Good morning. This is the Axfood first quarter 2026 telephone conference.

With me today are Simone Margulies, President and CEO, and Anders Lexmon, CFO. In the investor section of our axfood.com website, you will find the presentation material for today's call.

We encourage you to have that presentation at hand as you listen to our prepared commentary. After the presentation, we will be taking questions.

A recording of this call will be made available on our website. With that, I will now hand over the words to Simone.

Please go to page 2.

Thank you, Alex, and good morning everyone. We summarize a quarter with volume growth, improved efficiency, and increased profitability, and that in a market that is characterized by a high activity level.

Through a clear customer focus and collaboration, we continue to create value with our strong and distinctive concepts. Before we start the presentation, I briefly want to comment on the situation in the world around us.

It is clear that global uncertainty has increased over the past few months, and it's currently very difficult to assess the long-term effects of the war in the Middle East. In recent years, we have successfully navigated a volatile and uncertain environment, adapting quickly as conditions have changed, and we are carefully monitoring developments.

Turning to page 3. With that very brief introduction, let me now take you through the recent market developments and Axfood's first quarter performance.

Next page is number 4. Market growth amounted to 4.4% during the quarter, a similar level compared to the fourth quarter last year.

Stronger volumes contributed to this development as the annual rate of food price inflation came down and amounted to 1.7% according to Statistics Sweden. Inflation decreased gradually during the quarter and particularly in March when the overall price level was unchanged compared to the prior year.

This was mainly driven by the dairy category, but prices were also lower in several other categories, including fruit and vegetables. In addition to the improved volume trend, a 0.5% positive calendar effect from Easter also contributed to the market development this quarter.

Please go to the next slide, number 5. As a result of positive volume traffic and high volumes, Axfood's retail sales increased 3.8% in the quarter.

This was below the market and also lower than what we had hoped for. Excluding City Gross where sales have been impacted by recent store closures, growth was in line with the market.

Over a two-year period, we continue to clearly outperform with contribution from City Gross. Competition remains intense, and in general, market dynamics continue to be characterized by a strong focus on price value.

As you all probably know, the VAT on food was halved on April 1st from 12% to 6%, and this measure was implemented just before Easter, which typically is an important holiday for the industry. With this, the overall activity level of the market was particularly high.

In Axfood, we worked intensively during the quarter to prepare for and implement the VAT reduction. Through extensive collaboration and focus on execution throughout the organization, from stores and support functions to Dagab and Axfood IT, the price points on millions of items were updated in a very short amount of time.

We're now on page 6. Consolidated net sales for Axfood grew 2.6% in the quarter, and as I just mentioned, this was mainly driven by higher volumes.

We saw growth in all our segments except City Gross, and there, as I just mentioned, it is of course important to consider that total growth was impacted by store closures. Please go to the next page, number 7.

We report a strong financial development in the quarter. Group operating profit increased to 806 million SEK, and the operating margin was higher at 3.7%.

Operating profit included items affecting comparability of -6 million related to City Gross. Last year's items affecting comparability also related to City Gross and then amounted to -38 million SEK.

Operating profit and margin on an adjusted basis, which excludes items affecting comparability, also increased. Adjusted operating profit was 812 million SEK, and the adjusted operating margin amounted to 3.8%.

The improved profitability was primarily driven by higher sales volumes and growth in both total and like-for-like sales, a stable gross margin, improved efficiency, and also an effective cost control. Now let's turn to Willys and page 8.

Willys continued to demonstrate volume growth in the quarter through an increased number of customer visits and a higher average ticket value, but total growth was below the rate of the market. Store establishments contributed to growth, although the new stores in the first quarter were established late in March and as such only contributed to a small extent.

In recent months, Willys has temporarily closed two stores ahead of relocation, and together with ongoing larger store modernizations, this impacted growth negatively in the first quarter. Earnings grew to 498 million SEK, which corresponded to an operating margin of 4.1%.

The increase in operating profit was primarily driven by the increased sales volumes and a stable gross margin development. Willys is Sweden's leading discounter, and two days before the VAT reduction, Willys chose to lead the way by reducing prices corresponding to the lower VAT.

