Sales of 450.9 Million Euros from Suominen in a Challenging 2023
Finland-based Suominen, a manufacturer of nonwovens in rolls for wipes and other applications, has announced its business figures for the past financial year 2023. EBITDA improved while sales declined slightly. The company is forecasting a further increase in EBITDA for the current year 2024.
In 2023, Suominen’s net sales decreased by 9% from the comparison period to 450.9 million euros (485 million dollars). The decrease in sales was driven by lower sales prices resulting from lower raw material prices. Sales volumes decreased slightly from 2022, mainly related to the plant closure in Mozzate. Currencies impacted net sales negatively by 6.8 million euros (7.3 million dollars).
Net sales of Americas business area were 288 million euros (309.8 million dollars) and net sales of Europe’s business area were 162.8 million euros (175.1 million dollars).
In the fourth quarter of 2023, Suominen’s net sales decreased by 14% from the comparison period to 114.9 million euros (123.6 million dollars). Sales volumes increased slightly from the comparison period, while sales prices decreased, clearly driven by the lower raw material prices. Currencies impacted net sales negatively by 3.5 million euros (3.8 million dollars).
The Total Amount of Dividends to be Distributed Would be 5,8 million euros
Net sales of the Americas business area amounted to 72.3 million euros (77.8 million dollars) and net sales of the Europe business area 42.6 million euros (45.8 million dollars).
Suominen expects that its comparable EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) in 2024 will improve from 2023. In 2023, Suominen’s comparable EBITDA was 15.8 million euros.
The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General Meeting that a dividend of 0.10 euros per share shall be distributed for the financial year 2023.
On February 5, 2024, the company had 57,692,459 issued shares, excluding treasury shares. With this number of shares, the total amount of dividends to be distributed would be 5,8 million euros.
Tommi Björnman, President and CEO of Suominen, said: “Year 2023 was still challenging in terms of profitability but in the second half, our improvement actions started gradually to contribute to the result. Our comparable EBITDA increased slightly from the previous year and was 15.8 million euros (15.3). After the first half of the year, our commercial and operational excellence improvements started to contribute and we were able to improve our sales margins, which translated into better EBITDA. We will systematically continue these efforts to improve our financial and operational performance going forward. Our net sales in 2023 were 450.9 million euros. The decline from the previous year came mainly from lower sales prices driven by lower raw material prices and minor decline in volumes for the most part due to the closure of Mozzate plant.”
The Wipes Nonwovens Market is Rapidly Transitioning Towards More Sustainable Solutions
Tommi Björnman said, “During the first half of the year, we closed our production in Mozzate, Italy. This decision was made to improve the competitiveness of our European business. We continue our actions to improve operational efficiency in our other plants. The wipes nonwovens market is rapidly transitioning towards more sustainable solutions. In line with our strategy, we have set targets to increase the sales of sustainable products and to continuously innovate new environmentally friendly nonwovens. In 2023, we increased the sales of sustainable products by 79%, exceeding our target of 50% increase compared to our base year 2019. We also completed an investment project in Nakkila, Finland, to further strengthen our capabilities in sustainable nonwovens. Our strong ability to innovate and to meet market needs is reflected in the share of new products of our net sales, which exceeded 35%. By new products, we mean products launched less than three years ago.”
“Looking at The Year Ahead, We See Some Positive Signals from the Market and Customers.”
Björnman ended his words as follows: “In 2023, we completed the EcoVadis sustainability assessment for the second time and received a silver level rating. We improved our rating by five points and this result places us in the top 5% of companies in the manufacture of other textiles industry rated by EcoVadis. In the end of the year, we announced our new organizational model. The new model strengthens collaboration between our commercial teams and production. Business areas are now responsible for both Sales and production, and that enables us to be more efficient, focused and agile when striving to improve our profitability and serve our customers even better. Looking at the year ahead, we see some positive signals from the market and customers. I am confident that ongoing improvement actions and changes will help us in our journey towards profitable growth.”