Investor relations
Interview with Emmanuel Picot, Chairman and Christian Lefort, Chief Executive Officer
How did Evolis do in 2018? ?
Christian Lefort: Our 2018 results show a contrast over the year with a muted first half and stronger growth momentum in the second half of the year. Performance in the first six months was negatively impacted by geopolitical developments in the Middle-East and an adverse euro/dollar exchange rate.
As we moved into the second half, the organizational changes we made in the US and in India started to pay off and helped boost revenue by 11.7% across all business lines.
We signed two big contracts in the second half of the year: a supermarket chain in Germany and a Kiosk project in India.
What are Evolis’ strengths to drive momentum and continue the growth trajectory from the second half?
Christian Lefort: Our future growth trajectory will be built around two main priorities:
First, we’ll continue what we started in 2018 to build out and deepen our commercial footprint, especially in the Americas and in India. Our efforts will focus on the countries with the highest potential. And the introduction of a reseller program in Europe and the United States will leverage our Channel business.
Priority number two will be tied to the expected successful launch of new products and solutions, including Edikio Guest for the hotel and catering industry.
You launched all-in-one solutions that are in marked contrast to your traditional printer range. What is your development strategy for these products?
Emmanuel Picot: We launched our second all-in-one solution end-2018 aimed at the hotel and catering sector and powered by our newly developed software. Our goal is to offer more application solutions aligned with new uses, using both our existing and new distribution networks. We want to expand and accelerate this app-based solutions strategy in the near term. At the same time, we are winning more market share in our traditional markets. One of our big priorities in 2019 will be to position ourselves to successfully market our entire product line-up around the world.
Christian Lefort: The sales teams in our subsidiaries are all on board to launch our hotel solution Edikio Guest. The first step was to set up pilot projects with leading hotel chains in a number of countries. We will step up this effort in 2019 with a global sales action plan aimed at penetrating this market.
"Our goal is to offer more application solutions aligned with new uses." Emmanuel Picot
Evolis has just set up a subsidiary in Japan. Explain us your strategy in the international market?
Emmanuel Picot: We want to strengthen our sales drive wherever we think we can achieve double-digit growth in the next three years. Japan is one of those countries. We made the decision to invest in Japan to build out our distribution networks and gain a foothold in new high-growth markets. The other countries and regions we see as promising for us are China, South-East Asia and the Americas. The bulk of our growth in coming years will be outside Europe.
What are your priority objectives for 2019?
Emmanuel Picot: We have set our sights on four big objectives in 2019 to bring us to our €100 million target by 2021:
1. Consolidate our leadership position in our traditional markets,
2. Expand in geographies that have high-growth potential to win market share for all our products and solutions,
3. Develop new uses with new solutions, leveraging both our traditional networks and new distribution channels,
4. Make organizational changes at headquarters and in the subsidiaries to support this product and regional strategy. These objectives are based on an analysis conducted department-by-department in 2018 and set to continue in 2019. Practically speaking, they mean reorganizing some departments, introducing specific training programs and individual coaching initiatives. But that’s not all. We plan to open an Evolis academy to upskill our staff and also provide training opportunities for our distribution chain.
“We have set our sights on four big objectives in 2019 to bring us to our €100 million target by 2021.” Emmanuel Picot
