Accell Group delivers high sales and profit in H1 2019

Accell Group, the European bicycle company with brands such as Haibike, Koga, Batavus and Raleigh, has released its semi-annual 2019 financial results.

Its core business has progressed well with net turnover up 8.8% at €650.9 million, added value up 27 bps to 31.2% and EBIT coming in 12.6% higher at €57.8 million in H1 2019. Trade working capital as a % of net turnover decreased by 200 bps to 32.2%.

The non-core North American business decreased by 15.9% to €31.8 million (5% of group net turnover) with EBIT coming in at € -11.3 million compared to € -8.5 million in H1 2018. Total group net turnover grew by 7.4% to €682.6 million and EBIT increased by 8.9% to €46.5 million. Net profit for the group was up 16.5% at € 29.7 million.

Ton Anbeek, CEO of Accell Group, said: “Our ‘Lead global. Win local’ strategy is paying off with all key performance indicators moving in the right direction reflecting sound growth, stable volumes, margin expansion, a higher EBIT and lower working capital as % of net turnover for both our core business and the total group. Also cost as a % of net turnover has stabilised.

“Driven by better availability of our key products, we have seen double-digit growth in most of our core regions. In the Netherlands, we’ve reversed the downward turnover and volume trend with double-digit growth and strong contributions from our Koga, Sparta and Batavus brands. In the DACH region growth was hampered due to delayed Haibike and Ghost innovative new model introductions. In all our other core European regions we saw strong double-digit turnover growth in e-bikes. The performance in North America did not improve and in the course of this quarter, we expect to complete the strategic review of this non-core business and announce our way forward.

“Our supply chain team is on track with creating efficiencies and delivering the targeted €12 million savings for 2019. The work on complexity reduction and the introduction of our frame platform strategy are also progressing according to plan. Finally, we have started the rollout of our new IT systems which will improve our operational performance and pave the way for our digital roadmap.”