Hello and welcome on board on Harvia Q1 reporting. My name is Tapio Pajuharju, I'm the CEO, and next to me we have Ari Vesterinen, our CFO.
Hello. Hello.
First of all, I think like the headline says, strong profitability in a mixed and rather challenging environment. It's a good performance and also figures are following that. I will have a bit of a deeper dive on the actions and numbers behind the reporting. First of all, I think it's good to remember that Q1 of 2022 was the all-time high, so we are fighting against a very high figures from the prior year. I think prevailing for this season was that the markets were not the same. I think all in all, the European softness continues, especially on the German marketplace, but also spreading to the DACH region in general. The other pendulum is that on the North America, both on the U.S.A. and Canada, strong performance continues.
Newer sauna markets and opening Asia has a good solid performance and solid growth in that respect. Going back to the Central European marketplace, and even on the DACH region, even though our numbers are soft, still we've been gaining share, and globally, Harvia has been gaining share in all of the markets and in all of the categories. Sauna room sales are supported by the North American performance. I think bit unusual that the wood-burning heaters continue to stay strong. I think underlying fact is that people like alternative energy sources, and that's boosting the wood-burning heater sales. On the other hand, wood-burning heater sales is very good. It's also adding value.
Always when buying a wood-burning heater, you need to buy all the accessories on top of that. Usually the value of the sale is rather good on that one. Russia exit complete last year for EOS on the November the 7th, and for Harvia already at the end of February, March last year. Those numbers are now fully out, and unfortunately has a negative impact both on the top line as well as on the profitability. All in all, profitability strong and solid, and only an inch below all-time high quarter of last year, and exceeding our 20% benchmark quite nicely.
What has been done has been very good on the what I call actions on the pricing, tactical actions on the pricing, cost structure, right sizing of the operations, and then I think on top of that, good moves on the sourcing on top of that. That's backing up a solid profitability altogether. Cash flow rather strong and good. We've been driving down the inventories. Now we are getting closer to normal, and I think one cannot expect to have more than a 100% cash conversion going forward. On the other hand, historically, Harvia has been on the 80%-90% level, and I think that's very sustainable in that respect. On our CapEx, I think we continue on the moderate investment level.
We've been estimating that this year would be between EUR 4 and 5 million. I think that's a rather valid estimate going forward. Like we see that Central Europe will continue being a bit soft for this year. We've been enhancing our actions and operations elsewhere. One example is Japan, where we just signed a letter of intent. I will have a bit more to share on this one. On the newer markets, especially on the opening Asia and some of the new emerging sauna markets, we've been activating our game plan. On the premium and professional marketplace, we see solid development, and we've been increasing our bets on that.
Even though when Europe is bit soft, the global sauna awareness continues to go up, and I think the healing with the heat is still very good and bang on the current trend. We are benefiting from that one, long time from now on. It's a good choice in that respect. To the actual numbers, and I think this most likely you have already seen early in the morning. Soft compared to last year, but still exceeding EUR 40 million. On the operating profit, even though the absolute number is down, the relative is rather nice compared to the all-time high volume quarter of last year. On the earnings per share, EUR 0.34 compared to the EUR 0.50 down.
Like I said, on the relative terms, good performance. On the cash flow exceeding EUR 11 million compared to prior year EUR 7 million is a good result. Net debt EUR 45.8, and leverage 1.1. You may remember that our guidance is between 1.5 and 2.5, so we are slightly below, which gives us room for maneuvering if and when needed in that respect. Now on our three paths for strategic profitable growth. We've been increasing the value in multiple ways. Sauna room sales has been growing quite nicely outside of Europe, and especially North America and some of the Asian markets and newer markets. I think the higher end, especially on the emerging sauna markets, is performing better than anywhere else.
