Emelie Alm
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the second quarter results of 2026 for Husqvarna Group. My name is Emelie Alm, and I am head of Investor Relations.
I am joined here today by our Chief Executive Officer, Glen Instone, and also our Chief Financial Officer, Terry Burke. Terry and Glen will go through the presentation, and we will then have a Q&A session.
With that, I would like to hand over to you, Glen.
Emelie Alm
Glen Instone
Thank you, Emelie. Good morning, all, and a warm welcome from my side, and welcome to our Q2 report.
Let's jump straight in. Following a very strong start to the year with a strong sell-in to our trade partners and very successful product launches, Q2 has been somewhat difficult.
That has been really geopolitical uncertainties and a weaker consumer sentiment has certainly weighed on consumer demand. We also had a somewhat unfavorable weather conditions really impacting the first half of the quarter, the first six weeks of the quarter, and that certainly had an impact, particularly in Europe.
Despite that, we managed to see a good growth in North America, and that is a good build on where we were actually after the first quarter. We are very pleased with the continued growth in North America.
Of course, the lower volumes overall and higher cost inflation is impacting our margins. However, very pleased to see our cash flow develop strongly into the second quarter, and we will come back in more detail on that later in the presentation.
From a real strategic execution perspective, I am actually very pleased with where we are heading. We have managed to actually achieve and implement strong savings, and we have triggered some strong savings programs, and we have also accelerated our strategic portfolio work in terms of making some firm decisions during the second quarter.
Again, I will come back to them in more detail as we go through the presentation. All in all, second quarter, our activities have been very good.
What I am very pleased to see is actually we have managed to finalize our recruitments of four new group management members. All will join us during the remainder of the year.
Actually, Anders, Lily, and Patrik will come in during Q3, and Anders Candell will join us during the fourth quarter. The one addition to the group management team is actually the CPO, the Chief Procurement Officer, with Lily.
That is a new position we have created because we really feel sourcing and procurement is a strategic value creation lever for this group. It is where we feel we can add more value, and it is much more than just a cost area.
Having this really put together under one leader at the executive table who is really going to drive our strategic sourcing agenda as well as a common agenda around supplier strategy, that is going to add a lot of value as we go forward. Within our total cost-out program, sourcing is the biggest lever.
As such, we're very pleased to bring Lily to the table and into the executive team. Very pleased with the new perceptions, the new experience that the four new leaders will bring to the group.
Just to look at some of those strategic highlights that I mentioned on the first page that I'm really happy with during the second quarter. I'll give some examples.
These are just a few examples. Within the area of logistics, we started to look at this much more holistically as a group.
We've actually managed in the logistics network to reduce the number of suppliers by two-thirds. That is quite a big number.
That will help us with cost savings, but actually more importantly, it'll help us our service level agreements. We expect increased service level agreements and service level rates as a result of this.
Of course, we see a cost saving that will start to impact and benefit us going forward. We've also managed to do some good warehouse consolidations already during the second quarter, and this will continue now going forward in the remainder of the year and into 2027.
Reducing the number of warehouses we have, and therefore also over time, reducing the inventory as well that we have. Again, driving savings, lower inventory, but also benefiting from the better service level agreements from the logistics providers.
In the manufacturing footprint area, an example we can also bring is what we've been doing in the Gardena division. We've been very much looking strategically at manufacturing in terms of where the core skill set sits, and we're going to move some operations from Germany into Czech Republic.
The main rationale there is where we have high volume, highly automated processes, they will stay in Germany. Where we have more labor-intensive, more manual processes, they will be moved into the Czech Republic.
Again, very strategically set strategic manufacturing footprint. This will, in essence, impact the hand tools and watering business portfolio units within the Gardena division.
As part of the strategy, we talked a lot about strategic portfolio management, and by that means we're going to address our underperforming parts of the portfolio to spend more time on the high-performing business portfolio units. Some of the measures we've taken during the second quarter.
