Acuvi AB (STO:ACUVI)
Sweden flag Sweden · Delayed Price · Currency is SEK
11.30
-0.04 (-0.35%)
At close: May 5, 2026
← View all transcripts

Earnings Call: Q1 2026

Apr 28, 2026

Operator

Hey, welcome to Investor Studio's report interview. [Non-English content]. Hello, a warm welcome to Acuvi Q1. If you watch this live, you can, as always, interact with the management, you can do so by adding your comments in the chat. We will deal with the questions at the end of our little chat and presentation, feel free to write down your questions already. Without further ado, it's high time to welcome CEO Nils Sjöholm. Nice to see you, welcome to the studio, welcome back from Tokyo.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Thank you very much. Excited to be here.

Operator

A busy quarter, no doubt. Before we jump into the figures, could you, in layman's terms for a layman as myself, just give me a short description of what you do when you develop, manufacture, and sell high precision motions solutions, and why Acuvi will make a difference?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think, yeah, for anyone that has been following the company or if they're new to this, I think at least you know that we're in the precision motion industry. That means that anything that moves with high precision is a potential target for us, right? If you look at where the world is heading right now, it's pretty obvious that anything that is developing and moving our globe into the future is actually moving itself, right? Nothing is standing still.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think it makes great sense to be in this field, and when you analyze the situation, you can see that everything needs to become tinier. Movements need to be smaller, more precise. Chip manufacturing or new space science or whatever it is that you're looking at, everything needs to be even better and more precise in the future. I think we have a perfect product mix to target all those

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

areas. Like I'm sure we'll get into, I mean, our customers are everywhere.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Everything from space, consumer electronics, nuclear energy, defense, healthcare, and so on. It's a really big area to target.

Operator

That will give my next question probably an impossible answer, and that is the addressable market. It will be enormous.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah, I mean, this is the thing. Yeah, our market is so huge. Anything that moves with high precision, and, I mean, high precision because we often talk about our, novel technology, which is basically nanometer precisioning.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

we can also move things many meters. obviously that's like asking how long is a.

Operator

A string

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

A string, yeah.

Operator

Just to give us an understanding and feel for who do you compete with when it comes to, let's say, competitors, or is it also legacy within the company, a client saying not invented here, or?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I would say, you know, we have three different business units.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

at, Acuvi. It's PiezoMotor, TPA Motion, and Sensapex.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

They all have different competition because they're all in slightly different niches, targeting different customers. There is competition, of course. I think it's a little bit more limited the more advanced the product and solution becomes, right?

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

When I was here in the past, I was talking about trying to move ourselves up the value chain.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We'd like to build more modules and solutions and be a bigger part and then a bigger integral part of our customer solutions. Part of that would be combining solutions from various business units into one singular module or bigger solution that we can provide. We've started that work, and I think if you look at it in terms of coming from that angle, the competition is far less.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

actually. We have some interesting projects that we've started on that theme. Happy to see some progress and not just talking about it in the past, but we can see some real progress.

Operator

You mentioned three names there, PiezoMotor, Sensapex, and TPA. If we look at the expected composition of your total sales, then I will divide it into med tech, life science, semiconductors, industrial automation/defense. Sorry. Would you be able to give us a feel for a composition of sales and your, let's say, target going forward?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It would actually be much easier to answer in terms of business units.

Operator

Mm-hmm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

TPA, PiezoMotor, and Sensapex. When it comes to the different segments, that's more tricky.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

The previous CRM system that we had and that we now exchanged, and I've mentioned that in the past, that's gonna give us a lot more opportunity in analyzing the data behind the orders that we get. Segmenting our complete business is a top priority. For now, I would say it's very difficult to say exactly what is a defense, a healthcare-

Operator

Mm-hmm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

semicon, and so on. We can say that TPA Motion is the bigger part, followed by PiezoMotor and then Sensapex. It also comes a little bit with the amount of novel technology that you're looking into for each of the business units. The more complex the product or solution is, the less business it is for us right now.

Operator

Sure.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We're looking to change that. I think it's been very clear that our high margin products are more in terms of, the business coming out of, PiezoMotor.

Operator

Oh.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Also Sensapex. We want to grow there.

