In a particularly challenging market environment, Interroll defended its market position in the first half year 2023 with a solid order intake

Sant`Antonino, Switzerland, August 2, 2023. Interroll keeps the order intake at previous year level, but sales are behind previous year, driven by a low order backlog at the beginning of the year and the much longer than anticipated destocking at our product customers. 

Our figures in a nutshell
Interroll generated sales of CHF 256.2 million (-17.6% year-on-year, -13.5% in local currency). Order intake closed at CHF 301.9 million (-0.8% year-on-year, +4.3% in local currency). The postponement of projects from our customers significantly led to the fact that destocking continued and only ended by the end of the second quarter 2023. This had an impact on gaining momentum on the product sales and on the project business in Europe and Asia Pacific. Whereas the momentum in the Unites States, especially on the project business, developed better than anticipated. 

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were lower at CHF 39.9 million (previous year: CHF 52.4 million). The EBITDA margin fell to 15.6% (previous year: 16.9%). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) reached CHF 28.7 million (-29.7% below the previous year’s figure of CHF 40.8 million). The EBIT margin fell to 11.2% (previous year: 13.1%).

The result of CHF 22.0 million (previous year: CHF 33.1 million), was impacted by the negative financial result and a slightly higher tax rate compared to the previous year. The result margin reached 8.6% (previous year: 10.6%). Gross investments amounted to CHF 17.1 million (previous year: CHF 12.4 million). Free cash flow increased to CHF 60.0 million (previous year: CHF -7.2 million).
 
Developments in our regions
The EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region generated an order intake of CHF 147.5 million, down by -19.9% compared to the previous year (CHF 184.2 million). Sales generated CHF 140.2 million -23.0% compared to previous year (CHF 182.1 million). The EMEA region continues to be our most important region with a 55% share of Global Sales. 

The Order intake for the Americas region reached CHF 116.7 million, up by 31.1% compared to the previous year (CHF 89.00 million). This positive impact was mainly generated by the project business. Sales amounted to CHF 76.3 million, -24.9% compared to previous year (CHF 101.6 million). The Americas region continues to be our second important region with 30% share of Global Sales. 

Our Asia-Pacific region generated a higher order intake of CHF 37.7 million compared to (CHF 31.2 million) the previous year. Which resulted in a gain of 20.8%. The sales amounted to CHF 39.7 million, 46.0% compared to (CHF 27.2 million) the previous year. 

Sales by product
Sales for Rollers product group amounted to CHF 54.4 million, -22.9% compared to the previous year's figure of CHF 70.5 million. The order intake for Rollers amounted to CHF 49.0 million, -18.6% compared to the same period last year (CHF 60.3 million). 

Sales of the Drives product group amounted to CHF 88.8 million in the first half of 2023, which is -19.4% year-on-year compared to same period last year (CHF 110.2 million). The order intake for the product group Drives amounted to CHF 87.5 million, -17.0 compared to (CHF 105.5 million) in the same period last year. 

The Conveyors & Sorters product group generated sales of CHF 94.3 million in the first half of 2023, which resulted in -2.9% compared to previous year (CHF 97.2 million). Order Intake amounted to CHF 142.6 million, which had a positive development of 28.8% compared to the same period last year (CHF 110.7 million).

For our Pallet Handling product group, Interroll generated sales of CHF 18.7 million, which is -43.3% compared to last year (CHF 33.0 million). The order intake amounted to CHF 22.8 million -18.7% compared to the previous year (CHF 28.0 million). 

Innovations
The ever-growing market of online shopping has created an increasing demand for transporting and sorting high volumes of goods. Therefore, we extended this year our product portfolio and launched our high-performance conveyor platform (HPP). With this platform we give customers and end-users the ability to source the entire range for high-speed conveying including high-speed sorting out of one hand, based on our customer promise: Quality, Speed and Simplicity. Additionally, we introduced the Multi-belt Switch (MBS). This solution we are capable to offer is unique in the market and able to sort between 3,000 and 10,000 units per hour. 
 
Outlook
In the medium term, we believe that all fundamental trends for the demand of global material flow remain intact. The focus lies on offering the right products and optimizing the necessary processes. We are facing up to this responsibility with our leading technology platform and capacities and are excellently positioned for future growth. Our breathing factories help us to cope with market volatilities. 

Key performance indicators (KPIs) for the first half of 2023 (in CHF million)