Press release 1st half year 2019: Weaker economy influences incoming orders
In the first half of 2019, the HOMAG Group was able to further increase its revenues. On the other hand, HOMAG was affected by customers' reluctance to invest in new solutions, so order intake was below previous year´s level. HOMAG Group is the world's leading supplier of integrated solutions for production in the woodworking industry and woodworking shops.
In the first six months of 2019, the HOMAG Group increased its sales by five percent to EUR 637 million (previous year: EUR 606 million). At EUR 591 million, order intake was below the very high level of the previous year (EUR 701 million). The order backlog was worth EUR 558 million as at June 30, 2019 (June 30, 2018: EUR 658 million). Operating EBIT decreased to EUR 39.4 million (previous year: EUR 41.5 million). The reasons for this were increasing competitive pressure, declining sales in China and higher material and personnel costs. As at June 30, 2019, the HOMAG Group employed 6,592 people (June 30, 2018: 6,567 employees).
"In view of the weaker economic development of the recent months, our market environment has become more difficult," explains CEO Pekka Paasivaara. "As a result, many investment decisions of our customers have been delayed and thus our order intake has declined in the first half of the year. We are seeing a further slowdown in the market, especially in China and, following the strong investments of previous years, in Germany as well."