Selena Group, one of the leading producers and distributors of construction chemicals and the owner of the TYTAN brand – posts a net profit increase of 89.8% YoY – to PLN 20.72 million – in the first half of 2019. Revenue in this period amounted to PLN 617.16 million, up 6.3%, while EBIT rose by 84.8% to PLN 34.64 million. The H1 result is a continuation of the trend noted in the first quarter, when the company’s profit increased compared to the previous year. In this way, Selena Group benefits from the effects of organic growth, commitment to cost discipline and an increase in sales in the segment of high-margin products and a drop in financial expenses, including exchange rate differences.
This is another quarter in a row when the company posts sales increases, with its top line and bottom line driven up. Growth continues in most key foreign markets in which the Group actively operates. In the first half of the year, sales increased, inter alia, in Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Spain, USA and Central Europe. The maintained sales growth during the six months of the year is the result of organic growth and a steady implementation of high-quality products developed by the company’s R&D department. On the other hand, the low cost of exchange differences results from the strategy of using local currencies for financing purposes, which helps reduce fluctuations of financial expenses.
“The Group closes the first half of the year with a robust performance. The more than a two-fold increase in profit confirms that we are on the right track. The maintained cost discipline, favourable construction market and implementation of innovative products developed by our R&D (including work on products based on bio-renewable raw materials) have all yielded fruit. In this half of the year, we completed a major investment in R&D – we opened a new headquarters of the Selena Labs R&D centre, located in Dzierżoniów, in the Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone. In addition to infrastructure investments, we maintain our focus on strengthening the already well-functioning teams with new managers and specialists. We have a strong, competent and complete management board and an excellent team of regional directors responsible for individual regions. We are strengthening and developing the divisions and marketing of Selena Group world-wide. We also want to cooperate closely with building contractors around the world. That is why our employees meet builders on construction sites and discuss the features of our latest products. We can already see the first effects of these activities – in our sales results, for example. In addition to meetings with users, we also undertake sweeping digital and marketing campaigns. These comprehensive activities, ranging from cost control to sales of high-margin products to investments in R&D, development of production lines to marketing & HR activities – position Selena as a modern and stable brand in the construction chemicals market. The results of our work reflect the satisfactory results for the first half of the year, which augur well for the next quarters of this year”, says Krzysztof Domarecki, CEO of Selena FM SA.
In the first and second quarter of 2019, the R&D department of Selena Group – Selena Labs – also continued its work on products based on bio-renewable raw materials (including as part of the Horizon 2020 programme, EENSULATE and BioMotive projects) which have a positive impact on the environment. All the products and systems are certified, taking into account not only the minimum requirements, such as those related to the CE mark, but also keeping in mind the expectations of end users, e.g. in terms of LEED certification or other ECO-Label marks.
In 2019, Selena Group expects the situation in the construction market to become stable, both in terms of raw material prices and the potential for sales growth in key markets, including in the United States, Spain, Western Europe, Poland, China and an improvement in Russia. The company also plans to further increase the share of innovative products in sales.