Hello, warmly welcome to Glaston's Q1 webcast. My name is Agneta Selroos, and I'm in charge of investor relations here at Glaston. Today, our CEO, Miika Äppelqvist, will present the Q1 highlights, and after that our CFO, Magnus Sjöblom, will present the financials. After the presentations, we will have a Q&A session. Please use the chat function for your questions. Now, over to you, Miika.
Thank you, Agneta. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining. Let's review then together the quarter one market and business development, review the finances, and then review also the outlook for 2026. I will start with quarter one in brief and the market development, and then our CFO, Magnus, will continue then in more depth on a review of the finances. Let's start with quarter one. The quarter one 2026 confirmed us two things very clearly. First of all, the market remained challenging, and the uncertainty, especially with the outbreak of the war in the Middle East, impacted global demand environment in glass processing equipment. The second thing, despite this environment, we have been able to improve our relative performance, and that we see very positively.
While our net sales declined year-on-year, we managed to improve our EBITDA and EBITDA margin, and also our operating cash flow turned positive. The key message about quarter one in general is not about growth yet. It's about the resilience of the company and successful execution. Quarter one, our order intake was down 14% year-on-year, mostly impacted then by the weak demand environment in the architectural segment. Despite the net sales growth, profitability remained stable, especially the relative performance. Of course, a big contributor to that was then the service share, which was close to half of our net sales in quarter one.
One thing that, you know, supported in a major way the profitability performance was the acceleration of cost-saving programs during the quarter and late last year. We launched quarter three last year a EUR 6 million cost-saving program, and now we have accelerated that and basically significantly then ahead of the original timetable with that program and reached the EUR 6 million annual run rate savings already now. This has, of course, two implications. It protects the profitability in our current lower net sales and lower demand environment, and then it increases our operating leverage when the markets do recover. That's quarter one in brief. Let's look a bit about the operating environment, how different segments and services and different geographical areas performed, and what was our operating environment overall.
Maybe overall, I start with the market that demand was soft. If we look in general cyclicality or seasonality of our business in general during quarter one, in terms of investments from our customers, first couple of months are usually a little bit at a lower level, and then projects start to gain speed till the end of the quarter. Of course, what happened now, 2026 first quarter, was the outbreak of the war in Middle East, and that impacted globally our customers' decision-making. As a result, we did see negative impact on the operating environment in quarter one.
If we look at the architectural market, there we see that especially in Europe, we have certain countries where we see some positive indicator as well, especially in certain niches where customers have a strong strategy in certain product segment. We see them investing also at a lower general business environment. If we look at Americas, first quarter was challenging. Our customers, if we look at their results from quarter one and how is their business going at the moment, the sales growth is also missing from our customers, and as a result, then it impacts their investments. In China, overall, the architectural market will remain challenging.
We had an industry's biggest exhibition in China in the beginning of April, China Glass, that was a good opportunity to hear much more from all the customers in China and the architectural development in China is not forecasted to come back to the levels. Actually our customers are very, very cautious on that. However, there are certain areas in terms of quality housing, for example, that continue to gain traction and where we have had success. If we look at the mobility market in Europe, that market has been in terms of investments in the glass supply chain, that continues to be challenging. Not a lot of investments are moving forward there.
Whereas in China, while we did see, we could say a drop in demand environment during 2025 in Mobility in China, because the market we could say normalized after the supply chain build-up for EVs. We did see also positive signs in that area. We expect that China Mobility market to remain stable also during the year. Services, that's something that presented now close to half of our net sales in quarter one. Of course, that's a strong statement of our performance and as well of the fact that our equipment at customer premises keep on running and services are needed. Positive development overall in our main markets.
I will highlight again, Americas, where we had a strong growth in services in all areas, and that demand environment and operating environment is expected to continue. China, in terms of service is a challenging operating environment for us and quarter one, it continued to be so. In APAC, we did see some customers in terms of services. We did see some utilization rates of our equipment increasing, and as a result, we also did see positive development in services operating environment. Next, I would invite then Magnus Sjöblom to go through the financial development.