Operator

If we shall jump into the report. Net sales amounted to SEK 51.2 million, while EBITDA amounted to SEK 3.3 versus SEK 10.4. Increased cost in several items has pressured the EBITDA, you've stated. Could you elaborate a little bit about the costs and would they be, let's say, reoccurring or would it be one-offs?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I would say that most of them are not reoccurring.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I would probably say that they are located in three certain areas. Number 1 is an increase in personnel cost.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

This is not something that is long-term for us.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

because, I can already tell you that the personnel cost over the full year of 2026 is going to decrease.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Right now we've had a couple of layoffs, and we have hired a couple people.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We're also challenged by the fact that we have double costs for a little while going forward. When we lay off people, we might have to pay them for another one to six months.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... depending on situation. That's one of it. The second one would be the logistics that I think everyone in the world are facing right now in terms of their freight cost, shipping cost, and then also the tariffs that's hitting us very hard.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It's a huge effect-

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

That we can see. Of course, we try to push that additional cost onto our customers as much as possible. In some cases we succeed because customers understand that the environment has changed.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

In some other cases, we have long-term contracts and they may not be as easy to modify. That's the second one.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

The third one would be that we have increased material cost, and that's also visible in the amount of inventory that we have.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

This is one of the key areas that we're addressing right now because the amount of working capital is not where we wanna be.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It takes time before you see the real effects, but we're already implementing the processes and the efficiency and measures that we need to have in place in order to follow and track this over time. That's clearly something that we're looking at. I would say those three are the main areas. In terms of cost, yes, we also had some investment costs in opening up the new Tokyo office.

Operator

Mm. Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

that I just visited.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... also, placing some staff there. I have no doubts that this is going to repay itself, many times, the investment cost. Right now, yeah, that's an additional cost.

Operator

If we look at the operating profit or loss in this case, - SEK 7.6 million, that was heavily affected by an accelerated depreciation rate of certain intangible assets. Could you just walk us through that and explain, and also yet again, recurring, non-recurring?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Okay. Yeah, we have very many projects ongoing.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Some of them are developing nicely. Some of them are not really where we want them to be, and we have increased the depreciation or write down speed on some of them, and that was also made in collaboration with the auditor who recommended this.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think it makes sense because in some cases we're also developing our own products that are in parallel to other projects and so on. It's something that I think you might notice going forward also, but I would say that we're also trying at the same time to mirror EBITDA with cashflow. That's why we're speaking about profitability and cashflow so much, also in the past. It's gonna continue going forward because that's really gonna be a key metric for us. It's also the foundation of everything that we want to do.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

You mentioned that we have a net sales of about SEK 51 million.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

which is roughly the same as last year. That shows us that we have a very stable order intake over time.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Also, net sales and that our customers are reoccurring. I think going forward in future you will see that this is going to increase. It does take time because we've mentioned it many times in the past, but some sales cycles can be two to three years, so it's not something that you see immediately, but there's just so much work going on also behind the scenes when we are trying to shape the company to become a much bigger player in the future. We came from first a research to a commercial organization-

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think we're now building something that is ready to bring us to a place where we could double everything. I've said that also in the past, but double the number of business units that we have.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

double the net sales, double the profits and so on. That's really what we're trying to build. Yeah, coming back to the EBITDA, yeah, it's a difference if you compare it to last year.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think you should focus on the cash flow because that's really improving.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

That's so nice also to be able to see that we're making progress, already now even though it's just been a few months since.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Since we started the work.

Operator

To me it sounds like it's a, let's say it's a restructuring, about the different items and, more or less you forming a company as the way you want to form it because, you are, although you've been around the block, you're fairly new as a CEO. Is that correct?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah, that's correct.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Of course I bring a lot of new ideas.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... that are not always in line with how everything was done in the past and so on. I think it's natural when you have a

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... new CEO that there will be some change, and I'm aware that it will take the market a little bit of time to understand.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... what the new metrics are, what's the new baseline for the company and so on. I'm sure we can overcome this, and I, yeah, we might discuss it later on in the interview, I mean, we still have very high internal targets.

Operator

Mm-hmm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... on where we wanna be. We have very high targets on what we want to achieve in different regions, in different business units, in terms of different products, and so on, and all this is put into effect and in motion right now.

Operator

As you mentioned, the net sales, SEK 51.2, in line with last year. What is the main driver behind the sales figure here?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, we've had, you know, you win business, you lose business.

Operator

Mm-hmm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Hopefully you win more than you lose. I would say that we have a lot of new, we have a lot of signs showing that what we're doing in the sales department is going in the right direction. For all our business units, this usually starts with the small orders.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

In this case, since we're doing the same net sales, I would say that a lot of it is reoccurring. It's a little bit tricky for us to exactly say how much is coming from new customers because we're also getting some new customers that were previously tied to our distributors in certain regions, like USA and Europe, for instance.

