RVRC Holding AB
STO:RVRC
Earnings Call Analysis
Summary
Q1-2024
RevolutionRace displayed a strong start in its 2023-2024 fiscal year with net sales surging by 24% to SEK 342 million, outperforming the previous year's SEK 276 million. The global expansion was noteworthy as all regions delivered growth, especially the 'rest of the world' segment which soared by 44%, led by the UK and the Netherlands. Operating profit (EBIT) reached SEK 67 million, translating to an EBIT margin of 19.5%, indicating underlying business performance improvement despite a no contribution from net operating income and expenses compared to SEK 11 million the previous year. The gross margin remained healthy at 72.2%, with the company effectively managing its inventory ahead of the peak season and maintaining solid operational cash flows of SEK 25 million. Furthermore, the board has recommended an increased dividend of SEK 0.86 per share, equating to a 40% payout ratio, pending approval at the annual general meeting on November 21.
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Welcome to the RevolutionRace Q1 presentation for the year 2023-2024. [Operator Instructions]Now I will hand the conference over to CEO, Paul Fischbein; and CFO, Jesper Alm. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone, and welcome to this conference call for RevolutionRace, where we will address the report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023-2024.My name is Paul Fischbein and I'm the CEO of RevolutionRace and with me for today's conference call, I have the company's CFO Jesper Alm. And for those of you who are not familiar with RevolutionRace, I will now give you a brief introduction.RevolutionRace is an outdoor brand offering a wide range of outdoor products for people with an active lifestyle. We operate with a digital D2C business model, meaning that we skip the middleman and sell our products directly to our customers. By doing so we can offer quality products at unmatched value.RevolutionRace was founded in 2013 and has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since 2021, so approximately 2.5 years ago. Our headquarter is located in Boras in Sweden, and we have approximately 120 employees. What really makes us stand out is our engaged customer community. We know how to communicate with our customers, resulting in more than 500,000 unique product reviews and more than 1.4 million followers and fans on our social media platforms.Our vision is to become the most recommended outdoor brand in the world. And our mission is to make nature accessible to everyone through an unmatched value. I already mentioned our D2C business model and we create value by skipping the middleman and selling directly to our customers and consumers.RevolutionRace is now a truly international brand. We now have customers in around 40 countries with a total of 18 localized web shops. We are currently fulfilling orders at 2 main logistics hubs in Germany and in Sweden and also with a smaller location in the U.S. We design all our products in-house and work together with more than 25 suppliers in the production.Now let's take a look at the net sales development for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023 and '24. And we are very proud to say that we achieved a net sales growth of 24% in the quarter arriving at SEK 342 million compared to SEK 276 million a year ago. We are very pleased also to see how our brand is becoming increasingly international, as I mentioned and that we are now delivering growth in all the regions during the quarter.The rest of the world region showed the highest growth percentage during the quarter with an impressive sales growth of 44% with U.K. and the Netherlands as the 2 largest markets in that region.The DACH region, which is our biggest region, continued to grow by 23% and it is also promising now to see that the Nordic region showed a positive growth of 14% in the quarter, meaning that we are now back to growth in the region, although the market conditions are perhaps the most challenging there.If we look closer on the highlights during the first quarter, we are pleased to see that RevolutionRace continues to report solid financial numbers with good profitability, despite the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and also weak consumer sentiment. And I think this demonstrates our ability to continue growing profitability and above all that the RevolutionRace customer proposition is very strong.EBIT for the quarter amounted to SEK 67 million, which corresponds to an EBIT margin of 19.5%, so almost 20% EBIT margin. This is an operating margin that we are pleased with, given the challenging market climate and also due to the fact that the first quarter is historically due to seasonality our smallest quarter.It is also worth noting the difference in net operating income and expenses, which contributed to SEK 11 million in Q1 last year in 2022 and '23, but with 0 in this quarter. And this indicates that the underlying improvement in results in the business is significant compared to the previous year. And this is important and also relevant to understand and take into account when looking at the results and comparing to last year. And this, of course, shows that the results have improved very much, which is worth highlighting.We are still observing substantial discounts in the market due to high inventory levels in the market, but we managed to keep our gross margin at a good level, which is important. The gross margin came in at 72.2% in the quarter. We are -- if we go on, we are satisfied with our inventory position and the inventory development during the quarter. Ahead of Q2, we have carried out the planned inventory buildup before the peak season and we are now well prepared for the strongest period. We expect inventory levels to even out over the fiscal year, which is in line with the previous years.Moreover, our financial position is strong. Cash