Hello all, and a warm welcome to the Garo year-end report for 2021. My name is Lydia, and I'll be your operator today. If you'd like to ask a question at the end of the presentation, you may do so by pressing star followed by one on your telephone keypad. It's my pleasure to now hand you over to our host, Patrik Andersson, CEO. Please go ahead when you're ready, Mr. Andersson.
Thank you, and welcome everyone to the presentation of Garo's fourth quarter and full year for 2021. My name is Patrik Andersson, and I'm the CEO of Garo. With me today, I have Helena Claesson, our CFO, to present the financial performance. Next slide, please. I will start with an introduction of the Garo group. Garo was founded in 1939, and we have since then developed and produced innovative products and turnkey solutions for the electrical installation markets. We divide our business into two business area: Sweden, which consists of our Swedish operations, and it include also the sales to other European countries that we not have our own subsidiaries. Garo International, which cover our business in Norway, Ireland, Finland, Poland, and in the U.K.
We have production on four sites, two in Nyköping in Sweden, where we also have our head office, one in Värnamo in Sweden, and the fourth site in Szczecin in Poland, where we decided to invest in a new production and logistics facility that I will come back to later in the presentation. We are approximately 500 employees in the group. Next slide, please. Garo's business consists of four strong product areas. On this slide, you can see the share of the total sales during 2021. The largest product area, electrical distribution products, consists of approximately 3,500 products and turnkey solutions for the electrical installation markets. Example of the product is components, safety switches, meter cabinets, outlet boxes, plugins, and sockets, which is products used every day in different applications, such as new buildings, renovation, industrial, e-mobility solutions, et cetera.
This contributes to 42% of the revenue. Our fastest growing product area is E-mobility, which we develop and market all types of chargers for rechargeable vehicles. We have product and turnkey solutions for different environments, such as home, public, workplace, and along the highway. On top of this, we make the E-mobility business even more complete. We also offer service agreements to help the customer with yearly service or updates. We believe it's important to make it easy for the user and to make it possible to charge where the people live and work. This area accounted for 34% of total sales up from 28% in the year earlier. Our third product area is projects, which provides complete and customized solutions for all types of power supply for apartments, villas, industrial, E-mobility solutions, accounted for 18% of the total sales.
The fourth area, temporary power, with a product portfolio consisting of temporary electricity, lighting, heating, and charging, product used on construction sites and in events. This area accounted for 7%. These four areas make Garo's offer unique and easy for the customer. An example of this is when the customer need a charging solutions with a different charger from E-mobility. They also need power supply from Project business and safety and installation products from Electrical distribution products. This make it easy, simple, and safe for the customer and end user. Next slide, please. We go further on with operational highlights, and we start with growth and profitability. We are pleased to see a continued good growth in the fourth quarter. Sales increased by 21% with a good development in Garo Sweden as well as in Garo International, and overall, a positive development in all product categories.
With a positive development in our largest product area, electrical distribution products, we believe that we have been growing stronger than the underlying market, both in Sweden and in the international markets. The good sales development during the year also contributes to good improvement in profitability and a strong cash flow, which is important in these challenging times. For the full year, we reach a record level of 16%, and Helena will talk more about that later in the presentation. Strategy and challenges. During the quarter, the uncertainty regarding supply of many electronic components prevails.
This has affected sales mainly in the E-mobility, but I'm proud to say that the organization have handled the situation in a very good way, both with strategic supply, redesign, and to make it possible to grow with profitability. The demand for E-mobility product was strong during the quarter and the full year all over the product range. AC chargers has been the main driver with Wallbox and public chargers. We also had a large order book within the product area by the year end. A success factor for Garo has and will be product development. During 2021, we have continued to develop new products with the aim to broaden our customer offering. To enable a holistic go-to-market strategy and make our offering within E-mobility together with our other product areas unique. We will launch new innovative products during 2022.
We have a positive outlook of the market, and two events after the end of the quarter was to implement a new division of segments in order to increase focus and clarity. As of January 1, 2022, the business area, Garo E-mobility and Garo Electrification, will replace Garo Sweden and Garo International. Another decision that Garo shall invest in a new production and logistics facility in Poland, and I will talk more about that on the next slide. E-mobility. We had a sales growth of 35% in E-mobility in the quarter, and this could have been more if we had more access to mainly electronic components. Sales growth during the full year was 52%. E-mobility Sweden increased sales by 48% with a good demand across the whole product range, but primarily within AC chargers.
