Significant increase in order intake for Komax

The first half of 2018 saw the Komax Group maintain its growth path, with strong gains in comparison with 2017. Order intake increased by 14.0% to CHF 256.0 million (previous year: CHF 224.4 million) while revenues climbed by 21.7% to CHF 236.9 million (previous year: CHF 194.7 million). The growth in revenues comprises internal growth (+15.4%) and acquisition-driven growth (+2.7%), as well as the positive foreign currency influence (+3.6%). The ever-increasing pressure on customers to increase levels of automation is clearly noticeable and contributed to revenue growth in all regions: Europe (+9.3%), Asia (+31.2%), North/South America (+33.7%) and Africa (+44.4%). A sizeable order backlog from the previous year coupled with a strong order intake in the first half of 2018 resulted in a book-to-bill ratio of 1.08, a fiscal report states.. R&D spending still at high levels “With this result we have exceeded our own expectations”, says Matijas Meyer, CEO of the Komax Group. “We expected to grow more strongly than the market and to post a result similar to that for the second half of 2017.” Revenues in the second half of 2017 came to CHF 213.8 million, with EBIT of CHF 29.6 million. Having a broad product portfolio with solutions along the entire value chain is increasingly paying off for Komax. In addition, the 2018 half-year result was improved by work done in the second half of 2017 that had not yet filtered through to revenues last year. To enable it to further expand, Komax continued to invest heavily in research and development in the first half of 2018: CHF 20.6 million (previous year: CHF 16.7 million), or 8.7% (previous year: 8.6%) of revenues. Compared with the previous year, Komax thus increased its research and development expenditure by 23.4%. “We are constantly investing in order to bring solutions onto the market that give our customers a competitive advantage”, explains Matijas Meyer. Expansion of production capacity To minimise the risk of capacity bottlenecks and cope with planned growth over the coming years, Komax is currently investing in new production and development facilities at four locations – in Switzerland, Germany and Hungary. “These will be ready for occupation in stages until the end of 2019,” says Komax Group CFO Andreas Wolfisberg. “Despite this high level of investment, the Komax Group still has a very solid financial base.” Outlook In the first half of 2018, the Komax Group consolidated its market position and started the second half of the year with a high order backlog. “From today’s perspective, we see the market dynamics and the trend towards automation continuing. We thus expect to post in the second half of 2018 a result consistent with the first six months of the year,” says Matijas Meyer.