CEWE is planning further turnover and earnings growth in 2024

CEWE is planning further turnover and earnings growth in 2024

• Turnover increases to € 780.2 million in 2023, EBIT rises to € 83.9 million
• 15th consecutive dividend increase: Management Board and Supervisory Board propose a dividend of EUR 2.60 per share for the 2023 financial year
• Strong results also planned for 2024: Turnover expected to increase to up to EUR 820 million, EBIT to rise further to up to EUR 87 million

Oldenburg/Frankfurt Main, March 22, 2024: CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA (SDAX, ISIN: DE 0005403901) today presented the results for 2023 and the outlook for 2024 at the Annual Press and Analysts' Conference. The company closed the 2023 financial year with a significant increase in turnover and earnings: Group turnover, including futalis, which was sold in December 2023, increased by +6.5%, rising by 47.8 million euros to 788.8 million euros (2022: 741.0 million euros), while the CEWE Group's operating result (EBIT) calculated in this way rose to 81.6 million euros (2022: 75.6 million euros). The Group EBIT reported in accordance with IFRS (excluding futalis) even increased by 11.0% or 8.3 million euros compared to the previous year to 83.9 million euros (2022: 75.6 million euros), while the reported Group turnover (excluding futalis) rose to 780.2 million euros (2022: 732.7 million euros). The targets for 2023 have thus clearly been achieved: CEWE had planned Group turnover in the range of 720 to 780 million euros and EBIT of up to 82 million euros for 2023. The dividend for the 2023 financial year is to rise to 2.60 euros per share (previous year: 2.45 euros). Subject to approval by the Annual General Meeting, this is the fifteenth consecutive dividend increase. CEWE is thus one of the top 3 of the 644 listed German companies that have been able to increase their dividend for so many years. "The CEWE PHOTOBOOK, the photo calendar, the wall picture and many other unique photo products full of personal memories have once again made millions of people throughout Europe happy in the past year. I would like to thank all CEWE colleagues for this outstanding team effort. I am very much looking forward to continuing the CEWE success story together with all employees and partners in 2024," said Yvonne Rostock, Chairwoman of the Board of Management of CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA, at today's annual press conference. CEWE is also planning further growth for the 2024 financial year: Group turnover is expected to reach a value in the range of 770 to 820 million euros in 2024, while Group EBIT is expected to be in the corridor of 77 to 87 million euros.

Photofinishing contributes to the year's success with another strong Christmas business

The traditional seasonal peak in Christmas business for CEWE also contributed significantly to the annual success in the past business year. Photo products in particular have a very high emotional value for many people - especially as Christmas gifts - and are increasingly in demand, largely independently of the overall economic development. Thanks to its strong brand positions and the marketing activities carried out in the past financial year, CEWE was able to successfully convert the strong activity in vacation travel, which picked up again in 2023, with many new photo images among consumers into its own business growth : The total number of photos across all CEWE products rose by 4.8% to 2.39 billion in the reporting year (2022: 2.28 billion photos), and the CEWE PHOTOBOOK also saw pleasing growth with an increase of 3.4% to a sales volume of 6.1 million copies (2022: 5.8 million copies). Turnover in the core business segment of Photofinishing rose significantly by 42.7 million euros or +6.9% to 658.8 million euros in 2023 (photofinishing turnover in 2022: 616.1 million euros). The operating result (EBIT) in Photofinishing increased pleasingly to 80.0 million euros (Photofinishing EBIT 2022: 73.7 million euros). Together with its strong retail partners, who guarantee customer-oriented service with over 20,000 stores in Europe, CEWE is continuously developing the photo market through innovations.

Commercial Online-Print with profitable growth and EBIT margin of 4.5%

Commercial Online-Print closed the 2023 financial year with a significantly improved result. The business segment benefited from the cost efficiency achieved in production at SAXOPRINT and the resulting "best price guarantee" for its customers: Turnover grew by +6.6% year-on-year to EUR 92.2 million in 2023 (2022: EUR 86.5 million). Thanks to the improved cost structure, Commercial Online-Print significantly increased its EBIT by EUR +1.9 million to EUR 4.2 million (2022: EUR 2.3 million) and thus achieved a solid EBIT margin of 4.5%.

Retail continues to be well positioned

In 2023, Hardware Retail achieved a turnover of 31.3 million euros (2022: 32.4 million euros;  -3.4%), which was actively reduced in line with the strategy. The good positioning of CEWE Retail is reflected in the earnings development: despite the reduction in turnover, the Retail business segment was able to improve its contribution to Group EBIT quite significantly by 0.3 million euros to 0.5 million euros in 2023 (2022: 0.2 million euros). In retail, CEWE continues to focus on business with Photofinishing products (reported in the Photofinishing segment) and remains deliberately avoiding lower-margin retail business in the area of photo hardware (cameras and accessories).

Strong and solid: further increase in equity ratio, free cash flow and ROCE

The equity ratio in 2023 has risen again to 58.4% after already being at a very solid level in the previous year (31.12.2022: 57.3%), underlining that CEWE continues to be extremely stable. The operationally meaningful free cash flow, normalized primarily for cut-off effects, reached a strong 69.7 million euros (normalized free cash flow 2022: 61.4 million euros). The free cash flow reported as at the reporting date of December 31, 2023 was as high as EUR 82.8 million (reported free cash flow as at December 31, 2022: EUR 31.5 million). The return on capital employed (ROCE) was also even stronger in 2023 at 18.8% (ROCE 2022: 17.6%).

