FlexQubes report for the second quarter 2022

SECOND QUARTER 2022

• Order intake increased by 69.3 percent to 54.9 MSEK (32.4). Adjusted for foreign exchange rate effects between the comparison periods, order intake increased by 47.2 percent.
• Net sales increased by 111.4 percent to 56.1 MSEK (26.5). Adjusted for foreign exchange rate effects between the comparison periods, net sales increased by 89.3 percent.
• Operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) amounted to 1.5 MSEK (-1.6) and operating profit before financial items (EBIT) amounted to 0.3 MSEK (-2.7).
• Profit before tax amounted to 0.2 MSEK (-2.8).
• Earnings per share amounted to 0.02 SEK (-0.4)
• Cash flow amounted to -0.1 MSEK (3.1), of which -8.8 MSEK (3.9) from operating activities, -1.9 MSEK (-0.8) from investment activities and 10.6 MSEK (-0.0) from financing activities.
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 35.5 MSEK (15.4) at the end of the period.
• Amazon places follow-up order worth about SEK 15 million for additional robots and carts.
• L'Oréal orders eQart® Line robot carts from FlexQube worth SEK 2.9 million.
• FlexQube is one of the winners of the Robotics Innovation Award 2022 for the new eQart® Navigator concept.
• The company receives follow-up order of approximately SEK 3.7 million from an existing customer in North America.
• FlexQube receives order of approximately SEK 2.8 million from an American technology company active in automation and robot solutions.
• The company participates in two major trade shows, LogiMAT in Germany and Automate in the US with great interest from both current and potential customers.
• The 2022 Annual General Meeting voted to issue 233,000 warrants in the company. The Board of Directors has also decided to cancel 31,000 options from the previous year's option program.

THE PERIOD 1 JANUARY – 30 JUNE 2022

• Order intake increased by 64.9 percent to 102.9 MSEK (62.4). Adjusted for foreign exchange rate effects between the comparison periods, order intake increased by 49.6 percent.
• Net sales increased by 138.4 percent to 99.6 MSEK (41.8). Adjusted for foreign exchange rate effects between the comparison periods, net sales increased by 116 percent.
• Operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) amounted to -3.3 MSEK (-6.6) and operating profit before financial items (EBIT) amounted to -5.6 MSEK (-8.9).
• Profit before tax amounted to -5.9 MSEK (-9.2).
• Earnings per share amounted to -0.7 SEK (-1.2).
• Cash flow amounted to 0.3 MSEK (2.0), of which -13.6 MSEK (3.3) from operating activities, -3.7 MSEK (-1.2) from investment activities and 17.7 MSEK (-0.0) from financing activities.
• Cash and cash equivalents amounted to 35.5 MSEK (15.4) at the end of the period.

EVENTS AFTER THE END OF QUARTER

• An international car manufacturer places orders of approximately SEK 5 million for carts to the Swedish manufacturing unit.
• The company begins moving its warehouse and head office to a new property in Mölndal, Sweden. The move is expected to be completed at the beginning of the third quarter and entails a number of efficiency improvements for the European operations. Among other things, consolidation of the business into a physical premises, larger storage space and expanded area for testing and assembly.

Link to the report for the second quarter 2022: https://www.flexqubegroup.com/secure-file.php?file=a5f3739a1be60dc372a2b67d23874d38.pdf

The entire quarterly report is also attached to this press release.

CEO LETTER

RECORD SALES, POSITIVE EBITDA AND STABLE CASH FLOW
Our development in the second quarter is very strong. We have seen continued high growth in our order intake and sales. Total sales of SEK 56.1 million in a single quarter are a new record level for us. In addition, we achieved positive EBITDA for the quarter of SEK 1.5 million and also a well-balanced cash flow for the second consecutive quarter. In total, we have increased our inventory levels by close to SEK 17 million during the first half of the year, in order to be able to meet greater demand and have a better level of service to our customers. Our team has worked hard and succeeded well in keeping cash flow at a stable level despite this.

In North America, we have seen a particularly positive development and during the first half of the year we have received a number of major orders for our robots within the eQart® Line concept. Among other things, eight eQart® Line robots to a subcontractor in the automotive industry and eQart® Line robots to L'Oréal worth approximately SEK 2.9 million.

In Europe, we have received a major order from a Swedish car manufacturer of SEK 5 million. An order that we think can open the door for us to more business with the customer.

During the quarter, we exhibited at two major trade shows; LogiMAT in Germany and Automate in the US. We have gained great exposure to our customers and taken important steps in the robotics area and believe we will see positive effects from the fourth quarter onwards.

Although the market has been more challenging due to external factors such as the war in Ukraine, supply disruptions, supply problems and rising inflation, we are experiencing strong demand for our products. In a rolling 12 months, i.e. since July 1, 2021, we have now grown both our order intake and sales close to 110%, despite these uncertainties and it is nothing short of fantastic. Although it may take a little longer to close deals, our project inflow and quote generation remains high. At the end of the second quarter, we added two additional salespeople in North America to meet the strong market demand.

SALES & PROFIT
For the first half of 2022, sales grew by 138% and in the second quarter sales growth amounts to 111%. Sales amount to SEK 99.6 million compared to SEK 41.8 million for the first six months of 2021, which we are very pleased with.

