Bufab has delivered its highest ever sales, operating profit and earnings per share for 2021. The Group completed three strategic acquisitions with combined annual sales of more than SEK 500 million and continued to invest in its own operations to ensure future sustainable and profitable growth.
As expected, the strong demand continued in the fourth quarter. Bufab delivered a strong organic growth of 19% explained by solid underlying demand in all segments, price increases and increased market shares.
“We also reported a strong gross margin, driven by higher volumes and efforts to pass on increased raw materials and freight prices to customers. The high level of demand, together with the continued challenging situation in the supply chain, places high pressure on our organisation, but our assessment is that the situation improved somewhat during the fourth quarter,” comments Johan Lindqvist, president and CEO at Bufab Group.
The share of operating expenses increased during the quarter, but adjusted for acquisitions and remeasured additional purchase considerations, the share of operating expenses is at a stable and continued low level, which contributed to the strong result. This was primarily due to effective cost control, but also due to continued low level of activity in terms of travel, customer events, training, and trade fairs as a result of the pandemic. The challenge going forward will be to meet the normalisation of the cost level by further increasing productivity.
Overall, operating profit increased by 40% and the margin by 0.8 percentage points. Adjusted for acquisitions and remeasured additional purchase considerations the operating profit increased by 44% and the margin by 2.2 percentage points.
“Our strong results the last quarters are partly due to the investments in processes and digital tools that we made in recent years. This has increased Bufab’s productivity. Moving forward, we will continue our investments in these areas, but also in areas such as sustainability. We also see the need to strengthen the organisation, particularly in sales, to continue creating profitable growth and increase our market share,” explains Johan Lindqvist.
“If we look ahead, we see that the strong demand we noted during the fourth quarter continued into January. Together with stable order intake, this indicates a continued positive trend in demand during the first quarter of 2022. The challenges continue to be the handling of the strained supply chain and to offset the increased inflationary pressure through higher productivity.”
Having spent a decade in the fastener industry experiencing every facet – from steel mills, fastener manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, as well as machinery builders and plating + coating companies, Claire has developed an in-depth knowledge of all things fasteners.
Alongside visiting numerous companies, exhibitions and conferences around the world, Claire has also interviewed high profile figures – focusing on key topics impacting the sector and making sure readers stay up to date with the latest developments within the industry.
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