Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the second quarter 2024 interim report of Byggmax Group. All lines have been placed on mute during the presentation portion of the call, with an opportunity for question and answer at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star, followed by one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand your conference call over to the host, Karl Sandlund, CEO. Please go ahead. Thank you. Thank you very much, and again, a warm welcome to this conference call, where we will present Byggmax Group's report for the second quarter of 2024. As you heard, I'm Karl Sandlund, the CEO of Byggmax, and with me is Helena Nathhorst, our CFO. As usual, the presentation that we will go through is available on our website, and we will guide you to the right page throughout the call. I will start with a short business update and an overview of our focus areas. Later, Helena will cover the financials, and as you heard of the presentation, we of course open up the floor and are ready to address your questions. Let's begin and start with page number two in the presentation. This, the second quarter of the year is part of our high season, as you know, and it's a quarter where we see substantial effects from our priorities. We have improved our profitability despite operating in a continued weak market, and we have further strengthened our balance sheet with a reduced net debt. Our net sales in the quarter was 5.5% lower than last year, and this is a lower decline than what we have seen in the last quarters. And we also see that there are significant differences in demand between categories in the quarter, where products related to smaller projects, garden, paint, et cetera, did a lot well, while we still experienced a weaker demand for larger renovation. And this is expected. The time to decide, to plan and initiate larger investments, larger renovation is somewhat longer than for the more everyday consumption. The variances in demand between categories also affected our product mix in the quarter. As you have heard us saying before, our focus this year has been on securing strong operational excellence and to reduce net debt, and we saw effect from both those areas during the quarter. We improve our profitability and deliver an EBITA, an EBITA of SEK 184 million or 8.8% margin in the quarter. That is higher than last year, and the margin is also higher than what we had before the pandemic in 2018, 2019. It's driven by cost control and by a strong gross margin. The high gross margin is the result of a successful purchasing, continuous efforts to improve the assortment, but also from the product mix mentioned. We have a slightly different product mix, where we experience higher demand for products with stronger margin than we usually have in the second quarter. In addition to improve profitability, we continue to reduce our net debt. Cash flow from operations, optimization of the inventory and the lower CapEx, result in 29% lower net debt than last year, and we're now down to SEK 480 million by the end of the quarter. So strong delivery on our priorities, and Helena will come back to more details when it comes to financials in a minute. Sorry. If we flip to slide number three, just for those who might not know us that well, we were founded in 1993 as a challenger on a business-to-business focus market. Today, we have grown to 230 stores across four Nordic markets, establishing ourselves as the leading discount player in the Nordic region. The Nordic region, as such, has a strong DIY tradition, our buildings are often made from timber, a large portion of the population have access to multiple homes, and also the fact that the home serves as the social focal point. This makes our market particularly attractive. Looking at our sector, it differs somewhat from other retail industries, since it has a low level of trends in the assortment, leading to very low obsolescence and a stable product range, and also differs from the fact that most suppliers are in the market where we operate, making logistics efficient and reducing lead times. Our Byggmax's foundation is built on a very strong assortment for home renovation and maintenance, where we offer building materials, paint, tile, and flooring. And in addition, we sell garden houses and conservatories. And we have a very carefully selected in-store assortment, which is complemented by a broader online range, allowing our customers to find the product that they need for their projects. We are a true discount retailer, and offering the best prices requires that we always maintain the lowest possible cost. Both our unique store design, but also our strong engagement among our personnel makes this happen. And we also see that we have both a very efficient shopping experience, but also very high customer satisfaction due to this. On page number four, you see that we, size-wise, are a SEK 5.9 billion company, and we delivered SEK 168 million in EBITA last twelve months, and that is, of course, a result negatively impacted by the weak Nordic consumer market that we have experienced the last two years. We have an efficient business model with high cash generation, which is seen in a strong cash flow, as