The Mikron Group succeeded in significantly increasing both sales and EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) in the 2016 financial year, benefitting from a good order backlog at the start of the year and from rising demand in the service and tool business (www.mikron.com/mikron-group).

However, the company says that the volatile demand for machining and automation systems was more challenging.

Overall, the group achieved annual net sales of CHF256.0 million (previous year 228.6 million), an order intake of CHF243.6 million (previous year 264.6 million) and an EBIT of CHF4.1 million (previous year CHF2.5 million). The board of directors will be proposing a dividend of CHF0.05 per share.

At CHF122.9 million, the Mikron Group’s order backlog at the end of 2016 was about 14% lower than the prior-year figure, with the backlog of orders for both business areas very unevenly distributed.

Mikron Automation’s order backlog at the beginning of 2017 was equivalent to almost 60% of last year’s sales, while the corresponding figure for Mikron Machining (without taking into account the tools business) was about 50%.

Mikron says that to achieve its targeted growth, substantial new orders will have to be won in early 2017.

Mikron Machining launched an innovation offensive in the machines business for the period 2016-2018 and will be investing more than CHF10 million in modernising and streamlining its machine portfolio.