Welcome to the presentation of Electrolux Q3 report. I'm Ann-Sofi Jönsson, Head of Investor Relations and Sustainability Reporting. I'm here with our CEO, Yannick Fierling, and our CFO, Therese Friberg. We will run through the presentation, and after that, we will open up for the Q&A session. If you are viewing on the web, do feel free to put your questions in the chat throughout the presentation. With that, I hand over to Yannick.
Thank you very much, Ann-Sofi. Good morning and good day to all of you. Very happy to be with you for this third quarter report. I will start with very general comments. Growth is one of our strategic pillars, and I'm very glad to say that we have been growing once again in the third quarter. We have been increasing our net sales by 4.6%, mainly driven by North America. I'm also very glad to share that we have been growing our market share in the three regions here with our main brands: Electrolux, AEG, and Frigidaire. We have been taking our operating margin to 2.8% with good progress on cost reduction. We have been adding to the SEK 2 billion we achieved in the first half of the year an additional SEK 800 million.
I have been sharing with you in the last quarters the aim we have to get faster and more agile moving forward. I'm very glad to announce some organizational changes which will be putting us closer to the end consumer. Moving to the results, as I said, we have been growing our net sales by 4.6%, mainly driven by North America, where we have been gaining in terms of shop floor spaces, and we have been expanding in key channels like the contract channels. In Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, we have been growing slightly in a subdued market with quite a lot of price pressure. In Latin America, strong results once again here, stable net sales on the back of a very strong and hot 2024.
In terms of operating margin in the EBIT bridge, we had two positives, which were volume and mix, and these two positives were slightly offset by a negative price development. In terms of external factors, as you can expect, we were hit mainly by tariffs and currency. We are very glad to say that we made progress once again in terms of cost reduction by adding SEK 800 million on the SEK 2 billion we achieved in the first half of the year. Moving now to Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, again, we had a slight organic growth in this quarter. We have been gaining market share with our two main brands, Electrolux and AEG, more than offsetting the ramp down we have on the Zanussi brand. Zanussi was an entry price point brand, and we are focusing today on core and premium brands.
Quite a lot of pressure again in prices, and we saw a negative price development. On the operating income side of the equation, positive in terms of volume and mix, but these positives were slightly offset by a negative price development. The region has been benefiting by a good effect on the cost reduction side of the equation, and we kept on investing in the marketing side of the equation. That's pretty important because we launched major innovations, especially in the kitchen area under AEG and Electrolux, and we are glad to be able to fuel these major innovations through marketing money. In terms of external factors, we had a negative impact of currency, mainly driven by a weak Australian dollar. Again, in terms of market development, this picture is very similar to the one I have been showing in the last quarters.
We had a positive development in Western Europe of 1%. Western Europe represents 80% of the total volume for the region and a - 1% for Eastern Europe, flat. Here, once again, we are at - 11% versus the third quarter 2019, back to levels we had in 2014. The construction market remains very subdued. I mean, we're hoping it to rebounce in the coming months due to the lower interest rate, but we don't say we have not seen any sign of that in the third quarter. On the positive side of the equation, I just want to underline that we saw some sign of recovery in the region in the month of September.
We have been working very hard in the last months to really improve the brand image we have, defining more precisely the consumer targets we have, and clearly define an identity card for our three brands, Electrolux, AEG, and Frigidaire. I'm very glad to share with you one of the latest campaigns you have seen some just before we have been live. This campaign is called the Washed Life Balance, and it's featuring the product leadership we do have in care and government care. We have been also very proud to announce the launch of our new dishwasher, the AEG Favorite dishwasher here, which has been focusing on fit, feel, and finishing. It has leadership in terms of perceived quality, and we're also leading in terms of energy consumptions, noise level, and water consumption here. Let me share with you a short video.
Moving now to North America, and we're glad to say that we have been growing significantly in North America. We are announcing a double-digit growth in the third quarter here, thanks to, again, a higher penetration in terms of shop floor space and an enhanced presence in some of the channels we do have, like the contract channel here. We're not buying market share, we're increasing the presence we do have in the different channels. We had a positive price impact. We were actually positive on the three dimensions: volume, mix, and price in North America. As you all know, I mean, we are building our appliances in North America. We're one of the North American constructors here. The last tariff structure should certainly benefit the North American producers.
Unfortunately, we have to say that we have not seen the expected price increase for imported goods coming from basically Asia in this third quarter. We have been leading price increase, and that's very important. I'm very proud to say that we have been covering the vast majority of the tariff impact through the price increase. It's a competitive situation we have in front of us. We're in front of, as well, a pretty promotional time, which would be Black November in North America. However, I want to repeat that, I mean, the last tariff structure should be benefiting for North American producers. Negative impact as well from a currency side of the equation with a weak dollar in this quarter. The picture about the market is very much unchanged versus last year. The market has been pretty resilient to the inflation we have seen in the market.