This, together with the increased marketing activities, which were largely concentrated to the end of the quarter, negatively impacted sales and profitability. As I mentioned, Willys's store expansion progress was also concentrated to the end of the quarter.

Even so, the expansion pace remains high, and based on the chain's strong position among consumers, there is significant potential to increase the market presence. We are now on page 9.

Hemköp displayed a strong performance in the first quarter and clearly increased its market share, delivering retail sales growth of almost 6%. Growth was primarily driven by an increase in customer traffic and in addition a higher average ticket value that contributed positively.

Like-for-like growth was also strong, contributing to a solid earnings performance. With a focus on modernizing stores and enhancing its offering in terms of price value, fresh produce, and meal solutions, Hemköp has made excellent progress in recent years.

The current growth clearly demonstrates that customers truly appreciate Hemköp. In total, operating profit increased to 114 million SEK, and operating margin also increased to 5.1%.

The increase in operating profit was mainly driven by the increased sales volumes, a stable gross margin development, and solid cost control. Earnings in the prior year was impacted by new store establishments.

Turning to page 10. Our efforts to develop City Gross into a long-term competitive hypermarket chain is proceeding according to plan.

City Gross continued to deliver a positive performance in the first quarter with healthy like-for-like growth of 3.6% and a positive earnings trend. Our improvement initiatives to develop the customer offering and streamlining operations are clearly yielding results.

City Gross's loss for the quarter amounted to -48 million SEK on an adjusted basis, corresponding to an operating margin of -2.4%. This was an improvement compared to the prior year, which came from the positive like-for-like growth, effects from structure measures, as well as efforts to streamline operations.

Similarly to Willys, City Gross went ahead and reduced prices corresponding to the VAT cut two days prior to implementation. Together with increased marketing activities, this negatively impacted sales and profitability.

On a reported basis, the operating loss amounted to -54 million SEK, which corresponds to an operating margin of -2.7%. This included the items affecting comparability I mentioned, which refers to structure measures for stores.

We are now on page 11. Growth for Snabbgross amounted to 1% in the quarter, with weak sales development for B2B consumers.

The trend in the B2C sales through Snabbgross Club was however strong, both in total and like-for-like sales. In terms of operating profit, Snabbgross managed to offset the weak growth through strict cost control and delivering earnings on par with last year.

In total, operating profit amounted to 25 million, corresponding to an operating margin of 2.2%. Next page, number 12.

Dagab's first quarter net sales increased by almost 4%, driven by sales to food retail customers and especially Axfood's own concepts. Operating profit also increased to 298 million SEK, and the operating margin was unchanged at 1.5%.

The performance was primarily due to the sales growth and a lower cost level with increased productivity in logistics. Operating profit was however negatively impacted by lower gross margin due to market investments.

Late in the quarter, Dagab also negatively was impacted by higher fuel costs and weaker Swedish krona. That concludes the first part of the presentation.

Now it's time for our CFO, Anders, to take you through the financials. We are now on page 13, but please go to the next page, number 14.

Anders, please go ahead.

Thank you, Simone. During the first quarter, the cash flow was -692 million SEK, which was almost 300 million SEK lower compared to last year.

The strong operational performance was offset by a negative working capital effect due to inventory build ahead of Easter. This resulted in a somewhat weaker cash flow from operating activities of almost 1.1 billion SEK, 129 million lower compared to last year.

The negative cash flow from investment activities of -560 million SEK included the initial payment of 185 million for automation in the logistics center in Kungsbacka. Excluding this automation investment, the capital expenditure in the quarter was in line with last year.

By the end of Q1, Axfood utilized approximately 3.1 billion SEK of our credit facilities, compared to 3.3 billion SEK in Q1 last year and 2.7 billion SEK at year-end 2025. The cash flow from financing activities of 1.2 billion SEK was in line with last year and included the first dividend payment of just below 1 billion SEK.

We are now on page 15. The net debt increased compared to year-end 2025 due to dividend payout.

The net debt to EBITDA was improved compared to Q1 last year due to a strong EBITDA development, despite increased leasehold debt. The equity ratio amounted to 17.3%, which was lower than in December 2025 due to the dividend approved.

