Q2 2026 Xplora Technologies AS Earnings Call
Speaker #1: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first half-year and Q2 results presentation. I would like to open this quarter by saying how proud I am of the full Xplora team.
Sten Kirkbak: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our H1 and Q2 results presentation. I would like to open this quarter by saying how proud I am of the full Xplora team. In the market with a slight reduced or softer consumer instrument, once again, we have proven something really, really important. Our business strategy works very well, which we will present, but also the team's ability to execute in such a market. We have surpassed a very important milestone, more than half a million subscription. We have improved our gross margin, and we have increased our EBITDA after CapEx by more than 50% or 50% this H1. For the presentation today, we will have quite a lot of the team members on the stage to present because we would like to do a little bit more deep dive to give you even more insights than a normal presentation.
Sten Kirkbak: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our H1 and Q2 results presentation. I would like to open this quarter by saying how proud I am of the full Xplora team. In the market with a slight reduced or softer consumer instrument, once again, we have proven something really, really important. Our business strategy works very well, which we will present, but also the team's ability to execute in such a market. We have surpassed a very important milestone, more than half a million subscription. We have improved our gross margin, and we have increased our EBITDA after CapEx by more than 50% or 50% this H1. For the presentation today, we will have quite a lot of the team members on the stage to present because we would like to do a little bit more deep dive to give you even more insights than a normal presentation.
Speaker #1: In a market with a slightly reduced or softer consumer environment, once again we have proven something really, really important. Our business strategy works very well, which we’ll present, but also the team’s ability to execute in such a market.
Speaker #1: We have surpassed a very important milestone: more than half a million subscriptions. We have improved our gross margin, and we have increased our EBITDA after capex by more than 50%—or 50%—this half-year.
Speaker #1: For the presentation today, we will have quite a lot of the team members on the stage to present, because we would like to do a little bit more of a deep dive to give you even more insight than a normal presentation.
Speaker #1: I will start with an intro featuring some highlights, but I will actually take you a little bit more behind the scenes as well this time.
Sten Kirkbak: I will start to do an intro with some highlights, but I will actually take you a little bit more behind the scene as well this time. Knut will guide you through all of the financial results and details. Gro will take you through our business unit from kids and youth products. Tommy will guide you through the full senior update from Doro, because now also Kjetil will be on the floor to give you the latest and greatest insight from the latest emporia acquisition, both eventually to be one division from senior. Q3 will be the first time we will report these or those numbers. At the end, I will take you through the normal road ahead.
Sten Kirkbak: I will start to do an intro with some highlights, but I will actually take you a little bit more behind the scene as well this time. Knut will guide you through all of the financial results and details. Gro will take you through our business unit from kids and youth products. Tommy will guide you through the full senior update from Doro, because now also Kjetil will be on the floor to give you the latest and greatest insight from the latest emporia acquisition, both eventually to be one division from senior. Q3 will be the first time we will report these or those numbers. At the end, I will take you through the normal road ahead.
Speaker #1: Then, of course, Knut will guide you through all of the financial results and details. Then Gro will take you through our business unit for kids and youth products.
Speaker #1: And then Sami will—Tommy will guide you through the full senior update from previous Doro, because now also Chetal will be on the floor to give you the latest and greatest insight from the latest Emporia acquisition, both eventually to be one division. From senior Q3, it will be the first time we will report these or those numbers.
Speaker #1: At the end, I will take you through the normal road ahead. Before going into some of the details from this first half-year and the quarter, of course, as normal, I will just guide you through the high-level numbers.
Sten Kirkbak: Before going into some of the details from this H1 and the quarter, as normal, I will just guide you through the high level number. H1, we had a group revenue of almost NOK 800 million, flat from last year. Our recurring service revenue up 13% to NOK 182 million. Gross profit also up to NOK 433 million. As I said, our subscription base, we are halfway to our goal for 1 million. We passed 500,000. Our EBITDA, and please pay attention to this, the reported EBITDA for the H1, NOK 76 million, up 11%. Underlying, it is 89%.
Sten Kirkbak: Before going into some of the details from this H1 and the quarter, as normal, I will just guide you through the high level number. H1, we had a group revenue of almost NOK 800 million, flat from last year. Our recurring service revenue up 13% to NOK 182 million. Gross profit also up to NOK 433 million. As I said, our subscription base, we are halfway to our goal for 1 million. We passed 500,000. Our EBITDA, and please pay attention to this, the reported EBITDA for the H1, NOK 76 million, up 11%. Underlying, it is 89%.
Speaker #1: First half-year, we had a group revenue of almost $800 million, flat from last year. Our recurring service revenue up 13% to $182. Gross profit also up to $433 million, and as I said, our subscription base, we are halfway to our goal for $1 million; we passed $500,000.
Speaker #1: Our EBITDA—and please pay attention to this—the reported EBITDA for the first half-year is $76 million, up 11%. Underlying, it's $89 million. We'll come back to these details, but as we are acquiring companies, there will be one-off costs. As we discussed with you and the market in the previous quarter, we'll make sure to give you the details so you can follow the underlying performance of the company.
Sten Kirkbak: We will come back to these details, but as we are acquiring companies, there will be one-off cost, and as we discussed with you guys and the market previous quarter, we will make sure to give you the details so you can follow the underlying performance of the company, hence the NOK 89 million. EBITDA after CapEx, as I said in the introduction, up 50% this H1 to NOK 56 million, and still a very strong and healthy cash balance of NOK 537 million. All right. Would like your attention to the following. As we have mentioned a couple of quarter, we would like the market to really put the standard and follow our performance for the following three KPIs.
Sten Kirkbak: We will come back to these details, but as we are acquiring companies, there will be one-off cost, and as we discussed with you guys and the market previous quarter, we will make sure to give you the details so you can follow the underlying performance of the company, hence the NOK 89 million. EBITDA after CapEx, as I said in the introduction, up 50% this H1 to NOK 56 million, and still a very strong and healthy cash balance of NOK 537 million. All right. Would like your attention to the following. As we have mentioned a couple of quarter, we would like the market to really put the standard and follow our performance for the following three KPIs.
Speaker #1: Hence, the $89 million. EBITDA after capex, as I said in the introduction, is up 50% this first half-year to $56 million, and we still have a very strong and healthy cash balance of $537 million.
Speaker #1: All right. I would like your attention to the following. As we have mentioned for a couple of quarters, we would like the market to really set the standard and follow our performance for the following three KPIs.
Speaker #1: Our ability to deliver strong gross profit growth, of course, our subscription base, and our overall service revenue; and like we said as well, for a tech company, follow our EBITDA after the capex.
Sten Kirkbak: Our ability to deliver strong gross profit growth, of course, our subscription base and our overall service revenue. Like we said as well, for a tech company, follow our EBITDA after the CapEx. That is why we said initially as well, in quite a demanding, challenging overall consumer market, it is very strong to deliver on these three key KPIs. I now would like to take you through how we are planning and how we have the right tools to continue to perform on these KPIs in the next quarter to come as well. Starting with the first one, how do we foresee to continue to be a strong growth company in the months and years to come? We have provided ourselves three very important tools to make sure we can continue to grow. When we are saying growing, it should be profitable growth.
Sten Kirkbak: Our ability to deliver strong gross profit growth, of course, our subscription base and our overall service revenue. Like we said as well, for a tech company, follow our EBITDA after the CapEx. That is why we said initially as well, in quite a demanding, challenging overall consumer market, it is very strong to deliver on these three key KPIs. I now would like to take you through how we are planning and how we have the right tools to continue to perform on these KPIs in the next quarter to come as well. Starting with the first one, how do we foresee to continue to be a strong growth company in the months and years to come? We have provided ourselves three very important tools to make sure we can continue to grow. When we are saying growing, it should be profitable growth.
Speaker #1: And that's why we said initially as well, in quite the demanding, challenging overall consumer market, it's very strong to deliver on these three key KPIs.
Speaker #1: I would now like to take you through how we are planning, and how we have the right tools to continue to perform on these KPIs in the next quarter as well.
Speaker #1: Starting with the first one, how do we foresee continuing to be a strong growth company in the months and years to come? We have provided ourselves with three very important tools to make sure we can continue to grow.
Speaker #1: And when we are saying growing, it should be profitable growth. Please remember that as well, and we’ll come back to that. Number one, we will showcase and demonstrate to you today how we have actually further improved our retail model.
Sten Kirkbak: Please remember that as well. We will come back to that. Number one, we will showcase and demonstrate to you today how we actually have further improved our retail model. As you all know, we are now where we would have liked to be one or two quarters ago when it comes to the Doro Connect implementation. We will talk a lot about that today. However, we have invested that time very wisely because we have developed the same incentive tools and point of sale, which we now can utilize for all our product portfolio, meaning we have stronger tools to continue to grow our business across all products within the retail. We will showcase that a little bit later. A new POS model for all our products.
Sten Kirkbak: Please remember that as well. We will come back to that. Number one, we will showcase and demonstrate to you today how we actually have further improved our retail model. As you all know, we are now where we would have liked to be one or two quarters ago when it comes to the Doro Connect implementation. We will talk a lot about that today. However, we have invested that time very wisely because we have developed the same incentive tools and point of sale, which we now can utilize for all our product portfolio, meaning we have stronger tools to continue to grow our business across all products within the retail. We will showcase that a little bit later. A new POS model for all our products.
Speaker #1: As you all know, we are not where we would have liked to be one or two quarters ago when it comes to the Senior Connect implementation.
Speaker #1: We'll talk a lot about that today. However, we have invested that time very wisely, because we have developed the same incentive tools and point of sale, which we can now utilize for all our product portfolio.
Speaker #1: Meaning we have stronger tools to continue to grow our business across all products within retail. We'll showcase that a little bit later—a new POS model for all our products.
Speaker #1: Also, as a consequence of acquiring Emporia, not only are we adding a lot to our unit base, selling our product, but we are also now extending in the future into two new markets with a strong brand and position.
Sten Kirkbak: Also, as a consequence of acquiring emporia, not only are we adding a lot to our unit base selling our product, but we are also now extending in the future into two new markets with a strong brand and a position, Switzerland and Austria. Of course, one way for us to continue to grow is to extend into new markets, particularly in the market where we are a category leader. Also, we are optimizing our product portfolio. As we know historically, new product means more sale. We have now acquired two companies with a fleet of great products. What we have been doing this first half year is to make sure that all these products now going forward can be used across multiple categories. One of the biggest growing categories, the youth category, is one example.
Sten Kirkbak: Also, as a consequence of acquiring emporia, not only are we adding a lot to our unit base selling our product, but we are also now extending in the future into two new markets with a strong brand and a position, Switzerland and Austria. Of course, one way for us to continue to grow is to extend into new markets, particularly in the market where we are a category leader. Also, we are optimizing our product portfolio. As we know historically, new product means more sale. We have now acquired two companies with a fleet of great products. What we have been doing this first half year is to make sure that all these products now going forward can be used across multiple categories. One of the biggest growing categories, the youth category, is one example.
Speaker #1: Switch to land and Austria. And, of course, one way for us to continue to grow is to extend into new markets, particularly in a market where we are category leader.
Speaker #1: Also, we are optimizing our product portfolio. As we know, historically, new products mean more sales. We have now acquired two companies with a fleet of great products.
Speaker #1: And what we have been doing this first half-year is to make sure that all these products now, going forward, can be used across multiple categories.
Speaker #1: One of the biggest growing categories is the youth categories, for example. We will pay particular attention to one of the products that came with the acquisition of Emporia, the new 5G product.
Sten Kirkbak: We will pay particular attention to one of the products that came with acquisition of emporia, the new 5G product I am sure Kjetil will present. So we have provided ourselves some tools in Q2 to make sure Xplora is a growth company. The second one of the KPI we said is our ability to continue to grow our subscription base. We reached the halfway mark. We are on track on our 1 million target for 2029. If you recall back to our capital market day, we said four to five years to goal for 1 million. We are on track for that for 2029. We also stay very firm, and let me just underline that one more time, very firm on the commitment that part of that 1 million in 2029 should be 200,000 SIM subscriptions for senior. That is one of them, and we stay very firm on that.
Sten Kirkbak: We will pay particular attention to one of the products that came with acquisition of emporia, the new 5G product I am sure Kjetil will present. So we have provided ourselves some tools in Q2 to make sure Xplora is a growth company. The second one of the KPI we said is our ability to continue to grow our subscription base. We reached the halfway mark. We are on track on our 1 million target for 2029. If you recall back to our capital market day, we said four to five years to goal for 1 million. We are on track for that for 2029. We also stay very firm, and let me just underline that one more time, very firm on the commitment that part of that 1 million in 2029 should be 200,000 SIM subscriptions for senior. That is one of them, and we stay very firm on that.
Speaker #1: I'm sure Chetal will present. So, we have provided ourselves with some tools in Q2 to make sure Xplora is a growth company. The second one of the KPIs, we said, is our ability to continue to grow our subscription base.
Speaker #1: We have reached the halfway mark. We are on track for our $1 million target for '29. If you recall back to our Capital Markets Day, we said four to five years to go for $1 million.
Speaker #1: We are on track for that for '29. We also stay very firm, and let me just underline that one more time—very firm—on the commitment that part of that $1 million in '29 should be $200,000 SIM subscription for senior.
Speaker #1: That is one of them, and we stay very firm on that. Even though there are small numbers for the current online sales for Senior Connects and our one pilot store, we also stay very firm on the current data points we are seeing to continue on the communicated attach rate of 20%.
Sten Kirkbak: Even though there are small numbers for the current online sales for Senior Connect and our one pilot store, we also stay very firm on the current data points we are seeing to continue on the communicated attach rate of 20%, based on the data we have today, online and the retail store combined. Small number, but what we know is the following: If it works in one store, it will work in more store. We need the time to execute. As well, we have received the feedback. We actually have potentially the best point-of-sale solution within the category when it comes to how easy it is for a retailer to connect and activate our SIM card. Like I said, not only for senior, but for the whole range of our products.
Sten Kirkbak: Even though there are small numbers for the current online sales for Senior Connect and our one pilot store, we also stay very firm on the current data points we are seeing to continue on the communicated attach rate of 20%, based on the data we have today, online and the retail store combined. Small number, but what we know is the following: If it works in one store, it will work in more store. We need the time to execute. As well, we have received the feedback. We actually have potentially the best point-of-sale solution within the category when it comes to how easy it is for a retailer to connect and activate our SIM card. Like I said, not only for senior, but for the whole range of our products.
Speaker #1: Based on the data we have today, online and in the retail store combined—it's a small number—but what we know is the following: if it works in one store, it will work in more stores.
Speaker #1: We need the time to execute. And as well, we have received the feedback. We actually have potentially the best point-of-sale solution within the category.
Speaker #1: When it comes to how easy it is for a retailer to connect and activate our SIM card—like I said, not only for senior, but for the whole range of our products.
Speaker #1: So, we know this POS word is, well, we find it easy to understand, but we have received quite a lot of questions: what is it?
Sten Kirkbak: We know this POS word is, well, we find it easy to understand, but we have received quite a lot of question. What is it? You have talked a lot about this POS system. I would start by saying something very clear. It was a lot more work than we have ever thought. Hands down, it was. Because we have done it for wearable products for kids. We got a lot of waivers. We didn't even have to have a POS system in the store. SIM card was pre-installed. Customer activated it on our website. It was super simple. Now we had to have the same solution as Telenor, as Telia, as all these giants. So when a customer buy a product with our SIM card in a retail store, the seller needs to have all the details. They need to have all their margin.
Sten Kirkbak: We know this POS word is, well, we find it easy to understand, but we have received quite a lot of question. What is it? You have talked a lot about this POS system. I would start by saying something very clear. It was a lot more work than we have ever thought. Hands down, it was. Because we have done it for wearable products for kids. We got a lot of waivers. We didn't even have to have a POS system in the store. SIM card was pre-installed. Customer activated it on our website. It was super simple. Now we had to have the same solution as Telenor, as Telia, as all these giants. So when a customer buy a product with our SIM card in a retail store, the seller needs to have all the details. They need to have all their margin.
Speaker #1: Well, you have talked a lot about this POS system, and I would start by saying something very clear: it was a lot more work than we ever thought.
Speaker #1: Hands down, it was. Because we have done it for wearable products for kids, we got a lot of waivers. We didn't even have to have a POS system in the store.
Speaker #1: The SIM card was pre-installed. The customer activated it on our website. It was super simple. Now, we had to have the same solution as Telenor, as Telia, as all these giants.
Speaker #1: So when a customer buys a product with our SIM card in a retail store, the seller needs to have all the details. They need to have all their margin.
Speaker #1: It needs to be a provisioning system, so the retailer knows exactly how much money they are making. And it's a lot of background work.
Sten Kirkbak: It needs to be a provisioning system, so the retailer know exactly how much money they are making, and it's a lot of background work. It was more than we expected. That's why I said initially, we are now where we ideally had hoped to be a couple of quarter ago. But the model is scalable, and it's a lot easier now to implement in other retailer. But like I said, when we saw all the work for doing this for the senior product, we made sure that we have multiple work streams in parallel. Because what we did was to make sure that not only can we use this system for the senior product, but like I said, we can use it for all our products.
Sten Kirkbak: It needs to be a provisioning system, so the retailer know exactly how much money they are making, and it's a lot of background work. It was more than we expected. That's why I said initially, we are now where we ideally had hoped to be a couple of quarter ago. But the model is scalable, and it's a lot easier now to implement in other retailer. But like I said, when we saw all the work for doing this for the senior product, we made sure that we have multiple work streams in parallel. Because what we did was to make sure that not only can we use this system for the senior product, but like I said, we can use it for all our products.
Speaker #1: It was more than we expected. That's why I said initially, we are now where we ideally had hoped to be a couple of quarters ago.
Speaker #1: But the model is scalable, and it's a lot easier now to implement in other retailers. But like I said, when we saw all the work required for doing this for the senior product, we made sure that we have multiple work streams in parallel.
Speaker #1: Because what we did was to make sure that not only can we use this system for the senior product, but, like I said, we can use it for all our products.
Speaker #1: The image in the middle is simplified, just like how a retail salesperson is getting this in the store when they are selling the product. So they can say, see how much money they are making.
Sten Kirkbak: The image in the middle is simplified just how a retail salesperson are getting this in the store when they are selling the product, so they can see how much money they are making, fill in all the name, and make sure everything is activated in the backend. Why is this important for all our products? Let me try to explain, because it's very important for our investors to understand this fully. Historically, when we have sold a smartwatch for kids, the retailer have no relationship to a SIM card being inside that product. We have sold them a smartwatch with a margin, and that's it. What we are now doing, we are still selling them this smartwatch with a pre-installed SIM card.
Sten Kirkbak: The image in the middle is simplified just how a retail salesperson are getting this in the store when they are selling the product, so they can see how much money they are making, fill in all the name, and make sure everything is activated in the backend. Why is this important for all our products? Let me try to explain, because it's very important for our investors to understand this fully. Historically, when we have sold a smartwatch for kids, the retailer have no relationship to a SIM card being inside that product. We have sold them a smartwatch with a margin, and that's it. What we are now doing, we are still selling them this smartwatch with a pre-installed SIM card.
Speaker #1: Fill in all the names and make sure everything is activated in the backend. Why is this important for all our products? Let me try to explain, because it's very important for our investors to understand this fully.
Speaker #1: Historically, when we have sold a smartwatch for kids, the retailer had no relationship to a SIM card being inside that product. We have sold them a smartwatch with a margin, and that's it.
Speaker #1: What we are now doing is we are still selling them this smartwatch with a pre-installed SIM card. However, when they are now selling that product, they will have the ability to select SIM plans from Xplora, so they can further improve their margin.
Sten Kirkbak: However, when they are now selling that product, they will have the ability to select SIM plans from Xplora so they can further improve their margin, meaning that we are able to allow them to select a more profitable SIM plan for us. Then we can give them some additional incentives to sell more Xplora products. That will be a very strong tool, particular outside of the Nordics. Why is this particular important in a market where you see the consumer are spending less money? It is very important for our ability to really incentivize the retail salespeople to sell product, and we have more flexibility on price. Just wanted to repeat what is the POS system. It has taken longer time. We are now where we really would like to be, and we can use it across all our products.
Sten Kirkbak: However, when they are now selling that product, they will have the ability to select SIM plans from Xplora so they can further improve their margin, meaning that we are able to allow them to select a more profitable SIM plan for us. Then we can give them some additional incentives to sell more Xplora products. That will be a very strong tool, particular outside of the Nordics. Why is this particular important in a market where you see the consumer are spending less money? It is very important for our ability to really incentivize the retail salespeople to sell product, and we have more flexibility on price. Just wanted to repeat what is the POS system. It has taken longer time. We are now where we really would like to be, and we can use it across all our products.
Speaker #1: This means that we are able to allow them to select a more profitable SIM plan for us, and then we can give them some additional incentives to sell more Xplora products.
Speaker #1: That will be a very strong tool, particularly outside of the Nordics. And why is this particularly important in the market where you see the consumers are spending less money?
Speaker #1: It's very important for our ability to really incentivize the retail salespeople to sell product, and we have more flexibility on price. So, I just wanted to repeat—what is the POS system?
Speaker #1: It has taken a longer time. We are now where we really would like to be, and we can use it across all our products. The last point before we go into the financial update is, like we said, also one measurement as a tech company.
Sten Kirkbak: The last point before we go into the financial update is, like we said, also one measurement as a tech company, our ability to deliver strong EBITDA after the CapEx. The synergy we are now having with our current two acquisition is already we have executed the first plan of redundancies, roughly 25 people in the first integration. We have also articulated to the market that we expect roughly NOK 50 million as a direct operational cost reduction that will have a direct impact on our P&L. Timing-wise for that, we will see the full effect in 2027. Put it very simple, if the business is exactly the same next year as this year, it will be a NOK 50 million reduction or NOK 50 million increase on the EBITDA compared to similar years. It is a huge effect on that synergy.
Sten Kirkbak: The last point before we go into the financial update is, like we said, also one measurement as a tech company, our ability to deliver strong EBITDA after the CapEx. The synergy we are now having with our current two acquisition is already we have executed the first plan of redundancies, roughly 25 people in the first integration. We have also articulated to the market that we expect roughly NOK 50 million as a direct operational cost reduction that will have a direct impact on our P&L. Timing-wise for that, we will see the full effect in 2027. Put it very simple, if the business is exactly the same next year as this year, it will be a NOK 50 million reduction or NOK 50 million increase on the EBITDA compared to similar years. It is a huge effect on that synergy.
Speaker #1: Our ability to deliver strong EBITDA after the capex, and the synergy we are now having with our current two acquisitions, is already clear. We have executed the first plan of redundancies—roughly 25 people—in the first integration.
Speaker #1: And we have also articulated to the market that we expect roughly $50 million as a direct operational cost reduction that will have a direct impact on our P&L.
Speaker #1: Timing-wise for that, we will see the full effect in 2027. To put it very simply, if the business is exactly the same next year as this year, it will be a NOK 50 million reduction or NOK 50 million increase on the EBITDA compared to similar years.
Speaker #1: It's a huge effect on that synergy. And as Chetal will come back to as well, the original plan for Doro when we acquired was to start the development of a 5G product with the acquisition of Doro.
Sten Kirkbak: As Kjetil will come back to as well, the original plan for Doro when we acquired was to start the development of a 5G product. With the acquisition of Doro, it is now done. Kjetil will present, and that alone has a direct CapEx effect over the time of that product of NOK 40 million. Hence why we are seeing we are in a very good place to continue to fuel our EBITDA of the CapEx in the year to come. Just wanted to take you a little bit behind the curtain about some of these drivers before Knut now will guide you through the financial update.
Sten Kirkbak: As Kjetil will come back to as well, the original plan for Doro when we acquired was to start the development of a 5G product. With the acquisition of Doro, it is now done. Kjetil will present, and that alone has a direct CapEx effect over the time of that product of NOK 40 million. Hence why we are seeing we are in a very good place to continue to fuel our EBITDA of the CapEx in the year to come. Just wanted to take you a little bit behind the curtain about some of these drivers before Knut now will guide you through the financial update.
Speaker #1: It's now done. Chetal will present. And that alone has a direct CAPEX effect over the time of that product—of 40 million. Hence why we are seeing we are in a very, very good place to continue to fuel our EBITDA after CAPEX in the year to come.
Speaker #1: So, just wanted to take you a little bit behind the curtain about some of these drivers before Knut now will guide you through the financial updates.
Speaker #2: Thank you, Stan. Good morning. I will guide you through the financial update, and I will focus on some of the key numbers. Repeating what Stan said, the EBITDA after CAPEX for the first half was €56 million.
Knut Stålen: Thank you, Sten. Good morning. I will guide you through the financial update, and I will focus on some of the key numbers. Repeating what Sten said, the EBITDA of the CapEx for the H1 was NOK 56 million, and that is up 50%. That is a very important figure because it shows that we are focusing on the profitability in the business. Why are we also focusing on after CapEx? CapEx is mostly for a tech company like Xplora capitalizing off R&D costs, meaning that if you capitalize something, you put it in a balance sheet, and you reduce the cost in the P&L. So that is why it is very focused on this metrics. For the H1, it was a flat revenue development, NOK 798 million compared to NOK 802 million. But the gross profit was increased to NOK 433 million because we had a small increase in the gross margin of 1%.
Knut Stålen: Thank you, Sten. Good morning. I will guide you through the financial update, and I will focus on some of the key numbers. Repeating what Sten said, the EBITDA of the CapEx for the H1 was NOK 56 million, and that is up 50%. That is a very important figure because it shows that we are focusing on the profitability in the business. Why are we also focusing on after CapEx? CapEx is mostly for a tech company like Xplora capitalizing off R&D costs, meaning that if you capitalize something, you put it in a balance sheet, and you reduce the cost in the P&L. So that is why it is very focused on this metrics. For the H1, it was a flat revenue development, NOK 798 million compared to NOK 802 million. But the gross profit was increased to NOK 433 million because we had a small increase in the gross margin of 1%.
Speaker #2: And that's up 50%. That's a very important figure because it shows that we are focusing on profitability in the business. This is why we are also focusing on after CAPEX.
Speaker #2: CAPEX is mostly for a tech company like Xplora. Capitalizing of R&D costs means that if you capitalize something, you put it on the balance sheet and you reduce the cost in the P&L.
Speaker #2: So that's why we are very focused on these metrics. For the first half, it was a flat revenue development: 798 million compared to 802.
Speaker #2: But the gross profit was increased to 433 million because we had a small increase of 1%. Going to Q1, the majority of the EBITDA after CAPEX was actually generated in Q2.
Knut Stålen: Going to Q1. The majority of the EBITDA of the CapEx was actually generated in Q2, NOK 38 million, compared to NOK 36 million a year ago. The device revenue was down in the quarter with 13%, but the service revenue was up with 10%. Even though the total revenue is down, we still were able to have a flat gross profit because the overall gross margin increased from 50% to 54% in the quarter. Two reasons. One, we had a favorable product mix in both segments, both in the children and youth segment and in the senior segment. We are talking about one-offs, and we have a few one-offs every quarter that we need to specify so it is clear what will be a specific number.
Knut Stålen: Going to Q1. The majority of the EBITDA of the CapEx was actually generated in Q2, NOK 38 million, compared to NOK 36 million a year ago. The device revenue was down in the quarter with 13%, but the service revenue was up with 10%. Even though the total revenue is down, we still were able to have a flat gross profit because the overall gross margin increased from 50% to 54% in the quarter. Two reasons. One, we had a favorable product mix in both segments, both in the children and youth segment and in the senior segment. We are talking about one-offs, and we have a few one-offs every quarter that we need to specify so it is clear what will be a specific number.
