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Apotea Sverige AB announced its Q3 2025 earnings, showcasing a revenue of SEK 1,769 million, marking an 8.9% increase year-over-year. The company’s stock rose by 3.45% following the announcement, reflecting positive investor sentiment. Despite not meeting the revenue forecast of 1.85 billion, the company’s strategic initiatives, including the opening of a new warehouse, seem to have bolstered investor confidence.
Key Takeaways
- Revenue grew by 8.9% year-over-year to SEK 1,769 million.
- Stock price increased by 3.45% following the earnings release.
- New warehouse in Varberg is operating at 20% capacity, with plans to increase.
- Strong operating cash flow reported at SEK 109 million.
Company Performance
Apotea Sverige AB demonstrated robust growth in Q3 2025, with revenue increasing by 8.9% compared to the same period last year. The company’s focus on expanding its warehouse capacity and enhancing its delivery capabilities has contributed to this growth. The launch of a new warehouse in Varberg has been a significant development, expected to enhance operational efficiency and capacity.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: SEK 1,769 million, up 8.9% year-over-year.
- EBIT Margin: 5%, maintaining a stable performance.
- Operating Cash Flow: SEK 109 million, a significant increase from SEK 55 million last year.
- Rolling 12-month Revenue: SEK 7,082 million.
Market Reaction
Following the earnings announcement, Apotea’s stock price increased by 3.45%, reflecting investor optimism. The stock’s performance is within its 52-week range, with a high of 122 and a low of 66.31. This positive market reaction suggests confidence in the company’s strategic direction and future growth prospects.
Outlook & Guidance
Looking forward, Apotea plans to focus on external growth and improving customer experiences. The company aims to achieve same-day deliveries on the West Coast and continue leveraging technology and AI to enhance efficiency. The goal to double its business in the next 4-5 years remains a priority.
Executive Commentary
CEO Per Svärdson stated, "Our goal to double our business in four to five years is still there," indicating strong growth ambitions. COO Sarah Ahnström emphasized continuous improvement, saying, "We try and continue to work to improve our business every day in small, small steps." CFO Johan Mårild noted the company’s stable gross margin, asserting, "We can have a stable gross margin over time."
Risks and Challenges
- Potential regulatory impacts on delivery operations.
- Challenges in scaling new warehouse operations to full capacity.
- Competitive pressures in the online pharmacy market.
- Economic uncertainties affecting consumer spending.
Q&A
During the Q&A session, analysts questioned the impact of new delivery regulations, to which the company responded that minimal effects are expected. The potential for profitable investments was also discussed, highlighting the company’s strategic focus on long-term growth.
Full transcript - Apotea Sverige AB (APOTEA) Q3 2025:
Sarah Ahnström, COO, Apotea: Good morning and welcome everyone to the presentation of Apotea’s third quarter report. We are presenting, as always, here in our office in Stockholm, and we will start with the presentation and update, and by the end of the session, we will open up for a Q&A. Today’s presenters are Per Svärdson, our CEO and co-founder, Johan Mårild, our CFO, and myself, Sarah Ahnström, COO. Let’s start with the update.
Per Svärdson, CEO and Co-Founder, Apotea: Yeah, hello. We have had a good quarter with solid growth and good profitability, and a successful launch of our warehouse in Varberg. So, Johan.
Johan Mårild, CFO, Apotea: We had revenue growth of 8.9% in the quarter, and revenues amounted to SEK 1,769,000,000 and an EBIT margin of 5% in Q3.
Per Svärdson, CEO and Co-Founder, Apotea: Yeah, in late July, we launched our warehouse in Varberg and started to deliver orders to our customers. Since then, we have ramped up the production, so now we deliver approximately 10,000 orders a day, and the launch has been very successful. We are on time and on budget, so we’re very happy with that. We can also see a solid increase of Rx demand, and we are building capacity to meet that demand. Now we are approximately 200 pharmacists working at Apotea. We can also, as Johan said, see good profitability during the quarter. Despite that, we have added a lot of startup costs in Varberg, and that’s because we have increased our efficiency and have good cost control during the quarter. I think that’s very good because, I mean, the startup cost is temporary, but the efficiency improvements.
The cost control is like forever. So it’s very good. Thank you.
