Good day and welcome to today's presentation, Troax Group AB First Quarter Report 2024. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a Q&A session. If you wish to register for questions, you may press star one on your telephone keypad at any time during the call. At this time, I'd like to hand the call over to Mr. Thomas Widstrand. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. Thank you all for listening in. I will, for those who have been with me before, follow more or less the usual presentation mode, meaning that you can find what we call a report of the quarter one development. You'll find it then on the Troax homepage, troax.com. And you will find it under Investor. And under Investor, you will find then, if you scroll down a little bit, the first quarter presentation, which we this time call highlights for 2024. So I will roughly follow this presentation mode, but I don't think that you will have any problem to follow what I say in any case, even if you don't have access to this kind of presentation. So I'll start directly by saying then that you most of you probably know a little bit about Troax.
I'd just very briefly summarize then that we are working in three different segments. Machine Guarding is 65% something. We have what we call Warehouse Partitioning, which is 24% or something similar. And then Property Protection, which is the smallest one and especially then strong, I would say, in northern part of Europe, which is 12% of our turnover, all related into 2023 figures. Then I will also refer to what we call Automated Warehouse, which actually then is a hybrid between Machine Guarding and the Warehouse Part where we use then the automated solutions, mainly for Machine Guarding. But of course, since it's being installed in warehouses, it's sort of something mixing between those.
With most of you also have heard me say now a couple of times, Automated Warehouse have had a quite significant impact on our figures because during the COVID time it went up significantly. And then, of course, when these big international customers realized then that we, as a customer, are not buying so much through the e-commerce that they thought, then, of course, they postpone or, in some cases, even cancel then some projects. I will come back to this, but this was the history. We are also then trying to introduce something new a little bit within Troax that's what we call Active Safety. And that's where we then more actively prevent accidents.
I mean, we are, I think we can be proud to say that we are quite good in supplying very good solutions for physical safety for people in manufacturing or, you know, wherever they are. But now we are partly at least introducing some complement to this which we call Active Safety, where we are coming with solutions which, as the name implies, we more actively help the worker or the person or visitor or whoever it is who goes, for instance, to a warehouse. And we have a safe environment and not being in a hazardous area where, for instance, a forklift truck could by accident hit this person. I jump a little further into the presentation and talk very briefly about the year in brief.
So, we have approximately 80% or a little bit more is actually in the more, let's say, developed countries where, of course, we report mainly in Europe is the big one where we have, for instance, then, of course, Germany and Italy who are very strong consumer markets for us. We have the U.K., who is complementing this in a good way, 9%, and the Nordics with 16%. Even if we see from quarter four, including now also quarter one 2024, there's, of course, the building market where the Nordics is quite dependent on is then substantially reducing. I will come back to this. North America also been reducing in practice then because of this Automated Warehouse. But nevertheless, we think we have a good position there for future growth.
So in percentages, there was 17% which was the same as last year. And then we have the growth potential more long-term which we call New Markets which, of course, includes then the Asia-Pacific markets and India and a few other countries which is now for 2023 has been growing from 6%-8%. There you have roughly then the split up from the geographical area. I'll jump to the next slide for those who are into this because this just shows the financial figure for 2023. And we already talked about that last year where we ended then with EUR 264 million in turnover and approximately 20% in operating margin or EUR 90.6 million to be exact. So I go to then what we call then the financial targets and make a summary of that for the first quarter.
First quarter is actually manifested or you can say that, when we talk about the first quarter, there's not really much that has happened from a market point of view. It's a similar market compared with quarter four, meaning it's a little bit weaker but still a good market, I would say, for most of our product offerings and most of our regions. So it's a rather stable development, I would say. Nevertheless, because of still we have some delay from this Automated Warehouse invoicing that we had last year, we have then a reduction in organic growth of 6% whereas then we have including the acquisition of Garantell that we did, first of December last year. Then we actually have an increase then. But organically, we have seen then a slight decrease of the demand during first quarter.
Obviously, we continue to have target on the profitability side which is 20% or more. So when we then look at the EBITDA, it's actually a little bit lower this quarter. And normally, first quarter is a little bit lower. But this quarter, it's been influenced then by a few one-off items or one-time issues. That sometimes happens. But it's not so that we have these kind of costs every quarter. I wouldn't call it extraordinary costs because we do this kind of, let's say, restructuring or changes from time to time.
