Europris Aktie

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Europris presentation of the second quarter results and the first half of 2026. My name is Espen Eldal, and as always, joining me on stage today will be CFO, Stina Byre, who will present the financial details. And after the presentation, we will host a Q&A session, which will be managed by IR officer, Trine Englokken. And please feel free to type in your questions as we speak.

And before I start, I would like to make a special welcome to the guests we actually have physically present today. It's very nice that people still show up to these kind of events, that is appreciated. And I would also like to thank [ Pareto ] for hosting the presentation today and the investor meetings we have later on.

I know it's a busy morning. The second quarter reporting season is kicking off today. And I guess that also many of you have started summer holidays. We are going to start it maybe today or tomorrow. So let's get started and jump into the numbers. Total sales in the second quarter were NOK 3.7 billion. That is a reduction of 2.8% and down 1.1% in constant currency. As we explained when we presented the first quarter this year, the timing of Easter has a major impact on the sales in the first 2 quarters this year. And while the early Easter boosted sales in the first quarter, it has a negative impact of around 4.5 percent points in the second quarter.

So in order to evaluate us, you should look at the results for the first half and we are now going to do that. So when we look at the results for the first half, we delivered sales growth of 3.8% and 4.4% in constant currency. Norway continue to deliver a very strong performance with a like-for-like sales growth of 5.7%. And in Sweden, we have a like-for-like sales growth of 1.5 percent points in local currency.

Note that Sweden was negatively impacted by the temporary closure of 24 stores during the store remodeling program we are running in Sweden at the moment. The gross margin has improved that is mainly driven by product mix changes in Sweden following the integration actions we are doing and some unrealized currency effects in Norway. EBIT for the first half were NOK 465 million, a solid increase of 20.7%. And Stina will provide some more details on the financials, both on the quarter and the first half in just a few minutes.

I'll give some operational updates on Norway and also on Sweden. Starting with Norway. I'm really pleased to see that we continued the strong performance for Europris in Norway. Once again, we delivered profitable sales growth, and the growth this year is volume driven by higher footfall to the stores and also a volume-led basket growth. And so far this year, we actually see volume growing more than sales. And the average -- that is caused by the average price per item has actually been reduced. And this puts some pressure on the operating costs as cost for distribution and handling of goods are impacted by the higher volume. And the reduction in price per item is caused by more price-conscious consumers.

We have said that for quite some time that we expect consumers to remain price conscious. And in the first half, our sales growth is driven by campaigns and also by private label products with very low price points. So we see that the consumers are acting. And today -- in today's market, they are seeking value for money. And it's very comforting to see that our low-price concept remains relevant for the consumers in these days. We are still gaining new customers to the Europris concept. And Europris is also an important seasonal destination and the Easter season and also the spring/summer season has been important drivers for the sales growth we have delivered so far this year.

When we turn to Sweden, the turnaround project in ÖoB is all about creating a more and a healthy and profitable sales mix towards more non-food and seasonal goods. And we see that the results we have in the first half really makes us confident that we are on the right track. We have been able to shift the assortment towards more non-food items and seasonal goods, and the Swedish consumers have welcomed the upgraded assortment very much.

10% sales growth is what we see both in the second quarter and the first half from the non-food product range, which is now more or less fully harmonized with what we see in Europris. We have deliberately done less promotions of very low margin consumables at the expense of putting -- giving more space in the advertising to seasonal goods and non-food as we want to establish ÖoB as a destination for these products.

That has, as expected, had a negative impact on sales but had a very positive impact on the gross profit in the first half. And the stronger non-food offering that supports the gross margins and will be crucial to attract new customers going forward, but also to increase the longer-term profitability of the company. ÖoB is not about making a turnaround just by increasing sales, it's also about making a product mix change towards higher value items, which gives more profitability for the company. And we are on the right track.

The other big thing we're doing in Sweden is, of course, the store remodelings and they are key to reestablish ÖoB as a relevant and attractive shopping destinations for a broader customer group than we have today. And so far this year, we have remodeled 24 stores, which together with the 4 pilot stores we opened last year, brings the total modernized stores to 28. And that is a massive project to complete for a company like ÖoB that has been used to doing maybe 1 or 2 projects during the half year.

And I'm very pleased to see that the projects have been managed very well. Every single store has been finished according to plan, and this upgraded store continued to deliver higher sales and better margins than the rest of the chain. So we see good effects from the project, and they have been managed in a very good way.

When we look into the second half, we're planning for another 10 store upgrades per quarter, and the remaining store base will be upgraded next year. While these projects, of course, are exhausting, they also create a great deal of energy and spirit into the organization. We used the store employees to perform the projects, and that creates an ownership and also with sense of knowledge to the new concept that is extremely important to build the corporate culture we want.

So doing these projects, the way we're doing them also helps building the team spirit and the culture in the company. And I have shown you this slide before, and this is about the big plan we presented back in 2024, and I'm coming back to that because as you know, we have combined our sourcing efforts together with Europris and ÖoB and we have come a very long way in harmonizing the nonfood assortment. And we see that this has been well received by the customers, and it's also supporting the margin uplift we've seen ÖoB this year, which has been significant.

We also made operational improvements and making sure that we execute the concept in a much better way than before. And I'm really proud to say that the store standards that we see and the operational standard we see in ÖoB these days, has never been better. So they're making good progress.

And now we're moving forward at speed to improve the customer experience with an ambitious store remodeling program. We have now remodeled 28 stores, more to come in the second half this year and the remaining store base next year. And that will be supported by a nationwide marketing when enough stores have been upgraded. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made in Sweden and remain very confident in the targets we have for 2028 to SEK 5 billion in sales and a 5% EBIT margin.

With that, I will leave the floor to Stina to present some more on the financial details.

Thank you, Espen and good morning to everyone. I hope you're enjoying your summer and I also hope you keep practicing your rowing skills ahead of Saturday. Due to the different timing of Easter between the years, focus should be on the development for the first half where figures are comparable.

To briefly sum up the second quarter for segment Norway, sales were on a par with last year, including the estimated negative impact from Easter of 5.5 percentage points. Product mix with a higher share of non-food and private labels had a positive impact on the gross margin. And when accounting for the higher operating expenses, EBIT was lower than last year.

Moving on to the first half where figures are comparable. It can be summed up to a sales-driven increase in EBIT. The Europris chain had like-for-like growth of 5.7% mainly from higher footfall, but also from a volume-led growth in the basket. We still see -- we still see growth in private labels and campaigns in addition to good development for seasonal items. And these elements all reflect the relevance of the concept. And the pure players had growth of 3.9% related to Lekekassen. The gross margin was 44.2%, up 0.2%, but down 0 percentage points -- but down 0.4 percentage points, excluding impact from unrealized currency.

And growth in private labels have a positive impact on the gross margin, while higher campaign sales have a dilutive impact. The OpEx increase of 7.5% reflected the volume-driven sales growth as this increases handling costs, both at logistics center and in stores. And it also increases distribution costs as more trucks are needed to move the volumes and combined with higher costs for the transportation in itself.

And while inflation is above 3% in Norway and the wage growth even higher, the average price per item for Europris is down. And this means that there is no price benefit in the sales growth and the volume growth is actually higher than the sales growth. And while volume growth is positive and welcomed, it does put pressure on the cost development. And all in all, this accumulated to an EBIT of NOK 573 million, corresponding to a growth of 7.1%.

Sales for segment Sweden in the second quarter were NOK 1 billion, a reported decline of 9.6% and 3.9% in local currency. And the lower sales were due to the timing of Easter and the temporary closure of the 15 stores that were remodeled in the quarter. And in addition, the deliberate changes to the campaign program with less of very low margin consumables and more of non-food and seasonal items. It had a negative impact on footfall and thereby sales, but it contributed to the margin improvement. And it is an important part of the journey to attract new customer groups and profitable growth long term. Operating expenses were impacted by the store remodelings and the EBIT loss of NOK 34 million was in line with last year.

Sales for the first half were NOK 2 billion, a reported decline of 1.5%, but up 0.7% in local currency. And this includes impact from the closure of the 24 stores that were remodeled during the first half. Product mix with a higher share of sale of non-food had a positive impact on gross margin which increased to 33.1%. The operating expenses were impacted by costs related to the store remodelings this year, while last year was impacted by the ERP project. EBIT loss of NOK 107 million this year was an improvement from the loss of NOK 149 million last year.

As mentioned, due to the timing of Easter, second quarter figures are not directly comparable and one should focus on the first half results. But to briefly sum up, the second quarter showed sales decline, a higher gross margin and lower EBIT with a net profit to parent of NOK 245 million corresponding to an earnings per share of NOK 1.50. And for the first half, sales for the group were NOK 7 billion, up 3.8% and 4.4% in constant currency. The margin improved to 41% and as the sales and margin growth offset higher operating expenses, EBIT grew by 20.7% to NOK 465 million.

