Brewing and beverage equipment manufacturer Krones has followed up a successful first half of the year with a strong third quarter.

The company said despite its company’s international customers in the food and beverage industry continue to show high levels of market activity and willingness to invest.

Demand for Krones’ products and services remains strong. In the third quarter of 2023, order intake improved by 4.3% on the previous quarter to €1,327.7 million. 

Its order backlog exceeds the €4 billion mark for the first time and, at €4.09 billion, ensures capacity utilisation in plant and project business through to 2025. 

The company significantly improved profitability in a challenging environment in the first three quarters of 2023. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went up by 23.0% to €332.3 million. The EBITDA margin rose to 9.5% (previous year: 8.9%).

The company said: “Demand for the company’s products and services remains strong. At the same time, business conditions remain challenging for Krones due to various unpredictable factors that could affect the company’s business processes and production. 

“Krones is highly confident of meeting the full-year financial targets for 2023. The company forecasts revenue growth of 11% to 13% this year.

“In addition, Krones aims to further improve profitability and plans an EBITDA margin of 9% to 10% for the group in 2023 (2022: 8.9%). For the third performance target, ROCE (return on capital employed), Krones expects an increase to between 15% and 17% (2022: 14.1%).”