According to the preliminary figures for 2024, Krones continued its stable and profitable growth in the past financial year, despite difficult macroeconomic conditions. As a leading supplier of filling and packaging technology, the company operates in markets that are less dependent on economic cycles.
Revenue in 2024 exceeded the five billion euro mark for the first time and increased by 12.1% year on year, from €4,720.7 million to €5,293.6 million. Krones thus achieved its growth forecast of 9% to 13%. The stable material availability had a positive impact on production efficiency in 2024 and thus on total output and sales. In the previous year, production output was affected at times by tight supplies of electrical components.
Despite critical overall economic conditions, customers in the international beverage industry remain keen to invest. In the fourth quarter of 2024, order intake increased slightly compared to the preceding quarter (€1,323.2 million) to €1,344.6 million, and was 6.5% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2023. Compared to the previous year’s high level of €5,376.6 million, order intake increased by 1.6% in the full year 2024 to €5,460.7 million. Due to the strong development in customer orders, Krones’ order backlog increased further in 2024 despite the significant revenue growth. At the end of 2024, the company had an order backlog totalling €4,289.5 million. This means that the order backlog increased by 4.1% compared to the previous year (€4,122.3 million).
EBITDA margin improved to 10.1% (previous year: 9.7%)
Despite persistently high material and labour costs, Krones once again increased its profitability in 2024, as forecast. High production capacity utilisation and the consistent implementation of the strategic measures to improve the company’s efficiency and cost structure contributed significantly here. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went up in 2024 by 17.5% year on year, from €457.3 million to €537.1 million. The EBITDA margin rose from 9.7% to 10.1%. This placed it within the full-year 2024 guidance range of 9.8% to 10.3%.
Earnings before taxes (EBT) increased slightly more than EBITDA in 2024, improving by 22.9% from €310.5 million in the previous year to €381.6 million. The EBT margin climbed to 7.2% (previous year: 6.6%). Krones generated a 23.4% higher consolidated net income of €277.2 million in 2024 (previous year: €224.6 million). This corresponds to earnings per share of €8.77 (previous year: €7.11).
Krones significantly increases free cash flow, ROCE likewise improved
Krones spent a total of €179.4 million on acquisitions in 2024 (previous year: €114.5 million). The majority of this related to the acquisition of Netstal Maschinen AG. Despite the cash outflows for M&A activities, the company improved its free cash flow in 2024 by €214.5 million to €113.2 million (previous year: minus €101.3 million). Free cash flow before acquisitions increased even more significantly, by €279.3 million to €292.5 million (previous year: €13.2 million). Krones considerably improved the working capital to revenue ratio to 17.0% (previous year: 17.8%). Return on capital employed (ROCE) increased substantially from 16.3% in 2024 to 18.2%. The ROCE target for 2024 was 17% to 19%.
