Musti registers increase in sales driven by its online channel
The Finnish pet retailer positively concluded a tender offer by Flybird Holding to acquire the business.
Musti posted net sales of €326.9 million ($354.2M) in the 9 months to June 2024. This marks a 3.7% year-on-year (YoY) increase from €315.4 million ($341.6M) during the previous period.
According to the latest earnings release, the acquisition of 100% ownership of Finnish pet food factory Premium Pet Food Suomi Oy increased net sales by €3.6 million ($3.8M).
However, profits in the 9 months totaled €800,000 ($866,600) versus €19.1 million ($20.6M) in 2023. Operating profits also fell to €6 million ($6.4M) from €27.1 million ($29.3M) last year.
Offline vs. online
Store sales have increased by 0.6%, improving revenue to €240.4 million ($260.4M) from €239 million ($258.8M). The Nordic retailing group has added 15 directly operated stores this year.
Online sales have improved by 9.6%, pushing revenue to almost €80 million ($86.6M) from €72.9 million ($78.9M). This segment comprised 24.5% of all sales.
Norway is Musti’s leading market in terms of sales (43.7%), followed by Sweden (40.3%) and Finland (16%).
Quarterly insights
Musti hit €104 million ($112.6M) in sales from April to June 2024, marking an increase of 0.7% from €103.3 million ($111.9M) during the same period last year.
The company incurred a loss of €200,000 ($216,600) against profits of €7.3 million ($7.9M) in Q3 2023. Quarterly operating profits declined to €1.7 million ($1.8M) from €9.9 million ($10.7M) during the same period last year.
The retail group notes that non-recurring cost items, attributable to Flybird Holding’s recent public tender offer, significantly impacted operating cash flow.
Online sales accounted for a quarter of the total net sales and were the key growth driver this quarter. Musti’s online business grew 7.4% YoY during the quarter, generating €26.5 million ($28.7M) from April to June 2024.
The relatively flat development of -1.6% in-store sales partially offset these gains, which fell to €75.3 million ($81.5M). Like-for-like sales fell by 2.6% due to inflation.
A challenging environment
Musti’s CEO, David Rönnberg, termed the challenging business environment a “soft trading period,” attributing it to the “summer holiday season and low consumer confidence.”
For the next quarter, the group will focus on executing its “long-term” Nordic strategy and seeking further opportunities to expand its business.
Earlier in the year, the pet retailer changed the company’s financial year to the calendar year: 1 January to 31 December.
Share this story:
