Group performance was in line with expectations. The underlying
operations of Egg Packaging Europe continued to improve. However, the
division was, as expected, strongly affected by unfavourable
fluctuations in several exchange rates. The North American business
showed a positive trend, whereas Industrial Packaging saw an expected
sharp decline.
Peter A. Poulsen, CEO of Brødrene Hartmann, on Hartmann's performance
in Q1 2009:
- Group performance was in line with expectations. We were severely
hit by exchange rate movements, but we are pleased that underlying
operations continued to improve in our largest and most important
business area - egg packaging in Europe. The underlying results of
this business area grew by DKK 5 million relative to the otherwise
strong first quarter of 2008.
- We have launched a planned investment programme in Europe, focusing
on automation and efficiency optimisation, and we expect these
investments to have a gradual positive impact on our profit in the
course of 2009.
- We are also pleased to see that the profit before special items for
our North American business increased by DKK 7 million against the
first quarter of 2008. We have observed that growing environmental
awareness has taken hold in the US, resulting in increased demand for
environmentally friendly packaging such as Hartmann's products. Our
customers take an interest in supporting and profiling sustainability
efforts; a trend we have successfully addressed by providing
sustainability advice and training to the large retail chains.
- Our business area for industrial packaging saw an expected sharp
decline due to our largest customer of this business area phasing out
its purchases of Hartmann's moulded-fibre packaging during 2009.
Active efforts are still being made to generate compensating sales.
- We maintain our full-year forecast of revenue of approximately DKK
1,400 million and an EBIT margin of 5-6%. We maintain our goal to
achieve an EBIT margin of approximately 10% in 2010, albeit no less
challenging in the light of the unfavourable exchange rate
fluctuations.
For further information, please contact:
Peter Arndrup Poulsen, CEO
Tel.: +45 45 97 00 00
Mobile: +45 51 51 40 69
