Hello everyone, welcome to the presentation of Husqvarna Group's report for the first quarter of 2023. My name is Johan Andersson, responsible for Investor Relations at Husqvarna Group, and I will be the moderator here today. With me here in Stockholm to present the report, we have our Acting CEO, Pavel Hajman, and CFO, Terry Burke. After the presentation by Pavel and Terry, we will open up for a Q&A session, and you're welcome to ask your questions over the phone conference or enter them through the web interface. With that, again, welcome to today's session, and I hand over to you, Pavel.
Thank you, Johan, welcome everybody from my side as well. I'm happy to say that we are today reporting a solid start to the year and a record result for a first quarter. Sales were up with 9%, with an organic growth of 2% for the group, and this driven by our key strategic categories such as robotic mowers and battery-powered products. This enables our channel partners to have our full offering for the gardening season now. Overall, we delivered a record EBIT result in absolute terms for a first quarter. It is also great to see that we have improved our cash flow and started to lower our inventories, and net debt has also been reduced since year-end in absolute value.
We have made progress on our strategic ambitions, we are on track with the group's ongoing transformation to lead our industry to low carbon solutions. We are stepping up our initiatives and investments in our key areas, robotics, battery, watering, and professional solutions. The program that we launched in October last year to accelerate the execution in progressing accordingly to plan, both from a strategic perspective, but also realize savings that Terry will come back to shortly. We are also delivering towards our Sustainovate 2025 targets, which I will come back to later in this presentation. However, we still operate in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. We have a sharp focus on costs.
We continue to improve our cash flow and maintain the flexibility in our operations, this to enable us to adapt to any potential changes in the economic environment and the customer demand. With that, let us take a closer look at the quarter for the group. Net sales grew by 9%. The organic growth was 2%. The key drivers were robotics, battery products, and also wheel products in front of the season start and the grass cutting. Growth for robotic mowers were strong for both the residential and the professional segment. This was supported by solid demand and restocking by our servicing dealers ahead of the gardening season. In addition, the supply chain has improved. We have reduced our order backlog overall.
Gardena division experienced continued cautiousness among our retail partners in the quarter, leading to a -20% organic sales growth. We should also remember that Gardena had a record quarter one last year, so the comparable is challenging. The Husqvarna Construction division achieved a flat organic growth, but with positive development in North America and also with good growth for the Concrete Surfaces & Floors segments. With good cost control, the division delivered a solid margin uplift. Moving on to the operating income, we delivered an EBIT result of SEK 2.41 billion, which is the best ever for a first quarter. Terry will discuss this in further detail, but the key drivers were our success with net sales growth, including price increases, as well as a cautiousness with costs. The operating margin came in at 14%, which is the same as last year.
We have managed to improve cash flow driven by better operational surplus and improved cash flow from working capital changes. Activities are in place to continue to reduce inventory levels further into the season. Robotics and battery achieved strong performance and drove the share up to 17% for the last 12 months, driven to a large extent of solid demand and also improved supply chain. We are now back to the same level as a year ago. We are up from the full year 22, which was on 15% level. Most importantly, we have a strong robotics portfolio and many new battery products for the season. When we zoom out and take a longer perspective, we are executing on our strategy and long-term transformation to build a stronger Husqvarna Group.
This through growing in segments with higher profitability and also high future growth prospects. With the good results in the first quarter, we have increased the absolute EBIT level and also managed an uptick in the rolling 12 months margin to 9.1%. Our ambition is clearly to continue this journey in the coming years. With this summary, I leave over to Terry to go through the numbers in more detail.
Thank you, Pavel. If we move over to the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division first, an improved supply situation was supporting our strong Q1 for the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division. In fact, from an absolute EBIT value of one point seven, I would say it was a record Q1 for the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division. Organic sales growth of 14% and an operating income of 15.9%. We have good, strong growth for robotic mowers in both segments of professional and residential. We have also good performance of battery products and wheeled products, and we have an improved margin. The improved operating margin is really driven by price increases, favorable mix and volume. There is a negative currency effect in the quarter of some -SEK 40 million.
If we move over to the Gardena Division, a different story and a different picture to the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division. This is a continued challenging environment for Gardena, where retailers continue to be very cautious in managing their inventory levels. There is an organic growth -20% and an operating margin of some 13.5%. As I said, the retailers continue to be very cautious, which is a carryover from 2022 into the start of the 2023 season. The lower volumes have impacted our operating income. They have been partly offset by positive price effect and good cost controls. There was a small positive currency effect of SEK 30 million in the operating income.
Moving over to the Construction Division, I would say a very solid Q1 for Construction as well, and very good performance, and I believe also a record Q1 for EBIT in absolute value for Construction Division as well. Organic sales were flat and an operating margin of 13.3%. We had good growth in North America, and when we look at it from a product segment perspective, we had strong performance for Concrete Surfaces & Floors segment. Operating result improves to 13.3%, and that is driven by price increases and cost efficiency. We also have a positive currency effect in the quarter of some SEK 50 million.
Moving over to the EBIT bridge, as Pavel mentioned in the opening slide, quarter one from an absolute EBIT perspective was a record Q1 at SEK 2.4 billion, 14% margin. We've improved our EBIT by some 10%, and that's really driven by a number of factors. If I just walk through the bridge, from the left to the right, we can see a large portion of the profitability improvement is driven through by price. We've actually got a strong price for quarter one, which is heavily impacted by a positive carryover of price from 2022 into Q1 2023. Price increases in 2022 were not all implemented from January 1, therefore, there is a positive carryover during Q1.
That positive carryover will not impact for the rest of the year, but there was a positive impact for the Q1. Once we adjust for price, we actually had a negative volume effect in the quarter, and mix was more or less plus or minus flat in the quarter. Cost savings of some SEK 80 million, and we are on track with our cost savings program. Raw material and logistics, a negative SEK 115 million. However, again, there's a small element of carryover from last year in this, and I would expect a more stabilized flat development for raw material and logistics for the rest of the year.
We continue our to invest in our acceleration program on our strategy, SEK 75 million invested during the quarter. We will continue to invest during the rest of the year as well. A small positive overall currency effect of some SEK 40 million, bringing us to this SEK 2.4 billion EBIT. Moving over to the balance sheet, we continue our solid financial position. I think we can be relatively pleased with our performance on the balance sheet and working capital during quarter one. Inventories, I think, is probably the one to highlight here. Whilst we look at it from a comparable year-over-year, you see a SEK 3.5 billion increase that is broken down into three elements. We have a currency effect of SEK 1.2 billion.
We have a cost of materials effect of some SEK 1.1 billion, additional inventory of roughly SEK 1.2 billion. That's the components making up the SEK 3.5 billion increase in inventories. However, what I would like to highlight is actually if we look at the December 2022 or the Q4 closing of 2022, we have actually reduced our inventories by more than by roughly SEK 700 million. We continue to focus and drive inventory reduction. That is a high focus area and a priority for us. That reduced inventory is playing a positive effect on the cash flow, which I will come to a little bit later. Trade receivables is up, that's really a consequence of higher sales during Q1.
That's really the drive behind it, and we expect that to come through and reduce as the season plays out. Borrowings, relatively flat compared to the year-end. However, our net debt position has reduced by some SEK 500 million, which is a good sign. Of course, we will continue to work and drive reducing our net debt, which is now at SEK 17.2 billion versus SEK 17.7 billion at the end of the year. Moving on, I think from there, that takes us nicely to the cash flow situation, where you can see we have a significantly improved cash flow situation compared to Q1 last year. We have a small negative of some SEK 239 million of direct operating cash flow at the end of Q1.
We continue to work hard and drive our working capital, and particularly our inventory levels, down. The positive impact of cash flow is really driven by a higher EBITDA and this improved inventory of SEK 700 million, which I talked about previously. We really expect to see that move into a positive cash flow situation during quarter two. I think quarter one puts us in a good position to drive that positive cash flow going forward. Net Debt/EBITDA, I mentioned it a little bit earlier in the sense that our net debt is reducing from SEK 17.7 billion at the end of the year to SEK 17.2 billion.
We will continue to drive our working capital and cash flow, and as we drive that improved situation with positive cash flow, then of course, we aim to reduce some of our net debt and see further improvement. With that, Pavel, I pass over to you for Sustainovate.
Thank you, Terry. As you know, sustainability is a key part of our long-term business strategy, and we're making good progress in this area towards achieving really our Sustainovate agenda, which includes three key targets: on carbon, on circular, and on people. When it comes to carbon, we have reduced our absolute CO2 emissions from the full value chain, including Scope 1, 2, and 3, by -33% compared with our 2015 baseline. We are well on track then to achieve our target for -35%. This is up 1% reduction compared with year-end 2022. On circular, the first quarter, we have added five circular innovations, and are now at 15. Also here then we are on track of achieving our target of 50 circular innovations by the end of 2025.
On the people target, we're executing on this to empower customers and employees to make more sustainable choices. We have increased our assortment of sustainable products, the product, and the solution offerings that have significantly improved and lower impact on the use of natural resources on the environment. Currently, we have 1 million sustainable choices product sold, which are now picking up the speed here on the journey to really meet the target of 5 million empowered people by 2025. We are also taking our robotics to the next level. Our ambition is to double robotic sales by 2026. As a market leader, we're constantly looking for the next pioneer move.
One example that you will see here on the top left is that Husqvarna Forest & Garden division have signed an agreement to become the main partner for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed golf tournament throughout 2025. This partnership marks an important step for Husqvarna as it further expands our brand into the golf industry and position ourself as a leader in autonomous green space technology. Top right, the Husqvarna Automower NERA is now available on the market. This is our first boundary wire-free lawnmower for private garden owners. It has a proven ecosystem from our Pro segment as a part of the offering, and we are confident that this innovation will really improve the lawnmowing on the residential market. Bottom left, GARDENA smart system is now also supporting Google Home.
Since before, GARDENA smart system have been supporting Apple Home and Amazon Alexa. We are now on the three biggest connected home systems. This is in line with the group's goal of achieving 6 million connected devices by 2025. Bottom right, as you know, the Pro segment is a strategic prioritization for the Husqvarna Group. We have recently signed a breakthrough agreement that really shows the value of our strategy, where a municipality in Scandinavia has signed an eight-year contract. This is meaning that more than 70 Husqvarna Automowers will operate on their public lawns. Selling solutions in addition to single products is something that we will see more of, lowering also the threshold, of course, to implement low-emission solutions. Meanwhile, we can create also the long-time revenue streams for the company.
To summarize, we delivered a solid first quarter with sales growth driven by the key strategic categories as robotic mowers, battery-powered products. Quarter one is the selling quarter. We have now enabled our channel partners to have a full offering for the gardening season. I'm proud that we are also making progress on our strategic ambitions as well as delivering on the accelerated transformation for a stronger Husqvarna Group. In parallel with this, we also managed to improve our cash flow, started to decrease our inventory levels, as Terry detailed earlier. We do still operate in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. We have a sharp focus on costs. We continue to improve our cash flow. We remain flexible in the operations, and all this really to enable us to adapt to any potential changes that could come on the customer demand due to the economic environment.
We also have a strong innovative product line for the season, and this makes us well-positioned for value creation. With that, I'd like to thank you all for listening and hand over to Johan for starting the Q&A session.
Many thanks, Pavel and Terry. Let us start and kick off the Q&A session and first check with the operator if we have any questions over the phone conference. Please, operator.
We now begin the question and answer session. Anyone wish to ask a question may press star one on your touch tone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Fredrik Ivarsson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. I've got a few questions. Let me take them one by one, I think. First one on the consumer robotics, just to get a sense of the recovery, if you will. If you compare to 2021 levels, when you didn't have the same component issues you had last year, are you back at those kind of revenue levels, or do you still have some way to get there, so to speak?
Should I take that? Yeah.
Please go ahead.
Yes. I would say we are back to normalized levels, if you like, from that perspective with the consumer robotics, yes. Actually, as a rolling 12 months, we are now above SEK 7 billion in robotic sales, which I think is a nice story and a positive step forward in our journey to doubling robotics by 2026.
Very clear. Thanks, Terry. second one on margins. You added a box to the EBIT bridge cost savings, SEK 80 million for the quarter. How do you see that progressing throughout the year?
I think that will progress to plan. We've, you know, we've communicated cost programs, cost saving programs. We have a legacy one which we're just closing off this year. Then, of course, we have the accelerated transformational program that we launched towards the end of last year. They are both on track to deliver. I would say cost savings in a good place and will continue.
Good. One on the mix effect. I think I heard you refer to a flat mix despite the recovery of robotics. Can you just explain what the sort of counterparts are?
Yes, Fredrik. On the mix side of it, yes, we do have a positive mix with regards to robotics. We also have a 20% down in organic growth for a Gardena division. Some of the mix effect from Gardena is having a negative effect. We also had a positive sales of wheeled and battery, and they do not carry the same favorable mix effect that robotics does. You've got some positive and you've got some negatives with the Gardena division, et cetera. They more or less balance out for the group's perspective.
Okay, good. That's very clear. Last one from me. If you could, just give us an update on the CEO process? How far have you come in that process? How far are you from sort of communicating a permanent CEO, you think?
The board is in full swing with the recruitment process, and once they will finalize it, they will come out with an information about this, of course, subsequently. That's all that we can say right now.
Okay, fair enough. That's all my questions. Thanks so much.
The next question is from Gustav Hageus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll follow- up on Fredrik's question on robotics. Can you remind us, H one last year when you had issues with supply constraints, sort of hampering your production and sales of robotics, was Q1 as bad as Q2 ? Was Q2 worse in terms of supply constraints? I'm trying to grasp what the comp is for Q2 for robotics specifically.
We had a slightly different situation in the company as regards to robotics, where Forest and Garden in both Q1 as well as Q2 had delivery problems, which affected, of course, our ability to deliver into the market of robotics. When it comes to Gardena, they did not really have any problems of robotics deliveries in neither Q1 nor Q2. They were well-stocked in Q1. Of course, the weather, you know, affected was a late start to the season actually impacting the robotic sales out, and therefore, also affecting a little bit the replenishment sell-in for Gardena in Q2.
Yeah. Okay. If I switch to watering products mainly in Gardena, then how do you feel about? You said that there's some hesitancy to refill in retailing Q1. If you look at absolute numbers in terms of retail inventory into the season this year compared to the last one and the year before that, how do you feel about watering products specifically in terms of retail inventory?
In general, I would say inventory levels within the retailers is at normalized levels. Of course the behavior and mindset of the retailers with being cautious with their inventory levels is continuing. This is not a new story for us. It's carried over from 2022 and into Q1. We really have to wait and see how this starts to play out as the season picks up and how consumer demand is.
Yeah, of course. In terms of the Orbit acquisition, you've had it now for some time. Do you feel, is Gardena gonna be more of an integrated part of Orbit's assortment and sellout this year, or how's that process with the synergies going along?
First of all, Orbit is now fully included in the full year comparison in all numbers. I think that's important to just be aware of. During the year, we have been, so to say, understanding the operation of Orbit, of course, dealing with any operational issues that has been due to cost increases on raw materials and transportation, which also affected Orbit. They have an assortment which is adapted for the American market specifically, whereas Gardena has an assortment that is mainly adapted for the European market.
Going forward, we see of course the opportunity to use Orbit as a base and as a platform for establishing Gardena in the U.S., but first we of course need to make sure that we can see a clear path towards good growth and good profitability in Orbit. That is our first priority now.
Hmm. That's clear. Lastly, on CEORA, you mentioned here that is good quarter for CEORA again. I think in the past you've acknowledged that 4,000 units of CEORA is maybe a potential number in terms of growth or sales of CEORA this year. First of all, can you confirm whether or not that's still a number within reason for the year? Secondly, if you're most worried about sort of demand or your ability to supply demand that would potentially limit that number.
I'd like to say that first of all, that we have already in quarter one achieved a substantial part of what we had as a full year sales in last year. The demand is clearly there. The interest for the CEORA is very large, and we do not have any problems to supply the product.
It was about 1,000 units last year, right? Roughly.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
All right. Great. Those were all my questions. Thank you, guys.
Thank you very much. We have got some questions in the web interface as well, and, this is, probably a question then for Pavel. It's coming from Robin Backman at Keva in Finland, I think. Pavel, in terms of Gardena, how would you like to characterize the current competitive position? Do you feel Gardena has lost, kept, or gained market share during the selling quarter now? Any reflections or any view on that one or what the competition has done?
Well, I think first of all, Gardena remains to be very strongly positioned. They have a very strong brand recognition. They have a broad and attractive assortment. They are very forward-leaning in the area of smart watering, which is very much on the table with regards to sustainability and the watering, let's say, limitations and bans that are happening now throughout in the world. We continue to invest in product development in the different areas of Gardena, smart watering, hand tools, electric products, robotics. Overall, they have a good outlook going forward. During last year, when there was a reduction in our channel partners, actually Gardena managed to take market share.
At this point in time, we believe that there's no reason to believe that Gardena has necessarily lost market share. We do not have the exact numbers yet. It takes some time to get specifics out, and we try to, so to say, whatever we say in these kind of calls needs to be based on facts, so we cannot give a fact-based estimation. We feel that our sale, sell-in situation is very much equal to other kinds of categories within similar segments.
Thank you. Perfect. Maybe another question here. At already at the end of Q4, you highlighted that Q1 robotics should benefit from restocking at the dealers. How should we view then the reminder of the year? Can you elaborate where we stand at these kind of restocking levels or what were we at when we sort of exit the quarter now in terms of the backlog?
I think the way I would look at it is we feel in a good position that we have been able to supply our channel partners in a good way. During this quarter of sell-in, our channel partners are in a good place ready for the season to go. We did work through our backorder situation. Our backorders are more of a normalized level now, and we are, you know, in a good supply situation for the rest of the year. How the year will play out with regards to robotic demand, of course, remains to be seen based on the consumer behavior.
Good. another, a bit more detailed question to you, Terry. It's coming from Kintbury Capital. "What was the factoring balance at the end of Q1 2023 versus Q4 2022 and Q1 2022?
I don't intend to go into specific details around that, but what I would say on the factoring is, over those quarters and comparables, they are generally in line with each other, with factoring as a percentage of sales. It's, it's more or less broadly the same. No significant changes.
Excellent. We have another question here, probably then to Pavel coming from, I think it's Anton Brink, Antaurus. "Pricing over cost is clearly helping you here now in the short run. How do you think of the risk of discounting or price decreases starting to impact your margins here in the remainder, near- term of the year?
Terry, you have already mentioned a couple of words regarding pricing, that the pricing effect that we see in quarter one is a carryover as we did our price increases a little bit later in the year. Throughout the year, we have done more normalized price increases for the season 2023. Of course there will be a reduced effect of pricing as we go through this year.
Great. let's take another one Oh, sorry.
No, I was just gonna say, and just to add to that, Pavel, I mean, we have at this moment in time no intentions or plans to reduce price or discount. We don't foresee any actions like that at this moment in time.
Great. Then another question on the robotics deal as an example that we mentioned here. Can you clarify, was it CEORA or the more traditional Pro Robotics? A little bit more on the details. Is it more as a service or an upfront sales? How do you view that? How long in that case will it take before it's up and running at the customer?
First of all, the contract is a mix of various kinds of professional products. It is an upfront sales, but there is a service element included in that contract also. This will be, so to say, put in place here as soon as we are able to service them and be present and put them. I mean, it's a number of robotics that has to be put out in various locations, so there's a lot of installation work around that also.
Great. Excellent. Operator, shall we check if we have another question over the telephone conference? Please, operator.
The next question is from Johan Eliason from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hi. Johan here. Thank you for taking my questions. I was just curious about the robotic part. You mentioned the rolling 12-month sales around SEK 7 billion . We obviously know that prices have been going up. What would you say on volumes? Are you sort of, in volume-wise, back at where you were when this was trailing at SEK 6.2 billion or whatever you said for 2021?
Yes, I would say volumes are improving and growing. We remain to our overall target of doubling our robotic sales within the next five years. That, we're on the right trajectory and nothing has changed for that.
Good. Market share, I think you alluded to losing market share last year as you couldn't deliver. How do you think it has played out now in this quarter? What do you expect for the season? Can you keep your market share where they are, or will you regain some, or will you slowly erode your market shares?
No, it's of course very difficult to say something on this, as the quarter was a sell-in quarter and as we do not know exactly how it will play out over the next two quarters, quarter two and quarter three, which is the deliveries into the market. With these volumes, we believe that we have been regaining market share, and then we need to see what this means in terms of sell-out, because we have been pushing in quite high volumes, as Terry alluded to earlier here.
Good. In terms of robotic scale, geographically, I mean, a couple of years ago, you talked about North America being an opportunity, and it never really took off. Nowadays, you talk more about the professional side. Is there anything you can say about robotics on a geographic basis now? Are we seeing anything in North America, for example?
North America is progressing well. It's not as fast as maybe we all believed in the beginning, we are progressing very much into the professional segment. We see that that is very much appreciated, and I think that that is where basically the breakthrough, so to say, coming into the consumer segment will also be through the professional segment. We do have, let's say, substantial sales now also in North America, so it's not just a few units. That's not what we're talking about here.
Okay, excellent. Just to remind us a little bit, the comps here. I mean, obviously you talk about the supply situation now being better going into Q2, I suppose. Q2 was weak last year for many reason. How were the weather comps if you compare where we are right now versus Q2 last year in Europe and North America?
If I understand the question was really around the weather conditions, is that correct?
Yeah. I mean.
Yeah.
Just remind us, were they normal week or good in Q2 last year?
I mean, I think we were quite clear last year. It was particularly for Gardena, it was a late start to the season, and in general, it was a relatively cold start to the season. What I would say so far this year, this quarter, I mean, it's very early. We are only a couple of weeks into the quarter, but April started relatively cold over Easter period around mainland Europe. Even North America, it was still quite cold and wet during those first few weeks. Now, of course, we hope and expect to see the weather improve, so but that's still highly uncertain. We have to wait and see how that plays out.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator, do we have another question from the telephone conference?
Yes. There is a follow-up by Gustav Hageus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Can I just ask you on the Construction segment? It was quite resilient, flat growth versus, I think it's 24% stacked growth over the past two years organically. Do you see. First of all, if you can remind us of the split between residential and sort of public spend infrastructure, what not in that end demand, and if you saw sort of stable development throughout Q1 or if there was any change towards the end of the quarter in terms of demand, that'd be helpful. Thank you.
Yes. Construction division and their sales is predominantly into what I would call the industrial/infra infrastructure segment, not so much into housing, private housing or the private segment. When it comes to the sales development, it has been a stable with a bit of an uptick here in the end of the first quarter, actually, when we talk about comparables with a quarter previous year.
Okay, thanks. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Excellent. We have a few other questions here from the web interface. One here is another one from Kintbury Capital. Please, can you quantify or discuss the decline in order backlog and the situation now in the Husqvarna division?
Yes. I think, Terry, you mentioned a few words. On this, given the good supply improvements that we have had during second half, which also continued into the first quarter and during our own good ability to actually ramp up our capacity in the Husqvarna division, we have significantly reduced our backlog compared to how it was compared with the previous quarter and also compared with how the situation was in quarter four.
I would just conclude on that to say normalized backlog situation now.
Good. Excellent. We got another one from Quentin de Streel from Candriam. Could you remind me on the selling price of a CEORA robotic?
Approximately EUR 25,000.
Good.
I would just, you know, I mean, what I would build on that, of course, is that it's been very well received in the market. There's a strong demand for it, and of course, it drives a big productivity gain with the end user. That really speaks for itself and drives the demand just to put it into perspective.
Yeah. True.
Excellent. We have a number of questions left here. Do you have any indications from the U.S. and the current sellout trends there, or is it too early?
I would say it's too early in the season to have a clear view on how the sellout in the U.S. is going out here. We're just a couple of weeks into the season, and as Terry said also, there has been some cold weather in the United States as well, in various parts of the country. From that reason, we cannot comment on an outlook on this.
Good. Another question from Christer Magnergård around the currency. You had a positive currency effect, especially in Construction, on +SEK 50. For the group, it was +SEK 40. What is the driver behind that, and what should we expect for the rest of the year, especially then for the Construction division?
Overall, I would expect a relatively flat currency effect coming through for the rest of the year. The positive currency effect we had during Q1 for the group was euro driven. For the construction, also some positive effect with the dollar, as North America had a good performance in Q1. I wouldn't, I don't expect to see big currency swings in the quarters ahead.
Good. Excellent. I think we have more or less answered all the questions here coming in online. There are one or two that's pretty similar to those that has been answered. Let me see if we have maybe a final one here. Yes, we got one just coming in from Steven at The Methodologist. "As CEORA would seem to be the perfect for the U.S. market, what progress is being made there? Is it fair to say most sales currently are in Europe on CEORA, or are you also selling in the U.S.?
Yeah. No, we're absolutely selling the CEORA in the U.S. There's a huge interest within sports facilities in the U.S. on the CEORA. I mean, this is a product that works equally good on both markets, and it provides a nice cut lawn. We have also strengthened our so to say, go-to-market ability in relation to CEORA into the sports areas.
Good. Many thanks. As I see, we don't have any further questions on the telephone conference, we have answered the questions that we have got through the web interface. If it's any further questions or any comments you would like to make, we are definitely here today and next week to answer any questions you have. Otherwise, we very much thank you for participating today and like to see you the next time, which is 18th of July when we report Q2. Thank you very much for joining today, and see you soon again.