Nevertheless, it's important for you to understand then that what we show here which is actually rounded off then to 16% which was in reality 15.5% was more clear I would say 17% or actually a little bit higher than 17% if you exclude this kind of one-time cost that I'm going to share with you within a minute or two. So I'm coming back to that. On the capital structure, despite the purchase that we did or the acquisition on 1 December, it's quite good. We are still in relationship by the net debt to EBITDA. We are in 0.9x or far below our target level. So we are in quite good situation. And regarding dividend, as you probably know, perhaps already, we've had the annual general meeting today and the assembly then in the general assembly accepted then the proposal.
So this 54% that was proposed then from the board has been accepted. So this will be paid out now in the beginning of May for those who are shareholders, I think, on Wednesday of this week. That's the date where it's being based upon. So if I try to summarize the first quarter, you will have for those who of you who are following this presentation, you have a summary of that then in the presentation called Summary First Quarter. I think we can say then that it's been characterized by a continuation of a little bit lower market activity, especially then from the Automated Warehouse customers but also in the building market that started to go down in the fourth quarter last year and now during the first quarter has, so to speak, had the same development.
And as you know, then the building market for new building in the Nordic area is very weak. And every statistic is pointing in the wrong direction, so to speak. So, even if, of course, we are trying to continue to increase our market shares in this area, I think we're expecting then to have a rather weak development in this market, towards the end of the year. I think at least for 2024, we're going to see a continuation in all this low activity level here. Now, having said this, it was so that the quarter, actually started, I would say, a little bit weak in January and February where March was, starting better and gradually improving.
We have seen certain, let's say, highlights which are positive in the quarter, meaning then that some customers were starting to request quotes for bigger projects which was not so; we didn't have so many of those requests, let's say, during January and February. So whether this is a more positive trend, we have to evaluate. And my successor, Martin Nyström, will have to comment on this when you'll hear him then in August when we present the second quarter. But at least, towards the end of the first quarter, it looked a little bit more positive at least compared to the beginning of the quarter. Generally speaking, we think that the market is continuing to have stable activity levels with the exception that I already described.
We've seen a reasonable development, except in the Nordic area and a continued lack of, of also in the automotive sector in North America. The automotive sector in North America seems to have postponed a number of bigger projects, especially within the electric car field investment part. So we were told in quarter four, which was already then rather weak for North America, that this was going to start up again, this investment we mean, in quarter one. But we haven't seen this actually. So now the information is that they inform us that this will be started up again during the summer. And this could very well be true. But I got feelings, of course, that all these projects are being a little bit delayed. So I wouldn't be surprised if there are a little bit further delays maybe before the orders come to us.
But that they will come to us, I'm convinced of. But you can argue a little bit about when they will come. So, we're not terribly worried about the development from an order point of view even if, of course, then 2024 will not be from an order point of view, I think, fantastic. Regarding steel price, it's been continuing to be stable. So no real deviation there. And as I said then already in the introduction, we've seen then a lower EBITDA in quarter one 2024 partly because of volume situation is as regards Automated Warehouse was then, of course, below what it was, quarter one last year. And in general, there was a little bit weak volume development in especially the American and the Polish and manufacturing units. But for the other ones, it was quite okay.
So it's not I wouldn't say that it has a major influence even if, of course, it is reducing a little bit the coverage of fixed costs. But during the first quarter then, we have had a few what I call one-off costs or one-time costs. And the main one is then that we have closed which has been planned for a long time. We have closed the remaining acquired manufacturing unit in Poland. We bought two a couple of years ago when we bought the company Natom. One was closed very quickly after the acquisition. And the last one is now closed here actually in March. And we have taken then some one-off costs for that. Both connected with the actual physical move from the old factory to the new one that we've had now for a couple of years out outside of Poznań in Poland.
So the cost for moving is, of course, then included in the result as a negative item. We also have made some depreciation of main machinery that was not fully depreciated which we, of course, will not then move to the new unit. And then we have, of course, some redundancy costs for the people who are the 25 people that remained redundant and have left now after 1 April. On top of this, we've had also some startup costs with our new manufacturing unit in China. I wouldn't exaggerate those figures because these are normal figures. But of course, on the top of it, it cost a few hundred thousand euros extra in the result account during the quarter when you start up these activities because we still have partly then during the quarter two manufacturing units.
Now the old one is closed. So we shouldn't have any costs from that after 1 April. But as I said, during the first quarter, we've had a little bit of a double cost for that. So if you then exclude these one-off costs and this is just a hypothetical issue, obviously, but just for your understanding and especially for you who are following the company, I would say if you exclude these kind of one-off costs, we would end up somewhere between 17%-17.5% in EBITDA margin which is more in line with what we should be even if it's still then a little bit on the low side.
And the difference then, to round this off totally, to where we may should have been then under normal circumstances is then that we still have, as I said already, a little bit low volume then especially in the American and Polish units. And then coupled with that, we also in Europe have sold, in the first quarter quite good volumes to the automotive industry. And in that industry, we have slightly lower margin. Nothing wrong with that. But it has a little bit of a negative impact then, of course, on the on the margin side. So otherwise, it's been rather stable and not anything, you know, which is worth mentioning. If you look specifically on the gross margin, it looks on the paper it does not reach the target level.
But as I said before, if you then exclude the acquisition of Garantell, which gives, when you consolidate the activities then from these more, let's call it, lower margin products that Garantell is producing and selling, we get then a negative impact of somewhere between 1% and 1.5% then on the consolidated gross margin. So if you exclude that already there, we are on the same level as last year, hypothetically, I mean. And then on top of that, we have already said then that we've had these one-off costs which, of course, also have mainly an effect on the gross margin side. On the sales side, I've already commented then what was negative. But I can say also something that was more positive.
We've had quite a good development in New Markets where especially the Asia-Pacific have shown then good development during Q1 with for many years. As you know, we've been there and we've been trying step by step to grow our business. At least now for the first quarter, it was quite, quite okay and much better than before. Very stable, I would say, also in Continental Europe despite the fact that it shows then, you know, more or less a similar figure than last year. I would say that bearing in the demand in mind then that the demand probably is a little bit weak generally speaking, I would say then that the what we've done with orders and sales in Continental Europe is quite okay.
So because then the EBITDA was lower, of course, you get then adjusted earnings per share which, unfortunately, is a bit lower. And that's something for us then, of course, to come back to and try to compensate for the rest of the year. On the working capital, it's on a similar level to last year. We have before reduced inventory. So this quarter has not been a big influence. There are still a few things to be done. But I would say that generally speaking, working capital is quite okay. And the newly acquired company Garantell, they've continued with a decent development. And the result which we are not specifically showing, but I can at least say then that it's according to specification or, sorry, expectation and follows then what, more or less our ideas were that we could do in the beginning, right.
So I go very briefly and talk a little bit at the next page about the figures. I won't go through that in any details. But you see then that with the acquisition of Garantell, we have higher order intake and sales. But as I said, if you exclude that and you take the organic growth, unfortunately, it's on the negative side. The gross margin, as I said, looks a little bit lower this quarter compared with last year. But if you just exclude the Garantell, then we will come very similar to last year. And then, of course, these margins are negatively influenced by the one-off costs that I've already now described. And this, of course, goes through then to EBITDA and, of course, further down the result account.
So it's fairly easy, I would say, to both to analyze and to understand the result for the first three months. If you look at the regional development, I already commented which for you all follows this presentation is on the next page that, I would say then that the Continental Europe have done a quite decent job. We are in line, I would say, with our expectation. Nordic is going down quite substantially because of the mainly of the building sector. And you can see then that the orders is going down lower than the sales which means then that we are expecting then on the sales side to get a little bit lower, turn, I would say, during the rest of the year. UK is doing quite okay as you see on the on the other side. So very positive there.
North America lower in orders again, Automated Warehouse. Sorry to repeat myself, but this is the main effect. Otherwise, North America is doing quite okay even if, as I said, also the automotive have been rather weak here during the first quarter. And then New Markets, which is then substantially better in percentages. But you see also that the absolute figures are, you know, not that high. So it has unfortunately doesn't have that big influence on the total figures. So if I try to conclude before we move into some final words and you get the opportunity to ask questions, I would say then that it's been rather stable development despite then that the market has been demanding, a little bit weaker.
