Gurit has reported net sales of CHF 284.7 million for the first six months of 2019. This represents a growth of 45.8% including acquisition effects against the prior-year period. The organic growth is 14.6% versus 1HY 2018. Operating profit amounted to CHF 27.5 million and the operating profit margin came in at 9.7% of net sales for the first half-year 2019. As for the continued operations the Operating Profit Margin improved from 10.8% in 1HY 2018 to 12.5% in 1HY 2019.
Composite Materials achieved net sales of CHF 122.2 million in the first half-year 2019 (1HY 2018: CHF 106.0 million). This represents an increase of 15.3%. The Business Unit Composite Materials serves Wind energy as well as other industries. Sales to the wind energy market have increased significantly whereas sales to other markets remained stable. The synthetic core materials operations are operating at capacity limits. Balsa wood operations are being overwhelmed by demand increases while raw material availability was restricted and raw material prices are significantly higher in 1HY 2019.
Kitting recorded sales of CHF 75.2 million in 1HY 2019. As the business unit is reporting results within Gurit only as of Q4/2018, there is no comparison for the first half-year 2019. Kitting benefited from the growth of the wind market and saw strong sales.
Tooling increased its net sales by 12.6% to CHF 67.8 million compared to CHF 60.2 million in the first half-year 2018. This has been supported by the general wind market growth, the trend towards moulds with extra-long sizes as well as additional large orders from an OEM client. The sales increase was in general driven by sales to European and American OEMs, while sales to Chinese customers were weaker. We expect the demand in the second half-year to be lower than during the first six months.
For 2019 Gurit expects to achieve above CHF 525 million in net sales and an Operating Profit Margin within the upper half of the target range of 8 – 10%.