RugVista Group AB

RugVista Group AB

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Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 5, 2026

Operator

Welcome to the Rugvista Q4 2025 conference call. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad.

Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers: CEO Ebba Ljungerud and CFO Joakim Tuvner, please go ahead.

Ebba Ljungerud

Sorry, excuse me. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this Q4 quarter earnings call.

My name is Ebba Ljungerud, and Joakim Tuvner, our CFO, is here as well. I would like to start out with, as I always do, talk about a little bit about the images you'll see in this presentation.

This is some news from one of our top-selling lines, the Handloom Fringes and Handloom Flatweave, that we make in India, and we have launched quite a few new pastelly colors and shapes that you will see here in the upcoming slides. Really nice, I think.

For the presentation, the structure is just as per usual. I will start with the business update, and then Joakim will go a little bit deeper into the numbers, and then, of course, we end with a Q&A.

If we start with the business. I think happy to say we're very proud of this quarter.

Once again, we saw good growth with quite a lot tougher comparables. It's, by some margin, our best quarter ever, and we have all-time highs in in very many of our KPIs.

Top line grew by nigh almost 10%, 9.9%, to 270 million. If we look at the organic growth, that represented just above 15%.

The year as a whole ended on 784 million, which is very nice to see a growth year for us. Very broad sales.

We sold in all of our segments, everything from very exclusive and expensive unique rugs to handmade rugs and also our machine-made rugs. It was a it was a good quarter overall.

Looking at the orders, they increased to almost 130,000, and here we can see a bit more detailed on quarter-by-quarter development. This also is a, by good margin, an all-time high for us.

If you look at the rolling 12 months, it continues to go up. These comparables, as a lot of our comparables, are are tougher and tougher, but but we see that we are doing a lot of good things in our marketing that really brings in in the orders.

If we look at new customers, almost 92,000. That means we had a high amount of returning customers, 72% returning customers, which is actually on the high side for us, especially if you think about that it was the Black quarter, Black month, and Black week where we normally have a lot of new customers coming to us.

Then the average order value, this you've heard me talk a lot about over this past year. Very happy to see that it's stable, even up a little bit.

I think it was around 2% in in the report, but if you look at the local currencies, it's almost 8%. This has been a long journey, and and now we see that we are are getting the results even in in this very discount-driven quarters quarter.

We've made a lot of changes on site. We've made a lot of changes in how we market and what we market, etc., etc.

This has definitely not been a quick fix and not just a silver bullet, but many different things. We will continue to work on this going forward, and I'm sure we'll see it fluctuate, but we feel like we're on a good trajectory to keep it on a stable level.

Here you can see a little bit more how it's developed over time. You see that there was a very big drop in '23, and then it's gone down a little bit, but now it's been stable to up the past year.

Moving over to the profitability. Stable profitability despite this very expensive Black month and also, as for those of you who read the report already know, we've had some FX winds against us in the quarter.

The gross margin ended up at 63.1, so that's up by 1%. Quite high discount rates, as I said, but that the discount rates were even a little bit higher, actually, when we were selling out our our old inventory ahead of the move.

If we look at the year, the gross margin also increased year-on-year, 63.3 versus 62.2 last year. Marketing then decreased to 32.3%.

It's still, by good margin, our most expensive quarter of the year. We have pointed this out before, but I think it is it is interesting to reflect a little bit on that we we, as a lot of other companies, we rely very heavily on this quarter and very heavily on the on the Black period.

Of course, it's interesting to to look at how we can reduce reduce that dependency over time, but but, for us, it will continue to be a very important quarter. This, of course, comes from the Black month, but it also comes from that it is a it is a good quarter for interior design and and sprucing up your house basically.

The marketing led to a 25% increase in sessions, that so that's almost 17 million sessions compared to 13.5 last year. We see that the growth is a little bit slower going forward, and this has to do with that more than a year ago now we shifted our our marketing to being much higher up in the funnel, which does increase the sessions quite a bit.

Now we have more like-for-like comparison when we go forward. Of course, we still intend to to increase our our visits to the site over time.