Sales to other European markets through contract customers, such as utility companies and automotive companies established in Europe grew strongly by 140% during the quarter. Garo International increased by 5%. Sales was strong in Finland, Ireland, and U.K., and a weaker sales in Norway. Driving factors for E-mobility business is, of course, to increase the number of rechargeable cars in all Europe, and this make a high demand within charging infrastructure in all environment that I mentioned before, such home, working place, and along the highway. Next slide, please. New production and logistic facilities. As I mentioned before, an event after the end of the quarter is that the board of directors decide that Garo shall invest in a new production and logistic facility in Szczecin in Poland, close to our existing facility. Szczecin in Poland is strategically sited for a rapidly growing European market.
In addition to Garo's market in the Nordic regions. The investment will provide a considerable increase in capacity, primarily in the Garo E-mobility business area and also in the Garo Electrification business area, while we safeguard such aspects in the environment and sustainability. Factory space will be approximately 15,000 sq meter, and the project is planned to commence in the second quarter of 2022, and the facility is expected to be completed by summer of 2023. The existing facility has sufficient product capacity until the new facility is operational, and the total investment budget amounts to about SEK 85 million. Now over to Helena on the financial performance. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Patrik. I would like to start with a summary of the full year 2021. As Patrik just mentioned, we have had our strongest year ever, both regarding sales and profits. Net sales amounted to almost SEK 1.3 billion, which is an increase of 25% from last year and almost entirely through organic growth. Operating margins for the full year came in at 16%, giving us an EBIT of SEK 207 million, and is an improvement of almost 3 percentage points compared to 2020. Scale effects from increasing volumes and a positive product mix and a good cost control in general are the main explanations for this. Our balance sheet is strong with a net cash by the end of the year of SEK 9 million compared to net debts last year of SEK 11 million.
The board of directors will propose to the AGM to distribute a dividend of SEK 1.40 per share. This is 42% of the earnings per share and in line with our dividend policy. Next slide, please. Now we continue to look at some financial highlights for the fourth quarter. Net sales increased by 21%, giving us net sales of SEK 370 million during the fourth quarter, and it all came from organic growth, mainly driven by sales within the first area, E-mobility. The sales growth was seen within all our product areas, even though limited access to electronic components has somewhat hampered the sales also in this quarter. This has mainly affected our product area, E-mobility, as Patrik mentioned earlier. Operating margins in the quarter came in at 15.6%, giving us an EBIT of almost SEK 58 million.
The main reason for our EBIT was positive scale effects from higher volumes and a favorable product mix. Net income for the quarter amounted to SEK 46 million, an increase of 35% compared to the same quarter 2020. Next slide, please. Now we look into the two business areas separately, and we start with Garo Sweden. Net sales amounted to SEK 258 million in the quarter, which is an increase of 24% compared to the same quarter last year. High demand was seen in all our product areas, driven by new constructions, renovations, and the energy efficiency together with expansion of the charging infrastructure. The sales within the product area electrical distribution products varied depending on product group, where we saw good sales of products to the industry in the quarter.
We have also seen good sales of car heaters in the quarter, where Garo has a leading position in the Nordic region. Project sales was up with 19%, where we have had good demand for customized power stations, cable cabinets, and switchgear, as well as our environmentally friendly cable cabinet. Sales within Temporary Power was up with 30%, mainly explained by one large customer investing in new equipment. EBIT increased to SEK 48 million, and margins came in at 18.7%, slightly better than the same quarter last year. Next slide, please. Now looking a little bit into the business area of Garo International. Sales amounted to SEK 112 million, which was an increase of 14% compared to the same quarter last year. Sales within electrical distribution products increased by 15% with a good growth in Ireland, Finland, and the United Kingdom.
Sales within projects increased by 31%, where we continue to have some interest in customer projects, mainly in the U.K. and Ireland, driven by the charging infrastructure. More and more wholesalers choose to offer Garo's products in the standard range, which enables fast deliveries and high availability. Our production facility in Poland had a very satisfying efficiency during the quarter, despite limited supply of electronic components. EBIT amounted to SEK 9.5 million, and operating margins in the quarter came in at 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the quarter, we have continued to invest in the markets of Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as in resource allocations in Poland, where we are expanding production and training staff for higher production capacities. Next slide, please. Now let's look a little bit into our product area in E-mobility separately.
Sales within E-mobility amounted to SEK 134 million, an increase of 35% for the group, where Garo Sweden grew by 48% and Garo International by 5%. In Garo Sweden, we saw good growth within the AC section, that is Wallbox and public chargers. Sales to other European markets through contract customers such as energy companies and automotive companies established in Europe grew strongly by more than 140% during the quarter, and this sale is reported within the business area, Garo Sweden. For Garo International, we can see good growth in Ireland, U.K., and Finland. While sales in Norway have been weaker in recent quarters, partly due to the market's degree of maturity when it comes to the home charging. The demand continues to be very strong, and our order books are still at high levels. Next slide, please.
Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 47 million in the fourth quarter compared to SEK 83 million in the same quarter last year. This was explained by a higher need of working capital, mainly due to a higher inventory value of components and higher accounts receivables, a result of tactical material purchases and higher sales toward the end of the quarter. Cash flow from operating activities for the full year amounted to SEK 122 million. In the quarter, we have had investments of SEK 11 million, of which 8.5 were related to product development. As said before, we have a strong balance sheet with a net cash position per December amounting to SEK 9 million. We have an equity asset ratio of 59% and available liquidity including overdraft facilities of SEK 182 million. Now back to you, Patrik. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Helena. We go further on with strong growth and development opportunities. Here our strategy remains the same. The main driver of growth will be organic growth. A successful product development has been and will continue to be the key to this growth. On top of this, we're always looking for potential acquisitions where we can add either new additional products, product areas or companies with an edge. An example of this is the acquisition of EV Charge Partner last year to strengthen our offer in the mobility business. We're also looking at new geographical markets with a focus mainly on the north part of Europe. Garo's vision is to become the leading brand on its chosen markets. Next slide, please. Outlook. We assess the core market conditions have essentially not changed.
The market for charging infrastructure is growing structurally with rising number of rechargeable vehicles, and we see a continuous strong trend with further expansion of the charging infrastructure in all markets. Demand for construction-related products, combined with the important renovation and energy efficiency sector, is expected to remain at a good level. The strong market recovery and growth has brought about certain challenges, such as occasional component shortage, and this uncertainty remains concerning access to electronic components.
We have managed to handle this in a good way, as I mentioned before, and we take steps to increase the capacity further and stand ready to ramp up the production and deliveries when the deliveries of electronic components will be more normalized. All in all, we have a positive view of a long-term market condition, mainly driven by growth in charging infrastructure. Next slide, please. Thank you everyone for listening, and we are ready for questions.
Our first question today comes from Adrian Gilani of ABG. Please go ahead, Adrian, your line is open.
Hi, it's Adrian here from ABG. I'd like to start off with a quick question, sort of general on the market. Obviously, you mentioned you weren't able to completely meet underlying demand in E-mobility due to shortage of electrical components. Is it possible to quantify sort of how much higher demand was than your ability to deliver? And as a follow-up, have you seen any sort of improvements on these issues so far in 2022?
We don't quantify that number, how much that is. The second question is, yes, we can see a better situation on the electronic components, but of course it have some challenges still, on the market. We can see an improvement during quarter four and hopefully an improvement also in quarter one. Of course, we have still some uncertainty on some components of electronics. That will continue during quarter one and quarter two. It will be hopefully better and better for every quarter.
Okay. Regarding the expansion in Poland, you mentioned that the total expansion will carry an investment of SEK 85 million, roughly. How much of this do you expect will come in 2022, and how much in 2023?
A rough guess would be about 50/50. We plan to start the building now in the second quarter this year, and our plan is to have it finalized in the second quarter of 2023. I would say 50/50.
Okay.
Roughly.
Okay, thank you. Once it is finished in sort of May 2023, what do you expect the ramp-up period will be like after that? When can we sort of expect that you'll reach at least close to full capacity utilization in the new facility?
We will reach good capacity quite quickly. As I mentioned in the presentation, we will have capacity in our facility we have today. We will not have any problem with the capacity. Then when the new facility is ready, we can ramp up that in several steps, so to say. That will not be an issue with capacity both in the old and in the new facility.
Okay. Just a final question from my side regarding Norway. You obviously had a bit lower growth in Norway. Is this mainly due to the market there plateauing a bit? Even if you grow less there, are you still growing in line with the market in Norway? Is my line open? Hello?
Hello, your line is open. Please hold the line whilst we reconnect the speakers.
Hello?
Thank you all for your patience. We now have our speakers back on the line.
Yeah, sorry for that. Could you please repeat that, last question?
That was from Adrian Gilani, so I will just open up his line again.
Thank you.
Okay. If my line's open now, it was just-
Yeah
One last question regarding the Norwegian business. Obviously growth was a bit weak in Norway, but I was wondering if that's mainly due to the market plateauing a bit. Even if you don't grow as in Norway, are you still growing in line with the market in Norway?
