May on top of that base. And yes, so that's the -- one of the explanations in terms of the number. A SEK 74 million sales number is still good. But again, as said before, we keep focusing on this channel, together with other channels, to drive total customer value. But we have to look at the growth rate in light of also what happened in May last year. And so that's the general comment.

[Niklas Carlsson, Group Head of Communications]

And we also have 2 questions about sourcing then. Supply constraints and how concerned should we be, Stefan asks? Do you expect any substantial impact on sales in the coming months?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

So I mean, if I give a general sales perspective, and then maybe you want to comment a little bit more, Par? So of course, as with a lot of other things, the sourcing, shipping market has been very unpredictable and things have happened. So we are doing everything that we can to be proactive, which means to ensure that we get products home earlier and ensure we have the products as we start crucial seasons, et cetera. The other thing is, obviously, that we need to be very agile in terms of what categories and what products to push, depending on availability. And we have had shortages a little bit here and there, not full categories, but on a product-by-product level. So it's about having agility in the sales and marketing organization to ensure that we push things where we also have enough stock. So obviously, our job is to ensure minimum impact of this, but there are also, of course, both cost and other things we can't influence in the short term. So I don't know, Par, would you have any more comments on that?

[Par Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer]

No. Of course, there will not be an increase of cost because of the transportation. But as we discussed a little bit earlier questions there, there might be positive effect from the dollar. So there will be many factors that will, at the end, determine what kind of gross margin we'll have moving forward, including pricing to the customers. So still -- it's still pretty early to say where everything will end up. But of course, there will be an increase, if you specifically look at the sea freight cost for the coming months.

[Niklas Carlsson, Group Head of Communications]

And lastly, sourcing prices, so all external factors combined, what's the expected impact on gross margin for the coming quarters? Positive, negative?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Do you want to take that?

[Par Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer]

I think there will be a balance, as I said. The purchasing currency dollar will, of course, be a contributing factor on the positive side with the increased pricings from oil-related products, from metals. So there will, of course, be some pressure on that. We have discussions with all our suppliers to, of course, try to offset that in many ways. So it's -- I think it's still pretty early to say the net-net effect of everything on the gross margin.

[Niklas Carlsson, Group Head of Communications]

Thank you. And we have no further questions from the webcast viewers, but I hear that we have additional questions from the telephone conference. I'll hand back to the telephone conference.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of [ Niklas Eriksson ] from [ Acher Husen ].

[Unknown Analyst]

I have a question about online sales. What is the goal for the future for Clas Ohlson to reach how high percentage of the revenue in online sales?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Now so as I said before, it's obviously a lot of different factors impacting, especially that number. And of course, we don't want to only optimize total percentage online, we want to grow total revenue. Again, we're closing a year where we have taken a big step and grown 60%. We're a bit above 10%. Looking at general market, we believe that there is still further upside to grow that channel specifically. But again, in terms of focus for us, rather than optimizing that number, the focus is to drive total growth. And driving total growth, then obviously links into the categories, but also, as I referred to before, value per member, value per customer, no matter what channel the customer converts in. And so honestly, I don't think there is a golden number exactly what that ratio should be. I think the key thing for us is to deliver on the 5% total growth, while maintaining our operating margin between 6% and 8%. So I think that's the thought on that.

[Unknown Analyst]

And also, you can see the last 10 years, you can see the big discussions about online sales, but if you can check and compare the companies in the business, you can see that the most profitable companies is still focusing on retail, and they don't reach more than 10% to 50% sale online because when they reach too high, they have problem between profitability and margins and some get bankrupt because they unbalance the customer in the wrong way. So it sounds that you have a good strategy, I think.

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Good. Thank you. Now that's obviously the balance act. And again, really driving the totality and not looking at only that number. So very good.

[Operator]

One question from the line of Nicklas Skogman from Handelsbanken.

[Nicklas Skogman, Research Analyst]

Yes, your financial targets are obviously unchanged, i.e., 5% organic growth and 6% to 8% EBIT margin. But would you want to highlight any changes in the way you aim to achieve this compared to the previous strategy of Clas Ohlson?

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Again, it's going to be a combination of the factors that we talked about. Of course, as I referred to before, for us, it's really about capturing traffic again back to our stores. We've seen decline over the last year. So of course, recapturing some of that traffic is obviously going to contribute to the overall growth. And then the other aspect, continuously growing e-com on top of that growth. So channel wise, we plan for and focus on driving growth across both channels. And then back to also what I referred to earlier, the other question is also when it comes to category -- categories in terms of identifying the categories where there's market share potential to grow. And then thirdly, in terms of customer, gaining more members, driving value per member. So the 5% target for the year that we've just started is a little bit distributed across some of these areas.

[Operator]

And there are no further questions.

[Kristofer Tonström, President & CEO]

Okay. So thank you very much for joining us this morning. So as said, we are closing a year, we're closing a quarter. We have a solid foundation to stand on, but we need to focus on our -- executing on our strategy to deliver our targets. And we have a very committed Clas Ohlson team looking forward to continue this journey forward. So thank you very much, and have a good day.