Recticel N.V./S.A. Business Report FY ended 2012 - MarkLines Automotive Industry Portal

Recticel N.V./S.A. Business Report FY ended Dec. 2012

Business Highlights

Financial Overview

(in million euros)

	FY ended Dec. 31, 2012	FY ended Dec. 31, 2011	Rate of change (%)	Factors
Overall
Sales	1,319.5	1,378.1	(4.3)	-
EBITDA	81.1	88.8	(8.7)	-
Automotive
Sales	289.2	324.3	(10.8)	1)
EBITDA	22.5	24.4	(7.8)	-

Factors
1) Automotive
-Sales in Automotive decreased by 10.8% year-on-year, due to a substantially reduced car production in Europe.

Sales structure of Automotive division

	(%)
Interiors	48.4
Seating	47.6
Exteriors	4.1

-Sales in "Interiors" decreased by 14.6% year-on-year. This drop was expected as some programs, mainly in the USA, were phasing-out. The interiors sub-segment resisted better than the market, because it's positioned on the premium car segment in Asia and Germany.

-Sales in "Seating" increased by 6.2% year-on-year, performing slightly better than the general automotive market in Europe, which dropped by more than 7.5%. Sales comes from Proseat, the 51/49 joint venture from Recticel and Woodbridge.

-Sales in "Exteriors" decreased by 14.3% year-on-year. Since the sale of the compounding activities to BASF in 2008, sales are limited to compounds produced for the account of BASF under a toll agreement.

Recent Years

Contracts

Factory	Product	Application	Car maker	Car model	Year of Sale
Ningbo, China	Polyurethane	Instrument panel skin	Volvo	"S60"	2013-2018
Ningbo, China	Light polyurethane	Instrument panel skin	Volkswagen	"Golf A Plus"	2014-2021
Mlada Boleslav, Czech	Light polyurethane	Dash board skin	Volvo	"XC90"	2016-2023
Mlada Boleslav, Czech	Light polyurethane	Glove box skin	Volvo	"XC90"	2016-2023
Mlada Boleslav, Czech	Light polyurethane	Door panel skin	Volvo	"XC90"	2016-2023
-	Polyurethane	Instrument panel skin	BMW	"3 series"	2012
-	Light polyurethane	Door panel skin	BMW	"3 series"	2012
Beijing, China	Polyurethane	Dash board skin	Mercedes-Benz	"E-Class"	2012-2016
-	Polyurethane	Dash board skin	Mercedes-Benz	"C-Class"	-2014
-	Polyurethane	Door panel skin	Mercedes-Benz	"C-Class"	-2014
-	Polyurethane	Dash board skin	Porsche	"Cajun"	2013-

Plant Restructuring

-Nov., 2012: Clarkson factory (U.S., Michigan) of Interior division was closed.
-Apr., 2012: Unterriexingen factory (Germany) of Interior division was closed.
-Feb., 2012: Beijing factory (China) of Interior division was opened.

R&D

R&D Expenditure

(in million euros)

	FY ended Dec. 31, 2012	FY ended Dec. 31, 2011	FY ended Dec. 31, 2010
Overall	14.1	14.1	13.7
% of Sales	1.1	1.0	1.0

R&D Structure

-The Company has an International Development Center (IDC) in Wetteren, Belgium. In Feb. 2013, new state-of-the-art research and test labs opened on the same site.

R&D Activities

-The Company puts high priority on the R&D of weight reduction of mold skin and the use of renewable raw materials from natural and / or recycled resources.

Product Development

-In July 2012, the Company introduced Light polyurethane "Colo-Sense Lite" and "CompoLite" in BAIKA-Congress held in Ingolstadt, Germany. With "Colo-Sense Lite" weight reduction will be more than 35% compared to conventional thermoplastic slush skin.