| Axis enters 2014 with a good potential for taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the market |
The first quarter
- Axis Net sales increased by 15 percent during the first quarter to SEK 1,129 M (982). Net sales increased by 15 percent in local currencies.
- Operating profit decreased to SEK 72 M (89), which corresponds to an operating margin of 6.4 percent (9.1).
- Profit after tax amounted to SEK 52 M (66).
- Earnings per share amounted to SEK 0.75 (0.95).
President’s message
“Due to lower than expected sales during the end of the period, the earnings trend was weaker than anticipated. Eastern Europe has been clearly affected by the unrest in Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, overall sales were impacted by a weaker performance than expected in the Americas region, particularly during the second part of the quarter. At a global level, we did not notice any significant change in distributor’s inventory levels. We estimate that the underlying short-term demand is in line with the growth rate we saw during 2013.
Our investments for future growth have continued at a high pace. It is thanks to these ambitious investments that we were able to present a large number of new solutions in various product categories during the quarter. A number of new network cameras were released and we have introduced an upgraded version of our software for medium-sized installations, AXIS Camera Station. The recruitment rate continued to be high in early 2014 and the number of employees increased by 81 people.
Axis enters 2014 with a good potential for taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the market. We will continue to advance our offering for access control, to release new innovative network cameras and strengthened our offering for medium-sized installations”.