Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this presentation of Inwido's fourth quarter and full year 2021 results. My name is Henrik Hjalmarsson. I am the President and CEO, and with me I have Peter Welin, CFO and Deputy CEO. Next page, please. Page two. We will spend the coming half hour or so, going through a brief introduction to Inwido for those of you who are new to us, an update on the Q4 performance as well as the full year, a quick look into the M&A status, a few words on the market outlook, as well as our short-term priorities. Peter will then go through the detailed financials. I will come back with a short summary after which there will be plenty of time for questions. Next page, please. Page three.
A brief summary for those of you who are new to us. Inwido is a leading window group in Europe. We are a clear market leader in the Nordic region with a strong presence in the UK and Ireland, as well as emerging positions in Poland as well as Germany. We had net sales in 2021 of SEK 7.7 billion with a return on operating capital of 16.9% and roughly 4,600 employees in the geographies you see marked in dark blue on the map on the right-hand side. We market and sell all the fantastic brands that you can see on the bottom of this slide in the geographies highlighted on the map. Next page, please. Page four.
As a group, we have a clear and proven value creation model, which is a defined way for our approach to drive sustainable shareholder value. There are five elements that are the basis of this value creation model. They ensure that we deliver long-term and cost-efficient customer as well as employee value in a sustainable way, and hence drive shareholder value over time. It's based on our ability to improve businesses to drive profit. As we acquire businesses, we plug them in, obviously then being sensitive to the start point, both to protect the base of the business, but also to maximize the incremental value that we can drive out.
Those five elements are to drive efficiency synergies from particularly sourcing and technology, to run a decentralized accountability with a strong business and customer focus, clear local leadership and drive with strong accountability for the results, a clear performance management methodology, and a strong KPI structure to drive the right behaviors as well as to be focused on the results generated all the time. We are focused on capital efficiency and allocation, and we do this to give room for value creating M&A as well as investing for growth. The umbrella over all of this is a clear belief in an ambition to drive a sustainable business for a sustainable future. Next page, please. Page five. Looking then briefly at the fourth quarter, which was a strong growth quarter for Inwido.
We saw favorable markets in general, both on the consumer and the industry side, and continued good order intake overall for the group. A record high growth rate of 21% and the seventh consecutive quarter with organic growth. We continued to strengthen our positions on our core markets and continued considerable investments in M&A resources and efforts to deliver on our ambitious growth journey. We did see in the quarter some margin pressure, particularly in Business Area North, which I'll come back to, due to continued cost increases on input materials and transportation, which we then naturally continuously compensate with price increases, but with some time lag. Next page, please. Page six. Looking at the numbers for the fourth quarter, sales grew 21% or 19% organic to SEK 2.175 billion.
Operating EBITA strengthened SEK 13 million to SEK 244 million, which means a slight decrease in the operating EBITA margin to 11.2%. Order intake up 7% or 5% adjusted for acquisitions, which means that the order backlog is still very strong at the end of the quarter, up 62% year over year or 56% adjusted for acquisitions. This also means that the net debt versus operating EBITDA decreased to 0.6 x, down from 1.1 x last year, or down 0.3 x if we exclude IFRS 16 impact. Next page, please. Page seven. If we look then at Business Area South, as you, most of you remember, and as you can see in the ring chart on the right-hand side, in South, we have a strong exposure to the consumer market.
That pleasingly helps us drive strong growth and improve margins in the quarter. The larger Danish units continued to grow sales as well as margins in an overall favorable consumer market climate. We saw a strong market for renovation as well as new construction in both Ireland and Poland with recovering market activity, and we've done a good job capitalizing on that in those geographies in the quarter. e-commerce grew sales by 4% organically against very strong comparables from Q4 2020 and closed with an order backlog up 20% year-over-year, despite also here very strong comparables from last year. Reported sales grew 16% or 17% organically to SEK 889 million, and the Operating EBITA margin strengthened by 0.9 percentage points to 19.7%.
