4 Group overview Ahlsell Annual Report 2018 Strong growth and intensified focus on increased efficiency Market conditions in our main markets remained good and we have strengthened our customer relationships further through successful initiatives. Our consistent efforts to make our customers’ everyday lives easier have shown results. Johan Nilsson 2015 Elected Board member, appointed President and CEO of Ahlsell AB (publ). 2008 Joined Ahlsell as Head of Operations in Sweden. Previous positions CEO, IFÖ Sanitär and IDO, and Sales and Marketing Manager, Sanitec. Education M.Sc. (Business and Economics), Lund University, and M.Sc. (Engineering), Lund Faculty of Engineering. Born 1960 Shareholding at year end 809,913 shares, 202,429 warrants and 73,000 call options. Strong sales growth Good market conditions with growth in all market segments, combined with s uccessful initiatives, enabled us to achieve total net sales growth of 14% in 2018. Organic growth accounted for 7% of this. The strong organic growth was driven by a continuing high construction investment level, increased infrastructure investments and good development within industry. In addition, several years of strategic sales initiatives have brought us continuing strong growth, both with new and existing customers, who appreciate the value of our customer offering. Our total net sales amounted to MSEK 31,291 (27,484). We estimate that we have grown about seven percentage points faster than the market, thereby confirming our position as the Nordic market leader within technical distribution. We estimate that we have grown seven percentage points faster than the market. Acquisitions are part of our DNA Just as in 2017, the acquisition rate was high throughout the year. Of our growth in 2018, five percentage points came from acquisitions. While we have fully focused on realising synergies in line with those we have historically achieved from completed acquisitions, we have also worked at a high ambition level to add further acquisitions. We signed agreements to acquire nine companies with total annual sales of approximately MSEK 960. Several of the acquisitions were made in the “Tools & Supplies” product segment, and more specifically within personal p rotective equipment (PPE). One example is the acquisition of the Norwegian company Bekken & Strøm, with annual sales of MSEK 415, which was finalised in February. The acquisition made Ahlsell a market leader in personal protective equipment in Norway. This is a very p ositive development, as we see an ever growing focus on protective equipment and safety from our customers.
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