Fielmann Group increases sales
The family-owned company Fielmann has expanded its market share in key markets, exceeded its Vision 2025 sales target and improved its EBITDA margin. This was achieved despite persistently high inflation rates, rising interest rates and subdued consumer sentiment.
The preliminary figures for the 2023 financial year show that the Fielmann Group's external sales in 2023, including VAT and changes in inventories, rose by around 12% to EUR 2.27 billion (previous year: EUR 2.03 billion). Group sales also grew by 12 per cent to 1.97 billion euros (previous year: 1.76 billion euros). These figures are in line with the forecast communicated in September and confirmed in November.
Growth in the existing markets
According to Fielmann, this positive development was driven by strong organic growth in the existing markets (+8% year-on-year) and additional growth through acquisitions (+4%). Investments in digitalization and internationalization boosted the disproportionate growth of the digital sales channels (+17% year-on-year), which generated external sales of over EUR 100 million for the first time (5% of the Group's total sales). The international markets continued their strong growth and achieved the largest share of total sales to date in Q4/2023 at 35%, an increase of 14 percentage points compared to 2018 - the starting point for Vision 2025.
Profitability improved
In financial year 2023, the Fielmann Group significantly improved its profitability and increased its EBITDA margin by a whole percentage point: based on preliminary figures, EBITDA is expected to reach around EUR 410 million (+21%, previous year: EUR 340 million), while EBT will amount to around EUR 193 million (+20%, previous year: EUR 161 million). This positive development is mainly due to increased sales of varifocals, the cost-cutting program and lower marketing expenses than in the previous year.
Increase in the dividend
In view of the Fielmann Group's positive business performance, the Management Board and Supervisory Board will recommend an increased dividend of EUR 1 per share for the 2023 financial year (previous year: EUR 0.75) at the Annual General Meeting on July 11, 2024. The dividend yield, based on the year-end share price, amounts to 2.0%. The distribution amounts to 84 million (previous year: 63 million).
Outlook
In the fourth quarter of 2023 and early 2024, most markets were characterized by subdued consumer sentiment. In Germany, reduced growth forecasts reduced the propensity to buy. Despite these challenges, particularly in its home market, Fielmann remains optimistic that the Group will be able to further expand its market position in 2024 in view of the market share gains in the past financial year. Additional growth opportunities are seen in Eastern Europe, Spain and the USA. The consistent implementation of the cost-cutting program confident that profitability can also be further improved.
