7/12/2024

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

Good morning and welcome to this webcast and telephone conference covering InVido's second quarter and half year performance in 2024. My name is Fredrik Møller and since the 10th of April this year, I'm the president and CEO of InVido. And joining me today here in our Malmö head office is also Peter Wellin, our group CFO. Over the past three months, I've had an intense but fun and promising onboarding to our group, including visits to many of our sites in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Poland, England, and Scotland. I've met with a lot of our coworkers, and I certainly know more about the window and door business now than I did before. Above all, I can conclude that InVito is in a good place. It is well-functioning, professional in all aspects. Our current activity level is high, and I notice a lot of smiles on people's faces, which bodes well for what's to come. While many of you are, of course, familiar with InVido, it may be worth reiterating that our 34 business units comprise what is de facto Europe's leading window group. The strongholds are in the Nordic region plus the UK and Ireland, but we actually cover 12 European countries in total. Our rolling 12-month turnover equals 8.8 billion SEC with a return on operating capital of 13.1%. Furthermore, we're not just producing high quality windows and doors. We also improve people's indoor life through our energy efficient and aesthetically appealing solutions. We are on an exciting journey towards doubling the size of the company by year 2030. I find it achievable. As there are still many profitable growth opportunities for us to pursue, and based on my impressions from these first three months, I dare to say that we have only scratched the surface yet. We enjoy a strong value proposition for the years to come, and our proven performance track record gives us comfort and credibility. Me and my management team are in the process of clarifying our vital few strategic priorities, as well as determining how we can speed up their execution a bit. In short, it's about realizing organic and acquisitive growth options while getting that volume flowing through a more efficient setup, harvesting on recent investments made in our people and in our operations. Let me now turn your attention to the quarter that just passed. I'm proud to report that we as a group are back on a positive growth trajectory with order intaking increasing across all of our four business areas. Our order backlog went up by an impressive 68%. largely driven by our side acquisition and an uptake in consumer sentiment, in turn boosted by lower inflation and interest rates. It was particularly pleasing to note our performance leap within e-commerce, more than doubling its profitability, and within Western Europe, where our Irish entity Carlson booked InVito's largest order to date. All of this gives us cautious optimism for the second half of the year. Still, I, of course, remain humble over the fact that uncertainty still prevails in the marketplace, particularly given the continued low new build activity hampering industry and project-related demand overall, particularly in Sweden and in Finland. With regards to acquisitions, which form an important growth driver for us, we have noted a higher activity level in Q2 and can conclude that our target funnel is healthy. Last but not least, The green transition is definitely gaining momentum, and here InVito is getting quite a lot of positive recognition for both our positioning and our efforts. If we then look at the quarterly figures, order intake grew by 22% and by 10% organically relative last year's Q2. Our order backlogs increased of an impressive 68%, of course, includes last year's acquisition of SIDA Group, but even if adjusted for this, it grew by 10%. Net sales were up 3% quarter on quarter, but declined organically by 5%. I can conclude that several entities have gained market share during spring, in most cases with maintained margins. Operating EBITDA reached 263 million SECs equaling a margin of 11.4%, up from 261 million SEX, but down from 11.6% respectively. Net debt in relation to operating EBITDA went up from 0.7 times last year to 1.4 times now, or 1.1 if not applying IFRS 60 in accounting. Still safely within our set target though. As usual, certain achievements are worth celebrating a bit extra, and this quarter is no exception. First, I'm very pleased about our healthy progress within e-commerce, displaying strong growth in top line and translating that to appropriate more than twice the size of where it was one year ago. So well done, Boo and team. Secondly, our longstanding efforts and our favorable position within sustainability are getting more external recognition. Here exemplified by Financial Times listing of InVido as one of Europe's top 500 climate leaders. And by TMF, the Swedish Wood and Furniture Manufacturers Association, handing its NOVA award to our lead French entity for their innovative work on total window recycling. And this is also worth highlighting, of course, our Ireland-based entity Carlson, which joined InVido already in 2006, booked a record high order in the quarter, worth around 9 million euros, and spanning over a timeline of almost two years from now. This is a sign of trust from our customers and of Carlsson being perceived as the clear leader in its field. Congratulations are definitely in order for Michael and his team. As you know, sustainability is high on both our management and board agendas, and it is gradually becoming a part of our company DNA. Visiting our sites recently, I noted with satisfaction our particular efforts within work safety. While our vision for lost time accidents is zero, our trend line continues to slope downward, which is very, very positive. Some of the patents seen and communicated already in the first quarter have also been present in Q2. In terms of challenges, I'm again thinking primarily of the soft market for new build, what we typically refer to as industry or projects. In the case of Sweden and Finland, activity is still at historically low levels here. Accordingly, this has hampered our performance for the full six-month period, causing net sales to decline by 13% organically relative to the same period last year, and our operating EBITDA margin to decline from 9.9% to 8.5%. The negative delta in earnings per share from 5.26 krona last year to 2.89 in the first half of 2024 is largely related to items affecting comparability and to positive currency effects in last year's financial net. Now it's time to dig deeper into our consolidated Q2 numbers, as well as our business area's performance, and I therefore hand over to you, Peter. Please go ahead.