Strong results also planned for 2024

Group turnover is expected to be in the range of EUR 770 million to EUR 820 million in 2024. Group EBIT is expected to be in the range of EUR 77 million to EUR 87 million in 2024, EBT between EUR 75.5 million and EUR 85.5 million and earnings after tax between EUR 51 million and EUR 58 million. The ranges of these targets for the 2024 financial year are roughly expected values and the lower figure in each case reflects the uncertainty that currently arises from inflation-related price increases and their potential impact on CEWE's business development. So far, inflation has not had any visible impact on customers' ordering behavior and thus on CEWE's turnover development.

CEWE acts sustainably: Fourteenth sustainability report published

CEWE takes a comprehensive approach to sustainability - ecologically, economically and socially. Sustainable action has long been deeply rooted at CEWE. The company has been reporting regularly on its sustainability initiatives and progress in this area since 2010. Together with the Annual Report 2023, the new Sustainability Report is now available online at https://company.cewe.de or https://ir.cewe.de.

Dividend to increase for the fifteenth time in a row

Based on the results for the 2023 financial year, the Management Board and Supervisory Board have proposed to the Annual General Meeting that the dividend should be increased to EUR 2.60 per dividend-bearing share (dividend for the 2022 financial year: EUR 2.45). Subject to shareholder approval at the Annual General Meeting to be held on June 5, 2024, the proposed dividend of EUR 2.60 per share corresponds to a dividend yield of 2.6% based on the 2023 year-end share price of EUR 101.20. This is the fifteenth consecutive dividend increase and also the highest dividend in the company's history.

Full year 2023 and targets for 2024

The ranges of these targets for the business year 2024 reflect the uncertainties currently resulting from the increase in prices/inflation on the cost of sales and cost side and their potential effects on CEWE's business development.

1  The number of photos is the total amount of photos used to create CEWE photo products and includes all the photos used in added-value products (e.g. CEWE PHOTOBOOKS, CEWE CARDS, CEWE CALENDARS, CEWE WALL ART and other photo gifts).

2  Outflows of funds for investments in fixed and intangible assets, balanced by inflows of funds from the disposal of fixed and intangible assets; not including additional purchases and corporate acquisitions

3  Target for 2024: Excluding subsequent valuation of equity instruments

4  Target for 2024: Based on the normalised Group tax rate for the previous year

Rounding differences may occur. Exact values have always been used for percentage deviation calculations.

An overview of results for 2023

Rounding differences may occur. Exact values have always been used for percentage deviation calculations.

Notes to the "Earnings by Business Segment" chart

(1) Photofinishing:  Production and sale of photo products such as the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, calendars, greeting cards, wall art and individual (analogue and digital) photos as well as other photo products

(2) Retailing: Trading in photo hardware, such as cameras and lenses, in Norway, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia

(3) Commercial online printing: Production and sale of commercial print products in the online printing portals of SAXOPRINT, viaprinto and LASERLINE

Should you have any queries, please contact:
CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA, Axel Weber (Investor Relations)
Tel.: 0441 / 404 - 552, Fax: 0441 / 404 - 421, Email: IR@cewe.de

Internet:  cewe.de , pixum.de , deindesign.de , whitewall.com , cheerz.com ,               

saxoprint.de, viaprinto.de , laser-line.de

The CEWE apps are all available in the app stores: CEWE PHOTO WORLD, CEWE POSTCARD and other photo apps, and the CEWE Investor Relations app for iPad© or android tablets, with annual reports and quarterly reports, presentations and sustainability reports.

You are welcome to join us at one of these investment conferences or to follow up on our pending publications:

Financial schedule

(insofar as already scheduled)

17.04.2024 Baader Consumer Day, Frankfurt

15.05.2024 Publication Interim Statement Q1 2024

16.05.2024 UBS Pan European Small and Mid-Cap Conference, London

05.06.2024 Annual General Meeting 2024, Weser-Ems-Halle Oldenburg

15.08.2024 Publication Interim Report H1 2024

22.08.2024 Montega Conference HIT, Hamburg

25.09.2024 Berenberg & Goldman Sachs German Corporate Conference 2024, Munich

26.09.2024 Baader Investment Conference 2024, Munich

14.11.2024 Publication Interim Statement Q3 2024

20.11.2024 CIC Market Solutions Forum, Paris

25.11.2024 Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum 2024, Frankfurt

About CEWE:

The CEWE Group is Europe's leading photo service and online printing supplier.

From its beginnings in 1912, CEWE has progressed to become the leading photo service company for all those wanting to make more of their photos. This is mainly due to the much-awarded CEWE PHOTOBOOK, with about six million books being sold each year. Customers can purchase other personalised photo products under the brand names of CEWE, Cheerz, DeinDesign, Pixum and WhiteWall – and from many leading retailers in Europe. They are inspired to produce a variety of creative designs from their personal photos in these brand environments, entrusting the company with more than 2 billion photos every year.

The CEWE Group has also set up a highly efficient production system for advertising prints and business prints for the online printing market. Every year billions of high-quality printed products are delivered reliably to their purchasers through the SAXOPRINT, LASERLINE and viaprinto sales platforms.

The CEWE Group, through the founder family of Neumüller as an anchor shareholder, focuses on sustainable corporate management and has already received many awards for this effort:  economically sustainable in the long term; cooperative and fair in dealings with customers, employees and suppliers; socially responsible and protective of the environment and resources.

The CEWE Group has a staff of 4,000 employees and operates in 21 countries. CEWE is listed on the SDAX. More information is available at company.cewe.de.