Exel Composites' Business Review Q1 2025: A good start to 2025: Order intake, revenue and adjusted operating profit continued to improve
EXEL COMPOSITES PLC BUSINESS REVIEW 8 MAY 2025 at 9:00 am EEST
This release is a summary of Exel Composites’ Business Review for January–March 2025. The complete report is attached to this release as a pdf file and available on the company’s website at investors.exelcomposites.com/publications/.
Figures in parentheses refer to the corresponding period in the previous year, unless otherwise specified.
Q1 2025 in brief
- Order intake increased by 20.9% to EUR 34.6 million (28.6)
- Revenue increased by 8.2% to EUR 25.3 million (23.4)
- Operating profit increased to EUR 0.1 million (-0.6) and operating profit margin to 0.4% (-2.4%)
- Adjusted operating profit increased to EUR 0.7 million (-0.6) and adjusted operating profit margin to 2.7% (-2.4%)
- Earnings per share amounted to EUR -0.02 (-0.05)
Guidance for the full year 2025 (unchanged)
Exel Composites expects revenue to increase and adjusted operating profit to increase significantly in 2025 compared to 2024. (Published on 14 February 2025)
Paul Sohlberg, President and CEO:
This year started well for Exel. Our order intake, revenue and adjusted operating profit all continued to improve in line with our guidance. The business climate also improved from the previous quarter. Our activities with customers were successful across many of our customer industries, leading to an order intake growth of 21% year on year and coming in at EUR 34.6 million for the quarter. At the end of March, our order backlog stood at EUR 43.3 million, 24% above the comparison period.
Strategic transformation progressing well
During the quarter, we continued to progress our strategic transformation. An important milestone for the Industrial Solutions Business Unit was securing the approximately EUR 10 million order from a major wind turbine manufacturer in South Asia in February for our new factory in India. We are currently working on ramping up deliveries and expect to progressively increase them in the second and third quarters, continuing into 2026.
Another important milestone took place in the Engineered Solutions Business Unit where the closure of our factory in Oudenaarde, Belgium was completed. Production was concluded at the end of March. In line with the requests from many of our customers, production of their profiles has been transferred to our other factories.
Financial performance improved
In the first quarter, our revenue grew by 8% year on year and amounted to EUR 25.3 million despite the impact of strikes in Finland and some delays in deliveries due to the closure of the factory in Belgium.
Two of our strategic focus areas and customer industries, Transportation, and Buildings and infrastructure, reported revenue growth. We are pleased with the growth of 38% year on year in our Transportation customer industry, where deliveries grew to customers preparing for the closure of the Belgium factory. It was also encouraging to see the continued positive development in Buildings and infrastructure, where we saw revenue increase by 13% due to acquisition of several new customers and market progressively improving after a multiple-year slowdown.
Going forward, we expect growth in the Energy customer industry to start showing as we begin to recognize revenue from the spar cap deliveries from India. We are also seeing increased activity and customer interest in defense-related applications.
In addition, profitability continued to steadily improve in line with our guidance for the year. Adjusted operating profit grew by EUR 1.3 million year on year, coming in at EUR 0.7 million for the quarter (-0.6), thanks to our actions to optimize capacity, tight cost control and operational measures.
In line with our strategy, we continue to invest in the growth of our business and in the production ramp-up in India, both of which are visible in our cash flow in 2025. In the first quarter, the closure of our Oudenaarde factory in Belgium and the investments in India affected our net cash flow from operating activities, which amounted to EUR -3.4 million.
Financial guidance for 2025 intact
We maintain our guidance and expect our revenue to increase and adjusted operating profit to increase significantly in 2025 compared to 2024.
The recent turmoil in the global trade and financial markets and continued geopolitical tensions have increased uncertainty in the market. While our order intake has grown, the increased uncertainty may delay customers’ decision-making and slow down order intake and deliveries in the near term.
Exel has own manufacturing in all main geographical regions, including the US, which means that we are resilient to geopolitical changes. We can ensure deliveries to our customers on all continents with established demand for composites.
At Exel, we continue to feel positive about the year 2025 and will continue to implement our strategy to deliver continued positive growth this year.
I would like to thank our customers and investors for their continued trust in us and the whole personnel of Exel for their hard work and commitment to excellence.
