CEWE achieves 2025 financial goals, raises dividend for the 17th consecutive time

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CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA presented its results for the 2025 financial year and its outlook for 2026 at its annual press and analyst conference on March 26. CEWE closed the 2025 financial year with increases in revenue and earnings: With Group revenue of €864.5 million (2024: €832.8 million; +3.8%), CEWE achieved a figure at the upper end of its own revenue guidance for 2025 of €835 million to €865 million. The CEWE Group’s operating result (EBIT) rose to €88.2 million (2024: €86.1 million) and therefore came in fully within the planned target range of €84 million to €92 million. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose to the 2026 Annual General Meeting that the dividend be increased to €3.00 per share – the 17th consecutive dividend increase, which continues to secure CEWE a top position (ranked 2nd) among all listed German companies.

Thomas Mehls

“My sincere thanks go to the entire CEWE team, whose outstanding commitment and passion underpinned the success of the 2025 financial year,” says Thomas Mehls, CEWE. “Looking ahead, our clear focus is on profitability and value creation: we will continue to strengthen our market and brand positions and deliver sustainable, profitable growth. To this end, we will deliberately leverage the combined expertise and resources of the entire CEWE Group and consistently accelerate innovation across all areas. This ensures that we continue to set benchmarks in quality and customer satisfaction, while further building on our strong foundation for long-term success.”

CEWE is also planning further growth in the 2026 financial year: Group revenue is expected to reach between €870 million and €900 million in 2026, while Group EBIT is anticipated in a range of €87m to €93m.

Photofinishing: growth engine, with major CEWE PHOTOBOOK milestone

CEWE’s core business, Photofinishing, once again drove growth in the CEWE Group in 2025: Photofinishing revenue increased by +4.4% to €745.5 million (2024: €714.0 million), while EBIT rose to €86.6 million (2024: €83.4 million). Across all CEWE products, the total number of photos increased by +4.1% to 2.60 billion (2024: 2.50 billion). Moreover, the CEWE PHOTOBOOK reached a significant milestone in 2025: since its launch, more than 100 million individual copies have been sold in Europe – a symbol of both consistency and innovative strength. In 2025 alone, unit sales again reached a record level of 6.32 million copies (2024: 6.11 million). Demand was driven in part by successful new product launches and premium enhancements, alongside the continued strengthening of CEWE’s powerful brand positions. Thanks to excellent planning, high-performing systems and the outstanding commitment of all teams, CEWE once again ensured maximum delivery reliability and proven quality during the critical and demanding Christmas-season peak.

Commercial Online Printing holds its ground in a challenging market environment

In 2025, Commercial Online Printing generated revenue of €89.6 million (2024: €89.9 million; -0.4%) – demonstrating its ability to hold its ground successfully even in an overall declining market. Supported by its best price guarantee, targeted international expansion, and the further build-out of efficient hybrid production capabilities (offset and digital printing) at SAXOPRINT’s production site in Dresden, CEWE continued to strengthen the market position of its Commercial Online Printing business. In a highly price-competitive environment, EBIT amounted to €1.7 million (2024: €3.4 million). Disciplined process and cost management, coupled with ongoing investments in automation and technology, will continue to form the basis for sustainable success in the Commercial Online Printing segment going forward.

Retail increases revenue and delivers higher earnings contribution

In 2025, CEWE’s photo hardware retail business increased revenue by +2.0% to €31.4 million (2024: €30.8 million). With EBIT of €0.7m, Retail delivered a slightly higher contribution to Group EBIT (2024 EBIT: rounded €0.7 million) – underscoring the effectiveness of CEWE’s deliberate decision to step away from low-margin merchandise and its strategic focus on using its own retail operations as a B2C sales channel for photofinishing products.

Outlook for 2026: CEWE Group aims to further increase revenue and earnings

Group revenue is expected to grow by up to +4% in 2026 and is planned within a range of €870 million to €900 million. Group EBIT is forecast to be in a target range of €87 million to €93 million in 2026, EBT is expected between €86.5 million and €92.5million, and net profit after taxes is anticipated in a range of €59 million to €64 million. In setting these targets, CEWE’s management is guided by values in the upper half of the respective ranges; the lower end primarily reflects exogenous uncertainties outside the Company’s control.