Net profit to parent increased to NOK 249 million, corresponding to an earnings per share of NOK 1.52, up 27%. The cash flow for the first half shows improvement from operations with last year impacted by inventory buildup. The group is investing more related to the store remodelings in Sweden and also the upgrade of the Pick & Mix candy stands in Norway. The financial position and liquidity is good, with net debt of NOK 5.1 billion and NOK 1.6 billion, excluding lease liabilities and cash and liquidity reserves of NOK 2.3 billion.

And then I will hand it back to Espen for the outlook.

Thank you, Stina. I'll also summarize. We have delivered a very good start to 2026 with continued profitable growth in Norway and good traction on the turnaround process we are doing in Sweden. In the market, we still expect consumers to remain price conscious and Europris and ÖoB are both well positioned with the relevant product offering to benefit in the market where consumers are seeking value for money. When we look at the macroeconomics, that is still quite a mixed picture.

In Norway, inflation remained above target with possibility of further interest rate hikes in the second half while in Sweden, the inflation and possibilities for interest rate hikes are lower. Consumers in both countries are expected to get real wage growth this year, and we believe that should be supportive for retail sales.

With that, we will actually invite Stina back on stage, and we will open up for the Q&A session. And as usual, Trine, we will start with the questions from the audience in the room, if any.

Phillihp Bjerke, Pareto Securities. I have a question on ÖoB. During the first half of 2026, we have seen improvements in EBIT of NOK 42 million. It was flat year-over-year in Q2, how should they think about the second half for ÖoB in terms of the prior guiding of a flat contribution in 2026 compared to 2025? You are no longer writing explicitly in the report. How should we think about it?

I think we have outperformed our guiding for ÖoB in the first half this year and especially the remodelings of the stores have maybe had less impact on the gross profit than expected. So I think you should expect some of the same movements in the second half. And we have also seen that the customers have responded maybe more positively than expected to the sales mix changes. So we are improving the gross margin maybe a little bit faster than we expected. But at the same time, it comes a little bit on expense on the sales of groceries. So it's a little bit mixed effects, but I think you should be a little bit more positive than flat year-over-year for the second half.

And on the marketing side, could you give some more comments on the timing when you will do that nationwide push on marketing?

I think we are ready to do more nationwide push on the marketing for the Christmas season this year because Christmas is the season we are building up also in the non-refurbished stores, and that will be the same concept basically. So for the Christmas season, I think we are -- that will be the first time we will be able to push the bigger marketing button. And then it will be sometime next year that we are ready to do more nationwide marketing.

But as you have seen from the map, we are doing the store refurbishments in clusters. So we've done now Gothenburg area, we have done most of the stores in the Stockholm area. So we are ready to do some more local marketing, but the bigger push will come first next year.

And second question on the market here in Norway. Like-for-like in the second quarter, if you adjust for the Easter effects, is somewhat weaker than during the first half in whole, how are you seeing the market? Is there any signs of a slowdown? Or should we -- how should we think about a bit softer growth this quarter adjusted for the Easter effect?

I think it's -- you should not put too much into it. The Easter has a major impact, and it's not that easy to really look at how these movements are between the first and the second quarter. Overall, we are very satisfied with the development in the first half, and you should evaluate the first half when you look at the like-for-like growth and 5.7% in Norway is a decent number for the first half. .

Then there are some questions from the web. [ Ole Martin Westgaard, ] please split like-for-like growth in Norway between volume and price? .

Well, as we said, the volume growth is higher than the sales growth. There is some decline on the price, but we don't give the explicit numbers. But the volume is the main part and some from -- negative from price.

How can you conclude that the lower basket size in Norway reflects more cautious consumers rather than underperformance in your offering?

I think we can see that very clear. We see that it's higher sales of our private label products. We see that the consumers are choosing the low price points in the stores. And at the same time, we see that the campaigns are hitting very well and that campaigns are selling and driving the sales growth. So we can clearly see that the customers are making new choices in the stores.

And we see clear that sales around the big payment days in Norway are becoming more important. So it's a growing number of Norwegian consumers that are actually experiencing a tougher economic everyday life. So being relevant with good product offerings, low price points and everyday products is very important, and that is what drives the change.

And what were the shares of consumables and private label in Norway and Sweden in the second quarter?

As I said in the first quarter, it doesn't really make sense because of the timing of Easter. So while we had a higher share of consumables in the first quarter, we had a higher share of non-food in the second. But for the first half, for Norway, it is a flat development.

How does -- how do gross margins in remodeled Swedish stores compared with legacy stores?

It is slightly higher. We see that on average, we get somewhat higher uplift when they are refurbished.

How much higher is the non-food share in remodeled stores?

It's very difficult to actually give a concrete answer because you have very different timing on these. So adding the numbers up like that, it's not quite as meaningful yet. But we do see the margin impact. So it impacts, but let's come back to it when we have more history.

Should we expect the higher handling and distribution costs seen in the second quarter to continue?

Well, I think that for some time now, we have seen that the volume growth is there. I would assume that this will continue and that you should take that into account. And I can also mention that the wage growth in Norway, for us, it will impact with around 5%, and that's about 60% of our OpEx base. Higher results in the stores, which is well earned for them, but it does, of course, impact our OpEx as well. And when we have more hours to -- needed to kind of handle the goods in the stores, this will have an impact.

What were the costs associated with the store remodeling program in the second quarter?

Well, I think you should calculate about what we have guided on previously, which is a little bit more than SEK 1 million per store.

Next question comes from Petter Nystrøm. For Norway, in the first half, the gross margin is down 0.4 percentage points, excluding FX effect. And you mentioned negative effects from higher share of campaigns. Firstly, is this also a function of more competition in the market? And is this a trend you expect to continue?

It is a function of more competition on some products in the market. So we are continuously trying to balance our campaign mix in order to maximize the margins. At the same time, we have also seen that the price conscious consumers are shopping more on campaigns. But on the other hand, the consumers are also shopping more private label products, which is positive for the gross margin. So as I would expect us to try to work on the margin, and we will continue to do that. So we don't expect this to be a negative development going forward.

Thank you. That was the last question from the website.

Thank you, and enjoy the summer.

Good morning, and welcome to Europris first quarter presentation. My name is Espen Eldal, and as usual, CFO, Stina Byre, will join me on stage in a few minutes to present the financial details for the quarter. And at the end of the presentation, we will have a Q&A session, and that will be managed by IR Officer, Trine Englokken, and please feel free to send in your questions as we speak.

Before we start on today's agenda, I would like to thank ABG for hosting today's event. And I would also like to make a special welcome and good morning to those who have actually showed up in person here today and attending live this presentation.

Let's have a look at the numbers. In the first quarter, we see a strong performance in Norway, and we see continued traction in Sweden. The reported numbers are solid, but please bear in mind that an early Easter boosted sales in the quarter with around 6 percentage points. And as we said a year ago, in retail, when timing of Easter is different from year to year, you have to evaluate us on the first year -- half year performance. But that said, the Q1 numbers are still very solid. And we had total sales growth of 12.3% with the like-for-like growth for Europris chain of 14.7% and 7.7% in local currency in ÖoB. EBIT was NOK 71 million, driven by improvements in both segments, and Stina will present more details on the financials in just a few minutes.

I'm really satisfied with the operational performance we have delivered in the first quarter. Everything has actually worked according to plan. Everything from selecting the seasonal product range through the campaign plans to supply chain and, of course, also the in-store execution. So it's been a good quarter, where we have delivered strong operational performance. Sales growth is driven by increased volume in Norway, and we continued the positive development in Sweden from the fourth quarter with increased sales and also increased margins.

Overall, I would say that the retail sector has enjoyed a good start to the new year, especially in Norway, we see strong growth. But we also clearly see that the consumers are still more price cautious. They are seeking value for money and campaigns have been an important driver for sales in both markets. In Norway, this has challenged the gross margin. And with more sales of consumables and also a higher campaign share, we have seen a decline in the margin, partly due to the timing of Easter.

In Sweden, the key activity in the first quarter has been the remodeling of 9 stores and the continuation of the turnaround program. If I look at a little bit more detail into the Europris chain and the performance, I'd like to start to say that Europris, of course, we are the seasonal champion in Norwegian retail. And in the first quarter, we really demonstrated that we know how to deliver on the seasons. We saw high sales growth driven from increased traffic, but also from a higher basket per customer. And I think that the Europris concept remains very well positioned to benefit in a market where the consumers are more price conscious. The consumers seek value for money. We have attractive campaigns and that was especially significant during Easter, where we see extremely high campaign sales.