Moving to Latin America here, almost flat organic growth in the region on the back of a very strong 2024, where we had a heat wave and where we were selling a significant level of air conditioning and refrigerator. Unfortunately, the summer is not very hot in 2025 here, which has been increasing slightly the stock level we have in products like air conditioning. The competitive pressure in the regions remains pretty high. However, we're delivering once again 5.7% in terms of EBIT. We had a bad impact in terms of currency because of the Argentinian peso and the Brazilian real. The Argentinian market is opening up, which means that we have a high level of import products, our imported products out of Asia.
Cost reduction, we're glad to say that, I mean, we're delivering once again SEK 800 million in the third quarter, which is taking the total amount to SEK 2.8 billion for year to date here, and we're still confident to reach between SEK 3.5 and SEK 4 billion cost reduction for the full year. This cost reduction is mainly driven by product redesign, better sourcing in terms of components and suppliers, a higher level of efficiency in our factories, and a full leverage of our global scale as Electrolux. Next slide is a slide we're very proud about. In 2016, Electrolux has been funding the Food Foundation here, and the aim of this Food Foundation is twice.
The first one is to educate children and adults to eat in a more sustainable manner, but we're also helping adults in need here by giving them cooking lessons given by chefs in the different regions. Year to date, we have been educating more than 300,000 children and adults through the Food Foundation, and the aim of the target we do have by 2030 is to have more than 1 million people benefiting from this foundation. With that, I'm passing it to Therese.
Thank you, Yannick. The organic sales growth that we had in the quarter of 4.6% generated a positive impact to earnings of SEK 384 million. This was mainly derived from volume, but we also had a positive mix contribution in the quarter. This was, of course, offsetting the slight reduction that we did see in price. We are continuing to invest in innovation and marketing, as mentioned by Yannick, to really support the strong product portfolio we have in the market. Cost efficiency was a saving of SEK 760 million in the quarter, and I would also like to mention here that in the quarter, we had the group common cost of SEK 50 million, which was SEK 84 million below last year. This is a result of cost containment, but also a result of some timing between the quarters.
We have very significant negative external factors, of course, as you all know, the negative impact from tariffs, but also quite significant negative impact from currency in the quarter, mainly related to the weakening of the Argentinian peso, but also the strengthening of the Thai baht versus the U.S. dollar and the Australian dollar. The negative effect we have in acquisitions and divestments is related to the divestment of the water heater business in South Africa that we did last year. The operating cash flow was positive SEK 600 million in the quarter, which was somewhat below last year. This is mainly a result of a negative impact, a larger negative impact in working capital compared to last year.
This is attributed to one seasonal effect related to receivables that are usually increasing in the third quarter, but this year increased even more substantially than a normal seasonality related to higher sales growth, but also quite a strong September month, as Yannick also touched upon earlier. As you also know, we came into the third quarter with quite high inventory levels from the second quarter from a volatile market during the first half and also from that the Brazilian retailers were destocking during the first half or specifically in the second quarter. This, in combination with weak or cooler weather in Latin America, means that we're still sitting on some of that stock. As you know, we usually have a strong reduction of inventory in the fourth quarter according to our normal seasonality, and this is what we are looking for as well this year.
CapEx, we are having slightly lower than last year. Looking at our balance sheet and liquidity, we have a solid liquidity and a well-balanced maturity profile. In the quarter, we amortized long-term debt of around SEK 1 billion, and we issued three new bonds of a total of SEK 2.6 billion under our EMTN program. These will mature in 2029. For the remainder of 2025, we have borrowings maturing of approximately SEK 1.9 billion, which we will finance from our existing liquidity. We increased the financial net debt slightly in the quarter, but we still have a solid liquidity of SEK 29.4 billion by the end of September, including revolving credit facilities. We don't have any financial covenants, and our target to maintain a solid investment-grade rating remains. With that, I hand back over to Yannick.
Thank you very much, Therese. I will now move to the outlook and the summary. During the quarter, the market demand in Europe increased slightly. Consumer demand continued to be predominantly replacement-driven. In Asia-Pacific, consumer demand is estimated to have decreased slightly year- over- year. Promotional activity and competitive pressure increased across markets. Geopolitical uncertainty negatively impacted consumer sentiment in Europe. This contributed to consumers continuing to shift to lower price points and postponing discretionary purchases. Demand for built-in kitchen products in Europe remains subdued. In a longer perspective, it is important to remember that the European market is on a 10-year low. For the full year 2025, we reiterate our neutral market outlook for core appliances in Europe and Asia-Pacific. During the quarter, consumer demand in North America remained resilient. Industry market price adjustments did not reflect the implemented U.S. tariff structure, and competitive pressure and promotional activity remained high.
