SEAT reduced its after tax loss in 2014 to EUR66m, a 56% improvement over 2013’s EUR149m in red ink. Sales rose 15.8% year on year to EUR7.497bn.
“2014 was a major milestone on our road towards a sustainable profitable company. Not only did we improve sales in comparison with last year, and achieve our best performance since 2007, but we have also successfully shifted our centre of gravity towards the Leon, a model offering greater profitability”, said chairman Jürgen Stackmann.
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Rising sales in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Central Europe, coupled with a product mix providing a greater margin contribution, helped reduce the overall loss.
The growth of the Leon family resulted in an average income-per-vehicle improvement in 2014, boosted by a new compact estate car (Leon ST), with over 47,000 units sold. Over the past five years the company’s sales revenue has increased by 61%.
R&D plus marketing spending to strengthen brand awareness, increased depreciation and greater personnel costs (mainly the integration of the SEAT Componentes workforce) also had a negative impact on the bottom line as did price competition in western European.
The operating result reduced 23% over 2013 to EUR167m.
The VW Group company also improved its EBITDA by 36% to EUR300m.
Finance and organisation chief Holger Kintscher said: “SEAT continues to improve its capacity to generate its own resources to finance investment and consolidate the company in financial terms. After 2013, last year was another significant positive step towards the future.”
Last year the company spent EUR457m on R&D. For the last five years, the tally was EUR2.6bn.
