Good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us today for Aramis Group Q1 2024 Revenues Presentation. I'm Alexandre Leroy, Head of IR. Today with me to comment these results. As usual, Guillaume Paoli, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the company; as well as Fabien Geerolf, Group CFO.
Before handing over to the management, the usual reminders. This conference is recorded, accessible, both over the phone and Internet. A replay will be made available on the company's website at www.aramis.group. Slideshow, by the way, is available on the website for download.
Let me also remind you that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and that future results may differ materially from the statements or projections made on today's call. In particular, the risk factors that could affect those statements are described in our 2023 universal registration document recently filled with the French Financial Markets Authority, AMF. This presentation will be, of course, followed by the usual Q&A session.
Finally, I remind you that Aramis Group has a non-calendar fiscal year with annual results closing at the end of September. As a consequence, the Q1 2024 revenues we are going to report on today refer to the calendar period from October 1 to December 31, 2023.
Having said this, I leave the floor to Guillaume that will drive you through the main market and business highlights for the period. Guillaume, please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you, Alexandre. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. So in Q1 2024, Aramis Group has continued to deliver on its profitable growth strategy and to outperform our market. As you know very well, the last 2 years have been very, very specific, drastically shaken disrupting the usual dynamics. No player was immune to that given the events speed and magnitude.
Now we see and we take into account encouraging signs that we are approaching the end of this tunnel. While the outlook isn't totally clear, it is improving and becoming much more supportive. The market functioning is normalizing, easing the sourcing of both pre-registered and more recent used cars. The registration volumes are slightly picking up or have stopped to decrease, and we see a steady, albeit slow, decrease in used car prices.
At Aramis Group, we are coming out of this once in a lifetime crisis stronger than ever as we have done for all the previous crisis that we have known in 2008, the COVID, et cetera, et cetera. So in the first quarter of 2024, our activity was very dynamic, reflecting the strong interest that customers have for our products and services and supported by our teams that have worked very hard, and I want to thank them.
Our revenues increased by 20% in all our geographies, except one to reach EUR 527 million. Our B2C volumes increased by 32% organically leading us to outperform our markets, which is a used car market below 8 years by 31%, and it is quality growth as we have maintained our market-leading customer satisfaction with an NPS of 70.
We kept on strengthening our unique anti-fragile business model that is vertically integrated, technology enhanced with a learning organization and committed team. The fast adaptation and versatility it allows for is one of our strongest strengths. So we approach our 2024 fiscal year with confidence, and we'll reaffirm our annual objectives, which are to sell at least over 100,000 B2C vehicles, which would be a first amongst online used car retailers in Europe and to at least double our adjusted EBITDA realized in 2023.
Longer term, we are always very confident because the development potential is unchanged and very attractive. Virtually limited growth opportunities on this -- in this [ EUR 400 billion ] per year used car market, it is still very fragmented. It is digitizing and our customer value proposition is very, very strong.
Now moving on to Slide 4. As I was just saying, the automotive market really went through a very, very big crisis. Internally, we call it Armageddon. Every player in the value chain has been impacted and it's important that to grasp the truly exceptional nature of what has occurred and which is, we believe, at an end.
Over the last 3 years, Europe has lost almost an entire year of new car production, completely disrupting the usual market dynamics leading to a massive spike in prices. The used car market, which usually fluctuated between plus 4% and minus 4% like forever, has collapsed in 2022. The market remains as of this day, around 20% below 2019 levels for new and used car market. Again, when we speak of used car, we speak of used car below 8 cars.
So on the positive side, the toughest times are over. The environment is turning increasingly more supportive with the new car production that has increased. The household demand for new cars that is still relatively weak and the market is reverting to its normal state, which is a slight oversupply relative to the demand, which in turn means for us a return of the preregistered car sourcing opportunity.
On the used car market, the refurbishment car market, it appears that the decrease has come to an end and the market starts picking up. And as you can see on #5, the pricing front is also supportive. Prices are still significantly higher than they were before the disruption but they are gradually slowly decreasing.
In the U.K., which is a very specific market, the downward trend has significantly accelerated with prices that dropped by 11% in the course of only 3 months. So this dynamic is favorable for us. As a retailer, we operate more effectively in a lower price environment. I would say, actually, in a normal environment because lower prices make cars more affordable, which makes for increased demand.
