During the fourth quarter of 2021 Doro successfully distributed all shares in the wholly owned subsidiary Careium AB (previously Doro Care operations) to the shareholders of Doro.

Fourth quarter 2021 in summary
•Doro’s net sales amounted to SEK 311 million (344.9), a decrease of 9.8 percent.
•Gross margin increased to 38.9 percent (32.0).
•EBITDA amounted to SEK 66.0 million (50.2), an increase of 31.4 percent.
•Operating profit (EBIT) amounted to SEK 50.5 million (31.4) corresponding to an operating margin of 16.2 percent (9.1).
•Profit after tax for the period (for continuing operations) was SEK 29.7 million (15.5) and profit earnings per share was SEK 1.23 (0.65).
•Free cash flow was SEK 27.4 million (27.9)

January – December 2021 in summary
•Doro’s net sales amounted to SEK 1 039.6 million (1 165.2), a decrease of 10.8 percent.
•Gross margin increased to 36.5 percent (30.3).
•EBITDA amounted to SEK 184.2 million (127.0), an increase of 45.0 percent.
•Operating profit (EBIT) amounted to SEK 118.7 million (57.3) corresponding to an operating margin of 11.4 percent (4.9).
•Profit after tax for the period (for continuing operations) was SEK 83.1 million (30.3) and earnings per share was SEK 3.46 (1.27).
•Free cash flow was SEK -49.1 million (180.4)

Message from the CEO
In terms of sales, Q4 was the best quarter this year with a turnover of SEK 311 million. In the Nordics, Doro increased sales by almost 14% compared to same quarter last year, and thanks to the launch of our new smartphone, Doro 8110, we achieved our highest regional turnover in two years while sustaining good margins. In addition, demand remained high in Western Europe, particularly from our largest French customers, and also here the regional sales outperformed previous year.

Overall Doro Group delivered an operating profit of SEK 50.5 million (31.4) during the fourth quarter; an increase of 61 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The high operating profit can be explained mainly by organic factors, such as better product and customer mix and that we managed to keep our warranty costs at a lower level. There was also an effect from one-off items including the previously initiated and now almost completed restructuring program, the reversal of provisions, and reduced costs following the separation of the Care business.

In addition, price increases, implemented at the beginning of the third quarter 2021, helped generate good margins and mitigate increased input costs. Further, higher costs of goods sold did not fully come into play in 2021 due to the time delay between purchases and customer deliveries. Finally, Doro benefited from positive effects from currency.

As in previous quarters, Q4 was characterised by difficulties on the production side with both shortages and high prices on components, as well as challenging freight conditions. This caused delivery delays, and in some cases also resulted in lost volumes. Nevertheless, thanks to Doro’s focus on securing components we managed to maintain product availability and were generally able to deliver at good levels throughout the quarter.

Availability has become a competitive advantage in these times of product shortages and Doro’s ability to deliver helped us continue securing good margins.

During the fourth quarter the various markets saw reduced customer activity and fewer store visits, especially among seniors. UK and Central and Eastern Europe were less successful than the other Doro regions, as they were hit harder by renewed covid lockdowns, and a sluggish market with strong competition from low-end mobile phones. Nevertheless Doro UK performed better than the rest of the local market and we saw an increase in our market share in the UK.
Sales slowed at the end of the year. Black Friday and Christmas did not have the positive impact on sales, that they have had in earlier years, likely due to consumers’ concerns about increased inflation, higher cost of living and disposal income moving into other areas.

The announced separation of the Care and Phones businesses into two separately listed companies, was carried out during Q4. As of December 7, 2021 the Care business is a fully independent company trading on Nasdaq First North Growth Market under the name Careium AB. Doro AB – consisting of the previous Doro Phones division – remains a consumer and senior oriented product company listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Small Cap.

Through the separate listing of the Care business, Doro has created better conditions for development for achieving its full potential and regaining its clear consumer focus. Our strategy will be to continue expanding our role as the European leader in senior mobile phones. In addition, we want to stimulate seniors’ curiosity in and facilitate their usage of new technology by expanding our to adjacent product types. We will continue making new technology accessible for seniors, so they can live better lives.

Jörgen Nilsson, President and CEO

Webcast
A webcast conference call will be held at 09.00 (CET) on Thursday 17 February, where CEO and President Jörgen Nilsson and CFO Isabelle Sengès will present the report.
The webcast will be available via Doro’s financial website   www.doro.com/corporate  or  https://tv.streamfabriken.com/doro-q4-2021. The webcast will be held in English.

To participate in the conference call, please call one of the following numbers:
Sweden: +46 8 50 55 83 69
United Kingdom: +44 33 33 00 90 34
United States: +1 64 67 22 49 56
France: +33 1 70 75 0 7 36