Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Bufab's Q1 2022 results call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question- and- answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Please be advised today's conference is being recorded. I will now hand the call over to your speaker today, Johan Lindqvist. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Welcome everybody to the Q1 presentation of Bufab. In this call, it's me, Johan Lindqvist, CEO of Bufab, and also Marcus Söderberg, the CFO of Bufab. Let's start then. We of course very satisfied with the results. Continuous strong growth and earnings in still an uncertain world. Once again, we achieved the highest ever quarterly result, and of course, it's very satisfying. We also have reported the highest sales, operating profit, and Earnings Per Share ever for the single quarter. We see continuous strong demand in the first quarter across all the segments in Bufab. The organic growth is up by 21%, driven by the continuous strong underlying demand, price increases, and improved market share.
It's really nice to see the order intake is above the sales. We have a stable gross margin despite continued challenges in the supply chain, with a slight increase in share of operating expenses. It is regarding a discontinuation of the Bufab Russian operations, remeasured additional purchase considerations, and also acquisition costs. Despite this, strong improvement of EBITDA and +37% and a net profit of +39%. During this quarter, we've done two, you can say, big acquisitions, Pajo- Bolte in Denmark and also TIMCO, the biggest acquisition ever in Bufab history in the U.K., and that's adding approximately 920 million SEK towards turnover.
During this quarter, we also the Board of Directors appointed Erik Lundén as the new President and CEO of Bufab, who will join Bufab after holiday in middle August this year. Now I hand it over to Marcus to talk about the financials for the group.
Thank you, Johan. We turn to page number two, which shows the financial highlights for the group, just like Johan said. If we start to look at net sales for the quarter, you can see that we grew with approximately 41%. Order intake was in excess of net sales, which is of course good going forward. The total growth of 41%, if you divide it down, approximately 21% came from organic growth. Gross profit, as you can see, stable, 28%, compared to 27.9 previous, or in the comparable quarter.
This is of course a stable gross margin in times like this is of course a proof that we have been successful in pushing over cost increases for raw materials and transportation costs over to customers. We continue to do that in a good way, meaning a stable gross margin. Operating expenses, as you can see in proportion of net sales increased with almost 0.5 percentage points. All of that is due to extra cost, you can say, taken in the quarter. SEK 15 million for the discontinuation of our Russian operation.
Approximately SEK 15 million corresponds to remeasured additional purchase consideration connected to the acquisition of American Bolt & Screw, who has had a significantly better development than estimated in the first place. On top of that, acquisition cost in connection with the two acquisitions that Johan just talked about, Pajo-Bolte in Denmark and TIMCO in U.K. All of this summarizes in significantly improved EBITDA in absolute figures, SEK 243 million compared to SEK 177 million previous year, increase of 37%.
If you were about to adjust for the three cost items just mentioned, cost for discontinuation of Russia, remeasured additional purchase consideration, and acquisition costs, the operating profit would be slightly above SEK 280 million, meaning an increase versus the comparable quarter of approximately 59%. Most of the result generated or basically all of it falls down to Earnings Per Share as well, which increased with 39%, compared to the comparable quarter. If you look on the right graph in the right table, you can see our EBITDA bridge. You can see that positive currency effects added approximately SEK 6 million to EBITDA. Volume added approximately SEK 46 million.
The net of cost price mix and other were positive with 19 million SEK. Acquisitions, including the remeasured additional purchase consideration and the acquisition costs, had a negative impact of net -5 million SEK, meaning that the underlying development of the acquisitions were quite good and they contributed well during the quarter if you exclude the cost for remeasured additional purchase consideration and acquisitions costs. With that we turn to page three, a nd we'll have a look at the two graphs showing quarter net sales growth and net sales and EBITDA development along in 12 months. We start with the left graph. Here we can see that we continue showing really strong growth figures, as said, 41%. We have now seen year-on-year growth for seven consecutive quarters.
Not only growth but also healthy strong organic growth, driven as Johan said earlier, by a strong underlying demand, price increases, kicking in more and more, becoming bigger and bigger part of the organic growth, but also due to that we continue taking market share. If we look at the right graph, you can see that the nice strong trend in earnings development continues for yet another quarter. It's a result of strong growth, of course, together with a stable gross margin and a good operational leverage on the higher volumes, which makes the grade of the growth especially to continue this very nice trend that we have seen now for eight consecutive quarters.
We turn page to page four, where we have Segment North, and I will just go through the segment figures quickly. Segment North had a good development in the quarter. Organic growth approximately 12%, total growth 16%. Strong demand in general, underlying demand, they continue also to take market share and price increases is also contributing to the overall growth. A stable gross margin, mainly due to that they have been successful in pushing over costs for increased cost for raw material and transportation to customers, meaning price increases to customers.
At the same time, they have had very good cost control, and the operating expenses in proportion of net sales decreased with more than a percentage point, meaning also good operational leverage. In all, this generates a very strong EBITDA improvement of 25% corresponding to a operating margin of 13.1%. We turn page to page number five and have a look at Segment West. Also Segment West has had a really good development in the quarter. Strong overall growth, mainly due to the acquisition of Jenny | Waltle, of course, during the fourth quarter of 2021. But they also saw good organic growth, +16%.
Also here, strong underlying demand and growth also, partly driven by pass-through price increases to customers. We're not happy with the gross margin, however, in Segment West. It's down, as you can see, quite considerably compared to previous year. The main reason for that is that the segment has not yet fully been able to compensate for increased raw material and transportation costs. That will be a focus area going forward.
Operating expenses, on the other hand, in proportion of net sales, down quite considerably, offsetting more or less the negative impact of low gross profit margin, meaning that the operational results had a really nice development in the quarter and the operating margin was slightly increased as well. We turn page to page number six and have a look at Segment East. Also Segment East had a very strong development in the quarter. Growth 31%, but very high organic growth of 28%. Also this is driven by strong demand, underlying demand, taking market share and price increases. Slightly improved gross margin, mainly due to price increases also in this segment.
Higher costs, however, quite considerably higher costs, but this is in all explained by the discontinuation cost for the Russian business of 15 million SEK. If you adjust for that, the cost development in Segment East was good or stable. All in all, this generates an operating profit of 36 million SEK corresponding to an operating margin of 12.7 million SEK. As said, adjusted for those 50 million SEK regarding Russia, the segment had a good development also in the first quarter of 2022. If we turn page to page number seven, I look at the last of our segment that we report on, Segment U.K./North America.
I guess you can say the overall comment here is that this segment for the quarter is the really shining star. They had a very strong growth, of course, heavily driven by acquisitions. CSG, made at the end of the third quarter of last year, but also some working days corresponding to the acquisition of TIMCO. Organic growth, however, was very strong, +42%. It's driven by a very strong market together with successful price increases to customers. The development is, like last quarter, especially strong in Apex in the U.K. and American Bolt & Screw in North America.
Stable gross margin due to successful work also here with price increases. Slightly higher proportion of operating costs due to remeasure additional purchase consideration, as said, connected to the acquisition of American Bolt & Screw. Due to that, they have had a significantly better performance, which can also be seen in the figures you look at. Focus going forward for Segment U.K./North America is to continue to capture market share but also broaden the business and continue to handle the strained supply chains and cost inflation that we see more or less over the line. Turn to page number eight and have a look at the EBITDA bridge, both for the segments and different items. We start with the left bridge that we talked about.
Currencies adding SEK 6 million volume, plus SEK 46 million price, cost mix and other, plus SEK 19 million in acquisitions, as said, together with one-time costs for additional purchase consideration like financing costs, minus SEK 5 million. As you can see on the right part here, you can see that North added SEK 18 million compared to previous year, West + SEK 15 million. East, due to they were hit with those - SEK 15 million in Russia costs, had a negative overall impact with SEK 3 million. But U.K. and North America had a dramatically strong impact with + SEK 44 million in Segment Other, mainly due to higher acquisition costs compared to previous quarter, had a negative impact of SEK 8 million.
With that, I leave the word over to you, Johan, again, to talk about our acquisitions a bit.
Yeah, some more comments about the acquisitions we have done. If you compare with the same quarter 2021, then we have done five acquisitions then. CSG, the Component Solutions Group, we have Jenny | Waltle . We have Tilka and Pajo- Bolte and TIMCO. The last two there done in this quarter is Pajo- Bolte that added, and all of them added more or less at least new areas for Bufab to take benefit of. So, we see, as always with these acquisitions that we do, big benefits coming in later on here when we have started the cooperation with them more closely with the Bufab company you can say.
For Pajo- Bolte, we see in construction bolts big opportunities for us, especially in the north of Europe I can say. In TIMCO we have created now a much better platform to continue to grow in the U.K. We think this is a good thing of course, due to I mean, the Brexit a couple years ago creating a little bit, let's say special market in the U.K. We think it's good to have a great platform in U.K. to continue to grow there. All in all I think we have done a good acquisitions now and as Marcus mentioned before, some of the acquisitions done before have contributed quite a lot now to the result in this quarter.
That's of course really nice to see that. Let's go to the next page ten, and do the summary there. The first quarter still operationally challenging due to this supply chain issues you can say, this COVID in China. There is still high prices and lack of some raw material and components and so on. That continue. We have made it really good so far and I think we can do it also forward. We also have a strong growth in sales and also profit. That's really nice to see of course. You know, we have press release before we closing down our Bufab business in Russia.
You can say once again that all in all it has been a really successful quarter I think for Bufab here, and we are very proud of that in Bufab. Outlook. If you look forward here, we have a higher order intake compared to the net sales. That's I mean at least for now showing us a good figures for next quarter also. We will continue to deal with a strained supply chain as we have done now for I don't know last 18 months something like that, but we do it in a good way. I think we can supply customers very well even if they have a tough time.
Priorities going forward is we would like to go to our customers much more now since the COVID at least in Europe and U.S. is no longer affecting us in that perspective at least. Hopefully we can go out to see the customers and try to create new great business together with them. Price will still be a big focus here to defend our gross profit and gross margin. We'll still discuss that with our customers. Of course we will still also continue to invest in the team and in Bufab operation going forward because we think it's really important to be more efficient and be more relevant for our customers there. I think that was all from us.
I leave the floor to the operators if we have any questions.
Thank you. We'll now begin the question- and- answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel the request, please press the hash key. Star and one to ask a question. You have a question from the line of Robert Redin of Carnegie. Please ask your question.
Yeah. Hi, a couple of questions, if I may. So I mean, that organic growth in U.K., North America was super strong, and it was Apex and ABS, you said. But could you say something about the, you know, and any outlook comments there? Are you worried that they are performing now at levels that they won't be able to to hold in the next year or two? Or is the outlook still positive?
Yes, of course. Hi, Robert. Thank you for this question. Of course, it is. They have a really strong figures right now. That will be, as always, when you have really strong figures, a challenge to defend, so to say, for the future, but we don't see anything right now. They also have a strong order intake and so on. As we can see today, they will continue with great figures. Of course, as we have said in the report also that it is a strange world right now, many things can happen and so on. It's of course impossible to promise anything.
Maybe I can add also. As we have written in earlier quarterly reports, I mean, Apex is a bit more into the stainless C-part business, which has been very strong, obviously. American Bolt & Screw is slightly more into the RV or Recreational Vehicle industry, which has been very strong basically during the last one and a half years. I guess everything depends on the development in those two industries, especially when it comes to those two companies, so to say. As Johan said, strong order intake in the quarter as well, so it looks to continue for at least a while.
Okay, perfect. Then on TIMCO, I heard you say that, you know, it's an acquisition that fits really well into your sort of ambitions and needs in the U.K. Is that how we should view that acquisition? That it's something, you know, that fits well for Bufab's U.K. ambitions, or is it more a start of something going forward, as you would want to acquire companies like TIMCO with a sort of a broader product offering and maybe more into construction?
Yeah. Regarding TIMCO, it's a couple of good reasons. Of course, from the beginning, it's a really great company and profitable and fits in our acquisition strategy, so to say. Number two is that, as I said, it creates a big or a good platform, you can say, in the U.K. I mean, due to operational or financial, I mean, a lot of these things that we can share in a good way as we do in Bufab. We try to share good experience and so on. That would be good for the whole team and the group in the U.K.
I also think as TIMCO today is only operating in U.K., I think there is opportunities for us to launch some of their product, at least, in other Bufab companies, especially maybe across Europe, I think. There is opportunity also there to improve their sales, let's say, via the Bufab companies in Europe.
Right. Okay. One final question was on price hikes. I mean, we sort of a while back thought that maybe price hikes was going to be less of a thing this year, but it seems like it's a little bit of a rerun last year. Can you say something about the necessary price hikes going forward that you're now talking to customers about? Something about the magnitude, say, compared to last year?
It is also. I mean, as I said about the supply chain, there is I think right now it's a little bit of a never-ending story there because it's popping up new challenges. I mean, we thought maybe after the COVID that it may be calming down a little bit, then go back to some kind of normal situation, but then the Ukraine war come up instead, and that also create a lot of headache for us, of course. We have said from the beginning that we need to defend our profit growth margin, and we will do it also going ahead.
Of course, it is a challenge, and we need to continue with that to move these cost increases that we see and price increases also to our customers. Now also we see bigger and bigger in many or maybe all countries we are in, bigger inflation, of course, with the energy prices, the salaries and all that stuff. We will need, I think, to continue with that for at least next coming six months, something like that. We have been so far successful, I think, except in, as Marcus mentioned, West, we are a little bit behind there, but we hopefully catching up this quarter. It is all in line, I think, the same situation.
All right, perfect. Then anything, I mean, generally speaking, I mean, sales was really strong in Q1. You outgrew the market, taking market share. Still, order intake was a bit higher than sales. Can you say something about the trend throughout the quarter? Was order intake strong throughout the quarter or
So strong in the quarter. I mean, that's really nice, of course, in these days when it's so uncertain what happens. We feel also, in general, I mean, as I said, we trying now to, at least for visiting customers now, go back to some kind of normal situation that we visit customer and try to get new business on board. I mean, at least for me, it's a good start. We have try to get more orders, so to say. If we can increase our activity level at the customer side, hopefully also we can get more business in later on here.
Even if it's, of course, at a time, between when you meet the customers and get the order, so to say. I think we have a good position, but what we see today, it looks good. Yeah. I don't know, Marcus, whether you will add something about that or?
No, I think it's basically just like you say, of course, and as we write in the report as well. I mean, we have seen a strong development trend net sales wise, stable gross margin, good earnings, et cetera. On top of that, order intake in the first quarter was strong, in general, and in excess of net sales. Based on that, I guess we can at least say that the possibilities for a good development also going forward is there, so to say. Then like Johan said, there is no lack of challenges, and it tends to pop up more and more of those challenges, as we go. We can do much more than just try to handle them. So far, like Johan said, we have been handling them quite good, and we also aim to do that also going forward.
Right. You haven't seen any. I mean, that order intake, the daily or weekly trends, they're not lower in the second half of the-
It's hard for us to draw any conclusions regarding a certain week or so. We need to look at it at least over a couple of months because it's depending on how customers move orders and things like that. We stay with the comment for the full quarter that order intake was higher than net sales.
Right. Sounds very good. Thanks so much. Thanks for the good quarter results.
Yeah.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Guy Thornewill of Pie Funds. Please ask your question.
Yeah. Hi. Morning. I just wanted a bit more detail on Segment West, if possible. You say you're trying to take some action in terms of increasing gross margin through pricing. Can you give any details about what you have actually done and how those are sticking? I know you just, you know, haven't almost got round to improving the pricing in this area so far. Can you give any sort of quantify what you have done so far in the last two-three months? Thanks.