Then if we look at the EBIT, 32.2% sorry, million, up year-on-year by also around 10%, and the margin was 11.9, which is the same as as last year. I think it's worth mentioning here that there is a big negative impact on on this, which comes from the reevaluation of our assets.

It's mainly cash, right, Joakim, in euros?

Joakim Tuvner

On the asset side, yes, it is. That's what's impacting it, yes.

Ebba Ljungerud

Yeah. Without that effect, the growth would have been almost 18% for this quarter.

Looking at the markets and the customers, we differentiate a lot in the markets, and this also has to do with our marketing strategy. You can see here how it jumps from quarter to quarter.

This slide shows the net revenue growth in percentage change year-on-year, the quarter a year ago basically, because, obviously, we shift so much from one quarter to the next, it's not so relevant to look at the quarter-by-quarter. Here, you can see that all of these three big countries, Germany, Sweden, and France, they did well in the quarter, but it does differ a lot quarter-to-quarter.

France has been very tough in the beginning of the year, and then it's actually ended up very strongly. That will happen.

It has to do, of course, with the sentiment in the markets that we will look at in the next slide, but also that we shift our budgets and our investments to where we see the best return on investment. We don't have a strategy that we have to grow in a specific market, like Sweden, for instance.

If we look at the customer sentiment, it does continue to fluctuate and actually be quite low. You see here Germany is even down a little bit, and both Sweden and France are sort of lowish stable.

We are waiting for this to change, but every time we see some indication that it will change, something happens from a geopolitical point of view that makes it very hard for us to impact. For us, it's important to work on an individual market level really no matter what the consumer sentiment is.

We, of course, value our Trustpilot score very much. It's continues to be stable and high, 4.6, a little bit lower than before, which, of course, is not what we want.

Since we moved in the summer, the warehouse has worked very, very well, but it was clear during peak that it is a big strain on the warehouse, and we saw some impact from that, I think, in the Trustpilot score. This is very important to us, it will definitely be a theme going forward to make sure that this stays on a stable level and, ideally, goes up a little bit.

Yes. With this quarter and me having been on board now for more than a year and our management team being very aligned together with our board, we have decided to restate our financial targets.

The ones we used to have were from the IPO, 2021, and I think it's fair to say that that was a bit of a strange pandemic year when it was hard to judge exactly what the growth level was in the market. Our new targets are long-term double-digit organic growth on top line and continue to have the 15% EBIT target on the profits.

We think that the double-digit is realistic, tough but realistic, and it's going to fluctuate over time, and it's not going to be every quarter or possibly even every year, but we do see that that's very doable for us. When it comes to the EBIT, it's been a long time since we were on those levels, but we also see that with growth, we think that it's reachable for us.

Then I'm also very happy to be able to announce that our board is presenting to the AGM a very large for us record dividend. Last year, we stuck to our normal dividend policy, which is 50% of the net profit, but that was very much because we were going into this big move project, and also we wanted to make sure that we had enough supply and enough inventories for our peak period.

I think it's fair to point out also that we have changed the strategy when it comes to our inventory as well, that we have now all of our top sellers, we have larger volumes on them so we make sure we don't run out. Anyway, this led to that we this year felt that we have finalized the move, we have changed our inventory strategy, and we're happy with that.

With this, the board have suggested the normal 1 50% net profit, which is 1.5 SEK, and then an extra dividend of 3.5 SEK, all together 5 SEK. With that, I hand over to you, Joakim.

Joakim Tuvner

Thank you, Ebba. Just as the headline here says, we had a good growth against a currency headwind of about 5.4%.

The growth of 9.9 converted into 15.3% if you look at these numbers in local currencies. Ebba already took you through the markets where we saw very big variances between the different quarters in the main markets, but in this particular quarter, it was a little bit more even than usual: DACH growing 10.6%, where Germany stood for plus 9; and in the Nordics, 12.2, less of a currency effect there, Sweden growing 11; and the rest of the world growing 8.8% and France having the best performance in that region with a growth of 13.

If we go on to look at the cost ratios then for the quarter. There are many factors impacting the cost percentage.

On the positive side, we have the price increases that we have made throughout the year. We have spoken earlier about the nice price implementation that we did in January, and we have also adjusted our prices a little bit during the year and some in September.

Then the currency hits us in both ways. Of course, it's negative on the top line, but here, the US dollar depreciation versus the euro impacts our cost for the products that we source mainly from Turkey.

That gives a positive change of 1.4%. If we then go to the shipping and other selling expenses, we have a cost increase of 0.5.

You see here the rounding differences that we note at the bottom of the page. This increase is related to a carrier mix change.

The gross margin sums up 1 percentage points higher than prior year. The total year is actually 1.1, so that's been pretty stable over the year.

Then in other external expenses, the biggest item here is the marketing cost, and the marketing cost was 0.6 percentage points lower than previous year. That's good saving, good efficiency improvement, and for reasons that Ebba mentioned, quite a bit higher than the earlier three quarters.

Ebba Ljungerud

I think that's what it looks like for us. It's not an unusual year in that sense.

Joakim Tuvner

That's part of the seasonality, I think.

Ebba Ljungerud

Yeah.

Joakim Tuvner

Looking at the personnel expenses, they are pretty much on par with prior year if we look at these percentages. Then in other operating expenses, here is what Ebba also earlier mentioned, where we have the FX effect from revaluation of the assets and liabilities that we carry in foreign currency and and we had a very good cash generation during the quarter, higher cash balances than usual, and a higher depreciation of the currencies or appreciation of the Swedish krona, so that impacted the P&L with about 4.6 million.

In depreciation and amortization, we have then the impact of of moving to a new warehouse and logistic center, I think we can say, partly then the investments that we have done in fixed assets here, warehouse equipment, etc., which is most of it, and then also the new lease of this new building, which is impacting this with 1.0 percentage points. We are on a flat EBIT margin, 11.9% versus the same in prior year.

If we would take out this FX effect, I know we can't just adjust like that, but it's 13.6% if we exclude that currency impact. Moving on to inventory.

We think we have a well-balanced inventory now coming out of the high season, right? Normally, we are a little bit more drained on inventory when we exit quarter four.

You can see we had 133 at the end of '24, it's even lower the year before when we exited, and we had some not major stock-out issues, but some going into quarter one. Now, we feel with 144, we are more balanced.

Part of that is that we've been able to actually receive inbound shipments during the peak season and during the peak month even, so that's good. We are a little bit in the target range if you look to the right here in the picture.

We are a little bit on the low side, it seems, but we feel that this is balanced, and and we are on a on a on a good level here. If we then go move on to last but not least, the most important, cash, cash flow.

Looking up to the left in the image here, we have cash flow from operating activities that increased by by 33 million, which is, at the bottom left, almost financing the the, quite for us, heavy investments that we done in fixed assets during the quarter, sorry, during the year in in our new warehouse and logistics center. As you can see there in in the prior year, we also had some investment.

That was most of that in quarter four. Now we had only a minor part, about 2 million, in the quarter four out of this 35.

The result of all this is that, to the right in the picture, we have actually generated cash enough to pay the dividend we pay during the year, to pay for the investments, and we have increased the cash. During the last quarter, we have increased cash balance by 61 million.

I think I've mentioned this before: we do have a little bit of an artificial artificially high cash flow during the fourth quarter, as we collect VAT during the quarter, which is quite a lot in the peak season compared to the payment we make in October for quarter three, whereas we then early in January pay out the VAT for what we have collected during the fourth quarter. It's always a bit pumped up when we end the year.

Notwithstanding that, and you mentioned, Ebba, that the board has proposed a dividend of 5 kronor, and we feel very glad and comfortable about that. Yeah.

Ebba Ljungerud

Yes. That's very true.

Joakim Tuvner

That concludes the financial part, I hand back to you, Ebba.

Ebba Ljungerud

Just a little bit of a summary. Strong Q4 with multiple all-time highs, a little bit expensive from a marketing perspective, but that's to be expected.

For the year, top line this year was around 11% higher than we have ever been, and and we are super proud of that. Several years of challenging top-line growth for us, and also this was with quite a lot of FX in there as well.

EBIT grew 29% for the year, which we're also happy with, especially if you take into consideration that we had a move, a very big move, that we accomplished during the year. Good quarter with, of course, a good year, I should say, and a little bit tougher comparables for us going forward.

That's good for us, to have something to strive for. New financial targets that we have worked out, the board together with us in the in the company, with a double-digit organic growth on on top line and keeping the 15% EBIT target, which we think is reachable even though it's tough.

Then, last but not least, as Joakim said, the dividend: base 50% of the net profits and then the extra 3.5 SEK, which adds up to a total of 104 million SEK in dividend that, hopefully, will be approved at the AGM for our shareholders. I would like to say before we go over to questions, a huge thank you to all of our teams.

It's been a very tough quarter. Everyone has worked exceptionally hard.

Of course, everyone always works super hard, but peak is peak, and it's very clear in this type of business that it puts a a a strain, and, it really demands that people work together and and work hard. Thank you very much for that.

With that, I think we move over to the questions, right? Yes.

Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad.

The next question comes from Johan from Fred. Please go ahead.

Johan Fred

Yes. Good morning, Ebba and Joakim.

Thank you for taking my questions. A few questions from my side, starting with your commentary around the momentum in the quarter.

You stated that Q4 quarter closed the year with continued strong growth and stable profitability. Is this referring to sort of the momentum that you exited Q4 or just a general comment around the quarter on average?

If you could say anything about sort of the momentum exiting the quarter, that would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Ebba Ljungerud

I think it's fair to say that it was a fairly uneven quarter in the sense that, which again is normal in this quarter, but maybe it was a little bit different than what we've seen before, that November started a little bit slower, or even end of October started a little bit slower than we have seen before, and then November ended very strongly, and then it actually calmed down a bit again in December. That is normal for us.

Rugs isn't really a Christmas gift thing, but it was a little bit slower in the end. We don't disclose how it's going now, but as we've said before, we are seeing tougher and tougher comparables, it's always we work hard to deliver the results.

Johan Fred

Got it. Sort of given the tougher comparables in light of this, you updated your organic growth financial targets targeting a double-digit organic growth.

How should we interpret this in light of what you just said about sort of facing tougher comparables? How comfortable are you with sort of achieving the targets near and long term?

Ebba Ljungerud

I think it's very important to remember that it's a long-term target and that we see that it's over time because we also know that it fluctuates a lot quarter-by-quarter. It's not always as stable growth.

Do you want to add anything there, Joakim?

Joakim Tuvner

No, I just think that I don't know how many companies you see growing 20% over a long period of time, and no shadow at all on the people that were setting those targets when we did the IPO, because if you look at the numbers that we had pre-IPO, that was very much realistic. I think that was probably a good target to set then.

Now, in this new world, I think it's realistic to have a double-digit growth. That's what we've seen and what we've delivered over the past year.

Johan Fred

No, completely agree. I think that if you're looking at the estimates for coming years, markets did not expect you to grow sales by 20% annually, I think this more reflects a prudent and more realistic view.

Moving on to cost, then, could you give us some guidance on cost in 2026? How should we think about wage inflation and cost inflation in general in the next year?

Also, personnel need given that you've expanded and entered into a new warehouse?

Joakim Tuvner

I think when it comes to personnel inflation, I think we are not different from any other company, and what the increases are there. As we grow, we do need more resources, but in order to get there to the 15% EBIT margin, of course, we need to balance growth and can't grow as much in personnel as we grow the top line.

We need to balance that simply.

Ebba Ljungerud

I think also it's fair to say that a large chunk of our cost varies with the top line as well, right,

Joakim Tuvner

COGS

Ebba Ljungerud

obviously and the marketing, yeah.

Joakim Tuvner

It is. It is.

The leverage is not as high because we have 2/3 of our cost base is variable. Then I think we can say also that this year, this past year, was the year where we moved into our new premises and managed to do that, and spent quite a lot of money in doing it.

2026 may be the year that we are getting more into our new ways of operating and getting the leverage out of it.

Ebba Ljungerud

I think we've said that before as well, but we don't see the move as being done. It's a very long-term project to change and improve and fine-tune everything we do in the warehouse, which, of course, long-term should have positive effects on those types of costs as well.

Johan Fred

Makes sense, then. The final one, then, on marketing spend.

