ADMINISTRATION REPORT
1 January 2021 – 31 December 2021
The Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer for AddLife AB (publ), Company Registration No. 556995-8126, hereby present the annual report and consolidated financial statements for the 2021 financial year. The Corporate Governance report is part of the administration report and is presented on pages 53-67. The Company’s sustainability report is incorporated into the annual report and Consolidated Financial Statements on pages 6-10 and 25-38.
Operations
AddLife is a Swedish-listed medical technology company operating mainly in the European market and consisting of 83 operating subsidiaries in the Labtech and Medtech business areas. The Group has 1,802 employees in 27 countries and offers high-quality, cost-effective solutions and products. The product portfolio consists partly of self-manufactured products and partly of products that are made by other manufacturers. The service portfolio includes advice, service and education.
The customers are primarily active in the healthcare sector – from research to medical care. AddLife currently has a presence in about 30 countries, mainly in the Nordic region, Central and Eastern Europe, as well in China and Australia. AddLife shares have been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since March 2016.
Key events during the year
The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the Life Science market throughout 2021. The business situation of our companies has been affected by efforts in all countries to contain and manage the spread of infection, the pressure on health service intensive care units and other restrictions resulting from the pandemic.
The testing capacity built up in the latter part of 2020 has remianed into this year, and there has been a high demand for PCR testing across Europe, particularly in the context of increased disease transmission. For our diagnostics companies, this has meant sales of large volumes of tests of new and previously installed instruments. Virus research activity has, for most of the year, been high, which has had a positive impact on our research companies. Demand from pharmaceutical customers not focusing on COVID-19 was stable, as were sales of our own advanced analytical instruments.
The strong growth in Medtech was driven by two strategic acquisitions carried out in April: Healthcare 21 and AddVision. The acquisitions bring annual net sales of around SEK 2.4 billion and make AddLife a significant European player, with more than half of its sales in markets outside the Nordic region. For large part of the year, there was limited activity in elective surgery, due to the need for the healthcare service to prioritise the care of COVID-19 patients and reallocate resources. During the autumn, the number of surgeries increased, however mutations of the COVID-19 virus and increased spread of infection at the end of the year, decreased activity once again.
During the year our companies in homecare had difficulties delivering because of infection control measures in eldercare. At the same time, the demographic trend of a growing, ageing population, as well as technological developments, also continued to drive underlying growth. At the end of the year we made two acquisitions in welfare technology, which together strengthen AddLife’s position in digital health, with the aim of becoming a driving force in tomorrow’s digital healthcare and social care.
The COVID-19 pandemic during the year has clarified the opportunities that AddLife has to make a difference by helping to benefit both patients and society. AddLife’s offering to healthcare services is attractive on the market and we will continue to offer new treatment options, proactive diagnostics, technical aids and digital solutions for both institutional care and care at home. There is a large backlog of patients waiting for care in all countries in the wake of the pandemic, which is expected to take a long time to manage.