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Thank you so much, Fredrik. We start with this page. This page is then showing the income statement. To the left, you can see the Q2. In the middle, you can see the year-to-date. To the right, you can see the rolling 12 months as well as last year. Starting with the Q2, net sales is up by 3% compared to last year. Organically, it's down by 5%. Gross profit is slightly down, minus 1%, and the gross margin went from 26.7% in the quarter to 25.6% this year. However, Invida has taken some restructuring costs in the quarter of about 23 million Swedish crowns related to the one factory project in Vetlanda and also due to write-downs of inventories. the gross profit has been impacted negatively by these two restructuring costs. Excluding these restructuring costs, the gross margin was more or less the same as last year. Operating EBITDA was up 3% and the margin was the same as last year, 14.8%. Operating beta is up by 1% compared to last year, meaning the margin went from 11.6 to 11.3. It will come back more when it comes to operating a beta margin. The EBITDA was down from $222 million last year to $240 million. The restructuring costs then impacted this $23 million. That's the difference between operating EBITDA and EBITDA. Further down in the income statement, we can see that profit after tax is down by 22%. NVIDA had also last year, in Q2 last year, a positive currency impact in the financial net. So when comparing the financial net compared to last year, we had a positive impact last year and that thereby lower results this year. So profit tax as well as earnings per share was then negatively impacted by the restructuring cost of this year. And when compared to last year, we had a positive currency impact. Thereby low earnings per share, even though operating at beta was more or less in the same level as last year. Looking at year-to-date Q1 plus Q2, sales is down by 5%. And operating at beta is down by 18% from 430 to 354 due to the performance in Q1, the more normal Q1, I'd like to say, compared to previous years where we had a positive COVID impact in Q1. And the margin has declined from 9.9 to 8.5. Earnings per share is down from 527 to 289. Rolling 12 months or later 12 months, Sales is about $8.8 billion. Operating in beta is $10.9 billion. And the earnings per share is $9.35 billion. This page is showing the development and the calculation of organic growth. We do it a little bit differently compared to other companies because we change the history. In that sense, we make a performance. So starting to the left, Sales last year was $2,263,000. Then we add on the acquisitions, their sales, what they had in Q2 last year, meaning Saidi had a sales in Q2 last year of $196 million, meaning we went on a pro forma from $2,263,000 to $2,459,000. The acquisition gave us 9%. Then we recalculate the proforma with the currency of this year. And now this year, it's a quite small impact, only plus 1 million, and the percentage is more or less the same. And then we then compare the proforma last year with the FX of this year compared to the sales in this year. And then we have the decline of 5% organically, then minus 5%, meaning minus 128 million. The total sales is plus 3%. Organically, it's minus 5% when comparing to a performer last year adjusted with the currency of this year. Let's start with a big area. We go starting with Scandinavia. Scandinavia continues to be impacted by low volumes in the new-build market, especially in Sweden. where the Danish business units benefit from increased activity in the consumer market. Sales is down by 7% to $1,170,000,000. Operating beta margin was more or less the same as last year, 14.2% this year compared to 14.3% last year. The order intake was improved by 4%, and the order backlog end of the quarter is plus 6%. To the left, Yeah, to the right, you can see in the graph, you can see the development, the rolling 12-month sales, as well as the rolling 12-month operating beta margin. And as you can see, the peak was in Q4 2022, and the sales is now rolling 12 months, 21% behind the sales in Q4 2022. And the margin has, even though, despite the sales decline, been quite stable. If we then go over to Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe continues to be a challenging market, especially the Finnish market. And Finland is hampered by the strong volume decline in the new build segment. And we have taken action. However, we have not been able to keep operating a beta margin. But the decline in Q2 this year was minus 22% in sales. went from 569 million to 441 million. The operating EBITDA margin went from 13% to 5.5%. The order intake in a quarter was, however, positive, plus 2% compared to last year, and the backlog is more or less the same as last year, minus 4%. You can see the same graph to the right showing the development from Q2 to 2022, the sales later 12 months, as well as the operating EBITDA margin later 12 months, And as you can see, compared to the peak in Q1 2023, sales is now 29% lower compared to Q1 2023. And the margin has declined the latest two quarters. Next one is e-commerce. E-commerce has a positive development. We have increased the market share and we have substantial profit growth. So we continue to have a pot development in all markets when it comes to e-commerce sales. And April was actually the all-time high monthly order intake for e-commerce. In a quarter, sales is plus 50%, from 271 million to 311 million. The