All right. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the third quarter report for Troax Group. My name is Martin Nyström, and I'm here together with Anders Eklöf, who is the Group CFO, and we'll present the key developments as well as the results for the third quarter. After the presentation, we will, as usual, have a Q&A, and we'll get back to that in due time. So, without further ado, I will start presenting the key developments and figures for the quarter. So, if we summarize the third quarter, we had order intake growth in a bit of a mixed market environment. We saw positive development in pretty much all sales regions but Northern Europe, so Nordics, as well as the German-speaking countries. Our order intake grew by 8%, and we also had a structural effect from the acquisitions made last year of 9%.
We had a strong quarter when it came to sales, which grew by 12%, where we were supported by organic growth of 10%. Promising during the quarter is also that we start to see signs of the automated warehousing market, and there has been some more activity in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. I think this is very promising that this market will pick up for both 2025 as well as 2026. During the quarter, we delivered a strong EBITDA margin despite the fact that we still are having relatively low volumes. We had a solid gross profit in line with our internal target. Also, we had sales and marketing costs in line with our plan, which is also kept well under control. In total, we had an EBITDA margin of 19.7% in the quarter.
We also continued to deliver strong cash flow and continued to strengthen our balance sheet, so we had strong operating cash flow, our net debt continued to reduce, and our balance sheet continues to be strong for growth investment, both when it comes to organic investments as well as through acquisitions. I think also very promising during the quarter is that we have a couple of key events. We already, in the Q2 report, talked about our acquisition of our Czech Republic distributor, enabling further growth in Eastern Europe. We've also inaugurated our new facility in China, which I will come back to in a second. Also, very promising growth investment for the future in APAC, and we've also made a decision to invest in further capacity and more efficiency in our North American operations, so all in all, a very solid quarter, the third quarter.
If I then move into one of the Q3 highlights, we inaugurated our new facility in China in September, where we built a state-of-the-art, world-class factory, which will definitely be the key enabler to continue our profitable growth journey in APAC, and here in the picture, you see a pretty happy crowd taking part of that inauguration, so very positive for future growth in both China as well as in APAC. If we then move into the market development in the quarter, and this is now the year-on-year comparison and organic, so it's excluding acquisitions or structure. If we start with the regional view, we had Continental Europe decreasing -5% in the quarter. Continental Europe is also our largest sales area. We saw North America growing 12% in the quarter. We saw the Nordics continuing to decline, driven mainly by the Construction segment.
We saw almost flat or minus one in the U.K., with a bit of a mixed development between the different segments. And our New Markets continued to grow very nicely during the quarter, with 33% up. If we then move from geographical markets into segments, we look at the world through the lens of five segments. So, if we start with Automotive being roughly 20% of our business, we had an increase during the quarter. This was driven by Continental Europe and North America as well as New Markets. I think we continue to ride on the wave of some customers investing in both Europe as well as North America. So, I think this was positive during the quarter. And we've also done a good job when it comes to breaking new ground in New Markets.
If we move over to warehousing, being roughly 25% of our business, we also saw a positive development during the third quarter. Here, there has been a little bit of a mix between the different regions, but all in all, we can report that we saw an increase during the quarter. Continental Europe still being declining, but very positive trends and also a bit more light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to North America, Nordics, U.K., and new markets. Also, here, I think I'm slightly more positive now than a quarter ago on the development going into 2025 and 2026. Moving over to Construction, and we're in this area we're down. Here, there is a bit of a mixed picture.
I would say the main driver for this is our Nordics Property Protection business, which continues to be down based on still low volumes of new apartments built. But here, I'd say we could also see that there is a little bit of a positive development on the renovation side during the quarter. So, a bit more activity on that side. Process being very flat overall, a bit of a positive sign in the U.K. And last but not least, the other segment, which is down, and you can see this pretty much as a proxy for general industry production. So, we're down in most areas aside of new markets. So, all in all, this takes us to -1% organic growth for the quarter versus the quarter last year.