The Q1 equity ratio was however 0.5 percentage points higher compared to Q1 2025. Total investments excluding leasehold and acquisitions amounted to 561 million SEK in Q1, compared to 371 million SEK last year.

During the quarter, we established four new group-owned stores, two more than last year. Our investments in store establishments have therefore increased during Q1 compared to last year.

As I mentioned before, the investments included the first payment of 185 million SEK connected to automation in the new logistics center in Kungsbacka. Then let's turn to page 16.

When we look at the capital efficiency, we have a stable development in our rolling 12-month net working capital and also in relation to net sales. Capital employed has increased over the last years, mainly due to the acquisitions of Bergendahls Food and City Gross, as well as the investments in Bålsta.

The level of capital employed however decreased slightly during Q1 as equity was reduced not only by dividend paid, but also the dividend to be paid in Q3 later this year. The effect was partly offset by higher leasehold debt.

Thanks to an improved earnings trend and the reduced capital employed, ROCE improved by 1 percentage point during the first quarter compared to year-end 2025. By that, Simone, I come to the end of my presentation and hand over to you again.

Thank you, Anders. We are now on page 17, and it's time for me to give you an update on our strategic agenda and priorities.

Let us turn to page 18. We have a clear house of brands strategy in our group, and this makes us unique in Swedish food retail.

We aim to deliver the strongest customer experiences, and we are present in all segments of the market with our different concepts. Please turn to next page, number 19.

To create the right conditions for our retail concepts to be able to succeed on the market, we leverage our strengths as a group and focus on six strategic development areas. We have shown you these before, and I would now like to go through some recent key strategic developments.

Please turn to next page, 20. Our ambition is to provide the most attractive assortment on the market, with a distinctive offering on branded as well as private label products to meet customers' diverse needs and preferences.

During the first quarter, we had a high pace in developing our private label portfolio and launched more than 100 new products. We had product launches across many categories, but I would like to highlight our focus on expand the range of our international assortment.

In addition, we expanded the Minelution brand to strengthen our offering in personal care. Our private labels represent quality and innovation, and we also focus a lot on sustainability and health, with a wide selection of sustainability-labeled and organic products.

In addition, we have a large selection of products with Swedish origin, with more than 400 products under the Garant brand. In the space of sustainability and health, we have previously launched several innovative hybrid products, and this quarter, we launched ready-made meatballs made from a combination of minced meat, vegetables, and legumes.

An exciting launch that really can contribute to better eating habits, not least among younger people. Our private labels, including the Garant and Eldorado brands, are significant competitive edge, and with all the new products, we complement our existing portfolio and improve the offerings within our various concepts.

Overall, our private label share of sales increased in the quarter and amounted to just over 32%, driven by high penetration in Hemköp and City Gross. We are now on page 21.

We will continue to develop our attractive store network in the coming years by accelerating the pace of expansion while maintaining a high rate of modernization of existing stores. This work creates new growth opportunities by ensuring that our concepts provide the best possible store experience for their customers.

Willys focuses on significantly expanding its presence, but at the same time, the chain gradually rolls out its most recent store concept, 5.0. Hemköp is maintaining a high pace in modernizing the stores, and in addition, expands its presence when it sees good potential to do so.

For City Gross, focus in the past year has been on closing underperforming stores, with one store closure in the first quarter this year and one planned for the second. This is really about creating a healthy core in City Gross's store base from which the chain can grow from.

That said, City Gross has also established a new store recently in February in Motala. Lastly, to create better conditions for both the restaurant trade and the convenience trade to achieve long-term growth with improved profitability, we have made the decision to bring the two operations together into a single organization.

The convenience trade business, which is currently part of Dagab, will be transferred to Snabbgross as of January next year. The logistics operation will however remain in Dagab.

With consolidation, opportunities are being created to further strengthen the customer meetings and offerings both for restaurants and convenience trade customers. Moving on to page 22.

We are also improving our competitiveness by maintaining a clear focus on efficiency and productivity. We are enhancing the way we work, increasing use of data and AI in all our processes.