Marketing cost to sales decreased year-on-year in 2025. I believe it came out to 30.4%.

How should we think about the trajectory and sort of your marketing cost going into 2026 given sort of your new approach or revamped marketing strategy?

Ebba Ljungerud

It's not something that we drive downwards by definition, to speak. Very long-term, we think there is a somewhat downward trajectory, but we are quite happy with this level of marketing spend.

It's more that it will continue to fluctuate a lot quarter-over-quarter. It's long-term, we would like it to go down a little bit, but it's not maybe something that you will see every year.

Johan Fred

Okay. Assuming sort of marketing cost around the same level on full year '26 as what's in 2025, you're comfortable with achieving both the 15% EBIT margin target and double-digit organic growth?

Ebba Ljungerud

I have to repeat that that's also long-term goals. I don't think you will see that every year.

Of course, we aim to do that. It's our aim, for sure.

Johan Fred

Got it. Those were all my questions for now.

Thank you so much, Ebba and Joakim, for taking the time.

Ebba Ljungerud

Thank you.

Joakim Tuvner

Thanks, Johan.

Operator

The next question comes from Benjamin from ABGSC. Please go ahead.

Benjamin Wahlstedt

Hello. Good morning.

Two sort of follow-ups on things you mentioned during the presentation, if I may. Joakim, could you say again about the FX effect and the underlying margin of 13.6%, please?

Are you referring to adjusting for FX effects in other operating expenses here, or something else?

Joakim Tuvner

Exactly that. Of course, that is seldom zero.

It has been positive in some quarters, have been negative in some, but just taking that item out, then it's 1.7% more adding on to the EBIT margin, and that would not have been there wouldn't we have seen that sharp SEK appreciation. Exactly that.

Benjamin Wahlstedt

Yeah. It's quite a tricky line item to forecast, and I believe it explains basically the full deviation versus consensus forecast in this quarter.

With that in mind, is there any way for you to give us any guidance on the Q1 figure based on spot rates now, or best guess?

Joakim Tuvner

I think it's hard to say on that particular item because it's the difference between what we closed in December and where we will end in March. I agree it's hard to give guidance on that.

If you look at the top-line FX, that one, I think you are more comfortable in calculating yourself. You have seen that in January now the top-line headwind is more than the 5.4 that we saw in quarter four.

You can also say that exchange rates last year started to appreciate, or the Swedish krona started to appreciate, at the end of quarter three. That one is a little bit more easy to forecast, but I agree with you the trickiness of this one,

Benjamin Wahlstedt

yeah. Yeah.

Then a question for Ebba. I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about the AOV development, please.

Did I understand you correctly if I heard you say that you expect the AOV to be largely flat or stable from here?

Ebba Ljungerud

When I started, we felt that the biggest problem was that it was just dropping, and we had challenges in getting it to stop to drop. Then, as we've worked very hard on this with a lot of I'd say small changes, but they've actually been quite big in themselves, but many, many, many changes.

Now we want to balance, I said this in the last report, we want to make sure that we balance the order growth and the AOV growth together, you can't really look at one without looking at the other. It's about balancing the two, and I think that it's not a goal in itself now when we have managed to stop the drop.

It's not a goal in itself that AOV has to grow substantially. It's more about balancing the two.

Benjamin Wahlstedt

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Could you say whether you had any excess costs or any sort of excess activities related to the previous move in this quarter, or is Q4 fully comparable, to speak?

Joakim Tuvner

It's fully comparable. We have some minor costs, but not to the material level that we have chosen to write about them in the report or even comment them here, no major moving costs in the quarter.

Benjamin Wahlstedt

Perfect. Following on Johan's previous question on personnel cost inflation, is there any reason to believe there were excess costs in personnel or booked in personnel related to the move during 2025 as a whole to sort of capture the appropriate base?

Joakim Tuvner

Not relating to the move. No, there wasn't.

You have always some one-offs in the quarters, but not that we have chosen to publish.

Benjamin Wahlstedt

Perfect. I think that's all I had for now.

Perhaps, Joakim, to you, good luck trying to stay retired.

Joakim Tuvner

Thank you.

Ebba Ljungerud

I agree.

