2023-04-20 07:24:02 ET
Husqvarna AB (publ) (HUSQF)
Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call
April 20, 2023, 04:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Johan Andersson - Investor Relations
Pavel Hajman - Acting Chief Executive Officer
Terry Burke - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Fredrik Ivarsson - ABG
Gustav Hageus - SEB
Anton Brink - Antaurus
Johan Eliason - Kepler Cheuvreux
Presentation
Johan Andersson
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of Husqvarna Group's Report for the First Quarter 2023. My name is Johan Andersson, responsible for Investor Relations at Husqvarna Group, and I will be the moderator here today. With me here in Stockholm to present the report, we have our Acting CEO, Pavel Hajman; and CFO, Terry Burke. After the presentation by Pavel and Terry, we will open up for a Q&A session, and you are welcome to ask your questions over the phone conference or enter them through the web interface.
So with that, again, welcome to today's session, and I hand over to you, Pavel.
Pavel Hajman
Thank you, Johan, and welcome, everybody, from my side as well. And I'm happy to say that we are today reporting a solid start to the year and a record result for a first quarter. Sales were up with 9% with an organic growth of 2% for the group and this is driven by our key strategic categories such as robotic mowers and battery-powered products. And this enables our channel partners to have our full offering for the gardening season now.
Overall, we delivered a record EBIT result in absolute terms for a first quarter. It is also great to see that we have improved our cash flow and started to lower our inventories and net debt has also been reduced since year-end in absolute value.
We have made progress on our strategic ambitions, and we are on track with the group's ongoing transformation to lead our industry to low-carbon solutions. We are stepping up our initiatives and investments in our key areas, robotics, battery, watering and professional solutions.
And the program that we launched in October last year to accelerate the execution in progressing accordingly to plan, both from a strategic perspective, but also realized savings that Terry will come back to shortly. And we are also delivering towards our Sustainovate 2025 targets, which I will come back to later in this presentation.
However, we still operate in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. We have a sharp focus on costs. We continue to improve our cash flow and maintain the flexibility in our operations, and this to enable us to adapt to any potential changes in the economic environment and the customer demand.
And with that, let us take a closer look at the quarter for the group. Net sales grew by 9%, and the organic growth was 2%, and the key drivers were robotics, battery products and also wheeled products in front of the season start and the grass cutting.
Growth for robotic mowers were strong for both the residential and the professional segment, and this was supported by solid demand and restocking by our servicing dealers ahead of the gardening season. And in addition, the supply chain has improved, and we have reduced our order backlog overall.
Gardena Division experienced continued cautiousness among our retail partners in the quarter, leading to a minus 20% organic sales growth. We should also remember that Gardena had a record quarter one last year, so the comparable is challenging.
The Husqvarna Construction division achieved a flat organic growth but with positive development in North America and also with good growth for the concrete surface and floor segments. With good cost control, the division delivered a solid margin uplift.
Moving on to the operating income. We delivered an EBIT result of SEK2.410 billion, which is the best ever for a first quarter. Terry will discuss this in further detail, but the key drivers were our success with net sales growth, including price increases as well as a cautiousness with costs. And the operating margin came in at 14%, which is the same as last year.
We have managed to improve cash flow, driven by better operational surplus and improved cash flow from working capital changes. We have high attention to continue to improve our cash flow in the year and activities are in place to continue to reduce inventory levels further into the season.
Robotics and battery achieved strong performance and drove the share up to 17% for the last 12 months, driven to a large extent of solid demand and also improved supply chain. We are now back to the same level as a year ago, and we are up from the full year '22, which was on 15% level. Most importantly, we have a strong robotics portfolio and many new battery products for the season.
When we zoom out and take a longer perspective, we are executing on our strategy and long-term transformation to build a stronger Husqvarna Group. This is - this through growing in segments with higher profitability and also high future growth prospects. And with the good results in the first quarter, we have increased the absolute EBIT level and also manage an uptick in the rolling 12 months margin to 9.1%. Our ambition is clearly to continue this journey in the coming years.
And with this summary, I leave over to Terry to go through the numbers in more detail.