Moving on to Slide 6 now. Well, as I was saying, we outperformed the market by [ 31% ] on our 6 geographies. This impressive performance results partly from the more supportive market, but more importantly, from the customer value proposition that we have that is very strong and from the business model.
Over the 22 years, we have developed this unique anti-fragile business model with vertical integration of the value chain, precise market knowledge, customer centricity, technology and people engagement. All these elements provide us with strong competitive advantages, explaining our leadership in Europe, both in terms of market share and profitability, even though we're not yet where we should be on this front.
Now to illustrate this strength of the business model is versatility. If we move on to Slide 7, our understanding of customer needs, our sourcing network, our abilities, our systems allow us to consistently identify and capitalize on the best market sourcing opportunities. We're able to maintain a diverse range of cars that are competitively priced and are aligned with the evolving customer demand.
In Q1 2024, for example, we took advantage of sourcing opportunities from professional partners across Europe, balancing more the sourcing mix. Also, number of cars sourced from Stellantis has increased significantly, returning to levels more in line with the levels we had in the past.
The graph on the right-hand side demonstrate our agility in seizing pre-registered car sourcing opportunities. And as you can see, in Q1 2024, we sold 1,200 pre-registered cars more than in the last quarter of our fiscal year 2023.
And finally, moving to Slide 8. At the core of our growth is our exceptionally high customer value proposition, we work every day and the teams work every day to guarantee the best customer prices and experience. Our offering to our customers can be summarized in 4 key words: Affordable, probably the most important one, we offer consistently, competitively priced high-quality cars. We had a lot of value on these cars with our refurbishing and all the warranties that we propose. Easy. it's very simple to buy from Aramis Group. It's a one-stop shop. We take care of you before you buy during the purchase and after the purchase with second to none warranty levels.
Transparent. We want the talk. Transparency is a powerful tool for building trust from no [ high go ] prices to a list and pictures of all the flaws on every car, the bodywork flaws, of course, because from a mechanical standpoint, our cars are in a very, very good state.
And finally, Responsible, which is something that is picking up as well, we believe that circular economy is the business of the future. Our offer is at a heart of this business and the refurbished cars, industrially refurbished cars, represent a great alternative to limit the impact on the planet and also to ensure the mobility of Europeans, which is at the core of their lifestyle.
With this, I hand the floor now to Fabien for the financial performance.
Thank you, Guillaume. Good morning, everybody. We are now on Slide 10. As already mentioned, we are starting our new fiscal year with a dynamic Q1 activity. With our sales growing by 20% in value. The total B2C segment revenues increased by 27% compared with last year and by 32% in volume. This growth is driven by both segments, refurbished cars that are increasing by 15% in value and 18% in volume and pre-registered cars that have more than doubled in revenues and in volume.
As described by Guillaume earlier, our teams have been able to seize the opportunities in the market by leveraging our network of suppliers, our technologies and our industrial capacities. You can also see that average selling price decreased, reflecting both mix effects and the impact of eroding sales prices on the used car market.
The B2B segment revenues decreased by 25% and compared with the first quarter of fiscal year '23. This is reflecting a change in mix in our sourcing from private owners to professional players. As a reminder, most of the cars that we sell B2B are cars that we purchased from private owners and exceed 8 years old or 150,000 kilometers. Over Q1, we sourced less cars from private owners and more from professional channels, hence the mechanical B2B business evolution.
Finally, revenues generated by services increased by 11% compared to Q1 2023. Within these services, the contribution from financing solutions tends to erode due to the context of higher interest rates. Our teams are constantly working to mitigate this impact, improve our services offer and make sure they meet customer demand, not only for financing, but also on warranties and other services.
Slide 11 now, let's take a step back and look at the longer-term trend of volumes over the past 4 years. The chart speaks for itself, and we can point out 2 interesting patterns. One, that we have been constantly growing year-over-year despite the adverse impact from the disruption incurred on the pre-registered market which resulted in a significant 14% average year-on-year growth since 2020. And two, that this quarter marked the return to high growth on both segments, pre-registered and refurbished hence, the high growth achieved in Q1.
