Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Orkla's presentation of Q4 'fifteen and full year 'fifteen. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the strong 4th quarter. It was supported by successful innovations as well as very healthy sales ahead of the Christmas season. For the quarter, we report an organic growth above 4% and a strong EBIT growth exceeding our announced targets for the 2016 to 20 18 period. In the quarter, we believe we are growing more than the market, but the progress is partly boosted by campaigns ahead of Christmas.
Adjusted for this, we consider our overall growth to be roughly in line with the markets where we operate. Full year's earnings per share doubled to in 2015 to 3.24. I believe we are continuing to move in the right direction in the 4th quarter. The adjusted EBIT for the group increased by 9%, driven by growth in branded Consumer Goods. I'm also pleased to see the 7th consecutive quarter with organic growth with a top line of 4.1% and an adjusted EBITDA growth in the branded consumer goods area of 17%.
We also continue to see strong performance from our associated companies. Sapa reported improved operations in the 4th quarter. Their €1,000,000,000 synergy program has now been completed 1 year ahead of plan. Annualtum delivered all time high sales and operating profit in 2015. During the quarter, we have announced acquisition of Hammeh, which will double our turnover in Central Europe.
I will come back to this acquisition later. We have also expanded our business in the ice cream segment by the acquisition of the Dutch companies, Frusco and Ryceland. The integration of Seadroat is going according to plan. A high M and A restructuring activity led to higher restructuring costs in the quarter. And costs related to structural processes are expected also going forward.
The Board has decided to propose a dividend for the year of SEK2.5 per share. Jens will revert to the capital allocation later. As I mentioned, organic growth trend continued in the 4th quarter with 4.1% increase. And I'm also very pleased to see that we also continue to see increased volume and mix growth. All business areas reported growth and especially Orkla Foods and Confectionery Snacks benefited from very strong sales ahead of the Christmas season.
Orkla Care had a challenging start of the year, but we are happy to see organic growth on the positive side also in this business segment in the Q4. However, we still face demanding markets in certain categories. Our market share performance in the 4th quarter was mixed. Overall market shares in grocery trade were slightly lower than the same quarter last year, but the trend has been more positive in the last few periods. Overall, the picture is somewhat more positive as we see above market growth of sales in other channels.
As communicated during our Capital Markets Day in September, our focus remain on top line growth and margin expansion through cost improvements in the value chain. And I would like to give you some examples of how we are working during 2015 in order to increase top line growth. First, we have launched more innovations across country borders. As an example, dry roasted nuts was launched across several markets. In Denmark, Finland and Sweden, they were introduced under the brand name Anyday Nuts.
And in Norway, we have used a well established Poly brand. All products are produced at the same factory. And I think this is a really exciting example how we work to launch healthier, more enjoyable innovations across business units and country borders. Big Cut Potato Chips is another one that was also successfully launched in Q1 2015 in both Norway, Sweden and Finland, but under local brands. And in all markets, this launch has achieved sales in line with or exceeding our plans.
Another top line growth initiative is close to cooperation with our customers. I have said that before that we have more common goals with our customers than we have disagreements. And our common goal is to grow, grow categories and grow the market. And instead of spending too much time on negotiation, we should rather spend time on collaboration. In our highly concentrated markets, we experienced demand from retailers to make unique products for them.
The purpose is, of course, to help the customers differentiate in their competition. These initiatives increase the sales and, as important, they contribute to strengthen our customer relationship. We see an increasing number of such initiatives and so far we have very good success with several of these launches. Working together as 1 Orkla, 1 Team for Growth is also a key initiative to support growth to utilize the strength that lies within all our businesses across geographies. This photo shows a very happy and proud project team at the launch of the new cake concept called Toro Bakery, which is introduced and launched in the B2B segment.
This new launch is a result of teamwork between Orkla Foods and Orkla Food Ingredients. The teams have leveraged on each other's strengths and competence within ingredients, packaging, marketing and distribution. And the outcome is a tasteful product successfully developed across Orkla Companies, Business Areas and Countries. One of the most important growth drivers is, of course, always will always be to strengthen our strong existing brands in large categories like frozen pizzas in Norway. In Q3 2015, we relaunched the Grandiosa Homemade Pizza with 3 new toppings.
And this relaunch increased sales of 66% after the relaunch. So that's a very good example. Then moving from top line to EBIT growth. During 2015, we have managed to increase underlying EBIT margin by 60 basis points. Despite higher raw material prices for several of our categories and a weakening of Norwegian currency, we have managed to improve underlying EBIT margin through top line initiatives and tough cost improvement programs.
The weakening of the Norwegian currency had also positive currency translation effects of approximately 5% as you can see on the graph on the right side. Regarding supply chain, a large potential is also increasing productivity in our existing facilities. In 2015, we have made several dedicated factory improvement projects. Further, we are moving towards a more centralized setup for procurement, going from a degree of centralization of 54% in 2014 to 70% in 2015. This has resulted in several projects where we gather our volumes and achieving lower prices.
