Geberit further increases margin in the first quarter

Geberit announced on Tuesday that sales in the months from January to March fell by 0.7% to CHF 873 million compared to the same quarter of the previous year. However, excluding negative currency effects, organic growth amounted to 3.4 percent. Following organic growth of 6.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025, the pace of growth has therefore slowed.

The increase was due to volume growth - despite cold weather in Northern Europe in January and February and pull-forward effects in wholesale in December of the previous year - as well as price effects, according to the business development report. In regional terms, sales increased in Europe and the Middle East/Africa region, whereas they declined in the Far East/Pacific region - primarily due to China - and the Americas.

Operating margins increased significantly due to the absence of one-off costs from the previous year and were only slightly affected by negative currency effects thanks to natural currency hedging. Operating profit (EBITDA) increased by 2.3% to CHF 283 million, which is a disproportionately high increase compared to sales. The corresponding margin also increased accordingly by 1 percentage point to 32.5%. It thus once again remained well above the target corridor of 28 to 30 percent.

Net profit increased by 4.5 percent to 196 million. Geberit thus met analysts' expectations in terms of sales and exceeded them in terms of profit.

Assessment of the situation unchanged

As usual at this time of year, Geberit is not yet providing a concrete outlook for the year as a whole. However, the estimates for 2026 have not changed since the publication of the 2025 annual figures in March.

Accordingly, slight overall market growth is expected in Europe for 2026 as a whole, but no recovery. Management anticipates stable development for the new construction business and slightly positive development for the renovation business, which contributes around 60% of sales. Outside Europe, the picture for the construction industry is expected to be mixed, with continued strong demand in India, for example, and a decline in demand in China.

Following the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, however, the geopolitical risks and the associated macroeconomic uncertainties have increased significantly, Geberit warned. The market assessment therefore excludes possible, as yet unforeseeable effects of the Iran war on demand in the construction industry outside the Gulf region in the current year.