Good morning, welcome to Electrolux Professional Q2 report result. My name is Jacob Broberg.

I'm heading up corporate communication and investor relations. With me, I have Paolo Schira, our new Chief Executive Officer, and also Fabio Zarpellon, our Chief Financial Officer.

I leave the floor to you, Paolo. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Jacob, good morning, everybody. I think probably since I started two months ago in my role, could be good to give a few words a little bit about my agenda.

The last couple of months I've been using to travel across the different countries, meeting many of the colleagues. I'm very happy and energized after this interaction because I saw a lot of energy, a lot of passion, and willingness from the different colleagues to move Electrolux Professional to the new heights.

Very energizing. I took the chance of this interaction with the colleagues also to share a little bit what is my agenda moving forward.

Now, we are a company with a very long legacy, more than 100 years, as every established companies, we've been expanding work in many areas. That's why I want to bring forward what I call the accelerate and simplify mantra.

The idea is fundamentally to refocus on a fewer things, significantly fewer things, but then secure the magnitude, the impact, and the speed that we execute on those fewer priorities are amplified. Of course, this has to come strategically from the areas where we are stronger, where we have more chances to win, and where also our margins are higher.

The first element is really about define and sharpen better the core, double down in this initiative. Having outstanding solution as we have, having a strong value proposition as we have, is not enough then if we don't reinforce the front end, if you don't work in what I call the commercial excellence and the customer proximity.

We have already an advantage that we are present in many countries, close to many customers, but clearly we can make a major impact over there. These things will call for investments, I want to advocate early that we want to fund this investment, these double downs, by subtraction.

Fundamentally to redistribute, refocus the investment we do in these fewer bets we want to work on. It is also requires that we work in a more disciplined way in our portfolio and in our cost management overall.

That's a little bit, Jacob, the first introduction, of course, I will share more of my vision and the next steps as we move forward. I think is the right time to get to the quarter two results.

The picture on quarter two is a little bit mixed. Top line has been decreasing 3.8%, mainly driven by U.S.

and Middle East, Africa, and Asia, with different dynamics. In Middle East, Africa, and Asia, main reason of the decrease of the top line has been some postponed projects we count to invoice now in quarter three.

Still on the top line projection, I think it's good to mention that we have a positive ordering take overall for the group, as well as an healthy order stock entering quarter three. Now, the positive part, I said mixed picture on quarter two, is about the overall profitability.

EBITDA has been slightly improving compared to prior year, quarter two. In full transparency, a contributor to the profitability increase has been tariff refund in North America.

Even if we were to remove this SEK 21 million of contribution, the overall underlying profitability has been robust, which is positive. This is despite the overall situation of what we call inflationary item, being the input material, being the logistic cost, have seen an increase in trend.

Now, to be reported in this quarter also, that the currency that in the previous quarter had a negative effect, has been neutral. Since I mentioned about inflationary items or somehow inbound rising cost, I also want to mention clearly, we've been very disciplined in the price increases, and we expect with the price increases and with, in some part of the business, surcharges that we are introducing as we speak, we count to cover all this negative effect throughout the full year 2026.

The other element I'm very keen to mention, as announced previously, we have been launching last year an efficiency program impacting resources, impacting manufacturing footprint, and this is progressing according to plan. Year to date, we can declare a saving up to SEK 45 million, SEK 25 million in the quarter, and the full year projection of SEK 80 million is confirmed, this is going to grow also in 2027.

Also this part is contributing positively to keep the robustness of the business. Now, giving a perspective on the different regions in the different businesses, you see here as well, somehow a mixed picture, probably starting from U.S., a decrease overall in the U.S.

business, probably with different drive and different dynamics. Maybe a touch of color on the part of the Laundry business.

Last year in quarter two, we were anticipating some deliveries to U.S. in anticipation of the U.S.

tariffs. This decrease somehow is related to this effect.

If we were to look on the units delivered to the market, actually it is growing. The overall situation there is in a good place.

On Asia, I think I mentioned earlier, there are somehow a couple of components contributing to the lower net sales. Part of it is the known geopolitical situation in Middle East, we don't have canceled orders there.

