Krones ups its sales by 14.3 % in the year’s first half

Krones AG, the world’s market leader for beverage filling and packaging technology, smoothly progressed its vigorous growth during the first half of 2008. Sales were up by 14.3 % on the preceding year’s figure, from 1,053.9 to 1,204.9 million euros. Order bookings rose by 12.0 % to reach 1,242.5 million euros.
On 30 June 2008, Krones possessed a comfortable order backlog of 928.4 million euros (preceding year: 802.3 million euros).

One of Krones’ principal growth drivers during the year’s first half was clients’ rising level of demand for complete, single-sourced job packages. Since the company offers the entire spectrum of products and services required for building bottling and canning plants, it is benefiting significantly from this trend. International corporations in particular, who are building an abundance of new factories in regions like Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, are keen to make use of Krones’ full-service capabilities.

Profitability further upgraded

Earnings before taxes during the year’s first half, at 91.8 million euros, were up by 21.3 % on a like-for-like basis. The EBT margin (earnings before taxes in relation to sales) thus improved from 7.2 % to 7.6 %.
Profits after taxes rose by 31.1 %, from 47.6 to 62.4 million euros. Earnings per share during the period under review climbed from 1.49 to 1.98 euros.

Outlook

Krones’ long-term target is to increase its sales each year within a corridor of 5 to 10 %. In view of the group’s healthy performance in the year’s first half, and the auspicious prospects, the Executive Board expects growth in sales during 2008 to be near the upper end of the forecast corridor, with revenues exceeding 2.3 billion euros.

Krones is aiming to further improve the pretax return on sales (EBT margin) in 2008 (preceding year: 7.1 %). With an EBT margin of 7.6 % in the first half of this year, the company is well on the way to achieving this target. Since it is benefiting from the reform of the German corporation tax, earnings after taxes will show a steeper increase than their pretax equivalent.