Together with me, I have Saara Mäkelä, our CFO, and Hanna Kukkonen, our CMSO. We will take you through the last quarter and of course, at the same time, the first half of the year. I will start with just a short recap of what we are. We are a European houseware company with strong brands, strategic brands, SmartStore, GastroMax, and Orthex. Three production facilities where we produce almost 90% of everything we sell. In addition to that, we have a strong presence throughout Europe, which we are aiming to make our home market. That in very short about who we are. We make functional products long-lasting for an enjoyable and organized home. It is key here that the products are usable. They all serve a purpose, and in that purpose, the storage category is our biggest range or biggest category under the brand SmartStore.
It is about 70% of our sales. In the kitchen category, where we also have kitchen storage products. We have baking utensils and what not to make the life of the home chef easier. We have the last category, which is home and garden, 11% of sales. I think the main idea here is to provide products to enjoy in your home that last long. That is part of our sustainability story. We do products that you can enjoy many years and don't have to throw away. The design is nice as well, so you don't get bored of them. We are launching a lot of new products, and we are quite happy to win some awards as well for the nice design of the products. If we jump into the result and the second quarter, I would say it has been an interesting ride.
We had at the beginning, a situation where raw material prices had increased sharply. We had a situation where, I would say, demand in the Nordics started to rise. I think the whole quarter was somehow, in terms of activity around making sure that we are very sharp and very quick on reacting on the unprecedented rise in raw material prices. That tells quite a lot of the story. We have shown resilience. We have been probably the first or at least among the first to react with the price increases. In the Nordics, where our brand and our market position is strong and we have a very close cooperation with many partners, I think the understanding was there from the beginning that this was something that we had to do. In the Nordics, growth continued very nicely.
Whereas in Europe, where we are pushing for growth, where we are still a challenger in many places, and where campaigns are not necessarily agreed many months in advance, most of the discussions were around price increases, and we had to put some of the initiatives on hold and just get through so we could operate under okay conditions and also ensure that we get the raw material that we need. We were very decisive, and I have yet to say that I am extremely happy about the efforts that our commercial team made during this period because it is not easy to be extremely quick. We learned from the last time the raw material went up that you have to react fast.
And I think also good here is the cooperation with raw material suppliers and the good work that our teams has made to ensure that that raw material has been available throughout the period. Some nice sales growth in the Nordics helped us, and that also helped to improve the margins a bit. We have been, of course, under these kinds of very special situation. You have to have a good cost control, and you have to know exactly what you are doing. I am fairly happy with the outcome in general, with the strong sales growth in the Nordics and then showing good resilience in adapting to extreme increases in raw material prices. If we look at the sales situation, net sales grew by 5.2%. This came mainly from the Nordics where we have as good as a growth as 12% growth.
As I said earlier, we have been mostly concentrated on increasing prices in rest of Europe and campaigns and roll-outs of activities had to wait before we had this in place. This translate into a decline of 10.5% in rest of Europe. But I have to say our strategy remains the same to grow Europe, and I think now that the focus on price increases is far behind, we can continue to build our momentum on growing distribution with major retailers in Europe. On the EBITA level, we managed to land a EUR 1.4 million EBITA, which is roughly EUR 300,000 down from last year. So there you can see the resilience regardless of the very high jump in raw material prices. That is a 6.3% margin. In terms of cash flows, strong cash flow at EUR 1.8 million.
If we go into the details here by geography, as said, Nordic up, if we first look at the quarter. So considerable growth in the Nordics in the second quarter, which also takes then the first half of the year into nice growth in the Nordics. Then we had a decline in rest of Europe of around EUR 500,000. Still, on a half-year level, we are ahead of last year, but of course, we want to accelerate that, and hopefully we can now concentrate more on growth than on increasing prices. In that sense, a situation which now is good to build on further. In terms of product categories, the storage category, our biggest category, grew nicely. That is the main driver also when we think about increased distribution in Europe. The storage category together with the kitchen storage products and so on are those with good traction.
The other category is not much to mention. We have for the first half year, I think quite the flat situation on kitchen and on home and garden. We have a small increase on a half-year level. Sorry, small decrease on a half-year level. In that sense, we are progressing. We would like to progress faster. When it comes to strategy, not a major change. Our ambition is to be category leader in Europe, and the benchmark in quality and practicality with sustainable solutions, and especially in the storage category. To do this, we have to build consumer preference. We have to succeed with the big accounts in Europe. We have to accelerate online growth, and we have to work further on our capabilities as a category captain in the Nordics. In addition to this, staying current, launching new products is part of the strategy.
