ETTEPLAN Q3 2020 published: Good defense produced results

Etteplan News release October 29, 2020

Etteplan’s Interim Report for January-September 2020 has been published. You can find the Report and the related presentation materials at https://www.etteplan.com/investors/reports-presentations.

Join our webcast today October 29, 2020 at 2.30 P.M. EET. https://etteplan.videosync.fi/2020-q3-results

A recording of the webcast can be found through the same link after the live event.

More information can be found here:  https://www.etteplan.com/releases/etteplans-january-september-2020-interim-report-be-published-october-29-2020

President and CEO Juha Näkki:

“Our customers’ orders received and their order backlogs have declined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which weakened demand in the third quarter. The start of the second wave of the pandemic also increased uncertainty in the markets, which was reflected in a slow start to projects and new investments, especially after the summer holidays. In this uncertain demand situation, we continued to implement the defensive approach that we were forced to adopt in the second quarter. This approach was again successful and our profitability was excellent for a third quarter considering the circumstances, in spite of a decrease in revenue.

In the prevailing market situation, we have had to slow down the execution of our strategy, but good defense of our market position and strong profitability also enabled investments in growth. We completed the acquisition of Tegema in the Netherlands in the third quarter. Tegema strengthens our expertise in production-related solutions and, combined with Etteplan’s automation and software expertise, this acquisition makes us an even stronger Industry 4.0 operator. Going forward, we will be able to act as an integrator in increasingly demanding production solutions and also deliver our customers production cells, which brings an interesting addition to our Engineering Solutions service area. We have also continued to develop our service offering in other service areas to create more value for our customers and strengthen our competitiveness when demand starts to grow again.

As the final quarter of the year began, our operating environment varied from one country to the next. The Chinese market was active and there were small signs of a recovery in the Central European and Swedish markets, but demand in Finland remained at a low level. As the second wave of the pandemic gathers momentum, it is again very difficult to estimate the development of the market.

Nevertheless, during the year we have proven our ability to adapt to changes in demand, even in a difficult market situation, and we believe that the good profitability will continue, which is why we specified our financial guidance for 2020.

We were also able to continue investments in future growth and consequently, I believe that Etteplan will return to the path of profitable growth once the pandemic eases up and the market situation improves.”

Additional information:
Juha Näkki, President and CEO, tel. +358 10 307 2077
Outi Torniainen, SVP, Marketing and Communications, tel. +358 10 307 3302