Yeah. I mean, as you see on the gross margin there have been not so successful as the other segment there. They are a little bit behind, as I said there. I mean, we are many companies, plus 50 in the group, and some of them are super good in this area and some of them not really as good and need to have some more time for that. It's also maybe due to what kind of customers you're dealing with. I mean, some of the customers we have made a contract that we can't do anything about pricing within a half year or something like that. It's a mix of that, I think.
I think we have also communicated in some reports last year here that we also strengthened the organization in West. I think they're more and more in place now, so they also can take care of this kind of action, so to say, because it's people that need to do that, the team need to do that. I think that it is in place and I'm quite confident that we will see a better results here and coming forward.
Okay. When you say strengthen the team, do you mean there were some management changes or do you mean just giving?
No change at all, but
giving them more autonomy?
No, more adding people. There have been a lack of people in some positions. I would not say we have done any changes in the management in that perspective, more like adding more skilled people, so to say.
Okay. Do you think it's possible to get back to sort of 26% gross margin or?
Yeah, I think it's definitely our target to do so. Definitely our target. I think, I mean, if you're just comparing, as I said, there is a little bit difference of course between every company and segment, but if you compare another segment, if they can do it, I think it's possible for West also to do it.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Johan Hiltner of Enter Fonder. Please ask your question.
Thank you. A question on competitors. Have you noticed any competitors not been able to deliver during these difficult times regarding all supply chain issues? Perhaps you have gained some new customers due to that.
Yeah. That's of course a tricky question in one perspective, but I think at least, it's my feeling and also what I hear, at least, some of the things that I hear in the market, that we so far have been really successful. Of course, we have also struggling and really fighting to supply our customers. I think we have been more successful than our competitors. That is my opinion. That of course will maybe already now give us some market share, so to say. Hopefully also even more in the future because then they see that we are a reliable partner, I think. I think we have been little bit better than competitors. That's my view.
Okay. How, regarding C-parts, how difficult has sourcing been for you?
I think, I mean, I've been here 24 years now in Bufab, and I've never seen that situation. I mean, it's not only lacking of parts or raw material, it's also high price increases and also this COVID thing and the Ukraine war. I mean, you can add a lot of things in this bucket, so to say. It is really tough. That may be, I mean-
One of the parts that we see in the operation side now in the Bufab group, let's say, that we really need fight for this, but we also have the, I mean, dedicated people and that fight for Bufab and have the big Bufab heart, I think, and the right attitude. That's why I'm hopeful, I think, that it's one of the reasons that we can take this market share and be a little bit better than the market. I also think, I mean, you know, we are specialists in this area with C-parts. We're dealing with this as is our super main business compared to our customers are dealing with this one.
We sell this A, B, and C-parts, and I mean, they take care of the A and B parts, and we take care of the C-parts. If they should do it by themselves to have, I don't know, behind a big customer, there's maybe 100 suppliers, 150 suppliers. If they should handle these 150 suppliers by themselves, it could be a total mess, I think, to be honest. I think we have a big role there to play, and I think we do it. I mean, the figures tell us that we do it in a good way.
Your customers, I know in some cases you are connected to their warehouse systems, and you automatically refill some.
Yeah
some C-parts.
Yeah
Have your customers changed in terms of perhaps wanting to have bigger safety margin, so you refill earlier than before, or any other customer changes?
Yeah.
you see now?
I think that's a good maybe not a question that way, but I think it's relevant. We have those discussions with many customers that how do we secure it, have higher margins because it is, you know, if you remember the boat in the Suez Canal, for example. I mean, who knows that? That suddenly creates a lack of components for a couple of weeks or whatever. We discuss those questions with the customers if we should increase the safety stock in their place, I mean, in their warehouse, or maybe in Bufab warehouse. It's a combination there, I think. It is definitely a hotter topic today compared to two years ago or something like that.
Mm-hmm.
