Review by the President and CEO
Vaisala’s President and CEO Kai Öistämö
“We had a strong start of the year 2025 despite the uncertainty in the market environment. Both our net sales and profitability improved from the previous year, with particularly strong performance in the Industrial Measurements business area. We also saw significantly accelerated growth in our Xweather business, fueled by the recent acquisitions of WeatherDesk and Speedwell Climate.
Vaisala’s first quarter order intake was on the same level as in the previous year. Our organic net sales grew by 17%, excluding the acquisitions closed during Q4/2024. We were able to mitigate the impacts of industrial actions in Finland without them affecting our net sales. Our operating result margin improved to 13.2% followed by increased net sales. We closed the quarter with a strong EUR 212.5 million order book.
In the Industrial Measurements business area, the demand continued to develop favorably, and we had a strong quarter in orders received as well as in net sales. Positive development was seen across all regions and segments. It was especially positive to see the life science market continue to grow after a challenging last year.
In the Weather and Environment business area, we had a good quarter in net sales in meteorology and aviation market segments. We continued to deliver on our strong order book. One of the highlights of the quarter was winning a delivery of seven weather radars and a lightning detection network to Greece. However, in the renewable energy market segment, the first quarter was disappointing. New renewable energy investments slowed down, impacting negatively both net sales and orders received in our renewable energy business. Subscription sales increased by 63%, boosted by our recently acquired new businesses and double-digit organic growth.
We also started the year with a renewed Leadership Team with Anne Jalkala and Jarkko Sairanen in their new roles and Lorenzo Gulli and Samuli Hänninen as new members in the Leadership Team.
Looking ahead to the rest of this year, we continue to deliver our strategy as a global leader in measurement instruments and intelligence for climate action. The first quarter gave us a strong start for the year. Nevertheless, we expect the market uncertainty to continue as a result of geopolitical tensions and the risk of trade war escalation. We monitor the situation and prepare for different scenarios to mitigate the possible impacts to our business.
We continue to estimate, excluding potential significant changes in market conditions, that our full-year 2025 net sales will be in the range of EUR 590–620 and EBITA will be in the range of EUR 90–105 million.”
Interim Report January-March 2025, April 24, 2025.