Hey everyone, Christopher and Joel here. Welcome to Q1 2025 report. We'll get straight into some of our slides, and then we'll finish off as usual with a Q&A. Summarizing Q1, from our point of view, a good quarter across the globe. Part of the heading, of course, was very, very good EPS growth, and we'll come back to that. A total sales growth of 16%, while the organic growth was 4%, and pretty stable or good across the globe, the US, we'll come back to that, and EMEA and APAC. We continue to have good growth from acquisition, which of course is part of the business model, which we will continue going forward with. All in all, we would say a stable, good first quarter, especially with some uncertain times here.
I would say it shows the model continues to be very good even in these times. On the EBITDA, a growth of 13% with stable margins compared to last year. We will come back a little bit more on the different regions, but 9.4%. Happy with the margin development in Q1. Also cash flow positive. Of course, the people who know Beijer Ref in details, usually Q1 and Q2 is an inventory and accounts receivables build up, and we usually flush through cash flow in Q3 and Q4. I would say still a good and stable cash flow for being Q1, happy with that as well. An EPS growth of 20%, which is very happy about on there. As you know, we closed the CoolFuel acquisition at the beginning of the year, the leading HVAC distributor in Hungary.
All in all, on the total, good growth, good margins, and especially good profit growth in the quarter. Okay, moving on to the different segments. Coming back to the word good and stable in all segments of positive growth in their HVAC, 6% growth, which is also across the globe, I would say. Stable in the commercial refrigeration, + 2%. Which is a decent level in that product category. And then OEM, 3%, which is a little bit lower than what we usually have in that segment. I'm sure I'll get a question or two, but we'll have the same answer. We see the order book coming up very good here, so we expect that growth to accelerate as we go through the year. It should be nice growth there as we move into the next couple of quarters. Okay, moving on to EMEA.
Growth of 14% driven by the HVAC, of course, related to the acquisition we've done over the last 12 months on GIA Group and Cool4U. Other than that, continues to be a stable market with good growth in Eastern Europe. Africa has been developing very well for the first time in a couple of years. That's nice. It is a stable market in the Nordics and Central Europe and continues to be weaker in Southern Europe, especially France. Also worth mentioning, of course, when you talk about EMEA and North America, it is pre-season time, especially in the HVAC segments. Of course, it's more bigger quarters ahead as we move into Q2 and Q3. The OEM segment we talked about, but we see that ramping up fairly nicely. I know I've been talking in the last couple of quarters about good quoting levels.
We see the orders now building in the backlog, so should be improving as we go through the year. If you look at the different margins, stable margins in the region at a good level for being Q1. All in all, I mean, we'll come back to that, another stable quarter with solid margins in EMEA, and we look forward to moving into the high season here as things start heating up for Beijer Ref. Moving over to APAC. APAC continues to do very well, both on sales and the margin evolution. I think you've seen it now for some quarters. We are in a good position for sure in APAC and good markets in especially Australia. Taking market share for sure in this region and been doing for quite some time and also driving the margin in there.
We did have in March a cyclone that did limit sales for 3-4 days. We expect to pick that up, not in Q2, but over the rest of the year as things need to get prepared. We are very happy with the development in there. We also, maybe worth mentioning on this slide, did a small acquisition related to securing some more quotas for refrigerants going forward. Very strategic for us, no major impact on the business, but puts us in a good position to continue to drive the market share evolution, especially in Australia. Moving on to the US, solid 6% organic growth and a very good + 31% growth together with especially our acquisitions there, Young Supply. Solid margins if you adjust for the dilution.
Of course, a lot of things happening in the US, and I'm sure we'll come back to that question on tariffs, supply chain, etc. We continue to do well in our segments. As you know, our US business is mainly built on aftermarket service replacement, and we see that market continue to be stable. Of course, the US is the same, that Q1 is a smaller quarter as we move into Q2 and Q3 and waiting for the first heat wave to hit Alabama, Tennessee, or Georgia. All in all, I would say a very solid quarter again from the US platform. If you look at the growth per quarter here over the last couple of years, of course, continue to be very good.
