Natuzzi has announced its financial results for 2013, including an operating loss of €32.5m (compared to a loss of €17.3m in 2012), caused principally by losses in Western Europe.
Pasquale Natuzzi, president and CEO, says: “2013 was a year during which we dedicated our efforts to defining all the actions necessary to reorganise the group, and to optimise and streamline our processes to reduce costs and recover efficiency.
"The restructuring of the group’s operations has also generated extraordinary items that heavily affected our overall results. These results derive partly from group-operated stores located in Western Europe, where we recognised operating losses of €10.6m. The 2014-2016 Business Plan that was approved by the company’s board of directors on February 28th, 2014, contemplates specific efficiency recovery measures to return to profitability, including the closure of 13 non-performing, group-operated stores within the end of 2014.
"The restructuring of the group’s operations has also generated extraordinary items that heavily affected our overall results"
"Net losses during 2013 also include the negative performance of our Brazilian operations, equal to a loss of €7.2m, reflecting sales volumes that were inconsistent with our overall cost structure and production capacity in that market. In this regard, we have begun targeted due diligence to quickly identify those measures that are necessary to eliminate losses in that country.
"The remaining operating losses derive from the group’s industrial operations – where we experienced a low level of productivity and higher production costs – as well as in selling, general and administrative costs."
According to Pasquale, the group plans to move forward with a focus on rationalising its Italian production operations, accelerating product innovation, completely implementing an industrial moving-line process within all manufacturing facilities, improving back-office efficiency and that of the supply chain.
The 2013 consolidated EBIT was also negatively affected by the general strengthing of the Euro versus major currencies, for a total amount of €5.9m.
