Fiskars Financial Statement Release 2022

Fiskars Corporation
Financial Statement Release
February 7, 2023 at 8:30 a.m. (EET)

Fiskars Financial Statement Release 2022

Solid year in a challenging operating environment

This release is a summary of the Fiskars Corporation’s Financial Statement Release published today. The complete Financial Statement Release with tables is attached to this release as a pdf-file. It is also available at http://fiskarsgroup.com/investors/reports-presentations/interim-reports and on the company website at www.fiskarsgroup.com. Investors should not rely on summaries of financial reports only, but should review the complete reports with tables.

October-December 2022 in brief:

• Comparable net sales¹ decreased by 12.2% to EUR 304.1 million (Q4 2021: 346.5). Reported net sales decreased by 13.9% to EUR 304.1 million (353.2)
• Comparable EBIT² decreased to EUR 29.7 million (32.2), or 9.8% (9.1%) of net sales. EBIT increased to EUR 24.4 million (23.8)
• Cash flow from operating activities before financial items and taxes increased to EUR 60.5 million (54.9)
• Free cash flow increased to EUR 35.7 million (23.7)
• Earnings per share (EPS) were EUR 0.14 (0.22)

January-December 2022 in brief:

• Comparable net sales¹ increased by 1.7% to EUR 1,248.4 million (Q1-Q4 2021: 1,227.6). Reported net sales decreased by 0.5% to EUR 1,248.4 million (1,254.3)
• Comparable EBIT² decreased to EUR 151.0 million (154.2), or 12.1% (12.3%) of net sales. EBIT decreased to EUR 134.7 million (142.8)
• Cash flow from operating activities before financial items and taxes decreased to EUR -24.9 million (164.2)
• Free cash flow decreased to EUR -100.7 million (95.3)
• Earnings per share (EPS) were EUR 1.21 (1.06)

1) Comparable net sales excludes the impact of exchange rates, acquisitions and divestments

2) Items affecting comparability in EBIT include items such as restructuring costs, impairment or provisions charges and releases, integration-related costs, and gains and losses from the sale of businesses

Proposal for distribution of dividend:

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that a dividend of EUR 0.80 per share shall be paid for the financial period that ended on December 31, 2022. The dividend shall be paid in two instalments of EUR 0.40 per share each.

Outlook for 2023:

Fiskars expects comparable EBIT to be slightly below the 2022 level (2022: EUR 151.0 million).

The company expects that the key negative factors impacting its performance in 2023 will be the continued volatility of the market environment and weaker demand especially in the first half of the year.

The company has announced plans for targeted organizational changes, which are expected to result in savings supporting the company’s EBIT from the second half onwards. At the same time, the company will continue to invest in key strategic building blocks.

President and CEO, Fiskars Group, Nathalie Ahlström:

The year 2022 was two-fold for Fiskars Group; whereas in the first half of the year our net sales grew by double-digits, in the second half our net sales declined as demand weakened. This resulted in comparable net sales growth of 1.7% for the full year. Taking into account the uncertainty and volatility in the operating environment during the year, I am pleased that we reached a comparable EBIT of EUR 151 million in 2022 – the second best in the history of Fiskars Group. I would like to thank our employees, customers and partners for what has once again proven to be an exceptional year. 

In the fourth quarter, our comparable net sales declined by 12.2%. Low consumer confidence combined with retailers’ elevated inventory levels resulted in lower than anticipated orders from customers, especially in the important U.S. market, where our net sales declined by 26%.

Although sales did not develop as we had expected, there were several positive factors in the fourth quarter. Our comparable EBIT margin improved by 70 basis points driven by gross margin improvement and prudent cost management. Another highlight was our own e-commerce, which grew by 30% in October-December. This shows that our investments in direct-to-consumer (DTC) and digital are paying off. I was also pleased that we were able to turn our free cash flow positive during the quarter after it had been negatively impacted by higher inventories during the year. The inventory levels are still clearly elevated, and we will continue to work on bringing them closer to targeted levels. As part of these measures, we are notably planning to temporarily adjust the production capacity in our factories in Billnäs and Sorsakoski.

The first full year of our Growth Strategy execution is now behind us, and we can see that its four transformation levers - commercial excellence, DTC, the U.S., and China – are delivering tangible results. Our like-for-like gross margin, which is our key performance indicator for commercial excellence, improved by 60 basis points in January-December despite broad-based cost inflation. DTC grew by 8% in 2022 amounting to 21% of the Group’s sales with very good development especially in e-commerce. In the U.S., our net sales declined by 4% as demand weakened significantly in the fourth quarter. Although the U.S. market did not develop as we had anticipated at the beginning of the year, we continue to see significant potential and growth opportunities for Fiskars Group in the country. Our China business continued on a strong growth track with sales growing 36% during the year despite intermittent Covid-19 disruptions.

We are a company in transformation and our Growth Strategy sets the framework for the choices that we make on this journey. In November, we announced changes in our Leadership Team to be more aligned with our strategy and its transformation levers. The changes included adding the new role of Executive Vice President, Direct to Consumer, to the Leadership Team as well as dividing the wholesale organization into two regional roles: one for the Americas and one for Europe and Asia-Pacific, excluding China.

In January 2023, we announced plans for targeted organizational changes mainly in our Business Areas Vita, Terra and Crea to accelerate strategy execution. The goal of these planned changes is to ensure that we allocate our resources to our strategic growth drivers. The planned changes are expected to lead to a net reduction of approximately 100 roles globally and to result in total annual cost savings of approximately EUR 30 million. At the same time, we will continue to invest in key strategic building blocks.

In 2022, we made good progress on sustainability, one of our strategic enablers. During the year, we continued to develop circular solutions and approximately 5% of the Group’s net sales were generated from our brands’ recycled material product ranges. Our target is that by 2030, the majority of our net sales will come from circular products and services. We are also taking concrete actions to reduce our emissions; one example is the investment in our Iittala factory in Finland, where we will replace the factory’s existing natural gas powered furnaces with electricity powered furnaces. These new furnaces will reduce Fiskars Group’s annual direct carbon dioxide emissions (Scope 1) by 26% by the end of 2026. During the fourth quarter, we were honored to be recognized in CDP’s Climate Change A list for our transparent reporting and ambitious climate work.

Looking at 2023, it is evident that especially the first half of the year looks challenging in terms of the market environment and demand. With a softer demand outlook, our focus this year will be on securing profit and cash flow. We expect our comparable EBIT to be slightly below last year’s level in 2023. Savings from the planned targeted organizational changes are also expected to support our EBIT from the second half onwards, although we will continue investing into our strategic building blocks at the same time.

Group key figures

1) Comparable net sales excludes the impact of exchange rates, acquisitions and divestments.

2) In Q4 2022, items affecting comparability were mainly related to the disposal of the subsidiary in Russia and divestment of the North American Watering business.

3) EBIT excluding items affecting comparability. Comparable EBIT is not adjusted to exclude the full impact of acquisitions/divestments/disposals.

4) In 2021, earnings per share includes a negative impact of EUR 0.35 per share related to a tax reassessment case from 2014 regarding forgiven intra-company loans from 2003, where the company was obliged to pay EUR 28.3 million in additional tax, interest and punitive increases.

FISKARS CORPORATION

Nathalie Ahlström
President and CEO

Webcast

A webcast on the fourth quarter and full year results will be held on February 7, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.(EET). It will be held in English and can be followed at https://fiskars.videosync.fi/q4-2022

Presentation materials will be available at www.fiskarsgroup.com.

An on-demand version of the webcast will be available on the company website. Personal details gathered during the event will not be used for any other purpose.

Media and investor contacts:
Essi Lipponen, Director, Investor Relations, tel. +358 40 829 1192

Fiskars Group in brief

Fiskars Group (FSKRS, Nasdaq Helsinki) is the global home of design-driven brands for indoor and outdoor living. Our brands include Fiskars, Gerber, Iittala, Royal Copenhagen, Moomin by Arabia, Waterford, and Wedgwood. Our brands are present in more than 100 countries and we have approximately 350 own stores. We have close to 7,000 employees and our global net sales in 2022 were EUR 1.2 billion.

We are driven by our common purpose: Pioneering design to make the everyday extraordinary. Since 1649, we have designed products of timeless, purposeful, and functional beauty, while driving innovation and sustainable growth.

Read more: fiskarsgroup.com