CEWE achieves its corporate targets for 2016

• Sales targets all achieved in 2016, turnover rises by 7.0 % to 593.1 million euros
• Seasonal peak with CEWE PHOTO BOOK and photo gifts in Q4 as expected
• Group EBIT grows by 29.2 % to 47.0 million euros in 2016 (2015: 36.4 million euros)
• Commercial online printing and retailing also return a positive result
• ROCE increases to 21.3 % (2015: 17.2 %).

Oldenburg, 22 February 2017. CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA (SDAX, ISIN: DE 0005403901) reached its turnover and profit targets for the business year of 2016. Preliminary calculations show a 7.0 % increase in turnover, to 593.1 million euros (2015: 554.2 million euros; turnover target for 2016: 555 million to 575 million euros). Operative earnings (EBIT) improved by 29.2 % to 47.0 million euros (2015: 36.4 million euros), thus coming very close to the 2016 EBIT target corridor of 40 million to 46 million euros.

“Our Christmas business once again showed how much we benefit from the high level of satisfaction among our customers, our strong brand and our outstanding quality: CEWE PHOTO BOOKS, CEWE CARDS, CEWE CALENDARS and CEWE WALL PICTURES – which we have offered as climate-neutral brand products since Q3 2016 – and the other photo gifts were all clear growth drivers,” says Dr. Rolf Hollander, the CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA CEO. According to preliminary unaudited figures, it was not only the business segment of photofinishing, but also commercial online printing and retailing that contributed to the positive development. CEWE was successful in exceeding the break-even point in commercial online printing. In the newly positioned business segment of retailing, CEWE confirmed the turnaround in earnings and improved profits once again.

Success is powered by the CEWE PHOTO BOOK and other CEWE brands

The Christmas quarter met expectations, with an increase in turnover of 215.8 million euros to 228.5 million euros and EBIT growth of 40.8 million euros in the previous year to 42.9 million euros. The fourth quarter thus accounts for 38.5 per cent of total sales and 91.3 per cent of generated income. The new products and the user-friendly apps for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have accelerated growth dynamics. Besides coming out first in many tests, the CEWE operations have once again documented their excellent performance in production and delivery in Christmas business and supplied many consumers with very personal photo gifts in time for their Christmas celebrations.

“Our CEWE PHOTO BOOK and our wide range of photo gifts are among the most popular Christmas gifts. This makes it all the more important for us to ensure that our customers can also rely on the performance promise of our brand even in times when capacity utilisation is extremely high, namely excellent service, high level of on-time delivery and naturally the first-class quality of our products,” Dr. Hollander emphasises. Considerable brand awareness, the excellent image of the CEWE product family and satisfied customers are the basis for future growth.

Sales targets all reached – digital rate of 97.5 %

CEWE produced a total of 2.23 billion prints in 2016, thus even slightly exceeding the top end of the target corridor of 2.10 to 2.21 billion prints. The figure for digital prints, 2.18 billion (target: 2.05 to 2.15 billion), is matched by only 0.056 billion prints from films (target: 0.050-0.055 billion). Already at a considerable 97.5 % in 2016, 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 6.2 million books (target: 6.10 to 6.15 million). The majority of other brand products such as CEWE CALENDARS, CEWE CARDS, CEWE WALL PICTURES and other photo gifts also generated double-digit growth rates.

ROCE increases to more than 21 %

The capital ratio rose by 1.5 percentage points to 53.8 % as at 31 December 2016 (31 December 2015: 52.3 %). The ROCE, a benchmark for returns since 31 December 2015, improved from 17.2 % to 21.3 % on the basis of an EBIT in the amount of 47.0 million euros.

“Our sound financial position and our earning power mean that we are in a position to offer our shareholders an ideally growing dividend for the foreseeable future,” explains CFO Dr. Olaf Holzkämper.

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 2017 during an annual report and analysts’ press conference to be held in Frankfurt am Main on 23 March 2017.

About CEWE

The innovative photo and online print service company CEWE, with twelve highly-technical production operations and a staff of around 3,400 employees in 24 European countries, is both market and technological leader. In 2016 CEWE delivered around 2.2 billion prints, 6.2 million copies of the CEWE PHOTO BOOK and photo gift articles to around 25,000 retail partners to generate consolidated turnover of 593.1 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.

22.02.2017 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP – a service of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Source: CEWE achieves its corporate targets for 2016