Slide 12 now for a few comments on Q1 2024 performance by country. As you can see, revenues and volumes significantly increased in virtually all countries, except in Spain. In France, revenues increased by 24% and B2C volumes in the countries are up 42% year-on-year, outperforming significantly the market, which is up by 9%. Both pre-registered and refurbished segments are well oriented in France, where our teams have been able to make the most of the increased sourcing opportunities in the market for the benefit of our customers.
In Belgium, revenue increased by 19%, the volumes in the country rose by 17%, mainly driven by the acceleration of the pre-registered car segment. In the U.K., revenues are up by 37%. This is resulting from a sustained growth that the teams have been able to achieve consistently quarter-over-quarter since last year. Our U.K. subsidiary has worked extensively on its offer and its organization over the last quarters. This effort has led to a massive outperformance compared to its local market, which is down by 11% over the period. It is also worth stressing that prices in the U.K. have been decreasing significantly in the last 3 months. By as much as 11%, as Guillaume was mentioning earlier.
In Austria, revenues have increased by 56% to EUR 50 million, including a massive 76% increase in volumes in a market that is up by 11%. Since we acquired the company last year, the online car team has executed significant improvements in car sourcing and inventory management that has made performance possible.
In Italy, where we restarted the company approximately 1 year ago, we haven't yet reached our targeted level of performance despite strong financial growth. We are clear on the levers for improvement and our local teams are, of course, currently working on them.
Finally, in Spain, revenues decreased by 20% in value and by 8% in volumes. After 6 years of hyper growth, Clicars, the Spanish subsidiary of the group is now consolidating its basis. Among other things, in the past few months, our local teams have been focusing on extending our geographical footprint in Spain as well as improving the refurbishing processes at the reconditioning center. We expect to return to growth in the second half of the 2024 calendar year.
With -- I now hand it over to Guillaume for the outlook.
Thank you, Fabien. We are now on Slide 14. So the market is better than what it used to be, and we are definitely seeing some encouraging signs in this dynamic. On the offering side first. The normalization of the car market functioning is supportive for us. As I was saying, the new car production exceeds demand, and we do not expect the sourcing of pre-registered cars to deteriorate. And the increased availability of recent used cars also eases sourcing for used cars through professional channels.
There is somewhat more uncertainty on the demand side, on the household demand side, but we are seeing as well some supportive factors, in particular, the fact that car prices have been continuously decreasing over the past 2 months, while we do not anticipate a quick correction in Continental Europe as rapid and significant than in the U.K., this overall downward trend is a positive catalyst for future demand.
So with these elements in mind, we reiterate our ability for 2024. We aim for at least 100,000 cars B2C. We intend to sell more than 100,000 cars B2C on a like-for-like scope organically, and we will be the first online player to reach this milestone and to increase our profitability, generating an adjusted EBITDA at least twice that of the one we realized in 2023.
With this, it concludes this presentation, and now we can open the Q&A session. Operator, if you can please start with the questions over the phone.
And our first question comes from Christophe [indiscernible] from Societe Generale.
I had, let's say, three for the beginning. First one was a general question on the ecosystem. Guillaume, you've been speaking in the past of holding an event in 2024 about the new paradigm. And when I'm looking at what's happening, it seems there is no new paradigm, meaning that prices seems to normalize. Pre-reg seems to go back to not less the pre-COVID level, but still they are improving. You've demonstrated that your GPU per car was very stable and immune to car prices. So the first question is, do you really believe there is a new paradigm. And if that is the case, in what respect?
The second question was about the used car market, the refurbish segment. In Q1, you outperformed, let's say, flattish market by something like 15%. Is that a gap we should expect to see for the rest of the year? That's the second question.
And the third one is about working capital. Do you need to restock. You did a very good job last year, especially in Austria and Italy with the relaunch of Italy, the rebound in Austria and more demand in other markets, should we expect working capital to go back up again in H1 and over the 12 months?
Yes. Thank you for your questions, Christophe. So regarding the ecosystem. Why do I say it's a new paradigm, there is elements of the automotive market, but not only. On the automotive market, there has been a very strong increase in prices. Price today are around [ 50% ] higher than they were 2 years ago. And that's a huge -- I mean, this is a huge change in the market because, of course, unfortunately, the household purchasing power has not increased. So this is the first thing.
