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In fiscal 2011/12, Datacolor continued to strengthen its strong market position as one of the world’s leading companies for innovative color management solutions. The Group expanded its leadership in the textile sector and significantly strengthened its market presence in important key markets such as the automotive and plastics industry as well as manufacturers of paint and dyes by launching new innovative products and expanding the sales and service organization. As a result, the average headcount increased by 12% to 311 full-time equivalents, due mainly to the expansion of the sales organization in Asia.
Continued increase in net sales and double-digit profit growth
During the period under review, Datacolor’s net sales increased in local currency by 3% to USD 55.9 million (FY 2010/11: USD 55.5 million). EBITDA rose by 14.0% to USD 6.8 million (USD 6.0 million). The operating result (EBIT) developed positively with an increase of 14.3% to USD 5.4 million (USD 4.7 million). The newly introduced functional organization provided a considerable increase in efficiency and the EBITDA margin came to 12.1% (10.7%) and the EBIT margin to 9.7% (8.5%). Also net income significantly surpassed the previous year’s result with an increase of 11.7% to USD 4.2 million (USD 3.8 million). Datacolor remains debt-free and has a substantial net cash position of USD 24 million and a robust balance sheet with a solid equity ratio of 64.1% (September 30, 2011: 60.7%). In light of the company’s good financial position, the Board of Directors is proposing to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders that a dividend of CHF 11 (CHF 10) be distributed for financial year 2011/12.
Growth markets gain further in importance
The share of sales generated by the Asia Pacific region increased to 31.3% (30.4%) in the reporting period. Above all in China, Datacolor recorded pleasing growth due to the significant expansion of the direct sales organization. The North and South American markets also lifted their share of sales from 28.2% to 30.2%. Under the impact of the euro crisis, Europe’s share of Group sales decreased slightly, but the region remains Datacolor's largest market, accounting for 38.5% (41.4%).
Numerous new product launches
Datacolor continued to invest substantially in research and development to keep up a high pace of innovation and to increase the number of new product launches, during the year under review. For industrial customers, the company launched a significant number of new products such as the ʺ45Gʺ, a high accuracy handheld spectrophotometer with integrated gloss measurement. ʺAhiba QuickDoseʺ complements the established series of textile lab instruments and the new software release ʺMatchPigment 2.2ʺ was introduced, which is designed for the plastics sector as well as the paint and coatings industry. Datacolor launched the fourth generation of the ʺSpyderʺ product range which allows the easy and precise calibration of monitors, laptops, TVs, tablets and smart phones. With the microchip-based mini-sensor ʺEuropaʺ a new compact color sensor for OEM customers was presented.
Expansion of the sales and service organization
In the growth markets of China and India, the sales and service organization was substantially strengthened by more than doubling personnel to 45 employees. Furthermore, Datacolor intensified cooperation with local distribution partners in important emerging markets such as Turkey and Brazil. In the USA, the distribution channel for the ʺSpyderʺ product family was streamlined, which essentially simplified and intensified Datacolor’s direct communication with its end customers.
Outlook
Datacolor aims to continuously raise sales by launching new products and increasing market penetration. The Group has a successful range of products and services, a well-filled development pipeline and a powerful, customer-orientated sales organization. Given a continued reasonable economic trend, Datacolor is well positioned to achieve its ambitious medium-term objectives for growth and profitability through organic growth and targeted acquisitions.
Lucerne, November 28, 2012
The full Annual Report for fiscal 2011/12 is available on: http://www.datacolor.com/en/content/reports
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