Natuzzi has announced its consolidated financial results for the first quarter of 2014.
After the meeting of the board of directors, CEO Pasquale Natuzzi commented: “First quarter 2014 results represent a first check-point for monitoring the progress of the 2014-2016 business plan, that was approved by the board of directors on February 28, 2014, as well as the effectiveness of the actions already undertaken.
"Consolidated net sales in the period were equal to €98.4m, down 11.2% from €110.7m reported in the first quarter of 2013.
"This reduction – largely anticipated by the plan – is attributable principally to the following factors: the negative impact from foreign currency movements that have eroded 3.2% of total net sales when translated into Euro; the negative performance of some of the group’s largest dealers located in the North America region, following the adverse weather conditions that occurred on the Atlantic coast and that have affected the first few months of the year; and production delays, particularly in Italy and China. As for Italy, we reported a low level of productivity since we staffed our Italian plants with workers on rotation, in accordance with the agreement we entered into with the unions on October 10th, 2013 – as for China, we experienced a higher-than-expected level of turnover among workers after the Chinese New Year holiday period, consequently lowering the level of productivity for the Chinese plant."
"To sum up, we are cautiously optimistic about our reaching the targets included in the plan"
"It is worth highlighting that, notwithstanding the 11.2% reduction in revenue reported for the period, the group’s industrial margin was substantially the same as last year, passing from 29.0% in 2013 first quarter
to 28.5% in the first three months of 2014."
Natuzzi also reports a consolidated EBIT of -€9.4m (compared to a negative EBIT of -€6.9m last year), slightly below the operating result of -€8.8m expected by the plan for the period.
"In consideration of this first and very important check point of the 2014-2016 business plan, we are now in the position to say that our progress for the restructuring of the group’s operations is in line with the plan, as is our project for reorganising the group’s commercial structure, for which we recently hired two important managers for the Americas and Western Europe markets.
"Lastly, although the current order flow is not in line with our expectations, we perceive the first signals of a trend reversal following the positive feedback we have received on our new collections that were recently introduced at international fairs since the end of March. To sum up, we are cautiously optimistic about our reaching the targets included in the plan,” concludes Pasquale.
