GERMANY –  The Homag Group significantly improved its earnings in the first half of 2025 (6M-2025), driven by cost reductions and modest growth in its service business.

However, both order intake and sales came in below the previous year’s figures. The anticipated recovery in the furniture industry market has yet to materialize.

“We continue to face a challenging environment in the furniture sector, where tariff disputes are creating uncertainty among customers, leading them to delay investments,” explained CEO Dr. Daniel Schmitt. As a result, order intake slightly declined to EUR 671 million in the first six months of 2025 (6M-2024: EUR 699 million).

This weakness was partly offset by strong performance in the timber house construction segment, where the positive trend from last year has continued. Homag’s order backlog decreased to EUR 724 million as of June 30, 2025 (June 30, 2024: EUR 833 million).

Sales fell to EUR 674 million (2024: EUR 706 million), representing a 4.5% decrease, largely due to subdued order levels. Nonetheless, EBIT before extraordinary effects rose by 36% to EUR 29.2 million (2024: EUR 21.5 million), supported by cost savings from staff reductions completed in the previous year and a growing contribution from the more profitable service business.

The number of employees declined to 6,621 as of June 30, 2025 (2024: 6,978). Some production sites are still experiencing underutilization, although service sales have continued to grow slightly, even in a fragile market.

At the LIGNA trade fair held in Hannover in May, Homag received strong customer feedback. “Our product innovations were very well received,” Dr. Schmitt noted. “We are optimistic about returning to profitable growth once the market recovers, but it remains difficult to predict when that will happen.”