We can also see now we had organic growth for the last four quarters, so we're happy about that in today's market. I would say it's not a booming market, but I think we continue to do well, and it also shows how the business model works in a little bit more uncertain times in the aftermarket and service replacement. We look forward to seeing the trajectory here going forward, but very happy with this slide, of course. Same moving over to the margin. I mean, it's a stable margin under our Q4 and Q1, our smallest quarters. Of course, we expect that to pick up. All in all, in all regions, stable, good in the US, stable in EMEA, and we'll continue to make progress in the APAC region. Happy about the margin evolution in Q1.
It is where it should be in today's market. Wrapping up my part of the presentation, I believe, with just summarizing 16% growth, stable 4%, nice EBITDA drop through, of course, and then an EPS growth of 20%. All in all, I would say a very good quarter from Beijer Ref.
All right. Good morning, everyone. As usual, dive straight into EBIT of SEK 778 million in the quarter, which is up 14% compared to last year. Financial net in the quarter amounted to SEK 131 million, same level as in Q4, and SEK 10 million below Q1 last year on the back of lower rates despite higher net debt levels. The way it's been now, base rates are approximately 1.5% lower compared to a year ago. On the tax side, we report SEK 165 million in the quarter, which is 25% in line with last year. All in all, resulting in a net profit of SEK 482 million compared to the SEK 408 million last year.
If you move over then to our EPS, we report SEK 0.94, which is 20% up compared to last year, which we think is a very nice number in combination of good growth and stable margins and good development on our financial expenses. On the cash flow side, we continue to deliver a solid operational cash flow of SEK 450 million approximately, despite the seasonal build-up of SEK 340 million in networking capital, which is in line with our expectations. As Christopher mentioned here in the beginning, I still like to point out that Q1 is a quarter that we are building up inventory for the high season, as well as gradually building AR as we went going into this high season. On the next slide here, you see that we have now delivered positive cash flow for seven consecutive quarters. We are happy about the level in Q1.
This is where we should be now when we have a more stabilized supply situation compared to in 2022 and in 2023. Finally, shortly on leverage, our leverage ratio measured as net debt to EBITDA, excluding leasing and pension, was sequentially stable at 1.8, which is 0.2 above last year. Net debt is SEK 1.6 billion higher than a year ago and related to the acquisitions that we have closed over the last 12 months.
All right, to wrap it up, but thanks, Joel, to wrap things up. You heard most of it already. Good quarter in interesting times with stable organic growth, nice acquisition growth, good margins, stable cash flow in there. I think we're very happy about the execution in all our regions during the quarter and, of course, the last years as well. Long term, no major changes for us. Continue to be nice tailwinds, of course, here in EMEA with regulation. We see that also in Australia moving into New Zealand. In the US, you're starting the transition into new refrigerants, day 12 of 454B solutions that will come more and more during the year. We continue to develop the US platform, opening branches. I have another one coming online here in May, launching the private label here also in the US, April, May.
All in all, we continue to focus on driving the value creation for the long term of Beijer Ref, and it's working well. With that, and maybe worth mentioning also on the acquisition side, I'm sure we'll talk about it in the Q&A. Continue to have a good pipeline there for 2025 and beyond. With that, we're finished and opening up for Q&A.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key six on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Gustaf Schwerin from Handelsbanken. Please go ahead.
Yeah, morning, two questions. Firstly, we heard about some pretty big price increases effective April from one US OEM yesterday. They said acceptance was quite good as well, which I guess is with the final customer there given the distribution model. I mean, is this what you're seeing from all the OEMs right now? If that is the case, I assume you have followed. Yeah. To add to that, actually, I mean, can you comment on anything on what kind of response you have seen among your customers over the past month then? That's the first one.
