GEA records strong start to 2022 with latest quarterly figures

Equipment and systems group GEA started fiscal year 2022 with a strong first quarter, reporting an improved financial position, recording revenues up 5.7% to €1.13 billion, writes Neill Barston.

Notably, its EBITA figures before restructuring expenses grew 14.1 percent to EUR 138 million for the period, with net profits also being up 27% to 72 million, underlining the company’s strong start to the year, despite covid challenges.

“GEA made a very good start to the year, and did so at a time when the world is facing major political, economic and social challenges,” said CEO Stefan Klebert. “We have again significantly improved our key financial figures. Our order intake as well as our EBITDA margin have reached new record levels in the first quarter. In addition, revenue grew organically for the fifth consecutive quarter. This demonstrates the resilience of GEA’s business model.”

Order intake rose significantly by 20.4 percent to a record level of EUR 1,544 million in the first quarter of 2022 (Q1 2021: EUR 1,282 million), driven among other things by three major orders (volume of over EUR 15 million each) for a total of EUR 92 million. Organic growth came to 20.4 percent.

Revenue went up by 5.7 percent in the reporting period to EUR 1,126 million (Q1 2021: EUR 1,065 million) and by 6.6 percent on an organic basis. Customer industries contributing to this growth were primarily Beverage, Pharma, Dairy Farming and Chemicals. The share of service revenue increased to 36.2 percent in the first quarter of 2022 (Q1 2021: 35.2 percent).