End of gardening season saps tool-maker Husqvarna

By Agata Rybska and Jesus Calero

(Reuters) -Garden tools-maker Husqvarna missed third quarter revenue expectations on Friday and announced another 300 job cuts, after people prioritising travel over time at home and a seasonal slowdown sapped demand across the sector.

Shares in the Swedish-listed company fell by 9% in early trade.

Husqvarna said a decline in the market worsened in the third quarter, which is typically slower as the gardening season ends in Europe and North America, where its sales are concentrated.

"We are facing a continued challenging macroeconomic context and market uncertainty with delayed ordering and stock reductions," Chief Executive Officer Pavel Hajman said in an earnings statement.

Husqvarna posted revenue of 10.51 billion crowns ($959.20 million) for the quarter, below the LSEG estimate of 11.72 billion crowns and down from 12.21 billion crowns a year earlier.

In October 2022, Husqvarna said it would cut 1,000 jobs as part of its restructuring programme, which included shifting investment to robotic mowers, batteries, watering solutions and professional products and away from its low-margin petrol-powered consumer products.

The company expects the programme to be fully implemented by 2025 and said on Friday it targeted savings of 1.2 billion crowns from 800 million crowns previously.

This season was even weaker than expected, KeplerCheuvreux analyst Johan Eliason said.

He said extreme weather had made gardening in parts of the world very difficult, as dry weather in North America reduced demand for lawn mowers, while persistent rain elsewhere meant people did not buy irrigation systems.

Others in the sector, including Finland's Fiskars, Germany's Hornbach and Britain's Kingfisher flagged lower profits this quarter.

They have pointed to weak consumer sentiment, challenging market conditions and clients' hesitancy to restock as customers, following the end of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and the advent of high inflation, have tended to focus their spending on travelling and services.

The Husqvarna stock was trading 7.1% lower at 73.54 crowns per share at 8:13 GMT after recovering slightly from early selling.

($1 = 10.9570 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Jesus Calero and Agata Rybska; Editing by Eileen Soreng and Barbara Lewis)