Terry Burke
Thank you, Pavel. If we move over to the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division first, an improved supply situation was supporting our strong Q1 for the Forest & Garden Division. In fact, from an absolute EBIT value of 1.7, I would say it was a record Q1 for the Forest & Garden division. Organic sales growth of 14% and an operating income of 15.9%.
We have good, strong growth for robotic mowers in both segments of professional and residential. We have also good performance of battery products and wheeled products, and we have an improved margin and the improved operating margin is really driven by price increases, favorable mix and volume. There is a negative currency effect in the quarter of some minus SEK40 million.
If we move over to the Gardena Division, a different story and a different picture to the Forest & Garden Division. This is a continued challenging environment for Gardena, where retailers continue to be very cautious in managing their inventory levels.
There is an organic growth negative 20% and an operating margin of some 13.5%. As I said, the retailers continue to be very cautious, which is a carryover from 2022 into the start of the '23 season. The lower volumes have impacted our operating income. However, they have been partly offset by positive price effect and good cost controls. There was a small positive currency effect of SEK30 million in the operating income.
Moving over to the Construction Division. I would say a very solid Q1 for Construction as well and very good performance and I believe also a record Q1 for EBIT in absolute value for Construction Division as well. Organic sales were flat and an operating margin of 13.3%.
We had good growth in North America. And when we look at it from a product segment perspective, we had strong performance for concrete service and the floors segment. Operating result improved to 13.3%, and that is driven by price increases and cost efficiency. We also have a positive currency effect in the quarter of some SEK50 million.
Moving over to the EBIT bridge. And as Pavel mentioned in the opening slide, quarter one from an absolute EBIT perspective was a record Q1 at SEK2.4 billion, 14% margin. We've improved our EBIT by some 10%, and that's really driven by a number of factors. And if I just walk through the bridge from the left to the right, we can see a large portion of the profitability improvement is driven through by price.
We've actually got a strong price for quarter one, which is heavily impacted by a positive carryover of price from 2022 into quarter one '23. Price increases in 2022 were not all implemented from January 1. Therefore, there is a positive carryover during Q1. That positive carryover will not impact for the rest of the year, but there was a positive impact for the Q1. Once we adjust for price, we actually had a negative volume effect in the quarter and mix was more or less plus or minus flat in the quarter.
Cost savings of some SEK80 million and we are on track with our cost savings program. Raw material and logistics, a negative SEK115 million However, again, there's a small element of carryover from last year in this, and I would expect a more stabilized flat development for raw material and logistics for the rest of the year.
We continue to invest in our acceleration program on our strategy. So SEK75 million invested during the quarter, and we will continue to invest during the rest of the year as well and a positive - small positive overall currency effect of some SEK40 million, bringing us to this SEK2.4 billion EBIT.
Moving over to the balance sheet. We continue our solid financial position. And I think we can be relatively pleased with our performance on the balance sheet and working capital during quarter one. Inventories, I think, is probably the one to highlight here. Whilst we look at it from a comparable year-over-year, you see a SEK3.5 billion increase. That is broken down into three elements.
We have a currency effect of SEK1.2 billion. We have a cost of materials effect of some SEK1.1 billion and then additional inventory of roughly SEK1.2 billion. So that's the components making up the SEK3.5 billion increase in inventories.
However, what I would like to highlight is, actually, if we look at the December '22, well, the quarter four closing of '22, we have actually reduced our inventories by more than - by roughly SEK700 million. And we continue to focus and drive inventory reduction. That is a high focus area and a priority for us and that reduced inventory is playing a positive effect on the cash flow, which I will come to a little bit later.
Trade receivables is up, but that's really a consequence of higher sales during Q1. So that's really the drive behind it, and we expect that to come through and reduce as the season plays out. Borrowings relatively flat compared to the year-end. However, our net debt position has reduced by some SEK500 million, which is a good sign. And of course, we will continue to work and drive reducing our net debt, which is now at SEK17.2 billion versus SEK17.7 at the end of the year.
