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Agfa: continued strong Covid-19 impact, but gradual recovery
In the third quarter, Agfa-Gevaert recorded 410 million euros in revenue. Excluding the sale of part of its healthcare IT business and currency effects, this constitutes a 14 percent decrease year-over-year. The Mortsel-based imaging specialist reports a strong profitability in imaging IT but a full Covid-19 impact on its offset printing business. Bottom-line this resulted in a loss of 25 million euros. The company is seeing a gradual recovery, though.
Agfa’s HealthCare IT division posted a strong gross profit margin increase, based on its strategy to target high-value revenue streams. The Digital Print & Chemicals division showed resilience in terms of profitability, in spite of the Covid-19 related revenue decrease. The Offset Solutions division’s profitability was heavily impacted by Covid-19. As anticipated, margins suffered from the increased idle time at production facilities and the fact that the company benefited less from government measures – including temporary unemployment schemes – than in the previous quarters.
“Our profitability was affected by the ongoing issues in the offset printing industry, which accelerated due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” comments Agfa CEO Pascal Juéry. “We’re taking the necessary steps to secure our position in this industry and to restore profitability. In the third quarter, we reached an agreement with our social partners regarding the closure of our printing plate factories in Pont-à-Marcq and Leeds, effective before the end of the year. We also see a Covid-19 related impact on the volume of our highly profitable medical film business. However, in the course of the quarter, most of our activities started to improve gradually, and – although we remain cautious – we believe that the fourth quarter will show further improvement.”