Right, as you just heard, my name is Hans Linnarson, and I have been President of Husqvarna AB for four months. I'm now nearly. Some of you will know me from previously, but not all of you. Let me give you a bit of a background about myself. I was born and bred here in Småland, and I've always worked here, which I think is appropriate for Husqvarna. I've been part of the group management for eight years in different positions. I have been Head of consumer products outside of North America. I've been responsible for dealer channel sales, professional products for park and gardens for a number of years. For the last three years, I have been head of the largest business area of this group in Europe, Asia, and Pacific area.
I'm still holding that position in an acting way as we're trying to find someone to replace me there. I've also worked for Electrolux in areas such as marketing, product development, and production. Now I'd like to tell you a bit about the group and its different business areas very briefly during 2011. Looking at the group as a whole, we increased our net sales by 2% after being adjusted for currency fluctuations in relation to last year. In terms of operating results, it was SEK 1.6 billion compared with SEK 2.4 billion for 2010. We are, of course, not at all satisfied with this, or proud of it. The explanations are several, including production disturbances, which I'll be telling you more about in a little while. We also had negative effects of currency fluctuations and a number of increased costs.
Some of them were planned, like investments in new products and extra marketing costs in comparison with the previous year. I can also tell you, and it gives me great pleasure to tell you, that during the course of the year, we have reinforced our very strong market position in spite of certain problems at some plants. The board of Directors is proposing an unchanged dividend in relation to last year, SEK 1.50 per share. Let me get back to the question of production disturbances that we had during last year. During the first quarter of last year, we had enormous production disturbances in our largest factory in Georgia in the U.S., in Orangeburg. The reason was that we had planned to move a business with small products from Nebraska to Georgia, and we completely underestimated the complexity of that task, not least in terms of material supplies.
I don't think we can blame any external factors. It was badly planned and badly executed on our own part, which, of course, meant extra costs for us. We had to get outside help, help from consultants, and there was lots of overtime. During the course of the year, we worked extremely hard to solve the problems that we caused in our own plant. We're working in very close cooperation with our major customers in the United States. Their production people worked with us, approved our different plans to get back on track, looked at what we were doing. The result was that we have managed to retain our credibility with the same listing for 2012 as we had for 2011. The production unit is back on track today, even a bit above plan.
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank all the colleagues in Orangeburg and the external colleagues for their excellent work during the past year in order to be able to cope with deliveries for 2012. Moving along now to look at our business areas, let's look at Europe and Asia-Pacific, which is actually easier to talk about than the group as a whole. Net turnover increased by 3% in relation to last year, also after adjustments for currency fluctuations. Of interest is the fact that we increased our dealer channel proportion all over the world, somewhat more than we did on the retail side, where we lost a bit. This was intentional. We decided to get out of certain segments where we weren't making money, like the big retail chains. $2.3 billion was the operating result with a very high operating margin of 14%.
Here, too, there were negative effects of currency fluctuations. During the course of the year, we also saw increased marketing costs and increased investments in new products. Of course, this affected costs for 2011 in comparison with 2010, but it's a kind of investment rather than a cost, really. Here, too, we've reinforced our very strong market positions all over the world. There are areas that have developed very well here during the course of the year, such as our robotic mowers or automowers. Growth was very good there. You can say that consumers have really realized that this kind of robotic mower is not a toy. It's a real product that they want to use, and we're very glad about that. At the same time, the riders, which we make in Poland and here in Jönköping, have also developed very, very strongly during last year.
Some other areas have done very well as well. In terms of Europe, Asia, and Pacific, we saw very good development during the course of the year. The strong market positions we retained in 2011, of course, positioned us well for this year as well. Moving along to America, net turnover was SEK 11 billion, 2% less than last year, also adjusted for currency fluctuations there, too. The total market on certain products such as rider tractors fell somewhat, as you've already heard. We had huge production disturbances, and of course, they left their mark. As I've also said, this caused us to work very closely to our customers. In spite of the troubles, we did manage to retain our market positions and strengthen them in America in spite of the difficulties.
