CEO Arni Ekholm comments financial year 2024

A Record Year for Relais Group

“The year 2024 was a record year for us. We reached the highest Net Sales, EBITA, Net Profit and Earnings per Share in the history of Relais Group Plc. The Return on Capital Employed increased from 10.0% to 13.2% and the Return on Net Working Capital increased from 44.0% to 53.4%. This demonstrates the strength of our business model and strategy even during economically challenging times. During the last five years, we have practically tripled our net sales and simultaneously more than doubled our profit. We have succeeded in establishing Relais Group as a significant commercial vehicle aftermarket growth platform even on a European level and created significant value for our shareholders.

Segment overview

Both of our geographical segments Finland and Baltics and Scandinavia managed to reach a double-digit turnover growth during 2024. The harsh winter conditions during the first quarter boosted the sales especially in Finland, but also to a certain extent in Sweden. The positive market development continued in both segments in practice the whole year, and our sales developed well even during the last quarter of the year despite the relatively mild winter conditions. The Scandinavian market showed robust growth during the year and also the Finnish market improved during 2024 as opposed to the relatively flat development during the earlier years. The turnover growth of segment Finland and Baltics was +12% (organic: +7%) and respectively +15% (organic: +9%) for the segment Scandinavia.

Business Area overview

In the Technical Wholesale and Products business area virtually all our Group companies grew their sales in a significant way. The demand situation for spare parts and equipment was strong in all our operating countries, demonstrating the defensive nature of the vehicle aftermarket. The ageing vehicle parc demands more spare parts and services, and during economically tough times existing vehicles are used longer before changing into new ones. In addition, the long period of extremely low temperatures during Q1 boosted the spare parts and equipment sales. We also intensified our efforts in bringing new spare parts under our private label product family “NPD”. We aim to clearly increase the share of private label sales of our total spare part sales in the coming years. 

Our broad product portfolio, excellent customer service combined with our best-in-class digital customer interface and efficient logistics gives us a unique position in this market. We work in close partnership with our customers and help them to do a better business, every day.

Looking closer at our Lighting product group, the year 2024 was yet another year of net sales growth. The export success of our Strands brand continued especially in the Central European markets. In the Scandinavian markets we relaunched our Optibeam brand and introduced several new products in that range. The main season of the Lighting market starts typically during September-October. This year the season started somewhat later, meaning that a relatively bigger part of the sales now happened during fourth quarter. Although the absolute majority of our Lighting products goes to business-to-business customers, consumer demand also plays an important role especially during the peak season in November-December. After a few years of sluggish consumer demand our on-line sales to consumers showed encouraging development during Q4.

In the Repair and Maintenance business area the year 2024 was a year of continued and profitable growth. The net sales of our commercial vehicle business area grew with 15% (organic: 7%). Our operating units Raskone (Finland), STS and Skeppsbrons (Sweden) continued their strong performance. The targeted and strategic acquisitions of M. Ahlqvist in Finland and Team Verkstad in Sweden further strengthened our competitiveness and service offering, especially in the trailer repair segment in Finland. We continued to gain market share in strong and close partnership with our customers in Finland and Sweden. The continued work to increase the capacity utilization of our workshops, including a systematic benchmarking and implementation of best practices is giving real results also in the profitability of this business area. In only a few years the commercial vehicle repair and maintenance business area has become a major profit and cashflow contributor to Relais Group.

Acquisitions

We continued to scan the market for good acquisition targets and have been engaged in several discussions and negotiations with owners of relevant companies. When looking at acquisition targets we search for companies having a stable financial track record, a well-managed business with a highly committed team and perhaps most importantly, a solid path for future profit growth as a member in the Relais family. During the year 2024, we completed two well-targeted acquisitions and strengthened our commercial vehicle repair and maintenance business area with M. Ahlqvist and Team Verkstad joining our team. 

We also intensified our acquisition efforts by empowering the Group company management to actively engage suitable acquisition targets within their specific area of expertise. We expect that to increase the pace of acquisitions during the year 2025.

Sustainability and good governance

The year 2024 was important for us in advancing sustainability and good governance. We conducted our first group-wide employee satisfaction survey, and the results were encouraging. This provides a solid foundation for further developing our employee experience and workplace. We also focused on strengthening HR management and ethical business practices by creating a group-wide HR policy that provides guidelines for personnel management and launching a Code of Conduct training program for all employees. Additionally, we clarified our internal governance model by standardizing the management of our group companies, which has improved structural clarity and operational efficiency. In 2024, we further developed our sustainability reporting in accordance with European reporting standards, focusing on the Double Materiality Analysis. Our commitment to sustainability is ongoing, and the steps taken in 2024 lay a strong foundation for future development.

Outlook 2025

Relais Group’s strong performance in 2024 creates a solid platform to continue the positive trend also during the year 2025. We expect the market demand to be on a stable level in our operating countries. We also aim to increase the pace of acquisitions and continue to create value for our shareholders. We feel that we are well positioned to continue our growth story also during 2025 and beyond.

Finally, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all our over 1,200 professionals for your dedication and hard work during the record year 2024. Additionally, I want to thank all our customers, shareholders and business partners for your support and commitment to Relais Group. We will do our best to earn your trust also during the new fiscal period.”

Arni Ekholm
Chief Executive Officer