Michel Denis, President & Chief Executive Officer, stated "First-quarter revenues recorded an increase of 3% compared with the first quarter of 2023. This development was achieved in an environment of slowing markets.
In the North American market, our business plan has to contend with a growing wait-and-see attitude among customers and a very gradual ramp-up of our operations. On the other hand, European markets turned out to be more dynamic than expected.
With the cancellation of allocations for our customers and the reopening of order intake for all our dealers, back to normal for all our operations has almost been achieved.
Our order intake is experiencing the opposite phenomenon to the one we experienced between 2020 and 2022, when the lengthening of delivery times pushed customers to anticipate their orders to secure their future revenues, and led us to an order book of almost two years of activity.
Today, the shortening of delivery times enables them to order at short deadlines, a phenomenon amplified by the low visibility of markets. As a result, our order book now represents around 9 months of activity.
All these elements enable us to confirm our expectation of stable revenues in 2024 compared with 2023, and recurring operating profit of over 6.5% of revenues."
Business review by division
The Product Division reported quarterly revenues of €583m, up 4% compared with Q1 2023 (+3% at constant exchange rates and constant scope). The division is aligning its activities with the level of activity in the markets, with very different dynamics depending on the product lines, within a general context of improved supply chain fluidity.
With revenues of €103m, the Services & Solutions Division (S&S) recorded a flat level of activity compared with Q1 2023 (and identical at constant exchange rates and scope), reflecting the low level of activity in the markets.
