GERMANY – The HOMAG Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of plant and machinery for the woodworking industry and cabinet makers, has increased its order intake by around 14% to € 142.1 million in the third quarter of 2013 (prior year: € 124.9 million).

CEO Dr. Markus Flik attributed this figure, the highest recorded in a third quarter since 2007, to the positive results of LIGNA in May, among other factors: “We were able to convince customers with our innovations there. This is now reflected in our strong order intake, which also benefited from our global presence in all markets.”

The order backlog of the global market leader rose to € 229.4 million as of September 30, 2013 (prior year: € 218.5 million) and sales revenue increased by 4% to € 202.9 million (prior year: € 195.5 million). In the first nine months of 2013, the Group’s order intake was up by nearly 5 percent to € 472.9 million (prior year: € 452.1 million). Sales revenue increased to € 574.9 million (prior year: € 571.5 million).

Therefore the management board is looking ahead to the final quarter with confidence based on the high order backlog, the good order intake and the positive results of the in-house trade fairs held at the end of September. Therefore, the 2013 forecasts still apply, according to which the Group aims to exceed the prior-year order intake figure in 2013 and generate sales revenue for the Group of around € 800 million. The Group anticipates an operative EBITDA before employee participation expenses and before extraordinary expenses of around € 75 million and expects to return a net profit of the Group for the year of around € 15 million.