Gerresheimer brought its Financial Year (FY) 2014 to a successful close, boosting revenues by 1.9% and achieving all its financial targets despite a curb in sales for glass pharmaceutical packaging.
The company is also set to do well in 2015, benefitting from global megatrends in the pharmaceutical industry.
Revenues for FY2014 were boosted by 1.9% to €1,290.0M. The company achieved this increase largely with plastic pharmaceutical packaging as well as products for the administration of medicines, such as insulin pens, asthma inhalers and pre-fillable syringes.
The company plans to further expand production capacity for these drug delivery systems, especially in the USA and Czech Republic.
As expected, sales of glass pharmaceutical primary packaging slowed somewhat. Growth in the market for cosmetic glass packaging was restrained, while sales of laboratory glassware picked up slightly.
As for investments in infrastructure, in Autumn 2014 Gerresheimer opened its third development centre across the globe in China.
A new plant for the manufacture of injection vials and ampoules is currently under construction in India, scheduled to open in 2015, and in the US a large facility will be completely refitted in 2015.
Production technologies are to be further standardised and improved in numerous other plants around the world.
“Our future success depends on continually improving products, processes and quality. We are investing worldwide to ensure that we continue to grow profitably,” said Uwe Röhrhoff, CEO of Gerresheimer.
As for the pharmaceutical packaging, megatrends are the growth driver in the global healthcare market: The world’s population is increasing, and many people are now living much longer.
According to the company, emerging markets are seeing healthcare systems improve, so more medicines are being sold. Sales of generic drugs are growing worldwide, and both acute and chronic illnesses are on the rise.
At the same time, the standards of quality demanded by patients, pharmaceutical companies and regulators are becoming more stringent and new medicines are being developed, requiring new and higher standards of packaging. Self-medication is also becoming more important.
As a supplier of pharmaceutical packaging and products enabling the administration of drugs, Gerresheimer benefits from all of these megatrends.
The company anticipates organic revenue growth of 1% to 3% for FY2015.
Mr Röhrhoff stated: “Financial year 2014 was a good year for us. We hit all of our targets. Demand for our packaging for the pharmaceutical industry remained high.
“Since we tap into important megatrends with our innovations and products, Gerresheimer is very well positioned for the future”.
The Annual Report is available here: www.gerresheimer.com/en/investor-relations/reports.html
