Polyurethane foam producer Recticel (Brussels / Belgium; www.recticel.com) has posted declines in sales and earnings figures for the third year in a row. The company said operating income in 2020 declined to EUR 58.8m, a drop of 17% versus the year-earlier period. Turnover decreased 6% to EUR 829m. The increase in net profit, from EUR 24.8m to EUR 63.2m, resulted from an inflow of EUR 68.7m from discontinued operations.

CEO Olivier Chapelle cited the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the weak performance, noting its negative impact on the first half of financial year 2020. In addition, numerous forces majeures led to supply bottlenecks for polyols and isocyanates, and continue to do so, which was also a burden: “Our suppliers took advantage of this situation to implement price increases at a historically high pace, which led to new all-time highs. In response, we have been forced to mitigate these cost increases with corresponding selling-price increases.” Chapelle said he expects the situation to first normalise in Q3 2021.

Following the divestment of the automotive interiors segment, and the exit from the Eurofoam joint venture (see Plasteurope.com of 06.07.2020), Chapelle has announced the sale of the bedding unit. Currently, Recticel is still one of the largest European mattress manufacturers with its “Schlaraffia” brand. In addition to the production of mattresses and bed-frame components, Recticel also sells entire frames and complete bed lines. At EUR 241.8m, sales in the segment in 2020 were generally stable at the previous year’s level, while EBITDA grew 7% to EUR 17.1m.

The acquisition of FoamPartner (see Plasteurope.com of 16.11.2020), which opens up new opportunities for the company, is said to be ground-breaking for Recticel’s future: “This transaction will create a truly global player in engineered foams,” Chapelle said. The acquisition is to be assigned to the group segment for flexible foams. In 2020, this segment posted sales of EUR 322m, a decline of 10.8%, and EBITDA of EUR 27.4m, 20% below the previous year’s pre-tax profit.

The business with polyurethane and polyisocyanurate (PU/PIR) thermal insulation panels for buildings in the insulation segment reportedly generated stable sales of EUR 249.2m in the previous year. The EBITDA of EUR 27.5m represented a decline of 12.5% compared to the previous year.