STOCKHOLM, April 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --
- Net sales increased to SEK
29,026m (26,578) corresponding to an organic sales growth of
22.8%. This was driven by significant volume growth and higher
prices as well as product mix improvements. In general, market
demand continued to be strong.
- Operating income increased to SEK
2,297m (122), corresponding to a margin of 7.9% (0.5). The
organic sales growth contribution was the key driver. Increased
costs for external factors, mainly raw materials, were fully offset
by higher prices.
- Significant sales and earnings improvements across all business
areas.
- Income for the period amounted to SEK
1,556m (-86) and earnings per share was SEK 5.41 (-0.30).
- Operating cash flow after investments was SEK -161m (-2,938).
President and CEO Jonas
Samuelson's comment
It is now over a year since the coronavirus pandemic hit with
full force globally and impacted the way we live our lives. The
changes in consumer behavior and spending patterns brought by the
pandemic continued in the first quarter of 2021. Consumers
continued to spend more time at home using their appliances more
intensively and allocating a larger share of their household
budgets to home improvement projects, both benefitting our sales.
The significant volume growth and positive price and mix
development resulted in an organic sales growth of 22.8%. The high
organic growth was the main driver for the increase in earnings,
even though improved cost efficiency also contributed. Operating
income amounted to SEK 2,297m, or
7.9% of net sales.
Consumers keep putting more emphasis on high-quality appliances
that enhance their user experience. This, together with our
innovation power, has continued to improve demand for our more
highly featured products, which resulted in a favorable product and
brand mix. A strong focus on innovation to improve consumer
experiences is a key driver for profitable growth and we therefore
increased our investments in innovation and marketing in the
quarter; just as we plan to do for the full-year.
Despite producing at almost full capacity in the first quarter,
we were not able to fully meet the strong market demand across all
product categories. The supply chain remained strained in many
areas, especially for electronic components, certain plastics and
logistics, and the situation can deteriorate further driven by the
rebound in industrial activity globally. My colleagues have worked
hard, and with good result, to secure supply. However, low buffers
of input material impacted our production planning visibility in
the quarter. This resulted in some production inefficiencies,
supply-demand mismatches, and higher logistic costs that we fully
managed to offset with continuous cost improvements. We continue to
have a close dialogue with our suppliers, particularly of
electronic components, to ensure sufficient supply for the coming
months to limit the impact on production volumes and mix.
We started the year by implementing already announced price
increases. In the quarter, price fully offset the headwind from
external factors, mainly raw material, and we expect that to be the
case for the rest of 2021. In light of recent negative development
on raw material prices, we have in key markets announced another
set of price increases.
Even though visibility remains limited due to the ongoing
pandemic, we continue to expect demand for the first half of 2021
to exceed normal seasonal levels across our main markets, driven by
increased home-improvement spending by consumers and retailers'
inventory replenishment. However, capacity and electronic component
availability will remain constraining factors into the second half.
We estimate that market demand will begin to normalize during the
second half of 2021, assuming that consumer spending patterns start
to normalize by mid-year. All in all, we expect market demand
growth to be positive for the full year for most of our main
markets, with the exception of Latin
America where we anticipate demand to be neutral given the
recent macro turbulence and worsening of the pandemic situation in
Brazil.
Sustainability is increasingly important for consumers. We view
sustainability leadership as a competitive advantage and continue
to honor our ambitious climate targets. One of our key achievements
in 2020 is the 70% reduction of CO2 emissions from our
operations compared to 2015: well in line with our 2025 target of
80%.
As the pandemic continues, we are ready to respond in an agile
manner. I am confident that our strategy ensures we remain well
positioned to deliver long-term shareholder value even in rapidly
changing market conditions.
Telephone conference 09.00 CET
A telephone conference is held at 09.00 CET today, April 28. Jonas
Samuelson, President and CEO and Therese Friberg, CFO will comment on the
report.
Details for participation by telephone are as follows:
Participants in Sweden: +46 8
566 426 51
Participants in UK/Europe: +44
3333 000 804
Participants in US: +1 631 9131 422
Pin code: 87590350#
Slide presentation for download:
www.electroluxgroup.com/ir
Link to webcast:
https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/s7byaidv
CONTACT:
For further information, please contact:
Sophie Arnius, Head of Investor Relations +46 70 590 80 72
Åsa Öhman, Electrolux Press Hotline, +46 8 657
65 07
This is information that AB Electrolux is obliged to make
public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information
was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact
person set out above, at 0800 CET on
April 28, 2021.
This information was brought to you by Cision
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Interim Report Q1
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SOURCE Electrolux