The order backlog at the end of the quarter up 29% year-over-year. Next page, please. Page eight. Looking at Business Area North, we saw strong growth and good order backlog at the end of the quarter. Sales grew fueled by strength and positions on both positive consumer and industry markets in North. As you can see on the right-hand side in the ring chart, we have considerably larger exposure to the industry markets in Business Area North, where we know that we have longer price commitments, which also then impact our ability to counter input material inflation in a quick way. This, together with a relatively seen larger impact from COVID-related absence, impacting particularly the larger units in North efficiencies negatively, has impacted our margin than in the quarter.
Reported sales grew 25% organically, strong growth of 21% to SEK 1.242 billion. The operating EBITDA margin then slightly down to 6.1%. The order backlog at the end of the quarter, very strong, up 92% year-over-year. Next page, please. Page nine. Looking at the full year summary for 2021. Well, it's really pleasing to see that we achieved the best year so far in the Inwido history with some margin, actually. We clearly exceeded our new long-term targets with a sales growth of 16% to a bit more than SEK 7.7 billion.
A return on operating capital of 16.9%, and also very pleasing is some good progress on the sustainability front, not the least with a considerably improved alignment with the taxonomy screening criteria, up to 61% from 45% last year. Our operating EBITDA grew to SEK 907 million, with an operating EBITDA margin then growing by 0.8 percentage points to 11.7%. Overall, good capitalization on the consumer and industry markets. In summary, this means that the board proposes a dividend to the annual general meeting of SEK 6.15 per share for 2021. Next page, please. Page 10.
As I mentioned, I'm very happy with some continued progress on our sustainability work in 2021, not the least that we were able to decrease our carbon dioxide emissions per unit considerably with 39.1% decrease. We decreased our waste generation with 2.8%, our hazardous waste generation with 20.7%, while increasing the amount of wood from sustainable sources to 97%. We also, in 2021, committed ourselves, which I'm very happy about personally, to the Science Based Targets initiative, and as I mentioned, grew considerably the amount of sales that meet the EU taxonomy screening criteria to 61%. Next page, please. Page eleven. As many of you know, value creating M&A is a key growth driver for us.
We are working hard to accelerate our M&A activities to deliver material acquired growth for the group on an annual basis. We continue to strive for a positive multiple arbitrage, and in case of stand-alone business acquisitions, also leveraging a two-step acquisition process. The picture that you see on the right-hand part of this chart are the eight sort of key criteria that we use to assess and close on transactions, where we focus on windows and doors, profitable businesses with strong positions, preferably in the renovation segment. We look for good management, synergy opportunities, either on the operational sourcing or commercial side with our existing businesses in the European territory, and also interested to add incremental capabilities to the set of capabilities that we already have within the group.
As I said earlier, we're continuing to increase our efforts in this area to help this drive our ambitious growth journey. Next page, please. Page 12. We also recently launched new long-term targets for Inwido, focusing on driving sustainable value through sustainable business. These are six key targets for our long-term ambition, where we strive to achieve a revenue of SEK 20 billion by 2030, while returning above 15% on operating capital and maintaining a net debt in relation to operating EBITDA of less than 2.5 x. We also strive to pay out approximately 50% of our net profits to our shareholders as a dividend.
Also, we want to continue to raise the bar in terms of sustainable development by striving to meet ambitious 2030 Science Based Targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and striving to achieve above 75% alignment with the EU taxonomy screening criteria for our window and door sales. Next page, please. Page 13. To further facilitate this and to drive for this ambitious growth journey, we've then launched a new structure as well as organization from January 1, going from two business areas, North and South, to four business areas. This allows us to have a stronger focus on growth and sustainable development. Myself, as President and CEO, will oversee the new business area, Western Europe. Antti Vuonokari, the Executive Vice President for Eastern Europe, will oversee the businesses in Finland and Eastern Europe.
Mads Storgaard Mehlsen, who will join the first of April as Executive Vice President Scandinavia, will oversee the new business area Scandinavia. Bo Overgaard Christensen, previously Managing Director for the e-commerce business, will take a role in group management as we now report our e-commerce business as a separate business areas, and Bo will oversee that. Meanwhile, Jonna Opitz, in addition to heading up communications, will also look after and drive synergies out of our premium businesses across the territories. Peter Welin, in addition to his role as CFO, will also oversee the internal supply businesses.
