Ringier is now a billionaire in sales
Thanks to the booming advertising market, revenues increased for almost all media
Thanks to the booming advertising market, revenues increased for almost all mediaBy Daniel SchifferleRecords rained down on the Ringier media house last year: At CHF 1,018.8 million, sales exceeded the billion mark for the first time. The profit of 50.4 million francs was also higher than ever before.
Ringier's excellent performance last year is also reflected in its cash flow, which at CHF 119.3 million or 11.7 percent of sales was the best in the company's history. Switzerland accounted for CHF 629 million of total sales, an increase of 5.4 percent. This positive development is primarily due to the good economic situation, which has resulted in a sharp increase in advertising sales for both newspapers and magazines.
In the advertising market, newspapers grew by more than twelve percent to CHF 132.4 million, mainly thanks to the Blick titles. Despite the excellent result in the advertising market, the overall result in the Newspapers division was slightly down on the previous year.
On the one hand, this is due to the sale of the Good News concert agency and the resulting loss of revenue. On the other hand, sales revenues were also lost under the pressure of the new commuter newspapers operating in the market. They fell by CHF 2.2 million to CHF 119.2 million, with Blick suffering the most with a circulation loss of 1.5 percent.
Magazines also performed excellently, however, increasing their advertising revenue by almost 13% to CHF 102.1 million. The TV program guide Tele and, above all, Schweizer Illustrierte, which intends to make itself even fitter for the future with a redesign and content adjustments, did particularly well. By contrast, Betty Bossi's result was unsatisfactory, falling by 5.1 percent. Customer printing in Switzerland also performed 1.2 percent worse than in the previous year due to capacity reductions.
Ringier is not thinking about a new Sunday newspaper
The international business made strong progress. The Publishing Europe division grew by 19.4 percent to CHF 139.7 million, while Ringier Asia increased its turnover by a whopping 87.7 percent to CHF 45.6 million.
The Television division also improved significantly, with sales climbing 42.1% to CHF 24.3 million. However, the 50 percent stake in the private channel Sat 1 (Switzerland) was the main contributor to this growth. According to Michael Ringier, only the football show "täglich ran", which is only developing very slowly in the viewer market, is causing some concern. He intends to decide on the future of the show in May.
The general economic climate has deteriorated significantly for the current year. "The frontline economic data is not particularly encouraging at the moment, and advertising volumes have not been outstanding in the first few months either," said Martin Werfeli, Ringier CFO, dampening the outlook for the current year.
Nevertheless, Ringier has a lot going on this year. The Group CEO announced expansion plans with cash. Fibo Deutsch will be able to move into a new building in Leutschenbach for its television division in the fall. In addition, a decision on the purchase of the Winterthur printing plant is to be made in the next few weeks. However, it is already clear that Ringier will not be launching a second Sonntagsblatt. Michael Ringier: "We are thinking about many things, but certainly not about a new Sunday newspaper."
Ringier AG in figures
Ringier's excellent performance last year is also reflected in its cash flow, which at CHF 119.3 million or 11.7 percent of sales was the best in the company's history. Switzerland accounted for CHF 629 million of total sales, an increase of 5.4 percent. This positive development is primarily due to the good economic situation, which has resulted in a sharp increase in advertising sales for both newspapers and magazines.
In the advertising market, newspapers grew by more than twelve percent to CHF 132.4 million, mainly thanks to the Blick titles. Despite the excellent result in the advertising market, the overall result in the Newspapers division was slightly down on the previous year.
On the one hand, this is due to the sale of the Good News concert agency and the resulting loss of revenue. On the other hand, sales revenues were also lost under the pressure of the new commuter newspapers operating in the market. They fell by CHF 2.2 million to CHF 119.2 million, with Blick suffering the most with a circulation loss of 1.5 percent.
Magazines also performed excellently, however, increasing their advertising revenue by almost 13% to CHF 102.1 million. The TV program guide Tele and, above all, Schweizer Illustrierte, which intends to make itself even fitter for the future with a redesign and content adjustments, did particularly well. By contrast, Betty Bossi's result was unsatisfactory, falling by 5.1 percent. Customer printing in Switzerland also performed 1.2 percent worse than in the previous year due to capacity reductions.
Ringier is not thinking about a new Sunday newspaper
The international business made strong progress. The Publishing Europe division grew by 19.4 percent to CHF 139.7 million, while Ringier Asia increased its turnover by a whopping 87.7 percent to CHF 45.6 million.
The Television division also improved significantly, with sales climbing 42.1% to CHF 24.3 million. However, the 50 percent stake in the private channel Sat 1 (Switzerland) was the main contributor to this growth. According to Michael Ringier, only the football show "täglich ran", which is only developing very slowly in the viewer market, is causing some concern. He intends to decide on the future of the show in May.
The general economic climate has deteriorated significantly for the current year. "The frontline economic data is not particularly encouraging at the moment, and advertising volumes have not been outstanding in the first few months either," said Martin Werfeli, Ringier CFO, dampening the outlook for the current year.
Nevertheless, Ringier has a lot going on this year. The Group CEO announced expansion plans with cash. Fibo Deutsch will be able to move into a new building in Leutschenbach for its television division in the fall. In addition, a decision on the purchase of the Winterthur printing plant is to be made in the next few weeks. However, it is already clear that Ringier will not be launching a second Sonntagsblatt. Michael Ringier: "We are thinking about many things, but certainly not about a new Sunday newspaper."
Ringier AG in figures
in mil. sFr. 2000 1999 +/- %
Total sales 1018.8 947.0 + 7.6
Newspapers 263.1 266.7 - 1.3
Magazines 231.4 217.4 + 6.4
Customer pressure Switzerland 208.5 211.1 - 1.2
Television 24.3 17.1 + 42.1
Betty Bossi 62.9 66.3 - 5.1
New media 5.3 4.7 + 12.8
Verlag Europa 139.7 117.0 + 19.4
Ringier Asia 45.6 24.3 + 87.7
Miscellaneous 38.0 22.4 + 69.6
Cash flow 119.3 102.8 + 16.1
Profit for the year after taxes 50.4 40.4 + 24.8
Investments 157.0 74.6 + 110.5
Employees 4928 4477