More than 100 AI models have been taken into production in recent years, and we focus a lot on developing and empowering employees through AI tools and training and an assistance. We are also further optimizing our new logistics structure, and during the quarter, we completed the rollout of a new order and purchasing system that will further strengthen our supply chain.

With this new system, we can be more accurate in forecasts and planning and really strengthen how we manage our order flows to balance supply and demand. As previously communicated, we plan to establish a new highly automated logistics center in Kungsbacka that will be completed in 2030 and ensure increased capacity and efficiency for future growth in southern Sweden.

During the first quarter, work continued according to plan with this project, and we will get back to you when the property lease contract is entered into. Now let's turn to page 23.

Sustainability is an integral part of our operations and strategies. We aim to be a positive force in society and to take the lead in promoting sustainable food system by influencing decision-makers, leading the way through own initiatives, and driving industry issues.

Last year, we completed the transition to renewable fuels and electricity both in our own and procured transports. A truly important achievement, and consequently, we have seen a significant decrease in emissions.

Using comparable emissions factors, emission from own transport decreased 15% in the first quarter compared to the prior year. In addition to the increased use of renewable fuels, this reduction was due to a higher number of electrical vehicles and route optimization.

Diversity and inclusion are also areas that are of great importance to us, and by 2030, we aim to be Sweden's most inclusive food company. During the quarter, we concluded the first work placements under the so-called SAU program at Willys and Hemköp.

This program aims to help young people in vulnerable areas to strengthen their position in the labor market and motivate them to study. We've been a part of this initiative since the start, and we will be offering more young people jobs in the future as the program is developed and scaled up.

Lastly, I want to highlight our efforts to promote sustainable food consumption. Hemköp is the leading industry leader with regards on organic products and helps customers to shop more sustainably.

Recently, an independent survey showed that Hemköp leads the market in terms of promoting organic food through campaigns. Willys is also doing a lot in this area and came out second in the survey.

In a market where price awareness among consumers remains high, campaigns are important, and I think this really shows that we continue to push forward and take our responsibility. Moving on from our strategic agenda, and we are now on page 24.

Our outlook for the year is unchanged, and it covers investments, new store establishments, and items affecting comparability. With regards to the new establishments, as Anders talked about, in total, we opened up four new group-owned stores in the quarter, of which two Willys, one Hemköp, and the new City Gross store I mentioned earlier.

Please now turn to page 25. Let me sum up.

We summarize a quarter with positive customer traffic, volume growth, and increased profitability. We are investing in line with our long-term plan to gain further market share and create the conditions for continued profitable growth.

That was all for today. Now please turn to page 26, and I hand over to the operator to open up the line for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you. I could start off asking about the temporary negative effects on Willys' sales growth from major store refurbishment.

Can you help quantify in any way the effects here? Is it correct that it's one store that is closed altogether pending the build of a replacement store and then are there other stores that have significant amount of store space closed for renovation currently?

No,

it is as you said. There are some phasing effects, I would say, in the quarter regarding Willys stores.

The first thing is that we had a little less new stores and the stores that were opened in the end of the quarter. However, we will have a high pace, as we earlier communicated, in establishing new Willys stores this year.

The other thing that you said is that we have closed two stores for relocating them. They are closed and they will reopen in new places.

Then we also have some large modernizations in large stores that's also affecting the like-for-like growth. This in total have a negative effect in the sales growth in Willys for the quarter.

Great. These two stores that are temporarily closed altogether, have they been closed sort of for the major of the duration of Q1 for the most of that period?

Yes. They closed by the end of last year for relocating them.

If these two stores would have been in operation, retail sales growth in Willys should have been around 1 percentage point higher. That is fair to assume.

I would say that the phasing in the stores for the Q1 together with that the marketing investment came in the later of the quarter together have a negative effect and make Willys grow a little bit less than we hoped for.

Right. Thanks.

Then also wanted to ask if there's any way to quantify the cost you have been taking here in terms of halving the food VAT two days in advance in both Willys and in City Gross? Any help there to quantify?

Should we do two 2 divided by 90 and then a little bit more, because those were more trading-intensive days, times 5.4%, or could you help us there with any figure?

The reduction of prices that we made both in Willys and in City Gross and Eurocash two days in advance had a negative effect, and also increased marketing activities in the quarter by the end of the quarter, together that we had increased personnel costs since it was a lot of manual work of changing millions of prices in stores. Also we've had IT development costs during the quarter.

Of course, also as you said, the real effect of reducing the prices. Right.

Is it fair to say also that this sort of short-term top-line strengthening effect of this was maybe less than what you had hoped for?

Yeah. The purpose of doing that was to strengthen the position for Willys as the leading discounter on a long-term effect and by that leading the price reduction.

As you said, we didn't get the volumes that we had hoped for. The sales for Easter came as it normally does from in the middle of the week until and by the end of the week.

We didn't really got the volumes that we had hoped for.

Understood. Sort of subsidizing the ordinary spending, but not being able to push forward the Easter shopping so to speak.

Yeah. However, one large purpose for us was to strengthen the position as a leading discounter.

That is more on a long-term effect regarding the brand. Yeah.

Right. That

that was mission accomplished, yeah. I understand.

All right. Then this final one from me here.

The the effects of the war in the Middle East, you mention here in the report the the early or or late into the to the the quarter the the early effects you've seen on on fuel costs and and then you've acknowledged the currency change or the the weakening again of the Swedish krona. You have not seen any negative effects on electricity prices.

Is is that correct?

We have seen a little bit higher electricity prices, but we hedge the prices so we have a more sort of long-term effect when it comes to electricity.

Right. Then, when thinking about possible inflationary effects on food commodities, is it in your opinion, even if this is more for the farmers maybe, is it fair to assume that the price increase and possible supply squeeze as well of fertilizers, i.e., the urea prices, that would mainly have an effect on next year's crops rather than this year's crop season?

If you look on the direct effects on the fuel cost, it of course depends on how the development will be going on forward in the Middle East. Regarding the fertilizers, it also depends a lot on the development going on forward.

This summer's crops, of course, are already done, but then you have the autumn crops and also going for next year. Depending on how the development will be, there will be some delays, but there could be also effects also in this autumn since you have crops not only once a year.

Great. Thank you for all the replies.

Thank you.

Yes, good morning Simone and Anders

and

Alexander.

Just coming back to sort of you start out saying that sort of the recent months have brought increased uncertainty and we can all sort of acknowledge that, and that the focus on value for money is still very high. I hear you when you say that you didn't get the volumes that you expected when it came to the price cuts that you made a couple of days before the 1st of April.

Sort of this uncertainty in itself, wouldn't that sort of been a tailwind for especially Willys in the quarter since early March that you didn't expect before we went into this conflict in the Middle East? I'm just wondering sort of why are you growing slower than the market?

I hear you in terms of refurbishments and all that, but you do have more stores now than you had last year. Sort of what's sort of happened in the market in Q1, you think, or is it just sort of these things that you mentioned in terms of refurbishments and temporarily closed stores?

I'll try to give you an answer. If we look upon the first quarter, as the market as a whole, we had a good growth in the market.

That was primarily coming from volumes since the inflation was low, and also we had deflation in March. By that also, as you said, the activity level in the quarter also increased.

In that environment, we also had the facing of refurbishments going on, closing down two stores. The new stores that we open up came in late in the quarter, together with our price reduction that we made.

That together made us grow a little bit lower than we had hoped for. That was all.

Then I would say that the cost levels for the customers, it will of course depend a lot on what is happening going on forward. The increased fuels came in late during the quarter.

There are many things that is happening for the consumers in the quarter, but also in the market. However, I would like to zoom out a little bit and say Willys has a really strong position.

It's one of Sweden's strongest food retailer. They are the most recommended chain.

We will continue to have a high expansion pace for Willys since we see it's a great potential to accelerate our expansions in Willys.

Okay. Do you see that sort of these issues that we've talked about now, have they corrected themselves as we go into the second quarter of this year, and you had the lowering of the VAT, and all that is basically behind us now?

Are you seeing a better market on the back of the lowering of the VAT, or is that still too early to call?

I think it's too early. There is still uncertainties.

