tonies turns profitable on adjusted EBITDA in the first half of 2023

• Group revenue increased by +34% to EUR 113 million (H1 2022: EUR 84 million) driven by international expansion
  
• US revenue rose substantially by +171% to EUR 34 million (H1 2022: EUR 12 million) fueled by both successful retail penetration and strong digital sales
  
• tonies is profitable on group level with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 2.6% (H1 2022: 
-7.8%) driven by substantially higher gross margin and lower licensing costs
  
• Guidance for FY 2023 confirmed: group revenue of EUR 354 million, US revenue of 
EUR 116 million and a positive adjusted EBITDA margin
  

LUXEMBOURG, 23 August 2023 // tonies SE ("tonies"), a leading international digital audio platform for children with the award-winning Toniebox, has released its results for H1 2023, ended on 30 June 2023. tonies turned profitable on adjusted EBITDA in the first half of 2023 and delivered strong revenue growth. tonies confirmed its guidance for full year 2023.

Marcus Stahl, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, says: “tonies is now a profitable growth company – 
a strong signal that our business model works as promised! On adjusted EBITDA, we ended the first half of 2023 with a positive margin of 2.6%. At the same time, we saw revenue growth of 34%. Major progress in both dimensions – revenue and profitability – is a clear promise we made for 2023 and thus we are very proud to demonstrate that we are right on track at half-time.” Dr. Jan Middelhoff, CFO adds: “These outstanding results were made possible by prudent financial management, operational efficiencies and our relentless focus on customer satisfaction. Being profitable on group level despite our ambitious international expansion is a true milestone for tonies. To further safeguard our international expansion, particularly in the US, and to avoid potential airfreight costs, which had a negative impact of around four percentage points on gross margin in 2022, we decided to increase inventories even more in the first half of the year. This means we are almost fully stocked for the Christmas season and therefore well prepared for the important fourth quarter, especially against the backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainties."

Group revenue in the first half of 2023 went up by +34.1% to EUR 113.1 million 
(H1 2022: EUR 84.4 million). After a very strong start to the year with revenue growth of +42% in Q1 2023 driven by an early easter, revenue in seasonally slower second quarter was up by +24.7% to EUR 48.0 million.

In the first half of 2023, all regions showed a positive growth profile, once more led by the US market. Here, revenue reached EUR 33.8 million, indicating growth of 170.7% (Q2: +125.6% to EUR 14.8 million). This significant progress was fostered by all distribution channels and product categories. While digital channels continued a rapid growth trajectory, revenue growth in the retail channel was even stronger. Here, the ongoing retail adoption with major players like Target or Kohl´s led to a strong increase of total number of point of sales from around 4,200 at the end of 2022 to around 4,600 at the end of the first six months of 2023.

The DACH market recorded revenue growth of +4.3% to EUR 66.2 million despite the mature market profile (Q2: -4.3% to EUR 27.0 million; Q1 benefited from early Easter). The revenue increase was mainly driven by strong growth in the digital channels, especially on Amazon marketplace, and on the product side by Tonies figurines and Accessories & Digital. One major driver of the continued strong sales performance in the DACH region is the high level of aided brand awareness within the parents´ target audience, which has even further increased in the second quarter to 82% compared to 77% in Q4 2022. tonies is already present in every second German household with kids in its target group.

In the Rest of World region, which primarily includes the UK, Ireland, and France as well as Hong Kong and the European webshop, revenue grew by +55.4% from EUR 8.4 million to EUR 13.1 million in the first half of 2023 (Q2: +66.4% to EUR 6.2 million). The increase was primarily driven by strong revenue growth in the UK and a more than threefold increase in France. The European webshop recorded strong revenue growth – still from a relatively low base – with increasing demand across Europe, where tonies ships to 15 different countries.

As a result of the successful continuous international expansion of tonies, share of revenue outside the DACH region increased substantially in the first six months of 2023 to 41% (H1 2022: 25%).

From a product category perspective, Tonieboxes revenue was up by +20.7% in the first six months of 2023 to EUR 24.9 million (Q2: +0.6% to EUR 11.4 million), significantly increasing tonies footprint and thus the foundation for future sales of Tonies figurines as around 20 Tonies figurines per Toniebox are sold on average in the first 4.5 years.

Revenue of Tonies figurines increased by +37.0% to EUR 82.3 million (Q2: +34.6% to EUR 33.8 million) driven by both licensed third-party Tonies including Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol and several Disney Tonies and as well as Tonies with in-house produced content and own design such as “Sleepy Friends” and “Playtime Songs”. A particular highlight was the greatly anticipated launch of Disney´s Encanto in the US market in May, which proved to be the most successful Tonie launch in the US to date. In the first half of 2023, around 8.4 million Tonies figurines were sold across all markets.