And also, of course, since we are operating our own factories, it is quite key that we do it in an efficient way and keep the production park modern. This is the strategy in a very short nutshell. I will now hand over to Hanna Kukkonen.
Thanks, Alexander. Here is a few examples of implementing our strategy. As you know, the stores are a very important place for us to build our consumer preference and our brands. There is a lot of things been going on during last quarter, and here is a few examples. These pictures are from France, and here in the left you see a shelf takeover from competitors. Now it is nicely branded with our products and SmartStore and with very inspiring pictures and shopping environment. In the middle, a picture of a campaign for our latest novelty, SmartStore Module for storing shoes. Then an example of the SmartStore truck campaign that are going on all around Nordics and Europe. In the second page, some pictures from Germany, Sweden, and Estonia. Left and right you see a display that we call a pallet house.
This is a second placement place or campaign or permanent place that we offer for our customers in shops. It is also a very good place to communicate and build our brand and sell the products. In the middle, a nice campaign example from Sweden for our latest SmartStore Flip food containers. Moving on to the innovations. We launch innovations or novelties two times a year in February and September. In Q2, there were no launches of innovations, but we continued to sell in to our customers the latest novelties from, or the recent novelties from last fall and this spring, with promising and good results. We are also preparing for our September launches. Moving on to sustainability.
The most or the nicest thing was winning or getting the Red Dot Design Award for our SmartStore Module range. Earlier this year we were awarded with the German Design Award, and in April, we got an even more prestigious award, which is the Red Dot Design Award. This will for sure help the success of this new launch. That was very quick from me. Moving on to financials and Saara.
Thanks, Hanna. Net sales during the quarter two increased by 5.2% year-on-year, and the growth was driven by the Nordics, where sales grew impressively by 12%. Sales growth in Nordics was supported by favorable foreign exchange rates and price increases had a positive effect especially in Nordics. In constant currency, the total sales growth was 4.3%, a bit less than 1% less than with the currency effect. Outside the Nordics, the necessary price increasing process unfortunately slowed down the sales growth as the focus was on price negotiation rather than growth discussion with the customers. Sales declined by 12.9% outside the Nordics during the quarter. We of course expect that this is a temporary effect and expect growth to resume. As expected, the raw material prices had effect on our profitability, and adjusted EBITA declined by EUR 300,000.
We have learned from the previous peak in raw material prices, and we started the price increases immediately when we saw the effects. The decline was only EUR 300,000 during the quarter. The full effect from the price increases, as well as the raw material increases, will be visible during the coming quarters. We also had EUR 600,000 of items affecting comparability, which resulted in EBITA, including items affecting comparability, to decline to EUR 800,000. Unfortunately, I am not able to provide further details on these projects here, but these costs were related to strategic projects supporting our long-term objectives. These items affecting comparability are part of the admin costs and excluding the one-off items, fixed costs were very well under control. The familiar curve regarding the raw material prices. There was a huge peak during the quarter.
The highest peak was reached in May, and since May, the prices have slightly eased and stabilized on a very high level still, and it is still uncertain when the markets will return to normal. Demand weakened during the price peak and remained weak and cautious, and customers continued to limit their purchasing activity. That eased the supply challenges we were having in the end of the first quarter of the year. The ongoing tensions in the Middle East continue to create uncertainty and may impact energy and logistics and raw material supply chains during the coming times. Reduced availability of imports and ongoing logistics constraints in Europe remain as a key risk for us to monitor. We have the investments. Investments were EUR 600,000 during the quarter. That is EUR 200,000 higher than last year during quarter two. Most of the investments were related to product novelty projects.
Cumulatively, investments are EUR 1.1 million higher than last year, and that is due to the timing of the investments. Our net debt. It declined by EUR 4.3 million and was, at the end of the quarter, EUR 15.8 million. Our leverage stayed on a very healthy level at 1.1. The long-term financial targets, they are unchanged. Currently, we are on target in the Nordics and very close to targets on total level at 4% growth cumulatively. We were close to 20% growth after the first quarter on the area outside Nordics, but the price increase in negotiations affected the growth initiatives, and year-to-date growth declined to +1.8% growth outside the Nordics. As Alexander already mentioned, we expect that to be temporary. Profitability is currently affected by the exceptionally high raw material prices, and we still have work to do to get to the 18% level.
But as raw material cost pressure ease and sales growth resumes, we believe that the target remains achievable also through organic growth. Leverage was 1.1, so very healthy level, and dividend payout is in line with our targets. AGM decided the dividend of EUR 0.23 per share, and EUR 0.12 out of that was paid in April, and the second payment of EUR 0.11 will be made in October. Then I will hand it over to Alexander to summarize the quarter.
