Emelie Alm: Good morning everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the Q3 2026 results for Husqvarna Group. My name is Emelie Alm, and I am joined here today by the Group CEO, Glen Instone, and also by our new CFO, Patrik Johnson. We will go through the presentation, and after that we will have a Q&A session. You can ask your questions on the conference call and also on the webcast interface. With that, I would like to leave over to you, Glenn.
Glen Instone: Thank you, Emelie. First of all, a warm welcome to you, Patrik. Great to have you alongside. And a warm welcome to everyone who is listening in. Let us jump into our Q3. Of course, Q3 is a seasonally smaller quarter for the Husqvarna Group, our two key quarters being Q1 and Q2. So really starting off that we continue to execute on our strategy. We have had successful product launches during the course of 2026, and we continue to broaden those product launches in the presence in the various channels that we are operating in. So really broadening our channel exposure as well. We talked previously about a large cost savings program that I will come back to, but that is very much on track.
Glen Instone: We have also talked about becoming more asset light in our setup, our footprint, and again, we will come back to that later in the presentation, but some really good examples how we are really initiating a more asset light approach for the Husqvarna Group. That said, we are operating in a very challenging market environment. Particularly Europe has been affected. Weak consumer sentiment and also some very dry, I would say, drought-like weather conditions. However, very pleased to see good growth in North America across all three divisions. The lower demand in Europe has really affected the business by having lower volumes. And lower volumes into our business has meant that we have had, of course, lower production volumes. We have also actively driven down our inventory and therefore had a net further volume reduction into our manufacturing facilities.
Glen Instone: During the Q3, and we mentioned this in Q2, we have seen cost headwinds, particularly as a result of the Middle East crisis, that we see a cost inflation impacting the business. But our cost-out program is going to be even more imperative to offset those cost headwinds. Despite all of those headwinds, I am very, very pleased with our cash generation in the Q3. We are actually on par with Q3 last year, with some SEK 2.4 positive cash in the Q3. So I am very pleased with that, and we continue to reduce our net debt now down to some SEK 9.4 billion. So some of the more strategic highlights of the quarter. I mentioned in the intro there that we continue to work with our footprint and our asset-light activities.
Glen Instone: This we will continue to do, but I thought it would be very good to bring some flavor of some of the examples that we have actually executed on or decided upon during the course of Q3. We mentioned already in Q2 that we were looking at the Gardena manufacturing footprint in Europe. By that we are moving certain activities from Germany into Czech, and this will have full effect in season 2029. This is a large effort and that is ongoing as per plan. During Q4 2025, we talked about closing our Brastad facility here in Sweden. That again continues according to plan and that will be finalized during Q1 2027.
Glen Instone: This quarter, and as recently as this week, we have announced actually the outsourcing of certain battery products under the Husqvarna brand from our facilities in Europe, and we are going to outsource them to facilities in Asia, both our own facilities as well as third parties' facilities. We continue to drive a very clear asset-light plan, but also to improve our competitiveness. A key part of our strategic development now is how we are going to really refine and strengthen our portfolio going forward. During the course of the quarter, we announced the discontinuation of the Stone Diamond Tools business within our Construction Division. That actually is part of our concrete sawing and drilling business portfolio unit. That will actually improve the profitability of that business portfolio unit. That goes very much in accordance with our previous announcement and is going according to plan.
Glen Instone: We also talked last time we met about a strategic review of our Powered Garden business portfolio unit within the Gardena Division. This again, we either want to improve the profitability or find alternative options. We will come back to you during the course very, very early in 2027 with our final direction on that. We have also been investing very, very heavily, of course, in our professional robotic lawnmower range. I give a little bit of flavor of this. During the course of Q3, we have done some fairly heavy marketing investments to really boost the awareness of the Pro Robotics range, and particularly the Husqvarna brand and how we are bringing this to life. We were actually the title sponsors of the British Masters, Husqvarna British Masters, which is a key event on the DP World Tour, a large golf event.
Glen Instone: It is really, really, really bringing Husqvarna and golf into the same sentence, and we are very, very pleased with the awareness that created and will continue driving such activities. What it really does is bring a proof point that our products can work in the most precision grass cutting areas, and that is what works. So in that event, it was Husqvarna products, our CEORA units, as well as our 500 Series products that cut the entire fairways of the Belfry in the UK. So that is really proof in action that our products are working in the toughest and the most technically shortest grass growing conditions that we would have. So a real proof point, and we are very, very pleased. What is also very encouraging in golf is of course the awareness increases, but we are still in a fairly limited number of golf courses today.
Glen Instone: Some 2,000, just over 2,000, and there are 38,000 globally. There is a huge penetration ahead of us and we are going to continue driving towards that penetration. When people use our products, the retention rate is very, very high. It is actually 99%. Most people, when they use our products in a golf setting, retain those products. Going forward, it is very clear we need to drive a two-pronged approach. Increase awareness and penetration, and therefore more customers, but also drive even more expansion with the customers we already have. We see that actually happening, that most of the customers we have are actually doubling their product purchasing from us. More customers and expanding the product range with the customers we have. Also aftermarket is a key differentiator when it comes to our strategic direction.
Glen Instone: I am extremely pleased to see actually within our Construction Division, of course, 100% professional facing, that we have now seen 15 consecutive quarters of growth when it comes to aftermarket. Very clear actions and very clear direction ahead and clear path. So great job there, and we are going to continue driving that, and we see great high single-digit growth over the past two to three years within that area. Of course, we need to take it even further and make sure we get that growth into the rest of the group, particularly the Husqvarna Forest & Garden Division, and continue driving initiatives like further customer support, enhanced service capabilities, and really expanding our offering, digital offering, lease offerings, and everything else that can really support our end customers to become even closer to the Husqvarna Group and our offering. Cost out program.
Glen Instone: Close to one year ago, we announced a SEK 4 billion cost out program. This is a big initiative. Then we came back during the Q2 report and actually said, "Okay, of the SEK 4 billion, we expect some SEK 3 billion of that to be effective by the end of 2028." Roughly speaking, SEK 1 billion per year 2026, 2027, 2028. We reiterate that. We are actually at over SEK 900 million through the first three quarters of this year with a strong pipeline of initiatives. It is very much needed given the cost headwinds that we have seen, particularly in Q3, and we will continue to execute on our cost out program.
Glen Instone: It is really five key areas. It is sourcing in a smarter way. It is outsourcing when it comes to some of our manufacturing footprint, as well as moving things around within the group. It is using third parties.
Glen Instone: It is using third parties when it comes to logistics. It is actually making ourselves more efficient from an organization perspective. Last, but certainly not least, it is actually accelerating how we actually design our products. The real enhancing the design to value proposition that we have. We must go faster, and we have got some great proof points already in 2026 of us bringing products to market much, much quicker than we have done in the past. We will continue to drive this as a normal part of our DNA in the Husqvarna Group. Isolated Q3, we had some SEK 300 million of savings. Again, we see a good pipeline of savings. What I do want to say is during the first nine months of this year, we have had some SEK 450 million of items affecting comparability.
Glen Instone: I really want to call them out because that is a proof point that we are acting and taking out costs from this business. We will continue with those IACs. We guided on roughly SEK 1.5 billion to support this program, and we expect during the course of 2026 that will be around SEK 750 million. A further SEK 300 million really supporting the cost out initiatives that will come during the Q4 as an IAC. If we look at the sales development in the Q3, we actually had an organic sales decline of 5%. As reported, that was actually minus 2%, and there was a currency positive or currency effect there of 3%. Minus 5% from an organic like-for-like perspective. The decline came in the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division, minus 10%.
Glen Instone: Largely the result of those negative consumer sentiment and the particularly weighing on demand also coupled with the adverse weather conditions for lawn care products. Minus 10% in Husqvarna Forest & Garden division. However, within that, strong growth within North America. Gardena actually had a very good quarter. We had a +8% with a double-digit growth in watering, and I will come back with a little bit more flavor when we get to the divisions. Construction division was largely flat, but again, with some very strong growth pockets. Weak conditions in Europe across the board with some positive tailwinds, particularly on the watering segment benefiting Gardena, but also a very, very positive development, all three divisions showing growth in North America. That we start to see as a positive trend that we have seen now for a couple of quarters.
Glen Instone: Very, very good to see the positive continuation in North America, which is a key market for us. Patrik will come to much more detail on the earnings later in the presentation. Of course, Q3 has been a challenging quarter as I started with some -SEK 246 million of operating income. The main impacts here are lower volumes, lower demand, lower volumes into our supply chain system. That said, as I mentioned in the intro, we also took a conscious decision to put even lower productions through our facilities to drive down the inventory. Really reducing the absorption benefit in the factories. Again, it is a conscious effort we took, and we will continue driving down inventory at the expense of the P&L if that is what we need to do.
Glen Instone: We have seen certainly pressures coming during the Q3 that started increasing as a result of the Middle East crisis, inflationary pressures, particularly impacting raw materials and logistics. Volumes and inflationary pressure have really been the headwinds that have impacted our Q3 earnings. If we look now onto the more granular division level, Husqvarna Forest & Garden, I have mentioned this, of course, heavily impacted from the negative consumer sentiment in Europe. Also, of course, the unfavorable weather conditions in Europe, particularly in the H1 of Q3, really dry conditions impacting grass care products, not just robotic lawnmowers, but also our front-mounted riders. That has really impacted the sales of wheeled as well as robotic lawnmowers in Europe. However, as said, good growth in our North America part of the Forest & Garden division.
Glen Instone: Very much as I said for the group, impact of lower volumes and cost inflation and an unfavorable mix actually impacting the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division, driving down into a lower operating result than we had in the prior year. I mentioned a lot about golf earlier, of course, and that is where we are really executing on golf in the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division. Some clear proof points going forward that we can really succeed. As part of the golf announcement and as part of the accelerated marketing activities in Q3, we also had some very good product launches in Q3 supporting that offering. It is not just grass cutting that we are doing, we are also looking at further application know-how going forward. One of the big launches in Q3 that will enhance the offering is products like dew removal. So really taking the dew away from the greens.
Glen Instone: Now we start to have applications beyond only mowing in the Pro Robotics area. Gardena division, definitely the standout success of the quarter, +8%, and that is actually driven from a double-digit growth in watering. Positive in Europe and positive in North America. Of course, the drought conditions I mentioned that have impacted the group and particularly impacted the Husqvarna Forest & Garden division, it has been positive when it comes to watering. So the dry conditions have supported our watering demand. What I am really pleased to see is not just a demand-driven, but actually a market share improvement. We have seen a market share increase in France, in particular, in watering, and where we have a very strong market position in Germany. We have actually maintained our strong market positions across all of our core Gardena categories. That is really, really good to see.
Glen Instone: We have got a clear turnaround case that we have talked about in Gardena, which is our Powered Garden BPU. We continue to see a decline there. It is a double-digit decline. Again, we will come back to you very early in 2027 with our path forward with the Powered Garden business portfolio unit. So it is very much under a clear strategic review process as we speak. The earnings within Gardena division, positive volumes and a positive product mix from the strong watering that really enhanced the earnings. We see some dilution effect from the weak Powered Garden business portfolio unit, and actually, this division had a slightly positive effect from FX. Construction division was actually flat in Q3, but within the flat overall, we actually see a positive North America and a decline in Europe.
Glen Instone: Within the product setting, we actually see a good improvement when it comes to power cutters. That is part of our sawing and drilling portfolio. So we see a good improvement there. But as I mentioned in the strategic priorities, a very, very strong improvement or a continued strong improvement, I should say, when it comes to aftermarket. So a strong professional offering, really connecting with our end customers and driving a much more strong aftermarket offering. Earnings, however, were affected twofold. Lower volumes because we have had strong price increases in the Construction division, so therefore lower volumes in the system. That has had an impact onto the earnings in our, I would say factory throughput rates, but also a negative impact from FX. Also this is a division that is relatively more impacted by the tariffs because of the exposure geographically.
Glen Instone: More of a negative impact from tariffs impacting Construction vis-a-vis the whole group. All in all, a good development from a demand perspective within the Construction division. At that, Patrik, I pass across to you, and once again, a warm welcome.
Patrik Johnson: Thank you, Glenn. I am really, really positive to be here, and it feels great. I am excited and honored to be here presenting the first report for Husqvarna for me. I started mid-September, so still early days, but it has been a really good first month, I would say. Very good reception from all colleagues around the world, and that feels really great. We are also a relatively new management team, I would say, and I think Glenn has done a good job mixing different kinds of personalities and competencies. That feels really good. We are all eager to continue to push on with all our activities and deliver profitable growth and value creation going forward. For now, let us dig into the numbers and I start directly with a Q3 EBIT bridge.
Patrik Johnson: All in all, profit or EBIT declined with almost SEK 400 million, so it is not a strong quarter. If we start with the negative components in the bridge, the biggest one, the largest one is volume and mix. Glenn already talked a lot about that. Sales volume, if you include price, is around -5%. Then if you exclude price, we are actually volume-wise on around -6%. On top of that, we have the inventory changes where we deliberately took down inventory this year with around SEK 300 million, and last year we actually increased inventory. That is a swing or delta of around SEK 900 million, of course, impacting production volumes a lot. Also included in this big component, we have also negative mix effects.
Patrik Johnson: We are, of course, glad that we increased sales in North America, but from a short-term margin perspective, it actually is a slight headwind. Also looking at the product dimension, where we have a larger than average decline on the robotic side, that also affects margin negatively. All in all, this has a huge impact, the volume mix component in the quarter. The second biggest, we have labeled cost inflation and other, and 75% of this component relates to really high price increases on logistical costs, raw material, plastic, steel, on the back of the Middle East crisis. Then you have also general inflation, increasing the cost levels. All in all, that is 75% of that component. The remaining 25%, I would say, relate more to positive one-offs actually last year. That is a negative bridge item this year.
Patrik Johnson: Moving over to the more positive bridge components, we have the fuel for growth, as we call it, and program cost savings, the SEK 305 million Glenn mentioned. Really needed, of course. We have also positive price effect of around 1.5% to 2 percentage points in the quarter, which is actually a better high level than we saw in the H1 of the year. So that mitigates, I would say, the normal inflation, but of course does not compensate for the really elevated price increases coming from the Middle East crisis. Given the performance, we are, of course, very cautious on extra spending. But there are key areas that we need to invest in, and Glenn talked about brand marketing side on the Pro Robotics, and that is the single item that stands out in the quarter.
Patrik Johnson: Lastly then, the currency tariffs, no big bridge effects in the quarter, only SEK 10 million each. So that is the quarterly bridge. If we look at the year-to-date bridge, where we have a decline of around SEK 320 million. All in all, I would say that the explanations, comments are fairly similar to the quarterly bridge. Volume mix is the single biggest one, and net sales are, as you know, down -2% in the quarter. If you add back then the price is between 0.5 percentage point to 1%+. So that means that we have sales volume of around -3%. Inventory also year-to-date impacts negatively in the bridge. So we are around the movement, the delta between the years, around SEK 800 million. So that impacts, of course, volumes quite significantly.
Patrik Johnson: Cost inflation and other, and here, the vast majority, around 85% of that item comes from the elevated prices due to the Middle East crisis, but also normal cost inflation. Year to date, we have savings of SEK 935 million. A really good contributor, of course. Price, I mentioned, +SEK 215 million. The extra spending also here year to date relates mostly to the brand and marketing on the Pro Robotics side. Currency still in the year-to-date bridge, still negative, given that we had a more adverse currency movement in the beginning of the year. Tariffs, +SEK 155 million, and that big contributor comes mostly from Q2 when we reported some tariffs refunds. Looking ahead and maybe giving some guidance on what will happen in Q4 and for the full year in a few of these components.
Patrik Johnson: When it comes to the volume mix component here for us, inventory efficiency, capital efficiency is really important. So that will be a priority also going forward, meaning that we will probably increase inventories less than we normally do. Q4 is normally an inventory buildup season. So that will probably happen also in this quarter, but to a lesser extent, impacting also this component in Q4. Cost inflation will unfortunately continue for the remainder of the year, and rough guidance on that component for the full year is around SEK 900 million to SEK 1 billion for that full component full year. Savings, here we are pushing on with more activities, and that we will deliver what Glenn talked about, more than SEK 1 billion in savings for the full year that you should expect. Price, we have increased prices a lot to compensate for the inflation.
Patrik Johnson: Then also the last part of the year, there is also a bit of campaigning, but there you should expect a positive price component also in Q4. Currency, you will see an improvement during Q4 given the currency rates we have. The FX should come close to zero for the full year given no bigger change in currency movements. Tariffs, you should not expect any big changes in paid tariffs during Q4 either. That's a bit of guidance on what you will see for the full year. Moving on to cash flow. Cash flow is good in the quarter, I would say, and also year to date. The profit development, of course, impacts negatively, as you can see from the table to the right.
Patrik Johnson: That is fully mitigated and offset by the working capital movements, and that is, I would say, inventory. That helps us, and all in all, that means that operational cash flow is basically unchanged with last year in Q3. Year to date, we are still above last year. That's good. Good cash flow. Moving on and looking at capital employed and ROCE. We continue to work with these items, inventory and also footprint, focusing on being a more capitalized group. Average capital employed is actually down around SEK 1.2 billion actually, than if you compare with Q3 last year. The sequential development Q2 to Q3 is slight up, but that's mainly due to increase in cash actually. We're actually building some cash in preparation for coming refinancing activities during next year. ROCE then trending slightly downwards.
Patrik Johnson: We are at 6.4% then in Q3 compared to 7.3% last year, but that's entirely due to the lower result. Lastly, looking at the debt, and we have a bit of a seasonal pattern in general in the debt development, as you can see from the graph, and Q3 is a low quarter. There is also an underlying reduction of debt. We are now end of Q3 at 9.4 compared to 9.9. It's a SEK 500 million reduction year over year. That is good, and coming from the strong cash flow that we have. At the bottom of the slide, maturity profile. Here you can see that we have some financing around the corner in next year. That's also why we have prepared with building some cash. The remaining financing activities are quite normal, I would say.
Patrik Johnson: We have a strong balance sheet, strong financial position, and that is also confirmed by the rating we have. We have an investment grade rating from S&P, BBB- with a stable outlook. With that, I end and leave over back to you, Glen.
Glen Instone: Thank you, Patrik. Just before we go to the Q&A, let's just summarize the quarter. Absolutely, we have seen a challenging market environment, particularly in Europe. Weak consumer sentiment, largely the result, really weighing on demand, and of course, that has been elevated with some very dry weather conditions. That's meant we've had lower volumes in our system throughout the supply chain. We've consciously focused on our inventory reduction, as Patrik went through, and we have seen some cost inflation and cost headwinds that have really impacted the earnings in the Q3. However, despite all of that, we're very, very pleased that the cash flow is on par with last year and actually slightly ahead through the first nine months, and we continue to reduce our net debt. So a strong balance sheet and a strong cash flow position.
Glen Instone: What's most important is the direction and the journey we're on. We continue to execute on multiple actions, and this is really driving our strategic areas. Very successful product launches during 2026 and more to come in 2027. We continue to broaden our presence in multiple sales channels, which is going to be important going forward. Our cost savings programs are very much on track, SEK 3 billion effective by the end of 2028 and SEK 4 billion for the full program. We continue to take decisive actions on our footprint, both manufacturing as well as logistics, and we're going to continue to execute on those. There's a couple of Business portfolio units that we said were in turnaround mode, and we're going to come back with more details on them.
Glen Instone: The most recent or the closest decision point will be the Powered Garden business portfolio unit that will come back to you in very early 2027. So all in all, despite weak market sentiment and challenging conditions, we continue to execute on our strategy going forward. I think that's a good point to go to Q&A, Emelie.
Emelie Alm: Yes. Thank you very much, Glen and Patrik. With that, it's time to open up for Q&A. Again, you can ask your questions through the conference call, or you can write them in the web interface in the webcast. With that, operator, do we have any questions from the conference call?
Operator: Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question comes from the line of Adela Dashian from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Adela Dashian: Thank you, and good morning. Firstly, on the weather impact and inventories of resi robotics, how should we now think about this, given that it is the end of the season? What happens in 2027? Will these models be able to be sold? How is your planning around that?
Glen Instone: Yeah. We see a mixed inventory position in our channel partners. We see it is, I would say, slightly higher than normal overall. But within that, we have got some lower pockets and higher pockets, if I put it like that. Watering is much lower versus last year. Robotics is slightly higher. We need to continue working through that inventory with our channel partners, making sure we are prepared for season 2027, and that is something which we are actively doing as we speak. So I am fairly confident in the activities we have will normalize the inventory going into next year. But of course, we are coming out of season now for grass care products, so the selling opportunities are diminishing week by week, of course, during the remainder of 2026. But active activity is going on with channel partners to make sure we sell through that inventory.
Adela Dashian: All right. Then maybe on the inflationary pressures on cost, are you able to provide some sort of specified range of what the remaining portion is for Q4? Then also going into 2027, what your expectations are here?
Glen Instone: Patrik?
Patrik Johnson: I do not think we give more flavor than you noted this, the second biggest red bridge item. That will be, of course, higher than we have here to date and around SEK 900 billion in total, with the vast majority of that is coming from the inflationary pressure. I do not think we give more guidance than that.
Glen Instone: I think what we could maybe add there is, if we look at the Middle East impact in particular, that is having an inflationary impact. We are saying it is going to be SEK 350 to 400 million this year within that component, and therefore there is close to maybe 200 left of that Middle East piece. Of course, the Middle East crisis took effect well into Q2, so there will be a carryover effect into Q1 and partially Q2. I would estimate that is something like SEK 250 million of carryover effect from 2026 into 2027.
Adela Dashian: Okay, thanks. That is helpful. Lastly, pricing. What are your ambitions here? I know it is late in the season, so probably going to be more of a 2027 event.
Glen Instone: Yeah. Of course, we are very pleased with the price increase. Patrik mentioned 1.5 percentage points roughly that impacted Q3, and that was price increases we added in Q2 as a reaction to the inflationary pressure we were seeing. That will continue through Q4, of course, and then we must look, I would say, selectively at how we put price increases through for season 2027. We will always plan to have price increases. I think we should have that as a market leader. At the same time, we have got to stay competitive. So it is really a fine line around offsetting the inflationary pressures but also ensuring we remain competitive. Again, I do expect a small net price increase for the season 2027.
Adela Dashian: Okay, thanks. That is all for now.
Emelie Alm: Thank you, Adela. I think we can add one question from the webcast regarding our strategic portfolio management. Could you please elaborate on the discontinuation of the Stone Diamond Tools business? Shouldn't this be a complementary offering to your chainsaw production with strong production synergies? What drives this decision? That is the first one. Then we have a follow-up, also if you could elaborate a little bit on the Powered Garden.
Glen Instone: Yeah. The Stone Diamond Tools business, it does not really complement the chainsaw production. We actually had different facilities for that, and we were seeing a very weak operating margin associated with that, and it was actually dragging down our sawing and drilling total portfolio. We did not see that it was necessarily a needed complementary part of the portfolio. We looked at many options, and we decided to exit that segment. Very much through with that. It has got actually a dilutive effect into Q3, a dilutive effect onto the full-year earnings, but obviously we will see the upside of in 2027. That answers the first part, which was Stone Diamond Tools within the Construction Division. The second part was the-
Emelie Alm: Powered Garden
Glen Instone: Powered Garden within Gardena. Again, this is really the Gardena-branded electrical products. Anything with a battery or basically anything with a battery in that case. So it is the Gardena-branded handheld products and Gardena-branded robotics that we see with very thin margins. Again, we are looking at all opportunities here, whether that is more outsourcing opportunities, working more with partners, or whether we should actually remain with this part of the portfolio. We purposely moved it to a strategic review to show the intent we have, and we are very far on with our analysis. So we will come back as soon as we have taken our decision. Expected very early in 2027.
Emelie Alm: Good. Thank you. Operator, can we get the next question, please?
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Gustav Hagéus from SEB. Please go ahead.
Gustav Hagéus: Thanks, operator. Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I have a broader one to start. I guess at least since the CMD in 2019, the focus externally at least, has been dead set on battery electrification, robotics, and so forth. So I am wondering at what stage would you consider a partial pivot back to the petrol engine portfolio as it appears to be a little bit more sheltered, perhaps, and more pro-focused than battery at the moment, excluding the wheeled products then. I am talking about the. Also, if you can update us a bit on what is the run rate market decline currently in these categories, and do you found it worthwhile to explore taking a firmer grip on pricing, consolidation, cost discipline in this market.
Gustav Hagéus: Lastly, I guess, if you have a view on the competitive landscape in this specific market, are the competitors going for growth or stability?
Glen Instone: Welcome back, Gustav. The first question was very much around the pivot from petrol to battery, and whether we pivot back, and I think it is a very good question. Of course, we needed to follow what the customer demands are, and we clearly see a move towards electrification, whether it is in our industry or other industries. So that continues. But I would say it is also slowed down. We see a slowdown, particularly in North America, but maybe some slowdown elsewhere. I think you also mentioned, is it time to or would we consider pivoting back? I do not think we pivot back. What I will say, and it sounds very non-strategic, we fully expect to be last man standing when it comes to our combustion engine products. So we are not exiting combustion engine products.
Glen Instone: It is a big volume item for us, and it is a big part of our profitability, and it is part of who we stand for as well, that we have the full offering, whether that is in petrol-driven products, gas-driven products, or whether it is battery-driven products. So we want to have the whole portfolio, and again, it will be down to the consumer to decide whether they want to use gas-driven products or electric-driven products. So we will have both. So hopefully that at least answers our intent. We are going to remain in both, and we are not going to overweight necessarily onto battery or petrol in that case.
Glen Instone: The second part of your question was more around, I guess, price volume and the competitive landscape as I understood it. I would say it depends which category we talk about, which product group. In some segments, I think it is more mature segments.
Glen Instone: It is clear that we need to look at pricing, and we are prepared to take volume pressures in the group. We see that very much in our Construction business. Despite a couple of years of sales growth, we have actually had a volume decline because of the price increases. That is a conscious decision we have taken, and we think it is still the right thing to do for that part of our portfolio. We will see the same with other parts of the more mature setting. But in some of the more aggressive or new areas, and robotic lawnmowers is a good one or battery handheld, when new players are coming in, of course, there is a new presence that they want to get their presence felt.
Glen Instone: So I do feel there is an awareness aspect, and therefore, maybe sales prevails over margins in some categories. But that is not necessarily what we will do.
Glen Instone: We want to have margins prevailing over volumes throughout. But we do need to make sure we stay competitive, so we will not do something that is completely crazy and we don't stay competitive. I believe we can command a brand premium in most of our segments. And of course, it's what level of brand premium we can really justify, and that comes back to what level of competitiveness we can keep.
Gustav Hagéus: If you're the last man standing in these petrol categories, is there a scope for consolidating lower volume players that will gradually gain profitability as volumes decline, you think?
Glen Instone: I think in the petrol segment, particularly in handheld, you've only got two or three players really with a strong presence, I would say. So I wouldn't talk about consolidation there, but we must look at the whole footprint, how we work with the supply base. I see that probably consolidating over time. So when we continue to look at those options and we continue to actually consolidate in many, many cases.
Gustav Hagéus: Okay. Turning to robotics. You mentioned here in the report that you're still the leading player, but I guess if you combine the Chinese players, you've lost the market share to China, if you will. But can you remind us what the market growth was for robotics, whole categories, lawnmowing robotics in Q3 as you see it, and what your growth was, and whether or not it's a volume or a price mix compared to the market at the moment?
Glen Instone: Yeah. Q3, of course, is a seasonally smaller quarter for grass care products, so I do not look solely at Q3. If we look at the full year, we are relatively flat on our robotics sales. That was not the intention at all coming into the year. We think there is a huge penetration potential going forward, and we think there is going to be growth. It was impacted. I would really say it has been more impacted by weather conditions really impacting grass, and we have seen the impact also onto our other ride-on lawnmowers, not just robotic lawnmowers. So anything with grass care, we have seen a clear weakness in the major parts of the season, second part of Q2 and early parts of Q3. So I would really say weather has impacted.
Glen Instone: At the same time, I will not shy away. We do have competition, particularly in robotics. Are they taking market share? Yes.
Glen Instone: We retain our market leadership position. We are expanding our portfolio. We are becoming even more competitive, and I am really happy with the speed change that we are starting to bring into the organization to bring products to market. So this is our new norm, and that is what we have got to be fit to fight against, and that is what we will do.
Gustav Hagéus: Yes. Just to be clear, the market growth in, say, year to date then for robotic lawnmowing, is that in the 20s, you think? Or what is your best guess here?
Glen Instone: It is probably slightly less than that, but we have seen certainly more growth in the lower end price points, in robotics, where we have not really been playing aggressively, i.e., around the €500 type price points. We have seen more aggressive volume play there, and of course, we are maintaining our value share stronger than the volume share in that case.
Emelie Alm: Thank you, Gustav. You can have one final question, please, before I will ask you to line up again.
Gustav Hagéus: I would like to line up again. Thanks for taking my questions.
Emelie Alm: Can we get the next question, please?
Operator: The next question comes from the line of Fredrik Ivarsson from ABG. Please go ahead.
Fredrik Ivarsson: Yes, morning. Thank you. I have got three questions. I will take them one by one. First one on demand, I do appreciate Husqvarna Forest & Garden met some adverse weather in the quarter, but could you maybe give some color on how you performed in maybe geographies not as dry as the worst ones? Partly trying to understand what to think about volumes in Q4, but overall.
Glen Instone: Yeah, absolutely. Of course, we talk Europe being weak, North America being stronger, very broadly, and we actually see rest of world with some strength, the big geographies outside of Europe and North America. But when you go into Europe, the big pressures have been in Germany and France. That is, I would say, Central Europe is where the big pressures have been in Q3. I do not think we are alone there at all when I look at the various market data sets. Other parts of Europe we have seen it has been reasonably okay. Here in Sweden has also been reasonably okay. Slightly different weather conditions as well. So it is not necessarily all of Europe. It is very concentrated parts of Europe where we have seen those demand shifts that have impacted us.
Fredrik Ivarsson: Yeah, thanks. That is clear enough. Maybe a quick follow-up on that one. Because I guess Q4 is not as weather-driven, so could you provide any sort of guidance on the volume run rate or any guidance for the Q4 overall in terms of volume mix? I expect it not to be as negative as in Q3.
Glen Instone: Well, I think it is too early to say. Q4 is our seasonally smallest quarter from a sales perspective. You are right, it is a big shift in the product mix in Q4. We go more into handheld products vis-a-vis lawn care products. Construction continues at a similar run rate. That is very normal. Of course, we do not expect to be selling too many watering products in our Q4 as a general outlook. So I would say it is too early to say, but we do have a product shift happening in Q4. That is valid to say.
Fredrik Ivarsson: Yeah, that is clear. Second one on inflation. You guided quite clearly there SEK 900 million to SEK 1 billion for the full year. Is it fair to assume around two-thirds from raw mats and one-third from logistics, roughly?
Glen Instone: Yeah, I would say that is a fair assumption.
Fredrik Ivarsson: Yeah, good. Thanks. Last one, coming back to robotics, you talk about the success within Pro. I recall that part of the business being around SEK 1 billion in size in 2024. Approximately how large is it today? Has it more than doubled?
Glen Instone: It has not doubled yet, Fredrik. We expect it to double absolutely and more, but it has not doubled yet. The penetration potential is still vast. I think I mentioned we have some. Pro Robotics is really sitting in three key areas. We have golf, we have sports, and we have landscaping, and we see all three areas that we see a huge growth potential ahead of us. Golf is the one we talk a lot about, and we have done some big activities in Q3 in particular to raise awareness. The reason we talk about golf so much is we are sitting in just over 2,000 golf courses today. There is 38,000 golf courses out there. So we are convinced that the future penetration can be significant in this area.
Glen Instone: So we have not doubled yet to answer your question directly, but we have full ambition to double in the near term.
Fredrik Ivarsson: Excellent. Thank you.
Emelie Alm: Question, please.
Operator: Next question comes from the line of Johan Eliason from SB1. Please go ahead.
Johan Eliason: Yes. Good morning, Glenn, Patrik, and Emelie. This is Johan at Sparebank 1 Markets. I was wondering if we go back to the robotics, you write something in the report that Where is it? You sort of in Husqvarna Forest & Garden, in the residential robotics, you expand your retail footprint and product range across price points and channels, et cetera. Is that implying that you will take the Husqvarna brand down to the Gardena price points and channels, or how are you thinking here?
Glen Instone: Yeah, ultimately, and morning, Johan, we need to be present where our customers are shopping. That happens to be in retail and online as well as, of course, our very, very important servicing dealer channel. That remains very important to us. To really answer your question, will we take it all the way down to the Gardena price points? That is not the intention. We do not want to play it too low down, but we need to decide how the premium we can play with, vis-a-vis the competition. We have a very clear internal figure on that, as how much premium we think we can command, that I should not speak openly about. But of course, that is what we have got to really look at from a price point perspective. So we will go into the more modern retail channels, and we are doing that already.
Glen Instone: We have got some good proof points of that already in season 2026. We will continue expanding in season 2027 to make sure that the Husqvarna brand is relevant, and you can get that in more channels. But we will not go all the way down to answer your question, Johan.
Johan Eliason: Okay, good to hear. Then on professional robots, you talked about these 3,000 golf courses, et cetera. Do you have the servicing network to cover the golf opportunity in a good way today? I am sure you have the landscaping and the forestry part probably well covered, but they are necessarily not in the same places where you find golf courses. So do you need to invest more in your servicing dealer network in order to approach all of these 38,000 golf courses you talked about?
Glen Instone: I think generally speaking, we need to invest more in our network, full stop. I think we need to continue driving because that to me can be a differentiator going forward, regardless of which product segment we are talking about. But when it comes to golf, we have a, let me say, the premium part of our network that we have clearly classified as our partners, professional partners, to service that very need. They are partners who have in-field expertise, both from a selling perspective, but also a technical perspective. We do a lot of training with them, so I am pretty pleased with the network we have built. We need to continue working with them. So I think to answer your question, I am pretty satisfied with what we have built up in the past two seasons to service the golf business.
Glen Instone: As it expands, and it will expand, we need to continue, I would say, qualifying more and more partners to work with. We've got several hundred partners that we're working with who are qualified to this level.
Johan Eliason: Okay. In professional golf, your main competitor here is Toro, which has a very strong position, obviously. But it seems like their robotic business is not performing according to their own standards. Seemingly, they have partnered up with Yamabiko on professional robotics. How do you see your opportunity here? Is that something that you see an opportunity for you, and any reasons why Toro never came with their own products in the category that you've seen?
Glen Instone: I shouldn't comment the competition and their reasons. I'm sure they have the reasons for their timing. But of course, they're very successful in the golf setting with their existing solutions. We've just got to go even faster with our solutions in the golf setting and landscaping setting and sports setting. To me, this is very much on us to go even faster, raise the awareness, and really increase the execution speed.
Johan Eliason: Okay. Very finally, on Gardena, you showed good organic growth, and especially on the watering side, which I think is a very profitable category for you. But still you reported a loss, albeit obviously smaller than last year. What's the main reasons for that? A sudden inflationary impact that you couldn't compensate, or is the losses so big in the Powered Garden offering for Gardena that you still generate this loss in a seemingly decent sales quarter?
Glen Instone: Yeah. I would say, Johan, actually, it is not unusual to have a loss-making Q3 for Gardena. But very clearly, we have too much assets supporting that business. That is the honest answer. I think one of the key proof points we have now is we are starting to move things from the higher cost country of Germany into Czech. We need to reduce the asset base supporting Gardena ultimately, so we do not have these large losses in our seasonally smaller quarters. But I would say that is the main reason, too large an asset base.
Johan Eliason: If I just add a small comment there. Gardena is improving result-wise, but being negative in Q3 is unfortunately normal.
Glen Instone: Yeah.
Johan Eliason: Just retail inventory levels or dealer inventory levels at the end of the season, any comments there?
Glen Instone: Normal to slightly higher overall, actually lower in the US in most areas, lower in watering in Europe, slightly higher on robotics than we would like leaving the season. So again, we have got to continue working through that with our channel partners. But normal to slightly higher overall, Johan, if I just broaden everything across the globe.
Johan Eliason: Okay. Thank you very much.
Emelie Alm: Thank you, Johan. We have a couple of more questions from the webcast. Switching over to Construction, if you could please elaborate on the pricing actions and volume impact in the Construction division, and what actions have you been taking on your end, and what has the market response been? Could you also elaborate a bit on what part of the organic growth that has contributed to market response from pricing action versus wider macro market sentiment?
Patrik Johnson: Well, they are basically flat in the quarter, but they have a positive price effect, meaning that the sales volumes are lower than last year, and they are also reducing inventory as the other divisions are. All in all, they have lower volumes in their business. Other bigger components impacting the result is also inflation, and general inflation and also from the Middle East crisis. That is a big component and also FX actually impacting them negatively. But add more flavor, Glenn.
Glen Instone: I think you cover it pretty well, and of course, ultimately it is about the price elasticity and how we start to affect volumes too much. We put through some mid-year price increases in Construction that were effective in June, that we clearly saw in Q3 there. That does impact volumes. We have seen a volume decline in the past 2 or 3 years in Construction because of the price increases. So we continue to monitoring this very closely. But I do not have the perfect answer to that apart from we will keep a very close eye on it to make sure we remain competitive ultimately.
Emelie Alm: Thank you. Also, one final quick question, I think, regarding the cost savings that we are now ahead of plan. Is it fair to assume year-on-year less savings in 2027 versus 2026, or do you expect savings to continue to come through faster?
Glen Instone: Yeah. Of course, we came out of the blocks very quick in Q1 this year, and it is very low-hanging fruit. But we have continued at a reasonable pace, I would say, and we will have over SEK 1 billion in 2026. The best guidance I can give them for 2026 at this point in time is SEK 1 billion. Of course, we are trying to do things faster. Maybe the low-hanging fruit is getting less out there, but there is still a lot we can go at. I am convinced that we can achieve the ambition we have set. So for now, let us stick with the SEK 1 billion guidance for 2027.
Emelie Alm: Thank you, Glenn, and that concludes the Q&A session. Some final remarks from you, perhaps.
Glen Instone: Yeah. Thanks, Emelie, and thank you, Patrik. Thanks for joining, everyone. Of course, Q3 has been a challenging quarter, driven from the weak demand, given the weak consumer sentiment, and of course, some adverse weather conditions, but we continue to execute now a strategy. Very clear operational excellence, I would say. Some of the footprint moves we are making, hopefully will give you some flavor there that we are working on. The cost out continues according to plan. Very clear direction on our portfolio management and some strong proof points that when we really drive aftermarket as a focus area, we get a benefit from that. So I am very pleased with the actions we are taking. We need to continue driving them at speed.
Emelie Alm: That concludes today's earnings call. Thank you for listening, and goodbye.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your line. Goodbye.
