Plymouth, Michigan — Sales at Adient, the automotive interiors and seating company fell by 23% in 2020to $12.6 bn, as coronavirus shutdowns and curtailed consumer spending hit its operations.
Adjusted EBITDA across the business fell, but not by as much. The 2020 figure of $884m is down 14.8% from 2019’s $884m.
Del Grosso: More cashflow in 2021
The company said it started 2020 with significant year-over-year earnings growth, underpinned by its turnaround plan. This helped business performance improve, until coronavirus struck in the second and third quarters of the year. ‘[This stopped virtually all vehicle production in the US and Europe,’ it said.
As the automotive industry and Adient got back to work in the third quarter, the business recovery continued. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was up 33% in the third quarter on the 2019 quarter, at $287m.
Looking ahead to next year, CEO Doug Del Grosso said: 'The company expects improved earnings and cash flow in financial year 2021 compared with 2020.'
Adient's financial position was sufficiently strong in the third quarter of the year to start paying down some of its debt.
Looking at the individual business units, sales in the Americas fell 24.4% between 2019 and 2020 to $5889m. Adjusted EBITDA rose 8.6% to $228m in 2020.
In the EMEA business, sales declined by 22.9% in 2020 to $5148m, and adjusted EBITDA fell further by 37.3% and to $101m in 2020.
Sales in the company's Asia business shrank to $1822m in 2020 period, while adjusted EBITDA fell 17.3% to $424m in 2020, from $513m in 2019.
