CEO's review Q2 2024

“We delivered another solid quarter considering the challenging market conditions. Our comparable net sales decreased by 5% in the second quarter, whereas reported net sales, which include Georg Jensen, increased by 5%. We were able to protect profit with the Group’s all-time high gross margin, which was driven by Vita, and savings from last year’s cost efficiency programs. However, due to lower volumes, comparable EBIT declined to EUR 19 million. I was especially pleased to see free cash flow recover to a record high second quarter level after a soft start to the year.

We continue to rigorously drive forward a simplified way of operating, which is based on strong, transparent and end-to-end accountable Business Areas supported by a lean Group organization. Previously announced changes in the supply chain organization mark the final leg of our 2021-2025 transformation journey and result in significant efficiency improvements. The simplified way of operating provides a strong foundation for growth while continuing to drive systematic improvement and further cost savings.

We are maintaining our guidance for 2024 intact and expect comparable EBIT to be slightly above last year’s EUR 110 million. As we have guided before, volume development in the second half and especially in the fourth quarter plays a large role in terms of the full-year EBIT generation.

Georg Jensen has now been part of Fiskars Group for three quarters, and the integration is nearly completed, with only IT integration ongoing. We are anticipating EUR 18 million in annual cost synergies from the acquisition, the majority of which is expected to be realized by the end of 2025. We are on track with approximately 75% of synergies now in implementation and already starting to deliver in the second quarter. 

We measure the execution of our Growth Strategy through its four transformation levers: commercial excellence; direct-to-consumer (DTC); the U.S.; and China. Looking at the first half of the year, our gross margin, which is our key performance indicator for commercial excellence, increased by 210 bps to 48.7%. Comparable DTC sales decreased by 3%, mainly due to store closures as well as a slowdown of e-commerce in China in the second quarter. However, China’s total comparable net sales increased by 10% in the first half of the year. In the U.S., comparable net sales decreased by 4% in the first half of the year, as retailers’ cautiousness in taking inventories continued to affect demand.

During the second quarter, we invited our teams to enroll for the second plan period of Fiskars Group’s employee share savings plan “MyFiskars”. I am very pleased that at the moment over 10% of our employees are Fiskars Corporation shareholders. Our employees are the key to our success – it is important that they have a sense of ownership; as well as a feeling of being heard. In May, we conducted an employee engagement survey for all employees, with a 73% participation rate. The survey measures one of our key ESG key performance indicators, inclusion experience. The results showed that we have made good progress in this metric, improving from last year and coming closer to our target of being within the global top 10% of high performing companies.

We also received several ESG recognitions during the quarter. As a highlight, Fiskars Group was awarded the EcoVadis Platinum Medal, placing us among the top 1% of companies assessed within the same industry. In addition, we were included in ESG leaders’ listings by both Time Magazine and the Financial Times.

Whilst we are not expecting any immediate improvement in the market conditions, the transformative actions we continue to take support us in reaching our ambitions in both the short and long term.”

NATHALIE AHLSTRÖM

President & CEO