Sales growth for SMARTRAC

 

SMARTRAC has announced its results for the first nine months of 2009.

According to the firm, the stabilisation and modest recovery of the global economy has been reflected in several areas of its business.

Sales grew from 79.8 million euros for the first nine months of 2008 to 92.2 million euros in the same period this year. This increase was mainly due to the favourable performance of its Cards and its  Industry and Logistics business units.

Revenues in its Security segment (Cards and eID business unit) were 69.7 million euros compared with sales of 71.8 million euros in 2008. A 17% decline in eID revenues was partly offset by a 9% growth in Cards revenues. The Security segment accounted for 76% of total group revenue in the first nine months of 2009 compared with 90% a year ago.

The group EBITDA of 10.9 million euros (16.4 million euros in 2008) is equivalent to an EBITDA margin of 12%.

SMARTRAC says it has had to deal with the challenges of very volatile conditions in its production network and the negative impact of its US factory as well as the ramp-up in Malaysia. Nevertheless, itwas able to deliver on the turnaround in profitability on a quarter-by-quarter basis, with EBITDA margin growing from 10% in the second quarter of 2009 to 13% in the third quarter.

The Security segment achieved an EBITDA of 11.7 million euros. This represents a decrease of 38% on last year’s figure of 18.8 million euros. SMARTRAC says this has been caused by a higher proportion of microchip sourcing and lower sales in the eID business unit.

Profit for the period was 3.1 million euros, down 74% on 2008’s 12 million euros.

SMARTRAC says it expects sales for the whole of 2009 to be between 125-130 million euros, providing it with organic growth. In addition, it says it is still on target to be a profitable and cash-generating company in 2009.

“Now we have delivered on the third-quarter turnaround, we are confident of continuing the improvement of our key financial figures in the next quarters. We are on our way to achieving our targets for 2009 as we have an improved visibility of our sales pipeline,” says Dr Christian Fischer. “Even more importantly, we are convinced that our business model provides clear growth potential for 2010 and beyond.”