Rational's peak year: over 1 billion sales
Created: 01/13/2023 11:23 am
By: Werner Lauff
The production of Rational's core product, the iCombi.
© FKN
Landsberg – Three months ago it became clear: the manufacturer of commercial kitchen appliances from Siegfried-Meister-Strasse is doing better than ever.
The public company has overcome the effects of the corona pandemic and the supply bottlenecks for electronic components.
According to the preliminary business figures, sales revenues will exceed the one billion mark for the first time in 2022 with an expected EUR 1.022 billion.
The growth in sales compared to the previous year was 242 million euros or 31 percent, the pre-tax profit EBIT is 235 million euros.
Sales and profits were thus above the forecast that had already been raised in September.
Decisive for this were sales revenues in the fourth quarter in the amount of 290 million euros;
this was a new quarterly high for the fourth time in a row.
Reasons for this development are the full order book due to the positive business development in combination with the sufficient supply of electronic components in the second half of the year to reduce the high order backlog.
Rational's intensive customer support and "extensive range of services" are also responsible for this - in other words: Rational sells more products, but also scores with after-sales service.
In 2021, Rational still had sales of 780 million euros;
now, an increase of 31 percent has resulted in exceeding the one-billion mark.
Sales-increasing currency and price increase effects also contributed to this "extremely positive business development".
Regionally, almost all markets have developed very well;
the American countries stood out with disproportionately high growth rates of almost 60 percent.
iVario is booming
Rational has been talking about two product groups for a number of years;
both have contributed to the growth, it is said.
In the (traditional) "iCombi" product group, sales growth of 28 percent compared to the previous year was achieved in the second half of the year due to the good availability of parts.
The sales in the second product group "iVario" have increased "particularly gratifyingly".
Expected growth here is 57 percent.
The device replaces pots, tippers, pans, fryers and sous-vide cookers in canteen kitchens and restaurants.
The high growth in sales together with the disproportionately low increase in costs led to a record EBIT of around EUR 235 million;
the comparative value from the previous year was 160 million euros.
The EBIT margin for the 2022 financial year was around 23 percent and exceeded the upper value of the forecast range.
This is good news not only for the shareholders, who will receive a new dividend proposal on March 28, but also for the city of Landsberg.
Your largest trade taxpayer is likely to pay significantly more taxes this year than expected.
Although this does not solve the structural problems of the budget (KREISBOTE reported), it could lead to black numbers from ongoing business operations.
