Focused Datwyler achieves profitable growth

Datwyler experienced high demand in 2021 thanks to strong positions in attractive markets and leading core com-petencies. In comparison with the previous year, sales markets and production were significantly less impacted by the negative effects of the pandemic, enabling Datwyler to protect its employees’ health and guarantee delivery capacities for customers at all times.

Profit increase and higher dividend
The figures reported for the year 2021 are influenced by the sale of the online distributor Reichelt at the end of September. Datwyler’s reported revenue rose to CHF 1’101.7 million (previous year: CHF 1’069.2 million). Rei-chelt’s revenue contribution for the first nine months of the year was CHF 154.1 million. The profit figures reported also include contributions from Reichelt for the final time. At the level of the operating result (EBIT), this contribution was CHF 15.4 million from the operating business and CHF 58.4 million profit from the sale of the subsidiary. Dat-wyler thus achieved a total EBIT of CHF 234.2 million and a net result of CHF 194.0 million for 2021. In view of the strong and sustainably profitable growth, the Board of Directors will ask the Annual General Meeting to pay a substantially increased cash dividend of CHF 4.20 per bearer share (previous year: CHF 3.20) and CHF 0.84 per registered share (previous year: CHF 0.64). This equates to an increase of 31.3% in the total dividend to CHF 71.4 million (previous year: CHF 54.4 million).

Record revenue from continuing operations and increase in profitability
Datwyler was able to significantly increase revenue from continuing operations in all business units. The company’s record revenue figure of CHF 947.6 million (previous year: CHF 823.3 million) constitutes currency-adjusted growth of 15.0% (the currency effect was negligible). Datwyler surpassed average growth rates in all the markets it serves and is 8.0% above the pre-pandemic levels from 2019. Thanks to strong growth, continual efficiency improvements and strict cost management, the EBIT for continuing operations increased over-proportionately by 23.2% to CHF 160.4 million (previous year: CHF 130.2 million). As a result, the EBIT margin improved significantly to 16.9% (previous year: 15.8%). The net result for continuing operations rose by 17.6% to CHF 123.7 million (previous year: CHF 105.2 million). In comparison with 2019, both EBIT and the EBIT margin for continuing ope-rations are well above pre-pandemic levels.

“Datwyler successfully completed its strategic transformation into a focused provider of system-critical elastomer components in 2021. We will now increase our focus on profitable and sustainable growth in order to achieve our ambitious targets,” says Datwyler CEO Dirk Lambrecht.

Healthcare Solutions reports significant growth in revenue and margins
The Healthcare Solutions business area posted currency-adjusted revenue growth of 16.0% to CHF 466.8 million (previous year: CHF 403.4 million). The currency effect was negligible. As a partner to the leading vaccine manu-facturers, the business area experienced additional demand for components for COVID-19 vaccines. Thanks to the good utilization of capacities and a positive change in the product mix, Datwyler increased the operating result (EBIT) by 32.1% to CHF 104.6 million (previous year: CHF 79.2 million). This equates to a significantly higher EBIT margin of 22.4% (previous year: 19.6%). With the acquisition of Yantai Xinhui Packing announced in December 2021, Datwyler filled an important strategic gap and gained direct access to the rapidly growing healthcare market in China. Yantai Xinhui Packing’s modern production facility with reserve capacity offers an optimal platform for manufacturing the Datwyler product range for the Chinese healthcare market locally. As a result of the bottlenecks caused by the pandemic, Datwyler has come into contact with many new potential customers. The company aims to further tap into these potential revenue sources with targeted measures. The healthcare market has long-term structural growth drivers that are independent of economic trends and the COVID pandemic. The aging society in the industrial countries, the rapidly growing middle class in the emerging countries, the increasing rates of chronic diseases like diabetes and the use of injections as the preferred method for administering medicines are keeping growth rates high.