Demand continued to be mainly replacement-driven, and consumers continued to prefer lower price points. For the full year demand outlook, economic uncertainties and inflation concerns risk having a damper effect on consumer demand. Consequently, we maintain our outlook of neutral to negative market demand. Consumer demand is estimated to have increased in Latin America in the third quarter. Competitive pressure increased in the region, most notably in Argentina, where the strong growth was driven mainly by imported goods. Consumer demand grew in Brazil, although at a slower pace than in the third quarter in 2024, mainly due to inflationary pressure and higher interest rates affecting consumer spending. These factors contributed to retail continuing to reduce inventories. For a full year, we reiterate our outlook of neutral market demand for core appliances in the region. Moving now to the outlook.
We still expect the impact from volume, price, and mix to be positive for the year. Previously, price was estimated to be a main positive driver. Now the main driver is estimated to be growth in focus category because of the market dynamics in the third quarter and especially the challenging price environment in North America. We reiterate that we expect investments, innovation, and marketing for a full year 2025 to increase. New product launches provide us with a great platform to continue driving growth in our focus categories. Our focus on reducing costs remains high, and we stick to the outlook of SEK 3.5 billion-SEK 4 billion in earning contribution from cost efficiency in the full year 2025, with product cost output being the main driver for the cost reduction. External factors are expected to be significantly negative for a full year.
The cost inflation related to increased tariffs is included in an external factor in our EBIT bridge. Currency remains a headwind, and the impact from raw material costs is expected to be slightly positive for the year. For the full year, we're lowering our outlook for capital expenditure from SEK 4billion- SEK 5 billion to approximately SEK 3.5 billion-SEK 4 billion. Investments to strengthen our competitiveness through innovation and manufacturing efficiency are essential to support growth and improve efficiency. We are also looking at being as efficient as possible and organizing our priorities. These resulted in a lower CapEx outlook. Moving now to the strategy, and I think we have been hammering that, our five strategic pillars, and we are improving on all of them here. In terms of North America, we have been increasing our market share. We have been increasing the penetration level we have in key channels.
We have been increasing the number of shop floor spaces we have thanks to the innovation like the StoneBake pizza feature we presented last month. In terms of growth, we are growing in a challenging market. We are growing in core and premium segments with our brands like Electrolux and in AEG. We keep a very strong position in Latin America. The organic growth has been at the same level as last year, but again, it was on the back of a very strong 2024. We have been launching very strong innovations in kitchen in Europe, in North America with a big kitchen bake oven, and we have product leadership in Latin America. We made progress in terms of cost reduction, adding again SEK 800 million on the SEK 2 billion we have been achieving in the first half of the year. Last but not least, the environment is changing.
We are in a very unstable market right now where we need to react very fast. We need to be better in terms of speed and agility, and that's why we're driving organizational changes, increasing customer centricity. The first announcements we're making today is we will be splitting Europe, Middle East, and Africa and APAC into two different regions, two commercial regions. One will be focusing on Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and the other one will be focusing on APAC. As a result, Anna Ohlsson-Leijon will be leaving the company. Leandro Giasioschia, who is currently leading the Latin America region, will be moving to Europe, and he will be heading the region. Patrick Minaug will be replacing Ricardo Cons, who decided to retire from the company pursuing a family journey he has been starting. Eduardo Melo will be replacing Leandro Giasioschia at the head of Latin America.
We're sure that with these organizational changes, we'll be increasing speed, agility, and be more consumer-centric moving forward. That's concluding this presentation, and we'll be happy to take any questions.
Great. Thank you, Yannick and Therese. With that, we will move over to the participants on the telephone conference. Sarah, you could please go ahead and open up for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question over the phone lines, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, you can press star one one again. Alternatively, if you wish to ask questions via the webcast, please type it into the box and click submit. We will now take our first question from the phone lines. This is from Gustav Aguirre from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Congrats on a good result. If I may start on the comment on the U.S. market share gains, as you mentioned, you take shelf space in the quarter. It appears as if you've had now four quarters in a row with some market share gains in the U.S., obviously superseding a period where you've lost some market shares. Interesting to hear now that you're starting to meet a little bit tougher comps in terms of market shares in the U.S. if you see this trend potentially continuing into Q4 and into next year. If you could shed some light on who you're taking shelf space from, maybe not the name, but if it's domestic or non-domestic players, or if it's private label, or how you view that dynamic in the trade, that'd be interesting to hear. Thanks.
Thank you for the question, Gustav. I think we're taking a share, I would say, across. I think it's mainly due to, and thanks to the innovation we have been launching, mainly in kitchen. Let's not forget as well that we have been ramping up Springfield in the last months here. We have been launching through this ramp-up a new series of cooking products, for instance, which are feeding brands like Frigidaire, Galleria, and Pro. We have been launching the great innovation, which is the StoneBake pizza oven in North America here, which has been getting an excellent reception in the market. We have some new products as well in the food preservation side of the equation. It is really a cross-market share here.
