Welcome to the Nimbus Q4 presentation. During the Q&A session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to the CEO, Jan-Erik Lindström, CFO, Rasmus Alvemyr, and Head of Investor Relations, Gunilla Öhman. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and I want actually to start with the very first picture, a very colorful one, and it's showing our new, recently launched Aquador 400, the last boat in that totally new series. And of course, we have great expectations of that one. Already sold so much that we actually need to increase the production volume, which is, of course, very good. If you don't switch, I think you all know us, but Jan-Erik Lindström, CEO, and Rasmus Alvemyr, CFO. Some key takeaways then from 2024, since it's the quarter four we're talking about. We have continued the execution of a strategic plan, and that we have done then by our focus on the premium products.
Among other things, we have then entered an additional premium segment with our larger boat, the 495, which we have then actually sold more than one year's production, and it was launched in Cannes during the autumn of 2024. On the other side of the coin, we have also initiated the closing of our own value boat production in Finland. That is then, of course, to be able to fully focus on the premium boats. Traded boats is important, or value boats is important, and we will then use them as traded boats for our own distribution net, which we ourselves done. We continue the North American expansion. We have established partnerships with several key distributors during the year, and big ones, which we are, of course, proud of, that they want to sell our products, but also that we find the ways to make these deals.
A milestone then, you may say, we have also started the production of the very first Nimbus branded boats in our own factory in the U.S., and that happened actually already during quarter two 2024. We have continued to develop the concept with our flexible production and optimization of the same. Due to the softer market this year, we have actually had a scale down then slightly, about 30%, but that figure also includes then the value boats. Already mentioned in a way, we have densified the dealer network, but we have also then continued the expansion outside North America. So that is actually then a global thing. We have set up our new organization structure to support the operational structure. Basically, we're talking about one business model with some key activities that supports this model then.
I will not go in too deep to that, but we have talked before about the differences between value boat sales and premium boat sales, which means that we have more or less had two business models inside our organization, which, of course, gives us some inefficiency and things like that. We have also then, and I usually say that this is one of our absolute cornerstones, the brand and product portfolio has had some development, and we have had during the year then, we have the pre-launch of the Aquador 400 HT, as I talked about in the beginning, and that happened in November, and that was a lot of journalists, and it was also a lot of dealers there, which makes us proud, of course, this great interest.
We had the Nimbus 495 in Cannes, and we have also then initiated the update of the EdgeWater product portfolio, and we will start actually launching a couple of them during 2025. Also excited to see what happens there, of course. Also a key takeaway, of course, then is the new market opportunities with the Alukin SEK 400 million order from the Swedish Armed Forces. Great expectations on that too. I will come back to that one. If we switch the page, Rasmus. Some business to update then for the fourth quarter. For us then, still a small quarter, but it is impossible to not start then with the increased order intake during the quarter four. Actually then, year- over- year, + 53%. If we add to that the year- over- year figure from the quarter three, which was 18%, you all understand that things start to happen.
The sale amounted to SEK 274 million, down by 24%, sorry, for the quarter, but also please, the full year was 15%. Also important that you bring that with you. EBITA, - 25%, due to, of course, lower volume. And then we had, during the quarter, we had the tough decision then to actually close the factory in Kuopio after finalizing the union negotiations. We, of course, tried to sell, but the present business climate did not support that thought, so this was what we had to do, simple as that. Current sales then do not fully leverage our investment in business model, meaning that we are prepared for a normalization, and you may even say a normalization with plus, and that is what we need then to actually utilize our resources.
We had our rights issue, SEK 356 million, to mainly then, you should say, support the growth strategy that we have in our business plan, but also then in general, strengthen our financials. And that was then successfully completed then in January 2025, so just recently, in the beginning of January. Already mentioned then the Alukin order, which gives us then, which happened then during quarter four, and of course gives us interesting business opportunities in this, for us then. I should not say new segment because we have done it before, but in the Nordics, which is important. And then we also mentioned here, because a lot of efforts, a lot of work was done during 2024 with the launch of the Aquador then, of course, the premiere at the Düsseldorf Boat Show, and also Nimbus 495, which actually then got awarded the Powerb oat of the Year 2025.