One is our intention to discontinue our stone diamond tools business in the Construction Division. This will be done during the remainder of 2027 and have an impact on sales of some SEK 250 million, but be EBITDA margin accretive both to the Construction Division as well as the total group.
Today, we also announced that we will move from a turnaround case to a strategic review of our Powered Garden business portfolio unit within the Gardena division. This continues to be pressured as a segment.
Therefore, we're going to really move this into a more formal strategic review. We will come back to you with the results of that and our firm decision during the first couple of months of 2027.
Very pleased with what we're doing and the decisions we've made during the second quarter. From a total cost out perspective, we're actually ahead of plan.
We previously indicated a cost savings program of some SEK 4 billion effective by 2030. Given the second quarter, we've actually managed to add some SEK 385 million in savings on the back of a SEK 245 million benefit in Q1.
630 million SEK run rate savings already effective now. This actually gives us the confidence that we need to increase the timing effect of our savings.
As such, we now target achieving some SEK 3 billion effective by the end of 2028. We remain with the SEK 4 billion, but want to really increase the benefit and the timing of that benefit.
SEK 3 billion in the timeframe 2028. The reason we're also doing this, of course, headwinds continue to come.
The Middle East crisis does impact raw materials and logistics, we need to continue with our savings initiative to make sure we more than offset those headwinds that we see going forward. I'm extremely proud and pleased to announce that our Science Based Targets are being validated during the second quarter as well.
Our targets of reducing our carbon emissions by 60% versus the 2015 baseline have been validated during the second quarter. This is a further support to what we're doing, and we're very happy that the Science Based Targets have been validated in this way.
We'll continue driving this by way of electrification as the portfolio electrifies. Really driving further carbon reductions through our total supply chain and our operational excellence programs, and also really looking at how we engage with our supply chain partners to make sure they are also reducing their carbon emissions and really walking the talk in terms of our commitments when it comes to our carbon reductions.
Over to the P&L, we'll start with sales. Sales in the second quarter organically declined by 4%.
I just want to put that in context. We had a strong sell in Q1 with a +3%.
We also had a very strong Q2 in 2025, actually at a +5% sales. 4% decline, given the macro uncertainty and given the weak consumer sentiment, is actually reasonable, especially looking at that in conjunction with the prior year and the strong sell in Q1.
We saw a decline in the Forest & Garden division of some 3%, a decline in Gardena of 11%, a growth in the Construction division of 5%. As mentioned on the opening slide, we certainly saw, let me say, more of an impact in Europe.
Weak consumer sentiment globally, but the weather impact in Europe certainly weighed on demand in terms of that replenishment cycle that we normally see, particularly early in Q2, which are our main selling months. However, very pleased with the performance in North America, a continued improvement, actually that improvement was across the board, all three divisions growing in the second quarter and across most of our product categories.
Very, very pleased that North America takes a further step forward. We look at that from an earnings perspective, we generated earnings in the second quarter of SEK 1.95 billion, and that is an operating margin of 13.6%, corresponding to 13.4% in the same period last year.
Worth calling out that we did have a tariff refund during the second quarter of some SEK 240 million. Costs that we took during the course of last year, and we've managed to get refunds into our P&L this year.
SEK 240 million into the P&L, and that's in the COGS numbers. Having a lower 4% top line, of course, impacts our volumes, has an impact onto the P&L, and that's the main drag that we see actually impacting our earnings.
Terry will cover this in much more detail in the EBITDA bridge, but we also had, of course, some headwinds from raw materials, some logistics costs, as well as a negative impact from FX. If we look at this on a division level, we start with the Forest and Garden division.
The second quarter, we saw a decline of 3%. That was following a strong Q1.
Actually, through the first half year, we see a flat sales development despite the macroeconomic headwinds and despite the uncertainty we're seeing out there. All in all, still positive.
In isolation in the second quarter, that weak consumer sentiment particularly impacted the wheeled business portfolio unit, and that was actually mainly in Europe. We actually had a growth in North America there.
North America, despite growing on wheeled products, also had a growth in handheld products, so good growth across the core categories in the North America space. In particular, the tariff refunds of SEK 240 million on the group, some SEK 112 million was attributable to the Forest and Garden division.
Lower volumes also, of course, impacting the division, and cost inflation is a headwind in terms of raw materials and logistics, and a significant FX effect there of some SEK 45 million. All in all, operating income, excluding items affecting comparability, moving from 13.3%-14.3% in the quarter.
Moving over to the Gardena division, and of course, the headline number there is -11% in sales. Again, I want to put this in context.
This is comping to a +7% in the same quarter last year. We had a very, very strong quarter two last year, and we now see it at -11%.
We also had a very strong sell-in in Q1, particularly in watering in the Gardena division, and we indicated that during the Q1 report that the channel partner inventory was slightly elevated as a result of that strong sell-in. Of course, colder weather, weaker consumer sentiment has impacted the replenishment and the sell-through.
All in all, we have extremely strong positions through the first half year, particularly in the watering segment. Strong market leading positions, and I do want to leave you with that.
Tariff refunds for the Gardena division, relatively small, only SEK 29 million of the SEK 240 million SEK. The negative effect from volumes does weigh on the margin, and we also see, actually, one of the turnaround cases we've been talking about, and that we now move to a strategic review, is the Powered Garden business portfolio unit.
That also, of course, dilutes the margins. We see a continued double-digit decline in the Powered Garden business portfolio unit, really weighing on the Gardena division during the second quarter.
Moving over to construction, a +5% sales growth attributable to all business portfolio units and attributable to all geographies. Growth across the board in construction.
Very pleased to see that and very pleased to see the rebound in the construction division. Particularly happy in that the most profitable BPU is sawing and drilling, where we saw good improvements, particularly in power cutters.
Strong growth in Q2. Also, very clear strategic area for this group is our aftermarket development.
In the construction division, we actually had a record aftermarket quarter in construction. The initiatives we implemented, and we talked about during the strategy launch, are really starting to come through.
I am very pleased to see the development in the sawing and drilling business portfolio unit, as well as aftermarket in the construction division. Tariff refunds, relatively speaking, very high into the construction division.
That was some SEK 99 million. The construction division is somewhat more heavily impacted by the inflationary pressures that are impacting raw materials and logistics.
The timing of that is impacting construction much earlier than the other two divisions. At the same time, from a relative perspective, a much higher exposure to the U.S.
and therefore a high impact from FX hitting the construction division. One final point to call out, of course, we announced the intention to exit the stone diamond tool business during the remainder of 2027.
That continues to have a dilutive effect onto the margins of the construction division. That is our 80 basis points that we see hitting the Q2 result.
We expect to continue and finalize this exit during the remainder of 2027, and then it will become EBITDA margin accretive to this division. At that, I would like to pass across to Terry.
Glen Instone
Terry Burke
Thank you, Glen. Good morning, everybody, from my side as well.
The Q2 EBITDA margin improved by some 20 basis points to 13.6%, delivering an EBITDA of SEK 1,950. There is a couple of big items in there which we should walk through just to get a better understanding of how we have landed at the SEK 1,950.
Starting from the left, you see a big red block, and that is some -SEK 660. Just to give a little bit more detail in what is behind that, approximately half of that is volume impact.
We have lower sales in the quarter, and we have under absorption in the manufacturing sites. There is a volume impact, approximately half of the SEK 660.
In addition to that, we have unfavorable mix from a product perspective, but also from a geographical perspective. As Glen referred to earlier, North America has grown, and Europe has declined.
From a profit perspective, that's an unfavorable mix. We were more profitable in Europe than we are in North America.
Finally, we have some inflationary pressures, the cost inflationary pressures, particularly around raw materials, logistics, and of course, some other costs as well. Maybe just to highlight, the Middle East inflationary pressures have started to kick in during quarter two, and we have some SEK 65 million-SEK 70 million estimated inflationary pressures in quarter two as a direct consequence of the Middle East conflict.