We have been entering, and I want to make sure everybody understands we are not buying market share, but we have been entering into new channels like the contract channels here. We have been really gaining shop floor spaces with our main customers, I mean, Lowe's, Home Depot, and Best Buy and others here in the last months. It's not one specific competitor we're taking share from, but it's a wide range of competitors.
The second part of that question, as you look into it, appears as if comps on the market share gains in the U.S. is a little bit tougher to meet now and at the end of Q4 into 2026. Should we expect this trend to continue with some recovery of the market shares also at the end of 2026?
Yeah, I think I would like to make two points going into the volume side of the equation first. I want to insist on that. I mean, that was our commitment. We have been leading price increase in North America in the last month, and that has certainly not been easy. I think we were very fortunate to have all these innovations in order to compensate basically for this price increase because we are producing, as you know, in North America. We're among the few producers in North America. The last tariff structure introduced at the beginning of the summer was certainly privileging or benefiting North American producers. We were expecting a high level of price increase for imported goods, especially coming out of Asia. Unfortunately, I have to say today that we did not see that happening.
I think we're entering into a promotional season in North America now with Black November. However, what I want to underline as well is that, midterm, there is absolutely no doubt that North American producers will be benefiting from the current tariff structure here and that import products will be handicapped significantly and will have to increase prices. We did not see that in the third quarter. We're entering into, of course, a promotional period, which is Black November here, but there is also no doubt in our mind that the current tariff structure should be benefiting basically North American producers amongst who we are. We're not giving up on prices, not at all. Here, we're just expecting the market to be rational in North America as well.
I guess a little bit more overall, of course, some of the effects that Yannick Fierling talked about with gaining additional shop floor and gaining traction within the contract channel. Of course, this is not something that is just happening on and off, but we believe that those types of changes are structural changes that have come gradually during this year, which of course also should continue to be a positive going forward.
Thanks, Therese.
Thanks, Yannick. If I may ask one question on Europe too, it's interesting to hear that you see some improvement in September in terms of market volume, if I understood you correctly. Companies tend not to raise these types of monthly data towards the end of the quarter if they haven't seen a similar pattern going into the month that we're in now. Is there any reason to assume that that logic would not apply to you, that October would not follow the September trends? Appreciate it.
I think that's a great question. Unfortunately, in all fairness, if you look at full 2025, we have not been going through normal types of patterns in most of the regions, especially in Europe. Indeed, I think we're happy to say that September, as we have been mentioning, has been a positive month here for us. I think all we wish is that it would be continuing in the fourth quarter. The level of unpredictability and uncertainty we do have in the market today in Europe is pretty high. I would say it's difficult to say. Certainly, we're entering as well into a Black November type of market in Europe.
We are confident that with the product we have been introducing, the innovation we have been producing, with the plan we have in place, and the quality of the people we have facing the end consumer, we will be doing the right thing for what we can control. Unfortunately, the level of uncertainty is pretty high in the market.
I appreciate that. The question was specifically in October. Is there any reason to assume that the trend reversed again in October?
I think I cannot give you any trend, of course, for October right now. Certainly, the fact that September was a positive month is certainly a good indication for us.
Thank you.
This is also an important point when thinking about cash flow, because as you've seen, we had a weaker cash flow this quarter compared to last year, where a large part of this is really related to that we are tying up quite a lot more in receivables this year compared to last year. This is really driven by that the September month was the very strong month in sales, and hence we're tying up a larger amount in receivables. We don't see any changes in terms either in receivables or in payables. It's important to understand that effect from a cash flow perspective.
That's a good clarification. Thank you, guys.
Thank you. We'll now take the next question from the phone lines. This is from John Kim from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. Two questions, if I may. Can you comment on what you're seeing in North America in terms of any potential inventory overhangs? My understanding is that some of your foreign competitors put extra inventory into the market ahead of anticipated tariff increases. I'm just wondering how that's absorbing.
John, thanks for your question here. I would just be repeating the answer I gave last quarter, which is, again, a very transparent answer. The fact that we may have some of our competitors preloading in order to avoid tariffs seems to be logical. However, we did not observe this phenomenon ourselves here. I think this phenomenon was not reported to us by our team, basically, in North America. Unfortunately, it is something we cannot confirm.
Okay. I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on the reorganization, particularly on the split on what looks like a EMEA Asia-Pacific into different regions. Thanks.
Yeah, absolutely. I think, again, the aim we have in terms of organizational setup is really to get closer to the end consumer from the top to reverse, basically, the organizational pyramid here. I have the entire organization supporting what we'll be delivering to the market. Having the Asian organization below the European region has been adding one layer. What we want to do here is to be able to respond in a faster manner, in a more agile manner to the needs our customers do have as well in the Asia-Pacific region. That's why we have been carving out this commercial region. We will have the head of this commercial region, which would be reporting directly to myself, the CEO here. I think with this setup, we're convinced that we would be able to support, again, the region in a better manner.
Maybe one clarification from an external reporting perspective, we will still hold it together from a backend perspective across Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. It will really be a commercial region. Externally, we will continue to have the same segment reporting as today.
Thanks, Therese.
Okay, thanks for the clarification.
Thank you. Next question today is from Akash Gupta at JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Good morning. Thanks for your time. I have a few as well. The first one is on, again, going back on North America. One of your North American competitors mentioned earlier this week that they produce about 80% of their appliances in the region. If I may ask, what's the share of your local production in North America and how does that compare with industry average, if we have that figure?
Okay, thanks for a question. We're not giving any precise number here. What I can tell you, however, is that we have five factories in North America, three in the U.S., and two in Mexico who are USMCA here. The vast majority of our products are produced in North America today. Again, USMCA compliant. We are among the three major North American producers for appliances here. Certainly, as I said previously, long term, and if the industry is behaving rationally, we should be benefiting from the latest tariff structure here. Unfortunately, that's not what we saw in the third quarter here because we did not see a price increase from import finished goods. In all fairness, the full tariff structure would be implemented at the beginning of October.
It would be interesting to witness what would be the movements in the coming quarter, knowing again that we have Black November in front of us.
I think what we have said is that with the competitor you are referring to, we have a relatively similar footprint. That we have been clear .
Thank you. My second one is on the cost savings. You had SEK 2.8 billion in the first nine months, SEK 800 million in the third quarter. Your target is SEK 3.5 billion-SEK 4 billion. That would imply SEK 700 million- SEK 1.2 billion in Q4. I think in Q4, you have a very tough comp because last year, half of the savings came in Q4 alone. Any indication where are we trending towards in this SEK 3.5 billion-SEK 4 billion range for cost savings this year?
Yeah, a couple of things. The first one, I mean, we explained that. It's very difficult to compare the SEK 4 billion we delivered last year with the SEK 3.5 billion-SEK 4 billion we're delivering this year because last year, the saving was for a big part coming from restructuring we have been doing in the past. The SEK 3.5 billion-SEK 4 billion we're delivering in 2025 are much more coming from product redesign, better component sourcing, higher efficiency in terms of factory, and better leverage of our global scale here. All I can tell you today is that we are confident to deliver between SEK 3.5 billion- SEK 4 billion for 2025.
The last one is on free cash flow. You don't provide a bridge like some of your competitors, but when we look at this change in CapEx outlook, which you have cut today, would that change your internal assumptions for full year free cash flow, or are there any other elements like working capital or something else that might offset? Any commentary on your own expectations for free cash flow? Does that change after the CapEx outlook update?
No, I would say that those are disconnected. With the CapEx refocus that we've done, of course, we continuously do prioritization and reprioritization. With the focus that we have on cost reduction, actually, that is also spilling over on the CapEx reduction. Of course, when we're looking at cost, we're also looking at how we buy equipment and so forth. We're not doing the CapEx reduction really to offset other negatives in our cash flow. Those are disconnected.
That is very important to underline. Until I said it, I mean, we are not delaying any launches, we're not delaying any programs, we're not delaying any footprint or whatever here. What we have been doing is, I mean, we have been using our CapEx in a better manner in 2025. As you know, we have been hiring about a year ago now a new CPO. I think we have been really focusing on buying better, cheaper from best cost countries in 2025. That is reflected in the cost saving we're having, but also on how we are purchasing equipment and tooling.
I mean, that's fair, but I mean, in theory, if your CapEx is going down and keeping everything else equal, your free cash flow should be better than before. My question was that, is this the case that now we should expect, keeping everything else equal, a better free cash flow, or is there anything that might offset this benefit that you may get from lower CapEx?
I guess it depends on the timeframe you are looking at. Of course, as we have been transparent about, we are not having a strong cash flow this quarter as we did last year. Of course, also year to date, we have a weaker cash flow than last year. The reductions we're doing in CapEx are not to compensate for the negative effects that we have been seeing in working capital. As we also said earlier, one part of that is really temporary or seasonal. We had a strong September with receivables being negative in the quarter, more negative than last year, and more negative than the usual seasonality. Inventory, we have also been clear with that it is on a higher level already when we came into the second quarter. We are usually having a seasonality where we have large inventory reductions towards the end of the year.
This is what we are expecting as well this year. Maybe one additional point that we didn't touch upon, this is not related to the CapEx, but if you look at the full free cash flow for the year, we have talked about earlier in the second quarter that the impact of tariffs is also impacting the working capital level since the terms of when you are having to pay for tariffs compared to when you're able to then reclaim them from price increases from the retailers, there is a time gap. We have been clear with that. Structurally, we have had a negative impact from that in our cash flow in the year.