The result, of course, is a disappointment to us because of the extraordinary efforts that had to be made to get our deliveries in order. Here, too, we saw negative currency effects and their effect. Here, too, in terms of marketing activities and investments in new products, we did well there, too. There's a great deal of activity ongoing now, of course, in order to increase the profitability in America. We're looking very closely at what we can do to reduce our production costs in anticipation of the rest of this year. We're also monitoring our quality. The effort we had to make to get production going was absolutely not able to take place in relation to quality, but it did affect costs. We're going to have to have a look at that now once we've got the production going properly.
Moving along to our smallest business area, construction, we've seen very good developments there in 2011. Net turnover was SEK 2.8 billion, 12% above 2010. Here, too, adjusted for currency fluctuations. We've gained a lot of market shares in construction. For a number of years, we've made major investments in new products at the same time as we've slimmed down a number of brands somewhat. The work done in this respect in 2011 and 2010 has now begun to bear fruit. The operating result had increased to SEK 130 million, adjusted for negative currency effects that did afflict us. If you think of construction as a business area and look at their activities, you can say that we've, including the forestry and park side, we've invested in new products and marketing. These things tend to give positive effects.
Summing up 2011 then, I can say that, and as I said before, we're not terribly proud of the year. It's been a difficult year because of the production disturbances in our largest plant. We put a great deal of energy into working things out. It has also proven how important teamwork is, and not least, that when something happens, you need to be open, frank, and honest with the customer. Say, "We've got a problem. We're working on it." Invite them in. Try to get them to understand the measures being taken. Market shares have basically been stable, a bit of up, a bit of down, and of course, we did lose market shares in terms of tractors. Fortunately, though, the whole market for tractors declined, which helped us to actually keep our market share fairly reasonably. We're going to go on investing in innovations.
I'll be telling you more about what we did last year and are planning to do next year. We've got lots of new products reaching the market in 2012. Looking at the autumn of 2011, we worked with inselling listing, and we can tell you that they are the same as 2011 as for 2012, but with a somewhat better mix.
Let's look at our strategy. Being relatively new in my capacity as CEO, I feel it's important to stress that the strategic plan that has been established is unchanged. 5% organic growth over a business cycle. Are we there? No, we are not, but this is our ambition to have a 5% organic growth. 10% operating margin, that is another target that still remains. There is no reason to change it. To be ambitious, that is something you should be. We should be above 10%. 10% is a minimum. Why are we saying this? We have very strong brands. Over on this side, you see three global brands that we have in the Husqvarna Group. We have a global distribution channel. We have a presence in more than 100, I believe it's 130 countries globally. We have 125,000 distributors across the globe. We do business with all big retail chains.
Distribution, we have that network in place. We have a very broad product offering. No one else in this sector has the same type of product portfolio. When meeting customers, I usually tell them that you should have us as your sole supplier because we could supply everything you need: watering equipment, taking care of lawns, and forestry. We have a flexible delivery chain. We have flexible plants. We did have some difficulties in Augsburg, but that problem has been solved. I claim that we have a flexible structure in our plants and also in the way we work with the suppliers. The long-term strategic targets remain unchanged. We have priorities long-term and, needless to say, also short-term. This year, 2012, we feel it's very important to prioritize deliveries. We cannot have yet another disruption. Production and timely deliveries, we feel, are very important.
Of course, we have to maintain quality. We continue to look at new product launches. Of course, we're disappointed when it comes to our cash flow. This was the first time since we left Electrolux that we had a negative cash flow. It has never happened before. Needless to say, this is very important for us to get back to normal levels. I mentioned before that I come from a small land in Sweden, and we think it's important to save more money than we spend. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to handle our money carefully. Of course, we want also to be able to pay on time and to maintain the good product range. There are many of us that are new in executive management, and we now have to become a team. That is what we have been working with over the last few months.
