Jungheinrich starts the 2022 fiscal year as expected

Jungheinrich recorded a business development in the first quarter of the 2022 fiscal year as expected. Order intake, revenue, and earnings before financial results and income taxes (EBIT) were increased compared to the previous year, despite strained supply chains and material shortages. The war initiated by Russia against Ukraine at the end of February has led to high uncertainties for the European and global economy, and thus also for Jungheinrich’s business development. Against this backdrop, the forecast for 2022 remains unchanged.

In the first quarter, order intake was slightly increased to €1.33 billion, and revenue rose by 10.7 percent to €1.06 billion. The drivers of revenue growth were particularly new business, rental business, and customer service. EBIT amounted to €77.9 million and was burdened by significantly increased material and logistics costs. The EBIT margin reached 7.3 percent. The net balance as of March 31, 2022, was €95 million due to increased inventory levels.

Dr. Lars Brzoska, CEO of Jungheinrich AG: “The start of the fiscal year went as expected. In addition to the still strained supply chains and massively increased material and logistics costs, the Russia-Ukraine war negatively impacted the first quarter. Despite this challenging starting situation, we have managed to increase order intake, revenue, and EBIT compared to the previous year. So far, we are seeing consistently strong market demand.

With our Strategy 2025+, we are very well positioned and continue to pursue this unchanged with the goal of sustainably creating value for all our stakeholders. As part of our strategy, we are consistently implementing a variety of projects and measures, such as the construction of the new plant in Chomutov, Czech Republic, the recent launch of the 41st Jungheinrich sales company in New Zealand, and the presentation of numerous innovations in the fields of automation, digitalization, and e-mobility at the intralogistics trade fair LogiMAT at the end of May. This lays the successful foundation for further profitable growth.”

Order Intake and Order Backlog

The value of order intake, which includes all business areas – new business¹⁾, rental and used equipment, as well as customer service – was slightly above the very good previous year’s figure of €1.322 billion at €1.333 billion during the reporting period.

The order backlog for new business reached €1.835 billion at the end of the reporting quarter, which was €613 million or 50 percent higher than the previous year’s figure (€1.222 billion). Compared to the backlog value of €1.519 billion at the end of 2021, there was an increase of €316 million or 21 percent. The reason for the still very high order backlog was the continued limited availability of production materials for further processing.

The order intake and order backlog for the first quarter of 2022 were adjusted for orders from Russia. In light of the war initiated by Russia against Ukraine at the end of February 2022, the management decided effective March 2, 2022, to cease deliveries of vehicles and spare parts to Russia until further notice.

1) New business includes new industrial trucks, automatic systems and storage facilities, rack handling devices and load handling attachments, operational and business equipment, energy solutions, and digital products.

Revenue

The group revenue of €1.062 billion, which is 11 percent higher than the previous year (€959 million), was contributed by new business, rental business, and customer service. The challenges in the supply chains due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war remained very high. Due to global interconnections, the impacts of supply chain bottlenecks extended across the entire supplier and material portfolio as well as the associated logistics capacities.

Earnings and Financial Position

Earnings before financial results and income taxes (EBIT) reached €77.9 million in the first quarter of 2022 (previous year: €72.1 million) and was burdened by significantly increased material and logistics costs compared to the previous year’s quarter. The EBIT margin reached 7.3 percent (previous year: 7.5 percent). The earnings before taxes (EBT) from January to March 2022 amounted to €66.9 million, slightly below the previous year’s quarter (€68.2 million). The EBT margin (EBT-ROS) was 6.3 percent (previous year: 7.1 percent). The net income after taxes amounted to €49.5 million (previous year: €50.1 million). Accordingly, the earnings per preferred share were €0.49 (previous year: €0.50).

As of March 31, 2022, the net balance was €95 million, primarily due to increased inventory levels to ensure delivery capability (December 31, 2021: net balance of €222 million).

Employees

As of March 31, 2022, the Jungheinrich Group employed 19,226 (March 31, 2021: 18,212) employees, measured in full-time equivalents. In light of the increased capacity requirements in the plants compared to the previous quarter, the number of employees in temporary work at the end of the reporting period was 632 (March 31, 2021: 335).

Forecast

The statements made in the 2021 annual report regarding our expectations have not changed overall during the reporting period. Therefore, we maintain the forecast for the 2022 fiscal year as we published it in the ad-hoc announcement on March 24, 2022, and in the 2021 annual report. Our assessments of the expected development of the company in the current year have been presented in detail in the forecast report of the 2021 annual report.

Key Figures at a Glance

• Order intake: €1.33 billion (+ 0.8 %)
• Revenue: €1.06 billion (+ 10.7 %)
• EBIT: €77.9 million (+ 8.0 %)
• EBIT margin: 7.3 %
• Net balance: €95 million

Photo: © Jungheinrich