Good morning, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2025 webinar. Please allow me to take a few minutes to introduce myself, having just rejoined Polygiene Group on the 1st of December 2025 as the new CEO. My name is Sandrine Garnier. I come from a European family with a French father and a Dutch mother. I was born and raised in France, but I have lived in the U.K. for the past 25 years and traveled extensively internationally. I am a scientist by training and also by mindset, with a strong curiosity for new technology.
I hold a PhD in Polymer Science from the Universities of Nancy in France and Pretoria in South Africa, and I bring with me 25 years of experience in technical sales within the specialty chemical, including functional polymers, additives, advanced bio-based material, and innovative green tech, such as nanobubble technology. I have worked at Addmaster for eight years, from 2014 till 2022, and I was the managing director at the time of its acquisition by Polygiene Group. For 18 months, I supported the transition and integration of the Addmaster business and team into Polygiene. It is with great honor that I'm returning to the group, but also with a very strong sense of responsibility. Looking ahead, the mission is very clear.
We must increase sales through organic growth, through new innovative technology, through expansion into adjacent and new market segment, but with a clear objective of ultimately deliver sustainable long-term growth and a strong return on investment for our shareholders. So with that, I'm now gonna leave it to Niklas, our CFO, to share the quarterly results with you.
If we now look on a summary on Q4, we can see that the sales was down from SEK 44.7 to SEK 36.8. A drop with 17.7%, but the FX impact is -11% versus last year. We see a decline in the margin from 76.1% to 68.2%. The lion part is FX in that area as well, but there is also a small mix impact as we see stronger sales in Addmaster versus Polygiene. We have an operated cost that is almost flat, SEK -25.3 versus 25.1. This year, we have included SEK 4.1 million in the one-time cost, driven by the change of the CEO.
And the commission is also lower this year versus 2024, and the commission is driven by, by lower sales. On the EBITDA, we can see SEK -1.3 million versus SEK 5.9 million, is driven then by the FX, little bit less in sales and the one-time cost. We have an EBITDA of SEK -2.6 million versus SEK 4.4 million last year. Looking at the cash flow, we have SEK -5.5 million versus SEK 9.4 million last year. We have a dividend of almost SEK 5 million that was paid out in the beginning of October, and then we have a change in the timing of the accounts receivable.
Last year, we did some last order, ship some orders late in the year with air freight, and that actually meant that we had shorter payments terms and got the payment before the year end. This year, the late orders has been more of a normal setup, which means that the payment will be done in Q1. At the end of the year, we had the net cash of SEK 38.8 versus SEK 68.7 last year. If you look on the year as a total, we can see that the sales is 6.6% less than last year, SEK 146.6 versus SEK 156.9.
But also for the whole quarter, we have added an FX impact, and that is around 6% to 7%, which means that the overall sales is more or less flat if we compare year-on-year, excluding the foreign exchange. We have, 2% impact on the FX on the margin as well, which explains the big part of the drop from 70.8% to 67.6%. Operating cost, the difference is around SEK 4 million, which also is explained by the one-time cost taken in Q4. And the EBITDA then is, SEK 3.5 versus SEK 19 for the full year, and that's then mainly driven by the FX and the one-time cost. Cash flow for the year is SEK -23.5 versus, SEK +21.4 last year. Almost SEK 10 million in dividend.
We have the last result, and then we have changes in the working capital, where the biggest impact is then the timing of the accounts receivable that happened in Q4 versus last year. If you will look a little bit more on the sales for Q4 and compare, compare year-on-year, overall, we can see that Asia as a region is growing. EMEA is more or less stable, where we see a drop in the Americas. Polygiene is down 33%, so for the quarter, it's 46% of the total share of sales versus 57% last year. We see a different timing of the distributors versus distribution orders versus last year, and we see from a regional point of view, we can see that APAC is showing a strong growth in the quarter.
EMEA dropped the distributors, so also less volumes due to the timing. And then we can see, as we said, also for the total company, a drop in Americas. Addmaster is more or less flat versus last year, and Addmaster actually had the best quarter for the year in Q4. And it's now 54% of the total share versus 43% last year. As we said, in the Q2 report, we saw some big orders that were moved into Q4 and that have been realized, which has then given the stronger sales in Q4. We see an increase in EMEA, 30%, APAC, a slight decrease, and also, as in Polygiene, we see a drop in Americas, with around 60%.
Thank you, Niklas. The financial results presented in the previous slides show that our business remains resilient. 2025 was a challenging year, given the geopolitical environment. Market uncertainties affected demand, and several new project launches from our customers were delayed or postponed. But despite this, the team delivered stable and consistent performance year-on-year, excluding the negative impact of currency movements, sales in 2025 are in line with 2024. And in addition, our global distribution network allows us to support brands that are shifting and adjusting their manufacturing footprint in response to tariffs, so this positions us in a really good position. As you will have seen in the media, the next challenge facing the business is the unprecedented rise in the price of silver. Twelve months ago, silver was trading between 800 and 900 EUR per kilogram.
