Axfood AB (publ) (AXFO) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the AXFOOD second quarter twenty twenty six earnings presentation. My name is Alexander Behendorf, head of IR here at AXFOOD. With me today are Simon Margulis, president and CEO, and Anders Lexpubl, CFO. In the Investors section of our axfood.com website, you will find the presentation materials for today's call. We encourage you to have that presentation at hand as you listen to our prepared commentary. After the presentation, we will be taking questions. A recording of this call will be made available on our website. With that, I will now hand over the word to Simon. So please go to page number two. Thank you, Alex. AXFO maintained a high level of activity during the second quarter, with focus on further strengthening presence, competitiveness and efficiency. We delivered positive growth and increased earnings against high comparison figures in a market characterized by food price deflation. We are well positioned for the future and continue to pursue our long term strategic plans, while we at the same time implement targeted tactical measures to strengthen our growth also in the short term. Turning to page three, with that very brief introduction, let me now take you through recent market developments and Axfood's second quarter performance. So let's move on to page four. Market growth amounted to 3.7% during the quarter, which was a somewhat lower level on a sequential basis. However, compared to the first quarter this year, there was deflation in food prices that impacted market growth negatively. As you all probably know, the VAT on food was reduced on April 1 from 12 to 6%, and this was fully reflected in the price development on the market. But also excluding that effect, there was deflation, mainly driven by lower price...