Building blocks to support Corporate Express growth targets
Confirmation that Corporate Express is:
o on track to execute its strategic plan
o already delivering clear improvements
o in a robust position to outperform its markets
2008 outlook: Sales¹ expected to be €5.7 to €5.8 billion and EBITDA margin before special items between 5.6% and 6.0%
For Global Office Products targets are reaffirmed: average annual organic sales growth of 6% for 2008-2010 leading to EBITDA-margin of at least 7%
Corporate Express NV, one of the world’s leading suppliers of office products, today provided additional disclosure that underpins its organic sales growth target for the years 2008-2010 and the EBITDA margin target.
Peter Ventress, CEO of Corporate Express: “Today we’re providing additional disclosure that underpins our expectations for the coming years and lays out the future financial benefits of our strategic plan. We are full of confidence that our actions and strategic priorities put us in a robust position to outperform our market. The unsolicited proposal of Staples significantly fails to reflect Corporate Express’ prospects, its valuable customer base and its excellent market positions.
We are encouraged by the continued performance of our business as evidenced by our first quarter results and the continued growth in April. Our 2008 guidance and our update for the future demonstrate clearly the confidence we have in the strength and potential of our strategic initiatives, which are already delivering.
The latest information from our strategic plan which we are providing today supports our organic sales and margin targets. There is still a lot to do, but we are well on track and expect our shareholders will recognise and benefit from the strategy we are energetically pursuing.”
2008 guidance
For 2008 Corporate Express expects sales¹ of around €5.7 to €5.8 billion, resulting in an EBITDA margin, before special items, between 5.6% and 6.0%.
2008-2010 financial targets
In October 2007, as part of Corporate Express’ strategic review, clear 2008-2010 targets were set for organic sales growth and EBITDA margin. The company expects its Global Office Products businesses to grow its organic sales on average by 6% in 2008-2010, with its business model supporting an EBITDA margin of at least 7% including overhead.
Achieving our 2008-2010 growth targets is taking our Group sales¹, including all other activities, to around €6.8 billion in 2011 and Group EBITDA to around €475 million. This includes sales1 for North America of US$ 5.1 billion, an EBITDA margin of 7.0% and an EBITDA of around US$ 355 million. For Europe, we expect sales¹ of €1.8 billion and an EBITDA margin of 7.1% in 2011 and an EBITDA of around €127 million.
Today Corporate Express also released its Q1 2008 results, which should be read in conjunction with this announcement.
1 At constant rates US$/€ = 1.48