CEWE sales up 10% to 714.9 million euros in 2019

GaryPageau , ,

CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA announced it reached its sales and profit targets for the financial year of 2019. Preliminary results show a sales increase of 10.1%, to 714.9 million euros, which exceeds the 2019 sales target in the range of 675 million to 710 million euros (turnover in 2018: 649.3 million euros).

The product groups all contributed to growth, both for the year as a whole and in terms of the company’s traditionally strong Christmas business, the company said. The main product, the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, was up by 7.1% against the previous year and with 6.6 million books sold. Christmas business once again confirmed the general trend towards taking photos with smartphones, which boosted the increase in CEWE sales. Operative earnings (EBIT) increased to 57.8 million euros (2018: 55.7 million euros), thus clearly reaching the top end of the 2019 EBIT target corridor of 51-58 million euros, the company said.

At the same time, earnings even took account of previously announced expenses and accruals in the amount of around 5 million euros for the business segment Commercial Online-Print. CEWE achieved around half of its organic increase in turnover with its core business of photofinishing, while Cheerz and WhiteWall, the latest acquisitions, contributed the other half with their well development.

Dr. Christian Friege

We are hugely appreciative of our employees’ personal input during the Christmas season. The entire CEWE team puts a huge amount of commitment into delighting our customers with our CEWE photo products, which is in itself an outstanding achievement,” said Dr. Christian Friege, chairman, CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA Board of Management.

The fourth quarter once again contributed a clear increase in sales and more than 100% of annual net income, the company said. With sales at 291.7 million euros (+12.0%) and EBIT considerable in the amount of 58.5 euros despite the one-off effect in Commercial Online-Print (Q4 2018: 58.1 million euros), the Christmas quarter once again exceeded the figures for the previous year in 2019.

Growth in all the product groups

CEWE PHOTOBOOKS, CEWE CALENDARS, CEWE WALL ART, CEWE CARDS and other photo gifts showed outstanding growth, in some cases even clearly in the double-digit range. In the year as a whole, sales of the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, at 6.62 million books sold, exceeded the expected target in the range of 6.24 million to 6.31 million books (2018: 6.18 million books). In 2019, the total number of photos, which climbed to reached 2.40 billion photos, also clearly exceeded the target of 2.22 to 2.26 billion photos (2018: 2.23 billion photos), thus documenting the pleasing rise in the core business of photofinishing.

“Stagnancy is unacceptable for the entire CEWE team, which is always on the lookout for new ideas and products. This innovative spirit is one of the reasons for our successful development,” Friege pointed out. “Agile, innovative companies using their technology to ideally comply with their customers’ preferences are the winners in these times of digitization. We focus fully on the guiding principle of customer satisfaction in the work we do.”

In 2019, CEWE once again presented many photo gift innovations to coincide with the Christmas season, examples being CEWE PHOTOBOOKS bound in leather or canvas, or with hard-cover enhancements using pink gold, and calendar gift packages.

Information is all based on preliminary, as yet uncertified, results. CEWE will present full, audited annual financial statements at the annual report and analysts’ press conference to be held in Frankfurt am Main on March, 26, 2020.

Full year of 2019 vs. previous year and targets (preliminary figures)

CEWE Group Unit 2018 actual 2019 target 2019 actual
Photos in billion units 2.23 2.22-2.26 2.40
CEWE PHOTOBOOK in million units 6.18 6.24-6.31 6.62
Turnover in euro millions 649.3 675-710 714.9
EBIT in euro millions 55.7 51-58 57.8

2019 Q4 (figures preliminary)

CEWE Group Unit Q4 2018 Q4 2019 Diff. % Diff. abs.
Photos in million units 810 890 +9.6 +80
CEWE PHOTOBOOK in million units 2.49 2.65 +6.4 +0.16
Turnover in euro millions 260.5 291.7 +12.0 +31.2
EBIT in euro millions 58.1 58.5 +0.7 +0.4