When we look at our actions on the new product development and launches on the Q1 for Harvia as well as for EOS, and including our Almost Heaven Saunas in the US, we have a good handful of novelty launches attracting customers in the premium segment as well as on the professional segment. Geographical expansion, I think we've been improving our foothold and print on the markets in general, but especially in North America, we've been beefing up the game or the national game, and then spreading to Canada. The Americas in the southern part, we've been taking baby steps forward on that respect. Japan has said, I think that's something I will go deeper in detail in a short while.
On our product approval, which I think is, in a way, lifeline to get approvals to the new market, we've been now gaining very good foothold on those. I take an example of the Japan where I think long time ago we didn't have any approvals below 10 kilowatts. Now we have four units where we can sell those on the Japanese market, and the incumbent market leader only has two. Our portfolio is already exceeding the same from the competition. On the productivity improvement, and I think we've been doing very good tactical work on the pricing. Cost base has been reduced and optimized. Capacity has been adjusted to the current market conditions. You may remember that we invested quite a bit on the 2021, exceeding almost EUR 11 million.
That's not gone in vain. We get all the benefits on the productivity, and our streamlining and the layouts on the factories are bringing in incremental profitability going forward. Net working capital, I think we've been working on the raw materials and componentry. Lately, also a bit on the readymade goods, and that's becoming now visible in the cash flow and net working capital development, so it's a good job done from the team. On top of the good operations in our Lewisburg factory, the whole Northern American team has done a good job, both on the sauna sales as well as on the equipment sales. Now we see the first signs of the EOS equipment on the American marketplace, and I think we remain optimistic on the development in the North Americas.
A bit more on the Japan. Like you have heard, we signed a letter of intent, and I think during this spring, we will finalize the contracts and then start the operation during the summer in Japan. We already have a very good network of showrooms exceeding 20, and I think we are ahead of the plan in that respect, and I think it's a very realistic target to have over 40 showrooms in a given timeframe. On top of that, our offering is more versatile. Currently, we have good offering on the entry level to the premium level for the consumer marketplace, as well as a good offering for the professional market.
Then we've been teaming up with a TTNE, which is in a way the household name for the professional spas and saunas in Japan. I think the ambition, longer-term ambition is to find a solid, good growing business which potentially could replace the volumes and the magnitude of our Russian business in the past. That's our aim on the Japanese marketplace. Then on the geographical split, I think, if first have a look on the pie on the left, domestic share continues to be high, and the ones who've been longer on board may remember that the domestic marketplace should be on the global sauna market roughly 10%, so we are overrepresented in Finland. On the other hand, we have a very dominant market share here.
The Americas continue growing. Germany is really impacted by the Russian invasion to Ukraine, inflation, energy prices and all of that. That's now extremely visible. On the other countries, now we've been combining everything on that one. Even Russia is now included on that one. It's good to remember that the Russian impact is roughly EUR 2.3 million on the first quarter, and the full year impact last year was about EUR 7.5 million, and on 2021, a bit more than EUR 10 million. That type of a hit we have taken. On the pie on the right-hand side, now we've been combining on the pie chart with the red figure. That's now combining the heaters, heating elements, including infrared, as well as the control unit.
They are now all in the same bundle, and it's rather logical because especially outside of Finland, usually people buy the heaters with the control unit, so they now belong into the same category. All the rest is rather self-evident. Having a look on the market areas, and starting first from our domestic marketplace, Finland, 17% looks really tough. It's been really tough for the Kirami Scandinavian hot tubs. They've been really hurt badly. Heater sales and sauna sales clearly more modest, and I think we've been gaining share on the domestic marketplace on the heater and sauna sales. Scandinavia, bit about the same phenomenon.
Kirami hot tubs not well performing, and I think that's rather logical, when people have a bit of a challenge how to have the financing for the mortgage, and maybe still have decided to travel, then they need to cut on something, and apparently they've been cutting on these type of things. All in all, Sweden, Harvia has been gaining share. On Norway, good performance. Denmark the same. Iceland we've been entering the professional channel quite nicely. We land on the Germanic marketplace, unfortunately, the market continues to be soft. We've been experiencing softness in the entry level and on the web store channel, that has been unfortunately continuing.
