Suominen increases EBITDA in a difficult environment

October–December 2023 in brief:

- Net sales decreased by 14% and were EUR 114.9 million (133.1)

- Comparable EBITDA was EUR 5.3 million (5.0)

- Cash flow from operations was EUR 13.1 million (15.6)

Financial year 2023 in brief:

- Net sales decreased by 9% and were EUR 450.9 million (493.3)

- Comparable EBITDA was EUR 15.8 million (15.3)

- Cash flow from operations totaled to EUR 30.7 million (14.0)

- Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General meeting a dividend of EUR 0.10 per share

Outlook:

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 EUR 15.8 million.

Board proposal on distribution of dividend:

The Board of Directors proposes to the Annual General meeting, that a dividend of EUR 0.10 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 EUR 5,769,245.90.

Tommi Björnman, President and CEO of Suominen, said:

”Year 2023 was still challenging in terms of the 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 EUR 15.8 million (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 EUR 450.9 million (493.3). 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.

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.

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.

Finally, I want to thank all our employees for their commitment and contribution and our business partners for productive cooperation in 2023.”