you see SEK 744 million in the last 12 months. We see that the omni-channel presence is really crucial in our sector, because along with groceries, building materials have the lowest expected online share in retail. And this makes access to attractive locations key, both now but also in the future. With that said, we truly believe that you need a combination of online and stores, and we have a successful mixture of the two. As you see, currently, we have approximately an 80/20 split between store and online sales in the group. On page five, just to give some context on the current market situation from a more macro perspective, and I'm sure you know this and have been told a lot about this from other sources, of course. But we currently see an improvement of macroeconomic factors with lower inflation and a stabilization of interest rates, which gradually improving consumer confidence in the Nordic markets. And as mentioned, this means significant and larger than before differences in demand between different categories, where demand for the products related to the smaller projects are well. It seems like the consumers have started to spend more again when it comes to these types of products. When it comes to the building material for the larger projects and renovation, we still experience somewhat hesitant consumers. As mentioned, this is natural, since it takes longer time to design and plan this kind of projects. We saw an increase in number of house transactions starting in April, May, and with some lead time, this is usually have been historically a driver for increased demand also when it comes to building materials. So but over time, there's no indication that the market has structurally changed or saturated. As the consumer confidence rebuilds, renovation projects will rebound, driving growth again. Page six illustrates one of our main priorities during the second quarter, because we have high seasonality in our business, with stronger demand during the summer than during the winter. We are used to ramp up and down the business between seasons. As you've seen in Q2, our sales is almost 2.5 x higher than Q1, and this, of course, requires the entire organization to be fully focused to secure a successful and efficient ramp up. And our strong operational focus and focus on operational excellence with further improved store operations, with smarter buildup of stock levels and all scheduling of personnel, have resulted in a better ramp up this year than before. We have a higher service level in the stores, and at the same time, we have further managed to improve our efficiency compared to previous years. And this is crucial, because to be able to offer the best prices, we need to maintain the lowest possible cost, and our cost position is key for profitability, especially in current market conditions. As you see, we have reduced our operating costs more than the decline in sales, if you look at the percentage changes. Despite more stores and inflation during the year, our operational costs decreased by 7% in the quarter compared to last year. It's driven both by more efficient store operations and manning, but also from the reduction of administration that we made during the winter. The reduction is slightly lower than the last quarters, and as we started the cost reductions already in the beginning of 2023, our comparables is getting tougher. Another focus area, if we flip slide, another focus area is seen on page 7. We have focused a lot on optimizing our assortment and inventory, both to improve profitability but also to strengthen our balance sheets. We see the results in higher gross margin and lower inventory value than the previous year. And lately, we have reviewed our entire store assortment, category by category, to set the right inventory levels and to decide which products to push, but also which products to discontinue. New tools and better inventory for forecasting have ensured that we don't run out of popular products. This approach results both in less tied up capital, but also in opportunities for improved sales and increased margin. And as you saw in the beginning, lower inventory levels, combined with cash flow from operations and less investment, allowed us to reduce net debt by 23.9%, compared to the last year. In addition to securing operational excellence and improving balance sheets, we are constantly working on improving our customer offering. You see some example of this on page eight, where we see that during the quarter, we have opened two new stores, one in Bergen, in Norway, and one in Mölndal, in Sweden. This means that we, in total, now have 230 stores on four Nordic markets. If we just take a step back, this is 33 more stores than we had three years ago, something that has substantially increased our revenue potential when the market returns. In addition to more stores, they are in better shape than before. We're constantly improving our store experience, both when it comes to operations, as mentioned, but also when it comes to the customer experience and product display, and so on. Then one effect from this is seeing in the high customer satisfaction that we experience. Every year, more than 500,000 customers give us feedback in the