CEO's review

The first quarter of the year was unpredictable and political tensions were very high. The market situation at the beginning of the year was weak, and our customers’ decision-making remained slow. Compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, the demand situation was substantially worse and our revenue decreased. The weak market situation and significant non-recurring expenses also led to a decline in our profit performance. In particular, the result of the Technical Communication and Data Solutions service area was weak. We had to continue to implement adaptation measures and made changes in our organization to improve our ability to execute our new strategy. Other non-recurring expenses were incurred from an acquisition and a significant credit loss in Germany.

During the review period, we nevertheless saw slight signs of a recovery in Europe in orders received by our customers, which also led to new investments getting started to some extent. This was reflected in slightly better demand in some of our customer industries. In Finland, for example, the number of our temporary layoffs decreased towards the end of the review period. In China, the market situation remained good. However, the development of the trade war cast a new shadow on the emerging recovery of the market situation at the end of the review period, and we have already seen some postponements and cancellations of investment decisions.

Uncertainty in the markets is now at an unprecedented level. In this situation, the only thing we can do is to focus strongly on the implementation of our strategy and direct our sales efforts to the customer industries in which we see opportunities also in the future, such as the defense industry and the energy industry. In spite of the uncertainty, we do not expect the demand situation to deteriorate further from the current low level. Even after a prolonged downturn, the wheels of industry must keep turning, and prepare for the potential improvement of the market situation at some stage. The timing of the improvement is impossible to predict at this time, but we are ready to accelerate growth as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Juha Näkki
President and CEO

Updated May 5, 2025