We've received several important orders in all segments even on the Building side even if the total figure then, of course, in this quarter is what I would say on the lower side. The lower result reported is reflecting both a little bit of lower utilization of our manufacturing units and some one-off costs connected with mainly then the closure of this unit in Poland which I have been trying to describe to you. There are no major changes in demand, I would say, during first quarter even if you remember, I said then that we started the quarter with a little bit lower activity and it improved during March. Let's see now during quarter two how it will go. But again, the Building market, we do see that it will not improve short term.
Then the question is when the automotive segment in North America will get started. Probably will be either during Q1 or Q3. Whereas the Automated Warehouse, as we have communicated before, will not get started, earliest during the end of the year, probably during Q1, I would say, of next year is more realistic as I see it today. And the Garantell then is, following the calculations that we did. So we're quite happy with development so far. Jumping down to the more overall issues, we still have on the next page a summary of the growth factors. You've heard this before, so I will not bore you with going through this again. But it's still based on then that we have an increased industrial automation and robotization. This is continuing also in bad times.
So I don't think we are very afraid of seeing any negative development there. Even of course, it will go a little bit up and down with the financial development generally in the world. We have also the growth in e-commerce which I've said then that, at the moment, is quite quiet. But it will get started probably, let's say, during Q1 next year. The onshoring of manufacturing, many people are talking about that. We see some signs of it. But I don't think that we should be, let's say, too concerned about this neither positive nor negative because we do see that some customers are expanding the facilities then, for instance, in Europe or in North America where it before was in Asia or Asia Pacific.
But of course, for us being then in the industrial parts of the world, it doesn't matter so much if, you know, the customer makes an investment in China or in North America as long as they make the investment because that's the key, of course. So for us, it might be a little bit better, of course, to make it in North America or Europe because we have better market share. But otherwise, I would say in principle, it doesn't have this huge impact on us as a company. On the next page, you have the summary of the production units. There are some smaller changes here.
We have, in China, an increase then the capacity from a little bit below 100,000 meters per year or 100,000 panels to at least 300,000, which means then that mathematically, we have low capacity utilization. But this is, of course, based on that we long term or preferably a medium term, expect to see then a good volume development there, meaning then that the capacity utilization will go up. And then, of course, we have then the acquired Garantell which is on the right side here, which is placed in a city not far away from Hillerstorp or Värnamo. And there we have a lot of capacity both for shelves and for anti-collapse. And we think that the capacity utilization give and take a little bit could be around 60%, maybe a little bit higher. Let's see about us when things are stabilized a little bit more.
With this, I don't want to bore you too much because I think you heard most of it. You know that we are working then with we're trying to increase the recyclable steel. We're trying to reduce then, of course, the CO2 impact. We're trying to and we do investment to do it then based on the environmental evaluation, etc., etc. We will start now with reporting in accordance with CSRD with the 2024. We're reporting next year and report. The other things here, you can read for yourselves. So with this, I'd like to just summarize and say from our point of view, first quarter was not really an extraordinary quarter, a little bit weak in demand but rather stable development.
So don't get a little bit too hung up on that. The result was a little bit lower because a lot of it was coming from these one-off items. Even, of course, there are some tendencies which is also working against an improved result. But this is the way it always is. It's not changed there. So with this, I'd like to end my presentation and give the words to you because I'm sure you have a number of questions now connected with this. So please go ahead.
Thank you, Thomas. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. Now, our first question comes from Gustav Berneblad from Nordea. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon, Thomas. It's Gustav here from Nordea. Hi.
Yeah? Hi.
Just in terms of the gross margin, I mean, you were probably very clear here. But just to clarify, was Garantell alone impacting the gross margin negatively by 1-1.5 percentage points? And then yeah, okay. And then if we adjust also for the one-off costs, I mean, you write in the report that you would be at a financial target. Do you refer to 39%-40% then or?
You could say that. Yes, correct. Yeah.
Yeah, okay. Perfect. That's clear.
And regarding EBITDA, just to be very clear, we will probably not have reached exactly the 18.7% that we had last year or the 20% that we have as a target because firstly, first quarter is normally a little bit weaker quarter.
And secondly then, as I said, we had a little bit too low capacity utilization during first quarter to reach our targets.
Yes. And maybe just on the EBITDA margin, to also get that clear, you comment on higher normal cost of sales partly due to marketing then. Is it possible to quantify these at all or?
Yeah. What you can get from me is a little bit said on that. If you look at the higher cost of sales, a big part of that, of course, comes from the consolidation of Garantell. But then also, we've done, let's say, our own increases which, maybe you could say was a little bit on the aggressive side from a customer point of view during First Quarter. And you can calculate that to be in the range of EUR 500,000 or something like this.
Okay. Perfect. So when you adjust or reach the 17% adjusted EBITDA margin, does this include the adjustments for the higher cost of sales or?
Now, when I say 17% or something like this, this includes then these kind of sales costs that we had during first quarter. So I have not excluded any costs.
Okay. Oh, that's clear. That's clear. Thanks. And then, I mean, looking at sort of, you comment a bit on seeing some signs of demand from the onshoring in Q4 primarily in Machine Guarding. Are you still seeing this or is this?
No, we are seeing this. What I said before is I want to turn down a little bit the expectation as you understand because, wherever we deliver it doesn't make so big difference for us. But yes, we see some development in this area both in Europe and in North America.
Oh, that's great. And then, just the last one here, I mean, it seems like the year-over-year price level still remains sort of unchanged for you. But we have seen some signs from early Q1 reports of price decreases from companies here. Would you say that you still expect to have lower prices or have to lower prices somewhat to your customers going forward or what do you see here?
This is very sensitive because I think some customers, I'm sure, are listening into this call. But I can say like this that during Q1, we have not reduced any prices. Of course, you will have some negotiations with, you know, customers here and there where, of course, you end up with hopefully something which is acceptable for most parties. But we are not expecting any major price reductions or general reductions, with what we know today.
Oh, that's very clear. Thank you very much. That's all for me. Also, good luck out there.
Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Daniel Lindkvist from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, Daniel.
Hi, Thomas. So just starting off then, many of the questions around the gross margin and extra costs and so on were answered. But on the Garantell side, now reading the report, it seems like Q2 should seasonally be their strongest quarter. Is that right? Because I think the order intake is much shorter than for the rest of the business.
So they could basically have order intake for yet two months after this that could still be delivered in Q2. Is that right?
Yeah. You're probably right. I haven't dug into the figures from the order book so much for Garantell this time. But in principle, you're right. They have a short order book. And normally, they have a rather short lead time between they get the orders and they send it out. So yes, you're probably right, Daniel.
And Q2 in a normal year is the seasonally strongest quarter.
Yes. Yes. Normally, Q2 is quite strong. Correct.
Cool. So then, I mean, I just want to thank you for this time then, Thomas. I mean, you've been a role model in so many ways. And it's always been evident that you genuinely enjoyed your work. And that has made us.
Absolutely. Yeah.
And that has made us enjoy our work as well. And we've, I think, many with me have felt personally recognized when dealing with you and also learned a lot, especially when it comes to your proficiency in making the most of the market-leading position you have. And also, I think, a role model when it comes to guiding investors no matter what knowledge level or experience you have with your company. So you will be dearly missed. But it seems like you have a good successor in place. And I'm happy that we'll meet again here soon in other instances. So thank you so much, Thomas. And all the best and luck in the future.
Thank you very much, Daniel. Very nice words. It was too nice. But nevertheless, I will remember it for the years to come. Thank you, Daniel.
Okay. Perfect. Thanks.
Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. Now, my next question comes from Anna Widström from Carnegie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Thomas. It's Anna from Carnegie.
Yeah. Hi, Anna.
Hi. So firstly, I wish to ask you on some details on the Polish cost savings and the Chinese expansion, sort of what kind of cost savings are expected. And, I mean, you mentioned that the people are going home on 1 April. So should we see some positive cost effects already in Q2 or are there some balancing things? So maybe we should see firstly in Q3 and so on.
Yeah. You should see some cost savings already in Q2 because the 25 people that we have laid off, we have in principle paid now the redundancy and their salary. That I mean, they had a normal salary or wages during the first quarter which in principle should disappear now for quarter two if, you know, if we don't get new very high orders which demands more, extra people. So if you calculate for yourself then that, 25 people times, what the average cost in Poland is which is, of course, lower than Europe. But nevertheless, not that low anymore. You get then, at least some sort of cost savings then that you can use for your own sake, so to speak. [crosstalk] .
You also have, of course, also some other reductions of cost meaning then that you have less energy because now we're producing one place and the machines will run in a more efficient way. You have less cost for rent. But I don't want to go out with no other figure because it's on a consolidated basis. It's not that high figure. But in principle, that will, of course, also help which is needed as we have seen then that Natom is badly hurt by this reduction in volumes from the Automated Warehouse. So this reduction of 25 people was very clearly needed to reduce then the costing in that unit.
Okay. Looking on the cash flow, there's some increase in working capital. Could you maybe give us some details on this?
Oh, I mean, working capital, like I say, if I start from the other angle, from the cash flow, normally, we have a little bit lower cash flow or weak cash flow in Quarter One. But this year, we've also if you read everything in detail, you will find that we have paid EUR 2 million for our own shares. So we have bought back roughly in value EUR 2 million which, of course, influenced our cash flow. So that has a certain influence, of course, indirectly on the working capital. Otherwise, I would say that we have the receivables is under control. In general, also, inventory is under control.
But by the end of first quarter, we have a little bit, I would say, too high inventory on the work in progress, where customers then are either installing our stuff, and where we're helping them, where we then have to wait until it's finished until we can invoice. Or in some cases, as you know, so we have in ourselves then been maybe a little bit too flexible in, let's say, ordering too early. So we have a little bit to do there. But we're not talking about big money here, Anna.
Okay. And to ask you on if you have any sort of guidance on the new construction exposure in Garantell?
Sorry. I didn't catch it. New construction of.
Yeah. So it's basically part basically property protection sort of, you know, that aspect of it.
Yeah. Also, Garantell is hit a little bit by, of course, the building market even albeit that in a lesser extent than the Troax Nordic areas because Troax Nordics is quite, let's say, heavy or have a good market share in that area. Garantell has a lower market share. And then it's also other type of products which, for the first quarter, haven't had more, let's call it, stable developments. So you would, on the total for Garantell, you don't see these kind of negative figures as you see for Troax. But in principle, they get influenced in the same way. It's just that they have a little bit different product mix and a different dependence on building sector. So you don't see it in the same way.
Okay. And, one of my last questions then. We had Easter in Q1. Could we sort of expect that the sales and ordering take was slightly affected in a negative way from Easter being in Q1?
Sorry. I'm sorry. I can't hear you very well. Could you repeat your question?
We had Easter in Q1 in 2024. Oh, yeah. Easter. Could we expect that we had a negative effect on sales and orders from the Easter effect?
That's a very good question. And I quite understand it. I would say that, yes, you have lower invoicing days in March this year compared to last year's. Obviously, it has an impact. I would say, though, on the order side, you shouldn't see it to have that effect because I do believe that the customers will put in orders even if they go on Easter to have a vacation. But on invoicing, yes, it has a certain effect. That is correct. But not so much on orders, I would say, Anna.
Okay. Great. Then I just want to join in with Daniel and wish you good luck and say thank you for doing this.
Thank you, Anna. Appreciate that. Looking forward to see you all again.
Thank you. And it seems there are currently no further questions at this time. Please, I'd like to hand the call back over to Thomas Widstrand. Oh, apologies. We have a pop-up call question from Johan Skoglund from DNB Markets. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Okay. Hi, Johan.
Hello. Hello. So just a question on Garantell without coming into the group. So just so we understand, what are the steps here to increase the margin? Is it automation, sales volumes, decreasing overhead, or any other factors?
No. Garantell is, by definition, then, a little bit lower margin than the rest of the Troax Group. So it has a somewhat similar structure to Natom which we bought a number of years ago because these products are more, let's say, competitive from a cost point of view compared with competitors. So it's not so that I think that we just by coming in here can raise prices. We don't have those ideas because we are, as you know, a long-term partner to our customers. But so it's more to answer your question, it's more about raising the volumes which I think is quite possible to do in Garantell. But it will take a little bit, you know, step by step. So you shouldn't expect any short-term major improvements from a gross margin point of view.