Speaker #2: 38 million, compared to 36 million a year ago. The device revenue was down in the quarter by 13%, but the service revenue was up by 10%.
Speaker #2: Even though the total revenue is down, we were still able to have a flat gross profit, because the overall gross margin increased from 50% to 54% in the quarter.
Speaker #2: Two reasons. One, we had a favorable product mix in both segments—both in the children and youth segment, and in the senior segment.
Speaker #2: And also, we had—I think I stopped there. We were talking about one-offs, and we have a few one-offs every quarter that we need to specify, so it’s clear what will be a specific number.
Speaker #2: So, last year, we had a transaction cost related to the Doro acquisition of 2 million in the quarter. In the first half, it was 13 million.
Knut Stålen: In last year, we had a transaction cost of the Doro acquisition of NOK 2 million in the quarter. In the H1, it was NOK 13 million. In addition, we had also a provision in Doro for closing down IVS. That is NOK 9 million. In this quarter, we had NOK 3 million that we have spent to acquire emporia, and we have also a provision for redundancy cost of NOK 9 million, NOK 12 million in total. This provision of redundancy cost is linked to the 25 FTEs that Sten mentioned. If you say then the EBITDA reported was 49, adjusted for these one-offs, we came to 61, then a slight increase in EBITDA in the quarter. This slide shows a lot of numbers. If we can focus on a few of them, we have the CapEx in the quarter NOK 11 million compared to 15 a year ago.
Knut Stålen: In last year, we had a transaction cost of the Doro acquisition of NOK 2 million in the quarter. In the H1, it was NOK 13 million. In addition, we had also a provision in Doro for closing down IVS. That is NOK 9 million. In this quarter, we had NOK 3 million that we have spent to acquire emporia, and we have also a provision for redundancy cost of NOK 9 million, NOK 12 million in total. This provision of redundancy cost is linked to the 25 FTEs that Sten mentioned. If you say then the EBITDA reported was 49, adjusted for these one-offs, we came to 61, then a slight increase in EBITDA in the quarter. This slide shows a lot of numbers. If we can focus on a few of them, we have the CapEx in the quarter NOK 11 million compared to 15 a year ago.
Speaker #2: And in addition, we had also a provision in Doro for closing down IVS. That's 9 million. So in this quarter, we had 3 million that we have spent to acquire Emporia.
Speaker #2: And we also have a provision for redundancy costs of $9 million, making it $12 million in total. This provision for redundancy costs is linked to the 25 FTEs that Stan mentioned.
Speaker #2: So, if you say then the EBITDA reported was 49. Adjusted for these one-offs, we came to 61. Then, a slight increase in EBITDA in the quarter.
Speaker #2: We have this slide here that shows a lot of numbers. But if we can focus on a few of them, we have the CAPEX in the quarter.
Speaker #2: 11 million compared to 15 a year ago. The main reason why the capex is down is that we now have the opportunity to optimize our R&D project.
Knut Stålen: The main reason why the CapEx is down is that we have now the opportunity to optimize our R&D project and see what would be the future product portfolio of the Xplora family. This is one reason why the CapEx is down. Last year, we had also some CapEx related to the Aurora launch in Doro. When it comes to the total group revenue for Q2, it ended on NOK 422 million. That is down NOK 40 million year-over-year, and it is mainly related to a decrease in Doro revenue that we will come back to. Gross profit, flat for the quarter, even though we have a group revenue. Of course, it is because of the gross margin. The EBITDA is down before adjustment, down NOK 2 million year-over-year. When it comes to segment, the children and youth segment, we had an increase with NOK 11 million year-over-year from 216 to 226.
Knut Stålen: The main reason why the CapEx is down is that we have now the opportunity to optimize our R&D project and see what would be the future product portfolio of the Xplora family. This is one reason why the CapEx is down. Last year, we had also some CapEx related to the Aurora launch in Doro. When it comes to the total group revenue for Q2, it ended on NOK 422 million. That is down NOK 40 million year-over-year, and it is mainly related to a decrease in Doro revenue that we will come back to. Gross profit, flat for the quarter, even though we have a group revenue. Of course, it is because of the gross margin. The EBITDA is down before adjustment, down NOK 2 million year-over-year. When it comes to segment, the children and youth segment, we had an increase with NOK 11 million year-over-year from 216 to 226.
Speaker #2: And see what the future product portfolio of the Xplora family would be. This is one reason why the capex is down. Last year, we also had some capex related to the Aurora launch in Doro.
Speaker #2: When it comes to the total group revenue for Q2, it ended at 422 million. That is down 40 million year over year, and it's mainly related to a decrease in Doro revenue, which we will come back to.
Speaker #2: Gross profit was flat for the quarter, even though we have a group revenue increase. Of course, that's because of the gross margin. And EBITDA is, then before adjustments, down 2 million year over year.
Speaker #2: When it comes to the segment, the children and youth segment, we had an increase of 11 million year over year, from 216 to 226. And the service revenue, then, is the most important factor in our gross margin.
Knut Stålen: The service revenue then is the most important factor in our gross margin. It is 80% gross margin on average in the service revenue. The average annual recurring revenue ended on 359. The service revenue is down from 92 to NOK 90 million in the quarter, and you can link the majority of this decrease to exchange rates. If you adjust for the exchange rate, we have a small increase in that number as well. In the children and youth, the gross profit increased with NOK 13 million, 10% in the quarter. Of course, the main part is linked to the improved gross margin. You can see that there is a reduction in gross profit compared to Q1, and that is also because that in Q1, the portion of service revenue is much higher than in the other quarters.
Knut Stålen: The service revenue then is the most important factor in our gross margin. It is 80% gross margin on average in the service revenue. The average annual recurring revenue ended on 359. The service revenue is down from 92 to NOK 90 million in the quarter, and you can link the majority of this decrease to exchange rates. If you adjust for the exchange rate, we have a small increase in that number as well. In the children and youth, the gross profit increased with NOK 13 million, 10% in the quarter. Of course, the main part is linked to the improved gross margin. You can see that there is a reduction in gross profit compared to Q1, and that is also because that in Q1, the portion of service revenue is much higher than in the other quarters.
Speaker #2: It's 80% gross margin on average in the service revenue. The average annual recurring revenue ended at 359. The service revenue is down from 92 to 90 million in the quarter.
Speaker #2: And you can link the majority of this decrease to exchange rates. So, if you adjust for exchange rate, we have a small increase in that number as well.
Speaker #2: In Children and Youth, the gross profit increased by NOK 13 million, or 10% in the quarter. And of course, the main part is linked to the improved gross margin.
Speaker #2: You can see that there is a reduction in gross profit compared to Q1. And that's also because in Q1, the portion of service revenue is much higher than in the other quarters.
Speaker #2: When it comes to the senior segment, we had a decrease of 20% in the quarter. Tommy will get a little bit more into it.
Knut Stålen: When it comes to the senior segment, we had a decrease of 20% in the quarter. Tommy will get a little bit more into it, but a year ago, Doro launched the full new product palette with Leva and Aurora during H1. They had a very strong Q2. We ended the quarter of NOK 198 million in Q2. Gross profit keeps to be good, and that is mainly because of the product mix in the quarter. Profit before loss improved to NOK 8 million from a loss of NOK 23 million a year ago. Please note that the NOK 61 million was linked to mainly non-cash exchange rate expenses on the loan. Still, we have a positive profit before income tax in the quarter.
Knut Stålen: When it comes to the senior segment, we had a decrease of 20% in the quarter. Tommy will get a little bit more into it, but a year ago, Doro launched the full new product palette with Leva and Aurora during H1. They had a very strong Q2. We ended the quarter of NOK 198 million in Q2. Gross profit keeps to be good, and that is mainly because of the product mix in the quarter. Profit before loss improved to NOK 8 million from a loss of NOK 23 million a year ago. Please note that the NOK 61 million was linked to mainly non-cash exchange rate expenses on the loan. Still, we have a positive profit before income tax in the quarter.
Speaker #2: But a year ago, Doro launched the full new product palette with Leva and Aurora during the first half. So, they had a very strong Q2.
Speaker #2: And we ended the quarter at 198 million in Q2. Gross profit continues to be good, and that's mainly because of the product mix in the quarter.
Speaker #2: So, profit before tax improved to $8 million from a loss of $23 million a year ago. Please note that the $61 million was mainly linked to non-cash exchange rate expenses on the loan.
Speaker #2: But still, we have a positive profit before income tax in the quarter. When it comes to the expenses, we had NOK 180 million in expenses in the quarter.
Knut Stålen: When it comes to the expenses, we had NOK 180 million in expenses in the quarter, and that is exactly the same amount as we had one year ago. Even the last 12 months operating cost, it is continuing to declining, and we are still focusing, of course, to do this in the coming quarters. When it comes to the balance sheet, I would like to pay attention to one item, and that is the inventory. The inventory is up, and the main reason for that is that now we are sending more goods by boat instead of air freight. We are saving a lot of money on doing that, and that is, of course, also impacting the gross margin. The inventory level is quite important to have available now when it is a bit of uncertain global situation.
Knut Stålen: When it comes to the expenses, we had NOK 180 million in expenses in the quarter, and that is exactly the same amount as we had one year ago. Even the last 12 months operating cost, it is continuing to declining, and we are still focusing, of course, to do this in the coming quarters. When it comes to the balance sheet, I would like to pay attention to one item, and that is the inventory. The inventory is up, and the main reason for that is that now we are sending more goods by boat instead of air freight. We are saving a lot of money on doing that, and that is, of course, also impacting the gross margin. The inventory level is quite important to have available now when it is a bit of uncertain global situation.
Speaker #2: And that's exactly the same amount as we had one year ago. And even over the last 12 months, operating costs are continuing to decline. We are still focusing, of course, on doing this in the coming quarters.
Speaker #2: When it comes to the balance sheet, I would like to pay attention to one item, and that's the inventory. The inventory is up, and the main reason for that is that now we are sending more goods by boat instead of air freight.
Speaker #2: We are saving a lot of money on doing that, and that is, of course, also impacting the gross margin. The inventory level is quite important to have available now, when it's a bit of an uncertain global situation.
Speaker #2: And we are also then preparing for back to school and the last two quarters of the year. Cash flow—I think we should mention at least one thing.
Knut Stålen: We are also then preparing for the back-to-school and the last two quarters of the year. Cash flow, I think we should mention at least one thing. We have now settled the remaining Doro minority shares. We have spent NOK 30 million on those fees. I think that is the major part in the cash flow. We ended then on the cash plus NOK 3 million to NOK 537 million for the year. Thank you. Gro?
Knut Stålen: We are also then preparing for the back-to-school and the last two quarters of the year. Cash flow, I think we should mention at least one thing. We have now settled the remaining Doro minority shares. We have spent NOK 30 million on those fees. I think that is the major part in the cash flow. We ended then on the cash plus NOK 3 million to NOK 537 million for the year. Thank you. Gro?
Speaker #2: We have now settled the remaining Doro minority shares. So, we have spent 30 million on those fees. I think that's the major part in the cash flow.
Speaker #2: And we ended then on a cash plus $3 million to $537 million for the year. Thank you, Guru.
Speaker #1: Thank you, Knut. So, in the children and youth category, we see growth despite a softening consumer market. This is underpinned by structural tailwinds for Safe Kids technology.
Gro Dyrnes: Thank you, Knut. In the children and youth category, we see growth despite a softening consumer market. This is underpinned by structural tailwinds for Safe Kids technology. In the regulatory market, we see greater focus on child safe, age appropriate technology with parent controls. In the parents' perspective, we see growing preference for connected but controlled technology that gives kids independence without unrestricted access to social media and smartphones. With that, we end up on a growth of 11% year-over-year when it comes to unit sales. We ended at 171,000 units per first quarter. Our biggest markets are all growing, and in Q2 we see a slight decrease of 1% year-over-year. This ties back to what Knut already said about the partners and distributors holding a little less inventory.
Gro Dyrnes: Thank you, Knut. In the children and youth category, we see growth despite a softening consumer market. This is underpinned by structural tailwinds for Safe Kids technology. In the regulatory market, we see greater focus on child safe, age appropriate technology with parent controls. In the parents' perspective, we see growing preference for connected but controlled technology that gives kids independence without unrestricted access to social media and smartphones. With that, we end up on a growth of 11% year-over-year when it comes to unit sales. We ended at 171,000 units per first quarter. Our biggest markets are all growing, and in Q2 we see a slight decrease of 1% year-over-year. This ties back to what Knut already said about the partners and distributors holding a little less inventory.
Speaker #1: In the regulatory market, we see greater focus on child-safe, age-appropriate technology with parental controls. And from the parents' perspective, we see a growing preference for connected but controlled technology that gives kids independence without unrestricted access to social media and smartphones.
Speaker #1: So with that, we end up with a growth of 11% year over year when it comes to unit sales. We ended at 171,000 units for the first quarter.
Speaker #1: Our biggest markets are all growing, and in Q2 we see a slight decrease of 1% year over year. This ties back to what Knut already said about the partners and distributors holding a little less inventory.
Speaker #1: If we look at sell-out numbers, though, we do experience growth also in this area of unit sales. We ended up at 127,000 total activations for Q2.
Gro Dyrnes: If we look at sell out numbers though, we do experience growth also in this area of unit sales. We ended up at 127,000 total activations per Q2. This is up 3% across all channels and the service attach rate is also slightly up, ended at 38%. This means that 38% of all devices from Xplora that end up in customer hands and consumer hands pay a service fee, an Xplora Connect monthly fee, or a revenue share fee through our telco partners in the market. Keep in mind, premium services are not included in this attach rate. If we dig further into the subscription numbers, Sten already mentioned we are over halfway to 1 million subscriptions. We passed 502,000 subscriptions per Q2. This is up 108,000 subscriptions year over year, a 27% growth, and all subscriptions types are growing.
