How Nokia’s UK arm is bucking the trend of falling sales

The UK arm of Nokia has bucked the trend set by its parent company by reporting a rise in both its sales and profit for its latest financial year.

The division, which is based near Bristol, has reported a turnover of £448.9m for 2023, up from the £441.2m it posted for 2022.

Newly-filed accounts with Companies House have also confirmed that Nokia UK’s pre-tax profit rose from £14.8m to £18.5m in the year.

The results come after the wider group revealed plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs in October 2023.

The Finland-based telecoms technology firm, which had 86,000 staff worldwide at the time, said it was launching a cost-saving drive across the business in a bid to boost its margins.

At the time, the group said it was aiming to achieve cost savings in the range of €800m and €1.2bn by 2026.

For the same financial year, the wider Nokia group reported net sales of €22.25bn, down from €24.91bn in 2022.

It also posted a pre-tax profit of  €1.49bn, down from €2.18bn.

For the first half of its current financial year, Nokia’s net sales fell from €11.01bn to €8.91bn.

Nokia forecasts further profit in the future

A statement signed off by the board said: “The directors believe turnover in 2023 met expectations.

“In terms of future developments, the directors expect turnover in the near future to be in line with UK market conditions and the success of the Nokia Group’s product and service portfolio.

“Profit for the financial year is in line with expectations given the prior year benefitted from an increase in deferred tax resulting from a change in UK tax rate.”

Nokia added: “The directors expect all activities to be profit making in the foreseeable future.”

During the year, the average number of people employed by Nokia in the UK rose from 891 to 940.