MARAZZI: Russian and Eastern European markets hold strong

At constant exchange rates Marazzi Group closed the first quarter of 2008 with results substantially in line with those of the corresponding quarter of 2007.

Sales revenues totalled 237.2 million euro compared to 246 million euro in the same period in 2007. The decrease was mainly due to the fall of the US dollar and the rouble against the euro, as well as the unfavourable climatic conditions and the 3.2% fewer working days.
Sales dropped in Western Europe (-7.4%) due to market contraction, particularly in Spain (-12.9%) and France (-7.7%). By contrast, the group reported strong growth in Eastern Europe (+25%) and in the Russian market (+23.3%), with increases in terms of both absolute values and margins.
The American market has continued to be affected by the property market crisis, although the fall in sales (-5.7% ) was smaller than the market contraction. Growth rates were good in the Middle and Far East markets. The turnover share in the sanitaryware segment is very satisfactory, 15.1% up on the first quarter of 2007.

EBITDA for the quarter dropped to 32.8 million euro (-18.8%). The lower profitability is due to the fall in sales of the European and US BUs as well as the higher costs deriving from the Group's investments in production and commercial areas in the USA, Russia and Italy.

EBIT fell by 26.7% over the same period the previous year due to a worsening of the currency situation.

The poor results affected net profits, which dropped by 57.5% to 4.6 million euro. However, the fiscal burden of the first quarter of the year was higher than the average for the whole year.