Also maybe we can add that we maybe also talk with some customers about dual sourcing, so we have separate sources for sourcing for some parts of them.
Okay. Regarding the order intake or your order book, is there a longer lead time than normal in your order book today, as customers perhaps place orders for later delivery just to be on the safe side?
Yeah. It depends on customer, you can say. But what you should know when looking at the order intake of Bufab, that's the development of the three-month order book. That's how we measure order intake, so to say. If customer place orders more longer in the future, it does not necessarily affect the order intake. The reason for just looking at the three-month order book is due to that orders placed later than that are too uncertain, so to say, due to that customers tend to move them back and forth, so to say.
It's like you said, I mean, due to lead times have increased in general, also customer places orders, in order to make sure that they get hold of goods.
Okay. The order intake you report in the quarterly are referring to orders that are supposed to be delivered within the coming three months?
Yeah.
Okay. I didn't know that. It's good to know. Final question on the cash flow. When I read the report, it sounds like you're quite disappointed on working capital. But at the same time, it's pretty similar working capital tie-up as Q1 last year, and this year, I assume, is more difficult. And the big item is on the receivable side. Are payment terms the same as before, or do you need to pay suppliers a little bit earlier and don't get compensated by getting paid by your customers?
Yeah
at the same time, or is this just normal?
I would say that the payment terms both for suppliers and customers are more or less the same, like during the same quarter previous year, sort of like that. When it comes to cash flow in general, of course, I guess we can't, you know, really be happy, as long as we're not showing strong cash flow, which is something that we have done historically for a very long time. We're looking forward to coming back to that. Just like you say, I mean, if you look at where the money is tied up in, it's basically in the core accounts receivable, which is the result of a very strong growth.
So that I guess you can say that it is what it is, and as long as customer pays, it will run through and become cash during the coming months, so to say. What's kind of important to maybe mention is that even though we saw weak cash flow now in the first quarter, we also saw it in the fourth quarter last year. There is a difference between those quarter because the weak cash flow in the fourth quarter of 2021 was due to inventory buildup, meaning a normalization of inventory levels due to that they were really low in the beginning of 2021.
During the first quarter of 2022, the main net working capital buildup is just like you said, in accounts receivables and we hope now that the inventory buildup or the inventory normalization is about done. We look forward and hope to see the good cash flow, which is kind of a signal for Bufab to come back hopefully during the second quarter, but at least during the third quarter.
Could you please remind me of the seasonal pattern of your cash flow?
Sorry?
Could you please remind me of the seasonal pattern of your cash flow? Do you release in Q2 or Q3 typically, or how does it-
No, normally we have it quite an even split. I mean, there is no seasonality in terms of, you know, customer mix or anything like that. Normally it should be pretty even over the full year. There is no certain inventory build-up in a certain quarter or anything like that historically. It's quite even.
Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much. That's all for me.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. Once again, it's star and one on your telephone if you wish to ask a question. Your next question comes from Rasmus Engberg of Handelsbanken. Please ask your question.
Yes. Hi, good morning, and congratulations on a very solid set of numbers again. I was just wondering about the price issue that you have in Region West. Is that due to some companies you have acquired, or is it due to, for historical reasons, you're overdependent on certain large industries there, or how does that come about? Secondly, is it correct in thinking that rather than slowing down price increases in the second quarter are going very likely to be bigger than in the first quarter with what we know right now? Those are the two questions.
I think you want elaborated. Hi, first of all, hello and good morning, Rasmus. I think Johan elaborated a bit on it, on one of the previous questions. There is of course several reasons, but the main reason for it being weak in Segment West or weaker than the rest of the group is that just like we also write in report, they have not yet come so far with price increases like the rest of the group, so to say. There is various reasons for that. No one really explaining the majority part of it. But you know, it's everything from that they have some work left to do, maybe slightly more, more how do you put it?
Tougher customers to deal with, et cetera. In general, I guess you can put it like this, that I mean, we're for sure not happy with the development in Segment West, but we're yet not really that worried. I mean, the companies have planned, they have their mind set on fixing this. For various reasons, it has taken them a little bit longer than other segments in the group.