Gro Dyrnes: If we look at sell out numbers though, we do experience growth also in this area of unit sales. We ended up at 127,000 total activations per Q2. This is up 3% across all channels and the service attach rate is also slightly up, ended at 38%. This means that 38% of all devices from Xplora that end up in customer hands and consumer hands pay a service fee, an Xplora Connect monthly fee, or a revenue share fee through our telco partners in the market. Keep in mind, premium services are not included in this attach rate. If we dig further into the subscription numbers, Sten already mentioned we are over halfway to 1 million subscriptions. We passed 502,000 subscriptions per Q2. This is up 108,000 subscriptions year over year, a 27% growth, and all subscriptions types are growing.
Speaker #1: This is up 3% across all channels, and the service attach rate is also slightly up, ending at 38%. This means that 38% of all devices from Xplora that end up in customer and consumer hands pay a service fee and Xplora Connect monthly fee, or a revenue share fee through our telco partners in the market.
Speaker #1: So keep in mind, premium services are not included in this attach rate. If we dig further into the subscription numbers, Sten already mentioned we are over halfway to 1 million subscriptions.
Speaker #1: We passed 502,000 subscriptions for Q2. This is up 108,000 subscriptions year over year—a 27% growth. And all subscription types are growing. Both mobile subscriptions from Xplora Connect—which still represent by far the biggest share of subscriptions—stand at 310,000 subscriptions.
Gro Dyrnes: Both mobile subscriptions from Xplora Connect, which still represent by far the biggest share of subscriptions at 310,000 subscriptions. As I said, we see growing subscription rates across all types of subscriptions. If we look at service revenue, service revenue per Q2 is up 10% year over year. We ended at 90 million NOK in Q2. We also see, as both Knut and Sten mentioned, increasing annual recurring revenues where we ended up at 359 million by the end of Q2. What it is worth mentioning here is that we see an increasingly diversified growth across markets when it comes to service revenue. What does this mean? It means that a larger share of our markets take up the growth. The growth is particularly high in Germany. This is good because it is also our biggest opportunity in the current market for extended growth.
Gro Dyrnes: Both mobile subscriptions from Xplora Connect, which still represent by far the biggest share of subscriptions at 310,000 subscriptions. As I said, we see growing subscription rates across all types of subscriptions. If we look at service revenue, service revenue per Q2 is up 10% year over year. We ended at 90 million NOK in Q2. We also see, as both Knut and Sten mentioned, increasing annual recurring revenues where we ended up at 359 million by the end of Q2. What it is worth mentioning here is that we see an increasingly diversified growth across markets when it comes to service revenue. What does this mean? It means that a larger share of our markets take up the growth. The growth is particularly high in Germany. This is good because it is also our biggest opportunity in the current market for extended growth.
Speaker #1: But as I said, we see growing subscription rates across all types of subscriptions. If we look at service revenue, service revenue for Q2 is up 10% year over year.
Speaker #1: We ended at 90 million knocks in Q2. And we also see, as both Knut and Sten mentioned, increasing annual recurring revenues, where we ended up at 359 million by the end of Q2.
Speaker #1: What is worth mentioning here is that we see increasingly diversified growth across markets when it comes to service revenue. What does this mean?
Speaker #1: It means that a larger share of our markets is driving the growth. The growth is particularly high in Germany. This is good because it's also our biggest opportunity in the current markets for extended growth.
Speaker #1: It does impact the ARPU, which is slightly down from earlier, when a bigger share of the service revenue was tied to the Nordics only.
Gro Dyrnes: It does impact the ARPU, which is slightly down from earlier when a bigger share of the service revenue was tied to the Nordics only. This means, and you can see the market, the ARPU mix here, it is lower in for example, Germany or outside the Nordics. Most importantly in Germany, simply because the prices of subscriptions in Germany are lower than in the Nordics, not only for us but generally for the market. With an increasing share of service revenue coming from outside the Nordics, this is a trend that we are comfortable with simply because the growth opportunity outside the Nordics is much bigger. To wrap up, we continue to grow in the children and youth category. We have good momentum into the second half. We are now well into our second biggest sales season in the year, back to school.
Gro Dyrnes: It does impact the ARPU, which is slightly down from earlier when a bigger share of the service revenue was tied to the Nordics only. This means, and you can see the market, the ARPU mix here, it is lower in for example, Germany or outside the Nordics. Most importantly in Germany, simply because the prices of subscriptions in Germany are lower than in the Nordics, not only for us but generally for the market. With an increasing share of service revenue coming from outside the Nordics, this is a trend that we are comfortable with simply because the growth opportunity outside the Nordics is much bigger. To wrap up, we continue to grow in the children and youth category. We have good momentum into the second half. We are now well into our second biggest sales season in the year, back to school.
Speaker #1: This means—and you can see the market ARPU mix here—it is lower in, for example, Germany or outside the Nordics. Most importantly, in Germany.
Speaker #1: Simply because the prices of subscriptions in Germany are lower than in the Nordics—not only for us, but generally across the markets. And with an increasing share of service revenue coming from outside the Nordics, this is a trend that we are comfortable with.
Speaker #1: Simply because the growth opportunity outside the Nordics is much bigger. So, to wrap up, we continue to grow. In the children and youth category, we have good momentum into the second half.
Speaker #1: We are now well into our second biggest sales season of the year—back to school. If we look at the current numbers from the markets where we are already into back to school—the Nordics, specifically—we see strong numbers. Germany, particularly worth mentioning, started back to school on Monday.
Gro Dyrnes: If we look at the current numbers from the markets where we are already into back to school, the Nordics specifically, we see strong numbers. Germany particularly worth mentioning, started back to school on Monday. We are also nudged into the second half by the point of sale system that has been implemented or piloted with the Doro products. We have silently piloted this point of sale system in 10 stores over the summer for the Xplora side of the business. We see that the model is scalable, and we will continue to implement this over the course of the rest of the year. This is with particular focus on the Nordics now initially, simply because retail is such an important part of our sales in the Nordics.
Gro Dyrnes: If we look at the current numbers from the markets where we are already into back to school, the Nordics specifically, we see strong numbers. Germany particularly worth mentioning, started back to school on Monday. We are also nudged into the second half by the point of sale system that has been implemented or piloted with the Doro products. We have silently piloted this point of sale system in 10 stores over the summer for the Xplora side of the business. We see that the model is scalable, and we will continue to implement this over the course of the rest of the year. This is with particular focus on the Nordics now initially, simply because retail is such an important part of our sales in the Nordics.
Speaker #1: We are also nudged into the second half by the point-of-sale system that has been implemented or piloted with the Doro products. We have silently piloted this point-of-sale system in 10 stores over the summer for the Xplora side of the business.
Speaker #1: And we see that the model is scalable, and we will continue to implement this over the course of the rest of the year. This is with particular focus on the Nordics now, initially.
Speaker #1: Simply because retail is such an important part of our sales in the Nordics. And last but not least, we see early signals of cross sales across Doro and Xplora—former Doro and Xplora.
Gro Dyrnes: And last but not least, we see early signals of cross-sales across Doro and Xplora, former Doro and Xplora, where we have closed new contracts in both retail and telco in France, Belgium, and the UK over the last, or into Q3, actually. With that, I want to pass it on to Tommy. Thank you.
Gro Dyrnes: And last but not least, we see early signals of cross-sales across Doro and Xplora, former Doro and Xplora, where we have closed new contracts in both retail and telco in France, Belgium, and the UK over the last, or into Q3, actually. With that, I want to pass it on to Tommy. Thank you.
Speaker #1: We have closed new contracts in both retail and telco in France, Belgium, and the UK over the last quarter, or into Q3, actually. So with that, I want to pass it on to Tommy.
Speaker #1: Thank you.
Speaker #2: Thank you very much, Gro. Very proud to work alongside Gro. And also, we are in exciting times within the whole group, across the Xplora products and across the Doro senior products.
Tommy Krznarić: Thank you very much, Gro. Very proud to work alongside with Gro. Also we are in exciting times within the whole group, across the Xplora products, across the Doro senior products. While we are maintaining the business, we are also building the future. Let me talk about the numbers first. If we look into H1 2026, we ended up at 443 million NOK. Compared to H1 2025, we are down with 7%. Looking into specifically the Q2 numbers, we ended up at 198 million NOK, down with 20%. As mentioned also previously by Sten, looking into 2025, was an exceptional year. We had a lot of sunset activities going on in several markets, including also, as Knut mentioned, a new portfolio so we could piggyback on the sunset activities.
Tommy Krznarić: Thank you very much, Gro. Very proud to work alongside with Gro. Also we are in exciting times within the whole group, across the Xplora products, across the Doro senior products. While we are maintaining the business, we are also building the future. Let me talk about the numbers first. If we look into H1 2026, we ended up at 443 million NOK. Compared to H1 2025, we are down with 7%. Looking into specifically the Q2 numbers, we ended up at 198 million NOK, down with 20%. As mentioned also previously by Sten, looking into 2025, was an exceptional year. We had a lot of sunset activities going on in several markets, including also, as Knut mentioned, a new portfolio so we could piggyback on the sunset activities.
Speaker #2: While we are maintaining the business, we're also building the future. Let me talk about the numbers first. If you look into the first half of 2026, we ended up at NOK 443 million.
Speaker #2: Compared to the first half of 2025, we are down by 7%. Looking into specifically the Q2 numbers, we ended up at 198 million NOK, down by 20%.
Speaker #2: And as mentioned previously by Sten, looking into 2025—2025 was an exceptional year. We had a lot of sunset activities going on in several markets.
Speaker #2: Including also, as Knut mentioned, a new portfolio. So we could piggyback on the sunset activities. Looking into where we are right now—sunset—we have, in Nordics, basically reached the end state, as you can see on the slide.
Tommy Krznarić: Looking into where we are right now, sunset, we have in Nordics, basically in the end state, as you can see on the slide. France, still ongoing, closing down 2G and 3G networks towards the end of the year. Looking into rest of the Europe, mainly UK and Germany, 2G networks still available, but 3G network has been closed down. Also, what we can also communicate, the normalized annual device volumes within the senior segment, we are talking about around 1 million. 2025, we ended up in 1.3 million, where we utilized the sunset activities that was taking place across the different markets. This 1 million is also in line with the baseline for the acquisition of Doro.
Tommy Krznarić: Looking into where we are right now, sunset, we have in Nordics, basically in the end state, as you can see on the slide. France, still ongoing, closing down 2G and 3G networks towards the end of the year. Looking into rest of the Europe, mainly UK and Germany, 2G networks still available, but 3G network has been closed down. Also, what we can also communicate, the normalized annual device volumes within the senior segment, we are talking about around 1 million. 2025, we ended up in 1.3 million, where we utilized the sunset activities that was taking place across the different markets. This 1 million is also in line with the baseline for the acquisition of Doro.
Speaker #2: FRABEL still ongoing, closing down to 3G networks towards the end of the year. And looking into the rest of Europe, mainly the UK and Germany, 2G networks are still available but 3G networks have been closed down.
Speaker #2: Also, what we can communicate is the normalized annual device volumes within the senior segment. We're talking about around 1 million. In 2025, we ended up at 1.3 million, where we utilized the sunset activities that were taking place across the different markets.
Speaker #2: And this 1 million is also in line with the baseline for the acquisition of Doro. Also, as you can see, on the right side, the rest of Europe, we are then strengthening the senior segment in the Dutch region.
Tommy Krznarić: Also, as you can see on the right side, rest of the Europe, we are then strengthening the senior segment in the DACH region, where we are coming in with strong sales in Germany. We have Austria, we have also Switzerland, and Kjetil will talk more about that. Looking into unit sales specifically, we are talking about 241K in Q2. Majority, as you can see, is feature phone, and then smartphones on top of that. If you look into H1, we could see that we are slightly down compared to previous years of 4%. However, what we are proud of, we have managed to maintain the average sales price and also increase the margins for our smartphones. Also we have managed to maintain the average sales price for a feature phone and also slightly higher margin.
Tommy Krznarić: Also, as you can see on the right side, rest of the Europe, we are then strengthening the senior segment in the DACH region, where we are coming in with strong sales in Germany. We have Austria, we have also Switzerland, and Kjetil will talk more about that. Looking into unit sales specifically, we are talking about 241K in Q2. Majority, as you can see, is feature phone, and then smartphones on top of that. If you look into H1, we could see that we are slightly down compared to previous years of 4%. However, what we are proud of, we have managed to maintain the average sales price and also increase the margins for our smartphones. Also we have managed to maintain the average sales price for a feature phone and also slightly higher margin.
Speaker #2: We're coming in with strong sales in Germany. We also have Austria and Switzerland, and Shetty will talk more about that. Looking at unit sales specifically, we are talking about 241,000 in Q2.
Speaker #2: The majority, as you can see, is feature phones, with smartphones on top of that. If you look into the first half, we can see that we're slightly down compared to previous years, by 4%.
Speaker #2: However, what we are proud of is that we have managed to maintain the average sales price, and also increase the margins for our smartphones. Additionally, we have managed to maintain the average sales price for our feature phones.
Speaker #2: And also slightly higher margin. That has led us to an increase of 4 percentage points in gross profit in Q2 ’26 compared to Q2 ’25.
Tommy Krznarić: That has led us to increase of the gross profit of 4 percentage points in Q2 2026 compared to Q2 2025. We are also proud that we have delivered 99 million NOK as a gross profit in Q2. That is where we are when it comes to the business. Looking to the future, this is actually what we have been waiting for. We are extremely proud where we are today. As Sten mentioned, yes, we are where we would like to be previously, but we have learned a lot. What we are doing, we are building the foundation for the future. It is more important to build a solid foundation so we can also piggyback and also improve our business going forward.
