Significant material bottlenecks and the accompanying price increases led to a massive rise in sales and earnings last year for Swiss materials supplier Ems (Domat; www.ems-group.com).

Net sales revenue climbed by a quarter to CHF 2.25 bn (EUR 2.15 bn), EBIT rose 24% to CHF 696 mn, and net income grew 26% to CHF 553 mn, the polyamide specialist reported. Not only did the company exceed its pre-pandemic earnings – adjusted for currency influences – it also enjoyed the best results in its more than 85 year history.

Impetus came from new business, the expansion of speciality products, and further investment in additional production and storage space (see Plasteurope.com of 25.10.2021). Nearly 70% of its CHF 80 mn investment went to company activities in Switzerland, and around 20% was spent on its sites in the rest of Europe.

In the company’s biggest business area, High Performance Polymers, sales rose 26% to CHF 2.01 bn and EBIT jumped 35% to CHF 571 mn. It announced slightly slower growth in the second-largest business area, Specialty Chemicals, with sales up 18% to CHF 244 mn and EBIT 21% higher at CHF 69 mn.

For 2022, Ems expects growth to slow. The company hopes to reap positive effects from a further expansion of specialities in the main area of High Performance Polymers and from the continual development of new business.

Ems said it is working on the assumption that demand will receive support from supply bottlenecks, the high availability of financial resources for companies and consumers, and low unemployment.

It nevertheless said it expects a generally unstable economic situation. Risks include unresolved political conflicts and higher inflationary trends. It said upcoming changes in monetary policies are increasingly unsettling the fundamentally confident markets and consumers.

Changes are also coming to the resin maker’s upper echelon, with CFO Stefan Baumgärtner set to leave the company at the end of April. Oliver Flühler has been named as his replacement.