Simba Dickie Group: acceptable decline in sales in the face of a challenging year
It was a turbulent year. Manfred Duschl, the long-standing CFO of the globally active group, is therefore all the more pleased "that the Simba Dickie Group was able to achieve a consolidated total turnover of 675.2 million euros in this difficult economic environment. Compared to the previous year, when total sales of EUR 701.9 million were realised, this represents a decline of less than 4.0 percent." With this result, the Simba Dickie Group (SDG) performed well compared to the market trend. Florian Sieber, CEO of the Group, adds: "The difficult overall market situation did not really come as a surprise and was therefore factored into our planning."
Situation in Europe
The decline in sales within SDG in Europe was noticeable in all of the company's key countries and across all sales channels and was almost the same. Some of the outdoor and board game segments recorded larger declines in turnover.
The turnover of SDG's German companies, including the joint sister company in Hong Kong, fell from 254.4 million euros in the previous year to 224.5 million euros in 2023.
International situation
In SDG's International division with the foreign product development and production companies, turnover remained roughly at the previous year's level at EUR 217.6 million. In the previous year, total sales in this group totalled 217.3 million euros. "The main reason for this pleasing development," says Manfred Duschl, "is that the most important companies in this group - Smoby Toys and Jada - were able to maintain their sales at the previous year's level."
At 233.1 million euros, the total turnover achieved by the Group's foreign sales branches and other companies in 2023 was around 2.0 per cent lower than the previous year's figure of 237.8 million euros.
The international share of SDG has not changed compared to the previous year. It stands at 75 per cent. The three most important foreign markets were the USA, France and Belgium.
Outlook for 2024
"There is still no sign of a silver lining on the horizon for the current year. The first half of the year at least will remain difficult," says Manfred Duschl. Nevertheless, the CFO is optimistic about the future: "There may be a slight improvement in economic development in the second half of the year." Against this backdrop, SDG plans to increase its consolidated total turnover by around 7.3 per cent from EUR 675.2 million to EUR 725.1 million in 2024.
Earnings/financial situation
In view of the looming decline in turnover, SDG set the course at an early stage and adjusted capacities in the affected companies and introduced and implemented a series of cost savings. As a result, the earnings situation was maintained at a satisfactory level. As in the previous year, the Group's financial situation is good, solid and stable.
Investments
The Group's investments totalled EUR 40.0 million in 2023, of which EUR 15.0 million was invested in tools. The new warehouse building with a total area of 5,000 square metres was put into operation at the Group's logistics site in Sonneberg in September 2023. Of the total investment sum of 12 million euros, 7.9 million euros were invested in 2023.
The detailed annual report: https://pressnet.simba-dickie-group.de/en/annual_report/
https://www.simba-dickie-group.com