CEO's COMMENTS

FIRST QUARTER – A VERY GOOD START TO THE 2018/2019 FINANCIAL YEAR

The market performed very strongly during the quarter and the Group recorded an organic increase of 9 percent in sales. Combined with the effect of several completed acquisitions, the overall profit growth was 22 percent. The operating margin continued to improve, especially in view of the positive non-recurring impact we recorded in the first quarter of last year. It is very positive that all four business areas generated an EBITA margin of more than 10 percent.

MARKET DEVELOPMENT

Sales of production components to manufacturing companies continued to increase, especially in customer segments such as special vehicles, machinery production, electronics and marine vessels. Demand was also firm from customers in medical technology and wind power, but weak in telecom. From a low level, the oil & gas customer segment in Norway showed an improvement. There was also a positive upswing in demand for aftermarket products for the manufacturing industry and for the forest and process industry. Sales of infrastructure products to power grid companies in the Nordic region increased slightly overall, while demand from construction and installation customers for electricity-related products had good development.

From a geographical perspective, the best market conditions overall were in Sweden and Finland. Our sales in Denmark increased slightly, while our businesses outside the Nordic region recorded strong demand. Thanks to bigger investment in oil & gas, as well as in infrastructure, sales also rose in Norway.

ACQUISITIONS

In the early part of the financial year, our pace of acquisitions was high in all business areas. During the quarter, we completed four acquisitions that, in all, bring annual sales of around SEK 230 million to the Group. At the start of July, we made six additional acquisitions with total annual sales of approximately SEK 500 million.

Over and out, after just over a decade as CEO of this Group I am now writing my final CEO comment. What a journey it has been. First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone with whom I’ve had the pleasure to work, through good and bad economic times. Customers, suppliers, investors, the Board of Directors and – most importantly – all our employees who together maintain and enhance the outstanding corporate culture that makes Addtech unique and successful. Thanks to you all. As of our annual general meeting, I will be handing the reins to Niklas Stenberg with the utmost confidence.

Johan Sjö
President and CEO