STOCKHOLM, April 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Highlights of the first quarter of 2019
President and CEO Jonas Samuelson's comment
In the first quarter, we continued to execute on our profitable growth strategy in a challenging cost environment. It is great to see that most of our business areas showed good organic growth. Sales growth amounted to 1.6%, driven by higher prices and improved product mix. Underlying operating income was fairly in line with last year. I am particularly pleased that our price execution fully offset the strong headwinds we faced from higher raw material costs, trade tariffs and currency.
The earnings trend for our operations in Europe and Professional Products remained solid. The business area Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa continued to have strong growth in Southeast Asia, while in Australia sales declined. In North America and Latin America, cost-based price increases fully compensated headwinds. Our North American operation was also this quarter impacted by lower private label volumes.
We continue to expect market demand in 2019 for appliances in Europe to be slightly positive and in Southeast Asia to be positive. The Latin American market recovered in the quarter and is, hence, anticipated to be slightly positive for the full-year. In North America and Australia the markets were softer than initially expected and our full year view is therefore slightly negative.
The uncertainty on trade tariffs impacts our visibility. Based on current levels, we estimate the negative year-over-year impact from raw materials, tariffs and currency to be approximately SEK 1.7-1.9bn in 2019, compared to the previous estimate of approximately SEK 2.0-2.4bn. We continue to expect price to offset these significant external headwinds.
We firmly believe consumer focused innovation is a key driver to achieve profitable growth. In 2019, Electrolux turns 100 years old and a strong consumer focus has been our guiding compass, resulting in ground-breaking products providing better living for people. I am therefore excited that 2019 is a launch intensive year, including significant kitchen range launches in Europe and Asia-Pacific. In addition, we are accelerating our consumer focused innovation through a new organizational structure, as of January 1, comprising four regional business areas and a global consumer experience function. In parallel, the preparations for the intended separation of Professional Products are proceeding.
I am confident that we are well positioned to create value.
Telephone conference 09.00 CET
A telephone conference is held at 09.00 CET today, April 26. Jonas Samuelson, President and CEO and Therese Friberg, CFO will comment on the report.
Details for participation by telephone are as follows:
Participants in Sweden: +46-8-566-426-51
Participants in UK/Europe: +44-3333-000-804
Participants in US: +1-631-9131-422
Pin code: 14144070#
Slide presentation for download: www.electroluxgroup.com/ir
Link to webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/8u4oboah
For further information, please contact:
Sophie Arnius
Head of Investor Relations
+46-70-590-80-72
Merton Kaplan
IR Manager
+46-73-885-78-03
Daniel Frykholm
Electrolux Press Hotline
+46-8-657-65-07
This is information that AB Electrolux is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 0800 CET on April 26, 2019.
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