Operator

Mm. Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Some of them are coming from the previous distributor while some of them are new as well. As I said, the previous CRM system that we had could not really differentiate if they were a previous customer or not.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Now, since we own the customers ourselves.

Operator

Oh, right.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

we can much easier tell going forward.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We can also start monitoring how much each customer is growing, which ones are growing the most. Like you said about the segments before, because it's gonna be really important to see which segments are growing the most.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I have my ideas about some segments.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

that are looking very promising in the future, and that we're sort of targeting a lot more than others perhaps. Yeah.

Operator

Focusing currently on creating profitability, would that mean a flat growth, or because you mention here certain areas where you think that sales will grow?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Mm-hmm.

Operator

How should we interpret this?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I wanna grow.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I wanna grow sensibly, so not taking up, taking on too much risk.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think it's really important that we grow, profitable, with a profitable, base foundation. Right now our main focus needs to be, cost control.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

increase efficiency, production efficiency, logistics efficiency, sales efficiency, marketing efficiency. All those things that I just mentioned, they are sort of in between the top line and the bottom line. We have to work in all areas, but I would say the focus right now is on all these three. The next step would be inorganic growth and so on. I think we can do all these three things right now. Top line, a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff-

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Cost control.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think we have to work on all of them, and we have already started, and I think that's why you can see that the cash flow is actually.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

becoming better.

Operator

As you mention here, the cash flow would be something to look at, and obviously sales too. Is there such a thing as an average ticket size, and if so, what would it be?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

That's really hard to answer. I mean, our orders are from very, very small volumes.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

up to the, what you've seen in the press releases, they can be-

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

quite big, almost SEK 2 million.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

or something like that.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

anything in between is.

Operator

All right.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... is usual. Of course when we're looking into these segments like we've started to do, you can tell that we may have a little bit of a better pricing power in certain segments than others.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I would assume that, for instance, defense and semicon, they are segments that are going to grow significantly.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

going forward. I think there's a lot of market data that points in that direction as well.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

You also have, another segment like space, which may not be so huge right now, but with all the decrease in cost for sending, satellites into space.

Operator

Yeah

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

and so on, we expect that to be a much bigger area. We're not working only with the companies that are sending things into space.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We're also working with research and academia, because we think that that could be a way of making our brand famous. In Stockholm we have the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

of Technology, for instance, so we're negotiating with them and talking to them about how we can facilitate their experiments in space and so on. If they write articles and publications and our name can be mentioned there, that's also one way of making the world aware that we have the stuff that is suitable for the very harsh conditions that are in space.

Operator

Yes. Could you give us a feel for time from pitch to execution when it comes to an average order?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, that could be so different also, because if the customer approaches us, then that time is usually a little bit faster.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... or much faster, I should say. If we approach someone, like we're doing now, because we wanna be more proactive in the sales department.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It could be really anywhere between, let's say a month to three years.

Operator

Oh.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We have to, you know, if you are calling an engineer.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

You have to be lucky enough that that engineer has that specific problem to be solved by your specific product at that specific.

Operator

Okay

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... time, right? Most likely you will make them aware of what solutions you can provide so that when they get to that point, which could be anywhere between three months.

Operator

Mm, mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Two years later, they will have you on top of their mind, right? This is where customer relations and partnerships come into play. I would really also maybe take the opportunity to explain how I see the difference between relationships and partnerships.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Many, especially in terms of sales, you talk about relationships, but to me a relationship is something that will enable you to get the first sale, right? I would much rather talk about partnerships.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

This is what I did, now when I was in Asia, for instance. The difference I would say is that if your customer is building an instrument that's gonna have a lifetime of maybe 10 years, of course that initial sale is very important 'cause that's how you get your product solution, and your brand in, over the footstep, or through the door. How you take care of the customer in the following five.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

seven, 10 years, that's gonna determine whether they have faith enough in you as a company.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

person, product, solution, and put you into their next generation instrument. At some point you have to realize that our customer success, that is what ultimately defines our own success, right? By not seeing them just as a sales partner, somebody who's gonna buy something from you, but rather see them as a partner to our business, that's how I think we can succeed in sales over a long time. This is what we're now talking a lot about internally with the sales team and basically everybody who has any sort of customer facing going forward. Yeah, I lost track a little bit on your question.

