Operator
Welcome to the Profoto Q1 2026 report presentation. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be in listen-only mode.
During the questions-and-answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to CEO Anders Hedebark and CFO Linus Marmstedt.
Please go ahead.
Anders Hedebark
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Profoto Q1 presentation.
Our sales this quarter was, we had an organic growth of a positive 1%. We also had a large currency effect with -11%, resulting in a decreased reported sales of 10%, 249 million.
We had some positive organic growth, and it was based on that large studios are continuing to invest in more content production, both still and video. We are very positive to the to the demand situation in that part of the industry.
We also had quite good cost control during the quarter, and that started earlier on last year. Also the product mix was a favorable one.
The result was the EBIT was 17 million, corresponding to an EBIT margin of 11%. Our financial position is still strong, and it's stronger thanks to good result this quarter.
We also had a very positive thing: we started to ship our Profoto Pro panel, which you see up to the left in the in the presentation. We could take the next slide, by the way.
Our first deliveries took place during the quarter. Yes, and we have some we we can't see a big effect there, or a visible effect in the in the first quarter.
We will start to see something during this second quarter. We presented it at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas in April, and we are continuing with this weekend Cine Gear in Europe, and then we have Cine Gear trade show in the beginning of June in Los Angeles.
We are very active right now in promoting, being out with customers, showing our new, great product for the cinematic industry. Concerning the sales and the activity in different regions, we see that we have a positive organic growth in the Americas.
We have a problem with currency, as you all know. We see especially in in in the US where we had a very strong uptick of Pro 11 sales during the quarter.
In Europe and EMEA, the it is very soft development, and we have an increased uncertainty in comparison with with other previous quarters. In APAC, we see especially China is doing great, where Japan and the rest of APAC is is yet to recover, not doing as good as we would like it to do.
All in all, we are in the market, we are working very hard to to find the deals and do the deals that is possible to do all around, and we had successes and a stable quarter if you look at it on a on a global basis. Thank you very much, and I will leave this now to you, Linus.
Linus Marmstedt
Okay. Thank you, Anders.
As Anders touched upon, sales during the quarter was okay with an organic growth of 1%. I think it's also important to bear in mind that Q1 last year was actually on on the soft side.
As you remember, the all the tariff turmoil actually started already in February, March last year. It's it's it's good to see organic growth, but it's also important to bear in mind that the corresponding quarter last year wasn't a very strong one.
The second comment to the to the result is the the product mix mix, which were during the quarter with strong sales within the segments studio segment, which is positive when we see a large portion of the Pro 11 sale. The third comment on this slide is the the the cost base, which is still under control, and I will come back to that on on the next slide.
All in all, we actually had an increase in the EBIT margin, which is which is good to see in the as a first start of the year. Here is the slide that we have shown you before, and we see that compared to last year, we actually had over 30% reduction in our cost base, and which is a reflection of all the initiatives that we actually started spring last year.
Now we have seen the full effects of these initiatives. Also it's important to to you shouldn't really extract this trend going forward, as as we have touched upon before, we will now go out and launch the Pro panel, and and that including all the fairs, etc., we will see a some uptick in the coming quarter once we now are really entering the next phase of the Pro panel launch launch process.
Also that we will do some investment in the sales and marketing organization to to drive sales. All in all, the cost base is very much under under control.
I think this is a slide which we still think is is really important is the ratio between the capitalization and depreciation. As you can see, last last year, we had actually capitalization of 34 million compared to this year's 8 million.
That, of course, is an reflection of the the reorganization that we did primarily on the R&D side, which we now see the the full effect of. Of course, in combination with the high depreciation, the the full impact is quite substantial if you compare quarter by quarter.
Then on on the cash flow and financial position, we see a continue strong cash flow, actually, during the quarter. The the quarter the first quarter last year was actually affected with a release in accounts receivables.
When you compare to last year, you actually see it as a decline or not as strong as last year, but that's mainly effect of the the release of accounts receivable once you have actually declined in sales, then you release AR. All in all, we believe that our financial position is is good, and also that we see that reduction in the net debt ratio from 1.7 to 1.5.
I think that's a okay start from to go further with. Anders, some final remarks from you.
Anders Hedebark
The final remark, we could say that the house is in order in the way that we have a great organization at the moment. We also see that our products are making inroads into the market, and we see hence a slight positive organic growth, even if it's very small.
Part of this is also that we are positive at the moment, especially with our new products and the Pro panel we have started to ship, finally. We see some small improvements in EBIT margin, and mainly because of our cost control.
Thanks to you, Linus, is remaining to be tight. As you said also, and informed the panel about, is that we expect it not to continue to be lowered.
We will invest in marketing activities in the market in a limited way. Our finances are good.
Thank you very much for this, and then we open up for questions.
Operator
If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6 on your telephone keypad.
There are no more questions at this time, I hand the conference back to the speakers for any written questions and closing comments.
Anders Hedebark
We would like to thank you all for listening in, and see you in a quarter. Thank you very much.
Linus Marmstedt
Thank you.
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