German injection moulding company Gaudlitz (Coburg; www.gaudlitz.de) is still in the red. This was revealed by the latest quarterly figures from its parent company H&R Group (Salzbergen / Germany; www.hur.com), whose Plastics segment that Gaudlitz manages posted an operating loss of EUR 0.1m in the first quarter of 2020 after reporting an operating income of EUR 0.1m in Q1 2019. The division’s sales fell 4.3% to EUR 11.5m.

Following job cuts and a restructuring programme at Gaudlitz, H&R had expected better development. “Due to the many closures of car manufacturers and auto components suppliers, the cost benefits that would have resulted from these measures were unable to materialise,” said H&R’s quarterly report. The group is primarily oriented to chemical and pharmaceutical speciality products.

Considering that the coronavirus-related production stoppages in the automotive industry (see Plasteurope.com of 04.06.2020) affected above all the second quarter, the segment’s results in Q2 are unlikely to be much better. In the first half of April, Gaudlitz introduced short-time working and brought production virtually to a standstill. In addition to the auto industry, the Coburg-based company supplies medical technology and industrial customers.

Last year, sales of H&R’s Plastics division plummeted 21% to EUR 43.2m. This was compounded by negative one-off effects of EUR 3.2m due to restructuring measures in Coburg, so that EBITDA ended up at minus EUR 4.9m (up EUR 3m in 2018).