Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the third quarter 2026 results for Husqvarna Group. My name is Emelie Alm, and I am joined here today by the group's CEO, Glen Instone, and also by our new CFO, Patrik Johnson. We will go through the presentation, and after that, we will have a Q&A session. You can ask your questions on the conference call and also on the webcast interface. With that, I would like to leave over to you, Glen.
Thank you, Emelie. First of all, a warm welcome to you, Patrik. Great to have you alongside. A warm welcome to everyone who is listening in. Let us jump into our Q3. Of course, Q3 is a seasonally smaller quarter for the Husqvarna Group, our two key quarters being Q1 and Q2. Really starting off that we continue to execute on our strategy. We have had successful product launches during the course of 2026, and we continue to broaden those product launches in the presence in the various channels that we are operating in. Really broadening our channel exposure as well. We talked previously about a large cost savings program that I will come back to, but that is very much on track. We have also talked about becoming more asset light in our setup, our footprint, and again, we will come back to that later in the presentation.
Some really good examples how we are really initiating a more asset-light approach for the Husqvarna Group. That said, we are operating in a very challenging market environment, particularly Europe has been affected. Weak consumer sentiment and also some very dry, I would say drought-like weather conditions. However, very pleased to see good growth in North America across all three divisions. The lower demand in Europe has really affected the business by having lower volumes. Lower volumes into our business has meant that we have had, of course, lower production volumes. We have also actively driven down our inventory and therefore had a net further volume reduction into our manufacturing facilities. During the third quarter, and we mentioned this in Q2, we have seen cost headwinds, particularly as a result of the Middle East crisis, that we see a cost inflation impacting the business.
Our cost-out program is going to be even more imperative to offset those cost headwinds. Despite all of those headwinds, I am very, very pleased with our cash generation third quarter. We are actually on par with Q3 last year with some SEK 2.4 billion positive cash in the third quarter. I am very pleased with that. We continue to reduce our net debt now down to some SEK 9.4 billion. Some of the more strategic highlights of the quarter. I mentioned in the intro there that we continue to work with our footprint and our asset-light activities. This we will continue to do, but I thought it would be very good to bring some flavor of some of the examples that we have actually executed on or decided upon during the course of Q3.
We mentioned already in Q2 that we were looking at the Gardena manufacturing footprint in Europe. By that we are moving certain activities from Germany into Czech. This will have full effect in season 2029, and this is a large effort and that is ongoing as per plan. During Q4 2025, we talked about closing our Brastad facility here in Sweden. That again continues according to plan, and that will be finalized during Q1 2027. This quarter, and as recently as this week, we've announced actually the outsourcing of certain battery products under the Husqvarna brand from our facilities in Europe, and we're going to outsource them to facilities in Asia, both our own facilities as well as third parties facilities. We continue to drive a very clear asset-light plan, but also to improve our competitiveness.
A key part of our strategic development now is how we're going to really refine and strengthen our portfolio going forward. During the course of the quarter, we announced the discontinuation of the stone diamond tools business within our Construction Division. That actually is part of our concrete sawing and drilling business portfolio unit. That will actually improve the profitability of that business portfolio unit. That goes very much in accordance with our previous announcement and is going according to plan. We also talked last time we met about a strategic review of our Powered Garden business portfolio unit within the Gardena Division. This again, we either want to improve the profitability or find alternative options. We will come back to you during the course very, very early in 2027 with our final direction on that.
We've also been investing very, very heavily, of course, in our professional robotic lawnmower range, and I give a little bit of flavor of this. During the course of Q3, we've done some fairly heavy marketing investments to really boost the awareness of the Pro Robotics range and particularly the Husqvarna brand and how we're bringing this to life. We were actually the title sponsors of the British Masters, Husqvarna British Masters, which is a key event on the DP World Tour, a large golf event. It is really, really bringing Husqvarna and golf into the same sentence, and we're very, very pleased with the awareness that created and will continue driving such activities. What it really does is bring a proof point that our products can work in the most precision grass cutting areas, and that is what works.
In that event, it was Husqvarna products, our CEORA units, as well as our 500 series products that cut the entire fairways of the Belfry in the U.K. So that is really proof in action that our products are working in the toughest and the most technically shortest grass growing conditions that we would have. So a real proof point, and we're very, very pleased. What is also very encouraging in golf is, of course, the awareness increases, but we're still in a fairly limited number of golf courses today. Some 2,000, just over 2,000, and there's around 38,000 globally. So there's a huge penetration ahead of us, and we're going to continue driving towards that penetration. When people use our products, the retention rate is very, very high. It's actually 99%. So most people, when they use our products in the golf setting, retain those products.