Paul Sohlberg
Consolidated key figures
| Q1 | Q1 | Change | Q1-Q4 | |
| EUR thousand unless otherwise indicated | 2025 | 2024 | % | 2024 |
| Revenue | 25,278 | 23,365 | 8.2 | 99,614 |
| Operating profit | 113 | -555 | 120.5 | -2,853 |
| % of revenue | 0.4 | -2.4 | -2.9 | |
| Adjusted operating profit 1) | 682 | -555 | 223.0 | 1,704 |
| % of revenue | 2.7 | -2.4 | 1.7 | |
| EBITDA | 1,451 | 905 | 60.4 | 4,246 |
| Adjusted EBITDA 1) | 2,020 | 905 | 123.2 | 7,624 |
| Profit before tax | -2,241 | -607 | -269.0 | -3,778 |
| Profit for the period | -2,235 | -598 | -273.6 | -5,027 |
| Profit for the period excluding non-controlling interest | -2,067 | -539 | -283.5 | -4,663 |
| % of revenue | -8.2 | -2.3 | -4.7 | |
| Shareholders' equity | 30,666 | 16,725 | 83.4 | 32,337 |
| Interest-bearing liabilities | 31,793 | 46,148 | -31.1 | 30,414 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 7,692 | 10,207 | -24.6 | 10,904 |
| Net interest-bearing liabilities | 24,101 | 35,941 | -32.9 | 19,509 |
| Net debt to adjusted EBITDA 2) | 2.8 | 11.2 | -75.4 | 2.6 |
| Capital employed | 62,459 | 62,873 | -0.7 | 62,751 |
| Return on equity, % | -28.4 | -13.9 | -104.1 | -20.1 |
| Return on capital employed, % | 0.8 | -3.4 | 124.2 | -4.3 |
| Equity ratio, % | 35.1 | 19.4 | 80.8 | 36.8 |
| Net gearing, % | 78.6 | 214.9 | -63.4 | 60.3 |
| Net cash flow from operating activities | -3,454 | -2,611 | 32.3 | 581 |
| Net cash flow from investing activities | -1,192 | -432 | 175.9 | -2,595 |
| Capital expenditure | 1,223 | 441 | 177.6 | 2,658 |
| % of revenue | 4.8 | 1.9 | 2.7 | |
| Research and development costs | 950 | 1,077 | -11.7 | 3,738 |
| % of revenue | 3.8 | 4.6 | 3.8 | |
| Order intake | 34,604 | 28,615 | 20.9 | 104,872 |
| Order backlog | 43,291 | 34,893 | 24.1 | 34,177 |
| Earnings per share, diluted and undiluted, EUR | -0.02 | -0.05 | 57.1 | -0.07 |
| Equity per share, EUR | 0.28 | 1.39 | -79.69 | 0.49 |
| Average share price, EUR | 0.35 | 2.34 | -85.0 | 0.40 |
| Average number of shares, diluted and undiluted, 1,000 shares 3) | 106,085 | 11,854 | 794.9 | 63,729 |
| Employees, average | 643 | 623 | 3.3 | 632 |
| Employees, end of period | 640 | 626 | 2.2 | 637 |
1) Excluding material items affecting comparability, such as restructuring costs, impairment losses and reversals, and costs related to planned or realized business acquisitions or disposals
2) Last 12 months’ adjusted EBITDA
3) Exel's rights issue completed in June 2024 increased the total number of shares from 11,896,843 to 106,728,395. Average number of shares excludes shares held by the company.
Revenue by business unit
| Q1 | Q1 | Change | Q1-Q4 | |
| EUR thousand | 2025 | 2024 | % | 2024 |
| Engineered Solutions BU | 21,093 | 19,119 | 10.3 | 82,485 |
| Industrial Solutions BU | 4,177 | 4,246 | -1.6 | 17,109 |
| Other | 7 | 0 | 19 | |
| Total | 25,278 | 23,365 | 8.2 | 99,614 |
Revenue by customer industry
| Q1 | Q1 | Change | Q1-Q4 | |
| EUR thousand | 2025 | 2024 | % | 2024 |
| Buildings and infrastructure | 5,421 | 4,801 | 12.9 | 21,502 |
| Industrial | 3,505 | 3,357 | 4.4 | 15,588 |
| Energy | 5,048 | 5,315 | -5.0 | 20,923 |
| Transportation | 5,420 | 3,937 | 37.7 | 17,391 |
| Other | 5,885 | 5,955 | -1.2 | 24,210 |
| Total | 25,278 | 23,365 | 8.2 | 99,614 |
Vantaa, 8 May 2025
Exel Composites Plc
Board of Directors
Financial results briefing
Exel Composites will hold a financial results briefing regarding the January–March Business Review today at 12:30 p.m. EEST. To participate in the online event, please register in advance by sending an email to investor@exelcomposites.com.
For further information, please contact:
Mikko Rummukainen, CFO
tel. +358 20 754 1335
Exel Composites in brief
Exel Composites is one of the largest manufacturers of composite profiles and tubes made with pultrusion and pullwinding technologies and a pultrusion technology forerunner in the global composite market. Our forward-thinking composite solutions made with continuous manufacturing technologies serve customers in a wide range of industries around the world. You can find our products used in applications in diverse industrial sectors such as wind power, transportation and building and infrastructure.
Our R&D expertise, collaborative approach and global footprint set us apart from our competition. Our composite solutions help customers save resources, reduce products' weight, improve performance and energy efficiency, and decrease total lifetime costs. We want to be the first choice for sustainable composite solutions globally.
Headquartered in Finland, Exel Composites employs over 600 forward-thinking professionals around the world and is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. To find out more about our offering and company please visit visit www.exelcomposites.com.
Exel Composites Plc