Thank you, Miika. Let's again look at the order intake to start with. The market remained soft in the first quarter, and uncertainty in the global business environment increased further. This was visible in the customer hesitation regarding investments and continued to have an impact also on our order intake in Q1. We can see that the Q1 order intake decreased from comparison period, and we received orders worth EUR 40.5 million, which was down 14%. By product area, the order intake was the following. Tempering and Laminating Technologies had a quiet quarter. EUR 3.1 million orders received and was down 74% against the comparison period. For IG, the order intake went up 12% and landed at EUR 14.4 million.
There we had an ULTRA TPS insulating glass line continued to gain traction as such. Mobility technologies at EUR 3.8 million and down as well. Order intake, though, included orders for a MATRIX EVO furnace in EMEA, and then in China, pre-processing machine orders. Service orders increased by 8% and were up there to EUR 19.1 million. Let's move on to net sales. Q1 net sales was down 21% and landed at EUR 40.9 million. The net sales was impacted by the lower order intake from last year. Low group level net sales was reflecting in all product areas. Tempering and laminating down 37% and being at EUR 6.6 million. Insulating glass technologies were down 35% at EUR 10.5 million.
MDS technologies at EUR 5.1 and down 12%. Service were at EUR 19.4 million, and that was the only one that was holding quite well and being down 2% to comparison period. There as well, we saw differences by depending on the regions. Americas performing strongly, EMEA as well, while China was disappointment. Looking at the net sales by regions. The group net sales was down 21%, and that you can see also that was visible in all the regions as well. Americas was at EUR 12.5 million, a decrease of 20% year-on-year and catering for 31% of the total revenue in the quarter.
Decreases in machines partly offset by the stronger service. EMEA at EUR 19.9 million, 49%, so almost half of the total revenue. A decrease of 19%, where the bigger decrease came from the machines. APAC, EUR 8.5 million and -25%, which is also then 21% of the Glaston net sales in Q1 2026. China's share was 16% of the total net sales of Glaston in 2026 Q1. Moving on to the comparable EBITDA. Our comparable EBITDA was down by 14% and landed at EUR 2.7 million. The clearly lower net sales affected the group profitability.
However, mainly due to the cost-savings actions that were taken, a negative net sales impact could be offset to the extent that the EBITDA margin was at 6.5% and was better than the comparison period. Let's now look more at the reporting segments and start with architecture then. The order intake for architecture was challenging. The softness of the architecture market continued, and that was reflected especially in the architecture segment order intake. The segment were down by 18%, where machine orders were down 39% despite the positive development in the insulating glass technologies. On a positive note, the service order intake was up by 3% and landed at EUR 13.7 million. Order backlog is down from Q1 2025, 30%.
However, stayed on the same level as the end of the year 2025. Net sales for tempering and laminating technologies as well as insulating glass technologies were down 37% and 35% each against the comparison period. Service net sales were on the same level as the comparison period, hence this mix led to an architecture segment net sales were down 23%. The comparable EBITDA declining mainly due to the lower volume. Mobility, Display & Solar then. Order intake flat year-on-year and landed at EUR 9.3 million. Machine orders were down. However, service orders were up by 22%. In APAC and EMEA, good year-on-year growth was noted for pre-processing upgrades. Also, service work developed well. Order backlog has been declining by 41% compared to Q1 2025. However, was only EUR 0.4 million lower than end of year 2025.
On a net sales size, Mobility, Display & Solar segment net sales were down by 12% and landed at EUR 9.2 million due to the lower order backlog. Comparable EBITDA EUR 0.9 million with an increase from comparison period. Biggest contributor here to the profitability was due to the fixed cost management actions that have been taken throughout the years. We move on to the cash flow. Operating cash flow was EUR +0.4 million in Q1 2026. The cost savings measures have been contributing positively to the operating cash flow when the amount of advanced payments has been lower due to the lower order intake. Net debt has been rather stable, and the last quarters were gearing has been improving a bit, now at 42%. I guess that's now my part. Miika, I hand over back to you then.