In addition to reducing our factory footprint, we also work with reducing SG and A costs. As an example, we have merged sales forces within business areas, moved accounting services to Tallinn and launched several cost reduction programs throughout the organization. With the ongoing integration programs for Seadrood and MP Foods, we also see great potential for improving operations in our newly acquired businesses. And speaking about acquisitions. During 2015, we have made several strategic acquisitions.
We have freed up approximately 1,500,000,000 through exit and sales of non core assets and reallocated approximately 5,000,000,000 to the branded consumer goods business area. Through acquisitions like Seadroat and MP Foods, we have strengthened our foothold in existing geographies and categories. We have also increased our exposure in the ice cream segment and in the segment of vegan and organic food. Most recently, we have entered into an agreement to acquire Kavli's Danish operations and also Hammeh, which I will revert to later. We are still waiting for approval of relevant competition authorities regarding these two acquisitions.
With these acquisitions, we have gained critical mass in the Baltics and Central Europe, making our portfolio more diversified and less dependent on single markets. For example, we have reduced our exposure to the Norwegian market from 37% to 31% of revenues. Then a few words about Hammeh. In December 2015, we entered into an agreement to acquire Hammeh, a leading food company in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hammeh has very strong market positions in categories that are well known to Orkla.
In fact, 85% of Harmar's products are in our current categories. The acquisition of Hame, which doubles Orca's turnover in Central Europe, will also complement and strengthen our existing categories in these areas. For example, Orkla will be a market leader in tomato ketchup in 8 European countries. With the acquisition of Hame, Orkla will become one of the leading fast moving consumer goods players in attractive markets in Central Europe, and we will gain critical mass for profitable growth in these markets. To sum up the quarter, this is the slide I've shown several times before also during Capital Markets Day.
We are on the right track as is visible from our results. And we have solid plans and actions in order to reach our goals from 2016 to 2018. And as we stated during Capital Markets Day in September, we will continue to focus on improving operations in brand consumer goods area by operating more as one Orkla, sharing ideas and products between business areas and markets and taking out synergies throughout the value chain. However, we still have a way to go and I see a large potential going forward. We will continue to focus on accelerating our performance in the coming period.
I would then like to hand over to Jens Stav, who will go through the financials more in detail.
Thank you, Peter. I'll now take you through some more of the details regarding the financials in the quarter. Let's first start with the group P and L. We see a broadly positive development in income this quarter. Orkla had operating revenues of DKK9.6 billion in the 4th quarter, that's an increase of 18%, supported by organic growth contribution from M and A and positive currency translation effects.
For the full year 2015, operating revenues amounted to NOK33.2 billion, and that's up 12.2 percent from 2014. Adjusted EBIT came to DKK1.1 billion, up 9.4% from last year. The growth was related to improved results for the branded consumer goods, both from underlying improvements as well as structural growth and positive currency translation effects. I will come back to more details on the development in the Branded Consumer Goods area later on. Adjusted EBIT for the entire year was NOK3.6 billion, up 12.3 percent from the year before, and this is solid progress.
Other income and expenses amounted to a negative NOK234 1,000,000. This was mainly related to M and A activities and restructuring activities connected to several internal restructuring initiatives. For the full year 2015, other income and expenses came to a negative NOK502 1,000,000. It's important to note that we are continuing restructure our supply chain and acquire companies. Therefore, there will be further cost on this line item going forward.
Profit from associates totaled SEK89 1,000,000 in the quarter, mainly driven by contribution from the Sapa JV and Joktun. The group's net financial costs were reduced in the quarter, mainly due to a lower interest rate level and positive effects from interest rate swaps compared to 2014. This gave a profit before tax of NOK946 1,000,000 in the quarter, almost twice a strong performance, up from NOK505 1,000,000 in the same period in 2014. Earnings per share increased from minus NOK0.06 6 to NOK0.73 in the 4th quarter. Let's now look closer at Branded Consumer Goods.
In Q4 2015, Branded Consumer Goods had an increase of 19% in revenues year on year. This increase was driven by a significant contribution from several acquisitions, positive currency translation effects from a weaker Norwegian kroner as well as organic growth of 4.1% in the quarter. This is, as you already know, the 7th quarter in a row with organic growth. And as Peter mentioned, all business areas contributed to organic revenue growth in the quarter. Looking at the adjusted EBIT margin and to keep it simple, I will from now on use the term EBIT when referring to this adjusted EBIT.