flow from operations amounted to SEK 25 million, even though we build up inventory at the same time. We have a solid cash position of SEK 177 million. And on top of that, we also have an undrawn credit facility in place of SEK 600 million. And as a result of the strong result, our strong cash position, the Board have also proposed an increased dividend to be decided at the AGM in 2 weeks' time. We see this increase of distribution to shareholders as a sign of continued strong performance and confidence despite the overall market uncertainty.If you follow us, then you know by now that the customer dialogue is central to our success. And together with reviews and followers on our social media channels, this is a very important asset and success factor. Social media following is continuing to increase very fast and now amounts to more than 1.4 million and with now more than 0.5 million product reviews by our customers with an average score of 4.6 out of 5.Also, if we look at some other highlights in the first quarter, for the second year in a row, together with the foundation Generation Pep and Svenskt Friluftsliv, we have recognized and celebrated what we in Sweden call Allemansrattens Dag. Together, we strive to increase the awareness of Allemansrattens and inspire more and especially children and young people to explore nature and outdoor.In early October, we won the Swedish market awards in the sports and leisure category, which is satisfying and further an evidence that we are on the right path. We are a product company and during the quarter, we have continued to expand our product range and further develop our products.The launch of the new shoe, what we call the Trailknit Mid, was a success and we have also introduced lighter jackets and vests among other things in the quarter. Furthermore, we have relaunched some of our best-selling collections with more sustainable materials and we look forward to introducing even more innovations in the upcoming quarter, such as, for example, our new Alpine range, which will be launched now in November, something we are looking forward to.During the past quarter, we have made significant progress in our sustainability efforts and we have completed a comprehensive sustainability report that clearly demonstrates our progress and future commitment to responsible operations. As part of our ongoing sustainability work, we have established strategic partnerships with industry-leading organizations such as Bluesign and Better Cotton.We are currently in the final fiscal year covered by our financial goals and we are happy to report net sales of SEK 1.6 billion and an adjustment EBIT margin of 21% for the last 12 months. And that's communicated in conjunction with the full year report for the last fiscal year. The Board of Directors proposed a dividend of SEK 0.86 per share corresponding to a payout ratio of 40% of our results. And this is to be decided on the upcoming Annual General Meeting taking place on November 21.And with that, I would like to hand over to the company's CFO, Jesper Alm, who will now present and walk through the financial performance.
Thank you, Paul, and good morning, everyone. I will talk you through our financial performance during the first quarter. Looking into gross profit, we notice a good development with growth of 25% to SEK 247 million, up from SEK 197 million a year ago. This equals a gross margin of 72.2% compared to 71.4% a year ago.The gross margin has been positively affected by a favorable market mix, including effects from sales in euro, but offset by increasing costs of goods sold following a stronger USD and higher price reductions as a consequence of the market situation. On a rolling 12-months level, gross profit is now approaching SEK 1.2 billion.Moving on to operational expenses, we see a limited increase in personnel expenses compared to the same quarter last year. Staffing levels have at the same time decreased slightly due to being careful in replacing staff turnover. Other external expenses increased to SEK 154 million compared to SEK 136 million a year ago, which is a reduction as share of net sales from above 49% to the current level of around 45%. The cost increase in absolute terms is explained by these costs primarily being variable in relation to sales.Operating expenses which is other external expenses and personnel costs as share of net sales went from 56.9% to 52% when comparing first quarters and that is a fairly positive development.EBIT for the quarter amounted to SEK 67 million compared to SEK 50 million a year ago, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 19.5% compared to 17.4%. This noting that the first quarter last year included other operating income of SEK 11 million. So in brief, the improved EBIT margin is due to improved gross margin and lower cost levels across the board. The resulting EBIT in absolute terms has increased by 34% from SEK 50 million to SEK 67 million in this quarter.When it comes to the balance sheet, we see only limited changes. Net working capital has increased slightly following a reduction of current liabilities. As communicated last quarter, we have ahead of the upcoming peak season carried out the planned inventory buildup. We expect the inventory levels to flatten out over the year, which is in line with last year. The inventory amounts to SEK 498 million now compared to SEK 525 million a year ago.Our financial position has continued to strengthen and we had a cash position of SEK 177 million at quarter end or a net cash position of SEK 163 million when adjusting for lease liabilities. We have a credit facility of SEK 600 million available and that matures in 2028.So in conclusion, RevolutionRace has a solid financial position, growing profitably with strong cash flows and we're in a good position to distribute the proposed SEK 97 million should the upcoming AGM so resolve.So I think that sums up my part and I'll hand over back to you, Paul.
