Hi everyone, and welcome to the second quarter interim report for the Troax Group. My name is Martin Nyström, and I'm President and CEO of the group. Together with me, I'll have Anders Eklöf, and together we will present the second quarter results. After the presentation, we will open up for a Q&A. Without further ado, let's dive into some news and, of course, the quarter. Here we go. The second quarter offered a very interesting macro environment. In total, we reported a -6% order intake growth. Europe continued pretty slowly, as well as Americas, while APAC was more stable in the first quarter. If we look to Northern Europe, we continued to develop weakly, driven by the automotive as well as the warehousing segments. Southern Europe grew in the quarter, and we saw this being driven by general industry as well as the process segment.
We had a good run in the Americas in the first quarter, but we saw from the beginning of April that our customers have become a bit more hesitant during the quarter when figuring out and analyzing what the potential tariffs and so forth would mean. I'll come back to this in the next slide. APAC had a very strong quarter in the first quarter, as you know, so a very strong start of the year. In the second quarter, we were more flattish when we report in euros. If we look into local currencies, we also have a small single-digit growth also in the APAC region. Moving over to the profitability, we came in at 14.4% EBITDA margin in the quarter, mainly driven by lower volumes in Europe, but also due to FX effects. We had a solid gross margin in line with our informal target of around 40%.
We initiated a cost reduction program to get to a sustainably better place. I'll have a slide in a few slides from here going into what that entails. Last but not least, we also had FX headwind and FX losses, which impacted the result by roughly 70 bps. Our working capital continued to be, we continued to work disciplinedly with this, and we kept, I think, our cash flow on a reasonable level, as well as done with a stable net debt. I do think that discipline on inventory management in terms of accounts receivable, as well as accounts payable, were all in good shape in the quarter and continue to be so, which means that our balance sheet with the net debt to EBITDA of 1.1 means that we have room for further both acquisitions as well as organic investments where we think that's appropriate.
During the quarter, we've also made progress on some of our strategic priorities. Now I've decided to highlight what we have now decided to do in Europe, and that comes very much back to simplifying our supply chain as well as simplifying our racking portfolio. If I then move over to, I think, the big news in the quarter, towards the end of June, we released that we are taking action on our cost side and optimizing our organization a bit. This pretty much entails three things or contains three things. During the second quarter, we have had to say goodbye to roughly 100 employees. This is a, you could say, an adjustment based on the fact that we have lower volumes, mainly in Europe as well as in the U.S.
We have areas where we've seen SG&A efficiency potential, and of course, we've also taken our strategic priorities into account. Based on the first part of this cost reduction program, we will see run-rate savings of roughly EUR 5 million a year, which will then come into effect in the third quarter this year. The second part of the program is to streamline the manufacturing footprint in Europe. Here we think that and see that we will have plenty of benefits by moving the warehousing products and the racking products. We will move those from Poland and move those to existing facilities in Sweden. This also means that we can manage the racking portfolio, so shelves, dividers, anti-collapse systems in a better and more effective way.
This also means that our factory in Poland will be closed, and as an impact of this, we will have an additional 125 employees being affected in Poland. This will also mean that we will have a few new recruitments in Sweden. The run-rate savings from the second stream of this is roughly EUR 5 million a year, and we aim to have our Polish facility closed and have the move done by the end of this year, which means that the run-rate savings will come into effect in the first quarter of 2026. In total, we have EUR 10 million a year of full run-rate savings coming from these two. In the second quarter, we have then booked and as reported as one-offs in the second quarter, we have restructuring costs, including severance pay, but also moving costs and some asset write-downs, which amount to EUR 6 million.
The third part of optimizing our supply chain comes back to what we disclosed a few quarters back, which is our investment into the North American manufacturing. We have decided to build a new factory in Tennessee. This would do both because we need higher capacity due to the growth we have had and will have. We see that there is a gap in efficiency where our American operations are not as effective and as efficient as we're running in Europe, which means that we have both the ability to produce more, but also at a higher efficiency. I think we're doing really good progress here according to the plan, and we will ramp up during the beginning and mid of 2026. This will also add additional savings on top of the first and the second stream of this program.