If we then take a bit of a longer look or a longer-term perspective on the Troax Group growth, and on this page, you see the quarterly development, so the order intake and sales growth respectively, year on year, and here I think if we move back a bit in time, I think the overinvestment and really the market momentum that we saw back in 2021, I think, sticks out really well in this picture, both when it comes to order intake as well as sales, then as you know, we've been into a bit of a slump here from 2022 through 2023, but now we're into the third consecutive quarter of growth, and I should say here that we're still having a growth being driven predominantly by acquisition structures and not organic growth.
But still, overall, we're now having the third consecutive quarter of order intake as well as sales growth, which I find very promising. With that, I would like to hand over to you, Anders, to go through a bit more into the details of the key metrics that we have. So, please, Anders.
Thank you very much, Martin. If we start then looking at the order intake, we had a growth in the third quarter of 8%, going from EUR 62.3 million in Q3 of 2023 to EUR 67 million in Q3 of 2024. This growth came from a 9% structure, whereas the organic was down by 1%. Next slide. If we then look at sales, here we saw a growth of 12% year-o ver- year, going from EUR 61.4 million to EUR 69 million in sales. And here we had 10% structure in the numbers and a 2% organic growth in the quarter. Next. Looking at EBITDA, we went from EUR 12.8 million in Q3 of 2023 and ended up at EUR 13.6 million in Q3 of 2024. This gives an EBITDA margin of 19.7% in the quarter, which is below Q3 of last year, where we had 20.9%.
If we then look at the comparable numbers, excluding structure, we had a 20.3% EBITDA margin in Q3 of this year. Next slide, please. And if we then look at working capital development, you can see the diagram here is very flat. We have gone up from 56.9 million EUR in working capital in Q3 of last year to 58.9 million EUR in Q3 of this year. And then if we look at the percentage of sales, the working capital is down compared to Q3 of last year. Next slide. Net debt has developed well in the quarter. Sequentially, we went from 1.0 in Q2 of this year to 0.9 in Q3 of last year. So, that gives us a good potential and good strength for future acquisitions, as we see it. Next slide. And then operating cash flow was also good in the quarter.
We ended up at EUR 13.7 million in cash flow from operations compared to EUR 12.5 million in the same quarter of last year. So, good development also there. Next slide. And just to summarize then all the numbers, I have touched basically everything already in this chart. I just wanted to point out also that from an earnings per share standpoint, we ended up at EUR 0.16 for the quarter, which is the same level as Q3 of last year. So, same level. And with that, I hand over again back to Martin for conclusions.
Thank you, Anders, so to conclude the third quarter, I think we see a mixed demand picture, positive in many areas, but more challenging in the northern parts of Europe, but still, we had order intake growth, which was good in the quarter. We delivered a strong EBITDA margin despite lower volumes, and we continue to deliver good cash flow and strengthening our balance sheet, and during the quarter, we have also done some really good progress when it comes to our strategic priorities, when it comes to expanding our footprint in Eastern Europe, inaugurating our facility in APAC in China, and we're also looking forward to continue the positive development in North America, then, before we move into the Q&A section, I just want to remind you = why we exist and what we believe in, and we are a safety company caring for everyone's and everyday safety.
And if you're a customer and partner to Troax, you partner up with the safety authority, making sure you get back home safe every day and bringing your businesses or business sustainably higher productivity. So, play it safe and play it with Troax Group. And with that, I'd like to move into the Q&A session. And I'd like you to then raise your hand. And we will then open the mic one by one. And please also don't forget to unmute yourselves when you get asked to do so. All right. Then we'd see how we start. I think we start with [Sino].
Yes, hello. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking our questions.
Hi, Sino.
Just starting off a bit on Europe, it would be nice to just hear you elaborate a bit more. Sales were, of course, quite good, but the order intake a bit on the weaker side compared with last year. If you can just elaborate a bit on how you're feeling about the region.
Yeah, I think Europe is also a mixed bag of things. I think we particularly see Nordics continuing to be quite weak. I think aside of a few key customers that we have in the German-speaking area, we also see the underlying market continue to be weak, I'd say. I don't think that has gone any better during the third quarter. On the other hand, I think we continue to see pretty stable and perhaps a bit of a better development in the southern parts of Europe. I think it's also within inside Europe, south, north, Nordic, U.K., I think it's different developments and also the different segments are developing differently, and I also think that we will continue to see a mixed picture going into the fourth quarter and also into 2025.