We need to create a team so that we can work well together and also so that we can show that team building is important in an organization like ours. I've mentioned that we have had many product launches. Smokolok is a new product range. It's global now. We've had it in certain parts of Europe and in certain parts of the United States. Last year, we launched a new product range with new design. In modern times, I would say that this is the biggest product launch we have had as an all-out effort for one brand. Here, we have handheld products. We have hedge trimmers, trimmers, chainsaws, and lawnmowers. This launch happened last fall. These products can be bought. We focused on big retail chains for this product launch. These are mainly for those big retail chains. The introduction has been very successful.
Someone says that we have the colors of the team are equal, but down here, we use black and blue, the colors of our local team. Husqvarna is well known for its gas-powered products. We start to discuss as well environmental impact. Therefore, we now have these semi-professional products under the Husqvarna brand that are battery-powered. We have chainsaws. It works. We have grass trimmers, hedge trimmers, and riders. These products can be bought today, and the batteries go with all handheld products. You do not need to buy a battery for each and every product. You can have one or a couple of batteries and then charge them because this is a very flexible system. These will not be big sellers initially, but I'm sure it will speed up eventually, and they will replace cabled products eventually.
I mentioned earlier that we have a robotic mower, and we've been very successful with our robotic mowers. We have a small one for up to 500 sq m, and we have everything from 500 sq m - 6,000 sq m. We've been very, very successful last year, and I think that will continue in 2012 as well. In addition, what we've done is that we have produced a small robotic grass mower under the brand name of Gardena. It will be sold in important retail chains, and it can handle up to 400 sq m. It's also out there already. We feel that these robotic mowers, they will also be sold through the normal retail chains, supermarkets, etc., eventually. I think I skipped a slide. Let's see if I can make my way back. It's not my computer. Can you help me out, perhaps?
A quick review of what we have covered already. Now let's go through the slides. There we go. We can't forget our heart, the professional chainsaws. We need to continue with these products. This fall here in Jönköping, we had 800 resellers. They attended a launch of new professional chainsaws, and they were very well received. We feel it's important to continue to work with our professional gas-powered products as well. That is the core of Husqvarna, one could say. Professional users, we have demanding consumers as well. We have seen an increasing trend of consumers who want to have semi-professional products. We see that not the least when it comes to Husqvarna products like chainsaws, hedge trimmers, for example. We have had many product launches also within forestry and gardening and construction. There, we have many new products as well.
We have a long-term effort, and we have had launches of new products also within construction. We have wire saws, for example. We also have a stone materials section within construction. Might be big granite blocks that you need to divide into smaller pieces that then go into our kitchens or our bathrooms. These big wire saws are being used. We have now developed new wire saws that our customers really like. We have also drilling machines, drilling equipment, and a demolition robot that looks like this. It's used to demolish old buildings, old concrete buildings. It can be done using a robot today. This is also a product that has exceeded expectations when it comes to sales around the world. Why do I think that we'll be able to reach our objectives? We have everything it takes. We can deliver. We have the strong brands.
We have a broad product range. I've shown you some of the products. We have a very broad customer base, wide distribution network, and our customers want to buy products from us. Sometimes they say, "Why can't you deliver more?" We have the problems with forecasting, etc. Our customers, they love our products, our brand, and they like to work with our people out there. Flexible production, that's something else. We have our entire production chain is very flexible, and we have highly committed coworkers. Last week in Budapest, we had our salespeople attending a conference, and they got to see the new product of the year, 13 new products. They got to meet all these salespeople we have working out there. I could tell that they are committed, and they want to sell our products.
It was very stimulating to meet these people that I perhaps wouldn't have met otherwise. Looking at the salespeople we have, the staff we have, the support people we have, we have everything we need. We can deliver results in accordance with our objectives with 5% and an EBIT margin of 10%. I hope that I'll see you here a year from now again, and that our figures will then be much better. Thank you.