Cost savings program. We continue in a very good way with our cost savings program, SEK 385 million in the quarter.
There's a couple of areas that we really seem to be doing very well in, and that is in sourcing and Design-to-Value. There are other areas and pockets of cost savings as well, of course, those are the two main drivers behind the SEK 385 million.
Good progress there. A modest price increase of some SEK 45 million in the quarter two and some limited transformational investments.
We remain quite cautious. It's highly uncertain times, and we're quite limited on some of our investments in that area.
We had a currency headwind of some -SEK 60 million, driven really by the Chinese Yuan and the USD. A -SEK 60 million there in the quarter.
We had the positive tariff refund. We actually had a small tariff cost in the quarter, and then we received SEK 240 million tariff refund.
That's physical cash received back in the bank, and we have recognized that into our COGS, which has improved our EBITDA and our EBITDA margin. The quarter, as I said, lands at 13.6% margin.
Moving on to the year to date, a little bit of a mirror image on the left-hand side. We have improved our operating margin by some 90 basis points to 12.9%, SEK 3.7 billion of EBITDA, just shy of SEK 3.7 billion.
Taking it from the left to the right, as I just talked about previously, negative volume impact in quarter two is really what is carried into the year to date perspective. We didn't have so much of a negative in quarter one.
Those themes that I talked around in the quarter two bridge really are the ones that are applying here. We have the negative volume.
We have the negative mix. North America grew in Q1 and Q2 compared to Europe, slightly decline.
Of course, the inflationary pressures, which I've referred to. I did talk about the Middle East, directionally, we said some SEK 65 million-SEK 70 million in Q2.
Just to give you a feel for how we see that for the year, we believe the inflationary increases as a direct result of the Middle East will be some SEK 300 million-SEK 350 million full year, of which we've already taken some SEK 65 million-SEK 70 million in Q2. Cost savings year to date, very well progressing, SEK 630 million year to date.
Again, just to give you a feel of how we see this for the year. With our ambition to accelerate our cost out program to SEK 3 billion over the next three years, we believe we will directionally land at SEK 1 billion of cost savings during 2026.
Modest price increases. It's a very challenging market out there.
There will perhaps be some smaller price increases to reflect the Middle East inflationary pressures. At the moment, we have a modest price of SEK 95 million.
Continue to limit our transformational initiatives, some SEK 80 million year to date, and that will remain on that kind of run rate for the rest of the year. Currency, we have SEK 90 million negative currency headwind so far in the year to date.
Again, just to give you a little bit of an outlook for the rest of the year. We expect relatively flat currency during Q3 and a small positive in Q4.
Overall, for the year, we will still have a negative currency impact in the business. Tariffs, we have, as I said earlier, received the SEK 240 million tariff refund.
We have incurred additional tariffs of SEK 95 million year-over-year. So we have a net effect of positive of SEK 145 million.
As Glen said earlier, we incurred those tariff costs during quarter one of this year and also last year as they started to kick in. So those tariff refunds are recognized in our COGS.
Again, just to give you a little bit of an outlook, our tariff refund claim is slightly higher than the SEK 240 million we have received. However, the majority has been received now.
So with regards to tariffs, we don't expect significant changes for the rest of the year. We may get some further refund, but it's highly uncertain, and we have to wait and see.
So that brings us to the 12.9% margin year to date. Cash flow.
I was particularly pleased about cash flow in the quarter. Cash is extremely important to this business.
We continue to stay focused in this area, and we delivered a positive free operating cash flow of some SEK 3.9 billion in the quarter, and SEK 2.8 billion year to date. And really the main factors driving the positive development into quarter two was the reduced CapEx levels, and the improvement in the change in the net working capital from Q1 to Q2.
So very good development there. Return on capital employed is one of our key financial metrics, and we have improved our performance, moving to 7.4% ROCE compared to 7% same time last year.