Thank you, Therese and Yannick.
Thank you.
Thank you. Just before we take our next question, we will please ask participants to limit themselves to two questions. Thank you. We will now move to the next question. This is from Johan Eliason from SEB. Please go ahead.
Bonjour, Yannick, Therese, and Ann-Sofi. Thanks for taking my question. I was wondering once again, North America, you say you are taking market share there. The brand you have in North America, Frigidaire, is typically a mass market brand which historically has sort of gained share when consumers become more price conscious. Is that part of what we've seen over there? Could you also update me on how the progress is developing, you know, moving your price points on the brand towards the higher price points like the Frigidaire Gallery issue that you have been focused on over the past few years? Would you say that you have been able in general to move up the brand a bit on the pricing ladder? Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. Yeah, absolutely. For the first questions, we are not targeting opening price points with Frigidaire. That's exactly how we have been mixing up with Galleria and Pro. In all fairness, the entire strategy developed over the last years as well with factories like Springfield or Anderson has been to mix up and have a higher offer in terms of products for Galleria and Pro. I just want to give you very concrete examples. Back command on oven ranges are usually low end. Most of the products we do have now, a big part of it out of Springfield, has front commands here, which is more mid to high end segments here. I could give you a similar example on the Anderson side of the equation.
The StoneBake pizza oven is again a feature which is a big innovation and we're pricing for this innovation as well in North America. No, we're not fighting really for opening price points on Frigidaire. We're not buying market share. What we're really doing is we're occupying new shop floor spaces by entering new retailers, by expanding in channels like the contract channels here. We are mixing up actually our products here. We should not forget about the Electrolux brand as well in North America, which is a strong brand for front loader, for instance, here. It is a premium brand. Not at all. We certainly have a philosophy in North America, which is to mix up our product by offering better product and innovations moving forward.
It's important to mention, as Yannick Fierling also said earlier, we are improving volume, price, and mix in this quarter. With the combination we're seeing of where we are taking share with what retailers and with what products, we don't really see that it's a risk that we are gaining share is not really a result of, as you're saying, what we've seen before historically, on that when the market is kind of trading down, that we are absorbing that type of volume. That's not what we see in the quarter.
I mean, I would repeat it. We have been leading price increase in a price pressure market in North America in Q3.
Excellent. Can you say anything about the product category where you are sort of gaining more or less? I think historically the high-end products were your most profitable products in North America, but you've lost out on that segment because of the sales issue. Can you say is the high-end product gaining more share, or is it sort of a broad range over your different categories?
I think we're gaining market share almost in every single product category. We're not going into detail. I mean, there are a couple, of course, where we're losing market share here and where we need to act here. We have plans in place in order to increase it. I mean, on the vast majority of the product ranges, we are gaining market share here. I don't think we should be pointing out one specific range or whatever. It is an overall market share gain.
Excellent. Just one final minor in the cash flow to Therese. Other non-cash items had a negative delta of around SEK 500 million. What's that related to? It was positive SEK 399 million last year's Q3 and now it's negative SEK 104 million. I was just wondering what that was related to.
With the LTI program that is included in the EBIT, we usually have a small negative every quarter as long as we continue to, of course, increase the provision of the long-term incentive program. Last year, it's related to the divestment of South Africa, where technically that's where the change of the goodwill was booked in last year's cash flow.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thanks, Johan.
Thank you. I'll now take the next question. This is from Martin Wilkie at Citi. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you, Martin. Thank you for taking the question. I just wanted to come back to North America. It sounds like you are making good progress there relative to the market, but obviously the absolute level of profit is still quite subdued. When we think going forward about the levers to get that higher, is it a market volume question or is this all around price cost? I mean, is it effectively that the sort of price increases linked to the tariffs and so forth have not yet come through? I guess related to that is any sort of self-help story. A lot of what you've done at Anderson and other facilities, I guess, are already completed, but there is a self-help element also to getting that margin higher. Thank you.
Yeah, thanks, Martin, for your question. The first thing I would like to underline, if you allow me, is that we are plotting in black for the second quarter in a row in North America in a market again, which has been pretty price pressured. North America is the first priority. The turnaround of North America is our first priority. I think we have been making progress throughout the last quarters. Certainly, we have short-term actions, mid-term actions, and longer-term actions to take the regions where we believe it should be belonging, 6% EBIT longer term. I think the big challenge, the main challenge we had in the third quarter is the one I've been mentioning. We have been making progress in terms of volume, mix, and price.
