Welcome to the Svedbergs Group audiocast with teleconference Q3 2021. Throughout the call, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Today, I am pleased to present the CEO, Per-Arne Andersson, and the CFO, Mats Lundmark. Please go ahead with your meeting, gentlemen.
Thank you so much. We can go to the next slide, please. Okay. We have the three brands, some words about Svedbergs Group for you who don't know so much about us. We will today present the third quarter figures. It's me, Per-Arne Andersson, and Mats Lundmark, CFO. Now slide three, please. Next slide, please. Slide three. Some words about Svedbergs Group for you who not know so much about us. We have three different brands. You have Svedbergs Bad. It's located in Dalstorp in southwest of Sweden. Around 160 employees, was founded a little bit more than 100 years ago. We have Macro Design, who is located down there in Halland, in southwest also of Sweden. A little bit more than 50 employees, and it's shower cabins and shower walls production.
Since first of December last year, we acquired Cassøe in Herning in Denmark, a small sales office and customer service and warehouse, around 14 employees. Since August, we have established our headquarter in Halmstad with the group function. Today it's me and the CFO, Mats Lundmark, who is located here. Next slide, please. Some words about our brands. Svedbergs, as I mentioned, is a wide range of products for the whole bathroom. It's included mixers, shower walls, toilets, furniture, everything you need in your bathroom. Macro Design was founded from the beginning as a shower walls and shower cabins producer, and also had added some furniture in the range in the last couple of years. Cassøe, the biggest product category is mixers, and have some bathroom fittings as well, and also represent some strong brands on the Danish market. Next slide, please.
Some highlights from the third quarter. It was a growth in sales with around 25%, and an EBITDA margin of 14.8% or 24.8 million SEK. It's an increase with 36% compared with last year. It's a very good sales and finance. We're very proud of that. Since the beginning of August, we also now are working in the group structure with strong management team in all brand companies. Svedbergs and Macro Design's managing directors are in place. Of course, with this new structure, we also expect that this will support the growth of the companies. Macro Design has improved their supply chain, and it has some minor impact on the cost side, a positive effect on the cost side, but it's more to prepare for growth and also give the potential to insourcing of products from suppliers.
Svedbergs cooperation with Halvor Bakke, the Norwegian interior designers, and also the signing of the distribution agreement with VVS Norge, are starting to give good result in the Norwegian market for the Svedbergs brand. During the quarter, the delivery service has been on a very good level in all companies. We have focused very strong on delivery performance and, for that reason, as you can see the figures, we have also increased our stock at some level as well. Next slide, please. The highlights for the year to date for the first nine months. We continue to invest in marketing in different areas. In Svedbergs, we are investing the shop-in-shop concept that is starting to roll out now. It's scalable for a small version to medium and big version. That is depending a little bit our dealers, how big space they have for us.
We continue our development in our digitalization of our sales process. Cassøe has increased the sales force and continue their sales growth journey. From the very beginning of the corona pandemic, we have prioritized the delivery performance to clients as very important, and this has, of course, impact us with some higher stock value in all three companies. We have succeeded quite well to compensate for the increase in material costs and also freight costs. We have worked out to improve our margin on new products and also reduce the number of SKUs. I'm happy and proud that all companies are performing well, and all of them have beat their earnings compared with last year. Next slide, please. Sweden is our biggest market with 67% of the total sales, and Denmark is now our second-biggest market, close followed by Norway.
As you can see also, Svedbergs brand is the biggest part at 62%, and then Macro Design is 26%, and Cassøe is 12% year to date 2021 of our total sales. Next slide, please. Financial highlights year to date 2021. The net sales year to date have had an organic growth with almost close to 12%, and increase in total sales around 26.7%. We have an effect of minus 0.5%. The acquisition of Cassøe has had a good impact of more than 50% on our total sales. The book-to-bill index is about 100 for the first nine months, and very positive for that. We are performing well, and we are taking good with orders. The EBITDA margin is 2.3% higher than compared with last year, and so we are very close with this 14.7% to our financial target that is 15%.
Last quarter we were above 15% of the quarter, this quarter a little bit lower, but we see that the 15% is the target. We have improved the cash flow for the first nine months, both in the quarter and year-to-date. It has been some impact of the increase of the stock value that we had done to secure the delivery performance to the client. Next slide, please, and over to Mats.
Thanks, Per-Arne. Good morning, everybody. Some words about our net sales performance this quarter and year to date. Sales amounted to SEK 162.2 million, which means an increase of around 25% on comparison to previous quarter or quarter three 2020. Currency effect is close to zero in this period. In the quarter, sales in the Swedish market were at SEK 109 million, an increase of nearly 13% in the quarter. The Norwegian market had a slight growth in quarter three , 0.5% increase. The same for Svedbergs with an increase of close to 39%, while Macro Design was down. Finnish sales increased by 11.4%. As a result of the acquisition of Cassøe, sales in Denmark now accounts for 13% of the sales in the quarter, and that's our second-biggest market. Sales out of Sweden accounted for 35% this year versus 27% quarter three previous year.
Note the seasonal decrease in sales in quarter three compared to quarter two , where normally July is our lowest sales month in the year. For the first nine months this year, net sales amounted to SEK 588 million, which means an increase of 26.7% compared with previous year. The currency had a negative impact, as said, with the 0.5%. Sales in the Swedish market amounted to SEK 284 million compared to SEK 258 million previous year, an increase of roughly 12%. The Norwegian market is growing on a year-to-date basis with nearly 12%. Finnish sales increased by 6.6%. The Cassøe sales on a year-to-date basis is 12.4% of the total sales. Sales out of Sweden accounted for 33% this year, compared to 24% last year. Next slide, please.
If we then repeat some of the growth numbers that Per-Arne Andersson already mentioned, we see that the quarter three growth was around 25%, of which the acquisition of Cassøe amounts for around 16%. We have a flat impact on the currency, and thus the organic growth is around 9.2%. If we talk about the nine-month numbers, it's close to 27%, where Cassøe accounts for 15%. There is a small currency effect, which is negative with 0.5%. Then the overall growth for the first nine months is 12%. In the organic growth, there are price increases included. Next slide, please. Some comments then on our profit and margins for quarter three or respectively the first nine months. The gross margin has improved quarter-over-quarter with 1.1%. In nine months, the increase is 0.9%, and quarter three versus quarter two is 2.2%.
The margins have been improved due to the fact that we have implemented price increases first of February and also second one at the first of August. We have improved volumes, which improves the gross margin. We have successful product launches with more efficient production and higher price points. If we then go to the EBITDA percentage, we have quarter-over-quarter an increase of 1.2% for the first nine months compared to previous year, an increase of 2.3%. If we talk about in between quarter three and quarter two this year, there is a slight change with 0.3%, which is mainly volume driven as we have lower sales in quarter three. In total, the EBITDA percentage is 14.8% in quarter three compared to 13.6% previous year, and the cumulative EBITDA percentage is at 14.7% compared to 12.4% previous year.
The EBITDA percent change is a little bit higher due to mainly a difference in depreciation. Next slide, please. We then go into a little bit talking about our segments. First segment is Svedbergs, where we have external sales of SEK 105 million in the quarter, which is compared to quarter three 2020 at an index of 113. We talk about nine months, we have SEK 366.6 compared to SEK 328.4, which is an increase of 112% or index 112. We talk about a little bit of sales in the different markets, the sales in the Swedish market amounted to close to SEK 80 million compared to SEK 71 million previous year, an increase with nearly 12%. The development in the Norwegian market has been very positive with a really successful cooperation with the Norwegian designer, Halvor Bakke, and the sales increased by 38.5% in the quarter.
Sales in the Finnish market increased by 8%. If we talk about the first nine months, external sales in the Swedish market is at SEK 284 million compared to SEK 258 million last year, an increase of roughly 10%. Norwegian market has increased by 34.8%. Sales in the Finnish market increased by close to 6%. The EBITDA result for the quarter amounted to SEK 17 million compared to SEK 12.2 million, which corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 16.2% compared to 13.1%, an increase of 3.1%. For the first nine months correspondingly, the EBITDA result is at close to SEK 54 million compared to 41.4% in increase, I would say, which corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 14.8% compared to an increase of 2.2% from 12.6% last year. Next slide, please.
If we go to Macro Design, we see that the sales in the quarter is SEK 40.3 million compared to SEK 40.1 million last year. If we talk about the full period, close to SEK 150 million compared to SEK 136 million last year. Indexing in the quarter at 100, index for the nine months at 10. During the quarter, external sales in the Swedish market increased by 14.8% to SEK 29.5 million compared to SEK 25.7 million last year. Norwegian sales decreased by 21.9% to SEK 10 million versus SEK 12.8 million last year. Sales is partly affected in Norway with some timing issues of deliveries.
The EBITDA result amounted to SEK 4.9 million, slightly lower than previous year of SEK 5.3 million, which corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 12.2% versus 13.2% last year, a decrease of 1%. Release of provisions 2020, as well as the timing issues, affects and explains the slight margin drop.
During the first nine months, external sales in the Swedish market increased by 18.1% to SEK 108 million, compared to SEK 91 million last year. Norwegian sales decreased by close to 3%, from SEK 40 down to SEK 38.9 million. EBITDA result amounted in the full period to close to SEK 20 million, compared to close to SEK 15 million last year, which corresponds to the EBITDA margin of 13% compared to 10.8% last year. One thing to remember there is that there was a corona support subsidy received last year of around SEK 1 million during the full year period, but no impact in the quarter. Next slide, please. The performance of Cassøe. Please note that these are reference numbers as regards 2020. Those numbers are not included in the report, but they are presented here as showing the performance of the company or the segment.
External sales in the quarter was at SEK 21.6 million compared to SEK 20.9 million, an index of 104. The full-year sales is at SEK 72 million as compared to SEK 64 and a half million, which is an index of 112. EBITDA ends up at SEK 4.7 million, an improvement with 24% versus last year in the quarter. For the full year, the improvement is 15% and we are at SEK 16.8 million. Correspondingly, EBITDA percentage is at close to 22% compared to 18.2% last year. There is an improvement for the year-over-year full period of 0.7% and ends up at 23.3%. Next slide, please. Some words about our cash flow and some other KPIs. Operating cash flow in the period was at SEK 32.3 million, is an improvement with around SEK 11 million in that respect, mainly driven, of course, by the improved result.
For the full year period, we are now at SEK 75 million with a corresponding period last year at close to SEK 61. Full year last year was at SEK 94 as a reference. The cash flow has been pretty strong compared to especially quarter one this year, which was pretty down. Working capital in the quarter is pretty flat versus end of quarter two. The increase that we have had this year is mainly related to the stock increase and the increase in size of receivables during especially quarter one and also quarter two. Talking about our equity ratio, we are at 37.2%. The ratio in quarter two was at 34. It is less than previous year, but this year we have paid out a dividend of SEK 1.25, which corresponds to SEK 26.5 million, which was not made during 2020.
Net debt has decreased to SEK 153 million. The ratio to EBITDA is trading at 1.1, down from 1.4 end of quarter two and 1.8 at year end 2020. Investments are a little bit lower this year. It is for the period of SEK 3.6 million compared to SEK 4.8 million last year. For the full year, we are at SEK 14 million compared to SEK 19 million last year. Less product development CapEx so far this year. Some larger machinery investments during 2020. Next slide, please. Some words about our work with sustainability. These are the overall objectives which can be found in our annual report for 2020, which is reducing the environmental impact of our products, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, resource efficiency, wood from sustainable and durable forestry, and responsible business.
As an example of the activities that we are working with at the moment is that we have finalized our GHG Protocol reporting Scope 1 and 2. We are working with Scope 3 at the moment. We have improved the heating efficiency and energy consumption, including monitoring the various activities. We are working with updating our sustainability communication and also with the sustainability training for all of our employees. Next slide please. Then over and back to Per-Arne.
Thank you Mats for that. Our market outlook. On this slide you can see the Byggfakta index for the Swedish market, the product business, and there is a red line there that we put where we are delivered now. It means we have a delay of around 12 months, so we can see how it's performing. From the product business side, the Swedish market seems quite promising. A positive trend for the product business. We continue to invest in product innovations and product use with also a sustainable approach in our products. We can see the huge positive effect that we had on the new product launch under the Svedbergs brand beginning of this year.
We follow very close development on the market about the corona pandemic and also the potential impact of the cement case on Gotland, how that will give and how that case will influence our business. We are very close on that. I will not be surprised if more of our purchase will be closer to our factories because we can see that we have a challenge with the deliveries from Asia and also the customer side. We see what we will do on that side. The work that we did together with our client, in this case Bonava, that we developed a special and efficient packaging and logistics system and we work with a little bit of open books to each other, have performed very well and been very successful.
Now we have worked with that with other clients, and we have get some new contract on this, and we are very happy that we start to work on this. One main thing in this is that we have our own productions. That is a key for work with this setup and this process. As we have communicate earlier, we have a target to have an annual growth of 10% and half of that from organic growth and half from acquisition. We are still looking for interest companies to acquire. Now we have the organization in place that can handle this. We continue to look on that. Thanks for that. Next slide, please. Over to Q&A.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. The first question from Johan Hedberg from Svanas. Sir, please go ahead.
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Thank you. Next question from Anna Berg, DNB. Madam, please go ahead.
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Thank you. We have no more questions for the moment. Just a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. Gentlemen, no more questions. Back to you for the conclusion.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you all for your participation.