Strong growth in a challenging quarter
January - March 2025
- Net revenue increased by 13%, totalling SEK 401 (356) million.
- EBIT was SEK -15 (7) million. Adjusted EBIT was SEK -11 (7) million and the adjusted operating margin was -2.7% (2.0%).
- Cash flow for the period was SEK -120 (57) million and the cash position at the end of the period was SEK 175 (278) million.
- Earnings per share before and after dilution was SEK -0.43 (0.32).
| Jan-Mar | Apr 2024- | Jan-Dec | |||
| SEKm (unless stated otherwise) | 2025 | 2024 | Mar 2025 | 2024 | |
| Net revenue | 401 | 356 | 1,673 | 1,628 | |
| Growth (%) | 13% | 3% | 8% | 6% | |
| Growth in local currencies (%) | 12% | 2% | 8% | 6% | |
| Gross profit | 171 | 162 | 733 | 724 | |
| Profit after variable costs | 76 | 82 | 355 | 361 | |
| Overhead costs | -72 | -59 | -283 | -270 | |
| EBITDA | 1 | 23 | 62 | 84 | |
| EBIT | -15 | 7 | -3 | 18 | |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 4 | 23 | 72 | 91 | |
| Adjusted EBIT | -11 | 7 | 7 | 25 | |
| Items affecting comparability | -4 | 0 | -10 | -7 | |
| Profit/loss for the period | -34 | 25 | -23 | 36 | |
| Gross margin (%) | 42.6% | 45.6% | 43.8% | 44.5% | |
| Profit after variable costs (%) | 19.0% | 23.1% | 21.2% | 22.2% | |
| Adjusted EBITDA (%) | 1.1% | 6.5% | 4.3% | 5.6% | |
| Adjusted EBIT (%) | -2.7% | 2.0% | 0.4% | 1.5% | |
| Cash flow for the period | -120 | 57 | -110 | 68 | |
| Net debt (+) / Net cash (-) | -175 | -278 | -175 | -297 | |
| Earnings per share before dilution (SEK) | -0.43 | 0.32 | -0.29 | 0.45 | |
| Earnings per share after dilution (SEK) | -0.43 | 0.32 | -0.29 | 0.45 | |
Significant events during the reporting period
Discontinuation of segment reporting
The Company has decided to discontinue segment reporting effective from the first quarter of 2025. The decision is part of a more integrated strategy for managing and monitoring the Group's operations. This development also aligns with the increasing unification of the Group's digital presence, where the distinction between segments and their respective product offerings is becoming less defined. As the business has evolved towards a more cohesive structure, segment reporting has lost its relevance and no longer reflects how operations are actually conducted.
Significant events after the end of the reporting period
Series C share issue
In April 2025, Pierce Group AB (publ) carried out a directed issue of 1,025,000 series C shares to Nordic Issuing AB to ensure the delivery of performance shares to participants in the LTIP 2024/2027 performance-based share program.
Resignation of Chief Financial Officer
On 15 April 2025, Fredrik Ideström announced his resignation as Chief Financial Officer.
Appointment of Chief Financial Officer
On 12 May 2025, Pierce Group AB (publ) announced the appointment of Fredrik Kjellgren as Chief Financial Officer. He is set to assume the role in the fourth quarter of 2025.
CEO comments
A challenging start of the year with solid growth but negative EBIT, while building for the future
The first quarter 2025 was one of the most challenging in both the industry and Pierce's history. Adjusted EBIT amounted to a loss of SEK 11 million, compared to a profit of SEK 7 million in the first quarter last year. As previous reported, ongoing geopolitical tensions continue to negatively affect consumer confidence, particularly in several of our larger European markets.
We are also seeing an accelerated structural shift in consumer behaviour, which began to emerge in 2024. Consumers are becoming increasingly price-conscious and tend to concentrate their purchases around specific promotional periods such as Black Friday and the Christmas season. This left January and February especially weak with softer demand across several markets.
Our Offroad offering, which targets a younger and more price-conscious customer base, was most negatively affected. In the Nordics, a snow-poor winter further reduced sales in Sledstore, creating additional headwinds.