Second thing, the switch, the transition to electricity is, of course, picking up. This was planned, of course, the arrival of the Chinese automaker is going to change a few elements in this market. So although this was more foreseeable, it is still a change on the market.
And finally, I would say that on the overall market, the interest rates are not at the level they were before the crisis, probably that on more normal level if we step back, competitive picture has, of course, also is a bit clearer.
So all these elements make for a market that is quite different from the one we were in 2021 when we did the IPO. And we believe we -- it is worth it to address longer-term prospects for the company in the light of these changes of the market. We do believe there was an Armageddon in our market for the last 2 years, some things have definitely change. Some things are transitioning, and we believe that is perfect to do an update on the market.
But what I agree with you is that the market is slowly normalizing, and we should see some elements that have been always there, including the resilience of this used car market.
Then your second question on the refurbished car gap growth. So yes, we increased by 18% our volumes, on the market that was flattish. Yes, we intend to significantly outperform the used car market, below 8 year used car market year after year, quarter after quarter. Here and there, there can be flattish slope because of, I mean mix by countries or this or that event, but it's true that we intend to significantly outperform the market.
At this time, I will not give you a guidance on what level we want to achieve. But we have always been a high-growth company, and we intend to be a high-growth company in the future. So I won't be more precise than that at this stage. But only to say that deep in our DNA, there is the intent to build a very big company to bring our offer to most of Europeans, and this means organic growth.
And maybe for the third question on the working capital, I will let Fabien answer you.
Yes. Thank you for the question on the working capital. So this is the Q1 revenue update. So I will not delve into the details. However, what I can say is that our goal is to grow profitably, but also in a balanced way. And by saying balance, it means with inventory control. We are already probably best-in-class in terms of inventory control, but we are always doing some continuous improvement, and we believe there are opportunities to do some continuous improvement on this topic. So we will come back to you the numbers for H1, and this is what I could say for Q1 revenue updates.
Thank you. In particular, in the country that in we recently acquired, such as [ Austria ], it's part of the path, but we are not there yet.
Our next question comes from Alexander [indiscernible] from [indiscernible].
Three quick questions, please. The first one, so I'm sorry to come back to the guidance. I mean, I understand you don't want to be more precise, but given your fairly positive comments, would you at least agree to say that the B2C volumes guidance is potentially too conservative. I mean, the implied following 9 months -- so just a very limited growth. So given your outperformance, let's say, comments -- hard to reconcile. So I just wanted to check that.
Second question on the pre-registered business. I think we are around 10% below the 2021 levels. Just wanted to understand what kind of run rate we should expect over the next quarters, whether 5 million, 6 million -- thousand units, sorry, made sense?
And finally, I know this is a revenue call, but could you please give us any comment on the gross margin as you return to faster growth compared to the previous quarters?
Sorry, I did not really understand the second question, maybe could you repeat the second question?
Yes, the second question was on the pre-registered business, what kind of, let's say, volume per quarter we could expect for this year. So I think we are close to the 2021 levels. Whether it made sense to have that kind of same run rate going forward?
Yes. Thank you. So I'll take the 2 first ones, and I'll let Fabien answer the third one. So I'll start by the second one because it's also linked to the first one. So the pre-reg volume, as you can see on Chart #7, we have sold something like 5,600 pre-reg cars this quarter. And a few years ago -- 2 years ago, we were more like 9-ish. So we still have, I would say, at least 1/3 of the weight, 40% to come back to the previous state.
It's very, very difficult to anticipate the level of pre-registered cars that we are going to be able to sell. We believe we will not significantly exceed the levels that we used to have in the past because this is a limited size market. There are some things that are positive for us, typically the enhanced competition with the arrival of Chinese OEMs. The fact that the demand is quite soft, but there is some negative as well as the production level of new cars is still lower than what it used to be.
So with the plus and minus at this stage, we don't think it's going to deteriorate, but we don't plan on a significant increase. We will be looking and be very agile on the opportunities, but difficult to be very precise.
