Berlin, 29 April 2021 – Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG (FP) today released its annual report for 2020 and introduced the transformation program FUTURE@FP.
The FP Group’s consolidated revenue came to EUR 195.9 million in fiscal year 2020 after EUR 209.1 million in the previous year. Despite the impact from the worldwide corona pandemic FP benefitted from recurring revenues in the business. As previously reported, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) reached EUR 8.0 million compared with EUR 33.3 million a year ago as a result of non-recurring effects. These are attributable to focussing on profitable growth and streamlining the corporate structure, which is expected to result in yearly cost savings of appr. EUR 10 million from 2022. Adjusted EBITDA of EUR 21.8 million is on par with the previous year (EUR 22.0 million), taking currency effects into account. Adjusted for investments in finance lease assets and M&A and for payments for the JUMP project, free cash flow rose to EUR 15.2 million compared with EUR 12.4 million in the previous year and significantly exceeded the forecast.
In order to transform FP into a sustainably profitable, international technology group, a broad set of initiatives are now being turned into action. The cornerstones of the transformation program FUTURE@FP are a simultaneous re-alignment of the cost base to revenues, the implementation of a new uniform ERP/CRM system, a focused go-to market through business units and a revitalization of FPs digital offerings.
FP CEO Carsten Lind says: “Our transformation program builds the foundation for improving effectiveness, efficiency and thereby profitability through a simpler, KPI-driven and customer centric way of working. By that we create value for customers, shareholders and employees”.
Complex structures are replaced by a lean HQ and business units with clear responsibility for market development (go-to-market), the respective product roadmaps, development and delivery to serve customers and markets better:
The "Franking & Office Solutions" Business Unit will be adapted to the changed market requirements in order to safeguard and further optimize profitability in this area. FP has clearly focused on the segment for small and medium mail volumes. To a certain extent, this is an advantage, as individual customers are sending fewer and fewer letters and are more likely to switch to smaller franking machines. Nevertheless, to offer added value also in a world with declining mail volumes the range of digital office and business solutions will be expanded to the more than 200,000 customers worldwide.
The Business Unit “Software & BPA” – with the objective of making peoples office life easier – will enable FP to replace the prior focus on products to SaaS and PaaS-based solutions that are validated with a clear value proposition for customers. By concentrating on a few target markets to begin with, FP is gaining a deep insight into the respective customer requirements and is developing tailor-made solutions. Solutions can then be leveraged to further verticals and use cases with minor adoptions. This approach is further applied with “IoT”. FP is following a “lean start-up” approach to tailor its current value proposition very closely to customers and validate it in a resource-saving way with rapid solution developments.
The “Mail Service” Business Unit complements FP offering by solutions for the consolidation of business mail and here FP is one of the leading service providers in Germany. Key focus is to further optimize and increase profitability.
Forecast for 2021
2021 will be shaped by the transformation of FP. The company is therefore issuing guidance for the current year that takes this development and the impact of the corona pandemic into account. The Management Board, comprising CEO Carsten Lind and CFO Martin Geisel, anticipates revenue of between EUR 185 and 196 million and EBITDA of EUR 6 to 12 million (EBITDA margin of 3 % to 6 %).
CFO Martin Geisel says: “We will push on with the restructuring of FP in a targeted and speedy manner. With our transformation program FUTURE@FP, we are laying the foundations for a successful FP in the future. Fiscal year 2021 will therefore be a year of transition. We will make FP leaner to bring business volume and costs in line. Our aim is to create value for our shareholders in the medium and long term.”
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