I'm sitting here with CEO Sveinn Sölvason from Embla Medical. So, take a look back at 24. Should we look at it? You have upgraded your guidance once, so check mark there. You have delivered around 30% return, flat Danish market, MedTech 8%. So, I guess you must be quite satisfied with this year. So, shall we look at some of the main reasons for that? Can you give what you really delivered on this year?
Absolutely, and I must say I'm also pleased with our performance this year. We've delivered on good growth, good margin expansion, and have also put in place a lot of the fundamentals in relation to our Growth '27 strategy. We implemented Embla Medical, our new parent company, which is in line with our transition from a historically focused, product-focused business to a more patient-centric business operating in the whole value chain that supports individuals with a chronic mobility challenge.
And we've also acquired a great company, Fior & Gentz, that expands our access to more patients that need mobility solutions as a result of our chronic mobility challenge. And if I look across our portfolio, our business segments, prosthetics and neuro- orthotics have performed well. Our patient care business has performed well. We are a little bit slower than we anticipated on bracing. Geographic-wise, it's been our European business that has performed exceptionally well. So, I must say that I'm happy with our progress here in 2024.
A lot of talk, U.S. reimbursement. I think you have called it the biggest change in the history of your company, getting more access to more patients in the U.S. I guess that is also not something you delivered on, but something that is very important for your business.
Yeah, this is the main assumptions that we make, or main assumption we make around the future, is that public payers will be willing to pay for good mobility solutions. And if we look over the past couple of decades, we've seen a gradual increase in access and payment for our bionic products. And this year, the biggest payer globally, Medicare, decided to expand access to bionics. And that's a major event in our industry and underlines that public payers are willing to pay for good mobility devices. So, this does also have the potential to accelerate bionic adoption in a global context. So, this is a major milestone for us and great news for both patients and essentially payers, because that's also the main argument that we always make, that these solutions are effective for healthcare systems.
Yeah, saving money. So, I guess Trump will not be an issue.
No, we don't expect Trump to be an issue, not on this part of this.
Yes, perfect. And you mentioned yourself 27 targets, 5%-6%, 5%-7% organic, 2%-3% M&A, and actually expanding margins gradually. How has 2024 set you up for that? You already alluded a little bit on it.
Yeah, I mean, the reimbursement change in the U.S. is a big change for us and will give us some tailwind with respect to growth going forward. The acquisition of the new orthotics business, Fior & Gentz, is a big building block in our strategy and our road going forward. And then also we did launch here in 2024 two new bionic products in limited launch that will be in full launch here in 2025 that we are excited about.
And then no guidance, that's still off the table for 25. But if I should measure you at the end, can you mention two things that investors should look out for in 25 and that you would like to be measured on and say, "I really delivered on this one and that made a difference for our company"?
Yeah, when we sit here 12 months from now, I would like to be able to tell you that I'm proud of our performance of these new products that we are launching and that we have taken advantage of these changes in U.S. Medicare, as well as having done well on integration on Fior & Gentz. But I'll also have to mention that we are launching our new patient care brand ForMotion in our patient care business next year, which I'm super excited about. We do have a unique opportunity to differentiate on our patient care business, offering fantastic patient care. And that's what we're going to do.
Thank you, Sveinn.
Thank you.