Hi, welcome to the presentation of GARO's third quarter 2020. 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 a short introduction of the company. GARO was founded 1939, which means that we have been over 80 years in business. We develop and produce innovative products and turnkey solutions for the electrical installation markets. We divide our business into two business areas, Sweden, which consists of our Swedish operations, and Other markets, which cover our business in Norway, Ireland, Finland, Poland, and in the U.K. We have production on four sites, two in Gnosjö in Sweden, where we also have our head office, one in Värnamo in Sweden, and the fourth site in Szczecin in Poland. We are approximately 400 employees in the Group.
Next slide, please. Product areas. Our business consists of four product areas, and on this slide, you can see the different product areas share of the total sales year-to-date 2020 compared to the same period last year. Our largest product area is Electrical distribution products, which contributes to almost half of our revenues, where we saw a decrease year-to-date, mainly due to a weak development in Other markets in the second quarter, but with a positive development in the third quarter. Sweden has been stable in the year-to-date. Sales within E-mobility accounted for 26% of total sales, which is up from 22% last year. E-mobility has had a strong development in Sweden in the nine-month period with a growth of 24%, while growth in Other markets were up 6%, partly held back due to the pandemic.
Our product area Project has been stable, sales in the period accounting for 22% of total sales, and Temporary Power decreased and now constitutes for 5% of our business, down 1 percentage point compared to last year. Next slide, please. Operational highlights. We saw higher sales in Sweden driven by strong growth of E-mobility products while construction-related product areas were weaker. This was partly offset by good demand from renovation and reconstruction. In the Other markets, we had a strong recovery with all product area contributing to growth. We have seen good demand for products intended for improving energy efficiency. We also had good demand of recreational products as many have chosen to vacation at home. Furthermore, products related to G-Ctrl, which is a system used to measure, control, and power marinas and camping sites, saw good sales.
E-mobility increased sales by 33%, with strong growth all over the product range. Growth was particularly strong in Sweden. Next slide, please. Product for improved energy efficiency. The increasing demand for higher energy efficiency has benefited products related to our G-Ctrl system. This is product and service that we acquired from WEB-EL in 2017, although we have used the system for many more years. This is a system that gives the owner full control and could measure, control, and power supply car heaters, but also products related to marinas and camping sites. Within the product area Temporary Power, our fan heater, which you can control by smart digital settings and workplace lighting with a broad LED product range that benefit most to lower the energy consumption. Next slide, please. Sustainability. Sustainability is important for GARO and our stakeholders.
We have chosen to focus on six of UN's Global Goals where we believe GARO can make a difference. You can see on the slide which goals that we have been chosen. Energy efficiency is essential to meeting the future's climate goals. We have investing significantly in developing smart, energy-efficient products and service for companies and private individuals. Through our digital control and energy efficiency solutions, we can lower the energy consumption. It is important for us to take social responsibility both at on a overall national level and local one in the countries where we operate.
We have significant functions as an employer in the areas in which we operate and where have close contact with the business sector so that together we can contribute to a positive development of the area. Supporting sports primarily for children and young people to support physical activity and health is major importance for us. Some key sustainability events during the quarter. We have started doing a life cycle analysis for the E-mobility products. We also have a new waste management law that enter into force in August in Sweden, has already been implemented by the Group. Now over to Helena for financial performance. Next slide, please.
Thank you, Patrik. First, let's start with some financial highlights from the third quarter of the year. We have seen a strong recovery in the business, mainly in Other markets, and Group sales increased by 5% to SEK 247 million, where the lion part comes from growth within E-mobility. Operating margins came out strongly at 15.2%, up from 10% in the same quarter last year. This was mainly the result of higher volumes and favorable product mix, mainly within E-mobility, lower sales costs, and a tight cost control in general. Net income for the quarter increased to SEK 28 million, and on a rolling 12 months basis, it is worth noticing that the net income after tax is approximately SEK 85 million, almost at the same level as for the full year of 2019.