Sarah Ahnström, COO, Apotea: Perfect. During the quarter, we also took the next step in our quite ambitious sustainability efforts by becoming the first online pharmacy to provide completely emission-free deliveries from our warehouse to the customer’s doorstep. We have ensured a completely electrified delivery chain, actually by expanding the collaboration with PostNord. We’re super happy about that next step. We’re also very proud to have been recognized as the strongest pharmacy brand once again in Sweden by EVImetrics brand survey.
Per Svärdson, CEO and Co-Founder, Apotea: To the right, you can see our revenue and EBIT, or adjusted EBIT margin development over time. During Q3, we exceeded the SEK 7 billion milestone as our revenue amounted to SEK 7,082,000,000 rolling 12 months. During the same period, adjusted EBIT margin was 4.9%, so in the upper end of the financial targets or the corridor of 3-5%. To the left, you can see a breakdown of our sales in Q3. We had a growth of 8.9% in the quarter. The growth was driven by strong Rx sales of 13.6%, while OTC and traded goods grew by 6.3%. As Per mentioned, we have expanded the capacity in Rx, and we see a continued increase in the demand to buy prescription medicines online.
To the right, you see a breakdown, or you see the gross margin development in Q3, and we had a stable gross margin in Q3 of 27.2%. We had a strong operating margin in Q3. We’re very happy with that, and we managed to offset the cost increases in Varberg. Related to the production launch there and the scale of our production with efficiencies elsewhere in our logistics and continued good cost control. The adjusted EBIT margin in Q3 was 5%. We didn’t have any items affecting comparability in the quarter. To the right, we have a breakdown of our operating cost in percentage of our sales. As you can see, we increased the depreciation in percentage, increased somewhat in Q3 as we started to depreciate a smaller part of the fixed assets related to Varberg. However.
The majority of the assets in Varberg, the fixed assets, will start to depreciate in Q4. We are not seeing that effect in Q3, but we expect that in Q4. We had strong operating cash flow in Q3. We had an operating cash flow of SEK 109,000,000, up from SEK 55,000,000 a year ago. The operating cash flow was supported or driven by increased earnings as well as changes in the working capital. We had CapEx of SEK 68,000,000 in Q3, and that is related to the Varberg expansion or the launching of production in Varberg. We have now completed the CapEx related to Varberg, total investment of SEK 380,000,000. You can also note that part of the SEK 68,000,000 in CapEx in Q3 will be paid in Q4. As mentioned, we expect a full depreciation of the assets in the current quarter. To the right, you see our net working capital development.
We had an inventory turnover rate of 7.6% at the end of September. That was affected by the buildup of inventory in Varberg as we scale up production. We can also begin to optimize the inventory levels, and we expect to between the different warehouses, and we expect long-term to have a stable operating cash flow model and a high inventory turnover rate. We had a continued solid return on capital employed of 34.4%, which is shown to the left here on the slide. The earnings, by and large, compensated for the increase in net assets or in capital employed. We had a solid net cash position of SEK 98,000,000 at the end of September. The increase in cash position was due to the strong operating cash flow and partly affected by changes in net working capital.
Networking capital will vary from quarter to quarter, but over time, we expect us to have a stable and high operating cash flow generation. Yes, finally, let’s look at the year-to-date numbers, growth, and profitability. We had, to the left, you see our growth year-to-date September. We had a growth of 11.2%. That was driven also by strong Rx growth year-to-date September. To the right, you can see that we managed to increase the adjusted EBIT margin year-to-date September from 4.6% to 5.2%. The adjustments year-to-date relate to the revaluation of shareholding in Q2, of revaluation of shareholding in Apomera. That was communicated in the Q2 report. The adjustment was SEK 6.2 million. The EBIT for January to September was 5.1%. We have had quite strong internal focus for quite a long time.
I mean, started with the pre-IPO, the IPO building, there were new warehouses in Varberg, and the launch of the warehouse. Now we’re shifting focus a little bit from internal to external. Use our capacity, the new capacity in Varberg, to scale up the production and use that for improving the customer journey, especially on the West Coast with same-day deliveries, but also a lot of other sales initiatives like assortment, our site, deliveries, customer acquisition, marketing, and so on. I think in the coming year, we will see a lot of improvements in that area.
Sarah Ahnström, COO, Apotea: As always, we will also continue to focus on efficiency improvements. As we have said before, we see a lot of possibilities with using technology and AI to have efficiency gains. We will also continue to have quite tight cost control. That is part of our DNA. We try and continue to work to improve our business every day in small, small steps every day. That was also the end of the presentation. Now let’s open up for Q&A. Please go ahead.
Per Svärdson, CEO and Co-Founder, Apotea: Thank you.
Moderator, Apotea: The next question comes from Victor Hansen from Carnegie Investment Bank. Please go ahead.
Johan Mårild, CFO, Apotea: Hello, Per, Johan, and Sarah. Victor here. A couple of questions from my side. If we could start with Per, in your presentation here, you mentioned startup costs in Varberg, but I can’t find this in the report. Would it be possible to quantify this as good as possible?
Per Svärdson, CEO and Co-Founder, Apotea: Yeah, I think, I mean, we have costs related to personnel in Varberg, and today we have like 60-70 people working there. Especially in the beginning of the quarter, they did not deliver anything. They just had a lot of people working there. It was cost related to that. That is the major cost.
Johan Mårild, CFO, Apotea: A large part of the time there is taking up to kind of fill the automation with products, rather than kind of shipping them out. Yeah. Because I had another question on this topic, and the strong margin surprised me here in Q3. Because your personnel costs came out at SEK 118 million, and this can be compared to SEK 140 million in Q2 and SEK 123 million last year. So they seem to be down despite opening Varberg. How can they be down this much? Are there any one-offs, or how do you explain this? I think overall, we’ve seen an increase in efficiency. Not only due to kind of ramping up the production and launching the production in Varberg, but mainly, as we’re just about to start Varberg, mainly related to continued improvements in Morgongåva. However, looking at the personnel numbers, you should also bear in mind that.
We’ve increased external staffing during this period that you mentioned. So the personnel costs are also impacted by that. Okay, got it. Then on Varberg, about 10,000 orders daily now, which seems really promising. But I’m wondering how many of these are new incremental orders versus moved from Morgongåva? I mean, in the quarter, like all of them are moved because, I mean, if we grew like 10%, of course, then you have a 10% increase of orders and if you move like 20%. Over time, we will use our growth to move to Varberg. In the short run, of course, you move orders. Yeah, got it. You mentioned here that low inventories in Varberg is negatively affecting your sales growth. When do you believe Varberg’s inventories will be at okay levels to start to meaningfully contribute to profitable growth?
Yeah, and I think it’s a process from July until it ends, but I think we will continue to improve assortment in Varberg for several months. One of our sales initiatives is to add new assortment to the site. So that’s both to Morgongåva and Varberg because, I mean, find new interesting brands, a lot of customer focus and listening to our customer, what kind of assortment do they want? Yeah. Yeah, and I can see you’ve added lots in beauty, for instance. Yeah. Two more questions. Hope that’s okay. Easy-to-grab legislation. That started the 1st of November. How has the first days or week even been, and what do you expect ahead? So far, so good. I think. The strangeness in legislation is somewhat part of our business. We’re working in a regulatory market. I think so far, so good.
We have been working hard to make sure that we follow the legislation thoroughly. We have a quite well-functioning delivery shipping part since before, so it is not that big of a change for us. I think we stick to what we have communicated before, that we might see a bit, bit changes on the freight costs, but it will not affect us that much. I think it, I mean, it can affect individuals living on the countryside negatively in their customer experience, but I think for the whole business, for our business, it will not affect us that much. We might see a slight, slight higher freight costs. Okay, sounds very promising. A final question from my side, and thank you for answering all of them. This one is on capital allocation.
Now that the Varberg investment is done, your underlying cash flows are strong and you have nearly SEK 100 million in net cash. How will you allocate it going forward? Are there any future investments you can do in your business? It’s, of course, a lot of investments you can do, but we have to look at them and see if it’s profitable and come back if we want to do them. But we are looking at profitable investments all the time, and I think we have to come back on that. Yeah. In the past. Thank you. Yeah. The next question comes from Frederick Iverson from ABG. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, team. I have three questions. I’ll take them one by one. First one on Varberg. You’re operating the new warehouse at 20% capacity utilization. How much of it? I appreciate it.
It might be difficult to sort of quantify the drag on earnings, but. Let’s put it like this. When do you expect to be fully efficient in terms of capacity utilization? Probably never. I mean, it’s an improvement over time, and we can see from Morgongåva that we still improve in Morgongåva. It is a continuous process. I think the steepest curve is probably until Christmas or something like that, so the rest of the year. Of course, we will continue 2028 as well. I think just in Morgongåva, we’re working 24/7, all days a week. I think in Varberg, we have started working only daily shift, only working days so far. I think you can also improve kind of the capacity by using more hours during the week. Right. You say the full capacity is around 50,000 per day.
In terms of number of orders, and you’re now at 10. So. How should we view this ramp-up. Looking ahead? Where do you think you will be in the end of the year, for instance? A little bit higher, but I mean, we are just, as Sarah said, using daytime now, one shift. And so the maximum capacity is then probably around 20. And we might probably go about 15 this year, I would guess, but something like that. Okay, good. Thanks, Per. It’s quite important to keep in mind that we kind of need some spare capacity for the. Black week and so on demands a higher capacity than a regular Tuesday. So you kind of need to be able to have a higher capacity when needed as well and try to balance that between Morgongåva and Varberg. Yes, of course. Thanks.
Then a follow-up on the FTE count. You’re at 726 persons now versus 722 last quarter, and you mentioned 60-70 people in the new warehouse in Varberg. Are those incremental employees or have they sort of been moved within the organization? I think looking at the FTE numbers, also coming back to Victor’s question regarding the employee cost, I mean, both of them are affected by the usage of external staffing, which is something that we use in Morgongåva as well as in Varberg. The absolute majority of the employees working in Varberg are hired consultants or from an external staffing agency. Okay, good. That’s clear. Last one, more of a housekeeping question, I guess, to Johan. How should we view this additional DNA from Varberg as we look ahead? As I mentioned, we had a small increase in the depreciation in Q3.
We’ve now completed the investments in Varberg and expect full depreciation of these assets in Q4. The amount of the Varberg assets is SEK 380 million approximately and will be depreciated, the fixed assets, then over five years’ time or 60 months. That’s kind of, you can see. By and large, there will be added. Even though a small portion has already begun in Q3. Yeah, that’s clear. Thanks so much. Thank you.
Moderator, Apotea: The next question comes from Johan Fred from SEB. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a follow-up question on Victor’s earlier here on the changes in delivery regulations. You stated so far so good, but have you seen any sort of early customer behavioral effects so far? One could speculate that potentially customers choosing to shop at peers with a physical store network as a pickup point, for example. Any sort of flavor on that would be much appreciated. Thank you. We haven’t seen any trends yet. I mean, it’s just a few days. I don’t think we will see any major changes as well. Maybe some shift between different shipping methods. I think also, as we have said, the ones being most affected by the change are the ones living in the countryside and not in the city center.
I think they might have a bit to go to a physical store as well. Or quite a bit. Got it. Got it. You mentioned that following the Varberg launch, the focus is now shifting towards growth. While you briefly touched upon this during the presentation, could you please elaborate on what this means in practice, operationally and commercially? Practically, I mean, it’s a change that we focus more, spend more hours. I mean, if you look at purchasing, instead of looking at purchasing for Varberg, we look at new brands, new assortment, new categories. For marketing, thing is the same, or for me and so on. Commercially, I think we will see the coming years a shift, and we see a lot of improvements in that area. Our goal to double our business in four to five years is still there.
That’s what we can say about the commercial effect of it. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. The final one on RX sales, which continue to grow faster than the other categories. Given the lower margin profile of RX, but I assume higher basket value, how should we think about the mixed impact on gross margins going forward if this trend continues? I think we can have a stable gross margin over time. I think we will grow the RX business a little bit faster than compared to the rest over time. I think the split will end up 50-50 or something. We will probably see that continues going forward. I think the gross margin, we can keep it steady. Okay. Got it. Those were all my questions for now. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, Johan.
That was also the last question of today. Thank you, everyone who has watched the presentation of the third quarter report for Apotea, and we wish you all a pleasant day. Thank you. Bye. Good morning and welcome everyone to the presentation of Apotea’s third quarter report. We are presenting, as always, here in our office in Stockholm. We will start with the presentation and update. By the end of the session, we will open up for a Q&A. Today’s presenters are Per Svärdson, our CEO and co-founder, Johan Mårild, our CFO, and myself, Sarah Ahnström, COO. Let’s start with the update. Yeah, hello. We have had a good quarter with solid growth and good profitability and a successful launch of our warehouse in Varberg. Johan.
We had revenue growth of 8.9% in the quarter and revenues amounted to SEK 1 billion 769 million and an EBIT margin of 5% in Q3. Yeah, in late July, we launched our warehouse in Varberg and started to deliver orders to our customers. Since then, we have ramped up the production. Now we deliver approximately 10,000 orders a day. The launch has been very successful, on time and on budget. We’re very happy with that. We can also see a solid increase of Rx demand. We are building capacity to meet that demand. Now we are approximately 200 pharmacists working at Apotea. As Johan said, we can also see good profitability during the quarter. Despite that, we have added a lot of startup cost in Varberg.
That is because we have increased our efficiency and have good cost control during the quarter. I think that is very good because, I mean, the startup cost is temporary. The efficiency improvements and the cost control are like forever. It is very good. Thank you. Perfect. During the quarter, we also took the next step in our quite ambitious sustainability efforts by becoming the first online pharmacy to provide completely emission-free deliveries from our warehouse to the customer’s doorstep. We have ensured a completely electrified delivery chain, actually by expanding the collaboration with PostNord. We are super happy about that next step. We are also very proud to have been recognized as the strongest pharmacy brand once again in Sweden by EVImetrics brand survey. To the right, you can see our revenue and EBIT, or adjusted EBIT margin development over time.
During Q3, we exceeded the SEK 7 billion milestone as our revenue. Amounted to SEK 7 billion and 82 million Swedish rolling 12 months. During the same period, adjusted EBIT margin was 4.9%. In the upper end of the financial targets or the corridor of 3-5%. Yes. To the left, you can see a breakdown of our sales in Q3. We had a growth of 8.9% in the quarter. The growth was driven by strong Rx sales of 13.6%, while OTC and traded goods grew by 6.3%. As Per mentioned, we have expanded the capacity in Rx, and we see a continued increase in the demand to buy prescription medicines online. To the right, you see a breakdown, or you see the gross margin development in Q3. We had a stable gross margin in Q3 of 27.2%. We had a strong operating margin in Q3.
We’re very happy with that. We managed to offset the cost increases in Varberg related to the production launch there and the scale-up of production with efficiencies elsewhere in our logistics and continued good cost control. The adjusted EBIT margin in Q3 was 5%. We did not have any items affecting comparability in the quarter. To the right, we have a breakdown of our operating cost in percentage of our sales. As you can see, we increased the depreciation in percentage, increased somewhat in Q3 as we started to depreciate a smaller part of the fixed assets related to Varberg. However, the majority of the assets in Varberg, the fixed assets, will start to depreciate in Q4. We are not seeing that effect in Q3, but we expect that in Q4. We had strong operating cash flow in Q3.
We had an operating cash flow of SEK 109 million, up from SEK 55 million a year ago. The operating cash flow was supported or driven by increased earnings as well as changes in the working capital. We had CapEx of SEK 68 million in Q3, and that is related to the Varberg expansion or the launching of production in Varberg. We have now completed the CapEx related to Varberg, total investment of SEK 380 million. You can also note that part of the SEK 68 million in CapEx in Q3 will be paid in Q4. As mentioned, we will expect a full depreciation of the assets in the current quarter. To the right, you see our net working capital development. We had an inventory turnover rate of 7.6% at the end of September, and that was affected by the build-up of inventory in Varberg.
As we scale up production, we can also begin to optimize the inventory levels, and we expect to, between the different warehouses, and we expect long-term to have a stable operating capital model and a high inventory turnover rate. We had a continued solid return on capital employed of 34.4%, which is shown to the left here on the slide. The earnings, by and large, compensated for the increase in net assets or in capital employed. We had a solid net cash position of SEK 98 million at the end of September. That was, the increase in cash position was due to the strong operating cash flow and partly affected by changes in net working capital. Net working capital will vary from quarter to quarter, but over time, we expect us to have a stable and high operating cash flow generation.
Yes, finally, let’s look at the year-to-date numbers, growth, and profitability. To the left, you see our growth year-to-date September. We had a growth of 11.2%. That was driven also by strong Rx growth year-to-date September. To the right, you can see that we managed to increase the adjusted EBIT margin year-to-date September from 4.6% to 5.2%. The adjustments year-to-date relate to the revaluation of shareholding in Q2, of revaluation of shareholding in Apomera that was communicated in the Q2 report. The adjustment was SEK 6.2 million. The EBIT for January to September was 5.1%. We have had quite strong internal focus for quite a long time. I mean, started with the pre-IPO, the IPO building, there were new warehouses in Varberg, and the launch of the warehouse. Now we’re shifting focus a little bit from internal to external. Use.
