CEO Review

During the third quarter of 2026, Kalmar delivered a resilient performance highlighted by good order momentum and robust cash generation. Despite persistent trade tensions and broad geopolitical uncertainty, market demand remained steady. Orders received reached EUR 458 million, matching recent quarters and reflecting a 22 percent increase year on year. This growth was primarily driven by the Equipment segment across North America, bringing our total order book to EUR 1,004 million.

The transformation of our portfolio towards more sustainable solutions continued. In our eco portfolio, orders received grew by 32 percent year on year, representing now almost half of total order intake.

Quarterly sales held steady at EUR 433 million, as growth in the Services segment compensated for a modest decline in Equipment sales.

Comparable operating profit reached EUR 56.4 million, representing a 6 percent year-on-year drop against a strong prior-year comparison, while the comparable operating profit margin expanded sequentially to 13.0 percent.

Our Driving Excellence initiative has delivered results. By the end of September, we had secured a run rate of approximately EUR 54 million in annualised gross efficiency improvements – this is already more than the EUR 50 million target we set for year-end 2026. Also cash generation continued strong. In the third quarter, cash flow from operations before finance items and taxes was EUR 82 million, and cash conversion for the last 12 months was 121 percent. Return on capital employed on a last-twelve-months basis was 22.4 percent, and our balance sheet is in excellent shape.

A key highlight of the quarter was the opening of our fully automated Test Centre in Ljungby, Sweden. This industry-first facility is specifically designed for material handling equipment, enabling us to test the entire lifecycle of both our Electric Vehicle and diesel product lines under extreme conditions to strengthen product reliability and shorten time-to-market.

Our Equipment segment’s sales in the third quarter amounted to EUR 281 million. The segment’s profitability continued to be stable with comparable operating profit margin at 12.6 percent.  

The Services segment continued to gradually improve in the third quarter with sales of EUR 153 million and a comparable operating profit margin of 17.6 percent, higher than in the past three quarters. Services’ orders received were on the same level as in the previous quarters in 2026. We remain focused on expanding services and growing recurring revenue, which are key to achieving our long-term targets.

Despite geopolitical uncertainty, our fundamentals remain strong. We have a strong  order book, a growing eco portfolio, long-standing customer relationships, and a resilient team. We expect total market demand for the next six months to remain approximately at a similar level as in the previous quarters. While customer demand and order intake remained solid globally, we saw some delivery delays in APAC. Continued macroeconomic disruption to freight, transit routes, and component supply could extend these delays. We are actively mitigating the risk through proactive sourcing, flexible manufacturing, and our Driving Excellence efficiency program.

We confirm our guidance for 2026 unchanged: we expect our comparable operating profit margin to be above 12.5 percent for the full year.

We look forward to sharing further insights into our strategy, business development, and growth opportunities at our upcoming Capital Markets Day on 2 November.

Finally, I would like to express my sincere thanks to our employees across the globe. Your commitment, hard work, and dedication to customer value creation are the driving force behind Kalmar’s performance.

Kalmar, interim report January–September 2026, 29 October 2026