Full year 2025 and targets for 2026

CEWE Group Unit 2025 actual 2026 target Change in %
Photos 1 bn. photos 2.60 2.57 to 2.68 -1 % to +3 %
CEWE PHOTOBOOK m. units 6.32 6.3 to 6.5 -1 % to +3 %
Investments 2 EUR m. 59.5 ~ 77
Turnover EUR m. 864.5 870 to 900 +1 % to +4 %
EBIT EUR m. 88.2 87 to 93 -1 % to +6 %
EBT 3 EUR m. 88.0 86.5 to 92.5 -1 % to +5 %
Earnings after tax 4 EUR m. 58.0 59 to 64 +1 % to +10 %
Earnings per share EUR/share 8.45 8.62 to 9.36 +2 % to +11 %

The ranges of these targets for the business year 2026 reflect the uncertainties currently resulting from the increase in prices/inflation on the cost of sales and cost side and their potential effects on CEWE’s business development.

1  The number of photos is the total amount of photos used to create CEWE photo products and includes all the photos used in added-value products (e.g. CEWE PHOTOBOOKS, CEWE CARDS, CEWE CALENDARS, CEWE WALL ART and other photo gifts).

2  Outflows of funds for investments in fixed and intangible assets, balanced by inflows of funds from the disposal of fixed and intangible assets; not including additional purchases and corporate acquisitions

3  Target for 2026: Excluding subsequent valuation of equity instruments

4  Target for 2026: Based on the normalised Group tax rate for the previous year

Rounding differences may occur. Exact values have always been used for percentage deviation calculations.

An overview of results for 2025

CEWE Business Segments Unit Q4 2024 Q4 2025 2024 2025
(1) Fotofinishing          
   Photos m. photos 942 978 2,498 2,599
   CEWE PHOTOBOOK m. units 2.52 2.56 6.11 6.32
   Turnover EUR m. 317.7 328.0 714.0 745.5
   EBIT EUR m. 78.6 83.9 83.4 86.6
     Purchase price allocation effects EUR m. -1.3 -0.6 -3.0 -2.3
     Special write-offs DeinDesign EUR m. -3.1 -3.1
   EBIT before special effects EUR m. 82.9 84.5 89.5 88.9
(2) Retail          
   Turnover EUR m. 9.8 9.0 30.8 31.4
   EBIT EUR m. 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.7
(3) Commercial Online-Print          
   Turnover EUR m. 26.2 25.7 89.9 89.6
   EBIT EUR m. 1.9 1.9 3.4 1.7
     Purchase price allocation effects EUR m. -0.0 -0.0 -0.1 -0.1
   EBIT before special effects EUR m. 1.9 2.0 3.5 1.8
(4) Other          
   Turnover EUR m. 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
   EBIT EUR m. -0.2 -0.3 -1.4 -0.9
CEWE Group Unit Q4 2024 Q4 2025 2024 2025
   Turnover EUR m. 351.7 360.8 832.8 864.5
   EBIT EUR m. 81.1 86.4 86.1 88.2
    Total special effects EUR m. -4.3 -0.6 -6.2 -2.4
   EBIT before special effects EUR m. 85.5 87.0 92.3 90.6
   EBT EUR m. 81.2 86.2 86.9 88.0

Rounding differences may occur. Exact values have always been used for percentage deviation calculations.

Notes to the “Earnings by Business Segment” chart

(1) Photofinishing:  Production and sale of photo products such as the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, calendars, greeting cards, wall art and individual (analogue and digital) photos as well as other photo products

(2) Retailing: Trading in photo hardware, such as cameras and lenses, in Norway, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia

(3) Commercial online printing: Production and sale of commercial print products in the online printing portals of SAXOPRINT, viaprinto and LASERLINE

(4) Other: Structural and corporate costs, as well as the results from real estate ownership and investments, are shown in the Other business segment.