AUSTRIA – During the annual press conference, which took place on 27th July 2017 at the headquarters in St. Johann in Tirol, the Egger Group presented the results of FY 2016/2017 that ended on April 30th.

The Company presented a positive development of all key indicators, announced significant investments in Poland, Argentina, and the USA and the Group’s Management forecasted an even stronger growth for the coming years.

Egger Group sale’s increased by 1.7% during the 2016/2017 business year, reaching EUR 2,384.8 million. EBITDA increased by 4.0 % to EUR 363.7 million and the EBITDA margin exceeded previous years’ levels by 15.3 %. The family business continues to enjoy a good credit rating thanks to a high equity ratio of 37.5 %. The quantity of rawboards, including timber, increased to 7.9 million m3 (+3 %), which means the full utilization of all primary production capacities. On average last year, Egger employed 8,145 employees group-wide.

Positive sales developments were achieved and the market share was developed in almost all regions across the world. Despite uncertainties following the Brexit vote, the overall development in Great Britain over the past twelve months was positive. Diminished sales and earnings are due exclusively to a weaker British Pound. The tense political and economic situation in Turkey led to lower local sales of edging, which, however, was largely compensated through exports.

Egger will be busy taking big steps towards further growth during the current business year 2017/2018 and beyond. On the 17th of July, the Group announced it is taking over the plant Concordia, Argentina, from the Chilean Masisa S.A. This will be the first time Egger is represented with a production site outside Europe.

The already announced new construction of a chipboard plant in Biskupiec, in the north of Poland, is due to start in the next few weeks. The plant will use the latest technology and will be equipped with a raw chip capacity of 650,000 m³, lamination and impregnation units. Another greenfield project currently in the early planning stages is the wood-based materials plant in Lexington, North Carolina. The project implementation is scheduled to take place in several stages, the first being the construction of a chipboard plant with coating capacities.