With free cash flow of €115.1 million for the last fiscal year, JOST is paving the way for future growth.
Record level cash flow for the reported period is mainly due to improvements achieved in working capital.
The equipment specialist also achieved €1,069.4 million in sales for the reported period (2023: €1,249.7 million).
Despite a decline in group sales, revenue from agricultural components increased by 4.7 per cent to €268.4 million in 2024 (2023: €256.3 million), partly supported by acquisition effects from the consolidation of JOST Agriculture & Construction South America Ltda. (formerly: Crenlo do Brasil) and LH Lift in the amount of €55.2 million. Adjusted for acquisition and currency effects, JOST’s sales in the 2024 financial year declined by 18.3 per cent compared to the previous year.
Profitability remained resilient with EBITDA at 13.9 per cent despite cyclical market decline (2023: 13.9 per cent). JOST maintained a stable EBIDTA margin due to efficiency improvements and quickly implementing cost-cutting measures.
JOST Werke SE CEO, Joachim Dürr, said 2024 was an important year for the future of JOST.
“In a challenging market environment, we were able to maintain a strong profitability despite declining sales,” he said.
“This is further proof of our flexibility and resilience.
“JOST further strengthened its broad international footprint and widened its product range in 2024, once again launching numerous product innovations in markets around the world.
“With our ‘Ambition 2030’ strategy, we have set the groundwork for further profitable growth worldwide in both the on-highway and off-highway markets.
“The acquisition of Hyva, which has now been completed, is a major step in this direction, opening up new markets and bringing JOST new customers. We are very well equipped for the future and look ahead to 2025 with optimism.”
Market development in 2024 was characterised by a cyclical slowdown in demand in the transport sector in all regions, JOST reported.
“In Europe and North America in particular, the production of trucks and trailers increasingly declined over the course of the year,” the company said in a statement.
“Demand for transportation equipment also declined in Asia-Pacific-Africa after the hoped-for recovery in economic performance in China failed to materialise.
“In the agricultural market, demand for agricultural tractors also remained weak in 2024, as falling crop prices and persistently high interest rates had a negative impact on farmers’ willingness to invest.”
In Europe, revenue in 2024 fell by 10.4 per cent to €616.5 million compared to the previous year (2023: €687.8 million).
“Revenue from the consolidation of JOST Agriculture and Construction South America Ltda (formerly: Crenlo do Brasil) and LH Lift Oy, which were acquired in the previous year and are reported in the Europe segment, had a positive impact,” said JOST.
“Adjusted for acquisition and currency effects, sales in Europe declined by 17.2 per cent in 2024 compared to the previous year.
“JOST was able to partially offset this decline in sales operationally. For example, the region introduced measures such as capacity adjustments and short-time work during the course of 2024 in order to stabilise profitability.
“Supported by this development, adjusted EBITDA in Europe developed in line with sales, declining by 10.7 per cent to €59.0 million (2023: €66.0 million). Accordingly, the adjusted EBITDA margin remained stable at the previous year’s level of 9.6 per cent (2023: 9.6 per cent).
“Adjusted EBIT, impacted by the fact that depreciation and amortisation remained on the same as in the previous year, decreased more sharply to €37.1 million in 2024 (2023: €46.2 million). Thus, the adjusted EBIT margin in Europe declined to 6.0 per cent (2023: 6.7 per cent).
In North America, sales contracted by 27.0 per cent to €258.7 million in 2024 (2023: €354.2 million).
“In addition to the very weak market for trailers and agricultural front loaders since beginning of 2024, a slowdown in demand for trucks was also observed over the course of 2024, which put additional pressure on the sales, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2024,” said JOST.
“Adjusted for currency and acquisition effects, sales in North America declined by 26.9 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. Amid this market development, JOST was able to benefit from a positive change in the product mix in the region, as the share of technologically advanced front loaders for professional agricultural use increased compared to the share of compact loaders.
“The proportion of aftermarket also increased compared to the previous year.
“These effects, combined with a favourable trend in material costs, enabled JOST to maintain a high level of profitability. Adjusted EBITDA in North America declined to €35.7 million (2023: €50.7 million) and the adjusted EBITDA margin amounted to 13.8 per cent (2023: 14.3 per cent). Adjusted EBIT contracted to €29.3 million (2023: €44.8 million) and the adjusted EBIT margin was 11.3 per cent (2023: 12.6 per cent).”
In Asia-Pacific-Africa (APA), JOST saw a slowdown in demand over the course of 2024.
“This was mainly due to the negative market development in India, China and South Africa,” said JOST.
“In the Indian market in particular, political uncertainty in connection with the elections led to a reluctance to buy on the part of many customers.
“JOST was able to benefit from the increase in the agricultural business, which was primarily due to the commissioning of a new production plant in Chennai, India. Nevertheless, sales in APA contracted by 6.4 per cent to €194.3 million in 2024 (2023: €207.6 million).
“Adjusted for acquisition and currency effects, APA sales in 2024 fell by 7.3 per cent compared to 2023. Adjusted EBITDA also declined by 6.6 per cent to €46.5 million following the sales development (2023: €49.8 million).
“At 24.0 per cent, the adjusted EBITDA margin remained stable compared to the previous year (2023: 24.0 per cent). Adjusted EBIT declined slightly more sharply by 8.3 per cent to €39.6 million year-on-year (2023: €43.2 million). The adjusted EBIT margin amounted to 20.4 per cent (2023: 20.8 per cent).
Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets (excluding acquisitions) increased slightly to €33.3 million in the 2024 financial year (2023: €30.8 million).
“The main reasons for this were investment projects to increase automation in North America, to localise the production of agricultural front loaders in Brazil and to consolidate production plants in the US and China,” said JOST.
“As a result, investments increased to 3.1 per cent of sales (2023: 2.5 per cent) and are slightly above the corridor of 2.5 per cent to 2.9 per cent planned for 2024. This is primarily due to the fact that JOST carried out the planned investments to strengthen the group’s efficiency despite the market-related decline in sales.
“Working capital fell sharply by 30.5 per cent to €164.2 million in 2024 compared to the previous year (2023: €236.1 million). JOST was thus able to significantly improve the ratio of working capital to sales in the last twelve months to 15.3 per cent compared to the previous year and was well below the target of 19.0 per cent (2023: 18.0 per cent).
“Net debt decreased significantly by a total of €53.2 million to €127.5 million as of December 31, 2024 (December 31, 2023: €180.7 million), although JOST made the payment of €15.0 million for the investment in Trailer Dynamics GmbH in 2024, paid a dividend of €22.4 million and the earn-out payment for the purchase of Quicke in the amount of €21.2 million.”
Oliver Gantzert, Chief Financial Officer of JOST Werke SE, said the business demonstrated strong operational performance in FY24 and was able to strengthen its already very good financial base.
“The strong free cash flow we generated and the very good leverage ratio have given us an excellent starting position to secure the financing for the Hyva acquisition without our leverage rising above 2.5x. As a result, we are financially very well prepared to implement the integration of Hyva at full speed and leverage the identified synergies.”
.png){kind=small}