Tommy Krznarić: That has led us to increase of the gross profit of 4 percentage points in Q2 2026 compared to Q2 2025. We are also proud that we have delivered 99 million NOK as a gross profit in Q2. That is where we are when it comes to the business. Looking to the future, this is actually what we have been waiting for. We are extremely proud where we are today. As Sten mentioned, yes, we are where we would like to be previously, but we have learned a lot. What we are doing, we are building the foundation for the future. It is more important to build a solid foundation so we can also piggyback and also improve our business going forward.
Speaker #2: And we're also proud that we have delivered NOK 99 million as gross profit in Q2. So that's where we are when it comes to the business.
Speaker #2: Look into the future. This is actually what we have been waiting for. We are extremely, extremely proud of where we are today. As Sten mentioned, yes, we are where we would like to be.
Speaker #2: Previously, we have learned a lot in what we are doing. We are building the foundation for the future. It's more important to build a solid foundation so we can also piggyback and improve our business going forward.
Speaker #2: And in the spirit of our purpose as a company, which is to build safer, healthier digital lives for all generations and for the family.
Tommy Krznarić: In the spirit of our purpose as a company, where it is to build a safer, healthier digital life for all generations, for the family, we have completed the pilot together with Power. You can see the feedback on the slide from Power that we have successfully completed the technical pilot. Coming more to that in a minute. You can see some images. For those of you who have not visited the previous store that we ever had in Hamar, you can see how nicely the products are being displayed and also how we are communicating the connectivity subscriptions in the store to increase the visibility. Deliberately, we did not do any significant marketing, and that is something that we also agreed upon with the client that is coming in the next phase to really secure that we are building a foundation that we can then build on for the future.
Tommy Krznarić: In the spirit of our purpose as a company, where it is to build a safer, healthier digital life for all generations, for the family, we have completed the pilot together with Power. You can see the feedback on the slide from Power that we have successfully completed the technical pilot. Coming more to that in a minute. You can see some images. For those of you who have not visited the previous store that we ever had in Hamar, you can see how nicely the products are being displayed and also how we are communicating the connectivity subscriptions in the store to increase the visibility. Deliberately, we did not do any significant marketing, and that is something that we also agreed upon with the client that is coming in the next phase to really secure that we are building a foundation that we can then build on for the future.
Speaker #2: We have completed the pilot together with Power. You can see the feedback on the slide from Power, showing that we have successfully completed the technical pilot.
Speaker #2: Coming more to that in a minute. You can see some images for those of you who have not visited the pilot store that we've had in Hamar.
Speaker #2: You can see how nicely the products are being displayed, and also how we're communicating the connectivity subscriptions in the store to increase the visibility.
Speaker #2: Deliberately, we didn't do any significant marketing. And that's something that we also agreed upon with the client, that it is coming in the next phase.
Speaker #2: To really ensure that we're building a foundation we can then build on for the future. And again, as mentioned, the point-of-sale system is being utilized across the group.
Tommy Krznarić: Again, as mentioned, the point-of-sale system is being utilized across the group that we have invested in. Okay. So technical pilot, what does that mean? That means that you are piloting and assessing many different parts of the platform and the processes, which means when staff on the retail floor can really go through the different steps together with the end consumers. Activation needs to work, the contract signing needs to work, the provisioning needs to work. There is a number of flows that need to work. As mentioned previously, what we are also extremely proud of is, yes, we spend a bit more time, but we have a state-of-the-art point-of-sale system, and that is the feedback that we receive from our customers.
Tommy Krznarić: Again, as mentioned, the point-of-sale system is being utilized across the group that we have invested in. Okay. So technical pilot, what does that mean? That means that you are piloting and assessing many different parts of the platform and the processes, which means when staff on the retail floor can really go through the different steps together with the end consumers. Activation needs to work, the contract signing needs to work, the provisioning needs to work. There is a number of flows that need to work. As mentioned previously, what we are also extremely proud of is, yes, we spend a bit more time, but we have a state-of-the-art point-of-sale system, and that is the feedback that we receive from our customers.
Speaker #2: That we have invested in. Okay. So, technical pilot—what does that mean? That means that you are piloting and assessing many different parts of the platform.
Speaker #2: And the processes. Which means when staff on the retail floor can really go through the different steps together with the end consumers. Activation needs to work.
Speaker #2: The contract signing needs to work. The provisioning needs to work. There are a number of flows that need to work. As mentioned previously, what we are also extremely proud of is, yes, we spent a bit more time.
Speaker #2: But we have a state of the art point of sale system. And that's the feedback that we receive from our customers. And that's super crucial and super important.
Tommy Krznarić: That is super crucial and super important because at the moment of the dialogue between the staff at the retailer and the customer, it needs to be efficient, it needs to be simple, it needs to be straightforward. We have evaluated all these different processes in the technical pilot. We are very proud of that. Looking into the timeline, what is the next step? Pilot completed for Norway. Now in September, we are starting with the full rollout, and that will be done in different phases. After that, we will then optimize the business as part of running normal business. In Sweden, we are doing preparations for a technical pilot. Do a similar thing what we did in Norway. We have learned a lot together with the customers, replicate that short pilot in Sweden, and then we will do third rollout in Sweden.
Tommy Krznarić: That is super crucial and super important because at the moment of the dialogue between the staff at the retailer and the customer, it needs to be efficient, it needs to be simple, it needs to be straightforward. We have evaluated all these different processes in the technical pilot. We are very proud of that. Looking into the timeline, what is the next step? Pilot completed for Norway. Now in September, we are starting with the full rollout, and that will be done in different phases. After that, we will then optimize the business as part of running normal business. In Sweden, we are doing preparations for a technical pilot. Do a similar thing what we did in Norway. We have learned a lot together with the customers, replicate that short pilot in Sweden, and then we will do third rollout in Sweden.
Speaker #2: Because at the moment of the dialogue between the staff at the retailer and the customer, it needs to be efficient. It needs to be simple.
Speaker #2: It needs to be straightforward. We have evaluated all these different processes in the technical pilot. We looked into the timeline. What is the next step?
Speaker #2: The pilot was completed for Norway now in September. We're starting with the full rollout, and that will be done in different phases. Then, after that, we will optimize the business as part of running normal operations.
Speaker #2: In Sweden, we are doing preparations for a technical pilot—similar to what we did in Norway. We have learned a lot. Together with the customers, we will replicate that.
Speaker #2: Short pilot in Sweden, and then we will do further rollout in Sweden. What you can see on the right side of the slide—we will now start with marketing activities.
Tommy Krznarić: What you can see on the right side of the slide, we will now start with marketing activities. From Xplora perspective, we will launch a campaign, "Connect With," because it is all about connection. How can we support consumers out there to connect with family, friends, parents, children, grandchildren? That is key. That will be our key message when we are running the marketing campaigns going forward. On top of that, we will do some activities together with the client as well. We will do co-marketing. In store videos, we will include our offering and the value that we are bringing to the table in the Power newsletter to all their consumers. We will do meta campaigns and also additional in-store and digital activations. A lot of things will be happening as we now roll out to more stores. That is the foundation that we are building.
Tommy Krznarić: What you can see on the right side of the slide, we will now start with marketing activities. From Xplora perspective, we will launch a campaign, "Connect With," because it is all about connection. How can we support consumers out there to connect with family, friends, parents, children, grandchildren? That is key. That will be our key message when we are running the marketing campaigns going forward. On top of that, we will do some activities together with the client as well. We will do co-marketing. In store videos, we will include our offering and the value that we are bringing to the table in the Power newsletter to all their consumers. We will do meta campaigns and also additional in-store and digital activations. A lot of things will be happening as we now roll out to more stores. That is the foundation that we are building.
Speaker #2: From Xplora's perspective, we will launch a campaign: Connect With. Because it's all about connection. How can we support consumers out there to connect with family, friends, parents, children, and grandchildren?
Speaker #2: That's key. That will be our key message when we're running the marketing campaigns going forward. On top of that, we will do some activities together with the client as well.
Speaker #2: We will do co-marketing—in-store, videos. We will include our offering and the value that we're bringing to the table in the Power newsletter to all their consumers.
Speaker #2: We will do meta campaigns and also additional in-store and digital activations. So, a lot of things will be happening as we now roll out to more stores.
Speaker #2: That's the foundation that we're building, and I would like to take the opportunity to also say kudos to the whole team within the group.
Tommy Krznarić: I would like to take the opportunity to also say kudos to the whole team within the group. A lot of collaboration from sales, from finance, from tech, from marketing and business management. Well done, guys. Thank you very much for that. That was one milestone that we are very proud of, building the foundation. The second milestone, we have talked about this. How can we strengthen our offering even further towards the consumer, utilizing the assets that we have within the group? This is actually what we are doing. We have now done a soft launch of premium services within our smartphone category that will then gradually expand into the portfolio and also into our feature phone. We have worked with seniors for many years, and we know what they are struggling with, and we know also what is important for them.
Tommy Krznarić: I would like to take the opportunity to also say kudos to the whole team within the group. A lot of collaboration from sales, from finance, from tech, from marketing and business management. Well done, guys. Thank you very much for that. That was one milestone that we are very proud of, building the foundation. The second milestone, we have talked about this. How can we strengthen our offering even further towards the consumer, utilizing the assets that we have within the group? This is actually what we are doing. We have now done a soft launch of premium services within our smartphone category that will then gradually expand into the portfolio and also into our feature phone. We have worked with seniors for many years, and we know what they are struggling with, and we know also what is important for them.
Speaker #2: A lot of collaboration—from Sales, from Finance, from Tech, from Marketing, Business Management. Well done, guys. Thank you very much for that. So that was one milestone that we are very, very proud of.
Speaker #2: Building the foundation—the second milestone. We've talked about this. How can we then strengthen our offering even further towards the consumer, utilizing the assets that we have within the group?
Speaker #2: This is actually what we are doing. So we have now done a soft launch of premium services within our smartphone category. That will then gradually expand into the portfolio.
Speaker #2: And also into our feature phone. We have worked with seniors for many, many years, and we know what they're struggling with. And we know also what is important for them.
Speaker #2: We have also recently done some market research to validate the activities that we are doing, as well as the areas that we are addressing, as you can see on this slide.
Tommy Krznarić: We have also recently done some market research to validate also the activities that we are doing and the areas that we are addressing, as you can see on this slide. Safety, crucial. Assistant, crucial. They want to get support, but at the same time, they want to feel independent. The health category is also a very important category for the seniors. On the left side, you can see scam protection. We are introducing scam protection into our portfolio and into our offering towards the seniors as of now. Remote control. We all have experience of most likely tech support to family members or to the senior family members. "Hey, can you help me? I have problems with my phone. I managed to change a setting. I cannot find it," or, "I want to do this. Can you help me out?
Tommy Krznarić: We have also recently done some market research to validate also the activities that we are doing and the areas that we are addressing, as you can see on this slide. Safety, crucial. Assistant, crucial. They want to get support, but at the same time, they want to feel independent. The health category is also a very important category for the seniors. On the left side, you can see scam protection. We are introducing scam protection into our portfolio and into our offering towards the seniors as of now. Remote control. We all have experience of most likely tech support to family members or to the senior family members. "Hey, can you help me? I have problems with my phone. I managed to change a setting. I cannot find it," or, "I want to do this. Can you help me out?
Speaker #2: Safety, crucial. Assistant, crucial. They want to get support, but at the same time, they want to feel independent. And the health category is also a very important category for seniors.
Speaker #2: So, on the left side, you can see scam protection. We are introducing scam protection into our portfolio and into our offering towards the seniors as of now.
Speaker #2: Remote control. We all have experience, most likely, providing tech support to family members or to senior family members. "Hey, can you help me?"
Speaker #2: I have problems with my phone. I managed the settings changes, but I can't find it. Or I want to do this. Can you help me out?
Speaker #2: Right? I've done that a lot to help my parents. Now my kids are the tech support for my parents. That's usually how it works. What we are now adding is an opportunity for you to support your parents remotely.
Tommy Krznarić: I have done that a lot towards my parents. Now my kids are the tech support to my parents. That is usually how it works. What we are now adding, an opportunity for you to support your parents remotely. You do not have to visit them physically, which means remotely change settings or remotely guide them through the device. Extremely proud of that. Health. We are also starting to introduce the opportunity for seniors to share how much they are moving, how many steps they are collecting. Family and friends can see that. What I will show you, a short video of a couple of images, just to give you some glimpse of what we have implemented in our smartphones. As I mentioned, we are now introducing into the market as a soft launch.
Tommy Krznarić: I have done that a lot towards my parents. Now my kids are the tech support to my parents. That is usually how it works. What we are now adding, an opportunity for you to support your parents remotely. You do not have to visit them physically, which means remotely change settings or remotely guide them through the device. Extremely proud of that. Health. We are also starting to introduce the opportunity for seniors to share how much they are moving, how many steps they are collecting. Family and friends can see that. What I will show you, a short video of a couple of images, just to give you some glimpse of what we have implemented in our smartphones. As I mentioned, we are now introducing into the market as a soft launch.
Speaker #2: You don't have to visit them physically. Which means remotely, change settings, or remotely guide them through the device. Extremely proud of that. And health.
Speaker #2: We're also starting to introduce the opportunity for seniors to share how much they are moving, how many steps they are collecting, and family and friends can see that.
Speaker #2: So now I will show you a short video with a couple of images, just to give you a glimpse of what we have implemented in our smartphones.
Speaker #2: As I mentioned, we are now introducing this to the market as a soft launch. On the left side, you will see the senior device, and on the right side, you will see the family member device.
Tommy Krznarić: On the left side, you will see the senior device, and on the right side, you will see the family member device. A family member could be a child, it could be a grandchild, or even a friend. Let's start. Scam protection, very important feature for the seniors. On the left side, you can see an example that is a call is coming in, and it's basically a scam call. The service detects based on a database that we have. This is scam. The call is being blocked. It's being highlighted, also into the menu to the senior and also to the guardian. Example of remote assistance. You can see the same images on both screens, which means both are accessing the same screen. Location, you can see here that as a family member, you will be able to also see the location of your seniors.
