German automotive OEM supplier Grammer (Amberg; www.grammer.com) has issued a profit warning for 2018, citing declining sales revenue in its Automotive division up to the end of the third quarter. The announcement helps to explain the collective resignation of the company’s executive board announced in late September – see Plasteurope.com of 27.09.2018 – hardly a month after a bitterly fought takeover battle that culminated in Chinese OEM supplier Ningbo Jifeng Auto Parts (Ningbo, Zhejiang / China; www.nb-jf.com) becoming the new majority shareholder – see Plasteurope.com of 30.08.2018. The company also points to a one-off transaction expense related to the takeover.

In its latest financial outlook, Grammer said it expects full-year sales to fall “at least” EUR 50m short of the EUR 1.85 bn forecast earlier – this especially in view of the fact that the usual autumn upswing in new car buying has failed to materialise. Full-year operating profit is projected to be “substantially lower” than in 2017 and at EUR 66.5m will not match management’s earlier guidance.

Up to the end of September 2018, both sales and earnings have lagged expectations. Preliminary figures indicate that EBIT averaged over the year's first nine months came in slightly below the EUR 58.6m posted in the same period of 2017, while sales revenue of EUR 27m fell far more than 40% short of the EUR 45.8m tallied in last year’s first three quarters. Grammer said it plans to detail revised revenue and earnings guidance for 2018 in its Q3 report, due to be published on 13 November 2018.