Good start to 2022: CEWE reports earnings at pre-pandemic level
CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA starts the year 2022 with a good result at the pre-pandemic level after the first three months. With turnover at 138.9 million euros, Group EBIT amounted to 2.1 million euros, making it even slightly better than the EBIT in the last comparable pre-coronavirus Q1 in 2020 (Q1 2020 Group EBIT: 2.0 million euros).
As expected, the coronavirus-related upswing of the same quarter of the previous year was not repeated: during the lockdown in the first quarter of 2021, many customers used the time spent at home to place orders for photos or to catch up with placing these orders. Boosted by this strong stay-at-home effect, the Group EBIT jumped to an exceptionally high of 8.6 million euros in the previous year.
“The positive earnings of the first quarter completely confirm the targets we have set for the year. We are pleased to see that as the coronavirus situation is increasingly normalized, holidays and trips abroad are possible again and demand for them is brisk. This also fills up our customers’ stock of pictures for ordering photo products once again, and many customers are now saving beautiful moments and memories of a fantastic holiday trip, for example in a CEWE PHOTOBOOK,” says Dr. Christian Friege, Chairman of the Board of Management of CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA.
Photofinishing shows development in line with the period prior to the coronavirus in Q1
In the reporting quarter, with turnover at 112.6 million euros and EBIT at 2.5 million euros, the core business segment of photofinishing achieved earnings at the level of a comparable first quarter prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Turnover per photo also once again increased slightly in a comparison with the previous year, to reach 24.10 eurocents (Q1 2021: 24.03 eurocents). As expected, the previous year’s upswing was not repeated in the quarterly period at the start of this year. The stay-at-home effect of last year’s pandemic-related lockdown in Q1 2021 was a strong rise in demand for photo products, which saw a rise in sales of CEWE PHOTOBOOKS, wall art, photo calendars and many other photo gift articles – in some cases with high double-digit growth rates, to achieve an exceptional increase in earnings through economies of scale in production (photofinishing turnover in Q1 2021: 125.0 million euros; photofinishing EBIT in Q1 2021: 9.8 million euros), the company said.
Commercial Online-Print increases considerably and improves earnings
Even though the level of turnover prior to the pandemic has not yet been reached again, in a comparison with the lockdown-impacted quarter of the previous year, Commercial Online-Print is benefiting from ongoing coronavirus normalization which sees a return to trade fairs and events. With growth at 38.8%, turnover in Q1 2022 rose to 17.8 million euros (Q1 2021: 12.8 million euros). With this growth in sales and the sustainably optimized cost structure, EBIT in the business segment of Commercial Online-Print has improved to -0.3 million euros (Q1 2021: -0.6 million euros).
CEWE Retail improves sales and earnings with an optimized store structure
Contrary to the further pursued deliberate waiver of low-margin hardware business and the focus on photofinishing and online business, retailing also increased its turnover over that of the lockdown-weakened same quarter of the previous year, by 4.0% to 6.5 million euros (Q1 2021: 6.3 million euros). This saw retailing, following the optimization of the store structure carried out last year, achieving an improved Q1 EBIT of -0.3 million euros (Q1 2021: – 0.4 million euros).
Results Q1 2022 at a glance
| CEWE business areas | Unit | Q1 2021 | Q1 2022 | different % | different Section. |
| Photofinishing | |||||
| photos | million pcs. | 520 | 467 | -10.2% | -53 |
| CEWE PHOTOBOOK | thousand pieces | 1,333 | 1.143 | -14.2% | -190 |
| Sales volume | million Euro | 125.0 | 112.6 | -9.9% | -12.4 |
| EBIT | million Euro | 9.8 | 2.5 | -74.5% | -7.3 |
| Effects from purchase price allocations | million Euro | -1.0 | -0.9 | ||
| EBIT before special items | million Euro | 10.8 | 3.4 | -68.2% | -7.4 |
| Retail | |||||
| Sales volume | million Euro | 6.3 | 6.5 | +4.0% | +0.3 |
| EBIT | million Euro | -0.4 | -0.3 | +36.4% | +0.2 |
| Commercial Online Printing | |||||
| Sales volume | million Euro | 12.8 | 17.8 | +38.8% | +5.0 |
| EBIT | million Euro | -0.6 | -0.3 | +60.3% | +0.4 |
| Effects from purchase price allocations | million Euro | -0.1 | -0.1 | ||
| EBIT before special items | million Euro | -0.6 | -0.2 | +66.6% | +0.4 |
| Other | |||||
| Sales volume | million Euro | 1.8 | 2.0 | +11.8% | +0.2 |
| EBIT | million Euro | -0.1 | 0.1 | +184.0% | +0.3 |
| CEWE Group | Unit | Q1 2021 | Q1 2022 | different % | different Section. |
| Sales volume | million Euro | 145.9 | 138.9 | -4.8% | -7.0 |
| EBIT | million Euro | 8.6 | 2.1 | -75.7% | -6.5 |
| Total of special effects | million Euro | -1.1 | -1.0 | ||
| EBIT before special items | million Euro | 9.7 | 3.1 | -68.0% | -6.6 |
| EBT | million Euro | 8.3 | 1.8 | -78.5% | -6.5 |
Rounding differences may arise. Deviations are always calculated with the exact values.