And so on the guidance, I understand perfectly what you say. We said a few weeks ago, a few months ago during the FY results that we will sell more than 100,000 B2C cars, which more or less 9% of growth, 8.9% or 8.7%. We believe we are going to sell more than 100,000 cars. At this stage, this is the beginning of the year. Yes, we have done a good quarter. There are still some uncertainties. We don't anticipate to decrease in the coming months, but we will stick to this guidance for now, which is to sell more than 100,000 cars.
Taking into account that the customer demand is not is still not totally foreseeable and the elements I gave you on the pre-reg. Maybe I will hand it over to Fabien to comment or not comment on the gross margin.
On the growth margin -- and unfortunately, we have to make the same comment as previously, meaning that it's a Q1 revenue update. And therefore, we -- I cannot go into too much details right now. There are 2 things that we are monitoring on the gross margin, which is the rapidly declining prices in the U.K. And secondly, the financing contribution that tends to erode.
We -- our intention is to grow profitably. And so we are not in a strategy where we sacrificed our buying some market share. This is not our strategy. We have confirmed our EBITDA guidance, and this is what we can say at this stage. We will come back in more details during the H1 publication, of course, on these topics.
[Operator Instructions]. And we have a follow-up question from Christophe [indiscernible] from Societe Generale.
Just 1 final question maybe on Spain, which is -- the market is still lagging. So we know about the issues in Spain. Can you be more specific on your expectation for H2? You mentioned you expect to return to growth?
And just as a precision, I understand. I know your model was very Madrid focus. So if we were to look at the Spanish car market, your market share, what would it be in the Madrid region versus the non-Madrid region? And what are the hopes for the non-Madrid region, if I may say so, given your plan to open new stores, new showroom outside of Madrid?
So yes, we're not happy with the performance in Spain, but we understand why -- they're actually in a transition phase, as Fabien has explained. If we take a step back, they went from EUR 0 to EUR 350 million in the course of a few years. And of course, with this kind of scale, everything was not perfectly tied to continue scaling, unfortunately.
So there -- I think there are 3 points, one, and you noted it's a geographical footprint. We started so fast with a full digital model with one-stop shop with -- in [ southern ] outskirts of Madrid with the factory, the headquarters and kind of a mega customer center. And we did a really good job as we are now reaching 10% of market share in the Madrid region on cars below 8 years.
Unfortunately, we are very much underpenetrated in the other regions of Spain. And this is why going forward, our teams are working at expanding in a reasonable way. The geographical footprint is -- like we have in the other countries of the group. And we're actually testing a few different models. So now we have opened a customer center in Zaragosa. We are opening 1 next month or beginning of the next in Valencia, which is Spain's third city, a little larger, and we're opening another one with an over format in [indiscernible]. So yes, we will be testing these different models to be able to increase our penetration in other regions.
The second point is the refurbishing process and the purchasing process. We have built a company in Spain by buying recent used car. As you know perfectly well, Spain is the #2 country for tourism in Europe after France, but it has the most rental cars running. So there was an abundance of offer for recent used cars, which disappeared during the crisis. So we had to turn ourselves to consumer to business cars, which are older, which had impact on the refurbishing process and it kind of slowed the level of offering that we could provide. And finally, we had to make a number of changes in the factory, particularly in the management to be able to scale.
So these are the 3 points. Transition is ongoing, affecting the country's performance. As I said, we expect to grow by the second half of 2024 of our calendar year. And in terms of growth, there is no reason why Spain should not grow at the same level as the other countries of the group. And maybe even a little more as we have some regions that are underpenetrated. This is not a guidance. This is more what we are expecting. And I know that the Spanish team are working hard to come back to profitable growth this calendar year.
Okay. There are no further questions in the phone queue. We'll now move on to the webcast questions.
Yes. Thank you. We have a couple of questions from Dominique from -- on Internet -- through Internet. Dominique asked was the proportion of Stellantis originated cars in Q1? And what -- how it compares to the historical proportion? First question.
On the second question, Dominique asks about the evolution price on -- we see on electrical vehicle versus traditional vehicles, if there is the discrepancy and what we believe that. And as for your question on Spain, Dominique, I assume that the answer, Guillaume, just did is okay. If not, please follow up.