The second quarter was a new record quarter for order intake on our eQart® Line concept, both in the number of robots and total sales value. A global car manufacturer has continued to place orders to several of its factories. We have a strong order intake from existing customers but also see that we continuously add new customers and customer segments to our customer list. All our main markets (USA, Mexico, Germany, England, Nordics) show positive growth in the first half of 2022.

The underlying product margin was our highest to date. We improved our product margin by 11 percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2021. Through various initiatives, we have improved our margin by focusing on more profitable projects, charging higher for customer-unique design, working with new suppliers, economies of scale at higher volumes, and increasing the proportion of robot sales that have a higher gross margin.

The first six months is burdened by larger marketing costs compared to the corresponding period in 2021 when there were no trade shows due to the pandemic. In total, these costs are SEK 4 million higher than the same period last year, and 2.3 MSEK for the second quarter.

FLEXQUBES ROBOTIZED EQART®
After the initial project together with Amazon, which was worth about SEK 6.5 million and was started in June 2021, we received a follow-up order worth approximately SEK 15 million in June. Our team has done a fantastic job since the start of the project and we’re right on schedule. Our ability to handle this type of large and complex projects has strengthened. We are now working to ensure that the collaboration with Amazon continues and leads to larger volumes in the future.

Moving forward, we are also working on similar projects as the one with Amazon, i.e. customer projects where we utilize our unique ability to develop customer-unique robots in a very efficient way through our mechanical and digital modules.

We see a clear effect of our strategy with more dedicated geographical resources for eQart® Line, which has had a positive sales effect in North America and Mexico where we have added these dedicated eQart® Line resources. A successful strategy that we will develop in several more geographical areas. Of the total order intake this year, our robotics category accounts for approximately 25% and our focus is on increasing this share further in the coming years.

Lead times for electronic components are starting to balance but remain challenging and we would have achieved higher sales in the second quarter if we had not had delays in component supply. This will probably also affect the second half of the year and 2023. However, our volumes in the robot segment are on the rise and still far from the levels we plan for and thus the impact is not that large right now.

From the autumn, all eQart® Line robots sold will have a new control computer with a more powerful processor, better camera and completely new possibilities for integration with other systems such as roller tables and other equipment with sensors. The speed will increase by 60%, providing improved performance and increased efficiency.

DEVELOPMENT

Our business has developed well in line with the objectives we set for 2022. FlexQube has taken strong steps towards becoming a recognized robotics company, not least in view of the follow-up order from Amazon, our appointment within RBR50 for our eQart® Navigator and the recent eQart® Line orders. We have also accelerated sales very strongly and we have a favorable mix between recurring sales to key customers and the addition of new customers and customer segments.

Within our operations, we have expanded capacity and delivery capacity through more suppliers but also more internal capacity for picking and assembly. It has also meant that we have reached new record levels for delivery volumes in individual months in 2022. Our fourth focus area on cash flow and profitability has also developed very positively where we reach positive cash flow for the first half of the year, and we also have a positive result on the bottom line in this second quarter.

At the end of the summer, we will consolidate our operations in Mölndal, Sweden, into a larger premises. It also means that the entire head office can sit together in newly renovated premises, improving our work environment, our cooperation and development work. In Poland, we now have a satellite facility for assembly and service to the European market, which increases the level of service to our customers and gives us increased capacity to handle larger delivery volumes.

The company is getting stronger every quarter and our brand is becoming better known which increases the stability of our future revenue. The product portfolio, which includes robot carts of varying complexity together with our mechanical carts and tugger train solutions, gives us the ability to help our customers streamline their internal logistics regardless of which development phase of logistics they are in.

The fact that we deliver to so many countries and to so many different customer segments also allows us to focus on the markets that currently have more positive development.

FlexQube currently helps over 900 customers with material handling and internal logistics in factories and warehouses all over the world. Since the start 11 years ago, we have designed over 6 000 customer-unique carts and have a completely exceptional experience and a clear and effective concept for advanced robot and cart logistics. The strength of our company is to meet the customers' high demands on function and performance of these products, which we intend to build on in the future.

After a very strong first half of the year, we can now look ahead towards new well-defined goals and set the bar even higher for what we will achieve.

Anders Fogelberg

CEO FlexQube AB (publ)

About FlexQube

FlexQube is a technology company headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden with subsidiaries in USA, Mexico, Germany and England. FlexQube offers solutions for cart-based material handling using a patented modular concept. FlexQube develops and designs customized solutions for both robotic and mechanical cart logistics. Through the own developed and unique automation concept FlexQube can offer robust and self-driving robotic carts. FlexQube has more than 1000 customers in 37 countries with primary markets being North America and Europe.

FlexQube’s customers can be found within the manufacturing industry, distribution- and warehousing. We represent some of the most successful companies in the world with a significant share being represented on the Fortune 500 list. These companies exist within automotive, electric vehicle manufacturing, online retail, heavy-duty trucks, industrial automation and retail logistics.

For more information, contact:  
CEO, Anders Fogelberg
anders.fogelberg@flexqube.com
+46 702 86 06 74

CFO, Mikael Lindbäck
mikael.lindback@flexqube.com
+46 761 04 10 28

The share (FLEXQ) is traded on Nasdaq First North. FNCA Sweden AB, telephone +46 8-528 00 399, is the Company's Certified Adviser. Read more at www.flexqube.com

This information is insider information that FlexQube AB (publ) is obliged to disclose in accordance with EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was provided by the above contact persons for publication on Aug 11, 2022, at. 08:00 CET.