Nilfisk Holding A/S

CSE:NLFSK

Q1-2025 Earnings Call

[Cameron Hayes, executive]

Good morning, and welcome to Nilfisk' conference call for the First Quarter of 2025. My name is Cameron Hayes, Head of Investor Relations. And with me today are Jon Sintorn, CEO and Carl Bandhold, CFO.



Before passing the word over to Jon, I would like to turn your attention to Slide 2 regarding forward-looking statements. Please note that this presentation, including remarks from management, may contain forward-looking statements that should not be relied upon as prediction of actual results. For more details, please read the content on this slide. And with that, I would like to pass the word over to Jon.

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Thank you, Cameron and good morning to everyone joining us on the call. Today, I will present our highlights for the first quarter of 2025. And afterwards, I will provide an update on the tariff situation, market outlook by region and speak to the execution of our strategic road map for 2025. But before I do that, I would like to formally welcome the newest member of the executive management team, Carl Bandhold.



On March 24, Carl Bandhold joined Nilfisk as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Carl brings extensive experience to Nilfisk from previous senior roles, including CFO roles at publicly listed companies, JM and Profoto, 10-plus years as CFO at private equity owned Permobil, a strong track record at Boston Consulting Group.



Carl possesses a deep understanding of implementing performance management systems, optimizing costs and a strong acumen for strategy and efficient capital allocation. I'm very pleased to welcome Carl to Nilfisk. Together with the organization, I believe that we possess the capabilities to drive the significant changes required to improve results and drive profitable growth.



Turning now to the highlights for Q1. To start the year, Nilfisk reported negative organic growth of 1.2% compared to the first quarter of 2024. This was primarily driven by the Professional business, where growth in EMEA was offset by a weak quarter in Americas. This was driven by a higher backlog release in the first quarter of 2024 as well as lower production capacity in our U.S. high-pressure washer business this quarter. Service also saw a slight decline of 1.5% as challenges in the Americas, both within PAC and Field Service affected results.

On a positive note, Consumer and Specialty both delivered strong organic revenue growth of 12.9% and 11.7%, respectively. Overall, revenue of EUR 256.5 million was converted into an EBITDA before special items of EUR 31.3 million or a margin of 12.2%. This performance was in line with our expectations and reflects increased investments into the commercial organization and product development. While tariffs had a limited financial impact in the first quarter, they have complicated operations.



That said, with our production facilities in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, we have a flexible and robust supply chain. This means that we can reposition how we supply the U.S. market in a relatively short period of time. We are executing on a plan to change product flows, which together with moderate price increases, enables us to offset last week's 145% tariffs on Chinese manufactured goods. In light of yesterday's announcement regarding a tariff pause, we will continue to execute on our plan to optimize our supply chain.



Turning now to a market outlook by region. At present, we believe that EMEA will continue its positive momentum in 2025, driven by effective commercial execution and expanded sales and service coverage. In the Americas, we had a weak first quarter, which was anticipated accounting for a high backlog release in the first quarter of 2024 as well as lower production capacity in our U.S. high-pressure washer business this quarter, revenues saw a slight decline. Looking ahead, our new Head of Americas, who joined us in March, is working hard together with the team to increase market activity. This, in combination with new products, should provide support for improved performance in the second half of the year.



Lastly, in APAC, we returned to growth after a challenging 2024. This achievement was supported by good commercial execution and large contracts. Activity in the region has increased and demand appears to have improved compared to last year.



Last quarter, we presented our strategic road map for 2025, where we highlighted three areas of focus for this year: one, improving our competitive position in North America; two, enhancing our operating model through decentralization; and three, executing on structural efficiency improvements.



During the first quarter, we have made meaningful progress across all three strategic priorities. On North America, with our new EVP in place, the transformation continues. We see significant opportunities in the U.S. market beyond our current strongholds, one stronghold being education, given our comprehensive product portfolio. With more deliberate customer segmentation and channel management, we are confident that we can deploy more sales resource to pursue these market opportunities effectively.