Lena Wessner, as Executive Vice President Human Resources, Organization, and Sustainability, will support the development and growth of the businesses across all of those different segments. I'm really happy to have a strong management team by my side, and also to see that we're increasing the granularity and transparency of reporting while more clearly highlighting areas for growth for the future. Next page, please. Page 14. In terms of the outlook then, well, we obviously enter 2022 with a strong order backlog and strengthened positions in our core geographies. We see a near-term healthy activity levels on both the consumer and the industry markets. In the medium term, for 2022, it is hard to predict how input material inflation, transportation costs, global material bottlenecks, as well as lifted COVID restrictions across the societies will impact demand.
We continuously increase our activity levels in M&A to drive our growth, and we remain very optimistic in terms of long-term increasing demand for energy efficient windows and doors as the desire to invest in a good and sustainable lifestyle indoors increases. Next page, please. Page 15. In terms of our short term priorities then. Well, we aim to continue to maintain a very close eye on the input material inflation for swift and resolute price adjustments where they are needed. We will maintain a customer focus and strong execution in what remains a very dynamic overall environment. We continue to increase our M&A efforts. We drive value generating investments in growth initiatives across the group to achieve organic growth, and we will continue to increase efforts in our sustainability agenda. Next page, please. Page 16.
With this, I'm gonna hand over to Peter, who's gonna take you through the details of the numbers. I know that Peter has been a bit ill, so he still has a lingering cough. Not to worry if you hear Peter cough a bit during the presentation. Peter, please.
Thank you so much, Henrik. Let's go to Page 17. As Henrik said, I have a little bit of a problem with my coughing. I will try not to cough directly into the microphone, so I will then unmute. If it's suddenly silent, it doesn't mean I have disappeared, it means I just unmute it to be able to cough. We start with Page 17 then please. On this page we can see the income statement for Q4 to the left for 2021 as well as 2020. To the right you can see the full year impact. If we start with the quarter, sales was +21% compared to last year. Organically, it's +19%.
Gross margin was down by 0.7 percentage points from 26.8% - 25.9%, mainly due to material inflation. We have higher material costs in the quarter compared to last year. We have also supply chain issues, as well as higher sick leave, especially at the end of the quarter. However, we have some positive impact in the quarter, and that is the higher volume. The higher volume has improved efficiency and has also improved the capacity utilizations. In the quarter we also have a negative mix impact. I will come back later to the negative mix impact. Overhead costs was up in the quarter, mainly due to higher volume, but also due to investments in marketing and IT for future growth.
The operating EBITDA ended at SEK 244 million compared to SEK 231 million last year, an improvement by 6%. It is the highest operating EBITDA ever for the Q4 of Inwido, with the 244. The margin was down due to lower gross margin due to material inflation. The margin ended at 11.2% compared to 12.9% last year. EBITDA is higher than operating EBITDA due to positive one-offs. We had a one-off payment of surpluses within the AGS Collective Sickness Insurance plan that gave us SEK 21 million a quarter, which was also reported in the Q3 report. They were booked as non-recurring positive item, and thereby not included in operating EBITDA, but including in EBITDA.
EBITDA was improved by 14% compared to last year. We have also some positive currency impact on financial items. Profit after tax and earnings per share was up by 23% compared to last year. Earnings per share ended at 3.72 compared to 3.2 last year. Look at the full year, sales was +16%. The gross margin was slightly above last year in 2020, thanks to the higher gross margin at the beginning of the year before the material inflation started. The gross margin has been lower in second half of 2021 compared to 2020. The full year we had a positive development of the gross margin. Operating EBITDA SEK 907 million. First time ever Inwido is above the 900 mark.
We had a positive result of SEK 907 million, an improvement by 25% compared to 2020. The margin ended at 11.7%, and the EBITDA was also up by 30% compared to 2020. Then further down the income statement, we can see that earnings per share ended at SEK 12.29, highest ever for Inwido, an improvement by 42% compared to 2020. The results for the full year is the best result ever for Inwido. If we then turn page, we go to Page number 18, we can see the margin development. On this page, we can see operating EBITDA and operating EBITDA margin of the quarter to the left and the full year to the right.