We're not yet in a position where we want or could quantify what that means in terms of money. I would also like to welcome you to our, in fact, first Capital Markets Day. This is more of a heads-up or an early welcoming. On the 5th of November, we will have a Capital Markets Day in Hillestorp, where we will talk about our future vision, our business, and future ambitions. You'll get the chance to hear presentations, meet a few of the group management members, and we'll walk you through our factory. Of course, we'll hopefully have a lot of good discussion and dialogue throughout the day. There will be more information and invitations coming out after the summer period during Q3. There will, of course, as always, be more information available at our homepage. Let's dive a little bit more into the market and what we are seeing.
If we start with the lens through how we view the world, we are looking at this through the lens of geography as well as end-market segments. If we start with Northern Europe, we were down in total by 13% order intake change year-on-year. This decline is driven by automotive, but mainly from warehousing. I would say this, though, that we have had a general demand in Northern Europe that has been somewhat muted. I would say, and we could already in Q2 see that there is some more light at the end of the tunnel. I would say that goes for general industry, where we've seen growth in the quarter, as well as in process.
From process, I'm very happy to see that we have a green arrow because it's also one of our strategic growth priorities where we can gain share also in this very tough market. Moving over to Southern Europe, which was up 5%. Also here, automotive declined a bit, as well as warehousing. But also here, we saw good growth coming from the process, as well as the other segments. All in all, we are, in fact, up a bit more than 5%. From that point of view, I'm pretty pleased with the development in the quarter. Moving over to Americas, where we were down 14%. Here, we clearly see a shift in how the market and the market temperature has changed between quarter one and quarter two. Quarter one, we saw we were a bit more positive.
Now, I think in the U.S., we see that customers are, generally speaking, a little bit more hesitant. A lot of our products come together with investments. Those investments, so machinery, equipment, robots, etc., are usually manufactured outside of the U.S., which means that they are also then very much impacted by whatever the tariff policy will be. From that point of view, it's probably not super strange. We saw automotive continuing roughly on the same level, warehousing on its way down, where process and others were down and flat, respectively, but down all in all in Americas. In APAC, we reported flat when reporting in euros. If we continue or if we look at local currencies, we were up roughly 7%-8% in local currencies. There is underlying growth in APAC, but due to currency, we're reporting flattish.
That being said, I do think that APAC, if we consider the full first half of the year, is up 40% year-on-year. I still think that we have a good growth momentum in the APAC region. If we then look at this more from a product point of view, I think we have a stable, slightly growing machine guarding business in the quarter. A lot of this drop really comes from the racking products and the storage products, which might be good to know. All in all, we then reported a minus 6%, including currency for the quarter. I'd say there are some lights at the end of the tunnel when it comes to general industry. I'd also say that we've now started to see more activity in the pre-sales on the warehousing side.
This is a segment which has been very, very slow and continued to be slow in Q2. We do think that there is more activity which then bodes well for the development towards the end of the year, as well as going into 2026. With that, I'll hand over to Anders to run us through some numbers. Please, Anders, go ahead.
Thank you very much, Martin. I will go through this pretty quickly, as usual. I will start with the order development. In the second quarter of this year, we reached EUR 65.3 million in orders compared to EUR 69.6 million in Q2 of last year. That is a -6% decline. That goes both organically as well as in total, meaning including structure and FX. Next, please. When it comes to sales, we reached EUR 68.7 million in sales compared to EUR 71.9 million in Q2 of last year. That is a -4% decline, both organically as well as in total. Next. On the EBITDA side, we reached EUR 9.9 million, which is a 14.4% EBITDA margin to be compared with EUR 12.1 million or 16.8% EBITDA margin in Q2 of last year. The decline mainly comes from the drop in volumes, whereas Martin said before, we kept a gross margin on a stable level.
We also had some headwind on the FX loss side in this quarter, coming from the revaluation of receivables and payables, mainly in the balance sheets. Excluding this FX loss impact, we reached 15.1% in Q2 of this year compared to 16.5% in Q2 of last year. Next, please. When it comes to working capital, it's stable, I would say, in terms of days. We see a decline in absolute numbers, mainly related to the decline in sales volume. Overall, a very stable, I would say, working capital level. Next. Cash generation, we had a free operating cash flow of EUR 8.9 million in the quarter. That is a 90% cash conversion in relation to EBITDA, which we believe is a pretty good level. We are pretty happy about that one. Next.