operating beta margin has been improved from 3.9% to 10.8%, meaning the operating beta in a quarter was plus 220%. The all-in-take is plus 60% in the quarter, and the backlog end of the quarter is minus 6%. And here you can see that to the right, same development, same graph showing development in Q2 2022. Sales have started to increase, and the margin has started to increase as well. And we have a positive development, latest two quarters when it comes to operating a beta margin. Going over to Western Europe. In Western Europe, we have a positive order intake and we have improved profitability. We have continued profitable growth in the second quarter, both organically as well as acquired. In England, we have gained new customers since some of our competitors have gone bankrupt. And in Scotland, Saudi, we continue to have good development. And we have also good development in Ireland, in our business in Carlsson. In the quarter, sales is plus 108%, from 227 million to 471 million. The operating beta margin has been improved from 6.8 to 11.4, and the oil intake is plus 169 million. Of course, possibly impacted by CIDR's acquisition, as well as the largest order ever for a leader taken by Carlson in Ireland, as Fredrik mentioned. And the order backlog is plus 480%. And here, CIDR has a different business model with large order backlog compared to the rest of the group, and thereby we have a high growth in the concept order backlog. This page is showing the sales development as well as operating a data development from Q2 2022, so 2023 to Q2 2024. Starting with sales, we can see we have lower sales and declined sales in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, where we have growth in e-commerce and in Western Europe. And looking at the data, we can see that we have declined in Scandinavia by 12 million, Eastern Europe was down by 49 million. However, e-commerce has improved the result by 23 million and Western Europe has improved the result by 38 million. The reason why we are lower operating beta margin this quarter, went from 11.6 to 11.3, is due to development of Eastern Europe, where sales declined by 22%. Scandinavia, their margin was more or less the same as last year, and we have a higher margin or improved margin in e-commerce as well as Western Europe. And when comparing the margin compared to previous year, Q2 previous year, we can see the margin this year is more or less the same as it was pre-pandemic or even higher than pre the pandemic. NVIDIA had a really high margin in Q2 2021, due to the pandemic especially due to the performance of e-commerce so the margin this year is slightly down compared to last year from 11.6 to 11.3 once again due to eastern europe meaning due to finland and the margin for total group is more or less what was pre-pandemic looking at the cash flows the cash flow excluding Acquisitions of subsidiaries is more or less the same as last year, minus 2%. Cash flow from operating activities is minus 2%. Then we have a positive deviation when it comes to changes in working capital. Minor adjustments when it comes to inventory. We have a positive cash flows from operating liabilities and negative from operating receivables. And a total impact of plus 8% compared to last year. And this changes in operating capital has then compensated the higher CapEx in the quarter. CapEx in the quarter is plus 22% compared to last year. To the graph to the right, you can see the development when it comes to CapEx since 2019. Before 2019, the normal CapEx level of NVIDIA was 3% to 3.5%. Then during the COVID time, the capex was reduced due to different circumstances. And now in 2023, as well as the beginning of this year, the capex level has increased. And we are today in a rolling 12-month level on 4.1. We must compensate the lower capex that we did during COVID. So instead of being on 3% to 3.5%, we should be on 3.5% and 4% the coming years. So with a strong cash flow in the quarter, more than same as last year, the net debt is more than same in Q2 as it was in Q1, meaning the cash flow generated in Q2 has compensated the dividend payment that we did in May Q2 this year. So net debt It's more than same as in Q2, and net depth in relation to EBITDA is today 1.4, same as in Q1, and it was 0.7 last year when we include IFR 16. Excluding IFR 16, net depth with EBITDA is 1.1 compared to 0.4 Q2 last year. This page is showing the return operating capital. Return operating capital has declined and is now on 13.1% compared to the target of 15% still above the pre-pandemic level. The main reason why we had lower return of its capital is a lower EBIT in sake compared to one and one half years ago. And This page is showing the order intake and the order backlog. To the left, you can see the order intake development in Q2 2019 to 2024. And to the right, we can see the order backlog from 2019 until 2024 end of Q2. The total order intake was plus 22%, excluding acquisitions, meaning excluding insider is plus 10%. And all business areas have higher order intake compared to last year. Scandinavia plus 4%, Eastern Europe plus 2%, e-commerce plus 16%, and Western Europe plus 169%. Excluding Saidi and excluding a large order in Carlsen, Western Europe has still a positive order intake. And then the order backlog is plus 68% compared to last year. Excluding acquisition is also here, plus 10%. We have a higher backlog in Scandinavia as well as in Western Europe. And now I hand over back to Fredrik. He will make a summary and outlook.