Okay. And just to follow up on Europe, from the picture, if I saw correctly, that automotive had a green arrow given what we're seeing and have read during the quarter. That's quite interesting. Could you just elaborate on what's going on there?
Yeah. I think when it comes to automotive, in a sense, we are relatively late into the investment cycle. If you look at where we are in the chain, I think the investments that our key customers have decided to continue, they have continued, so to speak, in the quarter, which also means that we're seeing this green arrow. I'd say also that this is a bit of a you need to also consider what the comparable for the quarter last year was. But I'd say automotive, if we look at what we can read from newspapers and so on, I think it's surprisingly strong in Europe specifically.
Okay. And just two questions on North America, which, of course, had a nice order intake. From what I saw in the report, you only highlighted Active Safety. Is it so that Active Safety is an important driver in the growth from year to year? Or have you seen an uptick from some of these late investments that have been postponed?
Yeah, and I'd say what drives the growth is not numbers-wise Active Safety. I think the Active Safety comment is more directed for the future. I think we have been working, and the teams have been working really hard to break through with our Active Safety offering in the U.S. for pretty much the last year or one and a half. I think it's really good to see that that starts to pay off, even though it's still low numbers. But it's promising to start getting reference customers into the U.S. And of course, there's a lot of potential in that. I think what drives the North American growth is what you'd say is more of the conventional business. So it's the warehousing business as well as the automotive business that drives the plus the numbers.
Okay. And staying in North America, just on the investment, which you wrote about in the report, could you, I don't know where you are in the process, but could you indicate a size of the investment and when you expect it to start?
Yeah. So we have now looked at our options to grow our North American business and also to make it a bit more efficient. So we're just into the process of evaluating what to do. That goes for location. That partly goes for the size of the investment as well. But to give you a ballpark, we're looking to make an investment somewhere between $8 million and perhaps $10 million in machinery. And to that, there is, of course, buildings and other things which might not technically be an investment. So that's a bit where we are in the process. Now, we're evaluating where we want to locate this and what's the best option for us. And the aim for us is then to have a new facility up and running during 2026.
Okay. Very good. I got back in line. Thank you.
Perfect. Thank you, Sino. And the next one would be Anna.
Hello. Can you hear me okay?
Absolutely, Anna.
Okay. Perfect. So my first question is regarding the inauguration of the China site. My reading is that it sounds like it's both internal efficiency that we can see from it, but also that it's a bit growth-related. Could you give us some more details?
Yeah. No, absolutely. I think there are, you could say, two things. I think there's certainly efficiency that we have now invested in a facility, which is just as efficient as the other sites we have in the group, with the exception of the U.S., which we just talked about. So I think it's certainly being able to be a more competitive site to this. At the same time, our products don't travel super well in terms of long lead times, costs, etc. So being close and being able to provide shorter lead times at lower cost, so for us, regionalization makes good sense.
So, in order for us to serve both the Chinese market as well as the other markets in the region, being closer to that market also from a production supply point of view makes a lot of sense and also will help us to be more competitive and hence take market share.
Okay, and then going into warehousing, these sort of positive signs that you see, do you see it from specifically larger customers, or is it both larger customers, mid-sized, and smaller? How does it look?
I think you should see that comment as a broad comment. I'd say specifically to where we see activities and a few larger projects on the horizon, so to speak. I think that comment comes mainly from the larger customers, where we see activity picking up. Then there is, of course, for the smaller customers and the bread and butter, there is also a bit more activity in the pipeline. So I think the comment comes mainly from the specific customers, but I'd say it also goes for a bit broader customer base.
Okay. Maybe a follow-up on that, if we could talk a bit on the current developments, as it's also very affected by the Warehousing segment.
Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. So I think we had a really good quarter in the third quarter. If we go back and remember the discussion we had after Q2, Garantell is to a large extent exposed to the warehousing business and also geographically to the Nordics and Continental Europe without words. That market has been during 2023 and the beginning of 2024, as you know, very weak, even though now lately fairly stable. I think if we look at the performance of Garantell throughout 2024 and we compare to what others are doing in these industries, I think it's fair to say that we clearly believe that we have gained market share in a very tough environment. So during the third quarter, I'm pleased with the development that we see in Garantell.