Going forward, it is very clear we need to drive a two-pronged approach, increase awareness and penetration, and therefore more customers, but also drive even more expansion with the customers we already have. We see that actually happening, that most of the customers we have are actually doubling their product purchasing from us. So more customers and expanding the product range with the customers we have. Also aftermarket is a key differentiator when it comes to our strategic direction. I am extremely pleased to see actually within our Construction Division, of course, 100% professional facing, that we have now seen 15 consecutive quarters of growth when it comes to aftermarket. Very clear actions and very clear direction ahead and clear path. So great job there, and we are going to continue driving that, and we see great high single-digit growth over the past two- three years within that area.
Of course, we need to take it even further and make sure we get that growth into the rest of the group, particularly the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division, and continue driving initiatives like further customer support, enhanced service capabilities, and really expanding our offering, digital offering, lease offerings, and everything else that can really support our end customers to become even closer to the Husqvarna Group and our offering. Cost out program. Close to one year ago, we announced a SEK 4 billion cost out program. This is a big initiative. Then we came back during the Q2 report and actually said, "Okay, of the SEK 4 billion, we expect some SEK 3 billion of that to be effective by the end of 2028." Roughly speaking, SEK 1 billion per year, 2026, 2027, 2028. We reiterate that.
We are actually at over SEK 900 million through the first three quarters of this year with a strong pipeline of initiatives. It is very much needed given the cost headwinds that we have seen, particularly in Q3, and we will continue to execute on our cost out program. It is really five key areas. It is sourcing in a smarter way. It is outsourcing when it comes to some of our manufacturing footprint, as well as moving things around within the group. It is using third parties. It is using third parties when it comes to logistics. It is actually making ourselves more efficient from an organization perspective. Last but certainly not least, it is actually accelerating how we actually design our products. So the real enhancing the design-to-value proposition that we have.
We must go faster, and we have got some great proof points already in 2026 of us bringing products to market much, much quicker than we have done in the past. We will continue to drive this as a normal part of our DNA in the Husqvarna Group. Isolated Q3, we had some SEK 300 million of savings. Again, we see a good pipeline of savings. What I do want to say is during the first nine months of this year, we have had some SEK 450 million of items affecting comparability. I really want to call them out because that is a proof point that we are acting and taking out costs from this business. We will continue with those IACs. We guided on roughly SEK 1.5 billion, to support this program, and we expect during the course of 2026 that will be around SEK 750 million.
A further 300 million SEK really supporting the cost out initiatives that will come during the fourth quarter as an IAC. If we look at the sales development in the third quarter, we actually had an organic sales decline of 5%. As reported, that was actually - 2%, and there was a currency positive or currency effect there of 3%. So - 5% from an organic like-for-like perspective. The decline came in the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division, - 10%. Largely the result of those negative consumer sentiment and the particularly weighing on demand also coupled with the adverse weather conditions for lawn care products. So - 10% in Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division. However, within that, strong growth within North America. Gardena actually had a very good quarter.
We had a +8% with a double-digit growth in watering, and I will come back with a little bit more flavor when we get to the divisions. Construction Division was largely flat, but again, with some very strong growth pockets. Weak conditions in Europe across the board with some positive tailwinds, particularly on the watering segment benefiting Gardena, but also a very, very positive development, all three divisions showing growth in North America. That we start to see as a positive trend that we have seen now for a couple of quarters. Very, very good to see the positive continuation in North America, which is a key market for us. Patrik will come to much more detail on the earnings later in the presentation. Of course, Q3 has been a challenging quarter as I started with some minus 246 million SEK of operating income.
The main impacts here are lower volumes, lower demand, lower volumes into our supply chain system. That said, as I mentioned in the intro, we have also took a conscious decision to put even lower productions through our facilities to drive down the inventory. So really reducing the absorption benefit in the factories. Again, it is a conscious effort we took, and we will continue driving down inventory at the expense of the P&L if that is what we need to do. We have seen, certainly, pressures coming during the third quarter that started increasing as a result of the Middle East crisis, inflationary pressures, particularly impacting raw mats and logistics. So volumes and inflationary pressure have really been the headwinds that have impacted our Q3 earnings.
If we look now onto the more granular division level, Husqvarna Forest & Garden, I have mentioned this, of course, heavily impacted from the negative consumer sentiment in Europe. Also, of course, the unfavorable weather conditions in Europe, particularly in the first half of Q3, really dry conditions impacting grass care products, not just robotic lawnmowers, but also our front-mounted riders. So that has really impacted the sales of wheeled as well as robotic lawnmowers in Europe. However, as said, good growth in our North America part of the Forest & Garden Division. So very much, as I said, for the group, impact of lower volumes and cost inflation and an unfavorable mix actually impacting the Forest & Garden Division, driving down into a lower operating result than we had in the prior year.
I mentioned a lot about golf earlier, of course, and that is where we are really executing on golf in the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division. Some clear proof points going forward that we can really succeed. As part of the golf announcement and as part of the accelerated marketing activities in Q3, we also had some very good product launches in Q3 supporting that offering. It is not just grass cutting that we are doing. We are also looking at further application know-how going forward. One of the big launches in Q3 that will enhance the offering is products like dew removal, so really taking the dew away from the greens. Now we start to have applications beyond only mowing in the professional robotics area. Gardena division, definitely the standout success of the quarter, +8%, and that is actually driven from a double-digit growth in watering.
Positive in Europe and positive in North America. Of course, the drought conditions I mentioned that have impacted the group and particularly impacted the Forest & Garden Division, it has been positive when it comes to watering, so the dry conditions have supported our watering demand. What I am really pleased to see is not just a demand driven, but actually a market share improvement. We have seen a market share increase in France, in particular, in watering, and where we have a very strong market position in Germany. We have actually maintained our strong market positions across all of our core Gardena categories. That is really, really good to see. We have got a clear turnaround case that we have talked about in Gardena, which is our Powered Garden BPU. We continue to see a decline there. It is a double-digit decline.
We will come back to you very early in 2027 with our path forward with the Powered Garden business portfolio unit. It is very much under a clear strategic review process as we speak. The earnings within Gardena Division, positive volumes and a positive product mix from the strong watering that really enhanced the earnings. We see some dilution effect from the weak Powered Garden business portfolio unit, and actually, this division had a slightly positive effect from FX. Construction Division was actually flat in Q3, but within the flat overall, we actually see a positive North America and a decline in Europe. Within the product setting, we actually see a good improvement when it comes to power cutters. That is part of our concrete sawing and drilling portfolio. We see a good improvement there.
But as I mentioned in the strategic priorities, a very, very strong improvement or a continued strong improvement, I should say, when it comes to aftermarket. A strong professional offering really connecting with our end customers and driving a much more strong aftermarket offering. Earnings, however, were affected twofold. Lower volumes because we have had strong price increases in the Construction Division, therefore, lower volumes in the system. That has had an impact onto the earnings and our, I would say, factory throughput rates, but also a negative impact from FX. Also, this is a division that is relatively more impacted by the tariffs because of the exposure geographically. More of a negative impact from tariffs impacting Construction vis-à-vis the whole group. All in all, a good development from a demand perspective within the Construction Division. At that, Patrik, I pass across to you.
And once again, a warm welcome.
Thank you, Glen. I am really, really positive to be here, and it feels great. I am excited and honored to be here presenting the first report for Husqvarna for me. I started mid-September, so still early days, but it has been a really good first month, I would say. Very good reception from all colleagues around the world, and that feels really great. We are also a relatively new management team, I would say. I think Glen has done a good job mixing in different kinds of personalities and competencies. That feels really good. We are all eager to continue to push on with all our activities, and deliver profitable growth and value creation going forward. For now, let us dig into the numbers. I start directly with a Q3 EBIT bridge. All in all, then we profit or EBIT declined with almost SEK 400 million.
It is not a strong quarter. If we start with the negative components in the bridge, the biggest one, the largest one, is volume and mix. Glen already talked a lot about that. Sales volume, if you include price, is around -5. Then if you exclude price, we are actually volume-wise on around -6. On top of that, we have the inventory changes where we deliberately took down inventory this year with around SEK 300 million, and last year we actually increased inventory. That is a swing or delta of around SEK 900 million, of course, impacting production volumes a lot. Also included in this big component, we have also negative mix effects. We are of course glad that we increase sales in North America, but from a short-term margin perspective, it actually a slight headwind.
Also looking at the product dimension where we have a larger than average decline on the robotic side, that also affects margin negatively. All in all, this has a huge impact, the volume mix component in the quarter. The second biggest, we have labeled then cost inflation and other, and 75% of this component relates to really high price increases on logistical cost, raw material, plastic, steel, on the back of the Middle East crisis. Then you have also general inflation, increasing the cost levels. All in all, that is 75% of that component. The remaining 25%, I would say, relate more to positive one-offs actually last year. That is a negative bridge item this year. Moving over to the more positive bridge components. We have the Fuel for Growth, as we call it, and program cost savings, the SEK 305 million Glen mentioned. Really needed, of course.
We have also positive price effect, of around 1.5-2 percentage points in the quarter, which is actually a better high level than we saw in the first half of the year. That mitigates, I would say, the normal inflation, but, of course, does not compensate for the really elevated price increases coming from the Middle East crisis. Given the performance, we are of course very cautious on extra spending. There are key areas that we need to invest in, and Glen talked about brand marketing side on the Pro Robotics and that is the single item that stands out in the quarter. Lastly then, the currency tariffs, no big bridge effects in the quarter, only SEK 10 million each. That is the quarterly bridge.
If we look at the year to date bridge, where we have a decline of around SEK 320 million. All in all, I would say that the explanations, comments are fairly similar to the quarterly bridge. Volume mix is the single biggest one. Net sales are, as you know, down -2% in the quarter. If you add back then the price. Price is between half a percentage point to 1%+ . That means that we have sales volume of around -3%. Inventory also year to date impacts negatively in the bridge. So we are around the movements, the delta between the years, around SEK 800 million. That impacts, of course, volumes quite significantly. Cost inflation and other, and here, the vast majority around 85% of that item comes from the elevated prices due to the Middle East crisis, but also normal cost inflation.
Year to date, we have savings of SEK 935 million, really good contributor, of course. Price I mentioned +215. The extra spending also here year to date relates mostly to the brand and marketing on the Pro Robotic side. Currency still in the year to date bridge, still negative, given that we had more adverse currency movements in the beginning of the year. Tariffs, +155, and that big contributor comes mostly from quarter two when we reported some tariffs refunds. Looking ahead and maybe giving some guidance on what will happen in quarter four and for the full year in a few of these components. When it comes to the volume mix component here for us, inventory efficiency, capital efficiency is really important. That will be a priority also going forward, meaning that we will probably increase inventories less than we normally do.
Quarter four is normally inventory buildup season. That will probably happen also in this quarter, but to a lesser extent, impacting also this component in quarter four. Cost inflation will unfortunately continue for the remainder of the year. Rough guidance on that component for the full year is around SEK 900 million-SEK 1 billion for that full component full year. Savings, here we are pushing on with more activities, and that we will deliver what Glen talked about more than SEK 1 billion in savings for the full year that you should expect. Price, we have increased prices a lot to compensate for the inflation. Then also the last part of the year, there is also a bit of campaigning, but there you should expect a positive price component also in quarter four. Then maybe currency and tariffs.
Currency, you will see an improvement during quarter four given the currency rates we have. FX should come close to zero for the full year given no bigger change in currency movements. Tariffs, you should not expect any big changes in paid tariffs during quarter four either. That's a bit of guidance on what you will see for the full year. Moving on to cash flow. Cash flow is good in the quarter, I would say, and also year to date. The profit development, of course, impacts negatively, as you can see from the table to the right. But that is fully mitigated and offset by the working capital movements. That is, I would say, inventory. That helps us.
All in all, that means that operational cash flow is basically unchanged with last year in quarter three, and year to date, we are still above last year. That's good. Good cash flow. Moving on and looking at capital employed and ROCE. We continue to work with these items, inventory and also footprint, focusing on being a more capital light group. Average capital employed is down around SEK 1.2 billion actually than if you compare with quarter three last year. The sequential development quarter two to quarter three is slight up, but that's mainly due to increase in cash, actually. We're actually building some cash in preparation for coming refinancing activities during next year. ROCE then trending slightly downwards. We are at SEK 6.4 billion then in quarter three compared to SEK 7.3 billion last year, but that's entirely due to the lower result.
Lastly, looking at the debt, and we have a bit of a seasonal pattern in general in debt development, as you can see from the graph, and Q3 is a low quarter. But there is also an underlying reduction of debt. We are now end of quarter three at SEK 9.4 billion compared to SEK 9.9 billion. So it's a SEK 500 million reduction year- over- year. That is good, and coming from the strong cash flow that we have. At the bottom of the slide, maturity profile. Here you can see that we have some financing around the corner in next year. That's also why we have prepared with building some cash. The remaining financing activities are quite normal, I would say. We have a strong balance sheet, strong financial position, and that is also confirmed then by the rating we have.
We have an investment grade rating from S&P, BBB- with a stable outlook. With that, I end and leave over back to you, Glen.
Thank you, Patrik. Just before we go to the Q&A, let's just summarize the quarter. Absolutely, we have seen a challenging market environment, particularly in Europe. Weak consumer sentiment, largely a result, really weighing on demand, and of course that has been elevated with some very dry weather conditions. That's meant we've had lower volumes in our system throughout the supply chain. We've consciously focused on our inventory reduction, as Patrik went through, and we have seen some cost inflation and cost headwinds that have really impacted the earnings in the third quarter. However, despite all of that, we're very, very pleased that the cash flow is on par with last year and actually slightly ahead through the first nine months, and we continue to reduce our net debt. So a strong balance sheet and a strong cash flow position.
What's most important is the direction and the journey we're on. We continue to execute on multiple actions, and this is really driving our strategic areas. Very successful product launches during 2026 and more to come in 2027. We continue to broaden our presence in multiple sales channels, which is going to be important going forward. Our cost savings programs are very much on track, SEK 3 billion effective by the end of 2028 and SEK 4 billion for the full program. We continue to take decisive actions on our footprint, both manufacturing as well as logistics, and we're going to continue to execute on those. There's a couple of business portfolio units that we said that were in turnaround mode, and we're going to come back with more details on them.
The most recent or the most closest decision point will be the Powered Garden business portfolio unit that will come back to you in very early 2027. All in all, despite weak market sentiment and challenging conditions, we continue to execute on our strategy going forward. I think that's a good point to go to Q&A, Emelie.
Yes. Thank you very much, Glen and Patrik. With that, it's time to open up for Q&A. Again, you can ask your questions through the conference call, or you can write them in the web interface in the webcast. With that, operator, do we have any questions from the conference call?
Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning. Firstly, on the weather impact and inventories of the robotics, how should we now think about this given that it is the end of the season? What happens in 2027? Will these models be able to be sold? How is your planning around that?
Yeah. We see a mixed inventory position in our channel partners. We see it is, I would say, slightly higher than normal overall. But within that, we've got some lower pockets and higher pockets, if I put it like that. Watering are much lower versus last year. Robotics is slightly higher. We need to continue working through that inventory with our channel partners, making sure we're prepared for season 2027, and that's something which we're actively doing as we speak. So I'm fairly confident in the activities we have will normalize the inventory going into next year. But of course, we're coming out of season now for grass care products, so the selling opportunities are diminishing week by week, of course, during the remainder of 2026. But active activities going on with channel partners to make sure we sell through that inventory.
All right. Then maybe on the inflationary pressures on cost, are you able to provide some sort of specified range of what the remaining portion is for Q4 and then also going into 2027, what your expectations are here?
Patrik?
I don't think we give more flavor than you noted this sort of the second biggest red bridge item. That will be, of course, higher than we have here to date and around SEK 900 million in total, with the vast majority of that is coming from the inflationary pressure. I don't think we give more guidance than that.
I think what we could maybe add there is, if we look at the Middle East impact in particular, that's having an inflationary impact. We're saying it's going to be SEK 350 million-SEK 400 million this year within that component, and therefore there's close to maybe 200 left of that Middle East piece. Of course, the Middle East crisis took effect well into Q2, so there will be a carryover effect into Q1 and partially Q2. I would estimate that's something like SEK 250 million of carryover effect from 2026 into 2027.
Okay, thanks. That's helpful. Lastly, pricing. What's your ambitions here? I know it's late in the season, so probably going to be more of like a 2027 event.
Yeah. Of course, we're very pleased with the price increase. Patrik mentioned more than a half percentage points roughly that impacted Q3, and that was price increases we added in Q2 as a reaction to the inflationary pressure we were seeing. That will continue through Q4, of course, and then we must look, I would say selectively on how we put price increases through for season 2027. We will always plan to have price increases. I think we should have that as a market leader. At the same time, we've got to stay competitive. So it's really a fine line around offsetting the inflationary pressures, but also ensuring we remain competitive. But again, I do expect a small net price increase for the season 2027.
Okay, thanks. That is all for now.
Thank you, Adela. I think we can add one question from the webcast regarding our strategic portfolio management. Could you please elaborate on the discontinuation of the stone diamond tools business? Shouldn't this be a complementary offering to your chainsaw production with strong production synergies? What drives this decision? That is the first one, and then we have a follow-up, also, if you could elaborate a little bit on the Powered Garden.
Yeah. The stone diamond tools business, it does not really complement the chainsaw production. We actually had different facilities for that, and we were seeing a very weak operating margin associated with that, and it was actually dragging down our sawing and drilling total portfolio. We did not see that it was necessarily a needed complementary part of the portfolio. We looked at many options, and we decided to exit that segment. Very much through with that. It has got actually a dilutive effect into Q3, a dilutive effect onto the full-year earnings that obviously we will see the upside of in 2027. That answers the first part, which was stone diamond tools within the Construction Division. The second part was the-
Powered Garden.
Powered Garden within Gardena. Again, this is really the Gardena-branded electrical products. Anything with a battery or basically anything with a battery in that case. So it is the Gardena-branded handheld products and Gardena-branded robotics that we see with very thin margins. Again, we are looking at all opportunities here, whether that is more outsourcing opportunities, working more with partners, or whether we should actually remain with this part of the portfolio. We purposely moved it to a strategic review to show the intent we have, and we are very far on with our analysis. So we will come back as soon as we have taken our decision. Expected very early in 2027.
Good. Thank you. Operator, can we get the next question, please?
The next question comes from the line of Gustav Hagéus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I have a broader one to start. I guess at least since CMD in 2019, the focus, externally at least, has been denser on battery electrification, robotics, so forth. I am wondering at what stage would you consider a partial pivot back to the petrol engine portfolio, as it appears to be a little bit more sheltered, perhaps, and more pro-focused than battery at the moment, excluding the wheeled products then. I am talking about the step changer. Also, if you can update us a bit on what is the run rate market decline currently in these categories, and do you found it worthwhile to explore sort of taking a firmer grip on pricing consolidation, cost discipline in this market? Lastly, I guess, to get a view on the competitive landscape in this specific market.
Are the competitors going for growth or profitability?
Welcome back, Gustav. The first question was very much around the pivot from petrol to battery and whether we pivot back, and I think it is a very good question. Of course, we needed to follow what the customer demands are, and we have clearly seen a move towards electrification, whether it is in our industry or other industries. So that continues. But I would say it has also slowed down. We see a slowdown, particularly in North America, but maybe some slowdown elsewhere. I think you also mentioned, would we consider pivoting back? I do not think we pivot back. What I will say, and it sounds very non-strategic, we fully expect to be last man standing when it comes to our combustion engine products. So we are not exiting combustion engine products.
It is a big volume item for us, and it is a big part of our profitability, and it is part of who we stand for as well, that we have the full offering, whether that is in petrol-driven products, gas-driven products, or whether it is battery-driven products. So we want to have the whole portfolio, and again, it will be down to the consumer to decide whether they want to use gas-driven products or electric-driven products. So we will have both. So hopefully, that at least answers our intent. We are going to remain in both, and we are not going to overweight necessarily onto battery or petrol in that case.
The second part of your question was more around, I guess, price volume and the competitive landscape as I understood it. I would say it depends which category we talk about, which product group. In some segments, I think it is more mature segments.
It is clear that we need to look at pricing, and we are prepared to take volume pressures in the group. We see that very much in our Construction business. Despite a couple of years of sales growth, we have actually had a volume decline because of the price increases. That is a conscious decision we have taken, and we think it is still the right thing to do for that part of our portfolio. We will see the same with other parts of the more mature setting. But in some of the more aggressive or new areas, and robotic lawnmowers is a good one, or battery handheld.
When new players are coming in, of course, there is a new presence that they want to get their presence felt. So I do feel there is an awareness aspect, and therefore maybe sales prevails over margins in some categories. But that is not necessarily what we will do.
We want to have margins prevailing over volumes throughout. But we do need to make sure we stay competitive. We will not do something that is completely crazy and we don't stay competitive. I believe we can command a brand premium in most of our segments. Of course, it's what level of brand premium we can really justify, and that comes back to what level of competitiveness we can keep.
If you're the last man standing in these petrol categories, is there a scope for consolidating lower volume players that will gradually earn profitability as volumes decline, do you think?
I think in the petrol segment, particularly in handheld, you've only got two or three players really with a strong presence, I would say. I wouldn't talk about consolidation there, but we must look at the whole footprint, how we work with the supply base. I see that probably consolidating over time. When we continue to look at those options and we continue to actually consolidate in many, many cases.
Okay. Turning to robotics. You mentioned here in the report that you're still the leading player, but I guess if you combine the Chinese players, you've lost the market share to China, if you will. Can you remind us what the market growth was for robotics, whole categories, lawnmowing robotics in Q3 as you see it, and what your growth was? Whether or not it's a volume or a price mix for the market at the moment.
Yeah. Q3, of course, is a seasonally smaller quarter for grass care products. I don't look solely at Q3. If we look at the full year, we're relatively flat on our robotics sales. That wasn't the intention at all coming into the year. We think there's a huge penetration potential going forward, and we think there's going to be growth. It was impacted. I would really say it's been more impacted by weather conditions really impacting grass, and we've seen the impact also onto our other ride-on lawnmowers, not just robotic lawnmowers. So anything with grass care, we've seen a clear weakness in the major parts of the season, second part of Q2 and early parts of Q3. So I would really say weather has impacted. At the same time, I won't shy away. We do have competition, particularly in robotics. Are they taking market share? Yes.
But we retain our market leadership position. We're expanding our portfolio. We're becoming even more competitive, and I'm really happy with the speed change that we're starting to bring into the organization to bring products to market. So this is our new norm, and that's what we've got to be fit to fight against, and that's what we will do.
Yes. But just to be clear, the market growth in, say, year to date then for robotic lawnmower, is that in the 20s, you think? Or what's your best guess here?
It's probably slightly less than that, but we've seen certainly more growth in the lower end price points in robotics, where we haven't really been playing aggressively, either on the EUR 500 type price points. We've seen more aggressive volume play there. And of course, we're maintaining our value share stronger than the volume share in that case.
Thank you, Gustav. You can have one final question, please, before I will ask you to line up again.
I would like to line up again. Thanks. Two more questions.