Thank you, Saara. Just a short summary. I think now it is quite evident that full focus continues on growing our European sales. Of course, not forgetting the Nordics either. But according to strategy and full force, full speed ahead. Regarding the conditions, still unpredictable what happens in the Middle East and the effects of that. But we need to stay awake all the time and react when and if needed. Then perhaps a small light in consumer behavior, we can see some good retailer reports showing that shoppers are, especially in the Nordics, finally returning to the stores and maybe buying a little bit more. So perhaps there is a small awakening in that. We are hopeful. That, I would say, summarizes the presentation, and now we are very happy to take on any questions there might be.
Hanna, if you can help in facilitating that a bit.
Yes. Let us dive into the questions and let us start with the many questions about the price increases first. What magnitude of price increases have you implemented in Nordics and rest of Europe? Are you able to tell?
Yeah, I can shed some light on that. Of course, with the new hikes or the very high spike in raw material prices, the operating conditions became impossible. We had to react, and we had to react fast, and we did it very decisively. Our aim is to be long-term when it comes to pricing. Our estimation was that we should be able to do the correct size of price increase to defend the full-year results. Without going into percentages, it was an overall situation that I think everyone in our business had to face in one way or the other. Therefore, the understanding was there.
Where it was a bit tricky in the beginning was I think we were among the first ones out in Europe, so it took a while before retailers actually realized that the situation is critical and this is something that needs to be done fast.
Yes, exactly. You mentioned that the price increase negotiations were affecting the sales growth in Europe. How long will high raw material prices disturb growth initiative in the rest of Europe?
What do you think?
That's a tough question, but I'm happy to say that the main part of the negotiations, if not all of them, are behind us. There's full focus on looking ahead. Then again, if you look at the price of our products in general, they are not huge investments for a shopper. If, for example, the price of a storage box increases by EUR 0.50 and you buy a storage box quite seldomly, I don't think that per se should affect the consumer too much in the long run.
Exactly. Then another difficult question is that, given that price increases implemented will gradually offset increased costs, when do you expect to be fully able to compensate for the raw material headwind? During this year or next year?
With everything being constant, it's an easy question, but now that the world is changing fast and you don't know how many ships pass through Hormuz and so on, it's a tricky question. But our ambition is to follow it closely and towards the end of the year, hopefully, we can have the full effect absorbed.
Regarding, by the way, still on these challenges with the rest of Europe growth. When you paused rest of Europe growth initiative during the pricing negotiations, did you lose any shelf spaces or listings, or was it purely deferred new business?
To me, it is purely deferred new business. We were not alone. I think everybody in our industry using this raw material had to do something. That, of course, makes the buyer cautious. You need to put the pieces in place and then you push the button again, so to speak, in terms of growth. Then another thing which probably affected Europe somehow, we do not know to what extent yet, is the extreme heat waves we have seen in Europe. So that can have an effect on shopper behavior as well. Maybe not running to all the stores during + 40.
Mm. Exactly. Then regarding the price increases on Nordics, are you able to say how much of the growth in the Nordics was driven by price increases and how much was driven by volume?
Yeah. I can do that in a general way and say that there is quite a lot of volume growth in this one and the effect of the price increases came gradually over the quarter. So in that sense it is healthy growth.
Yes, exactly. Okay, I think that was maybe all about price increases. Then there were a few questions about the items affecting comparability that as Saara told earlier, we cannot say any more details than what Saara already told us. So I will actually skip those questions and move on to the next ones. There was one about the selling and marketing expenses. So selling and marketing expenses, which were roughly flat in H1, are they expected to increase in H2, particularly given the plan to re-accelerate growth initiatives in the rest of Europe now that pricing discussions are largely resolved?
Do you want me, Hanna, to answer, or should you answer?
I mean, we
Go ahead.
Yeah.
Was I saying?
I can also comment that. Last year, we had some specific projects during the beginning of the year, so the phasing is a bit different. We are not expecting to make big savings during end of the year. Definitely, we will be investing to the growth, especially in the international markets in Europe.
Yes, exactly. One more question about the sales growth in the Nordics. Did the Nordics benefit from delivery timings during Q2 as the pace of growth picked up so drastically compared to Q4 and Q1?
I would say that the growth in the Nordics is. Of course, there are many things that affected. We had nice new products, we had good campaigns over summer, and we had, let's say, a quick resolution on price increases, which then could give us the opportunity to focus full out on growth. So in that sense, I would say no specific delivery-related strangeness in the numbers.
Yes. Good. I think that was the questions this time. Thanks for the excellent questions from the audience. If you don't have anything else, we'll see you in November next time.
Thank you very much, and have a nice start of the autumn, even though we hope for a bit of summer still.
Thank you.