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

Thank you very much, Peter. Excellent run-through as always. To sum up, we can conclude that InVido is back on a growth track. While markets remain uncertain, particularly in the new build segment, we have grown our order intake across all four business areas We've raised sales and we've raised profits too. And we do see macroeconomic signs of consumer sentiment moving in the right direction. This morning's inflation figure in Sweden is one good example of that. The M&A climate is also improving, meaning that altogether we are cautiously optimistic about what the second half of the year has in store for us. The green transition is gaining momentum across Europe, which is also exciting for the medium to long term. And before we open up for Q&A, we would like to make some noise about our upcoming events. So please make a note of these in your calendars already now, particularly our Capital Markets Day that will take place in Stockholm. As always, you can also find a lot of useful information on our webpage and via our frequent posts on LinkedIn. And now Peter and I would be delighted to answer any of the questions that you may have.

speaker
Operator

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Albin Nordmark from Nordia. Please go ahead.

speaker
Albin Nordmark
Analyst, Nordia

Hi Peter and Fredrik, thank you for taking my questions. So a couple of questions. Firstly regarding the gross margin which seems to be increasing across three out of four business areas. How should we think about the gross margin looking ahead?

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

It's a very valid question. Looking ahead, we can see that we have been able to keep our sales prices on a good level. And we have also been able to reduce the cost in connection to the lower volume that we had in this year, Q1 as well as in Q2, because we have a volume decline compared to last year looking at the production. Then the order intake is positive. So we have been able to keep the sales We have a positive material impact in Q2 compared to previous years and also compared to Q1. However, we see that the material prices is going to be more stabilized and perhaps some materials are going to be slightly up. So in our expectations, we see a quite flat development the next coming period.

speaker
Albin Nordmark
Analyst, Nordia

Okay, thanks. And within e-commerce, can you comment on the margin there? I think you had some 17% margin before the pandemic, and then you were down really low, and now you're getting up again. So what's the normal margin there? And also, if you can comment on, is it just Denmark that's going well there, or is any other country picking up?

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

If you go back to pre-pandemic, the margin of the e-commerce business was around between 10 and 12%. That was quite a normal business. Then during a pandemic, the margin increased quite rapidly because the market increased very quickly and we had limitations on how quick we can increase the capacity. So the way for us to reduce the order intake was actually to increase sales prices. And that had a positive impact on the margin. And then we went up to 15, 16, 17% in a pandemic. Then we have seen higher competition in the e-commerce business. We have seen last year some new has entered the market. And when the market has declined, the price competition has been much tougher compared to the level prior pandemic. We foresee that it will take some years until we can come back to the level that we had pre-pandemic, this 10%. It will not be done during this year. It will take some years, but we are on the right path towards the target of 10 plus percent in EBIT margin. The other question you had was which markets. We have a positive growth more or less in all markets. So it's not only Denmark. Denmark is the biggest market for e-commerce, but we also have positive growth in the other markets and we also entered some new markets during this year.

