Raymarine releases strong year-end results
By IBI Magazine
Raymarine has announced that its revenue for the year ended December 31, 2006 grew by 12 per cent over the previous year to £136.5 million. Adjusted EBITDA was up 10.1 per cent to £24.6 million, while profit before tax grew by 74.8 per cent to £14.1 million. The growth in sales is attributed to a number of factors, including the launch of 14 new products over the last 12 months and the outsourcing of its UK manufacturing to Flextronics in Hungary.
"2006 was an extremely active and successful year during which our sales grew by 12 per cent whilst launching 14 new products and transferring all manufacturing from our Portsmouth site to an outsourced facility in Hungary," says CEO Malcolm Miller. "Demand for our products was robust and consistent throughout our world markets, although developing markets enjoyed greater growth. We look forward to the future with confidence."
Miller told IBI that business in the first few weeks of 2007 had been going "very well" in the Rest of the World, but had been slightly slower than anticipated in the US. "Retail slowed down and the small boat market is off a bit," Miller said. "But we're strong in the mid-large boat sector," he said, adding that despite the slow start to the year in the US, figures were online with forecasts. "We're encouraged by emerging markets such as India," Miller added.
Raymarine's fastest growing markets in 2006 were the Middle East and Eastern Europe, where sales were up by 55 per cent and 47 per cent respectively. Business in Northern Europe experienced a 35 per cent increase in sales, while sales in Southern Europe grew by 22 per cent. Sales within the Asia Pacific region, however, did not reflect their true potential, rising by just 9 per cent over the previous year.
Miller told IBI that its recent buy-out of its Autralian distributor would help it further boost its business in Australasia, whilst providing a key platform for growth in Asia.
Product supply difficulties in the first six months of the year were resolved by the time the company entered second-half trading. The initial problems were caused by a mismatch between anticipated and actual demand, the late introduction of new products and a UK component supplier ceasing to trade.
"The US and UK suffered most from these disruptions, though the US business recovered well; revenues by the year end were up eight per cent in dollar terms on the previous year," says Miller. "The UK domestic market, now less than 10 per cent of our business, however was unable to recoup the shortfall and year-on-year revenues fell by four per cent."
Raymarine says that it has a large number of new product launches scheduled for 2007 in areas of new instrumentation, systems and displays. Most of these products will target the larger luxury end of the boating market, although some are aimed at smaller boats.
(26 February 2007)
|
