tonies SE
tonies achieves EBITDA profitability and delivers substantial revenue growth of 40% YoY – positive free cash flow expected for 2024

Press Release FY 2023

tonies achieves EBITDA profitability and delivers substantial revenue growth of 40% YoY – positive free cash flow expected for 2024

• Group revenue increased by +39.7% to EUR 360.9m (FY 2022: EUR 258.3m) driven by international expansion
• Revenue in North America more than doubled to EUR 140.4m (FY 2022: EUR 65.6m) fueled by both successful wholesale expansion and direct-to-consumer sales
• EBITDA profitable with adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.0% (FY 2022: -2.4%) driven by higher gross margin and lower licensing costs; EBITDA margin of 2.4% (FY 2022: -13.5%)
• Publication of segment reporting on geographic basis shows the high profitability of the DACH business model (EBITDA margin of 16.3%)
• Guidance FY 2024: Group revenue of EUR > 480m, North America revenue of EUR >200m, and free cash flow EUR >10m

LUXEMBOURG, 11 April 2024 // tonies SE (“tonies”), the leading international digital audio platform for children with the award-winning Toniebox, has released its audited financial statements for the full-year 2023, ended on 31 December 2023. tonies exceeded its revenue guidance for the group and the US and delivered a significant margin improvement by becoming profitable on an adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA basis. In 2024, tonies expects group revenue of above EUR 480 million, North America revenue of above EUR 200 million, adjusted EBITDA margin within a 6-8% range and free cash flow above EUR 10 million.

Tobias Wann, CEO of tonies, explains: “2023 was an outstanding year for tonies despite challenging global conditions such as high inflation and geopolitical conflicts. Our international revenues exceeded those of our very profitable first market, DACH, for the first time. This success is a testament to the hard work of everyone at tonies, and these strong results underscore the popularity of our products and the huge addressable market around the world. And we are not stopping here, our focus remains on accelerating our international expansion: This summer, we will add Australia and New Zealand to the tonies´ map, and we will further capitalize on the momentum of our strong growth trajectory in North America, where we doubled our revenue last year. We will also continue to launch great new products around our established and new Tonie formats such as Clever Tonies. And, once again, we have ambitious plans: Not only will 2024 be characterized by continued substantial revenue growth, with North America becoming our largest market, we will also further improve our profitability and achieve a positive free cash flow – clearly demonstrating the sustained strength of our business model.”

Jan Middelhoff, CFO of tonies, adds: “We achieved growth in all regions and all product categories, even exceeded our revenue guidance, and evolved tonies into a profitable international growth company: Achieving an adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.0% and an EBITDA margin of 2.4% is a remarkable milestone that demonstrates the profitability of our business model. I am pleased to provide additional granularity on our profitability by publishing our segment reporting for the first time. EBITDA margin in DACH amounted to 16.3% in 2023 and shows the opportunity for tonies from replicating our highly profitable DACH blueprint internationally.”

Group revenue rose by +39.7% to EUR 360.9 million in 2023 (FY 2022: EUR 258.3 million). Revenue in the important fourth quarter amounted to EUR 169.0 million (Q4 2022: EUR 120.1 million), which corresponds to growth of +40.7% compared to the previous year.

Once again, all regions demonstrated a positive growth trend, with the North American market leading the way. Revenue in North America soared to EUR 140.4 million, marking a remarkable growth of 114.0%. This impressive advancement was driven by an excellent performance across all distribution channels and product categories. While direct-to-consumer channels maintained a rapid growth pace, revenue expansion in wholesale was even more pronounced. The continuous adoption of tonies´ products by prominent retailers such as Target and Walmart contributed to a substantial rise in the total number of points of sale, from approximately 4,200 at the close of 2022 to about 6,500 by the end of 2023.

The mature DACH market grew by +4.8% amounting to EUR 165.9 million. The increase in revenue was primarily attributable to a robust expansion in direct-to-consumer, where revenue rose considerably from 16% of group revenue in 2022 to 23% in 2023. At the same time, tonies saw an expansion in point of sales at wholesale partners to over 10,000 (including seasonal listings) at the end of 2023, a sharp increase from around 7,000 at the end of the previous year and a clear sign that the major distribution channel in the DACH region could be expanded even further despite an already high degree of saturation. tonies is the category leading brand in the DACH market with an aided brand awareness of around 84% within the target group of parents.

In the Rest of World region, encompassing the UK, Ireland, France, Hong Kong, and the European Webshop, revenue surged by +59.1% from EUR 34.4 million to EUR 54.7 million in 2023. This growth was predominantly fueled by revenue increasing sharply in the UK and a more than tripling France. tonies expanded its delivery countries in Europe via the European Webshop by adding the Nordic countries Denmark, Sweden and Finland, thereby increasing the total number of countries served to 17.

Due to the continued successful international expansion, revenue in international markets is growing rapidly and for the first-time account for a larger share of total revenue than the DACH region – in 2023, around 54% of revenue was generated in international markets compared to 39% in 2022.

In terms of product categories, revenue from Tonieboxes surged by +35.4% year-over-year to EUR 118.1 million. Most Tonieboxes were sold in North America, significantly increasing tonies installed base in the largest growth market.

Revenue from Tonies figurines increased significantly by +41.7% to EUR 225.5 million, with around 23.4 million Tonies figurines sold across all markets. The increase was driven by a combination of licensed third-party Tonies like Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, and various Disney Tonies, along with in-house produced content and unique designs such as “Sleepy Friends” and “Playtime Songs”. tonies continued to launch innovation in the category by introducing the first Advent Calendar Tonie, which featured a new story every day leading up to Christmas, “Today with tonies”, a morning show in the UK on tonies´ first podcast Tonie, but also involved the roll-out of own content series “Leo´s Day”, focusing on children’s daily routines. Another important launch was “Clever Tonies,” a new eco-friendly (contains 50% renewable feedstock) edutainment audio product for children aged five and up, underlines tonies´ commitment to consistently bring innovative offerings to the market, particularly tailored for older children. It was initially launched in the US in October 2023 and has also been available in the DACH region and the UK since Q1 2024.

Revenue in the Accessories & Digital category experienced notable growth, increasing by +45.2% to EUR 17.3 million. This growth was propelled by sales of headphones, carriers, shelves, and chargers. tonies successfully introduced two entirely 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 story-matching illustrations.

Adjusted EBITDA margin improved materially from -2.4% of revenue in full-year 2022 (EUR -6.1 million) to +4.0% of revenue in full-year 2023 (EUR +14.4 million) and EBITDA margin rose significantly from -13.5% to +2.4%. The gap between adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA narrowed considerably as adjustments only included costs for share-based compensation, which declined significantly with the expiry of a program granted to the two former Co-CEOs. The increase in profitability was particularly attributable to a substantially higher gross margin, lower marketing costs and lower licensing costs. Gross margin increased by 770 basis points to 61.6% driven by price increases implemented in May 2022, lower costs for inbound logistics (mainly reduction of airfreight) as well as favorable effects from channel and product mix. Marketing costs fell as a percentage of revenue, reflecting tonies enhanced operational efficiency, supported by continued international expansion and increased retail footprint. Licensing costs were lower as a result of regional mix effects (lower revenue share of DACH region which records higher licensing costs), a higher share of in-house produced content and self-developed licenses, successful renegotiations with license partners and a non-recurring effect due to the release of licensing provisions of around EUR 3.3 million.

Contribution margin rose from 27.2% in 2022 to 35.3% in 2023, underlining tonies ability to further improve its unit economics. The increase was driven by a substantially higher gross margin and lower licensing costs, which more than offset higher fulfillment costs resulting from a larger share of direct-to-consumer revenue in tonies distribution channel mix, which increased strongly from 37% in 2022 to 45% in 2023.

Free cash flow improved significantly from EUR -87.9 million in 2022 to EUR -4.8 million in 2023. This was driven by a significantly higher cash flow from operating activities as a result of an improved EBITDA and an only slight increase in net working capital of EUR 6.5 million (2022: increase of EUR 61.2 million). After an early inventory build-up in the first half of 2023 to avoid stock-outs and high airfreight cost in case of macroeconomic disruptions and to facilitate further international expansion, inventory levels declined significantly in the second half of 2023 in line with more efficient inventory management and stronger revenue growth, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2023. Furthermore, cash flow from investing activities, including investments in manufacturing tools for Tonies figurines, own content production and software, was at EUR -12.9 million (FY 2022: EUR -13.6 million), in alignment with tonies’ strategy.

Guidance for full-year 2024

tonies expects group revenue of above EUR 480 million and revenue from North America of above EUR 200 million. This implies a year-over-year revenue growth for the group of more than +33% and for North America of more than +42%. The revenue guidance is based on an assumed EUR/USD exchange rate of USD 1.07. This significant further increase in revenue is expected to be primarily attributable to continued international expansion, particularly in the North American market, which is expected to be the largest market for tonies for the first time in 2024.

tonies also expects a further step-up in profitability in full-year 2024 with adjusted EBITDA margin in the 6 to 8 percent range, compared to +4.0% in 2023. The increase will be achieved through a continuous improvement in contribution margin due to a higher gross margin and lower licensing costs as well as through operating leverage on the cost base.

Free cash flow is expected to turn positive in 2024 and come in above EUR 10 million (FY 2023: EUR -5 million) driven by an increase in profitability and conscious working capital management.

The forecast is based on the assumption that there will be no further material deterioration of consumer sentiment in 2024.

tonies SE will hold a presentation on its FY 2023 results today, Thursday, 11 April at 11 am CET. To register directly for the webcast, please go to our website through Financial Calendar.

All documents are available on tonies’ Investor Relations Website under Publications.

Figures at a glance

Revenue

Adjusted P&L

Operating segments*

*NA = North America, Operational segments shown in local GAAP; Adjustments on EBITDA only on group level (share-based payments), Reclasses include transfer prices, IFRS effects, group provisions

About tonies

tonies® is the world’s largest interactive audio platform for children with around 6.8 million Tonieboxes and 82 million Tonies sold. The intuitive and award-winning audio system has changed the way young children play and learn independently with its child-safe, wireless, and screen-free approach. Tonieboxes have been activated in over 100 countries, the content portfolio includes more than 770 Tonies figurines.

Investor Relations Contact

Manuel Bösing

Head of Investor Relations

Phone: +4915157846012

Mail: ir@tonies.com

This document contains forward-looking statements

Certain statements included in this document are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can typically be identified by the use of words such as “expects”, “may”, “will”, “could”, “should”, “intends”, “plans”, “predicts”, “envisages” or “anticipates” or other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and assumptions regarding anticipated developments and other factors affecting the tonies SE. They are not historical or current facts, nor are they guarantees of future performance.

Disclaimer

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve several risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions could adversely affect the outcome and financial effects of the plans and events described in this document. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Except as required by any applicable mandatory law or regulation, the tonies SE expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained in this document to reflect any change in the tonies SE’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such forward-looking statements are based. Neither tonies SE nor any other person accepts any responsibility for the accuracy of the opinions expressed in this document or the underlying assumptions.