Reported EBIT margin was 12.8 percent in the quarter, down from 13% in the same period in 2014. The decline is caused by dilution effects from acquisitions. And adjusted for this we achieved an underlying margin improvement of approximately 0.6 percentage points in Q4 and for the full year 2015. Contribution from cost improvements and strong sales more than offset the negative effect from a weakening Norwegian currency. Let's now review the performance of each business area and then starting with Orkla Foods.
In Orkla Foods, we saw an organic growth of 5.2% and an increase in EBIT of 20% to 561,000,000. Dollars The main drivers for the period's revenue increase were price and volume driven growth through new launches, campaign activity and distribution of Tropicana juice. Sales were increased or sales were boosted by increased sales ahead of the Christmas season in Norway. The EBIT margin improved by 0.9 percentage points and ended at 14.7% for the quarter. The main drivers for EBIT growth were sales increase and overall positive effects from cost improvement programs throughout the value chain.
Higher raw material prices and the weakening Norwegian currency put pressure on margins. Moving on to Confectionery and Snacks. We saw a strong positive growth of 7.2% in the 4th quarter, an increase in EBIT of 28% to NOK314 1,000,000. Confectionery and Snacks saw a strong organic growth primarily in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Estonia. Part of this growth was relates to timing and one off effects and is to some extent expected to have opposite effect in Q1 2016.
And these effects are, of course, hard to quantify precisely, but we believe they would be in the area of around 2%. The EBIT margin improved by 0.4 percentage points and ended at 17.3 percent for the quarter. This margin was positively influenced by strong sales, which counteracted the dilutive effect of around 1 percentage points from the NP Foods acquisition. Orkla Care had an organic growth of 0.6% in the 4th quarter. This was driven by Orkla Home and Personal Care, Lilborg Professional and Pierre Robert Group.
The growth was mainly driven by campaigns and new product launches. The acquisition of Cerdlot was approved by the competition authorities in all relevant countries in August 2015 on the condition that the 2 brands, ASAN and Alevo were sold. In December, agreements to sell both brands were entered into and the transaction were completed in January 2016. The sales condition from the competition authorities has thus been met. EBIT in the 4th quarter ended at NOK204 1,000,000 and the EBIT margin ended at 12.4% in the quarter and the decrease versus last year was mainly explained by dilution from the inclusion of Severod.
In addition, all business units experienced significantly higher input costs due to a weaker Norwegian kroner. Oikla Food Ingredients achieved 4th quarter organic growth of 3%. EBIT ended at €116,000,000 and that's a slight decrease from an all time high level of €120,000,000 in Q4 'fourteen. And in fact, Q4 2015 is the 2nd best quarter ever. The EBIT margin came to 5.5% for the quarter, a decline from 2014, which was expected as we have increased our exposure in the ice cream business.
And as you know, ice cream sales during winter season has a negative impact. Let's look at the results from Orichla Investments. During the Q4, we saw continued underlying value increase in our assets in Oikle Investments, but no major transactions were made. The shareholding in Ghengis and the remaining share portfolio portfolio represents a combined market value of roughly NOK1.4 billion. And Oikle Investments, as you know, also manages a real estate portfolio with a book value of approximately NOK1.8 billion.
The main assets are, however, Sapa JV and Jotun. The Sapa JV continues to make solid progress with growth in underlying results, Effects from synergy and restructuring initiatives and moderate growth in North American demand contributed positively. During 2015, SAPA has also managed to increase the share of value added products. The underlying results in the quarter were somewhat offset by costs related to Sapa's measures to address unsanctioned quality testing practices in North America. OIBDA share on net profit from Sapa amounted to NOK17 1,000,000 and that's a substantial increase from 2014 a quarter when the results also were heavily affected by large impairments in China.
Sapa reached its SEK1 billion synergy target ahead of plan, demonstrating strong execution capabilities. During the last 2 years, Sapa has closed down and restructured 20 plants and reduced manning accordingly by 2,000 FTEs. In addition, Sapa has improved operational results through refocusing its portfolio towards higher added value added products and exiting some lower margin business. Positive currency translation effects in the period were partly offset by metal premiums. Sapa has strengthened its business platform and will focus on both top line initiatives and further cost improvements going forward.
Jotun delivered all time high sales and operating profit in 20 15. Reported growth in revenues is highly affected by positive currency translation effects. Adjusted for this currency effect, the growth is still at double digit level with growth across all segments and regions. The revenue growth is primarily driven by improved deliveries in the Marine Coatings segments. In addition, the Decorative Paints segment in the Middle East and Southeast Asia continued to develop positively.
For the last quarter of 2015, sales growth has been maintained at a high level, whereas operating profit are negatively impacted by certain one off costs. For the full year, operating profit increased by close to 60%. Hydro Power had relatively high production volumes in Q4 and SABDA achieved all time high production in 2015. However, continued low power prices in the quarter led to a drop in EBIT from NOK73 1,000,000 to NOK49 1,000,000. I'll now take you through the changes in net debt.