To build a stronger company, we are implementing a decentralized operating model, giving the regions full commercial responsibility. I am convinced that putting more of our decision-making and clear accountability for performance in the regions closer to our customers will lead to more effective resource allocation optimized on creating value for our customers. So, during the first quarter, we have shifted several previously centralized commercial functions to the respective regions, and we have increased the number of sales and service employees.



Changes to several senior management positions across the organization have been made as we are adding new competencies to drive performance in the decentralized structure. This includes our new EVP of Americas and EVP of Product Development as well as our new CFO. I have discussed what we're doing in the Americas. Within products, technology and innovation, Erik is creating a structure with clearer accountability and reviewing our product and project portfolios to ensure that we use our resources wisely and effectively.



And Carl, why don't you tell us a little more about structural efficiencies and what you are working on?

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

Thank you, Jon and good morning, everyone, who is joining us today. Let me start by saying that I'm honored to be part of Nilfisk, an industry leader with a proud heritage, strong brands and a really good product portfolio and as an opportunity to experience myself here in the first two months, a lot of great people. I'm really looking forward to working with Jon and the rest of the team to drive improved performance in this great company.



So specifically, then on structural efficiency. During the first quarter, we adjusted capacity in our production facilities in North America, to basically adapt to slightly lower demand. We are also continuing our consolidation of our factories in Hungary, which is progressing very well, and we expect to complete this in the third quarter. As we have mentioned previously, we're also conducting a strategic review of our U.S. high-pressure washer business. And in this quarter, we are presenting it as an asset held for sale.



Lastly, we are starting an overhead cost reduction program in the second quarter with the goal of breaking the trend of continuously growing costs and basically structurally reducing our run rate for the rest of the year.



Turning to our financial performance in the first quarter, before then moving on to outlook for 2025 and finally open up for your questions. Let us start on Page 11. Looking at revenue performance by region, as Jon mentioned, EMEA delivered another strong quarter with organic growth of 7.9%. This was primarily driven by a strong commercial execution by Christopher and his team with our customers across industry verticals.



To continue, we increased our capacity to drive commercial activities further by adding a number of people, both in sales and service across the geographies in the region. We also returned to growth in APAC with 2.9% organic growth in the first quarter, which was largely driven by solid commercial execution by Thomas and the team as well as continued diligent price management.



The nice growth and performance in EMEA and APAC were offset by a 17.7% decline in Americas. And this was anticipated. We had a large backlog release in the Q1 2024; in addition, the production capacity in our U.S. high-pressure washer business is down by about 50%, which impacted revenue by EUR 4 million compared to Q1 last year. So again, accounting for these matters, the Americas business was largely flat.



Moving on to margins then. EBITDA before special items was EUR 31.3 million for a margin of 12.2%, a decrease by 1 percentage point to Q1 of last year, where you can see that a healthy gross margin improvement of 1.4% was offset primarily by a 2.8% increase in our overhead cost ratio.



Looking at gross margin, this was our fifth consecutive quarter with improving gross margin. And the drivers compared to Q1 last year was primarily diligent price and discount management as well as a favorable mix when our most profitable businesses are growing faster, i.e., Specialty and EMEA. In addition, the continued actions on optimizing our supply chain are yielding results. This was partially offset though by slightly higher freight costs and under absorption in our factories due to the slightly lower volumes.



Moving on to overhead cost. Overhead costs in total increased by EUR 6.4 million versus Q1 of last year. The primary drivers here were investments in the commercial organization, which saw sales and distribution costs increased by EUR 3.6 million. We also continue to invest in new products, technology and innovation with an increase of EUR 2 million in R&D cost. All in all, this meant that we have an increase of the overhead cost ratio from 34.5% to 37.3% year-over-year.



And again, as Jon mentioned, we are introducing overhead cost program starting in Q2 to address the situation. We expect to reduce our expenses in general and administrative activities. and overall reduce the run rate compared to Q1 for the second half of the year, while we are still able to increase our resources used for sales and service activities.



