SURTECO SE is not content with meeting the global slowdown in the construction and furniture sector and the ongoing credit crunch with cost-reduction and rationalization programmes. The company is an international leader in surface materials based on plastics and papers for technical applications, and the main focus is on product innovations that are geared towards safeguarding the leading global position of the Group over the long term. This holds particularly true for the plastic products line, which continues to be the long-term “sales driver” despite a difficult macroeconomic environment. The surface specialist continues to demonstrate a dynamic approach to this market with innovations such as an edge with a finish that looks deceptively like glass and a technical frame extrusion for flat screens.
The companies grouped in the Strategic Business Unit Plastics generated sales amounting to € 135.5 million during the first half of 2008, not least on the basis of a high-quality product range, and exceeded the equivalent year-earlier figure by 11 percent. Export business retained a positive performance: after six months, sales increased by an impressive 17 percent to € 91.5 million. Sales in Germany maintained their position at the level of the previous year amounting to € 44.0 million after roller-coaster development in the first two quarters.
The Strategic Business Unit Paper has an even tougher mission than the plastics business line, battling with significant consumer restraint in the domestic market. Sales of decorative prints, edging tapes and flat foils based on technical papers in the German market amounted to € 30.1 million in the first half of the year and were 7 percent below the figures for the first half of 2007. The North American market continues to present negative indicators for this product group. While this market remains an important market for SURTECO, it is beset by the pressures of currency problems, a weak economy, and the knock-on effects of the subprime crisis for the construction and residential real estate market. Foreign sales generated by the SBU Paper posted a shortfall of eight percent compared with the equivalent year-earlier figure during the half year under review. Overall, this line of business closed with sales amounting to € 80.5 million, which indicates a decline of 7 percent.
But thanks to the broadly based product range of sophisticated plastic foils, SURTECO SE as a full-range provider was able to conclude the first half year of 2008 with an increase in sales of 3 percent to € 216.0 million (209.1), of which € 141.9 million (+ 7 percent) was generated abroad and 74.0 (- 3 percent) in the domestic market. At € 39.1 million, EBITDA was at the level of the equivalent year-earlier period during the reporting period. Consolidated net profit at € 16.4 million after six months is 2 percent higher than in the first half year of 2007.
Although the fraught American market is likely to continue impacting negatively on the eurozone economy during the second half of 2008, SURTECO SE is anticipating moderate growth for the business year 2008. Assuming that SURTECO is not negatively impacted by further turbulence in the foreign-exchange and raw-materials markets, the objective is to achieve the high level of earnings recorded in the previous year. In 2007, the Group reported sales amounting to € 414.5 (+ 3 percent). At € 55.5 million (+ 3 percent), EBIT was above the equivalent year-earlier figure for the fourth time in succession.