speaker
Albin Nordmark
Analyst, Nordia

Can I ask you what markets you entered this year?

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

We entered the Netherlands, that was mentioned in Q1. And of course we have other markets to penetrate as well on our action list at the same time. We have quite a lot more to do on a positive note already in the existing markets that we're in. Denmark is, of course, we're more heavily tilted towards Denmark, which is great. But we also want to grow the other jurisdictions as well beyond Denmark. So that's also proceeding very nicely.

speaker
Albin Nordmark
Analyst, Nordia

Great, thank you. And my last question, can you comment some overall comments on the M&A market and also specifically, is it likely to close any acquisitions during 2024?

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

Yes, as mentioned, first of all, M&A is important for us, as you know. If we come backwards from the 2030 ambition of being twice the size of where we are today, we of course need to grow the whole group by a CAGR of 10 to 15% per annum. And let's say roughly half of that could and should come from acquisitions, where we also have a very positive track record. Just looking at Saidi is one excellent example of that. We have noted... Definitely an uptick in M&A activity as such, which I think is a good sign for the outlook of the market and the industry also as such. I think also, I think what we and I reflected on already in the Q1 report, Invido is quite an attractive buyer. I don't feel that we have really missed out on any major or more attractive opportunities. Rather, there are quite a few coming knocking on our door wanting to be part of the Invita group going forward, which is great news, of course. So while we had an attractive funnel and an excellent process already in place before Q2, that has been even further solidified. And for us, we're not stressed up about it. We want to continue to do the right deals. And yeah, everyone involved in M&A knows that it sometimes has to take time before we get to the finish line. And I'm not in a position to say that we will close the deal within the next six months. We're moving forward on a couple of discussions. It's, of course, also a matter for me to build those important, really crucial relationships with senior management and owners of these businesses that we are talking to. So, yeah, I can just conclude and note with pleasure that there's a high activity level here, both in the market and within InVido. So that's very promising.

speaker
Albin Nordmark
Analyst, Nordia

Okay, thanks a lot. That's all for me.

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

Thank you.

speaker
Operator

The next question comes from Sofia Soling from Carnegie. Please go ahead.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

Hi, Fredrik and Peter, and congratulations to a great report, Q2. I have a couple of questions. So let me first start with the non-recurring items that you recognized during the quarter. Could you give the split between what is related to the restructuring-related part and the inventory losses, and then also this type of inventory losses, what type of product is it, and the reason for this non-recurring item?

