Krones, the world's largest beverage bottling line manufacturer, wants to grow strongly and become more profitable over the next four years.

At a capital market day in Neutraubling near Regensburg on Wednesday, CEO Christoph Klenk held out the prospect of sales of seven billion euros by 2028. That would be almost 50 percent more than the 4.7 billion euros that Krones generated last year. The operating return on sales (EBITDA margin) is expected to improve to between 11 and 13 percent by then (2023: 9.7 percent). The prerequisite for this is that geopolitical tensions do not escalate, according to a presentation.

The targeted growth rates would be significantly higher than the 5.3 percent that the company has achieved on average over the past ten years. In 2024, turnover is expected to increase by nine to 13 percent - also thanks to the acquisition of Swiss company Netstal Maschinen. The EBITDA margin had averaged 8.3% between 2013 and 2023; Krones has forecast 9.8% to 10.3% for the current year.

(Report by Alexander Hübner, edited by Myria Mildenberger. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)