Sales and earnings grew for NORMA Group from January-September 2016.
Sales rose 1% at €679.4 million compared like-for-like with the same period in 2015 (€672.6 million). Organic growth was higher, at 1.9%, but reduced by 0.9% thanks to negative currency effects. Adjusted EBITA was up 1.6% to €122.6 million (2015: €120.6m).
Q3 sales actually declined slightly (0.7%) to €216.6m compared to €218.3m in Q3 2015.
“Overall, we are pleased with our development in the first nine months of 2016,” said Werner Deggim, CEO of NORMA Group. “The sales increase was supported by good growth in the EMEA region. Sales in the Americas region declined, however, due to the increasingly weaker environment in the commercial vehicle and agricultural machinery sectors in the US. All in all, we confirm our forecast for the full fiscal year 2016 at the Group level.
Global winners and losers
Sales in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) rose significantly by 5.7% to €332.2 million (2015: €314.4 million), buoyed by the Engineered Joining Technology (EJT) area.
The Americas saw sales down 4% at €290.8m (€303.1m) with a weak commercial vehicle and agricultural machinery sector thought to be at the root.
Asia-Pacific saw sales up 2.4% to €56.4m (2015: 55 m) with solid growth despite negative currency effects.