Essity AB (publ) ($ESSITYB)

Earnings Call Transcript · March 12, 2026

OM SE Consumer Staples Household Products Company Conference Presentations 43 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#1

Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for joining us. I am delighted to be here with the CEO of Essity, Ulrika Kolsrud. He's going to give a presentation to start, and then we're going to go through a Q&A. I will start with some questions, but anyone can then also ask more questions. But first, Ulrika will take us through the main drivers of the company at the moment. Thank you.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#2

Thank you so much. So well, actually, this was not the first picture, and I really like my first picture. So can we get the first one up? Yes, there it is. And why I really want to have this first picture here is because I want to talk about TENA Men and Incontinence Products that you see here. Our global leading brand, billion dollar brand, TENA, that we are very proud of in Essity. And TENA Men that you see here on this picture really represents one of the many reasons for Essity being an attractive investment. 1 out of 4 men over 40 suffer from some sort of urine incontinence and less than 10% use purpose-made products, quite a potential for us as a company. And the potential is high also if you look at incontinence care in general. So 1 out of 3 women over 35 have some sort of bladder weakness. And also there, over 50% have sometimes used a product that is not specifically developed for the purpose due to embarrassment or lack of knowledge. So overall, less than 50% are using purpose-made products, which leaves a big unmet need in this category. And also the number of people that need incontinence products are continuously increasing because of the growing aging population that we have. Then growth in this category is also certainly value creating. The incontinence care is one of our highest margin and highest yielding categories. Besides that, I would say that this product also very much represents what we are about, providing essential hygiene and health products to improve quality of life. In fact, we have 1 billion people that use our products. So every day, over 1 billion people use our products. And they do that all over the world. We are present in 150 countries. We have 70 production facilities and 36,000 employees all around the world and a turnover of SEK 138 billion. For those of you who don't know that we operate now since 1st of January in 4 different business areas. We have Health & Medical, Personal Care, Consumer Tissue and Professional Hygiene. And in Health & Medical, we offer holistic solutions for the continuum of care. We sell wound care products. We sell orthopedics and compression therapy and not the least, TENA that I just talked about that we provide them to the health care sector through nursing homes, hospitals, pharmacies and so on. Then if we look at Personal Care, also there, TENA Incontinence Product is part of our portfolio, but then through retailers and online. And I would say that the fact that we are present with TENA Incontinence Products in the different channels, everything from retail to the health care sector is one of our competitive advantages. Other areas that we sell in Personal Care is Feminine Care and also Baby Care. And when we go to market with Personal Care, then we do that together with Consumer Tissue because that provides scale and relevance with the retailers. In Consumer Tissue, we have bathroom tissue, we have household tissue, but also hankeys and facials. And as you -- many of you know, we have actually worked to reduce our exposure in Consumer Tissue as this is the least profitable category that we have and the least profitable business that we have. Professional Hygiene with Tork as the other global leading billion-dollar brand is standing for 26% of our sales. And I think it's quite fantastic over the years how we have developed this business from being a tissue business to being a provider of holistic hygiene and cleaning solutions with Tork dispensers on the wall in, for example, restaurant kitchens, in schools, on the shop flooring industry and so on, we become part of the infrastructure. And then we have continuous revenue stream from the refills year after year. So with this portfolio, we are very well positioned for profitable growth. And one of the reasons that we are very well positioned for profitable growth is the different trends, the megatrends that are supporting growth in our categories. I already talked about the growing and aging population, but also there is an increase of prevalence in, for example, incontinence care, but also in lymphedema and lipedema and other indications. Not all demographic trends is, to be fair, is going in the right direction for us. As you all know, there is a declining birth rate, and that is, of course, impacting our Baby business negatively. With that said, 5% of our business is Baby and 20% is Inco, so 4x as big. So we are demographically very well positioned. We also benefit from increasing disposable income in D&E markets and from the spread of infectious diseases, which brings a lot of focus and attention to hygiene. And there is much more awareness of the connection between hygiene and health today than it was some years ago. And generally speaking, I would say, in population overall, people put much more attention to well-being, which is also a global megatrend that supports growth in our categories. The other reason why we are very well positioned for profitable growth is our leading positions with our very strong brands. I've already mentioned TENA and Tork, but we have many other strong brands either globally, regionally or locally. We have, for example, Leukoplast and JOBST and Tempo, Libresse, Nana, Saba, many others. And over then this portfolio, we have the #1 or #2 position in as much as 90% of our branded business. And we aim to continue to strengthen that position even further and drive profitable growth through a very clear strategy. And I would say the center of that strategy is innovation. We innovate in order to continue to differentiate so that we can drive market shares and win market shares, but also to drive our pricing power. We also innovate to secure we have a good cost position and to reduce our environmental impact. And we always do this with the user in mind. It's based on consumer and customer insights, and we are obsessed with having the superior user experience. We are equally obsessed by having the seamless and superior customer experience. It should be easy to do business with Essity. And we continuously evolve our go-to-market to make it as effective and efficient as possible. And we want our reliable supply and our state-of-the-art services to be a competitive advantage. The other key pillar of our strategy that you see here is that we continuously capture efficiency gains across the value chain, and then we continuously improve our performance in the organization by growing people and by fostering a winning culture. Now these 4 elements that I've talked about so far, they are relevant across our different business areas. We see potential to improve our performance in the 4 different business areas, and we see potential to grow in the 4 different business areas. That said, though, the 2 other pillars here are very important because we deliberately put most of our growth efforts in the areas where we have the highest potential for profitable growth and the clearest right to win, meaning that we prioritize high-yielding segments in attractive geographies. And this strategy will take us to our financial targets, which is to grow above 3% organically on a profit margin above 15%. Now question is then how are we doing in our delivery to these financial targets? Well, if we look at fourth quarter 2025, I would summarize that as a stable delivery in a challenging market environment. We reported sales decline. We had a flat volume development, and then we reduced our prices somewhat in order to compensate or react to the lower input costs. That said, we were growing very nicely in the strategic segments. So we were growing where it matters the most in incontinence care, in wound care, in our premium products in Professional Hygiene. And also, we were winning the relative game. So we increased our share of market in 65% of our branded business in retail. We furthermore strengthened our profit margins across the different business areas, leading to a 14.7% profit margin in the quarter. Another thing that we are very proud of from the fourth quarter is that we again got recognized for our environmental leadership or sustainability leadership. For example, we were awarded with the EcoVadis Platinum Medal, which places us among the top 1% of companies worldwide, what they assess when it comes to sustainability work. Then, of course, if you look at the full year, we were at 0.9% in organic growth and 14.1% in profit margin. But as you can tell then, we are not at our financial targets yet, and we're, of course, fully committed to deliver on those targets. And that's why we took some initiatives in order to further strengthen the conditions or improve the conditions for profitable growth, a reorganization, a cost-saving program and an acquisition. And let's start just a few minutes on the reorganization because this is something we do now reshaping our organization. We decentralized decision-making. We secure that we have an end-to-end accountability for the value chain for our business area leaders. And by that, we will be faster in decision-making, faster in execution and not the least, faster in responding to evolving consumer and customer needs. This reorganization also helps us to become even sharper -- sorry, I'm going to do like this, so you can see, even sharper in prioritizing the segments and categories that are the most attractive in line with our strategy. We are also having a cost save program focused on SG&A, where we aim to save SEK 1 billion with the run rate at end of 2026. Then we also strengthen our position for profitable growth for the future by an acquisition, which is good to talk about, especially when we are here in North America because this was about acquiring Edgewell Feminine Care brands in North America. And we have -- as many of you know, we have a proven success recipe for Feminine Care. And now we will reapply that success recipe also in North America. So we have expanded our feminine business to this geography by this acquisition. But it doesn't stop there. What's also very important with this is that with this, we are doubling our Personal Care sales in the U.S., then strengthening the growth platform that we have in Personal Care in North America. And we have more firepower for any future potential value-creating M&A if you look at our balance sheet. We have a very solid financial position, a super strong balance sheet, as you can see here. We also, during the year, have grown our earnings per share. So if you look at a time period here, which is '17 to '25, we have a CAGR of 6%, which puts us in the top quartile of companies in our sector. So a very strong performance. And on the back of our solid financial position, our strong financial position and also the stable result that we had in 2025, our Board of Directors are proposing an increase of dividend to -- by 6% to SEK 8.75 per share. Now going into 2026, specifically, we're, of course, fully committed to continue to drive profitable growth so that we can have a good increase in our dividend also in '26. And we will do that by continuing the positive momentum that we had in 2025 when it comes to winning market share and strengthening our superiority even further. We will, of course, make sure that we now materialize all of those savings that we are planning for in SG&A in our savings program, but also not to forget the saving program that we have in COGS, where we aim to save between SEK 500 million and SEK 1 billion. And of course, we will successfully integrate the Edgewell Feminine Care business to strengthen our growth platform here in North America and not the least, leverage the organizational change that we are doing right now to unleash the full power of our fantastic organization that we have across geographies and functions. And with that, I think I leave open for questions either from you or from the audience.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#3

Perfect. Yes. I think I will kick it off, but if anyone wants to ask any questions at any point, just please raise your hand, and we will take your questions as well. So thank you very much for the presentation. A great performance versus some of the other companies in the sector at the moment. But I'm going to start with a question on the Middle East exposure because that's obviously something that is on everyone's mind at the moment. So what is your exposure to the region in terms of sales? And do you have any manufacturing facilities there?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#4

Well, actually, there are so many things to consider when it comes to the situation. And our first priority is the safety of our people. We do not have any major manufacturing sites there, but we have an office in Dubai, and we have other people in the region, and they are all safe. So that's important, of course. Then secondly, when it comes to your question on sales in the region, it's less than 1% of our turnover. So we have a very limited exposure from that standpoint. Also, when it comes to our supply chain, it's a very limited exposure. We're not so dependent on that route. So we see some delays in flows, but not any major disruption. So where we have the impact is on the increasing costs for gas and fuel and so on, that is affecting our cost of goods sold. But there is a time delay or time lag with that effect. And we are also -- when it comes to gas, we are very well hedged. So if we look at Q1, we have 80% hedging. And if you look at the full year '26, up above 50% hedging. What we are affected by a bit quicker is transportation costs where we have contracts that are index-based. So there, the fuel cost is impacting us. That said, it's a small -- very small part of our cost of goods sold. And for this as well as for all these raw materials that are likely to increase in costs, we do as we always do. We, of course, compensate with price increases. And this is not something that are impacting only us, but everyone in the sector, of course. So we will use the agility that we have when it comes to pricing and compensate with price increases.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#5

And in terms of the hedging, would you change your hedging to have more cover for the full year or...

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#6

We already have a plan in place for that. So that is the numbers I just shared.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#7

Great. I was assuming if you could accelerate it like do more because of the Middle East.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#8

That is not necessarily what we have in time right now at least.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#9

Okay. And then the strategy, you announced at the Q3 SEK 1 billion of cost savings. And what drove the decision? And why was the timing at the Q3? What was the context of that?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#10

I see your question. It's quite an easy answer. I mean I stepped into the role in June. And then for me, even if I've been in the company for many, many years, of course, it was important to take a step back and listen both to external voices and internal voices on what we need to change in order to accelerate profitable growth. And basically, when I've done that assessment, I, together with the executive management team decided on to 2 actions that we needed to take. One of them was the reorganization and the other one was the cost save program because we want to -- as I don't think I mentioned that, but our intention is to reinvest the majority of those savings to fuel profitable growth. And it's all about accelerating that profitable growth.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#11

And then on that change of the organization, how fast do you think you could start to see the impact of the changes? And also, what do you think are the main benefits of splitting consumer goods again?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#12

Well, we already see some benefits from that organization so you could already now see that we are taking more business and commercial-led decisions when you have the full end-to-end accountability. It's also very easy for us to see every business now delivering on their own merits. So we already see that positive effect to some extent, although I expect the full effect of that to come gradually as we move along. Then when it comes to splitting consumer goods, well, there are 2, I would say, benefits with that. One is that when looking at the organization in order for us to create this end-to-end accountability that I wanted to achieve, this was the way we then have -- we have to make it category based for that to work for innovation and for supply chain and so on to be part of the integrated part of the business areas, that was the way we then need to set up having it category led. But besides that, it's also a big benefit of us then creating even sharper focus on the most attractive categories and segments. So Personal Care gets more attention by now being a separate business unit. But also within Consumer Tissue, the very profitable segments that we have like moist toilet paper, hankey, facials and so on get more attention within Consumer Tissue. So many benefits.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#13

That's very good. And in terms of the portfolio optimization, do you think you could revisit the disposal of the Consumer Tissue private label in Europe?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#14

Yes. Well, when we work -- as I shared here in the strategy, when we work with our portfolio optimization, we proactively work to prioritize the categories and segments and areas where -- that are most attractive. And so that is the model that we have. But I would not rule out that we revisit -- when it comes to the private label division, I would not rule out that we revisit that at any point in time because we continuously look at our full portfolio and business to see what makes sense to do. But that said, again, our focus is to drive performance in each and every business and to work proactively to grow faster in the most attractive areas and then support with acquisitions like we did now with the Edgewell acquisition.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#15

And maybe if we go into more detail into the volume dynamics. You had 4 consecutive quarters of flattish volume growth. But how do you see the different categories performing in terms of market share with those volumes? And yes, what would you say in terms of categories and geographies?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#16

Well, first, maybe to comment on this with the flat volume growth, which we, of course, are not satisfied with, but we should remember that part of that before has been about the restructuring that we did also in Professional Hygiene. So underlying, we've had some volume growth in that. But of course, we want to have more profitable volume growth. And if we look at the dynamics, what I think is important -- what we believe is very important is that we grow where it matters the most. So we grow in the segments and areas that are the most attractive, that has the higher yield, so that would drive a mix element. And also we are winning the relative game where it matters the most. So that is important, I think, as a base for that discussion. But I can elaborate a bit more. So if we look maybe at the areas where we have not performed as well, one is in the Consumer Tissue private label division where we have not grown volumes with the market. And that is because we have been mindful of maintaining our profit margin so that this is a value creating part of our business. If you look at the branded business of Consumer Tissue, however, we have been growing and strengthening our market share. Then we have Baby that I was alluding to before, we are impacted by the declining birth rates and a very fierce competition. At the same time, if you look at our branded business with Libero in the Nordics, that is -- there we have grown and also strengthened our market share. And then if we talk Tork, Professional Hygiene, here, we have a base assortment where we have not been growing in line with market. So that we are correcting by making sure that we launch volume fighters that have the right price positioning and the right pack count to be successful. But more importantly, we have been growing well above the market in our strategic systems, which is the future, right? So again, the same thing, right, that we are growing where it matters the most. And Incontinence Care, Feminine Care, Wound Care, our highest-yielding categories, we have continued to grow.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#17

Well, that's the most important thing.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#18

Yes.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#19

And in terms of year-to-date, have you seen the same momentum on those key categories that are helpful for the profitability in terms of the market share?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#20

More -- I mean, this is too early to say. I mean we'll have to come back to that once we have reported the Q1 results, but I have no reason to see that something major will change.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#21

Okay. And so to keep accelerating or to get an acceleration on the volumes, how are you reinvesting the SG&A savings?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#22

Yes. Well, that will follow our normal investment plan, I would say. So first to grow is, of course, the strategy that we talked about. Secondly is to -- in this market environment that we are is to make sure that we are competitive in all different value segments. So we work a lot with innovation now in the value tier part of the assortment and the volume factors I mentioned, but also with some selective price adjustments. Then also important is that we, for Feminine Care and Incontinence Care specifically, reinvest in A&P. I talked about innovation before, and we have a very high share of our portfolio higher than ever that is preferred by our consumers over other alternatives, which makes it a perfect time to reinvest in A&P in order to create awareness and drive profitable growth in these areas. So that is also part of our plan. And the savings that we then generate through our cost-saving program, we will be building in to further enhance that investment program.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#23

Great. And then in terms of this year, in terms of the organic sales growth, I mean, you have a medium-term target of growing organic sales growth by 3%. So for this year, obviously, we have some input costs increasing suddenly more than anyone expected. But how do you see kind of the combination of volume, pricing and mix evolving?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#24

Yes. We don't give guidance on a full year basis. So I cannot answer that in any detail. But what I can say is that we are fully committed to drive volume growth to a bigger extent than what we were able to do in '25. So that is where we have focused. And of course, it goes without saying that, that should be profitable volume growth. And considering what I just said about our strategy, you should also expect that we will have mix improvements.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#25

And in terms of the -- going back to the market share because I guess between volume and market share, as you know, this is a key driver for your share price. But what percentage of your country and category combinations do you think will be leading to an increase of market share volume improvement?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#26

Well, we have -- if you look at Q4, we had 65% of our country category combinations in the branded business in retail that we're growing market share. And of course, we aim to be on at least that level as we move forward. That is what we aim for, really, really winning market share. What we don't really know because we don't have external data is, of course, in our B2B business. So if we talk Wound Care or Incontinence in Health Care or Tork, then we don't have the same level of external data to rely on. But we have reason to believe that we are growing in line with or better than the market in those as well where it matters the most.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#27

Well, 65% is a pretty good number.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#28

Yes, it is.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#29

When [indiscernible] reported a couple of weeks ago, they said 30% where they're gaining share or stable. So 65%, it's a great number.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#30

It is. And especially, I think in an environment where there is a weaker consumer sentiment, it's so important to -- it's more important than ever to stay focused on winning the relative game and staying focused on winning where it matters the most.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#31

So going to that point of the consumer sentiment or consumer being under pressure, in many countries, especially the low income. In terms of the innovation, which type of innovation are you doing on the more affordable end of the spectrum? And can you give us some examples of that?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#32

Well, one example that I was alluding to was this with volume fighters in Tork. That's not really innovation. It's more about adapting our assortment to make sure that we are as attractive as possible in each of the value segments. But one -- maybe one good example, I think, is something we launched in -- during '25, which was Cushelle Simply Soft in Consumer Tissue in the U.K. specifically. And that was one of the drivers behind us growing market share in our tissue business, the branded tissue business in U.K. So it's not the only factor, but it's a contributing factor, of course, these innovations. So that is a good example.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#33

And then going back to input cost, right? I know over the years, you've been able to pass through price increases faster and faster. What is your view at the moment with the latest developments on input cost and oil, how do you see how pricing can progress?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#34

Well, it will be -- I don't see it differently than any other time. I think given that this is something that affects the full sector, I think we will, of course, knock on the doors of our customers and talk about price increases. And we will use the capabilities that we have built in being as agile as we are now when it comes to pricing.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#35

Are those conversations happening already?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#36

I would say that probably because -- I would say, yes, conversations are probably happening. Now I cannot say for sure. But as I talked about before, there is also a time lag in those cost increases. And it's, of course, more easy to have those conversations once the price increases -- cost increases become a fact, then is when the real discussions start.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#37

Great. And then in the Professional Hygiene side, you exited some low-margin businesses in the last 12 to 18 months. Basically, they were like around a 10% headwind to your volumes there. Are you rethinking about whether to chase this lower-margin business again because of the market growth being a bit more sluggish? Or especially, for example, with the HoReCa customers, what are you thinking in doing improvement?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#38

No. I mean we exited those segments because we didn't see the path to profitability, and that has not changed. We don't see the path to profitability. So of course, we want to have an assortment that is attractive in all value segments and so on so that we can drive growth. But in the end of the day, if it's not a healthy profit margin and we don't see a path towards a healthy profit margin, then it's not for us. So no.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#39

And then in Baby Care in Europe, I mean, you mentioned in the presentation that the organic sales have been declining. We had a lower birth rate. But how confident do you feel in this category structurally in a medium to long term that you -- would you want to continue to be exposure, you think you can outperform the players?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#40

Yes. Now yes, I fully understand the question because, of course, as you say, the declining birth rates indicates a structural -- that structurally, it's not that attractive of a category. But there are some other factors that makes it attractive. And one is that it is a very high engagement category where, of course, the Libero brand that we have, for example, matters and where innovation matters. Also, it's a very highly strategically important category for the retailers because it drives traffic of parents with children into the stores. So there are also some fundamentals that are positive. And then for us, it's also the benefit of scale. We have the benefit of scale in the go-to-market with retailers because of having Baby in our portfolio. Also, there are many synergies for us in R&D and manufacturing between Baby and Incontinence Care and Feminine Care. So one thing is then the structural attractiveness, but the other thing is then how attractive is it for us. And therefore, I think it has a place in our portfolio also midterm and as far as I can see as long term as well. We are also, as I said, with Libero, for example, in the Nordics, we are winning the relative game and doing well. So we will continue to focus on winning the relative game. That said, it's important also to say this is not a category to your point, that we look to expand. So we will do good where we're at, but we don't look to expand it.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#41

And I just wanted to touch on one of the points that you made. I mean, it is a very important traffic driver for the retailers. So does it help you in your negotiations then when you negotiate with them other areas like Feminine or the Incontinence or even Tissue. Is this something that helps you?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#42

Yes, it does. I think it does look different from market to market. And in some markets, we have 2 categories. In other markets, we have 4 categories. And the importance of scale and multi-portfolio is different from market to market. But in many places, yes, it does help both from a scale perspective, but also from a relevance perspective.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#43

And now I'm going to move to cash returns. So on the share buyback side, I mean, you have a very strong balance sheet. Leverage is only around 1x. And you have a share buyback of around SEK 3 billion. And the share price now is relatively low. So would you consider potentially increasing the share buyback level that you have currently?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#44

Yes. When it comes to capital allocation and the balance sheet, first and foremost, what's very important for us is to maintain that strong balance sheet. That is very important for us. And then our first priority -- having that secured, our first priority is to support our organic growth as well as to make sure that we have stable and rising dividends as we have had now year after year, and we plan to continue to have rising dividends. So that's our first priority. Then we want to have the room to maneuver when it comes to M&A. But as we had this -- as we had last year, we see room for share buyback program also going forward. So in the notice to AGM that we have now in a few weeks, there is a proposal on the next round of share buyback program. And if that gets approved, then it's the Board decision on the level of share buyback. And when they decide on that, they look rather on cash flow than on the share price.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#45

Okay. But it helps, right? And so then on the point of M&A, under your leadership, do you have more appetite to do more deals? One question. And then the second, what are the white spaces where you would focus?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#46

Well, if we start with the focus, I shared when I presented here where we want to focus on growth. And we have the same priorities when it comes to inorganic growth as we do for organic growth. So what's relevant from an M&A perspective is Incontinence Care, it's Feminine Care, it's Wound Care and also the strategic parts of Professional Hygiene. So that's where we focus the most. And from a geographical standpoint, I don't want to exclude anything, but North America remains an attractive geography for us, but also D&E markets is important to us. So there are a lot of potential areas for innovation -- sorry, for acquisitions. And we have a very big appetite for profitable growth and thereby also a very big appetite for M&As. What I see maybe is also -- I mean, first and foremost, M&A is there to build scale quickly, to increase our -- expand our presence quickly. But I see also that innovation can be helpful. I say innovation again, but that is because acquisition can...

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#47

[indiscernible] what I want to say.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#48

Acquisition can also help with innovation and bring innovation to the company as a complement to our own in-house R&D efforts. So there are many opportunities. But I think good to highlight also is that even if we now have such a strong balance sheet that we do and have the room for M&A, and we have so many areas where we see and have a big appetite for M&A, we are very disciplined. So the M&A has to be value creative.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#49

Great. Just checking if there's any questions? Please.

Unknown Attendee

Attendees
#50

Thank you. Some companies are already thinking about AI and how they can achieve cost savings internally. Many companies would think that over the years, they would have to have a CAGR of employees over time as the sales would go up. But in this environment, you could theoretically have minus 10% over your next planning period and then do something with the cost savings. Have you thought about basically that optionality for you and it would be a way to obviously invest back into your business or give you better margins, improve returns, et cetera. And I know it's controversial because in Europe, you've got unions, so you have to be very careful kind of how you approach it. But do you see that opportunity? Is this something that SEC is going to take advantage of? Like what are you doing with AI? How much are you spending? What are your use cases so far?

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#51

Yes, I understand the question. So when we go back to our strategy, I had one important pillar, which was to capture efficiency gains across the value chain. And one way of capturing those efficiency gains, which is part of our strategy, is to have digital transformation. And digital transformation is automation. It's different digital tools where AI is one of those tools. So yes, we are certainly working with AI in order to become more efficient. And we've done that for quite some time. And our model of doing so is, I would say, top down and bottom up. because our experience is that it's super important that we increase the capabilities for AI across the organization. So we really simulate and welcome initiatives that happen in the organization. At the same time, we need to be very mindful of investing where it matters the most. And therefore, we also have a top-down approach where we have an AI council where we capture all of the ideas, and we have some areas where we put specific focus and make sure that we channel the bigger investments into those areas. And it's also about, of course, avoiding any risks and having the right partnerships and so on. So that is our approach, top-down and bottom-up and driving AI initiatives that way. And I would say we apply AI in most areas actually to different degrees. So in production, it's in our planning, in our operational planning, also in R&D. For any of you who want to join our Capital Markets Day on the 7th of May in -- outside of Gothenburg in Sweden, then we will show you how we apply AI in R&D. So please join us for that. And also in marketing quite a lot. For example, you can use AI in claims generation. So we are doing that as an integrate part of our efficiency improvements. Have we set any specific ambition or target for what that would generate in terms of savings? No, not at this point. We work with it project by project in this way.

Unknown Analyst

Analysts
#52

Any other? Otherwise, I will just thank Ulrika for her presentation and all these answers to our questions. So thank you so much for coming to the conference. Thank you.

Ulrika Kolsrud

Executives
#53

Thank you, and thank you for listening.

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