We can see the development for 2019, 2020, as well as 2021. The margin in Q4 declined from 12.9% - 11.2% due to material inflation or mainly due to material inflation and also the problems with sourcing and higher sick leave. We have increased the sales prices in the quarter to mitigate the inflation. However, as you all know, our backlog has been very long during second half of this year. We have a quite much higher backlog and longer backlog normally. This means it just takes time for us to implement our sales price increases. The material prices have also continued to increase in the second half of 2021. We also have a negative mix, meaning that we have higher growth in North compared to South.
We have better margin in South compared to North. When North is growing more than South, it has a negative margin impact for the group. Looking at the full year, we have improved the margin from 9.7% in 2019 to 10.9% in 2020, and then to 11.7% in 2021. If you then turn page, we go to Page 19. We launched new financial targets at the Capital Markets Day, end of 2021. We have four targets, where two is new. The revenue target is new. We have a target to reach SEK 20 billion in sales in 2030.
This year or last year, 2021, we increased sales by 16% and we ended up SEK 7.725 billion. We have a new profitability target. We used to have an operating EBITDA margin target, but that has been changed to return on operating capital. It should be above 50%, and the outcome was 16.9%. I will come back later more to return on operating capital. The capital target is still the same. It should be the net debt in relation to operating EBITDA should be below 2.5, and the outcome was 0.6. Then the dividends. We have a dividend target saying paying out about 50% on net profit.
As Henrik said, the proposal from the board is to pay out SEK 16.15 equal to 50% of the earnings per share in 2021. If you then turn page, we go to Page 21. On this page, we can see the sales development. The full year sales was +16% for 2021. In the quarter, sales growth was 21%, organically +19%. North had a sales growth of 25% in the quarter, organically +21%. South had a sales growth of 16% in the quarter, organically 17%. Higher growth in North compared to South, and that has a negative margin impact for the group in the quarter. Order intake was +7% in total.
If we exclude the latest acquisitions, the Metallityö Välimäki Oy, which we did in 2021, the order intake was +5% in the quarter. North +16% and South -5% compared to 2020. However, when we are looking at South, it is minus, but we should also remember that the order intake of South in 2020 was quite much higher compared to 2019, was +18% in 2020 compared to 2019. We're comparing the order intake for Q4 2021 compared to 2019, we still have a growth. We also have a negative impact in order intake of South due to longer lead times or delivery times.
We had a high backlog in the beginning of the quarter of South, and thereby we were not able to have the year opened and take new orders for delivery for Q4 as we have normally in previous years due to the longer lead, longer delivery times. That has impacted the order intake negative in the quarter. The backlog end of the quarter is +29% for South. If you then turn to Page 21. On this page, we can see the backlog end of each quarter from Q4 2017 up until Q4 2021. As you can see, the backlog has been improved. The backlog end of December is +62% compared to end of December 2020.
If we take away the acquisition of Metallityö Välimäki Oy, the backlog is still plus 56% compared to last year. South + 29% as I said, and North is + 92% compared to last year. That is of course, an indication of a better start beginning of 2022 compared to 2021 when it comes to sales. If you then turn page, we go to Page number 22. This page is showing the development of the new KPI, the new profitability KPI, return on operating capital. Return on operating capital is defined as EBITDA rolling 12 months in relation to average working capital, where average is calculated at the average latest 4 quarters. So EBITDA, not operating EBITDA. So we look one step further down in the income statement when we look at this KPI.
Operating capital is defined as total assets less cash and equivalents, less other interest bearing assets and less non-interest bearing provisions and liabilities including taxes, or as I normally say net debt plus equity. Looking at development, we can see an improvement this year from 12.6% end of 2020 to 16.9% end of 2021. It has been improved thanks to one, improved results, and two, thanks to lower operating capital or actually lower working capital compared to previous year. If you look at average operating capital end of this year comparing to the peak, the highest level in Q1 2020, we have reduced operating capital by SEK 600 million, more than SEK 600 million, thanks to our work when it comes to working capital.
