NIBE's Strong Start To The Year - Interim Report Q1 2022

The start of 2022 has seen an extremely strong demand but a very challenging shortage of materials and components, as well as one-time expenses from the winding up of Russian operations.

• Sales rose by 28.1% to SEK 8,749 million (SEK 6,831 million)
• Profit after net financial items amounted to SEK 906 million (SEK 833 million)
• Earnings per share amounted to SEK 0.33 (SEK 0.31)
• One-off expenses of SEK 114 million from winding up Russian operations

“Demand was strong in all three business areas in the first quarter of the year, and we see three reasons for this. Our clear sustainability profile is an advantage when more and more consumers are realising that moving away from fossil fuels is an important factor in solving the climate change issue. The home refurbishment trend that started during the pandemic has continued at the same intensive pace as before. Furthermore, the horrifying invasion of Ukraine has led to most European countries and their citizens to realise that we must become entirely independent of Russian oil and gas, which is further driving the need for our products,” explains Gerteric Lindquist, CEO and MD of NIBE Group.

“In terms of raw materials and components, the supply side has continued to be characterised by a state of near chaos. Due to semi-conductor shortages, labour shortages, complex and vulnerable supply chains and a freight market marked by major uncertainty and undercapacity, our sub-suppliers have unfortunately not been able to cope with the very large increase in demand. This in turn has damaged our delivery capacity to all our customers, which is very regrettable. In anticipation of an improvement, which we still assess will gradually take place during the rest of the year, we are doing everything in our power to help our customers through maximum flexibility in production, increased buffer inventories and redesign where possible. The sharp price rises introduced by sub-suppliers have also forced us to introduce our own substantial price increases. However, these are happening for natural reasons with a certain lag.”

“The obvious decision to wind up our Russian operations following its terrible invasion of Ukraine burdened the first quarter’s operating profit by a one-off item of SEK 114 million in the form of estimated write-downs.”

“Even though it’s difficult to make predictions in the current business climate, we are cautiously optimistic about 2022 thanks to our geographic spread, focus on sustainability, stable profitability and good financial preparedness for further offensive acquisitions,” says Gerteric Lindquist.