In spite of the ongoing pandemic, we have so far managed to keep up a good business during the year. Next slide, please. Looking into the net sales by product area. Our largest product area, Electrical distribution products, together with our Project business, increased in Other markets but were slightly weaker in Sweden. In combination, those two product areas were slightly down in the Group. Temporary Power continued to have lower sales in Sweden and more stable in Other markets, even if it is from lower volumes. The demand of E-mobility was very strong in Sweden and good in Other markets. It was a quarter where we saw good demand across the whole product range. The demand for the Twinbox that we launched during the first quarter of this year has been very high.
We also started to deliver Althea, our own in-house developed DC chargers, to customers as planned. Next slide, please. Now looking into the two business areas separately, starting with GARO Sweden. Net sales amounted to SEK 158 million in the quarter, which is an increase of 3% compared to the same quarter last year. The growth came more or less entirely from E-mobility. The market growth for Electrical distribution products in Sweden decreased by approximately 2% in this quarter. GARO sales within this product area, as well as for Project business, had the same development of sales. EBIT increased to SEK 23 million. Margins improved to 14.5%. This was explained by favorable product mix and lower sales activities as a result of the pandemic. Next slide, please.
Looking into the business area, Other markets, the sales increased by 9% in the quarter, mainly as a result of markets opening up again after the lockdowns in Q2 following the pandemic. We saw strong growth in Ireland with record sales in the market for the month of July. We had sales in Norway stable compared to the same quarter last year. Operating profit increased to SEK 14.5 million, and margins improved to 16.4%. This due to favorable product mix effects. In the quarter, we have seen a good efficiency in our Polish factory. Next slide, please. Okay, let's look a little bit then into the cash flow and the balance sheet. The cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK 2 million compared to almost SEK 18 million in the third quarter last year.
This is to a large extent the result of higher working capital, lower accounts payables, and higher customer receivables. In addition to this, we have as a safety measure prioritized a high degree of supplies of components, which has led to higher inventories. In the quarter, we have had investments of about SEK 9.5 million, whereof SEK 6 million of these were related to investments within product development. We have a strong balance sheet with a net debt per September amounting to SEK 83 million, which is about SEK 20 million lower than at the same time last year. We have an equity asset ratio of 57.7% and available liquidity, including overdraft facilities of almost SEK 90 million. Back to you again, Patrik. Next slide.
Thank you, Helena. Strong growth and development opportunities. Our strategy remains the same. The main driver of the growth will be organic growth. A successful product development has been and will continue to be a key to this growth. On top of this, we are always looking for potential acquisitions where we can add either new additional products, product areas, or a company with an edge. An example of this is the acquisition of EV Charge Partner, which we announced May the 15th this year to strengthen our offer in the E-mobility business. We are also looking for new geographical markets, which are focused mainly on North part of Europe. Next slide, please. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Far, we have had limited impact on the sales in Sweden, and to date, GARO has not applied for or received any financial support from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth as a result of COVID-19. Sales in Other markets picked up in the quarter as the economies opened up. Next slide, please. Outlook. Demand for construction-related products in Sweden, combined with the important renovation sector, is expected to remain stable. Housing construction has slowed down slightly from its peaks during the last few years, but the production rate remains high and stable. The trend in Other markets served by GARO, aside from the pandemic, is expected to be similar. On long term, looking beyond the COVID-19 virus, our assessment of the core market conditions has not changed. However, great uncertainty prevails due to the COVID-19's long-term consequences on the economy.
The market for E-mobility is growing structurally. We can see a continuing strong trend with further expansion in the charging infrastructure in all markets. Thank you for listening. Now me and Helena are ready for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question please press star one on your telephone keypad now. If you change your mind and wish to remove your question please press star two.
We have no questions on the call. I'll hand back to Patrik.
Thank you, everyone, for listening, and goodbye.