Buttenwiesen-Pfaffenhofen, 11 November 2011. – SURTECO SE generated consolidated sales amounting to € 312.9 million in the first nine months of the current business year, corresponding to an increase of 7 %. € 102.6 million of these sales were generated in Germany (+6 %), foreign sales amounted to € 210.3 million (+8 %).
Although tangible uncertainties emerged in the markets, the company again succeeded in achieving a slight increase in sales during the third quarter of 2011 compared with the third quarter of 2010. SURTECO posted an increase of 3 % in domestic sales for overall sales growth to € 101.3 million while foreign sales business remained constant.
The Strategic Business Unit (SBU) Plastics slightly increased sales in the third quarter and at € 60.1 million approached the value of the successful first quarter. Sales increased by 5 % to € 180.0 million during the period from January to September. Domestic sales accounted for € 56.1 million (+2 %) while foreign sales amounted to € 123.9 million (+6 %). Business with roller shutter systems achieved the most dynamic performance with an increase in sales of 27 %. The high-volume edgebanding business increased by 2 % or € 2.4 million.
The third quarter for the SBU Paper reflected the restrained purchasing environment, particularly with customers in European countries outside Germany. This compared with the domestic market, which developed favourably with a gratifying increase of 5 %. Growth in Asian business developed exceptionally well with expansion of 50 %. Quarterly sales recorded a slight increase of 1 % to € 41.2 million.
Aggregated sales for the SBU Paper for the first nine months of 2011 amounted to € 132.9 million. This corresponds to an increase of 11 %. The greatest growth in this sector was generated in Germany (+11 %), Australia (+12 %) and Asia (+45 %).
Despite the cooling of global growth, costs for raw materials continued at a very high level. As a result, the Group’s cost of materials ratio increased by 2.1 percentage points after the first three quarters to the historic high of 46.1 %. The cost of materials went up to € 145.4 million (previous year: € 132.2 million).
The high level of raw materials costs could not yet be passed on to customers in full. One-off effects of € 2 million arose from preparations made for an acquisition which has meantime been broken off. These two factors reduced operating earnings (EBITDA) by 22 % to € 13.3 million (2010: € 16.9 million) during the third quarter. This in turn impacted negatively on earnings before tax (EBT) which amounted to € 6.0 million (previous year: € 8.3 million).
During the first three quarters of 2011, SURTECO generated an EBITDA of € 45.0 million after € 48.9 million in the previous year. The EBITDA margin fell by 2.4 percentage points to 14.4 %. The EBIT fell by approximately the same amount from € 33.2 million to € 28.9 million, since depreciation and amortization have remained virtually identical with the previous year. Impairments on the package of shares held by SURTECO in Pfleiderer AG, Neumarkt, amounting to € 3.2 million, which became effective in the first half of the year, exerted a negative impact on earnings before tax. This resulted in an EBT amounting to € 18.5 million (previous year: € 26.4 million) on 30 September 2011. Consolidated net profit amounted to € 12.00 million during the first nine months compared with € 19.4 million in the previous year. This yielded earnings per share of € 1.09 (1-9/2010: € 1.75).
As far as the overall business year 2011 is concerned, SURTECO is assuming that growth will continue to weaken in the furniture sector at least until the end of the year. The ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the USA will continue to lead to uncertainties among consumers and this is likely to exert effects on behaviour patterns in consumption when purchases of furniture are made and in the construction industry. SURTECO is anticipating sales of € 400 million.