However, we were not able to price to the extent we wished simply because the tariff structure did not impact the imported goods at the logical or rational level. Moving forward, certainly, we are entering into a black November where price pressure will certainly not go down. The tariff structure would be entirely implemented starting October 1. If there is some rationale in North America in terms of pricing, we should be benefiting. We should be benefiting mid to long term out of the current tariff structure here as being a North American producer. Again, we did not see, unfortunately, the level of rationale we would have expected in terms of price increase for importing goods in Q3. Challenging month of November with the promotional pressure we'll have. Logically, moving forward, we should be benefiting from the current tariff structures in North America, producing in North America.
Thank you. That's very helpful.
Thank you. Your next question is from Uma Samlin, Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning everyone. Thank you very much for taking my question. I have a follow-up on North America, if I may. If we look at the AHM data on the units for North America, it seems to be flat for the quarter. You are getting some share, and it seems like your domestic competitor has had similar things. Who is losing share there? Is there anything you can comment on that? Given the, you know, you said the imports have sort of similar pricing points. They have not been increasing prices. What is the reason that it seems like the domestic, you and the domestic peers are gaining share? Is there any comment you can give there? Thank you.
Thanks. Tough question you're asking. First of all, we're very proud to have gained or to have increased our net sales by a double-digit amount in the third quarter. I want to repeat, we have not been buying market share. We have been gaining market share here. Indeed, one of your local producers has been saying the same thing. Unfortunately, we don't buy competitive data in North America. I wish I could answer to what you're asking, but we have the same level of information you do have. We have AHM data, and we have our data relative to AHM. It's very difficult for us to comment beyond what you just have been mentioning. We have competitors reporting out as well. They are Q3 reports in North America. I'm unfortunately not able to give you more details about who is losing in which product category.
Thank you very much. That's very helpful. My second question is on Europe. It seems like the competitive pressure in Europe is still fairly strong, but you are seeing some improvement in sentiment. Do you see any increased competition from your Asian peers here in Europe? Do you expect the pricing to bottom out potentially towards the end of the year or into next year?
No, thanks for the question. Great question here. In all fairness, Asian penetration in Europe is not something new. Asians have been entering into Europe now several years ago. Certainly, what I said previously is that the cost difference to manufacture a product in Asia or to manufacture a product in North America and Europe has never been as big because of commodity prices, because of energy cost here. The cost difference is really, really big. We opted very courageously in Europe a few years ago to step out of entry price points as Electrolux. We have been ramping down the Zanussi brand, and we have been focusing on Electrolux and AEG. We're proud to say today that we're winning more market share on Electrolux and AEG, core and premium, than we're losing on the Zanussi side of the equation here.
We are not exposed to the entrance on entry price point. However, what I need to underline is that you're partly right. We see the market moving down into lower price points in Europe. We see cost pressure being more and more intense here. I think we feel slightly protected from that because of the consumer segments we are targeting in Europe. There is no doubt about that. The market has been moving to lower price points recently, and we see a significant level of price pressure.
That's super helpful. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question is from Bjorn Enarson from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Thank you. First question on the U.S. again. If you can give us some color on the factory load in the plants and what kind of absorption you have of fixed cost now when you're getting some volumes, but still volumes are, I assume, quite low. Second question is a little bit on Europe. If you can give some regional comments within Europe where you're seeing these slightly positive trends. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. As I mentioned previously, the most subdued market versus the past years, I mentioned 2019, is certainly Europe. We are back at the level of 2014. As I said in previous calls, usually this industry in Europe had an organic growth of 2%- 3% a year. If you put 2014- 2025, we're really missing 20%- 30%. The market is missing 20%- 30% of the volume we should have expected logically out of the region here. As a consequence, the factories overall which are suffering the most from underutilization are the European factories. That's where everybody is suffering today in terms of factory loading. I would say in North America, a few good news. First, the Springfield factory, we were suffering end of last year in terms of ramp-up and additional cost. The ramp-up was basically inducing.
Springfield has been reaching what I would be calling a cruising altitude. The factory is there. I think we don't have the same factory capacity or utilization issues we do see in Europe. I think certainly we still have space because we just built this factory. I think we have space in front of us here. Factory utilization rate is not the main handicap we may have in North America or the major challenge we do have in North America.
Are all the actions to deal with the plant load in Europe, or how are you dealing with that?
I think.
Apart from what you have done by some divestments, etc.
Absolutely. First, we're gaining market share in the core and premium segment. We're fighting for volume. In the EBIT bridge, as I said during the presentation, we have been positive in volume and mix. Unfortunately, this advantage was slightly offset by the price pressure we see on the market. We are really fighting. We're fighting on a daily basis. Our team is fighting. It's doing a great job on the market in order basically to win versus our competitors in Europe. What would be helping us the most is simply to get back to a normal type of growth in Europe. When I say a normal type of growth, I'm not speaking about the 20%- 30% we were expecting a few years ago, but getting back to 2%- 3% growth in this region here.
