GERMANY - In the first quarter of 2017, the Homag Group's order intake climbed 31 percent to EUR 401 million (1Q-2016: EUR 306 million) and sales revenue increased 14 percent to EUR 296 million (1Q-2016: EUR 260 million).
The operating EBIT climbed to EUR 23.2 million (1Q-2016: EUR 16.5 million). As of March 31, 2017, the Homag Group had 6,083 employees (1Q-2016: 5,946).
"We had an extraordinarily good first quarter," CEO Pekka Paasivaara emphasizes. "In all major regions, particularly in North America, Europe and China, we were able to increase our order intake substantially."
Pekka Paasivaara also looks to the remainder of the fiscal year with optimism, and anticipates further impulses from the industry's leading trade fair Ligna, which ended on May 26, 2017 in Hanover. "We are confident that our innovations are going to resonate extremely well with customers there. In addition, we are presenting tapio a powerful IoT-platform for the wood processing sector at LIGNA. This signals our entry to the second stage of Industry 4.0. And we are not stopping there: our aim is to lead the entire market into the digital future. Due to the growing individualization, the complexity in the production process and the corresponding data volumes of our customers are constantly increasing. Therefore, they want to work with the HOMAG Group as a partner, because we can master this complexity and deliver everything from a single source."
