January – March
- Net sales amounted to SEK 386 (281) million, an increase of 37.0 percent and organic* an increase of 21.9 percent.
- Operating profit amounted to SEK 96 (79) million and adjusted* to SEK 101 (79) million.
- The operating margin was 24.9 percent (28.2) and adjusted to 26.3 percent (28.2).
- EBITA* amounted to SEK 103 (82) million, and adjusted to SEK 108 (82) million.
- The EBITA margin* amounted to 26.7 percent (29.1) and adjusted to 28.1 percent (29.1).
- Profit after tax amounted to SEK 71 (60) million.
- Earnings per share were SEK 1.08 (0.92) before and after dilution.
- Cash flow from operating activities decreased to SEK 57 (68) million.
- Net cash* as of March 31 was SEK 103 (61) million.
- On March 14, the Board decided on new financial targets: 12 percent organic growth and a 25 percent EBITA margin, both averaging over three years.
Message from the CEO
Biotage kicks off the year by breaking sales records for the fourth consecutive quarter. Despite challenges in the supply chain, all our geographical markets are showing double-digit growth.
A very strong first quarter
In the first quarter of this year, Biotage once again broke sales records, with net sales exceeding SEK 386 (281) million. This is the result of good performance in all our geographical markets and strong growth in our product segments.
Just as we were coming out of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we were suddenly faced with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a new crisis with serious consequences for world stability. In terms of Biotage sales, the impact of the war is limited, however, our thoughts are with Ukraine and its people. On the day of the invasion, we decided to immediately stop all sales to Russia via our local distributor.
The global challenges in the supply chain continued during the quarter, with high purchase prices for raw materials and freight costs, a general shortage of certain input products and long lead times. Despite this, Biotage has managed to handle the situation. We have kept to our delivery times, and thanks to the right combination of products and markets, as well as a large sales volume with positive currency effects that counteract the impact from the supply chain, our gross margin is 62.5 percent (63.1). Unfortunately, it seems that the challenges we are experiencing are here to stay for some time yet.
One important piece of news of the quarter is that, in order to serve our different customer groups in the best possible way with our full product offering, we have launched three new customer focus areas for Biotage: White Tech, Red Tech and Blue & Green Tech. The White Tech area focuses on customers in research, development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals; the Red Tech on diagnostics, clinical, forensics and doping laboratories; and the Blue & Green Tech on environmental, water and food laboratories. This new division clarifies all parts of Biotage’s operations, strengthens our flexibility, and helps us to prepare for future growth. We will continue to provide pruduct area information, but with improved visibility for their respective customer workflows.
In the first quarter, we saw strong organic growth. We even succeeded in growing in all geographical markets. Our sales in Scale Up remained strong in EMEA and Japan, the latter being a market in which we are making our strongest quarter in a long time. Americas experienced its third consecutive record quarter, while our Flash systems are witnessing strong sales in China. As far as China in particular is concerned, however, we are concerned about the shutdowns of society that are taking place as a result of the government's zero vision for covid-19. On a more positive side, we also see the introduction of our new product, Biotage® PhyPrep, the world’s first automated plasmid purification instrument on Maxi, Mega and Giga scale, helping us to our strongest quarter ever in the product area Biologics & Advanced Therapeutics.
During the quarter, we launched our new evaporation system, Biotage® TurboVap 96 Dual, which is an important product for Biotage, as it contributes to our ambition to constantly launch new products that not only streamline our customers’ workflows, but also contribute to a lower environmental footprint by reducing the consumption of solvents. In addition to reducing solvent use, customers can also monitor both nitrogen and energy consumption, and have better control over key environmental factors.
Four years after setting our long-term financial targets, Biotage has not only met, but exceeded them. In the light of this successful development, the Board decided in March to adjust its targets. The growth target for average annual organic growth over a three-year period was raised from 8 to 12%, and the target for average profitability over a three-year period was raised from an EBIT margin of at least 20% to an EBITA margin of at least 25%. Although we cannot expect to achieve such results every quarter, it was gratifying to note that in the first quarter of the year, when everything was so positive in terms of sales volumes, currency effects, etc., we actually reached these levels.
The list of our positive achievements this quarter is long, but I would like to take this opportunity to highlight two things. In our first NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey, we achieved a brilliant score of 70 and the highest ranking for our brand in comparision with our competitor, something we are really proud of. Other positive news is that with the successful recruitment of our new EVP R&D, our management team is now complete.
I can confirm that we have had a flying start to the year, despite problems in the supply chain and with rising inflation. Taking this into consideration, I look forward to continuing our positive business development, with a focus on our customers and employees. I feel greatly privileged to be leading an extremely hard-working and talented team, who are passionate about our mission to help customers make the world healthier, greener and cleaner.
Uppsala, April 28, 2022
Tomas Blomquist
President and CEO
BIOTAGE AB 
