Profitable growth under difficult conditions

Strong demand | After record order intake in the first half of 2022, the strong demand for Krones products and services continued unabated in the third quarter.

Order intake between July and September 2022, at EUR 1,493.3 million, exceeded the already good prior-year figure of EUR 1,148.3 million by 30.0 %. In total over the first three quarters of 2022, the contract value of orders increased by 44.1 %, from EUR 3,192.6 million a year earlier to EUR 4,599.7 million. At EUR 3,449.0 million as of the end of September 2022, the order backlog at Krones was up 95.9 % on the previous year (EUR 1,760.9 million). Compared to the beginning of 2022, the increase is EUR 1.56 billion, or 82.2 %.

Krones held a course of stable revenue growth in the third quarter. Revenue from July to September was up 14.7 % to EUR 1,058.9 million. In the first nine months of 2022, revenue went up by 15.2 % year on year, from EUR 2,643.0 million to EUR 3,043.7 million. Thanks to its great flexibility, Krones managed well with the resource shortages and international supply chain problems during the reporting period. This enabled the company to deliver strong revenue growth.

Growth forecast for 2022 increased

Krones has managed well with all challenges so far and remains fundamentally optimistic. Due to the continued very strong demand for Krones products and services, as well as good management of scarce resources, the company expects to maintain satisfactory production capacity utilisation in the fourth quarter of 2022. On 19 October, on the basis of current planning, Krones therefore raised its guidance for revenue growth in the full year 2022 to between 10 % and 12 % (previously 5 % to 8 %).

The guidance for the other two financial targets remains unchanged. This means the company continues to expect an EBITDA margin of 8 % to 9 % and ROCE of 10 % to 12 % in 2022. The Executive Board is confident of reaching the upper end of the target range for both figures.

These forecasts are subject to the reservation that the war in Ukraine does not further escalate, the coronavirus situation does not worsen and there are no significant energy shortages. Krones has published the full quarterly statement as of 30 September 2022 online on the company's website.