Hello, and welcome to the Elanders AB conference call. My name is George. I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be in the listen-only mode. However, you have the option to ask questions towards the end of presentation, and this can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I'd like to hand the call over to your host today, Mr. Magnus Nilsson, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, George. Welcome everyone to Elanders phone conference, and together with me here is also our CFO, Åsa Vilson. Okay, I will now go directly to slide number five and talk about our first quarter. We can see that the positive trend with improved demand continued from the fourth quarter, and we also had an organic growth in the quarter of 1%, and adjusted for FX, it was actually 2% organic growth. Organic growth came mainly from Asia, but also North America could show growth. Europe had a negative growth, but if we adjust for FX, they were in line with last year. Also, our adjusted EBITA result continues to improve and despite negative currency exchange rates, which affect the results negatively with SEK 17 million, it increased to SEK 172 million compared to SEK 133 million the year before, and this was an improvement with 29%.
Our adjusted EBITA margin improved to 6.2% compared to 4.1% the year before. If we then go to slide number six and look at our cash conversion, we show a weaker conversion than last year, but this was a consequence of the increased sales in the end of the quarter, which tied up working capital. In January and February, the demand was pretty soft for us, but there was a really strong demand in March, so that was the reason for a bit softer cash conversion. If we then go to slide number seven to look at Supply Chain Solutions, our organic growth was positive at 2% and if we adjust for FX, we actually had an organic growth of 3% in Supply Chain Solutions. Asia was the main driver and came in with an organic growth of 8%.
If we look at the result, we can show a very positive development with both improved EBITA margin and EBITA result. Our adjusted EBITA margin came in at 7.3% compared to 4.8% last year. Our adjusted EBITA result was SEK 162 million compared to SEK 126 million last year, which also was an improvement with 29%. If we then go to slide number eight to look at Print & Packaging Solutions, there you can see we had a more challenging quarter, especially in print. We had a very soft demand in January and February. It was recovering in March, but it couldn't compensate for the weak start, which resulted in a negative organic growth of 2%. Despite the low sales, was our adjusted EBITA result in line with last year and our adjusted EBITA margin improved.
At the end of the quarter, we signed a five-year agreement with one of our online print customers, which has the potential to reach total sales of EUR 140 million per year the coming five years. If we then go to slide number nine to look at the development of our different customer segments in this quarter. I will comment organic growth per customer segment excluding FX. If we start to look at electronics, the picture continues overall to be very positive, and in the quarter we could see an organic growth of 8% because of strong demand in Asia and stable demand in Europe. Fashion was stable in the quarter and came in with an organic growth of 1% because of growth in North America, and Europe was in line with last year.
If we look at other, that is main online print and FMCG, they had sales in line with last year. If we look at automotive, the negative trend from last year stopped in Q1, and sales was actually in line with last year. Industrial showed a negative growth of 4%, and here E.U. was in line with last year, but U.K. had a negative growth in the quarter. When it comes to healthcare, we could see a good demand and an organic growth of 2.5%. If we then go to slide number 10 and look how things will be going forward, I must say that the positive start of the year makes us feel more optimistic for the rest of the year, even if the world around us continues to be challenging for both us and our customers.
We could see in the quarter a stabilization in demand and also improved sales in Germany, which is the group's largest market. This, combined with our strong organic growth in Asia, makes us more confident, even if it still is a bit challenging times. When it comes to Asia and especially Southeast Asia, we can see lots of opportunities for growth, and we are now planning for adding capacity in Thailand but also expansion into Malaysia and Vietnam. As maybe everyone knows, that Southeast Asia has a predicted yearly growth of around 4%-6%, and this creates lots of opportunities for us, which we want to fetch. In U.S. and U.K., which continue to have overcapacity, we are pushing hard for new sales to fill it up.
Also we are subleasing, and in the beginning of 2027, we can exit two major contracts in U.K., which will be very helpful for us when it comes to next year. Okay, that was everything for me. Thank you for listening. Now we open up for questions.
Thank you. You're welcome, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you have any questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Just make sure your line is unmuted to allow you to reach a representative. Our very first question today is coming from Markus Almerud of DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead, Markus. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hi, can you hear me?
Hi, Markus, we hear you.
Hi. Yeah, a number of questions. Maybe starting with the new contract that you're referring to that you took during the quarter. Can you talk a little bit more about those contracts and maybe in which areas? Yeah, just elaborate about those new contracts.
You mean contracts in general, or you mean this Germany contract? Sorry.
No, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you have won several important contracts during the quarter, which drive sales.
Yeah. Okay.
Just a bit curious what you're referring to.
Yeah, I know, but it's pretty interesting. We can see now that, for example, in automotive it might have been very challenging for us, especially last year, and for our customers. We can also see now that our customers realized that they need to have good suppliers. We have managed to secure and renew several important contracts on that side and also get some additional contracts. Also on the fashion side, we have some new important contracts, start to see some more growth in the U.S., even if it goes back and forth all the time. Now overall we're very positive. Also in the industrial side, especially in Germany, we can see that even if the market there is still a bit soft, we can see that we are gaining customers, we are renewing existing agreements, which is very important for us.
