The 2023 financial year was characterized by the implementation of the restructuring projects initiated within the Group and the Group's continued focus on value-driven sales growth.
Michael Rockenbach
Finance/Controlling
Annual reports
On March 28, 2024, A.S. Création published its Annual Report 2023:
The A.S. Création Group's consolidated sales revenues declined by 9.5% from € 134.0 million in the previous year to € 121.2 million in the fiscal year 2023. The deteriorating macroeconomic environment in the last two quarters of 2023 was the main reason why the decline in A.S. Création's sales revenues in the second half of 2023 was much stronger than expected.
The effects of the restructuring projects initiated are reflected in the significant improvement in the gross profit margin to 48.8% (previous year: 45.8%). This reflects the initial success of the focus of the product and sales policy on higher-margin product ranges.
Moreover, the measures taken enabled A.S. Création to reduce its operating loss to € -2.1 million in the reporting year (previous year: € -8.6 million). However, the operating results of both years were adversely affected by special effects (e.g. restructuring expenses). Adjusted for non-recurring effects in both years, the adjusted operating result fell from € -3.9 million in 2022 to € -1.7 million in the reporting year. This means that A.S. Création's earnings position improved significantly in 2023, even though the low sales level prevented the company from returning to profitability. Overall, the adjusted operating result was within the range of € -2 million to € +1 million that the Managing Board had expected for the fiscal year 2023.
Due to the loss, the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board do not intend to pay a dividend for fiscal 2023.
The annual reports are only available in German.
Key figures
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||||
Sales Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) EBIT margin Earnings before taxes Return on sales before taxes | €'000 €'000 % €'000 % | 189,128 3,306 1.7 -5,052 -2.7 | 166,515 7,880 4.7 5,622 3.4 | 152,608 5,917 3.9 10,202 6.7 | 143,329 -15,808 -11.0 -17,776 -12.4 | 134,485 -2,885 -2.1 -5,710 -4.2 | 141,057 4,503 3.2 15,287 10.8 | 144,869 4,430 3.1 3,695 2.6 | 145,639 5,710 3.9 5,160 3.5 | 133,993 -8,554 -6.4 -9,092 -6.8 | 121,224 -2,086 -1.7 -2,608 -2.2 | ||
Earnings per share Dividend per share | €/share €/share | -3.39 0.00 | 1.19 0.60 | 2.70 1.25 | -6.45 0.00 | -2.17 0.00 | 5.13 0.90 | 0.53 0.90 | 1.40 0.90 | -1.95 0.00 | -0.51 0.00 | ||
Capital expenditures Depreciation Cash flow from operating activities | €'000 €'000 €'000 | 5,115 9,340 14,165 | 5,342 8,645 17,444 | 5,014 7,612 17,095 | 10,218 6,538 3,231 | 8,304 6,060 3,321 | 5,933 5,715 -2,139 | 3,724 5,497 7,009 | 4,853 5,703 7,978 | 2,907 6,138 40 | 3,331 4,923 3,783 | ||
Total assets Shareholders' equity Equity ratio | €'000 €'000 % | 146,162 86,891 59.4 | 140,405 93,188 66.4 | 140,273 96,502 68.8 | 130,714 75,715 57.9 | 128,650 72,233 56.1 | 128,000 79,427 62.1 | 127,492 78,881 61.9 | 126,806 81,024 63.9 | 113,487 76,681 67.6 | 112,347 72,445 64.5 | ||
Net financial debt (+)/Net investment position (-) Debt relief period | €'000 years | 11,929 0.8 | -291 n.a. | -11,651 n.a. | -417 n.a. | 3,368 1.0 | -6,118 n.a. | -11,446 n.a. | -11,590 n.a. | -5,512 n.a. | -6,332 n.a. | ||
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) Return On Equity (ROE) | % % | 2.8 -10.4 | 7.3 3.7 | 5.8 7.8 | -16.8 -20.6 | -3.3 -8.1 | 5.1 18.6 | 5.2 1.8 | 6.8 4.8 | -10.4 -6.8 | -2.7 -1.9 | ||
Number of employees Sales per employee Personnel expenses as % of total output |
€'000 % | 822 230 23.2 | 801 208 26.5 | 768 199 26.8 | 761 188 28.1 | 755 178 27.8 | 750 188 26.5 | 752 193 26.9 | 771 189 27.2 | 754 178 28.8 | 684 177 28.7 |