Turning then to cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities was negative by EUR 12.5 million in Q1. The decrease was primarily driven by continued increase in working capital, a timing on the interest payments on our financing as well as lower operating profit. Particularly inventory levels are high, and this is partially driven by product launches and factory consolidation. But we are also having some issues following the SAP implementation in Americas at the end of last year, where some smaller issues in the sales and operations process are challenging. These issues are being resolved, but this was one of the drivers for the high inventory levels.



Overall, free cash flow was negative EUR 19.8 million, and our net interest-bearing debt increased to EUR 297.4 million, which means that our financial gearing is now 2.2x.



At the end of Q1, our available liquidity remains solid at approximately EUR 175 million, including both our cash and cash equivalents as well as our undrawn revolving credit facility. While we are in a good position, I'm not satisfied with the development of working capital and overall cash flow. So, this is something that I will look into and be working on to improve going forward.



Moving on then to our outlook for 2025. The financial outlook for 2025 is maintained. We continue to expect organic revenue growth in the range of 1% to 3% and an EBITDA margin before special items between 13% and 14%. This financial outlook is based on a number of assumptions; stable market conditions in EMEA, a neutral development in the U.S. and maintained moderate growth in the APAC region, as well as, as Jon mentioned, an ability to offset tariff through supply chain optimizations and price increases. And of course, an assumption that trade wars do not intensify leading to a global recession.



I think it's important for us to state that we see an elevated risk from macroeconomic uncertainty as any company would do in these times. However, given what we know now and with the things we are doing on adapting for tariffs and structural cost reductions, we maintain our guidance.



With that, I turn things back to Jon.

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Thank you, Carl. And now it's time for Q&A.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Casper Blom with Danske Bank.

[Casper Blom, analyst]

I have a couple of questions. I'll just take them one by one, so you don't have to write down things. First of all, I note in your comment regarding the Americas that part of the reason for the quite negative organic revenue development is that last year, you had this backlog release. Could you comment a bit on how you see that for the coming quarters or maybe for full year 2025? How much, I would say, headwind we should expect from those difficult comparisons? That's the first question, please.

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

The largest release was from the first quarter, then gradually quarter-by-quarter, it is decreasing until the end of the year.

[Casper Blom, analyst]

Okay. And you don't want to put any numbers to it?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Not a specific number at this stage, no. But it's gradually decreasing over the year to be very limited by the end of the year.

[Casper Blom, analyst]

Okay. Then a second question to the cost program that you mentioned, Carl, and you say that it will reduce the run rate compared to here in Q1. I suppose it's probably fair to assume if you're starting it here in Q2 that we'll see most of the impact towards the end of the year. But I was hoping maybe we could have you put some numbers to that program.

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

Sure. Thanks, Casper, and nice to meet you. So, we communicated after the fourth quarter that we were taking out EUR 8 million and investing back in sales and commercial activities. We are doing this. But at this point, we see a need to go a little bit further. And what we expect is basically to reduce the run rate for the second half of the year by 6% to 8% compared to current run rates.

[Casper Blom, analyst]

Okay. And if you obtain 6% to 8% in the second half of the year, is that sort of the full impact of the program? Or would one sort of expect more in '26 when you sort of have it fully implemented?

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

Excellent question. No. So we will end the year at a lower run rate. So, we would expect full year impact of that in 2026.

[Casper Blom, analyst]

Okay. And then a last question regarding your guidance. And of course, I completely appreciate that it's really difficult to guide in the current environment and must have been a curveball with the change of tariffs just yesterday. But part of the assumptions in the outlook for 2025 is a neutral development in the U.S. versus 2024. Could you elaborate a little bit more what is actually in that? I would guess that it's a neutral development sort of on the revenue side. And is it a neutral development that is not taking into account the headwind from the backlog headwinds that you're seeing right now? And maybe also if you could tie this into the comment that you had on one of the slides about actually an improvement in order intake in the U.S.

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

I think that was more than one question, right? Let's try to dissect the Americas a little bit then. What we're saying in terms of neutral is basically that we will be flat in Americas that we will have the same sales and revenue as of last year. That's what we anticipate. And in that is the order book release, as you discussed, that we will compensate for from an improved order intake.



And as I mentioned, we believe that there is a stronger second half of the year than the first half of the year because of that. So that was one question. Then the other question was regards to tariffs, I believe. Well, as a fundamental statement, if these imposed tariffs at what level, when they are and so on and so on being implemented, what consequences they would have on the macro environment in general in the world, but also specifically in the U.S., very, very difficult to have visibility. We haven't seen material impacts as of yet.



But obviously, these sorts of things may or may not have a lag when those things are happening. So that's one. But the other one, given what we know today, we will be able or are able to offset the direct tariff implications because of our flexible and robust supply chain, the things we do with suppliers, and also good price management.

[Casper Blom, analyst]

Okay. That is clear. And then maybe just a final one in your market outlook slide, you mentioned improvement in order intake in America. Is that something you've seen already here in Q1 that the order intake is getting better?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

I think it's slightly early to comment so specifically on that point. But I do anticipate a stronger second half of the year than first half of the year, supported by the market activities we do, but also some of the new products that will start having an effect.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Claus Almer with Nordea.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

Also a few questions from my side. So, the first one is EMEA. To what extent was the impressive growth driven by new products? And what was more working with the channel and so on? That would be the first one.

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

So if you talk about the growth in EMEA, the new products contributed a little less than half of the growth in the first quarter.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

So you're also saying some older products are still driving revenue growth in EMEA?

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

Yes. And I think the feedback we have, and I met a few customers now, and I know Jon has been around meeting customers. Customers really like our products, even the old ones. They are performing the tasks really well. So, our success is very much driven by our ability to meet with customers and to provide good service and be present with them. And I think we're doing a really good job there in EMEA. So, this, together with the new products account for the growth we're having there.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

That sounds great. And just to be sure, so when you're saying new products are accounting for half of the growth, how do you really measure that? Are those new products in new segments? Or is it within existing segments where you have new products? It's up to division, I guess, how you measure that?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

It's basically the revenue from the new products.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

But I guess, as this new product, it comes from 0, 1 year ago or half a year ago?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Exactly, yes.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

Then coming back to Americas, as also Casper asked about. And once again, you didn't want to give a lot of clarity about the whole backlog situation. So let me try it in a different way. If we adjust for the EUR 4 million from the hurricane in this quarter and the backlog release last year, was Q1 revenue more flattish? Is that one way to look at that?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Yes, that's correct. It was slightly down, but flattish. That's correct.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

And you mentioned that you expect, and this is also in the report, a flattish Americas revenue. And just for sure this is measured in euros, right?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Yes.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

So, kind of a headwind when it comes to FX in the second half of the year?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Potentially so, yes.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

And will that growth come from the new products? Is it the sales growth you are adding? Or what is the main drivers for this improvement in the second half?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

It's a combination of the activities that we have embarked upon and put in place and in motion for market activities, but it will also be supported by some of the new products, for example, big industrial machines, 7500 that we have released and we have shipments from mid of the year, but also microscrubber drift and a few other things.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

And then just a small one, then I will go back to the queue. It is written that the net impact from the Hurricane Wilson is one-off. What is, which one-off cost is from the hurricane have you included?

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

Yes, Claus. There is an impact from this in special items basically.

[Claus Almer, analyst]

Yes. But what is it? What is the nature of these one-off costs? Is it buildings which couldn't be covered by insurance? Is the revenue that was lacking or?

[Carl Bandhold, executive]

No. So it's, I'm sorry, not to be clear. It's basically impairment on the buildings that were not covered by insurance costs.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from Kristian Tornøe with SEB.

[Kristian Tornøe Johansen, analyst]

So first, just a clarification on the cost savings you mentioned. So, you say a run rate which should be 6% to 8% lower. So, should I take the last 12-month SG&A of EUR 268 million and then say you'll reduce that by 6% to 8%, so say, a EUR 22 million to EUR 29 million savings. Is that the right way to think about it?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

No, Kristian, the costs have increased sequentially over that period. So, we're basing it on the run rate we are at now in Q1, which is higher than the total for the last 12 months.

[Kristian Tornøe Johansen, analyst]

So, I should take the EUR 96 million you have in Q1 and say I multiply that by...

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Yes, you annualize it, then there is some seasonal variation, but broadly, yes.

[Kristian Tornøe Johansen, analyst]

So, if I annualize that, and then you aim to reduce that level by 6% to 8%.

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Yes, for the second half of the year.

[Kristian Tornøe Johansen, analyst]

Yes. So yes, it makes sense. You get the full year effect next year.

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Correct.

[Kristian Tornøe Johansen, analyst]

Understood. And then just on tariffs, to what extent have you actually been impacted so far? And how much inventory did you have sort of ahead of the tariff? I'm just sort of curious on what you have actually experienced so far because I mean, what it seems to be now is 30% tariffs on imports from China for the next 3 months. So how are you going to mitigate that?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

So, the direct financial impact as of yet is very limited in terms of tariff. We have making sure in front of the school season put stuff in our inventory so we made sure that we had the opportunity to facilitate product without major tariff implications for the school season, as an example. And we are rerouting our supply chain to mitigate the tariff situation. So as of now, we have had limited, there's a little, but very limited tariff impact.

[Kristian Tornøe Johansen, analyst]

But can you continue to sort of avoid imports from China? Or will you eventually have to face the 30% tariff as it looks right now?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

As it looks like now, we are in a very good position because we have a flexible and robust supply chain, meaning that we have factories in APAC, in China as well as North America and in Europe. And we are able to utilize that fact in a relatively short period of time to reroute and how we cater for products into North America. 



So that in combination with working with suppliers, but also some moderate price increases, we are confident that we are able to mitigate and offset the situation, the direct impact of tariffs, I should say.

[Operator]

Our last question for today's call comes from Mads Quistgaard with Carnegie.

[Mads Quistgaard, analyst]

Also, a number on the tariffs. So first, your main U.S. competitor mentioned price increases to the magnitude of, I think it was 7% to 10% in the Americas. Is it the same level you have implemented in the Americas?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

We implemented for part of our assortment, mostly the ones addressing the tariffs at a similar level early in this quarter, 15th of April that had an effect.

[Mads Quistgaard, analyst]

And then obviously, since it was only 1 month ago, it might be early days, but have you seen any impacts on the volume side for the price increases?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

No, not material. And that it seems most in the market have; the major players have implemented price increases as of recently. And it's too early to tell to have a full visibility on any volume implications. But as of yet, we have not noticed that.

[Mads Quistgaard, analyst]

And then my final question, let's just assume that the U.S. pull back the tariffs, so we stay at the 30% level. Would it then pull back some of the price increases you have introduced to the market? Or would you just be awaiting response also from the competitors?

[Jon Sintorn, executive]

Well, the initial price increase that we did was to cover for the initial tariff implementation, and the 145 million was not in effect at that time. And that meant that we had sufficient stock or made sure that we had sufficient stock for school season already in place in the U.S., and we are rerouting in our supply chain. 



So, we will cater for the U.S. market for several products in a different fashion. So, we won't be exposed to the 145% and hence, we don't need to price for that level. It's much more moderate price increases necessary to mitigate the tariffs or significantly.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this was our last question. I hand back the conference over to Jon Sintorn for any closing remarks.

[Cameron Hayes, executive]

All right. Thank you. Thank you for your questions, and thank you all for participating in today's call and for your continued interest in Nilfisk. We will return with our second quarter report in August and look forward to speaking to many of you over the coming weeks talking about this great company, Nilfisk. Take care. Bye. 



Thanks, everyone. Bye-bye.