A lot of proud in that one, of course. Also happened then during Düsseldorf. Short summing up then of who we are. Founded in 1968, meaning that we have a lot of experience, an old company. We are now talking about the Nimbus brand, which is the key then in the Nimbus Group or the initiator. We have a long history of international trade, which is then, of course, always important, but maybe especially now then, taking into consideration how the world actually looks today. We have a true house of well-known brands, and now we are then again focusing on our premium brands then. Own establishment in North America 2022 in Annapolis, important milestone, the acquisition of EdgeWater Powerb oats, which gives us, among other things then, but a premium brand, of course, but we also get a full functional organization to support our business in North America.
As we say here, it's enabled us to actually have this local U.S. production, which then started in quarter two 2024. We also had the launch then again of the 495 and in the larger premium segment there, which we haven't been before. By Alukin, we entered then the governmental segment with orders from these Swedish Armed Forces. If we then switch, yes. Then if we look at the order book development, I have already been there. Order intake +53%, and driven then mainly by the Nordics. You can see that +102%, of course, from low levels, but still important. Also Europe +95%. The order book amounted to SEK 574 million, lower than last year, SEK 759 million, but I will come back to that. We saw a drop in our sales in the rest of the world.
Of course, we are investigating and are close to that question, but let's see, what we had at the same time last year was a lot of sales to dealers, so it was not selling through at that moment, but we will come back to that, of course. Indication in quarter two then of a shift towards the shorter order book that we talked about has now then time-wise then more or less been confirmed, so what we see then is this normalization that we have talked about. Of course, positive effects from Nimbus 495 and also the Alukin, but then please remember, the orders from the Swedish Armed Forces are not included. It's only the pre-series. I think it's three, four, maybe five boats of that order only included in this one, so it's more to come, and as always, only confirmed orders in the order book with prepayment.
If we look on the right side, you see the chart there, and this is then for us an extremely interesting chart to follow. If we look at the right side of it, you see that the quarter four then actually is bigger than both quarter two and three. That was a while ago since we last saw that one. That is this normalization I'm talking about. If we do a comparison with the quarter four 2019, it's way back, you can say, but we had some disturbances during the pandemic and things like that with the statistics. You can be both happy and sad of the pandemic, of course, but it disturbs what we can call a normal market then, what is a normal market.
But important then to bring with you is that it's not the same rule book when we look at the quarter four 2019, where we have done this 42% of the rolling 12 already secured for the next year then. This only confirmed with prepayment was not actually in use at that time. So it's a bit more orders than we would have today in a similar way then. And with that, I leave it to you, Rasmus.
Thank you, Jan-Erik, then we move on with sales per market and starting with the quarter. The North American sales dropped by 29% to SEK 113 million, and the drop was driven by lower sales from the EdgeWater brand, driven by the market situation over there. On the other hand, the Nimbus brand increased its sales by 4% year- over- year, while the market as a whole was down about 8% during the quarter, mostly driven then by smaller boats, but still it was down.
The Nordics went up by 26%, then the positive signals from the third quarter have been confirmed in the fourth quarter, even though that fourth quarter is a relatively small quarter, as Jan-Erik mentioned before, in the Nordic region in terms of sales. But we see that the market has started to recover in both increased sales and in terms of increased order intake. The Nordics was the first market to turn down in 2022, and now it seems to be the first market also to recover. Sales in Europe continued to drop and went down by 21% in the quarter.
This is, though, an improvement in relation to the third quarter when the sales dropped 61%. In relation to our expectations, Europe has been a disappointment during 2024, which has had a big impact on our P&L and inventory during the entire 2024, but as indicated, we now also see some positive signs there in terms of increased order intake in relation to last year. Other markets went down to zero, but, important then, as Jan-Erik mentioned, last year was affected by filling up stock levels at the new dealers' showrooms, and other markets only correspond to less than 4% of our annual sales. So it is a small market for us, but still, we of course hope to improve there. On a full year basis, we see that North America has been flat with increased sales of the Nimbus brand by 27%, while EdgeWater dropped.
The reason for this is related to somewhat pushed sales in 2023 by the former owners of EdgeWater. In 2024, we have been working with adapting the dealer stock levels to reach preferred levels, which have had a negative impact on them, but also the profitability. The efforts have given, and today we see that the inventory levels are well balanced. Model-year boats in stock. Sales development in total then. Net sales in the quarter amounted to SEK 273 million, which is down 24% year-over-year. The organic growth was -25%, and the drop is driven by commercial sales. Commercial sales represents sales to external dealers and direct sales, including spare parts, and is a new definition that we will use going forward for this segment.
