Gurit reported net sales of CHF 268.8 million for the first nine months of 2017. This represents an increase of 0.7% over net sales of CHF 272.8 million for the first nine months of 2016. The business unit Composite Materials achieved net sales of CHF 185.3 million for the first nine months of 2017 compared to net sales of CHF 205.2 million for the same period of 2016.
The decrease of -9.7% mainly results from the demand halt in the Indian wind energy market from Q2-2017 onwards, which could not be offset by other wind material regions. The business unit Composite Components reported net sales of CHF 17.2 million for the first nine months of 2017 compared to CHF 12.8 million in the first nine months of 2016. This represents an increase of 43.2%. In Tooling, sales of wind turbine blade moulds and related equipment further increased to CHF 66.3 million for the first nine months of 2017. For the full year 2017, Gurit expects to achieve a low single-digit revenue growth despite the Indian wind energy market resuming demand in early 2018, only. Operating profit margin for fiscal year 2017 is expected to reach the upper end of the guided range of 8 to 10 percent of net sales, including the recently announced restructuring cost.
