Husqvarna Q1 2025 sales: growth in uncertainty
Husqvarna reported its net sales for Q1 2015 amounted to $1,518MM (SEK 14,704m), compared to $1,520MM (SEK 14,719m) in Q1 2024. The company said sales declined organically 1% while changes in exchange rates contributed with 1%. Net sales grew in segments such as robotic mowers and handheld products, while sales decreased in segments including watering solutions and products for the construction market.
During the earnings call and financial presentation, Terry Burke, CFO and executive vice president said, “We had strong growth in robotic mowers … both in the residential segment and also in the professional segment. In addition to the sales growth for robotics we also enjoyed good sales growth in handheld products … a very solid sales growth of professional handheld within the division which was very good to see. There has been a challenging situation and a significantly lower result in North America.”
He said that sales of battery handheld equipment were relatively flat for Husqvarna.
Pavel Hajman said, about robotics and turf maintenance:
“Robotics continues to grow very well and especially in golf. We grew by double digits in the first quarter with particularly strong sales for our new Husqvarna Automower 560 and 580 EPOS models. The robotic mowers are now in operation in basically 1/3 of all the golf courses in Sweden and also on several high-level golf courses in Europe as well as the U.S. In the U.S. they have really started the transition from high emission and let’s say ‘noisy solutions’ to our battery-driven mowers. Also our dealer distribution network in the U.S., which we have expanded throughout the year, now basically covers around 90% of the golf course potential in the U.S. and we continue to strengthen that neither dealer network also you can.”
Hajman mentioned that Husqvarna and its dealers are now discounting robotic mowers with the older boundary-wire location technology.
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Terry Burke, on cost-reduction and produce line reductions:
“We know there are headwinds, we know there are pressures, and we are taking a lot of actions to improve our profitability. We will continue to execute on our cost-savings program and we believe there is another 400 million (SEK) of savings to come for the rest of this year as we continue to execute those programs. We will continue to offer a simplified product offering; we made some 10% reduction in our complexity in our product offering. We simplified it some 10% last year and our ambition is to continue that simplification with another 10% product offering reduction to simplify the range.”
Burke, on retail growth:
“We have continued to expand our sales offering in omni channel and if I use a particular example here in Forest & Garden division, we are looking for opportunities for further expansion into retail. We are doing some pilot programs in some 60 stores in Europe.”
Burke, on tariffs and global economic outlook:
“We know there’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment around tariffs; it’s a highly uncertain world at the moment and we are continuously working to assess and improve our position within this difficult environment. As it stands at the moment, we do believe there will be an influence on consumer demand; I think that’s inevitable. Also with the tariffs, there will be a direct impact to our financial results. To put it into some kind of context, approximately 2/3 of our sales in the U.S. come from imported product and that can be from China, Europe and Brazil. There is clearly impact from tariffs. Those products segments include professional handheld for Construction and also for Forest & Garden division. We are implementing a number of price increases; we’re reviewing our supply chain flows to understand how we can really mitigate the impact of the tariffs. We have already started to implement some price increases as we try to mitigate the pressure.
“As I said, there is quite some headwind from the tariffs. It’s a moving target, but as the current tariff situation stands there would be a net exposure of some -300 to 500 million (SEK) for the rest of 2025.
Pavel Hajman, summary:
“We have the Forest & Garden division back to growth with the 6% growth in the quarter. We have a disciplined focus on profitability with several cost-saving measures activated and we have also started a number of measures to mitigate the impact of the external uncertainties which we are facing now with the tariffs. I’m also very pleased with the market response and trust for our products and innovations, especially the robotics and the boundary wire free technology that we are offering.”
(Comments taken from Husqvarna’s presentation and earnings call on April 24. Some quotes and statements edited for brevity.)
