Gelsenkirchen, Germany - - The first nine months of 2011 have been successful for polyurethane hose specialist Masterflex AG, with third quarter sales of Euro 40.1 million outperforming the previous year by 16 percent.
Earnings (EBIT) for Q3 amounted to Euro 5.9 million as at 30 Sept 2011 (previous year: EUR4.7 million; forecast: EUR7.0 million).
Masterflex ceo Dr Andreas Bastin commented: "2011 has gone very well so far: a good order situation, sound operating earnings, all activities outside HTS sold, further progress in internationalisation, innovation process integrated internally and good staff hired for ongoing growth."
But Bastin noted concerns: "What wasn't so good were the signals from politics and the general sentiment, which cannot be completely disregarded …"
The managing director said that, "Against this downbeat backdrop and taking into account the upfront costs for our internationalisation activities, we have retained our forecast. Thanks to our product range and the many industries to which we can offer value-added compared to conventional solutions with our high-tech hoses and connector components, we are gradually becoming even more independent of individual economic cycles. We intend to continue advancing this broad positioning in order to grow steadily but surely in the long term.'
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