Amica sees no signs of demand recovery in white goods industry

"The first quarter is very volatile, just looking at the macro position, but in general, the macroeconomic situation through the tariff war, triggered by President Trump, is not conducive to stability, not conducive to a good economic situation also for the white goods industry," Michal Rakowski, Amica Group's deputy CEO and CFO, told the financial results conference.

"So I can't report any good news at the moment, related to the change in demand. This market is either at the level of the market in the first quarter of last year or worse (...) depending on the country. (...) There are no breakthroughs of any kind, there are no signals of a recovery in demand," he added.

The deputy CEO believes that tariffs in the China-US dealings could have a positive impact on Amica's operations.

"The Amica Group today does not sell to the United States, so directly any changes in tariffs between the States and the European Union, including Poland, do not affect us. On the other hand, the whole macro situation related to customs duties in the China-US configuration, may have an impact on the group's situation," he said.

"Here we see the risks on the one hand, but on the other hand the possible benefits we can draw from this situation. Lower route occupancy between China and the United States means that resources will be freed up in terms of transport to Europe from China, and this could have a positive impact on the Amica group," said the deputy CEO.

The deputy CEO said that Amica had improved its market share in Poland throughout 2024.

"The market in individual categories was recording declines, either large or smaller. We as the Amica Group, which can be seen from the results, improved our revenue value by 2 percent. Looking at what declines the white goods market was recording, I think this is a good, satisfactory result," said the deputy CEO.

"The first three quarters were on an upward trend. The fourth quarter was generally difficult for the market, also worse for Amica, but we are consistently building these shares, and looking at our industry statistics, we have managed to improve them in 2024," he added.

The Amica Group recorded close to PLN 2.6 billion (EUR 619.8 mln) in revenue in 2024, with one-third of its domestic appliance sales in the Polish market, which grew by 2 percent year on year.

The other sales areas (Western Europe 42 percent of sales, Eastern Europe 11 percent, North Europe 9 percent, South Europe 5 percent) recorded double-digit declines.

Total consolidated sales decreased by 9 percent year on year and the group increased its EBITDA margin to 4.9 percent, achieving a PLN 125.4 million (EUR 29.9 mln) profit at this level.

Annual gross profit increased by 22 percent year on year to PLN 28 million (EUR 6.7 mln). The company also recorded an increase in annual consolidated net profit, to PLN 13.2 million (EUR 3.15 mln).

mbi/ asa/ han/