We continue with the ambition of reducing our capital employed, becoming a more asset-light organization, and we start to see some of the benefits of that coming through here. So again, an improved situation.
Our balance sheet remains very solid. I think we can be quite satisfied with the position of our balance sheet.
There's always a couple of things we can do better, but overall, we have a solid financial position, and we have a solid cash flow performance. So I think that is something to be feeling good about.
Maybe a couple of things to call out on the balance sheet in particular. Inventories are a little bit high.
Of course, that's a consequence of the weaker sales demand during Q2. Currency adjusted, we are 4% higher in our inventory than the same time last year, and we will continue to work on our inventory levels during Q3 and Q4 to manage those down in a good way.
Maybe the second item to point out is the borrowings. We have been able, with that good positive cash flow, we've been able to reduce our borrowings by more than SEK 1 billion, as you can see here, down to SEK 1.1 billion.
That's a good development. Finally, just following on from lowering our borrowings, our net debt position has now reduced, and we are some SEK 11.8 billion of net debt, compared to SEK 12.3 billion same time last year.
What is good to see, our net debt, EBITDA ratio is now down to 2.0 compared to a 2.3 same time last year. We continue to work on our net debt, and we continue to do the right thing here on our balance sheet.
Maturity profile is healthy. I think you can see in the chart there, that's in good shape.
We did renew a SEK 2 billion bilateral RCF by a further five years recently, and we were able to amortize a SEK 500 million bond just last month in June. Again, all good activities helping with our debt position and debt profile.
Just to mention, our S&P credit rating remains at BBB- with a stable outlook, so we feel in a good position there. With that, Glen, I pass it back to you.
Terry Burke
Glen Instone
Thank you, Terry. Just to wrap up before we go to Q&A.
Very strong start to the year in terms of sell-in and very well-received product launches from our channel partners. Follow that, of course, was a weakened consumer demand and some unfavorable weather conditions that really weighed on the overall demand in the second quarter, particularly the first half of the second quarter.
Despite that, we saw a good growth in North America, and that is a continuation, so we're very happy with that. Putting it in the context of the quarter, of course, lower volumes do have an impact onto the margin.
We continue to execute on our cost-out program at a higher pace than we actually initially envisaged, and we need to do that in order to offset the currency headwinds and particularly the raw material headwinds that we're seeing. Great to see the cash development as Terry just presented, really coming through from a little bit of a weaker Q1, as a result of higher receivables, but really coming through into Q2.
A very solid cash position that we're very happy with. Most importantly, our strategic execution, we're very much on track.
I want to leave you with that message. We've took some very firm decisions on cost out during the second quarter, supplier consolidation around logistics, closing down warehouses, moving manufacturing and being very clear on our strategic portfolio management.
We will continue to do this, and we'll continue reporting back as we take these decisions. Very much on track with what we said from our strategic plan and journey.
At that, I pass over to Emelie.
Glen Instone
Emelie Alm
Thank you, Glen, and thank you, Terry. Now it's time to start the Q&A session.
As always, you can ask your questions on the conference call, and you can also write them in the web interface. With that, operator, please go ahead.
Emelie Alm
Operator
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session.
Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue.
If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question.
Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from the line of Fredrik Ivarsson with ABG.
Please go ahead.
Operator
Fredrik Ivarsson
Thank you. Good morning.
First, maybe on the gross margin. When we strip out the tariff refund from COGS, it seems like it's down 3 percentage points on the gross level, and then you're obviously quite helpful with all the pieces.
If you could give us some more granularity on the different pieces to the bridge, it will be helpful, I guess, with raw mats, logistics. You call out the geographical mix and some effects.
If you could give us some more help with the building blocks.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Terry Burke
As I explained in the EBITDA bridge, of course, we had a significant negative impact through volume, mix, and inflationary pressures. All of those really impacted the COGS and the margin.
As I said, approximately half of the SEK 660 was impacted through the volume, and under absorption that we had. That's really impacted there.