Yes, moving on, I think, from there. That takes us nicely to the cash flow situation, where you can see we have a significantly improved cash flow situation compared to Q1 last year. We have a small negative of some SEK239 million of direct operating cash flow at the end of Q1. We continue to work hard and drive our working capital and particularly our inventory levels down.
The positive impact of cash flow is really driven by a higher EBITDA, and this improved inventory of SEK700 million, which I talked about previously. And we really expect to see that move into a positive cash flow situation during quarter two. I think quarter one puts us in a good position to drive that positive cash flow going forward.
Net debt/EBITDA, I mentioned it a little bit earlier in the sense that our net debt is reducing from SEK17.7 billion at the end of the year to SEK17.2 billion. We will continue to drive our working capital and cash flow. And as we drive that improved situation with positive cash flow, then of course, we aim to reduce some of our net debt and see further improvement.
With that, Pavel, I pass over to you for Sustainovate.
Pavel Hajman
Thank you, Terry. So as you know, sustainability is a key part of our long-term business strategy, and we're making good progress in this area towards achieving really our Sustainovate agenda, which includes three key targets on carbon, on circular, on people.
And when it comes to carbon, we have reduced our absolute CO2 emissions from the full value chain, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 by minus 33% from our - compared with our 2015 baseline. And we are well on track then to achieve our target for minus 35%. And this is up 1% reduction compared with year-end 2022.
On circular, the first quarter, we have added five circular innovations and are now at 15. And also here, then we are on track of achieving our target of 50 circular innovations by the end of '25.
On the people target, we're executing on this to empower customers and employees to make more sustainable choices, and we have increased our assortment of sustainable products, the product and the solution offerings that have significantly and proven lower impact on the use of natural resources on the environment. And currently, we have 1 million sustainable choices products sold, which are now picking up the speed here on the journey to really meet the target of 5 million empowered people by 2025.
We are also taking our robotics to the next level. Our ambition is to double robotic sales by 2026. And as a market leader, we're constantly looking for the next pioneer move. One example that you will see here on the top left is that Husqvarna Forest & Garden division have signed an agreement to become the main partner for the Volvo Car Scandinavian mixed Golf Tournament throughout 2025. This partnership marks an important step for Husqvarna as it further expands our brand into the golf industry and position ourselves as a leader in autonomous green space technology.
Top right, the Husqvarna Automower NERA is now available on the market. This is our first boundary-wire free lawn mower for private garden owner. It has a proven ecosystem from our Pro segment as a part of the offering. And we are confident that this innovation will really improve the lawn mowing on the residential market.
Bottom left, Gardena Smart System is now also supporting Google Home since before Gardena Smart System have been supporting Apple Home and Amazon Alexa. So we are now on the three biggest connected home systems. And this is in line with the group's goal of achieving 6 million connected devices by 2025.
Bottom right, as you know, the Pro segment is a strategic prioritization for the Husqvarna Group, and we have recently signed a breakthrough agreement that really shows the value of our strategy where a municipality in Scandinavia has signed an 8-year contract, and this is meaning that more than 70 Husqvarna Automowers will operate on their public lawns. And selling solutions, in addition to single products is something that we will see more of and lowering also the threshold, of course, to implement low emission solutions. And meanwhile, we can create also the long-time revenue streams for the company.
So to summarize, we delivered a solid first quarter with sales growth driven by the key strategic categories as robotic mowers, battery-powered products. Quarter one is the selling quarter, and we have now enabled our channel partners to have a full offering for the gardening season.
And I'm proud that we are also making progress on our strategic ambitions, as well as delivering on the accelerated transformation for a stronger Husqvarna Group. In parallel with this, we also managed to improve our cash flow, started to decrease our inventory levels as Terry detailed earlier.
However, we do still operate in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. We have a sharp focus on costs. We continue to improve our cash flow. We remain flexible in the operations and all this really to enable us to adapt to any potential changes that could come on the customer demand due to the economic environment. We also have a strong innovative product line for the season, and this makes us well positioned for value creation.
So with that, I'd like to thank you all for listening and hand over to Johan for starting the Q&A session.
