Warsaw, 15 May 2015 – CIECH published its results for the first quarter 2015, noting an improvement on all levels of the profit and loss account. In the first quarter of the current year, the CIECH group gained  PLN 210 million gross margin. This is 21 per cent more than during the analogous period of the previous year. Revenues from sale amounted to PLN 817 million,  the EBITDA (z) indicator grew significantly, and it is one of the main measures of the activity of the company.

"This was a good quarter for CIECH. The achieved results constitute confirmation of the skills of the whole team of the Group which were used in a good market situation. Our revenues were positively affected by, for instance, the growth in the prices of soda, and our profitability was improved thanks to a drop in prices of fuels, such as coal and natural gas. Of course, the fact that we can take advantage today of the good market situation is a result of our strategy and effective development of the production capacity of our plants. It is wirth emphasizing that decisions concerning those investments were taken three years ago, when the Company started its programme of thorough restructuring and had to deal with serious financial problems," said Dariusz Krawczyk, President of the Management Board of CIECH S.A.

Table. Financial results of the CIECH Group for the first quarter 2015

Sale and marketing of the CIECH Group

It was another time that the Company noted a growth in effectiveness. Compared with an analogous period of the previous year, a small (3%) drop in revenues from sales was noted, caused mainly by termination of the contract for sale of sulphur.

The most important events of the previous quarter, with regard to sales and marketing, were considered by the CIECH Group to be the continued restructuring of CIECH Sarzyna, which covers reorganization of the sales force, and the launching of the intensive advertising campaign of the products of the Agro segment – including the key product of Chwastox, as well as reorganization of distribution channels and extension of the offered range of goods. The soda segment portfolio of the Group also got a new products, Sorbeco – a sorbent used to desulphurize fumes. An important image element is also the unification of the names of companies within the CIECH Group.

Development projects for the CIECH Group

The most important project implemented in the first quarters was the development of the production capacity of the soda plant in Inowrocław from the current 600 to 800 thousand tonnes per year. The completed first stage of the investment known as Project Soda +200 entailed a growth in the capacity of the plant by 60 thousand tonnes per year. The total value of the SODA +200 programme amounts to approx. PLN 265 million. At the same time, in a nearby plant in Janikowo, in March of the current year, an investment ended whose purpose was to intensify dry salt production. In consequence, the production of this type of goods increased from 1 thousand tonnes to 1.7 tonnes of the product per day. This is a reaction to the noted market demand, and in consequence the plant in Janikowo will process all of the produced wet salt, transforming it into high-quality dry salt. The total value of this investment amounts to more PLN 77 million.

 "The modernization of production plants is one of the main pillars of development of the CIECH Group, and that is why we will continue to improve the effectiveness of our factories, increase their production capacity and investment potential," said Dariusz Krawczyk, President of the Management Board of CIECH S.A.

Contact for the mediaMaciej Powroźnik, The Spokesman of the CIECH GroupMobile telephone 505 050 426, e-mail: maciej.powroznik@ciechgroup.com