HELSINKI - Nonwovens manufacturer Suominen has posted a 34% increase in net sales for its third quarter, boosted by a strong performance in its North American market.
Total net sales were €131.9 million, up from €98.7 million in the same period last year with EBITDA up €5.1 million from €4.2 million. Suominen also narrowed its loss for the period to €0.4 million from a loss of €1.7 million in the third quarter of 2021.
“After a difficult first half of the year, Suominen’s result started to turn around in the third quarter," said Petri Helsky, President & CEO. "We reached all time high quarterly net sales in Q3 through improvement in both volumes and prices and tailwind from currencies. Our sales volumes increased in comparison to both Q3/2021 and Q2/2022 driven especially by improvement in North America. Margins were still lower than a year ago but improved slightly versus the previous quarter."
Over the quarter, the higher sales and production volumes positively impacted the results but sales price increases could not fully compensate for the higher raw material and energy costs, despite the previously implemented energy surcharge in Europe. Other operating income was impacted positively by one-time tax credits and incentives in Brazil and Italy.
"In August we announced surcharges on all our products in North America as a response to significant unexpected increases in raw materials, energy and freight costs," Helsky added. "In September we announced a new energy surcharge on all our products in Europe as energy prices have continued to increase significantly after our first surcharge in March. Energy cost inflation is expected to continue during the autumn and winter months."
In the third quarter Suominen also completed the EcoVadis sustainability assessment for the first time and received a silver level rating. This result places the company in the top 8% of companies in the manufacture of other textiles industry rated by EcoVadis.
Looking ahead, Suominen expects the demand for its products in the US to continue recovering and has already seen the raw material markets turn more favorable in early Q4. "At the same time our own improvement actions are starting to bear fruit. All these are expected to contribute positively to our result in the fourth quarter,” Helsky said.
