Decline in volume in the fourth quarter
Due to postponed or sharply decreased volumes from a number of customers late in the fourth quarter, PartnerTech will report a decline in volume for the quarter of approximately 15 percent in local currencies and comparable units, compared to the same period 2011, which is lower than expected. At the same time earnings are negatively impacted by the costs of adaptation of the operations in our Nordic units.
Operating profit for the fourth quarter is therefore expected to be negative while operating profit for the full year 2012 will be positive and is estimated to approximately SEK 20-25 million.
Ongoing plan of actions
PartnerTech’s offering of low-cost manufacturing mainly in Poland and China is attracting both new and existing customers. At the same time this raises a need to strengthen the competitiveness of our Nordic units. These are now further aligned to operations close to the customers, focusing on technology and product development which requires higher flexibility.
In Norway an agreement has been made with the property owner to leave two out of three factory buildings and a decision has been made to relocate the unit in Vellinge to more cost effective premises in Malmö. The headquarter that has been located in the same premises as the Vellinge unit for the last four years, will also be moved to more suitable offices in Malmö. Simultaneously the number of employees is being reduced in many of the units for increased flexibility and increased proportion of employees in low-cost countries.
"The strategic work we are pursuing in order to expand our business and offer both flexibility and low-cost manufacturing in a number of market areas is our possibility to balance operations. The very strong fluctuations in several market areas in December showed that we still have work to do in order to increase our flexibility as we were not able to adapt our operations fast enough. At the moment we are working intensely with industrialization and increasing production from the new business we have gained lately but all of these will not be fully realized in the first quarter”, says Leif Thorwaldsson, President and CEO of PartnerTech.
PartnerTech publishes its Year-end report for 2012 on Wednesday, February 13th at 8.30 am.
For additional information, please call:
Leif Thorwaldsson, President and CEO, Tel: +46 (0)40 10 26 41
Åke Bengtsson, CFO, Tel: +46 (0) 40 10 26 42
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PartnerTech
PartnerTech develops and manufactures products under contract for leading companies, primarily in Information Technology, Industry, CleanTech, MedTech and Instrumentation, Defense and Maritime and Point of Sale Applications. With almost 1,300 employees at its plants in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, the UK, the United States and China, PartnerTech reports annual sales of more than SEK 2,3 billion. PartnerTech AB (www.partnertech.com), the parent company, has its head office in Vellinge, Sweden, and is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Exchange.
PartnerTech (publ) is required to publicly disclose the information in this press release pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. The information was submitted for public disclosure at 8.30 am on January 25th, 2013.
Leif Thorwaldsson, President and CEO, Tel: +46 (0)40 10 26 41
Åke Bengtsson, CFO, Tel: +46 (0) 40 10 26 42
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