Double-digit growth for Komax
Dierikon LU - The Komax Group has recorded double-digit percentage sales growth to 421 million Swiss francs on a global basis in financial year 2021. Operating profit rose nearly fourfold to just under 45 million Swiss francs. Following a loss in the previous year, Komax was back in the black for earnings after tax.
In financial year 2021, Komax gradually found its way back to “normality”, the Lucerne-based global specialist for automation solutions in the area of wire processing writes in a press release. In specific terms, the Group increased global sales in 2021 by 28.5 percent year on year to 421.1 million Swiss francs. Operating profit at the level of EBIT increased by 298 percent to 44.8 million Swiss francs, while a profit of 30.4 million Swiss francs was posted under Group earnings after tax following a loss of 1.3 million Swiss francs in the prior year.
“The 2021 financial year showed clearly that the automated wire processing market offers many opportunities”, comments Matijas Meyer, CEO of the Komax Group, in the press release. He goes on to explain how the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated “the automation trend” driving factors such as rising personnel costs and the shortage of skilled staff.
In order to take advantage of the opportunities arising here, Komax is set to acquire its competitor Schleuniger from Metall Zug in the form of a quasi-merger. Metall Zug AG will hold a 25 percent stake in Komax in exchange for the shares in Schleuniger. Approval is still required from the Annual General Meeting of Komax for the relevant proposals in connection with this deal.
In the same press release, Komax comes back to touch upon the plans communicated in October 2021 to bundle Swiss activities at the headquarters in Dierikon in the canton of Lucerne. In the year under review, the Group bought a plot covering 6,400 square meters of undeveloped land directly adjacent to its headquarters. This will allow the Group to “grow further at its largest global production and development site”, Komax writes. Operations at the location in Rotkreuz in the canton of Zug are additionally to be discontinued and the site will be sold off.
