Profit crunch at Goldbach
Among other things, the withdrawal from loss-making businesses caused a drop in profits at Goldbach. Operating profit (EBIT) fell by 20 percent to 24.2 million Swiss francs. On an adjusted basis, net profit fell by 5 percent to 2.5 million Swiss francs.
This was announced by Goldbach on Tuesday. In the previous year, however, the advertising marketer had still reported a net loss of 16.1 million Swiss francs after value adjustments had dragged down the result. Sales, on the other hand, increased slightly in 2014 by 1.2 percent to 464 million Swiss francs. Goldbach said it wanted to focus on its core businesses as a marketing services provider in the Swiss, German, Austrian and Polish markets. The company had completed its withdrawal from Russia and Romania, as well as the closure of its agency business in Poland and the sale of its stake in Internet TV provider Wilmaa. The streamlining of the business portfolio had thus been completed. The expenses and value adjustments for these measures led to an extraordinary loss of CHF 4.4 million in 2014, the communiqué said.
In Switzerland, sales increased by 1.5 percent to 394 million Swiss francs. The increase was driven by a growing TV business. The radio business bottomed out and recovered significantly in the second half of the year with an increase of 18 percent. For the current year, Goldbach expects growth in sales from continuing operations and a substantial improvement in net profit. The company said this was due to improved profitability in its core business and the elimination of special costs. (SDA)
