Net sales

Sales growth despite strong decline in market environment

In 2024, the Geberit Group’s net sales reached the previous year’s level at CHF 3,085 million. Adjusted for negative currency effects of CHF 76 million, the increase was +2.5%, despite the strong decline seen in the building construction industry. The growth was driven entirely by higher volumes. In addition to a rebuilding of inventories at wholesalers in the first half of the year, this increase was primarily due to the expansion of the market position and the strong development of various new products.

In 2024, 63% of net sales were generated in euros, 10% in Swiss francs, 6% in Nordic currencies (SEK, DKK, NOK), 5% in US dollars and 16% in other currencies.

The following changes in net sales in the markets and product areas are currency-adjusted.

European markets particularly affected by difficult environment

The European markets continued to suffer the most from the very challenging conditions for the sanitary industry. Nevertheless, currency-adjusted net sales in Europe increased by +1.9% in 2024. Above-average increases were achieved in Eastern Europe (+7.1%), Italy (+6.2%), Benelux (+3.8%) and – despite a very significant decline in market demand – Germany (+3.2%). Austria (+0.3%) also made slight gains. Net sales in Switzerland were in line with the level seen in the previous year (-0.1%). In contrast, Western Europe (Great Britain/Ireland, France, Iberian Peninsula; -2.6%) and Northern Europe (-4.2%) recorded declines, whereby the developments in Northern Europe were negatively impacted by the sale of the shower enclosure business. Outside Europe, positive currency-adjusted increases were achieved in the Middle East/Africa (+17.1%), America (+3.0%) and the Far East/Pacific (+0.2%); in the Far East/Pacific, the strong growth in India was offset by declines in China.

All product areas growing

By product area, currency-adjusted net sales of installation and flushing systems rose by 4.8%, while the increases for piping systems and bathroom systems were 1.3% and 1.1% respectively. Installation and flushing systems benefited more than the other two product areas from the restocking of inventories in the wholesale sector. In addition, the relatively weaker performance of piping systems can be explained by their stronger focus on the weakening new construction sector, while bathroom systems were negatively impacted by the disposal of the Nordic shower enclosure business at the end of 2023.