stores, and the score continues to be at a very high level, even though we are in the busy high or peak season. Another improvement is related to online. During the quarter, our e-com assortment developed well. It was a result both of high demand for the smaller projects and products, but also from our focus on offering customized products online. Our Byggmax concept, where customers can configure windows and doors to their specifications, showed significant growth in the quarter, and this is something that we continue to develop going forward with more made-to-order products. Before handing over to Helena and the financials, please turn to page nine, because as you might see, we updated our financial targets in May. Our strong discount position, coupled with commercial leverage, will drive sales growth. Our target is to grow beyond the market, which implies at least 5% annual growth over a business cycle. And our profitability target is to deliver an EBITA margin about 7% per year. And the path from current level to our target includes improved efficiency, scale, optimized assortment, and leverage our commercial improvements. Strong balance sheet is a key priority, and our target is to maintain a net debt over EBITA ratio below 2.5x. And finally, we have an efficient business model with high cash generation, and this enables us both to invest while also providing dividends to our shareholders. And the company shall distribute 50% of net profit, considering the financial position. And to deliver on this, we have a clear and actionable roadmap built on three main pillars, where first, we are a true discount retailer, and we recognize the potential in specificity. And by refining our assortment, boosting efficiency, we will always continue to streamline and improve our operations. Second, our commercial investments that were made over the past year have significantly amplified and increased our revenue potential. Going forward, we will make sure to fully capitalize on these investments. Finally, we will continue to enhance our product offerings and optimize our store portfolio to meet and exceed market demands. So Byggmax is really ready for the future. We have a strong discount position and further improved efficiency, enabling us to have substantially increased volumes. With that, over to Helena and this quarter's financials. Thank you. I'm pleased to present some of the financial achievements in this quarter, starting with our sales performance on page 10. We see a slight decline in net sales by 5.5% in the quarter. Despite this, our net sales growth rate has improved versus last year and versus the previous quarters. Still, as mentioned, we clearly see that product categories related to smaller projects perform well, while larger renovation projects continue to lag behind. Sweden has shown a better performance overall, and a market decline for building material was expected, in the quarter, and we consider us to grow at least, as the market. We also demonstrate a strong gross margin in the quarter at 33.6%, driven by a positive product mix and improved product margin and utilization of supplier cash discounts. We have now net four new stores in 2024, and the new stores contributed to sales of 1.1%. Moving on to profitability, our EBITA has increased from SEK 172 million in the second quarter last year to SEK 184 million this year, resulting in an EBITA margin improvement from 7.8% to 8.8%. We have managed to sustain our gross profit versus last year by margin increase. In addition to maintaining gross profit, the improved profitability is driven by increased efficiency and lower costs, both in store and administration. A 17% decrease in total. The improved profitability is also demonstrated despite the rise in depreciation due to more leased stores and the write-down of the associated company, MyWood. Our cash position on page twelve. Cash flow from operating activity remains strong, supported by prioritization, investment, and optimizing inventory. Our strong cash generation continues to strengthen our financial position and provide flexibility for future opportunities. And finally, on page two. We have significantly reduced our Net Debt from SEK 679 million in the end of the second quarter 2023 to SEK 408 million this year. Our Net Debt Leverage is 1.5 x in the quarter. We have high seasonality in sales between high and low season, driving corresponding seasonality in the Net Debt leverage. Our leverage over the last 12 months is below our target of 2.5x. Additionally, we have extended our credit facilities at year-end, ensuring a liquidity position with SEK 1 billion available. So in conclusion, despite a challenging market financially, we have achieved significant milestones by showing improved profitability, and the quarter has a strong cash generation and a reduced net debt position. And, by that, I hand over back to Karl before opening up for the questions. Thank you, Helena. Let's please move to the final slide, number 14. To summarize our presentation, here are our key messages again. As you heard, we delivered on our prioritized areas during the quarter. In a continued hesitant market, we managed to improve our profitability, delivering an EBITA margin above last year, but also above the margin that we had during the years before the pandemic. And in addition, we continued to strengthen our balance sheet. Some positive macro signs have spread lately, with improved customer confidence and higher activity on the housing market, and this is seen in particular categories. And over time, this will have effect on overall demand. And Byggmax is ready. We have used the time wisely, and when the market rebounds, Byggmax is fit for growth. We have a strong discount position and improved efficiency, resulting in both revenue and profit potential. Finally, we are currently in the middle of our high season, and we have a strong operational focus at the moment. Our fantastic employees are working intensively to make sure that our customers can fulfill their home improvement dreams. So with high engagement, upgraded stores, and efficient logistics, we welcome our customers during this summer season. And with that, we thank you for your attention and are now happy to take your questions. So let's open the floor to your questions. Thank you. If you would like to register a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad, ensuring that you are unmuted locally. If you'd like to withdraw your question at any time, you can do so by pressing star followed by two. The first question comes from the line of Benjamin Wahlstedt of ABG. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Good morning, and congratulations on strong results. I have three questions today. First of all, I was wondering if you could share anything around consumer behavior. You note that transaction volumes are up and consumer confidence is trending even better. Is this seen in stores as well, in any way? Thank you, Benjamin. Well, yeah, as we mentioned, we see quite a larger than before differences in the demand between different categories, where products related to the smaller categories developed well, while we still see hesitant consumers when it comes to the larger renovations. We also see consumer behaviors more like the one that we saw before the pandemic, both when it comes to during which hours the customers come to the stores, but also when it comes to the split between e-com and online stores, where we see more of a consumer behavior that we saw pre-pandemic, than pandemic, than what we've seen during the last, say, three, four years. So there are some changes in the consumer behaviors than compared to what we've seen before. Perfect. Thank you. I was wondering as well about your inventory. It is much reduced versus last year, I believe on the back of ongoing assortment efficiency improvements. In Q2 of 2024, your inventory ratio was some 24%. And basically, I was wondering, what is the Q2 2027 inventory ratio? Any thoughts on that would be helpful. Thank you. I'm not quite sure that I understood the question, Benjamin. Could you? I didn't hear the beginning of it. Could you please repeat? All right, I can rephrase it as well. What do you think is the sort of mature impact of the ongoing assortment efficiency improvements in terms of inventory ratio, please? So, well, we have worked a lot with optimizing the inventory. Well, and that is a combination of, you know, both to see what kind of assortment should we have, what the product should be pushed, which product should we discontinue with, but also what is the right inventory level from different products. When it comes to the ratio going forward, if you measure it in, like, in terms of sales or in inventory turnover ratio and so on, that depends, of course, both on the inventory level, but also on the sales development. So, let's see going forward. But making sure that we have the right inventory is a key priority for us. Compared to last year, the inventory in absolute terms is down, but at the same time, we have managed to improve what we call the service level. That is availability of products in the stores. So it's something that we're working a lot with to make sure that we both can reduce the overall level, but also make sure that we have the right product in store. And one reason to do this is to make sure, or one way to do this is to make sure that we all the time work with very efficient logistics and have short lead times when it comes to more popular products. Perfect. The reason I'm asking is before the pandemic, your inventory share of, so to speak, sales was about 20%, and during the last two years, it's been around the 25% mark. Do you expect sort of going back to the olden days in terms of the inventory ratio? I.e.