This contract that you were talking a little bit about, the EUR 140 million, just to make sure, is it total over the five years or per year?
No, it's total over five years.
Uh-huh.
It's still big when it comes to print. This customer was planning a huge expansion to expand in Europe. They're mainly now in Germany, but we will expand to Poland, production in Poland, Scandinavia. They have a good growth plan, and we have had them as customers for several years, and they have had a good growth from 20% per year, but now they will go even more aggressive into growth path. In total, over five years. Yeah.
Is it a new customer, so it's incremental, or is it the entire EUR 140 million?
No, that will be mainly new sales, actually.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Because of their expansion. Yeah, sorry.
On your comments about the improved demand toward the end of the quarter, was that in both business areas? You point out to print in particular, but do you see the same thing in supply chain? Also that you see the improved situation toward the end of the quarter?
Yeah, it was. It was much more in Print because Print was really bad in January, February, and strong in March. Supply Chain was softer in January, started recovering in February, but they also ended strong in March. I must say March was a very positive surprise for us. Underlying demand was very strong, lots of customers. That was good.
It feels like that trend has continued?
Hard to say, but I think it could continue better because normally January, February is our weakest month, especially January every year. I think it was a good platform to the coming quarters. Overall, I think the picture is pretty good for the moment. Yeah.
I would assume that the working capital that you built on the back, as you say, because of higher sales in March, will also reverse in coming quarters, even though more.
Yeah. We should see a reversal in Q2, but that was mainly driven by March. That was so strong. Yeah.
Finally, maybe a different question, but on electronics grows quite nicely, with 8% organic growth. Do you see any impact in your sales or in orders from the memory shortage?
From the?
Memory shortage in terms of laptops and.
Yeah. We see it actually, because I think our customers in electronic side, they could sell even more. For the moment, they can balance the shortage of memory. We think that will be. It will be pretty stable. It will be a bit up and down, but the signals we get is they think it will be stable, they can manage. It's more that they had a possibility to grow more, but they cannot grow more because of this shortage. It doesn't feel like the problem we had in automotive some years ago when everything stopped. I think they will be able to manage, and we expect the volumes to be pretty solid, but a bit of a fluctuation from month to month.
Mm-hmm. Okay, perfect. I'll get back in line.
Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, as a reminder, if you have any questions, please press star one. We'll now go to Anton Ingildsen , Nordea. Go ahead, Anton.
Hi, can you hear me?
We hear you.
Hi. Yeah, starting off here. You talked about implementing price hikes here during the quarter. If you look at Supply Chain Solutions, of the 3% here, how much is driven by price hikes and how much is volume growth in the organic print here?
The majority is still growth, organic growth. Yeah. Because especially in organic growth, I think the price increases has more helped us on the margin side. Of course, there were some contracts with low earnings. If you look at the growth, that's more driven by organic growth and not prices.
Okay. Looking forward here, the same kind of dynamics, the growth should be mainly from volumes rather than price hikes here for the coming quarters as well.
Yeah, that's correct. Yeah.
Okay, perfect. On the end markets here and the pickup in demand, as you alluded to here at the end of the quarter, is there any specific end market that sticks out here? Maybe on the positive and negative side?
Yeah, no. I think the really strong end market for us is Southeast Asia. We have 3% growth there in Q4. Now in Q1, we have even 8% growth. Southeast Asia for us, strong growth. North America, some growth, a bit reluctant, it's up and down. Europe is for the moment more flat. It's more flat in Europe. To manage growth in Europe, we need to gain new customers, new volumes, because our existing ones, the demand is still, yeah, still pretty soft.
Yep. Okay, perfect. The overcapacity, which we've seen here for a while. Are you happy with the current situation, now when you see volume slowly pick up again? Is it more like volume decrease due to the overcapacity side?
Well, I think we are coming a good way with overcapacity, because in Germany, where we had overcapacity, there's almost no overcapacity left because of gaining new customers. That is absolutely under control. We still have capacity for growth in Germany. That is our biggest market. Now, our challenge is, especially in U.S. and U.K., because especially U.K. is a really slow market still. There we have a great opportunity to exit two huge buildings in the beginning of 2027. We are not so stressed about that one because that will give us a good push. In U.S. it's the more where we work really hard to find new volumes. We have some subleases on its way. If we need more capacity, the growth is easy to find on the market for the moment. It's very easy, so yeah.
Yeah. Perfect. Then going back here a bit to the working capital question, as you said before, it's an effect from the pickup at the end of the quarter. Is it any other more structural effect here or to consider?
No. It was the acceleration in March. Yeah.
Yeah. This should
It should come back.
Come back soon.
It should come back. Yeah.
Yep. Okay, perfect. That's all for me for now. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you, Anton. Ladies and gentlemen, as a final reminder, if you have any questions or follow-up questions, please press star one at this time. Okay, Mr. Nilsson, we do not have any further questions in the queue. I'll just call back over to you for any additional or closing remarks.
Okay, thank you. Thank you, everyone, for listening to our conference call. Thanks. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's conference. Thank you for your attendance. You may now disconnect. Have a good day and goodbye.