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Okay. The main part is the inventory and the reason for that is that we have some old inventories in the books and we also made some platform changes and thereby we have some old inventory that we took. And then the rest of the part is the restructuring connected to Vetlanda. But the main part is the inventory.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

All right. And should we expect any similar cost recognitions ahead or is this

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

No, not when it comes to inventory. It's not when it comes to Vetlanda. It might be some small as well in Q3 because we cannot take everything at once. We have to take it when it comes. That is the cost connected to moving the machine. But most of the cost is now taken. But some minor can be in Q3.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay, thank you. And... You mentioned that the consumer behavior was strong in Denmark. Could you say anything about the consumer behavior in the other regions that you operate in?

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

Yeah, I think related to what we actually communicated in the Q1 report, Denmark as a country, as a market has, from a macroeconomic perspective, been a little bit ahead of the other Nordic countries. And we lower inflation and lower interest rates. We're beginning to see some of that trickle through to Sweden, first of all, and then Finland and to some extent Norway are still lagging, as mentioned. So in Sweden, I think weather has also been a positive factor. I think I speak for all of us that the winter was just miserable. And that now, the spring and early summer has added to people, consumers being a bit more buoyant and then inflation being low as witnessed again this morning in Sweden. That's indicating most likely that interest rates will continue to go down a bit already this year, which is typically a positive signal for our market. England is still a bit slow, a bit on the softer side.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

All right. But you mentioned also that it's very strong momentum now in Ireland, for example. What is the main reason for that, would you say? And would you say that it's currently at a very high level of momentum and you should not expect that to continue, or is this something that you expect will continue?

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Yeah. The total market in Ireland has been positive and then we have been able to gain some quite large orders and we have also gained some market shares in Ireland. How the market will develop in the future, we still are positive on the Irish market. We don't expect high growth, but we still expect that to continue for the next coming period that the market will be stable.

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

If I may add to that, more of a personal reflection, having visited Scotland and England, not Ireland, but Scotland and England recently, it is, of course, a lot happening around the green transition. The full evidence, I guess, and the full action plans have yet to be seen in all jurisdictions. But, for example, in England, there is talk about, of course, the whole market and the standard going from single glazing to triple glazing windows more or less overnight and that could happen already next summer, so in one year's time. It's just a sign of the momentum now picking up speed, the whole transition picking up momentum. which is rather exciting, of course, and where NVIDIA should be and is in a rather favorable position. Okay, interesting. That would relate to the Irish market as well, medium to long term.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay, thank you. And you mentioned quite a lot that the order intake was positive, but actually if we look at the order backlog year over year, it was down in several of the business areas.

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

and how would you interpret that is that like more of a negative order intake trend than in the later part of the quarter or how should we view that and where we have a negative is the e-commerce market e-commerce business and that order take is order backlog is quite small in that sense it's quite because we're only working on consumer sales with a short order backlog and Looking at Finland, because we also have a positive in Scandinavia. We have a positive in Western Europe, even though we take away the SIDI. And then we have a negative also then in Eastern Europe. But Eastern Europe was a little bit different compared to that. That last year backlog of Eastern Europe was quite big. We ended 2023 with a big backlog, a large backlog in Eastern Europe, in Finland. And then we worked from that backlog during the first three quarters for more or less a whole year. So when looking at Eastern Europe, we are comparing to quite a high backlog.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay, great. And when we talk about Eastern Europe, let's see, do you have any specific action plan for Eastern Europe to improve the margin within this business area How do you view... What is your action plan within Eastern Europe, would you say?

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

I think, first of all, one needs to acknowledge the fact that top line is down by 22%. That's not something you can compensate for just overnight. We've done a great job, as always with Inivido, in trying to align the cost base as much as we can. but without hampering the future, the near to medium term, because we do need both blue-collar and white-collar employees for when the market comes back, both from a competence and from a capacity point of view. So we have taken measures. I'm rather impressed by that. We have not destroyed the business because we're in it for the long run. Yes, we continue to have our ears close to the ground. And if we need to adjust more, we will do that, certainly. But we're in a good spot. I think we have fared better than many of our peers, to be very honest. We have a good mix. We have the right team in place. And I'm absolutely certain we will bounce back not only in Finland, but in Eastern Europe as a whole.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

All right. Thank you. Yes? Sorry.

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

No, just adding one thing. Yes, it's down to the 2% in Q2, but year-to-date we are down to 3% this year. So it's quite a massive drop for Eastern Europe and especially Finland.

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

And again, if you look at new build in Finland, you have to go back to the 1940s to find the same low levels in terms of new build. We're at extraordinary low levels. I think that's worth noting.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

Yeah. Okay, thank you. Actually, I have two more questions, if you don't mind. One is about the competitive landscape. If you can give us how you view the competitive landscape at the moment and perhaps in the different geographical regions that you operate in. Do you see more now price pressure, more fierce competition, or is it maybe the opposite, lower pressure due to bankruptcies among smaller players? What do you see?

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Then we have to take it a little bit region by region. If you start with Scandinavia, nothing has happened when it comes to... Some companies have financial problems, but there are no companies that are really financially stressed. The tier prices have gone down during the last quarters, and that also means that the prices have gone down in that sense. Also, some companies are trying to buy volumes at the moment. So we see in some markets, we see a tendency to lower prices to buy volumes, especially when coming into the product market. When we go over to look at UK, there is a different situation because in UK, three of the largest competitors have gone into bankruptcy during the latest eight, nine months. And we have gained new customers due to that. We have taken some new customers. Even though the market is still declining in UK in Q2 this year, we have increased our sales because we have gained market share taking over some new customers.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

All right. Let's see, that was UK. And Eastern Europe, did you have any specific there? Or did I miss?

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Sorry, Eastern Europe, Finland. Also here, we can see a quite tough... In some segments there, we also see a price pressure. The price has gone down. And we have also been a little bit forced in that sense to also reduce the price somewhat.

speaker
Sofia Soling
Analyst, Carnegie

Okay. All right. Thank you. That was actually all my questions. Thank you so much for all your answers.

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Thank you.

speaker
Operator

There are no more phone questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for written questions and any closing comments.

speaker
Peter Wellin
Group CFO

Okay, we have received one question. It's from Hugo Maas. We have already talked about this, but still read it because it's a little bit more sensitive here. The question is, would you mind talking about the situation in Finland? Do you witness some positive signs in a new-built activity? Given order intake is increasing Q2, should we expect better situations in the second half of this year? Or do you take action to reduce cost-based care if yes? Should we see already better EBITDA margin in second half of this year? We talked about Finland. Finland is still a tough market. The new-build market is still very tough and in some way the consumers are hesitating. Yes, we have taken higher order take in Q2 this year compared to last year in Finland. However, it doesn't mean that the market has been increased. It's more that we have gained market shares. during this period. We should not expect a better EBITDA margin for the next coming quarter, because we are still comparing to really good profitability during last year. So we still see positive development in Finland. We see positive signs, especially on our activity, not so much on the market, but our performance, we see positive signs. But we are still comparing to very strong margins last year in Q3 as well as in Q4. And when it comes to cost reductions, yes, we have taken down the cost. Once again, the sales is down by 33% in Eastern Europe and we are still making profits. Smaller profit, we are still making profits in Eastern Europe. And we have reduced the cost. And for us, it's a little bit of balance right now because if you take too much cost, then we will not be able to fulfill the high order intake that we have so it's a little bit of balance right now how much cost reduction we can have compared to the market situations and our orientation see here then we have some other questions but they have already been answered so no new questions

speaker
Fredrik Møller
President and CEO

So we conclude there. Thank you, everyone. What remains is for Peter and me to wish you all a very nice summer. So thank you and take care.

Disclaimer

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