- Yeah. 20% margin. Yeah. Well, as you say, right, that during the drop in demand the last two years, the inventory turnover rate or order ratio to sales has. If you look at it as a turnover rate, it has come down, right? Because we've seen lower demand, less sales, and that's also why we have focused on optimizing and adapting the inventory to the sales levels. Without giving, you know, any forecast on ITR or something like that going forward, I can say that this is, of course, an important KPI for us and something that we work with to make sure that we have a very capital- efficient inventory and an inventory that turns all the time. Perfect. Thank you very much. A final one as well. The gross margin improvement, you hint that it's due to both a better product mix and also, cash discounts. I was wondering if you could give us a sense of the relative importance of these two factors, please. Yeah, so actually several factors, and then more than the factors you just mentioned there. It's an effect from a constant effort to adapt the product range to the customer needs, where we have both added but also removed products. It's a result of a successful purchasing efforts during the winter, where we have managed to improve our purchasing conditions. It's a factor that was a result of a slightly different demand in the quarter, where the quarter has weighed more towards products with higher margins and discounts, the cash discounts that you mentioned. So it's a combination of several factors, and I don't really have the exact, you know, split between those three or four factors, but it's a mix of all of them. And then it's a—I think it's a result also of, you know, strong focus and efforts to make sure that we improve profitability also in a weaker market. Fair enough. Thank you very much. Those were all my questions for now. Thank you. Thank you, Damon. The next question comes from Julien Batteau of Pascal Advisers. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. Good morning. Congrats also on my side, very impressive results. Just two questions. The first one is, can you remind what you describe as the cash discount supplier? Is that some rebates that are giving you and that you are able to keep for yourself without, you know, passing them through the price to retail prices? That's the first question, and the second question is, I mean, now that the market seems to have finally stabilized and even seems to be improving, at least on the macro side, how would you look at the slope of the EBITDA margin trajectory toward the 7% from the actual level, which is around 2%-3%? Is it, my question is- Yeah. Is it, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months? Yeah. Okay. You know, will you take the cash discounts or? Yes, it's all supplier agreements where we have, n ormally long- term payment conditions, and then, they can use a discount if we pay earlier. So it's, this is using our costs. Yeah, I know that, but my understanding of the discount was, the discount used to be in the past, based on volume, right? Well, I suppose volume are down now. No, it's not those, it's not those. Sorry, it's not those ones. It's not the volume-driven discounts, that's another thing. This, this is only in, in the cycle of the payment terms. Okay. The mapping of volume and pricing of the products, is the same. It's only on the invoice. Yeah. Okay. Okay? Yeah, yeah. Clear, clear. Yeah. When it comes to the profitability, well, we see that our priorities are having effect in this quarter. We have said that we are focusing on strengthening balance sheet and improving profitability, and we are seeing evidence of this in this quarter. We will continue to focus on this, and our goal is naturally to always make Byggmax as good as possible and to reach our target as soon as possible. But that's why we don't provide forecasts, but our ambition is to continuously get better all the time. But my question was more in to rebound on your comment about the cost per store, which, as you said, we're very, very efficient now. And that, and I think you alluded to the fact that it would be hard to improve further. And I was wondering if the market comes back, volume comes back, traffic improve, there will be some kind of cost re-increasing, which we would decrease the leverage a little bit. Sorry, then I misunderstood you. Well, a lot of the cost reductions that we have made, I would say that majority is working smarter in new and more efficient ways. We have been able to increase our efficiency and are able to increase the volumes in current infrastructure. So, of course, with a ramp- up of sales, we will add some personnel in the stores and so on. But, you know, our ambition is to be able to have scale effects, as the market rebounds or when it rebounds. It's some, some is sticky then? Yeah. Some of the cost improvement is sticky, yes. Yeah. But yeah, exactly. Some of the cost improvement is, you know, regardless of the volume, and others are, you know, related to the number of deliveries to the stores, number of customers and so on. And with the substantial higher volume, we also need to add some personnel in the stores. But we see that we have potential to significant more volumes in the infrastructure. Okay, clear. Thanks. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Magnus Råman of Kepler Cheuvreux. Your line is now open. Please go ahead. Thank you very much. Magnus Råman here from Kepler Cheuvreux. I just have a follow-up here on previous questions. So if we look at the gross margin improvement, for example, we would assume that the pay early cash discounts represent, say, a fifth or so of the improvement, and then you have a certain positive effect also from assortment improvement or efficiency. That would anyhow leave a rather large share of this explanation, sort of, of the cost margin improvement to the mixed effect, where you have sold more of items carrying a higher product margin, at higher ticketed products have been held back. Is that a fair assumption? So, the assumption was? Please, Magnus. Yeah, yeah. If the assumption that a rather large part of the gross margin improvement you have shown is related to positive mix effects, are you selling more of the low-ticket type of items with a higher gross margin than the high-ticket items with a lower gross margin? Yeah, okay. Well, it is really a result of several factors, but it is. It is the you know, successful purchasing, it is the cash discount, it's the optimization of assortment. But yes, you're right, that it's also, you know, yeah, it's the assumption that you know, this is a significant part of it, or a part of it is due to the fact that we have a different product mix, where we see large differences in demand between the different categories. Right. And then, I mean, can we also make an assumption then that when you are anticipating a recovery, of course, and on the sales side eventually? Yeah. When that recovery comes, it should be rendering sort of more sales of the higher ticketed items, for example, you know, timber-related products. Yeah. Yes, yes. You know, in a more- Yeah. With a more... We need more normal product mix in the, in the, you know, with the stable demand for, for more categories that will also, you know, have effect on, on, on the gross margin. And then you see that also, you know, if you compare our gross margin between the quarters, then you see, you know, that the margin difference between the quarters is driven by, you know, what kind of products are, you know, the main products in, in that quarter. Yeah, sure. Right, and then just finally here, as it relates to an expected recovery, and I mean, maybe this relates then to the relief of sort of purchasing power from reduced interest rates, because now we've had the consumer confidence rise on, from consumers seeing sort of the peak of interest rates, but the cuts have just merely begun. And then is it fair to say, I mean, you are more than halfway through, I guess, the high season now, the Q2 and Q3 for your side, but so that this potential recovery is on the higher ticketed side of your assortment, the effects will be materially seen first in Q2, Q3, if anything, next year. Well, I actually still think it's too early to tell. We're you know, in the beginning of July, the summer vacation has just started. So I think, you know, we need to summarize the peak season of Q3. I think it's really hard to, you know, tell which week or month the overall demand will increase. We see, as mentioned, right, we see large differences in the quarter. And I honestly think it's hard to tell, you know, where we would see different types of demand for all categories. Right. I wouldn't say that we are, you know, far in the peak season, but I will say that, you know, we are, you know, in the first third almost, right? Because we have July, August, and September also with peak season. So I think it's too early to tell. Right. But then, then we are halfway almost into July. I think would you care to... I mean, I know it's the very, very early days of the, of the Q3, of course, but would you care to, to comment anything on what you see in terms of, you know, the, the temperature in the market, if I can phrase it like that, i n the beginning of July? No, no. I don't want to do that. It's too early. As you know, then they will start speculating in days, right? So I'm sorry, but we need to come back on that later when we see the full amount of the quarter. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Magnus. Thank you. We now have a follow-up from Julien Batteau of Pascal Advisers. Yes, a very quick one. As you say, large renovation projects are still weak at the moment. Should they come back, what would be the impact on the gross margin? Would that be slightly diluted? I don't have an exact figure. But it also depends a little bit on season, right? But some of the larger renovation projects have slightly lower margin than the smaller ticket items. But I don't have an exact figure on, you know, how that would impact. But if you think about the main products that would go into a large renovation project, do they have lower gross margin than the actual one? Some of the product items that goes into that basket, yes, have lower than the average. So, yeah, that's correct, right? So, the more heavy building materials have slightly lower margin than the smaller product. That said, we have, as I mentioned again, right, we have worked successfully with the purchasing and so on, right? So there's many different factors into that. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. As there are no additional questions waiting at this time, I'd like to hand the conference call back over to Karl Sandlund for closing remarks. Oh, thank you. Thank you, and thanks a lot for your participation and for many questions today. We really hope that you will have a nice summer, and please come in with our stores. And as well before, we are looking forward to meeting you again after our third quarter. So thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for joining today's call. Have a great rest of your day. You may now disconnect your lines.