Ultrasonic AG Announces Group Earnings Results for the First Quarter 2014; Provides Earnings Guidance for the Year 2014; Plans to Invest to Expand Production in 2014
The company provided production guidance for the year 2014. The company plans to produce 0.7-1.0 million pairs of children's shoes for the urban footwear segment, raise production capacity for shoe soles by 6.5% to 42.2 million pairs per year, and production capacity for sandals and slippers by 10% to 17.7 million pairs a year. The company still expects to report further growth on a euro basis of around 10-15% in 2014 (excluding currency effects). The company still expects to report a pre-tax margin (EBT) of 24-27% in 2014.
In total, the company intends to invest a further EUR 1.0-1.5 million to expand production in 2014. Plans include purchasing two new production lines for urban footwear and one or two sets of new injection moulding machinery to produce shoe soles, sandals and slippers. Further, in 2014 the company will be investing EUR 5.3-5.9 million to expand infrastructure (fencing, access road, buildings) at the new site. In addition, the company is planning to step up marketing to strengthen its brand and raise brand awareness, especially on the internet. For this, it has earmarked a budget of EUR 2-3 million for promotion expenses in 2014.