CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA - Earnings Release 2015

News Details

Corporate | 25 February 2016 07:00

CEWE achieves its corporate targets for 2015

DGAP-News: CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA / Key word(s): Preliminary Results

2016-02-25 / 07:00

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

CEWE achieves its corporate targets for 2015

– CEWE FOTOBUCH once again boosts Christmas quarter with an increase in turnover and earnings

– EBIT grows by 13.0 % to 36.8 million euros (2014: 32.6 million euros)

– Business segments all with a significant increase in earnings

– Commercial online printing achieves operative break-even sooner than planned

Oldenburg, 25 February 2016. CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA (SDAX, ISIN: DE 0005403901) reached its turnover and profit targets for the business year of 2015. Preliminary calculations show a 5.8 % increase in turnover, to 554.2 million euros (2014: 523.8 million euros, turnover target for 2015: in the range of 515 to 535 million euros), and operative earnings (EBIT) improved over-proportionately by 13.0 %, to 36.8 million euros (2014: 32.6 million euros; EBIT target for 2015: in the range of 32 million to 38 million euros). The EBIT would even have exceeded the 40-million euro mark after adjustment by non-recurring effects such as restructuring expenses and depreciation on goodwill in the total amount of 3.6 million euros. “The three strategic business segments all significantly improved their earning power in 2015. Investments in the CEWE brand, in our photofinishing product range and in our growth segment of commercial online printing have paid off, and so has our re-positioning in retail business,” says Dr. Rolf Hollander, Chairman of the Board of Management of CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA. For the first time ever and a year earlier than planned, the fast-growing segment of commercial online printing and the retail segment achieved an operative break-even.

Photofinishing contributes 109.8 % to Group EBIT

Photofinishing, as the largest business segment, once again exceeded the good figures achieved in the previous year, with turnover increasing by 7.5 % to 414.9 million euros and EBIT at 40.4 million euros (+2.4 %; before restructuring costs and goodwill depreciation even as high as 43.4 million euros, an increase of 10.1 %). Constant innovation was also the basis for sustained business success in 2015: the Christmas season was successful thanks to the wide range of high-quality products and the excellent production and delivery service provided by all the CEWE operations. The high level of brand awareness and the first-class image of the CEWE PHOTO BOOK and the other CEWE brand products – also advertised on TV – meant that they were once again greatly in demand as Christmas gifts, “Our CEWE photo products are now among the most popular Christmas gifts. The renewed enhancement of our brand awareness and the excellent image of our CEWE products generated a boost in growth,” explains Dr. Hollander. The CEWE apps for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets contributed considerably to this growth. The Group also made great progress in retailing and achieved double-digit growth and an increase in earnings in commercial online printing. Retailing, with a profit increase of 2.5 million euros, and commercial online printing, with a 1.9 million increase in EBIT, thus both contributed to the Group’s increase in earnings.

Sales targets all reached – digital rate of 96.8 %

CEWE produced a total of 2.23 billion prints in 2015, thus even slightly exceeding the top end of the target corridor of 2.17 to 2.22 billion prints. The figure for digital prints, 2.16 billion (target: 2.10 to 2.15 billion), is matched by only 0.07 billion prints from films (target: 0.065 to 0.070 billion). Already at a considerable 96.8 % in 2015, the digital rate is gradually approaching 100 %. The high volume of digital photos is mainly the result of CEWE PHOTO BOOK sales, which grew to 6.0 million books (target: 6.0 to 6.1 million). It was not only sales, but also the turnover per book that increased again. The majority of other brand products such as CEWE CALENDARS, CEWE CARDS and CEWE WALL PICTURES also generated double-digit growth rates. The larger share of high-quality photo products offered as CEWE brand-name products and the growth in demand for these photo products resulted in a 10.3 % increase in turnover per print, to 18.6 eurocents per print.

Re-positioning takes retailing back to operative profits

With turnover at 60.8 million euros, at a result of – 0.4 million euros, retailing achieved a virtually balanced result (2014: -2.9 million euros). Operatively, i.e. adjusted by restructuring costs in the amount of 0.6 million euros, incurred already for the re-positioning of retailing in Poland in the first quarter of 2015, the business segment of retailing has now once again exceeded the break-even point overall.

Commercial online printing continues to grow and already generates operative profits in 2015

Commercial online printing also showed a remarkably positive development by not only increasing turnover by 10.4 % to 77.8 million euros and improving EBIT to -0.9 million euros (2014: -2.9 million euros): adjusted by the non-operative effect resulting from the purchase price allocation for the takeover of Saxoprint, EBIT for commercial online printing is at 1.2 million euros. This means that commercial online printing reached the operative break-even a year earlier than planned.

Future growth areas along the lines of commercial online printing

“Our strategy of using healthy earnings from photofinishing to drive the dynamic growth in commercial online printing and position ourselves as a service-oriented, high-quality supplier on a lucrative market has thus proved to be the right one. We have succeeded in creating a sound, growing customer base on which we will be able to build in future,” says Dr. Hollander. In the business year of 2015, the segment for other business, in which the structural and corporate costs, and real estate and acquisitions of stocks in young companies are managed, reported EBIT amounting to

-2.0 million euros. CEO Hollander explains: “We intend to continue with the establishment of new business segments for the future along the lines of commercial online printing with the targeted acquisition of stocks in young companies.”