On top of that, it's been spreading a bit on the sauna builders and even initial things on the premium and on professional marketplace. I think we foresee for some time Germany to be a bit soft. I think it's a big sauna market, and I think during the time it will start recovering. The question when that's something we keep eye on, and we are ready to act when the indicators of softness are disappearing. Other European markets, mixed bag. We have some of the southern hemisphere doing rather well. The closer to the Alpine region we are, the softer the market tend to be. North America continues being solid growth and solid performance both on the sauna category as well as on the heaters.
On the other countries looks bit odd. That's the Russian impact of EUR 2.3 million, and on top of that, a bit of a timing of some of our project in the Arabian marketplace. All in all, other countries doing rather solid and good performance. Having a look on the product groups and categories, heating equipment taking a quite strong hit, mainly because of Germany and DACH. Now when we have the control units part of this group, and when the Germany and DACH is taking down, the control unit is also taking a hit on that one.
The saunas in general, I think they would tend to be rather good, but really big hit on the Scandinavian hot tubs and European sauna business for Germany taking a hit. Steam generators following the trend in Central Europe. Accessories, even though it's a mixed picture, rather solid in some markets, but some markets really soft. Heater stones, and I think that tells a bit about the sentiment on the marketplace. They've been doing rather well, so I think people have been postponing a bit about the replacement and maybe replacing the stones, but I think it will come back and bounce back quite nicely. On the quarters, and I think this is something which I will not spend a long time, but it's good to remember that the quarters are not the same.
During the time before pandemic, it was always so that Q1 was strong one, and the Q4 was a strong one, and in between, summertime was a bit softer. During the pandemic and after the pandemic was disappeared, we were still pushing a fairly high order stock in front of us, and that made the quarters rather steady in that respect. I think going forward, we anticipate to have a bit more seasonality into the game. Even though we are more global in our operation, the seasonality will remain roughly at this as it used to be in that respect. The same applies on the profitability on the right-hand side. We expect to have a bit seasonality on both on the top line as well as on the bottom line.
I think, just a reminder that we are in all of the three sauna types. Harvia has a very strong, good game in the Scandinavian sauna, emerging inroads into the infrared. I think when we know what is happening on the infrared marketplace, we have lot of appetite to make it grow faster and even looking for opportunities for acquisition on that respect. On the steam sauna market, this is the first time Harvia has also a self-standing unit for the consumer marketplace, but I think going forward has also eye and potentially appetite for professional steam generators on the global perspective. We continue focusing on all of the three sauna types and understanding that there is a lot of opportunity on the infrared and on the steam saunas.
Then on the path for profitable growth and our strategy, I think we stay very loyal for our chosen paths, increasing the value of the average purchase. Even though we've been doing good job on that one, we still have lot of leeway to improve our game on that one. Geographical expansion, I think newer sauna markets are opening basically on a monthly or quarterly basis, and Harvia has decided to participate strongly on opening the new markets. I think our offering has proven to be extremely successful also on the emerging new, newer markets. Then on the productivity improvement, the game plan is rather solid, and we also have the means to continue that on a very sustainable way going forward.
I will pass the word for Ari, and Ari will have a deeper dive on the, on the financials, please.
Yeah. Okay, thanks. Okay. This presentation slide compares the quarter one with quarter one year ago. As Tapio Pajuharju already mentioned, quarter one in 2022 was really the record high, the historically highest quarter what we have had. The comparison shows that we were now behind the sales volumes 18.6% and the adjusted operating profit a little more. Where we are actually quite proud of is the relative profitability what we were able to improve actually compared to Q4.
