Rieter expects negative net result for the year

(CONNECT) Rieter faces a challenging market environment. Due to trade policy uncertainties, customers postponed their investment decisions until the 2026 financial year, as the global textile machinery manufacturer from Winterthur reported in a press release. As a result, Rieter’s order intake was 11 percent lower than in the same period of the previous year, at 559.3 million Swiss francs.

Global sales decreased by 22 per cent over the same period to 457.7 million francs. Rieter cites longer book-to-bill cycles than in the previous year as among the reasons for this decline. The full-year sales forecast has been lowered from 750 to 800 million francs to around 700 million francs.

Despite lower sales volumes, Rieter still expects to achieve an operating profit or at least break even at EBIT level. Specifically, an EBIT margin of between 0 percent and 4 percent has been predicted. Rieter is expecting the net result to be negative, however. In the previous year, the company had still realized a profit of 10.4 million francs.

Rieter has made significant progress in the implementation of its strategy. According to the press release, the company is the only systems provider that covers the complete manufacturing process from fiber preparation through to the four end-spinning technologies. Since the introduction of the performance program, the company has reduced overhead costs by more than 100 million francs. The acquisition of Barmag from Oerlikon is expected to be completed before the end of this year. ce/hs