Joakim Tuvner

Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from Emanuel Jansson from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

Emanuel Jansson

Good morning, Ebba and Joakim. Hope you can hear me.

Ebba Ljungerud

Hi.

Emanuel Jansson

Just a few follow-up questions here. You're mentioning that the warehouse investment more or less are complete, and I know that you said also that you are continuing to develop the warehouse, and its progress will be very interesting to follow.

I think how we should view going forward with this new target, double-digit growth, 15% EBIT margins, going forward then, what are your key investment priorities for 2026, 2027, or the upcoming three-year period? How should shareholders think about the balance sheet between ordinary dividends and extra dividends and reinvestment needs going forward?

Ebba Ljungerud

Do you want to start, or?

Joakim Tuvner

I can start. Do you mean reinvestment needs in terms of tangible assets?

Emanuel Jansson

Yes, exactly, yeah.

Joakim Tuvner

On the investment needs going forward, it's not that we foresee continued investments. We have automated inbound, as you've seen, and we haven't yet automated so much of the outbound.

Those investments, if any, will have to somehow stand on their own return on investment, giving good return to the shareholders, but there is nothing we have in plan, to say. We will, of course, drive automation of our operations.

On the IT expenses that we have activated in the balance sheet earlier, we stopped doing that in 2023. We started writing them off in June of 2023 during a five-year period, and we aren't activating any such IT development costs for now.

We are expensing all development that we make. On the balance sheet, I won't foresee any major changes going into financing investments.

Ebba Ljungerud

No, I agree.

Emanuel Jansson

Perfect. Thank you, Joakim.

That's very very clear. Jumping back quickly on marketing and marketing costs.

Maybe it's hard to predict, and maybe you see this as a long-term target level, or should we expect it to come down eventually, in the long term? Are you implementing any AI or other technologies to improve marketing efficiency or customer acquisition costs in order to in the long term reach the 15% EBIT margin?

Is that necessary, to say?

Ebba Ljungerud

We are implementing a lot of different things in our marketing, and actually all over the business, in terms of AI tools and working with different companies really. In some things, we build ourselves, and some things we buy from companies.

We're not doing that necessarily to drive down the percentage. It's more to be more efficient and reach more people, because we think that we, long term, we need to be a lot better at building our brand long term, which, of course, we want to have a long-term effect.

It's not something you see return on investment right when you do it, at least not in my experience, it's important for us to be able to do that consistently. That more helps that type of investment, I would say.

Yes, long, long, long term, we would like to see the percentage go down a little bit, but we are happy with this level as well, for now.

Joakim Tuvner

Absolutely.

Emanuel Jansson

Perfect. Thank you very much.

Lastly, just of curiosity on how do you see the Rugvista brand is developing, and have you conducted any recent brand research or customer service to measure any brand awareness and perception in your core markets?

Ebba Ljungerud

Yes, we You

Emanuel Jansson

have seen quite solid order growth, and also type this is. Yeah.

Ebba Ljungerud

We do measure, but infrequently, because we have so many markets. We also measure it when we look at our non-branded and branded organic search, and we have seen quite nice uptakes in branded search, which we interpret as a sign that the brand is getting stronger.

We are still very small in any given market. Very small, maybe it's an exaggeration, but we're not big in any of our markets, we see that there is a lot of potential both for getting the brand to be more well known and for us to grow.

In general, we have growth to do everywhere.

Emanuel Jansson

Is it possible to quantify the share of organic search now?

Ebba Ljungerud

No, we haven't disclosed that now. It's, no.

Emanuel Jansson

Is it fair to assume that it has increased at least?

Ebba Ljungerud

Yes, it has increased.

Emanuel Jansson

Yeah. Great.

I think that was all my questions for now. Thank you very much, Ebba and Joakim.

Ebba Ljungerud

Thank you very much. We also have a bunch of questions here online.

Should we start, is this the top or? Let's

Joakim Tuvner

see. Oh, here we start.

Ebba Ljungerud

Okay. "You previously mentioned that you source from India in euros and that the local currency is weakened, which could be reflected in renegotiations.

How often do you renegotiate these contracts and when is the next round?" This is something that is done, we don't really do it in rounds.

