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Garo AB
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Good morning, and welcome to the GARO year-end report 2022. My name is Charlie and I'll be coordinating the call today. [Operator Instructions]
I will now hand over to your host, Patrik Andersson, Chief Executive Officer, to begin. Patrik, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of GARO's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022. My name is Patrik Andersson, and I'm the CEO of GARO. And with me today are Helena Claesson, our CFO, to present the financial performance.
Next slide, please. We start with an introduction. GARO is a company that develops and manufactures and sell innovative products and systems for electrical installation and the own brand on the European markets. Developing products that are at the forefront has always been a significant aspect of our success. Focus is developing user-friendly and safe products with a modern design and a long service life.
The market for electrical installation material and charging infrastructure is continuing to grow, and we foresee a positive long-term trend for GARO. At the same time, the increased demand for products and solutions to achieve a fossil-free society in which a growing number of players become aware of the environmental impact. This makes a sustainable aspect, a crucial factor in the choice of product and service.
Next slide, please. We have 2 business areas: GARO E-mobility, which consists of product area E-mobility and GARO Electrification, which include product area Electrical Distribution products, Project and Temporary Power. We have operations in Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Finland, Poland and in the U.K. And we also sell in the European countries where we not have own [ subsidiaries ] and we have also started to establish operations in the German market, which we have previously reached through retailers, but we have now like to see higher market footprints.
While production facilities in Gnosjö and Hillerstorp in Sweden and Szczecin in Poland. And as we have announced before that we are investing in capacity and production efficiency for the future, in Poland, we are building a new production and logistics facility of approximately 15,000 square meters, which is a considerable increase of capacity primarily in GARO E-mobility, but also in GARO Electrification and the facility is expected to be completed by this summer. And we are approximately 520 employees in the group.
Next slide, please. In product area E-mobility, we develop open market all type of chargers for rechargeable vehicles. We have product and turnkey solutions for destination chargers for all various places, at home, public places, workplaces and along the highway. To make the E-mobility business even more complete, we offer service agreement to help our customers [ to yield the service ] update, et cetera. We believe it's important to make it easy for the user and make it possible to charge where people live and work. This area accounted for 30% of the total sales in 2022.
Next slide, please. In Business area, Electrification, the largest product area is Electrical Distribution products, consisting of approximately 3,500 products and turnkey solutions for the electrical installation markets. Example of products are components, safety switches, meter cabinets, outlet boxes, plugs and sockets, which are products used every day in different applications, such in new buildings, renovations, marina and camping sites, industry in e-mobility solution, and it contributes to 43% of the group sales in 2022.
Our product area Project provides complete and customized solutions for all type of power supply, for apartment, villa industry, e-mobility solutions accounted for 21% of the total sales. And product areas, Temporary Power with a product portfolio consisting of temporary electricity, lighting, heating and charging. Product used on construction sites and in events accounted for 6% of the sales. These 4 product areas make GARO's offer unique and easy for the customer.
An example of let's need -- when the customer needs charging solutions with different chargers for e-mobility, they will also need power supply from Project and safety and installation products for Electrical Distribution products. This make it easy, simple and safe for the customer and end users.
Next slide, please. We'll go further on with operational highlights, and we start with electrical -- GARO Electrification. Our development with business area electrification has been strong this year with a sales growth of 11% in the quarter and 13% in the full year. With this growth rate, we have clearly outgrown the underlying markets.
We have a good development in product area Electrical Distribution products in our Project business with a notable growth in the U.K. and Ireland. We also saw good development on our market outside the Nordics with a sale increase of 29% in the quarter and 30% in the full year. New construction, the renovation sector and work to improve energy efficiency drove the sales of almost all product groups during the year.
GARO E-mobility. Sales of e-mobility products decreased by 40% in the quarter and by 3% for the full year. Demand is there, and the order intake remains strong. However, our product was negatively affected by shortages of some electronic components. The launch of GARO Entity is expected to lead to improved supply of components and we are expected to reach full production by summer.
As a consequence of long lead times and strong order intake, we have a very large order book by the end of the quarter. Similar to earlier quarter this year, we saw a weak development of home chargers due to long lead times for hybrid and electrical cars, and we expect that this part of the market to recover in line with the car manufacturers lead times reducing.
On the other hand, we see a strong demand in the advanced system for public charging where the expansion of our infrastructure for public charging is continuing in all Europe, which suits us as a broad e-mobility range for all type of destination chargers. The big event during the period was the launch of GARO Entity and new generation chargers, and I will talk about that later in the presentation. Growth and profitability. As I mentioned, sales growth within E-mobility was down significantly. But worth mentioning was a good sales growth we had outside the Nordics. This was partially offset with a good development in electrification. This demonstrates the strength in GARO's business model with 2 business areas, completing each other in challenging times.
Profitability in the quarter was lower due to lower volumes delivered. And we also made a write-down of SEK 50 million due to change of technical platform within E-mobility as we also announced to the market January 27. However, we have a long-term view and strategy on our investments, 2 business areas with good synergy effects and a large order book within E-mobility.
Next slide, please. In November, we launched our new product program and platform for destination charging with smart services. The products range are built on a whole new platform and competitive service for use at home, in houses, apartments, commercial facilities and as well in public places. Our ambition is always to offer the customers the most safe products and solutions within electrical vehicle charging.
The new product range and service will make a big difference for the installers and users in several ways. New technology is being introduced and in the development of the products, high focus has been on safety standards and future service to make it easy for all stakeholders. This is GARO's most important product launch ever. We present the product program and platform at the London EV Show of November and at the eCarExpo in Gothenburg beginning of December. The first order have been taken on GARO Entity Pro and the first deliveries are expected by the end of the first quarter 2023.
And now over to you, Helena for the financial performance. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Patrik. And I would like to start by looking at the financial summary for the fourth quarter where the outcome was in line with the trading update published on January 27. Net sales amounted to SEK 342 million, giving us a negative growth of 8% compared to same quarter last year. While GARO Electrification continues to show growth, this was more than offset by weaker sales within GARO E-mobility.
For the full year, we had a growth of 7% driven by Electrification. Operating profit for the quarter came in at almost SEK 9 million compared to SEK 58 million for the same quarter last year. The lower profitability is a result of the lower volumes in the quarter, where component shortages hampered production and our ability to make deliveries to customers within the business area E-mobility.
The operating profit was also affected by the nonrecurring write-down of SEK 15 million as a result of phasing out inventory in connection to the change of technical platform within GARO E-mobility. Operating profit adjusted for this was SEK 24 million.
Also, when doing a comparison between the quarters, one has to consider the negative currency effect of SEK 6.5 million this quarter compared to a positive currency effect of SEK 0.5 million for the quarter last year, giving a difference between the quarters of SEK 7 million.
Operating margin for the quarter came in at 2.6%. The operating margin adjusted for the write-down was 7%. Our net debt amounted to SEK 144 million compared to a net cash position of SEK 9 million at the end of 2021. The Board of Directors will propose a dividend of SEK 0.8 per share, this corresponds to 33% of earnings per share.
Next slide, please. And now let's look into the 2 business areas separately, and we start with GARO E-mobility. Net sales amounted to SEK 81 million, which was substantially lower than in the same quarter last year. This is, to a large extent, explained by the challenges of sourcing material, mainly electrical components, which continued to negatively affect our production and limited our possibilities for deliveries to customers.
In Sweden, GARO has seen weaker sales to wholesalers partly due to the long lead times for electrical and high-grade cars. This is causing many end customers to postpone the purchase of a home charger. Also when doing a comparison with the same quarter last year, it is noticeable for us that the market has increasingly shifted to connected products also for home usage. This, in turn, has led to GARO sales of certain non-connectable home chargers to fall behind.
EBIT amounted to negative SEK 21 million, explained by the low sales volume just mentioned. Also, the operating result has been negatively affected by the SEK 15 million as a nonrecurring cost for the write-down due to the change of technical platform. Operating margins in the quarter came in at negative 26%. EBIT adjusted for the nonrecurring write-down amounted to SEK 6 million in the quarter.
For the full year 2022, net sales amounted to almost SEK 422 million. Operating profit amounted to SEK 13 million, and the margins came in at 3.1%.
Next slide, please. And now looking into the business area GARO Electrification. Net sales increased by 11% and amounted SEK 261 million compared to SEK 235 million in the same quarter last year. The sales development has been strong all through the year with a sales growth of 13% for the full year 2022. Thereby, as Patrik mentioned before, it is our opinion that we have run stronger in this segment than the overall market.
High demand was seen in product areas, Electrical Distribution products and in Project. Within Electrical Distribution products, we saw good sales of standard components such as safety products and products for energy, measurements and power stations. These products are used in the new production as well as in the renovation section and energy efficiency of properties.
Sales of car heaters was also very good in the quarter. In Project, sales continued to grow. In Sweden and in Ireland, sales was driven by new construction, renovation and energy efficiency of properties. In the U.K., the growth is mainly driven by the buildup of the charging infrastructure.
EBIT amounted to approximately SEK 30 million and margins came in at 11.4%, slightly lower than the same quarter last year. For the full year 2022, net sales amounted to almost SEK 970 million, with an operating profit of SEK 140 million and an operating margin of 14.4%.
During the quarter, GARO started to move some of its production within GARO Electrification to new premises in Hillerstorp. The move was finalized in the fourth -- in the first weeks of January, and gives us a good and strong base for continuing growth. As of January 1, Daniel Emilsson, our former CTO, has been appointed a new head of GARO Electrification. He has been with us for many years and is well placed to continue the development in this business area.
Next slide, please. And then let's look a little bit into cash flow and balance sheet. The cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 13 million in the quarter compared to SEK 48 million in the same quarter last year. This is a result of lower operating profit. Working capital requirements remains high, mainly in inventory of components, a result of tactical material purchases where GARO secures material for critical components. the high inventory value is also an effect of component shortages, where a large portion of material for pending orders remain in stock, waiting for a missing part to finalize production and make the delivery to customers.
in the quarter, we have had investments of SEK 67 million, [ SEK 8 million ] of these were related to product development. GARO has invested in a new facility in Ireland, making it possible for us to continue our growth in that market. Also by year-end, our investments in the new facility being built in Poland, reached almost SEK 50 million, where GARO is taking up a credit facility of similar size.
Our net debt position per year amounted to SEK 144 million. During the quarter, GARO has signed a lease contract for our operations in Hillerstorp, which is also increasing our net debt with about SEK 45 million. We have an equity asset ratio of 53.2% and available liquidity, including overdraft facilities of almost SEK 180 million. And in the quarter, a new credit facility of SEK 5 million has been signed.
At the AGM in May, the Board will propose a dividend of SEK 0.8 per share. This corresponds to 33% of earnings per share. The proposal also includes that the dividend will be divided into 2 occasions with record date in conjunction with the AGM in May, SEK 20 million and 1 record date in November, another SEK 20 million.
And now back to you, Patrik. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Helena. We go further on with growth and development opportunities. And here, our strategy remains the same. The main driver of growth will be organic growth. A successful product development has been and will continue to be the key to this growth. On top of this, we are always looking for potential acquisitions where we can add either new additional products, product areas or companies with an edge.
We are also looking at new geographical markets with a focus mainly on north part of Europe and GARO's vision is to become the leading brand on its chosen markets.
Next slide, please. Outlook, and we start with short term. The lack of components, electronic components in the GARO E-mobility business has significant impact on our production and delivery capacity. And the launch of GARO Entity is expected to lead to improved supply of components, and we are expected to reach full production of Entity by summer of this -- by summer this year. So this will also impact the GARO's Group's operation in the beginning of 2023.
On long term, housing production remains at favorable levels but production of new homes is expected to slow down during the second half of 2023 in, for example, Sweden and other markets, but at the same time, increase building activities on Ireland.
Demand for commercial and public real estate is expected to remain good, also renovation activities, investment into energy efficiency and electrification in general, are expected to remain at a good level.
Regarding the market for charging infrastructure, it's growing structurally with rising number of rechargeable vehicles, and we see a continuing strong trend with further expansion of charging infrastructure in the European markets.
Next slide, please. So thank you for listening for the quarter 4 and full year report and me and Helena are now ready for questions.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Johan Skoglund of DNB Markets.
So I have a couple of questions on events during the quarter here. So the first one is related to 1 of your competitors announcing a patent regarding grid face balancing. Have you made an initial assessment of how this could affect you?
Our view on that is that will not affect us at all. But I don't have the details here, but that is not the patent that we are afraid of.
Okay. Good. And so the next question is related to the component situation. Are you able to source all components for Entity as of now?
One more time, please.
Sure. So are you able to source all the required components for GARO Entity?
Yes, we are.
Good. And then the final question is on CapEx and cash flow. So what can we expect in terms of CapEx in the coming quarter?
In the coming quarter? Well, we will continue to invest in the new facility in Poland. So I would -- my best guess is will be quite similar to what we have seen in this quarter now, the quarter 4.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Kenneth Toll of Carnegie.
Yes. So first, on the component shortage, could you say something about how many components you are -- have a problem with -- compared to maybe mid of [ 2020 ]? Is it sort of 1%, 2% of the components? Or is it 30%? Or -- and has it changed since mid-2022?
We can say it's not so many components missing at this stage. And as we have told during the 2022, we have all the time redesigned and changed components. But at this stage, it's a few components missing, so to say. So it's not several components. It's a few components missing at this stage.
Okay. As long as there is 1 component missing, you still get the product out the door, I guess. But...
The problem is still there. You have to have all the components. Yes.
Yes, yes. But maybe you can start to take down the strategic inventory levels, let's say, if component availability improves...
Yes. If we get all the components, of course, the inventory level will decrease because we, as Helena mentioned, we have done a lot of strategic purchase, so that is correct that you mentioned, Kenneth.
Great. And also, CapEx, we discussed Q1, but what do you believe the CapEx level might be for the full 2023? Would it be similar as 2022 or higher?
I would say that the CapEx would be fairly similar to 2022, considering what we are sort of say, investing in right now, perhaps a little bit less, but somewhere in that area.
Great. Then for the new chargers that you have launched, but maybe not started to produce yet. Do you have any early reactions to report or any order intake? And do you think that the launch of these chargers will hurt sales of older chargers?
We have planned, so to say, the change of the older charger and the new chargers. Of course, it will affect the oldest charger a bit, but that we have in the plan, so to say. And the order intake has started. We started that the 16th of January and the order intake has been good. And it has been good success when we launched this product to the market, and we are, at this stage, having a lot of trainings and -- with our customers. So, so far, it's a good success in the markets.
Sounds great. So if I would like to order 1 for my house, when do you think it could be delivered?
We started to deliver -- we start to deliver end of this quarter. And as we mentioned in the report, we will ramp up and reach full capacity during the summer. So -- you can reach it quite quickly, of course, if you are quick, Kenneth. So we will start to deliver end of this quarter.
Great. Then there is more sort of broader question on competition. Now financing is becoming more of an issue for some players in the industry. We see some companies maybe go -- heading for reconstruction and so on. Do you feel any changes in competition on electric vehicle chargers? Or is the sort of electric component shortages more of an issue, so you don't see much?
Of course, we also have good control of our competitors, but it's important to follow your strategy and follow your thoughts in the markets. But we are focusing on Entity and material shortage. But of course, we have full control of our competitors, but that is not our main focus. It's our Entity, our strategy and the material supply is our focus.
And do you think that there could be any acquisition opportunities coming up due to competitors finding it hard to find financing?
As we mentioned in the growth plan, of course, we are always looking at potential acquisition, but nothing that we can announce at this stage.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Olof Cederholm of ABG.
It's Olof from ABG. A couple of follow-ups to the other questions. On Entity, when do you expect the new product line Entity to have fully replaced the old product line? Will that go fairly quick? Or how do you see it play out?
I would say like this, some of the product of the old range will disappear extremely quick and some of them will have a life during this year. So after 2023, the old range is totally gone. But some of them have already disappeared, but some of them will survive. So end of this year, the old range is gone.
So basically, starting 2024, you will no longer have any of the ongoing component issues?
Not for GLB. Of course, we will have a better situation as we have mentioned, for the Entity because we own the whole construction. So yes, we will have a better situation in 2024, yes.
Perfect. And your production capacity then in 2024 or your production capacity of Entity. How -- what does that compare with? Is it -- will you have a capacity like the sales level you delivered in e-mobility in '21? Or is it -- are you able to scale up even more than that with the investments that you're making? Just to get a sense of what the potential is once you unlock the Entity product line?
Yes, the Entity product line, of course, is -- therefore, we've done the investment in Poland. So we have -- can scale up the production to a very high level and sell more of Entity. So both Entity and the new production in Poland means that we can scale up the production to a very high level.
Okay. And I assume very high level is then more than what you have done in the past?
Yes.
Always good to get those things. Just on the FX flows. Can you talk a little bit about that now? Obviously, you have euro-based costs and non-Swedish kroner related cost, but what are the flows right now? Is this a component? Or is it fixed costs while you build the organization outside of Sweden?
No, it's on components. I would say almost half of our purchase for components and material is done in euros, yes.
Yes. Will that change with Entity?
It will a little bit as you could say that -- yes, it will change a little bit, but it will also -- GARO is more and more moving over to also making sort of say, key account sales in euros. So we, sort of say, minimize the difference.
Yes. So the difference would narrow regardless. But with Entity, where -- what currency are you purchase in...
It would also be a mix of euros and Swedish kroner.
Okay. Cool. Excellent. Those were the questions from me.
We now have a follow-up from Johan Skoglund of DNB Markets.
So just a quick follow-up question on before. I believe you touched upon the subject of phase balancing what the grid before. Could you please describe the technology you're using?
For the phase balancing?
Yes. I think you spoke about this 3-layer phase balancing with the grid.
Yes. I can't the details of the phase balancing. But of course, I can get you in contact with the right people here. I can't describe the details. I'm sorry for that. But I can give you the information after the meeting, how the details is working. I'm sorry for that.
At this time, we currently have no further questions. So I'll hand it back over to Patrik Andersson for any closing remarks.
Thank you, everyone, for listening, and have a good day.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.