The Indesit Company has announced “positive results” for the first quarter of 2010, with net profit of £16 million against losses of £15 million a year ago.
Group revenues were up 1.8 per cent, at £601.4 million, and net financial indebtedness fell by £275.2 million to £383.3 million.
Performance was reported to be particularly good in the UK and Ireland area, which saw substantial growth in the margin of the market with respect to 2008, a significant improvement in prices, and a reduction in the costs on “non-quality”.
“The positive results for the quarter confirm that, despite persistent difficulties on the markets, the group is making the right choices and thus continuing to create value,” said Indesit Company deputy chairman Andrea Merloni.
“We are relaunching investments whilst managing at the same time to safeguard our financial solidity, which is still our primary objective.”
CEO Marco Milani said: “Our efforts are continuing to give the expected results. Our investments in innovation and launching of new products enabled us to further improve quality and revenues, while profitability in the quarter stayed at excellent levels. We must now continue our efforts so that the group can consolidate its competitive advantages in a European market characterized by fierce competition and only weak signs of recovery”.
Despite the persistently weak state of the economy in general, the group increased its operating margins in the third quarter to record levels, in both absolute terms and on a percentage basis. Profitability benefited from new improvements to the average price/mix, product quality and the results obtained by the service business.