What would be helping Electrolux the most because of the strength we do have in kitchen channels is basically that the construction market will bounce back. We believe it has been reaching a bottom here. We're observing that interest rates are lower. We're really hoping that this market will be bouncing back in the coming months. Right now we don't have a clear sign of it.
As you know, with the cost efficiency that we're having this year, it's mainly related to product cost efficiency. We have two years behind us where, of course, we have taken down our staff and our workers in the factories drastically over the last two years prior to this one to cope with the factory utilization.
Thank you. Very helpful.
Thank you. We will now take the next question. This is from Timothy Lee from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Can you hear me clearly?
Yes.
Yes, absolutely. Good morning.
Thank you very much for taking the questions. I have two questions on Europe. The first one is regarding the trend that you have seen in September, which is some improvement. Can I ask about the historical pattern within the first quarter? Whether September is usually a strong month in the quarter or not? Is the gap in September this time more like a seasonal pattern or is it really some improvement in terms of your overall business? That's the first question. The second question is about the margin improvement in Europe on a quarter-on-quarter basis. What's the key driver for that? Is this mainly from the cost efficiency program or are there some factors that drive the quarter-on-quarter improvement and how sustainable will the improvement be? These are the two questions. Thank you.
Thanks for your question. The communication was not very good, so I hope I would be answering your questions correctly. About the month of September, first of all, we cannot speak about a pattern because that was basically a month. We have seen really quite a lot of instability in Europe in the past month. I think, in all fairness, unexpected moves as well. I have been in this business for 25 years, in all fairness. It has been in the last years and months a pretty unstable situation and a situation which is very difficult to predict. However, as Therese and myself stated, we had some positive signals in the month of September. I think the only wish we have is to get back to a certain level of normality moving forward in this region. In terms of.
If the question was more the historical pattern, I think what we can say historically, of course, we had September, October, November are really the high season months in our industry. Of course, as you know, in the last few years, so quite many years now, has been very volatile and not really following a normal seasonal pattern. Also, with a very, very subdued kitchen retail channel in Europe, which is usually the boost as well in these three months, that's not really what we have been seeing being strong in the market in the last few years. That's why we have not really had the normal seasonality. Of course, is September strong because we're coming back to, you know, that more positive momentum? I guess it's too early to say because it has been going up and down. Historically, of course, September, October, November are the high season months.
In terms of sales and in terms of margin, if I can just take your question on margin here, as I mentioned previously, I mean, we are not targeting entry price points. Our war, our objective is not cost. I mean, we want to introduce consumer-relevant innovations here. We're extremely proud to have a high consumer C-Star rating across the three regions here to win awards like seven Steve Awards in Germany, in London, which never anybody has been reaching before. We are really trying to get and extract margin out of innovation and the quality of the products we do have over there, trying to escape the price pressure and cost pressure you may find in the entry price point. However, I mean, price pressure is big. Price pressure is big in every single quartile here. Certainly, I mean, reducing cost is one of our strategical pillars.
It is of prime importance to be cost-conscious in every single line of our P&L. That's what we're driving with a lot of intensity.
Okay, great. We will take one question from the webinar, which is from Swedbank, from Timothy Becker. That is if we can elaborate on the goal of maintaining a solid investment-grade rating, if we are okay with the rating, or if we have a goal to improve that. If you could elaborate on that, yes.
Yes, of course. I mean, as we stated in the call, our aim is really to maintain a solid investment-grade rating quarter- over- quarter. I mean, compared to last year, we are improving on our net debt to EBITDA ratio. Quarter- over- quarter, compared to the second quarter, we are stable. Of course, we're doing everything we can to remain a solid investment-grade rating.
Our focus remains delivering the year-end result on the profit side of the equation.
Great. We have one more question on the call that I think we will try to take before we close off.
Thank you. Final question is from John Kim from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity to follow- up. I'm just wondering if you'd comment a bit on wage inflation. What sort of percentages are you experiencing? What's the cadence to it? Are there large upcoming negotiations with any unionized organizations?
No, I would say nothing extraordinary that we can mention.
Okay. While I have the floor, is there anything you'd call out in the August developments around U.S. tariffs that we should be particularly mindful of, whether it's the metal content or the reciprocals?
You want to answer this one? You want me to take it? Nothing special on the, of course, I mean, as I mentioned previously, John, the latest tariff structure should certainly be benefiting the local producers here. The full tariff structure is implemented starting the beginning of October. All what we're hoping as a North American producer is to see a rational price increase for imported goods starting as soon as possible. That's what I would say.
Excellent. Thank you.
Thank you, John. Thank you, everyone who has listened. With that, we will end this call. I would like to remind you that we will have a capital market update on the 4th of December that will also be live webcasted. Thank you for viewing and listening in today.
Thank you very much.