Another element in the Europris concept is, of course, doing category upgrades. And every year, we upgrade some categories. And just before Easter this year, we launched new displays for pick & mix candy in most of our stores and that was very well received by the customers and was a really important success factor in the Easter sales we have this year. On the store network, we relocated 2 stores. We expanded 2 and modernized 3 during the quarter, and the pipeline now accounts 8 stores for the new store openings of which 4 are subject to local planning permissions.

If we move to Sweden and look at the first quarter performance in ÖoB and also the turnaround plan, it's, of course, a great pleasure to see that we continue the positive momentum in Sweden, which we saw in the fourth quarter last year. Groceries that still accounts for the majority of sales, but we see that our customers respond very positively to the harmonized assortment we have introduced on nonfood and also the seasonal product range we had for Easter. And that drives sales and margin and has been an important success factor in the first quarter for Sweden. But it takes time to establish a seasonal destination. This is under our ownership, just the second Easter, and we continue to work, but we see clear signs of improvements.

The Easter effect in Sweden is far below what we see in Norway, but still we see a significant uplift from previous years in ÖoB. Unlike for Europris, the growth in the first quarter was driven by higher customer traffic and also an increase in the basket. I think that the operational improvements, I talked about that from the fourth quarter, we see that it continues into the first quarter. And that is really important for the turnaround plan we are on. And of course, it's especially the in-store operations have been improved significantly. And we just gradually get better and better on campaign implementation and execution and also on the seasons. Every time we practice, every time we do it a little better, and that is just part of the Europris philosophy and energy, and we see that it works in Sweden. And as you know, we really get good traction on the things we are working to improve.

Supply chain is also a key success factor in retail, and we have made tremendous improvements over the last year. And one of the key initiatives we have this year is to introduce the same supply chain system for both Sweden and Norway, and we have come far and we are actually going live with this new system already next week.

When we look at the turnaround program, that continues according to plan, and we opened 9 stores modernized in the first quarter. So full upgrade of a total of 9 stores. And in the second quarter, we will actually speed this up. We will remodel 5 stores per month. So in total, 15 stores and the first 5 stores, they are actually ready to be opened tomorrow. So it's a big day for ÖoB in Sweden tomorrow. We are opening 5 new remodeled stores.

So we are basically on track. And before summer holiday, we will actually have upgraded as much as close to 1/3 of the ÖoB store base. And the store remodeling, that is essential to reestablish ÖoB as a relevant and attractive shopping destination in Sweden. We see an uplift in both sales and margins. But that is not enough to make the turnaround in Sweden. We will also support this with local marketing initiatives as soon as we have upgraded enough stores in one region. And in the first quarter, we are focused on store upgrades in the regions of Stockholm and Gothenburg, which together with Malmö are the most populated areas in Sweden.

And as you know from previous presentations, we have combined our sourcing efforts and aligned the product assortment across Europris and ÖoB, and as you heard today, we are also making good progress operationally. We are improving the in-store operations. We have improved supply chain, and we're also getting better and better on campaign planning and execution. And now we are moving forward at speed to modernize and remodel all the stores and improve the customer experience in Sweden. I'm very pleased with the progress we have made on the turnaround program. And I remain very confident in our 2028 target of SEK 5 billion in sales and a 5% EBIT margin for Sweden.

I think I'll leave it at there and give the floor to Stina to present the financial details.

Thank you, Espen. In segment Norway, we saw a strong development in the first quarter, where an earlier timing of Easter has a positive impact on a seasonal concept like Europris. Sales increased by 13.7%, of which around half is estimated to come from the timing of Easter. Growth for the pure-play companies were from Lekekassen, while Strikkemekka continues to be impacted by a muted knitting market in Norway. Impact from Easter, combined with continued price-conscious consumers had a negative mix impact on the gross margin as this led to a sales growth that was largely from consumables and campaigns.

This development does, however, contribute to footfall and higher volumes. And that is, of course, positive for sales and gross profit. Higher activity impacted the OpEx development, but scale effects from timing of Easter led to an improvement in the OpEx to sales ratio. All in all, this accumulated to a significant EBIT growth with an EBIT of NOK 145 million.

Segment Sweden delivered solid improvement in the first quarter, and it was pleasing to see results from implemented actions. The group has focused on upgrading the nonfood range and to improve campaign execution, as Espen mentioned, both of which were large contributors to the sales growth. An earlier Easter is estimated to have contributed to around half of the growth of 6.6% in local currency. The gross margin improved, and last year's margin was negatively impacted by clearance sales. In local currency, the OpEx was marginally up and costs related to the store remodeling program was largely offset by costs related to the ERP project last year. A low OpEx growth, combined with strong top line growth, led to an improved OpEx to sales ratio. And this was also partly from scale effects from an earlier Easter.

The segment still has a significant EBIT loss of SEK 74 million in the first quarter, but this is a solid improvement compared to last year. The earlier Easter this year means that an accurate year-on-year comparison will be possible first when we have the figures for the first half for both years. And this, of course, applies to both segments and the group. Total sales for the group were NOK 3.3 billion, up 11.6% in constant currency, of which around half is estimated to come from the timing of Easter. And this will have a correspondingly negative impact on the second quarter.

The gross margin was 39.5%, up 0.8 percentage points and down 0.2 percentage points when we exclude impact from unrealized currency. The OpEx to sales ratio improvement of 2 percentage points was again impacted by scale effects from timing of Easter.

Overall, the development led to significant improvement in EBIT, which amounted to NOK 71 million, up from the loss of NOK 37 million last year. Net financial expenses were positively impacted by gains on hedging contracts and on unrealized gains on interest rate swaps. The total positive impact was NOK 18 million this year compared to a negative impact of NOK 6 million last year. Net profit to parent was NOK 4 million, up from the loss of NOK 80 million last year. Cash flow from operating activities are normally negative in the first quarter due to inventory buildup ahead of spring and summer, but it was less negative this year. And that was from higher earnings from favorable inventory movements partly from timing of Easter and from timing of accounts payable.

The group has entered into a new 3 plus 1 plus 1 year loan agreement with our 3 existing banks with an increase of facilities of NOK 1 billion. And this reflects the group's expansion over the past years, and it ensures adequate financial flexibility to support future operations, investments and distribution of dividends to shareholders. Cash and liquidity reserves at the end of the first quarter were NOK 2.6 billion.

And then I will hand it back to Espen to give you the outlook.

Thank you, Stina. I think we have delivered a very strong start to the new year. But please bear in mind, as we opened up with, that the Easter effect is positive in the first quarter and will have a corresponding negative effect on the second quarter.

Looking at the outlook, we live in an uncertain geopolitical landscape. And inflation in Norway has remained higher than expected. And with the crisis in the Middle East, that has major impact on global economy and inflation is expected to increase and when we started the year, there was expectations of rate cuts in Norway that has been replaced by expectations for rate hikes. And higher and more volatile energy prices will impact cost items for all players in the market. And we in Europris, we have already seen an increase in cost for especially distribution to the stores following the high fuel prices.

For sea freight, we have not experienced any negative effects from the Middle East conflict yet. And we have secured our rates for the next year and also the volumes we need and the capacity on the boats up until next summer. We see that salaries are increasing, but it's increasing more than inflation, and it's still expected real wage growth in both Norway and Sweden. But we think that the consumers may adopt a little bit more cautious approach to spending. And we are operating a low-price concept, selling everyday products that everyone needs. And both Europris and ÖoB should be well positioned to benefit in the market with more price cautious consumers.

We have many traffic drivers for our stores, low prices and campaigns. That is, of course, the backbone in the concept, while seasons creates additional needs for the consumers. And short term, the important spring and summer season are just about to start and with nice weather in Scandinavia this week, we get the kick-start to that season, and we are well -- very well planned. We have received all good on time, and we are ready for this very important season for Europris. Long term, we remain confident in our turnaround plan for Sweden and the targets we have for increased profitability in 2028.

So with that, I will actually invite Stina back on stage, and we will open up for questions. So Trine, I guess you have received a few.

I've received a few. Should we just check if there are any questions in the -- among the audience.

Joakim [indiscernible] from Swedish [indiscernible] Market. I was just going to ask you if you are as focused on seasonal product ranges for ÖoB as you are with Europris. I did not understand fully that you focused so much on seasonal products for Europris. So does that go as much for ÖoB as for Europris Norway. And secondly, I was also going to ask you what about the turnaround -- what about refurbishments of the stores in Sweden? Could you explain a little bit more what have been your underlying thoughts with that? Is it regarding store design? Is it product ranges, if you could comment a little bit on that?

Yes. Thank you. It's good questions. Yes, the first answer to the seasonal question is, yes, we will have the same seasonal focus in both Norway and Sweden. And that is basically part of the whole plan that also goes for the stores. We are aligning as much as possible. And our experience up until now is that we can align more than we actually thought. So we are making the nonfood product range, the seasonal focus, the exact same in the countries. That gives us scale both on the marketing and also on the sourcing of the products, and it's easier to manage from a system perspective.