We own Stellantis cars. So as you know, Stellantis is the majority shareholder. We were around 60% of the shares. And we have a very good operational relationship with Stellantis as they leave the company totally autonomous, but we have built a limited number, but powerful [ synergies ]. The first one we built with Stellantis, it was the fact that we purchased Stellantis cars, initially Peugeot Citroen car at the best condition available out there.
And we built something like -- the sourcing was between 10% and 15% of our sales before the crisis. And then they decreased to almost nothing, a few percent during crisis as the Stellantis people were having the same difficulties to produce cars than the others OEMs.
Now we are coming back to [ untapped ] situation. We have sourced a few thousand cars from them during the Q1 and we are returning to levels more in line with historical levels, which is between 10% and 15%. And as you know, this is a major strength as well for us. As Stellantis now comprises Peugeot Citroen, but also for Fiat Chrysler brands jeep, Alfa Romeo et cetera, et cetera, as well as Opel Volkswagen, so this is something that will be picking up and it is another strength of the company.
Regarding the electric vehicle prices, the used car electricity vehicle prices, well, look, in 2023, around 4% of the cars published on the classified platforms were electric vehicles, but the sales were only 2%, meaning that there is a problem of offer and demand as the used car market is not subsidized as the new car market for electric vehicles.
The time to sell electric vehicle on the used car is longer. And so the prices are going down, particularly in the U.K. We see that more as an opportunity. Our friends in the U.K. have developed a practice of selling electric used cars. Almost 10% of their mix now is electric used cars because they have understood how to buy them, how to market them and how to sell them. And the rest of the group is still a bit lower.
But to answer directly your question, we believe the car will still -- will be coming down. And because it's a balance of offer and demand. And at this stage, there are a number of customers that don't consider to buy electric car, a used car because it just doesn't cover all the needs they have for that car.
So I think this answers the question. And it's not really a problem for us. We are totally agnostic in terms of engine technology. We strive to sell the cars our customers needs. And it's not really a factor or our factories are equipped and trained to refurbish electric used cars. Electric used cars are actually simpler to refurbish at this stage. So for us, going forward, we see the inevitable increase of electric used car as more as an opportunity.
Thank you, Guillaume. Dominique, I hope that this answers your question. Otherwise, just again, please follow up.
We have another question from [indiscernible] from Morgan Stanley. She's asking out does the Stellantis launching online used car sales platform in the U.K. impact the competitive landscape. I assume you talk about the threatening of SPOTICAR, maybe a couple of words on SPOTICAR Guillaume?
Yes. So first, we don't have any issue with competition, of course, as this is a very competitive market, has been competitive forever. We have -- we are competing against dealers. We're competing against private customers. We're competing against online retailers, such as Cazoo, Finch, Cinch, Autohero et cetera, et cetera.
So the SPOTICAR, Heycar, Autosphere, all these platforms are just another competitive player. It's not actually really a retailer. It's more like aggregator of the used cars or the dealer network. It's an initiative that Stellantis launched to be able to propose to our dealers another platform, another classified site to compete with the likes of [ Leboncoin, Mobile de ], AutoTrader et cetera, these players have increased their prices very much.
So for us, not at all a problem. Just another player, our value proposition is totally different, and you can try calling SPOTICAR in the U.K. or Heycar or any of these players. Typically, if you don't know if you want to buy a Peugeot or Citroën or Opel, you'll have to speak to 3 different salespeople in 3 different dealers. Whereas if you call us, whatever you want in Europe. The salesperson will be able to advise you on maybe you need a chevy or maybe you need an urban car or maybe a recent car.
And our people as well have a very different approach to customers as they are not at all paid on the margin that they are -- that the company is making on the customer, but they have a fixed commission by sale, which really aligns much better the interest of the person that is advising you to buy a car versus how the traditional player does it. So another competitor, not a problem, more a traditional player, and we have our own customer value proposition that is very attractive.
We don't have any more questions from Internet. Operator, any more questions over the phone?
No, sir. There are currently no further questions on the phone line.
Okay. Well, thank you very much, everyone. We have done -- I think we have done a very solid quarter and looking forward to speaking to you during the H1 at the end of May 2024. Have a good day. Bye-bye.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now disconnect.
