Nilörngruppen AB (NLLGF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Prepared Remarks Transcript

2026-02-12 08:46:15 ET

Nilörngruppen AB (NLLGF) Q4 2025 Earnings Call February 12, 2026 2:30 AM EST

Company Participants

Krister Magnusson - President & CEO
Maria Fogelstrom - Chief Financial Officer

Presentation

Krister Magnusson
President & CEO ...

Good morning. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the Nilörn year-end report. For your information, we will record this presentation. And as usual, together with me is Maria Fogelstrom, the CFO of Nilörngruppen. So we will try to guide you through the last quarter and what we are doing in the group and the expectations here what we're actually working on at the moment.

So here, I share my screen with you. So I hope you all see that now. And that is always is a financial presentation here. Starting off with the order income. It was up 5% in the quarter. And for you who saw this last quarter in Q3, you also remember that we had a big packaging order that affected and that came in Q4 this year instead of Q3 in 2024. So that has an impact of SEK 80 million for the order intake.

So adjusted for that, the order intake is slightly down, but there is also a huge currency effect also in the order intake. We have not written about that for this interim -- for the specific quarter, but we have written about that for the accumulated numbers. So adjusted for the currency effect, I would say that the order income in the quarter is quite breakeven.

Sales was down 6% to SEK 219 million. And also here, we have a huge currency effect. Adjusted for that, it's up actually to SEK 246 million. So we are a very international group. We have all invoicing is done in foreign currency. We have very, very little or minor invoicing in Swedish krona. The remaining part -- or the majority part is in U.S. dollar or U.S. dollar-denominated currency like in Hong Kong dollar, Chinese yen, Bangladeshi taka and so on, and they all follow the U.S. dollar quite well. So when the Swedish krona strengthen up, that has a big impact on the Nilörngruppen.

It is especially on the top line on the sales numbers. As we consolidated, we got sales in local currency and then we consolidated that up to the group in Swedish krona, and that will have -- that has a big impact. Cost-wise, we are quite well hedged. We have cost in the local currency. We have offices and sourcing and so on production in the local countries. But the net effect, the net profit from each country will then be converted back into Swedish krona, and that has an impact on the profitability.

Operating profit in the quarter was SEK 8.1 million versus SEK 19.5 million. And for -- if you remember, in 2023, the operating profit in the quarter was SEK 9 million point something -- SEK 9.5 million, I think. The quarter has had impact both on nonrecurring cost that is -- we're doing some change in the group and taking some costs for personnel staff that affected SEK 3.3 million and also cost for auditing the sustainability report has affected the quarter by SEK 1 million.

And why I mentioned the cost for auditing because that is a new cost that we have not had that in the past. So auditing the sustainability report is a new cost for this quarter. We will -- going forward, that is an extra high cost in '24 depending on setting up the procedures and so on for the auditors to come in. They promised us that the cost will be lower for the coming years, and that we will have to monitor to make sure we get there. So very expensive doing this sustainability report and auditing.

Accumulated numbers, order income is up 1%. And also here, we have a huge impact of the currency effect, which adjusted for the currency is actually up to SEK [indiscernible] million. So a big impact on the currency, also on the order income. Sales remain unchanged. Also a big impact on the currency, and we are actually now above SEK 1 billion if we adjusted for the currency effect. So first time ever, we have been above SEK 1 billion in sales.

Operating profit, SEK 73.4 million also here affected by the weaker Q4 where we have this nonrecurring cost. Nilorngruppen is sensitive in that sense that it is very volume-driven, a quarter with a lower sales also impact the operating profit quite much. We have the cost in the group and lower volume means lower gross profit means lower operating profit. And it's -- as always, it's a mixture of open the throttle and pushing the brakes. So it's a balanced act to make this work and because we want to make sure that we are strong in different areas in the future. So I'm coming back to that as well in the presentation here.

We see that the outdoor industry continue to go well. And I think it will continue to do so, also looking at the good winter we have. Luxury segment is still weak, and that is especially some client of us that has too much stock and their expectation is that, that will come down in the middle of half year on this year in 2026. There's still some uncertainty in the market.