And in the stores, we are doing a full redesign of the stores. And basically, we are making them just like the Europris stores. The Swedish ÖoB stores are a little bit bigger than Europris, which is just a big, very good Europris. And I think that the remodel stores we have opened up in Sweden so far, actually looking better than what we see in Europris. And we are remodeling the full store. We are reshuffling the different categories. We are starting with the destination categories. So those categories you come for. So when you open -- go to the store now, you will get the most selling categories at the front of the store. So we start the shopping early for the customers. Then they find what they come for, they relax, they open up and are more interested in doing and open to doing an add-on purchase.

So we are remodeling everything, and we are basically for all nonfood categories, we are saying that everything should be the same, and we have some very good exceptions, but it's very few. On the groceries, ÖoB has a larger share of that. And of course, we remain loyal to the Swedish brands that the consumers are used to. But we are also introducing some common private label brands in these categories.

Then we have some questions from the web. Ole Martin Westgaard, DNB Carnegie. The mix, what was the consumables share in Q1? And how did it change year-on-year?

Well, as we have explained, the share of consumables did increase, but it doesn't really make a meaningful comparison until we have done the full first half because of the timing of Easter. But in general, over the past few years, we have seen that the share of consumables has increased as consumers are also more price conscious and we expect that this will likely continue also going forward.

And on the private label, what was the private label share in Q1?

We had good growth both for brands and for private label. So it was not a big change.

And to sourcing prices, how are purchasing prices from China developing?

It's developing kind of flat, I would say. We see some small reductions on some items, but that is outweighed by increases in others. Now especially, we see that raw materials related to oil is increasing, and we see increases on plastic packaging, plastic products and so on. So overall, it's no major impact. And that's -- the small savings we have actually gotten is basically on some seasonal items, especially for Christmas.

And the logistics, have you seen any impact on deliveries of goods?

We have not seen any impacts from the Middle East crisis on deliveries. Sea freight is going as normal. And for us, it has been around Africa for quite some years, and it's not affected by what's happening in the Hormuz Strait.

And the freight agreement, can you comment on the commercial terms of the new freight agreement, its duration and how rates compare with last year?

We would say that it's competitive rates. We are satisfied with the negotiations we have and the rates are secured up until next summer. So it's a pretty long agreement, a little bit longer than usual. And the most important thing is, of course, that you secure the slots on the ships, so you are secured that you get your products back home. But I believe that the terms are competitive, but I will not comment on the exact price.

And the like-for-like growth, could you please break down like-for-like growth in Norway and Sweden into volume, price and basket effects?

We don't disclose the exact figures, but I can shed some color on it. If we look at Europris, then the growth is purely volume driven. And if we look at Sweden, it's both volume and also price mix as we have had higher growth in the sales of nonfood that also has a mix impact on the basket.

And Sweden, how does the grocery share on refurbished stores compared to stores that are not upgraded?

It varies between the stores. We see sales uplift, but not only on -- we see uplift both on the consumables and on the nonfood. In general, for the first quarter, we saw that the growth for nonfood was higher both for the upgraded and for the non-upgraded stores.

Yes. Sigurd Flaa from Nordea also asked about ÖoB stores in Sweden. How was the gross margin in the non-remodeled ÖoB stores? And how do you expect the sustainability of the Q1 margin improvement for the non-remodeled ÖoB stores in 2026?

A very forward-looking question. It's a good one. I would say that we see an uplift in the gross margin, both from the remodeled stores and from the non-refurbished stores in the first quarter. And that is basically following what Stina explained that we did some sales and realizations last year that impacted the gross margin negatively. We believe that the key plan in our turnaround program for Sweden is, of course, to lift sales, but also to lift gross margins. And we believe that we will lift gross margin also in the non-refurbished stores for this year and next year. And that is important because we're going to shift the product mix towards more nonfood sales and also more seasonal sales, which carry a higher margin.

So we are putting the focus on that. And if we don't manage to increase the gross margin, we will not be successful. So we need to increase it for both the refurbished stores and the non-refurbished we will need to lift it more. And I think we will lift it more for the refurbished stores.

And the last question from Ole Martin Westgaard. What are you -- what margin are you paying on the new bank facility? How does this compare to your previous facility?

We don't disclose that of commercial reasons. I think the banks would not be too happy with that. But we are very happy with our cooperation and to have secured an increased financing with all of our 3 banks.

Hakon Fuglu, SEB, can you quantify the dilutive Easter effect on gross margin for the group and for Norway?

It's not possible to give an exact figure on that. Again, we need to come back to the first half before we can see. But it has had an impact on the product mix. So I expect some of it to be positive for the second quarter.

And Fuglu also asked on the freight agreement, can you quantify the impact of the renewed freight agreement?

It's -- we're not going to quantify it. I think the most important thing is that we have secured the flow of goods. So we have supply then. We get the goods we need to sell in the stores and that is the most important thing. And I think it's also at competitive rates compared to market and also compared to what we've seen before.

And the last one from Fuglu. How does the first pilot stores for ÖoB from 2025 sales developed so far compared to what you reported in Q4?

They continue to perform well. They are performing above the chain average. So we are satisfied with the development. And they are also, of course, impacted by Easter. So the first quarter is a little bit mixed and difficult to compare and we have to evaluate after the first half year. But we are all set and all good and happy with the pilot stores and also the 9 new remodeled stores.

And Petter asked gross margin in Norway declined and you note that consumers remain price conscious with promotional activity acting as a key sales driver. Do you expect a higher share of campaign activity or more aggressive promotions going forward?

I think we expect that campaigns and low prices value for money will be important for the consumers also going forward. And I think we are a very relevant destination for those kind of products. That will put some pressure on the gross margin if the sales shifts towards more groceries. But when it comes to the effect, gross margin effects of campaigns alone, that is up to us to model. And we need to balance the campaigns, making sure we have the right balance between brands and private label products and also consumables and nonfood products in order to get the right gross margin from the campaign. So the campaign, that's on us and when it comes to what the consumers are buying and if they're shifting more towards groceries, that is a little bit on the market.

Yes. And yes, Hakon Fuglu sent another question. What will be your strategy for 2026 in Norway: gaining market share or lifting margins?

We would like both, wouldn't we? We will, of course, focus on growth. If you are a retailer, you need to grow, you need to compensate for increased costs. So we have to do that. But at the same time, we need to balance the margins. One of the strength of Europris concept has been that we are profitable. We've been that for every year, but we have still been able to grow every year. So we will just continue doing what we have done for the past 35 years and just try to do it a little bit better.

And the last question comes from Phillihp Bjerke, Pareto. I think we touched up on it, but I'll send it through. Can you give some flavor on the financial performance of remodeled ÖoB stores versus non-remodeled?

We gave quite a lot of flavor on that in -- when we presented the fourth quarter results. And this first quarter -- now the first quarter doesn't add really much value to that as we have just -- we have remodeled 9 stores during that quarter and we have the Easter effect, which make it less comparable. So I think the best benchmark is to look at what we presented during the fourth quarter presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you very much and enjoy the summer.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Europris presentation of the results for the fourth quarter. Joining me on stage today, you will see CFO, Stina Byre, who will present the financial details later on. And as always, IR Officer, Trine Englokken will manage the Q&A session at the end of the presentation. We will start with questions from our live audience today, and then we will continue with the questions from the web.

And please free to type in your questions as we speak. And today, we present the results for the fourth quarter, which for most retailers, is the biggest quarter of the year. And from the first analyst report. This morning, I can see that the reactions are a little bit mixed. And to some extent, I actually agree to that. Norway came in a little bit soft, slightly below expectations, while Sweden surprised on the positive side. And for both segments, I would actually urge everyone to take a step back and look at the full year figures for '25, which we also report today. Sweden has been a lot of hard work with limited results up until now. And of course, it's great to see that we have finally green numbers in Sweden. Looking at the whole year, we still see that it's a long way to go before we have the financial results that we have set as our ambition. So it's continued to work hard in Sweden. We still have a lot of work to do. But of course, we now go into 2026 with more self-confidence. We see that the plan we have made this right. The customers are responding. And of course, that is positive for the progress we will make in '26.

Looking at Norway, it's been a fantastic 2025. We have really demonstrated our position as a seasonal leader in Norway. We're taking market shares. We are actually growing more than the market without compromising our high margins. I think the efforts we have done in Norway is great, and that is a good foundation to build on also in '26. We have done a small twisting tweaks to the retail machinery of Europris and that works. It's appreciated by the customers, and we have made good progress. But with all that said, it's time to look at the biggest quarter of the year. But as always, the most important quarters, they are still ahead of us. It's still a lot more work to be done.

