DGAP-News

Grammer with substantial increase in revenue and net profit in 2014 - Seite 2

million (2013: 233.6) as a result of a further slump in the Brazilian
commercial vehicle market. On the other hand, business in North America
continued to expand but was unable to completely compensate the sharp
decline in Brazil. The European markets also grew by an encouraging 7
percent to EUR 911.9 million (2013: 851.1).

Sharp growth in the Automotive Division
The Automotive Division, which develops and produces headrests, armrests
and center consoles for passenger vehicles, again stepped up its global
growth course in 2014, with revenue rising by 12 percent over the previous
year to EUR 911.6 million (2013: 813.3). Grammer benefited from a positive
global automotive sector as well as numerous serial ramp-ups and new
projects in all product segments. Reflecting the heavy up-front efforts for
plant and capacity expansion as well as structural optimization in all
regions, EBIT in the Automotive Division came to EUR 28.9 million, thus
falling short of the previous year (2013: 33.1) as expected. Accordingly,
the decline in the EBIT margin to 3.2 percent (2013: 4.1) reflects the
global expansion program and high growth as a result of new business.

Seating Systems impacted by sharp contraction in some core markets
The Seating Systems Division, in which Grammer as a global leading company
develops and produces seating systems for commercial vehicles, recorded
revenue of EUR 478.7 million, up a small 1 percent over the previous year
(2013: 472.8), despite very challenging conditions in some markets. At the
same time, the individual commercial vehicle sub-markets performed very
disparately. Whereas the agricultural machinery market saw a sharp decline
in global demand, the market for material handling vehicles as well as
aftermarket business expanded. The global truck market showed strong
regional variation, with Europe and South America reporting substantial
declines in sales and production figures. Thanks to its broad range, superb
international positioning and new products and customers, Grammer was able
to completely offset these adverse effects on its revenue. The
aforementioned market shifts and extensive expansion spending in the United
States and China caused EBIT in the Seating Systems Division to drop
slightly to EUR 36.2 million (2013: 37.6). However, at 7.6 percent, the
EBIT margin remained at a very high level (2013: 8.0).