Operator

Yeah, but-

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think that's really important to mention because partnerships are really.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

fundamental for us rather than just relationships.

Operator

The interesting thing here is also then barriers of entry would be high, I assume, and the stickiness of the business would be very sticky.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, that's the upside.

Operator

At least that's your aim.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah. I mean, that's also the upside.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It's very tricky. If the sales cycle is two to three years-

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It's very hard to get through the door.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

When you succeed, and you manage to progress together with a customer and develop together.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... with a customer, then that stickiness is very high.

Operator

Mm. Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Of course, like all the business that we have today, most of those companies, they're not startups, they're big companies, so they're going to be around for many years.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We just need to make sure that we're managing these partnerships in the right way, and then we should not be designed out, unless there's a complete transformation in technology.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We need to, have an eye on that as well of course.

Operator

Yes. If-

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think that's many years from now.

Operator

Yeah.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Sorry.

Operator

If that's the case, you will probably be there as you're in the forefront of many technologies there. Let's jump into customer's orders here, and you mention here in the press release that you're exiting a med tech distributional deal about $3.7 million annually. Why does that come to an end?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

That's a good question, and I ask myself that as well.

Operator

Okay

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... because I've been in the distribution business for, quite a few years.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I usually say that distribution business is quite different from other business-.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

because it's one where you don't really require a contract between the manufacturer-.

Operator

Okay

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... and the distributor. Unless the business is fruitful, for both parties.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... a win-win, a clear win-win, it's not gonna become fruitful for anyone in the long term, right? In this case, we had, this particular manufacturer and customer, as a working partnership for so many years, like a couple of decades, almost 20 years, and we grew that customer for the manufacturer, and I think we did an excellent job and, it might be that we did too good of a job.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

That it really hurts, it sucks.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

That's usually, you know, it's not usual business when that happens.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I'm a bit surprised that it did, but, yeah, we just have to make sure that we put the foundation.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

good opportunities. Headwinds are always gonna show up.

Operator

One could also point out that it was more or less offset by two orders from a customer in the U.S. defense sector, which was $3.2 million. I got two questions around that. Would that, is that the same customer, two orders from the same customers, or are there two customers? How much can you share? Because when it comes to defense contracts, which is now a booming market, there's a lot of money out there's also a lot of secrecy and you are obliged-

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Mm

Operator

... to sign forms which means that you are unable to communicate. Feel free to answer that in any way you like.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah, I mean, I can tell you it's, what we are providing these customers with, and they're different customers also-

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Has some very cool stuff.

Operator

Okay.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

since it's the U.S. defense.

Operator

Mm. Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... or I would assume any defense customer.

Operator

Yes

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I can't say anything about that. It's not, I can say it's not PiezoMotor.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think we were clear in the press release.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

saying that this is a business that comes out of TPA-

Operator

Yes

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

motion, so it's something that moves a little bit bigger.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It's really nice to see that that's happening, and that we are a key player in that because.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... you know, I speak a lot about how I want us to be much more proactive.

Operator

Mm. Mm. Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... in the future, but you cannot be proactive.

Operator

No

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

In sales, towards the defense industry. You really have to make sure that every project you get, you deliver it to the top-notch standard.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... that they're expecting, and then they will internally spread the word and you get an offer for a different project.

Operator

Mm. Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... and so on. That's how it goes, and it's really nice to see that TPA has grown this over time. Also, I just wanted to add, sorry, to come back to the last question that you had.

Operator

Mm. Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Because distribution generally is a low margin business.

Operator

Mm. Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We did cover up some of it by these new defense orders, but I think more important is to say that we're also seeing how PiezoMotor, our legs business, which is our, also our high margin business.

Operator

Mm. Mm. Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

is progressing really nicely. We started Q1 by almost doubling compared to last year, and the trend that we see is also continuing into Q2. I'm not gonna make any projection for the full year, but I can say that it has started very well, and this is really in the lines of our strategy to add business to this segment.

Operator

One can always, as we were into this, let's say, barriers of entry, if there is anything, such thing as a barrier of entry is in the defense sector.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, speaking of defense, it looks like this ,trend, if you like, is going to remain for quite some years, I guess. I mean, your guess is as good as my guess.

Operator

Mm-hmm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I don't see the world investing less in defense, whether it's going to grow or not, I don't wanna speculate, but I don't think it's going to decrease, at least not in the visible near-term future, like five or even 10 years.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I would say that the world has changed a little bit.