But when we look at the results for the fourth quarter, total sales were up by 5.3%. In constant currency, the growth was 4.1%. Gross margin increased, the OpEx to sales ratio decreased, and that is a good mix and contributed to an increase in EBIT of 8.6%. When we look at the full year, the figures are not fully comparable year-over-year as ÖoB is included for 4 more months in 2025. But in total, the sales increased by 16.7%, while the net profit was down by 2.8%.

And the latter that represent the turnaround process we are in, in Sweden. Stina will provide more details on the financials later on in just a few minutes. In the fourth quarter, once again, Europris demonstrates its position as the seasonal leader in Norway. I'm really pleased with the performance we have made.

In the fourth quarter, what we say in Norway, the season they come as palette [indiscernible] smooth. It starts with Halloween then you continue with the Black Week and then you have Christmas, and we were really good prepared for that. We have good campaign plans. We had all the products available and we have a lot of consumables at affordable price points for the price-conscious consumers. So it was a well-executed season and quarter for the Norwegian market. And the thing about 2025 and also the fourth quarter was that all the growth was driven by an increase in the number of customers. So the footfall increased and the growth we have seen has been purely driven by volume.

So increasing customer base, that is a good start and a good fundamental to build on. And it's really pleasing to see that the results we have achieved in Norway this year has not come on the expense of Sweden. We put a lot of work into Sweden, but still Norway continued to delivers.

When we look at Sweden, I guess that most at least analysts have their questions and focus for the moment. We're beginning to see some positive effects from the turnaround process we have started. The Christmas season was executed very well as well as the Black Week and the seasonal range we introduced is the same as in Europris, that was well received by the customers. And the really positive thing, I think, about Sweden this time is that the stores, they look better than ever before. The store performance, the tidiness, the way they present the campaigns, the season that has been really excellent. So much better than before, and we see that the results and the efforts are paying off. The existing customers of ÖoB are actually spending more and more of their money in ÖoB. So we are finally seeing a lift in the basket. And that is true evidence that we have been looking for that we have been struggling to see in the beginning of the year that we do a lot of changes.

We see that the customers change their behavior, but they don't spend more money in the stores. Now we see an uplift in the basket. That gives us confidence that they believe in the plan. They like what we're doing and they are willing to spend more money with ÖoB.

Customer traffic was still down in the fourth quarter as in the rest of the year. And that is, of course, a challenge. And in order to take that customer traffic back, we need to remodel the stores. That is becoming more and more clear, and we see already some good results from the 4 pilots we have done.

We opened in the first pilot store before summer. We have opened 3 more in the second half of '25, and we see promising but a slightly mixed results from these stores. The sales uplift is between 5% and 15%, varying with store locations, demographics and also the competition in the area. The gross margin improvement in the stores is between 2 and 4 percentage points. And what we were looking for was, of course, to see sales increase. We were looking for an increase in the gross margin. and of course, increased footfall and increased basket.

And the remodel stores are ticking off all these boxes, and that is very promising. And we are now planning to upgrade 35 to 45 stores in both 2026 and 2027. It's going to be a busy year. It's an ambitious time line, but we are front loading these projects into 2026 because the job has to be done anyway. We'd rather get a good start than putting this ahead of us. And the results so far, they give us more confidence in the turnaround plan we have made.

So everyone wants to know how this remodeling will impact profits in 2026. And based on the estimates we have from the 4 pilots, we see that the stores need to be closed for a period of 2 to 3 weeks during the remodeling and that will lead to lost sales during this period of around NOK 2 million per store. In addition, we see that sales and margins is expected to be lower than normal prior to the closing because we are selling out this continued goods. An estimated loss gross profit as a consequence of the closure and the downselling is NOK 1 million per store. The remodelings will be carried out by ÖoB store staff, and the estimated additional OpEx per store is NOK 1.1 million. The estimated CapEx for fixtures and fittings is estimated at NOK 2.5 million per store.

So that was the store economics, the negative side, but of course, there's also the positive side of the remodeling. So when we have remodeled the store, you should expect a ramp-up period of 12 months and within the 12-month period, we expect the sales growth to be in the range of 10% to 15% per store. The improvement in gross margin to be 2 to 3 percentage points.

And these store remodelings alone is not enough to make us on the 2028 target but it's an important measure to do. And combined with other initiatives you do with product assortment with how we execute campaigns this, this will bring us to the 2028 targets. We will hold back on larger scale marketing activities until we have done remodeling, but we are doing the remodeling in geographic areas, starting with Gothenburg and Stockholm we can start marketing in these areas as soon as we have upgraded all the stores. In sum, you should not expect the remodelings to contribute positively to the EBIT in 2026. You should expect the same results in 2026, as you saw in 2025 for Sweden.

We are convinced that the remodeling will bring us to profitable growth in Sweden from 2027 onwards. And I can tell you that yesterday, we opened the first 3 remodeled stores in Sweden in 2026. We have an ambitious plan with 43 projects. The first 3 were opened yesterday, and the opening days, they were really fantastic in all 3 stores.

And I know that the project teams they would like to celebrate, we are really satisfied with the job they've done but they cannot rest because already next week, we start the next 3 projects. It's a busy schedule, but it's going to be a lot of fun to follow these stores throughout the year.

And when we presented the turnaround plan for ÖoB back at the second quarter in 2024, we focused the initiatives we had around focus points. It was the category harmonization and the joint sourcing. And on this, we have done quite a lot. We have introduced more or less the full range of Europris nonfood products in Sweden. We have introduced the same seasonal assortment. And we are doing joint sourcing on several grocery categories. So a lot of work done, still more to be done, but this was an important start to align the concept. And then we are working to strengthen the execution across the value chain.

And most importantly, we have implemented the same structure for campaigns and seasons as in Norway. We have introduced the same ERP system as in Norway. We have upgraded data warehouse. And now we are working on systems for supply of goods and also the campaign management. And we are sharing best practice and of course, doing also management training and culture building across the 2 countries.

On improving customer experience, which I think honestly, is the most important part. You need to invite customers into an inspiring shopping environment. And we've done, firstly, a small fresh up of the shop-in-shops in all the stores. And now we're doing the store remodeling, which is the big shift we need to do in order to attract new customers into the stores. And I know they have worked really hard. It's a lot of things that is done. There's still a lot of work to be done ahead of us, but we are very confident that we are well positioned to reach our target of NOK 5 billion sales and a 5% EBIT margin in 2028. With that, I will leave the floor to Stina to present the financial details.

Thank you, Espen. I will start with segment Norway and the performance for the fourth quarter. Sales reached almost NOK 3.4 billion, an increase of 4.6%. The sales uplift for the Europris chain was entirely from higher footfall. And once again, the chain has proven itself as a relevant seasonal destination. Two new stores were opened in the quarter.

The pure players had sales of NOK 402 million, up 2.1%, excluding Lunehjem that was divested in the beginning of 2025. The gross margin last year was high at 46.1%. And excluding unrealized currency, there was a relatively moderate decline of 0.3 percentage points, and this was impacted by product mix with a higher share of sales from consumables. At first glance, the OpEx growth of 10.6% seems high. But keep in mind that all sales growth is volume driven, and there are 8 more directly operated stores. And a third element I would like to highlight is timing. Sometimes it doesn't have much effect and other times, it has a large impact. And therefore, it's also important to look at the development over time and not just in 1 quarter isolated. And I will come back to the full year performance on the next page. .

All in all, this accumulated to an EBIT of NOK 648 million, slightly lower than last year with a decline of 2.6%. But if we look at the full year, was close to NOK 1.5 billion, reflecting an increase of 10.2%. It was good top line development with sales of NOK 10.6 billion, a growth of 7.2%.

As in the fourth quarter, sales increase was entirely from higher footfall. Over the past years, customers have grown more price conscious. And Europris is a highly relevant concept. We are known for good campaigns attracting customers seeking a good deal, and we offer good private label products, giving customers value for money.

Category upgrades are also important to stay relevant and up-to-date and the home and interior category that was upgraded showed good development. During the year, a total of 8 new stores were opened. Two were closed, but 1 of these, we do hope to be able to relocate, but we are pending permits. The pure players had sales of NOK 828 million, up 2.6%, excluding Lunehjem. It has been a challenging year for -- in Norway for knitting.

It impacted Strikkemekka, while Lekekassen had sales growth in its main market Norway. The gross margin was upheld at 44.7%, excluding unrealized currency. This means an increase of 0.2 percentage points. The OpEx for the full year was up 7.1%. And in addition to annual wage growth and inflation in general, OpEx was impacted by volume-driven sales growth. This affects handling costs and distribution costs.