Also on the net debt side, we are at 1.1 net debt in relation to EBITDA, the 12-month rolling EBITDA, which is also a good and low level, we believe, which gives us an opportunity for further acquisitions looking into the future. The next one. Here you have the summary, basically, of what I mentioned in the previous slides. The only thing to be added there, perhaps, is the EPS, where we hit EUR 0.11 for the quarter compared to EUR 0.14 in Q2 of last year. With that, I hand over again to you, Martin.
Thank you, Anders. In summary, we had a pretty eventful second quarter. We saw Europe continuing slow. We saw Southern Europe growing well, we saw Northern Europe continuing to decline. We had some more hesitation in the U.S. We continued to be flattish or slightly positive in local currencies in APAC. The margin was 14.4%, driven by the production volumes as well as the FX effects. We continue to be disciplined when it comes to our capital management side. We continue to generate a reasonable and good cash flow in the quarter. With that, I'd say that we prepare to open up for Q&A. Please raise your hand and I will open up the mic one by one. I think we will do ladies first with Annaliise Ström.
Yes, hi. Thank you for taking my questions. My first one is if you can give us some details on momentum in ordering in the different regions during the quarter. Is the year-over-year change in the beginning of the quarter a bit different in comparison to the end of the quarter?
Yes, I'd say this, Annaliise. I think it varied a little bit between the regions. I think Europe was pretty much kind of the same through the quarter. Nothing material changed. I think in the U.S., we probably had some hesitation in April, May was probably the low point, and June, probably some kind of acceptance. If I'm being a glass is half full person, probably June was a little bit on the better side sequentially. Overall, we were quite a bit down in the U.S., as I said. Asia, I think, is still pretty small and pretty lumpy. I wouldn't say anything really about the market dynamics, or I wouldn't draw any specific conclusions on that. I think it's, in fact, more customer-driven and customer-specific on that side than some general market development.
Okay, great. The order intake is sort of reflecting the current business momentum. We should sort of assume a normal seasonal pattern in conversion rates between orders in Q2 into sales in Q3. Okay, great. A question on the progress on the cost savings. Should we expect the full pace already in Q3, or could there be slightly more in Q4 in comparison to Q3 of the $5 million there?
Yeah, I'd say when it comes to if we focus on the two first elements, when it comes to headcount reduction, the first part of the program has been fully executed during Q2. It means that that portion and that run-rate should be expected to full extent already in Q3. When it comes to the factory movement and the factory move from Poland to Sweden, obviously, this is a gradual process where we need to move equipment and lines and so forth step by step. It means that we probably will see some of this impact in Q3 and certainly some in Q4. We've been probably a bit conservative here and said, assuming we'll close Poland down in Q4, we'll have the full run-rate effect from that initiative starting from Q1. It's a gradual process where we move pretty much line by line and machine by machine.
With that, people will also leave our Polish facilities. It will be a gradual process, but we think of it as a 100% impact starting from Q1.
Okay, great. Talking about Northern Europe, it seems you said that the warehousing segment is the one that stands out basically on the weak side. Do you think there's any impact from the whole sort of reconstructing initiative, or is this fully market-related?
No, I'd say if we look at what we see during the quarter, I don't think it's more of a market-driven thing than a home-cooked thing, if I may use that word. I think it's definitely more market-related than something that is company-specific. At the same time, though, now Q2 was, I would say, very weak from our standpoint. At the same time, I do think we see some of the larger customers in this space announcing activities and starting projects in our pre-sales phase. From that point of view, I'm somewhat positive that we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. Whether we'll be fully bottomed out now in Q2 or whether that would continue into Q3, I'm not sure. I certainly know there is some light at the end of the tunnel in this segment.
Okay, great. Just a final one from my side before I get back in line. The sort of hesitation that's been an effect from the tariff turmoil and such, has that had any greater impact, in your sense, in any of the different end markets, such as automotive or warehousing?
I think it's a little bit across the board, frankly. I think when it comes to what we call others, or you can say it's a proxy for general industry, I think it's probably, I'd say it's more general hesitation. When it comes to warehousing, I think we'd see both customers powering through with their initiatives and continuing. I think we see some customers hesitating. On the automotive side, I'd say all the big four, if we take the American manufacturers, are still a bit more hesitant as to what should be done and by when and so forth. I'd say that's also probably a bit more of a general nature to that. Warehousing is more mixed, where we have customers pushing forward and customers being a bit more on the hesitant side.
Great. Thank you. I'll get back in line.
Thank you, Anna. Next, let's see if I can allow Johnny Jin in.
Yes, hello. Can you hear me?
Wonderful. Hi, Johnny.
Hi. Good afternoon. I just have a couple of questions from my side as well. I think I will start with a follow-up question on Anna's question there. I want to understand the order trend in Americas a little bit better. I mean, looking at the book-to-bill, it looks to be quite a lot below one here at $0.75 in the quarter. Looking at your arrows, they also look to be clearly negative sequentially on the market development. I understand it's very uncertain on the market here after Liberation Day, etc. Could you maybe elaborate what you're seeing here and what you hear from your dialogues with the customers, the pre-buying activity, etc., in Americas? Also, given the funnel or pipeline you have right now, what is your best guess for outlook here for the second half of the year?
I mean, could we expect a rather flatter sequential order development from here, or has the momentum stabilized or worsened further going into Q3?
Yeah. If we start with the first one, Johnny, I think the discussions are a little bit different in the different end segments. I do think that if we look to automotive, first of all, I do think it's pretty much the same type of discussion and same type of hesitation that they've had to remake some of their plans. In this, there is, I think, now more preference for hybrid and combustion over EV. At the same time, there is also this, where should things be produced? Is this still Mexico, or is this U.S., or what parts of Canada will we utilize? In a sense, there are two uncertainties at the same time. I do think the big car makers would think slightly the same.
If we talk about the American makers, when we look at foreign makers, I'd probably say they are pushing a little bit more for investments into the U.S. I think we see that from parts of the European ones, and we definitely also see that from parts of the Asian ones, the Korean and Japanese ones. That's one, you could say, one cluster of discussions. When it comes to warehousing, I'd say this is very split. We have a few customers who have plans, who have put already the foot on the gas pedal, and they are continuing. There are also projects which are a bit more, have gone into this hesitation phase as well. Pretty mixed picture on the large projects. On the smaller, what we used to call bread and butter business, and I think that kind of gives the temperature a little bit.
I think to begin with, in April, there was a bit of, okay, what's happening now? People kept going for some time. May was probably the bottom or the trough when it came to, okay, let's do nothing. Now I do think in June, we saw a little bit of more decisiveness in that sense. A bit of a dip on that. When it comes to, I'm not sure if your second and third there, Johnny, were if they were meant for U.S. or if they were meant for kind of general there.
I think if we start with the US., but you can also talk broadly, it was also interesting.
Yeah. No, I think in the U.S., depending a little bit on the big, beautiful bill and other things, I do think that if one believes that consumption is going to, if there is growth in the U.S. and if that needs to be handled, that needs to come from consumption. If the main scenario is more consumption, that means that there needs to be more warehousing, definitely. There is also a bit better supply-demand balance in the U.S. when it comes to warehousing. From that point of view, I'm a bit more optimistic that people will start to make decisions again when it's been slow in the second quarter. I think the car industry will take a little bit longer because there are platforms and other things that usually take a little bit more time before it can turn into decisions.
Generally, and then if I move over to Europe, I do think that general industry is and the overall temperature, and I hear some of that from my colleagues as well, I do think there are some good signs that we're getting to a place in the next or next quarters, which is a little bit more positive than where we're currently at.
Yeah, I understand that. It's a lot of moving parts here. I mean, with the Liberation Day and tariffs, etc. Looking at in Americas for a while here, it looks like the momentum slowed down quite a lot here if we compare Q2 to Q1. I'm just trying to understand how much was due to the Liberation Day and also like given how your late cyclical nature of your business should be interpreted that as a lot of started projects already is now closed and that you're now more dependent on newer projects coming along or if there's that type of department.
I think the pipeline in the U.S. is pretty all right when it comes to projects and what has been quoted and what is being discussed. I think it's, I don't think the underlying activity and the initiatives, I don't think that's weak. I think it's more moving from, you could say, idea to ink on the paper and get going in many cases. I'd rather read that into the situation more than anything else. I think in terms of activities and in terms of what's needed, I do think that looks on paper pretty healthy in the U.S.
Yeah, yeah.
Perhaps to that, if I may add, Johnny, I think we also have a bit of this comparable is also related to FX in the quarter, which impacts the comparative a bit.
