The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Niklas Ekman - DNB Carnegie - Analyst
: Can I start asking a little bit about the gross margin. Very strong here, up 140 basis points year over year. First thing, just you mentioned the hedges
here that had a positive impact. I'm just trying to understand whether this was an unusual positive effect that you saw or if the hedge is merely
mitigated what would otherwise have been a negative effect? That's, I guess, my first question.
Question: Niklas Ekman - DNB Carnegie - Analyst
: Okay. Fair enough. And also looking at how currencies have continued to evolve and as well as transportation costs, et cetera. I'm assuming that
these tailwinds that you saw in Q1 should be even more pronounced in the coming quarters, all else equal, based on kind of current spot prices.
Am I correct in that? Or do you see this quarter as being unusual?
Question: Niklas Ekman - DNB Carnegie - Analyst
: Very clear. Can I also ask about store openings? I note that last year, middle of the year, kind of from March to September, you opened 12 new
stores. And since then, it's been more limited with store openings. You talk about 10 stores net for this financial year. I think you have 5 contracts
so far. How confident are you that you can sign another five stores and open another five stores before the end of April? And what is your view in
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general on store openings? Are you pleased with the stores, the recently opened stores? Do you think that this is the way to go going forward to
continue with the kind of 10 stores per year in store openings?
Question: Niklas Ekman - DNB Carnegie - Analyst
: Very clear. Finally, I just have to ask. As you said here, you're very much overdelivering on your targets. You have a margin target of 7% to 9%. You're
now on a rolling 12-month basis at 10.5%. Is there anything that you see here over the next year or so that suggests that this margin should return
to the margin range of 7% to 9%? And why are you sticking to that target?
Question: Erik Sandstedt - Kepler Cheuvreux SA - Analyst
: I'm Erik Sandstedt with Kepler Chevreux here. I got a couple of questions as well. Firstly, in terms of marketing, you mentioned that marketing costs
were higher in the quarter. Should we view that as more of a one-off effect or a sort of sustained higher level going forward?
Question: Erik Sandstedt - Kepler Cheuvreux SA - Analyst
: Perfect. Great. Then just a question on the online business. I know you elaborated a little bit on it. But could you say anything more about the
profitability of the online business, both how it compares to the store margin, but also to what extent it contributed to the strong profit development
in this quarter?
Question: Erik Sandstedt - Kepler Cheuvreux SA - Analyst
: Great. Then finally, just a question on August sales. Sort of the growth rate was slightly lower than we saw in July and August, still above your target
though. But could you share any more light on this? Was the summer months sort of exceptionally strong thanks to weather or what sort of the
difference between June, July versus August?
Question: Erik Sandstedt - Kepler Cheuvreux SA - Analyst
: Perfect. Thanks. That's all I had. Thank you very much and well done on a strong quarter.
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