In the financial year ended September 30, Swiss Krono increased its annual sales by 24 percent to over 2.02 billion euros compared with the previous year, which had been heavily impacted by the Covid crisis. This more than made up for the eight percent decline in the previous year caused by the pandemic. In local currencies, growth amounted to 28 percent compared to the previous year. In terms of production, the threshold of 6 million m3 of annual output was exceeded for the first time.
“Swiss Krono has consistently taken advantage of the opportunities presented to us after the second Covid wave. Every individual in the company has contributed to this,” says Martin Brettenthaler, CEO and Chairman of the Group Executive Board, delighted with the business result. “We are operating in a highly dynamic and complex economic environment and are faced with the challenge of sharply rising raw material prices. Increasing digitalization, climate protection and the circular economy will present both opportunities and challenges for the future.”
All business units contributed to the strong sales growth: Flooring, the largest business unit, grew by 13 percent, Building Materials/OSB by 31 percent and Interiors by as much as 33 percent.
In the Flooring division, Swiss Krono is deliberately focusing on laminate flooring as the unchanged best hard floor covering in terms of price/performance ratio. Sales increased to almost 160 million m2 in the past financial year. With the expansion of HDF production for its own laminate production in the USA and the commissioning of a new digital printing line for decor paper at the Heiligengrabe site, the strategy of increasing the company’s own vertical integration was systematically implemented.
The Building Materials/OSB business unit was characterized by very good demand, but also by rapidly rising wood, chemical, energy and transport costs, which in addition to consistent cost management necessitated a continuous adjustment of selling prices.
The growth targets set out in the Group strategy for the Building Materials/OSB business unit – especially through expansion and new plant projects – were pursued, with each plant gradually being expanded to the annual capacity that SWISS KRONO has identified as the optimum operating size. In addition to the ongoing construction of a new plant at the Sharya site in Russia, which is scheduled to come on stream in 2023, production at the Heiligengrabe site was expanded by 25 percent to 600,000 m3 . An increase in production on a similar scale is planned at the sites in Sully, France, and Vasarosnamény, Hungary.
In the Interiors division, Swiss Krono has market leader positions in various markets (Switzerland, Poland and Ukraine), which are being defended and expanded through consistent market cultivation. This area is also being strengthened by targeted investments. For example, further optimization of the waste wood processing plant at the Menznau plant in Switzerland increased the proportion of recycled wood in particleboard to 35 percent.
In addition, the development of the Swiss Krono sustainability strategy was started in the past fiscal year. The starting point was the determination of the Group’s carbon footprint in an analysis of Scopes 1, 2 and 3 in accordance with internationally recognized standards. The result: Swiss Krono is directly or indirectly responsible for the emission of approximately three million tons of CO2 equivalents per year. The good news is that, since Swiss Krono products are produced at the same time using wood from sustainable forestry, there is a “carbon sink” effect of around six million tons of CO2 equivalents per year. The fact that the company is thus not only CO2-neutral overall, but is even actively contributing to CO2 reduction in the atmosphere, demonstrates the important role that engineered wood can play in efforts to create a CO2-neutral economy.
There will be changes on the Board of Directors of Swiss Krono Holding AG: The previous Chairman, Dr. Wilhelm Hörmanseder, resigned for personal reasons. Appointed by Ines Kaindl-Benes, Dr. Reto Müller was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on November 30, 2021. As a co-entrepreneur, he was CEO and founding partner of the Helbling Group for many years and is now active as a professional board member in various industrial companies.