Yeah, I guess you're alluding to that comment in the US market specifically. We see the same. Yeah. We don't see any difference in the US. We saw most of the price increases from not only OEM, but also across the board from small and mid-sized suppliers in the US coming through here in Q1, and we're passing it on as we move into Q2. It's from everyone, right? It's getting passed through. I don't have any other comments. We can see it's starting to come through here in April, and it will continue in May and June as we go through the cycle. Nothing strange. Also, remembering in the business model, with aftermarket service replacement, we always pass on the price increases. The general comment for us in that type of market, it's positive for us.
We expect that to come through here in Q2.
Just to be very clear here, because I mean, most of the OEMs announced price increases during Q1. From what I understand, what we heard yesterday from one of the OEMs was another two runs of price increases early April. I'm just wondering if all the OEMs have done multiple increases now.
The way I would answer it is that we talk about OEM here, we're talking about HVAC manufacturers. In my view, you have major ones, and I won't get into who's who, but you have, of course, Carrier, Lennox, Trane, and Rheem, and Daikin to a certain extent. A couple of them have done two. A couple have done one. I won't go into who's who and if the other two are waiting to do their second one or not. The comment you heard, because I listened in too last night, we're in a similar position for Beijer Ref, like one of our other distributors in the US.
Perfect. Just secondly, I mean, you mentioned the M&A pipeline. What's your general thinking on further acquisitions in the US in the short term? Are you putting those a bit on hold given uncertainties, or is it business as usual?
No, it's probably somewhere in between. Nothing is on hold. It's more of aligning together with the sellers and seeing how the market develops. We continue and do our due diligence and alignment, and probably also in a prudent way decide when and how we solve this together in these uncertain times. In general, in the US, as you saw, it was a stable growth in Q1. Right now, there's nothing, the waters are not super choppy for us in the US. It's more, and you put a caveat, you never know what happens when you wake up tomorrow, right? We have a US guy here, and he checks Truth Social every morning to see what's happening. In general, I would say that we're more aligning together with the companies we're talking to, what the effects are and could be and how they're positioned.
At this moment, it's a lot of things happening, but it's not very choppy for us in the US in our model. We will continue to focus, and as it looks today, also have a good year on the acquisition side in the US as we move through 2025.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Vivek Midha from Citi. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, everyone, and good morning. I have two questions, if I may. The first is a follow-up really on the previous question. Talking about tariffs, there is, of course, the direct impact, and you elaborated on that as well, that you are not seeing a very choppy environment. If we just think as we go into the second half in 2026, I appreciate there is a lot of uncertainty here, but how are you thinking about how this could impact the growth trajectory, particularly for maybe more discretionary renovations, as well as the minority of yourself, which come from new construction? Thank you.
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, it's a lot of things and unknowns out there. If I just start to talk to what we've seen so far, and then the rest becomes more a high-level analysis or hypothesis, depending on what happens the next three to six to nine months, right? So far, it's been a fairly our suppliers mainly in the US, if we talk price increases of 3-5% in the market flushing through here, that's not a revolution. Supply chain continues to be very stable. We have nice products and good inventory position for the season. The activity level is still, for us, good and continues to be good here in April. The factual things, what's happening in our business is good in the US.
Of course, there's an enormous amount of discussion on the tariff side and what's happening or not, which are going up and down. So far, our business has not been majorly affected by that. We do keep in touch all the time with our main suppliers, right, especially on the HVAC side, and have very partnership discussion how we manage this together. On that side, so far, it's been good. If you look in the future, as you alluded to in your question, how will this affect the end demand and the consumer, and etc.? There you need to break down different components, right? 95% of our business is aftermarket service replacement, right? We're not super active in new construction. We're not super active on the commercial side, even if that's been pretty good over the last years in the US.
For us, the main business is still replacing, servicing, fixing systems that break or are old, etc. Let's see how that market will react to these changes of the consumer, but also in the back of our heads, remembering 70%-80% of our customers finance what they do. It's mostly related to that type of question. I would say interest rate will have a bigger impact on this than the discussion. There's still a decent market in the US on the job side. Trying to summarize that, so far, we haven't seen any effects of everything that's happening in the US on our business.