Yeah. We can see a bit weaker sales in the market for home charger. We are more and more into the project business in Norway to sell to big facilities and industrial. There we have this broad range that you think fit into that solutions. We still see Norway as a very good market, but more for project sales than just for the home market. Yes, we had weaker sales here in the fourth quarter, but we see Norway as a good market for the coming years, but more as project sales than for the home markets. Yes.
Okay. Thanks for answering my question. That was all for me.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question today comes from Olof Cederholm of ABG. Your line is open.
Yes. Hi, it's Olof here as well from ABG. Just I have two follow-ups to Adrian's questions. Are you seeing any changes in pricing in the market? It's very competitive out there. Also, if you could relate, have some comments on your input costs if those are coming up, we see that, you know, everywhere. Just wondering about that.
If you start with the pricing on the competitive markets, of course, it's more and more competitive on the market. We can see the Wallboxes with less functionality, of course, will be a price pressure. But we have chosen another way, which have a broad range with a lot of functionality, and that we can sell big solutions for big facilities. We think that is the way forward to have a good profitability and a good offer to the market. Of course, we will see some price pressure on some of the range, but overall, we think it will be a good profitability on the range still the coming years.
Your second question was relating to the. You mean purchasing prices?
Component costs.
Yes.
Exactly if you see sort of prices coming up.
Well, I would say the second half of 2021, we have seen prices going up on some components. At the same time, we have also negotiated better prices for other components. Yes, we have seen that trend, and it has so far a little bit continued in the new year, 2022.
Yeah. We have handled that in a good way also.
We have.
We're negotiating with the suppliers, as Helena said.
Yeah
Also have the price to the markets.
Yes.
Yeah. Excellent. My last question is on, you talked about new products coming to the market. Is it possible for you to talk a little bit more about this, to give some details maybe on what you're planning, particularly on the E-mobility side?
We all the time, as I mentioned in our growth strategy, is to grow organic. To grow organic, it has always been for Garo to have new products on the markets, and we have put several products on the market during 2021. We have also invest a lot of money to also launch new interesting products during 2022. At this stage, I can't say more, which type of product it is. Of course, we will launch products in the mobility business during the year. Yes.
Okay. Excellent. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. Our next question today comes from Kenneth Toll of Carnegie Investment Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yeah. Thank you. I was curious about your progress in the U.K. You said that you've gotten some larger orders there now. You opened the Birmingham office just before the COVID and it seems to be taking off now. What are the distribution channels you are using there? Are you selling through electrical installation material distributors or are you selling more directly to end users, and also what are the end users? Are there sort of big charger operators, or is it more consumers or real estate companies? Talk a little bit about your business there, please.
The sales chain, you can say it is quite similar to how we handle Sweden. It's through wholesalers mainly. Of course, we also have some contract customers, also in U.K., but the main distribution is through wholesalers. Of course, we have a lot of connections to the installers of course, which is the people who install this product to the end users. When we talk to these international and contract customers, of course, we have some infrastructure connections with, for example, National Grid, and so on. It's wholesalers, installers, but also contract customers.
Great. The applications, is it more larger systems for operators, or is it more for homeowners, consumers, or? Also what products do you sell? Is it only chargers or is there more components around it as well?
Yeah, we can say it's a bit similar also to Sweden because we are selling products for the E-mobility and the electrical distribution and projects. We see that this unique portfolio that I mentioned in the presentation, it's very important also in the U.K. business because we have a lot of these products on the shelf at the wholesalers. We can power supply and have this installation and safety component in the electrical distribution. We have this total package, so to say. The main product selling in the U.K. market for the E-mobility is the AC chargers, Wallbox and public chargers as our LS4. Some DC charger. That is most in the beginning, I will say. Mainly AC chargers at this stage.
You also talked about on the cost side of the international division, that you are adding cost to support sales. Are you adding more sales towards resources in the U.K. to cover the market? Are you sort of trying to, you know, cover a larger geographical part of the market, or is it more specialized to some segments or you're opening new offices in other parts of the U.K., or what's the plan?
At this stage, we employ more and more people, of course, both in back-office and also sales people to handle this interesting and quite big country. Of course we will continue to invest in more people in U.K. because it's a huge market, an interesting market. We have done that during last year in quarter four, and we will continue to do that also during 2022. That's correct, that we invest in more sales people and backend. Back office. Sorry.
Okay, great. That's all. Thank you.
Thank you.
As a final reminder, if you'd like to ask a question today, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now. We have no further questions in the queue, so I'll hand back to you, Mr. Andersson.
Thank you everyone for listening, and have a good day.
This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.