Yeah, I understand that. We'll see. I also want to follow up a little bit on your statement there. You mentioned somewhat higher pre-sale activity here, which I think you said in the report bodes well for 2026 and onwards. I was wondering, could you maybe elaborate also a little bit more here how we should think about the timing there? I mean, given what you see now, can we expect to see, to interpret that, that the bulk of those orders should convert into sales second half of 2026? Is that the most likely base case, or how should we think about the timing there?
I think it's, again, timing in big projects seems to be very hard to predict. I do think, and I think it's worth noticing that if you look at the big players in the warehousing and in the logistics space, some of them have announced pretty big investment programs in different parts of the world. It could be Europe, could be Middle East, Middle East India, could be also, for that matter, in the U.S. I do think that there is a bit more commitment and a bit more drive from that end, which is now being then worked on, and eventually, we'll see some, we think, good orders coming through.
Whether that's going to be Q1, Q2, or Q3, Q4, I think I'm not in a position to judge exactly which quarter it will be, but I do think that 2026 looks overall definitely more positive than 2025 has turned out to be.
Yeah, that's fair. I mean, the best guess then, given that it's pre-buying activity now, maybe they're converted into orders, let's say, during the first half of next year. I suppose they are delivered during the second half of 2026. Is that a fair assumption?
Yeah, no, that's probably a fair assumption. I think we have pre-sales processes which are, you know, two weeks, and we have pre-sales processes that are one and a half years, and everything in between. It depends a little bit which customers here decide to go forward with what. It could be fairly quick, but I'd say probably we'd have more going into mid-second half of next year. I think that's a fair assumption, Johnny.
Yeah, I understand. Thank you. That's clear. Just one final one from my side. I mean, demand in Europe is a bit mixed, as you mentioned here, but I noticed that you see somewhat higher orders in Southern Europe, which I think is quite interesting here in the quarter. Maybe I missed it here, but what is driving that? Was there anything particular in Q2 here, or is it more broadly driven? Has that momentum continued here in Q3, would you say?
I think it's pretty early in Q3. I think the start of Q3 has been good, also in Southern Europe. When it comes to Southern Europe, I think the main geographies, so Italy, France, as well as Spain, I think they're performing well. I also think that there are plenty of projects, especially general industry. I think there are also investments going into process, especially retail, food, pharma, etc. I think we're chasing our fair share of that growth. In the second quarter, I consider that to be going. It went well from that point of view.
Yeah, okay.
I think it's more broad-based than anything particular that stands out.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you. That was all from me, and happy summer when you get there.
Likewise, Johnny. Let's see. We have Daniel Lindquist. Your mic is open.
Perfect. Thank you, Martin. Just two quick ones from my side. Given it's been a bit messy here lately, it would be interesting to hear your base business with the machine guarding. How is that faring? How much volumes have been lost, and what's the margin profile for that part? Or the delta, is that basically from warehousing and property protection that's hit profitability?
Yeah. No, our machine guarding business is doing, in fact, very well. We think we have grown that business flatish to slight growth. The margin profile of machine guarding is, in relative terms, more profitable than the storage and warehousing. Pretty much all of the drop is explained by warehousing and storage.
Down the line, business is really healthy.
Yeah.
Would that mean that you've taken market shares if that's measurable as well?
I wouldn't conclude that on Q2 because I don't have access to all the competitors' numbers. I do think it's fair to conclude that we, during 2024, took some market share in the core segments.
Okay. Perfect. Just on M&A, you have a sentence on it in the report. With the internal measures taken now, there's nothing stopping you from making an acquisition if that would turn up, or is it too soon at this point to make an acquisition?
No, I would say that on the contrary. I think we're, by taking these measures, making room for other growth initiatives and investments portfolio-wise. I don't think there is any contradiction at all whatsoever in this. I think what's standing in between us and acquisitive growth here would be, you know, it needs both parties to say yes and agree to evaluation, which, with more uncertainty around us, might be a little bit more difficult to agree on what is the value. Unfortunately, we weren't able to close any acquisitions during the second quarter, but we rest assured that we're pushing and pushing hard for that during the second half of the year.
Okay. Perfect. Great. Great. Thanks. That was all from my side, Martin. Have a really nice summer now.
Thank you, Daniel. Likewise. Okay, let's see. Are there any more questions? In fact, I don't see any more hands in the air, which means that we will conclude the second quarter interim report for Troax Group AB. Thanks a lot for calling in and asking questions. If not before, I'll see you in a quarter's time. Enjoy your summers. Bye-bye.
Bye.