Looking at this year's performance from 12.6% - 16.9%, an improvement by 4.3 percentage units, whereof 0.5 percentage units comes from the lower operating capital or improved working capital. We also have this repayment of the healthcare insurance plan in Q4 2021. This one-off positive income of SEK 21 million that has improved this KPI by 0.4 percentage units. Without this one-off, the KPI should be 16.5% instead of 16.9%. Improved results and lower operating capital from lower working capital has improved the KPI. If you then turn page, we go to Page 23, please.
This page is showing the net debt in SEK and the net debt in relation to operating EBITDA, both including as well as excluding IFRS 16. Including IFRS 16, the net debt versus operating EBITDA has been improved from 1.1 to 0.6. Excluding IFRS 16 is improvement from 0.9 to 0.3. Inwido has an IFRS 16 debt of SEK 348 million. We are below the target of 2.5. The maximum should be 2.5, and we are today on this 0.6 including IFRS 16. Has been improved thanks to improved results and then also thanks to the improved cash flows and thereby lower net debt. If you then turn page, we go to Page number 24, please.
On this page, we can see the developments of our performance since the IPO. Inwido made the IPO September 2014. At that time, we had sales of SEK 4.916 billion and an operating EBITDA margin of 10.2%. Since the IPO, since the year of the IPO, sales has been growing by 7% annually. Total sales growth of 57% and the operating EBITDA has been improved by 81% and the margin has went from 10.2% - 11.7%. The results of this year in SEK of operating EBITDA as well as earnings per share was the highest ever for Inwido.
However, the margin was slightly below the margin level of 2016 due to the material price inflation that we've seen second half of this year. Thank you so much. I hand over back to Henrik. Henrik, thank you.
Thank you very much, Peter. Let's turn to next page, please. Page 25. In summary, 2021. Well, we established a stable base with improved margins and a solid balance sheet as well as good growth as a platform for continued future growth. We've obviously launched accelerated growth ambitions, both organic and through acquisitions, and we see a considerable consolidation opportunity on the European market. We've set new long-term targets at the end of the year, highlighting a stronger focus on growth as well as sustainable development, and we strongly believe with a new reporting structure and organization that's aligned with the strategy, increasing transparency and also supporting the delivery of our strategy and our long-term targets. Next page, please. Page 26. With that, we thank you very much and we hand over to the operator for questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question for our speakers, please press zero and one on your telephone keypad. We have a first question. It's from Victor Hansen, Nordea. The line is now open for you.
Good morning, Victor from Nordea here. My first question, how much of your order book within North, where you have most of the industry orders, are to be delivered in H1 2022? Because that's where I see the most cost pressure that could still hurt you.
The structure of the business is such that the vast majority of the order backlog that you see for North at the end of 2021 will be delivered in H1. There will be some orders likely slipping into the second half of the year, but that's very limited, and that would be single-digit percentage of that most likely. That's an approximation as I don't have an exact number to give you. It's a very low share that's for delivery in the second half of the year.
All right. To follow up on this, I guess. When do you expect the cost inflation seen up until this moment to be mitigated by your ongoing price hikes?
You have a good question, Victor. Thanks. The cost increases up to this point will be mitigated with some lag, and it depends a little bit on geography and segments. That lag is typically ranging from a couple of months, maybe up to worst case, five or six months, depending on industry sales and the longer commitments being the worst. If we were to see an absolutely stable situation on the price of input material prices going forward from now, you know, that ought to be fully mitigated, let's say, within the coming half year or so. Obviously, the situation is a bit more dynamic than that at the moment.
I think anybody's guess in terms of, for example, the development of energy prices and transportation for the year to come is as good as anything else.
Great. On the margin in North, do you think it's reasonable to return above 7% on a full year basis for the margin in the medium term, seeing as Finland is now coming back?
For the medium term, most definitely. I mean, obviously, our long-term ambition is higher than that, to be very clear. In the medium term, yes, definitely see that there is an opportunity to return above that level.
All right. On M&A, you alluded to this earlier. Perhaps you could share some info on your current M&A pipeline, how many ongoing dialogues you have or how you want to phrase it.
Obviously I can be quite transparent and honest and say that I had hoped that we would close at least one transaction in the fourth quarter, in addition to the one we did in the second quarter. As I've said before, these processes are a bit difficult to predict timing-wise, given that we deal in many cases with family-owned businesses. I'm relatively happy with where we stand in terms of ongoing dialogue and both the discussions that we have as well as the shortlist. Without exactly quantifying that, I'm really hoping and think that we can make some considerable progress here over the coming couple of quarters in terms of the M&A agenda.
Excellent. Just a final question from my side. Have you considered broadening your scope for what type of companies you could acquire? I'm basically talking vertical integration here and for instance, more installation or distribution or input components. Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Victor. I think at the moment, we're looking at areas that are, I would say, 100% within or very close to the business that we operate. The world of windows and doors is a bit broad in its nature. As an example, the acquisition that we made in April last year in Finland within steel and aluminum doors, windows, but also facade solutions, is a slight step sort of outside of the traditional core. I think where there are synergies with existing businesses one way or the other, be it on sourcing side, commercial side, whatever it is, where we strongly believe that our value creation model will drive value out of an acquisition, we are interested to look and to pursue.
That's gonna mean that what we look at is gonna be very close to what we do, but it can be elements of things that I would consider to be neighboring categories. That's the way I would phrase it at the moment. Thanks.
All right. That's all for me. Thank you, Henrik.
Thank you very much.
The next question is by Adnan Memon from Ålandsbanken. The line is now open for you. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. First of all, congratulations on a great quarter. Very pleased with the figures. My question just relates a little bit more about the margin compression in Q4, and when do you expect, according to your forecast, that the price adjustments will be fully offsetting the increased costs when it comes to input materials and also transportation?
Yeah. Hi, Adnan. Thanks. It's a little bit hard to say exactly because it depends so much on when we believe that the market will stop moving on the input material side. But as I alluded to before, with the current base in mind where we stand at the moment, we see that, let's say, gradually over the first half of the year, we should catch up in terms of the inflation that we've seen so far. However, obviously, if there is considerable inflation to come in the future, that will require us to take more action, which in itself, you know, we don't shy from, and we're very prepared, and also I think have demonstrated historically that we can do.
If the current situation would be a bit stable base for the year, it would happen gradually over the first half of the year, where the last pieces of the puzzle would be then the industry sales to come through in the latter part of the first half. To be quite honest, a fair chunk will also come through quite early in the first half of the year.
Okay, that makes sense. A follow-up on the M&A discussions. We've talked previously that you've had some issues during the pandemic in traveling and really talking through the discussions with the prospective targets. Are those challenges still persisting now, or are you able to have more fluid discussions with the potential targets today.
Yeah. It's a very relevant question, and that has been a bit of a moving target. We were thinking that we were out of harm's way more or less in November, and then came the Omicron wave and sort of turned things upside down a little bit again. My definite assessment is that as of very recently, so the past weeks, that has improved considerably again. Looking at where we stand at the moment, I don't see that as an obstacle for us to progress the discussions that we need to have.
Maybe also just on the pricing environment currently. What are you seeing or observing in the market currently?
Yeah. I mean, it is very dynamic in the market at the moment. For us, as I think for many others, the biggest question mark at the moment is where energy prices will move in the short to medium term, as that is a key driver behind several of the commodity-based input materials that we're looking at. To be quite honest, I think, as I said before, exactly where the natural gas, but also oil-based prices will go in the coming six months is anybody's guess at the moment.
We stand prepared to take more action on pricing if we have to, and we obviously monitor it in a very close way and mitigate it in terms of how we manage agreements with our suppliers to make sure that also gives us some time to take action.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
As a reminder, if you want to ask a question, please press zero and one.
Operator, I have received some questions over the email, so I can ask those questions now, so everyone can hear the questions, and we can answer those questions. The first question I received, Henrik, is from Rolf Helbling from Carnot Capital. He's asking about the e-commerce sales. We are saying in the report that the e-commerce sales account for 11% of the sales in the full year, which is below what we had before. He has then calculated that means that this, the e-commerce down to 7.5% in Q4. Actually a little bit higher than 7.5%, but nevertheless it's lower than last Q4. The question is, why has it decreased compared to past periods?