The VAT and the initiatives to strengthen the consumers' buying power are of course positive. On the other hand, also consumer have higher prices for electricity and also fuels.

How the increased buying power, how large that will by the end of the day become, and also how the consumers will use their consumption, it's difficult and it's a little bit too early to say anything actually about that.

Okay. Just the last one, on the cost for the repricing, was all that taken in Q1, or is there anything taken in Q2 early Q2 for Hemköp?

For Hemköp?

Given that they didn't do the changes two days before. Yeah.

Do

you mean the cost for personnel and marketing and so on?

Exactly.

All

the repricing.

That was taken for all the chains in the first quarter. Both marketing, personnel costs, yeah.

Okay. Just the fact that you had to reprice the entire assortment, is that sort of resulting in a number that you want to share in terms of extra staff to just get that done?

No, we don't give any details about that. As you say, there were a large cost of course for personnel to doing the job, and also marketing, and also the price reductions in itself.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. That's all for me.

Thank you.

Thanks. Erik Sandstedt here with Kepler.

Three questions, please. The first one is a follow-up on the one of the earlier questions here, because you say that gross margins at Willys were stable in the quarter, right?

Given these pre-VAT price reductions, which I assume had a slight negative impact on gross margins, can you just explain then what sort of supported gross margins to offset that impact? Given that gross margins were stable and the EBIT margin were down, I suppose opex to sales then must have driven that margin contraction.

I know it's not a big margin decline, but I'm just trying to understand the underlying drivers a bit better here.

Yeah. The offset was according to as we said in the report that the marketing investment came in the later part of the quarter.

That also on the other hand had marketing costs and costs for personnel that made the margin a little bit softer.

There must have been some positive gross margin impacts as well then if the pre-VAT reductions had a negative impact.

That was because that the marketing investment came late in the quarter.

Marketing, is that an opex, right?

It's both. It could be marketing costs, but it could also be price reductions.

Campaigns, yeah.

Campaigns.

Okay. You're talking about price campaigns.

Okay. That makes sense.

Perfect. Then secondly, if input costs now go up on the back of the geopolitical tensions, will it be tougher to pass that sort of underlying price inflation on given the price competition we're seeing in the market presently?

Increasing costs, of course there are some, there's a lead time from when they appear until you can see it in the stores, and you haven't seen them in the stores. Also that depends on the development going on further.

If the development continues with increased costs, we are a low-margin industry, and if that will continue, you will see it in the stores also. It also depends on how the, yeah, how the situation will develop from now.

Also it's difficult to assess what the long-term effects. As we wrote, in the end of the quarter, we saw increased costs for fuels, and there also the war effects the fertilizers, and that also effects the entire food industry.

It could be both animal production, but also from all the crops. We will see how that will assess and effect in short and long term.

Maybe to frame it differently, do you see the market being more price-competitive now than, let's say, just a few quarters ago or a couple of years ago?

We always seen a high competition in the market. For the last 18 months, there's been a really or the increased competition for the last two years, I would say.

That's also why I'm so happy that we can see that the effects we're doing on cost control, also the efficiency that we're seeing coming from the investments that were made both in Bålsta and logistics structure, but also now we are implemented a new buying and forecasting system that will also help us to become more efficient. Also of course, the help of AI and data helps us to be more efficient and also have improve our customer meetings.

Thanks. Then just finally, in terms of joint group costs, they were higher both versus the same period last year as well as versus Q4, but you have done some cost initiatives on that line, I think.

What drove the costs here, and what's a normalized level going forward?

Yes, as you mentioned, it can varies from quarter to quarter. We have seen that in the past as well.

Now we have in this quarter a little bit higher level, and that is due to a couple of projects that we have done in for the whole group, and that we have taken now. A little bit higher this quarter, and I would say it's more fair to look at the first quarter last year if you want to have a decent level of the joint group costs.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Two questions from my side and sorry if you have to repeat yourself.

I came in a bit late to the call. First, if you could say anything about the consumer behavior since the VAT reductions, have you seen any changes to, let's call it, shopping patterns so far?

It's a little bit early to say that since we have also effects from Easter moving within the month. It's too early, I would say.