Johan Andersson
Many thanks, Pavel and Terry. So let us start and kick off the Q&A session and first check with the operator if we have any questions over the phone conference. Please, operator.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Fredrik Ivarsson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. I've got a few questions. Let me take them one by one, thank you. So first one on the consumer robotics. Just to get a sense of the recovery, if you will, if you compare it to 2021 levels when you didn't have the same component issues you had last year, are you back at those kind of revenue levels? Or do you still have some way to get there, so to speak?
Terry Burke
Should I take that?
Pavel Hajman
Please go ahead.
Terry Burke
Yes. Yes, I would say we were back - we are back to normalized levels, if you like, from that perspective with the consumer robotics, yes. And actually, as a rolled in 12 months, we are now above SEK7 billion in robotics sales, which I think is a nice story and a positive step forward in our journey to doubling [ph] robotics by 2026.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Very clear. Thanks, Terry. And then second one on margins. You added a box to the EBIT bridge cost savings, SEK80 million for the quarter. How do you see that progressing throughout the year?
Terry Burke
Yes. I think that that will progress to plan. And we've communicated cost programs, cost saving programs. We have a legacy one, which we're just closing off this year. And then, of course, we have the accelerated transformational program that we launched towards the end of last year, and they are both on track to deliver. So I would say cost savings in a good place and we'll continue.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Good. And then one on the mix effect. I think I heard you refer to a flat mix despite the recovery of robotics. So can you just explain what the sort of counterparts are?
Pavel Hajman
Yes, Fredrik. On the mix side of it, yes, we do have a positive mix with regards to robotics. However, we also have a 20% down in organic growth for Gardena Division. And of course, some of the mix effect from Gardena is having a negative effect.
We also had a positive sales of wheeled and battery, and they do not carry the same favorable mix effect that robotics does. So you've got some positive and you've got some negatives with the Gardena Division, et cetera, and they more or less balance out for the group's perspective.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Okay. Got it. That's very clear. And last one for me, if you could you just give us an update on the CEO process? How far have you come in that process? How far are you from sort of communicating a permanent CEO, you think?
Pavel Hajman
The Board is in full swing with the recruitment process. And once they will finalize it, they will come out with an information about this, of course, subsequently. But that's all that we can say right now.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Okay. Fair enough. That's all my questions. Thanks so much.
Operator
The next question is from Gustav Hageus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Gustav Hageus
Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll follow up on Fredrik's question on robotics. Can you remind us H1 last year when you had issues with supply constraints sort of hampering your production and sales of robotics. Was Q1 as bad as Q2 or was Q2 worse in terms of supply constraints? And I'm trying to grasp what the comp is for Q2 for robotics specifically?
Pavel Hajman
So we had a slightly different situation in the company as regards to robotics, where Forest & Garden in both Q1 as well as Q2 had delivery problems, which affected, of course, our ability to deliver into the market of robotics.
When it comes to Gardena, they did not really have any problems of robotics deliveries in neither Q1 nor Q2. They were well stocked in Q1. But then, of course, the weather affected was a late start to the season actually impacting the robotic sales out and therefore, also affecting a little bit the replenishment selling for Gardena in Q2.
Gustav Hageus
Yes. Okay. And if I switch to watering products, mainly in Gardena, then how do you feel about - you said that there's some hesitancy to refill in retail in Q1. But if you look at absolute numbers in terms of retail inventory into the season this year compared to the last one in the year for that, how do you feel about watering products, specifically in terms of retail inventory?
Terry Burke
In general, I would say inventory levels within the retailers is at normalized levels. And of course, the behavior and mindset of the retailers with being cautious with their inventory levels is continuing. This is not a new story for us. It's carried over from 2022 and into Q1. So we really have to wait and see how this starts to play out as the season picks up and how consumer demand is.
Gustav Hageus
Yes, of course. And in terms of the Orbit acquisition, you've had it now for some time. Do you feel - is Gardena going to be more an integrated part of Orbit's assortment and sell out this year? Or how is that process with the synergies going well?
