Essity has reported profitable growth and higher market shares in its Q3 results.
Net sales decreased 2.2% to SEK36,274m, while EBITA for the quarter increased 47% to SEK5,130m. Operating cash flow increased 7% to SEK6,453m.
Organic growth amounted to 1.9% and excluding restructuring organic growth increased 3.4%.
Profit for the period, total operations, amounted to SEK3,329m.
Magnus Groth, President and Chief Executive, said the quarter was characterised “by strong earnings with profitable growth and record-high cash flow.”
“Our focus on growth resulted in higher volumes and increased market shares all over the world.
“Our solutions are needed regardless of the economic situation, and we are working to constantly increase the value of customer and consumer offerings.
“Although the global economy remains challenging, we have higher volumes in all categories, excluding restructuring.”
He added that in the company’s Professional Hygiene division, growth was affected by restructuring, but underlying growth was “strong, especially in the premium range.”
“Earnings were positively impacted by the economies of scale we achieved through higher volumes and by a favourable product mix.
“We have also had good price discipline, despite lower costs of goods sold, and sales prices were higher compared with the second quarter of 2024.
“We continued to realise high-cost savings through continuous efficiency improvements and have so far this year achieved more than SEK1bn in savings. Combined, this led to a strong result for the quarter.”
In Consumer Tissue, volumes increased while the sales price was lower compared with the preceding year, mainly related to price reductions in 2023.
Compared with the second quarter of 2024, sales prices increased.
In the Professional Hygiene sector, net sales decreased organically 0.8%, which Essity said was primarily a result of lower volumes due to restructuring in North America and Europe.
Excluding the effect of this, growth was 4.7%. Sales prices were higher and the product mix was positive.
Essity’s long-term target is to achieve net-zero emissions in the entire value chain by 2050.
In August 2024, all long and short-term targets in Scopes 1, 2 and 3 were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