But I think over time, you will. There are quite possibilities to see some improvements then in margin and, of course, also in results. But it will be step by step.
Great. I realize you answered my second question there as well. So thank you so much. Good luck.
Yeah. Thank you, Johan. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a few more questions now in the queue. The next one comes from Zino Engdalen from SHB. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Thanks for taking our questions. Just to be clear on the one-offs, so we then can expect some cost savings ahead. But just to make sure that all the costs have, so to say, been taken in this quarter? Or should we expect anything in Q2?
You mean from the disclosure in Poland?
Yeah.
No, we've taken all the costs that we know about at least in quarter one. That's the only whole setup. We don't want to have any, you know, costs going forward. So what we know today, we've taken all the costs in Q1.
Perfect. Just with regards to Automated Warehouse, it sounds now that maybe 2025 is more realistic to get orders than in late 2024. But have you heard any has the tone of your customers changed, in any material way, due to higher interest rates and such?
Yeah. I think, in general, you're right that, I think especially the beginning of the year when I said that it was a little bit low activity, I think that had a major effect coming from the Swedish interest rate.
And people were waiting to get some signals that the interest rates were going down. Now, even if this is a little bit speculation from my side, this is the message we get then from our customers. So I think that will when that now which looks at least probable that it will start to decrease sometime during next year or this year, that will have a healthy effect on these kind of huge investments that we're talking about in Automated Warehouse. But how let's say how in practice this will influence when they put order to us is difficult to assess. So I do believe that what they've been telling us is more or less true even if I'm a little bit cynical about when the orders will come because I calculate it will take a bit longer time.
But in the meantime, I do see also that some of the integrators that are working with these kind of big international players, they don't have a lot of work. So there are not so many projects out there. So I think these kind of customers primarily even if, of course, we also feel it but these kind of customers will have a difficult period during 2024 then until the new product will be started regardless if that is towards the end of this year or beginning of next year.
Okay. Thank you. Those were my questions. And applause to you, Thomas, and your team for what you've built during your tenure as CEO. Best wishes ahead.
Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Very kind of you.
And we have a follow-up question from Daniel Lindkvist from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, Thomas. Just want to make the most of the opportunity to have you still on these kind of conferences. So, I mean, now, I was hoping for something visionary in the report. But then as soon as I read it, I realized you were too much of a gentleman to put any heat on Martin for the future. But, if you just look back from when you started out, now, you have a very much broader offering and many interesting names. So. Should we still read the 8%-10% as a normalized year in a normalized economy for the future as well? Or has anything changed in that sense?
I understand your question, Daniel. I mean, it's a good question which I will refrain from answering with an exact percentage, obviously. But I can say like this that during many years we've had, or as an average, we've had these 8%-10%, in some cases higher percentages in organic growth. And there's nothing in the circumstances creating then, let's say, a good business atmosphere for us that we can utilize both with the market going forward and with taking market share. There's nothing which has negatively influenced this so far as I can judge. So the circumstances that we've been working with before are still there even if, of course, right now, we have maybe a little bit gloomy general economic condition. But over a business cycle, there should be the possibilities to continue to grow. Even I don't want to, you know, nail down a specific percentage.
Perfect. That's the one for me. Thank you so much, Thomas.
Thank you, Daniel.
It appears this was the last question today. They said they'd like to hand the call back over to Thomas for any additional org-wise remarks. Over to you, sir.
In that case, I'd just like to thank you very much. You have given me very many nice words which, of course, I appreciate. But as you said, it's a very good teamwork here from the people. These people will remain here also when I leave. I will still be in the board and see if I can do some some use continue for the group. I believe I've got a very good successor here, Martin Nyström, who will hopefully then come with a little bit new ideas and new ways of approaching things.
So hopefully, then, you will be able then to ask him in August then what kind of ideas he has and what kind of impression he has over the future. But until then, I would like to thank you very much for listening to me and, and also your interest in Troax. And I hope that that will continue. And I wish you all the best. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.