Another record year for Westpack
PRESS RELEASE - June 2021
Despite long periods of closed down markets Westpack A/S comes out of the 2020/2021 financial year with double-digit growth on the top line and pre-tax profits of DKK 33.9 million. The numbers are a result of an influx of new customers and strong growth in their online business.
The Coronavirus pandemic has resulted in long periods of closed down markets all over the world, but this has not significantly impacted the result at the packaging group Westpack, which has its headquarters in Holstebro, Denmark.
"We have had a strong year with both top and bottom-line growth. Our EBITDA has come in at DKK 42.2 million, up from DKK 32.4 million kroner the previous year, which underlines the robustness of both our business model and our organisation. So we are very happy with our performance this year", says CEO Morten Dalsgaard.
He points out that the result to a large extent has been driven by a big influx of customers during the year, amounting to almost 7,000 new customers, which means that the company now services more than 21,000 active buying customers, primarily in Europe.
"The influx of customers has been achieved without any travel activity due to the ongoing Coronavirus situation, but instead through virtual meetings and, not least, our solid webshop. The online business has grown significantly in all 11 webshops in the EU, especially in the UK and France. 2020 saw us becoming VAT registered in the UK, which has made customs clearance easy and flexible for our customers. In this market alone the customer base has doubled throughout the year", explains Morten Dalsgaard, adding that an additional four new webshops for the European markets are under development.
Westpack’s webshop was in 2020 named ‘Best B2B webshop’ by Dansk Erhverv (Danish Industry), in the category for webshops with a revenue of less than 200 million kroner.
Massive investment and a robust business model
Morten Dalsgaard notes especially the positive trend in EBITDA, achieved through a solid and robust business model, which properly came into its own during the Coronavirus pandemic.
"At the beginning of the pandemic, it was Asia that was shut down. Here we could still service all our customers from our warehouse and our own production in Denmark. When the markets then closed down in Europe later on, twice actually, we managed to acquire new customers and maintain growth through strong online sales", he explains.
Just two years ago, Westpack constructed yet another 4500 sqm warehouse in Holstebro, and throughout the year the company has been investing heavily. More than 75% of the investments have gone towards expanding production capacity in Holstebro.
"Our in-house production in Denmark has been rising sharply throughout the year. We have expanded our machine capacity, and in the next few months we will begin construction of a new 2300 sqm building in Holstebro, which will give us the opportunity to expand the production even further", says Morten Dalsgaard, who is pleased that Westpack in this way is helping to create more jobs in Holstebro.
Social responsibility goes hand in hand with good business
"In general, we like to get involved in the community we are part of. That is why we have strengthened our ESG profile throughout the year, for example by hiring additional CSR specialists at our office in Asia", says the CEO and points out that Westpack's membership of Amfori - an open platform through which suppliers’ CSR level can be monitored - also strengthens the group's ESG profile.
"In addition to our annual accounts, we will this year publish our 6th ESG report, which grows in scope and content every year. We are delighted that we in this way can make our great results go hand in hand with social responsibility and a sustainable way of thinking", says Morten Dalsgaard.
For more information, please contact:
CEO Morten Dalsgaard, Westpack A/S, tel. +45 41 71 75 81 / email: [email protected]