Cost-cutting is not over yet for Plastiques du Val de Loire (Plastivaloire, Langeais, France; www.groupe-plastivaloire.com). The French plastics processor, which is strongly focused on the automotive industry, reported a significant year-on-year increase in first-half turnover to EUR 420.8 mn from EUR 339.3 mn in the previous period in the fiscal year to 31 March, with EBITDA improving to EUR 33.4 mn.

But debt at the family-owned company, which operates around 700 injection moulding machines, remained high at EUR 244 mn, and the bottom line was a loss of EUR 13.7 mn. In the previous year, the shortfall totalled EUR 4.6 mn.

The current loss was said to be mainly due to write-offs of EUR 15.3 mn on “German activities”,  ie presumably the Karl Hess (Burbach-Wahlbach; www.hess-kunststofftechnik.de) injection moulding company acquired in 2014. Nevertheless, Plastivaloire has raised its revenue forecast for the entire 2022/23 business year from previously EUR 730 mn to now EUR 780 mn. The board has left the outlook for EBITDA margin at the previous year’s level of 7.4%.  

Related: Plastivaloire's French injection plant set to close

For the automotive division, which is responsible for 81.5% of turnover, CEO Antoine Doutriaux announed revenues of EUR 343 mn, an increase of 18.5%. The smaller industrial segment, which in the past often dazzled with much stronger growth, only grew 7.6% to EUR 77.9 mn this time.

Although the order intake of EUR 501 mn for the first seven months of 2023 almost reached the record level of the same period last year, profitability was “still strongly affected by the upward trend in prices for raw materials, energy and transport”, Doutriaux said. While it was possible to pass on about half of the price increase, the gross margin was said to have remained slightly lower. In response, Plastivaloire has not only restructured its credit lines, but also suspended dividend payments until 2027.