Our capacity, the new capacity in Varberg, to scale up the production and use that for improving the customer journey, especially on the West Coast with same-day deliveries, but also a lot of other sales initiatives like assortment, our site, deliveries, customer acquisition, marketing, and so on. I think in the coming year, we will see a lot of improvements in that area. As always, we will also continue to focus on efficiency improvements. As we have said before, we see a lot of possibilities with using technology and AI to have efficiency gains. We will also continue to have quite tight cost control. That is part of our DNA. We try and continue to work to improve our business every day in small, small steps every day. That was also the end of the presentation. Now let’s open up for a Q&A.
Please go ahead. Thank you. The next question comes from Victor Hansen from Carnegie Investment Bank. Please go ahead. Hello, Per, Johan, and Sarah. Victor here. A couple of questions from my side. If we could start with Per, in your presentation here, you mentioned startup costs in Varberg, but I cannot find this in the report. Would it be possible to quantify this as good as possible? Yeah, I think, I mean, we have costs related to personnel in Varberg. Today we have like 60-70 people working there. Especially in the beginning of the quarter, they did not deliver anything. They just had a lot of people working there, so it was cost related to that. That is the major cost. A large part of the time there is taking up to kind of fill the automation with products rather than kind of shipping them out. Yeah.
Because I had another question on this topic, and the strong margin surprised me here in Q3. Because your personnel costs came out at SEK 118 million. And this can be compared to SEK 140 million in Q2 and SEK 123 million last year. They seem to be down despite opening Varberg. How can they be down this much? Are there any one-offs or how do you explain this? I think overall we’ve seen an increase in efficiency. Not only due to kind of ramping up the production and launching the production in Varberg, but mainly, as we’re just about to start Varberg, mainly related to continued improvements in Morgongåva. However, looking at the personnel numbers, you should also bear in mind that we’ve increased external staffing during this period that you mentioned. The personnel costs are also impacted by that. Okay, got it. Then on Varberg, about.
10,000 orders daily now, which seems really promising. I am wondering how many of these are new incremental orders versus moved from Morgongåva? I mean, in the quarter, like all of them are moved because, I mean, if we grew like 10%. Of course, then you have a 10% increase of orders and if you move like 20%. Over time, we will use our growth to move to Varberg. In the short run, of course, you move orders. Yeah, got it. You mentioned here that low inventories in Varberg are negatively affecting your sales growth. When do you believe Varberg’s inventories will be at okay levels to start to meaningfully contribute to profitable growth? Yeah. I think it is a process from July until it ends, but I think we will continue to improve assortment in Varberg for several months. But.
One of our sales initiatives is to add new assortment to the site. So that’s both to Morgongåva and Varberg because, I mean, find new interesting brands, a lot of customer focus and listening to our customer, what kind of assortment do they want? Yeah. Yeah. And I can see you’ve added lots in beauty, for instance. Yeah. Two more questions. Hope that’s okay. Easy-to-grab legislation. That started the 1st of November. How has the first days or week even been, and what do you expect ahead? So far, so good. I think. The strangeness in legislation is somewhat part of our business. We’re working in a regulatory market. I think so far, so good. We have been working hard to make sure that we follow the legislation thoroughly. And we have a quite.
well-functioning delivery shipping part since before, so it’s not that big of a change for us. I think we stick to what we have communicated before, that we might see a bit, bit changes on the freight costs, but it will not affect us that much. I think, I mean, it can affect individuals living on the countryside negatively in their customer experience, but I think for their whole business, for our business, it will not affect us that much. We might see a slight, slight higher freight costs. Okay. Sounds very promising. A final question from my side, and thank you for answering all of them. This one is on capital allocation. Now that the Varberg investment is done, your underlying cash flows are strong, and you have nearly SEK 100 million in net cash. How will you allocate it going forward?