That's very helpful. Thank you. My second question is again on the tariff theme. Just following up on your comments, if you're still expecting to launch private label in the US in April and May, your production and sourcing, it tends to be quite regional, but my understanding is that you do source the private label products from or those are manufactured in Asia. Could you just elaborate on, is there any impact to that launch from the tariffs? Thank you.
No, because the product is already on the ground. So we're good to go.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Carl Ragnerstam from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Good morning. It's Carl here from Nordea. It's obviously good to see that you feel comfortable around current trading in the US. You grew obviously 6% organically in the quarter. Could you give us some flavor if you've seen some dynamic shifts between the sort of component replacement sales and equipment sales? It would be super helpful.
The short answer is no. It is also a little bit when you do those questions, seasonality on Q4 and Q1, where you might have some more replacement repair and now you move into more equipment-heavy part of the season. I think for us, there is no big changes in the mix or our business running. We have, over the last six months, though, had a pretty good activity on projects and also the commercial side. It is also because it is a small segment for us. We are going to grow in that segment, but from a smaller base. In general, not any big changes in our business as we see it based on the last couple of quarters.
If we would see more news than market at some point in the US, it would be the equipment side. I guess that is more cyclical, right? If that would be the case, do you think that it would be gross margin enhancing that we see sort of this spare part side gaining shares?
Yeah, I think, of course, we have a higher gross margin percentage on the parts and services than if you change a fan motor or compressor or parts. In my view, that's the way the market's been over the last two years. If you look at statistics, housing sales in the US has been at a 30-year low the last two, three years, right? That continues to be on a stable low level. Right now, we don't have any parameters. We're waiting for the housing market to start wakening up, and that'll be a nice tailwind when it does. I think what's happened now is that it's probably going to take longer than expected because of all the turbulence in the US. In the meantime, the business continues to tick on at a decent pace.
Okay, very clear. If you looked at the refrigerant mix in the US during Q1, could you shed some light on what portion is 410? What do you expect for Q2? Also, you tend, I mean, you took the bet sort of seemingly at least on 410 holding quite substantial inventory of that. Do you think that it will lead to sort of gained market shares compared to competitors taking the A2L bet or more A2L bet? Also on that note, how sticky, if you gain, market shares do you think that they are?
Yeah, I think it's a hard question to answer. We know less, of course, what our competitors have done. I know it's a phrased question. I wouldn't use the word we took a bet on our side. We believe as the market transitioning into the new more A2L-driven solutions that you would still have a lot of interest in this year on the standard solution on there. For us, we built up inventory to support that because talking to our customers and remembering that most of our customers are small installers, right, as we don't do big new construction and big commercial projects that extend in the market. For us, it was more a strategy driven by servicing our customers in the best way we can, but still be enough conservative that we don't sit with excess inventory as the year goes through.
I'm not sure if we're going to take market share with this position, but we continue to service our customers in a good way. I would say in Q1, probably 85%-90% of what we sold was the 410A solution. In Q2, I don't know at this day, Carl, but of course, the A2L will continue to grow into Q2 and be a bigger part for every month we move in there. We can tell you more as we go through Q2 what the trend is. I would more say that we sit with a very competitive solution. We're also now putting in the Sinclair solution, ducted solution based on A2Ls. We have a nice price position on that product as well to service our customers. We continue to expand on our branch network.
Yeah, all in all, I think we're happy with our strategy at least for now.
Okay, very clear. The final one, if I may, is on Europe, which is obviously our biggest exposure and gradually moving into the high season. I guess it's a tricky market, Eastern Europe better, less good, I guess, in southern parts. From an inventory point of view, how do you think that you'll position yourself to the high season? What are your, so what is the strategy given that it is a tricky market to read, I guess, currently?
We're always positive, and our guys out in the market are always even more positive. We're always well positioned when it comes to inventory. That heat wave can always come, and then we need to be sorted out. No, but of course, we treat the model the way we built up. We won't get into super detailed theories that we have regional structures, right? We have an Eastern Europe market and a regional leadership there. We have a Southern Europe, we have the Nordics, we have Central in that. We divide the market in different components. Of course, Eastern Europe has been seeing this trend for now a couple of years to build up accordingly. You're a little bit more conservative in the southern part because of how the market has been and etc. It's treated very regional how you build it up.
