STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Husqvarna, the world’s biggest maker of electric garden tools, has raised its overall financial targets and growth ambitions for robotic lawn mowers and other battery-powered products.
The Swedish group, whose products range from trimmers and chainsaws to garden tractors and irrigation systems, and which has benefited from the pandemic-induced lockdown trend, said on Tuesday evening that it is now aiming for a annual organic sales growth of 5% and an operating margin of 13%.
The robotic lawn mower market leader did not provide a timeline for the new targets. In the first nine months of 2021, organic sales increased by 15% and operating margin by 15.1%.
Previous financial targets, announced in 2019, were to grow sales above the average industry growth of 2 percentage points with an operating margin above 10%.
“I am proud that we can increase our growth and margin ambitions even after taking into account the recent temporary positive effects of the stay-at-home trend,” CEO Henric Andersson said on Wednesday ahead of presentations to investors and shareholders. media.
“Global macro-trends including sustainability, electrification, automation and digitalization offer huge opportunities for the Husqvarna Group,” he said in a statement.
Husqvarna, whose rivals include Black & Decker and Honda Motor, derives most of its revenue from gasoline-powered products but is working to increase its share of battery-powered products.
The company said it aims to double sales of robotic lawnmowers, double the number of connected devices and increase the share of electrified products sold to 67% from 38% within five years.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Helena Soderpalm Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Keith Weir)