We have also made strategic investments in building inventories in the stores and this has contributed well to the sales performance, but it also has given some one-off costs in OpEx regarding handling and distribution. Further, there was a higher number of directly operated stores, which obviously also adds to the OpEx. And in a year with such good performance, variable remuneration was also higher than in the year before. And while the development in the fourth quarters of '25 and '24 were impacted by timing, the full year showed an OpEx to sales ratio that was on a par with the previous year. And all in all, I think it's fair to conclude that 2025 was a good year for segment Norway. Moving to segment Sweden and the fourth quarter performance. Sales were NOK 1.2 billion. In local currency, the ÖoB chain had like-for-like sales growth of 3.8%.

Product range for Christmas was to a large extent, harmonized with that of Europris, and it showed a good uplift compared to the year before, but it still is a relatively small share of total sales. The solid campaign execution continued also in the fourth quarter. Footfall, however, continues to decline slightly, and there is a need to attract new customer segments.

The gross margin was 34%, up 1.6 percentage points, excluding impact from unrealized currency. The gross margin in '24 was impacted by -- negatively impacted by clearance sales. In 2025, there was a positive product mix from improved margins on the seasonal range. And on the other hand, there was a negative mix impact from a significant increase in share of sales from campaigns. And they have, on average, a lower margin. But it's still an important investment in ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty over time. We want our customers to come -- get what they came for and not leave disappointed. The lower OpEx was from IT projects and integration costs last year and also timing. And EBIT was NOK 30 million, an improvement from the EBIT loss in the fourth quarter previous year. The group had ownership of EÖoB for 4 more months in 2025, making comparisons between the year relatively meaningless.

And for the full year, both years, the EOB chain had a small like-for-like growth of 0.6%. Slightly lower footfall was offset by a lift in the basket value. And the 4 stores that were remodeled in '25 showed positive signs on important KPIs, and we look forward to getting more speed on the store openings in 2026. And for the full year, the segment had an EBIT loss of NOK 157 million.

To sum up, the financials for the fourth quarter for the group combined can be described as a good conclusion to a solid year. Sales were NOK 4.6 billion, a growth of 4.1% in constant currency, with a gross margin just above last year and a slightly lower OpEx to sales ratio. And the EBIT was NOK 677 million, up 8.6%. For the full year, the group had sales of NOK 14.9 billion, with an organic sales growth in constant currency of 5.7%. 4 more months withÖB ownership had a dilutive impact on the gross margin and the OpEx to sales ratio. EBIT was NOK 1.3 billion, up 6.6%, while net profit was down 2.8%. And I would like to mention that finance costs were impacted by unrealized losses on interest rate swaps in 2025, while there were positive accounting effects from the acquisition of VÖeB in 2024. And combined, these 2 elements had a pretax negative change impact between the years of NOK 54 million.

For the full year, cash from operating activities were close to NOK 1.5 billion, roughly on par with last year. The net change in cash was NOK 384 million, mainly from higher use of credit facilities to support Swedish operations. And when exiting the year, net debt was NOK 4.3 billion or NOK 858 million, excluding lease liabilities. And cash and liquidity reserves were NOK 2.1 billion. And then I will give it back to Espen to go through the dividend and outlook. Thank you.

Thank you, Stina. And as Stina has explained, the financial results for 2025 has been good, and that allows us to continue the annual increase in the nominal dividend per share. The Board of Directors proposes an ordinary dividend per share of NOK 3.75, an increase of 7.1% from last year, and the payout ratio is 75.4% of net profit. So continued distribution of dividend that is positive. When we look at the outlook, Europris has shown that we have a very strong concept. We have outperformed the market in Norway, and we have a very solid position in Norway. And retail statistics in both Norway and Sweden has been positive for 2025.

And with decreasing inflation, also with increasing real wages and the outlook also for continued reductions in the interest rates, that provides a positive outlook for the market we are operating in, in 2026 as well, both in Norway and in Sweden. The integration of ÖoB is progressing as planned. We have told you about the remodeling program and the effects we expect from that.

And we are also doing category upgrades and continue to develop the concept in Sweden. And for Sweden, as I said, you should expect the same operating profits in '26 as you saw in 2025. But we remain very confident on the long-term targets we have set for ÖoB.

With that, I will actually invite Stina back on stage, and we will take the questions from the audience first, and then we will continue with the web. a very silent audience in the room today. So maybe you should take some from the web, Trine.

There are some questions. So on the web. Ole Martin West is the first out. Can you break down the like-for-like growth in Norway into contributions from price, footfall and average basket size?

So both for the fourth quarter and the full year, the sales growth in Norway was entirely from footfall.

And what was your consumables share in Q4 for Norway and Sweden separately?

Share of consumables in Sweden was 31%. And in Norway, it was 52%. So it was actually slightly up in both in Sweden and a little bit more up in Norway.

Yes. And how does the full year 2025 consumables share compared with the full year 2024?

It was flat in Sweden. There, the consumables share is higher. It was -- maybe I said the opposite actually on the fourth quarter, I said the nonfood share. and the consumables share for the full year in Sweden was 73%, flat compared to '24 and '25 was flat. And then in Norway, it was 54%, up around a percentage point.

There appears to be some variations in sales performance among the upgraded stores in Sweden. What characterizes the stores showing the strongest uplift? And what characterizes those performing below expectations?

It's right that we see a variation in the results. And it's still -- it's only 4 pilots. But what we can see is that the stores that are opened in the cities where it's more crowded and not that easy to get attention from the market. they are actually growing below what we see in more smaller cities and the rural areas. So when you open a bear, we also see that in Norway when we open an out of the store, it's much easier to get attention when you are in a smaller place than what you can do in the bigger city. And that's why we are doing now the remodelings in clusters. So we are doing the stores now in Gothenburg and Stockholm this year in order to be prepared to do more marketing activities because that is needed to be seen in the bigger markets.

And how much extraordinary cost related to the turnaround has there been in Sweden in 2025?

Well, we upgraded 4 pilot stores and we have given numbers for those. And we have had some costs also related to the IT projects some costs, but we will always have -- we are now in a transition period. So it will be very difficult. I think the important thing is if you're looking for guidance is also to look at the bigger picture where we say that Sweden, we expect to be on a par with '25 and '26.

Given the stronger NOK against the U.S. dollar and lower purchasing prices in China, should we expect gross margin improvement in 2026.

I think the very easy answer to that question is no. And that might be a little bit arrogant. So I'll try to elaborate a little bit. It's -- if you look historically, the knock-on dollar has gone up and down. And actually, for Europris case, the gross margin has been surprisingly and boringly stable during that period. And you have to remember that the gross margin is a factor of the input cost and also the sales price.

And when you say that automatically change in the currency and also the cost in China, directly lead to a better margin, then you just take the full market and the competition out of the map. And that doesn't really work because factors like currency and the raw material costs and also the factory capacity in China that affects all retails in the same way. And that's not a competitive edge. And that means that these things will always be taking out in the price. The only way you can increase your gross margin is by doing something better than your competitors. That means you have to work really hard to improve the -- for us, it's a private label share is the product mix work on that, the way you balance your campaigns. And all these things is what we have done over the past years to lift our gross margin from the levels we have before the pandemic to where we are today. So that's a lot of hard work and you need to improve your competitive edge. Currency doesn't improve your competitiveness. That is the same for everyone.

And OpEx in Norway was somewhat elevated in Q4. Were there any special items affecting this? And how should you think about the OpEx outlook for 2026.

Well, I think I tried to explain during the presentation. You need to look at it for more than just 1 quarter in isolation. And we will continue to work hard in maintaining the OpEx. We have the one-off buildup of inventory in stores, who will not -- again, that's an investment. But apart from that, I think I explained during the presentation.

And the next one comes from Hakon Fuglu regarding the consumables share in Norway for Q4, is the development of product mix seen in the market as a whole or related to dopes alone?

It's a bit difficult to answer for the entire market as I don't have full insight into that. But I think over the past years when consumers have become more price conscious, this has also been good for our concept. We have been very relevant on many of the products that people need.

And instead of buying these products elsewhere, they have bought them at Europris. So we have tried to kind of build our campaigns and offering also to adapt to the customer sentiment, and that has impacted the mix of consumables and also private labels.

And how did be perform compared to the market in Q4?

Well, we don't have the full market figures available yet. But what we have seen at this up until the fourth quarter is that be has underperformed. It has been a strong market in Sweden. But I would believe that the like-for-like performance we delivered in the fourth quarter is actually at least closer to the market development.

And the question is from [indiscernible]. Europris has outperformed the Verity Retail Index in 10 out of the last 12 years. Why do you think Everyplace has been constantly able to do that? And do you believe these dynamics will continue in the coming years.

I think what we have done is that we are never satisfied. We always try to be a little bit better in everything we do. And we're twisting and tweaking on the retail machinery, always trying to do a little bit better. And that is in the true corporate philosophy and culture of Europris, and that will never stop. And I think we always have to strive to be better. And when we evaluated the Christmas season, the first week in January, we have the full list of things we can do better. And we have that every year. And every year, it's the best Christmas ever. That's the way you have to do it. And you just have to continue to keep working.

