Kitron CEO: 'Our business grew robustly'

“Our business grew robustly in the third quarter, and we ended the quarter with a very strong order backlog. We also completed the construction of our new factory in Poland, where production is ramping up during the fourth quarter. We will focus on working capital efficiency and further margin improvements as we move into 2020,” says CEO, Peter Nilsson, in a press release. Kitron's revenue for the third quarter was NOK 738 million (EUR 72.70 million), an increase of 31% compared to last years NOK 562.8 million (EUR 55.43 million). Organic growth, excluding the acquisition of the EMS division of API Technologies was still 21%. The company’s order backlog also showed robust growth with an increase of 40% compared to last year and ended at NOK 1,572 million (EUR 154.84 million). Third quarter operating profit (EBIT) was NOK 39.6 million (EUR 3.9 million), compared to NOK 30.0 million (EUR 2.95 million) last year. EBITDA was NOK 59.7 million (EUR 5.88 million), compared to NOK 42.7 million (EUR 4.2 million) last year. Profit after tax amounted to NOK 24.6 million (EUR 2.42 million), compared to NOK 21.8 million (EUR 2.14 million) in the same quarter the previous year. Operating cash flow was positive NOK 19.2 million, compared to negative 41.0 million in the third quarter of 2018. During the third quarter, construction of the EMS provider's new factory in Grudziądz, Poland, was completed and production is ramping up in the fourth quarter, as planned. The facility of Kitron Technologies in Windber, Pennsylvania, was damaged by flooding in July and production has been moved to a temporary site. This has led to some inefficiencies in production and increase in net working capital, but the effect on customers has been, and is expected to be, minimal, the company states.