va-Q-tec, a key player in the area of thermal insulation and TempChain logistics, has published its 2019 annual report. The company reported growth in revenue by a significant 28 percent to EUR 64.7 million in 2019 (previous year EUR 50.7 million). The performance in the high-margin services business was significant, which at EUR 29.8 million (+62 percent year-on-year) became the highest-revenue business area.
With its exposure in the less crisis-prone healthcare sector, the company’s management board considers va-Q-tec to be well equipped to continue on its adopted course in 2020 despite the macroe-conomic uncertainties caused by the global spread of Covid-19. va-Q-tec’s services business comprises the container and box rental business for the transportation of temperature-sensitive goods, predominantly products from the pharmaceuticals and biotech areas. The expansion of the services segment will continue in the future and is considered a key growth factor for va-Q-tec. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) tripled in 2019 to around EUR 10 million. The EBITDA margin rose to represent 13 percent of total income (previous year: 5 percent) and 15 percent of revenue (previous year: 6 percent).
In view of fundamental trends such as environmental protection and energy efficiency, regulation of temperature chains, and globalization of value chains, Dr. Joachim Kuhn, CEO and founder of va-Q-tec AG, believes that the company is very well positioned for the future: “As a pioneer in the area of energy efficiency through vacuum insulation, we can address cus-tomers from a wide range of industries with our products. We see particularly great poten-tial in the coming years in the TempChain logistics area – in other words, safe transportation solutions for temperature-sensitive products such as medicines. Globally functioning, tem-perature-controlled logistics chains are crucial for fast and reliable supply, as impressively demonstrated by the coronavirus crisis. Our TempChain portfolio enables us to address pre-cisely this area, and make a significant contribution to product safety and quality. We al-ready generate about 70 percent of our revenues in the healthcare sector.”
In order to be able to benefit to an above average extent from these trends, va-Q-tec is al-ready investing today in the technologies and applications of tomorrow. Technological pro-gress, digitalization, the IoT and the use of artificial intelligence will significantly change the healthcare of the future. Given this, va-Q-tec is already working on future topics such as “TempChain 4.0” – the innovative combination of hardware, IoT and IT solutions in the tem-perature-controlled logistics area. Intelligent boxes, fleet data management and predictive analysis form the cornerstones in this context. However, thermal solutions for other areas, such as future mobility, also form part of research and development: thanks to their thin and flexible structure, va-Q-tec vacuum insulation panels are finding completely new applica-tions in the automotive and aviation industries.
Although the actual macroeconomic consequences of the spread of the coronavirus are still uncertain, va-Q-tec expects a continuation of its adopted course for 2020. The very high revenue share from the healthcare sector also contributes in this context: according to current estimates, the industry is likely to be one of the less affected sectors worldwide.
After revenues reported very strong growth over the past five years at an average of 25 percent per year, and again at a very strong rate of 28 percent in 2019, va-Q-tec would expect, under normalised economic conditions, medium to strong revenue growth overall for the 2020 financial year. Given the current economic uncertainties, va-Q-tec is budgeting more conservatively. The company currently expects moderate to medium growth for 2020. For EBITDA in 2020, the company plans to achieve a stable margin on its total revenue compared to 2019.