Pavel Hajman
No. During last - first of all, Orbit is now fully included in the full year comparison in all numbers. So I think that's important to just be aware of. During the year, we have been, so to say, understanding the operation of Orbit, of course, dealing with any operational issues that has been due to cost increases on raw materials and transportation, which also affected Orbit. And they have an assortment, which is adapted for the American market specifically, whereas Gardena has an assortment that is mainly adopted for the European market.
Going forward, we see, of course, the opportunity to use Orbit as a base and as a platform for establishing Gardena in the U.S. But first, we, of course, need to make sure that we can see a clear path towards good growth and good profitability in Orbit. So that is our first priority now.
Gustav Hageus
That's clear. And lastly, on CEORA, you mentioned here that is a good quarter for CEORA again. I think in the past, you've acknowledged that 4,000 units of CEORA is maybe a potential number in terms of growth or sales of CEORA this year?
First of all, can you confirm whether or not that's still a number within recent for the year? And secondly, if you're most worried about sort of demand or your ability to supply demand that would potentially limit that number?
Pavel Hajman
No, I'd like to say that, first of all, that we have already in quarter one achieved a substantial part of what we had as a full year sales in last year. So the demand is clearly there. The interest for the CEORA's is very, very large, and we do not have any problems to supply the product.
Gustav Hageus
And it was about 1,000 units last year, right, roughly?
Pavel Hajman
Yes.
Terry Burke
Yes.
Gustav Hageus
All right, great. That's all my questions. Thank you, guys.
Johan Andersson
Thank you very much. And we have got some questions in the web interface as well. And this is probably a question then for Pavel. It's coming from Robin Bachmann at Kivath [ph] in Finland, I think. Pavel, in terms of Gardena, how would you like to characterize the current competitive position? Do you feel Guardian has lost, kept or gained market share during the selling quarter now? Any reflections or any view on that one or what the competition has done?
Pavel Hajman
Yes. Well, I think, first of all, Gardena remains to be very strongly positioned. They have a very strong brand recognition. They have a broad and attractive assortment. They are very forward leaning in the area of smart watering which is very much on the table with regards to sustainability and the watering, let's say, limitations and bands that are happening now throughout in the world. We continue to invest in product development in the different areas of Gardena smart watering, hand tools, electric products, robotics. So overall, they have a good outlook going forward.
During last year, when the market - when there was a reduction in our channel partners, actually Gardena managed to take market share. And at this point in time, we believe that there is no reason to believe that Gardena has necessarily lost market share. We do not have the exact numbers yet. It takes some time to get specifics out, and we try to - so to say, whatever we say in this kind of case [Technical Difficulty] But we feel that our sell-in situation is very much equal to other kinds of categories within similar segments.
Johan Andersson
Thank you. Perfect. Maybe another question here. Already at the end of Q4, you highlighted that Q1 robotics should benefit from restocking at the dealers? How should you we view then the remainder of the year? Can you elaborate where we stand at this kind of restocking levels or what were we at when we sort of exit the quarter now in terms of the backlog?
Pavel Hajman
I think the way I would look at it is we feel in a good position that we have been able to supply our channel partners in a good way. So during this quarter of sell-in [Technical Difficulty] our back order situation. Our back orders are more of a normalized level now, and we are in a good supply situation for the rest of the year. How the year will play out with regards to robotic demand, of course, remains to be seen based on the consumer behavior.
Johan Andersson
Good. Another a bit more detailed question to you, Terry, it's coming from Kintbury Capital. What was the factoring balance at the end of Q1 2023 versus Q4 2022 and Q1 2022?
Terry Burke
I don't intend to go into specific details around that. But what I would say on the factoring is over those quarters and comparables, they are generally in line with each of the - with factoring as a percentage of sales, it's more or less broadly the same. No significant changes.
Johan Andersson
Excellent. Then we have another question here probably then to Pavel coming from, I think it's Anton Brink at Antaurus.
Anton Brink
Pricing over cost is clearly helping you here now in the short run. How do you think of the risk of discounting or price decreases starting to impact your margins here in the remainder near term of the year?