Tommy Krznarić: On the left side, you will see the senior device, and on the right side, you will see the family member device. A family member could be a child, it could be a grandchild, or even a friend. Let's start. Scam protection, very important feature for the seniors. On the left side, you can see an example that is a call is coming in, and it's basically a scam call. The service detects based on a database that we have. This is scam. The call is being blocked. It's being highlighted, also into the menu to the senior and also to the guardian. Example of remote assistance. You can see the same images on both screens, which means both are accessing the same screen. Location, you can see here that as a family member, you will be able to also see the location of your seniors.
Speaker #2: A family member could be a child, it could be a grandchild, or even a friend. So, let's start. Scam protection is a very important feature for seniors.
Speaker #2: On the left side, you can see an example where a call is coming in, and it's basically a scam call. The service detects this based on a database that we have.
Speaker #2: This is a scam. The call is being blocked. It's being highlighted, also in the menu, to the senior, and also to the guardian. Example of remote assistance.
Speaker #2: You can see the same images on both screens, which means both are accessing the same screen and location. You can see here that, as a family member, you will also be able to see the location of your seniors.
Speaker #2: You can also add safety zones as well, which means you can get notification if a senior is moving out from these settings. And this is also an example of remote settings.
Tommy Krznarić: You can also add safety zones as well, which means you can get notification if a senior is moving out from these settings. This is also an example of remote settings where you, as a family member, can change the settings in the device. This is being now introduced in our smartphone segment. We are introducing that, and then after that, we will introduce that in our feature phone segment, coming that towards the end of September, beginning of October. Then we will then gradually roll that out across the different markets. With that said, as I mentioned, we're building the foundation. We're managing operations, at the same time, we're building foundation for the future, which means that this is contributing also to the evolution of the Doro brand that previously was recognized as a strong hardware brand for the seniors.
Tommy Krznarić: You can also add safety zones as well, which means you can get notification if a senior is moving out from these settings. This is also an example of remote settings where you, as a family member, can change the settings in the device. This is being now introduced in our smartphone segment. We are introducing that, and then after that, we will introduce that in our feature phone segment, coming that towards the end of September, beginning of October. Then we will then gradually roll that out across the different markets. With that said, as I mentioned, we're building the foundation. We're managing operations, at the same time, we're building foundation for the future, which means that this is contributing also to the evolution of the Doro brand that previously was recognized as a strong hardware brand for the seniors.
Speaker #2: Where you, as a family member, can change the settings in the device. And this is now being introduced in our smartphone segment. We are introducing that.
Speaker #2: And then, after that, we will introduce that in our feature phone segment, coming towards the end of September, beginning of October. Then we will gradually roll that out across the different markets.
Speaker #2: With that said, as I mentioned, we're building the foundation. We're managing operations at the same time. We're building a foundation for the future, which means that this is also contributing to the evolution of the Doro brand, which was previously recognized as a strong hardware brand for seniors.
Speaker #2: Now we're extending that to include connectivity, extending that to include premium services, which means that you have a complete package. And as Stian mentioned previously, we now have a different toolbox in terms of how to address consumer needs and also how to support different markets out in the market.
Tommy Krznarić: Now we're extending that to include connectivity, extending that to include premium services, which means that you have a complete package. As Sten mentioned previously, we now have a different toolbox in terms of how to address the consumer needs and also how to support the different markets out in the market. Basically, what we're focusing going forward, roll out Doro Connect in Norway together with Power. Very proud of that. Preparing the launch and pilot of retail in Sweden together with Power. We're also planning to broaden the channels, as I talked about today, and also expand the market in the key markets. Now we're going into an ongoing operation to drive it as a normal part of our business to expand our services and our connectivity across the different markets. Last but not least, the introduction of premium services.
Tommy Krznarić: Now we're extending that to include connectivity, extending that to include premium services, which means that you have a complete package. As Sten mentioned previously, we now have a different toolbox in terms of how to address the consumer needs and also how to support the different markets out in the market. Basically, what we're focusing going forward, roll out Doro Connect in Norway together with Power. Very proud of that. Preparing the launch and pilot of retail in Sweden together with Power. We're also planning to broaden the channels, as I talked about today, and also expand the market in the key markets. Now we're going into an ongoing operation to drive it as a normal part of our business to expand our services and our connectivity across the different markets. Last but not least, the introduction of premium services.
Speaker #2: So basically, what we're focusing going forward. Roll out Doro Connect in Norway together with Power. Very proud of that. Preparing the launch. And pilot of retail in Sweden together with Power.
Speaker #2: We are also planning to broaden the channels, as I talked about today, and also expand in the key markets. Now we're going into an ongoing operation to drive this as a normal part of our business, to expand our services and our connectivity.
Speaker #2: Across our different markets. And last but not least, the introduction of premium services—started with a soft launch in our smartphones. Now, we have also extended that to our feature phones.
Tommy Krznarić: Started with a soft launch in our smartphones. Now we'll also extend that to our feature phones, and then we will do commercial launch towards the end of September and the beginning of October. With that said, thank you very much, guys. Sten.
Tommy Krznarić: Started with a soft launch in our smartphones. Now we'll also extend that to our feature phones, and then we will do commercial launch towards the end of September and the beginning of October. With that said, thank you very much, guys. Sten.
Speaker #2: And then we will do commercial launch towards the end of September and beginning of October. With that said, thank you very much, guys. See you all.
Speaker #1: So, servus. That's "good morning" or "hi, hello" in the Austrian version of German. I relocated to Linz in Austria earlier this summer, just when we did the closing, or a couple of weeks before.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Servus. That is good morning or hi, hello in Austrian version of Germany. I relocated to Linz in Austria earlier this summer, just when we did the closing or a couple of weeks before. Since we have not consolidated the company yet, we will do that as of next quarter. I will focus today to give you a little bit of background about the company, but also proudly present our new 5G-based product. Some few words about emporia. It is a family business before we acquired it. It was founded in 1991 in Linz. Linz is just in between Vienna and Salzburg, and it is a lot of industry, aluminum, chemistry, so it is a city and an area with a lot of things happening in Austria. The company has currently around 65 employees. It is a specialist in senior mobile technology.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Servus. That is good morning or hi, hello in Austrian version of Germany. I relocated to Linz in Austria earlier this summer, just when we did the closing or a couple of weeks before. Since we have not consolidated the company yet, we will do that as of next quarter. I will focus today to give you a little bit of background about the company, but also proudly present our new 5G-based product. Some few words about emporia. It is a family business before we acquired it. It was founded in 1991 in Linz. Linz is just in between Vienna and Salzburg, and it is a lot of industry, aluminum, chemistry, so it is a city and an area with a lot of things happening in Austria. The company has currently around 65 employees. It is a specialist in senior mobile technology.
Speaker #1: And since we haven't consolidated the company yet, we'll do that as of next quarter. I will focus today on giving you a little bit of background about the company.
Speaker #1: We also proudly present our new 5G-based products. A few words about Emporia: it is a family business before we acquired it. It was founded in 1991 in Linz.
Speaker #1: Linz is just in between Vienna and Salzburg. And it’s a lot of industry—aluminum, chemistry. So it's a city and an area with a lot of things happening in Austria.
Speaker #1: The company currently has around 65 employees, and it's a specialist in senior mobile technology. Over the years, the business has sold around 16 million units.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Over the years, the business has sold around 16 million devices, and there are currently 3 million active users of the products. The key markets are partly complementary to Doro, and that was one of the reasons why we acquired the business. The company is market leader in Germany, has a very strong business in Austria, but also present with good volume in Switzerland, in Italy, in Belgium, and in the Netherlands. That means the majority of the sales volume is on top and not in any way competing with the Doro business. The brand is the market leader for senior phones in the DACH region, meaning Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is a European design. The products are, as all other electronics, manufactured in China. When it then comes to product, Sten mentioned the CapEx of developing a new 5G product is high.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Over the years, the business has sold around 16 million devices, and there are currently 3 million active users of the products. The key markets are partly complementary to Doro, and that was one of the reasons why we acquired the business. The company is market leader in Germany, has a very strong business in Austria, but also present with good volume in Switzerland, in Italy, in Belgium, and in the Netherlands. That means the majority of the sales volume is on top and not in any way competing with the Doro business. The brand is the market leader for senior phones in the DACH region, meaning Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is a European design. The products are, as all other electronics, manufactured in China. When it then comes to product, Sten mentioned the CapEx of developing a new 5G product is high.
Speaker #1: Devices. And there are currently 3 million active users of the products. The key markets are partly complementary to Doro, and that was one of the reasons why we acquired the business.
Speaker #1: The company is the market leader in Germany, has a very strong business in Austria, and is also present with good volume in Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Speaker #1: That means the majority of the sales volume is on top and not in any way competing with the Doro business. So, the brand is the market leader for senior phones in the DACH region.
Speaker #1: Meaning Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. And it's a European design. The products, as with all other electronics, are manufactured in China. When it comes to the product, Stian mentioned the CapEx of developing a new 5G product is high.
Speaker #1: One thing is the initial development, but you also have to continue investing throughout the life cycle of the products. So it's a roughly $40 million CAPEX effect.
Kjetil Fennefoss: One thing is the initial development, but you also have to continue investing throughout the life cycle of the product. It is a roughly EUR 40 million CapEx effect that we got actually incorporated in the enterprise value when we acquired the business. I will play a 15-second video just to show you the product, and then I will talk about the product and why this is unique. It is without sound, but just showing the product what it looks like. There are a couple of specifics in this product that I will just tell you about in a minute. Now you probably wonder, Sten asked me, "What on earth is this?" Actually, you know the situation with the toast and the butter, it always lands on the butter side. Everyone thinks it is because of the weight of the butter, but that is not true.
Kjetil Fennefoss: One thing is the initial development, but you also have to continue investing throughout the life cycle of the product. It is a roughly EUR 40 million CapEx effect that we got actually incorporated in the enterprise value when we acquired the business. I will play a 15-second video just to show you the product, and then I will talk about the product and why this is unique. It is without sound, but just showing the product what it looks like. There are a couple of specifics in this product that I will just tell you about in a minute. Now you probably wonder, Sten asked me, "What on earth is this?" Actually, you know the situation with the toast and the butter, it always lands on the butter side. Everyone thinks it is because of the weight of the butter, but that is not true.
Speaker #1: That we actually got incorporated into the enterprise value when we acquired the business. I will play a 15-second video just to show you the product.
Speaker #1: And then I'll talk about the product and why this is unique. It's without sound, but just showing what the product looks like. And there are a couple of specifics on this product that I will just tell you about in a minute.
Speaker #1: Now, you probably wonder, Stian asked me, what on earth is this? Actually, you know the situation—with the toast and the butter. It always lands on the buttered side.
Speaker #1: And everyone thinks it's because of the weight of the butter, but that's not true. And it was actually, you know, the Nobel prizes for physics and other scientific areas.
Kjetil Fennefoss: It was actually the Nobel Prize for physics and other scientific areas. In 1996, there was one guy who actually did a study on this and was rewarded an alternative Nobel Prize, and it was not by FIFA, by the way. It is actually about gravity and rotation. When you lose a toast, it rotates halfway and lands on the butter side. You would have to have a 2.5 meter high table to have a full rotation. It is very similar when you use the phone, you have it with your chest, and then you lose it, and then it lands either on the edge or on the screen, and it cracks or it breaks. We are selling products to elderly people who are getting a little bit slippery.
Kjetil Fennefoss: It was actually the Nobel Prize for physics and other scientific areas. In 1996, there was one guy who actually did a study on this and was rewarded an alternative Nobel Prize, and it was not by FIFA, by the way. It is actually about gravity and rotation. When you lose a toast, it rotates halfway and lands on the butter side. You would have to have a 2.5 meter high table to have a full rotation. It is very similar when you use the phone, you have it with your chest, and then you lose it, and then it lands either on the edge or on the screen, and it cracks or it breaks. We are selling products to elderly people who are getting a little bit slippery.
Speaker #1: But actually, in 1996, there was one guy who actually did a study on this and was awarded an alternative Nobel Prize. And it was not by FIFA, by the way.
Speaker #1: And actually, it's about gravity and rotation. When you drop a piece of toast, it rotates halfway and lands on the buttered side. You would need a two-and-a-half meter high table to get a full rotation.
Speaker #1: And it's very similar when you use the phone. You have it here with your chest, and then you lose it, and then it lands either on the edge or on the screen.
Speaker #1: And it cracks or it breaks. And we are selling products to elderly people, or it gets a little bit slippery. So what happens—and you know it yourself.
Kjetil Fennefoss: What happens, and you know it yourself, you buy a new phone because you are not patient enough to wait for these 3 hours it takes to repair the glass or because of the battery. With this product, we have bumpers, we have a special cover, and we have replaceable battery. The bumpers are on each edge, there is a rubber bumper, meaning that when you lose it and if it lands on the edge, it will not break. It has this smart cover that I will come to as next. That, actually, you remove the back, the flip side of the phone, and then you click in this smart cover, and it also protects the phone. Then we have two elements of screen protection. This is a patented solution from emporia.
Kjetil Fennefoss: What happens, and you know it yourself, you buy a new phone because you are not patient enough to wait for these 3 hours it takes to repair the glass or because of the battery. With this product, we have bumpers, we have a special cover, and we have replaceable battery. The bumpers are on each edge, there is a rubber bumper, meaning that when you lose it and if it lands on the edge, it will not break. It has this smart cover that I will come to as next. That, actually, you remove the back, the flip side of the phone, and then you click in this smart cover, and it also protects the phone. Then we have two elements of screen protection. This is a patented solution from emporia.
Speaker #1: You buy a new phone because you aren't patient enough to wait for the three hours it takes to repair the glass, or because of the battery.
Speaker #1: With this product, we have bumpers, we have a special cover, and we have a replaceable battery. So, the bumpers are on each edge—there is a rubber bumper.
Speaker #1: Meaning that when you lose it, and if it lands on the edge, it will not break. And it has this smart cover that I will come to next.
Speaker #1: And that's actually due to removing the back, the flip side of the phone. And then you click in this smart cover, and it also protects the phone.
Speaker #1: So then we have two elements of screen protection, and this is a patented solution from Emporia. You can also see that when you close it on the left-hand side here, those translucent bubbles actually change the interface of the phone.
Kjetil Fennefoss: You can also see that, when you close it, on the left-hand side here, those translucent bubbles here, they actually change the interface of the phone. Even with a closed cover, you can operate the phone by answering and even a torch and hanging up. It has a function beyond just protecting the phone. That means that we have done something which is quite unique. I think it is the only phone on the market where actually we offer a 12 months display warranty. It costs roughly 150 to 200 EUR if you go to a repair shop and replace your broken glass. It has a high value for the customer. That has been, when I will come to the media reviews, you will see that most of them are about this feature.
Kjetil Fennefoss: You can also see that, when you close it, on the left-hand side here, those translucent bubbles here, they actually change the interface of the phone. Even with a closed cover, you can operate the phone by answering and even a torch and hanging up. It has a function beyond just protecting the phone. That means that we have done something which is quite unique. I think it is the only phone on the market where actually we offer a 12 months display warranty. It costs roughly 150 to 200 EUR if you go to a repair shop and replace your broken glass. It has a high value for the customer. That has been, when I will come to the media reviews, you will see that most of them are about this feature.
Speaker #1: So even with a closed cover, you can operate the phone by answering, and even a function beyond just protecting the phone. That means that we have done something which is quite unique.
Speaker #1: I think it's the only phone on the market where we actually offer a 12-month display warranty. And it costs roughly €150 to €200 if you go to a repair shop and replace your broken glass.
Speaker #1: So, it has a high value for the customer. And that has been—when I come to the media reviews, you will see that most of them are about this feature.
Speaker #1: So, it is a phone that varies quite a lot from a traditional mobile phone. But of course, one thing is the safety, which is two unique factors that I refer to.
Kjetil Fennefoss: It is a phone that varies quite a lot from a traditional mobile phone. Of course, one thing is the safety, which is two unique factors that I referred to, but it also has some other features. Many people talk about the panic button. We call it the no panic button. I will explain that in a moment. It has wireless charging. It also has an SD card for storing photos and other data. Many elderly people, they are not so familiar with storing in the cloud, so actually it has a big memory card to store data. This is the no panic button. It is actually the red one, and you can program it. It is just not that you can program it to call someone, but actually you can use it also for Google's Gemini.
Kjetil Fennefoss: It is a phone that varies quite a lot from a traditional mobile phone. Of course, one thing is the safety, which is two unique factors that I referred to, but it also has some other features. Many people talk about the panic button. We call it the no panic button. I will explain that in a moment. It has wireless charging. It also has an SD card for storing photos and other data. Many elderly people, they are not so familiar with storing in the cloud, so actually it has a big memory card to store data. This is the no panic button. It is actually the red one, and you can program it. It is just not that you can program it to call someone, but actually you can use it also for Google's Gemini.
Speaker #1: But it also has some other features. You know, many people talk about the panic button. We call it a no-panic button. I'll explain that in a moment.
Speaker #1: It has wireless charging. It also has an SD card for storing photos and other data. Many elderly people are not so familiar with storing in the cloud.
Speaker #1: So, actually, it has a big memory card to store data. So this is the no panic button—it's actually the red one. And you can program it.
Speaker #1: So it's not just that you can program it to call someone, but actually you can also use it for Google's Gemini. So that means you can program that button to operate the phone over voice control.
Kjetil Fennefoss: That means that you can program that button to operate the phone over voice control, speaking instead of typing. You can program it as a direct access to whatever you like. When it comes to the user interface, most people have had a smartphone or a feature phone for many, many years. That means that you are, perhaps when you get older, your fingers are getting a bit slower and you have cold fingers and you are not seeing so well anymore, then you want to switch to this kind of device with this on the left-hand side, very few fields that you can press. But one of the fields, this I icon, is the info center where actually you get all your WhatsApp messages, SMSs, notifications. Instead of going into WhatsApp and SMS and all these different applications, you get all of that in the info tile. Right?
Kjetil Fennefoss: That means that you can program that button to operate the phone over voice control, speaking instead of typing. You can program it as a direct access to whatever you like. When it comes to the user interface, most people have had a smartphone or a feature phone for many, many years. That means that you are, perhaps when you get older, your fingers are getting a bit slower and you have cold fingers and you are not seeing so well anymore, then you want to switch to this kind of device with this on the left-hand side, very few fields that you can press. But one of the fields, this I icon, is the info center where actually you get all your WhatsApp messages, SMSs, notifications. Instead of going into WhatsApp and SMS and all these different applications, you get all of that in the info tile. Right?
Speaker #1: Speaking instead of typing. And you can program it as a direct access to whatever you like. When it comes to the user interface, I mean a lot of I mean most people have had a smartphone or a feature phone for many, many years.
Speaker #1: So that means that perhaps when you get older, your fingers are getting a bit slower, and you have cold fingers, and you are not seeing so well anymore.
Speaker #1: Then you want to switch to this kind of device with this on the left-hand side. Very few fields that you can press, but one of the fields—this eye icon—is the InfoCenter, where you actually get all your WhatsApp messages, SMSs, notifications.
Speaker #1: So instead of going into WhatsApp, and SMS, and all these different applications, you get all of that in the info tile. Right. But then you can easily slide the phone and get what you see on the right-hand side, which is the regular interface from Google.
Kjetil Fennefoss: You can easily slide the phone and get what you see on the right-hand side, which is the regular interface from Google, which you also can customize. You can very easily switch between a phone, a regular smartphone, and a phone that has fewer tiles specifically made for elderly people. Right? So that transition from having used a smartphone for many, many years and suddenly, because of your age and whatever, you have to have a simpler device you can simply switch between. So it is not entirely for elderly people. It comes with Android 16 and also with upgrades of the Android system for next five generations. It has both NFC and fingerprint sensor, which means that you can continue to do online banking as you have done with your previous phone, and all public services.
Kjetil Fennefoss: You can easily slide the phone and get what you see on the right-hand side, which is the regular interface from Google, which you also can customize. You can very easily switch between a phone, a regular smartphone, and a phone that has fewer tiles specifically made for elderly people. Right? So that transition from having used a smartphone for many, many years and suddenly, because of your age and whatever, you have to have a simpler device you can simply switch between. So it is not entirely for elderly people. It comes with Android 16 and also with upgrades of the Android system for next five generations. It has both NFC and fingerprint sensor, which means that you can continue to do online banking as you have done with your previous phone, and all public services.
Speaker #1: Which you can also customize. So you can very easily switch between a phone, a regular smartphone, and a phone that has fewer tiles—specifically made for elderly people.
Speaker #1: Right. So that transition from having used a smartphone for many, many years, and suddenly, because of your age or whatever, you have to have a simpler device.
Speaker #1: You can simply switch between. So it's not entirely for elderly people. And then it comes with Android 16, and also with upgrades of the Android system for the next five generations.
Speaker #1: It has both near-field communication and a fingerprint sensor, which means you can continue to do online banking just as you have with your previous phone.
Speaker #1: And all public services. So, I mean today, especially in some markets, without these functions you are really stuck. And it has another important feature for elderly people.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Today, especially in some markets without these functions, you are really stuck. It has another important feature for elderly people. It is the Bluetooth 5.4 with the integrated ASHA protocol, which is a standard for hearing devices. So it automatically switches via Bluetooth into your hearing device if you use one, and it is exceptionally good sound quality. So you see, there are a lot of functions that are designed for elderly people, and it is not just an ordinary phone, and it is a solution that you can use both as a traditional phone and also for people who have certain needs. When we launched these phones, we had, in Germany and in Austria, 57 publications. We sold out the entire first batch, as soon as we got them in. We launched it together with Swisscom, which is known for being the toughest operator in Europe to work with.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Today, especially in some markets without these functions, you are really stuck. It has another important feature for elderly people. It is the Bluetooth 5.4 with the integrated ASHA protocol, which is a standard for hearing devices. So it automatically switches via Bluetooth into your hearing device if you use one, and it is exceptionally good sound quality. So you see, there are a lot of functions that are designed for elderly people, and it is not just an ordinary phone, and it is a solution that you can use both as a traditional phone and also for people who have certain needs. When we launched these phones, we had, in Germany and in Austria, 57 publications. We sold out the entire first batch, as soon as we got them in. We launched it together with Swisscom, which is known for being the toughest operator in Europe to work with.
Speaker #1: It's the Bluetooth 5.4 with the integrated ASHA protocol, which is a standard for hearing devices. So it automatically switches via Bluetooth into your hearing device if you use one.
Speaker #1: And with exceptionally good sound quality. So, you see, there are a lot of functions that are designed for elderly people. And it's not just an ordinary phone.
Speaker #1: And it's a solution that you can use both as a traditional phone and also for people who have certain needs. When we launched these phones, we had in Germany and in Austria 57 publications.
Speaker #1: We sold out the entire first batch as soon as we got them in. We launched it together with Swiss Cup, which is known for being the toughest operator in Europe to work with.
Speaker #1: And sales were so good that we had to ship in another batch that just arrived today, now on Monday in Linz. And then we're continuing to ship out.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Sales were so good that we had to ship in another batch that just arrived today, now on Monday in Linz, and then we are continuing to ship out. So these different publications reach to 23 million potential readers in Germany and Austria. You see a lot of this is about the uniqueness of having no fear of falling as a person or losing the phone, and it comes also with the one-year warranty. So a lot about the features I just talked about. So a lot of product presentation from me this time. Next time, it will be much more about numbers and how the business is operating.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Sales were so good that we had to ship in another batch that just arrived today, now on Monday in Linz, and then we are continuing to ship out. So these different publications reach to 23 million potential readers in Germany and Austria. You see a lot of this is about the uniqueness of having no fear of falling as a person or losing the phone, and it comes also with the one-year warranty. So a lot about the features I just talked about. So a lot of product presentation from me this time. Next time, it will be much more about numbers and how the business is operating.
Speaker #1: So these different publications reached 23 million potential readers in Germany and Austria. And you see a lot of this is about the uniqueness of having no fear of falling as a person or losing the phone.
Speaker #1: And it comes also with the one-year warranty. So, a lot about the features I just talked about. So, a lot of product presentation for me this time.
Speaker #1: Next time we will talk much more about numbers and how the business is operating.
Speaker #2: Thank you. So I will wrap it up with two slides because we are almost on time for the hour. Very excited about the foundation.
Sten Kirkbak: Thank you, Kjetil. I will wrap it up with two slides because we are almost on time, on the hour. So very excited about the foundation Tommy mentioned. Gro being quite optimistic going into a strong season in Q3, and we cannot wait to see the financial output from Kjetil, which we look forward to report in the coming Q3. We are, in fact, building Europe's leading family IoT company. Just wanted to highlight to you our combined annual device sales. Like Tommy mentioned, the foundation in Doro, roughly 1 million. Xplora historically have had half a million, and I expect Kjetil to soon get back on track to previous height on roughly 300,000 from emporia. Just please bear in mind, emporia had 240,000 units last year. They have had limited financial access, so we expect the number to grow eventually back to those number.
Sten Kirkbak: Thank you, Kjetil. I will wrap it up with two slides because we are almost on time, on the hour. So very excited about the foundation Tommy mentioned. Gro being quite optimistic going into a strong season in Q3, and we cannot wait to see the financial output from Kjetil, which we look forward to report in the coming Q3. We are, in fact, building Europe's leading family IoT company. Just wanted to highlight to you our combined annual device sales. Like Tommy mentioned, the foundation in Doro, roughly 1 million. Xplora historically have had half a million, and I expect Kjetil to soon get back on track to previous height on roughly 300,000 from emporia. Just please bear in mind, emporia had 240,000 units last year. They have had limited financial access, so we expect the number to grow eventually back to those number.
Speaker #2: Tommy mentioned the group being quite optimistic going into a strong season in Q3. And we cannot wait to see the financial output from Chettel, which we look forward to reporting in the coming Q3.
Speaker #2: We are, in fact, building Europe's leading family IoT company. I just wanted to highlight for you our combined annual device sales. Like Tommy mentioned, the foundation in Doro is roughly one million.
Speaker #2: Xplora historically have had half a million, and I expect Chettel to soon get back on track to previous heights of roughly 300,000 from Emporia.
Speaker #2: Just please bear in mind Emporia had 240,000 units last year. They have had limited financial access, so we expect the number to eventually grow back to those levels.
Speaker #2: But we now see roughly 1.8 million as a base before further growth. And currently, eight active markets in Europe, one in the US. But, like I said originally, we do add two new growth engines.
Sten Kirkbak: But we now see roughly 1.8 million as a base before further growth. Currently, 8 active markets in Europe, 1 in US, but like I said originally, we do add 2 new growth engines by adding these 2 markets eventually that emporia represents. Also now we have, like Knut said, financially huge benefits of having all these hardware platforms we can utilize across multiple markets. As we know, more product to sell means more cash in the bank and revenue. For the outlook to end, of course, we will continue. The market is where it is. We know the markets are changing. It is all about us having more product, strong strategies to execute. We will continue to focus on our 3 main KPIs, gross profit growth, subscription, and EBITDA after CapEx.
Sten Kirkbak: But we now see roughly 1.8 million as a base before further growth. Currently, 8 active markets in Europe, 1 in US, but like I said originally, we do add 2 new growth engines by adding these 2 markets eventually that emporia represents. Also now we have, like Knut said, financially huge benefits of having all these hardware platforms we can utilize across multiple markets. As we know, more product to sell means more cash in the bank and revenue. For the outlook to end, of course, we will continue. The market is where it is. We know the markets are changing. It is all about us having more product, strong strategies to execute. We will continue to focus on our 3 main KPIs, gross profit growth, subscription, and EBITDA after CapEx.
