Qliro Group becomes Nelly Group after CDON moves out

Qliro Group, a Nordic ecommerce group that currently consists of marketplace CDON, payments company Qliro and fashion retailer Nelly.com, is transforming. CDON will move out and become an independent company, while Nelly will remain. As a result, Qliro Group will be renamed Nelly Group.

The plans of  Qliro Group to change its name to Nelly Group were presented in the company’s year-end report for 2019. In the report, the group explains how it’s CDON has exceeded their expectations, while Nelly’s performance hasn’t been satisfactory.

Qliro Group saw its net sales decrease from 309 million euros to 279 million euros, while the company’s operating profit totaled -8.96 million euros.

Nelly will remain in Qliro Group

In June 2018, the group announced plans to split itself into three separate companies. This is expected to happen in the first half of this year. The plan is to list the subsidiary Qliro AB, a company that offers financial services to merchants and consumers. And CDON shares will be distributed to Qliro Group’s shareholders, while Nelly will remain in the group. “The goal is to give the companies the opportunity to focus fully on their own operations and thereby strengthen their competitiveness”, management explains.

The goal is to give the companies the opportunity to focus fully on their own operations.

With online marketplaces having become an increasingly dominant channel for ecommerce, the group is proud of CDON being the leading marketplace in the Nordics, with nearly 1.8 million customers. “CDON has proven its ability to grow the marketplace. The model is scalable with limited capital requirements.”

‘CDON has exceeded our expectations’

Marcus Lindqvist, President and CEO of Qliro Group, says CDON has – in many aspects – exceeded their expectations and is ready for growth outside the group. “We are therefore preparing to distribute CDON’s shares to our shareholders and to list the share on First North.”

The group is clearly less satisfied with the financial performance of online fashion retailer Nelly.com. For the last quarter, the ecommerce company’s sales decreased by 1 percent, while OIBDA decreased to -1.2 million euros. It did reduce overstock through clearance sales, but this had a negative impact on the product margin.

‘We are not satisfied with Nelly.com’

“We are, of course, not satisfied and are taking active measures. Nelly is focusing its operations on the Nordic market, and outside the Nordics we will reduce our own sales efforts and drive sales through other channels, such as Zalando. We will also continue to reduce inventory levels and will reduce the administrative organization with about 25 full-time employees. These measures will take us back to profitable growth”, Lindqvist says.

Nelly.com will reduce own sales efforts and drive sales through other channels, such as Zalando.

Nelly Group, without CEO Lindqvist

The plan is now to keep Qliro Group listed and have it run the remaining business, which eventually will be just Nelly. So, the group now has plans to change its name from Qliro Group to Nelly Group. In connection with the split of the group, CEO Lindqvist has announced he will leave the company after four years.