NEW PRODUCT LAUNCH AND CONTINUED GROWTH IN Q1

IMPORTANT EVENTS 

DURING THE PERIOD

• In March, industry veteran Matt Nitzberg joined Nepa USA in the role of Chief Client Officer, and thereby substantially strengthening the US sales organization. Matt was instrumental in growing sales of dunnhumby USA. 
• Launched the application CX Tracker within our Customer Experience offering that targets mid-sized companies and companies that are in the early stages of their journey to improve customer experience. The CX Tracker provides an entry point to our Customer Experience offering, expanding our addressable market and creating future upselling opportunities.  
• Development of the Path-to-Purchase application that helps global Consumer Packaged Goods companies understand the importance of every online and offline touchpoint in their consumers’ decision journeys.

AFTER THE PERIOD ENDED

• Completes the last adaptations in our systems and processes, including the migration to a new main data gathering tool to be fully compliant to the GDPR, the EU’s new personal data regulation.

A WORD FROM OUR CEO 

Nepa has taken several steps towards reaching our goals in the first quarter of 2018, by developing our products and services and intensifying our expansion in the UK and the USA.

We help our clients meet the challenge of transforming enormous amounts of data to actionable insights by developing solutions that distribute the right data, to the right decision maker, at the right time.

Some of the things we have done include:

• Launched CX Tracker, a new application in our Customer Experience offering that targets mid-sized companies and companies that are in the early stages of their journey to improve customer experience. The CX Tracker provides an entry point to our Customer Experience offering – expanding our addressable market and creating future upselling opportunities.
• Development of our Path-to-Purchase application – helping global Consumer Packaged Goods companies understand the importance of every online and offline touchpoint in their consumers’ decision journeys. Path-to-Purchase enables our clients to optimize investment at every step of the consumers’ buying process. The product has had a breakthrough on the UK market and we have been invited by ESOMAR to present our findings at their annual Shopper Experience event in Amsterdam in June this year.
• GDPR compliance – During the first quarter we have invested in making the last adaptations in our systems and processes to be fully compliant to the GDPR, the EU’s new personal data regulation. Among others we have completed the migration to a new main data gathering tool, a process we have invested close to 8,000 hours into over the last six months. We are ready for GDPR and the opportunities it presents when it comes into force tomorrow on May 25th and we are convinced that it will be a competitive advantage for Nepa.
• We have continued to increase the scalability of our  ActionHub® platform and also changed the name to Consumer Science platform®. Nepa defines Consumer Science as the inter­section between Consumer Research and Data Science.

The nomination committee for Nepa has suggested Jan Carlzon and Annika Steiber as new board members for Nepa, subject to election at the annual general meeting on May 31st. Jan Carlzon, former CEO of SAS, has a global network and extensive experience within consumer-oriented and decentralized management. Annika Steiber PhD brings a solid academic background, an extensive network in the USA, and innovation expertise. Annika is based in Silicon Valley and the author of several books (incl. “The Google Model – Management for Continuous Innovation in a Rapidly Changing World”). We are hoping to welcome both to the board. I also want to give my warm thanks to Anne Roggeveen, who is not available for re-election. Anne has given great contributions to Nepa, both in the board meetings and in supporting our operations in the USA.

Nepa continued to grow in Q1 for the 48th consecutive quarter. Net sales grew by 12.7 percent to MSEK 57.6 and gross profit grew by 11.6 percent to MSEK 42.7. EBIT amounted to MSEK -5.1 MSEK. At the same time, growth in personnel costs continued to slow down for the fourth consecutive quarter – from a growth rate of 40 percent in Q1 2017 to 9 percent in Q1 2018. With stronger net margins in our Swedish market, an improved product portfolio, and international business growth –  we are optimistic about our success in 2018 and beyond.

Fredrik Östgren
CEO

Erik Penser Bank is Nepa’s Certified Adviser.

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