Usually with those regions, you can exchange inventory between each other as well, depending on how the market plays out. I think the model works well there. The market continues to be okay. The biggest weakness we had for the last 12 months has been France. If you look at Southern Europe, actually Italy is okay. Spain is okay. It is mostly France. One day that market will turn as well, and there will be a nice upside for us when it does. I think also that is a little bit the business model we have. Being in 46 countries around the world, you have ups and downs. Also in the US, in different regions will be, but when you put them together, you get a pretty nice combination.
Of course, if we get a booming market in France later on this year, it'd be a nice upside. I'm not betting on that right now. We need to see how the season transpires.
Okay, very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Viktor Trollsten from Danske. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you very much. Morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions. First on pricing, I guess, in the US, if you could help us just understand the sort of base that we're coming from now. How much of the 6% organic growth in the US now in Q1 was pricing? If you could help us with any comments on the expected price impact coming in Q2. I thought you said 3%-5% coming. If you could confirm that, please.
Yeah, Q1 was limited price effects, and it usually is. If you take normal times in the US, and it's not normal times now, on the HVAC side, you usually get the updated pricing in March, and you execute it in April. That's a more normal pricing pattern. Of course, that's as the season starts moving in. You have a lot, I mean, I'm trying not to make it too long, but you have a lot of components in the US this year because you also have the A2L transition, and you have the old 410A that you bought in on there. Of course, there's no price increases from the OEMs on the 410A because it's not being made anymore, right? The price increases you're getting from the OEM side is on the A2L product.
I would say in the majority, the vast majority in Q1 was volume. I mean, maybe it's 1%. I don't know, but its vast majority is. As you move through the quarter, we see price increases on most of our products flashing through in Q2 of 3%-5%. That's, of course, a timing effect as well how they flash through. It's not a huge difference. I think the component that makes it more different, but for us, it's probably going to be more Q3, Q4 next year is also the transition into the A2Ls because those products are, I don't know, 8%-10% more expensive as you move into that product portfolio. Did you get all that?
Yeah, no, that was super helpful. I'm writing fast here. No, that's super helpful. I guess we should not expect, and you mentioned this previously, I know, no additional impact from the A2L transition, call it now in Q2 or Q3, Q4, that's more 2026. I guess the clear question is the 3-5 is including the A2L if you want.
Yeah, because I think it's a fair assumption. Also remembering our business model where 50%-60% is parts and supply and 40% is equipment. In the Q2, Q3, you get a little bit higher weight on the equipment side because you're in season, of course. You would expect some impact in there. For making it simple, maybe you assume 20%-25% A2L transition in Q2. It's a guess. It might be more, but that could be an assumption to work on. You will get, I assume, 40%-50%, 60%-70% in Q3 and so on. There will be some impact from it for sure, probably even more in June than in April. Month by month, that portfolio will take bigger and bigger place in the sales.
I guess that comes on top of the other price hikes we are seeing. Let us work on those assumptions. I guess if you could add any flavor on the impact on gross margins and sort of the drop through to profitability on the price hikes, should we expect, I guess, a positive impact on profitability as well? What would you say?
I would always say just think about it as stable. Now that in general, right, the A2Ls, of course, we should have a better drop through, but the same margin, right, percentage margin. Because it's not going to be an increased percentage margin, but of course, we're going to sell the same product 10% more expensive with the same type of fixed cost base. Right now, I would just assume I think we're in a good pattern. We assume the margin should continue to be stable, we will go forward. Hopefully, these things, and if the market continues to be okay, it will help on the growth side of the business.
Okay, fair enough. Sorry for pushing a bit, but the 3%-5% price hikes on top of A12, if you want to just to mitigate tariffs, I guess that should impact margins percentage-wise or not?
I mean, it's a little bit the way I work. I believe it when I see it. I have no concern, just to make clear. Whatever price increase we get is passed through. I mean, that's how the business model works and will continue to work. Remember, in replacement aftermarket service, that's how you work. It's not a project-based business. It's a day-to-day run business. How then the margin will evaluate? Let's see when we run through Q2, and we can probably have more details on it depending on how it develops. In general, I would say stable, good margins. Remember, also in the US, we continue to open branches and invest in fixed costs. We're more in a growth pattern than a margin pattern, if I may say so.
Fair enough. Just finally on that topic, because I guess the poor US consumer has been through a lot in the HVAC market the last couple of years for sure. Just given the replacement characteristic of your business, is there no risk of downtrading? I think Watsco talked a bit about it yesterday, that you're actually seeing that enough is enough to some extent for the customer. How is your portfolio then positioned if the customer would downtrade?
If they would downtrade, I now have a fantastic product for you. It's called an A2L Sinclair, fantastic quality, a nice brand, and we'll stand behind it. I'm ready.
Good, good offer.
No, but it is. It gives us a very nice tool in running the business. Our assumptions are still mostly related to what we see in our business and the installers and the install base on our premium brand that we carry. We do not see any of those effects. Our main strategy, and you might, but we have the option right now. The main strategy with bringing in our private label is to go after some new construction markets, some family housing markets that we have not played in before because it is more a transactional brand. Now with the product portfolio we have there, we can go after that and make decent margins. The strategy is not to play the game or whatever you said first, but we have the option if the consumer or our customer wants to.
Super. Very fair. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, gentlemen. A lot of good questions already asked and answered. I'm going to actually stick on the US topic a bit here as well. I mean, we've talked about the positive contributions from price increases, but at the same time, we're still seeing the offsetting effect, I guess, currently from the margin dilution from the recent acquisitions. Could you maybe help us or guide us in a good direction of what this specifics constitute? I mean, this is one percentage point. Is that what we should anticipate that that effect will be even going forward? Or what's the, yeah, how should we think about that?
Yeah, I'll let you all answer in detail. I think you should think about it like this, that it's 1% dilution, right? As we move into April, we're back, it's going to be apples to apples because that's when we did the acquisition, I believe, of Young Supply. I would assume the stable margins going forward in the US because, of course, we are reinvesting and will continue to reinvest quite a lot in branches and fixed business. Even if we drive improvements in the underlying margin, our ambition is, as I think I said it before, to continue good stable margins and focus on taking market share and driving growth in the US, launching Sinclair, opening branches, investing in e-commerce. We are trying to navigate both in the US to build the platform out.
Of course, we'll make more acquisitions in the US as we go through this year and next year. I think the underlying assumption is to assume the stable levels with that dilution that's been through the acquisition so far.
Yeah, I think there is relatively little left for me to add on that. I mean, it's exactly that, right? The latest acquisition we did in the US was done, I would say it was in the end of April. There is a slight effect, I would say, in Q2 from that. The comparison is in the numbers. That together with the investments we're doing. I think the answer from Christopher was complete.
Surely launching private label is going to result in additional investment needs that you didn't have last year, correct? I mean, yeah, the way to reach a stable margin development then for this year is through the positive impact from price increases.
Yeah, and of course, we always work with getting, I mean, we have in our business model driving synergies and improvement. It's not only that. It's pricing tools, it's on the purchasing side, it's rebate, discount, and models. Of course, as you down your own launch private label, that should also be positive for the margin. We're trying to balance those things too, as I said, having good margins in the US, continue to have those good margins and grow faster than the market in the US.
Great. Could you please remind us of what your US exposure or what percentage of your US exposure that is impacted by the A2L transition today? I think you previously said 20%, if I'm not mistaken.
I think in Q1, it's 10%-15% of our sales of equipment that's been A2L. That's going to ramp up month by month in Q2. I think we'll get back to you as we run through Q2 what we're trending at. I'm sure as you move into June, I would expect to be trending about 50% on A2L. I'm guessing now, but that would make sense.