Are we seeing any weak demand from the consumer segment on B2C sales?
Yeah. E-commerce sales amounted to 9% of sales in the fourth quarter. It was slightly below from where it was earlier in the year. That's a combination of two things actually. It's a combination of the fact that whereas we still see organic growth in the e-commerce segment, it is from very, very high levels from the year before. And I think that's one side of that coin. The other side is actually that we've been able to strengthen our positions and have a very strong development in terms of industry sales, particularly in Business Area North, which also then drives the very strong growth that we've seen in North in the quarter, and that obviously dilutes the overall e-commerce share of sales.
We don't see the same growth that we saw in 2020 on the consumer activity side. We're yet to see any diminishing activity, but obviously it's coming from very high levels. I think that's a fair summary.
I received an email with questions from Rolf Helbing in Switzerland. He has three questions. I'll start with the first one. How much inflation do we see on input prices, material, logistics, labor? Second question is price increases. How much have we increased the sales prices? And then time lag versus input prices. And then the third question, structural measures necessary because of the changing environment.
Okay. Yeah, thanks. If we look at how much inflation we've seen, it obviously depends a lot on the category you're looking at.
Labor inflation, particularly in the Nordics, which is our biggest geography, has been limited and not the driver of inflation at the moment. We know that labor rate increases are higher in parts of Eastern Europe for us and for everyone else, and I don't think that's a new pattern. If we look at the total inflation pressure, it depends a lot on the category, as well as actually to some extent, geography. Overall, we are obviously on a total level way into double-digit increases and beyond that on material inflation. If we look at price increases, fundamentally, we're all continuously working to protect our profit level and taking those prices. There is some time lag as alluded to in the question.
I think I partly answered that before, saying that the exact length of that time lag depends a bit on the geography as well as the channel to somewhere between you know a couple of months up to or six months or in worst cases even slightly beyond that in some specific industry agreement. It depends a little bit. In terms of structural measures, I think we continuously evaluate and take action with regards to how we do the business. I think we've taken actually some quite considerable structural measures, which we launched at the Capital Markets Day in December in terms of a new structure.
Particularly so to drive growth actually, which we think is the most important thing that we can do, a sustainable strong growth, obviously with a good profitability development to drive shareholder value. If we need to do anything beyond that, I think we've proven before that we don't hesitate to take action, for example, if we need to adjust cost internally to meet changing demand in the market.
Okay, thank you. Then I have a final email from Carl Vestosdodd. I have two questions. The first question, which you all had been discussing, but can still ask it so you can do it one more time, is, when it comes to acquisitions. We said at this Capital Markets Day that we see acquisitions in the short term, but no acquisition has yet been announced. The question is: Is the result of a specific acquisition process being canceled or any other reason? Question number two: What type and size of acquisitions can be expected?
If we look at the first part of the question, it's the reason, and I think I partly answered it before. I would have hoped that we've told something in the call before, we didn't. The reason is that I had specific processes in mind that for one reason or the other has taken a little bit longer than we had expected. In terms of size of acquisition, I can actually see here that the question Carl had was, is there a chance that this will have a material impact on our pro forma net sales, so more than 10%? I think it is reasonable to expect that we could make acquisitions.
I'm not saying that we will because obviously it depends on the processes and how we progress with in many cases, families and private owners that we're talking to. It's absolutely reasonable for us to achieve that, but probably not with a in-year impact of 10% increase, but with a full-year impact. That's absolutely a reasonable expectation in my mind. That's something that we're striving for and working towards.
Okay, thank you. Operator, we hand it back to you if there are any more questions from the audience.
At the moment, we don't have any further questions, so I hand back to you.
Okay. With no further questions via email or on the call, I want to thank everybody for your time and attention and also for following Inwido's journey. I encourage you to follow us on LinkedIn and our other channels. Thanks very much for your time, and see you all soon. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.