Net debt at the end of 2014 was SEK5.7 billion. Net expansion investments in 2015 totaled SEK2.4 billion, primarily related to the acquisition of Seadrott and NP Foods. Cash flow from operations amounted to SEK3.7 billion. The net sale of shares and other financial items was SEK0.3 billion. Due to the weakening Norwegian kroner, debt denominated in other currencies increased by NOK0.6 billion during 2015, resulting in a total net debt of SEK7.8 billion at the year end.
And this is well under our communicated targets on net interest bearing debt to EBITDA. Work class net interest bearing debt had an average maturity of 3.2 years at year end. The average interest cost was 2.3% in the quarter and 2.8% for the full year 2015. Oikla has paid a stable dividend of NOK2.50 over recent years. The Board proposes to keep the nominal ordinary dividend level at NOK2.50 per share for the financial year 2015.
Finally, I'd like to remember I'd like to remind you the financial calendar for 2016. And with that, let me hand the floor back to Petri.
Thank you, Jens. Well, to sum this up, in the Q4, Orkla achieved solid EBIT growth, especially in the brand consumer goods area, also adjusted for currency effects. We are very pleased to report organic growth of 4.1%. Innovations launched across markets and business areas contributed to the growth. And actually, this is one of the highest growth we have seen in many, many years.
We also see strong performance both in Jotun and Sapa as we have been showing you. Going forward, we will continue to improve profitability by increasing operational efficiency throughout the value chain. By working more closely as One Orkla, the group will exploit synergies more effectively across its operations, at the same time also cultivating Orca's unique local customer and consumer insights. Before we move on to Q and A, I would like to share with you a preview of some of the innovations that we are about to launch. Orkla Foods continuing to launch healthy products through the portfolio and dedicated brands.
Since launch of our health concepts, Paloons, in Sweden in 2010, the annual growth under this brand has been 50%. Going forward, we continue to develop the Paloons range by entering new categories and new geographies. We also continue to make people's favorite products healthier. As an example, you see our new launch, Nougatte 0, which is a variant of the popular sweet spread Nougatte. It's completely without palm oil and with no added sugar.
And in fact, Orkla helped to reduce Norwegian population's sugar intake by 120 tonnes in 2015 by developing low sugar content alternatives and sugar free alternatives. And we also reduced content of saturated fat by approximately 2.90 tonnes last year. 1 of our oldest leading personal hygiene brands, Doctor. Greve, will relaunch and expand its range with 50 new SKUs within Personal Care segment. With this expansion, Doctor.
Greve will provide Norwegian consumers with a complete Personal Care range for everyday use. And last but not least, I want to show you some brave examples. We are about to launch milk chocolate in Denmark, Norway and Latvia. And with this, we will challenge the largest segments across all geographies in confectionery and snacks. And that's the categories that are really highly competitive.
The launch in Denmark is a really good example of how we take the opportunity to fill a white spot. We are not present in chocolate in Denmark at all. And here you see the great products, and I hope you will taste them. I think this is really a brave move by the Danish team. I have tasted these products.
They are great, and I'm very proud of this new launch. But as always, it is now up to the consumer to be the judge of their success. I hope you'll try it and I hope you will like it. We will then move over to Q and A session. Thank you very much.
Sigur Sanna, Akschorn. I have a question about ketchup. You have to you think to maintain your products with fewer factories, I saw in newspapers today. Do you think you can run the whole capship market by 1 factory, the company's capship market?
Well, in general, we have said that in a certain geographic area, we want to go for having 1 factory for each category or each product or each technology. But I mentioned also the in a certain geography. And on one side, you have synergies of having fewer bigger factories. On the other hand, this is outweighed by increased logistics costs. So this will always be a balance between big versus and centralized versus logistics costs.
So I cannot say in the example of Ketchup whether we'll have one factory, but it's quite sure that we have too many factories today also within the ketchup categories.
Why are you not growing your dividend? From your Capital Markets Day, I understood that €250,000,000 is kind of a minimal level. But from your dividend policy, it states that if your underlying business is satisfactory, dividend should grow. And you are happy with the growth and you are happy with the margin expansions. Why is it not growing?
Well,
if you look, the earnings that we have now is defense a dividend of 2.50 and if you see, I think that is around 70% 77% of the net result. So I think it's
comparing that to the range from many of our peers and what they pay out,
I think that's in the order of 40% to 60%. So I think in that context,
it's quite a good dividend. And as we said on the Capital Markets Day, we will review this going forward and look at the way
the income and earnings are progressing.
And of course, we got this every year, but for this year, we feel that €250,000,000 is a fair and good dividend.
Well, no further questions. It's difficult to see here. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for coming and joining us for the Q4 presentations. And I hope you have the opportunity to taste these new and great products that we are launching.
Thank you.