Addtech can sum up another successful year in which we clearly continued to deliver on our vision of being a leader in technical solutions for a sustainable future. The year has been marked by a strong recovery in market activity and demand for sustainable technical solutions. Over the year, our strong position in strategically chosen segments generated organic growth of 15 percent, while we also carried out thirteen carefully selected acquisitions. Thanks to our companies’ extraordinary performance, the operating margin was strengthened to a record 12.8 (11.0) percent. The strength of our culture, with its focus on entrepreneurship, manifested itself.

FOURTH QUARTER 

All business areas delivered a very strong end to the financial year. During the quarter, the positive trend with a high level of customer activity and good underlying demand across the board continued. Despite many of our companies being affected by the global supply chain disruptions, we maintained good delivery capacity, which resulted in sales increasing by 34 percent in total, of which as much as 24 percent was organic. The strong growth in all business areas is a function of well-established customer and supplier relationships, where our companies have dealt with the challenges excellently. Active efforts to offset price increases and generally good cost control has resulted in high operating margins and EBITA growth of 54 percent for the quarter.

As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our business relations with companies in Russia and Belarus have been halted. Our exposure to these countries, on both the customer and supplier sides, is limited and the total effect on net sales during the fourth quarter was marginal. Our thoughts and undivided sympathies go to the Ukrainian people and all those affected by the war.

FULL YEAR

Recent years’ increased focus on sustainable technical solutions, combined with a high acquisition rate, has afforded us strong positions in selected niches, both in the Nordic region and internationally. Over the autumn, we further fine-tuned the organization to strengthen the network between the companies, thereby fostering conditions to derive optimum benefit from future growth opportunities.

Sequentially increasing customer activity in combination with a lower cost base resulted in a sales increase of 24 percent and high EBITA growth of 44 percent, with strong contributions by all business areas. Despite increased inventory and higher accounts receivable due to sales growth in many companies, P/WC strengthened and landed at a historically high 69 percent.

The market situation clearly strengthened over the year in most of our key customer segments. Sales of input components to manufacturing companies in special vehicles, as well as in the medical and mechanical industries have developed well and the market situation has developed very strongly in the forest and process industries, and particularly the willingness to invest in the sawmill industry. In other important segments, such as electronics, electricity-related products for construction and installation customers, as well as in waste and recycling, the business situation has been favourable. In wind power, demand remained stable until the final quarter of the financial year when we saw the market slow down to a certain extent. The major infrastructure investments required to meet increased energy needs generated continued favourable demand for our companies active in the expansion of regional and national grids.

Geographically, the Nordic markets developed strongly over the year as a whole. Norway was slightly weaker than the other Nordic countries, mainly due to a continued low willingness to invest in oil and gas. Our major markets beyond the Nordic region, DACH and the UK in particular, strengthened over the year, providing favourable conditions for our companies operating in these markets.