CPH generated 60% of its net sales in the Eurozone last year. At the same time, its Chemistry and Packaging Divisions produce partly and its Paper Division entirely in Switzerland. So absorbing an adverse currency movement of more than 10% poses a major challenge for such an export-oriented group.
The second development related only to the Paper Division (though this, at 59%, accounted for the largest share of the group’s net sales). The demand for newsprint and magazine paper has been declining for some years now for structural reasons within the media industry.
And the resulting production overcapacities further depressed paper prices last year, a development that tangibly affected the Paper Division’s business performance. While its annual sales volumes were raised to 538,000 tonnes, the division’s net sales for the year declined by more than 20%.
As a result of these two developments, the CHF 420 million ($422 million) total net sales which the CPH Group generated in 2015 were a 14.7% decline on the previous year.
“If we exclude the exceptional impacts of the strengthened Swiss franc and the fall in paper prices, our net group sales for 2015 were a 1.7% year-on-year improvement,” notes Dr. Peter Schildknecht, CEO of the CPH Group. All three business divisions raised their annual sales volumes and increased their market shares.
CPH is an internationally active and diversified industrial group which is headquartered in Switzerland. The CPH Group develops, manufactures and distributes chemical products, wood-based paper and pharmaceutical packaging films.