Speaker #2: By adding these two markets, eventually that's what Emporia represents. And also, now we have, like Knut said, financially huge benefits from having all these hardware platforms.
Speaker #2: We can utilize this across multiple markets. And as we know, more products to sell means more cash in the bank and more revenue. For the outlook to end, of course.
Speaker #2: We will continue while the market is where it is. We know the markets are changing. It's all about us having more products and stronger strategies to execute.
Speaker #2: We will continue to focus on our three main KPIs: gross profit growth, subscription, and EBITDA after CapEx. As we mentioned, please pay attention to our sharpening retail model.
Sten Kirkbak: Like we mentioned, please pay attention to our sharpening retail model, how this will implicate hopefully both more sales but a higher conversion rate with SIMs. emporia will short term, of course, add revenue. Short term, it means plus minus on the EBITDA financial side when you are calculating. We can have discussion about that afterward as well, but it also will help us add the synergy effect of 50 million reduced OpEx comparing apple to apple going into 2027, and we stay very firm on the 1 million path. We are on track, and even though we have been some delays with the senior implementation, we do feel very strongly about the end game of 200,000 subscriptions when we reach 2029. As Gro said as well, we are also on the path to constantly deliver more than 100,000 net subscriptions on the kids and youth.
Sten Kirkbak: Like we mentioned, please pay attention to our sharpening retail model, how this will implicate hopefully both more sales but a higher conversion rate with SIMs. emporia will short term, of course, add revenue. Short term, it means plus minus on the EBITDA financial side when you are calculating. We can have discussion about that afterward as well, but it also will help us add the synergy effect of 50 million reduced OpEx comparing apple to apple going into 2027, and we stay very firm on the 1 million path. We are on track, and even though we have been some delays with the senior implementation, we do feel very strongly about the end game of 200,000 subscriptions when we reach 2029. As Gro said as well, we are also on the path to constantly deliver more than 100,000 net subscriptions on the kids and youth.
Speaker #2: How this will implicate, hopefully, both more sales but also a higher conversion rate with SIMs. Emporia will, short term of course, add revenue. Short term, it means plus or minus on the EBITDA financial side.
Speaker #2: When you are calculating, we can have a discussion about that afterward as well. But it also will help us add the synergy effect of $50 million reduced OpEx.
Speaker #2: Comparing apple to apple going into 2027, we stay very firm on the one million path. We are on track, and even though there have been some delays with the senior implementation, we still feel very strongly about the end game of 200,000 subscriptions when we reach 2029.
Speaker #2: And as Guru said as well, we are also on the path to constantly develop and deliver more than 100,000 net subscriptions on the kids and youth.
Speaker #2: Keep in mind, Guru now also has more products, and we are tapping into this very exciting market with youth as well. So, I think that basically wraps up.
Sten Kirkbak: Keep in mind, Gro now also has more product, and we are tapping into this very exciting market with youth as well. I think that basically wraps up bang on 10, and I am pretty sure there are some questions at the end. Knut, Kjetil, join me on stage. We will have the rest if there are some questions as well. Gro and Tommy. Go ahead, shoot. Let us start online, and then we do the audience afterward. It seems like device gross margin was quite high this quarter compared to previous quarter. What can we expect going forwards on gross margin device sales?
Sten Kirkbak: Keep in mind, Gro now also has more product, and we are tapping into this very exciting market with youth as well. I think that basically wraps up bang on 10, and I am pretty sure there are some questions at the end. Knut, Kjetil, join me on stage. We will have the rest if there are some questions as well. Gro and Tommy. Go ahead, shoot. Let us start online, and then we do the audience afterward. It seems like device gross margin was quite high this quarter compared to previous quarter. What can we expect going forwards on gross margin device sales?
Speaker #2: Bang on 10. And I'm pretty sure there are some questions at the end. So, Knut Chettel, join me on stage. We will have the rest if there are some questions as well.
Speaker #2: Gru and Tommy, go ahead. Shoot. Let's start online, and then we'll do the audience afterward. So, it seems like device gross margin was quite high this quarter compared to the previous quarter.
Speaker #2: What can we expect going forward on gross margin device sales?
Speaker #3: I can take that one. When it comes to gross margin, we had a very good and strong gross margin this quarter, mainly because of the product mix.
Knut Stålen: I can take that one. When it comes to gross margin, we had a very good and strong gross margin this quarter, mainly because of the product mix. We are still aiming for the +40% gross margin target that we have stated for some time. We will try to keep the overall gross margin at historical levels. We do not see any big change in those going forward.
Knut Stålen: I can take that one. When it comes to gross margin, we had a very good and strong gross margin this quarter, mainly because of the product mix. We are still aiming for the +40% gross margin target that we have stated for some time. We will try to keep the overall gross margin at historical levels. We do not see any big change in those going forward.
Speaker #3: So, we are still aiming for the plus 40% gross margin target that we have stated for some time, and we will try to keep the overall gross margin at historical levels.
Speaker #3: We do not see any big changes in those going forward.
Speaker #2: Okay. This one I expected. What is the incentive for Power to load your device with your SIM versus a SIM from the other Bay three in Norway?
Sten Kirkbak: Okay. This one expected. What is the incentives for Power to load your device with your SIM versus SIM from the other big three in Norway?
Sten Kirkbak: Okay. This one expected. What is the incentives for Power to load your device with your SIM versus SIM from the other big three in Norway?
Speaker #4: Very interesting question.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Very interesting question. I cannot give any details on this one, but that we have an agreement, a competitive agreement, so we jointly can address the senior segments. We are confident that the agreements that we have will contribute to our overall goals that we have communicated today.
Kjetil Fennefoss: Very interesting question. I cannot give any details on this one, but that we have an agreement, a competitive agreement, so we jointly can address the senior segments. We are confident that the agreements that we have will contribute to our overall goals that we have communicated today.
Speaker #2: I cannot give any details on this one, but we have an agreement—a competitive agreement—so we can jointly address the senior segment.
Speaker #2: We are confident that the agreements that we have will contribute to our overall goals that we have communicated today. So, like we said originally when we acquired Doro as well.
Sten Kirkbak: We said originally when we acquired Doro as well, and as we then also calculated, we would be on a competitive level when it comes to those bits. I will translate this from Norwegian on the fly to English. Congrats with a solid H2. Can you be a little bit more concrete related to why Doro Connect has taken a little bit longer? Now when the pilot is done, is it a full rollout and more stores in Norway now in September? You can just repeat that one as well, Tommy.
Sten Kirkbak: We said originally when we acquired Doro as well, and as we then also calculated, we would be on a competitive level when it comes to those bits. I will translate this from Norwegian on the fly to English. Congrats with a solid H2. Can you be a little bit more concrete related to why Doro Connect has taken a little bit longer? Now when the pilot is done, is it a full rollout and more stores in Norway now in September? You can just repeat that one as well, Tommy.
Speaker #2: And as we then also calculated, we would be on a competitive level when it comes to that—those bits. I will translate this from Norwegian on the fly to English.
Speaker #2: Congratulations on a solid second half of the year. Can you be a little more concrete regarding why Doro Connect has taken a little longer, and now that the pilot is done?
Speaker #2: Is it a full rollout, and are there more stores in Norway now in September? You can just repeat that one as well, Tommy.
Speaker #3: Yeah, absolutely. So basically, why it has taken longer—first of all, it's the number of things that need to be put in place, but also, cooperation together with the customer.
Tommy Krznarić: Yeah, absolutely. Basically, why it has taken longer, first of all, it is number of things that needs to be put in place, but also cooperation together with the customer. We are not doing this ourselves. We are doing this in a partnership with the customers. We have started to invest in to build a solid ground instead of running too fast. As for the rollout, we are starting to do the rollout in September. We will do that in sequence together with them, and there is more to come on that one.
Tommy Krznarić: Yeah, absolutely. Basically, why it has taken longer, first of all, it is number of things that needs to be put in place, but also cooperation together with the customer. We are not doing this ourselves. We are doing this in a partnership with the customers. We have started to invest in to build a solid ground instead of running too fast. As for the rollout, we are starting to do the rollout in September. We will do that in sequence together with them, and there is more to come on that one.
Speaker #3: We are not doing this ourselves. We are doing this in a partnership with the customers. So, we have started to invest in building a solid ground.
Speaker #3: Instead of running too fast. And as for the rollout, we are starting to do the rollout in September. We will do that in sequence together with them.
Speaker #3: And there is more to come on that one.
Speaker #2: All right. The back-to-school discount, Gru, was a little bit more generous this year compared to last year, although you had an uplift in the number.
Sten Kirkbak: All right. Back to school discount was a little bit more generous this year compared to last year, although you had uplift in the number. It was not really a question, but can you compare on the discounts in any way?
Sten Kirkbak: All right. Back to school discount was a little bit more generous this year compared to last year, although you had uplift in the number. It was not really a question, but can you compare on the discounts in any way?
Speaker #2: It was not really a question, but can you compare the discounts in any way?
Speaker #4: Yeah. It's not really more generous if we look across markets. But maybe the markets that we are well into now.
Gro Dyrnes: Yeah. It is not really more generous if we look across markets, but maybe the markets that we are well into now. Back to school started in Germany, UK, and Spain this week. The Nordics is what impacts the numbers so far. We are comfortable with the discounts that we have offered, and we do see both strong numbers, strong volumes, and also strong monetary numbers.
Gro Dyrnes: Yeah. It is not really more generous if we look across markets, but maybe the markets that we are well into now. Back to school started in Germany, UK, and Spain this week. The Nordics is what impacts the numbers so far. We are comfortable with the discounts that we have offered, and we do see both strong numbers, strong volumes, and also strong monetary numbers.
Speaker #4: So, back to school—school started in Germany, the UK, and Spain this week, and so the Nordics is what impacts the numbers so far. So we are comfortable with the discounts that we have offered.
Speaker #4: And we do see both strong numbers—strong volumes, and also strong monetary numbers.
Speaker #2: Okay. Customer sentiment seems to be challenging. Any caller you would like to add? I can address that quickly. We have been around for some time.
Sten Kirkbak: Okay. Customer sentiment seems to be challenging. Any color you would like to add? I can address that quickly. We have been around for some time. Doro has been around for even longer, 50 years, emporia for 30 years. The market for the consumers are up and down. We have had historically now a year-ish with very good sentiments. Even when the market started to decline a little bit, our category, protecting our kids and elderly, kind of got this very late in that period because parents still would like to buy things for the kids. That is why we are focused on better incentives. We have really utilized our business model, and like we have tried to present today, we have a toolbox full of action that we can use when the market is a little bit softer.
Sten Kirkbak: Okay. Customer sentiment seems to be challenging. Any color you would like to add? I can address that quickly. We have been around for some time. Doro has been around for even longer, 50 years, emporia for 30 years. The market for the consumers are up and down. We have had historically now a year-ish with very good sentiments. Even when the market started to decline a little bit, our category, protecting our kids and elderly, kind of got this very late in that period because parents still would like to buy things for the kids. That is why we are focused on better incentives. We have really utilized our business model, and like we have tried to present today, we have a toolbox full of action that we can use when the market is a little bit softer.
Speaker #2: Doro has been around for even longer—50 years. Emporia for 30 years. The market for the consumers is up and down. We have had, historically now, a year-ish with very good incentives.
Speaker #2: Even when the market started to decline a little bit, our category—protecting our kids and elderly—kind of got this very late in that period.
Speaker #2: Because parents still would like to buy things for the kids. But that's why we have focused on better incentives. We have really utilized our business model.
Speaker #2: And like we have tried to present today, we have a toolbox full of actions that we can use when the market is a little bit softer.
Speaker #2: Then we know it's all about timing, because the market will again change. The good thing is, if we are very dedicated and disciplined during times when the market is soft, it basically means that when the market gets better again, we have a foundation with better traction and better margins.
Sten Kirkbak: We know it is all about timing because market will again change. The good thing if we are very dedicated and disciplined during time when the market is soft, it basically means when the market is getting better again, we have a foundation with better traction, better margin, and just even a better business case model in general. So when we then start to scale on a better margin, we scale and make even more money. We are used to this. The market goes up and down. We have a lot of experience in this. We are still making a lot of money. So we presented some tools today, and the market will go up and down. It is just how it is. All right. I think that was the main questions. Anyone from the audience?
Sten Kirkbak: We know it is all about timing because market will again change. The good thing if we are very dedicated and disciplined during time when the market is soft, it basically means when the market is getting better again, we have a foundation with better traction, better margin, and just even a better business case model in general. So when we then start to scale on a better margin, we scale and make even more money. We are used to this. The market goes up and down. We have a lot of experience in this. We are still making a lot of money. So we presented some tools today, and the market will go up and down. It is just how it is. All right. I think that was the main questions. Anyone from the audience?
Speaker #2: And just even a better business case model in general. So when we then start to scale on a better margin, we scale and make even more money.
Speaker #2: We are used to this. The market goes up and down. We have a lot of experience in this. We are still making a lot of money.
Speaker #2: So, we presented some tools today. And the market will go up and down—it's just how it is. All right, I think those were the main questions.
Speaker #2: Anyone from the audience? I know we’ll see a lot of you guys during today, so I guess we’ll be hammered down with questions then.
Sten Kirkbak: I know we will see a lot of you guys during today, so I guess we will be hammered down with question then, so we can take it then. If there is anything, please. If not, thank you so much for joining us today.
Sten Kirkbak: I know we will see a lot of you guys during today, so I guess we will be hammered down with question then, so we can take it then. If there is anything, please. If not, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker #2: So, we can take it then. But if there is anything, please—if not, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker #3: Thank you very much.
Tommy Krznarić: Thank you very much.
Tommy Krznarić: Thank you very much.
Gro Dyrnes: Thank you.
Gro Dyrnes: Thank you.
