CEO SIRPA OJALA COMMENTS ON THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS BULLETIN 2022
“I am pleased with our improving performance in 2022 and I look forward to the favourable development continuing also in 2023. Like the full year of 2022, our fourth quarter performance was strong with a significant increase in sales and operating profit on a comparable basis, driven by customer wins, good performance in service quality, productivity and field controls.
The Cleaning Services business continued its strong development in the fourth quarter with further new customers gained in an active market. For the full year of 2022, our like for like growth without the divested W-Tech business was positive, which is a strong result when considering the multi-million one-off shutdown that we delivered in 2021. While we’re delighted with our strong customer work driving the sales development, I’m equally pleased with our improved productivity and delivery controls, which show up as a clear profitability improvement in 2022, with more potential identified and being developed.
The geopolitical development and energy crisis in Europe have only had a limited direct impact on our business, at least so far, as we have no direct exposure to sanctioned parties or conflict regions. We have been able to mitigate the increased fuel prices and general cost inflation to a high degree with improved productivity and pricing measures.
Our strategy implementation reached an important milestone in 2022 with the successful divestment of our Recycling Services in June, and we have, since then, fully focused on our core business of Cleaning Services. In December, Delete’s Board of Directors announced that a strategic evaluation to support the Company’s growth had been initiated and a potential result of the strategic evaluation is the sale of the company and its Cleaning Services business in Finland and Sweden.
We are looking forward to 2023 with a positive momentum in a resilient market. Our target is to continue the recent good development, both in terms of organic growth and further improving profitability. Collaboration with our customers is the key to further developing our efficient and high-quality operations. We are confident that the continuous positive customer feedback that we have received on our high level of service will position us well in our efforts to continue profitable growth.
Our customer and employee satisfaction improved in 2022, which is a sign of our strong expertise and our customers’ confidence in the quality of our services. We would like to thank our customers and our skilled staff for the continued confidence shown in us.”