Are there any future investments you can do in your business? It’s, of course, a lot of investments you can do, but we have to look at them and see if it’s profitable and come back if we want to do them. But we are looking at profitable investments all the time, and I think we have to come back on that. Yeah. I mean, in the past. Thank you. Yeah. The next question comes from Frederick Iverson from ABG. Please go ahead. Thank you. Good morning, team. I have three questions. I’ll take them one by one. First one on Varberg. You’re operating the new warehouse at 20% capacity utilization. How much of it? I appreciate it might be difficult to sort of quantify the drag on earnings, but let’s put it like this. When do you expect to be fully efficient in terms of capacity utilization?
Probably never. I mean, it’s an improvement over time. We can see from Morgongåva that we still improve in Morgongåva, so it’s a continuous process. I think the steepest curve is probably until Christmas or something like that, so the rest of the year. Of course, we will continue 2028 as well. I think just in Morgongåva, we’re working 24/7, all days a week. I think in Varberg, we have started working only daily shift, only working days so far. I think you can also improve kind of the capacity by using more hours during the week. Right. You say the full capacity is around 50,000 per day in terms of number of orders, and you’re now at 10,000. How should we view this ramp-up looking ahead?
Where do you think you will be in the end of the year, for instance? A little bit higher, but I mean, we are just, as Sarah said, using daytime now, one shift. The maximum capacity is then probably around 20. We might probably go about 15 this year, I would guess, but something like that. Okay. Good. Thanks, Per. It is quite important to keep in mind that we kind of need some spare capacity for the Black week and so on demands a higher capacity than a regular Tuesday. You kind of need to be able to have a higher capacity when needed as well and try to balance that between Morgongåva and Varberg. Yes, of course. Thanks. A follow-up on the FTE count.
You’re at 726 persons now versus 722 last quarter, and you mentioned 60-70 people in the new warehouse in Varberg. Are those incremental employees, or have they sort of been moved within the organization? I think looking at the FTE numbers, also coming back to Victor’s question regarding the employee cost, I mean, both of them are affected by the usage of external staffing, which is something that we use in Morgongåva as well as in Varberg. The absolute majority of the employees working in Varberg are hired consultants or from an external staffing agency. Okay. Good. That’s clear. Last one, more of a housekeeping question, I guess, to Johan. How should we view this additional DNA from Varberg as we look ahead? As I mentioned, we had a small increase in the depreciation in Q3.
We’ve now completed the investments in Varberg and expect full depreciation of these assets in Q4. The amount of the Varberg assets is SEK 380 million approximately and will be depreciated, fixed assets, then over five years’ time or 60 months. That is kind of, you can see. By and large, that will be added. Even though a small portion has already begun in Q3. Yeah. No, that’s clear. Thanks so much. Thank you. The next question comes from Johan Fred from SEB. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. Just a follow-up question on Victor’s earlier here on the changes in delivery regulations. You stated so far so good, but have you seen any sort of early customer behavioral effects so far?
One could speculate that potentially customers choosing to shop at peers with a physical store network as a pickup point, for example. Any sort of flavor on that would be much appreciated. Thank you. We haven’t seen any trends yet. I mean, it’s just a few days. I don’t think we will see any major changes as well. Maybe some shift between different shipping methods. I think also, as we have said, the ones being most affected by the change are the ones living in the countryside and not in the city center. I think they might have a bit to go to a physical store as well. Or quite a few. Got it. Got it. You mentioned that following the Varberg launch, the focus is now shifting towards growth.
While you briefly touched upon this during the presentation, could you please elaborate on what this means in practice, operationally and commercially? Practically, I mean, it’s a change that we focus more, spend more hours. I mean, if you look at purchasing, instead of looking at purchasing for Varberg, we look at new brands, new assortment, new categories. For marketing, thing is the same, or for me and so on. Commercially, I think we will see the coming years a shift, and we see a lot of improvements in that area. Our goal to double our business in four to five years is still there. That’s what we can say about the commercial effect of it. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. The final one on Rx sales, which continue to grow faster than the other categories.
Given the lower margin profile of Rx, but I assume higher basket value, how should we think about the mixed impact on gross margins going forward if this trend continues? I think we can have a stable gross margin over time. I think we will grow the Rx business a little bit faster than compared to the rest over time. I think the split will end up 50-50 or something. We will probably see that continues going forward. I think the gross margin, we can keep it steady. Okay. Got it. Those were all my questions for now. Thank you for taking the time. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, Johan. That was also the last question of today. Thank you, everyone who has watched the presentation of the third quarter report for Apotea, and we wish you all a pleasant day. Thank you. Bye.
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