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25 Sep 2024
French laser firm attributes lower earnings partly to reorganization of its lidar systems business.
Lumbird, the France-headquartered laser company, has confirmed a slight hit to its profitability after half-yearly sales in its photonics division fell 6 per cent year-on-year.
For the first six months of 2024, Lumibird’s total sales figure of €98 million was up very slightly on the equivalent period last year.
However, once the additional contribution of recent acquisition Convergent Photonics is excluded, that figure drops to €94.2 million - comprising €43.4 million from Lumibird’s photonics division, and €50.8 million from its medical business.
Both those figures are down on the prior year, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) trimmed to €12.3 million. On the bottom line, which does include both the Convergent sales and costs, Lumibird swung to a small net loss, compared with the profit of €0.5 million posted this time last year.
Lidar reorganization
Commenting on the trends impacting its various product lines, Lumibird said its medical division saw a gradual recovery in Asian markets, mainly in China and Korea, alongside slight growth in EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and the Americas.
“The regulatory and administrative obstacles identified at the end of 2023 are gradually being overcome, for example by obtaining CE marking for C-DIAG (dry eye) in May 2024 and authorization for our distributor in Brazil to re-import Optotek brand products,” stated the firm.
Lumbird’s photonics division, which sells a wide range of lasers, lidar systems, and military rangefinders, reported strong growth in Europe driven by the buoyancy of the defense and space market, but a fall in demand in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions.
“The Lidar Systems business was severely impacted by a commercial and industrial reorganization that took longer than expected,” it admitted, with the division also suffering from order backlogs.
“The increase in EBITDA for the Medical division, due to an improved gross margin and tight control of operating costs, was not enough to offset the decline in EBITDA for the Photonics division, which was mainly due to a lower gross margin, despite a reduction in operating costs.”
Three-year plan
With several years of major capital expenditure intended to improve production facilities now behind it, Lumbird is confident in its overall financial position. The company’s latest balance sheet shows a net debt of €90 million, while cash and equivalent assets of €56.2 million are down from €63.9 million a year ago.
And despite the mixed performance in the first half of 2024, the firm’s management team still expects to post sales growth of 5 per cent for the full year, with the inclusion of Convergent’s contribution.
For 2023, full-year sales amounted to just under €204 million, suggesting that this year’s total will remain well below the €250 million annual turnover figure that Lumibird had been targeting for the past couple of years.
The firm’s latest objective is to achieve 8 per cent compound annual growth for its sales revenues through 2026, implying that the €250 million target should be exceeded by then.
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