Okay. Can we get the next question, please?
The next question comes from the line of Fredrik Ivarsson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Yes, morning. Thank you. I've got three questions. I'll take them one by one. First one on demand, I do appreciate Husqvarna Forest & Garden met some adverse weather in the quarter. Could you maybe give some color on how you performed in maybe geographies not as dry as the worst ones? Partly trying to understand what to think about volumes in Q4, but overall.
Yeah, absolutely. Of course, we talk Europe being weak, North America being stronger very broadly, and we actually see rest of world with some strength, the big geographies outside of Europe and North America. When you go into Europe, the big pressures have been in Germany and France. That's sort, I would say, Central Europe is where the big pressures have been in Q3. I don't think we're alone there at all when I look at the various market data sets. Other parts of Europe we've seen, it's been reasonably okay. Here in Sweden has also been reasonably okay. Slightly different weather conditions as well. So it is not necessarily all of Europe. It's very concentrated parts of Europe where we've seen those demand shifts that have impacted us.
Yeah. Thanks. That's clear enough. Maybe a quick follow-up on that one, because I guess Q4 is not as weather driven, so could you provide any sort of guidance on the volume run rate or any guidance for the Q4 overall in terms of volume mix?
I think it's too early to s-
I expect it not to be as negative as in Q3.
Well, I think it's too early to say. Q4 is our seasonally smallest quarter from a sales perspective. But you're right, it's a big shift in the product mix in Q4. We go more into handheld products vis-a-vis lawn care products. Construction continues at a similar run rate. That's very normal. And of course, we don't expect to be selling too many watering products in our Q4 as a general outlook. So I would say it's too early to say, but we do have a product shift happening in Q4. That's valid to say.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's clear. Second one on inflation. You guided quite clearly there SEK 900 million to SEK 1 billion for the full year. Is it fair to assume around two thirds from raw mats and one third from logistics, roughly?
I would say that's a fair assumption.
Yep. Good. Thanks. Last one, coming back to robotics, you talk about the success within PRO. I recall that part of the business being around SEK 1 billion in size in 2024. Approximately how large is it today? Has it more than doubled?
It hasn't doubled yet, Fredrik. We expect it to double absolutely and more, but it hasn't doubled yet. The penetration potential is still vast. I think I mentioned we've got some. PRO Robotics is really sitting in three key areas. We have golf, we have sports, and we have landscaping. We see all three areas that we see a huge growth potential ahead of us. Golf is the one we talk a lot about, and we've done some big activities in Q3 in particular to raise awareness. The reason we talk about golf so much is we're sitting in just over 2,000 golf courses today. There's 38,000 golf courses out there. So we're convinced that the future penetration can be significant in this area. So we haven't doubled yet, to answer your question directly, but we have full ambition to double in the near term.
Excellent. Thank you.
Next question, please.
Next question comes from the line of Johan Eliason from SB1. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, Glen, Patrik, and Emelie. This is Johan at SB1. I was wondering if we go back to the robotics, you write something in the report that, where is it? You sort of, in Husqvarna Forest & Garden, in the residential robotics, you expand your retail footprint and product range across price points and channels, et cetera. Is that implying that you will take the Husqvarna brand down to the Gardena price points and channels, or how are you thinking here?
Yeah, ultimately, and morning, Johan, we need to be present where our customers are shopping. That happens to be in retail and online as well as, of course, our very, very important servicing dealer channel. That remains very important to us. But to really answer your question, will we take it all the way down to the Gardena price points? That is not the intention. We don't want to play it too low down, but we need to decide how the premium we can play with vis-a-vis the competition. We have a very clear internal figure on that as how much premium we think we can command, that I shouldn't speak openly about. But of course, that's what we've got to really look at from a price point perspective. So we will go into the more modern retail channels. We're doing that already.
We've got some good proof points of that already in season 2026. We'll continue expanding in season 2027 to make sure that the Husqvarna brand is relevant, and you can get that in more channels. But we won't go all the way down, to answer your question, Johan.
Okay, good to hear. Then on professional robots, you talked about these 2,000 golf courses, et cetera. Do you have the servicing network to cover the golf opportunity in a good way today? I am sure you have the landscaping and the forestry part probably well covered, but they are necessarily not in the same places where you find golf courses. Do you need to invest more in your servicing dealer network in order to approach all of these 38,000 golf courses you talked about?
I think generally speaking, we need to invest more in our network, full stop. I think we need to continue driving because that, to me, can be a differentiator going forward, regardless of which product segment we are talking about. When it comes to golf, we have, let me say, the premium part of our network that we have clearly classified as our partners, professional partners, to service that very need. They are partners who have in-field expertise, both from a selling perspective, but also a technical perspective. We do a lot of training with them, so I am pretty pleased with the network we have built. We need to continue working with them. I think to answer your question, I am pretty satisfied with what we have built up in the past two seasons to service the golf business.
As it expands, and it will expand, we need to continue, I would say, qualifying more and more partners to work with. But we have got several hundred partners that we are working with who have qualified to this level.
Okay. In professional golf, your main competitor here is Toro, which has a very strong position, obviously. But it seems like their robotic business is not performing according to their own standards. Seemingly, they have partnered up with Yamabiko on Pro Robotics. How do you see your opportunity here? Is that something that you see an opportunity for you and the reasons why Toro never came with their own products in the category that you have seen?
I shouldn't comment on the competition and their reasons. I'm sure they have the reasons for their timing. But, of course, they're very successful in the golf setting with their existing solutions. We've just got to go even faster with our solutions in the golf setting and landscaping setting and sports setting. So to me, this is very much on us to go even faster, raise the awareness, and really increase the execution speed.
Okay. Very finally on Gardena, you showed good organic growth, and especially on the watering side, which I think is a very profitable category for you. But still you reported a loss, albeit obviously smaller than last year. What's the main reasons for that? Sudden inflationary impact that you couldn't compensate, or is the loss so big in the Powered Garden offering for Gardena that you still generate this loss in a seemingly decent sales quarter?
Yeah, I would say, Johan, actually, it's not unusual to have a loss-making third quarter for Gardena. But very clearly, we have too much assets supporting that business. That is the honest answer. So I think one of the key proof points we have now is we're starting to move things from the higher cost country of Germany into Czech. We need to reduce the asset base supporting Gardena ultimately, so we don't have these large losses in our sort of seasonally smaller quarters. But I would say that's the main reason, too large an asset base.
If I just add a small comment there. Gardena is improving result wise, but being negative in quarter three is unfortunately normal.
Yeah.
Then just retail inventory levels or dealer inventory levels at the end of the season, any comments there?
Normal to slightly higher overall. Actually lower in the U.S., in most areas. Lower in watering in Europe. Slightly higher on robotics than we would like leaving the season. We have got to continue working through that with our channel partners. But normal to slightly higher overall, Johan, if I just broaden everything across the globe.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Johan, we have a couple of more questions from the webcast. Switching over to Construction, if you could please elaborate on the pricing actions and volume impact in the Construction Division. What actions have you been taking on your end, and what has the market response been? Could you also elaborate a bit on what part of the organic growth that has contributed to market response from pricing action versus wider macro market sentiment?
Maybe I start and then you complement with the details. They are basically sort of flat in the quarter, but they have a positive price effect, meaning that the sort of sales volumes are lower than last year, and they are also reducing inventory as the other divisions are. All in all, they have lower volumes in their business.
Other bigger components impacting the result is also general inflation and also from the Middle East crisis. That's a big component and also FX actually impacting them negatively. Add more flavor, Glen.
I think you cover it pretty well, and of course, ultimately it's about the price elasticity and how we start to affect volumes too much. We put through some mid-year price increases in Construction that were effective in June, that we clearly saw in Q3 there. That does impact volumes. We have seen a volume decline in the past two or three years in Construction because of the price increases. We continue to monitoring this very closely. I don't have the perfect answer to that apart from we'll keep a very close eye on it to make sure we remain competitive ultimately.
Thank you. Also one final quick question, I think, regarding the cost savings that we are now ahead of plan. Is it fair to assume year-on-year less savings in 2027 versus 2026, or do you expect savings to continue to come through faster?
Yeah. Of course, we came out of the blocks very quick in Q1 this year, and it's very low-hanging fruit. But we've continued at a reasonable pace, I would say, and we will have over SEK 1 billion in 2026. The best guidance I can give them for 2026 at this point in time is SEK 1 billion. Of course, we're trying to do things faster. Maybe the low-hanging fruit is getting less out there, but there's still a lot we can go at. I'm convinced that we can achieve the ambition we've set. So for now, let's stick with the SEK 1 billion guidance for 2027.
Thank you, Glen, and that concludes the Q&A session. Some final remarks from you, perhaps.
Yeah. Thanks, Emelie, and thank you, Patrik. Thanks for joining, everyone. Of course, Q3 has been a challenging quarter, driven from the weak demand, given the weak consumer sentiment and of course, some adverse weather conditions. But we continue to execute our strategy. Very clear operational excellence, I would say. Some of the footprint moves we're making, hopefully will give you some flavor there that we're working on. The cost out continues according to plan. Very clear direction on our portfolio management and some strong proof points that when we really drive after market as a focus area, we get a benefit from that. So I'm very pleased with the actions we're taking, and we need to continue driving them at speed.
That concludes today's earnings call. Thank you for listening, and goodbye.