Got it. All right. That's all for me. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Karl Bokvist from ABG Sundal Collier. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Question on APAC, a region where you said you had adverse weather effects affecting you, and yes, you still grew 7% organically. The effects of the weather and potential branch closures, etc., how much do you think that had an impact on growth figures in Q1?
Yeah, so for my side, I mean, we had a closure on three to four days in quite a large part of our Australian business. When we look at it, I think we saw the underlying pace in the business in the APAC region was at a similar level as in Q4. I would say we are really, really happy with the pace in the quarter despite the closures in the region. Generally, the gap between Q4 and Q1 in organic growth in APAC is caused by this closure period.
Understood. In EMEA, the margin pressure that you in Q4 highlighted from heat pumps and now in Q1, you say it will gradually have a smaller effect. If we just look year over year, the margin was only down 0.1 compared to 0.7 in Q4. How much of an effect should we actually factor in from this heat pump dynamics in Q2 and onwards?
I don't have the mathematics exactly because it points here and points there. I think the assumption that we have done is that it will be not visible as we run through in Q2 and Q3 because our mix completely changes, right? We're focused on the cooling side and it takes over and is the main product that we sell. I think the fair assumption is that we're mainly through this type of flush out of the inventory in Eastern Europe. As we replenish it and move into Q4, we don't expect to have any real issues with that component.
No, and you need to look back a little bit on the margin gap in Q4 as well. I mean, there you had an enhanced margin issue, so to speak, from the strengthening of the US dollar, which added to the dilution from the heat pump side, which reversed now in Q1 where the euro strengthened against the dollar again. That is why I have a smaller gap here in Q1. As Christopher said, we do not expect the heat pumps to be any visible driver to any extent here going forward in Q2 and Q3.
Understood. The final one is just in general, in these turbulent times, do you feel that you are still able to gain market share? I mean, you clearly talked about a lot of initiatives you've taken throughout your organization over the past five years, but it would be interesting to hear.
Yeah, I think it's, of course, one quarter is one quarter. What we see and when we do analysis, we have main regions where I won't get into detail where we're taking market share for sure. It's also part of the model is moving to new segments with the private label absolutely taking market share, but that whole market is taking market share in general. It's also moving into those trends. I think on the HVAC side, absolutely. On the OEM side, absolutely. Refrigeration, I would say, is stable. The focus on expanding the refrigeration side is more on maybe the US and bringing into new branches and down by, but that's on small levels. I would say on HVAC and OEM, you can put us up against anyone. I think we're in a very good position.
Understood. That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Douglas Lindahl from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Morning, Christopher and Joel. Thanks for squeezing in a question from my side as well. Coming back to APAC just briefly, I would call it pretty impressive margin execution here for the quarter. Is this as good as we can see the profitability in that region, or are you trying to balance this more towards growth in future? How should we think about profitability for that region specifically?
Yeah, we're never happy, but you're not allowed to increase your expectations. Keep them stable. No, it's always more things to do. Of course, we said all along that we want to get it up to the 10% + as a region and focus on growth. Of course, with this higher organic growth, you get a nicer drop through. You get things happening when you're moving at 7%-8% organic growth. That's also part of the success story. You've seen a lot of good market and work on the synergies with the acquisitions we've done there with a much better supply chain, also building up private label, etc. I think it's getting, as you said, to a good level. We also see more ducted sales and integrated solution in our mix versus just selling split system. You're right.
I think we're getting to a good level. It's not going to stop us to drive the margin. If we can continue having a good growth trajectory with these margins, that'd be a nice development. There's still some work to do for sure in the APAC region. Also remembering, it sounds like a parenthesis, a big market for us is New Zealand, and that's been probably in a recession the last two years. That should also pick up, maybe not this year, but next year. Yeah, we feel good about the APAC region and direction it's going.
Okay. Thank you. That's it for me.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Thanks all for listening in. Let's all hope we have a fantastic summer and we'll talk again in July. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out. Thank you very much for this hour.
Thank you.