Retail sales, on the other hand, which represents sales from own dealers, has improved and went up by 52% to SEK 76 million in the quarter, but important here is that the fourth quarter is a small quarter for our own dealers since they are heavily dominated in the Nordics. On a full year basis, the net sales ended up at SEK 1,619 million, which is down 15%, and the organic growth was - 14%. Then the EBITA development, when summarizing 2024, the EBITA ended up at SEK -60 million compared with SEK +100 million last year, then it is important to start with mentioning that 2024 was affected by some strong negative factors that will be non-recurring in 2025, amounting to in total about SEK 110 million.
These costs refer to, firstly, a production stop that was made in the first quarter in EdgeWater to balance out high dealer inventory levels since 2024. As I said before, these are related to pushed sales that happened before Nimbus took over in May 2023 by the former owners, and this effect sums to -SEK 23 million. Secondly, the restructuring provision of SEK 55 million that was taken in the third quarter for closing the production in Finland has affected the P&L as well. Thirdly, the Finnish value boat business has driven losses of about SEK 30 million during 2024, which will also be non-recurring in 2025 as a consequence of the ongoing closing of the Kuopio factory. The remaining cost side for 2025 is already then covered in the restructuring provision from the third quarter.
In addition to this, there's also a big strong effect from cost absorption from lower sales and production volumes. Net sales dropped by 15%, as we mentioned, year- over- year, but in relation to what we forecasted and planned for in front of 2024, the sales have dropped by + 25%, which of course have had a strong effect on both profitability 2024 and the inventory levels by the end of the year. We have reduced the production capacity by 30%, but timing effects when reducing the capacity has delayed the impact from the taken decisions. Since June 2023, we have reduced our full-time employees from 684 to 377. Then we move on with the cash flow. The operating cash flow in the fourth quarter amounted to net -26 compared with -69 last year.
The net working capital increased a bit in the fourth quarter and ended up at SEK 620 million, which is up SEK 57 million since the third quarter. The increase is driven by both non-cash driven currency effects from the U.S. business and increased levels of inventory. The net working capital is of course then affected by those higher levels of Finnish boats, mostly driven to the softness that we have seen on the European market, which has caused less in for outsales than expected, as mentioned before then. Net working capital in relation to LTM sales amounted to 38% versus 30% last year. And with that, I leave the word to you, Jan-Erik.
Thank you. Financial targets, we don't see a point to actually change them, meaning that we see a growth above 10% during a business cycle then. We see that the EBITA margin should be 10% or 10%+ on a midterm basis. The capital structure will be that we don't want to have any senior debt, and we don't have any, except then for debt related to property. Of course, we want to be a company that distributes our profits, so the dividend policy of 30% is still valid ongoing.
If we look a little bit about what we are focusing on for the moment and for this coming year, we will of course have the continued focus on the cash release, as Rasmus mentioned before, that we have 38%, and that should be down, of course. We're still fine-tuning, I should say then, in our cost-out program. The major part is done during 2024, but it's some fine-tuning to do. We will finalize then the departure from production of value boats by our own.
We will still produce roughly a half year in Finland, but then it's all done, so to say, so it's according to plan. We will continue then to work with our new organizational setup, and that is then of course aiming to clarify responsibilities and improve the accountability, and we are also then certain that this will also give us both an increased performance by this inefficiency I talked about before, more efficient, but also transparency for you listening in from the outside to be actually easier for you to follow us, what is our business, so to say. You may say that it's a bit opportunistic, but of course we aim to capitalize on market opportunities then in the weak business that we have in this business environment.
Of course, if possible, and we see some signs of that business will come back, and then these opportunities may disappear, but we are aiming to see if we can find something that is really interesting, of course. We always do that, of course. Ambition still then to fully utilize the benefits from our local U.S. production, and then we're talking about our own production, of course, but also the outsourced capacity. And during these changing market conditions, it's getting even more important. And we are already organized to monitor risk from possible then escalated trade barriers with our present footprint and structure. And with that, I actually give the word to Gunilla.
Yes, and I give the word to Jasmine to see if there are any questions from the telephone.
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. There are no more phone questions at this time, so I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
Thank you very much. There are no written questions, so I just want to remind you that our first quarter report is due 29th of April, and our annual general meeting for 2024 is on the 16th of May. So thank you very much, and thank you, Jan-Erik and Rasmus.
Thank you.
Thank you.