Framery Group Oyj

Framery Group Oyj

HHEL:FRAMERY
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Nov 02Next Earn

Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptApril 27, 2026

Samu Hällfors

Hello, and welcome to Framery's Quarter 1 2026 earnings call. Today we are going to go through the earnings report for Quarter 1, and it is exciting to report a strong revenue and improving profitability from the period.

Today with me, I have here our CFO, Lauri Isotalo, who I'm going through the report with, and then we will handle the presentation in the following order: I will go through the highlights of the reporting period, and then handing over to Lauri, who will go through the financials for the period. Starting from the big numbers: First, from the revenue.

The revenue from the reporting period reached €58.4 million. It is essentially the same level as it was in the comparison period year before, and essentially also the same as the earlier quarter of Q4 2025.

It's especially strong since minding the fact that the year before, we had a lot of deliveries to our single largest end customer during the comparison period, and thus reaching the same level means that the organic growth outside of that one single end customer was strong. The revenue grew by 15.2%, excluding the single largest end customer in the reporting period.

Also, revenue at comparable exchange rates was 60.9 million. Now, adjusted EBIT and the profitability was strong as well.

The adjusted EBIT reached €14.0 million, which is 24.0% of the revenue. Now, comparing to the comparison period, it's still not as high as the comparison period was especially strong, but it was improvement from the Quarter 4 2025 as the price increases that we applied during the second half of 2025 and in the beginning of 2026 started to impact the profitability gradually.

The operating free cash flow for the period was 4.4 million, and despite the profitability not reaching the comparison period numbers, the earnings per share still increased to €0.13 per share. Now moving on to the regional market performance.

The growth was especially strong in the North American market. The market was strong and the demand came from different sources in that market region, but it essentially tells a story of expanding demand for our solutions and the products.

Now EMEA remained stable, and APAC had a -51% growth, mainly due to the fact that we had a lot of project deliveries for the single largest end customer year before in the comparison period. Essentially, it's also mentionable that our revenue and the growth numbers quarter to quarter fluctuate because of the market dynamic.

It's normal development in this business. The strong Americas performance meant that our revenue from Americas was €20.5 million, representing 53.7% growth year-over-year.

As mentioned, EMEA remained stable at €30.7 million, +0.7%, and APAC at €7.1 million, which meant -51.2% growth. Now moving on to the strategic focus points of this year.

As mentioned before, our growth strategy is built on four different strategic growth projects. First of which is to further strengthen our leading product-market fit in all market regions.

Secondly, we drive adoption of our smart office solutions to scale the SaaS business. Thirdly, we drive growth through tailored go-to-market strategies in all of our key market areas.

Fourthly, we deploy the Framery Subscribed rental sales model globally with our dealers that we have existing. The biggest highlights from these four initiatives first of all include the fact that we actually now expanded our Subscribed rental model to new market, meaning North America and United States.

The first contracts with dealers have now been signed, and the business will then move on to attract customer demand and the first projects for customers. Great milestone, but still in the beginning in the United States.

The biggest achievement and progress in this growth strategy by far is the new USA factory that we reported that we'll be opening in the second half of this year. Framery's Michigan logistics center will be converted to full-scale manufacturing plant.

This means that we will be launching new set of products exclusively for the US market, and the launch date is still unannounced. Later this year, we will announce the new product line, which will then be produced in the US factory.

The local production strategically reduces our reliance on global logistic chains, and also they mitigate the impact of any upcoming or potential new trade politic changes in global environment. It also optimizes our working capital needs for the future and expands our capacity to manufacture in global scale for all of the markets.

Our Tampere factory will continue to supply the smart technology suite for the new upcoming products, and some subassemblies also for the new upcoming product line as some of the expertise is centered in the Tampere factory. On top of that, the existing product line will continue to be offered also in the US and North American markets as well, and that will be the backbone of the global business also in the future.

The factory ramp-up process is very efficient from capital point of view and investments point of view. We estimate that the capital needed for ramping up the production will be less than €1 million, and we estimate that the plant scale and capacity is at hand during the 2000 year 2027.

This will then improve our competitive advantage also in the US market, and make sure that we will be meeting the market demand in all situations from the fast-growing market in the North America. Now the market outlook globally.

Framery maintains a favorable momentum in global scale for our business, as the global demand for our solutions and the products that we manufacture remains stable, and the drivers behind the market growth hasn't changed despite the fact that we have short-term uncertainties in global macroeconomics, mainly due to the war in Iran. Speaking of which, the war in Iran is expected to result in a moderate direct revenue impact of less than €1 million during the Q2 from Middle East markets that might hold back orders due to the local conflict.

On top of that, we see that there's a potential of indirect impact from the global economic uncertainty as organizations might postpone the orders or projects due to the kind of rapid escalation of the war and the expanding of the oil prices. This development might have impact if it realizes during our Q2 and Q3 periods.

The good momentum in the United States is evidenced by the strong growth of 53.7%, and the market growth drivers in that market region remain very strong. Now, as mentioned, our expansion of the operation to scale up the production and the factory in the United States is estimated to improve our market position and competitive advantage in that market.

Thus, we expect good momentum to continue in that market region. The full transition to the manufacturing in the United States is accelerating the good momentum and also mitigating, as mentioned, the potential trade politics and global impacts to our supply chain.

We remain very optimistic and positive about the mid-to-long-term outlook. The market drivers are there, and the business is doing great.

The profitability improvements during the Q1 has been very positive, and we expect the remains of the price increases done in the beginning of '26 to take full effect by the end of Q2 this year, and thus mitigating the tariff impacts and improving the profitability development even further. We have uncertainties short term, but the long-term view seems very positive.

Now handing over to Lauri to go through the financial performance.

Lauri Isotalo

Thank you, Samu. If we start from the revenue and adjusted EBIT, and there in the revenue, as mentioned, the Q1 was a stable 58.4 million when comparing either to Q4 last year or Q1.

Worth focusing on is that when excluding the single largest end customer, which placed those exceptionally large orders last year, the revenue was 54.2 million, and that represents 15.2% growth from Q1 '25. When we look at it that in the last 12 months or in the 12 months period, they are highlighted on the graph on the right, we can see that the underlying growth in green keeps on expanding, and then the single large end customer is then on top of that.

We see a steady growth over the years and also now in the previous quarters. When looking at the adjusted EBIT, we landed at 14 million or 24% of revenue, increasing of course from the previous quarter, although below the exceptionally strong Q1 '25.

More on that difference in a bit. Then if you look at the whole KPI summary, and here worth highlighting again is the earnings per share.

With earnings per share increasing now in Q1 from year before to €0.13 per share, and the main driver there being the significantly lower financing costs following the December IPO and refinancing. That's a trend which will, of course, continue on the financing side onto the coming quarters.

Then if we take a deeper look into this quarter. Looking at the difference between the Q4 '25 to the Q1 '26.

On the revenue side, what we saw was a slight decrease on the absolute volume of the pods, which was then corrected or the bigger positive impact coming from both the price increases in effect as well as from the mix, meaning that we have been selling more expensive pods compared to the previous quarter. That would have landed on a steady exchange rates to the 59.1 million, but then seeing the negative impact from the exchange rates of 700,000, landing to that 58.4 million.

Then if we look at the similar view from the adjusted EBIT point of view. The combined impact from the volume, price, and mix was 0.9 million.

On top of that, the cost of goods sold actually went down 1 million. That is actually driven by the Q4 inventory valuation and write-offs.

At the same time, tariffs had a bigger impact now in Q1, mainly coming from the bigger share of the US deliveries, and hence bigger share of the tariffs, as well as on the specific products that were sold and their tariff impact. Now on the spend side, we had a significantly less both in employee benefits as well as in the other operating expenses.

A big portion of that is explained, of course, by the Q4 IPO and the costs related to that, which is then visible in the items affecting comparability. All together, that means that before the exchange rate impact, the adjusted EBIT would have been 14.3 million, but again, a slight negative impact from the exchange rate, landing at 14.0.

When we look at the similar comparison from Q1 '25 to Q1 '26, again, starting in the revenue. Slightly less on the absolute volumes of the pods sold, but a significant increase coming from the both price increases and the product mix.

That landing the revenue on a comparable exchange rates at 60.9 million. Again, Q1 '25 still had a strong US dollar especially, hence, when comparing those two, we see the negative impact of 2.5 million compared to year before, again, landing to the 58.4 million for the period.

Then when we look at the comparison on adjusted EBIT, we see a significant improvement from year before coming from the combined effects of volume, price, and mix. Additionally, slight improvement from the cost of goods sold, but a significant negative impact, of course, coming from the tariffs, which weren't in effect year before.

That 2.8 million was the impact from the US tariffs. Then when looking at the spend side, relatively small increases from year before, but, of course, year before, some of those were related already to the upcoming IPO, and hence, visible there in the items affecting comparability.

With that, before the exchange rate impact, the adjusted EBIT would have been 14.8 million or at a comparable exchange rates, and then additional 0.8 million negative impact from the exchange rates compared to year before. Speaking of tariffs, since the beginning of the year, we've seen a significant favorable direction in the North American tariff situation, coming from different sources.

The first of all was the US Supreme Court decision in February, which meant that the 15% overall tariff was removed. Although it was immediately replaced with the new tariff that was 10%, hence, of course, lower.

That 10% temporary tariff is now in effect until August '26. However, in our projections, we expect that tariff to continue in one way or the other.

Now unrelated to the previous, we also saw the Section 232, meaning the tariff on steel and aluminium, the classification being changed in April. What it meant for us was now that the significant portion of the tariff codes we used to our products when importing to the North America or to the US specifically are now removed from there and are no longer subject to those tariffs.

Combined these two means that the tariff impact is estimated to decrease of approximately 50% compared to the beginning of the year, with, of course, a significant positive impact on our margins in the US. Now simultaneously, we are looking into the possibility of also reclaiming the paid tariffs following the US Supreme Court decision, which deemed those tariff that they should be returned to the importers.

Good to note that we haven't booked any income or expected yet, and as we remain rather conservative on how we book those sort of extraordinary items. On a smaller scale, but still positive, was also in Canada.

In Canada, there were still tariffs in force at the beginning of the year, but those were as well removed, and there we expect the paid tariffs to be fully refunded over the course of the year. Then moving on more to the cash flow and balance sheet items.

The cash flow was 4.4 million on the positive, and there, what we saw was the slight increase, of course, in the investments, both for the coming factory expansion or factory opening into the US, as well as for the new product family R&D development. Cash conversion was 28.6%, but there's good to note that it's a very typical that there's a significant quarterly fluctuation, and the last 12 months cash conversion remains at the 90%.

Then if we take a little bit more look on to the balance sheet. Return on capital employed remained at a very high level of 100.7%, although the average net working capital did increase from the end of the year '25, driven mainly by the decrease in payables.

Again, good to highlight that the fluctuation, the quarterly fluctuation in net working capital is very typical for the business. The net working capital is at the same level as it was in March or end of Q1 '25.

Very good. The cash generation, even when we are ramping up the investments, the factory, the new product family, remains, of course, positive, and with that, the return on capital employed on a very high level.

With that, the leverage was very stable at 1.2, and as mentioned before, the financing costs already in this quarter and going forward are significantly less than in the comparison period last year. That, combined with a strong cash position of 21.8 million at the end of the period, leaves on a very strong financial position going forward.

With that, we keep our mid-and-long-term financial targets as before, with the growth being more than 10% on average and annually and organically, and with the midterm profitability target of 25% on adjusted operating profit margin, and the leverage to stay under two times to adjusted EBITDA, and the dividend policy remaining the same as well of 70 to 90% of the net earnings. Very good.

I think that's all from us this time, and happy to take any questions. As we have quite a few here, I will start with the US factory investments: Investments for the US factory are estimated below €1 million due to the capital-efficient model.

How are you keeping costs this low while moving to the full-scale manufacturing?

Samu Hällfors

I think the basis is that our operation as manufacturing plant is very capital-efficient also in our own kind of current factory at Tampere. The investments to toolings and equipment remains very very low with our model of manufacturing, and that keeps it very very low as well.

On top of that, we have the cooperation with the partner that we are building the factory with. We have operated with them for 7 years straight, and the facility is very easy to convert into full manufacturing, as we have been operating the mass customization already from that factory for the North American end customer deliveries for several years.

The conversion from physical point of view or facility point of view is rather simple and easy.

Lauri Isotalo

Good. You discussed these conflicts having potential indirect impact to your business.

Have you already seen postponements or cautiousness from your non-Middle East customers, or is this currently just a theoretical risk that you highlight?

Samu Hällfors

Usually, these kind of sharp macroeconomic events, they tend to postpone investments from end customers at least for short period of time. It's good to remember that there's always also delay in organizations' kind of responses to this events, and thus it's still kind of unforeseen what kind of impact we are going to see.

Not specifically yet visible. Then

Lauri Isotalo

on to the US pricing: Could you comment the pricing environment and your pricing decisions in the US before and after the change in the Section 232 tariffs? Have clients been willing to fully accept these price increases, and how big share of the end prices will tariffs cover in the US after the new tariff change?

All right. Of course, the Section 232 tariff change being coming just now in April, it's still very very new news.

As for the previous price increases we did, customers have been accepting them very well, and that's been in line with the market overall. Far, we haven't seen any pressure to decrease the prices following these news, but, of course, we keep on following the market market closely.

How big share of the end prices will the tariff cover into? It's, like said, it's now 50% less, but that, combined with the fact of, of course, the new US manufacturing plant opening, that will decrease the tariff impact for us even further once that's in operation.

Then on to the US Americas growth: With 53.7% growth in the Americas, is this pace sustainable for the rest of the '26, or was this also influenced by specific project timings?

Samu Hällfors

There's no specific individual project timings that would have impacted it, but it's good to highlight that the quarterly growth figures do fluctuate by nature. So 53% wouldn't be something that I would put my name on for the fully year.

That being said, the strong growth momentum is there for the US also for the rest of the year, which we believe.

Lauri Isotalo

Good. Staying in the US: You indicated that you aim to produce US-dedicated products in the future.

How do the US-dedicated products differ from the current product line? Does the change relate to standards, look and feel, client preferences, or something else?

Samu Hällfors

We are not commenting the upcoming product launches in prior to the product launch at all. We remain kind of in the same product category, supplying products that are more specifically customized for the North American market demands.

Lauri Isotalo

Good. Then on to the largest end customer: Can you discuss the current activity and ambitions of your largest customer this year?

Seems like the customer was more active now in Q1 '26 compared to Q4 '25. Overall, we expect them to keep on ordering, and we keep on, of course, shipping to them.

As for the change from Q4 to Q1, there's also a certain fluctuation between when they want the products and hence when the invoicing is. Good to highlight that we don't expect this year overall to be as big as last year was for that specific end customer.

Investments in Q1 were up clearly to €1.5 million. What were these investments, and is this the level of expected run rate for the rest of the year?

Of course, now with the development of the new product line to the US market and with the US manufacturing plant investments, the investments did increase. While we do see more investments for this particular project for the end of the year as well, we don't expect the range to be as maybe high for all of the coming quarters without giving too specific numbers.

Considering your investments into broadening the distribution of your pod rental services and its potential to broaden your total addressable market, your services revenue growth has so far been subdued. What's needed for this revenue stream to pick up steam?

Samu Hällfors

I think the main topic and main strategic initiative is to expand the sales channel of the Subscribed model globally, first from the EMEA market region, then expanding to the US market region. It's good to know that expanding to a new market takes some time to realize to revenue numbers and profitability numbers.

Now we are building the basis and the foundation for the international and global Subscribed business, and it's still not visible in the numbers fully. Basically, the Subscribed business is still heavily dependent on the home markets: Finland and Sweden, and Nordic business that we have built prior to the expansion to the international markets.

There's a delay, what we're expanding with good pace and we're seeing good progress from there.

Lauri Isotalo

You mentioned about potential order delays and hesitation among customers. Have you actually had project cancellations so far, or recognized this hesitation in April trading?

Samu Hällfors

We haven't seen any project cancellations or order cancellations, and that's very unusual in this market environment. Usually how it goes, as mentioned before, is that the upcoming new project that might be now going through, customers might be hesitant to move on with the orders, but we haven't seen any significant movements yet.

Still, we are waiting at least some moderate development to that direction when the Quarter 2 evolves.

Lauri Isotalo

How are you expecting the phasing of costs related to the US manufacturing conversion? As mentioned, the total investments for the manufacturing itself are rather low at less than a million, and hence the phasing will be, well, less of an issue.

They will, of course, continue until the manufacturing plant is in operation, although being front-heavy. Other operating income was €0.8 million, also up significantly year-to-year.

How is this sourced? I believe in this time we had certain receivables, accruals that were then released as we did get the money.

I can go on to more details after the call. Is it correct to assume that if material and services impact was negative 2.8 million on adjusted EBIT in Q1, it should be approximately half of that going forward if assumed similar sales mix?

On a bigger level, yes, but it's good to mention that in the P&L, it's visible when the products are shipped from the US logistics hub, not when the cash flow impact is when they are shipped into the US. Hence, it will take some time for the inventory to roll over and the new products, which had lesser tariff, to be then shipped out and being visible in the P&L.

If you decide to apply for these tariff refunds in the US, when would the positive impact be materialized? That's, of course, very hard to say for sure, as we all know that the tariff situation and environment in the US has been rather volatile.

The best estimates we've had is that it would be 60 to 90 days from the initial application. Like said, it remains hard to estimate.

Your future US production is to large extent outsourced to partners. Will you gain better product margin in the US through lower logistics costs or better product fit to the market?

Samu Hällfors

The overall estimated improvements in the profitability in the long term is based on multitude of factors, starting from tariffs and land logistics costs, and overall kind of efficiency in the production. We are not going into more details in kind of explaining the difference in the profitability.

Lauri Isotalo

Could you give us a bit more color on strong US sales growth as well as the demand in Europe?

Samu Hällfors

In the US, the market has been growing steadily and very very positively through the last year so already, but we have seen now accelerated growth from that market region, which we estimate to be a result of the adaptation of pods to offices expanding and going further, which is basically kind of what we have been expecting from that market as well. We estimate that good growth to remain and continue in the future as well, based on this kind of bigger kind of global trends and long-term trends that are driving the growth.

That being said, the growth during the Q1 was especially strong. Now in EMEA, the stable revenue we estimate it to be part of the quarterly fluctuation in growth rates, and just timing of deliveries as at least that's the kind of the big picture that we are seeing from the market.

Lauri Isotalo

More on the market demand: Do you see a latent demand build-up in the US due to the last year's erratic tariff situation? I would imagine that some customers would have switched to wait-and-see model due to it.

Samu Hällfors

I would argue that the tariff situation plays very little role in office renovation projects in the US. I see it more that the total market in US has been driven by the good kind of growth drivers, and we haven't seen any customers to postpone their orders or deliveries due to the tariffs.

That has very little role in the projects, and as most of the suppliers that they supply their office furniture locally are domestic players in the United States, and the projects are usually combined with the larger office furnishing projects, we don't see that playing a material role in the growth. Then

Lauri Isotalo

on Canada: How big positive impact do you expect from the tariff refunds in Canada? The tariff refund in itself won't be that significant in our scale, still a six-figure number, but in the low six figures.

Of course, the removal of the tariffs, we expect that to improve the market overall in Canada. That's all the questions received so far.

If no new ones, I think it's time for us to thank you.

Samu Hällfors

Thank you so much for joining the earnings call, and see you next time in 3 months.