In response, we acted quickly - investing more in direct marketing to stimulate demand and protect gross profit in absolute terms. While this led to higher marketing costs and put pressure on gross margin, we achieved 13 percent revenue growth for the quarter - solid growth in a highly challenging market environment.
Sales recovered significantly in March as new seasonal products arrived and demand picked up. This allowed us to return to more sustainable levels of marketing spend. Product availability remains a key driver of growth, customer satisfaction, and retention. Accordingly, we have continued to build our inventory levels and will keep prioritizing availability - a cornerstone of our role as a leading category specialist, offering the market's broadest and most attractive assortment at competitive prices with fast, reliable delivery.
Performance varied significantly between product categories - Onroad delivered strong growth, while Offroad was softer. The resulting product mix shift, combined with increased sales-driven activities, higher inbound freight costs from orders placed 6-12 months ago, and a significantly lower reversal of inventory obsolescence provisions, contributed to pressure on gross margins compared to the previous year. Our private brand share was also negatively affected by the same mix shift and by supply delays.
Our overhead costs increased by SEK 13 million year-over-year. This was mainly driven by SEK 9 million in temporary transformation costs, and approximately SEK 4 million due to foreign exchange effects.
We are currently undertaking a comprehensive modernization of our IT infrastructure and migrating to a SaaS-based infrastructure. Unlike previous investments, related transformation costs cannot be capitalized and must be expensed as incurred. At the same time, the results continue to be impacted by depreciation from our legacy on-premise systems, creating a temporary cost overlap. Once the migration is complete, both transformation costs and depreciation will be reduced, enabling improved operating leverage starting in 2026.
Since the beginning of our transformation, we have right-sized the organisation by reducing our white-collar workforce by 26 percent - from 256 in the second quarter 2023 to 189 in the first quarter 2025 - while growing 12-month sales by 6 percent. I am especially proud that our employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) has improved significantly over the same period, indicating stronger internal alignment.
Fuelling Growth and Profitability: Four Strategic Drivers
We are focused on four key growth levers to build a stronger and more scalable business model:
1. Strengthening our core
We continue to broaden our assortment, improve product availability and reduce delivery times to enhance customer satisfaction and drive repeat purchases. With our new tech stack launching in the second half of the year, we will gain better control over product and customer data - enabling improved product presentation, greater personalization and a faster, more intuitive website experience. This will support both customer acquisition and retention.
2. Accelerating geographic expansion
In 2025, we are launching fully localized websites in 12 new European markets - including local languages, payment methods, and delivery options. These countries are already showing strong growth via our.eu domain, and full localization is expected to unlock further potential.
3. Scaling adjacent verticals
We see significant growth opportunities in currently underdeveloped segments such as mountain biking and moped/scooter. These categories can be efficiently scaled through cross-selling and shared infrastructure, requiring limited incremental investment.
4. Preparing for industry consolidation
The European e-commerce market for motorcycle gear and equipment is ripe for consolidation. The benefits of scale are clear - the question is not if, but when and by whom this consolidation will be led. With our pan-European platform, Pierce is strongly positioned to seize this opportunity when it arises.
We're on the right track
Despite a challenging quarter, I remain confident that we are on the right track. During 2025 we will continue transforming Pierce into a company that is less exposed to external volatility and well positioned for long-term, sustainable growth and profitability.
For further information, please contact:
Göran Dahlin, CEO
Email: Goran.Dahlin@piercegroup.com
Tel: +46 727 303 111
About Pierce Group
Pierce is a leading e-commerce Company that sells motorcycle and snowmobile gear, parts and accessories to riders across Europe. The Company has a unique and wide range of products, which includes several own brands. Sales are conducted through customer focused and locally adapted websites to serve motocross and enduro riders, customers who ride on traffic-filled roads and snowmobile riders. Pierce is a European company with headquarters in Stockholm, a centralised warehouse in Szczecin, where it also has an office with IT, finance and marketing expert teams, and a customer care function in Barcelona.
This information is information that Pierce Group AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person[s] set out above, at 2025-05-15 08:00 CEST.
