With the publication of the companies' quarterly figures, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the mechanical and plant engineering and automation sectors are now also visible in figures. At Kuka, the outbreak of the pandemic led to a significant decline in order intake, sales and EBIT in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year.

The automation company operates in more than 40 countries and is struggling with losses, particularly in its project business, due to the global spread of the virus. For example, access to construction sites was not possible in many places in the plant engineering sector or to hospitals in the healthcare sector. In contrast, production in the product business at the Augsburg site was able to continue relatively stably. "We are clearly feeling the effects of the pandemic around the globe. Like many other companies, we have scaled back our activities or temporarily closed sites in affected areas. Many customer projects could also not be continued," said Peter Mohnen, CEO of Kuka.

The figures at a glance

Incoming orders in the Kuka Group amounted to 689.0 million euros, down 23 percent on the same quarter of the previous year (895.2 million euros). The Automotive and General Industry divisions in particular felt the effects of restraint. Group-wide sales amounted to €624.6 million (Q1/19: €737.7 million); the ratio of incoming orders to sales was 1.10 in the first quarter of 2020 (Q1/19: 1.21). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell from €22.2 million in Q1/19 to €-34.2 million in Q1/20, resulting in an EBIT margin of -5.5% (Q1/19: 3.0%). This is due to the decline in sales as well as project deterioration and the associated shortfall in cost coverage. Free cash flow amounted to € -12.8 million in the reporting period (Q1/19: € -20.7 million). Despite the coronavirus crisis, free cash flow improved in the first quarter of 2020.

Incoming orders generated in the Systems segment amounted to EUR 115.5 million, which corresponds to a decrease of 43.2% compared to the same quarter of the previous year (Q1/19: EUR 203.4 million). Customers did not place any major orders in the first quarter of the financial year due to the uncertain situation. Sales revenue amounted to € 173.2 million (Q1/19: € 216.9 million). Compared to the same period last year, this represents a decrease of 20.1%. The decline in sales reflects the low order intake from the previous year. The book-to-bill ratio fell from 0.94 in Q1/19 to 0.67 in Q1/20. EBIT amounted to € -8.3 million in Q1/20 after € 4.8 million in Q1/19, resulting in an EBIT margin of -4.8% (Q1/19: 2.2%).

In the Robotics segment, incoming orders amounted to EUR 269.8 million in the first quarter of 2020, down 17.6% on the same quarter of the previous year (Q1/19: EUR 327.3 million). Sales revenue also declined to 221.1 million euros. Compared to the previous year, these fell by 19.4% (Q1/19: €274.4 million). The book-to-bill ratio was 1.22 after 1.19 in the previous year. The Robotics segment recorded an EBIT of € -3.9 million. In the same period of the previous year, 14.1 million euros were generated. Accordingly, the EBIT margin was -1.8% after 5.1% in the first quarter of 2019. The lower sales volume in particular led to a negative EBIT.

Automation, logistics and healthcare are gaining in importance

"Our most important task was and is to protect the health of our employees and to be a reliable partner for our customers in difficult times. I am proud of our employees who are working together all over the world to overcome these challenges and position KUKA correctly for the time after corona. Our topics such as logistics, automation and healthcare will gain in importance in the medium term," said Mohnen The results of the first quarter, which was hit hard by the pandemic, are "certainly not meaningful for 2020," said Mohnen. "The effects of the pandemic will be with us in the first half of the year." However, a reliable outlook for the results for the year as a whole is not possible at this time.

In the medium term, the logistics and healthcare sectors will gain in importance. This is also reflected in Swisslog's figures. In the reporting period, Swisslog 's logistics division recorded incoming orders of EUR 150.4 million. This represents a year-on-year decline of 22.0% (Q1/19: EUR 192.9 million). The decline can be explained by the postponement of projects, even though Swisslog is generally benefiting from the high demand in its focus markets of consumer goods and e-commerce/retail. Sales revenue increased slightly by 3.7% to EUR 147.3 million after EUR 142.0 million in the same period of the previous year. The book-to-bill ratio fell from 1.36 in Q1/19 to 1.02 in Q1/20. The Swisslog segment generated EBIT of 3.6 million euros in the first quarter of 2020. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of 2.3 million euros (Q1/19: 1.3 million euros). The EBIT margin amounted to 2.4% in Q1/20 after 0.9% in Q1/19. The year-on-year improvement is based on the higher volume and increased efficiency.

Incoming orders in the Swisslog Healthcare segment rose slightly by 0.4 million euros from 50.0 million euros in Q1/19 to 50.4 million euros in Q1/20. The slight increase of 0.8% was achieved in all regions. The sales revenue generated amounted to EUR 58.3 million - an increase of 14.5% compared to the same period of the previous year (Q1/19: EUR 50.9 million). The higher order backlog with which Swisslog Healthcare started the financial year had a positive effect. The book-to-bill ratio was 0.86 in Q1/20 after 0.98 in Q1/19. EBIT fell slightly from EUR 0.5 million in Q1/2019 to EUR 0.4 million in Q1/20. This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 1.0% in Q1/19 and 0.7% in Q1/20. Earnings were negatively impacted by investments in R&D, which will lead to the expansion of the product portfolio.