The Azkoyen Group, a leading Spanish technology multinational, which offers automated products and services, designed to bring unique experiences to people in their daily lives, has achieved a net turnover of 114.4 million euros, experiencing a decrease of 21.6% compared to the previous year, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its sound financial position, geographic diversification, and its ability to innovate and adapt its offer to the “new normal”, has enabled the Azkoyen Group to achieve a considerable improvement in its business figures since the pandemic began, which is helping to reduce the impact, maintaining its gross margin at 42.9%.
The reduction of fixed costs by 11.6% has also contributed to the achievement of an EBITDA of 16.3 million euros, 14.3% of sales. This cost optimisation has not affected research and development projects, demonstrating the Azkoyen Group’s commitment to innovation.
In addition, the management of working capital, the prioritisation of investments and the exceptional modification of the 2019 profit proposal not to distribute dividends in 2020, has enabled the net financial debt to be reduced by 72.5%, bringing it down to 2.9 million euros. As at 31 December, the Group had a liquidity of 21.1 million euros.
Consequently, the consolidated profit after tax for the 2020 financial year amounted to 6.4 million euros.
In terms of consolidated turnover by region, during the 2020 financial year, Spain accounted for 15.4% of the total volume, Germany for 35.2%, Belgium for 10.2%, Italy 8.9%, the rest of the European Union 15.7%, the United Kingdom 8.7% and other countries accounted for 5.9%.
Because technology knows no frontiers, and neither do people’s needs, the Azkoyen Group works every day with a global perspective of its products and services in more than 95 countries on all five continents.
Evolution of the sales by divisions
The Time & Security Division (Technology and Security systems) recorded the smallest reduction of all the Azkoyen Group’s divisions, with a drop in sales of 6.8%, reaching 53.7 million euros. This division continues to successfully pursue the commercial strategy of the last few years geared towards more profitable projects, more focused on proprietary solutions and with less use of third-party products and subcontractors, supported by a significant component of regular maintenance business. In relation to the COVID-19 situation, it is important to note that the access control and time & attendance solutions from the primion Subgroup are already in place to meet the requirements of the “new normality”.
Regarding the Payment Technologies division (Electronic means of payment), sales started to fall in March before gradually recovering and finally reaching 29.8 million euros. It is worth mentioning the considerable efforts in R&D, concentrating on the successful Cashlogy series, the automated cash control solution that helps to manage the business more effectively and enhances in-store hygiene, as well as the launch of the new cashless payment system, Dynamos, and the new contactless credit card reader PMT Nebular Pay, both under the Coges brand.
Meanwhile, Coffee & Vending Systems after excellent growth in the first two months of the year, experienced a reduction in sales as of March due to the impact of the pandemic. However, the year-end sales figure reached 30.8 million euros. The Azkoyen Group has never stopped innovating and working every day to satisfy the needs of customers and users. With this in mind, the Azkoyen Group has launched its new Vitro M5 coffee machine with fresh milk which includes two patents that are revolutionising the coffee market: MIA, using micro-air injection technology to produce drinks with a perfect fresh milk froth and Distance Selection, the drink selection technology at a distance of 2 cm from the surface of the machine.
Key prospects
For 2021, as a whole, sales revenues, gross margins and EBITDA are expected to grow.
Furthermore, investments in both intangible assets (e.g. development projects of the primion Subgroup and computer applications) and tangible assets are being stepped up in the respective businesses, with an aggregate budget of 6.4 million euros for the 2021 financial year.
The Azkoyen Group continues with its strategy of geographical and business diversification, as well as its commitment to innovation in order to accelerate growth in 2021.
To this end, we are ramping up the sales force in those markets with the greatest potential and strengthening the R&D&I and marketing departments of the various divisions.