Relais published Q1'26 figures this morning, and with me discussing the numbers is CEO Christian Gebauer. Christian, let's kick off with Q1. How was it?

Yeah, it was a solid start to the year, as we wrote in the report. We see a good increase in both the top line and the EBITDA in the quarter, of over 40% in both areas. And especially we are happy about the organic growth, of course, of 7% on the top line and a bigger share, like 12%, on the EBITDA. And that makes us proud and optimistic.

Yeah, definitely a huge jump in the top line, and especially organic growth turned positive here.

Hmm.

Can you talk about the drivers behind this organic growth?

And I think one driver is the weather that we had in January and February for some of our companies in the technical wholesale business area. The kind of cold weather and the low snow is, of course, creating some, you know, when you drive your own vehicle, you know that if it's a lot of snow, you might go off the road or you might maybe hit another car. So, of course, those things are impacting the spare parts, and like batteries when it's very cold. But that's far from the majority of our companies. The companies that have that impact, just to make that clear, because we also did, as we discussed in the call, we did organic investments to work on the top line with expansion of facilities and new geographies. And we think we also have a good assortment, and we are, you know, taking market share in this market.

Just to make sure I understood it correct, so is it right to assume that the growth was rather broad-based in all of the companies Relais owns and not a single company?

No, yeah, it was broad-based when it comes to the technical wholesale and products and solutions business area. In the commercial vehicle services, the growth was driven by the acquisition, so there we saw, you know, stable demand, especially stable in Finland and Norway, and, you know, the Swedish market is remaining soft, so it came from two out of three business areas, the organic development. Right. Then on the report you mentioned that you initiated efficiency measures in Startax. Can you talk more about the motivation behind these measures, and what are you seeking? Yeah. No, but, you know, Startax is a great company. The last years they have increased their assortment, and when we look at that now it turns out that, you know, the assortment that the customers really value and are ready to pay for, if we get the good margin and the good returns, those are the ones that used to be, you know, the core Startax back in the days. But the new assortment is not living up to those expectations, and therefore it's our responsibility to take actions, you know, to reallocate that capital. the capital from those product groups into other product groups in Startax or in other companies where we see higher returns. So this is a very, you know, obvious move to do in Startax, and the management team there is driving this really, really well. So this is more of this to come, I would say. We have to make sure that the companies that have the best returns also get the opportunities to grow their business.

Sounds good. Also, you transitioned to a new business area reporting and structure in the company, whereas it used to be more geographical. What's the change seeking, and maybe the motivation behind this change also?

Yeah, I mean, of course, it's increasing the granularity for the market and the investors and analysts to understand our business, which we think is important. But also, you know, now we have three clear business area heads, clear accountability. We are, when we work on M&A, in the past in Relais Group, we have done, it has been quite centrally driven in terms of, you know, working on processes that are coming out on larger companies. We also have some, you know, own leads, but that has been maybe not the majority, but the smaller part of the deals. Now we want to change this to make sure that we get the pipeline of opportunities in each business area, and this is the business area head's responsibility and he will work with his companies to, you know, identify the diamonds in their respective fields that we want to acquire and that we want to have as part of the group. So we believe this will also, you know, have a positive impact on the M&A work going forward. And there's several other positive effects, but uh but those are the main ones.

Something just came out of the pipeline as you recently acquired Service Express, and can you talk about this M&A target and why was it a good target for Relais?

Yeah, no, that's a perfect example of the type of acquisitions that we like. You know, we have worked closely with this company in Automateriell during many years. We are really impressed by their kind of service business that Automateriell is also doing some service. But we believe that Service Express is the star in this area, and now we can utilize their knowledge and, you know, share the best practices and take their model and, you know, grow that into the broader Norwegian market together with Automateriell. So that's both, you know, we get a good company into the group and we get a lot of knowledge and kind of soft synergies. So that's the type of acquisition that we like, and the entrepreneurs are continuing to work with us, of course.

Sounds like a solid add-on acquisition. Then thinking a bit ahead, you'll have your capital markets day in one week. I assume new strategy and financial targets. Any message you want to send to investors currently? Something to keep an eye on next week.

Keep an eye on our new financial targets. Make sure to tune in. We are thrilled by the interest so far, but we still have a few spots available both here in the studio as well as online, of course. So we will also have an opportunity to, you know, do a deep dive in the business areas and the business area heads will present the opportunities that they see. And I think that will really be valuable for everyone to, you know, listen to as well as, of course, the update and kind of group strategy.

Sounds exciting. Lastly, let's talk about the current market environment. I guess we've seen some positive news from the general economy that you would expect to support every business basically, but also your businesses. Then on the other hand, we have the geopolitical crisis and the uncertainty. How do you, what's your feel about the current market environment, and what are your focus areas this year?

No, but, you know, short term the kind of uncertainty has been, you know, elevated due to the issue in Iran. What's going on with the oil price and stuff, that we are monitoring, and we are making sure that we, you know, compensate for any impact through pricing management and actively working with sourcing. I mean, long term we are very optimistic about our business. We see that we have a good demand in most of our markets. You know, so we are prepared for, you know, the uptick that we hope is coming during this year.

Sounds great. Thank you for the interview and all the best for the current year.