There's only a couple of weeks going in with the lower VAT, and also there, as we talked a lot about today, there's a turbulent environment around our consumers with the war going on in Middle East and increased costs for fuels and energy. It's too early to say what effects that will have on the consumers.

Will the increased buying power, how large will that be? They are important measures that have been taken with the lowering of the VAT, but how much will that by the end of the day when the increase of fuels and increase of energy on our consumers have, and will they buy more food, will they buy a new sofa, or will they save more money?

It's really too early actually to say that. We see that price value is really important and that the focus on price and price-worthiness is important for the consumers.

Here we are really well positioned with Willys, who chose to clarify its position by going two days in advance with the price reductions, and also City Gross that has strengthened its price-worthiness, and also Hemköp the last couple of years.

Thank you. Second one, if you could say anything about the monthly performance in Willys, did you see January, February being more in line with the market and then somewhat weaker in March?

Where I'm getting at is that historically we've seen the market leader performing better than the competition during Easter due to, I guess, its locations of its store network and so on.

I would say that the phasing of the stores that they came lately in the quarter and also that we made the price reduction, that had an effect. As we also know, Willys has a really, really strong position, but we have also had a natural and a little bit extra positive effects during the years of high inflation.

Also last year in the first six months, we had a high inflation, we got a little bit extra, of course, growth. That's when you look upon the comparison figures, that also, of course, have an effect in if you look on Willys's growth for the first quarter.

That's all. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, thanks for taking the questions. Just a couple from me.

Just the first one. Have we seen any changes in your relative price positions since the VAT cut came in?

Have any of your competitors gone and cut prices lower or even less? Has there been any change there?

Has that marketing spend or noise in the market died down since the beginning of April? That's the first one.

Thank you.

We do not comment our pricing strategies and the price gaps. For us, it's always important to be clear with the price position, of course for Willys as the market leader in discounting, and also it's important for all our chains to have an attractive price position.

Since the VAT was the same for all the chains in the market, that was relatively the same for all the players in the market.

In terms of marketing spend, that you saw yourself elevate and I guess the whole market picked up at the end of the quarter, has that died down as the second quarter started, or is it still high?

Could you please repeat? I didn't really understand.

You pushed marketing spend higher into the end of the quarter behind the new prices. I'm guessing the whole market did as well.

Have you,

firstly, have you pulled your spend back since then, and has the market done the same, or has the market pulled back on spend?

We only comment the first quarter. As you said, the entire market had a really high activity level by the end of the quarter regarding to the Easter, but also for the VAT reduction.

What we did that we also went ahead with the price reduction two days in advance for City Gross, Willys, and also Eurocash. We made some extra marketing investments due to that.

Okay. I guess the second question I have is just maybe a bit more theoretical, but I guess Hemköp and City Gross, which would be your higher-priced chains, seem to have traded better in the quarter on a like-for-like basis as inflation fell.

Is there any concern that Willys may see a continuation of the kind of underperformance as prices fall further with the VAT reduction?

I would say if we start with Hemköp, Hemköp's result is a is the result of a job that's been made for for many years now in in in modernizing stores. We've had some really good modernizations done in the last last months.

Also a job in improving the both the price position, but also improving the assortment, and focus on on meal solution and and fresh produce. Hemköp is the result of a long long-term job that's been made, and we're really happy about the the performance they made in the quarter.

City Gross is also the result of of the job that we made a couple of months for for a couple of months now since we since we made the the acquisition one and a half year ago. We continue to see a positive growth in City Gross.

Willys still have a really strong position and has been growing for many years, no matter what economy we're in, both in in in good economies and in bad economies. With that said, also Willys have had some extra push during the high inflation.

We had high inflation in 2023, and also last year in the first six months, we had a high inflation. I think, and we see still a high focus on price and price value.

I don't think that that behavior will I think that behavior will last, and and in that, Willys has a really, really strong position also going on forward. On top, we have a pretty low discounter share in Sweden, there's a great potential to continue to to grow Willys.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

By that, I would like to thank you all for joining today and all the questions, and I wish you a good end of the day. Thank you very much.