STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - The office furniture retailer Takkt made less turnover and operating profit last year due to weak demand. "In the current environment, in which many companies are acting cautiously and in some cases reducing staff, investments in this area are being held back," said Group CEO Maria Zesch on Thursday, explaining the development. Takkt has countered the downward trend with internal cost savings. "We will continue to work on improving our cost structures in 2024," said CFO Lars Bolscho according to the press release.

Excluding negative exchange rate effects, turnover in 2023 fell by just under six percent to 1.24 billion euros. In contrast, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell by more than 15 percent to 111.8 million euros. This means that Takkt's performance was roughly in line with the forecast for the previous year, after the Management Board had revised its own targets downwards several times during the course of the year.

As already announced, the Stuttgart-based group intends to pay out a dividend of EUR 1.00 per share, as in the previous year - of which EUR 0.40 is a special dividend. The Executive Board will present an outlook for 2024 and the final figures for the past year on March 28./ngu/stk