CEWE fighting against increase in value-added tax on behalf of its customers

CEWE is currently advocating for the increase from 7 % to 19 % in value-added tax for photo books in Germany and Austria, possibly effective since 25 December 2015, to be revoked or at least cushioned by way of an interim arrangement. The increase in value-added tax is based on a decision taken by the EU Customs Tariff Committee, which allocated photo books to a new customs tariff. Since VAT legislation in Germany and Austria relates to these EU customs tariffs, the decision resulted in an, albeit unintended, increase in the national rate of value added tax at an EU level. “Photo books in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and many other countries are still either not taxed at all, or the reduced tax rate applies. We are advocating an adjustment in the interest of all our customers.” says Dr. Holllander.

The information is all based on preliminary results which have not yet been audited. CEWE will present full, audited annual financial statements and a forecast for the business year of 2016 during an annual report and analysts’ press conference to be held in Frankfurt am Main on 23 March 2016.

Full year of 2015 in comparison to the previous year (preliminary figures)


CEWE Group	Unit	2014	2015 target	2015 actual
Digital prints	in billion units	2.2	2.10-2.15	2.16
Prints from films	in billion units	0.09	0.065-0.070	0.07
Total prints	in billion units	2.29	2.17-2.22	2.23
CEWE PHOTO BOOK	in m. units	5.9	6.0-6.1	6.0
Turnover	in EUR m.	523.8	515-535	554.2
EBIT before one-time effects *	in EUR m.	32.6	–	40.4
EBIT margin before one-time effects *	%	6.2	–	7.3
EBIT	in EUR m.	32.6	32-38	36.8
EBIT margin	%	6.2	–	6.6
EBT	in EUR m.	31.5	30-36	36.3
Earnings after tax	in EUR m.	21.4	20-24	22.7
Earnings per share undiluted	EUR/share	3.08	2.87-3.45	3.24

Fourth quarter of 2015 (preliminary figures)


CEWE Group	Unit	Q4 2014	Q4 2015	Diff. %	Diff. abs.
Digital prints	in m. units	745.6	761.2	2.1	15.6
Prints from films	in m. units	17.8	14.5	-18.5	-3.3
Total prints	in m. units	763.4	775.7	1.6	12.3
CEWE PHOTO BOOK	in m. units	2.3	2.4	5.7	0.1
Turnover	in EUR m.	194.8	215.8	10.8	21.0
EBIT before one-time effects *	in EUR m.	37.3	43.6	16.8	6.3
EBIT margin before one-time effects *	%	19.2	20.2
EBIT	in EUR m.	37.3	41.0	9.9	3.7
EBIT margin	%	19.2	19.0
EBT	in EUR m.	37.2	41.1	10.5	3.9
Earnings after tax	in EUR m.	25.9	26.1	1.0	0.2

* Restructuring costs in the first quarter of 2015 and depreciation on goodwill are reported as one-time effects

Percentage deviations have all been calculated at the exact values.

Should you have any queries, please contact:

CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA, Axel Weber (Investor Relations)

Tel.: 0441 / 404 – 2288, Fax: 0441 / 404 – 421, Email: [email protected]

Internet: cewe.de , cewe-fotobuch.de , cewe-photobook.com , cewe-print.de , viaprinto.de , saxoprint.de , deindesign.de

The CEWE apps are all available in the app stores: CEWE PHOTO WORLD, CEWE POSTCARD, CEWE SERVICE and other photo apps, and the CEWE Investor Relations app for iPad(c) or android tablets, with annual reports and quarterly reports, presentations and sustainability reports.

Financial schedule:

16 February 2016 Oddo Seydler Small & Mid Cap Conference, Frankfurt

23 March 2016 Publication of the 2015 Annual Report

23 March 2016 CEWE Annual Report and analysts’ press conference, Frankfurt

14 April 2016 Bankhaus Lampe Deutschland Conference, Baden-Baden

12 May 2016 Publication of the interim report as at Q1 2016

1 June 2016 2016 Annual General Meeting, Weser-Ems-Halle, Oldenburg

11 August 2016 Publication of the mid-year report interim report as at Q2 2016

19-21 September 2016 Berenberg & Goldman Sachs German Corporate Conference

20-22 September 2016 Baader Investment Conference, Munich

10 November 2016 Publication of the interim report as at Q3 2016

21-22 November 2016 German Equity Forum, Frankfurt

About CEWE : The innovative photo and online print service company CEWE, with twelve highly-technical production operations and a staff of around 3,200 employees in 24 European countries, is both market and technological leader. In 2015 CEWE delivered around 2.2 billion prints, 6.0 million copies of the CEWE PHOTO BOOK and photo gift articles to around 25,000 retail partners to generate consolidated turnover of 554.2 million euros. CEWE is continuously generating new impulses in the photographic industry with innovations for people who enjoy taking photos. In the new business segment of commercial online printing, printed material for businesses is marketed through the sales platforms CEWE-PRINT.de, Saxoprint und Viaprinto. Founded in 1961 by Senator h.c. Heinz Neumüller, CEWE was taken to the stock exchange by Hubert Rothärmel in 1993. CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA is listed on the SDAX.

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Language:	English
Company:	CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA
	Meerweg 30-32
	26133 Oldenburg
	Germany
Phone:	+49 (0)441 40 4-1
Fax:	+49 (0)441 40 4-42 1
E-mail:	[email protected]
Internet:	www.cewe.de
ISIN:	DE0005403901
WKN:	540390
Indices:	SDAX
Listed:	Regulated Market in Berlin, Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart