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Electronics Production |
Kitron sees strong order growth during third quarter
“We continued on our growth path in the third quarter, delivering the highest third quarter revenue in the company's history,” says CEO Peter Nilsson.
Kitron's revenue for the third quarter was NOK 563 million (EUR 59.49 million), an increase of 5% compared to last year. The order backlog increased by 27% on a comparable basis. Profitability expressed as EBIT margin was 5.3% in the third quarter.
"We continued on our growth path in the third quarter, delivering the highest third quarter revenue in the company's history. I am especially pleased that we were able to do this in the face of industry-wide problems with component availability and some postponed customer programs. The excellent order intake during the quarter strengthens our confidence in the coming months and quarters. We maintain our 2018 outlook and our strategic targets for 2020," says Peter Nilsson, Kitron's CEO, in a press release.
Revenue growth compared to the same quarter last year was particularly strong in the Industry market sector. Marine/Offshore is now growing, albeit from a very low level. Defence/Aerospace declined – however, the company expects growth to resume in 2019. Excluding the Defence/Aerospace market sector, revenue growth in the third quarter was 18% compared to last year..
Third quarter operating profit (EBIT) was NOK 30.0 million (EUR 3.17 million), compared to 29.2 million (EUR 3.08 million) last year. EBITDA was NOK 42.7 million (EUR 4.51 million), compared to 42.6 million (EUR 4.5 million) last year. Net profit amounted to NOK 21.8 million (EUR 2.3 million), an increase of 33%.
Kitron points out that component shortages have been an ongoing issue for the industry since last year. The company says that the situation has not improved, and that they are expecting it to be challenging throughout the year and into 2019.
In July, Kitron announced plans to expand its Eastern European presence through a facility in northern Poland. Production at the 8’000 square meter facility is now scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter 2019.