“I am pleased with the quarter. We achieved our highest first quarter sales in the Group’s history, despite geographic variations in the market conditions. The increase in sales prices matched the higher inflationary increases in logistics and input costs. The Systems segment performance with double digit growth both on top and bottom line is especially encouraging, with positive development across all businesses”.
-CEO Jens Birgersson
Highlights
- Sales in Q1 2019 reached EUR 641 million, a growth of 5.7 percent in local currencies. With a positive currency impact of around 0.5 percentage points, the sales growth in reported figures totalled 6.2 percent.
- Systems segment sales increased by 13.1% in local currencies, with good development in all businesses and a positive start for the year in Grodan.
- EBIT in Q1 2019 increased 9.4 percent to EUR 77 million, with a 12.0 percent EBIT margin, up 0.4 percentage points from last year.
- Investments reached EUR 78 million, up EUR 45 million compared to last year, primarily due to ongoing expansions in Germany, Romania and the United States.
- Annualised return on invested capital reached 21.5 percent compared to 18.6 percent last year, driven by higher operational earnings.
Outlook 2019
- Growth in net sales is expected to be 4-8 percent in local currencies.
- We now expect an EBIT margin at around the same level as last year, including the one-off positive EBIT impact from the Rockfon North America legal case settlement.
- Investment level is expected around EUR 330 million.