Thank you, Magnus. The last part of the presentation today, we go through the outlook. Before we then move to the questions, I will summarize the outlook. As highlighted earlier, we entered this year with a lower backlog than previous year and the market environment will remain cautious. This is how we see the situation in the market at the moment. Based on this, we expect that both net sales and comparable EBITDA will decrease in 2026 compared to the levels reported for 2025. This reflects how we see the current market. At the same time, of course, our focus is very clear. We're actively putting our efforts in all relevant orders and projects together with the customers in this softer market.
We continue also the cost-saving actions that we have successfully executed already until now. Highlighting again the service business where we put a lot of focus in developing that area to stabilize, in a way, the backbone of the business. While the market is not supporting the growth yet, we are focused on strengthening our performance and positioning, and we will be ready when the conditions improve. With that, I will conclude the presentation. Thank you, and we are happy to take some questions.
Here we have the first one. Have you seen any project postponements or cancellations from your customers due to the geopolitical situation?
I would answer it two ways. There are projects that have already been won, and then there are projects that are on customers' decision table. In projects that we have on our backlog, we haven't seen major changes. We did have a strong quarter four in Middle East, and yes, there is a certain impact of the situation, but we consider that minor in the bigger picture. With regards to the project that are still on customers' decision table and have not been yet fully decided to go forward, we did see in March projects in different parts of the world that were postponed and the decision-making was postponed to see what is happening.
We need to remember that the situation, of course, is not only impacting Middle East, but it's impacting the full business environment and the inflationary pressures all over the world. It did impact many of our customers' decision-making during quarter one, actually in, all around the world, among our customers.
Thank you. We go to the next one. How confident are you on your current margin resiliency if your order intake and backlog remain pressured for the coming quarters?
Maybe let's first comment on the backlog. Our backlog during quarter one did not change that much. It tells that our revenue performance as well as the new orders were quite in line. Despite of this, the margin performance was good. We see that there are two main contributing factors. First of all the, I would use the term active and proactive cost-saving actions that we have successfully executed, as well as then focusing on the service business to develop that, being close to the customers, and keep the equipment, help our customers get everything out from their current investments. These two, we believe, will help us to sustain the margin levels also at the lower net sales environment.
Thank you for that one. We have one question about the MDS segment that showed positive profitability development. What is the reason behind this?
There are many things. If we start from the fact where we started the MDS turnaround program, starting from relocating the factory from Switzerland to China, that project is concluded and we can see clear difference in fixed cost development, and that is supporting the profitability. Another thing is that simultaneously with the change, we also moved our operations and team, including production, closer to the customers, so to China, and we see that that gives us opportunities that we may have not had otherwise, and that's supporting also the order development, even though the mobility market has, I would use the term stabilized after the supply chain build-up for EVs some years back. These two things together, are the main contributors to the MDS turnaround that we can be proud of.
I will maybe, Miika, continue still. I think that the whole group-wide cost-saving actions that has been taken, including the temporary layoffs as well, has been then supporting this one. In addition, the service share has been pretty stable, and that's important part of the MDS profitability.
Thank you. At least at this point, one final question. You have already earlier mentioned this new ULTRA TPS line, with a thin center glass, and now reported that you have closed the deal for the product. What are your expectations for this product going forward?
This is an area which some of our customers see as an opportunity for them to differentiate in the market. That is, of course, challenging also, not only for us, but for our customers. Our customers are constantly looking then for ways how they can differentiate. This has been one area where some of our customers have already had success, and as a result, they have also made investments.
Maybe shortly describing this, also here, to all the listeners that this ultra thin glass in the insulated glass unit enables our customers to sell a insulated glass unit to the buildings with the same thickness than they used to deliver double, so double insulated glass, but now they can deliver triple insulated glass performance with the width of double. That means that everything else, frames, profiles, which are a big thing, they can stay the same.
Customers who have the ability to deliver this really have an edge against their competition. We also launched this product now in China Glass, mentioned earlier, the biggest exhibition in China regarding glass equipment, like glass processing equipment, and it was very well received there as well. Customers see the potential of that technology and as a way to really differentiate and provide value to their customers then in the value chain.
Okay. I will just then say that thank you, Miika, and thank you, Magnus. Thank you for all the questions because it seems that we don't have any more questions at this point. I want to thank you all for following this webcast and wish you all a lovely rest of the day. Thank you for attending.
Thank you.