Pfeiffer Vacuum reports that it is highly satisfied with its results for the first quarter of 2007. Sales were up 7 percent, while new orders advanced by 21.3 percent. Regionally, sales revenues were equally divided, with the company generating around 29 percent of its sales with customers in Germany, around 31 percent in the other countries of Europe, 24 percent in the United States and just under 17 percent in Asia.
The coating market saw the strongest growth, with sales here rising by 30 percent from euro 5.9 to euro 7.7 million, fueled first and foremost by orders for vacuum components from the forward-looking solar industry. The coating market now accounts for 16.5 percent of total sales, as opposed to 14 percent for the same quarter the year before. In addition - as recently reported in the pages of Industrial Vacuum - the company has won a major order in this market segment for complete vacuum systems. Pfeiffer Vacuum's key target markets, the analytical and industrial sectors, remained at the same high level as the year before.
Sales of the company's most important product, the turbopump, again grew. Pfeiffer says this product now accounts for nearly 46 percent of total sales. On another positive note, sales of backing pumps also rose sharply by 27.5 percent, from euro 5.5 million for the corresponding quarter the year before to euro 7.0 million in Q1/2007.
Both this favorable product mix as well as economies of scale combined to produce an outstanding gross margin of nearly 50 percent. The EBIT margin rose from 24.5 percent in Q1/2006 to 26.2 percent for the quarter under review; at euro 8.0 million, net income was up 23 percent over the corresponding quarter the year before (euro 6.5 million). This translates into earnings per share of euro 0.90, as opposed to euro 0.75 for the same quarter the year before.
Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Dondorf commented: "2006 had already been highly successful. Our sales and profitability have now reached record levels in the first quarter of 2007 as a result of new products and a high level of effectiveness. And this will continue to be sustained during the remainder of the 2007 fiscal year. Investor confidence in our company is also reflected by the sharp rise in the trading prices of our shares in recent weeks, with another all-time high of euro 75.86 being set in April 2007."
