We made promising progress on most fronts in 2015, although we did not, as a company, achieve all the goals we had set ourselves. Still, I believe that, with all the changes implemented or about to be implemented, we are becoming more agile and stronger in facing the continuously volatile and uncertain environment we now inhabit.

While relevant, the changes made in our business portfolio during the year are not hugely significant: in the first quarter we made agreements to dispose of two infrastructure solutions businesses that were not really connected to the rest of the organisation, namely the Thai unit and Extron Engineering, a machine manufacturer in Finland. In the last quarter, we announced the acquisitions of two companies, Delta and KaMo in Germany. These companies are specialists in preassembled components for plumbing and heating systems, which perfectly complement Uponor’s pipe systems offerings in these two key applications. These acquisitions closed at the beginning of 2016 and will contribute to our results from 2016 onwards.

Our largest segment, Building Solutions - Europe, faces a mixed business environment, with some markets contracting and some slightly growing. In 2015, we entered a new era in this segment’s development when we changed its leadership model to one that is similar to our other segments and appointed a new head of segment. With this new organisational structure, we are confident that we can improve our agility, customer proximity and, based on the measures launched, develop our efficiency and competitiveness. This change is historical, since it is the first occasion, after these businesses were acquired in the 80s and 90s, upon which a new European ‘Uponor way’ will be developed and shared by all business units – with clear benefits for the customer and the shareholder alike.

In 2015, we entered a new era in Building Solutions – Europe, with its new organisational structure. This change is historical – a new European ‘Uponor way’ will be developed and shared by all business units – with clear benefits for the customer and the shareholder alike.

In Uponor Infra, our joint venture company with the KWH Group, the focus in 2015 was mainly on bringing costs downwards to match the lower market volumes that we anticipate over the coming years. The execution of the streamlining programmes announced in 2014 was successfully completed. In the last quarter, we announced plans for a further round of consolidation and capacity adjustments in line with our strategy, enabling us to focus on higher value added offerings and de-emphasise our commodity offerings. During 2016, the consolidation of our manufacturing footprint in Finland, Uponor Infra’s largest national market, will create a lower break-even structure, enabling us to compete profitably in a tight market situation.

In Building Solutions - North America, good progress continued, supported by positive underlying market development and focussed programmes designed to enable our further penetration of the commercial segment. In 2015, the latest manufacturing bay expansion of the existing production facility in Apple Valley, Minnesota, was taken into use, while construction of another manufacturing space in the next-door facility was completed. This new annex building will be equipped with production machinery during 2016 and will add to the segment’s capacity from the second half of 2016 onwards. Our recent product launches serving both the residential and commercial segments are expected to further support differentiation in the North American marketplace and, in particular, to promote increased penetration into the commercial segment, which is still dominated by metallic pipe systems.

Uponor has been exporting products from Europe to Asian markets for years, while focussing on high-end projects. These volumes have been small and have served a niche market. Construction volumes in Asia, particularly in China, are huge in comparison with e.g. Europe. Combined with the trends of higher quality requirements, energy efficiency and comfort, this helped us to make the decision to begin building up our own production unit in China in order to serve local and neighbour - ing markets. Since the factory is only expected to be operative by the end of 2016, it will not yet contribute materially to ou r 2016 performance.

All Uponor business segments share common elements and their development is supported by our joint efforts. Two years ago, we began enhancing our group-level human resources organisation and now see these efforts beginning to bear fruit. The initial stage of this development concerns most parts of the group and will involve the adoption of a new HR management system in early 2016. This will enable managers to make HR decisions that are more strategic and provide them with a real-time view of their own organisation and also outside one’s own organisation, while providing genuine help with goal setting and performance evaluation.

The most prominent change implemented involved promoting the significance of group technology development. This function will serve all segments, leveraging talent and resources across them in a way which corresponds to our aggregate weight within our global industry.

Alongside a range of other changes to human resources management, this will help us to integrate the organisation and genuinely develop our leadership practices across internal boundaries, thus speeding up strategic evolution.

On the same note, in 2015 we completed our modernised group-wide engagement survey, which will help us to focus on improvements in areas we consider critical to employee engagement and, hence, the success of the company. The most prominent change implemented involved promoting the significance of group technology development by appointing a member of the Executive Committee to head Group Technology and Corporate Development. This function will serve all segments, leveraging talent and resources across them in a way which corresponds to our aggregate weight within our global industry. In 2015, Uponor booked €18.5 million as an expense under research and development. As a result of the change in our structure, we aim to achieve an even higher output in retur n for this major investment.

The business environment will remain volatile in 2016. Some brighter spots are likely to appear in Europe while some corners will remain dark. In North America, the market outlook is positive. There’s a lot of positive excitement, both internally and externally, around the many initiatives we have launched in 2015, thus, overall, I believe that Uponor is well placed to continue its profitable growth in 2016.