And then we haveone last question from Phillihp Bjerke. Given the focus on volume growth in Q4, how should we think about pricing in 2026?

We will stay competitive -- work. So I mean, it's a bit difficult question. I think we will just focus on doing everything a little bit better all the time. And I think we will continue to see the same development that we saw during '25 I would believe, but it's always difficult when you talk about the future. I don't know, Espen, if you want to add.

No, nothing to add to that. It's only hard work. That's the only thing that gives you results.

That was the last question.

Okay. Thank you, and see you next time, and that will be on the 23rd of April.

Good morning, and welcome to the third quarter presentation of Europris. My name is Espen Eldal, CEO of the company, and joining me on stage later today will be Stina Byre, the CFO; and Trine Englokken, the IR Officer, will manage the Q&A session we have at the end of the presentation. Please feel free to type in your questions as we speak.

Very happy to have the event here at DNB office in Bjorvika, Oslo. Thank you for arranging this, and a great thank you to the people that actually have showed up in person today. Today, we actually have the biggest audience for the quarterly presentation for at least 2 years. So that's great.

Let's get started. This is a slide that I'm very proud of in Europris and it serves as a motivation for many of our employees. Every year since we opened the first store, we have had growth. And of course, no one wants to be the one that misses this streak. So we will make sure that it continues.

And I think it shows some of the strength of the concept of Europris. Regardless of financial climate, we have been able to grow sales every year. Some years, acquisition has been a big part of that growth. But in every year, we have also delivered organic growth. And 2025 also demonstrates very high growth. And I think we have to go back at least a decade to see the same strong organic growth in Norway as we have seen this year.

If I look at some highlights for the third quarter, Stina will provide more details on the financials later on. But overall, it was a sales growth of 9%, driven by strong performance in Segment Norway. The gross margin increased. We have demonstrated good cost control. So OpEx to sales ratio is reduced, and that has resulted in an EBIT for the group of NOK 256 million, which is an increase of 53% from last year. So all in all, a very solid third quarter for Europris Group.

We'll talk a little bit about the Europris chain before we continue with the ÖoB chain. Europris has, over many years, built a position as a seasonal destination in Norway. And this year, we really managed to capitalize on the nice summer weather, and we saw large traffic to our stores, and we were well prepared. We were well stocked with good shelves. We had a very good base assortment, and we capitalized on the increased traffic and the demand that arise from the warm summer in Norway.

So it's a strong execution of the campaigns, also a strong execution of the seasonal sales, and the growth has been driven by higher footfall as the nice summer weather creates some demand, and we see growth not only in the seasonal items, but also in the base assortment is where we have seen high sales growth during the summer.

So it's -- but it has been a strong market as well. The Europris chain grew by 12.1% in the third quarter. And according to Statistics Norway, the broad variety retail market in Norway grew by 9.5%. So it's been a strong market, and we have been able to outperform in that market. So it's good sales.

If we look at the financial climate we're in, we see that the consumer spending has been positively impacted by real wage increases and lower interest rates. Not only Europris has benefited from that, we see that the total retail market in Norway is very positive. But we also see that consumers are becoming more and more price conscious. And that has been something we have seen over the last couple of years, driven by the high inflation, but this is kind of sticky.

The shopping pattern has changed among the consumers, and they keep following the prices more regularly and they also shop more on campaigns. And this is strong and good news for a concept like Europris. We have driven more sales towards campaigns as we have a campaign-driven concept. We have been able to attract new customers on our private labels. We have increased the share of private label sales. And these are, of course, low price points, and we managed to give the customers what they want. They want low prices.

And it was a big price test in Nettavisen this October, where they looked at Europris compared to the three large grocery chains in Norway, and Europris was a clear winner on price, just like we were last year as well. And that is good for a low-price concept as Europris.

If you look at the ÖoB chain. We have done several changes over the last year, and we see that the category upgrades give good sales development in kitchen, home and interior and DHY (sic) [ DIY ] but it's not material enough to really change the bottom line. We see that we managed to shift the consumers to buy more nonfood items. We see we managed to get them to buy more campaigns.

The retail basics mechanism we introduced, that works, but still, the results are not material enough to give significant results. We have changed from negative like-for-like to positive like-for-like. We have lifted the gross margin, but it's not enough to make the turnover we need. So what becomes more and more clear for us is that we need to do the full remodeling of the stores in order to get the turnaround process we want in Sweden and especially to attract new customers to the stores.

We need to reestablish ÖoB as a relevant shopping destination for more customers. And we see the very good results from the pilot stores where we have built 2 new stores in -- or remodeled 2 stores in Sweden based on the Europris concept.

The first one was opened in Uddevalla in June. And that store basically ticks off all the boxes that we want. We see increased sales from higher footfall to the stores. We see increased sales of nonfood items. We see a higher margin and we also see a higher basket. So very promising and good results from that remodeling.

The second remodeled store in Arninge outside of Stockholm was opened in -- early in September. And that basically gives us the same results, what we have seen from Uddevalla, and the third pilot opened 3 weeks ago in Malmö and the fourth pilot will open next week outside of Stockholm.

So we will have then 4 pilots, and we will run that for a period. We get very positive feedback from the customers and the staff on the store layout and how it works and we see that it's evident that we do these remodelings to get turnaround process in Sweden.

We are now executing a large store remodeling program over the next 2 years. We will remodel 40 to 45 stores every year in '26 and '27 and there will be some initial negative financial impacts. During the remodeling, the stores will be closed for 2 to 4 weeks, which means that we will have lost sales.

In addition, we will do some discounting ahead of the closing period, where we will sell out the discontinued goods in order to have fresh goods when we open the new stores and we will do the remodeling with our own staff. So it will be dedicated remodeling teams employed by ÖoB, and that will, of course, be part of the OpEx for next year.

So any improvements from sales uplifts anticipated with the remodeling next year will be offset by the cost associated with the remodeling of the stores. We expect then the financial results in Sweden in '26 to be on par with 2025, and then we will see a gradual uplift in the profits from '27 and the major uplift will come in '28 after -- the year after all stores are modernized.

We will provide some more detail on the rollout plan and the financial impacts in the next quarterly presentation after we have evaluated the 4 pilot stores. We maintain firm on the high ambitions we have in Sweden. We will grow the revenues to SEK 5 billion with a 5% EBIT margin by the end of 2028. The first step in this plan is to do category harmonization and joint sourcing. That is well underway.

And this is like the base for the store remodelings and then improving the customer experience, that is the store remodeling plan, and that is the key to really get the results. But you need to do the category harmonization and join sourcing first, and then we will improve the customer experience, and that is needed in order to attract new customer segments into the stores.

Besides that, we are working on strengthening the execution across the value chain, which means that we are sharing the best practice, implementing the retail mechanisms from Europris also into ÖoB and working on the sales culture in the company.

As part of that culture, we have hired a new CEO to ÖoB, that is Anders Lorentzson. He has a strong track record with more than 20 years' experience in the Swedish retail sector. He's worked with food retail in the Ica Group. He's worked with electronics in Expert and he's most recently worked with nonfood items and home textiles as CEO of Hemtex since 2018.

Anders will join us actually next week, starting off with a month in Norway to learn the commercial tricks and trades of Europris and then he will take over full responsibility sometime in December in ÖoB. But we're really looking forward to have Anders joining the ÖoB team and the Europris Group.

With that, I will leave the floor to Stina to take the financial details.

Thank you, Espen, and good morning, everyone. I will start with the financials for Segment Norway. The strong performance this year continued in the third quarter with sales of SEK 2.5 billion, up 11.6% and an EBIT of NOK 293 million, up almost 38%. The Europris chain had a total sales growth of 12.1% and a like-for-like growth of 10.7%.

As Espen said, a warm summer had a positive impact on a seasonal destination like Europris. Higher footfall was the main driver behind the strong performance, but we also saw more articles in the basket. Sales growth was broadly based from seasonal items, campaigns and the base assortment.

One store was opened in the third quarter, bringing the total number of new stores this year to 6. Our pure-play companies had sales of NOK 155 million. And if we exclude the Lunehjem last year, that's a growth of 3.5% where Lekekassen has improved their performance, while there is a challenging knitting market in Norway for Strikkemekka.

The gross margin was 44.6%, up 0.9 percentage points or up 0.5 percentage points if we exclude impact from unrealized currency on hedging contracts and account payables. Seasonal items had a higher gross margin this year, impacting the gross margin positively.

The OpEx increase of 8.7% was impacted by 8 more directly operated stores this year and also costs related to higher volumes. We are happy to see that measures taken to improve efficiency in the value chain continues to pay off, and we saw that the OpEx to sales ratio improved by 0.7 percentage points.