In Accessories & Digital, revenue grew significantly by +61.9% to EUR 5.9 million (Q2: +36.9% to 2.8 million) driven by headphones, carriers, shelves and chargers. tonies successfully added two completely new formats to the product category: the Sleepy Sheep Night Light Tonie, which combines beautiful melodies and the ability to record personal goodnight messages with a warm light and the Listening+ Coloring book, where an audio play accompanies the coloring book with illustrations that match the story.

Adjusted EBITDA margin improved materially from -7.8% of revenue in H1 2022 (EUR -6.6 million) to +2.6% of revenue in the first six months of 2023 (EUR +3.0 million), despite continued investment in international growth. The increase was particularly attributable to a substantially higher gross margin, which increased from 57.9% in H1 2022 to 65.0% in H1 2023 driven by price increases implemented in May 2022, lower costs for inbound logistics (mainly airfreight) as well as favorable effects from channel and product mix. Contribution profit (i.e. revenue after all revenue-related costs), underscoring tonies ability to further improve its unit economics, increased significantly. Contribution margin rose from 28.2% in H1 2022 to 40.2% in H1 2023, driven by substantially higher gross margin and lower licensing costs, including non-recurring effects related to the release of licensing provisions amounting to 
EUR 3.4 million, which more than offset higher fulfillment costs resulting from stronger digital channel growth.

For full-year 2023, it is important to keep in mind that several of the positive drivers on adjusted EBITDA in the first half of the year, including effects from price increases, lower licensing costs and non-recurring effects related to the release of licensing provisions will not be reflected to the same extent in the second half of the year. However, tonies still clearly expects to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in 2023.

Free cash flow was at EUR -39.0 million in H1 2023 (H1 2022: EUR -54.2 million). This was mainly caused by an earlier inventory build-up to avoid stock-outs and high airfreight costs in case of macroeconomic disruptions and to facilitate further international expansion. As a result, cash flow from operating activities was at EUR -34.0 million (H1 2022: EUR -54.2 million). Furthermore, in line with tonies’ strategy, cash flow from investing activities, including investments in manufacturing tools for Tonies figurines, own content production and software, was at EUR -4.9 million (H1 2022: EUR -6.7 million).

tonies at the forefront of sustainability in its category
tonies not only demonstrates profitable growth, but also growth that is becoming increasingly sustainable. Sustainability has always played an important role for tonies and to bring this aspect more into focus a new sustainability vision has been implemented:“For us, a planet worth living on is part of our vision, and so we are committed to leading change in our category toward a more sustainable future.” tonies defines its sustainability goals along four key pillars: Planet, Play, People, Principles. “Planet” comprises the increasing responsibility in reducing the environmental impact of products and operations. On the product side, examples include the launch of “Preloved Tonieboxes” in 2022 and the introduction of the first Tonies figurines with water-based colors. tonies is committed to continuously transition the Tonies-portfolio to more than 100 figurines with water-based colors by the end of 2023. On the operational side, tonies optimized transport routes for large returns in the second quarter of 2023, which results in savings of CO2 and in packaging material every year. With “Play” tonies aims to have a positive impact on the next generation promoting consciousness, minimizing screen time, and encouraging independence. A milestone project in the second quarter, for example, was the launch of the “Conservation Crew” Tonies with a red panda and a little turtle as figurines to educate little listeners about animals in distress – which were also the first Tonies figurines ever made with water-based colors. The “People” pillar of tonies’ sustainability goals prioritizes strong and long-lasting relationships with employees and suppliers and on compliance with non-negotiable standards while the “Principles” pillar is about the evaluation of internal systems, processes and policies.

More initiatives and improvements are planned and in preparation for the categories material, packaging, circular concept and conscious content, together with ambitious targets for CO2 reduction and waste management. For a comprehensive overview, please click on our website https://ir.tonies.com/sustainability/.

Guidance for full-year 2023
tonies confirms its guidance after a very strong first half of 2023 and is fully on track to achieve its ambitious targets with group revenue of EUR 354 million and US revenue of EUR 116 million, based on the assumed EUR/USD exchange rate of USD 1.08. This implies revenue growth for the group of +37% YoY and for the US of +77% YoY. tonies also expects a positive adjusted EBITDA margin for full-year 2023 (2022: -2.4%). The forecast is based on the assumption that there will be no further material deterioration of consumer sentiment in 2023 and that Covid-19 will not lead to far-reaching closures of production in industry and retail.

tonies SE will hold a presentation on its H1 2023 results today, Wednesday, 23 August at 11 am CET. All details can be found under https://ir.tonies.com/financial-calendar/.
All publication documents are available on tonies’ Investor Relations Website under https://ir.tonies.com/publications/.