Rusta AB (publ) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yes, good morning, G÷ran, Sophie. A couple of questions from me. Starting off maybe with the gross margin where you state that it has reached a healthy level. Is that an indication that you don't expect it to reach the low end of the 44% to 45% interval that you've talked about before, but rather a notch below?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Okay, good. And what is the lead time when we think about the weakness that we've seen recently in the US dollar? When do you think that's going to have a more positive impact and might be sort of neutralizing the NOK and the euro? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 13, 2025 / 8:00AM, RUSTA.ST - Q3 2025 Rusta AB (publ) Earnings Call

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yeah. On that topic, are you seeing tailwind on the freight side, because freight -- container freight costs have been coming down quite a lot or where are you there?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Okay. But that's good. And then maybe jumping on to the German comments that you made. And you've said that you've done a lot of work in terms of completing the study when it comes to neighborhoods and neighbors and marketing efficiency and so on. Have you applied any of these learnings when it comes to the three stores that have been underperforming in the German market? And have you seen an improvement in those three stores on the back of that?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yeah, I'm just trying to get to that sort of -- is that what's building your confidence to push forward basically?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yeah, good. And just to be very nitty-gritty here, I clearly hear what you're saying about a good start to Q4. Has there been any disruptions in the past sort of two weeks given the quite significant turmoil that you do have when it comes to politics?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yeah. Thank you. That was all for me. Thank you.

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Thank you. If I can start there with the current trading we talked about here, is there any way that you can quantify the effect? I mean, are we talking

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Okay, fair enough. And on the topic of Germany, you sound more optimistic here, obviously. What would you say is the main difference for your optimism? And is there any way you can quantify your journey towards profitability in Germany? How far do you think right now? What's your best guess how far you are from profitability in Germany?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Very clear, thanks. I'm also curious on -- when you talk about kind of price investments or at least you're talking about a shift here from margin expansion that we've seen in previous quarters to focusing more on growth, your margin now, if you look at the last 12 months, your margins are at 7.1% on adjusted EBITDA. Do you think that is likely to level out at that level if you look kind of over the next 12, 18 months? Or do you still see potential for that to expand towards the 8% margin or is 8% margin, is that more like at least a year down the line?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Very clear. Thank you. I'm also curious about this new concept that you are rolling out. Can you tell us a little bit more, because you're talking about a fairly limited investment and to refurbish stores -- all 220 stores before Christmas. So it sounds like this is not a major facelift we're talking about. We're not talking about changing the lap in the stores, for instance. Just how big of a refurbishment are we talking about here?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Very clear. Thanks. Do you see any risk that this change up might negatively impact your sales? That there will be periods of refurbishment or lost momentum or anything like that? Or do you expect to have a relatively limited immediate implications on the customer experience?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Very clear. Thank you so much for taking my questions.

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Thanks, for a lot of good answers already. I have one on consumer sentiment or trends in your -- amongst your customers. I appreciate that from what I understand, you have a trend of your customers mixing up and being more willing to buy higher ticket items. Do you see -- on that note, do you see any trends of sort of how your customer base is responding to campaigns and promotions? Is it harder to get the same push in terms of volumes when you have a discounted -- temporary discounted product, for instance, or any of that sort? That would be interesting to hear.

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Appreciate that. And then I'm a bit curious on the members here. You passed 6.2 million members, right? It's quite impressive. Do you see any -- like below that net number, do you see any change in the customer mix? Are there any of the shares of the cohorts that you acquired during the height of inflation that you have struggled to reactivate in any way? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. MARCH 13, 2025 / 8:00AM, RUSTA.ST - Q3 2025 Rusta AB (publ) Earnings Call

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Okay, that's -- those are interesting data points. Appreciate that.