Moving on to Segment Sweden. Sales were NOK 1 billion with a reported sales growth of 3.1%. But in local currency, sales were down 0.2%. The ÖoB chain had 2 fewer stores. And in local currency, the like-for-like sales improved by 0.4%. And this means that although we do see a positive development from upgraded nonfood categories and remodeled stores and also that initiatives to improve campaign sales have given results, this has yet to add materially to the total.

As Espen said, to attract new customer segments, there is a need for store remodeling, and we see higher footfall and sales in our pilot stores. The gross margin was 31.1%, up 0.4 percentage points. Half of this improvement was related to unrealized currency effects. In addition, an uplift in nonfood sales had a positive product mix.

OpEx showed a reported increase of 1.8%, but was down 1.4% in local currency. And this change was positively impacted by one-off costs and costs related to IT projects last year with a total of SEK 13 million. The segment had an EBIT loss of NOK 37 million, an improvement of NOK 8 million compared to last year's loss of NOK 45 million.

I will briefly sum up the third quarter for the group. Sales were NOK 3.5 billion, up 9% or up 8% in constant currency. The gross margin was 40.7%, an improvement of 1 percentage points or up 0.6 percentage points if we exclude impact from unrealized currency.

I would like to give a reminder that the group hedges up to 6 months and that the inventory also takes some time to turn. This impacts when any changes in NOK compared to purchasing currency has an impact on the cost of goods sold. And as far as any margin impact is concerned, that will depend on sales prices in the market when a product is sold.

The OpEx to sales ratio improved by 0.6 percentage points to 25.9%. EBIT grew by close to 53% to NOK 256 million. And the net profit to parent was NOK 154 million, up NOK 70 million, of which NOK 14 million of the increase was related to unrealized impact from interest rate swaps.

For the first 9 months, it's important to keep in mind that group figures include Segment Sweden for 4 more months this year. This obviously has a positive impact on sales, but on the other hand, it has a dilutive impact on both the gross margin and the OpEx to sales ratio.

Sales were NOK 10.3 billion, and EBIT was NOK 642 million. Where Segment Norway delivered a strong EBIT growth of almost 23%, while Segment Sweden for the first 9 months delivered an EBIT loss of NOK 186 million.

Net profit was NOK 350 million, down NOK 46 million. And last year was positively impacted by financial effects from the ÖoB transaction with a net NOK 34 million, and in addition, there is a higher unrealized loss on interest rate swaps this year compared to last year.

I will comment on the figures for the first 9 months. Cash from operating activities were NOK 254 million. Change in net working capital is normally negative in the first 9 months due to seasonal fluctuations, but the minus NOK 735 million this year was more negative than last year. And that was primarily from timing of account payables, but also from a planned inventory buildup to support sales.

Net cash from financing activities were less negative than last year as more of the credit facilities have been drawn upon. Net change in cash was minus NOK 247 million, and the net debt was NOK 5.1 billion or NOK 1.8 billion, excluding lease liabilities. Cash and liquidity reserves decreased by NOK 200 million to NOK 1.16 billion.

And then I will hand it back to Espen to give you the outlook.

Thank you, Stina. We are entering now the fourth quarter, which is historically the most important quarter in retail. And the small seasons are coming almost every week. We have Halloween this week, a big event starting off the Christmas season next week. And of course, you have not only Black Week or Friday, you have Black November. So it's a pretty good lineup of events ahead of us.

And I think we delivered a strong start to this year with a good performance in the first 3 quarters. And we see that consumer spending is driven by the better financial situation in the markets. We have seen increased -- decreased interest rates. We have also seen lower inflation and real wage growth for the consumers.

And we expect that to drive sales also into the fourth quarter.

Most important event ahead of Europris right now is the store remodeling program that we will launch in Sweden in next year. So remodeling 40 to 45 stores both in '26 and '27. And in the first year, the positive effects from those remodelings will be offset by the project costs associated. We remain confident in our long-term ambition and target, which is to grow sales in Sweden to SEK 5 billion with a 5% EBIT margin in 2028.

I think that closes the presentation, and I will invite Stina back on stage, and we will actually open up for questions. So Trine, maybe we should -- if there are any, we could start with questions from the room, then we move on to the web.

Yes. Ole Martin Westgaard, DNB Carnegie. You expect ÖoB 2026 to be on par with 2025. What are your expectations for 2025? Do you find consensus EBITDA expectations fair? Or why shouldn't ÖoB improve in 2026?

We have been quite clear that we expect the financials of ÖoB in '26 to be on par with '25. And the reason for giving that is, of course, that we saw that analysts have phased in positive effects from ÖoB earlier than what we see is possible as the remodeling will take some time, and there will be some initial negative financial impacts from the projects. Regarding the fourth quarter, I would expect ÖoB to perform slightly better than last year, like we did in the third quarter this year.

And another one from Ole Martin. Can you give any more color on the expected negative impact of the remodeling in ÖoB next year? And how much is this expected to impact the figures negatively?

We will come back with a more detailed data set when we have had the time to evaluate the 4 pilot stores. We have 4 months of data on one pilot. That is not sufficient to make a good data sample. So we will have the 4 pilots, evaluate those, and we'll present the data when we present the fourth quarter results in the end of January.

And then you will see data on how you should model this in for the full year, also the timing of how many remodelings we will do every quarter, the cost associated and also the uplift you should expect. So that will be a full data set where it's able to do the calculations.

And what was the consumable and private label share in Europris and ÖoB in Q3?

We saw in ÖoB that we had a higher share of nonfood, and that's very pleasing as we have upgraded categories. So that was up 0.8% in the third quarter. We have a total share of consumables in Sweden of 73%, 74%, as we also harmonized the way that we measure -- harmonized in the same way that we measure the Europris product range. So it's a bit higher than the 70% we have previously communicated.

As for Norway, there has been very good sales of both consumables and nonfood, but the growth for consumables has been higher. So in the third quarter, it was around a little bit more than 55% with an increase of 0.7 percentage points.

And then a question from Hakon Fuglu, SEB. Can you comment on the high OpEx growth for Norway in the quarter? For Norway, why did not gross margin improve further by strong NOK and lower freight? Are you alongside competition seeing lower sourcing costs?

Well, if I start with the OpEx, I agree, at first sight, it may look like a big cost increase. But as I mentioned when I was going through the presentation, a higher number of directly operating stores obviously impacts the number, but it also gives sales.

And also most of our sales is volume driven. And we have a very good improvement in the OpEx to sales ratio of 0.7 percentage points. So I think that the organization has actually done a very good job when it comes to OpEx this year.

And the gross margin, sorry, there were two questions there. We have seen an improvement in the gross margin in Norway with an uplift in the seasonal product range. But as I also said, it can take some time before changes in currency, freight, all this washes into the products that are actually sold, but at the end, one must also remember that we are a low-price chain, and we need to follow the market prices. So that will also then decide how the margin ends up.

I think just to add on the margin side, it's -- we see that there are some comments in the market that a change in the NOK versus the U.S. dollar should immediately given an improved gross margin. And we do the hedging like you explained, Stina, and that will take some time to get the effects in. And that's also assuming that the market prices will remain stable. And we've seen historically that the shifting currency is actually not the driver of the gross margin.

If you look on the historical numbers, you see that hedging basically make sure that you have like a stable margin, and that is operational improvements that drives your increase in gross margin, like we have seen this quarter, we're selling more nonfood items, we're selling -- we see good increase in base assortment with margins, and we also see increase in private label products. And that is the driver of the margin increase we've seen in this quarter, and that will also be what we're working on going forward.

And the next question comes from Petter Nystrøm, ABG. Regarding the ÖoB 2026 guidance. Is this development in line with what you expected 6 to 12 months ago? Or has the outlook become more challenging? If yes, what has changed?

Nothing has basically changed. I think we have reported what we have said the whole time that we do some step changes, small changes to the campaign model. We introduced some new categories. But we have seen all the time that we managed to shift the consumers and the way they trade, but it doesn't really add up to a big change in the basket.

And that is basically because we see that the current customers of ÖoB have a limited capacity to spend money. And we managed to shift this spending across the categories, but doesn't really drive an increase in the footfall. So that's what we're looking for. And we have always said that we need to improve the customer experience in order to attract new customer segments, and that's what we're doing.

And we have always guided on the '28 and that we stay firm on. We have been not sure about how this will evolve in that transition period. But now when we have done the tests, we've done the pilot so far, we see that it's evident for us that we need to do the remodeling and that is what will bring the step change and the new customer segments into the stores in Sweden. So that's why we also give such a clear guidance on it now because now we are -- have more visibility after we have done the pilots.

And that was the last question.

Then we say thank you, and we see you next time.