Top year 2018

The EBITDA increased from €76.1 million to €171.1 million. Reinhard Binder, owner and managing director of the Binderholz GmbH, puts the result into perspective: "An EBITDA margin of 17% has been quite common for the large Austrian wood materials producers for quite a while already. The paper industry has even higher figures. Even the big state forestry agencies are earning margins like that. And in the long run, this is also necessary in order to invest and remain competitive. Normally, us solid wood processors are rather used to single-digit EBITDA figures. 2018 was definitely an exceptional year."

Last year, Binderholz generated a turnover of almost €1 billion. For one, the jump in sales of the Binder Beteiligungsverwaltung GmbH, Fügen, can be attributed to the integration of Klenk Holz that was included for the full fiscal year for the first time in 2018. But this alone does not explain the additional turnover of €414 million. Almost all business segments "overfulfilled their plan" - in other words: Last year was better than could have beeen expected.

Highest ordinary activities rate in the whole sector

"Due to the first-time consolidation of Klenk Holz including subsidiaries as of November 1st 2017, the comparability with previous years is limited," Binder explains. In any case, Klenk Holz was by no means only a source of revenues but also of earnings in the first year. The result of ordinary activities in the holding grew by more than 173% to a total of €128 million. This is €81 million more than in 2017. If this result is put in relation to sales, the ordinary activities rate amounts to 13% - this is the best performance of all surveyed Austrian timber enterprises.

Making full use of the sawing season

Binderholz considers its annual business report in line with the general trend since 2018 was a very good year for sawmills: Last year was characterized by high roundwood accrual, sinking roundwood prices and a stable sawn timber price. Material costs dropped only minimally in relation to sales from 53% to 50% (in absolute terms, they increased from €311 to 504 million). According to Reinhard Binder's assessment, the current year 2019 is a significantly more difficult situation. "Starting from a general weakening, sales in the packaging sector are collapsing."

New markets - geographically and functionally

The Tyrolean timber enterprise imposed its own business model on Klenk Holz, formerly Germany's biggest sawmill group, in 2018. At the same time, it expanded its scope of activities throughout the entire group. In their words: "The internal further processing division of the Binder group furthermore ensured that capacities of individual production units could be utilized throughout the entire year. The price level developed in accordance with demand." Binderholz invested €60.2 million last year. The biggest single investment was used for Binderholz Nordic. At the company location in Lieksa/FI, a new sawing line was built.