Rusta AB (publ) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Thank you and congratulations on strong results this morning. A couple of questions from my end. Firstly, if you could elaborate a little bit more on what you're saying about current trading. You're talking about tough comparisons in May and then much easier in June, July. I know you don't really quantify this, but is there any reason to see any significant deviation from the strong growth that you report now in Q4? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 17, 2025 / 7:00AM, RUSTA.ST - Q4 2025 Rusta AB (publ) Earnings Call

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Fair enough. Fair enough. And can you say a little bit more, you talked about the currency tailwinds -- or headwinds that you see now that will reverse to tailwinds. How will that progress do you see during the coming quarters? Are you still seeing significant headwinds also now in Q1 or Q2? Or how should that progress?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Very clear. And speaking of euro, other markets, you've seen a fairly poor sales development or at least it's been underperforming the rest of the group. And now you're seeing a significant pickup here in Q4. Why is this happening now? Is there anything that you've done differently in Finland and Germany?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Can you quantify what is online share of sales for you now?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : Clear. Finally, a question for you, Goran. As you said, you announced plans to resign 1 week ago. Can you elaborate a little bit on the reasons for leaving, why deciding to leave now and then what do you expect to do going forward?

Question: Niklas Ekman - Carnegie Investment Bank - Analyst : And no thoughts on what's next for you?

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

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I was thinking about the strong like-for-like number here in Q4, 8.6% like-for-like. Assuming that price, investments, campaigns took 1.5%, 2% off that number, volume mix would be, say, 10% in the quarter, firstly, if you could confirm that's roughly ballpark correct? And if you could give us some sense of the mix between volume impact versus mix impact you referenced both here in the report, but any of them that makes up the lion's part here would be interesting.

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Okay. But just to understand, sorry, but the 8.6% like-for-like, you say 1% or 2% negative in volume, but what's the share of mix versus 1.5% price, right, but volume and mix, what's roughly the relationship between those 2 to make up that 8.6% number? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 17, 2025 / 7:00AM, RUSTA.ST - Q4 2025 Rusta AB (publ) Earnings Call

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Okay. And then on the gross margin coming down from 43% to just below 41%, could you try to guess the impact from the IT attack where you couldn't campaign, right, to that extent? So that had a natural impact. And then also, I understand it's a bit of a tricky question, but I understand the delay here with the procurement prices and FX into your P&L. But could you try to estimate, if all else equal in terms of pricing and everything, what do you think the gross margin would have been theoretically in the quarter if all those FX and procurement price impacts actually hit in this quarter rather than with a delay into the next half of next year?

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Yeah.

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Sure. And you don't want to give us a rough estimate how big that impact will be gross net of any price campaigns from your side?

Question: Gustav Hageus - SEB - Analyst : Okay. Well, thank you for taking my questions.

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yes, good morning, guys. A couple of questions from me then. If you just look at the IT incident impact from last year, how does sort of the result this year stack up against an adjusted result last year if you include the impact that you had negatively from the IT incident?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : And on profitability.

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yes. I'm just getting to that basically last year, you had an EBIT of 0 basically if you adjusted for the IT incident, right?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yes, yes. And now it's minus SEK15 million. So do you think that you overestimated the impact from the...

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Do you think that you overestimated the impact of the IT incident on the profitability line last year?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Okay, good. Good. And then just a detailed one on the online because that was also impacted quite a lot by the IT incident last year, right, at least at the start of the quarter. So if you adjust for that, do you think that online growth sticks out in this quarter, as you mentioned, if you make that adjustment?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Okay. Good. And then also maybe on the gross margin, you said half and half in terms of FX and campaigning and gave a very sort of clear indication for the coming quarters. But do you think that mix has played in, in your favor on the gross margin? You talked about sort of higher demand for higher-priced items. Does that sort of equal better mix? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 17, 2025 / 7:00AM, RUSTA.ST - Q4 2025 Rusta AB (publ) Earnings Call

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : And do you see that going in the same direction as you look into Q1?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Okay.

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : And on that topic, this is a quite difficult question to answer, I guess, but could you have calibrated the campaign activity aggressiveness, so to speak, better in order to get sort of an even more ideal gross margin development versus your top line in the quarter? Impossible question to answer, I guess, but what do you say about that?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Good. Okay. Because I think sort of nobody can complain about the top line development that you had, but you can have sort of different views of the drop-through basically. And you are upping the expansion guidance. You already upped it 2 quarters ago, and you're upping it again within the interval and that basically that period that you're referring to starts now, if I'm not mistaken. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. JUNE 17, 2025 / 7:00AM, RUSTA.ST - Q4 2025 Rusta AB (publ) Earnings Call Why, Goran, do you believe sort of why do you -- why don't you want to see that through basically the 3-year period?

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Yes. Good. And maybe, again, a difficult question, but you've been an excellent CEO of this company and you're a big part of this, sort of instrumental in that journey that the company has been on for these 14 years, as you mentioned. Is it realistic to believe that you will stay another 12 months? Because usually, when a decision like this is made, for everyone, maybe it's better that it goes quicker.

Question: Daniel Schmidt - Danske Bank - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Arttu Heikura - Inderes - Analyst : Hello. Good morning. It's Arttu Heikura from Inderes. I have a couple of questions. Could you give an update on the ongoing concept renewal in your stores and especially in the older stores? How have customers responded to that?

Question: Arttu Heikura - Inderes - Analyst : Okay. Maybe then about your private label sales, so where do we stand now? And what are you aiming for? And does the share of private labels differ between your segments?

Question: Arttu Heikura - Inderes - Analyst : Okay. Is there significant differences between your segments when it comes to the share of private levels?

Question: Arttu Heikura - Inderes - Analyst : Okay, that's clear. Thank you very much.