GERMANY - Consolidated sales of Pfleiderer, the wood-based materials specialist, rose by 5.6 percent in 2018 to EUR 1,062.5 million.

Sales growth resulted from higher prices and higher sales volumes. The company succeeded in raising prices for its end products in light of the significant rise in raw material prices in 2018, without slowing down volume growth.

The value-added products business, such as laminated and coated particleboard and high-pressure laminate (HPL), grew 3.3 percent year-on-year, contributing 63 percent of total sales in 2018. The growth in sales of basic products such as raw particleboard and MDF / HDF raw boards reached 6.8 percent over the previous year thanks to strong demand last year.

The Group's efforts to increase productivity and implement strict cost control led to EBITDA growth climbing to 11.5 percent (EUR 133.8 million). On a sour note, net profit for the 2018 financial year was 5.9 million euros, down 65 percent from the previous year. Pfleiderer explained that this decrease is mainly due to the recognition of exchange differences and the adjustment of deferred taxes, both of which are non-cash events for the Group.

“Pfleiderer has succeeded in increasing profitability in 2018 despite a difficult market environment,” explains Tom K. Schäbinger, CEO of the Pfleiderer Group. “The company also witnessed initial signs of slowing demand as some customers decided to reduce their inventories by the end of the year in anticipation of slower GDP growth in some of our key markets. In light of these developments, the Pfleiderer Group will continue the growth initiatives outlined in the Diamond Strategy, including the development of new products and the development of new niche markets. We believe these initiatives will enable us to meet our financial targets for 2021, even in a more difficult macroeconomic environment, as we focus on less cyclical value-added products.”

In 2018 the Group installed a new lacquering line in Leutkirch for high end lacquered surfaces as a strong step towards the section of high value added products. Also in this year, the company moved to its site in Neumarkt, Germany a chip processing plant. With this, a bigger input of recycling wood can be included into the production process, a big step towards Pfleiderer’s higher sustainability objectives.