In accordance with published estimates of financial results accomplished in the third quarter of 2018, Grupa Kęty S.A. Group recorded an improvement at all levels of the consolidated financial result. As compared to the corresponding quarter of the last year, sales revenue in the third quarter of 2018 increased by 14% to 815 million PLN, operating profit by 10% to 109 million PLN, and net profit by 7% to 83 million PLN. Higher profits resulted from the good situation in the industry and the consistently high demand for products offered in all business segments.
In the Aluminium Systems Segment, sales increased by 14% as compared to the same period last year; however, the Management Board is noticing problems experienced by customers from the construction industry in the form of lower liquidity and difficulty finding appropriate employees, which affects order volumes in this business segment.
Sales of the Flexible Packaging Segment in the analysed period increased by 10%. It should be noted, however, that the trend of moving away from solutions based on laminates composed of many different components which are hard to recycle and focusing on biodegradable or easy-to-recycle semi-finished products is becoming increasingly pervading on the flexible packaging market. The product offer of the Flexible Packaging Segment of Grupa Kęty S.A. Group is perfectly aligned with these market trends, which may be a catalyst for further improvement of results in this area.
In the Extruded Products Segment, the sales growth rate was the highest and was at the level of 15% y/y. Good business conditions in this segment and high demand from customers are confirmed by longer average order completion time on the European market, which currently is between 4-6 weeks, and for some products even 4-6 months.
In the third quarter of 2018, the estimated net debt of Grupa Kęty S.A. Group increased by 190 million PLN and amounted to 770 million PLN, which results from the implemented investment programme in alignment with the adopted development strategy, and the payment of 227 million PLN of dividend in this period.
