Geberit recorded a decrease in sales in the first quarter

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Sales fell 8.9 percent to CHF 893 million, as the plumbing technology group announced on Tuesday. Excluding adverse currency effects, organic decline was 4.3 percent. The negative trend has thus weakened somewhat, as organic minus was still at 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Price increases of around 12 percent in the first quarter had a positive impact. The main reason for the decrease in volume is last year’s record quarter. To a lesser extent, the now-complete reduction of surplus inventories in wholesale trade and the weakening of replacement business also played a role.

From a regional perspective, sales in the main European region fell 6.0 percent in the first quarter, adjusted for currency effects, 7.7 percent in the Far East/Pacific region and 1.3 percent in the Americas. In the Middle East/Africa, it increased by 37.4 percent.

Operating profit (EBITDA) fell by 2.5 percent to 296 million francs and therefore proportionally less compared to sales. The corresponding margin increased by 2.2 percentage points to 33.1 percent accordingly.

Net profit also fell 2.3 percent to 215 million. This exceeded analysts’ expectations in terms of earnings, but fell short in terms of sales.

As always at this time of year, Geberit has not yet presented a specific view of the year as a whole. However, since the publication of the annual figures for 2022 last March, the forecasts for 2023 have remained unchanged. In general, a challenging environment can be expected for the construction industry in the current year.

(SDA)

Source :Blick