The Austrian fiber manufacturer Lenzing AG was able to draw a positive balance of the past year on Thursday. “Lenzing can look forward to a strong financial year. Demand for our wood-based, biodegradable specialty fibers from the brands Tencel, Lenzing, Ecovero and Veocel continued to develop very positively in 2021,” said interim CEO Cord Prinzhorn in a statement.
In the past year, the group generated sales of EUR 2.19 billion, exceeding the 2020 level by 34.4 percent. In addition to the “predominantly positive market environment”, the high demand for environmentally friendly special fibers contributed to the strong growth, the company explained. The share of specialty fibers in total sales increased to 72.3 percent.
Despite the increase in energy, raw material and logistics costs over the course of the year, the Group also made significant progress in terms of earnings: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were almost twice as high as in 2020 at EUR 362.9 million ( +88.7 percent). Lenzing thus returned to the profit zone. The bottom line was a surplus of 127.7 million euros, after a loss of 10.6 million euros had to be booked in the previous year.
Despite numerous challenges and uncertainties, the group intends to further improve its earnings in the current year: it forecast that “EBITDA will be well above the 2021 level”. A new boss should contribute to this: On Wednesday, Lenzing announced that Stephan Sielaff would lead the company as CEO from April 1st. Prinzhorn is moving back to the supervisory board and is to chair the committee in the future.