Healthy demand pushes Suominen Q3 revenue by 10.5%
October 30, 2014 - Finland
Healthy demand for nonwovens in North America and Europe helped Finland based Suominen, report a 10.5% year-on-year hike in sales from continuing operations in the third quarter of 2014.
Nonwovens producer Suominen said its revenue mounted 10.5% to EUR 103.3 million in the three months to Sept 30, 2014 from EUR 93.5 million in the comparable quarter of 2013.
Of this, net sales of convenience business area reached EUR 94.4 million and of care business area touched EUR 8.9 million.
“On top of good demand, growth in sales can be attributed to rise in share of products with higher value add and to acquisition of Brazilian unit in February,” Suominen observed.
Operating profit before non-recurring items in the reporting quarter, zoomed 49% and amounted to EUR 8.7 million from EUR 5.8 million from the prior year quarter.
Suominen said, “The increase in the share of products with higher added value in sales was mirrored also in gross profit and, consequently, in improved operating profit.”
Operating profit after non-recurring items, totalled to EUR 8.4 million in the third-quarter of 2014 versus EUR 5.8 million in the third-quarter of 2013.
“Non-recurring items reported in the review period amounted to EUR -0.3 million against nil in the prior year quarter and were attributable to restructuring costs as well as costs related to acquiring Brazilian unit,” Suominen explained.
In the quarter under review, profit before taxes stood at EUR 4.0 million, down from EUR 4.5 million in the same quarter of 2013.
Suominen said, “Due to the refinancing and the discontinuing of the hedge accounting for the interest rate hedging, a non-recurring loss of EUR 0.9 million was recognized.”
“Also the remaining costs of EUR 2.0 million for the previous syndicated loan were recognized in the financial expenses,” it added.
Profit from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2014 plunged massively to EUR 0.6 million, down from EUR 2.6 million.
For the same quarter, the nonwovens manufacturer posted loss from discontinued operations at EUR 1.5 million against loss of EUR 2.4 million in prior year quarter.
Cash flow from operations at the end of September 2014 was EUR 16.9 million against EUR 4.3 million at the end September 2013. (AR)