Operator

We have some viewer questions here, I'll just read them.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Mm

Operator

... out loud and then you have to interpret it as it is. Question number one here, Q1 EBITDA was SEK 3.3 million. You need SEK 34 million-SEK 47 million in Q2, Q4, and I assume that would be sales to hit guidance. What drives that acceleration?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

First of all, I think maybe this is a good time to say that what we have communicated is not guidance.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

it is our targets.

Operator

Good.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Absolutely, we need to grow top line.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Decrease in cost is going to be important, too, and we can do a lot there as well, and we've already started that journey. Growing top line is going to be instrumental in succeeding, and I think what our projections show is that we need to grow about 10%-15%, and I mean, that's more than fair targets to put, and in some areas we have a lot higher targets as well.

Operator

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think the average should be at least somewhere there, and then we have good chances of reaching it.

Operator

The second question from the same viewer here, LEGS doubled in Q1. What percentage of Uppsala capacity is utilized today, and at what level do you expect meaningful margin leverage?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, we are still at about 50% utilization.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

There's a lot of room for expansion, and, this requires the sales department to do a good job, but the nice thing is that we can see things picking up in speed. I mean, the traction that we get from the customers that we are reaching, the number of new customers, that are coming in, it's all pointing in a very good direction. I spoke to our fantastic, I should say, regional director of APAC, Asia-.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... Pacific, Marcus Hedenskog, and he can ready see some early, trend results pointing in the right direction, and if things maintain, we should be able to grow APAC with between 50%-100% at the end of the year. The same goes for, some other segments and niches as well. We have high hopes.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Of course, we also have that headwind.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

mentioning in the earlier. It's not all gonna be a straight curve upwards. I think for every headwind that you may encounter, you have to make sure that you have three possible tailwinds.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

to counteract for.

Operator

If we're coming back to orders here, you have announced that you've been chosen to deliver solutions to a Formula One team. What more can you tell us about this?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Okay

Operator

... agreement? I mean, it's sound pretty cool, I think.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah, and that's partly also why we press released it. It's not a big volume order-

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... but it's something that has a high attention value, in the market.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Right now, I would say.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

A lot of people follow Formula One. I'm quite a new fan myself.

Operator

Oh, yeah, obvious.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah. Unfortunately the team doesn't want to be mentioned by name.

Operator

no.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

They don't want to tell us exactly what they're doing.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, my guess would be that it's more of a measurement instrument.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

than anything else. You know,

Operator

Yeah.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... build their cars, it's super important.

Operator

Oh, yeah.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... that every angle is right and so on.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

that's what I'd guess.

Operator

It's a seal of approval, one could argue.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Absolutely.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Absolutely. I mean, this is the world's fastest motorsport.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I don't think there's hardly any sport with instruments.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

that require higher precision than.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

than Formula One.

Operator

You just got back from Tokyo, and so, and you have mentioned previously that you switch away from distributors to in-house sales in certain regions. When do you think that that will be reflected in the figures? Because if I understand you correctly, I mean, you would have more control of the sales, cutting out the middleman, and that would lead to, let's say, quicker sales and perhaps higher margin. Am I right in my assumption?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah.

Operator

If so, when can we see that?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think you're right in quicker sales. I would hope that you're wrong because that means our distributors weren't as effective as we were hoping.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think you're right.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Second thing is that most of our customers, they're quite big companies.

Operator

Mm-hmm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Right now only, one department is buying something from us.

Operator

Mm, mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

This is something that we can change when we manage the partnership directly ourselves. Because it allows us to spread the word of what more we have in our portfolio, and it also allows us to be in more contact with their other departments. I was now in Japan.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... we met with a big, global player. In the meeting across the table was not just one engineer. There were five different engineers, and they were all not working with just one project.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

of course.

Operator

Oh, I see.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

talk to all of them, you know, you're spreading the word. We're really also hoping that we can grow each of these big, multinational, companies, with our solutions.

Operator

There would be a, let's say, a read across to other areas within the companies due to, let's say, controlling the sales and having your own distribution, as it were.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah, exactly.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

It puts us in the driver's seat.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

We determine our own fate a little bit more.

Operator

Okay. As you're transforming the company towards, let's say, fast-growing, can I say better control in a way, and a profitable entity, what kind of metrics would you like us in the market to look? As we started this interview, I got the feeling that when it comes to EBITDA and other metrics, because you are restructuring the company in certain ways, maybe that's not the way to look at it. You have emphasized cashflow and sales. Could you elaborate a little bit about KPIs, internally, but more importantly externally to us?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah. I don't know how carefully you read the report, but we actually took away a few of the wordings around-

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... standard products and

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

OEM products and so on because we think that they were a little bit confusing, not only to the market, but also internally how we define these things and where do we draw the line. If we have a PiezoMotor that we are modifying the adapter, and does that make it a standard product still or a or an OEM and so on? It's really something that we're trying to figure out.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I understand that we need to get into much more details and providing the market with more details, and we want to do that. Somewhere there's a little bit of a borderline where you don't want to provide too much.

Operator

Yeah

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

because then you're, we're just gonna talk about details that.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

really

Operator

No

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

shareholder value in the long run. I definitely think, like EBITDA or EBIT, they're important, but if we're doing things a little bit different.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Maybe there's a new baseline that we should refer to. Cashflow is always cashflow, right?

Operator

Mm. Yep.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Cashflow is also the foundation of what we could do going forward, and it gives us the maneuver room for what we want to do. I come from a conglomerate, a serial acquirer, where acquisitions were financed 50%, 50% by own cash, 50% by bank loans. I think that's a healthy and sound debt level, and we would like to be able to do.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

similar. Right now we don't have those financial muscles, but we can see the indications, although they're, we're coming from a low level.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I mean, it should be quite quick that we start building up some cash on our own, and we can start looking at these things, and we should be able to finance them ourselves.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

All the metrics, we're gonna look into that, and I think by Q2 we should definitely have a lot more information for the market. I just want to be really careful and make sure that we provide sensible KPIs that we can follow over time.

Operator

Yeah.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I would say, of course the market wants this, and we should provide them, but more importantly, I want to find the KPIs that also sets the right internal pressures.

Operator

Mm, mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Once you start communicating, then that also shows the entire organization that these are now publicly communicated, and we need to improve them over time. That's why they have to be chosen very carefully. Surely they, we should definitely have more than what we provided in this quarter.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

report.

Operator

Yeah. That's an excellent segue, actually, to my next and final question, and that was, would be what do you want for us to be looking at the coming quarter? Obviously, if you've done your internal work to a satisfactory level for yourself, then you may communicate KPIs going forward. Is there anything else you would like us to watch any particular space when it comes to Acuvi?

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

No, I think, you know, the KPIs are very important. Even though we don't disclose too many KPIs today.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

it doesn't mean that we didn't start tracking them, right? Now we have different data systems. We're talking continuously internally about becoming more data-driven, so we've implemented the systems that we need in terms of ERP, CRM, and so on to be able to track things.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

going forward. It's just gonna be a little bit of work.

Operator

Yeah

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

What is worth tracking.

Operator

Mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... and publishing.

Operator

Excellent.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah.

Operator

Yeah.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

I think, I mean, cashflow definitely is still the number-one KPI.

Operator

Right, Nils. very interesting, and educational, I would say. One could say, one should watch the space, and looking forward to see you here again, so thank you so much.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Oh, thank you. yeah, I did wanna say.

Operator

Yes, go ahead.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

something about my trip to Japan.

Operator

Yes, please. Good.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... because it was really nice, and we've spoken about how we want to do the direct partnerships ourselves.

Operator

Mm, mm

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... and so on. That's true for the U.S. and Europe. While we've said that in Asia we want to keep the distributors, and I was there meeting with our new local team, the regional director but also an engineer, local engineer, and we met with both distributors and customers, and I can tell you I think we're spot on in terms of the strategy there because it's just so different, those customer meetings and how you.

Operator

Of course.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

... interact with the customer in that, in those settings, how you speak to them, who speaks, who says what.

Operator

Mm.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Having a person like Marcus who knows the language fluently in both spoken words and writing, I think it's tremendously valuable. Like I said, we're already seeing some progress. It's early signs, and it's from low levels, but I have really high hopes that we can tap into this market, which is huge and still to this day one of the smaller markets for Acuvi as a group. That's also something to track in the future, and I'm sure that that might be one of the KPIs that we're going to.

Operator

Interesting

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

to, publish.

Operator

Also something to look forward to. It's a little bit of a cliffhanger, one could say, than Japan.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

Yeah, I mean.

Operator

Oh, right.

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

really. You have China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan.

Operator

Yeah

Nils Sjöholm
CEO, Acuvi

are the main drivers, I think.

Operator

Right. With that, thank you so much, Nils, and we will say thank you to all of you, viewing and asking questions. Without, with that, thank you and goodbye.

Powered by