Tarkett is likely to fall short of its medium-term target of achieving an adjusted EBITDA margin of at least 12% in 2022. In its report concerning business development in the first half, the company blamed factors such as slow recovery in various sales channels and sharp increases in raw material and transportation costs. In June 2019, Tarkett had unveiled its strategic plan for the period 2019-2022 titled change to win, which was expected to lead to a significant improvement in margins. The company now expects to reach its target margin in 2023 at the earliest. For the current year, the adjusted EBITDA margin is forecast to fall short of the 10.6% recorded in the preceding year.
In the first half of the year, the margin increased slightly to 8.9%. Adjusted EBITDA improved by 6.0% to €112.7m. Adjusted EBIT rose by 50.8% to €37.9m; the margin calculated on this basis increased to 3.0%. Excluding one-off effects, EBIT returned to the profit zone at €30.2m. Net profit reached the break-even point at €0.3m, after a loss of €64.9m had been recorded in the comparative period of the preceding year. Turnover rose by 2.0% to €1.261bn in the first six months. Adjusted to account for currency effects, the increase amounted to 6.3%. Following a turnover decline of 8.5% in the first quarter, and of 3.8% after adjustment, growth of 12.1% and adjusted growth of 16.2% was recorded in the second quarter. The company attributes the increase mainly to the positive development in the residential segment, while business with commercial products - which are used, for example, in hotels or office buildings - is only recovering slowly. With vinyl and linoleum flooring, Tarkett generated a total of €640.0m, corresponding to an increase of 13.7%. Sales of parquet and laminate flooring increased by 11.8% to €102.6m. In contrast, turnover in the commercial carpets division fell to €212.6m, and in the rubber & accessories division to €97.2m.