It's much more of a continuous work. We add suppliers and we remove suppliers every now and then, it's really a continuous work.

It might be good to know that we source our handmade rugs from India, whereas machine-made comes from Turkey and Egypt primarily. Then we have another question: "Should we expect any further margin support in Q1 from the weakening US dollar?"

That's for you.

Joakim Tuvner

Yes. There are other factors.

The answer is, if you isolate, not further, because I don't know where the dollar will go, but, of course, we have purchased products in dollars that have been on a weak dollar through the quarter four that will be sold in quarter one. Then there are other currency effects as well that will impact negatively, like I mentioned in January.

There is a much larger hit on the top line than we had in quarter four, and that will impact the margin negatively.

Ebba Ljungerud

"Were there any one-off items included in personnel costs this quarter?" You already mentioned that, Joakim.

"What needs to happen for Rugvista to reach a 15% EBIT margin? Which cost lines scale with growth, and which are more fixed?"

I would say COGS and marketing scales with growth, whereas the other ones are more stable. Of course, there can be investments in various staff, etc., but, in general, it's the 2/3 in the top of the P&L that scale.

Joakim Tuvner

Exactly. Of course, at the margin, there are economies of scale also in the variable items where you get the stronger negotiation power with freight forwarders, with suppliers of carpets, etc., but those are more on the margin long term.

Ebba Ljungerud

"Could you further explain the changes in leasing arrangements?" These are our new.

Joakim Tuvner

What has changed from quarter three to quarter four is that we have left the premises, the old ones that we had in Limhamn. That is a change.

We had actually two in Limhamn, one that we left in quarter two of last year, and the second one where we had the main office, we left at the end of quarter three last year.

Ebba Ljungerud

Did we respond to this one?

Joakim Tuvner

Yeah.

Ebba Ljungerud

Oh, sorry. Okay.

Then we have, "The increased dividend is very welcome. Were there any discussions about share buybacks as well?"

This is a board question primarily, but, of course, the allocation of capital is something that is discussed. As we are not on the stock exchange, but on First North, which has some constraints on share buybacks.

It's something that can still be done, but, at least for this year, the board decided that they prefer doing this extra dividend.

Joakim Tuvner

Yeah. We have been looking into doing those buybacks, but when we looked at that, we looked with two different suppliers of that product, and the cost was very high.

The cost was about 45% of what the dividend is, and the benefit of doing those buybacks would then only benefit the part that benefit from tax. The rest can actually do their own buybacks and use the dividend that we now distribute to buy their own shares and get basically the same effect if you don't have the negative tax effect.

Ebba Ljungerud

Then I think the last question: "Could you elaborate a bit on how and if you have changed your marketing strategy in the last couple of years?" Absolutely.

This is something that I have talked about quite a bit over the years. I think you could say that we have done two major shifts, and then, of course, marketing the way we do it is very much a day-to-day trading business.

It's about updating everything all the time. Us working in so many countries and coming from a world where we were mainly on Google or mainly did search paid marketing, that we have changed, and that's more than a year ago now, to be much higher up in the funnel.

There are a couple of reasons for this: one is that we are actually in the interior decorating and very design-driven and visual world. Most of our customers buy a rug because they want to improve their home in some way or their office.

That means that we have much more visual ads that we think are both getting people to come to us earlier in their buying process, and we reach them earlier in the buying process, but it also has the other effect of building brand over time more than just word descriptions. The second one is that we were much more focused on, I would say, winning the big markets in Europe before, whereas these days we to a much larger extent follow where we see the return on investment.

As you saw in the slide where I showed some of the countries, we're still growing in the big countries, but we see that, for us, it's not super relevant if we grow in Belgium or in Germany as long as we grow. In some ways it can even be easier to get the long-term brand-building effect in a smaller market than in a bigger market.

We change it depending on where we see the return of investment.

Joakim Tuvner

That was the final question, Ebba.

Ebba Ljungerud

Yeah. Thank you very much for listening, and thank you to everyone for this quarter, and we look forward to speaking to you again after the Q1 report.

Joakim Tuvner

Great.

Ebba Ljungerud

Have a nice day. Bye.

Joakim Tuvner

Bye.