Supply Chain Solutions segment
Business performance and order intake
Order intake in the Supply Chain Solutions segment rose by 24.2 percent to €3,267.4 million in the first nine months of 2021 (Q1–Q3 2020: €2,631.5 million), despite negative currency effects of €94.4 million. The segment’s order intake in the third quarter reached a record high of €1,398.7 million. In the project business (business solutions), the effects of the increased volume of orders during the reporting period – especially in e-commerce and in the general merchandise and food industries – were plain to see. The service business also registered a further increase.
in € million |
Q3 |
Q3 |
Change |
Q1 – Q3 |
Q1 – Q3 |
Change |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Order intake |
1,398.7 |
887.6 |
57.6% |
3,267.4 |
2,631.5 |
24.2% |
||
Total revenue |
937.0 |
664.0 |
41.1% |
2,794.2 |
1,879.8 |
48.6% |
||
Order book1 |
|
|
|
3,670.7 |
3,071.1 |
19.5% |
||
EBITDA |
126.4 |
87.4 |
44.6% |
383.0 |
230.5 |
66.1% |
||
Adjusted EBITDA |
126.8 |
87.5 |
44.8% |
386.2 |
231.7 |
66.7% |
||
EBIT |
87.6 |
50.3 |
74.1% |
271.7 |
117.1 |
> 100% |
||
Adjusted EBIT |
109.3 |
71.9 |
52.0% |
336.6 |
184.0 |
82.9% |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
Adjusted EBITDA margin |
13.5% |
13.2% |
– |
13.8% |
12.3% |
– |
||
Adjusted EBIT margin |
11.7% |
10.8% |
– |
12.0% |
9.8% |
– |
||
|
||||||||
Revenue
The total revenue of the Supply Chain Solutions segment jumped by 48.6 percent year on year to €2,794.2 million (Q1–Q3 2020: €1,879.8 million). The segment increased its revenue from the long-term project business (business solutions) by 63.7 percent, primarily by working through the order book that it had built up in 2020 and maintaining a consistently high level of capacity utilization. The service business (customer services) generated a rise of 8.5 percent in the nine-month period, but its share of external segment revenue declined to 20.3 percent (Q1–Q3 2020: 27.7 percent) owing to the faster rate of growth for revenue from business solutions. Negative currency effects – particularly in connection with the US dollar – reduced segment revenue by €90.5 million.
Earnings
The adjusted EBIT of the Supply Chain Solutions segment amounted to €336.6 million, which was €152.6 million higher than the figure for the first nine months of the previous year (Q1–Q3 2020: €184.0 million). Overall, the gross margin deteriorated slightly, primarily due to the relatively weak growth of the high-margin service business, but also as a result of the higher cost of materials and supply bottlenecks affecting bought-in parts. However, this was more than made up for by the moderate rise in other functional costs, and the adjusted EBIT margin therefore improved to 12.0 percent (Q1–Q3 2020: 9.8 percent). After taking into account non-recurring items and purchase price allocation effects, EBIT came to €271.7 million (Q1–Q3 2020: €117.1 million).
Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €386.2 million (Q1–Q3 2020: €231.7 million); the adjusted EBITDA margin rose to 13.8 percent (Q1–Q3 2020: 12.3 percent).