Husqvarna have released their full year financial report from January - December 2023.

Pavel Hajman, Husqvarna CEO

Pavel Hajman, the company's CEO said, “During the year we continued to deliver on our strategy, reinforced our positions in key segments as well as achieving an improved operating margin and a strong cash flow.”

However, the company sais the fourth quarter was characterised by a continuous challenging market situation with lower demand. Group net sales declined by 15% organically.

In the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division, sales of professional robotic mowers and battery-powered products were strong. However, sales of petrol-powered wheeled products decreased significantly due to lower demand. Husqvarna say they are proactively exiting parts of this segment.

The Gardena Division delivered good growth in Europe, driven by the watering category, but sales in Orbit in North America declined. In the Husqvarna Construction Division, the performance was solid in emerging markets, however they experienced weaker development in Europe and in North America in the fourth quarter. There was an improved operating income and operating margin, excluding items affecting comparability, for both the Gardena and Construction divisions driven by solid execution of cost savings as well as operational efficiency measures.

For the full-year, Group net sales declined by 1%. The operating margin, excluding items affecting comparability, increased to 9.3%. This was driven by their cost savings program, as well as contribution from price increases and lower costs for logistics. Husqvarna improved the operating margin for all three divisions. 

Pavel Hajman went on to say, “As part of our transformational journey, we are focusing on growing in the areas of robotic mowers, battery-powered products, watering and solutions for the professional market. During the year, we progressed on our operational ambitions, increasing sales of robotic mowers, our share of electrified solutions expanded to some 42% of our motorised products sales, and the number of connected devices rose to 4.5m. With an increased focus and new innovations, we have strengthened our market positions in these segments compared to the previous year. These product segments have a high future growth potential and now account for a larger share of our net sales.

"The electrification ambition is the major driver to consistently reduce our carbon footprint. To date, we have reduced CO₂ emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) by -44% compared with the base year of 2015. At present, we have thus exceeded our target of a -35% reduction by 2025. Our commitment to reducing CO₂ emission is continuing, including our exploration of products using alternative fuels.”