When faced with a challenging marketplace there are some that resist and some that are forced to surrender a few positions. The cases of two global players such as Faurecia and Lear.
Faurecia
The French company closed its first quarter of 2019 with a slight improvement in comparison to the same period in 2018. Sales were up 0,2% for a total 4.3 billion euro, with Europe decreasing by 2.7% and South America dropping 10.8%. North America travelled in the opposite direction and grew 5.1% (from 1062.8 million to 1116.7 million). The same positive performance was scored by Asia with a 7.5% increase. The seating segment, which weighs 43% of the group’s total revenue, was in the green with a 1.3% increase (1.84 billion euro). “Our sales proved to be resilient even with the expected challenging context in which we operate”, said the company’s ceo Patrick Koller.
Lear
The macroeconomic conditions that the US-based giant had to face, in the first quarter of 2019, were defined as “challenging” by Ray Scott, president of Lear Corporation. Company sales between January and March contracted by 10% to reach 5.2 billion USD (4.6 billion euro), an amount that, excluding the impact of currencies values, mean a -5% performance. Operational revenue went from 490.5 million USD (439.3 million euro) to 378.2 million USD (338.7 million euro). Net revenue on the other hand fell from 344.5 million USD (308.5 million euro) to 252.7 million USD (226.3 million euro). “We had to face challenging macroeconomic conditions during the first quarter, characterized by significant decreased of industrial production, in addition to planned inactivity periods that are important and tied to the fact that our clients had interrupted their operations for the development of new models”, explains Scott in a note. Lear’s president also underscored how “the company’s financial and operational strength allowed to continue investing in our future”.
