Food & Water Division

The division offers different types of products for heat transfer, separation and hygienic fluid handling and targets customers in food, pharmaceuticals, biotech, vegetable oils, brewery, dairy and body care products. In addition, the division focuses on public and industrial water treatment as well as water and waste treatment.

The Food & Water Division consists of six Business Units: Decanters, Food Heat Transfer, Food Systems, Hygienic Fluid Handling, High Speed Separators and Desmet.

¹⁾ At end of period. ²⁾ Excluding comparison distortion items. ³⁾ Alternative performance measure. ⁴⁾ Adjusted EBITA/net sales. ⁵⁾ Excluding new leases.

Order intake

Order intake was somewhat lower compared to 2023, mainly as a result of last year’s exceptionally large orders and high activity in Desmet. Excluding Desmet, the business showed growth in most application areas, including the important channel business. Despite modest macroeconomic conditions, the appetite among several major customers to invest in both capacity and in new application areas such as plant-based protein positively contributed. With a growth in line with, or above, industry average, the assessment is that the division kept or improved its market shares, driven by strong geographical presence, engineering capabilities and investments in technological leadership. Geographically, regional differences were very much affected by the large project orders in Desmet in 2023. Hence, North America and Southeast Asia contracted, so did India where an election held back investment activity during the year. Europe grew, driven by Eastern and Southern Europe. China also recovered and Latin America showed a very strong growth.

Orders in Dairy grew as the capacity build up in the industry during and after the pandemic continued, both in the industrialized as well as the developing part of the world. Demand in Pharma & biotech returned to growth after last year’s small contraction caused by short-term saturation post the strong pandemic years. China was no exception, showing strong growth. The need to invest in upgrading of national supply chains in the pharma sector to avoid vulnerability in future critical or high demand situations, prevailed. Waste & water reported a slight order contraction, despite water related investments still being prioritized in many countries. However, even with governmental approvals, securing funding is typically a cause for delay. Traditional Oils & fats declined from last year’s record order levels, at the time driven by very high commodity prices, in turn driving significant capacity addition. Biofuel, mainly represented by HVO (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) and biodiesel also declined for the same reason. However, from a historic perspective the activity level was still high. Ethanol, the other important biofuel area, also contracted, but only marginally, and combined biofuel overall constituted an important part of the sustainability related business. Ethanol demand continues to be driven by environmental legislation with higher blending requirement in petrol globally, not least in USA, Brazil and India. Protein was slightly down but changed in composition in that several very large orders for plant-based protein were secured, solidifying Alfa Laval’s strong presence and offering in this area of Next Generation Food.

Service grew across almost all key industries, with the exception of Waste & water. Growth rate for parts was on par with that of other services, with a similar pattern globally. A continued focus on presence and a structured approach of penetrating the installed base of equipment following several years of strong new sales, contributed to the overall growth.

Net sales

Net sales ended above the 2023 level. Sales growth was primarily driven by service and the mix changed somewhat, in a positive direction. Sales grew above average in Oils & fats, Ethanol and Dairy whereas the other areas remained unchanged or declined slightly.

Adjusted EBITA

The year benefitted from a limited sales increase with a positive mix in several dimensions; aftersales, applications and geographical mix combined with good factory utilization. Currency had no significant impact on the result, but with costs somewhat up, inflation as well as activity driven, the adjusted EBITA was slightly below 2023.