Hopefully, if we'd see now the warehousing markets starting to wake up a little bit, I think this would be very, very positive for the Troax Group in general, but specifically so for Garantell as well.
Okay. Thank you. I'll get back in line.
Thank you, Anna. The next one would be Gustav.
Yes. Can you hear me?
Absolutely. Hi, Gustav.
Hello. Maybe just to jump into the automotive comments and questions there. I mean, in a scenario where we see sort of Chinese automotive OEMs establishing a new production facility here in Europe, would you say that you have the same chance of winning this project versus a European automotive OEM sort of establishing a facility here in Europe?
I'd say that there is no material difference from our point of view in this regard. So there are super strongholds that we'd have in Europe and partly in North America. We might have a few super strongholds in China and APAC, but we're certainly definitely relevant and working with these players as well.
Okay. Perfect. But are they using sort of the integrators that you collaborate today, or?
Most could be different integrators, but they're also working mainly through integrators when they are building up their facilities and factories indeed. But it might be different. It might be a different name of the integrator.
Yeah. Okay. Perfect. And then just in terms of the comments you made here in the report regarding the summer weather and floods and so forth, have you had to close down the factories here in Q3, or?
Nothing material, but we have been fighting a bit during August to basically make sure that we delivered. So if we look to the outcome and the end effect of this, I think we see that we've been pretty much or almost not impacted. But when it comes to the work and what the teams have done to make that happen, I think it's been really positive. So overall, I think it's just been a tougher quarter to deliver the numbers, mainly on the flooding side.
Yeah. Okay. Perfect. And then just the last one here, because you also write in the report that those selling and admin expenses have been in line with your plan, but you have carried out major review before 2025 to sort of increase efficiency. Can you just elaborate a bit on what you mean there?
Yeah, and I think we have been, as you know, we've been having a few quarters or quarter two mainly where we've had surprises. I think we also see that we have a weaker market, and I think we have just gone through our costs and the plan, what are we investing in, what should we perhaps do a little bit more, what should we perhaps do a little bit less of going into 2025 versus 2024 to be ready for both uptick as well as a continued, perhaps a weaker development than what we see, so that means reviewing what we're doing, which activities we're doing, what are the growth activities, how can we make our processes more efficient, etc., etc., so I think it's part of how do we work, perhaps not harder, but a little smarter.
Yeah. Okay. That's clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Gustav. The next one would be [Yuan Lingqist].
Hi, Martin. So.
Good morning.
Good morning. Just a few questions from my side. If we look at the, I mean, the exclamation mark in this report, maybe was the strong gross margin. If we look at these levels, was there a favorable mix? Would you say that these are sustainable gross margin levels going forward? I mean, it's impressive given the capacity utilization.
Yeah. I'd say we had a strong growth margin in the quarter, no doubt. I think we had also, despite what we talked about on the supply chain side, I think we've done a really good job of selling value and keeping up our pricing during the quarter, similar to the other quarters. So I'd say that I wouldn't say this margin is something that came as a surprise. So I think we delivered a solid, good quarter on the gross margin side, despite the relatively low volume. So I'm very pleased with the fact that we're very much in line with our internal target. And I don't expect us to deviate heavily from that either if we looked into the crystal ball of volumes and where we are with our supply chain.
Okay. Perfect. And then just a final one on the Garantell. Now we're going full circle in Q1. So I was just wondering if you would just elaborate on the split between Europe and the Nordics in their sales volumes, rough estimates for that?
I think probably a 50/50 split between Nordics and Continental Europe would be a good start there, Daniel.
Okay. Perfect. That's all from me. Thank you so much.
Perfect. Thank you, Daniel. All right. Let's see if we have more questions coming in. All right. I see no more questions here in the chat. So with that, I suggest that we end the earnings call. Thanks a lot for listening in. And I'll see you in a quarter's time again. Thank you and bye-bye.