All of the inflationary pressures that we've incurred are more or less into the COGS side of things, the raw materials, and some of the logistics. That has really also driven it down.
Then finally, the mix. As I said earlier, there is a mix impact here as well.
Europe, as a region, is a more profitable business to us than North America. Of course, it's great to see North America growing, and we will continue to drive that growth.
From a group perspective, of course it's different into divisions and different segments. Directionally, the mix of the geographical is unfavorable for us with North America growth, Europe down.
Then of course the product mix as well. Categories such like watering having a negative decline impacts the margin as well.
There's a lot of moving parts that sit within that. Hopefully that at least gives a little bit more transparency.
Terry Burke
Fredrik Ivarsson
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Terry.
Then jumping to robotics, and then more specifically maybe on the Husqvarna branded robotics You grew double-digits in Q1. Good contribution, I suppose, from the 300 and 400 Series, and now it sounds like a small decline in Q2.
First, maybe if you have a view on the sellout levels, and second, if you have any sort of granularity to give us in terms of the inventory levels in the trade at the moment, if you have one?
Fredrik Ivarsson
Glen Instone
Yeah, I can take that, Fredrik. Firstly, we actually saw a growth in Q2 in Husqvarna-branded robotics.
It wasn't at the level of Q1, we did see a growth in Husqvarna-branded robotics. I think that's important to see.
Therefore, we see a good growth through the first, albeit single-digit growth through the first half year. The sellout is reasonable, very well received on the new product launches, particularly the 300 Series is very well received by customers, and we see a good sellout of that SKU in particular, really accounting for a big part of our sales now.
When I look at the inventory in the trade, I would say there's a couple of standouts. It's much higher in Germany, it's higher in the U.S., the rest of Europe, I would say it is normalized.
There's really a couple of markets that are standing out, U.S. in particular, Germany, where it's higher, the rest of the markets, I would say, are at pretty much normalized inventory levels.
Glen Instone
Fredrik Ivarsson
Okay, good. Thanks.
Maybe a related one, on the SEK 300 million-SEK 350 million headwind from the Middle East inflation, just to clarify, that's raw mats and logistics, right?
Fredrik Ivarsson
Glen Instone
Yes.
Glen Instone
Terry Burke
Predominantly, yes.
Terry Burke
Glen Instone
Two-thirds raw mats, one-thirds logistics, roughly, Fredrik.
Glen Instone
Fredrik Ivarsson
Right. I believe you guided after Q1 for SEK 200 raw mats.
Yeah, that didn't really change despite the recent fluctuations.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Glen Instone
No.
Glen Instone
Fredrik Ivarsson
Am I sort of missing?
Fredrik Ivarsson
Glen Instone
No, you're correct. We previously guided on SEK 300.
SEK 200 raw mats, SEK 100 logistics, we're saying SEK 300-SEK 350. It's pretty much the same, and pretty much the same split between the two areas.
Glen Instone
Fredrik Ivarsson
Okay, good. Thanks.
Last one, maybe a quick one from me before I jump back. On the strength and balance sheet in terms of net financials on a sort of annualized basis, what's a good level for modeling going forward?
Fredrik Ivarsson
Terry Burke
I would say where we are now is probably going to be appropriate. I don't see us fluctuating too much from where we are now.
I would like to say this is pretty much about right. I would model on the recent development.
Terry Burke
Fredrik Ivarsson
Okay, good. Thanks.
That's all.
Fredrik Ivarsson
Emelie Alm
Next question, please.
Emelie Alm
Operator
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from the line of Igor Tubic with DNB.
Please go ahead.
Operator
Igor Tubic
Yes. Thank you.
Yeah, I just wonder in terms of the tariffs, given that they are split in different phases, if the tariffs that you recognized this quarter, is that for phase I and phase II, or what's included in that, let's say?
Igor Tubic
Terry Burke
I think we've actually been quite transparent with what numbers we have already disclosed. I think the way to look at it is our overall tariff claim is larger than what we have received.
However, it's very much uncertain. There's a lot of moving parts.
There's a lot of backwards and forwards with the U.S. government on these claims, et cetera.
We have received the majority of the claim, and I think it's really uncertain as to what more will come. I wouldn't factor in too much more of a tariff refund.
I think what we've got is good. It's basically half of the tariff that we've incurred over the last 12 months.
We've incurred some SEK 470 million of tariff cost pressure, and we've managed to refund approximately half of that at SEK 240 million. I would work along that.
There's not that much more to come. There may be something, but it's highly uncertain, and the tariff situation changes.
Yesterday there was talk around Section 301, for Brazil, 25% tariff starting. Again, it's highly uncertain.
We navigate as we go.
Terry Burke
Igor Tubic
Okay. Thank you.
Can I just ask you a little bit more? It's a broader question, of course, but what is your strategy in terms of pricing going forward?
I assume that it is, of course, hard to increase prices. Yeah, can you relate anything to historically how it has developed and how long it usually takes for you to push forward prices, et cetera?
Igor Tubic
Glen Instone
Yeah. Historically, we would put annual price increases through.
Of course, in the recent years, that's changed given how many headwinds we've been facing during the COVID times, the supply chain crisis, and then of course, tariffs more recently. We've been much more, I would say, frequent with price increases.
This year we're now implementing another price increase, some was effective in June. We'll put some more price increases through in other markets in July as a result of some of those raw material headwinds.
We will aim to put price increases through. I expect over time we still have a positive net improvement by way of price.
At the same time, we've got to stay relevant and competitive. That's always the balancing point here, that we stay relevant and competitive and how much premium we can take.
As a market leader, I do expect price increases.
Glen Instone
Igor Tubic
Okay, fair enough. Thank you.
That was all for me.
Igor Tubic
Emelie Alm
Thank you, Igor. We have one question from the webcast.
It is from Stefan Stjernholm, Handelsbanken. How is profitability for Husqvarna Automower developing in H1 up, down, or flat year-on-year?
Emelie Alm
Glen Instone
Yeah, I can take that. There is not a big movement.
It is not up, Stefan, that is for sure. It is a very EBITDA margin accretive segment as you know.
Of course, we continue to look at this. It is slightly down as a result of some price adjustments we made for this year.
We adjusted price on average 5% on some of the older SKUs, some of the newer SKUs, not so much. Some of the new technology, of course, adds cost pressure into some of the units that we need to continue working with.
I would say slightly down, Stefan, overall through the first half of 2026.
Glen Instone
Terry Burke
Maybe just to add to that, Glen, that is also where we can focus on driving some cost out as well with the raw materials and such like as well. Whilst the price comes down, we also look to address our cost structure of robotics.
Terry Burke
Glen Instone
Yeah, very valid. We see more savings potential in that area maybe than the rest of the core range.
Glen Instone
Emelie Alm
Thank you. Operator, do we have any further questions?
Emelie Alm
Operator
There are no further audio questions.
Operator
Emelie Alm
With that, I will hand over to you for the closing.
Emelie Alm
Glen Instone
Well, thank you. First and foremost, the gentleman to my left, I want to say a big thank you to.
This is Terry's last quarter.
Glen Instone
Terry Burke
Thank you.
Terry Burke
Glen Instone
We've worked together for some 16 and a half years. A big thank you to Terry.
Been a great support to this Group and to me personally. Thank you.
Glen Instone
Terry Burke
Thank you.
Terry Burke
Glen Instone
Just as a final closing comments, we continue to deliver and execute on our strategy. Aftermarket is going to be fundamental.
We've seen a good growth so far this year, particularly in the Construction Division. As such, we increase our ambitions around the timing of that, we want SEK 3 billion fully effective 2028, we continue to take bold decisions and clear decisions when it comes to our portfolio.
Really executing on the strategy. At that, I want to wish you all a fantastic summer and look forward to seeing you in Q3.
Thank you.
Glen Instone
Emelie Alm
Thank you.