For instance, if you compare these Q1 figures with the last Q4 figures, we have been improving there the margins and the general overall EBIT level of profitability. The operating free cash flow has been really very good and we will maintain also in future strong cash flow and also it leads to a strong cash position and net debt. Our leverage was now 1.1, and end of last year it was 1.3, there is really room to maneuver. Net working capital has been going down slightly, especially the inventories, but also the other components and this trend is planned to continue. Those two percentages, adjusted return on capital employed and equity ratio, they happen to be exactly the same, but they are totally different matters.
I just checked it and the contents of this and actually this adjusted return on capital employed is capital without the historical goodwill what we have invested and that changes quite much based on the balance sheet and equity situation what the company has. Anyhow, the profitability in terms of return on capital and in absolute terms has been very good also during Q1. As you may noticed, the number of employees is actually quite much lower than year ago, over 200 employees less than year ago. In fact, we have also reduced the headcount slightly compared to Q4 last year.
We haven't had so much restructuring costs related to that in Q1, so it actually helped also the normal accounting EBIT profitability level of the company, which was actually increased almost five percentage points compared to Q4. The operating free cash flow and cash conversion, okay, they follow each other. This shows that our cash conversion has been really two quarters over 100% of the EBITA. This can't continue, but it will be on a high level also in future. The net debt has peaked in Q3 of 2022. We acquired the remaining minority of EOS in Germany.
Now we have been reducing the net debt based on the strong cash flow what the company has. The net financial items, the cash-based financing costs are the dotted line. They have been, of course, increasing due to the increased market interest rate increases, but we have covered the interest cost quite well with fixed swaps. So half of our bank loans have been actually covered to fixed cost, and that reduces the level of the cash-based interest costs. The net financial items as they are calculating in IFRS change based on the valuation of the swap contract. It's better actually in the spreadsheets and forecasts to follow the dotted line.
The investments, we had on a quite low level during Q1, they were just more like replacing the tools and improving the automation and similar things. We will increase the level of investments slightly towards the end of the year, but this was a quite peaceful quarter in this respect. The structure of the shareholders, we have actually now got more international shareholders again compared to Q4 or compared to last year. We had 41.7% nominal registered outside Finland, shareholders. Households have also invested more in Harvia than year ago. The only part of the investors or segment which has reduced its commitment are the banks and insurance companies.
As we see from the right side of the slide, we had end of March about 45 thousand shareholders. That is less than end of last year, but that's about 2 thousand shareholders more than what we had end of March 2022. The management and board are major shareholders also in the company. Nicely, the value of the company has increased compared to the end of the last year. We haven't changed in the long-term financial targets anything. The growth, we... Our target is to exceed 5% and the profitability to exceed 20% adjusted operating profit, and we succeeded in that also during Q1 quite well.
It might happen in some quarters that we will get slightly under that, but on the annual level, we internally consider that as a floor. We want to be always over 20% in the operating profit margin. The leverage is the target is between 1.5-2.5, and now we were at 1.1. The dividend policy is the same as almost now 2 years. We have regularly increasing dividends and twice payout in the year. Now the annual general meeting was held on 20th of April, and it approved the board of directors' proposal that EUR 0.64 per share will be paid as dividends during this year.
The first EUR 0.32 per share were already paid on last year's div. The rest will be paid out at the end of October. By the way, this dividend is EUR 0.04 more than year ago. Harvia will get a new CEO. Probably you could comment this part.
I think that's already in the news. I had the pleasure to have a good interaction with Matias. I'm very happy that he's joining the team and was able to join a month earlier than initially planned. I think he's already onboarding and will be a very good asset and an excellent leader for the company. Very happy for Matias joining the team.
Okay, now it's time for questions. We have also incoming line, telephone line. Are there any people to ask any questions there?
There are no questions from the teleconference lines.
We will take the questions from the chat line. A business related question. Regarding the demand slump in the DACH region, do you view this is a temporary thing which is just taking a longer time to resolve or do you think something has fundamentally changed in the DACH sauna market?
