Business News

CEWE COLOR confirms growth targets

Thursday 08. November 2012 - - Record sales of more than 500 million euros targeted - Turnover boosted by online printing - Seasonal effect and innovations give rise to expectations for a substantial increase in the fourth quarter

After the third quarter, the Board of Management of CEWE COLOR Holding AG (SDAX, ISIN: DE0005403901) is confirming the targets for the 2012 business year. More than anything else, the innovations presented at the leading trade show photokina in September, such as the CEWE PHOTO BOOK with videos, mobile applications, many new added-value products and the online printing segment give rise to expectations for substantial growth in sales and earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012 as well. For the first time in the history of the company covering more than 51 years, turnover is to exceed 500 million euros in 2012 (2011: 469 million euros). ‘With the third quarter, we are confirming the trend of the past few years and are right on track to generate the highest sales in the history of the company and EBIT in the range of 27 to 33 million euros,’ says Dr. Rolf Hollander, Chairman of the Board of Management of CEWE COLOR Holding AG.
Sales increase by 6 percent thanks to a new business segment
Although the fourth quarter is increasing in significance every year due to the seasonal shift, with the high growth generated in the new business segment of online printing, CEWE COLOR has already increased sales by 6 percent to 326.5 million euros in the first three quarters of the year (Q1-Q3 2011: 308.1 million euros). Photofinishing contributed 223.4 million euros (-1.1%), retailing 74.5 million euros (-8.3%) and online printing 28.6 million euros (+27.7 million euros) to this increase. Turnover increased by 121.8 million euros to 124.1 million euros in the third quarter. With an EBIT margin that had increased from 9.5 to 9.9% in the third quarter, the established segment of photofinishing contributed 8.5 million euros to Group EBIT, thus subsidising – together with the retailing sector (+0.4 million euros) – the initial loss incurred in online printing (-1.8 million euros): the Group achieved a quarterly EBIT of 7.1 million euros overall. CEWE COLOR thus virtually offset the loss of the first two quarters, which is typical for the season, and achieved accumulated EBIT in the amount of -0.3 million euros (Q1-Q3 2011: +4.4 million euros). Marketing investments in the amount of 3.4 million euros for the new business segment of online printing in the period from February to September are included in this EBIT. ‘We are currently positioning our new online printing brand CEWE-PRINT intensively on the market and are intentionally financing the establishment of the brand from profits generated in the established line of photofinishing business. We are thus laying the foundations for future growth in an extremely attractive segment in which we will benefit considerably from our economies of scale and the strength of our brand,’ Dr. Hollander emphasises.
Comparable 12-month EBIT exceeds that of the previous year
In a 12-month perspective, which offsets the seasonal effects, the fourth-quarter EBIT for 2011 reached 25.5 million euros in the period up to the third quarter of 2012, and is thus, for seasonal reasons, 0.7 million euros less than the reference figure for the fourth quarter of 2010 up to the third quarter of 2011. When adjusted by the Saxoprint acquisition, the 12-month EBIT would be 27.9 million euros, thus exceeding the same figure for the previous year by as much as 1.7 million euros. Furthermore, the annual net income after taxes for the same period only decreased by 0.4 million euros to 14.9 million euros due to the seasonal shift.
Earnings target for the fourth quarter within the growth corridor for previous years
In order to achieve the annual target of EBIT in the amount of 27 to 33 million euros, fourth-quarter EBIT would need to amount to between 27.2 and 33.2 million euros. This is exactly in line with the trend in previous years. The required increase in EBIT for the fourth quarter, from 1.5 to 7.5 million euros against that of 2011 is equivalent to the growth generated by CEWE COLOR in the fourth quarters of the past few years