(AOF) – Seb achieved sales in 2022 down 1.2% to 7.96 billion euros. The specialist in small household appliances and cookware recorded a drop in its activity of 4.7% like-for-like. “The group’s business held up well in most of the geographic areas in which it operates, and the fourth quarter showed a slightly more favorable business trend,” said Stanislas de Gramont, Group CEO. Over this period, revenues reached 2.4 billion euros, down 5.6% like-for-like.
Seb has confirmed its operating margin on activity target for 2022 and now estimates that it will be at the high end of the range of 7.0% to 7.5%.
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Key points
– World leader in small electrical appliances born in 1944 with a vast portfolio of brands (All-Clad, Krups, Lagostina, Moulinex, Rowenta, Supor, T-Fal, WMF, etc.), including 3 global and 14 regional;
– Revenues of €8.1 billion distributed between Western Europe for 39%, Asia (including China with 22%) for 30% and the Americas for 13%;
– Historical activity in cookware for 35%, behind small electrical appliances for 60%, diversification into professional products (8%) progressing rapidly;
– Business model favoring growth through the complementarities of brands and competitiveness through the manufacture of high value-added products in mature countries and the use of the circular economy;
– Capital locked by the founding families (41.91% of the capital, of which 32.81% acting in concert), followed by the Strategic Equity Fund (4.74%) and Peugeot Invest (4%), the Board of Directors of 17 members, chaired by Thierry de La Tour d’Artaise, Stanislas de Gramont taking over as general manager in July;
– Controlled balance sheet with shareholders’ equity of €3.1 billion against a debt of €2.5 billion, ie a leverage effect of 2.7 at the end of June.
Challenges
– Strategy based on organic growth, international expansion aimed at leadership in the countries, and competitiveness;
Innovation strategy:
– in industrial processes, to optimize technical platforms,
– in the offer, with 30% of the turnover achieved on products less than 18 months old and 3.5% of the turnover devoted to R&D (filing of 436 patents),
– partnerships with public research centers and, for 5 to 10% of sales, with industrialists with 7 research fields – food, robotics, chemistry, physics, physiology, social sciences and information technologies,
– investment, via the Seb Alliance fund, in innovative companies in well-being, connectivity and sustainable development, with a focus on online sales,
– opening of a global innovation center in Ecully;
– Environmental strategy aiming for carbon neutrality in 2050 with 2 levers:
– industrial process: eco-design, logistics,
– circular revolution (repairability, recycling of materials, rental, second life), actions for customers and society (SEB funds);
– Diversification into the electric bicycle -Angell in France-, and game consoles;
– Continued growth in the Professional business, bolstered by the purchase of the Spanish company Zummo, the world leader in fruit juice extraction machines.
Challenges
– Sensitivity of the euro vs the yuan, the real, the ruble, the Turkish lira and the dollar;
– Inflation of raw materials (50% of turnover with 1/4 of production located in Europe), soaring freight costs and bumpy supplies, resulting in an annual additional cost of €300 million in charges and tensions on working capital;
– Decline, accelerated in the 3rd quarter, of sales in the consumer division, affected by the loss of purchasing power, particularly in Russia-Ukraine and France-Germany;
– Restructuring of activities in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, the group’s leading market in Europe;
– After a drop in sales and a 40% drop in operating profit at the end of September, second downward revision of 2022 objectives: drop of 2.4% in sales to €7.9 billion and a reduced operating margin between 7 and 7.5%.
Find out more about the consumer goods sector
Series of laundry innovations
These innovations are surfing on the development of consumers’ ecological concerns. Thus the flagship brand of Procter & Gamble, Ariel, has launched a range comprising 40% more plant ingredients than conventional products. The brand, leader in the sector in France with around 24% market share, also relies on cardboard containers for its capsules. The latter often concentrate innovations because they constitute a very dynamic segment, with increases in value more than twice as high as the increase in the market as a whole.
Skip, a brand of the Unilever group, has also chosen the French market to launch a preview of new capsules and all-cardboard packaging. The Henkel group with its Le Chat brand has launched a detergent in the form of bars that reduce the use of plastic.