I think it's a temporary issue first of all. It's been ignited by the Russian invasion having an impact on the energy prices. Now the energy price is already normalizing, but the inflation is still there, and people are rather conservative in spending. Apparently we are on the discretionary category as well. I anticipate sauna market to be strong in Germany. Historically it's been a big sauna market, also very high value and high-end market, so I think it will come back. The question is when, and that we will monitor very closely when it's bouncing back.
Very good quarter again in North America. Have EOS products given a material impact in North America's performance, or are you still ramping up EOS sales there?
Defining material, I would say no. We have had the initial shipments and they are now visible for the southern part of California and then maybe even as we now speak, there is a team in the North America, was last week, I don't know, but we are expanding the distribution over there, but not material yet. Very small inroads. It's good to remember that in our line of business, the new launches don't come in with the big volume, but they are gradually and systematically growing up, and I think that's what we are going to see with the EOS in the North America as well.
Okay. Did the uncertainty related to the banking crisis in March influence the demand in Q1?
Directly maybe not. Indirectly, I would say maybe a bit in all of the markets as the banking crisis has hit the housing market, maybe the renovation. When you see the numbers from the do it yourself building retailers, yes, it's been impacting. Has it been impacting a lot? I think sauna category has been not the strongest one on that one.
Did you see Q1 orders being postponed to Q2 because of the March uncertainty?
No. Not, not really, no.
Now that the demand decline in, is sauna and spa market has lasted more or less than a year, are the sellers in the M&A market becoming more willing to sell?
I think it's a psychological issue and when they see that the markets are becoming softer and has been a valuation of the company's gone down, I think on our shortlist of the strategic potential M&A candidates, time will tell how it will continue. I think logic will tell that that's roughly what is going to happen, and when they're gonna meet, that's something then for Ari and Matias to decide when the timing is right.
Your gross margin has been around 61.5% in Q1 and Q4, which is quite high when comparing to the history. That's after the material costs, neglecting the labor costs on it as that. Do you see that as a sustainable level going forward?
I think in general, the answer is yes. It's also bit depending on the product mix and on the market mix as well, but I think in a bigger picture, that's sustainable.
How does outlook for Germany look this year? Is the Q1 sales level representative for the coming quarters as well?
I think what we now see, from Germany, it's not been a short temporary hiccup. It's a bit of a longer term thing. I think it will continue roughly on the level it has been. The question is when it's starting to bounce back. Then I think when it's bouncing back, the inventory levels are low. Everyone is ready for that respect, and we are ready as well. In that respect, let's see when it's coming back.
Historically, the German sauna market improves always in October, November, when you think of the seasonality, but okay, this is now a special situation due to the war in Ukraine and inflation and so forth. Raw material cost development. Did you already benefited from the lower raw material costs in Q1?
Not in big way. I think still steel is roughly flat, somewhat down some of the grades. Electronics still a bit up. Wooden materials, timber, they tend to be going down. Longer term, I think there is some small opportunity for improvement on the profitability based on the materials.
Okay. Question for Tapio. This is coming from the chat.
Sorry, it's not from you. I was afraid Ari will make a prank on me, so.
This is your last webcast as Harvia CEO. Can you compare the Harvia you started the journey with to the Harvia you are leaving? What kind of company are you now leaving behind you? Last, thank you for the work you have done, and all the best for the future.
Thank you. Thank you for the kind words. First of all, it's a team effort. We started a heater company becoming a sauna company, becoming a spa company, extending to the healing with the heat, so it's rather different company. I started on the board on the 2014. It's more global, more versatile in the offering, has two global brands and then a couple of regional brands. Became a market leader in the small sauna and spa market, so leaving a good company.
Okay. My personal question: What will you miss the most when you have left Harvia?
Apart from Ari, I will miss everyone at Harvia.
Thank you very much. Thank you for everybody.
Thank you.