The key results are:
- Sales: €315.2 million (+12.9%, organic change -9.0%)
- Group pre-tax profit: €39.4 million (-25.4%)
CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz, said: “As anticipated, the results in the first, and traditionally low season, quarter of 2013 were poor, due to the ‘one-off’ impact of destocking in Italy, generated by so called article 62 which introduced a binding time limit to the payment terms, which determined a significant deterioration of the sales mix, and further exacerbated the weak local consumption trends.
“Results were strong in the Americas, showing continued positive momentum in the US market and improvements in Latin America, and Eastern Europe (particularly Russia), offsetting continued weakness in Germany, exacerbated by very poor weather conditions, and softness in Australia,” he said.
“The integration and development activities of the Lascelles deMercado business are progressing in line with plan, and were marked by the transition of the international business into the group network,” he said.
“Looking forward, the outlook for the current year remains unchanged. In particular, we expect the evolution in consumption trends and the potential persistence of poor weather conditions in Italy and in Eurozone markets to be the key challenges to the group’s ability to recover the Q1 ‘one-off’ destocking impact over the next quarters,” said Kunze-Concewitz.
