Good morning, and welcome to this Q&A session following our second quarter financial report that was released earlier today. My name is Knut Olav Olsen, and with me today to answer your questions, I have our CEO, Jacob Tveraabak, and our CFO, Marius Drefvelin. We have set off 30 minutes, and you may, during this live stream, post your questions using the button at the bottom left corner of your screen. We have already gotten a few questions in advance. So the first one is: what do you think are the key highlights from this quarter? Okay, I think this one goes to me. Jacob here. So first of all, of course, it is expected, yet still disappointing to see the product sales declining in this quarter compared to same quarter last year. And that's sort of the product sale, which for us reflects the continued hesitation from major retailers to do big term in or big-scale investments. Then should be said also that when we look at the service revenue and recurring revenue base, that is growing. That is an important aspect to remember in this context. There is certainly a quality of those revenues that is needed to build a healthy business over time. And then I think lastly, in this quarter, and we'll probably talk more about that, is the major new accounts that we're opening. I mean, in Q1, we announced an order picking deal with Sainsbury's, which I labeled the most important deal in the history of StrongPoint. And that is important both because this is a big order in itself for a very, very important and growing product area. And we've already now in the quarter started recognizing both professional services, but also recurring revenue from that contract. But equally important is how this contract is opening other doors, like both short- term but longer term. Short- term in terms of engaging in additional solutions discussions with Sainsbury's, but also because in the industry, the fact that we are delivering the order picking to Sainsbury, that's being noted. So, the way that this opportunity also opens door with new customers, of course, for order picking, but most certainly also for other kinds of solutions, that's very important. So, that's also for me, a highlight in this quarter, that we're continuing or delivering on this major project and starting to recognize revenues. And then one final bit is, of course, also the fact that we announced the start of a pilot for our CashGuard Connect solution with the largest grocery retailer in Spain. We also announced that this quarter. Again, major achievement getting this far. And again, as part of the industry, it's also been noted across also Spain. That's a good bridge over actually to the next question, that is also on CashGuard Connect. What can you say about the progress of the pilot and expected timing on potential orders, including the potential of selling to other customers? So, first of all, it's important to recognize that this is a pilot for a development solution or development product. So getting the pilot in a store is kind of the third laboratory, if you want, for a solution like this. And so, as with all new products, it'll take time to do the necessary bug fixing to ensure stability is correct, et cetera. And certainly tweaks dependent on how customers and employees are using the solution, all of which is being taken into account. So for us, it's sort of progressing well according to the timing that we've set forth for this solution. Then CashGuard Connect, just to ensure we have everybody on the same page. CashGuard Connect is then ensuring that you can do cash payments, as a customer directly into the solution. The store employee does not have to touch any of the money at all. All payments and transactions and change is given directly to the customer. And then there is a part storage of the cash under the till, and after a certain threshold of notes has been reached, which of course can be preset by the grocer themselves or the retailer themselves, then the notes are then being transferred to the back office. And that requires a tube solution system that many grocers have across Europe, certainly in Spain, but also across Europe. And that also allows for the opportunity to, of course, take this solution to other customers. And again, the interest from other clients is certainly there, both in Spain and beyond. But right now we're predominantly focusing on making sure that we have a solution that's being more robust, more stable, in order for us to industrialize and manufacture the solutions at scale. Very good. Next question is on the partners. Can you talk about our partner network and how you currently see this? Would you consider expanding the partner network? So first of all, again, just wanted to make sure we have everybody on the same page with regards to our strategy. First of all, we want to ensure that we're able to deliver on the nine core countries in which we are present. And then beyond that, we've said that there are a set of products or solutions that we have, that we would like to take out to other countries, where partners could or should be used. We should remember that we're coming from a history where we used to have partners extremely many places. We used to have our own offices in Malaysia, and we used to be selling to Russia, et cetera. So we spent quite some time on ensuring that we have a quality partner network to take our solutions out. So the two or three solutions that we see that there's opportunity for us to take out to the world is number one, our, of course, our good old CashGuard. We have a set of very strong partners in South Africa, in France, in Ireland, in particular. In those areas, we want to strengthen. And then, of course, beyond that, always exploring what opportunities to expand that kind of a partner network. But for us, it's important also that these are partners that are self-propelled in a way. The other solution that is, that is, of course, important for us to get, to get traction outside the nine core countries we are in, is our e-commerce offering. So our order picking, our lockers, and those solutions. And for that, we have a rather new set of partner networks. Most notably is Peak Technologies in the U.S. And, as we did again this quarter announce, we are selling more lockers to a leading U.S. grocer. That's through Peak. Following a rather large proof of concept, we're now into a proof of economy stage, and we couldn't have done this if it wasn't for the fact that we have a partner in place. There are certainly also partners in other, call it, smaller economies in Europe, and those we're trying to develop. So that's the second kind of solution. And then the third solution, which we're yet to sort of be taken out to through partners, is our self-checkout solution. We should be clear that, you know, we believe we have a very, very strong self-checkout solution. We are very dominant in the Baltic Market, where we've been able to take out our own solutions, whether that is hardware or software, and or the combination of the two. We must confess that we still have a way to go to get the self-checkout solution proven in our own countries, our own nine core countries, right? We've had some limited success in Spain, but I'm very eager to see what we can do, in particular, in Norway and Sweden, and also in U.K. It just feels like we need to be able to prove that the solutions we have are very competitive to the general competition in our own countries before we start taking that elsewhere. But those are the three areas of products that we have that are proprietary, that we could take out to other partners. As such, when we're there, we could also examine expanding the partner network. Good. The next question is threefold. What is the progress on the new order picking contract with Sainsbury's? Are there other pilots on order picking in other stores, anyone outside of Europe? Right. I can start. I think it's fair to say that we are well underway with the customer success team. We have started the onboarding preparations, that has been ongoing now for a few months, which is typical for this kind of software contract to be implemented. We expect to be live with the first handful of stores during this autumn. And as you can see in the P&L, we already are seeing an increase in service revenue both in this quarter and for the first half so far this year. As far as other pilots, another order picking contract in other stores, maybe you can touch upon that, Jacob? Yeah, sure. I think, you know, to the extent we have large-scale order picking pilots, we will, of course, announce that to the market. I think it should be said that the order picking solution, contrary, we should say, to selling pure hardware products, is something which, for good and bad, takes time to get into stores. That's the bad part. It takes time to get it into a sizable grocery retailer. And the good side of that is, of course, that once you're in, it'll take a lot for you to get out, which is again why the Sainsbury's agreement is so important. I guess what we can say, though, is that the attention that we as a company have been getting when Sainsbury's, the largest, sorry, the fourth largest e-grocer in Europe, and actually if you look at in-store picking only, it's the largest, that's getting attention. We've certainly gone from talking about how great our picking solution is from a Scandinavian and Swedish perspective into sort of using and leveraging for what it's worth the fact that Sainsbury's, through a very diligent process, have selected our solution. So we're prosperous about that, but when we do have any large pilots, we will of course announce that to the market. What is the status on ESL, particularly in Spain and the U.K.? Any pilots? So, electronic shelf labels, so ESLs, electronic shelf labels, is an area in which is getting a lot of attention in Spain and U.K., as well. You know, we at StrongPoint have been very, very good, I think, for many, many years in ensuring that the penetration of electronic shelf labels is where it is here back home. Now, with the interest that is growing in general in other economies and Spain and U.K., I think it's sort of fair to say that some of these chains that are starting to experiment with pilots, they are also the size that they would expect to have access directly to the supplier, right? So that goes to the Pricer of the world or the Vusion, formerly SES, Hanshow, et cetera, et cetera. And so, it's important to recognize that whereas StrongPoint have been and are acted as the, you can call it sort of sole contact point that we've been in the Nordics and Baltics, that same kind of sole contact point is not gonna be the case in the larger economies with the larger grocery retailers. So that certainly has some implications for us. We've to be honest, right, you we noticed Pricer winning deals in the U.K. As noted, one of the comments here was about Co-op or East of England Co-op, which we helped pilot. However, when the actual purchasing order came in, that of course came directly through, through Pricer, and the workforce StrongPoint has been rather limited. So we're still exploring how we can build a good position with ESLs on top of and together with our other solutions. Again, I would like to just iterate that one of the key attributes to StrongPoint is that we're not just pushing products, but we're creating solutions. And, and again, order picking is, in that respect, extremely important to ensure that you can build a business case for also electronic shelf labels, which is attractive for the grocers. And again, if there is any big pilots, we will of course notify that, but, but there is always pilots, and, and proof of concepts ongoing also in these, also in these, geographies. Next question is about AutoStore. We haven't seen new announcements or wins lately. What is the market status and your participation in the deals out there? Good question, and I noted also there were some newsprint articles about AutoStore in general. I think in that respect, it's important for us to say that, you know, we're one of many distributors of AutoStore. And it's correct, we haven't announced any new wins lately. We've merely announced. We haven't officially announced yet the opening of the delivery facility with three temperature zones. That's coming now up in August or September, I believe. And that will be important for us to use that world news, which it really is, to attract additional customer attention. We're not seeing in the countries where we have access to being a distributor of AutoStore, which is the Nordics, Baltics, and U.K., Ireland, not Spain, just to be clear. We're not seeing that there's a bunch of deals which are suitable for a distributor of it, just like StrongPoint. We're not seeing that we're losing many deals. But what I can say is that we certainly internally see that we have a pipeline of opportunities that is better than we've ever had before. Well, now, the pipeline doesn't do it all, so we need to convert these to actual deals, and we remain positive about landing some of these opportunities in the pipeline to deals, without being too specific on what kind of timing we're looking at. But we see that the cooperation with AutoStore is important and promising, and a part of the entire portfolio that StrongPoint offers to its customers. Good. Have the restructuring initiatives come into effect yet? I think the answer to that is a clear yes. If we take out the one-off costs in this quarter, in the second quarter, related to the restructuring, and we adjust for the acquisition of Finland that we made at the end of last year, which comes with certain personnel costs and other operating costs, the cost base, year on year, this quarter, is reduced. I think secondly, the most recent reductions or the restructuring costs that we have announced will come into effect during the second half of this year. Good. StrongPoint is rigged to grab the automation market, robotics and e-com. But what is the short-term strategy to increase sales and improve revenue and margins? So sorry, just needed to get the question up here. It's about the short-term initiatives to increase sales- Yeah ... and improve revenue margins. Certainly. I mean, so, well, first of all, I think it should be said that if there is one sort of slogan, if you want, that I believe every single employee at StrongPoint has in their forehead right now, is that sales solves everything, right? Increasing the sales is absolutely needed. It's a barometer, if you want, of do we have the right products for what our customers want? And we certainly believe so. Now, so, sales is at the very top of every single management meeting at whatever level and in whatever geography you're looking at in StrongPoint. That means that we're pushing also sales campaigns where that is applicable. We're measuring the pipelines, we're measuring sales activities, and yeah, basically tightening and following up on very short-term sales activities that is possible to do. And it's also important to say that for certain solutions, it also requires some stamina, right? We're not out selling staples. A lot of the solutions we're selling are solutions which is high on the strategic agenda of retailers and grocery retailers, specifically. And so, it does require some more patience. It should be said, but that doesn't sort of excuse us from doing the activities we can do, pushing the sales that we can do to get our products out in the market. Good. What can you say about Q3? How will the product sales and services sales look like? Gross margin was strong. What can we expect for Q3? Should it be closer to 40%? Yeah, that's a good and understandable question. Obviously, we are not guiding. I think on the product sales and service sales, it's more of a mixed bag, in the sense that there is limited visibility on product sales, given the few products that we have in the portfolio, where you can easily end up getting an order and delivering that quite rapidly afterwards. On the service and, more notably, the recurring revenue, we are certainly seeing an increase coming back to the service and the Sainsbury's part. ... I think it's also fair to say that, we did have some fairly large projects on ESL that we have delivered in the first half this year, that comes with installation and, consultancy work. So it's, it's not really that easy to, to be any clearer, on the product and the service mix. I think on the gross margin, however, the gross margin in the second quarter came out at around 45%, versus, a more normalized level of 40%. I think, again, totally depends on the product mix. If the product sales increase, with that comes a diluted gross margin. So it's, it's really not possible to give clear indication as to, as to what we are seeing right now in Q3, given that we are not, guiding. A question here: We see other grocery retailers and retail in general that didn't have a reduction in the revenue in 2024. Why has StrongPoint had it? So it's a reference to certain suppliers. I wouldn't know the names, but we could just guess who these are. I think well, I'm gonna have to guess on which ones these are, I mean, if it's Pricer or ITAB or Vusion or whatever. I think, you know, the biggest difference, for better or worse, for StrongPoint, is that we should remember that we have close to 50% of our revenue still in Norway and Sweden. And I you know, it sounds like an excuse, and I hate that, really, honestly, but you know, the conditions haven't been the best for sale of products which have a big hardware component in them over the past two years. There's been a drastic depreciation of the Norwegian kroner, the Swedish kroner, that certainly has not helped, which, again, has prohibited large-scale rollouts to the extent that we want. And so most of the companies I just mentioned, just assuming that those are the ones the question refers to, have a much broader geographic network. And we will get there. I mean, like, just the sheer size of markets in the U.K., in Spain, is many, many, many times the Norwegian and Swedish markets. We'll get there, but it'll take some time. But that has certainly hit us a lot in the last year. Then what are the implications for us? Well, we have to control the things we can control, right? And then one of the things is cost, which is why we have reduced now two times our cost base, NOK 20 million net in we announced in Q4. And when I say net, that's net of additional investments that we have been and are doing in the U.K., in particular, and Spain. And then we have now an additional NOK 20 million that we announced with the restructuring cost of NOK 10 million this quarter, that also will have effect going forward. So that's on the cost side. Then on the revenue side, well, certainly, we need to push even harder on the products that we have. We are very proud and believe that a lot of the solutions that we have are right for the markets out there, whether that is in theft prevention, in e-commerce, in cash handling, or whatever. So, we're certainly pushing as hard as we can in the areas and markets where market conditions are all right. We are closing in to 11:30 A.M., but I think we can squeeze in one more last question. With all the attention that you have gotten from the contract with Sainsbury's, how can you transform this into actions and orders? That's a good question. I think for us it's important that we approach this at least from two angles. One is the fact that with the attention that we have been getting from the Sainsbury's order, that is certainly opening doors. At least in my lifetime at StrongPoint, I've never seen us having access to C levels at the size of grocery retailers that we were talking with ever before. So that's sort of the getting the attention from top levels. Well, from... Getting the top-level attention is one step, but it's certainly not enough to get the order through. There's typically a big group of other influencers and users of the products that need to be convinced, as well. And again, that takes a little bit of time, but that's why we're building up the resources that we are in the U.K. and Spain in particular. Those are the markets that predominantly will be capitalizing on these major wins and announcements that we've had this far in 2024. But again, I'd just like to remind us, we're not pushing a product. This is a solution that takes time to get into these major retailers, but that's what we do. It's, it's working top-down through the executives, building relations, and it's true, it's building the team in place to influence decision-makers and other influencers, to ensure that our solution is, at the end of the day, being selected. The time is now 11:30 A.M., and we close this Q&A session. I'd like to thank everyone for the engagement and attention, and wish you a great day.