At the end of January 2026, it peaked at almost EUR 3,300 per kilogram, and as you can see from this graph on this slide, it has since eased and stabilized at around EUR 2,200 per kilogram over the past two weeks. Silver is a critical raw material for both business units, so we have therefore taken immediate action to mitigate the impact of this increase. A stage price adjustment has been successfully implemented and passed on to our customer, first within the Addmaster business, and now it's being rolled out also into the Freshness business. As a result, I'm pleased to share that we have actually already secured a significant portion of our first quarter budget through forward orders.
Going forward, we will continue to monitor the silver price closely and work very closely in partnership with our supplier to ensure that our gross margins are maintained and secure. Looking at new wins and co-branding activity in the fourth quarter of 2025, our sales and marketing teams have continued to work very closely with brands and retailers, as you can see here, for example, with GO Sport, to maximize brand visibility and strengthen our co-branding. With the Winter Olympics Games taking place right now in Milan, this provides a great PR opportunity for us and our co-branded partner in the sports and outdoor segment. One example here shown on this slide is the U.S.-based glove manufacturer, Swany, who launched a new line of gloves in the fourth quarter with built-in Polygiene StayFresh protection. We are also expanding into new segments.
For example, in pet care, Black Lab has launched pet bedding with Polygiene StayFresh technology, and we're also growing our presence in the hunting and fishing clothing. On the Addmaster side, we remain very strong in healthcare, as you can see from the LinkedIn post on these slides, which were posted in the last three months from our co-branded partner. And in December, our team supported two co-branded partners, Kleenclad and Dycem, at a healthcare conference in India, where they received very strong interest from local facilities, which hopefully should lead to new business opportunity in 2026. And we also continue to develop in other application, and here I've just given you some examples. For example, in the paper industry, in the U.S., and in construction with laminate decorative surfaces. Looking ahead into 2026, we will focus on four priorities.
The first and foremost, we will continue to manage the impact of the rising silver price and ensure that we maintain a strong gross margin across all businesses. Secondly, we will drive diversification through new technology, through expansion into adjacent and new market segments, and here I've just given some example. We are seeing strong pull in the work wear, school wear, and also home textile application. Thirdly, we will restore profitable growth in the Americas region, and that is across both Freshness and Solid Surface businesses, and fourthly, we will reposition Addmaster as a leading technical solution provider, and we will do that by fully utilizing its broader portfolios of technologies. For example, the Scentmaster, Scentmaster technology, Verimaster technology that complement the antimicrobial Biomaster technology.
We will encourage cross-selling and organic growth with our customers, and we will refocus on new business development and proactive outreach activity to win new business. Thank you very much for your attention, and with that, we will now take on some questions.
Yeah, if we start, we got some questions already in the forum, but we also had some prior to the webinar. And I think one of the first ones we got before the webinar was, "How can we increase the trade of the share? Can we change list from First North to Nasdaq Stockholm?" I think the change in the list is it's a lot of additional rules, cost, and resources, and also demands quite a lot on the maturity of a company. So I think there's nothing that's being discussed right now to change to that list. And what we also have been doing, I would say, during the second half of last year, is that we've been on a tour in U.S., meeting a lot of investors.
We had the two webinars together with Redeye that was distributed, and we had had eight to ten meetings with local communities in Aktiespararna now. But I think at the end, what sort of gives the most impact on the trade, I guess, is that we are focused on getting back on profitable growth. And when we're back on profitable growth, we have sort of the profit development policy that then actually will share that profit together with the shareholders. And then we got the question of the percentage of sales in euro versus U.S. dollars. Yeah, as you have seen, the FX have a quite big impact on our company, and as a total, it's 50% of our sales are in US dollars, and 20% is in euro.
So U.S. dollar have had a big impact on the result and the top line. And then we also got the question about, "Is it possible to send out more news between the quarterly reports of the market, this development, et cetera, et cetera?" I would suggest that we actually do post a lot on LinkedIn, so I think it's good to submit and follow us on LinkedIn and also submit and follow us on the newsletter, because we are sharing some information there. Then, of course, there are press releases on bigger things, but there are the things that are shared on LinkedIn and newsletters.
Follow us on both businesses. We have a LinkedIn page for Polygiene Group and a LinkedIn page for Addmaster Technology, and the Addmaster LinkedIn page is available also in Chinese language.
Yeah.
There is a newsletter which you can subscribe to, which comes out-
Yeah
... on a monthly basis.
Yeah. But we got a question before here, and then also, I would say in the live event, about the input cost, or I guess it more, mostly the silver. And I think we touched upon that we have an action plan, and we are taking action to protect the margin, so I think we've been talking about that one. We also got the cost outlook for coming quarters. Yeah, we don't give forecasts, so I'm sorry, we will not give any numbers for the coming quarters.
Then there is a question about the healthcare partnership announced in Q2 2025. This is one of the contract that has been delayed. We have started to sell to this client. However, it's much lower volume than originally anticipated, but we are still in dialogue with that customer and pushing forward and hope to gradually increase our share of the business. So this is not a project that is dead. This is just a project that is slower to kickstart and isn't gonna come as one mass, but as it's going to grow gradually. And I think that's the question for today.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next report, then, that we will do a live presentation and release will then be in April, the twenty-third of April, where we release the Q1. We will also release the annual report the week before, but as those numbers are more or less in this report, we will not have a webinar for that one.