Porto, May 7, 2025 (Lusa) - Corticeira Amorim's profit rose 2.1% to €16.4 million in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2024, with sales falling 2.2% to €229.4 million, the company announced on Wednesday.
In a statement sent to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), Corticeira Amorim said that, excluding the effect of the change in the consolidation perimeter resulting from the sale of its stake in Timberman Denmark, sales would have risen 1.3%.
"In an environment of high uncertainty and volatility, resulting from the current geopolitical context that characterised the first months of 2025, the stability of Corticeira Amorim's sales demonstrates the resilience of our business model," said the group's chairman and CEO, António Rios de Amorim, quoted in the statement.
Until March, consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) totalled €39.3 million, down from €43.7 million in the same period last year, while the EBITDA margin stood at 17.1% (18.6% in the first quarter of 2024), " penalised mainly by the increase in the consumption prices of cork raw materials and the quality of the cork from the batches processed".
"Of note is the positive contribution to profitability resulting from the reduction in structural costs and greater industrial efficiencies," the statement said.
Sales at the Amorim Cork business unit (BU) increased by 4.8% to €92.4 million, representing 82% of Corticeira Amorim's consolidated sales in the first quarter.
The Amorim Cork Solutions BU - created at the beginning of the year to bring together Amorim Cork Flooring, Amorim Cork Composites and Amorim Cork Insulation - recorded a 25.0% decrease in sales, "penalised by lower levels of activity, particularly in the flooring products segment", and also by the impact of the change in the consolidation perimeter, without which the drop in sales would have been 10.7%.
At the end of March, Corticeira Amorim's net debt amounted to €160.7 million, €35 million less than on 31 December 2024. This mainly reflects cash flow generation and a reduction in working capital requirements (€8.8 million).
Considering that the recent creation of Amorim Cork Solutions "marks a new stage in the company's history" and “will result in a strengthening of the non-cork business", Corticeira Amorim's CEO states that “the significant improvement in the profitability of this business unit, already at the end of March, highlights the effects of more efficient management of operations and optimisation of existing assets, as well as the synergies resulting from the sharing of means and resources”.
Under this new organisational model, the expanded cork production unit in Silves will be transferred to the unit located in Vendas Novas during June.
The aim is to enable "greater competitiveness" for the expanded cork business, which Corticeira Amorim says it wants to relaunch, benefiting from "greater proximity to the raw materials used and the concentration of the investments needed to achieve higher productivity".
PD/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