Pavel Hajman
Terry, you have already mentioned a couple of words regarding pricing that the pricing effect that we see in quarter one is a carryover as we did our price increases a little bit later in the year. And then throughout the year, we have done more normalized price increases for the season 2023. So of course, there will be a reduced effect of pricing as we go through this year.
Johan Andersson
Great. Let's take another one – sorry...
Terry Burke
I was just going to say, and just to add to that, Pavel, I mean, we have - at this moment in time, we have no intentions or plans to reduce price or discount. So we don't foresee any actions like that at this moment in time.
Johan Andersson
Great. And then another question on the robotics deal as an example that we mentioned here. Can you clarify, was it CEORA or the more traditional Pro robotics? And a little bit more on the details. Is it more as a service or upfront sales? Or how do you view that? And how long in that case, will it take before it's up and running at the customer?
Pavel Hajman
It was - first of all, the contract is a mix of various kinds of professional products. It is an upfront sales, but there is a service element included in that contract also. And this will be, so to say, put in place here as soon as we are able to service them and be present and put them. I mean it's a number of robotics that has to be put out in various locations. So there's a lot of installation work around that also.
Johan Andersson
Great. Excellent. Operator, shall we check if we have another question on the - or the telephone conference. Please, operator.
Operator
The next question is from Johan Eliason from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Johan Eliason
Hi, Johan. Thank you for taking my questions. I was just curious about the robotic part. You mentioned the rolling 12-month sales around SEK7 billion. Now we obviously know that prices have been going up. What would you say on volumes? Are you sort of volume-wise back at where you were when this was trailing at 6.2 or whatever you said for 2021?
Pavel Hajman
Yes, I would say volumes are improving and growing, and we remain to our overall target of doubling our robotic sales within the next 5 years that we're on the right trajectory and nothing has changed for that.
Johan Eliason
Good. And market share, I think you alluded to losing market share last year as you couldn't deliver. How do you think you – it has played out now in this quarter? And what do you expect for the season? Can you keep your market share where they are? Or will you regain some or will you slowly erode your market shares?
Pavel Hajman
It's, of course, very difficult to say something on this as the quarter was a selling quarter and as we do not know exactly how it will play out over the next two quarters, quarter two and quarter three, which is the deliveries into the market. But with these volumes, we believe that we have been regaining market share, and then we need to see what this means in terms of sell-out because we have been pushing in quite high volumes, as Terry alluded to earlier here.
Johan Eliason
Good. And in terms of robotics sales [ph] geographically, I mean, a couple of years ago, you talked about North America being an opportunity, and it never really took off. Nowadays you talk more about the professional side. Is there anything you can say about robotics on a geographic basis now? Or are we seeing anything in North America, for example?
Pavel Hajman
North America is progressing well. It's not as fast as maybe we all believed in the beginning, but we are progressing very much into the professional segment. We see that, that is very much appreciated. And I think that, that is where basically the breakthrough, so to say, coming into the consumer segment will also be through the professional segment. But we do have, let's say, substantial sales now also in North America. So it's not just a few units. That's not what we're talking about here.
Johan Eliason
Okay. Excellent. And then just to remind us a little bit the comps here. I mean, obviously, you talk about the supply situation now being better going into Q2, I suppose. Q2 was weak last year for many reasons. How are the weather comps if you compare where we are right now versus Q2 last year in Europe and North America?
Pavel Hajman
If I understand the question was really around the weather conditions, is that correct?
Johan Eliason
Yes. I mean, just remind us where the normal weak or good in Q2 last year?
Pavel Hajman
I mean, I think we were quite clear last year, it was particularly for Gardena, it was a late start to the season. And in general, it was a relatively cold start to the season. What I would say so far this year - this quarter, I mean, it's very early. We are only a couple of weeks into the quarter, but April started relatively cold over Easter period around Mainland, Europe. Even North America, it was still quite cold and wet during those first few weeks. Now of course, we hope and expect to see the weather improve. So - but that's still highly uncertain. We have to wait and see how that plays out.
Johan Eliason
Thank you very much.
Pavel Hajman
Operator, do we have another question from the telephone conference?