Okay.
It has not to do specifically with any specific company running with a lower gross margin. It's an even split, but some companies are better than others also within the segment. There are more companies that needs to do the homework in Segment West rather than the other segments.
All right. It's nothing really structural at all. The second question, I mean, the reason for asking is that my gut feeling is that we're facing even more input cost pressure in the second quarter than we did in the first. Is that a correct assumption as far as we can see right now?
I don't know if it will be worse than we have seen before, but just like Johan also said before, new challenges or issues tend to pop up all the time.
Mm-hmm.
You know what? It has been the normal working day for a salesperson is to negotiate and discuss price. It was not like that at all for like two years ago. It's become a part of the daily work and we have made it in a good way and so far a way to do it also going forward. I guess that's the only thing we can say. The future brings, who knows? We are fully you know focused on continue pushing price increases over the customers. That's what we can say.
Yes. Very good. Thanks.
Bye.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Matthis Sarrazin of CMAM. Please ask your question.
Hello. Thank you very much for the presentation and for the results. A few questions on my side. First on price increases. Could you maybe elaborate or give us some colors around the price increase effect on your organic growth during the quarter?
Hello, Matthis, and good morning. Yeah, of course, that's a very good question. It's also a very hard question to answer really, given the fact that we are, you know, selling 180,000 different items to 15,000 customers, and many of those customers buys the same items. It's hard to keep track on such statistics, so to say. That's also why we do not share a certain percentage of the organic growth that comes from price increases. It's too unsure, if you put it like that. What we know for sure is that as we now go into 2022, price increases becomes a bigger and bigger portion of the total organic growth.
We still see a good underlying demand, as well, so to say. It's the strong growth that you see, organic growth that you see, it's a combination of strong underlying demand, then I would say after that price is next. And then, we just like you once also said earlier, we continue to take market share. Unfortunately, I can't give you a percentage.
Yeah, yeah. No problem. Very clear. Thank you. Second question on the distribution expenses. Can you please comment on the decrease in these expenses that seems to be quite low around 8.5% of sales? Is it kind of one-off during the quarter, or do you see the distribution expenses this quarter as a sustainable level as a percentage of sales? Maybe explaining why is it that low? Thank you.
I guess I wouldn't say that there is so much of a change really. Of course, when you're looking at those kind of costing comparisons to net sales, you need to take into consideration that net sales are more and more impacted by price increases, which is not necessarily, you know, driving distribution costs. Right. I guess that's what we can say.
Okay. Thank you. Final question on your target, on your margins target. I have in mind 12% margins. It seems that you are quite higher since few quarters. Now if we exclude sort of one-off like this quarter, do you have any comment on this target? Do you see any maybe risk in the future or when we will see a kind of normalization of the economic environment? Or do you consider this 12% are quite conservative? Do you have any comments on that?
Yeah, of course, that's a good question. I guess if you would have asked us the same question two years ago, I would say it's a very challenging, but also reasonable target, those 12%. What we have said is that we should reach those 12% long term from 2023 and onwards. That the main increase in the operating margin should come from internal efficiency, meaning cost savings and digitalization and things like that. That's what our existing strategy is focusing on, delivering those 12% stable long term. Delivering 12% long term, it could of course mean higher operating margin in one quarter and lower in other, so to say.
Right now, I guess you can say that there's a lot of things going in the completely right direction, so to say, causing us also to deliver very strong results, which is of course very satisfying. Whether those 12% should be 13% or 14%, of course, that's a board question, really. We're not really focused on that. We're trying to really delivering results, do it over a long period of time, continue growing and deliver in accordance with our strategy. I guess that's what we can say about that.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. There are no further questions coming through on the line.
Thank you very much for this press conference for the Q1 report for Bufab. Yeah. Thank you very much.
Have a nice day.
Thank you. That does conclude our conference call today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Speakers, please stay on the line.