Selena Group, one of the leading manufacturers and distributors of construction chemicals and an owner of the TYTAN brand, in 2018 achieved consolidated revenue of PLN 1.2 billion, which is an increase of more than 4% year-on-year. Net profit amounted to PLN 26.7 million, and was four times higher than in 2017. EBIT reached PLN 52.3 million, up over 20%. Gross profit margin increased by 0.2 pp year-on-year to 29.1%. This performance is a result of increasingly better cost control and reduced balance of currency exchange differences.
The Company’s sales increased in most of its key markets, including China (+ 27%), Spain (+20%), Ukraine (+14%), United States (+13%), Kazakhstan (+10%) and Central Europe (+6%). This is an effect of improving sales methods, building competitive edge in international markets, marketing innovative products and consistent development of the distribution network.
“2018 was a time of intensive work for Selena. As a result, we not only achieved satisfactory trading performance, but above all we mapped out new development directions and implemented organisational changes. The main pillar of our business is satisfaction of end-users of our products and development of system solutions in response to their needs. To strengthen our R&D unit, in 2018 we completed construction of the Group’s new research and development centre – Selena Labs, which was opened in April 2019. Our R&D unit is also involved – as a consortium leader – in EENSULATE and BIOMOTIVE research and development projects under the EU programme HORIZON 2020. In 2018, we also continued activities related to optimisation of the costs of our products, an extremely important aspect in the era of high prices of raw materials, only some of which got cheaper in the second half of 2018. We can make a satisfactory summary of last year – revenue of over PLN 1.2 billion and a four-fold increase in net profit to PLN 26.7 million are things we can be proud of, an effect of hard work on organic development, cost optimisation and responding to market needs This robust activity and effort of the whole team – for which I’d like to thank my colleagues – are the foundations for the whole Group to continue its success going forward”, says Krzysztof Domarecki, President of the Management Board of Selena FM S.A.
Selena Group expects some stabilisation in the coming months – with decreases in the prices of raw material for the production of foams and silicones in the first half of the year and sustained high level of asphalt prices with the potential for their further growth. Sales are also expected to continue their upward trend, including in the United States, Spain, Western Europe, Poland, China and Russia. Due to the still difficult economic situation in the Turkish and Brazilian markets, the Group does not expect any sales increases there until the end of 2019.
“2019 is also going to be quite intensive. In the context of our strategy, we will concentrate on developing comprehensive solutions for end-users. The added value we want to particularly focus on, for example in connection with the shortage of labour, is the possibility of speeding up construction work while maintaining the highest quality. We want to concentrate on quick installation of windows, framed partition systems and quick bathroom finishing. Thanks to the synergy of market knowledge and understanding the needs of end-users in our international divisions, and the know-how of our R&D team, we want to market the products that will redefine the construction process”, Krzysztof Domarecki adds.
Significant implementations at Selena Group in 2018:
• Implementation of highly flexible gel adhesives reinforced with fibres: Tytan Professional Superflex Gel and Flex Gel – the solution is particularly addressed to the rapidly growing segment of large format tiles, where a greater resistance to deformation, a better transfer of stress resulting from substrate behaviour or temperature changes plus a working temperature of up to 35˚C are essential parameters of the adhesive.
• Using the highly-reflective waterproofing COOL-R coating on the roof of the largest fish market in Europe. Once the coating is applied, the roof temperature falls by even 70%, as a result of which the temperature inside the building drops by up to 10oC. It is a part of a major EUR 3 million worth of project carried out by Mecamadrid.
• Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics – thanks to implemented Microsoft solutions, the time of handling inter-company orders has been dramatically reduced. In 2019, a strong development of selected tools is planned.
• Putting Tytan Professional Fix2 GT mounting adhesive on the Polish and Spanish markets – based on hybrid technology, the adhesive is eight times faster than traditional mounting adhesives and it takes maximum three hours to fully cure. It has a very high initial bonding strength, which helps finish the work in a short time and without the use of additional supports during application.