Between January and June, sales dropped by 22.9% over one year to 164.7 million francs. At constant exchange rate, the drop is 20.1%.
The producer of composite materials Grit has wiped a drop in turnover by more than a fifth over the first six months of the year. The company reports on a retained request from customers, worried about customs duties, she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Between January and June, sales dropped by 22.9% over one year to 164.7 million francs. At constant exchange rate, the drop is 20.1%.
The adjusted operational profit fell from 19.8% to 9.3 million while the related operating margin improved at 5.7%, after 5.4% a year earlier.
Sales are missing the mark of the forecasts of the AWP consensus, the adjusted Ebit and the margin are however greater than expectations.
The three divisions saw the sales back. Wind Materials wiped a quarter of a quarter to 105.0 million while Marine and Industrial was a decline of 13.4% to 44.6 million. For manufacturing solutions, turnover fell 27.7% to 15.2 million.
Strategic realignment in Marine and Industrial is underway, but concerns about customs duties currently encourage customers to restraint. Thus, some have decreased their orders, needing to plan a relocation of part of their production. This uncertainty weighs but should calm in the second half of the year. The effective impact of customs duties on sales is expected between 6 and 9% out of the two largest divisions.
The costs linked to the current restructuring, which leads to the closure of four sites in particular, have reached 40 million francs and the majority of the impact on liquidity has been recorded in the first half, said the press release.
For the whole year, Gurit continues to target an adjusted operational margin similar to that of 2024 while net sales are expected at 300 million francs. Under the supervision of Tobias Lührig since July, the company will soon have a finance manager (CFO), the current financial director Javier Perez-Freije having announced his departure for the end of November.
