The company is positive about 2017 and expects revenue and earnings to grow again.
Revenue for 2016 was €1.36 billion, up only 0.3% on 2015.
Profit was negatively affected by crises in emerging markets and industries as well as a number of one-off effects, the company said. Profit before interest and tax (EBIT) contracted 15% to just over €88 million. The EBIT margin dropped to 6.5% (2015: €103.6 million; 7.5%).
The group was able to meet the lower range of its adjusted forecast from August 2016. Group profit amounted to €56.8 million (2015: €66.2 million).
Our business in North America was particularly hard hit with revenue from light equipment in the region contracting in particular in 2016. In addition to this, demand for compact equipment in the European agricultural sector was weak,” said Cem Peksaglam, chief executive of Wacker Neuson SE.
“Our core region Europe was our revenue driver in 2016 and we broke the billion-euro revenue threshold for the first time here. This enabled us to keep overall revenue at the same level as the previous year,” he said.
“We continued to expand our international reach in 2016, by opening a new production plant in Brazil and by starting construction on a production facility in China. We firmly believe that a regional presence – on both the development and production front – is essential to successfully develop these fast-growing markets in the long term,” said Cem Peksaglam, chief executive of Wacker Neuson SE.
The group also implemented other projects, including the consolidation of the spare parts business from all compact equipment plants in Europe at a central warehouse in Nuremberg, the launch of a new e-commerce platform for dealers and end customers, the expansion of the zero-emissions product line and the relocation of the R&D centre for light equipment from Munich to the production site at Reichertshofen.
The company expects revenue this year to be close to €1.45 billion. The EBIT margin could rise to nearly 8.5% and investments are expected to be around €120 million.