Thank you. To sum things up, also giving an update on current trading. First of all, overall, we are pleased with the start of the fiscal new year and what we are presenting today with this report and we are looking forward to the upcoming weeks, which of course also constitutes the company's seasonally most important sales period.We believe that RevolutionRace is very well positioned for the future. We maintain a very strong financial position also. During the beginning of the second quarter, which we are now in, we saw continued strong development with sales growth up until now in the quarter of around 20%. This is despite the weak market conditions.And that concludes our comments on the result. And -- but before we finish, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the whole team at RevolutionRace, our customers, shareholders and partners and other stakeholders. And I look very much forward to continuing to build on RevolutionRace's success together with all of you.And with that, we are now happy to answer questions. So operator, do we have any questions?
[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Benjamin Wahlstedt from ABGSC.
Congratulations on a strong quarter. I hope you can hear me well. So first of all, I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about the Nordics, turning back to growth, quite solid growth at that. What have you done to turn the story around the time, please?
I believe there's no sort of silver bullet explaining that, not one component. I think that we're underlying -- we have a strong proposition in the market. We call it the unmatched value. We sell high quality products with nice design, but at competitive prices. And maybe one explanation is that when consumer sentiment is a bit weaker as we have seen in some external reports, maybe that is also an explanation why we have managed to turn our momentum around.We have a interesting proposition with competitive prices. So that is maybe something that is appealing to customers. But on top of that, we have been focusing on maintaining high customer reviews, a close relation with our community on social media. So I guess that is what we see in the Nordics is many activities sort of a result of many good activities in the market.
Perfect. You have previously noted and I saw Fenix Outdoor commented in its report as well, discounting in the Nordics is a hot topic. Fenix Outdoor commented that they see signs of further discounting in the Nordics coming up. Is this something you see as well or can you comment on the market environment in the Nordics in general? Do you see any improvement for the end of the calendar year?
Yes. We see -- I mean we sort of -- our feeling is that we still see heavy discounting. We also note in external reports from institutions like [ Svensk Handel ], and we also see some industry colleagues reporting that it is continuing to be a pretty challenging environment and with high inventory levels and as a result of that also more aggressive discounts.We are now entering into normally a month with high frequency of campaigns. We have already noted that some players have started with campaigning. And so I believe that we had hope for -- when we talked a couple of months ago that this fall and winter, we would see maybe a lowered frequency of campaigns. But my guess for the moment is that that has not softened -- flattened out so far. So we expect the upcoming months to continue to -- we expect to see continuing campaigning in the market.However, for us, we try not to go that route too much. We -- and we can -- I think a result of that, we can see that in our gross margin, which is important for us. It is stable. And also having said that, we have the vast majority of our sales taking place outside the Nordic markets. So we are not that impacted of that situation in our total numbers I would say.
Perfect. Quite a good segue actually. My next question was the rest of world segment. You note strong development in the Netherlands and the U.K. and also that U.S. contributes. Could you give us an update or an idea of the size of the U.S. business as of Q1 please?
Yes. So U.S. is obviously seeing very high growth numbers now going to quarter where we are starting to compare to a year ago. And I mean it's still small numbers, not impacting that region too much, but growth-wise it looks very promising. And we do -- we have seen 3-digit growth numbers up until now, but we expect it to come down a little bit as we continue to operate in that market.
The next question comes from Emanuel Jansson from Danske Bank.
Congratulations on a strong report. I think I have 2 questions from my side. Firstly, we can see that you increased the operating profit really well in the quarter and looking at the average order value, we saw an increase of approximately 6% I believe year-over-year. Can you say something on that? Is it mainly due to the inflationary environment or is it any other development within the product or category mix that you're seeing that you're being maybe better developing within jackets or other products for example?
Yes. What we can see is that this mix of -- it's a result of the market mix where many countries with euro currency is sort of gaining share of sales. So I think that is a good explanation to why average order value has grown. So it's more of a country mix that we see where we have higher average order value in the countries that are growing faster.
Okay. I understand. And maybe can you shed us some light on the product categories? Are you seeing any better development within any particular category?
Yes. So we have seen that shoes is continuing to be a category that continues to grow. We launched a new shoe model, Trailknit Mid in the quarter and I would say that that was success. We are now also looking into launching an Alpine collection in November, which is new that we are looking forward to. But looking at our total numbers, pants is still the biggest product category, even though jacket is now also -- have grown over the past years and is the second biggest category. So yes.
Perfect. And lastly here, can you maybe give us also some light on the overhead cost, maybe the fixed cost base here? Do you feel any need of hiring further employees at the moment? And also can you maybe tell us something about the marketing costs here? Are you seeing prices in general over Europe is coming down or what are you seeing at the moment?
Yes. If we look at general marketing costs, we can see over the past years, comparing to for example, if we go back to the pandemic, we have seen that click prices have come down. Demand for the competition among some of the clicks in our category has come down. However, we do continue to invest in countries where we see more growth. U.S. is a good example. So it's a mix of costs coming down, but increasing investments in some high-growing countries at the same time.When it comes to staff, we managed to keep the number of head counts or number of staff at a good level. We don't expect it to grow significantly. I mean, the company is growing nicely now at 24% in the quarter. We do expect to see -- and we do see scalability of that growth effect in our EBIT numbers.Hopefully, we will continue to deliver that. However, I mean, one can expect to maybe increase the staff with a small number over the year, but nothing significant. We're pretty satisfied with the staff situation that we have. We don't see any big need for big increases in that area.
Okay. Perfect. That's very clear. And maybe last question from my side. We have seen a couple of other retail players here, especially in Europe, stating that they experienced significantly higher warmer temperature in Europe during September which also held on to some extent into October. Have you been impacted by the warm weather to any extent here and have you also then seen maybe some sequential improvement throughout October since the weather conditions maybe been more favorable for retail and clothing players?
That's of course very hard to say. I mean, we do see growth in all the regions. We have also noted that September was warm. Can't say that we have really -- I mean, maybe we saw some effects of that. It's hard to say since we are growing very nicely and at the same time also gaining market share. I think we have -- yes, as I mentioned, we have a strong market position and it's really hard for me to say whether we were weather-impacted in September or not.
The next question comes from Tommi Saarinen from Inderes.
It's Tommi Saarinen from Inderes. I have only one question regarding your pricing strategy. You talk a lot about offering unmatched value. Following your prices and campaigns, there seems to be quite many discount campaigns recently. Is this business as usual, or is this something special in the current environment?
I guess you're referring to campaigning on RevolutionRace. So I would say that what we have done over the last couple of months or year, I mean, we have no -- we are part of a market, of course, that has seen significant campaigning and discounting and clearances. We haven't been able to totally ignore it.What has been important for us is to balance sales and also with profit, but also to securing that we are not diluting or changing our sort of brand position. So I would say that we've been working with campaigns in different shapes and forms for many years. But at the same time, we also managed to keep our gross margin at the decent level, which I think is worth highlighting.So I think we have managed to deal with the market situation in a balanced way. So of course, campaigning to some extent, but at the same time, also being able to keeping the gross margin at a stable level. So -- and there's also sort of one thing, sort of remembering or taking into account, one thing is what you actually do campaign and the second thing is -- three things.What you do campaign. The second thing is what you actually sell and the third thing is of course what -- to what kind of price you are buying it for. So I think that we are satisfied with how we have managed the situation.
There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written question or closing comments.
So thank you, operator. And before we wrap up, we also note that we have no questions online. So as a conclusion, all in all, we are seeing exciting days and look forward to the coming important ones. Thank you all for participating today and for your interest in us. We look forward to speaking to you again over the coming weeks and months and may also remind you that our Q2 report in our fiscal year will be announced on January 30. So with that, thank you and goodbye.