Operator
Yes. There is a follow-up by Gustav Hageus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Gustav Hageus
Thanks. Can I just ask you on the Construction segment. It was quite resilient, flat growth versus I think it's 24% flat growth over the past 2 years organically. Do you see - first of all, if you can remind us of the split between residential and sort of public spend infrastructure, whatnot in that end demand? And if you saw sort of stable development throughout Q1 or if there was any change towards the end of the quarter in terms of demand? That would be helpful. Thanks.
Pavel Hajman
Yes. So Construction division and their sales is predominantly into what I would call the industrial/infrastructure segment, not so much into housing, private housing or the private segment. When it comes to the sales development, it has been stable with a bit of an uptick here in the end of the first quarter, actually, when we talk about comparables with the quarter previous year.
Gustav Hageus
Okay. Thanks. That's very helpful. Thank you.
Johan Andersson
Excellent. We have a few other questions here from the web interface. One here is another one from Kintbury Capital. Please, can you quantify or discuss the decline in order backlog and the situation now in the Husqvarna division?
Pavel Hajman
Yes. I think, Terry, you mentioned a few words. And on this, given the good supply improvements that we have had during second half, which also continued into the first quarter and during our own good ability to actually ramp up our capacity in the Husqvarna division. We have significantly reduced our backlog compared to how it was compared with the previous quarter and also compared with how the situation was in quarter four.
Terry Burke
I would just conclude on that to say normalized backlog situation now.
Johan Andersson
Good. Excellent. We got another one from Kantine Distill [ph] from Candrian. Could you remind me on the selling price of CEORA robotic?
Pavel Hajman
Approximately €25,000.
Johan Andersson
Good.
Terry Burke
I would just - I mean, what I would build on that, of course, is that there is - it's been very well received in the market. There's a strong demand for it. And of course, it drives a big productivity gain with the end user, and that really speaks for itself and drives the demand. Just to put it into perspective.
Pavel Hajman
Yes, true.
Johan Andersson
Excellent. We have a number of questions left here. Do you have any indications from the U.S. and the current sell-out trends there? Or is it too early?
Pavel Hajman
I would say it's too early in the season to have a clear view on how the sell-out in the U.S. is going out here. We're just a couple of weeks into the season. And as Terry said also, there has been some cold weather in the United States as well in various parts of the country. So from that reason, we cannot comment on an outlook on this.
Johan Andersson
Good. Another question from Christer Magnergard around currency. You had a positive currency effect, especially in construction on plus 50. For the group, it was plus 40. What is the driver behind that? And what should we expect for the rest of the year, especially then for the Construction division?
Pavel Hajman
So overall, I would expect a relatively flat currency effect coming through for the rest of the year. The positive currency effect we had during Q1 for the group was euro-driven. But for the Construction, also some positive effect with the dollar as North America had a good performance in Q1. But I wouldn't - I don't expect to see big currency swings in the quarters ahead.
Johan Andersson
Good. Excellent. And I think we have more or less answered all the questions here coming in online. There are one or two that's pretty similar to those that has been answered. Let me see if we have maybe a final one here. Yes, we got one just coming in from Stephen at the Metologist. CEORA would seem to be the perfect for the U.S. market, what progress is being made there? Is it fair to say most sales currently or in Europe on CEORA or are you also selling in the U.S.?
Pavel Hajman
Yes. No, we're absolutely selling the CEORA in the U.S. There's a huge interest within sports facilities in the U.S. on the CEORA. I mean this is a product that works equally good on both markets, and it provides a nice cut loan and we have also strengthened our, so to say, go-to-market ability in relation to CEORA into the sports areas.
Johan Andersson
Good. Many thanks. So we don't - as I say, we don't have any further questions on the telephone conference, and we have answered the questions that we have got through the web interface. And if it's any further questions or any comments you would like to make, we are definitely here today and to say next week to answer any questions you have. Otherwise, we very much thank you for participating today and like to then see you the next time, which is then 18th of July when we report Q2. So thank you very much for joining today, and see you soon again.
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Husqvarna AB (publ) (HUSQF) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript