Grupo Antolin has improved its business during the third quarter of the year, after resisting the greatest crisis experienced by the automobile industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company’s activity has progressively recovered between July and September thanks to the improvement in the markets since the historic crash in April. Grupo Antolin’s sales in the third quarter stood at 1,060 million euros, which represents a reduction of 9.6% compared to the same period of the previous year, but a clear improvement compared to the 65% drop in revenues in the second trimester.
Sales between January and September reached 2,612 million euros, compared to 3,850 million in the same period of the previous year.
The recovery of sales and the action plan against COVID-19, as well as the efficiency measures put in place by the company, have made it possible to improve margins at the operating level. Gross operating profit (EBITDA) rose 12.7% in the third quarter, to 91.4 million euros. For the year as a whole, EBITDA stood at 144 million, compared to 307 million in the same period of 2019.
Grupo Antolin has shown that it has a solid, resilient and flexible business that is being able to face the COVID-19 crisis. During these months, the company’s priority has been to protect the health of all employees, ensure business continuity and protect liquidity, despite strong market disruption.
After the market performance in recent months, the company is optimistic about the future evolution of the sector, although analysts estimate that the industry will take some time to reach the production levels of 2019.
Organizational changes
As part of the process of transforming its business and to be more agile in the implementation of the future strategy, the company has adopted some relevant organizational changes in recent months:
-Creation of the Industrial Corporate Management, which will centralize the management of all industrial operations to achieve the maximum possible synergies. In this way, the Business Units will focus their resources on engineering, quality, projects and commercial activities.
-The Doors and Instrument Panels Business Units are unified under the same Directorate, which will be called Cockpits and Doors, with the aim of seeking operational synergies.
-The Lighting Business Unit has been renamed Lighting & HMI ( Human Machine Interface ). This name reflects the new strategic reorientation that turns the interior components into an interface that allows the passenger to interact with the vehicle and its surroundings thanks to systems that combine lighting, electronics and decorative surfaces.
-Creation of the Sustainability Department with the aim of reinforcing the work that the Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment areas have been doing. The new Sustainability Department will continue working so that Grupo Antolin continues to be a benchmark in sustainability in the industry. In this sense, the actions and projects of this Directorate will have a transversal nature with the objective that all areas and business units of the company integrate a component of sustainability in their operations so that they are capable of generating greater added value in terms generating wealth, employment and social well-being in the local communities in which they operate and society as a whole.
These organizational changes have a double objective. On the one hand, better adapt to the needs and technical and commercial organization of customers. On the other, advance the strategy of increasing the competitiveness of the product portfolio by adding value to traditional components and developing a new generation of systems that optimally and efficiently integrate innovative lighting, decorative and electronic technologies. The Electronics Business Unit is already developing, in collaboration with Lighting & HMI and Innovation, 62 projects with electronic content. In addition, work is underway, technically and commercially, to submit offers for up to 60 electronic projects from car manufacturers.
Growth in China
Part of these new projects are being developed in China with the aim of expanding the company’s presence and impact in this market. In addition, Grupo Antolin increases its client portfolio in the country by becoming a priority partner of Evergrande Auto, the new car manufacturer that plans to launch six models of electric vehicles in the Chinese market.
The company has been chosen to exclusively develop several roof, window regulator, instrument panel, console and pillar projects for the three vehicle platforms that Evergrande is developing. The manufacturer’s goal is to produce one million electric vehicles by 2025.
Sales by geography
Sales in the different geographies in which the company operates also experienced a significant improvement in the first nine months of the year. Europe entered 1,270 million euros, compared to 1,931 million the previous year, while the NAFTA region contributed 965 million (1,484 million in 2019). For its part, Asia-Pacific had a slight decline in sales of 7% to 316 million euros, although it evolved better than initially expected due to the recovery of the Chinese market.
SOURCE: Grupo Antolin