Strong growth in Industrial Solutions
In comparison with pandemic-hit 2020, the Industrial Solutions business area was able to increase revenue from continuing operations (excluding Civil Engineering) by over 13% to CHF 488.4 million (previous year: CHF 427.5 million) in currency-adjusted terms in the year under review. The currency effect was negligible. Thanks to the higher utilization of capacity and strict cost management, the operating result (EBIT) rose by 10.7% to CHF 55.8 million (previous year: CHF 50.4 million). This equates to a slightly lower EBIT margin of 11.4% (previous year: 11.8%). The slowdown in the automobile industry, which intensified in the second half of the year, prevented an improvement in the margin. The Mobility business unit nevertheless acquired record numbers of new projects and customers thanks to its proactive market development activities with webinars and a large customer event in China and thus exceeded growth in global vehicle production. Despite a high prior-year basis, the Food & Beverage business unit recorded strong revenue growth for all customers in this area as planned. The expansion of produc-tion capacities went to plan and will be continued in 2022. To promote growth in the General Industry business unit, Datwyler is accelerating the expansion of the sales and engineering resources in the three key global regions of Europe, the US and Asia. In order to streamline its organization and increase agility and speed in the market, Datwyler reduced its management levels. The integration of the former Oil & Gas business unit into the General Industry business unit makes it possible to exploit further synergies.

Transformation complete – focus on organic growth and targeted acquisitions
With the sale of online distributor Reichelt in autumn 2021, Datwyler’s strategic transformation into a specialist in system-critical elastomer components is now complete. In the forthcoming phase, the company will focus on orga-nic growth and targeted acquisitions so as to strengthen existing business sustainably. Datwyler’s strong balance sheet, highly distinctive core competencies and the associated competitive advantages provide an ideal basis from which to accelerate the implementation of the growth strategy and overcome the challenges of the pandemic. The company will also continue to make acquisitions in order to open up new geographical markets, technologies or related product segments. The companies Datwyler acquires must be suited to it in terms of strategy, core com-petencies and culture.

Core competency-based market development and innovation
By bundling technological core competencies in the Technology & Innovation Group function, Datwyler strengthens its capacity for innovation and increases the share of new primary products in total revenue. Among the Healthcare business’s promising innovation projects are the coated NeoFlex components for pre-filled syringes and the soft dry electrodes for measuring brain, heart and muscle activity in wearable devices. Besides medical technology, appli-cations in the fields of lifestyle, sport and computer games are also evolving. In the Mobility business, Datwyler is continuing to develop its material and technology portfolio. The electroactive polymer (EAP) technology and the electrically and thermally conductive ETEMI materials will open up new applications in the vehicle of the future. Datwyler is therefore confident that, thanks to its leading core competencies, it will be able to utilize the transforma-tion to electromobility to increase its component number and revenue per vehicle.

Confirmation of the medium-term target ranges
On the basis of its high order backlog and increased use of new production capacities and the positive change in the Healthcare product mix, Datwyler is confident that it will be able to reach the target ranges it set for itself, namely to increase revenue by between 6% and 10% and to achieve an EBIT margin of 18% to 21%, in the medium term. However, the rising costs of raw materials, upstream products, energy and logistics services will present an increa-sing challenge in 2022. Despite this, Datwyler is aiming to achieve the lower value in its target range for the EBIT margin in 2022. Revenue growth should also in 2022 exceed the upper value in the target range.

Changes to the Board of Directors
For personal reasons, Hanno Ulmer will not be available for re-election at the 2022 ordinary Annual General Mee-ting. Judith van Walsum will be nominated for election as a new Director and a representative of the public share-holders. Judith van Walsum is Chief Financial Officer and Head of IT at Roche Diabetes Care, a globally active division of the Roche Group.

Datwyler uses certain financial performance measures, that are not defined by Swiss GAAP. The definition of these alternative performance measures are published under: https://datwyler.com/investors/publications

The figures in the (German) Annual Report 2021 are binding. The Annual Report and this press release contain forward-looking statements. These statements reflect the Group’s current assessment of market conditions, economic developments and future events. However, these forward-looking statements are subject to economic, regulatory and political risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors over which Datwyler has no control. Unforeseen events could therefore cause actual developments and results to differ materially from those anticipated and from the information published in this release. To that extent, all forward-looking statements contained in this release are qualified in their entirety and Datwyler cannot guarantee that they will prove to be correct. Datwyler is under no obligation, and assumes no liability, to update any such forward-looking statements. This document is neither an offer nor a solicitation to buy or sell Datwyler securities.