CEWE again significantly increases turnover and earnings in 2023

CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA closed the 2023 financial year with a significant increase in turnover and earnings according to preliminary, unaudited figures: Group turnover, including pet-food maker futalis, which was sold in December 2023, increased by +6.5% to 788.8 million euros (2022: 741.0 million euros), while the CEWE Group’s operating result (EBIT) calculated in this way rose to 81.6 million euros (2022: 75.6 million euros). At 83.9 million euros, the Group EBIT reported by IFRS (excluding futalis) even increased by 11.0% or 8.3 million euros compared to the previous year (2022: 75.6 million euros), while the reported Group turnover (excluding futalis) rose to 780.2 million euros (2022: 732.7 million euros). CEWE had planned Group turnover in the target range of 720 to 780 million euros and EBIT of up to 82 million euros for 2023.

“Behind these convincing figures is a team that once again made millions of people throughout Europe happy in 2023,” says Yvonne Rostock, CEO of CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA. “Because that is our promise, especially at Christmas: High-quality, unique products full of personal memories – delivered on time and reliably. Together with our retail partners, we are thus continuing a great success story.” According to Rostock, CEWE will continue to focus on investing in innovations, increasingly sustainable products of the highest quality as well as end-customer-centered and wide-reaching brand communication. The most important key figure here is customer satisfaction, measured as the ‘Net Promoter Score’, which has risen again in 2023 compared to previous years.

Strong Christmas business leads to annual success

CEWE’s traditional seasonal peak in the Christmas business in the fourth quarter also contributed significantly to the annual success in 2023: Group turnover increased by 3.3% to 327.0 million euros in the fourth quarter (Q4 2022: 316.7 million euros). Group EBIT improved by 4.6 million euros or 5.9% to 81.6 million euros (EBIT Q4 2022: 77.0 million euros). CEWE continues to benefit from its early transformation into an online business model: both the trend towards taking photos with smartphones and photo products that can be easily ordered online or via mobile apps are driving growth.

Demand for photo products independent of overall economic development

Photo products in particular have a very high emotional value for many people – especially as Christmas gifts – and are increasingly in demand, largely independently of the overall economic development. Thanks to its strong brand positions and the marketing activities carried out in the past financial year, CEWE was able to successfully convert the increased vacation travel activity in 2023 in particular, with many new photos taken by consumers, into its own business growth: The total number of photos across all CEWE products rose by 4.8% to 2.39 billion in the reporting year (2022: 2.28 billion photos), and the CEWE PHOTOBOOK also saw pleasing growth with an increase of 3.4% to a sales volume of 6.1 million copies (2022: 5.8 million copies).

Full-year 2023 year-on-year and target comparison (preliminary figures)

Fourth quarter 2023 (preliminary figures)