And one effect that has impacted Q4 is the Chinese New Year. Some might say that Chinese New Year comes every year, and that's correct. This year, it's quite late though. It is now -- it's starting up now the 17th of February, Chinese New Year in 2027 -- in 2026, sorry, and in 2024, it was actually in the end of January. So that also has an impact on the calendar effect.

Operating margin for the quarter is 2.3%, also including the effect for nonrecurring and so on. Split by product group. Just want to mention here the tax also in this slide here. Tax rate was 29% in the quarter. Accumulated is 25%. Nilörn, we are in a quite low tax countries. So many of them are quite low tax, but we also in some high-tax countries. So it's depending on where we make the profit. So if it goes up and down. There was also some dividend contribution tax, especially from Bangladesh, where we take out as we did in the Q4 here, a big dividend payout from Bangladesh that also has an impact on the tax.

Split by product group, not so much to say about this. I just wanted to inform RIS, what we call here is retail information services. That is all the variable data care labels, price tax, care instructions and so on. That stands now for 31% of our total turnover. You also have here RFID and so on.

Packaging, it's all sort of packaging. It is boxes for underwear. It is recycled poly bags, et cetera. So that now stands for 17%. That is also an area that we continue to spend the resources in, and we see big potential in that area. I will come back to that later on.

The quarterly income, we can see that the sourcing and production, the gross margin looked over time has gone up. That is also very much depending on that we're now getting more and more own production and then we should see that. And also that we have strengthened up our sourcing team. Operating cost here is also included the nonrecurring in Q4 and the operating margin where we have as a goal and you who has been with us for some time know that we used to be between 10% and 12% operating margin.

And then during '21 and '22, we were up to 60%, 70% very high. And we have come down here and the Q4 was 3.7%. The goal is still to be back to 10%, 12%. And absolutely, now when we increase our own production, that is the minimum we should add for. But as I said, it's a give and take. We have done quite many investments. We need to make sure that they take -- contribute to the group. And I will come back to all the efforts we have done. And I think that is the right thing to do even though you cannot see that in the number at the moment, in this quarter at least.

Quarterly comparison, same thing here, but as a graph, you have the Q4 numbers in the past, it was always Q2 and Q4 that was the strongest. That has changed over time. So it's much more even out now. And the quarterly comparison of the operating profit. Balance sheet, still strong equity, and you can see the proposal of dividend is to make the same dividend payout as last year, which means that we will keep a strong balance sheet with a strong equity. That is also good as we are now doing some quite big investment in Bangladesh and Portugal. And for the factory, coming back to that as well.

Cash, you can also question why we have so much cash in the group. It is -- we are in so many countries, we are like in 19 countries and in countries where it's not that easy to take money in and out on a daily basis like in Bangladesh. We take out dividends several times there. We had a big dividend payout in December for Bangladesh. But in total, when it adds up, it makes quite some money.

Here, I want to mention the equity. As I said, we are -- to being a relatively small company, we are super international. We have so many subsidiaries and most of the business sales and so on outside Sweden. And so we have a big impact on the equity. As you can see here, SEK 38 million of the total equity has decreased in equity. And what that comes from is when we have equity in these countries and when we consolidated that back to Sweden, the equity in Hong Kong dollar, for example, will be less in Swedish krona. So that is a pure translation effect when we converted equity in the different currency back to the Swedish krona, and that has a big impact on the group.

We have here financial indicators. I will not go through them all. I just wanted to see here the average number of employees. As you see, we increased a lot here when we -- especially in production, especially in Bangladesh and in Portugal, we can now see that here is quite stable and not increasing that much any longer.

Just a summary for the group here. We're more cautious in Q4. We have had a big currency impact one-off cost, proposed dividend is SEK 1.50 per share, keeping up a strong balance sheet. We have been approved for a science-based target initiative, which is a very positive thing for us as a group and also a strong message to our clients that we are good in this area.

Portugal factory, we continue to invest. We have done a restructuring of the company -- not restructuring of the company, but the change of the layout in the factory and preparing that for the lean. And we're doing the same in Bangladesh, also changing the existing factory for the lean and also the big project operating -- building the new factory. What we have done is that we are now taking the land, bought the land and what currently doing is working on design and so on. So there's still expectation for the new factory in Bangladesh is to be ready in Q2 2027. So still time to go there.

Other investments we have done on our transformation journey is we have not only in this quarter, but I mean in the last 4, 5 years, we employed people within sustainability CSR. We now have that team in many countries. We have a compliance specialist materials, specialist and packaging and all these CSR and that is supporting the clients being part of that and making sure that we can be a reliable partner on their journey, on the client's journey and being a reliable supplier to them.

Packaging, we have hired a packaging specialist in the group, supporting sales so we can sell -- and this is, as I mentioned earlier, underwear packaging and luxury packaging and so on to the client, but also recycled poly bags.

Production capacity, we continue to increase, especially in Bangladesh and in Portugal. We have increased geographical expansion in Vietnam and Sri Lanka, both countries in 2025. We talked about digitalization and Nilörn:CONNECT earlier RFID, heat transfer and packaging is area that we're now focusing on areas that we have not -- traditionally not been so strong in, but we see big potential here. We have the client and the packaging, we already started in by hiring a packaging specialist, but we see to do the same in these 2 areas. I will come back to explain to you what also -- what heat transfer and RFID, what they are actually.

And marketing strengthening what we have done there. We employed in 2025, 3 new salespeople in U.S. So now we have total 4 person in U.S. We have established a subsidiary in Holland and recruited [ Martin ]. He is an experienced person from the industry and knowing the Dutch market and the nice brands that are in that market. We're currently recruiting a Chief Commercial Officer to the group to help out because we are in many countries, we have many small companies, and we want them to be and to get the support from group that they deserve and so not invent to be more efficient and to be more powerful towards the client. So I think this will be a super welcome role to the group and will put -- will help us building the group even stronger.

We see consolidation in the market is still going on, and Nilörn wants to take part of that, as I talked earlier, that also we have put much more effort into this than we have done in the past and we have the strong balance sheet. So if and when opportunities arise, we have the opportunity to take part of this. I showed this earlier, and this is areas that we have moved in to strengthen our efforts. And what we're now looking into for the coming -- that was what we have done in the last 5 years, and this is what we will focus on the coming 5 years now, is to be much stronger within RFID, much stronger within heat transfer, much stronger within packaging and a digital solution.

And heat transfer, just for you who are not sure what that is, that is a transfer that is put on paper or in this case, some plastics that is then pressed through heat into the garment and that put on example this area like a jacket. And as you know, outdoor business is a big business for us. And we have the clients. So we think by being much stronger in this area, we can contribute with a lot towards the client. So that's an area we are working on.

Nilörn:CONNECT that is our working name for all the digital solutions we have towards the client, where we have this with the QR code and where we have a system where they can scan the QR code, the end consumer can scan the QR code, and we have a system behind where they can get all the information, the end consumer can see and get the information behind the garment. And why we're doing that, this is a legal compliance, especially product -- digital product passport that is coming, EU Fiber Directive and other local regulations. This also enables our customers to have repair, resell, recycle for the government to have information through that, but it's also consumer engagement. They can communicate with the end consumer, drive sales, create loyalty and acquire new customers.

Another digital solution is RFID. In the beginning, it was -- that has been going on and developing for quite some time. And in the beginning, it was mainly the really big retailers working going for this. But we see more and more now -- more and more clients demand for this. It's quite price driven, but it's a must to support our clients because they want to go into this area. And this is -- you can see on this label here is a QR code, but it's -- and also RFID. And RFID here you see here, it's a chip that is in the label that you cannot see, but it's in there, but you can scan it. And it's more for logistic purpose. So when the brand owners, they know exactly how much they have on stock and so on because you don't need to count them one by one. You can just go in with this scanner and scan and then you know how much you have on stock.

Financial targets. We have said that we -- the growth should be above 7% over time and operating margin at least 10%. This year 2025 was no growth at all, except if you -- depending on the calculating in the local currency or not an operating margin of 7.8%.

Good. Now I will stop to talk here and see if we have any questions, Maria?

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