For sure, there are some logistic challenges to get to the different location. The other one, some major project in the Asian region where from the customer side, there had been a request to postpone the delivery and the invoicing.

This will count to invoice in quarter three. Overall Europe, I remind you, Europe represents 60% of the total business for Electrolux Professional.

There's been a moderate growth driven mostly by Laundry that is continuing delivering very well in the European region. In Food and Beverage in Europe, after several quarters of growth, we had a stabilization, but we expect them to continue in the trajectory we have seen previously.

Giving a bit more perspective, Jacob, on the different business segments. Food and Beverage is the area where we saw softer growth, so with the decrease of almost 6%.

I think I mentioned already the contributors being mainly U.S. and a smaller extent, APAC, MEA.

What is, I believe, very important to acknowledge is here the performance of the profitability. In the case of Food and Beverage, there is only SEK 3 million of contribution for tariffs refund in U.S., so the overall business is defending very well, despite some of the rising costs I mentioned earlier.

Here to mention among the different activities done well by the team to deliver this profitability has been a normalization of R&D cost. I think this you have been hearing in the past.

We reach a peak in the past, now it's more normalizing. Normalizing doesn't mean that we decelerate our agenda.

The opposite. We have really exciting products coming to market the beginning of next year, and we are really keen to see the benefits out of this introduction.

Overall, in the Food and Beverage, the order stock is healthy, so we start quarter three with a good amount of orders. We are very keen to invoice throughout the quarter three.

Last but not least, is about the Laundry situation, moderate growth in Laundry, driven a lot by Europe. I mentioned about the U.S.

situation and Asia, almost stable. Good profitability development.

Here is where actually we see most of the contribution of the tariff refund. Overall, the underlying margin, the situation seems to be positive.

In Laundry is the area, not the only area, but the main area we're introducing surcharges. On top of the price increase we introduced beginning of the year, in Laundry, we introduce now in the summer months, the surcharges in the different markets.

The reason why surcharges are mainly introduced in Laundry are very simple, is the business where most of these rising costs are impacting right now, the logistic, the input cost, et cetera, and that's why we are implementing them. Overall, the reaction from the customer has been accepting, so it's been a fairly positive or not negative reaction.

Overall in Laundry, we do see a strong order intake and order stock, so overall a positive situation. I think with that said, it is probably the time for you, Fabio, to give us more color on the detail of the numbers.

Thank you, Paolo, and good morning to everybody. As Paolo previously mentioned, Q2 profit was negatively affected by lower volumes as the main offender, particularly U.S., as well as material tariffs and higher logistic cost.

However, and I believe it is a good achievement, we were able to maintain the EBITDA margin. Now, let me elaborate around the different component that sustained the profitability in the quarter.

Currency translation was still negative affecting our top and bottom line, but no material impact in term of EBITDA margin. The strengthening of SEK has been somehow reduced.

If I look at the currency translation effect in EBITDA value was reduced to roughly SEK 10 million for the quarter. Currency transaction instead finally turned positive.

We have a few million positive impact on the EBITDA in the quarter. Tariffs cost higher than last year.

We were able to fully compensate them in the quarter with the price increase. Not only, as Paolo anticipated, we got this SEK 21 million of tariffs refund in the quarter.

The quarter as such has been also positive, impacted by the benefit from the execution of our restructuring program. In quarter two, the gross margin and EBITDA was positively impacted by overall SEK 25 million in cost saving.

The program, as anticipated by Paolo, is proceeding according to plan, and the contribution for the overall year is confirmed in the area of SEK 80 million or roughly 0.6 point in margin. Going forward, moving into 2027, the guidance we have given earlier of cost saving is confirmed.

The expectation is next year we will further increase the benefit to SEK 175 million or 1.4 points in margin. In the quarter, we continued to invest in R&D.

The spending was somehow reduced compared to the high level we have reached in quarter two in last year. Going through the remaining of the P&L, finance net was SEK 16 million, lower than last year, thanks to reduced overall average borrowing and a cost-efficient funding structure.

The tax rate in the quarter, no surprise, was 25%, in line with the guidance. Let me say, lower cost of funding, lower tax cost allow us to increase the EPS to SEK 0.8 per share, compared to SEK 0.75 per share, despite lower EBITDA and EBITDA.

Positive cash flow generation in the quarter, lower than last year. This comes definitely from lower EBITDA, increased inventory, and the payment related to the execution of the restructuring program.

Let me give you more flavor, in particular, when we move into the asset part. This picture shows somehow a good asset management for the group and a solid balance sheet.

Rolling 12-month operating working capital increased to 17%, compared to 60.3% of December last year. Here, let me say two major offender that I see them definitely as a temporary one.

One is inventory and the second is AR. A portion inventory increase in the last two quarters due to delay in project sales deliveries.

We have the goods in-house ready to be ship. We need the green light from the customers.

What I see, a temporary stock increase due to production transfer from the facility that we have closing to the existing one. Both, let me say, are temporary increase in working capital requirement.

I expect this somehow to reduce and come towards the end of the year. The increase of receivable is mainly related to country mix.

We have grew in the quarter in country with a longer payment term. I have no concern on the quality of receivable.

Overall, as you see in the ratio net debt on EBITDA, our financial position is strong. We have an increase of the net debt in the quarter, too.

This is due to large specific payment we had in the quarter. In the quarter, we have roughly SEK 400 million of cash out.

SEK 270 million, if you remember, are related to payment of dividend. We have roughly SEK 60 million related to final purchasing price payment for Royal Range and similar amount for a refund of a Medium-Term Note.

Overall, a solid company with a robust P&L and a strong balance sheet. Back to you, Paolo.

Thank you, Fabio. Probably before going to the conclusion and then open up for the Q&A, just one comment on an initiative I am very proud of, that we recently introduced in the Laundry segment that is called R+vive.

It is, I think, representing the assets of Electrolux Professional group. As you all know, Electrolux Professional is proud to be a leader in innovation, but also a leader in what we call the sustainability.

What it is this R+vive all about? This is about the initiative of Electrolux Professional Laundry to remanufacture machines.

The word remanufacture is picked intentionally. It is not refurbish, it is not just cleaning and make some fix.

It is really to take machine out of the market and machines that can have more than 10 years, and to replace visual parts whenever they are damaged, as well as functional parts. Why I am proud of this initiative.

First, because thanks to the modular platform introduced in Laundry years back, it is possible actually to do this work remanufacturing in a seamless and smooth way. It is possible to reutilize more than 60% of the weight of the machine.

The overall environmental impact of our machine in terms of the components and the material is significantly reduced. Even more important is, by remanufacturing the machines, we are able to introduce all the energy devices, all the innovation we have been developing in the last years.

In terms of greenhouse emissions or the famous Scope 3, this machine are actually as good as a completely new machine with amazing saving for the customer and for the planet. We just introduced this initiative starting from some markets, and the idea is to make a real business out of it.

Very excited, looking forward to see it as one of the pillar for our future development. With that said, probably is the time to go on in the summary.

I think I repeat myself and what Fabio said, a little bit of a mixed picture. Decrease of top line driven by U.S.

and to a smaller extent to Asia PAC. The positive part is the profitability that remain very solid, partially supported by a tariffs refund.

Even without the tariffs refund, I think the underlying business is positive. Specifically, some part of the business have been growing.

We mentioned Laundry. I also am keen to mention that on our Japanese business with TOSEI, we had the second quarter in a row with the growth and also bottom line development, positive.

In the overall looking forward, the positive situation is that the order stock is in a good level. Of course, it is our task with our teams to make sure we invoice it in quarter three.

There is no order cancellation, which is also very positive. It is a good order stock.

Having said so, Jacob, I give back the word to you.

Thank you, Paolo. Thank you, Fabio.

With that, we open up for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session.

Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the telephone. We have the first question from Johan Fred, SEB.

Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, guys. Thank you for taking my questions.

Starting off with a question on the U.S. tariff refund.

Is there any remaining refund to be recognized in H2 as well, or was this solely a Q2 refund?

We have submitted a request for additional fund. This will go through the scrutiny of the U.S.

governing authorities. The expectation is that there will be some more positive refund also in the second part of the year.

Okay. Got it.

In terms of magnitude, is the level you recognize SEK 21 million here in Q2, is this in line with what you expect for if we see it in Q2 with Q3 or Q4 as well? How should we think about the magnitude?

Okay. What I can say is that we have submitted additional requests.

So far our requests have been positively scrutinized. We are not going to give order of magnitude for the remaining part of the year.

Okay, got it. The second question on the sales decline in APAC and MEA, this was, as I interpreted, attributed to postponed project deliveries.

Could you give any more color on the size of this backlog and the time of delivery? You mentioned Q3.

Is that confirmed? Is that your best estimate currently?

Yes. I think I alluded to it earlier.

There are two components to this slippage to quarter three. One of it is the known Middle East situation.

The other one is some major project we had. Roughly, we estimate in the surrounding of SEK 30 million, the amount of orders we have not been able to invoice and ship during the quarter, and we count to ship them and invoice them in the coming months.

The positive, as I mentioned earlier, is we don't have any relevance on about order cancellation or other things. It is as it is now, a good order stock, and we count to invoice it now in quarter three mostly.

Got it. Thank you.

Very clear. If I may continue, the U.S.

Food & Beverage business has been weak since essentially last summer. What specifically is driving the prolonged weakness here?

Is it end-market demand, competitive dynamics, inventory, or something else? What are some of the leading indicators that you are watching for a recovery here?

Sure. I think, Johan, what you're reporting is factual.

We already started seeing it last year with a kind of two-gears, two-steps, two-speed pattern. First half rather strong.

Then second half is weak. This weakness has been prolonging now in the first half of 2026.

No wonder that I've been in one of my first trips in the new role visiting the U.S., working with the team. I see there are a lot of good activities happening.

A bit of weakness on our side. We believe the market probably is not a booming market, but it is a positive market.

I think in both the kind of market segments we identify that are called the chains and the general market, I think we have opportunity to capture better growth than what we've been doing. I think it's up to us, Johan, to your question to revert this trend.

I think we have the means to do it. It is a lot about hard work, it's a lot about execution and the like.

Specifically on your question on the leading indicators, they vary depending on the part of the market, as I described, general chains. If I were to pick one for illustration purposes, the chain market is typically based on rollouts.

It's about delivering units in a test for some of the big chains, the American chains. Once you are approved, then you can move on to the next phase that is about delivering many units.

First test, and then rollout. Here the leading indicator is we are doing several tests with several of the big groups.

Probably in the first half, we've seen some of the big groups on the test they were doing with us because of the instability, geopolitical, et cetera, to probably wait a little longer. That's the kind of work we are doing.

Continuing feeding this funnel, this pipeline, and there are several tests ongoing and accounted some of them will be converted into sales in the second half.

Okay, got it. Very clear.

Thank you. A final one maybe from my side here.

Again, on Food and Beverage. Order intake, you described as decreased somewhat while the order stock is higher.

Could you give a more precise indication of the order intake, sort of growth/decline year-over-year here in Food and Beverage? Yeah, that is my final question.

Thank you.

The overall order intake has, even within the Food and Beverage, a kind of a mixed picture. In some areas improving, some areas a little bit lower, but it's not materially very negative.

The positive thing is it has been higher than our invoicing. The reason of our significantly higher order stock entering the quarter three is the fact that actually we got more orders than what we've been able to ship and invoice.

Despite the nuanced picture between territories and other things, broadly across the different businesses, the order stock is in a healthy situation. Order stock, again, very basically is the orders we have in-house qualified that have not yet been shipped and invoiced.

I think the start for quarter three has this significant order stock that we are keen now to invoice in the coming months.

Got it. Very clear.

Maybe if I can squeeze in one final clarifying question. You stated, of course, price increases and the surcharges are expecting to offset currency tariff and logistics headwind into H2.

I interpret this as predominantly relating to Laundry, but are you implementing similar surcharges in Food and Beverage as well?

The biggest part of surcharges is going to be in Laundry, though there are some part of surcharges in also some areas in Food and Beverage, but not in a broader scale as it is in Laundry. Somehow the reason is what we discussed earlier.

Laundry is somehow the most impacted by the tariffs and some of the logistic and inbound cost. On the other side, in the Food and Beverage, this has been managed, it is possible so there to mitigate this rising cost, because the price increase we did at the beginning of the year, which is now fully rolling out as we speak, is creating the result to compensate.

Different dynamics between the reported business segment, but the net effect is the same on both. The good price and overall also cost management is helping then to mitigate or to compensate these headwinds.

Perfect. Very clear.

Those were all my questions for now. Thank you so much for taking the time.

Thank you, Johan.

Thank you, Johan. [audio distortion] I have one before going back to the operator.

I have one question or two questions from the web. That is from Stefan Stjernholm at Handelsbanken.

The first question is: R&D costs are lower year-over-year in Q2. Can we expect a further year-over-year decrease in the second half?

The second question is: Given your positive comments on order intake, order stock, is it fair to assume at least flat organic sales growth in the second half? We start with the question on R&D.

Okay. As we have discussed also during the previous call, during 2025, we have reached somehow an historical peak for what concern the R&D cost in absolute term, but also in percentage on sale to support some major product launches, one in Laundry and the other one in Food, in particular in the cooking area.

We were anticipating a resize of the R&D spending in the second part of this year. As anticipated earlier, we start to see already the positive impact in Q2, and this is related to the Food and Beverage segment, whilst in the Laundry one, we are still on par with last year in preparation of the product launch that will be finalized and executed at the end of the summer.

When I look into the second part of the year, I can confirm the previous given guidance of a resize of the R&D spending, both in absolute term and in percentage for both segments.

Thank you, Fabio. Paolo, the question on if we should assume flat organic sales growth in H2 or not.

Stefan, as you well know, we don't provide a forward-looking statement on the quarter, so I will probably try to stick a little bit more on where we sit. We start the quarter with a strong organic order stock.

I think it is in our hands now to secure that we convert into sales. I add on this one that clearly it is my priority as a new Chief Executive Officer really to work with the different teams to work on the top-line development.

I think it's an area where we can make an impact. I think we have amazing solution that we can market to the different customer groups.

I think that we have all the elements to work and improve. The starting point of this quarter is in the right foot, if you may allow me to say that.

Thank you. Please, I move back to you, operator, if there are further questions.

The next question from Emanuel Jansson, Danske Bank. Please go ahead.

Questions from my side as well. I hope you can hear me.

Regarding sales growth in the quarter, could you perhaps also give us some colors on the sales momentum that you experienced during the quarter? Do you see an acceleration or deacceleration throughout the quarter, i.e., stronger in the beginning or vice versa, or stronger at the end of the quarter?

Thank you, Emanuel. If I got right, your question about what is the short-term trend we see now in beginning of quarter three.

What we

I think, sorry, I think it was more during the quarter. During the quarter, sorry.

During quarter two.

Okay. Sorry, I missed that.

Somehow we saw an incremental improvement during quarter two. Probably the quarter started a little bit weaker, and then we had a pattern towards the end in June with a stronger pattern, and that's why we ended the quarter with a good order stock.

July is a bit of a peculiar month and other things, somehow the trend we ended quarter two, we see it also in the first few weeks of July. Very early to comment and say anything else.

At least on this part, we do see a positive.

Perfect. Thank you.

That's very clear. Can you also perhaps give us some colors on where is that improvement mainly coming from?

Is it APAC, EMEA, Europe or the U.S.?

The overall, I would call it sequential improvement of the business as well as the order stock development has been, I would say, a common pattern across the reported business segment and across the different geographies. Of course, there are areas where it is more clear, more visible, but overall is a broader pattern we have been seeing.

Thank you very much. On perhaps price versus volume in the quarter, you say the price contribution was positive in quarter two.

Is it possible to quantify that?

Yes, the price contribution was positive, and thanks to the price contribution as we anticipated, we were able to compensate the tariffs and the inflationary items we faced in the quarter. In particular, the increase of transportation cost were the major offender in term of inflationary item.

Clear in the picture when we do the bridge between quarter two last year and quarter two this year, the volumes had the largest impact in term of absolute value and let me say, the creation effect on the EBITDA of the group.

Thank you very much. Looking at the gross margin, it looks like a quite good improvement.

It is primarily driven by the price increase and the cost-saving program, or is it anything else that we missed?

It's exactly the area that you mentioned, meaning price management, being able to compensate tariffs, inflationary items is about cost benefit that we have in our operation because part of the SEK 24 million benefit are into the operation and into the gross margin. I would add also a positive mix-up that we have seen in both segment grow on the high margin machine in Laundry as well as in the Food and Beverage.

The focus of the organization towards the high margin product categories and segment starts to pay off, even in a situation where we decline sales volumes.

Thank you very much. The last question from my side.

On the product side, could you give us an update on the new platform and product launches more broadly, and are you seeing any early customer response or order intake contribution, and is there basically any new data that you can share with us on the new product development?

Sure, Emanuel, I can give you some updates on the subject. Behind the significant investment that we did in R&D in the last several quarters, there are some exciting product introduction that we are planning to make.

We will start after summer with the first part of the range of the Line 6000, so the line of Laundry machines. We start with the small chassis and then follow in 2027 by the bigger capacity.

It's not yet started the production, so there is obviously not yet sales data on it. The overall early signal from customer who got exposed in the internal launches, et cetera, in the testing phase is positive.

We have a leading position in Laundry in terms of technology, and we want to further enforce it and deploy it further. I think the early signs are positive, and then as soon as we will have data from financials, I will be very keen to share with all of you.

That's some part on the Laundry. Also on the Food and Beverage, we have a very exciting pipeline.

We did some introduction this year, but there are exciting introduction starting from beginning of next year. In the Food side.

As well there, the work is progressing well and also here, the feedback we are getting from the commercial teams and the external customer are encouraging. We will start seeing the impact with a bit of impact in Laundry end of this year and then in Food next year, and the early signs are encouraging.

Perfect. Thank you very much, Paolo, for that.

I think that was all my questions now. Thank you very much.

As a reminder, if you wish to register for questions, please press star and one on your telephone. Gentlemen, there are no more questions registered at the moment.

Sorry, we just have a registration from Igor Tubic, DNB Carnegie. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I just have a couple of more questions.

I maybe missed this, should we expect further price increases going forward as well the coming quarters or?

Igor, what we are planning to do is to introduce, and we already did it in reality, some surcharges. This has a broader extent in Laundry.

Main reason, because Laundry is the most impacted by what we call the inflationary items, but also selectively in some areas in the Food and Beverage, we have introduced them. The answer is yes, additional price impact expected to come on top of the compounded effect from the price increase introduced on beginning of the year.

The expectation is to have these to offset the headwinds we have coming from the different dimension we described.

Okay. Are your competitors doing the same, or are you the leaders, I would say, with those surcharges?

The feeling is that overall, also the rest of the market is going to do it, because factually is the logistic costs are increasing, plastic costs are increasing, steel costs are increasing. I would expect some of them announce them, and I would expect many others to follow given the macroeconomic situation.

Regardless of what the other are doing, I think we are very analytical and thorough in the work on pricing, and we do our assessment, and I can give you feedback specifically from the Laundry part with surcharges, the overall reaction of the market has not been negative. I think people see what's happening, and they are somehow expecting this to happen.

Okay. That's clear.

Thank you. Just a final one.

On the back of these surcharges, have you experienced that you have lost any market share due to that if you are the first mover, so to say?

I don't think so. At least my experience is not in this way.

Also, we do it in a good way, in a commercially sound way. We don't expect this overall price dynamic approach to have an impact of volume.

In parallel, as I mentioned, I think we have a duty as an organization to accelerate on our top-line work in our commercial activities. This is a clear priority in my agenda.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

There's another normal questions registered.

I would say thank you everyone for having listened in. Thank you to Paolo and Fabio.

I wish you all a great summer. Thank you and goodbye.